London Calling

Spending a week in London had always been a dream of mine, and it became a reality once I signed up for this program. Sadly, it came to an end last week when my program got on a plane to move to our next location of Lisbon, Portugal. London was a great place to start off my study abroad program. I have never been abroad before this trip, so starting in a country where English is the primary language added an extra sense of comfort. That bring said, London is extremely different than the United States. Some things I had to get used to were walking on the left side of the sidewalk instead of the right side, asking for tap water (since still or sparkling is the default), and always having some spare change on me since some public bathrooms require a payment in order to use them. 

All in all, London was full of things to do. One of my favorite experiences in London was going to a Premier League soccer match. Even if you are not that into soccer, it is truly a once in a lifetime experience. The people alone make it such a fun outing. However, my absolute favorite excursion of the trip was taking a day trip to Bath. I love history and shopping, and this was the perfect place for a mix of the two. I went with one of my friends from class and our first stop was the Roman Baths. In the 1700s, some researchers in Bath discovered remnants of a Roman bathhouse and started to excavate it. That took over 100 years and it became open for public viewing in the 1800s. There was so much to learn about the Romans’ way of life and the Medieval English since they also used the site for their own purposes. After that, we wandered around the city and stumbled upon some great shopping and some of the best Italian food I have ever had. The moral of the story is, if you end up going to London, do not limit yourself to the city itself. Even though there is so much to do there, some of the surrounding cities that are only a train ride away have so much to offer.