London Trip - Day 1

White Ferry House, walking distance from Victoria Station!

Once Jimena, Victor, and I finally surpassed the London Airport, we stepped foot into the new British climate, and took the first bus to our Hostel. This was my first time staying in a hostel, and from all those horror films like taken and hostel 1 and 2, I was quite nervous at the thought. But don't let these films scare you away from an amazing experience folks, this hostel, to my pleasant surprise, was quite nice. It was called the White Ferry House. We paid about 325 SEK for two nights (that is about 50 dollars) We also used the website: http://www.hostelworld.com/ which shows you the ratings and competitive prices of hostels worldwide. GREAT resource if you dont want to end up sleeping in a sketchy spot.
The roads are pretty narrow with lots of round-abouts, which really freaked me every time a car would pass us from the opposite going at least 45 mph...
We arrived at our hostel around 10am, then the clerk told us that check-in time was not until 2pm that afternoon. So we wasted no time, threw our bags in the dark hostel basement or "storage room" as they called it, and were off on the town. To cure our jetlag and growing hunger, we stopped at a very familiar place to eat: Subway. Victor, Jime, and I bought the equivalent of the "5 dollar footlong" in America, and also a coffee that was included with the meal. (which now officially proves that every place in Europe serves coffee.) This all ended up costing around $8.00. I have come to realize that the price is always slightly higher than in america, but the standard and quality of any food product is much, much higher in Europe.
Included in the Hostel price, was a complimentary tour around London. so while we were out we decide that will be our first plan. We met in Green Park with the tour guide and about 50 other tourists for the free walking tour. It was quite surprising to see how many Spanish speakers there were in London as well. Here I was, excited to finally be back in an English speaking country, and of course, I am surrounded by fluent Spanish speakers! They even had a second tour guide just to translate to Spanish.So, I guess its time for me to brush up on my Spanish...

Meeting place in Green Park for the group tour.

In the tour I saw: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, St. James Cathedral, British Parliament, etc. After the tour, our guide announced there would be a pub crawl that night and she would be selling tickets at restaurant in town if we were interested. This ticket included: admission to 5 bars, 4 drinks, and a wrist band for drink specials. We took it. Once we bought our tickets for the night we were pretty hungry. So of course, I had to do it...I ordered the fish and chips! And it did NOT disappoint.

Fish and chips, with tarter sauce and "mushy peas." 

After dinner, we rushed home to the hostel, took a shower, and met back in the city to start our night at a club called "The Verve." We had a blast, especially when they would change bars for the pub crawl. All the British guides would yell "PUB CRAWL!" and that meant on to the next club. Pretty funny haha.

Victor and I enjoying our first cocktail. :)

 Once the night was coming to the end and winding down, we stopped at McDonald's for fourth meal. I got a nice "happy meal" and if you ever want to know what was in this happy meal, you will have to ask me to tell you the story in person...epic. We finally ended the night in our lovely hostel beds and got a very necessary, nights sleep.