After a few fun but hectic weekends spent in central
London, Claudio and I had a much more peaceful August bank holiday weekend, spending a couple of days at my old university, the University of Nottingham.
Back in July, we'd visited the university campus here in Reading, which Claudio was very impressed with, as they don't have those kinds of campuses in
Chile. I told him that the Nottingham campus is even more impressive, and that made him want to visit it as soon as possible. I also wanted to go back myself, because I hadn't been there for six years, as hard as that is to believe!
Back when I was studying there, my parents always used to stay at the Orchard Hotel, which is located right on the campus, and I used to enjoy meeting them there for breakfast or a coffee. So it made total sense for us to choose it to be our base for the weekend!
On the Sunday morning, we made our way over to
St Pancras International, which is always exciting to pass through, whether or not you're travelling abroad.
After a couple of hours in the train, we arrived in Nottingham city centre. We decided to head over to the campus straight away and used the quickest and most enjoyable way to get there - the tram! It reminded us of trips we'd taken to
Stockholm and
Amsterdam.
We got off the train at University Boulevard and made a little detour on our way to the university, stopping off for a look around Broadgate Park. This is a private student residence just outside the West Entrance and is where I lived in my final year at Nottingham. I had
a tiny studio flat there, which was definitely my favourite place out of the three places I lived during my time there.
We then entered the university and passed by Cavendish Hall, where I lived during first year. To be honest, this is one of the scrubbiest-looking buildings on campus, and it wasn't much better on the inside either!
Next we visited one of my favourite places on campus: the David Ross Sports Village. During my first year, the sports centre had been located in a sort of tent-like structure, but in my second year the shiny and modern David Ross Sports Village was opened. I used to go there at least twice a week to go to the gym or take fitness classes, and always felt inspired and motivated by all the facilities the centre has. Looking around the building made Claudio wish that he'd had the chance to do a semester or year abroad in Nottingham!
Just across the road is the Orchard Hotel, so we went there to check in. Although I'd been there to visit my parents several times, it was my first time actually staying there. It's a really nice hotel and staying there made our time in Nottingham extra enjoyable - it definitely beat my old student accommodation!
After getting settled in, we went out to explore more of the campus. The campus is absolutely one of the main reasons why I chose to study at Nottingham - it's so green and pretty, and is full of bunny rabbits hopping around!
My favourite part of the campus was always
Highfields Park, with its beautiful lake. I always liked the café next to it at Lakeside Arts, so we stopped there to fuel up with coffee and cake before walking around the entire lake. With lots of animals, plenty of trees, great views of the Trent Building, an island and even a little waterfall, it's a great place to spend half an hour or so.
The next place we explored was the science area of the campus. Even though my degree was in modern languages, I had classes in nearly every building on campus, including this area, because my degree (three languages with one ab initio) involved a lot more contact hours than average. I enjoyed having classes in the grand, classic buildings in the arts area, like the Trent Building and the Law and Social Science building, but it was also nice to study in the modern, space age-y science buildings. I used to spend a lot of time in the George Green library back in my second year, when I lived near that part of the campus, and I sometimes went there on weekends in my third year, although I lived further away, because I liked feeling like I was studying in a space ship!
We then left campus and passed Queen's Medical Centre to go to the neighbourhood of Dunkirk, where I'd shared a house during my second year. Claudio had been super impressed by everything he'd seen in Nottingham up to this point, but even he had to admit that this house and its street were a bit depressing!
Returning to campus, we visited the arts library, the Hallward Library. I always thought this was quite an ugly building compared to the "space ship" that is the George Green Library. However, the inside is super nice and cosy. We were actually able to go in and look around it, and Claudio was really impressed by all the facilities the place has, including the interpretation suite, where I used to have some of my classes (though I never had the chance to actually use the interpretation equipment!). I used to spend a lot of time studying in Hallward between classes, and I miss it a lot - nowadays, I often go to work in my local library during my home office days, and it's nowhere near as pleasant and comfy!
Afterwards, we went to discover the "secret gardens" that can be found nearby on campus. The first one is in front of the Hugh Stewart hall of residence, which looks rather like Hogwarts! I remember visiting it on an open day, and then later being disappointed that my own hall of residence didn't look like it!
We also visited the tranquil walled garden near the back of the Trent Building...
...and the Millennium Garden around the back of the Law and Social Science building.
After all this walking, we were pretty hungry and so we decided to get the tram back into the city centre to find something to eat. Of course, we had to take the time to see the castle and the Robin Hood statue!
Our next stop was another iconic Nottingham sight: Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub. This is apparently the oldest pub in England, and I had never actually been inside it before, so it was a must-visit as part of our trip! I'm now glad to have finally been, as the inside of the pub is really cool - like being inside a cave, and the food and drink was also very good.
We finished our evening with a walk round the main square, Old Market Square, while waiting for the tram back to the university. This area of the city has grand architecture that reminded us a bit of
Belgium. It was also fun to see that they'd made part of the square into a beach for the summer!
We got back to the hotel and were lucky enough to meet a lovely kitty in the car park!
We had a good night's sleep in the hotel, which was very clean and comfortable. The stay was also really good value, costing us around £75. We also decided to add breakfast to our stay, which was £13.50 each when we booked the previous day. I feel like that was a good price considering it was a buffet, and we definitely made the most of it!
After breakfast, we were packing up and getting ready to check out, when the fire alarm went off. We all had to go and wait around outside, which took about 30-60 minutes out of our day, but these things happen!
Once we were free to go, we checked out, leaving our overnight bag in reception and headed off to
Wollaton Park, where we spent a good couple of hours. It was lovely to walk around the lake and the park, seeing the beautiful deer and the grand house, which is more like a palace. I was sure I could remember reading that it had been used in a movie and checked it on the internet to find out that it was one of the Batman movies. After hearing that, Claudio was suddenly very excited to be there!
After coming back to campus, we crossed the Downs, a big open green space. I remember once crossing it when it was completely covered with frost!
We then passed by Cripps Hall, the other Hogwarts-style hall of residence.
The final sight we went to see on campus was the Nottingham sign! We also found another little garden nearby.
After picking up our bag from the hotel, we got the tram into town and went to find some lunch.
I always had a mixed opinion of Nottingham city centre - some of it looks quite run down and scrubby, but there are also some architectural gems. One of those is the Theatre Royal, which I think is one of the most beautiful theatres I've seen outside of London. Of course, we had to stop by to take a photo!
We had wanted to go inside the castle, but unfortunately, by the time we got there, the gates were already closed. (We blame the fire drill!) So, we had a walk around, trying to get a good view of it from different points of the city. In the end, we found quite a good viewpoint near the train station.
By this point, it was getting late, and it was time for us to get the train back down to London.
Fortunately, we got a great view of the castle as we sped away from Nottingham!
Overall, it had been a great couple of days in my old city. It was a bit of a strange feeling to be back in the places that I'd spent time in or walked through on a daily or weekly basis for three years of my life, but which I hadn't set foot in for six years. I was surprised to find that I liked the city a lot more than I remembered - my university years were quite difficult at times, and that probably affected my opinion of the place.
Sometimes, I feel like I would regret having made the decision to go to university, if it weren't for the fact that it gave me the opportunity to go on
my Year Abroad, which was one of the best and most exciting years of my life, and led me to meet Claudio. Being back in Nottingham again made me feel grateful that everything turned out the way it did.
I also really enjoyed having the chance to be on the campus during the summer holidays and to see it in a quieter moment. It was very peaceful and relaxing to be able to walk around and sit in its green spaces with very few people around, especially after spending several weekends in the chaos of London over July and August. It actually left me wanting to return in the Christmas holidays, to see the campus in its winter wonderland form. Maybe we won't be back there this winter coming, but I'm sure it will be less than six years before we next return to Nottingham!
