Our first adventure in London

I would have to say that my only regret from the trip to the UK was deciding not to take my laptop. It might not be the most ideal situation, but my blog posts will all be made from in the U.S. Although I'm currently back at Wofford, sitting at my desk in my cube, I would like to reflect on one of my favorite and most memorable experiences of the trip to England. Our first free day was Monday afternoon, and I really didn't have any plans until after our morning lecture. Leanne, Jeff, Chris, Will, and I decided to venture into London for the afternoon. Little did I know how much of an adventure it would turn out to be! Right after lunch, we made our way to the train station, which is about a ten minute walk from the city center of Oxford. There, we purchased our tickets and decided we would probably return around 10:30 or 11:00. After looking over our maps and Frommers' guides, we decided to center our visit on Westminster and the London Eye. After arriving at Paddington Station, we made our way to the "tube" for the first time! At first glance, the map of the tube seemed like some sort of complicated geometry. I'm directionally challenged, to put it lightly. However, we did make it to the correct stop at Westminster without any major problems. As we emerged from the underground, Leanne and I saw our first glimpse of sunlight since arriving in England. Of course we were excited to be in London, but we were even more ecstatic that we wouldn't have to break out the umbrellas! The view of the city as soon as we reached the top of the steps was absolutely overwhelming. Behind us stood Big Ben and Parliament, and directly in front of us, across the bridge, was the London Eye. After getting over our initial shock, we bought our tickets for the London Eye. The view from the top was astonishing, and we could see almost the entire city. We then visited Parliament and sat in on a session of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. While I wasn't very familiar with the issues they were debating, the fact that we were sitting in on a session of British Parliament was awesome! Westminster Abbey was closed, so we decided to head to dinner after taking a few pictures. We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus (or maybe Oxford Circus, I can't remember) and had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. After dinner we walked around and decided to visit a nearby pub. Around 10:45, we decided to leave for the train station in order to make the last train to Oxford. Unfortunately, we didn't remember that we had to make 2 changes on the tube. We frantically ran from location to location and finally reached Paddington only to realize that the train had just left. Imagine the looks on our faces when we realized the consequences! However, luck must have been on our side because we talked to a man who told us that one more train would be leaving for Oxford that night. It's always interesting to me that the most challenging and difficult circumstances make for the best stories, but I'm glad we weren't left on our own to find another way back to Oxford!

Written by: Katie Brown