London Bridges Are Falling Down

Word of the Post: Expensivo

London is the New York City of America. It is the heart of England. It is expensive, and big. It is amazing. But—not amazing enough to want to spend a semester there spending money every night.

However, between the mini pub crawl on night one, and our experience of an English club on night two, we were able to experience the city in its highest light—by touring and getting to see some amazing places. However, the best part of the day was when our group of ten missed our bus taking off from a tour spot. It was then that we got to experience London on our own. We went for a short lunch, strolled around to different parts of the city, and then came across what is called “London’s scariest attraction”—The London Tombs.

The London Tombs starts off as a historical journey through the building and rebuilding of the London Bridge, and ends with a twenty minute haunted house. At first I was a little sketch on going inside, but after the first room of the historical journey I was convinced that this was worth the 10 pounds that we each had just paid. It was my first history lesson of the trip.

The London Bridge that stands now is the 4^th bridge to stand. The first one was taken down early on during the Roman Empire, and then a fire took down a large portion of the second one. London then had a third tower built, but when they felt that it wasn’t doing enough, they put it up for auction. An American bought the bridge thinking it was the Tower Bridge that was across the way. When he realized it wasn’t, he didn’t mind and he had each brick taken down and shipped to Arizona where they reconstructed it. It still stands there today. Not too long later, in the 1970’s London built it’s fourth version of the bridge—and that is the one that stands today. There you have it my first piece of historical information from this wonderful trip.

Other things that I learned along the way in London:

1. Don’t give the peace sign—here in Europe it is there version of the middle finger.
2. Leave the club early—so you make it back without worrying if you’ll miss your bus to the airport for your flight to Florence.
3. Cab drivers in England will take all your money and trick you and tell you that you haven’t given them enough
4. Everything here is not only expensive—it is VERY expensive.
5. Though we didn’t eat in any, and all we used were the bathrooms, the McDonald’s here could be considered upscale restaurants—seeing as there were grand stand pianos and chandeliers bigger than my freshman dorm.

Ciao