Being in such a huge city was one of the most intimidating things that I’ve ever done in my life. There was so much to see, and I was only there for 6 weeks, so once the first week flew by, I already felt like I was running out of time. At first, I really wanted to avoid touristy areas and try to feel what it was like to just live in London. But after about a week, I realized that I didn’t want to say I went to London and not see some of the most iconic things about it. So, after the first week of classes, my roommates and I sat down for about 2 hours and made a list of things that we wanted to see. Then we made a map and dedicated a day to just touring the city. I think we walked about 15 miles that day, but it was all worth it in the end.
Even though there were a couple thousand people there, my favorite thing that we did was check out Buckingham Palace and watch the Changing of the Guards. As basic as it sounds, this is definitely something that I would recommend going to watch. One, it’s just iconic, and two, I actually enjoyed it so much that I went back, watched it for a second time, and did a presentation on it for one of my classes.
I know it all seems super touristy, which I totally get wanting to avoid. But I genuinely think that there’s a healthy balance between being a tourist and figuring things out like a local. After all, you aren’t there for all that long, so see as much as you can!