Stop #1: Portsmouth, England

After the long, draining flight from San Francisco to London, my family and I immediately drove down to southern England to visit our family in Portsmouth.  Portsmouth is a small city at the bottom of the English channel, traditionally used as a naval base/harbor.  We dropped our luggage off at our hotel and set out to explore the city.  We went to the water and walked along the beach, which was very different from beaches in the United States in that the beach itself was made more of pebbles than it was of sand.  After a long walk, we visited our family at the pier.  We had fish and chips, a very fitting first meal in England.  The first thing that caught my attention was the way the people of England interacted with each other and how they interacted with us.  There was a strong sense of community, even among outsiders like us.  There was much more genuine interactions, people were much more generous and understanding than they were back home.  After spending a few days in Portsmouth I began to understand the dynamic of England was much different from that of the United States.  Homes were built upwards, and space was very limited, however the people didn't seem to care.  It was more about enjoying the people around you than it was about the materialistic things (granted these things were still present, they just weren't as enveloped in their technology).  I was beginning to understand that face to face connections were far more important than any internet connection, and people there seemed genuinely happy.  It was an eye opening first couple days realizing how different and special this country was and how it shaped the way my family interacts, given my mom and my grandparents were raised in England.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stop #3 - Paris, France

After our two week soiree in England, we took the train under the English Channel (also known as the Chunnel) and arrived in Paris.  We were only scheduled to spend two days in France, but that did not stop us from checking every item off of our list.  We first visited the Louvre, which was an incredible feat of architecture and housed many famous pieces of artwork, something that has always been important in the history of France.  Often on the walk people would try to sell us little trinkets that they had made themselves regardless of whether they had a permit to do so.  It was interesting to see how nicely people treated those who built things themselves.  Almost every time I walked by there was somebody buying something, regardless of how overpriced it was, just to support the worker.  These workers were always friendly and never pushy with what they were selling, and it was prevalent that there was passion behind the artwork.  This was the first c...
Read more

Stop #2 - London, England

London proved to be even more impressive than I had initially thought.  The landmarks gave off a sense of history and of culture.  Even time I saw Buckingham Palace or Big Ben or the Tower of London I felt the importance of each one.  Each one telling a different story, holding historic importance to the country.  Buckingham Palace, which I had not know before, was not the castle of the royalty of England until Queen Victoria.  The Tower of London held the crown jewels, which was something that was so impressive to me since there is nothing like that to symbolize royalty in the United States (given that there isn't any royalty).  It gave me insight into how the royalty were treated in England and how much of a role they play in the history of England and why that history is so important.  England was one of the most important and prevalent imperial powers throughout history and their influence spread widely into many countries.  Although this impe...
Read more