London
I have been to London. I went June 2017. People asked me how I could go when there were a bunch of terror attacks right before I left. Manchester happened a few months before I left. It made me think if I really wanted to go. It was the trip of a lifetime and I wasn't going to let being afraid stop me. London has been the city of my dreams since I was little. It always seemed like a dream to me and it was my dream to go to my dream city (it still feels like a dream to be completely honest. I sometimes question if it was all a dream or if I was really there). The Grenfell tower fire happened the day I arrived in London. None of this was going to stop me from enjoying my trip. My mom and I planned everything out, right down to what we would do if we got caught in one of the terror attacks. Nothing happened while we were there, aside from protests which were a pain in the butt because we had to find different routes to get places usually back to our hotel (the police were very helpful). We could see some protests in Hyde Park from our hotel window and we saw one by the Churchill War Rooms which was like a block away from 10 Downing Street. We took the Tube everywhere. It became so natural to hear the British voice saying "Next stop.....Mind the gap". It was so easy for me to navigate, which was weird because I can't find anything here in the US but I found everything in London.
The last terror attack was shocking. It was kind of weird this time as well. It happened somewhere where I had been and where I have good memories. The Tube gets crowded at rush hour. Like really crowded. It feels like sardines in a can. If you are lucky, you can find something to hold onto at rush hour. If you are really lucky, you find a seat (word of advice, don't crowd the same car as everyone else because even at rush hour, you can find cars that are less full at the front or the back). Even at rush hour, the Tube is crowded. Not as crowded but still. Everyone takes the Tube everywhere. There is no getting around it if you go to London. You have to take the Tube if you want to go anywhere in London and can't walk there (forget driving. It's worse than The Fast and the Furious. Seriously it is).
The bomb went off around 8:30 AM at Parsons Green on the District line (green line). This is a line I got to know well since it literally runs diagonally across the city and stops really close to the hotel I was staying at. It can take you from Baker Street all the way to Earl's Court. It is a weird feeling. Knowing exactly where they are talking about and being able to see it in your mind without the pictures flashing on the television. Every time I see something happen in London, it hurts. It makes me sad to think this city that I love is being hit so hard. But at the same time, it shows just how a city can come together for the common good and stand up for what it believes in. Anytime something bad happens, the city rises up and takes each challenge as it comes. That is one of the best things about London.
I will never get over the beauty of that city and I don't think I will ever stop going "I've been there!" when I see London in movies and TV shows or even on the news. I don't it will get any easier seeing places I've been and seen and love show up as the scenes of a terror attack but I know London will come back from it and continue to be even more beautiful than anyone could ever imagine.
Yes those are my own pictures at the top. The flag was outside Buckingham Palace during the Queen's Jubilee (I saw it during the Changing of the Guard). The second picture is Parliament as seen from the London Eye. The final picture is a copy of a picture that I found and drew my senior year in high school. It is a telephone booth (which most of them have been converted into wifi hotspots or charging stations. They know tourists want to see them but have kept them up to date. The British are pretty smart) with Big Ben (which is under construction) in the background.
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