England: Sites Are Nice, But People Are Better

India. 
Ah. Those 5 months passed incredibly quickly. It all feels like a distant dream now. At the time I was protesting the fact I had to leave. I thought I would change my flight & continue traveling within the country, but it was much too expensive. However, it wasn't that expensive to "delay" the second leg of my flight from Frankfurt. So I went ahead and "delayed" my flight an entire month & planned a pretty last minute euro trip :)

Thanksgiving with my adorable cousin

I know what you are probably thinking. Money? You are a student, no income for the past 5 months.. your parents must be rich & are helping you. Actually, no. I am a very resourceful traveler who had saved long before India. It probably couldn't have been done if it wasn't for my aunt who lives just outside of London. That was my home base for the month as I traveled around. I am so incredibly grateful for her support through the trip. Just think, I had only packed clothes for India, one of the hottest countries in the world! I was staying in Europe from Nov-Dec..... clearly my wardrobe needed a change. Again, I cannot express my gratitude for my aunt & her family, I would have been very cold & poor if it wasn't for them.

England. 

Changing of the guards ceremony

They always tell you that reverse culture shock will hit you and hard. My god. This was absolutely true. Although I was still in a new country, England felt remarkable similar to the US. The temperature, trees changing color, the people, food, etc. Of course my first shower in the UK was heavenly! I also got so much joy out of doing in the laundry machine... such little effort! I forgot about those small conveniences during the past 5 months. Things that stuck with me. Indian head bob. Man that was pretty awkward. & I had all of these stomach issues the first few weeks. Which is so ironic! My stomach problems in England were actually much worse than in India. I think it had something to do with having limited dairy in the previous 5 months to all of the sudden eating cheese, yogurt, and milk like it was my job. Interesting right. On our first night in England we went out to get Indian food, also ironic. It was such an interesting experience though. The food was so SWEET! Not like any food I had in India, but I suppose that is the beauty of the UK, everything is fusion :) It was definitely a reverse culture shock to me. As similar as I'm painting the UK to be to the US, this is not actually true. They are in fact different but just happen to be much similar compared to India & the US.

Buckingham Palace

UK is so much more... open? Receptive? Aware?
People knew what Diwali was... and were actually celebrating it within their schools. Ask yourself, would that really happen in the US? I also celebrated Thanksgiving while there. I went to my little cousins school for the day and was shocked that they were celebrating. I mean, imagine if we celebrated a holiday in which people who we were oppressing left our country to start their own. It is rather strange, again the beauty of the UK.

& yes there are some culturally difference! For example, when shopping with my little cousin I kept on telling him that I was searching for a new pair of pants. Little did I know that what I should have been saying is "trousers"! Oopps!

England was overall great. It kick started my solo travel adventures, which I think are incredibly powerful and transformative. & it all started in good ole London.

London.

Couch Surfers :)

I went into London a few times, but the first is humerus looking back now. I made absolutely no plans, did no research, and kind of just showed up. In general that is my solo travel style, but usually I do just a tad bit more planning than that. So I legit walked off of a bus and saw a crowd of people. I was curious, so I followed the crowd. Eventually I find myself very smooshed standing in front of a gate with lots of people on tip toes & cameras out. So I asked a guy next to me, where I was and what was going on. He looked at me completely startled and said: "This is Buckingham Palace and they are doing the changing on the guards". What crazy luck right! They don't do the changing of the guards everyday and it is wild that I happened to stumble upon it. I spent the rest of the day walking around with that guy exploring some of the side streets and parks in  London. He was from Brazil and having his own solo travel adventure I think we spent a total of 3 hours together. To be honest, I don't remember a single thing we talked about. Just to strangers purely enjoying each other's company. It is truly beautiful if you ask me.


I had another similar experience with two people I met through couch surfing. It was a woman around my age from Poland and a man in his late 30's from Peru. The woman was checking out a potential employer while the man had been living in London for the past 10 years. We spent all day seeing the sites: museums, bridges, buses, churches, Big Ben, London eye, you name it. Really it wasn't about the sites, but about the bond and adventure I shared with these people. The man took us to a hole in the wall Colombian restaurant that I would have never been able to find on my own. We were the only ones in the entire restaurant speaking English, it was incredibly authentic and had the most delicious food. We talked about everything and anything. Three strangers who at the end of the day were no longer strangers but deep, insightful, and incredibly inspiring and positive people. Everyone has a story and I find the stories of strangers to be the most moving. The whole experience reminded me how beautiful humanity is & that these stories are all around us waiting to be heard and felt by all. 

Northern England.

Me & Camille

After spending some time in London and with my family I was able to travel up north to Harrogate where my friend Camille was living at the time. To get there I took the megabus, which was my very first experience with it. It was cheap, it was overnight, it was well... an experience. I remember being the very last one on the bus & it was around 4 o'clock in the morning. It was dark and raining and the bus finally pulls up to a bench. As I am getting off the bus, the driver calls out to me in what sounds like a foreign language. Startled, I turn back to the driver with a deer in headlights look scared that the possibility that something was wrong. The driver laughed and spoke very slowly: "Have a goodnight, love". My aunt told me that the accents would be different in the north, but my goodness! I was not expecting that in the slightest!

York

My time in Northern England was filled with Christmas markets, good food, old sites, shopping, and most importantly rekindling my friendship with Camille. It has been 2 years since we saw each other and had so much to catch up on. We traveled to York and Manchester together. Again, I have vague memories of the actual things we did. I do remember meeting her friends for a fancy meal getting the insights on young professional life, being talked through my first pub experience, and talking about boys. Well more specifically talking about "romantique tragique" :)  I went with the flow and became embedded in her Harrogate world. Reconnecting with friends is wonderful and I hope I can continue to do so for the rest of my life. Although, I imagine it will become much more difficult as new connections are made all over the globe. I suppose it gives me an excuse to travel more :) 

Final Thoughts. 

It is hard to say what the most amazing thing about England was. It was amazing making new connections and maintaining the old. However, the best was perhaps a mix of the two of those: being able to spend time with a part of the family I wouldn't usually and didn't know well before that trip. You see by aunt, I mean my step-mother's sister. But to be honest, I truly consider her and the rest of her family as being nothing but family (so we can drop the "step"). Connecting with them helped me gain insight on a different side to my step-mom. I was reminded more than EVER how family does not have to be blood and love transcends so much. I grew so close to my little cousin and felt myself more educated on England norms in his presence than in any others. I was free, supported, loved, and nurtured throughout the entire visit. I felt blessed to be integrated so flawlessly into their family and I couldn't imagine being in England without them and spending Thanksgiving any other way. I felt completely and utterly at home. Since then they have moved to the US and I am hoping that my travels eventually lead me to them in order to have another chance to connect and spend some quality time.

Cheers!

Cousin Love

xoxo,
Becca