This summer I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in London for three weeks in a Shakespeare program with JMU. With 11 other students, my professor took us deep into the world of the greatest playwright to ever live and allowed us to adventure in our own way. We had class and a group outing every day that tied directly into the program, then we had the afternoons to explore the city. I can’t believe how much we jammed into three weeks, but I can say that every part of it was memorable and worth seeing again and again.

This is Week 2 in London! Catch Week 1 and Week 3 here!

Sunday: We had all day to explore before a group outing at night. Mackenzie, Caroline and I traveled out to the Columbia Road Flower Market, where we spent forever deciding which flowers we could resist least. I ended up making my own bouquet to give to my cousin, who I met with for dinner and a little neighborhood exploration. The group met up at night to go see the Globe’s production of Henry V. We were groundlings and stood right next to the stage for the whole performance. Although my legs were shaking by the end, it was the best part of the trip so far because the actors were within touching distance (and sometimes closer) and I felt like I was part of the performance. We walked back across Millennium Bridge for a beautiful nighttime city-scape on our way back to the dorms.

Monday: After class, we journeyed to Lambeth Palace and Library for a rare book workshop, where we got to see extremely old manuscripts, and even an old prayer book of Henry VIII’s that had his writing in it. We walked around Westminster, then I went back to the dorms to do homework for the rest of the day.

Tuesday: Our professor took us on a Bankside walking tour to see the original sites of the Globe and Rose Theaters, Southwark Cathedral, and Bishop of Winchester’s Palace ruin. We concluded the outing with a tour of the Globe Theatre, which was decorated for its Midsummer Night’s Dream performance later that evening. On our own, we explored the Borough Market and bought some fresh strawberries and smoothies to go along with the homework that I did for the rest of the night.

Wednesday: As a group we went to the Tower of London. My whole life I thought it was just one tower, but instead it’s a whole gated city! There are actually several towers within the gates, and the walls themselves hold several towers as well. Right near the entrance we saw the Traitor’s Gate, where traitors would be boated in from the river on the way to their death. Queen Elizabeth I was brought in through this gate and famously refused to move. Within this mini city, we saw the execution spot of Anne Boleyn, the graffiti left by prisoners, and the crowned jewels. On our way back to the dorm, Sarah and I took some head shots, took pictures of the dorm, and found a post office to send some postcards. That night, a few of us attended a performance of Sh!tfaced Shakespeare, a comedy group that gets one of their performers drunk and performs a Shakespeare play. It was a 100/10 experience and I highly recommend it to everyone, even if they don’t love the greatest playwright in history. It was certainly immersive.

Thursday: We took a day trip to Cambridge, which was overall a total dream! We mainly looked at the Tudor iconography in King’s College Chapel, but I just had to sit down and stare at how amazing the architecture was. We walked around and explored the grounds, then watched the punters on the river for a long time. They were not as peaceful as they looked, as the boats constantly bumped into each other. It was quite a show! We found a little open-air market and sat in the shade with smoothies, where we were bombarded by Japanese exchange students with questionnaires for a class project. After each of us had filled out at least five forms about how many pets we had, what our fashion sense was, or how much we loved tea, we made it back to the train to go back to London. Caroline and I rushed back to the dorms to get our pre-packed bags because we had a train to catch to Dover! We got in late Thursday night and went right to sleep in our hotel.

Friday: Caroline and I woke up in Dover and were beyond ready to explore the city. We took a taxi to the far side of the White Cliffs of Dover and tried to convince our driver that we weren’t cheating, even though we were. We couldn’t have planned it better: we started on the opposite side of everyone else and we went early in the morning, so we basically had the cliffs to ourselves. We started at a beautiful white lighthouse where some guys were filming with large cameras, and moved along the cliffs. At one point, we accidentally climbed a near vertical dirt path and didn’t realize how dangerous it was until we had reached the top and couldn’t even see the steps when we looked down #oops #yolo. At the top, we talked to another group of guys with a large camera and a drone, and they hinted at a National Geographic documentary that will come out on Netflix next year. We continued along and stopped in a few locations for portraits, talked to a parks volunteer, a couple from the Netherlands, and a British lady with an adorable dog, then finally made it to the actual beginning. At this point there were tourists everywhere, so we stopped in the cafe and got lunch.

We then walked a few miles all the way downhill then back uphill to get to Dover Castle, where we kept thinking we were at the top but never were. Finally, we reached the actual Dover Castle after a few fake smaller castles (they were real, just not what we were looking for) and got a great 360 degree view of Dover, the cliffs, the water (where we could just see France), and one of the busiest ports in the world. Exhausted and ready for a shower, we went back to our hotel and enjoyed a dessert bar before going to bed.

Saturday: We took a bus to Maidstone early Saturday morning, which was a little city halfway between Dover and London. There, we spent forever in Buttercup’s Sanctuary for Goats and made friends with the over 140 goats on the grounds. We learned to run from the goats with red collars and to not give full sticks of carrots to these lovable creatures. Instead of walking back to Maidstone, we caught a taxi to a nearby park and walked through the fields to kill some time. We then ate a nice dinner and I drank a whole kettle of the best tea I’ve ever had. The train ride back was easy, and before we knew it we were back in London.

Sunday: I finally made time to go to the British Museum on Sunday morning. I spent three full hours just in the ancient Greek section because I am absolutely obsessed with the topic. Over an hour of that time was just spent in the Parthenon room, where I couldn’t believe I was standing next to sculptures that were on the original Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. Major happy geek moment.

Afterwards, I met up with my cousin and together we explored Kensington Gardens, where I found the Peter Pan statue (another happy geek moment). We ended the night with dinner at the Churchill Arms, a totally amazing pub and restaurant with the best decoration around.

Thus ends my second week in London! Catch Week 3 here!