March 28-31, 2008
After my trip to Valencia during Semana Santa I was really missing my family so going to England to visit my second family was really exciting! My second family in England are the Conrows. After meeting my best friend, Josh, in high school and dating for several years I have become very close to his family, especially his sister, Chaska. Josh and I visited Chaska a few years ago in Madrid because she was working here teaching English. That definitely was a dream come true. I had been wanting to go to Spain since high school and visiting Madrid made me want to study abroad even more.
Since I arrived in an airport outside of London and far away from Bury St. Edmunds, where they are living, I had to take a train into London at Victoria Station and then a bus to Cambridge. I really enjoyed taking the train because I was able to see more of the neighborhoods outside of London and I also loved the bus ride because it was like a free tour of London. Even though I had been to London before it was good to see the city another time. While I arrived in Cambridge, Chaska was there waiting for me. We decided to spend the day checking out Cambridge.
Of course, when I arrived in Cambridge it was raining, but we still had a great time. I am really really happy I got to see this city, because it was so old and definitely a student city. One of the things that was quite the sight to see was King’s College. It is amazing how old the college is and the King’s College Chapel was huge. As we walked around the city we also got to see several of the other colleges of Cambridge. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go to school at such a historical school as Cambridge.
Chaska also took me to a local pub called The Eagle, Cambridge’s oldest pub. It is said that Watson and Crick announced their discovery of DNA in this bar. It is also said that the British and American WWII pilots burned their initials into the ceiling. This is also where I had my first fish and chips meal. It was delicious!! I loved the feel of the city.There were lots of students, stone-cobbled streets, old buildings and cute little restaurants and stores. After my tour of Cambridge we headed to Bury St. Edmunds by bus. When we arrived it was a full house. Not only was I staying over, but so were four other people. One of them was my friend Dwayne. I met Dwayne when I went to visit Chaska in Madrid because they were roommates. Dwayne is from Ireland so it thankfully didn’t take him a long time to get to England and he also rented a car. I had a great night talking with the Conrows and Dwayne. I was happy to have some interesting and intelligent conversation. I say this because I had felt like I was lacking good conversations and hearing everyone talk about traveling, the economy, politics, etc. was really refreshing for me.
On Saturday before we packed into Dwayne’s rented car for Stonehenge we checked out Bury St. Edmunds. It is a very small town, but very cute. I got to see a very old abbey, well parts of it because most of it was gone. It was very interesting though, because just from the parts that were still standing you could see what the formation of the abbey was before. We also walked around through the city and I got to see Britain’s smallest pub, The Nutshell Pub..it was crazy how small it was!!!
After checking out the city we headed to Stonehenge. Stonehenge has been around for around since 2200 B.C. It is a formation of stones that at one point was a complete circle. No one is quite sure who constructed Stonehenge, but some people think it was Neolithic builders. Some of the stones weight up to 45 tons each and no one exactly knows how Stonehenge was constructed. It was a long drive, but again I enjoyed checking out the other parts of England. Before we arrived in Stonehenge it was already raining, but I think we probably went to Stonehenge on the worst day possible. : ) When we arrived it was pouring, windy, and freezing. It was quite the experience, not only seeing something very, very, historical, but also trying to listen to the headset, taking pictures while trying to hold my umbrella while it was raining. Basically I gave up on my umbrella at times and let the rain sting my face and then I gave up on trying to listen to the headset. Overall, this was an experience I will always remember.
It was amazing to see Stonehenge in person and marvel at what mysterires there still are about things of the past. It was also fun being at Stonehenge in horrible weather (I hear it is very normal to have bad weather at Stonehenge), all I could do was laugh, smile and get soaked. After Stonehenge we were all starving so we drove around looking for something to eat. Once we had eaten a yummy lunch we headed back toward Bury St. Edmunds and stopped in Cambridge for a few hours. We were all pretty exhausted when we got back, it still amazes me how tired you can get from traveling.
Sunday after I said goodbye to Blanca (Josh’s mom) the rest of us headed to London. When we arrived at the tube we all went our seperate ways Chaska and I went to our hostel, Dwayne went to see his friends and Doug and his friend went to check out London. After Chaska and I had checked into our hostel she took me to some really cool parts of London. First we went to Portobello Market, it is located in the Notting Hill district. It was such a cute neighborhood. I loved the houses and the shops. There were also people selling tons of things in front of their stores, down alley ways and in the streets, it was like a big flea market with way better stuff. After spending some time walking around we then headed to Cadmen Town. It was also an awesome neighborhood. I loved that the people and the stores were very alternative and unique. It was definitely my kind of neighborhood. Besides seeing these awesome neighborhoods another great thing was we had good weather…really good weather for London. I loved it and it made me realize how awesome London can be!!!
During the night time we headed to the center of London and went to Piccadilly Circus. I was definitely ready to head back to the hostel when night came because I was exhausted from traveling so much. Overall, it was a great trip. I felt refreshed to be around people I knew and I felt I got to see London with a different perspective. I know every place I go gives me a new view on life and helps me to appreciate things more.
