London Baby!!!!!!!

Well for those of you wondering out there...I have arrived safely in London. My trip began as it usually does by getting asked at the airport during check-in if I was an unaccompanied minor and then again at security if I was over 18. I have to laugh at this!

I got here safely around 6:30 am on Thursday morning and found my hostel very easily. It was about a 45 minute subway ride from the airport. I got there around 9 in the morning but we can't check until 2 so I stored my bags in a locker there and headed off exploring for the day. I saw the British Library, which for those of you who know how much I love books was amazing! It also has some great historical documents there like the Magna Carta, some extremly early copies of the Bible from the 3rd and 4th centuries, a part of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and so much more. Then I went to check out the British Museum. This has tons of old and great artifacts and luckily both of these are free, great for those of us on a budget!

I have also seen Buckingham Palace, The National Gallery (housing paintings by Monet, Renior, Leonardo do Vinchi, Rapheal, and many more), Hyde Park (where I took a nice nap!), Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The House of Parliament, I could go on, but I'll stop now.

Last night I saw a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theater which performs plays as Shakepeare would have done. It is a cylinder shap with 4 levels. Tickets are the most expensive up high and get cheaper the closer to the ground you get. On the ground floor they are the cheapest because you have to stand the whole time, but you are right there and it is an open air theater so it is great! I am off tonight to see Les Miserables. There are so many plays here and musicals with surprisingly cheap tickets if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the view of the stage. Tomorrow, I am off to Paris for a few days.....

For those of you worried about me traveling by myself, let me reassure you that out of the 14 of us in my room at the hostel, 5 of us are single 20 something women traveling on our own. The shortest one for only a month and the longest for 6 months, most of us from different countries. I met 3 guys in my room traveling on their own and the rest of the room is either friends or boyfriends/girlfriends traveling together so ... I really am not the only one who does this. I've met some interesting people, one in a park who I told I only spoke Spanish cause I was too tired to chat and he left me alone right away. Sometimes the 2 languages come in handy.

Well that's all for now from over here.