The week leading up to Easter offered a really nice reprieve at home, as my host family was on vacation in the Netherlands, meaning that I had the entire house to myself. I must say, it was really nice to be able to cook again and do homework at the kitchen table. We had our second Diff Eq exam and a call with enmodes on Thursday. Most of Good Friday was spent in the Düsseldorf airport, and I was able to knock out a lot of work as I awaited my afternoon flight to London.
My time in England was absolutely amazing. By the time we left on Monday, I felt that I could've spent a further week in London and still barely scratch the city's surface. After I landed Friday afternoon, I hopped on the tube to meet up with Kass, Peri, and Erin, who had caught an earlier flight, On my way to Buckingham Palace, I began my personal side quest for the weekend by stopping at Stamford Bridge and Craven Cottage, home to Chelsea FC & Fulham FC, respectively. After our stop at the palace, we had Nando's for dinner, which lived up to the hype, in my opinion.
On Saturday, I was able to fulfill the item at the top of my bucket list, going to a Manchester United game at Old Trafford, My favorite sports team since my childhood, this day meant so much to me. After leaving London at 6 AM and switching trains in Derby and Stoke-on-Trent, I finally made it to Manchester. After I made my way to the west side of Manchester, I was able to grab some pre-match scran of fish & chips before making my way inside the Theatre of Dreams. I ended up having incredible seats that were essentially pitchside by the halfway line. The game itself was entertaining, and ended in a comfortable 2-0 result against struggling Everton. I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Manchester, including Manchester City's Ethiad campus on the other side of the city.
Easter Sunday was spent back in London with the group, and we were able to see quite a bit: the Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, the Museum of Natural History, and the London Eye were all stops throughout the day. I was also able to add the London Stadium (West Ham United), GTech Community Stadium (Brentford FC), and Wembley Stadium (the England National Team) to my list of stadiums visited, bringing my total up to seven. I woke up early Monday morning to make sure that I was able to catch the Emirates Stadium (Arsenal FC) and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Tottenham FC) before heading to the airport. London was incredible, my favorite city in Europe hands down, and I hope to be back in the near future.
Colby Wilkens
05/09/23
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