An American in London: Springtime in England

Since my trip to Rome, I have not left the country but that is not to say that my travels have slowed down. Though I no longer take the risk that is flying Ryanair, I have spent many a day on buses and trains in a mad dash to make it to my last few 'must see' places in England. It's been a bit complicated - schoolwork came crashing down inevitably towards the end - so the balancing act of being a student with a life on campus and being a traveler has become more difficult.

Hence this blog has fallen quite far behind of where I had hoped it would be. Apologies - especially to my immediate family - for not keeping you all up-to-date on what I've been up to. So below is the first part of my spring in England and others will follow.

First stop: Cambridge. On Saturday, 17 March, a few of my friends and I headed to the second half of Oxbridge to scope out the university and to see the town. It was a lovely outing, but unfortunately the weather did not want to make it beautiful for us. The city center of Cambridge is nice enough, lots of chain stores but also a few smaller independent shops and tea rooms. My favorite find in the city was a book sale going on in an old church, which I thought was spectacular. Lots of really unique books and the stacks of literature spread across the creaky wooden pews, which looked very neat. Our group also had the chance to explore the exteriors of Clare College and Queens College, which were something to see. I found that I do prefer Oxford, though they say Cambridge is prettier. The disappointment of the day, however, was that the rain prevented us from going punting - which is still on my to-do list.

The week following Cambridge was a hectic one academically as I was finishing up essays, writing the prospectus for my thesis next year, and choosing classes at Ashland for the fall. I did, however, take Friday, 23 March, off to enjoy the sunshine. I headed to the northwest areas of London - Highgate and Hampstead - to visit Kenwood House (the manor house in the film 'Notting Hill') and Keats House (where the poet John Keats lived for a number of years). Both were absolutely wonderful and are probably my favorite places in London after Foyles. Kenwood House is now a free art gallery and has the most beautiful grounds overlooking a small lake. It was lovely to just sit in the grass in the sun and it was one of the warmest days we've had since I've been here. The Keats House has some wonderful tour guides full of information and the rooms have been re-decorated to look how they would have when Keats lived in the house in around 1820. It's situated in a very quiet street in a friendly, clean part of London, which is a nice change after the hustle and bustle of Mile End and Central London. I also stumbled upon a treasure in Hampstead - the Keith Fawkes used bookshop. It's just what a bookshop should be - books piled floor to ceiling, dusty smell suffocating you, aisles so narrow you have to dance around someone to pass them, stacks of books on the floor you have to dig through, a crazy old man behind the counter... You get the picture.

Kenwood House

Keats House

Keith Fawkes Bookshop

And to wrap up the eventful month of March... The Oxford Literary Festival! The weekend after classes ended, I went to stay with Norma in Headington, which is a 15-min. bus ride from Oxford. On Friday, Norma and I went to Oxford Castle, climbed 'The Mound,' and explored the Lit Fest tent, where they were handing out free samples of gin and tonics while you browsed the books (perfect combination in my opinion). Norma again took wonderful care of me, cooking for me and making tea every day. On Saturday, I headed to the Festival again to see Anthony Horowitz, author of the new Sherlock Holmes novel, speak at the Sheldonian Theatre and to listen to Ben McIntyre talk about his new book Double Cross (about the D-Day spies). Both were very interesting to listen to and I learned so much about the literary world from them. The D-Day spies definitely appealed to the history buff in me and I can't wait to get hold of his book this summer. On Sunday, Norma and I attended her Catholic church for Palm Sunday, which was nice, and I attended the final event of the festival which was an interview with the Australian author Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda). I got Carey to sign my copy of Parrot and Olivier go to America, which was exciting. Carey is definitely an oddball, though so are all of his characters - not surprising.