L is for London

I have had the very fortunate experience to travel to London twice in my lifetime, and I hope that I get to go at least one or two more times.

The first time that I went, I was a second-grader, still being totted around by my mother's hand.  Don't get me wrong, I still saw a lot of awesome stuff, but it was all focused on museums, castles, and torture devices (shudders).  And because the London Marathon was happening, all of the above ground stuff was kind of cut off, so we took to the subway.

But the second time I went, that was a life changer.  I remember London being beautiful.  I remember enjoying it, but not like I did the second time.

I was twenty-one, barely putting on my legally-able-to-drink-in-the-U.S. boots, and I headed off with my best friend (and cohort over at Adorning Schemes) to do a 30 day tour with EF College Break.  I think that trip solidified our already-epically-awesome friendship into the heterosexual-lifemates realm.  Even if I get annoyed with her, it is more like she is my sister.  She could almost literally do no wrong at this point (though, I don't encourage her to test this).

We arrived in London as our first stop and spent three marvelous days there.  We arrived drunk because no one warned us that "Hey, we have unlimited wine available on British Airways."  Then we spent the whole first morning hanging out in a park, trying not to fall asleep because we were already running on a whole day of no sleep.  But we made it!  Until the ridiculous early bedtime of 9pm.

We attended a Welcome Dinner at a real life English Pub, and boy... was it difficult to get vegan food, but they succeeded.  I actually never thought I would like eating a baked potato doused with beans, but somehow England made that work.  We went for our first night out on the town and had VIP access to a bar with the 90 other kids on our tour.  Our tour guide, Dave, took us on a walking tour of the city.

But I think one of the more fun aspects of London was when we got lost.  We were trying to find this old punk club, and finally found it after hours of walking.  Thing was, when we got there, we were so intimidated that we didn't even go inside!  Instead, we headed to the strip/flea market huge thing and shopped.  We swung by a vegan cafe, which you paid per pound of food, and ate to our heart's content.

At some point, we went into a museum and got completely separated from each other.  I ended up getting directions from some really nice guys who were drinking in public - what a concept!  They were actually so nice that I wanted to take them home with me (like you would bring home a cute puppy, don't think bad thoughts here).

London was ridiculously silly, and fun, to get lost in.  It was such a great experience, and such a beautiful city (as you can see from my photos).  There are so many more photos that I took (200 I think?) that just didn't make the "perfect shot" cut, but still, the city captivated me, and I sincerely hope I get to go back someday.

What about you?  Where is the one place that you hope to go back to again?  What prevents you from going back often?