London – Sights, shopping, food & the Tube

My first trip abroad was to London and I had an amazing time! I stayed with 2 of my best friends from Syracuse and they were amazing tour guides for the weekend. We explored sites like Big Ben, the London Eye and Notting Hill. This was a big change in pace compared to Florence. Being in London reminded me a lot of New York City. We had lunch at a restaurant called The Strings on Friday and that night we tried a restaurant called Sushi Samba. Both were great! Sushi Samba was more on the expensive side but the whole ambiance of the restaurant was so beautiful and the food was delicious. We went out to a few different bars and clubs: Cirque Le Soir, Be At One, O’Neills, Camden Eye, and Elephants Head. Out of all of these places O’Neills definitely had the most study abroad students. I saw lots of familiar faces!

During the day on Saturday we went to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill which was huge and had endless stands of clothing, jewelry, and trinkets. On Sunday we went to Harrods which is a huge luxury department store that is very fun to walk around in, especially if you have an appreciation for fashion. We wanted to visit Buckingham Palace on Sunday, but unfortunately we ran out of time because London is much bigger than I expected and we had to Tube everywhere which was time consuming.

Overall London was a great experience!

My 3 tips are:

Expect to spend a lot of money – It was an expensive trip without even shopping.

Be aware of your surroundings – My friend got her phone stolen the week before.

Bring an umbrella! – I didn’t and I was soaked at many points during the weekend.