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While I loved London and trip, I suppose I should try and create some balance and mention some things I wasn’t particularly happy with about the city and life in it. Call it minor complaining and grievances, but I can’t give the impression that life was flawless there.

• Food costs, quite a bit too high. My whole family ate out for dinner when I got back from the airport for about the same as my last dinner in London.
• The street names changing after 1 block sometimes made navigation using maps hard at times. However, I gained an even greater respect for the cab drivers who have to know all of those streets
• Google maps didn’t seem to agree with the numbering of streets there, which occasionally led to confusion. For example, the map we received showing our accommodation was a bit off. Let me explain: on the map, it showed that we just had to walk a very short distance from the train station to the flat, the actual distance was more like 3 times what I thought.
• Our particular flat had mice. We caught 3. Without the use of the (one) trap provided by the operators of the property.

Full disclosure, life in London was still pretty great though. I doubt this blog will be read much outside of the people who have to read it, for various reasons. But if for some reason you’re reading this and you’re in the position to choose whether or not to go on study abroad: go for it.

If you had told me last year that I’d be studying abroad this May, I would have thought you were crazy. Really. STEP helped push me towards it, but the experience would have been easily worth it even without the extra money from that. Sometimes you just need that push to seek something out that you never would have done before.

“What does London have to do with Chemical Engineering? Nothing.”

Except that isn’t entirely true. I don’t think there are many engineering jobs out there were you don’t have to adapt to new situations quickly, and thrive in them. Doesn’t that sound like adjusting to life in a foreign country with limited resources? I think so. Studying abroad makes you think quickly, think differently than you have before, think critically and quickly. Just because the class you may take doesn’t have a direct tie in to what you study back in Columbus, doesn’t mean at all that there isn’t something to learn that you could apply to a job, or life.

And what about blogging? I personally liked it. It helped figure of the highlights of each day, show off some better pictures, and I’m sure will aid me to remember this trip years from now. And that’s important to me. Because at the end of the day, the memories are worth infinitely more than whatever trinket or shirt you pick up at a gift store.

Well, it’s been fun. Today was mostly packing, planning for the trip back, and relaxing, not too much extra time or desire to see more tourist-y things. I might do a small final reflection, but as we have to write a 8-10 page paper, I think my energy would be better spent towards that.

I’m leaving comfortably early tomorrow, and should be back in the States before 6. The time difference is nice like that. If only my actual travel time was only 6 hours.

Well, that month went by very quickly. Today, we went to yet another church. The church this time around was St Bartholomew-the-Great. What made this church unique however was that it had a very distinctive Norman interior, which was possible because this was one of the few buildings to survive the great fire, as well as the general test of time. The church itself was not large enough to warrant a tour of any sort, so it was mostly an opportunity just to look and take pictures. It certainly felt like it was from another era inside.

Following this, we did a complete change of pace, and visited a farm. An urban farm, but a farm nonetheless. It was interesting to see that they were still farming (on a small scale) so close to the center of the city, but the fact that it was set up a bit like a petting zoo didn’t really interest me. I guess all the times I’ve been to the county fair have made seeing livestock a common thing. It was still nice to just be there though, it was pretty peaceful compared to the usual city environment.

To wrap things up, in multiple senses, we had our last group dinner. Indian food was pretty good, it was just a little strange because we weren’t informed of what food we’d be getting, or even how much of it. So it’d always be a surprise to an extent what you got, and it left you wondering if more was to come. But it tasted great, even if I still didn’t get anything spicy enough to make my eyes water.

After getting a final group picture, and managing for the first time to walk to a tube station as a large group and not get separated, we parted ways. Hopefully not for the last time. Being in London was one thing, but being here with a great group made it that much better.

Today’s trip was just a short walk from our classrooms this time, the British Museum. Older than the US, it also has the largest collection in existence. The focus of the class before the trip today was the Elgin Marbles, or a series of marble works from the Parthenon. Or specifically whether or not they should to be returned to Greece, where they were originally from.

In my opinion, they should stay where they are. Firstly, they were purchased from the government controlling them at the time. Second, and more importantly, they provide a great deal to the Museum. If they were returned to Greece, they would be surrounded by elusively other Greek artifacts from the time. However, at the British Museum, they are part of a much more grand picture. The Museum is so diverse, it contains a great portion of human history, with very little preference given to one civilization or the other. Here, the marbles can be compared easily to other works from the same time, from both Greek and other cultures. Greek heritage is something not exclusively owned by the nation of Greece, as over the last 2000 years it’s influence has been spread nearly everywhere on the globe. I’m hardly an expert after taking one visit to see them, but that’s my take on it.

Controversies aside, the amount of, and depth, of the exhibits at the Museum was staggering. And to top it off, the building this all was housed in was very stunning as well. I was not expecting what I saw when I first walked through the doors.

While I looked through many exhibits chronicling the history of diverse cultures of: Africa, China, Japan, Europe, Iran, Greek, and others, I really liked the order in which they were set up. Going through, there was generally a progression from old to new, which is hardly a novel idea, but for some reason I think it was particularly well-implemented here. Things just seem to flow within each section very well.

Some things that stood out:

The Rosetta Stone, a crucial piece for the translation of Egyptian works

The section of clocks and timekeeping, which was much more diverse than I expected. Two pieces I especially liked are below. One is powered by the motion of a small metal ball moving through a maze of sorts, the other (the Atmos clock) is powered by changes in the ambient air temperature. Chemistry at work, always cool. It works by expanding ethyl chloride, if you were curious. The description claimed that a change of 1 degree Celsius would power the clock for 120 hours. Which means that the clock would practically be overwhelmed with power if it was located in typical Ohio weather.

Another bit I was surprised by was the small display about everyone’s favorite currency they likely don’t have and nearly certainly don’t understand, Bitcoin. Being an internet based currency, there wasn’t much there but information and some pieces of paper, but it was still cool to see.

The first block of bitcoin. And there’s no way I’m going to attempt to explain what that is in a caption.

I also really enjoyed the room that the collection on the Enlightenment was set up in, like the world’s greatest library. I know very well but it isn’t, but it’s possibly up there for best looking. And of course, the artifacts were pretty good as well.

This museum reminds me of the Smithsonian in the way that you could easily spend a few days going through everything. Which is intimidating, but still pretty awesome.

While watching Top Gear (Burma Special, part 1 specifically) earlier, I noticed that Jeremy Clarkson named his horse Tesco. I had watched this episode before I left, and this totally went over my head. It seems like a really minor point to pick up on, but I was still extremely happy that I was able catch the dig at the speed of the checkout lines at the particular grocery store.

The same goes for the book we recently read for class, NW, where it mentions tube lines around London. And I was able to know exactly what and where they were talking about, without giving it a second thought.

A third example of this came a bit unexpectedly a few days ago. I was watching a YouTube video that one of the people I usually watch had made about things he would miss about the UK, as he was moving elsewhere. One point that came up was that the Victoria line was his favorite because of the fancy sliding doors on the platforms. Once again, something I just wouldn’t have had any appreciation for had I not had the opportunity to live here. Not just visit, but really get a chance to live here.

I like the big picture of my experience, make no mistake, but sometimes the details and small bits of travel can be the ones that stand out the strongest.

Unrelated. But it appears this man was being interviewed.

Yesterday, I had Nando‘s for dinner. It was very good, but it made me notice something about British taste. Let me explain. In a corner of the restaurant, they had an assortment of bottles of sauces and spices. One in particular caught my eye, it was a malicious shade of black, and was much smaller than the other bottles. On it, there was a warning saying that it was “extremely flammable” and that it was their spiciest sauce.

Not one to pass up a challenge, I grabbed it and put some on my plate. I prepared for the worst as I took my first bite of chicken with it… and was a bit underwhelmed. Not physical discomfort, my eyes weren’t watering, no burning in my throat. It was still a good sauce with a nice bit of heat to it, but I was a little disappointed that it passed for the spiciest thing they had. Maybe it goes to show that the British have a milder palate when it comes to heat, or perhaps its that Americans love spicy food a bit too much. In either way, it was a big difference. Usually I can barely tolerate a sauce that’s 2 or 3 steps down from the hottest at a wing place, so it’s not like I have any extraordinary tolerances.

Another thing I picked up on here was that food in London is much more expensive than, say, food in Columbus. I’ve likely said stated this before, but I decided to try an apples to apples compassion by looking at a couple of chains with US origins. The first I saw was 5 guys. They were charging 8.75 pounds for their bacon cheeseburger ($14.75 US), compared to the US price of around $7.50.  McDonald’s was also priced at around 1.5-2 times the price in US dollars. Strangely enough, the fillet-o-fish has a similar price to a big mac, and the big mac itself only seems a little bit over what is charged in the US.

Free refills aren’t a thing here either. At Nando’s they had to make a special point to have “bottomless” fountain drinks. And they charged about 2.5 pounds for it as well (ballpark $4.25). This combination of lack of unlimited sugary drinks and more expensive fast food might be part of the reason England has an obesity rate 11 percentage points lower than the US. Source.

And yes, it is possible to eat here cheaper, you just have to know where to go. It’s not that hard to pick up a good lunch from a market for 5 pounds, or a prepared sandwich from Tesco for 3 pounds, but I digress.

In either case, I’m still looking forward to returning to low food prices when I get back. Eating for less than $10 will probably never feel so good again.

Yet another royal palace was the destination for today. However, this one was different from the last in the sense that this was purely a palace, and not also a defensive work.  The exhibits available to see were very…varied, which I really liked. However, the general focus was around Henry VIII, the first monarch to inhibit the residence.

The first stop was the kitchen and wine cellar, which were good insight into how the best food was prepared at the time.

Some food.

Very very large fireplace

No bottles of wine back then.

Another key feature of the palace was the impressive grounds surrounding the building itself. One of the most striking features was the massive reflecting pool that dominated the area behind the palace.

The gardens themselves around the area were also not to be easily outdone, and also contained the world’s oldest grape vine. The vine even requires a full-time caretaker that works year round. I found the sunken garden to be something very aesthetically pleasing, although I wondered how hard it was to keep the lowest level well-drained.

The other exhibits inside provided a great insight into the life of Henry VIII and those who surrounded him, as well as other monarchs who followed him. It seems very difficult to go more than a day without learning a few facts about an English monarch that I never knew before, even having a history background of the time period.

And, in the usual style, the rooms themselves in the palace were very extravagant and meant to impress. Fortunately photography was allowed this time. Needless the say, the exterior was impressive as well.

Amazing. That’s really all I have to say about seeing London from 800 ft up. It took a bit of waiting this weekend for the sun to come out, but it was certainly worth it. It was mostly a picture taking experience, so I’ll let them speak for themselves.

The London food tradition I’d never heard of before: the Salt Beef Bagel. It’s so very simple, only made up of a bagel, salt beef (corned beef in the US) and English mustard (which is spicy enough to put Dijon to shame). I had read online about a particular place that was well known for their bagels (or beigels, rather), so I decided to try it out.

One of the best places to get a bagel in London, or so the internet claims.

And it was amazing. The spiciness of a big bite of mustard put me in possibly the worst physical discomfort I’ve ever had while eating. But it was fantastic.  The combination of hot, tender corned beef (chunks/pieces, not slices) with a soft bagel is something I never would have thought of, but it went together so well, and the mustard gave a great flavor to keep things interesting.

And I got this sandwich for less than 4 pounds, just a tad more than a prepackaged sandwich from Tesco. I would say that this takes my vote for my favorite English dish, sorry fish and chips. It’s worth noting that the bagels here aren’t exactly what I’m used to, they seem to be a bit softer on the outside and slightly small, with a less defined hole in the middle.

It’s something I’ll have to try and imitate back home. With only three ingredients, it makes it fairly easy to buy for. The only downside is that the quality of each ingredient matters that much more, so I’ll have to do some hunting to find the best of each. And hey, unlike Haggis, the FDA doesn’t have a problem with one of the key ingredients.

Yes, that’s a good thing. After being surrounded by (great) people almost constantly for the last 3 weeks, it’s a nice change to be able to go out on my own and do some touring around London on my own terms.

Where was everyone? Being our free weekend, a large large percentage of people decided to go travel for the three days. But my thinking was, if I’m in a city as interesting as London, it seems somewhat silly to go somewhere else. (In all seriousness, I understand the appeal of possibly only being in Europe once and wanting to see as much as possible, I just choose that it wasn’t for me, on this trip at least)

I knew I wanted to go up to the Monument, grab lunch at Borough Market, and the Mall leading up to Buckingham Palace. After looking at a map, I decided that there was a Bank History Museum and the Tate Modern Art Museum that were roughly on the way, so I added them as well. And with nothing but a rough plan, a basic map, and camera, I set off.

The final route for the day, more or less. Stops in yellow. Return route in blue.

I also forgot to mention that I’d be taking this trip without using any public transit, so no tube or buses. I did this for a few reasons, but the most important one was that I really wanted to get a better feel for direction with regards to the whole city. I felt like just taking the tube places and only knowing the sense of things in regard to the stations painted a partial picture. And plus, the challenge of having to navigate was a very welcome one. What fun is a journey if you don’t get a little lost at one, or a few, points?

The first place I set off to was the Bank of England Museum. After looping the building trying to find an entrance, I discovered that it was a poor idea to visit here today. Why? It’s a Bank Museum, in a Bank, on a Bank Holiday. Unperturbed, I moved onto the Monument. After paying a small fee, and climbing exactly 311 steps going up 160 feet above the ground, I was greeted with a cage, but a good view beyond it.

After climbing down, and receiving an unexpected certificate of climbing, I set off across London Bridge for the Borough Market to get lunch.  I settled on what I wanted (see below), and also picked up a pretty big size of raspberries for 1 quid.

Re-fueled, I decided to check out the Tate Modern. Modern art usually isn’t my thing, but I figured I’d give the building a look. I had also heard that the top floor restaurant had the best view of St. Paul’s around.

I’d agree that it’s a good view

I spent a fair amount of time looking through the museum. But after going to a few floors, I just couldn’t seem to get into it as a whole. The photography was nice, but of course I’d be biased towards it. It seemed like I just didn’t “get” what a good portion of the works were about. Maybe it’s something that will come with age.

It looks good. I just don’t get what distinguishes it. I’m trying my best not to sound like a philistine.

I just don’t get it. I truly wish that I did.

This was cool though. Made of nails at different angles.

After deciding that critiquing modern art would be a horrible backup career plan, I set off towards Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. Trafalgar was full of activity as usual, and the walk to Buckingham was pleasant. I did witness some people feeding pigeons in Hyde Park, and they seem to have attracted at least 100. I don’t have any fears of birds, but I would not want those annoying things so close to me.

I wish the weather was a bit brighter at Buckingham, I feel like the pictures I took suffered slightly because of it.

From there, it looked like rain so I decided to head back. Since I didn’t go back the way I came, it wasn’t as boring as it could have been. And yes, I could have taken the Tube back, but that would be cheating.

How long did this all take? Ballpark 6 hours. Not being on a schedule made it easy to lose track of time.

How long was the walk? Google is estimating 8 miles. Which really wasn’t an issue at all. Going to Ohio State conditions you for many useful things (weather, walking, always being busy) .