Sorry it's taken so long for me to write this last post, and of course because of that it'll be kind of long. :)
So my last few days at Cambridge were spent mostly studying, but it paid off. I've gotten 2 of 3 grades back and they are an A and a B+. Wednesday after our last final I went and packed up my room. The general goal was just to get everything in suitcases, which of course made my big suitcase quite heavy. :) That afternoon I met up with Jesse and we grabbed a few beers/ciders and a magazine and headed to the park to soak up the beautiful weather (75 and sunny). It was a great afternoon. That evening was the farewell dinner. It was pretty good actually. Both Czarnetsky (Ole Miss prof) and Hopkins (Cambridge prof) made speeches. All the professors and their families were there. It was a good time all around. After dinner we headed to the college bar for last night of frivolity, and many of the professors joined us which was fun. And when that closed we hit the town in Cambridge. It was a good way to end our stay there.
Thursday we had to be out of our rooms by noon, and a few of us caught the train to London together, and separated once we were there. While pulling my suitcase along the streets of London though I discovered that not only was my suit case broken, but one of the wheels was broken as well, which made it much more like dragging than pulling. Kevin was kind enough to pull my ridiculously heavy bag to the hostel for me. I stayed at Queen Mary, a University of London Campus in East London. It was really nice actually. That afternoon, Kevin and I went to the Great Britain Beer Festival. We had a lot of fun doing that. After dinner, Kevin headed to the airport where he was staying because he had an early flight in the morning.
Friday I got up and did quite a few things. I went to the Cabinet War Rooms where Churchill ran WWII from. It was amazing. It is pretty much exactly as it was left. It looks as though on the last day they left, and the next day, the museum people came and put glass up and it became a museum. After that, I walked down to Buckingham Palace because I was near there, and then back towards Big Ben. For lunch I went to one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants. It wasn't one of his more famous ones. It is called York & Albany. It was still really good food though. After lunch I walked through Regent's Park because it was another gorgeous day. After that I went to M&M World, which is actually just a big M&M Store, but it's still pretty cool. That night I met some friends for dinner in Covent Garden.
Saturday I went to Dover for the day. I went and saw the white cliffs and the castle. It was also very interesting. It was very cloudy and started raining as I walked back to the train station later that afternoon, but other than that it was nice. I saw the underground tunnels used in WWII, a lot of old guns and tanks, and then of course the castle. I went in the castle and up to the top. I enjoyed it quite a bit. After that I headed back into London, and went to the Globe to get tickets for whatever show was playing that night. It ended up being a show called The Globe Mysteries. It was a play that took people through Bible from creation to Judgment Day. It was written in Old English, and a lot of the costumes were modern (it was kind of like watching Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio). It was really good though, and very well performed. There were some humorous parts in it, which made it that much more enjoyable to watch. I was just going to pay 5 pounds and stand, but the weather had said it was supposed to rain, and although it didn't look like rain, I didn't want to risk it. And it did rain while the show was performed.
On Sunday I got up and was supposed to meet some friends that afternoon to go to Camden Market, but we ended up not being able to, so I went shopping on Oxford Circus that afternoon. It rained a lot on Sunday, but luckily it only rained when I was in the shops looking around. :) I went to dinner at a pub that night (I figured it'd be my last time for a while), and after that headed back to my room so I could repack everything for tomorrow. I had to be out of my room by 7:30/7:45 that morning because they were going to begin refurbishing the room I was staying in. I was supposed to be in a different room on the 4th floor, but as there were no elevators and my suitcases were heavy and one was broken, I asked to be moved, and that was the condition of my moving, which was fine with me.
So on Monday I got up early, and put my luggage in storage and headed out for the day. I went to Windsor Castle that day. I figured I'd spend 2 hours there (tops) and be done; then I could get back into town and get out to my hotel with lots of time to relax. Yeah... about that... :) I ended up spending 4 hours there. I did the audio tour, as well as a guided tour (the guided tour was actually a private one because I was the only one who showed up for that time). I went into the State Apartments and those were gorgeous. Then I went up to the top of the Round Tower and got some great views of the area. After that I went and looked around St. George's Chapel before heading back to London. I ended up not getting back to the luggage storage until after 4.
I had decided that instead of taking my suitcase down 50 some odd stairs to the tube, I would take the bus to King's Cross and catch the tube out to Heathrow from there (there's elevators at that tube station). I figured out the bus I needed stopped right outside the Queen Mary, so it worked out perfectly. I did not anticipate a 1 hour bus ride, or having to stand in line for a half hour at King's Cross to get a tube ticket. So I finally got on the tube, got to Heathrow and took the shuttle from there to my hotel. I ended up not even getting to my room until after 8. I still had to repack everything and take a shower. I had to be up at 6 the next morning too, so I was trying to get to bed early (that didn't happen). So I finally climbed into bed sometime after 11.
Tuesday I got up early and headed to the airport. I was determined to get there 3 hours early because it's Heathrow and you never know what's going to happen. It's a good thing I did too, because I ended up at the wrong terminal. My first flight was supposedly with BMI (which is terminal 1), but I had to go check in with Continental (in terminal 4). And then of course I had to stand in line for an hour or so to check in and go through security. Once through I had about an hour and a half to kill, so I grabbed some breakfast. Got on the plane, and had a smooth trip to Newark. However, when I got to Newark, I found out my flight at 4:29 to Memphis had been cancelled (noooooooooo!!!!!!). So I had to go to the transfer desk and get a new flight so they put me on a flight to Chicago at 4, and then I was to catch a flight to Memphis from there. So I was like, well, at least I'll get home today. While in Newark I found out that one of my cousins was there on a layover waiting for his flight as well, in the same concourse even! Go figure. So we met up for a few. I ended up getting home about 2 hours later than planned, and by the time I went to bed I had been up for over 22 hours (go me).
So I'm moving back to Oxford on Monday, so this week is basically being spent running errands and getting everything done that I need to get done. Woo hoo. :)
So that's all from here. It was a great summer. I hope y'all enjoyed reading about it as much I enjoyed experiencing it. :) I'll update again sometime soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment