London

February 17-21
This week was reading week at McMaster, and a few of our friends had planned to come meet us in London for the week. It was SO nice to see some friends from home and catch up! 
Accommodations: Astor Hyde Park Hostels – my first hostel experience. Overall I really enjoyed it. It was clean, felt very safe, and a great environment to meet new people. Breakfast was £1 for some self-serve cereal and toast, with tea and coffee.

Hostel Room

Day 1 – Feb 17
We met our roommates; one of them was from Dublin, living in the hostel for a month while she worked for a famous fashion designer for London Fashion week. She told us bout the £25,000 dress they made for Beyoncé, who then decided she didn’t want to wear it anymore… Naturally, they moved on to trying to sell it to Taylor Swift. 

Benji (friend from high school) met us at the hostel and we explored Hyde Park for a while before meeting Sarah, Lauren, (housemates from McMaster) and Jess (their friend from home) at their hotel in Westminster. We went for dinner at a nice French restaurant, and then to a pub after.

The Crew

Day 2 – Feb 18

We did the Natural History Museum in the morning, and it was fun, but we could not stop focusing on our plans for later that day – HARRY POTTER WB STUDIO TOURS!! We had a great lunch at an Italian restaurant in South Kensington, and then we made our way to the WB studios, about an hour and a half north of the city. There’s no way I can explain everything we saw, or put in even a sliver of the photos I took there, but I’ll just say this: it surpassed even my highest expectations. Everything they used to film the movie was there– sets, props, costumes, wigs, everything! Including a quick break for Butterbeer ice cream, we spent a total of 4 hours exploring.

Day 3 – Feb 19

Benji, Katherine, and I spent the morning exploring Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, both of which were amazing. At the Tower of London, we learned about the 1000 years of rich history that unfolded there. We also got to see The Crown Jewels– the Queen’s working collection regalia (crowns and other objects used at coronation ceremonies).

View of Tower Bridge from the Tower of London

In the afternoon, we met up with Sarah, Lauren, and Jess at Camden Town. This was such a cool neighbourhood, known for its alternative street markets and music venues, filled with vintage stores and an amazing area of food stalls offering food from every country imaginable. I had a delicious Argentinian steak sandwich, and few of us shared Dutch Pancakes for dessert. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the markets and shops.

Dutch Pancakes

In the evening, we did a Jack the Ripper tour – this one comes with a funny story. Our tour started at 7:30, but we were running late and didn’t make it to the meeting spot until 7:40. We were wondering what would happen, speculating that the group would be small and they would notice when 7 people were missing and wait for us. When we arrived to the meeting spot, nobody was to be seen. Unsure what to do, we looked up the tour’s itinerary on their website and started tracing their path. After some running (including Benji running down an alley that was the first Jack the Ripper murder location), we found our group- which was much bigger than we expected, explaining why they left without us! After the tour, we went out for our final dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby, in a location that is supposedly the inspiration for Diagon Alley – although I’m becoming skeptical about these stories considering I have now been in 4 different ‘Diagon Alleys.’

Day 4 – Feb 20

Buckingham Palace

All of our friends had left for Toronto early that morning, so Katherine and I had planned a full day filled with some major attractions. First was Westminster Abbey, my favourite stop of the day, with its beautiful architecture and fascinating history. My favourite part was reading the graves of the thousands of people buried in the Abbey, and finding some personal heroes. Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton are buried in the Abbey, as well as Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, and Rupert Browning in the ‘Poet’s Corner,’ with a memorial to Lewis Carroll. Next we went to Churchill’s War Rooms, the actual underground headquarters and shelter where Churchill and his government directed the efforts during World War 2. Then we went to explore the grounds of Buckingham Palace, walked through Trafalgar Square and Chinatown to a pub for dinner (with some sticky toffee pudding).

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Day 5 – Feb 21

Katherine and I met up with my cousin Benji for brunch for some delicious pancakes and French toast. Then Katherine and I visited the British Museum (we followed the top 10 things to see list, including the Rosetta Stone and parts of the Parthenon) before heading to the train station. 

We were sitting upstairs in Kings Cross station doing some work, and we heard announcements of delays and cancellations of trains to Leeds. They told us we had to get a train to York that was leaving very soon, and there were about 3 trains worth of people trying to get on this one train. When they announced the platform the train was at, EVERYONE started sprinting towards the train, Katherine and I included. We ran past everyone and managed to find seats on the train, and watched as people filed in filling all of the aisles. To add even more drama, I HAD TO PEE SO BADLY THE ENTIRE TIME… It was too difficult to get past everyone to the bathroom. It was a long train ride to York with delays, and then another 20-minute train from York to Leeds, but we made it home (2 hours later than expected). 

Week of Feb 8

Bierkeller

On Tuesday night, we went to Bierkeller, a traditional German pub with karaoke nights on Tuesdays. They had 2 for 1 beer steins and wooden tables/benches that everyone stands up/dances on to their favourite karaoke songs. I am quickly learning that Mr. Brightside is a staple song here – I think I have heard it play on every night out, but I’m definitely not complaining! No pictures this week (see the next paragraph about my phone)... but this was my favourite night out, and I will definitely be back, so there will be pictures of Bierkeller another week.

Phone Troubles

Unfortunately, my phone totally stopped working on Tuesday and after speaking to some people at the Apple store on Wednesday, I was told that it was not fixable. Luckily, my mom is sending her old phone over with some friends who are visiting next week, so I’ll have to go 1 week without a phone.

Update: It's Monday, and it has been SO weird not having a phone with me at all times. I make plans to meet someone somewhere, and I just have to go there for the expected time and hope they show up! I also haven't been able to take any photos this week, which is kind of upsetting. On the upside, it is nice to be disconnected for a bit, and it has definitely made me realize how much we miss by staring at our screens all day!

Teddy Bear Hospital 

On Friday, Katherine and I volunteered for a program called Teddy Bear Hospital. We went to a local primary school and met with a class of 3-4 year olds; they were so cute with their accents, I couldn’t handle it! The goal of the program is to get kids comfortable with the idea of going to the doctor to reduce their fear when it happens in real life, as well as to teach them about a healthy lifestyle. I ran the dentistry station, where I taught them about what happens at the dentist and how to brush their teeth properly. I always asked what type of food is bad for your teeth, and I always got the answer, “Too much sweeties!”

The Otley Run

Friday night was the night our residence had organized the legendary Otley Run: a famous pub-crawl in Leeds, and a right of passage for any Leeds student. It is meant to be a 16-pub, all day event starting in the afternoon, where you get a pint of beer at each bar. Our group’s plan was to start at 6pm and make our way to campus, ending at Fruity Friday (Fruity is the club on campus). Everybody who is doing the Otley run dresses in costumes (which they call ‘fancy dress’), and almost every night out you will see large groups of people around the city dressed up in crazy costumes! 

We were meant to dress in a costume that starts with the letter of the block we live in. We are in block H, so my flat mates and I dressed as hippies. We made it in to 8 of the bars between The New Inn and The Terrace (on campus), and had a lot of fun! 

Fruity, the club on campus, was not so great... McMaster friends: picture Thirsty Thursdays at TwelvEighty but with 3 separate rooms, one of which was massive and packed. 

Leeds City Museum

On Sunday, we went to the Leeds city museum – I’m not going to lie and say it was a fantastic museum, it was actually quite underwhelming. But we had fun with it, and I did learn a little bit about the very short history of Leeds, which only became a city in 1893.

GALentine's Day

It was also Valentine's Day – Claudia and I had an adorable FaceTime dinner (lunch for her) date. 

Then our friends Margo & Dilusha had a Galentine's Day party which involved tons of food and some exciting talk about travel plans. Some of our friends brought cake, dutch pancakes, fresh baked pretzels with chocolate on top... my contribution was 2 bags of Doritos and a package of kit-kats, but it’s the thought that counts right?