I went to England last weekend and it was only sort of a mess.
A friend of mine from school is working in Ireland as an Au Paire but needed to take her LSAT in London so she can attend law school when she returns to the United States. She mentioned this, and the stress of not being allowed to have her phone on her person to get to and from the foreign testing location, one day and as the eager traveler, I decided to go to London the same weekend. I was able to deliver her to the testing location then take off on my own for five hours while she sat (in Dumbledore’s office) and took a painful test and then come back to find her after the test let out.
I left Maynooth at 3:30 in the morning to catch my bus to the airport for my poorly thought out 6:30 flight. In a college town on a Saturday morning, I was not the only one awake but one of the few people who was sober. The kilometer walk to the bus stop at 4 am was bound to be miserable on its own but wasn’t helped by actually being stalked by a taxi driver. While maybe this was helped by 4 am paranoia, I was not amused with the male taxi driver stopping on the side of the road, asking me if I needed a ride and not taking no for an answer. After I politely refused the first time as I only had about two blocks left to the destination, I walked past his taxi only for him to turn around and pull up next to me again minutes later, insisting I get in. I again refused, saying I was only going up to the bus stop and was nearly there, but thank you. He drove off but to my horror had driven up to the bus stop and got out of his cab as I arrived. Now, I’m an out of shape 21-year-old and I would not have been able to take this adult male taxi driver by beating him with my plastic water bottle and, given it was disgustingly early and places in Ireland have trouble even opening before noon, there wasn’t really anywhere to duck into even if I wanted to turn back. Luckily someone else approached the bus stop and I was not abducted that morning, or any other time during the trip, despite wandering around foreign cities alone often.
I arrived in London still early and conquered the underground on my way to meet my friend at the Globe Theatre. From there we took a convoluted route, somehow managing to pass the same building about seven times, to her test. In my five hours by myself, I continued to master the underground making my way to Westminister Abbey, Big Ben (which is covered in scaffolding right now and useless), Buckingham Palace and St. James Park then onto King’s Cross Station where the line to stand at Platform 9 3/4 was about 45 minutes long and finally back to my friend.
Despite having mastered the underground, I was a disaster above ground. I continually got lost, was lead astray by Google Maps, and took very long detours from one place to the next. For a Saturday in London, I found myself isolated on streets surprisingly often and for my first time traveling alone as an obvious tourist (camera around my neck, large backpack in tow, following Google Maps), probably should have been more concerned for my safety than I was.
The second day, my friend and I took the overpriced bus tour to Stonehenge where at least it didn’t rain. Stonehenge is a short attraction because there’s really only so long you can look at and circle some old rocks but I actually thought it was really cool. All things considered, I could have used the opportunity to learn more rather than ignore and almost lose my audio guide on multiple occasions but just seeing it was something to cross off my bucket list.
I’m fortunate and clever enough to have arranged a five day weekend for myself while studying at Maynooth so my trip was able to extend beyond my friend’s so after she left I traveled to Bath and on to Manchester for my last night. Bath was pretty and historic looking but after spending an arm and a leg just existing in England I was unwilling to spend any more to actually look at the Roman Baths so spent my afternoon there wandering the town and nearly getting hit by a bus. Like the rest of this continent, it was a bit dreary and gray but was mostly pleasant until my train was delayed, forcing me to take a different route that somehow brought me into Wales briefly and didn’t get me into Manchester until about 11:00 pm.
Now, my parents told me that Manchester wasn’t the nicest city but it was cheapest to fly out of so I ignored that and wandered the streets alone at night trying to find my hostel. Somehow I’m alive though.
This weekend, I went to Edinburgh, Scotland with my study abroad program.
To finish out my tour of the UK, I went to Scotland this weekend and toured a castle, followed a man in a kilt on a walking tour, and spent a lot of time at the national museum goofing off and getting separated from the people I went with. Edinburgh is built on a hill so, while painful, is beautiful from many angles. The views from the castle were probably cooler than whatever else I was supposed to learn from it and just walking down the streets I wanted to stop and take photographs.
Edinburgh of course is also known as the birthplace of the Harry Potter series so I nerded out as we passed The Elephant House, went into a so-called Harry Potter Museum AKA large gift shop, walked down the street Diagon Alley is supposedly based on and saw J.K. Rowling’s handprints in Scotland’s version of those outside of Los Angeles’ Chinese Theater.
While some of the people in my program climbed a hill in the mud, I took the lower route along a loch that also serves as a bird sanctuary. I hate birds and was terrified most of the time but wandering around that area only a few minutes walk from downtown gave spectacular views of the city. Wandering around the area and seeing the loch and the hills and the city I thought to myself that this was somewhere I could actually see myself living. I’ve struggled thinking of choosing between city life and small-town life, knowing a city is where a glamorous journalist would live while I long for the seclusion of owning land and dogs to roam it. Though maybe it was just the number of dogs that convinced me I could live somewhere like Edinburgh. We’ll see.
