During my fifth week studying abroad in London, I spent a decent amount of time in transit, visiting different locations that I had heard about prior to my arrival to the city. Some of my adventures were for pleasure and others were for class. Here is a detailed description of my fifth week, which started in London and ended in Cambridge.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

On Wednesday, I started my day off by visiting Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station. As an avid Harry Potter fan, when I learned before I arrived in London that I would be staying in the King’s Cross-area, I knew that 9 3/4 would be one of my first stops in the city. When Erin and I got there, we wandered through the large station toward platform 9. One of the aspects of the station that amazed me was how much cleaner it was compared to train stations in the U.S. like Penn Station. The ceiling is a soft purple and is shaped like a dome, giving the entire station a surreal glow, especially when the sunlight from outside is beating down on the transparent part of it. Once we arrived at 9 3/4, we waited on line before it was finally our turn and we each got to use the props available. Naturally, I wore a Hufflepuff scarf to represent my Hogwarts House and I held Albus Dumbledore’s wand as I posed by the trolley that appeared to be halfway through the platform wall.

After leaving the station, we still had a fair amount of time before class at 4 p.m., so we decided to visit Piccadilly Circus. After leaving the underground, we walked around, looking at the countless shop windows and displays. Deciding to veer off down a side street, we stumbled upon a patch of restaurants and after being convinced by a woman eating on the terrace of one, we went inside to have lunch at a buffet-style restaurant called Tibits. It was absolutely delicious and relatively inexpensive, and the restaurant itself had a warm aura, decorated in shades of red and orange.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

On Thursday, my British Women’s Literature course visited the Feminist Library during the final hour of our class. We left Russell Square and took a bus several stops before arriving and then were given free reign to look around. Although the space was small because the local community runs it, it was full of fascinating feminist writing and documents, detailing the history of the women’s rights struggle in Europe. What I found to be the most fascinating about looking at the history of women’s rights in Europe was how it differed from the struggle for equality in the United States. Upon mentioning that idea to my professor, she made it a point to explain that Europe and the U.S. often have different priorities when it comes to the struggles that they focus their efforts on overcoming.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Another class trip that I went on was to the British Museum with my Politics of Religion course. Visiting the museum for the second time, I got another opportunity to look at the history of various cultures throughout the world. We were there for two and a half hours and visited numerous exhibits, looking both at the Middle East and western civilizations. Admittedly, it did feel prolonged after a short amount of time because we were largely left to our own devices and had to stay in the same room as the rest of the class.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

When Saturday rolled around, we got up far earlier than is ever preferred — 7:30 a.m. and to top it off, I had a sore throat — and met other CIEE students in the lobby so that we could all walk to King’s Cross Station, where we would take a train from platform 0 to Cambridge. CIEE organized a day-tour for us, where we were able to go on a 90-minute walking tour and see the different cultural sites. Before we started the tour, we stopped at a market and had 20 minutes to buy a snack or drink. I ended up having a delicious treat called a lemon drizzle and then some freshly squeezed orange juice, neither warming me up, but both hitting the spot. Afterwards, some of the locations that we visited were King’s College, Queen’s College and the Cavendish Laboratory, where James Watson and Francis Crick worked on studying the structure of DNA. There was also a building that we passed that had a marker on it for Alan Turing, who was a computer scientist and code breaker that cracked Nazi codes for the Allies during World War II. Seeing the marker was an exciting moment because I immediately recognized his name from The Imitation Game, where Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Turing. Nonetheless, despite seeing these interesting sites throughout the entire time that we were walking, it was hard to focus on anything more than how it was so unbearably cold and snowy.

After we finished our tour, we were all given the opportunity to split off and go our own ways. While everyone else would be returning to the station later in the evening, Erin and I would be staying with my cousin and aunt, both of whom live in Cambridge, for the night. Therefore, we had more time to enjoy the city as it started to gradually warm up, but to avoid the temperamental weather; we decided to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is where we met my cousin, Seb. The museum was much more interesting to Erin and myself than the British Museum. It included various historical artifacts from different cultures, including Europe, the Middle East and North America. Our favorite part was easily the room full of armor that showed not only what soldiers wore, but also their weapons that they used in battle.

Afterwards, we decided to go to lunch at Wagamama, a chain that is also in London that serves Asian food. I chose to get Wagamama Ramen, which has grilled chicken, prawns and mussels on top of noodles in a miso, and we were all given free green tea. Despite being a chain, I would absolutely return to the restaurant, especially because I want to try their seafood ramen. One of the highlights of lunch — besides the delicious food — was easily watching Erin attempt to use chopsticks and fail miserably every time. Once we finished lunch, we walked around the market again as it was closing up before going to a café where one of Seb’s friends works at to get some drinks and kill time before his shift started at the pub where he works. Seb ordered a cappuccino, and Erin and I both ordered mango lemonade, which I am still thinking about and want more of as soon as possible. Then, we had a bit of red wine before he eventually went off to work and we went to get something to eat. Thanks to my incessant craving for fries, we ended up at Pizza Hut, where we got chicken bites for an appetizer, and garlic bread and fries as individual sides. It was so warm — a nice contrast from the rest of the day — and was possibly the most satisfying to eat.

Finally, we ended up walking to his pub, The Flying Pig, once we finished eating. The pub was closed to the general public because it was hosting a former bartender’s birthday party, but Seb asked prior to our arrival and we were allowed to join the festivities. The Flying Pig is a traditional English pub and is decorated in such a cool way, with vintage band and show posters littering the walls and ceiling. As we arrived at around 9:30 p.m., the live music was already in full swing. The band members who were performing consisted of the former bartender whose birthday it was and some of his friends, and everyone was dancing. We ended up staying there until 2:30 a.m. before we took a taxi back to Seb’s house, where we would end up going to bed at 4 a.m. only to wake up four and a half hours later to catch a train back to King’s Cross Station.

My fifth week was easily one of my favorites so far while studying abroad and I truly enjoyed getting the opportunity to not only see more of London, but also see Cambridge. Since my sixth week abroad was spent writing final papers for my courses and not traveling, there will not be a week six installment. However, Ari’s Adventures Abroad will resume the following week to detail my trip to Paris!