London

London: First Night

So the first night in a hostel was definitely an experience. The noise was intense but I've been through rougher times. We met two roommates and had a brief encounter with a couple who came in, made their beds, and never returned that we saw. One guy is American, from Vermont, who is here working and going to school to be a tailor. Apparently he's been in Europe for more than a decade spending the better part of it in Italy. The other guy is a Spaniard named Alvaro who is here for work and to learn English.

London: Second Day

We awoke well rested fairly early and decided that today would we would venture out to see some sights. We started off by me leading us aimlessly around until we figured out bearings and we set out towards Buckingham Palace. We came to Green Park for a small rest and decided to venture to Hyde Park. According to the map the park was huge however as we started walking through it it felt that the map had exaggerated. Turns out I was wrong. After holing up in a cafe to escape the sprinkling and witnessing the Royal Guards paraded around on horses we headed back towards Buckingham Palace. We arrived to find a huge crowd for which we did not know why. According to a policewoman the changing of the guard was to take place soon. So we decided to stick around and watch as well. Afterwards we relaxed our feet a bit in Green Park trying to decide what to do. Something I did not research enough was exactly how we were going to get to mainland Europe since our Eurorail Pass does not work in England. But as our attitude has been we figure we'd look into it later. After a few minutes rest we headed back to our hostel to rest a bit. After a nice nap we headed back out this time to see Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye on the Thames River. After seeing those we headed back through the Underground back to our hostel to rest and figure out our next move. The advice I offer from today's adventure is to avoid the telephone booth's here in London. I decided to take a photo in one but quickly found out how much they've been used as restrooms.