Yesterday I woke up pretty early, ate breakfast at the hostel, and tried to find my way towards the Tower Bridge.  On the way I stopped at St Paul’s Cathedral which is absolutely gorgeous from the outside, but left after finding out they wanted £18 to walk around inside of the cathedral and went in search of the iconic bridge.

Only problem was that I thought it was called the London Bridge, so I found myself at a mediocre bridge half a mile downstream from the iconic bridge I was looking for.  I walked in the general direction of the bridge for a little while and ended up at the correct bridge and walked across in true tourist fashion.

After Tower Bridge I intended to go to the Tower of London, but decided not to go after seeing that discounted student admission was a steep £22.  Instead, I took the Underground to South Kensington and went to the Natural Science Museum for free.  I was there for about an hour and a half before I made my way to Hyde Park and Kensington Palace.

It then began to rain so I took the Underground back to the hostel and had my first ever Nando’s experience with two of my roommates Dan, a Scottish screenwriter, and Marcus, a German PhD student.  We then went to a few pubs and talked about cultural differences and politics in the US and their respective countries which was interesting.  It was a good time.

Today, I went to Camden with another one of my roommates, Maddie.  We wandered around the markets for quite some time and got some tasty inexpensive food.  I tried fish and chips for the first time and it was a positive experience.

Afterwards, we took the Underground to the Borough Markets and got some super tasty donuts.  We then walked to the Tate Modern and saw a lot of really cool art, but what interested me even more was the view from the top level.  Maddie and I had a really good time together and I look forward to the next time we will be able to hang out and go on adventures together the next time our paths cross.

After the Tate, we took the Underground back to the hostel, I took a nap, and then got South Indian food for dinner with a new roommate who is from Holland and gave me a lot of good recommendations for not only where to go in Holland but also just general world travel places.  Today was a good day.