Traveling home
The day was long, and everyone was exhausted.
Bouncing from the quick pace of Pairs to the peaceful countryside of Normandy to the bustling London is very stark in contrast. London is built like New York City; however, you can see the remnants of Old London almost everywhere you look. Walking down the streets of the Swiss Centre in Western London, I felt as if I were in Times Square. People rushed all around me as I stood in the center and just stared.
The culture and art on this one block were vibrant. There was an old tea factory to my left with a giant Lego store next door. To my right were three different theaters showing three different shows. The block also led into the start of Chinatown.
I was overwhelmed by the difference of this life and that of people in Pairs. It is a cultural difference you can try to describe but cannot fully understand until you are standing in the center of it all.
After exploring a few different stores along the strip, my group decided to head back to our hotel for the night. We did not want to leave this bustling night crowd, but our phones were about to die, and our fatigue from traveling had caught up to us.
Walking back through the city, it was hard not to stop and peek into storefront windows. We found ourselves stopping every few minutes as our 30-minute walk back turned into almost an hour. Making a few wrong turns (some on purpose, some by human fault), we eventually found ourselves standing in the middle of the Thames River Bridge overlooking the western city skyline. It was magnificent to look at. Old church steeples peeped out from behind the newer building towers, and the faded white brick texture of the structures reflected clearly in the murky waters. If London had not been remarkable to me before, it had certainly won my heart at this moment.
Our first night only gave me a few hours immersed within this new culture and landscape. As my tiredness from our full day of traveling dragged me back to our hotel, I also felt an immense eagerness for the fact that we would get the chance to go back into the city and explore some more of its uniqueness during the next two days.
The evening was just a glimpse at this beautiful and busy city. I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to have this new experience.