4am wake up time, 5am drive to the airport, 6:30am flight with arrival in London Luton at 9 in the morning. That was just the beginning.

Jo and Hamish were our hosts for the five days we spent in England. Jo is Karolina’s high school friend and if it wasn’t for Jo and her other half Hamish, we probably wouldn’t see England for quite some time. Thank you again for your hospitality and a great trip.

Shortly after landing and a quick snack it was time to hop on the train to London. Oddly enough the very first English person I saw on the street was…Polish. There are some 600,000 Polish immigrants in England and it’s not difficult at all to bump into them on the street. While an immigrant in Los Angeles I never really ran into Polish people and when I did I always said hello and cracked a smile. In England, it’s a different feeling entirely. You see them but just go on with your business, no point to even say hello and looking like a weirdo.

The 20 minute train ride took us from Watford to London Euston where we went down under to take “the tube”. I’m a big public transportation fan and London’s subway system seems like a great way to get pretty much anywhere you need to go. Except it’s so freakin’ confusing to navigate, after taking a couple of trains I had no idea where I was, where I needed to go, and how to even exit the system. Thankfully Jo knew the way and guided us around from one subway train to another.

London is huge. It’s also busy, very fast, a little loud, and very beautiful. It reminded me of New York but with much nicer architecture, and you know, an actual Queen as opposed to Queens Borough in New York. From Picadilly Street to Buckingham Palace and back towards the Big Ben and the Tower Bridge, we walked for miles in what seemed like the most beautiful spring day in England.

I will try to do smaller posts about our England trip to break things up a little with photos and some facts on the places we’ve visited. Here are a few pictures taken by both Karolina and myself.