Study Tour - LONDON (Part 1)

I spent this past week in England (London and Totnes) on my Long Study Tour for European Sustainable Development.  I think it's safe to say this is one of the best weeks so far on my study abroad adventure.  So much has happened that I am going to split the blog posts - one for the first few days in London, and the next post to come will explain the rest of the week in Totnes. 

Sunday, September 29:

We met at the airport at 6:30am, so I had to get the metro before 6.  We checked in and got our arrival packets, checked our bags, went through security, found a delicious morning Danish (which are actually not called Danishes in Denmark - they're actually "wienerbrød" or "Viennese bread"), and then found our gate.  Our flight landed at 9:30 England time, we got a train to our hotel Novotel in London West, dropped our bags, and had lunch on our own.  A group of us went to Nandos which is apparently a famous chicken place in the UK.  After meeting back at the hotel, we took the tube to Fat Tire Bike Tours at 1:30 for 3 hours.  The Royal London tour was awesome!  A perfect way to see London in the short amount of time we had in the city.  For dinner we went to Portobello Organic Kitchen and got DELICIOUS Shepherd's Pie, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and wine.  Mama Deb (our name for our professor) loves wine.  Morgan and I were roommates in the gorgeous hotel, and just passed out once we got back at 10pm.  It was a long day.

Let me just say right now that every single meal on this trip was absolutely phenomenal.  I also can't believe how much food I ate this week because all of it was so good.  Mama Deb knows how to scout out the perfect restaurants. 

Kensington Palace

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Monday, September 30:

The hotel breakfast was insane.  It had everything you could ever want for breakfast in buffet form - from fruit to pastries to a traditional English breakfast.  Yum.  At 8:30, we took an hour and a half train to BedZED: Zero Energy Development.  This was really interesting to see that even in a huge city like London you can live sustainably.  They gave us tea/coffee, a little presentation and background about their neighborhood and initiatives, and a tour of the area.  At around 2pm, we went to see the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern Art Museum, then had the rest of the afternoon/evening on our own.  A group of us went to St. Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, and Platform 9 3/4.  For dinner, we went to a sports bar and got burgers and local beer.  At night we went to a bar in the Soho area, but it closed around midnight. 

BedZED

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

Big Ben Tower

Off to Hogwarts...

Tuesday, October 1 (Morning):

We had the morning on our own until 11:15, so after another delicious breakfast (and sneaking out pack lunches) Morgan, Michelle, and I wandered around Trafalgar Square area and down little side streets.  Many metro rides later, the group took a 3 hour train from Paddington Station across the English countryside to Totnes.  Little did we know what was coming...