I’ve just had a 2-week vacation in the city of Williamsburg. This post recaps the memorable things in the city.

Sights

Colonial Williamsburg

First, a bit of history. Virginia was where the British first set foot on during their colonialization of America during the 1600s. They founded the “Colony of Virginia” and set Williamsburg as the capital of the colony.

As such, the city of Williamsburg nowaways contains the Conolial Williamsburg, which is a senventeenth-century version of the National Mall in Washington DC. There you can find the historic buildings like the Capitol Building and the Governor’s Palace, a long with new constructions for tourism like museums, spas, and hotels. It is a nice little square, good for walking and drinking hot chocolate.

Map of Colonial Williamsburg, cropped from the official website.

Mechant’s Square. We found two men playing music on the street.

Busch Garden

It’s a theme park where we spent New Year’s Eve at. The best thing about them is the musical shows, which are really enjoyable. I’ve never seen anything of such kind before. There were a lot of scary rides, but none in our group was brave or crazy enough to try the tough ones. There was also a cable car and a train going through and around the park, which was nice to go at night. The food was good also. It finally ends with a nice little fireworks performance, which I had not seen for about 7 years.

William and Mary College

An interesting campus. It looks very old outside with a Stanford vibe (based on the online photos of Stanford I’ve seen), while inside is pretty modern and convenient. My friend, an MS student in Operational Research, has their own desk in a private lab with a fridge and all. The Swem library has intersting stuffs like a machine that prints out 1, 3, or 5-minute story for you to read and kill time, or the study desks full of funny writings of generations of students.

Highly intense pun

Highly nerdy pun

Food

We mostly cooked (really well) at home. But we also did go to a couple of restaurants like Peter Chang, Mellow Mushroom, Amber Ox (for a wedding receiption!), Pisco 51 (a Peruvian restaurant), Ichiban (mix of Chinese and Japanese food).

I have never spent that much money on dining before. But the nice thing is they were all excellent purchases.

Getting around

The bus is called WATA (cute name!), free for W&M students, and $3/day for strangers. The frequeny is every 1 hour, but they run very on time. There is also a TV on the bus showing showing exactly where we are on the map, what stop it is. This motivates me to be more patient with the DART buses in Dallas. Maybe being a bit more strategic would enable me to make use of the transit system and get farther in my town?

Life

This is one of the most peaceful city I’ve ever seen. My friend says there are only two types of people in this town – old people and W&M students. Things are pretty close by so it is walkable. People are nice and friendly. Deers can lowkey be found on the trails.

A funny thing: Spirit Airlines delayed my flight two days in a row. However, thanks to that, I was invited to a wedding reception!

Wrap

Overall, it was a pretty chill vacation. Huge thanks to my friend Huyen and her friend Solange who host me very well.