After finishing the mountain that was semester one, the neuroscience society took a trip down to London to take in the sights and to (hopefully) learn a thing or two along the way. We arrived on the Saturday and with most of us having travelled the 250 odd miles from Preston to London, we quickly bedded down for the evening. We woke on the Saturday and decided to do a bit of exploring before we began the timetabled events of the society trip and upon arriving in Covent Garden came face to face with a huge reindeer in the court yard section of the area. An ample selfie opportunity that Rosie and I took advantage of.
We began the weekend by heading over to Harrods1, not normally a place students are found! However, completely in awe of the food on offer I decided to treat myself to a bit of chocolate tea. Queuing up I nearly had the shock of my life when the person before me happily handed over £50 for 4 boxes of tea. £50!! To say I was shocked would be an understatement, however I picked my jaw up off the floor, proceeded to pay for my treat of chocolate tea and continued to window shop. Once I’d had my fill of viewing things I’ve yet to afford, the group headed over to the Science Museum2, a feat easier said than done. After taking the wrong turning, we found ourselves in a quaint residential London street, walking for a good 10mins we were finally helped on our way by a delightful old French lady and her French dog walker neighbour. The upside of our lack of navigational skills (momentary deficit in our hippocampi) was the adorable dogs we were able pet and lavish attention upon.
Once we had found the huge museum, we started out by snooping through the space section of the Science Museum. Rosie and I decided to race, competing to see who could put a nut on a bolt the quickest wearing the astronaut gloves which was harder task than initially thought! Time was of the essence as the Chair of the society had us on a strict trip program, so medicine obsessed individuals, Rosie and I quickly found the medicine section and it did not disappoint. Our group swiftly moved on from the Science Museum to the Natural History Museum3, which thankfully is next door. Again we didn’t have too much time to spare so we went on a whistle stop tour of the first floor attraction was about plate tectonics. The attraction included an earthquake simulator which allowed you to experience what it is like to be in a shop during a quake, the floor shook and although enough for me to stumble, I believe health and safety had a hand in ensuring I didn’t need to start crawling under any tables.
Following the Science and Natural History Museums we made our way over to the Southbank4 to find the Christmas Markets which were located near the London eye right on the River Thames. Despite most of the stalls being food based, we still managed to find some stalls offering gifts such as huge woolen scarfs and fairy lights. Some of us regressed back to 6 years old and decided a trip on the Merry-go-round was necessary! As a society we decided some food had to be sought out after a long day of sight seeing and we sat down for a meal together in Giraffe5. Despite giving the staff a heart attack due to having to seat 15 odd students, we had a nice meal before heading back to the hotel.
Day two of our trip saw 4 of our members heading to the BNA symposium6 whilst the rest of us headed off to more museums. We took the tube across London to the Gordon Museum of Pathology7 located at the Guy Campus of the University of King’s College London8. Despite not being open to the public we were given access and allowed to wander around the place. The museum housed real human specimens stored in formaldehyde for preservation. There were examples of every disease from gunshot wounds, to cancer, and a whole wall dedicated to brain samples. It was amazing to see all of these samples and we even got to see Alan, from the Channel 4 documentary ‘Mummifying Alan: Egypt's Last’ 9, it was a welcome surprise to see him tucked away in the corner of a lecture room. We left the Gordon Museum of Pathology after wandering round for a good hour and a half and headed over to the Wellcome Collection10 only to discover it closed on Mondays (had I mentioned it had been a long semester?) After the surprising turn of events we decided to go our separate ways with people catching trains back to Preston at different hours and others deciding to continue to wander around London, I decided however to catch an earlier train and make the hour long journey back home to hibernate until semester two.
All in all it was a brilliant and informative weekend!
Abbie Tutt
First Year Neuroscience
First Year Neuroscience
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