ENGLAND – Language Spoken: English (duh) Location: Europe
England is everything the movies tell you and then some. There is a chicness to London that only they could ever capture. The queen lives there of course it needs to be fabulous! I must say, out of all the cities I have ever visited, London was so darn expensive especially for Americans… well maybe for everyone but when I did the conversion to pounds, I felt like was paying double for everything! I was lucky enough to get a connection to a hotel in London for the first couple nights for half the price in a REALLY nice place by Hyde Park. We enjoyed the fine dining and beautiful streets of London the first few nights with no shame.
The pick pocketing in London is for real. One second my friend was walking next to me then the next he was gone and all I could see was a woman screaming about her wallet and my friend chasing after the thief. Shaking my head, I ran after him and the thief. What was this child going to do? Catch the thief, then do what? Get shot? Well thankfully, he chased the guy into an alley, punched him in the face, took the wallet back, told the guy to have a Merry Christmas, and snatched the wallet. He returned the wallet to the woman and we were finally back on our way to the park.
Hyde Park has a fabulous winter wonderland fair with waffles drizzled with chocolate, mulled wine, and an ice skating rink…. seriously, this was the life! I recommend this to anyone traveling to London in the winter. Once we returned from the park, the hotel told us that our flight was cancelled and the hotel was sold out. We were now in this expensive town with no place to stay, and possibly won’t be home for Christmas. I haven’t seen my family since the day I left for Malta in August, so this was a bummer on top of the possibility of sleeping in the airport for a couple days.
F Y I
Places Stayed: Hyatt Regency London, South Kensington (private apartment)
Places Visited: Hyde Park, Natural History Museum, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace
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