Student Blogs/ Stephanie in England
Today’s the day! Today’s the day! Today’s the day! I woke this morning excited and extremely nervous about how my travels would turn out. My mind kept racing with all these scenarios: what if I’m missing/misplaced my documents? What if I lost all my luggage? What if I missed my flight? My train?
To help ease these thoughts, my family and I headed out for an early farewell brunch at Cora’s. After our meal, I continued to frantically pack things into my checked luggage, carry-on, and backpack. I finished packing everything with 2 hours to spare and so, I decided to relax and watch TV.
The time came to leave for the airport and it finally hit me that I was going to be spending the next year away from home. Realizing this made me feel a bit sad during the car ride but as soon as we pulled into the airport, the excitement took over.
I went ahead and checked my luggage, which was accidentally overweight (this is why you should never pack everything the day of), and headed down to security. I parted ways with my parents, cleared security, headed to the gate, hopped on the plane and 7 hours later, I arrived at London Gatwick Airport. But this wasn’t the end of my journey, I still had another 7 hours ahead.
For my journey up to Lancaster, I had two options: grab a flight to Manchester and then take the University’s bus service from the airport or, make my way into London and catch a train into Lancaster. Of these, I chose the more difficult of the two.
I will forewarn anyone who is planning a trip to London that their airports are large, so it doesn’t hurt to ask people directions. Lucky for me, my family and I spent a portion of our summer in the UK so I could partly navigate my way through the airport – or at least to the Visitor Information. I received directions from Visitor Information on how to get to the trains into London as well as topped up my Oyster card – this came in handy as there were large queues at the station itself to purchase tickets. I made my way to the trains and boarded. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a seat so I was required to stand with my luggage near the doors. It felt like forever, but eventually I arrived at Victoria station where I would transfer to the Underground and take the tube to Euston station and catch the train to Lancaster. I arrived at Euston at around 10:30 a.m. and purchased my train ticket. What I didn’t realize was that I now had 2 hours to spare before my train left. So, I went out of the station to grab some breakfast and waited. Fifteen minutes before boarding, I gathered all my things and continued to wait in the station. After boarding the train, I will say they are nice but there is not enough space for luggage. I got on a bit later than the others and so the luggage storage for our carriage was full. I ended up having to play luggage Tetris and store everything in the other seat in my row.
On the train ride up, I saw lots and lots of grass, hills, and farm animals. Three and a half hours later, I arrived in Lancaster. The weather was surprisingly sunny – something I learned doesn’t happen often up North – so I decided to walk from the station up to my house. I will say, having to carry around a large luggage, carry-on, and backpack, was not fun at all, but I did get a good arm workout.
Arriving at the house, I met with the letting agent, conducted the right to rent check, and received my keys. I was given a quick tour of the place and then started to unpack. Afterwards, I grabbed dinner at a pizza place just down the road and called it a day.
As I post this, it will have been a bit over a month since I arrived at Lancaster. I will say it did take some time, and a good number of trips into the City Centre, to finally settle into my new place but now, this town is really starting to feel like home.