London Calling

I was living off of coffee and adrenaline.
After catching a night train from Wittenberg back to our AirBnB in Berlin, where we caught a few hours of sleep and packed, me and two of my friends boarded a midnight plane to London.

England. As much as I adore Paris, England has always been the ultimate dream. I had tried to study in Oxford, but funds and family circumstances had prevented that. Flying into London was an answer to many prayers. It was the grace of God, and I will be forever thankful for those few days.

London smells like old books, just like I thougt it would. Like musuems and art and the longest monarchy in history. London is a steampunk novel to Paris's romantic drama. We spent the first night exploring the British Musuem until it closed two hours later. Lauren and Cassie

had run up three flights of stairs with me because I was keen on seeing a exhibition about printing. To my chargin, there was no printing press. After that, we wondered among the Egyption exhibition, getting lost in the glass cases full of mummies and long-lost jewels.

Our hotel was..less than ideal.
It was possibly the most awful hotel in London, actually. There was no wifi, the window was broken, and the entire building looked like it could fall over at any moment. We had rushedly booked it after realizing that the YWAM was going to take almost an hour on public transportation. We stayed away from our rooms for as long as possible.

That still didn't dimish my happiness at being in London. LONDON! Where publsihing flourished and bookstores were a dime a dozen. I researched a few bookstores to visit while we were there.
Daunt Books is travel bookstore, where sections are divided not by genre but by location (dauntbooks.co.uk/about-us/). They have several locations, but the orginial one at Marylebone High Street is, supposedly, one of the most beautiful bookstores in London. I agree, it is stunning!

I also did a little research on the London Review bookshop, which was a short walk from our sketchy hotel in the Bloomsbury district (which is famous for its publishing and for Virginia Wolf!). The London Review bookshop was opened by the London Review of books, "Europe's leading magazine of books and ideas" (lrb.co.uk/about).

The London Review was my favorite, maybe because we went there multiple times. I could have browsed there qauint stacks of books for hours.

Actually, I did browese for hours. Thankfully, my friends are big admirers of bookshops as well.

The London Review bookstore also had a tiny cafe that we sat and sipped coffee at while I read my new copy of Harry Potter (does that count as a source?).

It was a booklover's dream trip, made even better by my two friends who I adore with my entire heart.

Traveling is fun, but it's always better to have someone to share in the adventure. Sam and Frodo, Lucy and Mr. Tumnus, and Harry and Ron would all agree, I think.