Cambridge-London-Birmingham-Cambridge in 36 hours

Heyho there!

The last week in Cambridge has started. No idea, if I can finish my work and do everything that I wanted to by end of the week. Probably not, but I don’t care anymore since it’s going to be busy anyway. My Saturday started at 7:30 when I got up and made myself ready for going to the lab. It wasn’t too bad as it was just little work to do (there was a reaction going on that I had to finish) but I still had to be there at 9 o’ clock. T

wo hours later I was on the train to London. After my last trip to London, I got the feeling that I didn’t see the “real” London. In fact, my first impression was not too good. London is a big and busy city with loads of tourists, very crowded and stressful which make it a very tough place to relax. Obviously, I couldn’t be too wrong with my description, but still I knew that I probably missed out the exciting part of London which everybody loves and refers to. And I didn’t want to leave the UK without having seen it! So mission London, chapter II, came directly after the lab work. I still didn’t have to much insider information to know where what is going on in London, but at least I had a couple of names this time. Brick Lane, Camden Town and Carnaby Street in Soho were the places that I went to. And yeah, I enjoyed it. Especially, Camden Town is a great place! I saw a H&M store with a proper DJ playing some electro tunes. I found new shoes. And I saw many crazy shops and markets. The markets reminded me partly of the flea market at Mauerpark in Berlin. There were several markets, selling all kind of unnecessary stuff, always with some DJ’s trying to advertise their music and to sell a CD. Good place, indeed. My emergency plan was to spend the day at the British Museum if I hadn’t enjoyed the places I went to, but there was no need for that. I started to like London, in fact, I would love to spend some more time there. But there won’t be more time now. At 6 pm I started moving towards Euston Station (which was rather complicated as the tube station turned out to be closed…, traffic in London can be very annoying!). I was supposed to take a train to Birmingham from Euston Station. Yes, Birmingham where my uncle lives. I talked to him last week and we agreed on that I should see him, and since my time in the UK is very limited, I decided to do it at once. So I went there for a night and a day. And what can I say, I didn’t know what to expect, but eventually I enjoyed the meeting very much. They were very lovely people, i.e. my uncle, his wife, and their 3 children. I got good food and very nice talks in Arabic and English and had a very good time there!

So finally, I’m back in Cambs, and just one week left. A week with a lot of work and many good-byes. Nothing really to look forward to. But on Saturday, I’ll be leaving for Manchester and I hope that I eventually can relax there. I’ll keep you updated. See you!