(Westminster) Abb(e)y: So. Much. Walking.

I cannot believe my journey began nearly a week ago! It has been flying by so quickly and I have not even started classes yet! Since I have arrived in London, I have definitely been very busy. On the 12th and 13th, we had orientation with Arcadia. It was fairly short and mainly consisted of introducing us to the UK, the education system here, and bits and pieces of London. Our last activity on Friday was a scavenger hunt through London where we got to ride the tube with our free travel passes (thank god considering I did not have my oyster card yet), see St. Paul's Cathedral, see performers in Covent Garden, attempt to climb statues in Trafalgar Square outside the National Gallery, and then freak out once we saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey in the distance. We also had a sighting of London bridge and the London Eye but unfortunately it is closed for a few weeks. To mark the end of our journey, we explored around the Kings Cross St. Pancras tube/train station to find Platform 9 3/4. We then met with our huge group again and had dinner at the "Wine Bar" next door to Nido where I had one of my soon to be many margharita pizzas. I think I have had more italian food than anything here... and believe me, I am not trying to. After that, we had our first night out at a British pub. Don't worry, we were all very good :)

Outside St. Paul's Cathedral

O'neill's in Angel, Islington

My first 2 days were fairly overwhelming suffering from jet lag, getting used to being picked out as American based on our accents, and nearly getting hit by buses.... a number of times. Cars, bikes, and buses are not afraid to hit you. When that light is green, they go. There are also tons of islands in the middle of the road, so you may be standing in a large group with cars flying by on either side.... yet another occasion where you feel like you are going to get hit by a double decker bus.

Saturday was quite fun as we went to the famous Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It was so cute seeing all of the colorful shops lined up along the road and the vendors along the street. I ended up buying a scarf for £3 and THE BEST CREPE EVER!!! It was only with nutella, but it definitely hit the spot. I also bought some vegetables and strawberries to make my own meals, plus they were so much cheaper. We will be returning again of sure.

The array of colors!

Making our delicious crepes!
So much nutella!

After the market, we took an adventure on the tube (pronounced chube by the Brits) to Shepard's Bush in search for some necessities for our rooms. We ended up finding Poundland (the British dollar store hahaha) a much nicer Boots (drugstore) and Morrisons (a grocery store 10 times bigger than all of the ones by us). We were beginning to notice, the further out of central London you got, the larger, nicer, and cleaner the stores get. Morrisons was a life saver because we all needed hangers since we did not bring them with us. I think it was also bigger than Pennsylvania grocery stores, but that can be easily be from 3 full isles of alcohol... clearly the Brits are not as strict as the states. We then ended our day at a pub when I tried my first fish and chips :)

Sunday was fairly calm as we only went to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We didn't go inside (don't worry, we will eventually) because it is a bit pricey so we are waiting to get the discount London Pass. However, the big event of the day was our Lunch. We decided to go to a pub and try some more authentic British food and it was... interesting. I got a chicken and pork terrine thinking it was just a fancy name for chicken and pork... not at all. To be honest, it was like tons of mystery meats were blended together into a slab and served cold. My friend Michelle thought she was ordering fish and chips except it was really tons of tiny fish fried... heads, eyes, and all. The best part of that meal was my salad, bread, and the chips I stole from Morrisa. I plan on investigating into my orders more in-depth from now on.

Monday we became the typical tourists and went to Buckingham Palace stopping at many souvenir shops along the way. After taking many pictures, we walked to Hyde Park and.... took more pictures! haha It was definitely not the full Hyde Park experience since very few flowers were blooming but there were a ton of ducks and swans in the pond! After walking through the park, we went to Harrods, a MASSIVE department store. They have all of your typical designers plus mini restaurants, grocery stores, and best of all CHOCOLATE! I had a pink champagne and orange creme truffle. They were each amazing! I would have bought more if they weren't so expensive. But the best of all? The large longchamp totes are about £50 something, which is about $80 and $60 cheaper than what it is in the states. I will be going back for sure, especially since they had Princess Catharine dolls!