A Weekend in London

In London!

Because I did such a terrible job keeping up with my blog while studying abroad, I’ve decided to include some reflections on my experience among my posts about this new semester.  One experience I think worth sharing is my weekend trip to London.

Though there are tons of cities I would’ve liked to visit in Europe, London was pretty high on my priority-list from the semester, since it was relatively close and my friend Lindsey, a fellow Susquehanna student, was studying for a semester in the city, at Regent’s College. Not having to pay to stay in a hostel—score!

I ended up traveling to London the weekend after Thanksgiving. This meant I spent my Thanksgiving Day traveling by myself. This was a bit sad, but since Thanksgiving Day is not at all celebrated in Northern Ireland, there weren’t  many reminders of what I was missing throughout the day. Still, I’ll always be able to say that I once had Burger King chicken nuggets by myself in an airport for Thanksgiving dinner.

Big Ben

After a short flight, I landed in an airport outside of London, called London-Luton. This airport was much bigger and much more confusing than the airport I had acclimated myself to in Belfast! Somehow this managed to surprise me, though it shouldn’t have, considering how much bigger London is.  With some help from someone who worked there, I managed to find the shuttle that took me to the train station. From there, I got an express train into London. It was sometime past 11 p.m. when I got to the station in central London where Lindsey picked me up.

The next day, we met with two other friends who were studying in England and came up to London for the weekend. While Lindsey was in class that Friday,   they took me to some of the notable tourist destinations. I saw the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. I thought Big Ben might be underwhelming, as iconic things often are. Though it may not have been as huge as I imagined, it was actually more architecturally beautiful than I expected. Westminster Abbey was gorgeous from the outside, and I regret not going in.  We also walked around the National Art Gallery. I’m a big lover of museums,especially free ones, so that was very nice.

Westminster Abbey

After Lindsey met up with us, we got lunch and went shopping. I bought a pair of leather gloves at the Primark that came in handy for braving the cold the rest of the semester. Later that evening, there was a stressful miscommunication about where we were supposed to meet up with friends, but thankfully (after much worrying, on both sides, about where the others were) we found each other. We ended up trying to calm down over a McDonald’s dinner together before going out for a fun night of dancing.

The day after, we went to the British Library. This was probably one of the best places I visited all semester. It had  many old documents on display, such as old, illumined Bibles, important literary texts, handwritten lyrics of the Beatles, etc.  Not all of these items were British, either. They had plenty of things from all over the world. I probably could’ve stayed there for hours.

After the British library, we stopped at the nearby King’s Cross train station—yes, the King’s Cross station featured in the Harry Potter series! I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture at Platform 9 and ¾. The station was much more modern than what’s depicted in the Harry Potter movies. The Platform 9 and ¾ tourist attraction—a sign that read “Platform 9 and ¾” slapped on a brick wall, with half of a metal cart attached to it (as if to look like the other half had made it through the barrier)—was certainly not the coolest sight I saw, especially since it wasn’t even among the actual train platforms. However, since it may have been my only London experience ever, I needed to get a photo! My friend and I waited in a long line of other tourists to have our pictures taken  there.

That night, we went out to a pub for dinner. We took a long time wandering around looking for a place to eat that was good and not completely crowded before we found it. It was worth the wait. It was probably the best meal I had all semester! I had glazed chicken, chips (what we’d call fries), and Rekorderlig Wild Berry Cider. Everything was delicious.

We couldn’t stay out too late that night since I had a plane to catch the next morning. Lindsey and I had to get up ridiculously early to get me to the train station that would take me to the London-Luton airport. Unfortunately, because of an inaccurate bus schedule, I ended up at the station later than I had intended. This led to my first experience of running through an airport in fear of missing my flight. This was made all the worse by temporarily losing my boarding pass when I went through security. Thankfully, someone who worked there had it and returned it, I rushed to my gate, and had a few minutes to spare before boarding the plane.

All in all, traveling to London wasn’t entirely stress-free. I think traveling, especially when some of  it is done alone, can be tiresome. I was relieved to return to my flat in Coleraine, a place that may not have been my home but sure gave a homey feeling after a weekend in London. I’m so glad that I had visited London, and it was worth all the stress. Still, something about that massive, bustling English city made me happy to be just where I was—the calm town of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, surrounded by beautiful Irish countryside.