A Nine Year Hiatus

The first place many people think of when the UK is mentioned is London, the capital city filled with businessmen in suits, the UK's top cinema stars, the iconic skyline, street signs, gardens, and monuments, all surrounding the Thames and Big Ben/Westminster. My very first visit to London was nine years ago; I was fourteen, surrounded by 43 other kids my age and herded from place to place by four teachers like a flock of sheep. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing experience, and quite an eye-opener for a young teenager's first steps abroad.

But after nine years, things change. A lot of things change.



Shortly after I had left London in June of 2005, and then England all together when we had gone back to the mainland after spending 4th of July on the Isle of Wight to sail on an overnight ferry a few days later to France, London was completely and totally awakened and shaken. On July 7th, 2005, a series of bombings on the London Underground occurred and we only found out our first day in France as a news story appeared during lunch in line at a museum and our teacher translated and activated the emergency phone chain to let everyone know at home that we were safe.

Because we had been mere days away from being caught in the midst of it all.

So needless to say, when I purchased a £38 train ticket down south to London again, to visit the city and stay with another Gettysburgian (shout out to Em Byron!), I was a little more than hesitant to try the Underground again. But nine years changes things, and despite glancing at the Underground map in fear and complaining because Glasgow's subway was only a circle so there's no way you can get lost - I was completely fine (I can even navigate a few of the lines pretty damn well now, if I do say so myself).

Thus, in May 2014, I went back to London nearly nine years on the nose later and I did indeed have a ton of fun and realized just how different living in Scotland is to London. There's the obvious: the accents, the amount of tourists, the amount of pure tourist attractions, the weather which is in general less damp and more hot - at least the week I was there, the presence of the royal family, and then there is the not so obvious (at least not right away): the landscape - London (and England in general with a few exceptions) is much flatter than Scotland, the pigeons who know no fear, and of course the politics which for all our sakes, I'm not going to get into. We'll see if I can brave a referendum post when it actually gets nearer to the vote.

Anyway. I did a plethora of things that I never got to do when I was herded around like baby cows with 43 other students. I went to Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, just outside London, and took a studio tour of the Harry Potter Studios that legitimately made me tear up and cry. Harry Potter was my childhood from the age of eight, and to this day remains a huge part of my life. That same day, we saw the fantastic West End production of The Lion King, which blew us absolutely away. I saw 221 B Baker Street, several BBC Sherlock and Harry Potter filming locations, went to the Vikings exhibit and spent hours exploring the British Museum (Sutton Hoo burial! Lewis Chessmen! Rosetta Stone! Lindow Man!) had bagels and delicious watermelon juice for breakfast, walked through many many markets, walked up and down the Thames so many times I've lost count, looked at a bazillion book stores, sat on the green behind the London Eye and read a book in the sun, went through the awesome London Dungeons, and saw many things I also saw nine years ago like Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Big Ben and Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Millennium Bridge.

Leavesden Studios

British Museum

Helmet from the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial

The Thames, with the Shard on the left.

If you don't know what this is, I can't talk to you anymore.

Shakespeare's Globe

The Set of the Great Hall in HP

Me, with part of the set of the Gryffindor Common Room

HUGE model of Hogwarts, used for fly-over shots and the like.

The location of 221 B Baker Street in BBC Sherlock; note: actually Gower Street, near Euston train station

LION KING!

Excellent exhibit!

The Rosetta Stone

This show is ending this year - I saw it nine years ago!

REAL 221 B Baker Street

Trafalgar Square

Hyde Park Rose Garden

Tower Bridge

A nice book...

There you have it, photographic proof. It was a great, phenomenal trip and I got to do so many things that I didn't get to do before. But I was extremely glad to be back in Scotland. Scotland has been my home for the past eight or nine months and I've grown extremely fond of it. From the hills, to the people, to Glasgow. I oftentimes forget I'm living in another country because I've grown extremely comfortable living here.

But there are still more adventures to be had! Recently, I've acquired a tent and I'm planning on being eaten alive by midges and camping in the Hebrides! But before that, I'm going out to the Outer Hebrides to the Isle of Barra, to visit a very very good friend of mine, Màiri, in her natural habitat (I jest, Màiri, I jest).

Until next time...