London by Nikko
It took me 23 years, but I finally had the opportunity to leave the United States. I have to say, London was a really great start to our travels. We left the Dulles Airport at 10:30PM and arrived at the Heathrow airport at about 10:00AM. As soon as we got to Heathrow, we set off for London since we knew we would only have a limited amount of time there and didn’t want to miss our flight to Uganda. Unfortunately, Dr. Bohan opted out of the trip to London since she had knee surgery three weeks ago and we were going to do a lot of walking. So, my classmates and I boarded the Heathrow express to London and were on our way.
We were left off at Paddington station and started walking to Hyde Park to go to Big Ben, when we started seeing people wearing jackets from all different countries including the United States! We chanted USA briefly and quietly to ourselves. As we walked further we saw that people were running along blocked off streets and came to an area of vendors and thousands of people who had participated in this event. We had just so happened to be in London the day of the Pruhealth World Triathlon Grand Final London. Talk about a surprise. People had traveled from all around the world for this event. Some of the countries we saw were the US, Japan, the UK, Germany, Austria, and Ireland.
Even though it was cool to see the triathlon, it was also a big obstacle because we couldn’t figure a way out of the park due to all the street blocks. Eventually we made it out and saw the Buckingham palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye. To get a better view of the London Eye we found this boat/ restaurant to take a picture on. And, since we all are Harry Potter fans, we went to King’s Cross to see Platform 9 & ¾ which was quite exciting.
We ate lunch at a pub across the street from Big Ben called St. Stephen’s Tavern and we all ate fish and chips. While eating, some people were seated next to us and saw that I was wearing a Penn State shirt and he just happened to be a Penn State alumni – small world. Needless to say we immediately bonded with him, his wife and friend and they took a picture of us to send to their daughter who is also a Penn State alumni.
Needless to say, London was absolutely amazing to see despite the fact we walked about 8 miles. I loved the buildings, people, and the sites. Now it’s time for Uganda where we will be working at Mulago hospital and working with Benjamin at the cancer center.