Today officially began the start of what is shaping up to be a great adventure. Arriving at the airport, I was full of anticipation. What if I couldn’t get through customs? What if my suitcase was too heavy? What if, what if, what if…
Luckily all of these worries were quelled by the group coasting through security and heading to the gate with ease. The flight was not quite as terrible as I imagined a six hour flight would be, I even slept which never happens for me in any moving vehicle.
Once we got off the plane, we hit the ground running. This was especially fortunate because even sitting on our bus for our short landmark tour of London, I felt myself retaining literally zero information and thinking mostly about food and a nap.
The major highlight of the day had to be stopping by Buckingham Palace. As a self-proclaimed Kate Middleton enthusiast I was excited to see anything having to do with the royals, especially something as important as the Queen’s residence. This is definitely a sight that I will not forget.
Post-Buckingham Palace fangirling, we got back on our bus and continued on a bus tour of the city and some of its greatest landmarks such as Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and more. I am hoping to get back to these spots soon to see them more in depth and not just through a coach bus windows.
We finally made it to the famous (or infamous, your choice) Tower of London. I am a pretty big history buff but was surprised to find out that the local tour guides, called Beefeaters, live within the Tower’s walls and that it is basically like a full town within the walls. It was crazy to think that the buildings I was wandering through were 800+ years old. This is absolutely mind boggling and makes the United States really seem like it has not been around long at all.
Essentially the same time we broke into groups for lunch around the Tower of London, we heard that Meghan Markle had gone into labor and given birth to a son. This is very exciting and obviously something my group has been planning for months. As we are heading out to Windsor later in this trip it will be interesting to see how crazy it will be with the arrival of the newest royal.
The best part of the tower for me though, were the ravens. There were about nine that seemed to be guarding the tower and they were definitely the largest ravens I’ve ever seen in my life. It was crazy that they let people get so close to them and take so many photographs without seeming phased at all, but I suppose that’s what happens when your species is essentially best friends with the royal family.
Another highlight of the Tower of London was seeing the Crown Jewels. I’m not super into jewelry and thought that I would be underwhelmed by seeing anything in this exhibit but was shocked to be moved by seeing it. There’s something about knowing the items I was seeing played such a large role in the history of a nation.
A side-note to my Tower of London exploration is seeing the Tower Bridge. The bridge itself is beautiful but the Harry Potter nerd in myself kept thinking to the scenes it was used in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Exhausted, we finally made our way to our hotel in London and got ready for a dinner of fish and chips. This was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time as both the fish and chips were super fresh and it felt so great to sit down for some time after such a long day.
Overall, this day has been an extreme crash-course of being welcomed into London. It has been informative and made me become more introspective seeing such amazing historical structures. I am looking forward to starting to get more into the portion of this trip that showcases my major and how communications looks as a whole in the United Kingdom.
