Tea with Brits

Fall break is in full swing! In fact, I’m currently in one of London’s many airports waiting to board a flight to Budapest. This weekend I explored Dublin with a classmate; we’ve spent the last few days here in London. We stayed in a rather centrally located hostel in Dublin. In London, a friend living in Notting Hill—a western London neighborhood with beautiful Victorian houses and dangerously good shopping, which reminded me of my Berlin home in Prenzlauer-Berg—took us in and let us escape the hustle and bustle of the hostel world for some time.

While there is no way to downplay our stay in this extremely fashionable and cozy apartment, I have to say there are many things to appreciate about hostel culture as well, despite them being known widely as a ‘budget option’. We spent the first night here in the city at a hostel in Westminster that doubled as a pub downstairs. After a long day of sightseeing, shopping, and more food than was necessary or smart, we returned to the hostel to enjoy some ripe English ale before turning in for the night.

 

In the pub we met a really cool person, who was also staying at the hostel. After spending so many weeks in Berlin, I had forgotten how easy it was to make friends whilst out at pubs and these sorts, since I am hardly near fluent in German and German people aren’t exactly known for their outgoing nature. It was a bit of a culture shock, actually, how different the social atmosphere was on the streets of Dublin, and London to a degree as well.

 

We met Daniel when gave us a funny look after we tipped the barkeeper. He struck up a conversation by joking about us being “so American!” because “they already get paid, like, £15 per hour,” he told us – somewhat ironically, since saying “like” is also a weird American thing in his book. Though he was very much English, he told us he had studied music for nearly a year in New Orleans fairly recently, and even lived some childhood years in Bavaria. It was really great meeting him because he was absolutely hilarious and really embodied everything there is to like about travelling to new places and experiencing new cultures. We stayed up until 5am drinking beers, playing themed Scrabble, and eating greasy delivery food. I personally spent a lot of time losing at Jenga and choking on my IPA (the best kind of choking) at this guy’s anecdotal gold, which was a-flowing the entire night. He spoke of planning a trip to Berlin soon, so we are hoping we can all get together again before the end of the program! Luckily, it’s not too hard to do a weekend trip between most places around this part of Europe. Since being in Europe I can’t help but praise the ease (everything is closer in distance geographically) and inexpense (budget airlines budget airlines budget airlines) of travel compared to the US.

 

Another great asset of our hostel was the short walk to Buckingham Palace. The Queen’s grand estate was the first place we visited when we got to London, and I couldn’t believe our luck that we got there on a day where there was actually some diplomatic action going on! At first, I wasn’t sure what was happening when we crossed the street into throngs of people waving giant red flags and banners sporting gold Chinese characters, running all along The Mall and St. John’s Park. In my modest knowledge of written Chinese, I could make out that someone important was being welcomed to the palace, which I discovered soon after was the Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his first day in London commemorating the strength of the Chinese-British ties throughout history and promoting the current energy and trade deals between the nations. I had actually heard a little about this in the news recently, so imagine how awesome it was for the first thing I did in London to be just stumbling upon this history in the making!

 

There were a thousand other things I saw and did in London, but those two experiences stand out the most. I loved London, and I really hope I can return someday soon and spend more time in its many quirky neighborhoods. Dublin was unforgettable, as well… I could picture myself spending an extended period of time there; the vibes and the people are something I already miss. But, I digress. After all, I am currently only an hour away from four days in another one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I’m pretty excited for the $10 massages, too. And, it will be my first time travelling alone—which is quite the experience in and of itself—so let’s hope my frustrating-but-at-times-amusing lack of an internal compass is as nice as the weather in Budapest!