“Look at that McDonald’s!”

Today, we landed at London Heathrow airport at around 12:30 pm after a nine-hour flight and we wasted little time before we began exploring the historic city. Driving into the city, we were treated to quintessential English architecture including an interesting multi-story brick McDonald’s.

Our stops for our first day were the tourist geared Piccadilly Circus and Leichter Square which bleed into each other. To get there, we took the tube (don’t worry I made sure to “Mind the Gap”). Though it has been over a decade since I was last in New York City, between my own scattered memories, television, and stories, I can say with certainty: the Tube is easier to navigate than the subway. At every stop, a voice clearly articulated the stop’s name and if there were any lines you could transfer to at that stop. It definitely helped that for our introduction to the Tube we did not have to change lines. Russell Square and Piccadilly Circus are both on the Piccadilly line with only three stops in between them. A unique aspect to the Russell Square station is that you get on an elevator to go underground. Getting on the elevator was a bit like being herded cattle and every bit the hurray to get on the actual Tube.

After I got off the Tube, I felt as if my body was still being pulled to the side, the ground moving beneath my feet. Thankfully, the escalator out of the Piccadilly Circus station was nowhere near as steep as the nearly vertical one I took out of the subway in Washington DC.

Piccadilly Circus is only to London as Times Square is to New York City in the sense that it caters to the masses of tourists that visit the city. The buildings do not tower into the skyline and there are not digital screens plastered everywhere you look. There is however, plenty of American fast food staples to enjoy, including a pizza hut with a by the slice option, another nontraditional McDonald’s, and a M&M world to explore. While some of the group checked out the M&M store, a major city tourist staple, I went with a group to try coffee from the juggernaut chain Pret a Manger whose proximity to their own stores can give Starbucks a run for their money. Every store front seemed to be either a restaurant or a souvenir shop with a theatres and even a casino sprinkled in for good measure.

In Leichter Square, there is a small park outlined with statues of classic characters from Bugs Bunny to Mary Poppins, who I got my picture with. In the middle of the grassy clearing, stands tall a statue of the bard himself, William Shakespeare; somehow, someone had placed a fresh flower in his stone hand despite a moat surrounding him on his at least six-foot pedestal.

For dinner, a group of us wandered around China Town which is right next to Piccadilly Circus. Lanterns hang between all the buildings and there are couple intricate gates that mark the small food district. One person in our group remarked that there were more restaurants than people in the area. We ended up grabbing food from a small bakery. I had a flakey pastry filled with pork that pleasantly surprised me. Bonus: it was only £2.50!

Instead of taking the Tube back to the hotel, a group of us walked the twenty-five minute walk back to our hotel. It was fun to navigate the slightly twisting roads of London on foot. We stumbled upon an alleyway of shops and walked slightly aimlessly despite the GPS guiding us. It was nice to stretch my legs after being stuck in the small plane seat just hours earlier. To finish off my first day, I went on my first Tesco’s trip to buy water.

I cannot wait to explore more of London both on foot and by way of the Tube.