A Sunny Sunday in Durham

Over the weekend I went to see a friend from middle school who is from Surrey and goes to Durham University.  I used the National Rail and left the station near Princes street early on Sunday.  It turned out to be a really pleasant train ride (only about two hours) with incredible views of the North Sea and lots of sheep farms.  The train also stopped in Newcastle, which is another city I need to add to my list of places to visit.  It was much bigger than I expected and I've heard it's a great city for college students.


Newcastle, England


view of the North Sea

Once I arrived in Durham, Catherine was there to pick me up and we walked through town.  We walked from the train station to Durham Cathedral, which was gorgeous.  There was a Sunday mass going on with a full choir, which made the experience that much more authentic.  We had the chance to walk around the courtyard of the cathedral where much of Harry Potter was filmed.  Durham Castle was right next door, and Catherine explained that this was the only university where students could actually live and take their classes inside an original castle.  The Great Hall from the Harry Potter movies (where all the kids at Hogwarts get sorted and eat their feasts) is also within the castle walls, but sadly we couldn't go in because we weren't in time for the tours.  Either way, I totally felt like I should have been wearing a robe and carrying an owl on my shoulder.


inside Durham Cathedral


Durham Cathedral, there is a really great view of the city from the church


courtyard of Durham Cathedral where lots of scenes from Harry Potter were filmed


inside Durham Castle

After the castle and cathedral, Catherine and I walked through downtown Durham.  It's really small and quaint, and very hilly.  We found a little coffee shop where we could catch up and people watch.  After that we did a little grocery shopping for Catherine and her roomates' Sunday roast.  I met her three flatmates and we made brownies to munch on for tea while dinner was cooking.  They were all really sweet and they asked me about all the wierd British things I have come across.  They were really interested in what a sorority was, which was really hard to explain and probably just ended up sounding cultish, but they have similar social clubs at Durham so hopefully I didn't make it sound too horrible.  Later on Catherine and one of her flatmate's boyfriends came over for dinner, which turned out to be really fun.  They had just had their university ball the night before, so I got to hear all the fun gossip. 


Durham town square

After dinner we sat around chatting and drinking tea and buscuits (so British).  Then I was back on the train to Edinburgh.  I am so glad I went to visit her and to see Durham.  It's a really nice city and it seems like an ideal place to live and go to school.  I really enjoyed seeing her and hanging out with people who have grown up in England because sometimes it's hard to branch out of my little exchange student bubble at school.  I'm hoping to go home with her one of these weekends so I can see the south of England and catch up with her family who I haven't seen since middle school!