UK Days

My study abroad program held an early Thanksgiving dinner in London for all the UC students attending universities in the UK and Ireland. This meant I got a free trip to London and a proper American Thanksgiving feast. London was a lot of fun. I got an authentic experience because I stayed with Shai’s friend Olivia, who is a student and local resident of London, instead of in a hostel. We flew out of Cork on Thursday night and landed in London just in time to put our bags down in the apartment and go to a pub down the street. I was surprised because London initially reminded me of LA with better public transportation, a big, busy city, but with British accents.

The next day I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour! I navigated public transit all alone to get there, this gave me a nice taste of the London life but I would have much rather used apparition or the floo network, oh well. At the studio I saw the original sets, costumes, props, and effects used in all the Harry Potter films. It was magical: I walked through the Great Hall, rode a broomstick, drove my friends around in a flying car (with the aid of a green screen), entered Dumbledore’s office, hung out in the Gryffindor common room, saw my reflection in the Mirror of Erised, drank butterbeer, and so much more. We were there for over 5 hours and never got bored once. It was surreal to live in a world I have only seen on screen. I went crazy with my camera and now have more than 200 Harry Potter related pictures- here’s a small selection.

I spent the next day playing tourist on the streets of London with Shai and Olivia. We started our day at the Borough Food market, a local outdoor market that is open every weekend and is full of delicious food from all over. As is our food market tradition, we bought homemade fudge, among other things. Next we saw the Globe Theatre, which was amazing to see in person after reading Shakespeare's plays and learning the history of the theatre in school. Then we crossed one of several bridges and made our way over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was pretty, but St Finbarre’s in Cork maintains its status as the most interesting Cathedral I have seen so far. We continued on to Trafalgar Square, named for a famous Napoleonic Battle.  This square used to be infested with pigeons. It was popular for tourists to feed them, and this lead to an uncontrollable, disgusting amount of birds in the square. Legislation was passed to stop this, now the square is clean and almost pigeon free which I liked very much. From here we took a bus to Buckingham Palace, then walked over to see Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. It was a whirlwind day of sight seeing, but having a local show me around made it feel like I was also experiencing the 'real' London at the same time.

After that long day, we were off to our EAP Thanksgiving dinner at Gibson Hall. Gibson Hall proved to be extremely difficult to find, and Shai and I arrived a little late, right as everyone was being let into the dining room. We were ready to eat, and after about 30 minutes of speeches from alumni and coordinators, dinner was served! They had it all: turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie- Shai and I might have been the first people to go for seconds...It obviously was not as good as my usual Thanksgiving meal with Aunt Laura’s mashed potatoes, my mom’s delicious sides and homemade stuffing and grandma’s jello mold and cool whip- but it was delicious, festive, and perfectly American. After dinner they announced the winners of the photo, video, and blog competitions -guess what- you are currently reading an award winning blog! I entered my post about my visit to the Blarney Stone and won third place. My prize was an ill fitting t-shirt, which I ended up giving away, but it was great to be recognized for simply recounting my adventures.

After dinner we went to a karaoke bar down the street from Olivia’s apartment. It was filled with locals and had a carefree, fun vibe. We sang, or rather rapped, Ignition by R.Kelley and then Bills Bills Bills by Destiny’s Child. It obviously sounded perfect and we acquired some loyal fans and back up singers! I have been meaning to go to a karaoke bar in Cork, so this was a perfect spot to spend our final night in London.

After a week back in Cork I was missing the royal family already, so I headed to Scotland. On this trip I learned to never trust budget airlines. Our plan was to go to Glasgow and Edinburgh, but it turned out that our flight landed in Glasgow Prestwick, which is a 40 minutes bus ride outside of Glasgow-thanks RyanAir. Even though we arrived in Scotland to and unpleasant surprise, the rest of the trip was incredibly enjoyable. Apparently the Scotish are not short on holiday spirit, because even though November has not even ended yet, there was a Christmas Market in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. There was over the top decorations and great food-what more can you want? After exploring the Christmas Market in Glawgow we set out to see the rest of the city. It is very Urban and the main street reminded me of 3^rd street in Santa Monica. There was an H&M, a Forever 21, and a Hard Rock Cafe, so we decided to go off the beaten path and find some real culture. We saw the City Chambers, the local University, St. Mungo’s Cathedral, and the Glasgow Necropolis. Everything was stunning. The leaves were changing and the sun was shining; this set the stage for some beautiful photographs, and a fair amount of photo-shoots.

After two nights in Glasgow we caught a bus to Edinburgh (pronounced Edin-brah, we had fun with that). Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and is an unbelievable mix of tradition and modernity. Almost every building is medieval style architecture, so what looks like a castle could easily turn out to be a KFC- and I’m speaking from experience. Our hostel was 50 meters off of the Royal Mile. This is the main street in the city center and gets its name because it is a mile long with the Queen’s Residence at one end and the Edinburgh Castle at the other.

 

On Sunday morning we hiked up to Arthur’s Seat, the highest point in Edinburgh, and got a 360-degree view of the entire city. We could see EVERYTHING-the castle, the ocean, the city- it was remarkable. After seeing the city from above, we sought out a more grounded perspective and took a 2.5-hour walking tour. We learned about the complicated history of Scotland, some infamous grave robbers and serial killers, the man who inspired Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the nation's obsession with the stone of destiny that England stole from them for 700 years.

I honestly did not know what to expect from this trip to Scotland. We planned it on a whim, without any particular destinations or sights to see, but it turned out to be the perfect way to really experience the country. Walking the streets, eating the food (yes I tried Haggis- we ordered it deep fried and it tasted like falafel) and simply exploring the culture with friends was amazing.