Travelling can be one of the most gratifying forms of introspection.

After having gone to London for the first time, I went back to Spain to continue studying my degree. I felt like I had been left wanting more and I decided to go back next year and this was the start of several short trips feeling like I had Europe in the palm of my hand, as the plane journeys from Spain to London, specifically Alicante to London Stansted, are not only cheap but they also take no longer than 2 hours.

This is how I went the following summer and I visited London in a free way as a "solo traveller" and it had been one of the best experiences I've had on a personal level.

I went without knowing where I was going to stay but this was the best thing, I had quite a few contacts there and I made use of them. I spent the first night in a friends house and then I found a room in the house of some girls, sharing the room with a girl from Barcelona who worked through the night, which I didn't mind. With everything ready to go and live with them, just as I was arriving at the house the girl sent me a message saying that the room wasn't available anymore and I felt a bit panicked; but I pulled myself together because I understood that I should do things a different way. I then went to a restaurant in Elephant and Castle to eat ceviche which I really like and I met a girl from Colombia, who helped me to find several places where I could stay. As I didn't have any rush nor any stress, I took it with philosophy and I felt super free. Finally I found a place that was in Zone 2, very close-by to the underground and that was also within my budget.

During this trip, I started to go out more than last time and with my English a bit more put together, thanks to the classes I took in a school in Oxford Street the summer before, I could develop a lot more and feel safe.

I firstly visited the Houses of Parliament.

I had time to see everything more peacefully and from a different perspective, I even discovered that the place that I took a photo of from above was the St Thomas Hospital, which I had once read about in a book about neurosurgery.

This time, I also had the opportunity to visit other sites such as Regents Park, and here I came across Little Venice where they do trips in little boats along the Grand Union Canal. In addition to this, there are some nice trails that you can walk along and enjoy yourself away from the unrest of the city.

During the course of the days I tried to make an itinerary to keep visiting other places that I still hadn't been to, and at the same time, search for another school to keep perfecting my grip on the language. This time, I found one in Whitechapel and I loved that it wasn't too central like the other one, as this way I was able to explore another area of the city as well as the people who lived in this area, as well as the underground combination. Last time, I got the Oyster Card just to use on the bus, but now I used it for the metro too, the difference in price was 10 pounds. I wasn't interested in the slightest anymore about going to the upper part of the bus to get to know the city centre. I now preferred the agility and quickness of the metro and honestly I discovered a different side of London underground.

One of the places on my list was Hyde Park Corner, an immense park located in the centre of London, quite accessible and full of different activities, both to see and do.

Huge areas filled with grass where the main features of this pretty parks, as well as cycling routes, spaces to have picnics that is actually something quite fashionable in London, the people eat practically anywhere.

Leaving the park, I came across the magnificent Wellington Arch and I wasn't going to miss out on the opportunity to have a photo taken with this incredible work which is a combination of unique scupltures and architecture.

Another one of the places that I visited, and that caught my attention due to the fragment of the Berlin mural that it had in the entrance, was the Imperial War Museum, it was only a bit away from where I was staying so it was a stop on the journey and a discovery.

On my quest to learn and keep on discovering more places, I decided to go to the London Natural History Museum, but I gave up because there was a really long queue that I really couldn't be bothered to go. It was said to be approximately an hours wait to be able to enter, and it was raining too, but I'll keep this moment as a souvenir.

There is so much to keep writing about this trip and I think that one of the things that I can't miss out on speaking about is one of the number one attractions in London, I'm talking about the London Eye.

I took this photo from the Waterloo Bridge. In the night you can appreciate the lights and it is really pretty. I never felt the need to go on it, and to be honest I had lots of chances to but I didn't find the motivation, because there were lots of other places in London from which you can contemplate incredible views of the city.

North Greenwich Arena -The Dome -O2 Arena

Another one of the places that I had the chance to get to know during this stay in London was the North Greenwich Arena, or The Dome during the Olympic Games. To get to it, I had to take the underground on the blue Victoria line from Oxford Circus station and then change at Stratford to get the grey Jubilee line towards North Greenwich station, just after Canary Wharf.

We took the cable car that was created in 2012 for the Olympic Games which took place that year. I was lucky that it wasn't raining on this day, like is usual in London, even in summer, and I enjoyed a beautifully sunny day. This space was sponsored by the airline Arab Emirates and was on the Thames riverbank. It cost us four euros to cross from one side to the other using the Oyster Card, which is the card that you use to travel on the underground and bus network in London. Without the card, it would have cost us 5.50 euros.

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