My Last Week in London

I'm finally free of all things academic here! I took my last final yesterday morning, so I'm spending the next two days exploring my favorite parts of the city, taking pictures of all the things I see every day and have taken for granted, and the dreaded packing.

Last week, I took my last trip out of London on a tour of the Cotswolds and Blenheim Palace. Emily and Hannah had bought discount tickets with a bunch of their friends from Skidmore, and one of them couldn't go, so I took her place. The day was great. First we went to two different towns in the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are a range of mountains in England, and home to tons of very small, quaint English villages. Exactly what you think of when you picture the English countryside. Our first stop was in Bibury- so incredibly picturesque. Beautiful gardens, creeks running through the village streets, and adorable moss and ivy covered cottages. It was straight out of a story book.

Bibury is know for it's trout farm? A little weird, yes, but the grounds of the trout farm are what's seen the the two pictures above and they really were beautiful.

Baby Sheeps!

After Bibury, we headed to our next stop, Bourton-on-the-water. Bourton was so very different from Bibury, and definitely my favorite of the those. Bibury was very small. We saw one restaurant and that's it. No shops, no grocery stores or pharmacies, nothing. Bourton was much more modern in that sense. Lots of cafes, boutiques, touristy things. A much more modern town, yet just as charming as the prior. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of Bourton-on-the-water. We only had an hour stop there, and as Bibury didn't have any choices of places to grab a bite, we went right from the bus to a cafe to get some lunch. We were there for 20 minutes before our drink orders were taken, and since we only at this point had 30 minutes before the bus left, we abandoned our table to find something a bit quicker. We settled on fish and chips from this ma and pop shop. They were cheap, delicious, and pretty sure are the cause of any heart attack I may have in the future. I got chicken nuggets and small chips- and my total was only 4 pounds. I love the prices outside of London. We scarfed down our food, then headed back to the bus for the main attraction of the day- Blenheim Palace.

Our tour guide tried to play up Bourton-on-the-water by telling us it is the "world renown Venice of the Cotswolds" While pretty, it ain't no Venice.

Blenheim Palace was amazing. I didn't even know what it was before the tour, but I absolutely loved it. I'm sad I didn't visit there until my last few weeks because a one day ticket is good for an entire calendar year, and I would absolutely go back had I had the time. Blenheim it turns out was the birthplace of Winston Churchill, and is now home to his descendants in the Spencer (yep, the Princess Di Spencer's) family. The inside was really neat, lots of relics and information about Churchill that was fascinating. I knew nothing about him before going, but learned so much and really am intrigued by his life. For example, he invented the romper, had a series of Hallmark cards, and was a drunk with impeccably good insults. Our tour guide told us a story of a confrontation at which point someone called him a drunk, and he responded "Yes, I am a drunk, but when I wake up in the morning I will be sober, and when you wake up in the morning, you'll still be ugly." Well played Mr. Churchill, well played. The gardens really were the most magical part of the palace. Fountains, lakes, dozens of themed gardens, and lucky for us, a jousting match (for whatever reason) was going on that day in one of the main courtyard areas. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that British batteries do not function in American electronics, so my camera stopped working and I couldn't take very many pictures. Blenheim very much reminded me of the Blarney Castle in Ireland. People go there for the actual castle, but it really is the ground that take your breath away. To date, Blarney is still one of my favorite places, so I loved the similarities between the two.

 

The past few days I've been trying to sneak in as many last minute things around London as I possibly can. Friday I went to see my third West End show- Singing in the Rain. It was absolutely fantastic. The story is classic, but they used real rain and had the audience get rained on at points, and overall is was just a great comedic show. I've also been exploring some areas that I hadn't yet been to in London like Neal's Yard and Borough Market- both excellent. 

Tower Of London

Neal's Yard- perfection.

Diamond Jubilee decorations are up in force through all the main streets in the city.

Han and my impromptu photo shoot in St. James

It's really surreal that in literally 60 hours to the minute I'll be landing at Dulles. A week ago time couldn't go by fast enough, I was absolutely ready to go home, but now I'm tearing up just thinking about leaving. This place has been my home for the past five months, and leaving it, without knowing when I'll next be back is so sad. I've done so much here, yet I still feel like there are so many parts of the city and things to do that I haven't yet experienced, and I hate knowing that I'm probably not going to be able to do/see them all before I leave. Tomorrow Lara and I are doing my final full day with a bang going to Abbey Road and Primrose Hill. We've tried before to visit Abbey Road but it was pouring rain so we bailed in lieu of going another day, and Primrose Hill has arguably the best view of the city.  It's breathtaking, and absolutely appropriate for my last day here. I've already had to say some goodbyes, two yesterday in fact with Hannah-who is probably the person I'm closest to here, and Sarah- my neighbor next door who's been my partner in crime the past few weeks. I just cant believe it's coming to a close. I remember like yesterday how miserable the first few weeks here were until I got my footing, and now I can't imagine leaving. It's safe to say I'm probably going to be a hot mess the next two days as the whole situation is so bittersweet. I am seriously so excited to be back home, in my house, with my friends and family, petting my cats, not spending absurd amounts when I go out to eat, driving, but I've been so accustomed to city life that it's going to be to a definite culture shock coming back. I'm gonna miss so much about living in the city, yet I have so many plans for concerts, races, beach trips, moving into our new house in Fred, rumors of skydiving this summer that I think for now, I'm more excited than sad to go home. Talk to me in two weeks, I'm sure I'll be itching to be back here by then. I've been working on another post to kind of sum up my trip, so I'll probably get around to posting that tomorrow or Friday as I'm waiting in the airport!