After 5 weeks of courses, time away from the books was much needed. My friend Alyssa and I had planned this mid-semester trip to London back in January. This would be our first time out of Scotland since we arrived so we were both very excited. On Thursday, we headed to town to catch a train to the airport. We arrived just on time, as everyone was boarding when we entered the platform. The train ride to Dyce was only 8 minutes. I had assumed that the train would drop off at the airport but that did not happen. All the passengers that exited the train quickly disappeared and we were left standing on the side of the tracks, lost. We could see the airport from where we were standing but had no idea how to get there. We attempted to take a trail and a road but were blocked by several gates. We decided that we had to take a taxi. Our taxi driver told us that the walk to the airport is very round-about and takes about 35 minutes. If I would have known this, I would have taken the bus which would have dropped me right off in front of the airport.
We arrived at the airport on time and my toiletry bag was flagged in security. This was the second time that this happened. I do not understand why. Dyce airport is extremely small and very chill. My stomach was hurting during the entire flight. Thankfully the flight was only an hour and thirty minutes. There were holdups at Heathrow airport so the pilot announced that he had to fly around in circles for ten minutes before he could land. I found this a bit comical. We landed in terminal 5 and then had to take a train to terminal 2/3. We eventually found our bus and endured the 45 minute journey to Victoria Coach station. The walk to our hotel was only 8 minutes. The hotel was nothing special but was just what we needed.
On Friday, we woke up early, had breakfast at the hotel, and started our crazy day of sightseeing. We decided to not use the underground "tube" so that we would be able to see everything in London. Our first destination was Big Ben and boy was that a disappointment. The entire tower was covered in scaffolding and only the face of the clock was visible. We also saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye. From the London Eye, we traveled down a long road to see all the bridges (London, Millennium, and Tower). I was extremely confused by the London Bridge. It was so ugly and looked like a below average bridge. The Tower bridge was a much better sight. Walking back on the other side of the river Thames, we saw the Tower of London and witnessed a student protest about the environment. It seemed as though all grade school children were required to make signs and attend this protest. We made our way to Soho and ate lunch at Mod pizza. I had a delicious pizza there and was super excited that they had Parmesan cheese! After a great lunch, we made the trek to Kings Cross station to visit the infamous Platform 9/3/4 from the Harry Potter films. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get a picture with the cart and the platform but it was worth it. Several of my friends recommended that we go to Harrods which is basically a 5 star Macy's. Walking into Harrods, I was certainly out of place. Designer jewelry, perfume, clothes and handbags were everywhere. The store was like a complete maze. We explored a bit more of the area and then went back to the hotel to prepare for Aladdin. The walk to the Prince Edward Theater was 45 minutes. Aladdin was by far the best show I have ever seen in my life. There were amazing costumes, dancing, props, and sets. The genie was the star of the show. He was hilarious and told a lot of modern day jokes within his lines. Although this day was exquisite, the step count ended up being 46,222 to equal 24.61 miles. This resulted in blisters, shin pain, and bloody feet.
Saturday was Harry Potter Day! We booked a tour that allowed us to spend half of the day at the Warner Bros Studios and the other half of the day in Oxford, which contains several Harry Potter filming locations. We had breakfast at our hotel at 7:15 and had to catch an 8:30 bus. The bus station was 45 minutes away from our hotel. Fearing that we would miss the bus, we decided to run part of the way. We beat the estimated arrival time provided by Google Maps by 14 minutes. Trying to race google maps is fun and gave us a challenge! The drive to Warner Bros was about an hour and we were at the studio for just under 4 hours. I won't reveal too much because I will be doing a whole Harry Potter blog post next. Leaving the studio, our bus traveled to Oxford with the journey being about an hour and a half. Oxford is a beautiful city. There are so many old buildings and the scenery is stunning. I was really surprised how crowded Oxford was. I could barely move on the sidewalks. It felt more crowded than London. We had a wonderful tour guide who was born and raised in Oxford. She explained the Oxford University system to us: the University is made up of 38 colleges, each college having about 600 students. They have three semesters per year, each semester being 8 weeks long. Oxford is very popular for medical students. Each college is set up in a square, containing anywhere from 1-5 courtyards. Our tour guide mentioned many Harry Potter sites and told us that she has met every cast member, simply because she is a nosy person. She stated that filming is done very early in the mornings so that the paparazzi won't be on site. One morning, she witnessed a black car pull up outside of a gate. Harry, Hermione, and Ron got out of the car. Not knowing who they were, she asked a security guard standing outside the gate. He said "they are filming something called Harry Potter." She did not think anything of it. The first movie created this huge Harry Potter empire and she was on the watch for when the second movie was being filmed. She told a funny story about how she watched the actors pull up one by one at the gate during the second movie. They all came in black cars but suddenly a white limo rolled up. The driver got out and a white owl in a cage was taken in the gates. Yes, Hedwig had the best form of transportation to set. Our tour guide has witnessed Johnny Depp shooting scenes early in the morning and has seen the Beckhams on a morning stroll. She said that so many people live just outside of Oxford and are often seen in the mornings in the city center of Oxford. To conclude our stay in Oxford, we visited a museum to see a chalkboard that was inscribed with math by Einstein. This was pretty cool to see. We drove back to London and went straight to bed after this long but amazing day.
On Sunday, we got up and had breakfast. We went to Buckingham Palace at around 9:30 to try and see the changing of the guards that was to happen at 10:00. Nothing seemed to be happening at 10:00 and we had to catch a 10:30 bus to Stonehenge so we left. We got some Subway for lunch and headed to the coach station. The journey to Stonehenge was 2 hours. During the bus ride, our driver put in a History Channel video about Stonehenge. I learned that no one really knows why Stonehenge was built. The stones date back to 3000 BC and weigh up to 37,000 tons each. One theory for its existence is that Celtic priests built this henge to perform rituals and sacrifices. What is most difficult to understand is how these massive stones were transported. It is estimated that 80-100 men were needed to move just one stone. Additionally, Stonehenge took approximately 30 million man hours to complete, this is 4 times the man hours it took to build the Empire State Building. Stonehenge is also thought to have predicted solar eclipses. Upon arrival at Stonehenge, we had about an hour an a half so we took the road from the visitor's center to the stones. This took us about 20 minutes. The Stones are quite impressive. I wish we could have gotten closer to them. I feel like visiting Stonehenge is one of those world wonder sights that everyone should see. We took the shuttle back to the visitor's center because we were running out of time. We then drove two hours back to London. Throughout most of this trip, our meals have consisted of small snacks because we simply did not have time to get full meals. Since we had a decent amount of time left, we were determined to have a sit down dinner. Because both of us love chicken Parmesan, we searched for restaurants that had chicken parm on their menu. We went to NY Fold in Soho and finally got a nice sit down dinner. The chicken parm was served with pasta and it seemed to have an Alfredo sauce. I do not like Alfredo but tried the pasta anyway. It tasted like a cheese sauce so I was satisfied. I was so full by the end of this dinner. I guess I really wanted to stuff myself because I walked down the street to get a Bubblewrap. A Bubblewrap is a waffle that has bubbles instead of squares in the center. The waffle is then folded into the shape of a cone and ice cream is placed inside. Toppings and sauces of your choice can then be added. Let's just say I had a wonderful night of eating.
Monday was our last day in London. We checked out of the hotel at 9:00 and decided to go to the Wellington Arch. We had seen this arch from the bus window while on our way to Stonehenge and thought that we should check it out. From the arch, we walked straight down the street to prepare for the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace. We lined up right outside the front gate and stood there for two hours before any action even happened. I decided to do my reading for my Vikings course while waiting. I must say that I was strongly underwhelmed by this changing of the guard ceremony. Basically, two bands played back and forth inside the gates of the palace. I felt like I was watching Battle of the Bands. They did play some cool tunes: Game of Thrones, Harry Potter Medley, Jesus Christ Superstar, and the Olympic Theme Song. Some horses went past and the the gates of the palace were opened. All the men marched out and then that was the end of the ceremony. This was certainly not worth the four hours that I was standing there. Next on our list was the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone. Because we were pressed for time, we just went into the museum, took pictures of the stone and left. During our whole stay in London, we kept seeing a chain restaurant called Pizza Express. We figured that we should try it out before we leave. I enjoyed my pizza here but preferred the one at Mod. After lunch, we went to the National Gallery. There were some paintings that I had previously studied in an Art History Course that I wanted to see as well as the famous Van Gogh's Sunflower painting. The National Gallery concluded our trip to London. We walked to the Coach station and boarded our coach that would take us to London Heathrow. I had no problems going through security and the flight was fine. We landed in Aberdeen and took a taxi to our Halls of Residence. It was about 11:00 by the time I was back.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in London. This was a much needed break. Everyone that I interacted with in London was very nice. The people dress extremely fancy in London so I felt a bit out of place. The cars here are also so expensive. London is quite the high-end city. I was expecting London to be more like New York City with all the bright lights but that was not true. There is so much to do in London and so much to see. I will definitely be going back to London.
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