So, This is What a Tourist Feels Like.

       Well, I officially survived the 12 hour plane ride and first day in London. It's off to quite the adventurous start. We started yesterday from Salt Lake International Airport at 2:35 pm and had a connection flight in Dallas- Fort Worth. After a three hour lay-over, we boarded the plane at 9:00 pm for a red-eye to London. We couldn't have planned it better. I was able to sleep most of the nine hour ride making the jet lag much more bearable. I also didn't have anyone next to me on either leg of the flight, which definitely didn't hurt. We landed at 12:25 pm London time…5:25 am Utah time. So I felt somewhat okay about going all day, but it's hitting me really hard right now. After walking around all day and navigating a foreign city, nothing sounds better than falling asleep. Luckily for me, it's 8:30 pm now, so no one would think I was that weird.

       We definitely proved we were naive, American girls when we tried to figure out the London
Underground system. We're staying at the Journey's London Bridge Hostel so naturally, you'd think to get off at the London Bridge stop, right? Wrong. We were completely lost in the busiest, dirtiest part of town, but what's a vacation without a little aimless wandering? We finally flagged down a taxi, who then proceeded to dart in and out of traffic like a madman. He was super cool though, and gave us good conversation while he drove us to our hostel Our hostel is in Kennington, a cute burrow a little ways out from Central London (as far as I can tell). It's a very laid back feel, exactly how I imagined hostels to be and I know I will be out like a light tonight, regardless of the ten strangers sleeping around me.

Journey's London Bridge Hostel

        The city is large and crowded and a little overwhelming, but I know that's all because of the lack of sleep and food. Tomorrow will be a new day with fresh energy to explore. I can now say I have the tube system down like a pro. Through finding our way through the tube system, getting into our hostel, and back into central London, the lack of food was definitely bringing us down. I haven't eaten much in two days. The timezone change is throwing me off and the plane fed us dinner and breakfast at the most bizarre times. Of course I wasn't hungry for a meal at 4:00 am, so I picked at some lettuce, at a cracker, and went back to sleep. So after exploring, checking in and walking for a bit, we jumped back on the tube and headed over to the London Eye pier for our first European meal. After walking down street after street, our feet were hurting and we were dying of starvation so we walked into the next place we saw…."Chopstix", an all you can eat China buffet for about 17 American dollars a person. It was awful, and so I'm now going on day two of no food. However, I'm too tired to even think about it. Our motto today was, "our real vacation will start tomorrow". We had plenty adventure for the first day, so I still consider it a good start.

Me and Nicole on the London Eye Pier

       It's a lot colder here than I expected. The sun shines, but the wind bites. The exchange rate is horrendous and its sickening to think how many American dollars we are paying for something (the Chinese buffet being a shining example). But hey, it's London, we're young, and that's what vacations are all about. So far, I wouldn't change a thing. I can't wait to finally get a good night's sleep and wake up refreshed and ready to find out what London has to really offer. If this blog makes zero sense, it's because my eyes burn from lack of sleep and I'm way too tired to go back and reread it, so give me a break :)