Last Saturday, I went to a little coffee shop in Eureka, IL called Mika's. I was getting interviewed, along with my childhood best friend, and some new friends, about one of the most exciting and life-changing adventures I had ever experienced. Jump back to June 5th, when I picked up my friend from Eureka and we drove to the train station in Bloomington. In this train station, I met some of the people that would become my best friends for the upcoming week. We all got on a bus and got transported to O'hare in Chicago. From Chicago, we flew into Dublin. This was a 8 hour plane ride that I did not sleep on. From Dublin, we had a 1 1/2 hour plane ride to London. I would be arriving in London the next day, as this was an overnight flight that I should've slept on. On these long and exhausting flights, I became acquainted with some of the people I would be traveling with. My friend, Regan, was the only person I knew before we left. Everyone else, besides me, attended Eureka High School. We were going to spend 10 days together, so it was best that I would get to know them! Once we arrived in London we had a whole day ahead of us. I hadn't slept since the day before, and I had a full day of activities. In the airport, we met our tour guide, Lewis. He was British, and had a super fun accent. We started our day by experiencing the Tube, which is the main subway system in London. Riding the Tube became one of my favorite parts of London. There are all sorts of people that you see, and you have to learn to navigate so you don't get lost. We had our own personal "Oyster Cards" that had money on them to hop on and off. After a little introduction to the Tube, we spent the rest of the day getting a few small tours of local areas and squares. We ended our first day overseas at a Japanese restaurant. One thing I was not expecting to do in London was to go to a Japanese restaurant. Since our meals were preplanned, we did not have a choice in where we wanted to eat. The food was surprisingly good (since I wasn't expecting much) and we were pleased with our first meal. After eating, we were all extremely ready to go back to the hotel and sleep. I had been awake for AT LEAST 30 hours. At 1 a.m. in the morning, my alarm clock decided it was going to go off. This was a great wake-up call and pleased the whole room :) We quickly fell back asleep with a little grumbling and fumbling around. In the morning (not at 1 a.m.), we all climbed out of bed and got on with our day. We had a buffet-style breakfast at the hotel, and we were surprised to find baked beans in the buffet. Besides that, most of the foods we were familiar with as breakfast foods. After a filling breakfast, we hopped on a bus for a long and very informational tour. We got many bus tours during this trip, and they were not my favorite part. We saw Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, Baker Street, the US Embassy, and the Ritz Carlton. Fortunately, we got a photo stop at Big Ben and West Minister Abbey. This was the end of the bus tour (!!) and we proceeded to Buckingham Palace. After arriving at Buckingham Palace, we watched the changing of the guard. This was super cool to see, and I really just enjoyed being able to see the palace and absorb what was happening around me. The place was packed from all sides, and it was almost hard to see the actually change. Once we were ready to move on, we split into groups. I ended up going to the Tower of London. If you are not familiar with the Tower of London, it is a historical castle that holds the crown jewels and many other interesting artifacts. While we were walking around, we noticed some ravens inside the castle. Later on, we learned that there was a legend surrounding these ravens. There are seven ravens in the Tower of London, and if they were all to leave, London would fall. After a few other events here and there, we made our way to Piccadilly Circus. Before I begin, I would say this was the most "real" experience I had on the entire trip. We sat on a fountain step and watched some street performers perform. In front of us, there was a magician doing magic tricks, and to our right there were "golden" people. These people are painted and dressed head-to-toe in gold, and you must pay to take a picture with them. A bit later, some dancers came over to take over the magicians spot. After some bickering and disputes, the magician left and the dancers began to set up and dance. At the end of the day, we headed back to hotel for another sound sleep after a exhausting day.
In the morning, we woke up at 6 a.m. to travel to our next destination... To be continued in the next post!
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AuthorMy name is Alyssa MacDonald, and I am a senior at Dunlap High School. I will be writing about some of my exciting travels that I have been able to experience! Archives
April 2018
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