The city is so compact you can walk
everywhere by foot.
best thing
If you are looking for pizza, don’t waste all
your money on Dominos or risk a funny
stomach on £1 pizza from some of the
shadier food places on Wokingham Road
- go to Milano instead. For £5 collection
you can get a large pizza with 4 toppings,
or £7 for an XL, and they are some of the
best pizzas around.
HIDDEN GEMS
For literary fans, there is the Oscar Wilde
walk along the canal and the prison in
which he held was for five years (while
there, he wrote the Ballad of Reading
Gaol). His memory is honoured by a gate
shaped like him. At the end of this walk
are the beautiful ruins of Reading Abbey,
an interesting historical gem in the town.
The ruins are inaccessible but pretty to
look at.
worst thing
If you and your friends happen to stumble
upon a heap of cash (or you are on the
wealthy side), the Zombie Shopping Mall
is a £139 unique experience of battling
through a zombie invasion in a shopping
centre, with airsoft guns.
If you fancy meeting up with friends in
town but don’t want to go somewhere
commercial and generic, Whittington’s
Tea Barge, located on the river, is a
quaint and adorable way to drink tea
and eat cakes. It is a good place to take
visiting family members.
BEST THING ABOUT
YOUR CITY
Reading offers a mix of urban culture
with history and natural beauty; and as
it is compact, most places are in walking
distance. It can be useful to have a bike,
instead of catching the student buses –
especially as they never give change. That
being said, the transport links are really
good if you want to escape Reading for
the day, with London and Oxford close by.
WORST THING ABOUT
YOUR CITY
Unfortunately, the supermarkets in town
are a bit on the high-end side which
makes cheap shopping rather difficult;
both Asda and Aldi are quite a walk from
the Uni. Also, like other cities, Reading
can be quite unsettling after dark, so
either walk back in a group or get a taxi
after a night out – the University offers a
pre-paid taxi card in case you don’t have
enough money.
UNIVERSITY TIPS
Some of the shopping can be quite
expensive.
Getting an NUS card is crucial - it will
get you discounted entry into 360 at
the Union, which is most likely where
you will be spending every Wednesday
and Saturday night during your first
year. Likewise, the Co-Op now offers
10% student discount, two of which are
located in the most popular student
accommodation areas, which makes it
essential when picking up milk, bread,
meat and alcohol. Lots of places don’t
alert you if they do student discount, so it
is always good to just ask.
Regardless of how much money you
might have saved or budgeted for before
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www.accommodationforstudents.com