EuroTrip 2010. First Stop: London

Our first stop in Europe was London. We were supposed to sleep in the plane but neither of us could. We arrived at 6:00AM to London Heathrow. We were staying with my cousin who had given us directions on how to get to his place. The first thing we noticed was on the train ride when they kept saying "mind the gap". I didn't see the gap until we got of at our station. We will be eternally thankful to my cousin who at the time was a student at LSE and let us stay with him in his tiny dorm room. It was very small but, were were right next to Trafalgar Square and a main underground station. Most of the time in London, I felt that we were in New York and not in Europe. Maybe because we were still speaking English or, maybe because many of the buildings and museums looked a lot like NYC. 

I had to get the notebook that I used when I was in Europe to write the details of these blog. I wrote all the places that we visited when we were flying back. You think that you will never forget all the amazing moments but, the truth is that in one year I forgot a lot. I am now ready with my "cheat" sheet to write about all the things that we did and the places that we saw.

The first day in London was one of the longest walks of the whole trip. We left our bags at my cousin's place and then we had breakfast at pet-a-mager. This became our favorite breakfast place in London. The croissants were good and they had a lot of tasty food. The three of us walked towards LSE to see my cousin's school and he showed us around the places where he went. We walked towards the south bank and Tower of London. We saw the Thames river and the London Eye for the first time. We kept walking and stopped at the Tate Modern Museum. I wish that we could have spent more time here. Some of Picasso's and Matisse's famous paintings are here. There is no fee for the Museum. I definitely recommend it. Then we saw the Shakespeare's Theatre and continued walking. We finally saw the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. We took lots of pictures of the bridge and then headed to visit the Tower of London. My cousin had never been inside so it was great to have him there as a tourist. The tour was nice and along the way they were telling us the stories about the Tower and Henry VIII. At some point we sat down to listen to one of the stories and I fell asleep. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep that at the first chance to sit down in a quiet place I fell asleep. I was ashamed! How could I be at this site that I wanted to visit for a long time and fall asleep???? I felt bad until I found out that my boyfriend fell asleep too. 

First day in London. Sleep deprived but Happy to see the Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge

The entrance to the tower of London. I was very excited to see it. I love the Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn story.

It was about 5:00 PM and it was time for lunch. We walked to the Liberty Bounds, a pub close to the Tower of London, for lunch. We had Indian food. My cousin said that we had to try it while we were in London since it was very "typical". I don't love Indian food but, I have to admit that it was good. Probably better than having the traditional fish and chips dish. We stayed for a while and had a few beers. Actually, I don't like beer, they had beer and I had Strongbow cider.

Since we were happy to see the City we didn't feel tired anymore. We ended up walking all the way back towards my cousin's dorm. We wanted some coffee and went toTrafalgar Square to have cappuccinos at Caffe Nero. They were VERY good! I wish Starbucks was that good.  Finally it was 10:00PM and it was time to sleep. We slept for 12 hours that night.