Hey everyone! Today was our first day to explore London all on our own. First we all rode the tube and got off around Borough Market and London Bridge. The market was gigantic! It had every kind of food imaginable and more. Everything was fresh,especially the huge piles of fish. I tried some cheese, which was not very good and left a horrible taste in my mouth, so naturally I washed it down with a yummy brownie.
After we got our fill of free samples, we hopped on the double decker bus tour and rode around the city for a bit. Our tour guide had some pretty cheesy jokes, but we just rolled with it. I sat on the roof and let me tell you, it was pretty chilly. After riding around for a little while I started to get sleepy. I think everyone has perfected the art of falling asleep on buses on this trip. We got off around Piccadilly Circus and got Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for lunch, which was definitely a fantastic life choice. Others in the group ate in China Town and TGI Fridays.
A big group of us went on the Harry Potter walking tour. This tour was honestly THE best tour I have ever been on because I am a huge Harry Potter fan! Our tour guide took us to some of the places where they shot the movie. He also shared some fun facts along the way and asked some Harry Potter trivia questions. Of course I couldn’t resist and had to answer pretty much every one. I didn’t know one answer and some people gave me a hard time about it.
Anyway, we also went to a sweet shop that inspired the author of the books. We got some tasty Bon Bons, which session one told us we had to get, and also some chocolate frogs. The tour guide had a trivia competition and he picked me as the winner and I got to pose as Ron Weasley in the exact spot where the actor who played him stood! Let me just say it is in the top 5 best moments on my entire life!!
Next we went to Chinatown. Grace is from China and speaks Mandarin, so she picked a really nice restaurant for us to eat at. She spoke Mandarin with the staff there, and it was really neat to see this interaction. She also taught us the proper way to use chopsticks. After a little while I gave up because it was taking way too long for me to finish my meal, and I was honestly too hungry. I don’t think our experience would have been as fun without her.
Last night, Eric showed us where the Sherlock Holmes bar was, and today we attempted to find it. I say attempted because it took us quite a long time to find it again. I am pretty sure we walked in a complete circle and didn’t even realize it. After getting ourselves a little lost, we finally found it and enjoyed the nice atmosphere of the pub with the locals. We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. Some people went to the play Once, and they really enjoyed it and said the singing was very good. Then we all met back up as a group and went to the pub right next to our hotel and had a fun night.
Sierra Beschorner
Junior, Biology
