Bursting the Bubble: Getting Out of Your Uni Town and why it is so hard to do…
The quaint, sleepy town of Durham, whose nuances you can pretty much know like the back of your hand after one term. Yes, Durham is beautiful and possesses an old-fashioned charm. However, it can often feel suffocatingly tiny. Sometimes it is easy to miss a bustling metropolis, the hubbub of city life and streets lined with people other than students. This feeling is a common consensus amongst a lot of us, which makes it especially tragic that so few people venture out. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut, forgetting that there is a big, bright world out there.
Fortunately, one of the beautiful things about the United Kingdom is how phenomenally diverse it is, despite its size.
Just 20 minutes away is the fast-paced, busy city of Newcastle. The metro centre, the UK’s largest shopping mall, lets us remember life pre-Durham where shopping wasn’t limited to 5 stores. Remember Primark? Zara? H+M? They’re all still here people, but they’re hiding away outside of the bubble! Newcastle is so easily accessible from Durham and provides a dose of big-city life whether that be for a day of shopping or a night out somewhere other than Jimmy Allen’s or a gig NOT performed by a student! (You remember those, right?)
Even further north than Newcastle, heavens forbid (!), is Scotland’s capital, a hub of culture home to a myriad of art galleries, restaurants and the famous Edinburgh castle. You can find yourself amongst kilts, whiskey and incredible architecture with the novelty of popping to a different country for the day. Unlike the Proclaimers you don’t have to walk 500 miles – just hop on a train for under two hours and there you go!
Now, imagine if Hogsmeade from Harry Potter had a baby with a gingerbread village – this hybrid is pretty much the city of York. Not dissimilar from Durham and its cathedral, York is famous for its magnificent minister. The city is surrounded by walls and is reminiscent of when England was under Viking and Roman influences – aren’t you feeling more culturally enriched already? Get lost wandering around The Shambles, a long and winding road stretching across the city centre full of charming cafes, restaurants and shops. Durham to York is only 45 minutes and well worth it!
As beautiful as Durham is, the feeling of claustrophobia can sometimes become overwhelming. So for an instant morale-boost start planning your trip out of Durham – booking trains in advance means that planning your little getaway day can be super-cheap, if you’re canny. And as well as being cost-effective, planning in advance gives you something to look forward to – a light at the end of your tunnel of summative hell.