Day 4: Central London

     I was most excited to see the central part of London that included Birmingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, China Town and so much more. We decided to sleep in until at least 10 a.m., exhausted from the day before. Once we were up and ready, I was ready to see it all.
     We rode the tube to the Picadilly Circus Station, and got off in a swarm of people. Not only was there an obscene amount of tourists in this part of London, but there were also locals who were just trying to commute to work. This was when I realized I could never live here, let alone a big city.
     The first place we wanted to see was Buckingham Palace. I used Google Maps to guide us there, when I could've just followed the crowd of people. There was a ceremony happening at the palace, and everyone was lined up in front of the gates, that I could barely see the soldiers in the marching band. There were lined up like little dolls, with their poofy hats on, marching and playing their trumpets. It couldn't have gotten more London than that.
     There were officers on horses, riding through the bodies of people, making sure the area was clear. I was just amazed at how different the culture was in this place in that moment, and felt more like a tourist than I had the entire time. The soldiers marched right past us, in uniform, completing the ceremony. We got extremely lucky by stumbling upon that event, and I was glad I got to experience it.
     After this, we were walking right into the main streets of London. It was a strange mix of modern and old buildings. There were huge shopping centers right next to old cathedrals. We went into a cathedral, and it was dead silent. Everyone was praying or admiring the features. It was a holy experience, but I felt unusually uncomfortable being in a church as a tourist.
     We finally walked into the part of London where Westminster Abbey was, and this cathedral was insane. I towered over all of the other buildings, and I imagined how difficult it would've been to create such an ornate structure. After we saw that building, we went in the gift shop, and I bought some souvenirs for my grandma, because I knew she loved Westminster Abbey.
     Right by Westminster Abbey was the London Eye. Instead of riding it, which would've taken a long time and would've been super expensive, we just admired it across the waterway. It was such a beautiful part of the city, and I could've just sat in that spot all day, but we had to keep moving if we wanted to see everything.
      We started to get hungry, so we began walking to an Chinese food restaurant, because we had heard that the oriental food in England was delicious. We stumbled upon China Town, and it was such an interesting nook of the city. There was so much culture and I admired all of the little stores and street decor.
    We ate udon noodles at a tiny, authentic restaurant. I sprinkled chili powder into the bowl to make it spicy, since it was hard to find spicy food in Europe.
     When we finally got back to the Airbnb that day, my feet were aching and covered in blisters. However, there was plenty more miles to walk.