Kelli Carter ~ Staff Writer
I officially have been away for a month now and it feels like home each and everyday. This week started off as every week would go with the same routine of going to class, but this past weekend I traveled to London.
I have always wanted to go to London since I was a little kid. I loved the accents, the idea of royalty, and just being able to have high tea. The fact that I am studying abroad makes it so much easier to travel to different countries.
This was the first trip that my friend group and I decided to go on, and it honestly was such a blast. Due to the fact that we do not have classes on Friday, we left early Friday morning so we can have more time in this country. The first day, we mainly just walked around our Hostel, which was in the south of London. It was a cute area filled with college kids because of the University of London communication being in this area.
We grabbed lunch at this restaurant called Elephant and Castle where we had veggie burgers. Honestly, something that I am most surprised about is the fact that there are a lot of vegan options in restaurants in Europe. I thought it was going to be hard to stick to my diet, but everything has been working out nicely so far.
After we ate lunch, we grabbed a metro to the northern part of London and went to SOHO. This area reminded me so much of the SOHO back home in NYC. There are a lot of restaurants and clothing stores in this area. It was also unbelievably crowded, but being a New Yorker, I knew how to navigate in such a big crowd.
Something that was weird was the fact that they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right hand side. We knew that in London they do this, but actually being there and experiencing it was really weird. I would go and cross the street but then realize I am looking the wrong way. So happy I did not get hit by a car.
The next day, we did a lot of typical tourist things. We went to see Big Ben, but it was under construction and you could not see much of it except for the clock at the top. Next, we saw the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Roman Wall.
The best part of this trip besides all the accents was that we got the chance to do a Jack the Ripper tour. We learned so much about this serial killer from the late 1800’s. Something interesting that the tour guide told us was that we should remember the women who died and their names more than Jack himself. This really stuck with me because a lot of people romanticize the idea of Jack the Ripper without even knowing the names of his victims.
Overall, I am so happy that this was my first weekend trip abroad because it was nice to speak English for a change and nice just fully understanding what is going on. I have many more trips planned, so stay toon to see how they will turn out.