Hi everyone! I ended up doing a crazy amount of stuff during my trip to London. It is too much for one post so I will be doing separate posts for each day I spent there. Now I will start from the beginning:
The past week or two a few of us students had been planning a trip to London. This was the first time that we went on a trip planned by us and without any of our program directors. We were a bit nervous. From the very beginning there were mishaps. First of all, our tickets ended up getting booked for the wrong day. We were going to leave Thursday night and miss class on Friday but our tickets actually got booked for Wednesday night. In order to switch our tickets it would cost nearly half of what we paid for the tickets; instead of paying the fee we left on Wednesday.
After school on Wednesday we ran home, finished last minute packing, and then walked to the Salamanca bus station. Then we got on a really nice coach bus that took us to the Madrid airport. We went through security, found our terminal, and made it on the plane easily. The flight to England was quick and lasted a little over 2 hours. The plane’s descent was terrible though. Usually when I fly my ears hardly pop and don’t hurt at all. During this descent it felt like my head was going to explode. Luckily we all survived and made it to the Gatwick airport.
At the airport we all used the ATM and for some reason neither my debit nor ATM card would work for me. Luckily I had some euro in my purse that I was able to exchange for pounds. I did not have a lot of cash but at least it was something. Then we got on a train that took us from the airport to a subway station closer to London. The subway in London is called “The Tube”. I tried to buy a ticket with my credit card and was pleased to find that it actually worked! Then we rode to a station near our hostel. Our hostel was only a few blocks away from the station so we didn’t get too lost on our way. Our hostel was called the “Steam Engine”. The bottom floor was a bar and around back upstairs was the actual hostel.
The room we were in was small. It had four bunk beds that each had three beds in it. There was a bottom, middle, and top bunk. I had the top so I had more space than all the others. In all, there were 12 beds in the room. That meant that over half the people in the room would be complete strangers. My bed was large and comfy so I was able to sleep with my backpack next to me. I also slept with my money belt on. It contained my passport, money, and all my bank cards.
The people in our room had been drinking at the bar and were very loud, but we were all exhausted from all the traveling so we slept well. I was really happy that we actually made it to London. I was proud of us and excited for day two.
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