Day ONE: London

The time is 04:00 GMT, the airplane is filled with silence and peace. All of a sudden, my follow travelers and I were awakened by flashing orange-red lights. We look around in confusion and dismay as the flight attendants tell us to unfasten our seatbelts. What is going on? An emergency landing? An accident on the plane? It was worse… it was coffee time. To our horror, we realized that the flight attendants had woken us up with more than two hours left in our flight. Some of us only had an hour of sleep, some of us had none at all. It has been a long night…




The time is 06:30 GMT, we have successfully landed, jet lagged and affected by the red-eye. There, we meet our savior: Gwen. Gwen is our designated tour guide for the next eight days, and to our delight, he is incredibly pleasant. Being fluent in over four languages, and being born in France, he makes an intriguing and very fun tour guide. His first demonstration of kindness is when he lets us go about the terminal, and find ourselves some caffeine. In about thirty minutes, we’re back on our journey, piling onto a bus, one by one, as we head into the capital city of London.


The time is 09:00 GMT, and we get our first taste of freedom on the other side of the pond. Gwen gives us an hour to explore the London Tower, as well as the Tower Bridge. Despite our grogginess and fatigue, we still managed to find some adrenaline to walk on the Tower Bridge and see some amazing sights, as well as take lots of pictures. Maybe this adventure won’t be as bad as we initially expected…











The time is 12:00 GMT, we were gifted another two hours to explore by Gwen, as well as eat and watch street performers in Covent Garden. During that time, some of us discovered a diabolical plot instituted by the British Government: it costs money to use the public bathroom. It costed us a full pound to be able to use the ‘laboratories’, as the Brits would say. Despite that shocking news, we all managed to enjoy some kind and amazing street performers without getting pick-pocketed. In this time, we began to appreciate the wonderful weather. It was a lovely 60 degrees (Fahrenheit of course) and sunny. If it weren’t for our absolutely aching and groaning bodies, it would have been the perfect lunch.












The time is 15:00 GMT, the group had its first taste of European art on our trip. Many were looking forward to seeing particular artists’ works, such as Van Gogh and Monet. All of the paintings inside the National Art Museum were beautiful and astounding, and it managed to bring back some energy and positivity.










The time is 16:30 GMT, the torture has returned. We were all beginning to collapse as we walked to our dinner location. As we sat down, we were met with a sloppy meat pie and mash.  Some distasteful looks could be spotted amongst the group members, but much to our surprise, we quite enjoyed our English delicacy. Dinner was complete, and topped off with some vanilla ice cream. Finally, it was time to return to the hotel.





The time is 19:25 GMT, I, Brady McGuire, am being yelled at by my fellow blog members to hurry up, as I have taken too much time and detail to describe what possibly could be the longest day of our lives. “He’s still writing” Madeleine remarks as I type this. Luckily, our night has come to an end. After a very, VERY long day, it is time to close our blog entry with something we are each looking forward to in the upcoming week. Brady is quite excited for another day in London, to see more historical English Landmarks. Madeleine is looking forward to seeing Versailles and Paris. Bianca is especially excited to see Paris, but also wants to see the other countries as well. Finally, Maggie is excited to try new food and experience some different cultures. Thank you for joining our exhausting first journey, and we are excited for the many more adventures to come!


-Brady, Bianca, Madeleine, and Maggie.



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