Category: Travel

Getting out of London: 3 Trips

Emma Tipton

Enviromental Technology

As an international student, I feel the need to see as much as I can while I’m here in the UK. And although I love living in London, I will readily admit that sometimes it’s nice to get out of the city. Fortunately, this island is well-connected by rail, which I’ve found allows for a variety of inexpensive day or weekend trips. And, perhaps less fortunately, I get to indulge my amateur travel-blogger side here on this site.  

Dover 

My first daytrip upon arriving to the UK was to Dover, an hour or so to the southeast. I didn’t know much about Dover beyond some vague notion of white cliffs, but that was enough for me. 

Travelling as a Student?

MBBS/BSc Medicine

So you want to travel…

You’re a student. You don’t have enough time! Or money?

I recently went on a weekend trip to Dublin, Ireland with friends and it was amazing.  The weather was decent for mid-February, atmosphere was chilled and loads of cool sights to see all within walking distance of the city centre.

I thought I’d share my experiences travelling and give a couple tips that you may (hopefully?!) find useful.

Flights

This usually determines whether you’ll actually end up going abroad or not. Flights can be notoriously expensive, but the key is to be more flexible with your dates and book way in advance.

Summer on the Isle of Skye

Master of Public Health (MPH)

The Isle of Skye will ruin scenery for you forever.

You have been warned. There is no place more dangerous for your sense of beauty, especially if you go when the sun is out. After that, no other scenery will seem to measure up. Future holidays will be spent passive-aggressively trying to get fellow travellers to look at pictures of Skye on your phone.

I mean, just look at these photos from Talisker Beach.

Blue skies, crystal clear water, black sand and green pasture behind us. Just shocking.

And the scandalous seafood lunch with Talisker Bay oysters going at ~£1 a piece.

Me, myself and I

Mathematics of Planet Earth

I’m definitely a social animal. While I need some “me time” once in a while, I tend to surround myself with people. This is why when I embarked on my first PhD journey, I wasn’t too thrilled to learn that I’d be travelling alone. That sounded so scary, I was afraid that something would go wrong or, in the best case scenario, I’d just feel lonely and miserable for a few days.

Since then I’ve been to so many conferences in various countries, often extended to a mini-vacation. Almost always, completely alone. And let me tell you, I learned to love it.

Gastro-Tourism: Haarlem and Amsterdam

Master of Public Health (MPH)

If you’re thinking of going to Amsterdam, go to Haarlem instead. No, seriously.

Haarlem is a smaller city just 15 minutes away from Amsterdam by train. It’s got far fewer tourists, cheaper and nicer accommodation, and way better food. PLUS, it’s a mere 20 minute bus ride to the beach!

With the final assignment of term 2 done and dusted, we decided to take advantage of Eurostar’s new direct train from London to Amsterdam (£35 one way). Well, almost direct. It does do a short stop in Brussels and the total journey is about 3.5 hours. Nevertheless, it’s still way more convenient than a flight.

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