"...take me to foggy London-town."

Ohh, London. Famous, hectic, cloudy, and really damn expensive.

That about sums it up, I suppose. The one aspect of the city that's difficult to describe, though, is its emanating electric buzz . Being surrounded by 8 million inhabitants, a continuing flow of tourists from all around the world, swift-walking businessmen, and countless sites that we've been familiar with since childhood really make the city seem alive. I don't know if I'd ever have the desire to live there (or salary), but visiting for the weekend was perfect.

I stayed on Queen Mary's campus in the dorm room of a friend from back home. He's studying abroad this semester as well, but he'd been there long enough to properly show me around the city. When I arrived early Friday morning he was still in class, so I made my way through most of Westminster by myself. For those of you who aren't familiar with London, Westminster is one of the primary scenic sections of the city. It's home to Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the River Thames ----> essentially most of London's postcards in less than one square mile. Considering the wind blew my only map into a park pond literally within ten minutes of getting off the bus, I sort of just wandered around from site to site. London's a very conducive city for that kind of traveling, though. After lunch, I met up with my friend and we went back to his place for a chilled out night of chatting and drinks with his crew.

Randomly, we had the opportunity to visit Stonehenge early Saturday morning. His university was putting on a chartered trip for MUCH less than it should have really cost, so I posed as his Indian friend and hopped on board the bus. We were lucky enough to have mostly sunshine that day, which lit up the simply awesome English countryside . I'm talking quaint little homes with thatched roofs, green fields of grazing sheep, giant horses cut into hillsides, old brick roads -----> yeah, the Shire. The only thing missing was a giant dragon firework show. Stonehenge was...well, to be quite honest it was just a bunch of really neatly placed ancient rocks. But it was certainly cool to see, especially considering it's one of the "Ancient Wonders of the World", or whatever. Afterwords, we visited a couple English towns for lunch and got to see one of the four copies of the Magna Carta in a church.

After a long nap and some interesting Indian food, we got ready to go out for a night in Central London. The place is absurd. With so many people on the street, you'd have thought it was some sort of European carnival. College students, oldies, couples, vendors, dogs, monkeys, anything goes in Central London. It's fairly comparable to New York City, I'd say, just...well, more British. Had my first experience in a gay club, which was poppin' (albeit I have a newly found respect for girls who constantly have to fend off thirty-five year-old men with mustaches on the dance floor). Ate some food off the street, met some new friends, and had the privilege of paying about $12 for a beer. We got home about 4 and capped the night off with some eggs and hookah. All in all, I'd have to say it was a great night.

I truly did plan to tour more of the city the next day...but 6 a.m. bedtimes somehow have a way of making you subconsciously indifferent to alarm clocks. I did manage to take a quick snapshot of me pushing a cart into Platform 9 3/4, though.

I'm not much of big-city kind of guy, but London was amazing. It's one of those experiences that you really just have to have yourself. Much thanks to my friend for letting me crash on his floor (can I at least have a blanket next time?) and to my new friends for showing me a good time. I think as soon as my bank account recovers from the violent assault it received from London I'll definitely try to book another trip.