More to England than London

By:

Madison Mougalian

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Hi all,

I’m back and better than ever! This past weekend my friends and I made it a priority to explore more of England beyond just London. We spent all day on Saturday making our way around Bristol and Bath and did our own self-tour around all of Oxford on Sunday.

We actually spent Friday afternoon (after class) going around London a bit more. We first went to Abbey Road to take the classic Beatles album cover photo with the four of us. It was quite difficult since this is a legitimate road with cars constantly crossing.

Remake of The Beatles Abbey Road album cover!

Also as expected, there were a ton of people trying to capture the same photo we were. With all of this in consideration, I honestly don’t think we did too bad! Our next stop was to Camden Market where, we weren’t able to be there too long before everything closed down, but it was still super cool to explore! Our last stop Friday night was to Shoreditch to explore a bit more of what this unique part of London had to offer.

There is so much more to England beyond just London so I fully believe I would have made a huge mistake if I studied abroad in England for three months and saw no part of England outside of London. Therefore, we reserved the weekend to tour parts of the English countryside as well.

We spent all of Saturday in Bristol and Bath. Bristol was still a bit of a city vibe, obviously much smaller than London though! I was so beautiful! I absolutely fell in love with Bath! I thought it was the cutest little city/town and it’s someplace everyone should visit if they ever go to England! There was so much history in this town and everything was within walking distance.

Clifton Suspension Bridge (Bristol)

While there, we, of course, had to tour the Roman Bath and learn about the landmarks and water dating back to 1st century BCE! At the end of the tour, I had the option to drink a bit of the water, which I of course did. You have to!

Roman Baths

On Sunday, we took a bus out to Oxford where we toured around the college ourselves and took a guided tour of the Bodleian Library. What I didn’t know is that the library has been receiving the first edition of every book printed in the United Kingdom for over 400 years.

Oxford University!

Millions of books written by famous authors are preserved at this site and available to be read. That’s absolutely incredible! Oxford was incredible and I’m beyond glad we were able to fit this trip in on our list during our time abroad!

Much of the Harry Potter movies were filmed in Oxford!

One of my roommates from University of Florida is coming to visit for some time this week so stay tuned to hear all about that!

Madison Mougalian

*FIE: Foundation for International Education Scholarship <i>Hello in your host country language</i>: Hello <i> University</i>: University of Florida <i>Expected graduation year</i>: 2021 <i>Destination</i>: London, England <i>Program Provider</i>: FIE: Foundation for International Education <i>Major / Minor</i>: Business Administration – Sports Management <i>Future career aspirations</i>: I see myself working with a professional or college athletic association in working behind the scenes with the business aspect. <i>Top 3 goals for study abroad</i>: To immerse myself into London's culture; To travel to other countries all around Europe; To utilize my internship to gain valuable, hands-on exposure to my future career path.