Love Affair.

I'm in love with London. There I said it, it's out there for everyone to read. I LOVE LONDON.

Me, Melanie, & Lisa being obnoxious in London.

The Beginning.

My roommates and I set off on our London adventure last Thursday night. We took the 11pm bus from Brussels to London, we arrived around 6:30 Friday morning. 

To go keep in line with our modest budgets we stayed in a hostel called Generator. I'm not going to lie: I was skeptical. The only previous experience I've had with a hostel has come from movies... and none of those have been very pleasant. 

Surprisingly the hostel endend up not being that bad. The set up and atmosphere reminded me of the co-ed dorm I stayed in freshmen year. 

Lisa and I in our hostel

Our room had two sets of bunk beds, four lockers, a sink and a mirror. The bathrooms were communal but split into male and female. The only weird thing about the hostel was the whole...oh there's an extra bed in your room...we'll stick an even more random boy in that bed... Friday night, a very nice and might I add...lucky... young man was assigned the fourth bed in our tiny room. Really- it wasn't that weird. We're all young students just trying to get the most out of our money so sharing the room wasn't that big of a deal. 

During the day on Friday, our wonderful roommate Jordan and her witty boyfriend Kempy became our unofficial tour guides of the lesser known sites of London. (Jordan has lived in England and Kempy is from England.)

Camden Market

Camden Market was very overwhelming... but in a good way. This market was massive, without our trusty tour guides I would've been totally lost. Once you enter the market, dozens of aisles branch out into many directions. Everywhere I looked there were different items for sale-- food, jewelry, purses, shoes, luggage, candles, blankets... anything you could imagine wanting to buy was available at Camden Market. A few short hours there was definitely not enough time to fully explore the market.

The Middle. 

To put it simply: Saturday rocked my world. We took a double-decker open roof red bus all around the city. It was glorious- we saw everything.

Big Ben with Lisa

Westminster Abbey with Melanie

Buckingham Palace!!! The balcony where William and Kate kissed!

Hyde Park: the Queen's Rose Garden

The London Eye 

We drove over London Bridge!... it didn't fall down.

No, he didn't laugh. 

The End. 

We took a very early bus Sunday morning back to gloomy Brussels.

I say Brussels is gloomy because compared to London, it looks like a very sad city. Everything in London is beautiful and happy. The people smile and they dress perfectly, the buildings are large and made out of a beautiful white material, the streets are clean and decorated. The city is filled with so much history that even if I lived there I would be constantly learning something new. London really reminded me of the older...much more mature.. older sibling to Washington D.C.

After going to London I have added two major life goals to my ever growing list:

1. I must return to London as often as possible...maybe get a job there???
2. I NEED to become a sloane ranger. Google if needed.

*As always, more pictures from London are on my Facebook.