Our journey across the Atlantic started in the College Center of BCA as all 24 of us arranged ourselves in a circle to introduce ourselves and shared what we were most looking forward to on our trip. Things were smooth-sailing from the bus ride to JFK to security to finding dinner from a variety of options near the gate. After a 6.5-hour flight, we landed in Heathrow and boarded a coach bus that drove us through the city of London, offering us preliminary views of the sights to come in the following week, like Tower Bridge. We arrived at Wombat’s City Hostel, our new home for the next seven days, to drop our bags before our next stop.
We walked to Tower Hill and split up in small groups for lunch at various eateries. Tower Hill is home to the famous Tower of London, which was built in 1097 and functioned as a fortress, palace, and prison. We had the opportunity to explore the White Tower, see the ravens and ravenmasters, meet the Yeoman Warders, and of course, behold the Crown Jewels (although the line was quite long, for some reason I can’t think of).
After everyone had had their fill at the Tower of London, we walked back to the hostel for a quick relax-and-recharge before continuing one of the longest BCA Global Studies traditions in London: pizza! We ate our first dinner at Pizza Express, a British pizza chain with locations all over the world. Our meal included tasty dishes such as Loaded Pesto Dough Balls, Garlic Prawn pizza, and Funghi di Bosco pizza. With barely enough room for dessert, we enjoyed warm tea and coffee and sweets like the Honeycomb Cream Slice and many flavors of gelato and sorbet.
With tired eyes and full stomachs, we made our way back to the hostel and decided to end the day early, in anticipation of an eventful day tomorrow!