As part of the Dickinson program, I stayed in London for three weeks before school started and toured the city. This was a great way to ease myself into the new country.  There was so much hype about the main tourist attractions and their history before we saw them. Don’t get me wrong, these sites are and were beautiful, but there is more to the wonderful city. One of my favorite attractions was the Camden Market. The Market is located in Camden Town, in the heart of London. Coming from a small town, and also a place like Carlisle, I think of a market to be a few stands trying eagerly sell food or clothes. To my surprise Camden Market contains designer brands, artists, independent sellers and over 100 choices of delicious food. I was so overwhelmed by the flood of people that I didn’t know where to begin my exploring. I’d like to say the unspoken rule of the Market must be: walk around and see your options before deciding on anything. I would pass by one vendor, smell and see their amazing assortment of food and want it. You don’t want to make the mistake of buying food, and then your eye catching some other variety that looks more appealing. Although I had a slow roasted pulled pork sandwich on a warm, fresh pita bread, that was delicious, I did make this mistake. However, being with the nice group of Dickinson students, I was able to try their purchases. I didn’t taste one bad thing. My favorite part of the market, of course, was the dessert options. I had never had a cronut, a hybrid of croissant and a doughnut. What could sound better than that? I took a bite. Less than one minute later, it was gone. Delicious. Although Camden Market attracts 100,000 people each day, I had never heard of it.

After our time in Camden Town, a couple friends and I walked up Primrose Hill, the largest hill in London, to see the amazing view the city has to offer. It was a slightly overcast, breezy day, typical for London. What I enjoyed was sitting for hours looking out at a scenery as it conveyed a sense of calmness and peacefulness.

On our way back from our day excursion, we had to take the tube home, making many transfers. My friend and I were not really sure of where we were, or how we would get back to our hotel. Our phones did not work underground, so we decided on the tube line that sounded the most familiar. The tube split in two directions, and now we were heading the wrong way. Even more clueless of where we were, we followed signs to another tube line that we thought could only go in the direction we wanted. We walked up and down many flights of stairs, to different platforms, and then settled on the platform that was heading to a tube station where we had been before. After many wrong turns and transfers, we finally made it to “Goodge Street.” At least we became more familiar with the underground system and the hassle of people’s everyday travels. Being a student/tourist isn’t bad after all. Now that I have explored London, it will be a great change to move to a different city to begin studying at the University of East Anglia.