The Past Three Days Have Been Crazy

Just when I thought the weekend was here and I could have a chance to relax, I was hit by a jam-packed weekend. This weekend we went on three day-trips as a group: one to Hampton Court, one to Bath, and one to Gad’s Hill. It has been a crazy three days, full of walking and sunburns, but it has been a wonderful weekend.

Friday, 25 May 2012

In front of Hampton Court

On Friday, we went to Hampton Court, the palace of King Henry VIII. The place was gorgeous and huge! I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that people actually lived there. But once I got that fact straight, it was very neat to put history in a physical context. It’s weird to think that I have walked the same halls that King Henry and his six wives walked. We spent a few hours walking around the palace and then had a picnic in the gardens. It was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by gorgeous landscapes – the picnic is probably my favorite thing that we’ve done so far. After the picnic, we walked around the garden for a little bit before trying our hand at the hedge maze. The maze on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace is the oldest hedge maze in England – it has existed for over 300 years. After spending all day surrounded by gorgeous history, we hopped a train back to London and spent the evening unwinding at a pub.

Saturday, 26 May 2012

English Countryside

Roman Baths

Saturday was an exhausting, but beautiful day in Bath. We started off our day at the Roman baths. It’s so easy to forget that England was once part of the Roman Empire, but being surrounded by the ruins of the bathhouses, I could just see the Romans walking around, leisurely enjoying their spa days. After exploring the baths, we took a lunch break, and once again, we were able to picnic surrounded by beautiful nature. After our picnic, we wandered through the town and ended up at the Crescent. In the 1800s, the Crescent was THE place live – the most fashionable people lived there; if you had a Crescent address, you were cool. Following our jaunt to the Crescent, a few of us decided to climb to a tower which is said to have fabulous views of the entire city. We were told that it was about a fifteen-minute walk. But after a fifteen-minute walk up a hill, we stopped a church that we though was the tower. Come to find out, it was not; the tower was still a half hour walk up the hill! We decided the view would be worth it, so we continued on, but ended up stopping at a pub at the top of the hill. However, the pub had a grassy area in the back from which we could see great, sweeping views of the English countryside. The view was well worth the hike!

 

Sunday, 27 May 2012

Gad's Hill - Dickens' house

Sunday was an interesting day. We went to Gad’s Hill, which is where Charles Dickens lived for the last ten years of his life. However, in his will Dickens stated that he though that his books were enough of a memorial to his memory, and as such, he wanted his house to be sold, rather than being preserved as a museum. In accordance with his wish, the house was sold. It has changed hands several times and today, it houses a private school. However, the school is in the process of moving out of Gad’s Hill so that the house can be converted into a Dickens museum. Because of this, the tour itself was kind of strange – we had to look past the modernization in order to see what life there might have been like. Despite this, I think going to Gad’s Hill was something that I’ll remember, especially as I read Dickens’ books.

Other Thoughts:

Today, the group started booking our side trips. In the upcoming weeks, I will be visiting Paris, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Germany (we’re not firmed up on the exact cities yet). I’m really excited about this great opportunity to visit some of the major cities in Europe.

Also, it’s been really hot here lately. Evidently, or so the locals have told me, London is having a heat wave. Normally, around this time of the year, it’s supposed to be in the mid-60s or so. Yet, for the past several days, it has gotten up in the high-70s to low-80s everyday. I thought by coming to England, I’d be escaping the stifling heat of the American South, but to no avail. Hopefully, the weather will return to normal sometime next week. Either that, or I’m going to need to go shopping, because I did not bring enough of the right type of clothes!

Mind the Gap!

Whew! What a whirlwind of a few days it has been. This is my fourth full day in London, but I’ve barely had a moment to breathe since I left America. Now that the weekend’s here, I can finally sit down for a moment and start the blog I’ve been meaning to start for the past week.

First of all, let’s start with the basics:

• I’m going to school at Regent’s College London, which is in Regent’s Park.
• I’m taking two classes while I’m here. The first one is a Dickens course and the other is a class about spy novels. I’ve only had one week of class, so I can’t really pass judgment, but I think the classes are going to be good.

And now on to the fun stuff, my adventures in London. In the past week alone, I’ve done and seen so many things that I don’t think everything could fit in a single post. That being said, I’ll touch on the things that I’ve enjoyed the most, and hopefully in the future, I can keep up with my adventures in real time.

Saturday, 19 May 2012 - The Flight

From the moment on got on my plane, I knew that Britain was going to be different from America. Despite the flight leaving at 9:20 at night, we were fed dinner. I don’t know if it’s because I was in what I’ve been calling “economy plus” or if it is just how British Airways operates, but the food was actually pretty decent. I was surprised - I didn’t know there was such a thing as good airplane food. But the thing that really surprised me was the fact that the flight attendants were serving wine with dinner. It was such a different experience – definitely not something you’d see on an American flight. After dinner, I tried to some sleep since it was a night flight. Surprisingly, I was able to get a few hours of sleep before we were served breakfast and landed.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

We finally landed at Heathrow about 10:25 in the morning. A good majority of my fellow Auburn students as well as the two professors who are chaperoning/accompanying us were on my flight. However, a few other students were on different flights, and that’s where things got complicated. We had a hard time finding everyone in the airport because Heathrow is huge and none of us had cell phones to call each other with. Somehow, we all ended up on the Heathrow Express together, and everything was sorted out. From Heathrow, we took the train to Paddington Station (as in Paddington the Bear) where we caught the tube to take us to Baker Street – the tube stop nearest our college. Once at the college, we were able to drop off our stuff and go to an orientation for what to expect Regent’s. After that, the entire group walked to Carphone Warehouse so we could get cheap British phones in order to stay in touch with each other. By then, it was later in the evening, so we all headed back to the college, ate, and promptly went to bed because we were all exhausted.

Mind the Gap!

Monday, 21 May 2012

Despite having been in London less than twenty-four hours, classes started on Monday. However, my class on Mondays and Wednesdays isn’t until 2:00 in the afternoon, I was able to go out and do some shopping. A few friends and I went to Primark, which is kind of like the British equivalent of Target, to get some things to make our stay a little more comfortable. Navigating the tube system, finding the store, shopping, and making it back took up the good majority of our morning, so we grabbed a quick lunch at the Refectory (the school’s dining hall) before heading to class. I had my espionage/spy class, which seems like it is going to be very interesting.

Piccadilly Circus

After class, which ends at 5:30, my friends and I decided to go out and explore the city some more. Piccadilly Circus is a big area for tourists, so we headed down there first. The area has a lot of shopping, but I have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed. Basically, it’s the British version of Times Square, but it’s not even a quarter as big. Despite that, I still took a lot of pictures.

King's Cross

While we were there, one of my friends asked where King’s Cross is. I pulled out my map of London and my tube map and we were able to locate it, so we headed there. Once there, being Harry Potter nerds, we made a beeline straight for Platform 9¾. Unfortunately, it isn’t between platforms 9 and 10 because you need a ticket to get onto the platforms, but the station has a sign that says Platform 9¾ and it has a pushcart coming out of the wall. Needless to say, we took several pictures.

Pub Fare

By that time, we were kind of hungry, so we decided to walk around until we found a good place to eat at. We didn’t even walk a block from the station before we found an Irish pub. It being my first pub experience, I ordered the traditional fare: fish and chips and a pint of Guinness. It was great!

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

On Tuesdays and Thursday, I have my Dickens class, which is from 9:30-1:00. After class, I led some friends back to Primark (I was designated navigator because I understand the tube system) which was good because I wanted to get some pictures of the Marble Arch, which I didn’t get on Monday because I forgot my camera.

Trafalgar Square

We then decided to go the National Gallery, which has a lot of paintings. We spent a while in there before going outside to walk around Trafalgar Square. In general, we don’t really like being obviously Americans/tourists, but the place was too cool to resist. I broke out the camera I my group and I climbed up onto the base of the obelisk in the middle of the square. We also climbed up on the brass lions because we really wanted pictures on top of them. It was hard to get up there, but with a boost from a kind stranger, we made it and got our picture op.

Big Ben

After Trafalgar, we just decided to walk and see what we could see. The way we went ended up leading us to the Parliament building and Westminster. I didn’t realize that so many of those landmarks were all there right together, so it was really cool to see them all in person. I probably took close to 100 pictures in that area alone because it was such a sensory overload. Big Ben is probably my favorite thing to photograph. The clock is stunning.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Regent's Park

On Wednesday, I got up early so I could walk through Regent’s Park before class. The park is absolutely gorgeous and the flowers aren’t even in bloom yet – I can’t wait for when things start blooming. The last stop in the park was an avenue that was the location for a scene from The King’s Speech, which is one of my favorite movies, so I walked down the avenue taking pictures like a crazy person – it probably doesn’t hurt that it was stunningly gorgeous.

After the park, my friends and I went to Waterstone’s, a six-story bookstore near the University of London, to pick up some books for class. With our purchases in hand, we had just enough time to catch the tube, grab some lunch, and make it to class on time.

That evening, the whole group from Auburn met at a pub we found just off of Piccadilly Circus so we could talk about plans we wanted to make as a group, including side trips to Ireland and Paris. It was a great evening of talking and eating with friends.

After dinner, a small group of us walked down to the Thames so we could get pictures of Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye all lit up. Words cannot explain how breathtaking the view is – I couldn’t stop taking pictures. By the time we finished, it was past eleven and the tube closes at midnight, so we hoped on the Bakerloo line to get us back to the college.

Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye at night.

This has been a really long post, but so much has happened in the past three days. London is an exciting city with thousands upon thousands of things to do. Everyday, my friends and I go out and walk around the city for miles, yet we haven’t even scratched the surface of what this city holds. I’m excited for the next five weeks I have here.