Just a few days ago, I was in the United Kingdom. Apart from London Heathrow Airport, I had never been there before. In fact, I wasn’t even planning on visiting the UK during my trip to Europe. However, a ticket to London half the price as one to Paris made me change plans to start my journey in Great Britain.

London

Being the first stop on my journey, it was exciting to finally be in Europe. Right from the station where I got in, I got on the Underground and headed for my hostel. After five minutes, though, I realized traveling in dark tunnels below the city streets is not the way to see London, so I got off the Underground and walked across town, seeing Westminster Abbey and Big Ben on the way.

After getting a solid night of sleep at the hostel, I took off in the morning to a place called Covent Garden thinking I could get some good photos of flowers, etc. Once I got there, though, I found out that Covent Garden isn’t actually a garden but a huge market full of shopping, food, and street performers. I ended up staying all day watching the funny street acts that were put on.  Going to Covent Gardens without even knowing what it was was one of the best choices I made in London.

Besides my fun time in Covent Garden, London was a little bit different from the friendly Boulder I’m used to.  I felt that my interactions with locals weren’t ever very personal.  Overall, I got the vibe that Londoners are a bit stand-offish.  A typical ride on the Underground backs that up.  Nearly everyone sits down, avoids eye contact with others, and stays in their own little world behind the day’s newspaper.

Manchester

After two days in London, I headed up to Manchester to visit a friend.  A bit out of the usual traveler’s path, I felt Manchester had a much friendlier atmosphere.  People were less robotic and easier to approach.  As far as the city itself goes, I loved it.  I got to see a great art gallery and an extremely old (with books from the 1600s), off-the-beaten-path library where Karl Marx studied and may have written the Communist Manifesto.  Manchester’s buildings were old and beautiful, and the city had a warmer feel with tiny pubs in every nook.  It was much calmer than the country’s capital, and the people were great.

Despite the sometimes cold feel, my time in the UK was awesome.  Being a small-town guy, what I thought about the people in London is probably common to any large, busy city.  With that aside, it was very easy to get around, (even going ~200 miles to Manchester), the places I saw were beautiful, I always had something to do, and I got to take a ton of photos (which should be up soon!).  Thanks, United Kingdom, I had a great stay.