England

Hello!

So to top off my 3 week journey of post-school traveling, I took a trip from Sweden to England to visit my other friend Jon. This part of the trip strated out very interesting haha. Jon and I made the mistake of not really setting up a prearranged meeting time or place for when I got into Leeds, the closest city to his town, so when I got there I wasn't too sure of where he was going to be. I knew that there was a good chance that I would have to get on a computer somewhere, because the day before I had sent him a facebook message mentioning that I was on my way to England. I really had no idea where he was and I thought that I could just call his phone since for some reason I thought he was using the same one he has in America (he goes to UNR with me but lives in England during summer). Well, unfortunately he was not using that phone and after walking to a nearby hotel to check my facebook, I found a reply to the message saying that his parents were moving into a new house and they were basically refurnishing the whole place, so they were living in a trailer park temporarily until the new place was liveable. In this new park Jon had no cell phone reception or internet access so there was basically no way to communicate with him.

Fountains Abbey

Shortly after that I was checking hotel rates for the night after I sent him a message giving my number to call me when he gets somewhere with reception. Right after the receptionist at a nearby hotel swipes my credit card, Jon calls me. He wanted to confirm with me that I would be in England "tomorrow at 8pm." After I told him that I was already in England ready to be picked up, he was pleasantly surprised and told me he would pick me up in about an hour and a half. I got the hotel to reverse the recent transaction made for a room, and finally ended up meeting with Jon that night haha. It was a bit of a crazy start but thanks to his good timing, things ended up working out. So we got settled into the little trailer and retired for the night. The next day, Jon showed me a bit of the town that his family was moving into, Markington, as well as the larger town nearby that he used to live in, Harrogate. We walked around Harrogate for a bit which was really cool. England has a bit of a different feel to it than the rest of Europe. It's hard to say exactly what it is that makes it feel different, it could be the history, the architecture, the people, the language, I'm not sure, but it was cool to feel somewhere different even though I was still in Europe. After that, Jon took me to this really cool place called Fountains Abbey. It's basically a large park area with these really neat ruins laid out all over that were part of an old abbey run by the monks. These ruins were one of the few that survived the ruling of King Henry VIII who set out to destroy these abbeys. The whole park was really nice and the ruins were awesome to walk around and check out. It's also where Jon graduated from high school, which was definitely the coolest place I have seen to hold a graduation ceremony.

Brimham Rocks

After walking around there for awhile, we made our way to Brimham Rocks, which is an awesome place with these really random and odd looking rocks situated on a hill. They were easily climbable and we got some pretty awesome views of the nearby hills and the landscape from those rocks. I was able to see how green and relatively flat this part of the country was, and it was crazy to see all of the farmland everywhere, I was once again in the countryside, and I couldn't complain. After exploring here for a bit we then headed back to the trailer and helped out a bit with the new house. This was pretty much it for our day and the next day we decided to take a trip to Whitby, a town situated on the Northeast coast of England. This was an awesome town sitting right on the coast and you can tell its definitely a popular tourist destination. When we got there we walked around town for a bit and then headed up on a hill where there was another abbey as well as a cemetary with these really big, old fashioned looking gravestones. It was really eerie and cool at the same time. It definitely looked like something out of a horror movie. We then walked back down and onto the beach. The weather wasn't too bad when we were there (surprisingly) and the water was actually warmer than I thought. We didn't go swimming but it wasn't to cold when I felt the water. It was really neat, and after Whitby we did a bit more exploring in the car and found a place off the beaten path just South of Whitby called Boggle Hole (we got a good laugh out of it). This was a pretty small place with even a youth hostel and we hopped on a path that went by some sheep herds and back down to the coast. It was pretty neat and, again, we got a laugh out of being in a place called Boggle Hole. From there, we headed back to Markington as Tom Tom (the GPS device) led us through the most windy roads I have probably ever been on and it took us quite awhile to finally get to the highway (thanks a lot Tom Tom).

Whitby

But before we stayed on the highway, we stopped by Goathland, home of the Hogwarts train station as seen in the Harry Potter films, which was pretty cool. We then got home and spent the rest of the day getting ready for that following day, where we would head South to Jons grandmothers' house in Peterborough. That day, we had a decision to make before going to Peterborough, we could go to Stamford, where all Jon remembers is some market to see and not much else, or we could go to Cambridge, home of the prestigious university which Jon has never been to. So, we made a decision to go to Cambridge. I was happy with this decision. We both were. Cambridge was a really neat town, a lot of awesome architecture and the university was really cool to see. I'll admit, that town had more beautiful women there than any one place I had ever seen. Not sure how, or why, but it did, and I was okay with that. We both were. We really just chilled at Cambridge for most of the day, and headed to Peterborough (45min away) where Jons grandma lives and we stayed the night there. We got up early the next day because I knew this would be the beginning of a really long one. I had to catch an early train to London and then stay the night in the Stansted airport so I can catch my early flight back to Torino the next day, so Jon gave me a ride to the train station and we said our farewells until he got back to Reno (he couldn't come to London because of work). While waiting for my train, I had some extra time to walk around Peterborough and I was pretty impressed by the downtown area there. I got the chance to see the main cathedral there and it was huge. A really cool site to see and I'm glad I had that extra time. When I got into London it was crazy. There were so many people everywhere. The first place I went to was the tourist information office at the underground station. Because when I got there, I knew about some of the main sites like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and stuff like that, but that was about it.

So the tourist information person there was really helpful and marked a route for me to follow on a map to see all of the main sites. From then on, I was on my way around London for the day. At first the underground system was a bit intimidating, but like all underground systems, at least in Europe, you get the hang of it relatively quickly. The first place I went to was Buckingham Palace. It was really awesome because it turned out that when I got there, it was the changing of the guard and that was really cool to see, although there were a ton of people there. They had the classic looking guards dressed in red with the funny looking hats and they had them in formations marching out of the gates of the Palace as they played trumpets and things of that nature. It was neat to see that and after walking around the palace area for a bit, I headed over to the parliament building to also see Big Ben. When I got there I was pretty amazed at the architecture of the building. It was highly detailed and I believe it was of the Gothic style, which I think is definitely my favorite style of architecture, very elaborate. Shortly after that I checked out the London Eye and proceeded to conitnue walking around the city. I saw a lot (even a statue of Abraham Lincoln!). I also got the opportunity to walk around the London School of Economics which was pretty neat for me (since I'm an economics major). I could feel the knowledge around me and shortly after, I was intimidated by the geniuses I saw there and I continued my walk around the city. I also walked across the famous London Bridge (which isn't that great, but I'm sure there's a good story behind it).

Big Ben and the London Eye

The Tower Bridge was pretty cool, and I was able to see that from the London Bridge. I also made an attempt to visit Wimbledon, since it was possible to take the Underground there, and when I got there, I noticed that my ticket does not cover this outer zone of London and I was unable to exit the station, but I at least saw the tennis stadium from the window of the train which was good enough for me haha. Other than that, I chilled for a bit at the park near Buckingham Palace and did some more walking before catching my shuttle to the Stansted Airport and spending a very uneventful night there. I then hopped on my plane back to Torino to conclude my absolutely incredible 3 week post-school trip which honestly felt like a completely separate trip from my study abroad experience. I think this trip really gave me a different perspective on Europe and myself as a whole. I accomplished so much on just this 3 week trip I even amazed myself. After traveling mostly by myself on this trip to get where I needed to go and meet up with my friends, I really developed more confidence with myself in not just being able to travel, but I think in my life in general. That's pretty much it for my England trip/3 week post-program experience. Back to Torino!

Cheers!