Leaving Bury and back to London

It is a Sunday and I am leaving Bury after a good weekend hanging out with an old friend. I leave pretty early in the morning. Well, early for me, 10am or so. It is cold out, colder than it has been since I got to England.

The English train system is screwy. First of all, it is damn expensive. Secondly, it is stupid. So a ticket from Bury to London was about 28 pounds. I had one change in Cambridge. So I looked at just booking a ticket to Cambridge from Bury and then Cambridge to London. 18 pounds. Cheaper to buy the two separate tickets....sounds good to me. So I bought a ticket to Cambridge and decided I will see the city that afternoon before heading back to London

I go to the train station and after some confusion find out the trains are not running. This is worrysome. After some mumbled English from an old man working there I found out they are running buses on the same routes. Takes more time, but I won't complain, I have nowhere to be.

After 1.5 hours I get to Cambridge. Only, I get to the train station, which is not very central. After some questions and reading signs I guess that I can hop on a bus and get to the city center. Luckily, I was right.

Now, Cambridge is a pretty small city, but it is very beautiful. It has a very ancient look to it. Exactly how you would imagine in so many ways. It has the University (Cambridge) all over, kind of like the entire city is its campus. You have the shops and homes lining narrow streets. Think Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and you are close to what Cambridge is like.

I walked around the city for a few hours, enjoy the sights, walked around the University areas I could access and felt I got my fill of the city and it was time to move on. Though, I left wishing I could go to school there. I loved KU, still do really, but I would have liked that more traditional University feel. Smaller, older, more traditions, etc.

After getting back to the train station I head to London. The train is packed full. Never fun, but oh well. I get to London and it is late and cold. I have started to feel a tickle in my throat, which worries me, but doesn't alarm me too much. I get checked into my hostel (right next to my other one). As the night goes on the tickle gets worse.

As I have to get up at 7am to catch a train to the airport I try to go to bed early. This does not prove easy. Around 2am some jerks come into the room, turn all the lights on and talk at a regular tone. Finally, someone tells them to shut up. They quite down, but keep the lights on while they get their stuff together. After about 20 minutes they hit the lights and go to bed as well. This was just good foreshadowing to my bad sleep. That tickle turned into a huge scratchy throat. I felt like I had a mild fever all night. Just restless, hot, etc.

Oh joy!