Trip #6: London, England
14 Mar 2010 1 Comment
in Study Abroad, Travel Tags: cities, famous landmarks, food, markets, museums, Travel Writing
Compared to the nightlife that raced at 60 mph, London by day moved at a pace of 30 mph. But we saw so much between 11am and 3:30pm that writing it out will be just as exhausting as our race through London. To make things easier, here is a list:
Big Ben: The famous clock tower was the first English landmark I laid eyes on the night we arrived. There were green lights illuminating the face. The first thing that came to mind was Peter Pan, when Pan, Wendy, and her brothers are flying through the night sky towards Neverland and pass by the hands of the clock.
Parliament: Sitting along the Thames, it’s commanding presence was unmistakable.
The London Eye: From inside a bulb at the top of the carousal, you can see all of London. It circles so slowly that it never looks like its moving. On a flier stuck to the door of the hostel bathroom stall, I learned that it costs 17 to ride or 28 to skip the queue. I think seeing it from afar was enough and walking the streets of London was more rewarding than getting a bird’s eye view.
British Museum: If I had to describe it in one word, I would choose ‘enormous.’ The British Museum houses 8 different collections, as well as The Great Court, Reading Room, Enlightenment Gallery, Wellcome Trust Gallery, and Clore Education Centre. It would take more than a handful of visits to see everything. Our group chose to take the first self-guided tour in a map we bought. We saw the collections of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Middle East. The highlight was the Rosetta Stone.
The Globe Theatre: We only saw it from the outside. I love Shakespeare. I plan to go back in a few weeks to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The Millennium Bridge: It looked like a silvery web of spider silk, spun into a bridge for people to cross the River Thames. It’s a steel suspension bridge with two entrances that zipper into one. Once called the Wobbly Bridge, it got refurbished for 2.5 million.
London Bridge: I only saw it from far, far away, but I hope I get a closer look the next time I go.
The Borough Market: Amazing. It was my favorite part of London. There were stalls selling cheese, olive oil, sweets, meats, jams, and more. I shouldered the crowd to get a sample of everything, even Turkish deserts and baklava. If I lived in London, I would be there everyday buying my food and groceries. Out of all the markets I’ve been to, it was the best.
Clink Prison Museum: We didn’t go inside, but passed it on our way to the market. There was a skeleton inside a metal cage hanging above us in the alley we squeezed through.
St. Paul’s Cathedral: We climbed a set of stone steps and at the top the cathedral’s domed head emerged into view. It was a gigantic, white structure that didn’t look like the majority of other churches or cathedrals I have seen.
The Underground: We didn’t ride it, but we walked passed the entrances, which were few and far between.
We strolled along the Victoria Embankment, then brisk walked back down to catch the bus at 3:30pm.
~ Salma
Trip #3: Oxford, England
02 Mar 2010 3 Comments
in Study Abroad, Travel Tags: architecture, cake, Harry Potter Bingo, hats, museums, Travel Writing
After traveling to Cardiff and Amsterdam, the most important lesson I learned was to keep your travel group small. Exploring with more than 5 people is a bad idea. 4 is the ideal number. Leanne and I made friends with one of the many girls from Colorado, and the 3 of us stuck together during our day-trip in Oxford.
I. Loved. Oxford. The town of academia was shaped by Gothic buildings, cobbled streets, and small shops. What I didn’t know about the city is that it’s home to more than 5 other universities besides Oxford University. All the domed and pointy buildings had huge, intimidating doors, one university beside another and another. Entrances opened up into green or paved courtyards, roofless hallways between one wing and another.
We visited the Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology and World Archeology. We walked through two main rooms. The first was a maze of cases that held artifacts from all around the world. We were primarily interested in seeing the shrunken heads. The second room was filled with dinosaurs, exotic species, rocks and minerals, and replicas of animals, whose fur or feathers we were encouraged to feel. This room reminded us of The Great Hall, from Harry Potter, with its perimeter of pillars and high, glass ceiling, held up with crisscrosses of carved wood. The uncanny resemblance gave rise to Harry Potter Bingo, a game Chantal and I made up to add some fun and hilarity to the rest of our escapades through Europe. (We are both huge Harry Potter fans.)
Afterward, we wandered around gaping for a while, breathing in the air of intellectuals. We also took the classic tourist photo inside a British phonebooth. We found an indoor market inside the town and it was very clean and quaint. My two favorite places were a gourmet cake shop and a hat boutique. The gourmet cakes were amazing. There was one wedding cake that mimicked a snow-covered mountain, with the bride and groom in winter gear holding snowboards. They also had a giant strawberry, cupcake, and hot dog. On a smaller scale, there were palm-sized girls and boys in graduation dress, and blocks of cake coated in icing and the words “A Gift From Oxford” drizzled on them.
After visiting the handmade hats store, I am on a mission to become a hat person. Because I have big, curly hair, I had decided that hats just don’t suit me. But I have changed my mind. If I find just the right one, and I wear it often, I will get used to it and so will everyone else around me. Plus, I’ll come back home looking very European. Haha.
I was jealous of the students studying abroad at Oxford. But then I remembered that my university is on the beach, where the clouds retreat to reveal a blue sky and warm sun at least 3 times a week, and I wasn’t jealous anymore.
~ Salma
