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After Liverpool, I took a bus down south to London – the train was like 50 pounds (aka 70 USD) while the bus was under 10 pounds, and the times were ~2.5 hours vs 6 hours, so it was a no brainer. Stayed in London for a couple of weeks with my friend Martin who is in his final year at LBS…I do have to say, after meeting him and his LBS friends in Tulum, Rome, and now in England, it’s a phenomenal advert for business school in general and LBS in particular. His place was in Marylebone, which is like in the northern edge of central London and skewing west, so it was a fantastic location – a block away from Sherlock Holmes’ place on Baker Street. Him and his roommate were nice enough to let me stay with them the entire time which made things a lot easier. Our first night, like 20 of us went to this Irish pub in Soho called Waxy O’Connor’s, which was this literal labyrinth of caved in rooms in a massive basement complex…would have been easy to get lost if drunk enough. The live musician there was phenomenal, playing through a greatest hits collection of karaoke songs (no Abba or Hey Jude but besides that he was spot on) – I Would Walk 500 Miles, Mr. Brightside, Little Lion Man, Wagon Wheel, Wonderwall, All The Small Things, etc. Just a great time.
The next day, Martin and I caught a Fulham match at their home ground of Craven Cottage. Our good friend Brad is a massive Fulham fan but is stuck saving lives in Boston as a resident, so we went on his behalf. Incredible seats in the 4th row (we must have been on TV during a couple of throw ins done right in front of us), and Fulham walloped Bristol City 6-2 to stay at the top of the Championship so it was a good time. Fulham have a reputation for being a “family” club and you can definitely tell – tons of little kids, and the atmosphere isn’t anywhere near as menacing as it was when I went to a Leeds game back in 2019 before I quit my job. Though to be fair, Leeds are in the other end of the spectrum when it comes to fan reputation…there was a ~13 year old kid in that game sitting by me being egged on by his dad while yelling and calling Swansea players “sheep shagging cunts”. I guess you take the good with the bad when it comes to a menacing match day atmosphere. There were a couple of 10-12 year olds behind us yelling innocent abuse at the Bristol players, and my favorite one was them calling a Bristol player named Atkinson “Mr. Bean”.
The following day, I went to the British Museum, which is probably the single greatest collection of global history anywhere in the world. And to top it off, it was free! It was also cool because I was seeing artifacts from places that I had already been to – Babylon, Egypt, South India, South China, Mayan Mesoamerica, Greece, etc. And of course, tons of cool stuff from places I haven’t been to, like Western China, Iran, Easter Island (they had a Easter Island head!), etc. I know there’s a lot of liberal hand-wringing about the provenance of these artifacts and how England “stole” them. Honestly I think that whole argument is a load of bullshit. It has nothing to do with “white supremacy” or “racism”…it’s just human nature. Any human civilization that conquerors another group will kill, rape, loot, and steal. The Brits (and white people, for that matter) were not uniquely bad, and what they did is what every single human society has ever done. If anything, it was a bit better because in the past everything was destroyed. Obviously I understand the case to return certain things *now*, especially if the country requesting them is stable, but overall, I think the whole thing about calling them “thieves” is just all moral grandstanding and virtue signaling to proclaim how woke of a person you are. The fault here is ultimately with human beings as a whole, not with specific societies like the British being uniquely “racist” or whatever other buzzword-of-the-day woke shitlibs want to use. Also, I feel like it is somewhat problematic to fetishize native cultures when, again, we’re all human and they are no better or worse than “the white man”. But I digress – the museum collection was probably the best I have ever seen, and I spent a good 4-5 hours wandering around. I think my favorite things there were the Maori Easter Island head, the entire India collection (especially since Omicron government restrictions have scrapped my India trip I wanted to do after England), the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean collections, and the Mesopotamian and Iranian collections.
The day after that, I went to Westminster Abbey. This is, without a doubt, the greatest collection of memorials in the world. Just an outrageous amount of famous people are buried here. Almost every single British monarch, and on top of that you have countless varied cultural luminaries like Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Roger Bannister (one of Martin’s LBS friends is his grandson, great guy), David Livingstone, Stephen Hawking, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Handel, CS Lewis, and Dylan Thomas (who is the reason Robert Zimmerman chose to go by Bob Dylan!). Plus countless British politicians and military heroes as well as memorials for tons of other famous Brits who are not actually buried there, like Churchill, Shakespeare, and Sir Francis Drake (again, like Roger Bannister, one of Martin’s LBS friends is a descendant of Drake, also a great dude. Just like Nathan Drake in the Uncharted video game series!). Seriously, just an overwhelming number of famous people here. Beyond all of this, the church itself was a fantastic Gothic masterpiece. And like I saw in York, the stained glass here is very different from French Gothic stained glass…the faces seem a bit larger and more rounded and realistic, and the windows as a whole are a good deal whiter compared to the blue that is everywhere on French stained glass windows. After that, I walked a bit south to see the Battersea Power Station, which is famously the cover of Pink Floyd’s “Animals” album (continuing the dad rock theme of England). A few days later I would of course walk by Abbey Road, which surprisingly had zero tourists crossing the street when I went. Anyways, that evening, we went to a pub owned by Ian McKellan for a trivia night – the staff that he used when playing Gandalf in the LOTR movies is on display behind the bar which was really cool. This was my first pub trivia since Utila last spring (time really flies…), and we somehow finished in 3rd place out of 15+ teams, only two questions off a tie for 1st. The absolute clear highlight of this trivia, however, was seeing Ian McKellan himself as he was hanging out with a table of friends and actually playing trivia! We didn’t want to bother him and all the others in the pub were the same, sort of letting him just be a regular dude hanging out, but it was still amazing to see Gandalf in person.
Martin and I also took a trip out to Canterbury and Dover. Canterbury Cathedral is the seat of the Anglican church and is a pretty grand cathedral, though I will say that I found the York Minster to be a bit more impressive in the exterior. The interior was certainly grand, but the extensive renovation work that was taking place meant that it was hard to appreciate the cathedral fully. Still, it was typical of the French and English gothic style with the massive flying buttresses, intricately carved tall spires, and stained glass windows. Interestingly enough, the stained glass here was more in the French style than the English style…probably since it was an older church. The cathedral is most famous for the site of the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett like 1000 years ago, and the alleged spot of his assassination is marked in the church. Besides the church, the town itself was a bit forgettable, and we grabbed a bus to go further southeast to the coast to Dover. Dover castle was unfortunately closed but we did get a glimpse at this medieval fortress while walking around town. The main thing to see here was that peak symbol of England, the White Cliffs of Dover. It was surprisingly a cool site – definitely not one of the most amazing things I’ve seen, but still a cool slice of nature nonetheless. I don’t think I have ever seen pure white cliffs before, and that novelty made up for the fact that the shoreline itself was nothing like, say, Bali or South Africa. I think the coolest thing was just that if you ever see a picture of it, you know exactly where it is, which you really can’t say about most funky coastlines.
London as a whole is a great walking around city, of course. I still maintain that it is a 1b to NYC as my 1a for best city in the world. Saw the usual tourist sites, like Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge, and the other main highlight here beyond Westminster Abbey was definitely Saint Paul’s Cathedral. It was actually a bit refreshing to see a grand baroque cathedral after all the medieval stuff in France, Spain, and England, so I think I liked it more than I otherwise would have because it was a change of pace. Like it obviously still doesn’t compare to the amazing churches in Rome but it was still a fun time to walk around. Interestingly enough, a lot of England’s military heroes, like Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, are buried here while seemingly everyone else of note is in Westminster Abbey.
On my second weekend here, I took a bus over to SW England to see my friend Toby, who was seeing his dad at the time – he typically lives in Bristol. We met in Egypt back in November 2020, so this is the 3rd Egyptian meetup I’ve had after seeing Mike in LA and Miranda in Iraq. So his dad’s place was in a small cozy town on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. Spent a few hours driving around and hiking here – it was a pretty cool green and hilly area, very “stereotypically” countryside England. Almost like a less cool version of the Yorkshire Moors, but obviously still very enjoyable with the views of the rolling meadows and hills. We stopped by an incredibly local countryside pub here which was, as per usual in England, like 500+ years old. I cannot overstate how much I like rolling into these historic pubs in the middle of nowhere while drinking pints. I mean I guess I am an Anglophile but it is just such a cool culture here, and the history really puts the cherry on top.
The next day, we drove through the Cotswolds before he dropped me off in Bristol to catch a train back to London. Our first stop was Glastonbury, which is of course famous for the annual music festival there were ~200k Brits camp out in the meadows and have a giant party. As old as I am, I would still love to go to Glasto. But the town itself was quirky, with that sort of spiritual/new age stuff and book shops selling books about lizard people taking over the world and similar nutty conspiracies – it is interesting how the spiritual types are very leftist but also very anti vax and pro conspiracy (not to say that others are not pro conspiracy…just take a look at the whole liberal media and the Russia gate nonsense the past 5-6 years). But the best part of Glastonbury was the hike up a decently tall hill overlooking the area, called Glastonbury Tor. There was this old medieval tower up top, and it had magnificent view of the surrounding countryside. Just green fields everywhere…England is legit one of the greenest countries I have ever been to. In terms of lushness I would say Uganda and Sri Lanka top the list, but England is definitely right behind. After Glastonbury, we drove over to the Bath to pick up one of Toby’s friends who took the train in from Bristol – she was a French girl who was a teacher. We then went over to Castle Combe, which is like *the* stereotypical Cotswold village. It felt like it was plucked right out of a period drama, with quintessential old stone buildings and roots growing over the houses. Literally like an English fairy tale. Very small town but it was packed with local tourists and we spent a good amount of time walking around and taking in the atmosphere. We then stopped by a random village pub for an absolutely delicious lunch – again, like the Dartmoor pub, just another old historic pub that is in the middle of nowhere. And the towns we drove through here were just so British, with names like Tiddleywink. Just loved how stereotypically British the entire Cotswolds region was. Our final stop in the Cotswolds was the town Stow-on-the-Wold, in the northern part of the region. The highlight here was a church door that allegedly inspired JRR Tolkien when he illustrated the doorway to Moria, with two yew trees growing right by on either side of the door for the side entrance to the church. The alleged oldest pub in England was also here. Definitely a much bigger town than Castle Combe, but it was nice to walk around here as well and take in the old, classically English architecture. Toby had been to Glastonbury Tor and Castle Combe but not here, and Emilie had been to Castle Combe as well but not Stow. And speaking of Tolkien, the entire Cotswold region was basically straight out of the Shire. Just an incredible place.
After getting back to London, the next day I left with Martin and 12 of his MBA friends for what was definitely the highlight of my entire time in England. They had rented a pub out in Sussex to live in for 2 days (it was a traditional countryside pub/inn so there were rooms upstairs we stayed in). On the way there – it was a 2 hour drive – we stopped by a random pub for a Sunday roast for lunch. Again, incredible atmosphere and delicious food. Roast pork, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and topped with a massive Yorkshire Pudding (which, contrary to the name, is not a pudding but a pastry bread). We then stopped by Rudyard Kipling’s estate, which was surprisingly a very cool visit. Tons of Indian and east Asian decorations yet clasically old school English vibes in the maintained house. We finally then got to the pub, which was absolutely the coziest and most homely pub I have ever been to. Like even if we went there for a regular dinner/drinks evening, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. Basically spent the next two days drinking, eating good food (one of Martin’s friends was Argentinian and cooked an incredible Argentinian lunch the second day), and hanging out. His friends were great, and it was crazy that in the 14 people there, 8 nationalities were represented…English, American, Indian, Argentinian, Norwegian, Australian, New Zealander, and Israeli. This entire trip was a great sales pitch for London Business School…the lifestyle is obviously great (and it’s possible to get a part time job doing typical corporate BS to help pay for stuff), and the diversity is second to none. Unlike American schools (*cough* Northwestern) where “diversity” is just rich kids of different skin color from NY and Cali (though to be fair, the diversity was cool in that I met theater and journalism kids, the types you would otherwise never meet in other colleges), it seems like LBS is legit diverse with people from all over the world. Even some of Martin’s friends who took a semester to go to MBA programs in the US in the fall commented on how everyone in US programs seems to be the same. And while I’ve always found the typical MBA kid in America to highkey suck, his friends here seemed way more down to earth and not as type A and neurotic, which I think is partly due to the international nature. Though obviously you do get those types of people here as well, like a lot of the guys and girls I interacted with in Tulum and Rome from his program. I do think that if I were to do an MBA it would be for something like NGO consulting (since some LBS grads who got consulting gigs were able to negotiate to 2-3 months vacation time per year), but also only abroad for the diversity, so like London/Paris/Barca (as mediocre of a city as Barca was). Anyways, one funny moment on our last night was me and 3 others went to get supplies for the night, and we spent literally over an hour driving around looking for plastic cups and ping pong balls. Got the *only* remaining 15 cups in the 5th shop we checked, and ping pong balls in the 7th shop we checked (shops 6 and 7 did not have any additional plastic cups). Even with the 15 cups, we were able to play a few super fun games of slap cup and then flip cup and beer pong afterwards (6 cup pong). Also did a very fun movie charades game the first night. But yea, makes sense since friends of friends will have similar personalities to the friend their self, but his friends were very cool. One other thing that is just so ridiculously English that came up here was the toast sandwich…this is a food item that is literally a slice of toast between two slices of bread. We all ate this as an appetizer for our first night’s dinner after it came up in conversation with me mentioning how I got a chip butty in Leeds because it sounded British, only to find out how that was a french fry sandwich between two buttered up buns.
Had just under a week in London after getting back from this trip. Took a day trip to Oxford which was a gorgeous medieval city, and caught up with a buddy from Northwestern who was getting his PhD in Physics in Pembroke College in Oxford. I had seen The Who twice in Chicago with him. But he was super nice and gave me a little private tour of campus. Gorgeous architecture everywhere, it’s just such a great college town. Though I suppose being a student there would be different with the hordes of tourists who visit every day. I also walked a little bit outside downtown to the house where JRR Tolkien lived while teaching in Oxford, to continue the LOTR theme of England (really all of England is like the Shire, with Yorkshire and the Cotswolds being the most like it). One really cool thing that the UK has that I wish the rest of the world could do is their blue plaque system. Any building/location of historic significance has a blue plaque on it that describes why the location is significant. So Tolkien’s house, the Beatles’ locations in Liverpool, the Live at Leeds location at the University of Leeds were all blue plaques. And it’s cool just walking around London and seeing random blue plaques, like the place were Penicillin was discovered or where Charles Dickens spent some time living in. Obviously not every country has the wealth of cool history that England does, but it is still a very neat system and surely can’t be that difficult to do. But yea, in Oxford we also went to allegedly the oldest pub in Oxford, the Turf Tavern, where luminaries such as Boris Johnson (who I actually applaud for his approach to Omicron) and Emma Watson have downed pints. And once again, incredible historic and cozy atmosphere inside. Another cool thing in Oxford was the Ashmolean Museum, which was basically a mini-British Museum in terms of their collection. Cool East Asian, South Asian, and Mesopotamian/Persian collections specifically.
One thing I never really appreciated about London when studying abroad was the sheer size of it. Since Queen Mary was in east London, I would just take the tube to a district, eat and drink, and head back. But now that I was staying in central London I walked around a lot, and it is crazy…takes well over an hour to get from one end of central London to the other, so I was consistently clocking like 10+ miles a day. That said, it’s a world class walking city with incredible architecture everywhere. But it is obviously super well connected by tube and bus (arguably the best public transport system I have ever seen?). And despite the exorbitant prices, it was still possible to eat cheap at Greggs and other local bakeries, or even chains like Pret. One thing that was amusing for me was that even in this sea of English speaking people, you could hear other Americans from a mile away (I’m sure it is the same for me). But our accents really do stand out in a cringe/hilarious way when abroad. Speaking of accents…I was in heaven in England. I can’t get enough of the various accents here, and lowkey my favorite British pronunciations are tomato and literally. There are also some ridiculous pronunciations like for “urninal”, which some Brits pronounce as “ur-eye-nal”. Was also happy that my limited modern British cultural knowledge (namely The Inbetweeners and The Libertines, and to a lesser extent The Stone Roses and People Just Do Nothing) turned out to be incredibly relevant. And there’s still plenty more to see here that I never really got around to, like the numerous art museums. But obviously I’ll be back in London so there’s no real rush to tick everything off for me.
On my final weekend here, I took a day trip to Northampton to visit my friend Carrick, who I had met in Utila in Honduras while scuba diving. To his credit, he remains a fan of his local team, Northampton Town FC, so I went up to see him and catch a League 2 match (the four professional leagues are League 2>League 1>Championship>Premier League, with everything below League 2 technically semi-pro). It was honestly a great experience – no offense to Fulham but I thought the crowd atmosphere here was better in terms of the chanting. Northampton are towards the top of their league and were hosting Salford, a team that is owned by a bunch of ex Manchester United legends from the 90s. Salford only brought like <100 away fans, which, even for League 2, is pitiful, while the stadium itself was probably over half full, so roughly 4k fans in a 7k capacity stadium. But even while drinking before the game at the pub down the road and at the stadium, it seemed like Carrick knew everyone – just like a very local experience, with tons of people who knew each other. Definitely felt like a “proper” English thing. And to top it off, the pints here were all 4 GBP or less, and the food at the stadium was like 3 GBP for a chicken and balti pie (the closest I got to eating “Indian” food in England). Was definitely a great capping off to my time in England. Though I guess technically, I really capped off this trip my final day here with a cheeky Nando’s before heading to Heathrow to catch my flight. One thing that Carrick told me about that I wish I learned earlier was the 3 GBP “meal deal” that a lot of supermarkets like Tesco’s and Saisbury’s offer, which is 3 GBP for a sandwich, snack, and drink. Definitely would have abused that along with Greggs had I known about it earlier.
This whole trip to England was great for catching up with people. I got lunch with a 50 year old cousin of mine (Indian family trees are the best) who I had never met before, saw one of the girls who was in my Namibia tour group, and caught up with a friend from one of the weddings I was in this past summer, all in London. Plus seeing Toby, James, and Carrick in the Cotswolds/Oxford/Northampton. In a way, it definitely felt more like I was living here than travelling, but that’s largely due to having my own guest bedroom and doing a ton of social stuff with the same people instead of just sightseeing and meeting new crowds in hostels every day. So I am glad to get moving again just to get back into the thick of it, though obviously London and everything in England was incredibly enjoyable.
Off to Scotland next for a week, mainly to see Edinburgh and do an Isle of Skye tour. Unfortunately had to cancel my plans to do a Tiger safari in India with my sister because of the various different travel restrictions that exist state by state there (since I also would have wanted to do some other sightseeing there and see people), so am definitely bummed by that. Hopefully Scotland is a decent enough replacement. Will have like ~2 weeks after Scotland before I need to get back home, and was maybe thinking a quick pit stop in Ireland and then Iceland? Not sure to be honest, will decide soon enough.