An Awfully Big Adventure: UK Travel Adventure 2011, Part 1
I've been feeling somewhat out of sorts the last couple of days, without really being able to say why. Then today, as I sat eating lunch and feeling a bit lackluster, I realized what the reason probably was: I'm feeling "homesick" for the U.K. (Except it's not my home, so I guess that would be travel-sick?) That means now is as good a time as any to do my first UK travel post. I'll try to bring the others out as quickly as I can, but we all know how reliable I am with that sort of thing, so I'll just do my best on that. :)
Our trip started where all the best trips begin: London.
As many of you remember, I first went to England in the summer of 2008, for a study tour to Stratford-upon-Avon to study Shakespeare at the RSC headquarters. We spent three weeks in Stratford, with the exception of 4 days (one in Oxford, one in Warwick, and two in London, although all of those were day trips and not overnights). I absolutely loved being there, and jumped at the chance to go to the UK again this summer, when my roommate and best friend Gen asked me to go with her for her graduation from University of Glasgow. But it's important to note that I came home from England the first time firm in the conviction that I would never, ever want to live there. Not because it didn't seem like a good place to live- on the contrary, it would undoubtedly be fabulous. But I was convinced that if I were to be there for a long period of time, the novelty and excitement of the location would wear off. It would become home, and cease to be an adventure.
I bring this up because my reaction to visiting London a second time was very different. If the opportunity arose, I think I would certainly move there- because from the instant I stepped off the plane and onto the tube, and then into the city itself, there was no sense of novelty. I'd never been anywhere in London except the Globe, the British Library, and an exhibition center in my life, but it felt instantly familiar and comfortable. I couldn't exactly use the excuse that the novelty would wear off anymore, because at some point London, and the UK in general, seem to have pervaded my consciousness. So a few days after I got back, when my parents casually asked if I would ever want to live in the UK, I didn't hesitate to answer that if it were London, I gladly would. :)
Anyway, back to the trip itself. Normally for transatlantic flights like this, people catch an evening flight from their departure destination, so that they can sleep on the plane and arrive in England in the morning. This makes for a day of horrible jet lag, but does adapt you to the new time zone. Gen and I sort of did the opposite. Our flight out of Washington D.C. left at 6:55 a.m., meaning that we were meeting at the airport at the glorious hour of 5 in the morning. (I got up at 2:30 a.m. to accomplish this.) We had an hour layover in Newark, New Jersey (ew), and then progressed onward to London, landing at Heathrow at about 9:30 at night.
Our hostel of choice was the Camden Inn Hostel, which gets mixed reviews on the website, but which I actually liked. We chose it because it had 24-hour reception (unlike the International Students House, where we were initially going to stay) and we didn't know how late we would be getting in. It did have its share of inconveniences; the bathrooms were unpredictable in their level of functionality (specifically, the showers only worked for a minute at a time instead of continuously, making them the first installment in what I called the Saga of Interesting Showers), and the breakfast was minimal. But we weren't exactly looking for five-star lodgings, and it was perfectly acceptable.
Our hostelmates were two Irish kids slightly younger than us, a boy and a girl, who were in town playing traditional music at various small venues. They were probably my favorite of the people we met through staying at hostels; I frequently thought to myself that I wished they were still with us when we went to different places. They had that wonderful sort of pseudo-married-couple bickering that is always enjoyable to watch.
When we arrived on the 16th, we pretty much went straight to bed, exhausted from a long day of travel. (I can sleep on almost any mode of transportation except for airplanes, so I had gotten no sleep in almost 24 hours.) On the 17th we spent pretty much the entire day at the British Library. I had gone there for about half an hour on our 2nd day trip to London 3 years ago, and had come out saying that I could have spent all day there. This time, we did. :) We did look at the permanent collection and a small technology based research exhibit called Growing Knowledge, but our main purpose there was to see a large exhibit on science fiction. As we are both huge geeks, this made us inordinately happy. :) It was enormous, though, and it took us forever to get through the whole thing. We both took pictures of the placards describing books we wanted to read, so we could look for them when we got home. :)
Before going back to the hostel, we went King's Cross station nearby and took pictures at Platform 9 and 3/4. I did this three years ago, but you can never have too many pictures of yourself at Platform 9 and 3/4.
We weren't sure day to day what our plans were for this trip; we thought we would just sort of play it by ear and see what turned up. As it happened, the person who worked nights at the front desk of our hostel was a young man who would not shut up until we said we would visit the Camden Market during our stay. This was not even on my radar, but he talked it up every time he saw us, saying that it was a huge indie market and the place to be for Londoners and visitors, especially on the weekend. So on Saturday, we went just down the road for a visit.
It was AWESOME. I think it is now my Place to Visit whenever I am in London, just like the Strand bookstore in Greenwich Village is my Place to Visit every time I go to New York City. Front Desk Man was not lying when he said it is an absolutely massive thing. This market extends for blocks down the High Street of Camden, and it is filled with stores containing used, vintage, indie, and/or handmade items. Everywhere you turn, there is more of the market. Gen and I both made several purchases (one of mine was a really lovely dress that I'm going to wear to my friend's wedding this fall) and came back to the hostel very happy. Here are some pictures that illustrate what the Market looks like:
The underground portion of the Market was once stables, hence the name.
This last picture is just of the crowds on the outside street, all heading toward Camden Market. It was a sunny summer weekend day, so everyone was out and about.
In the afternoon we went to the Courtauld Gallery, a small art museum further south in the City, to see an exhibit on Toulouse-Latrec (my choice). We also wanted to be near the West End, because we were going to see a play in the evening! So after the gallery, we headed down to Trafalgar Square (even though it was early) to grab some dinner and walk around before the 7:30 performance.
Luckily we were so early, because we got sidetracked on the way! When we reached Trafalgar Square, we noticed there was some huge event going on. A closer look at the signage revealed that it was West End Live, a free set of public performances where groups putting on shows at the West End come and preview their shows to get interest going. We stayed and watched for about an hour, until a sudden downpour forced us out of the open and into St. Martin in-the-Fields, where we listened to an orchestral group rehearse for a bit before setting out to find a cafe or pub for dinner. This turned out to be more difficult than initially expected. The heavy rain meant that everyone was seeking refuge indoors, and the traffic of other theatre patrons looking for a pre-show dinner complicated things even more. Finally we found a pub that was open and served food, and were able to get a quick dinner before the show.
Our West End performance of choice was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and it was good. I have a great deal of love for this show since I taught it in my absurdist theatre unit last year, and I enjoyed pointing out all kinds of symbolic elements to Gen afterwards. I do think this show is difficult to really get right because it has a ton of talking and very little action, and it's very cerebral. I have a soft spot for the film, so it's hard for the live shows I've seen to measure up. I did enjoy it a lot, though, and think it was a great choice for us.
The 19th was a Sunday, and since Gen is Catholic, we had to go to a Catholic church. We found a little family church in the center of the City, and had a nice time. The location coincided with one of the day's two planned destinations: the Sherlock Holmes Museum! This was one that we both had on our lists as something we wanted to do, and we enjoyed wandering around and taking pictures with the wax figures from various stories. I also was wearing a bowler hat (like Dr. Watson's) in many of the pictures, leading my mom to comment that I should have purchased one from the gift shop. :) Decide for yourself:
After that, we went to Regent's Park and sat around in the nice weather for most of the afternoon. It was glorious. <3
Probably my favorite picture of Gen that I took on this whole trip. :)
After this, our time in London calmed down considerably. We had dinner at a pub that night and woke up the next morning for a day that was pretty un-touristy. In the morning we ran errands: post office, internet cafe, etc. I got up before Gen and wandered down to a nearby cafe to get tea and a breakfast more appetizing that what was offered at the hostel. In the afternoon we were lucky enough to get a visit from my friend Kirsten, who was staying a couple tube stops away on a study abroad adventure! We took her to Camden Market (surprise, surprise) for lunch and a couple hours of browsing around, and she seemed to enjoy it. After she left, we did laundry, got kebabs for dinner, watched TV, and re-packed our luggage for our journey to Cardiff the next day.
And then we woke up on June 21. But what did we do next? You'll have to wait for the next installment of An Awfully Big Adventure: UK Travel Adventure 2011! :P
Our trip started where all the best trips begin: London.
As many of you remember, I first went to England in the summer of 2008, for a study tour to Stratford-upon-Avon to study Shakespeare at the RSC headquarters. We spent three weeks in Stratford, with the exception of 4 days (one in Oxford, one in Warwick, and two in London, although all of those were day trips and not overnights). I absolutely loved being there, and jumped at the chance to go to the UK again this summer, when my roommate and best friend Gen asked me to go with her for her graduation from University of Glasgow. But it's important to note that I came home from England the first time firm in the conviction that I would never, ever want to live there. Not because it didn't seem like a good place to live- on the contrary, it would undoubtedly be fabulous. But I was convinced that if I were to be there for a long period of time, the novelty and excitement of the location would wear off. It would become home, and cease to be an adventure.
I bring this up because my reaction to visiting London a second time was very different. If the opportunity arose, I think I would certainly move there- because from the instant I stepped off the plane and onto the tube, and then into the city itself, there was no sense of novelty. I'd never been anywhere in London except the Globe, the British Library, and an exhibition center in my life, but it felt instantly familiar and comfortable. I couldn't exactly use the excuse that the novelty would wear off anymore, because at some point London, and the UK in general, seem to have pervaded my consciousness. So a few days after I got back, when my parents casually asked if I would ever want to live in the UK, I didn't hesitate to answer that if it were London, I gladly would. :)
Anyway, back to the trip itself. Normally for transatlantic flights like this, people catch an evening flight from their departure destination, so that they can sleep on the plane and arrive in England in the morning. This makes for a day of horrible jet lag, but does adapt you to the new time zone. Gen and I sort of did the opposite. Our flight out of Washington D.C. left at 6:55 a.m., meaning that we were meeting at the airport at the glorious hour of 5 in the morning. (I got up at 2:30 a.m. to accomplish this.) We had an hour layover in Newark, New Jersey (ew), and then progressed onward to London, landing at Heathrow at about 9:30 at night.
Our hostel of choice was the Camden Inn Hostel, which gets mixed reviews on the website, but which I actually liked. We chose it because it had 24-hour reception (unlike the International Students House, where we were initially going to stay) and we didn't know how late we would be getting in. It did have its share of inconveniences; the bathrooms were unpredictable in their level of functionality (specifically, the showers only worked for a minute at a time instead of continuously, making them the first installment in what I called the Saga of Interesting Showers), and the breakfast was minimal. But we weren't exactly looking for five-star lodgings, and it was perfectly acceptable.
Our hostelmates were two Irish kids slightly younger than us, a boy and a girl, who were in town playing traditional music at various small venues. They were probably my favorite of the people we met through staying at hostels; I frequently thought to myself that I wished they were still with us when we went to different places. They had that wonderful sort of pseudo-married-couple bickering that is always enjoyable to watch.
When we arrived on the 16th, we pretty much went straight to bed, exhausted from a long day of travel. (I can sleep on almost any mode of transportation except for airplanes, so I had gotten no sleep in almost 24 hours.) On the 17th we spent pretty much the entire day at the British Library. I had gone there for about half an hour on our 2nd day trip to London 3 years ago, and had come out saying that I could have spent all day there. This time, we did. :) We did look at the permanent collection and a small technology based research exhibit called Growing Knowledge, but our main purpose there was to see a large exhibit on science fiction. As we are both huge geeks, this made us inordinately happy. :) It was enormous, though, and it took us forever to get through the whole thing. We both took pictures of the placards describing books we wanted to read, so we could look for them when we got home. :)
Before going back to the hostel, we went King's Cross station nearby and took pictures at Platform 9 and 3/4. I did this three years ago, but you can never have too many pictures of yourself at Platform 9 and 3/4.
We weren't sure day to day what our plans were for this trip; we thought we would just sort of play it by ear and see what turned up. As it happened, the person who worked nights at the front desk of our hostel was a young man who would not shut up until we said we would visit the Camden Market during our stay. This was not even on my radar, but he talked it up every time he saw us, saying that it was a huge indie market and the place to be for Londoners and visitors, especially on the weekend. So on Saturday, we went just down the road for a visit.
It was AWESOME. I think it is now my Place to Visit whenever I am in London, just like the Strand bookstore in Greenwich Village is my Place to Visit every time I go to New York City. Front Desk Man was not lying when he said it is an absolutely massive thing. This market extends for blocks down the High Street of Camden, and it is filled with stores containing used, vintage, indie, and/or handmade items. Everywhere you turn, there is more of the market. Gen and I both made several purchases (one of mine was a really lovely dress that I'm going to wear to my friend's wedding this fall) and came back to the hostel very happy. Here are some pictures that illustrate what the Market looks like:
The underground portion of the Market was once stables, hence the name.
This last picture is just of the crowds on the outside street, all heading toward Camden Market. It was a sunny summer weekend day, so everyone was out and about.
In the afternoon we went to the Courtauld Gallery, a small art museum further south in the City, to see an exhibit on Toulouse-Latrec (my choice). We also wanted to be near the West End, because we were going to see a play in the evening! So after the gallery, we headed down to Trafalgar Square (even though it was early) to grab some dinner and walk around before the 7:30 performance.
Luckily we were so early, because we got sidetracked on the way! When we reached Trafalgar Square, we noticed there was some huge event going on. A closer look at the signage revealed that it was West End Live, a free set of public performances where groups putting on shows at the West End come and preview their shows to get interest going. We stayed and watched for about an hour, until a sudden downpour forced us out of the open and into St. Martin in-the-Fields, where we listened to an orchestral group rehearse for a bit before setting out to find a cafe or pub for dinner. This turned out to be more difficult than initially expected. The heavy rain meant that everyone was seeking refuge indoors, and the traffic of other theatre patrons looking for a pre-show dinner complicated things even more. Finally we found a pub that was open and served food, and were able to get a quick dinner before the show.
Our West End performance of choice was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and it was good. I have a great deal of love for this show since I taught it in my absurdist theatre unit last year, and I enjoyed pointing out all kinds of symbolic elements to Gen afterwards. I do think this show is difficult to really get right because it has a ton of talking and very little action, and it's very cerebral. I have a soft spot for the film, so it's hard for the live shows I've seen to measure up. I did enjoy it a lot, though, and think it was a great choice for us.
The 19th was a Sunday, and since Gen is Catholic, we had to go to a Catholic church. We found a little family church in the center of the City, and had a nice time. The location coincided with one of the day's two planned destinations: the Sherlock Holmes Museum! This was one that we both had on our lists as something we wanted to do, and we enjoyed wandering around and taking pictures with the wax figures from various stories. I also was wearing a bowler hat (like Dr. Watson's) in many of the pictures, leading my mom to comment that I should have purchased one from the gift shop. :) Decide for yourself:
After that, we went to Regent's Park and sat around in the nice weather for most of the afternoon. It was glorious. <3
Probably my favorite picture of Gen that I took on this whole trip. :)
After this, our time in London calmed down considerably. We had dinner at a pub that night and woke up the next morning for a day that was pretty un-touristy. In the morning we ran errands: post office, internet cafe, etc. I got up before Gen and wandered down to a nearby cafe to get tea and a breakfast more appetizing that what was offered at the hostel. In the afternoon we were lucky enough to get a visit from my friend Kirsten, who was staying a couple tube stops away on a study abroad adventure! We took her to Camden Market (surprise, surprise) for lunch and a couple hours of browsing around, and she seemed to enjoy it. After she left, we did laundry, got kebabs for dinner, watched TV, and re-packed our luggage for our journey to Cardiff the next day.
And then we woke up on June 21. But what did we do next? You'll have to wait for the next installment of An Awfully Big Adventure: UK Travel Adventure 2011! :P