LONDON, ENGLAND • PART 2

While I whiled away the days before coming back to the US, I spent some time with Alex and Megan in their quaint town in Reigate. I'm a city girl, and good friends that they are, they remembered and took me to London for a day, but I, crazy that I am, forgot to look at the photos until now.

We started out the grey, albeit lovely day walking to the train station, where we met Megan and continued on to Londontown. Reigate is beautiful, and after leaving the lush colors of Thailand, the floral brightness of the small town in a misty grey day was welcome and familiar.

I can't tell you anything about the route we took, since my tour guides got us to our destination without any snafus. All I know is how much I love public transportation (tubes, trains, etc.) and how badly I wish that Nashville had something along those lines. Not sure at which station we ended up disembarking, so if you know, tell me! I need to get these places down if I'm ever going to live in the UK...

Our first order of business was afternoon tea at The Orangery at Kensington Palace. We walked through the gardens and grounds passing the Albert Memorial, something else that reminded me of Thailand, oddly enough. The tea was amazing, and I'm eternally grateful to our wonderful server who explained (in great detail) the order of things, and every ingredient that was included in the little cakes and sandwiches. Just after this tea was when the "where on earth am I" moments began, what with struggling to use a chip card and feeling incredibly awkward when I realized that I was working in dollars instead of pounds. Little did I know this would definitely not be the worst of these feelings.

After tea we headed over to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and yes, I was freaking out. A ton. We were able to watch from the floor a particularly whimsical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for 5 measly pounds. Bucket list item #43, check. Afterwards we walked through Borough Market to grab some snacks and coffee.

One of my closest friends in Chiang Mai is a coffee connoisseur, so I picked him up a bag of beans from Monmouth Coffee Company, a famous shop in London. I got some for myself as well, loving the opportunity they give each customer to try each flavor, and the extensive notes they provide on each different roast and each different bean. Also, below, is Alex tying a piece of string to her finger because that's a thing. 

After scrambling around looking for Ben's Cookies on Dani's recommendation, Alex headed to a previous engagement and Megan and I wasted time in shops and walking around Richmond. We met up with Megan's Sam at a Young's pub where I tried Pimm's for the first time. It really was spectacular until I realized that Young's brews my favorite stout, and I was partially devastated that I hadn't made the connection in time.

We wrapped up the day meeting a couple of overseas friends for dinner at Nando's and walking around that led to some frozen yoghurt at the Farmery. All in all, a chill London day in more ways than one, always making me long for more time to spend.

OXFORD, ENGLAND

As much as I love London, there is a large part of me that still longs to explore more of the United Kingdom. While daydreaming about my upcoming trip, I asked Alex for some good suggestions for a day trip, and the literary nerd in me was thrilled when the prospect of Oxford finally became a reality.

Every street in Oxford is beautiful, charming, unique and worthy of having its portrait painted. Alex and Megan and I arrived mid-day, making our first stop, my most anticipated: The Eagle and Child. This pub is where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien named themselves the 'Inklings,' and encouraged each others' works of art in writing. The place is still a frequented spot by locals and tourists alike, and it was just like any other pub I'd been to in England. Not to say it was a let down, it most certainly wasn't. The food was great and I drank the first beer I'd had in two years here: the best. It was a little more comforting to know that this was just as if me and my friends were discussing my life's work over a table at a favorite coffee shop or some great Italian chain restaurant we love. 

After lunch we walked through the university, gaping at every angle, gawking at those on campus who were just going about their daily business as if being in a place like this were normal... We headed into the School of Divinity, a place Alex prefaced as one of her favorites in Oxford. I walked in and was immediately struck with a familiarity I couldn't place, but finally realized with complete assurance that this was the filming location for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's dance lesson scene with Professor McGonagall. I turned a corner and, low and behold, my suspicion was correct: a poster telling just that fact with production shots from the movie.

The room was heavenly, the ceiling carved with such impeccable skill, the light streaming in the windows and the glass distorting the ancient buildings around the school. No idea how I would have ever concentrated on any classes if I'd been a student. Too much architectural distraction.

We continued to see idyllic scene after scene as we moseyed around the university. We made a visit to the university church, where C.S. Lewis first delivered 'The Weight of Glory' in 1941 to a congregation of future Oxford alumni. Several other notable speakers have preached there, but let's be honest. We were there for Lewis.

Alex led us to a little shop hidden on a backstreet called Objects of Use, where we perused a carefully curated group of items that were both practical and pretty. Ceramics, fairly expensive everyday sundry items like matchboxes and rolling pins. It's worth a visit for the visuals alone: the place is very well done. 

Because no trip is complete without some sort of garden, we visited Oxford Botanic Garden, which housed some of the best greenhouses and wildflower mixes I'd yet seen. We walked (sometimes barefoot) through the beds, picked our way through the greenhouses and I geeked out at all the insectivores. The true Pokémon, I guess.

We kept walking and taking in the beauty of the forgotten backstreets, finding our way to Chiang Mai Kitchen, because I can never eat enough Thai food and others like me being there as an excuse to try some exotic cuisines. The curries and coconut soup we ordered were incredible, and I glimpsed a whiteboard completely covered in Thai script as we left the little alley that hosted the dive.

This place transported me back in time and out of time to a year when I was a student at Oxford. I lived in a beautiful old row house and spent my time in between classes eating Thai food in back alley ways and biking over cobbled streets to class. Also I sat in fields of grass and took the bus across town for Ben's Cookies and bookstore shopping.

SURREY & KENT, ENGLAND

Back in February, one of my closest friends in the world came and visited me in Chiang Mai. Alex has been living in Reigate, Surrey for a couple years herself, and since I was already crossing a couple oceans to return to America, I decided to stop and chill with her for a few days. Let me tell you: one of the best travel decisions I've made. From the moment she met me at the airport, this gem showered me with hospitality, welcoming my frantic and jet-leggy self, listening to me rant on and on about Thailand and willing to do touristy things again and again because I'd only be in town for a hot second.

Spending time at her place was heavenly. The light in her and Jana's apartment ALONE was enough to make me never want to leave. Jana has plans to be in England for a little longer, so she had invested in making the place look homey and downright beautiful. The two of them grow herbs in their front yard, fill the flower beds with lavender and their flat looks like something out of a Hugh Grant movie.

Speaking of lavender, the second day that I was in town we headed to Mayfield Lavender Farm, an incredible farm filled with purple. We walked and took photos and I enjoyed the (to me) freezing breeze. There were bees everywhere, so I conquered some fears walking in and out of the rows of lavender blooms. We ate fairy cupcakes and drank lavender lemonade at the café before leaving. Never have I visited a farm so visually stunning. 

On the first full day, Alex, Jana, Fairlight and I visited Hever Castle. I'd never before explored a castle, and Anne Boleyn's childhood home didn't disappoint. The grounds were lovely, gardens and floral displays out the wazoo. The exhibits themselves were fascinating, centering on Henrys and Annes and Catherines and Katherines. The history of this place really was astounding. 

After a delicious Indian lunch of chicken Korma (sorry, not sorry), we finished up castle-wandering with a bout through a hedge maze, another new phenomenon. The center of the maze was a simple obelisk, but finding it was really the prize, this was no easy maze. Some of the dead ends weren't quite dead ends, and you totally could have squeezed through a few of the rows if you tried hard enough.