A Very British Weekend

From the Roman Baths to the Jane Austen Centre to the Harry Potter studio tour, it's been a packed - and British! - weekend.

Saturday the whole summer school took a day trip to Bath, which was incredible. I had looked up specific places that I wanted to see while we were there and managed to hit all of them! It also helped that we had a good six hours to spend there so that we could explore as much of the city as possible.

Our first stop was, of course, the Roman Baths. Our group had a bit of an addition to it - we were followed for part of the day by a film crew making a promotional video for the summer school. They were very non-intrusive, though, and fun to be around, so they didn't disrupt our day at all. After some footage of our initial reaction to the entrance, they left us alone to explore.

I didn't know just how much of the baths had been preserved - I was expecting just the main pool, but there's much, much more in the museum that's available to view. They also had actors and actresses portraying Roman life both on screen in the museum and outside by the main bath, which reminded us of the fact that life actually happened where we were standing. Thousands of years ago, people got good news, bad news, and relaxed after a long day in the same place we were occupying. It's especially weird to think about coming from the States, where we don't have much that's very old due to the fact that colonists destroyed the majority of it, so it was a special treat for the Americans.

Entrance to the baths!

View of the baths

You're not allowed to actually bathe here, but you can for a price at the Thermae Bath Spa.

Oldest inscription at the museum

Ancient altar, with some not so ancient additions

Chloe and I on ground level at the baths - Midwest girls!

After the Roman baths we walked over to The Circus and then to the Royal Crescent. The homes are absolutely beautiful, and the Royal Crescent was used as a filming location for Jane Austen's Persuasion. 

The Circus!

Royal Crescent at Bath

Just hanging out in front of my future multi-million dollar home

Before going to lunch, Lindy and I filmed a short interview in front of the Royal Crescent for the promotional video. It was super casual, but it made me laugh how many people were peering at us trying to decide if we were important or not because we were being filmed. I'm sure they were sorely disappointed we were just a couple of Americans. 

After a delicious (though pricey) lunch at The Slug and Lettuce, I split off with Ian to go to the Jane Austen Centre! It was perfect timing since I'll be taking a class on her this semester, so I loved being able to walk around a town where she lived and learn more about her life and the time in which she lived. 

Sign and mannequin outside of the museum

Fan language - I had no idea that there were so many things to communicate!

Tea was kept under lock and key. 

Putting Darcy's income into perspective - no wonder Mrs. Bennet was so keen.

Example of a writing desk!

I also had the opportunity to try my hand at writing with a quill (I'm terrible at it). They have a room available where you can have tea just like you would have in the nineteenth century, but they were completely booked and we didn't have the time, anyway. We did have to go through the centre a little faster than I would have liked due to the time we spent on lunch, but no big deal - I got to go.

After the museum, we walked around Bath and saw different landmarks. We saw filming locations for Pride and Prejudice and Les Miserables, the Pulteney Bridge, and Bath Abbey. The Pulteney Bridge is actually kind of underwhelming - the architecture is impressive and it's cool that you can't tell you're on a bridge, but I didn't really see why it was a "must-see" of Bath. But it was on my list, so I could mark it off! I really enjoyed Bath as a whole, though - it's a gorgeous city with a ton of history. I would definitely go back! (I'm starting to wonder whether that sentence has any meaning anymore. I would go back to every single place I've visited on this trip.)

We finished off our Saturday by heading to The Firehouse, which is a local pub. (The one that was the inspiration for The Leaky Cauldron.) They were playing live music and it was a great time hanging out with friends. Also, they serve the most amazing drink - toffee apple cider.

The delicious toffee apple cider. Why can't I be 21 so I can take you home?? 

Classy by candlelight - which is the only thing the Firehouse is lit by other than Christmas lights.

I went back early, however, because I had to make sure that I was ready to catch my Sunday train...to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.

I have pictures and souvenirs as proof that I was there, but it still doesn't feel real. I think someone else may have taken my place yesterday? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that after years of dreaming of being able to walk on set - but never actually believing that was possible - I actually got to go. So as you can imagine, this was me before getting on my train to London yesterday:

Kept it all in, though. Outwardly I was totally cool.

Getting there was an unexpected ordeal, though. My first train ride from Exeter to London Paddington was a very smooth journey with no issues - got to the station early, picked up my tickets, got to my platform - easy. When I arrived at Paddington, I thought my next leg - taking the Underground to London Euston - would be just as simple. 

Nope.

As it turns out, the Underground train that I was supposed to take is not, in fact, in the main 'Underground' area of London Paddington. You have to go down past all of the platforms, go up the stairs, over the walkway, down a hallway, down some other stairs, and THEN you find the correct line. But was I aware of this when I arrived at the station? Unfortunately, no. So I followed the signs to the Underground, checked the routes on my map, and slowly realized that none of the lines in this station would take me to London Euston. Cue slight panic mode. 

I went back up the stairs into the main station, and a super nice man at the information desk eventually gave me the directions that I needed. (He also apparently thought I was from somewhere other than the U.S. Is my accent not a dead giveaway?) Directions were great, but this was now twenty minutes from the time my train would leave from London Euston, and it was going to be about a twelve minute Underground ride to get there.

I power-walked to the platform and had to stop myself from dancing in place as I waited for the thing to just show up already. The train eventually came, I jumped on it, and managed to get to Euston Square at about 3:09. My train was due to leave at 3:14. And another detail - as it turns out, I couldn't take the Underground direct to Euston Station, which is where the train left from. I took it to Euston Square, which is a block away.

Thank god I ran track in high school. I quite literally ran through the streets of London, got a couple looks, prayed that the building I was heading to was actually the station, ran through the building, scanned for what platform my train was leaving from, found the platform, found the train, and jumped on.

It was 3:13. 

So after THAT stressful experience that took ten years off my life, I made it to the bus stop that would take me to the studio tour. It was kind of difficult to miss.

It only plays music from the soundtrack while you ride.

And eventually, I was greeted with this wonderful sight!

I was so happy to be there. We arrived about an hour and a half before my tour time, so I was able to take my time in the gift shop to buy souvenirs and sit in the on-site café for a bit of dinner before my tour. (Even the gift shop has real props on display - though they're not for sale.)

Then, at 5:30, it was time! I had to wait in line for awhile, but then we were ushered into a room with three long, rectangular screens on two walls. A worker (whose name was also Lauren) introduced us to the studio tour and then rolled video footage across all six screens, which was telling the story of how the rights to the first book were purchased to turn it into a film. After that introduction, we moved into the next room, which looked more like a movie theater. Here they played a clip filmed especially for the tour, with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint telling us about the studios and all of the hard work that had gone into making the movies. At the end of the clip, instead of going into another room to start the tour, the movie screen lifted into the air - and this was what we saw:

Best start to a tour or best start to a tour?

The doors open into the Great Hall, which is where our tour began.

High Table at the Great Hall. The set is absolutely magnificent.

I took over 200 pictures at the tour, so I'm obviously not going to post them all here. But these are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday!

Gryffindor common room 

Hanging out in Dumbledore's office!

Even the portraits have backstories. That is some insane detail.

More prop detail - Lily's letter to Sirius from the 7th book, word for word. 

Butterbeer!

Standing on the actual Diagon Alley. Incredible. 

I spent about two hours in the actual tour, but I could have spent much longer. To be honest, there is no amount of time that would have been enough - I would have spent ages looking at one prop before moving on to the next one. I think the record is thirteen hours - I understand why! But I think that I saw everything there was to see, and I'm incredibly grateful that I even got to go at all. I absolutely LOVED my experience. Plus, I got a bonus - they're currently running their 'Summer Spells' show at the tour, so I got to see more behind the scenes stuff than during a normal time! 

The ride back to Exeter was much less eventful than the ride to the tour, though I was a bit sad to have to leave. I did get a laugh while waiting for my train, though. My train from London to Exeter was leaving from Platform 9, and since I'd arrived early, I went to go sit in the waiting room. I looked up and realized that the waiting room was situated exactly between Platforms 9 and 10 - my own personal 9 3/4. 

Now you know that English majors can find symbolism in everything!

Also, special thanks to Lindy, Brad, and Ronuk for picking me up from the train station at 12:30 last night - it was great to see smiling faces waiting for me!

Be on the lookout for a post about my Monday later on tonight. :)

How do I love thee, London? Let me count the words.

London, how do I even begin to explain you? I only got a few days there and I definitely was not ready to leave, even though I was leaving for another interesting city. London drew me in with a vibe that's incredibly unique. I've finally marked another city off of my travel bucket list, but I'm adding it to my 'must revisit' list! There's so much to say that I can already tell this is going to be a very long blog post...bear with me.

Even though I only arrived on Saturday, it feels like I've been here a week since so much has been crammed into our schedule. Thankfully, my flight was relatively uneventful. I managed to score an aisle seat and watched British TV and movies in honor of the country I was headed to. Even though I don't sleep well on airplanes, I crashed during Pride and Prejudice right after Darcy's first failed attempt at a proposal and woke up in time to watch an episode of Downton Abbey before we landed. I don't think I've ever appreciated coffee as much as I did when it was handed to me right before the end of a red-eye flight! 

After I landed and made it past Customs and a man in a purple suit (which made me smile), I somehow did not get lost in the massive Heathrow Airport, caught the correct express to a different terminal, and found the Exeter group. I was lucky enough to run into more International Summer School students on the express train over, so I didn't feel quite as intimidated as I probably would have walking up to the group by myself. One of the girls that I met at the station ended up being my roommate, a girl from the University of Kentucky named Lindy. As it turns out, we're both also on the Shakespeare track, which is perfect! 

The fabulous Lindy.

I explored London on my own for the first time after we checked in at the hotel. I was on a mission - find an international cell phone. (Wait, correction - mobile phone. I am in England, after all.) Since the universe let me find my way around the airport successfully, of course when I was actually let loose on the city I got myself turned around. I walked into two or three different shops before I finally found where the hotel clerk had directed me, but that just made me more proud of myself when I was able to find my way back to the hotel after taking the most roundabout way possible of buying a phone. We had dinner at the Strand Palace Hotel that night and I was able to meet everyone else with whom I'll be studying for the next few weeks. I don't think I've ever been at such a geographically diverse dinner table in my life - together, we represented the USA, India, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, and China! We explored more of downtown London on our own in the evening and eventually headed to bed - way too late, thanks to jet lag. 

The next morning we started our first full day in London, which of course was absolutely PACKED. I had my first real English breakfast, and despite the stereotype that English food is terrible, I've really enjoyed everything I've eaten here. We started off by breaking into small groups of twelve (our group leader is a guy named Adam who seems much older than his 19 years) and going on a walking tour of London. We covered a good portion of central London in about two hours, including The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace. 

Big Ben!

Me and Lindy in front of Buckingham Palace

Lion in Trafalgar Square!

And thanks to our excellent tour guide, we got a great spot for the Changing of the Guard right when it started! 

We saw so much more than just the big ticket items I mentioned, but it would take me all day to list all of the trivia that I learned during those two hours. After the tour, we had a free afternoon until 5 that evening. Lindy and I met up with a girl from India, Anukripa, and checked out the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square to start. The Gallery has enough amazing art that we could have spent the entire afternoon there, but we managed to at least pull ourselves away for lunch…and WiFi. (This may or may not prove that millennials are eternally plugged in. I plead the fact that I wanted to meet up with friends in London and needed to give them my international phone number over Facebook.) After a quick lunch, we saw the British Library and King's Cross Station. The library was incredible and King's Cross was more exciting to nerdy me than I wanted to let on. 

Entrance to the British Library

In front of the King's Library!

Platform 9 3/4

On my way to Hogwarts!

The three of us took the Tube for the first time to get to those two places, and we felt like resourceful travelers figuring it out on our own. Also, the 'look right' or 'look left' signs painted on the road probably saved my life more than once. 

Seriously. Thank you.

Just by walking around we got to see more of London, which I loved. Eventually we made it back to the hotel for a very short break and then left to see Macbeth at the Globe Theater!

The stage!

A blurry picture of Lindy, me, and Anu before the ushers kicked us out of the theatre.

We had standing room tickets, which made watching the play more than a little painful after a day full of walking. I think my feet may have actually cried at one point in time. But the performance more than made up for it - it was absolutely stunning. I was so moved by the actors and was so captivated that I almost forgot the pain in my feet. Almost. Getting to go was completely worth all the pain! Not to mention the fact that the actor who plays Pippin in LOTR played Banquo, which just made the experience even greater. 

Our final day was Monday, which started off with a big announcement - Kate Middleton had gone into labor! Interestingly enough, as I'd find out as the day went by - your average Londoner couldn't have cared less. Americans and the media were much more invested in this than anyone actually in Britain - the general attitude over here has been "Who cares? Someone else is having a baby, that's nothing new." Business as usual progressed in London, completely contrary to all of the media hype.

The Exeter students started our day in the groups of 12 again, this time heading off to the Tower of London to begin. I loved learning about all of the history that happened there and seeing different relics from early time periods. Though I saw White Tower, the Bloody Tower, and the chapel, my favorite would have to be witnessing the Crown Jewels in person. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed inside, so I had to make do with taking a picture of the sign.

Entrance to the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London!

One of the more impressive towers

Green space at the Tower of London

I'd also like to point out that according to an interactive exhibit, I am a natural born archer. I mean, just saying. 

After the Tower of London, we went on a Thames river cruise, which was a great opportunity for both a breeze on a hot day and some great photography. (They actually weren't kidding about the London heatwave. It's legitimately hot, even coming from New Orleans.) After the cruise we had a short lunch break and I ordered my very first fish and chips. In true tourist fashion, I took a picture.

We visited the British Museum after lunch, which was incredible. I wish I had had more energy to stay and walk through every exhibit, but the building is massive. I teamed up with another American and a girl I'd met from Zimbabwe to tour the museum, and the three of us made the mistake of sitting down. After that, we were toast. I did get to see the Rosetta Stone, however, which was truly the only thing that I would have been upset about missing. 

After a short break at the hotel we went to dinner back at the Strand Palace Hotel, which was delicious once again. After dinner was my favorite, however - I finally got to meet up with my friend Evangeline!

Smile big!

I hadn't seen her since last May when she moved back to London, so it was great to see her and catch up. We had a great time walking around the city and she showed me parts of London on the other side of the Thames that I hadn't gotten to yet, which was great! I loved catching up with an old friend and spending time with her. And catching up on gossip, of course. All the gossip. 

Reunited after more than a year

That pretty much covers my time in London, and it's incredible that two and a half days were able to hold all of that activity. I just arrived in Exeter this afternoon, and I can't wait to find out what my time here will hold!