"I'll be back!"

Well today was my last day in London and my European travels. I spent most of the day at Regent Park, after a disappointing visit to Platform 9 3/4. I felt quite stupid asking where it was but the lovely tube attendant pointed (without looking) at a cart sticking out of the wall that had a measly "Platform 9 3/4" plaque above it.

We've done and seen so much in the past week, and month, that it was nice to spend my last day relaxing, reading, and people watching in the park. I was lucky enough to observe a cricket game going on as well but as Scot (hostel staffer) said, "any sport that takes a break for tea is a shit sport." I have to agree with him.

In just six days I've visited the Chelsea FC stadium, Westminster Abby, Sherlock Holmes Museum, the new Olympic Park, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, walked across Abby Road, almost ran into (literally) Paul McCartney's girlfriend/fiancee/wife, marveled at Big Ben and the Parliament building, biked around Hyde Park, mastered the London Tube, experienced 50 degrees and 90 degrees, and had my mind blown by the Harry Potter studio. Seriously Harry Potter studios was a dream come true. It has been a successful week.

One of the highlights of London was staying in the Phoenix Hostel. Hostel life took some adjusting to at first, but once I gave up on ever getting a solid night of sleep I loved it. Its a chill pub by night and lounge by day. They played movies at night and you could either choose to be social, meet cool people from all around staying there or do your own thing. I've met some really interesting people, mainly Australians. And honestly I never get tired of listening to different accents. Plus the owner gives me free beers a lot. Good place.

I've loved almost every minute of this month long adventure. I saw so many things that were on my Bucket List that I still can't fully believe it. Its gone by in a blur and I'm not entirely sure it even happened. Even though it was only for a small amount of time I really enjoyed seeing the wonderful cities of Thessolaniki, Athens, Meteroa, Phillipi, Delphi, Rome, Florence, Paris, and London. It feels surreal that tomorrow night I will be back in the United States but I can honestly say I'm ready to come home, see some familiar faces, sleep in my own bed, shower, you know that sorta stuff. But I've come to really love Europe. So to help me sort out what I'll miss and what I'm looking forward to I made a little list. Mainly because I'm weird like that. And I had to separate it by major city because it felt weird to group them all together.

What I Will Miss About London:
- Strongbow
- British accents
- Australian accents
- the cool old apartment buildings. Well all the buildings for that matter. I've yet to see an ugly one
- Notting Hill market
- Strongbow. I know I already said this one but I really will miss it

What I Will Miss About Paris:
- the Eiffel Tower
- the Louvre building and that amazing park area in general
- the champagne
- the bread
- the pastries

What I Will Miss About Italy:
- GELATO
- the wine
- the pasta
- the beautiful piazzos that are freaking everywhere
- ancient architecture on every corner

What I Will Miss About Greece
- feta cheese
- real Greek salads
- the Greek Islands
- GELATO
- Retsina & coke

What I Am Looking Forward To (other than friends, family, obligatory things etc)
- actually feeling clean after I shower
- sleeping in a room all to myself
- air conditioning
- cheap food
- vegetables (I haven't seen one in weeks and I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kinda sick of bread based foods. Mind blown? Yeah so was mine.)
- tv shows. Specifically New Girl. But also Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Grey's Anatomy, etc, you get my point
- being in the same time zone as everyone. The time difference was inconvenient and now is just plain annoying
- hanging out with family and friends. I really do miss everyone.