They Speak English!

During Easter weekend, two other guys from my program and I met up with two of my friends who are studying abroad in Italy for a birthday celebratory weekend. It was such a great weekend to be with friends and be in a place where we could actually understand the language!

Day 1

We stayed in a hostel that was in a very nice neighborhood in London and located very close to everything. After a small stop at a café for some coffee, we headed towards the Thames where we saw Big Ben, Westminster, and the London Eye. We also headed to a great outdoor market called the Borough Market with tons of tent vendors selling meat, chocolates, cookies, cheeses, fresh made juices, etc. If you are ever in London, you have to go to this market. It was really cool! We also visited a cool section of upside down umbrellas right outside the market. One thing interesting about the London skyline is the mix of old and new architecture. There are actually a large amount of contemporary glass buildings, one being the Shard. It was one of my favorite new buildings in London. You can’t go to London and not go to Platform 9 ¾ so we headed to King Cross Station and took a picture in front of the famous platform sign from the Harry Potter movies. After a full day of sight seeing, we didn’t get back to the hostel until about 9:30 PM and we still needed to grab dinner. To our chagrin, almost all of the restaurants around us were closed or the kitchen had closed and they were only serving drinks. We deduced that they were closed due to Good Friday. The only place that was still serving food was an Indian restaurant so we decided to eat there! Very random but the food was actually very good!

Day 2

Our hostel was located right next to a large park called Hyde Park. One of my favorite aspects of London was all of the parks and beautiful gardens. They also have “Cycle Hires” all around the city where you pay £2 for a day to rent a bike. You simply ride it until the next docking station, where you can dock it until you need it again. We decided to bike to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We were shocked to see all of the tourists and people all around the building. I was hoping the queen would make an appearance since it was Easter weekend but that did not happen. After a quick stop here, we decided to go to the British Museum where there are artifacts from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone. My favorite part was the huge section on Roman life. When I took Latin in high school, I really enjoyed learning about the Roman culture. I surprisingly remembered a lot of things I had learned in Latin class. Next, we headed to go see the Tower of London Bridge. One of my favorite stops that day was at Abbey Road, the famous crosswalk where the Beatles shot a famous album cover. It was hilarious trying to walk across and pose while simultaneously trying to prevent getting hit from oncoming traffic. Let me say, London drivers are not the friendliest of drivers. I’m not sure pedestrians get the right of way. We then headed to dinner at a great London pub, where we celebrated my birthday properly with a cake and candle! Sydney made sure there was a candle for my birthday!

Day 3

We were sad to see Syd and Will go as they headed out early Sunday morning to head back to Italy. It was very different not being with my family on Easter but luckily we got to go to the Hillsong Church in London, which was awesome! There was amazing worship (which was much needed since I haven’t had much of that while being Germany) and a very unique presentation on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Mitchell and Aaron wanted to spend some more time in the British Museum so while they went back there, I found a coffee shop and called back home to talk with my family for Easter. It was a beautiful day so we rented bikes again and rode around the city for a little bit, stopping by Buckingham Palace again, riding through some parks, and enjoying the beautiful day. The previous night, we had seen a Mexican food restaurant and had to go get some Mexican food, even though we knew it wouldn’t be as good as the Tex Mex back home. We invited our two Australian friends staying in the hostel with us who were awesome. It was hilarious to see them start sweating as they ate the “spicy” food (It actually wasn’t spicy at all haha).

Day 4

Our last day! We didn’t fly out until that night so we still had pretty much the whole day. We went to the British Science Museum right down the street from our hostel, which was really well done (and it was FREE!). I could have spent hours in there as there were all sorts of exhibitions on space, biology, the science behind taste and marketing by food companies, the history of steam engines, etc. After leaving the Science museum and grabbing lunch, we decided to go to a bookstore to get a book since there are no English books in Germany (or at least not a wide selection of English books). We stopped in one of those “typical” bookstores you see in movies; It was very quaint and smelled like old books. I got a book called Over the Ocean about a couple that immigrates to London from Austria during World War II. They are then forced to leave London and are taken separately to Australia as refugees. I read the first ten chapters on the plane home. It’s really good so far! Before heading back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the airport, we stopped at a coffee shop and enjoyed a cup of coffee and the beautiful weather.

Besides Spring Break, this was my favorite trip I have taken while studying abroad. The people that went were awesome and the two groups of friends (one from my Bioscience program and the other from the Italy Architecture program) got along so well. It was a very fun weekend without any problems, just fun! Not to mention, everyone spoke English so it was a breath of fresh air to be able to completely understand everyone. It’s crazy to think that was really my last trip before the end of the program, but I’ve gotten to see some really cool places. I just realized I have been to eight countries in the past three months. CRAZY!

School is incredibly busy right now from our Biochemistry lectures and tutoring sessions, to our Physiology lectures and labs. Last week, the students in Biochem (three of us) had four hours of lecture almost every day. So just in case it seems like I am only playing, I am definitely working. I just say we work hard and play hard.

There are only two weeks of regular lecture and then finals week before our program ends. It feels like yesterday I was arriving in Bonn. I am incredibly excited for my parents and two aunts to arrive at the end of the program. After coming to Bonn, we will fly into Milan and spend some time in the Tuscany area. We are all very excited! Look out for that blog post in May!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories!