Hello! I'm very sad our fall break is coming to an end today, but Patrick and I have enjoyed the rest of our break spending time with his mom, aunt, and brother! It's very nice to see familiar faces that aren't people from our trip. On Wednesday after a long day of traveling coming home from Italy, we went out for dinner with Patrick's mom and aunt at a pub called The White Lion. They specialize in fish and chips which were delicious!! We had a great time telling them our stories from each trip we have been on. On Thursday, they went to Liverpool so I had a very relaxing day at home. Traveling was hard work!! I've never been on a trip that I have organized myself, so I will definitely never take that for granted again. On Friday, we met up with them again and took them to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station and Buckingham Palace. The temperature in London dropped significantly in a week's time. Before our fall break I would be able to walk around without a coat some days and definitely did not need gloves or a hat. It's crazy how much colder it is now! We should be familiar with this weather as Minnesotans, but we did just get back from almost 80 degree weather in Italy, so I'm sure we will get used to it soon. At least it's not snowing :) Later Friday evening we met up for dinner with Patrick's brother! We went to a different pub and I ordered fish and chips once again! It is so nice to eat real meals while they are here (thanks Debra!!) Patrick and I rarely go out to eat because it's so expensive here. Pretty soon I'll be back to my daily sandwiches and noodles....great. Yesterday we walked around Piccadilly Circus and went to a few pubs with Patrick's brother while his mom and aunt were at a play. We had a great time and ran into some people at a pub from Minneapolis. Small world! After the play was over, we all wandered over to Chinatown and had some excellent Chinese food for dinner. It has been really nice getting to spend so much time with them while they are here. Today, we are going to Abbey Road and wandering around that area. I'm not looking forward to going back to our regular schedule tomorrow. Mondays are the longest days for me since I volunteer from 9-3 and have night class from 5:30-9.
I also did not mention that I saw The Phantom of the Opera in London before we went to Italy. It was an AMAZING show!! I have only seen the movie version but they were extremely similar. The songs were phenomenal and I never wanted it to end!
Some things I have going on this week-
-Our Marketing professor organized us into small groups of about 5 people and is taking my group out to dinner on Wednesday. We are going to an Italian restaurant and I am very excited to get a good meal again :)
-Business Law test on Thursday :(
-On Friday, our whole group is going to Inns of Court and Lloyds of London.
Those are pretty much the only noteworthy events going on this week. I'm not traveling anywhere next weekend, but Patrick is going back to Scotland for a few days with his brother.
In my next blog, I will take pictures of my daily routine so you can see what I do, where I stay, and what my school looks like! This is long overdue but I figured better late than never :)
I miss all of you back at home very much, but I'll be home before we know it! I can't believe I have already been here for 8 weeks. Time is flying by. Hope everyone is staying warm back in MN!!
Love you all :) Cheers!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Italia!
Ciao! I hope everyone reading this is doing well :) I just got back from an amazing trip to Italy! I mainly traveled with Patrick, but we were with a few other people from our group as well. Here is more about the trip :)
Our flight to Venice was scheduled at 6 in the morning. Since the tubes close around midnight, we had to take two different buses in order to get to the London Stansted airport, which is about 40 miles from where I live. In order for us to arrive at the airport on time, we had to leave my house at 12:45am. I luckily was able to sleep from 7:30pm to 11pm. By the time we got through security and were ready to board the plane, we were absolutely exhausted. Sam and Teresa were on the same flight as us so we were able to entertain each other and try to stay awake! After an hour and a half flight, we were in Venice! From there, we had to take a bus to get to where we were staying. Here is where it gets interesting. Once we got off the bus, we knew the general direction and address of our hotel, but that was it. Patrick and I started walking and figured we should ask for some help. We went into a nearby hotel and figured someone there would be able to speak English and asked them for directions to our hotel. We weren't too far away and were able to find it after a few wrong turns :) The hotel was very nice but small, which was fine. After settling in, Patrick and I got a map from reception and had to figure out the bus system in order to get into the actual city of Venice. Hands down one of the most stressful situations of my life! Their bus system is so much different than London's. You are supposed to buy a ticket from a nearby tobacco shop, but we couldn't find any that were open in the middle of the day. It is also very difficult to ask anyone for help since we can't speak Italian and most of them couldn't understand English very well. At the bus stop, we FINALLY heard some American girls speaking English and asked them if they knew what to do. They told us we could just pay the driver when we got on, so we decided to just try that instead. Patrick and I got on the bus with the 2 American girls and one of them attempted to pay the driver and he just shooed us away as we moved down into the bus aisles. We weren't sure if we were supposed to wait and pay once we got off or if there was a machine on the bus to pay so we waited until we got to Venice and the driver didn't say anything so we just got off! We later figured out that people do this all the time. It was nice to save some money, even though I was terrified we would get in trouble the entire time!
Venice is a beautiful city. I could not believe how pretty the scenery was! Colorful buildings and houses line the edges of the water, and gondolas and speed boats are constantly everywhere. There isn't a ton to do, so it was probably a good thing we only had two full days there. The first day, Patrick and I walked around for hours after getting barely any sleep the night before. We went to Piazza San Marco, which is a huge public square. We also saw the Rialto Bridge. I had really wanted to do a gondola ride, but they wanted 120 euro, which is about 155 US dollars for a 30 minute ride. They wouldn't budge on the price so we decided not to do it. I was bummed but we definitely made the right choice. After dinner of lasagna and spaghetti on the water, we crashed at our hotel and slept for 13 hours!
During our 2nd day in Venice, we met up with 3 of our friends from our group, Sam, Kyle, and Teresa. We decided to take a boat to 3 islands off the coast of Venice: Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Each island specialized in something different; Murano is known for its glass, Burano for its lace, and the oldest church in Venice is on the island of Torcello. We had a great day exploring the islands and learning more about each place. I had some wonderful spaghetti for dinner that night and gelato for dessert of course :) Speaking of gelato, I made it my goal to get it every day I was in Italy and definitely accomplished that goal :)
The next morning, the five of us took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Rome. Surprisingly, it was cheaper and faster to fly to Rome instead of take the train. The flight was only about 45 minutes and we took a bus from the airport to the train station that was near our hotel. This part also got very interesting. We arrived in Rome at about 12:30pm and were supposed to check in at 2pm. At our previous hotel, we were able to check in early so we figured we would maybe be able to do the same here. Well, we figured wrong. After finally finding our hotel (it was in an apartment building on the 3rd floor), we tried to buzz them so they would let us in and nobody answered. We didn't have anything to do for an hour and a half so we sat in a nearby park THE ENTIRE TIME. Looking back on it now it is hilarious, but we were miserable for that hour and a half! It was so warm outside and we had no way to change our clothes into shorts and t-shirts. Finally at 2, we walked back and buzzed in and someone answered. We walked up to the 3rd floor and the maid let us in and said "15 minutes". Slightly confused, we sat until she was done cleaning. Unlike most hotels, there was no reception area or lobby. This had a living room type area, a kitchen, and 4 bedrooms. That was it. It was also called "Mr. Frills" so we had no idea what we were in for. The place itself was brand new and very nice. The first thing the maid said to us was "I don't really speak English." That was a great start. Her English was very broken and she would switch into Italian most of the time while explaining to us how the hotel worked and where to go. Luckily, Italian is very similar to Spanish so I was able to understand most of the things she said. Once we paid and had our room key, we were very relieved. We changed into more weather appropriate clothes (the weather was sunny and high 70's the entire time!!) and ventured off to the Coliseum, which was a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We had a map of the city that showed all the major monuments, which we definitely wore out by the end of our trip. Patrick and I did a tour of the inside of the Coliseum, and we both really enjoyed it! It was so crazy that the Coliseum was just right in the middle of restaurants and hotels. We had dinner at a place nearby and met up with Sam, Kyle, and Teresa later that night. Once again, we were completely exhausted after everything that happened that day!
On our 2nd day in Rome, we started by walking to the Trevi Fountain. It is so unbelievable to see these sights in person that you have only seen in movies and TV shows before. Plenty of pictures were taken! Once again we met up with Sam, Teresa and Kyle for the entire day. After the Trevi Fountain, we went to the Spanish steps and Spagna, a very high-end fashion district with stores like Armani, Prada, Gucci, and Burberry just to name a few. The 5 of us had a great time wandering the streets of Rome, but I can definitely say that my feet have never hurt so bad. The cobblestone streets are cool but tough on the feet after hours of walking on them :) We also saw the Pantheon and had dinner nearby. After getting some gelato, we wanted to go back to the Trevi Fountain to see it at night. Of course, being the clumsy person that I am, I tripped on the cobblestone street and hurt my toe pretty badly. It was difficult for me to walk so we stopped for a bit. This definitely drew a crowd around me wondering what had happened. An Italian man told us to ice my toe with gelato, which we all found to be hilarious! Patrick and Kyle got me some ice packs and I iced my foot while we sat by the Trevi Fountain. It was a terrible ending to a wonderful day.
On day 3 we went on a self-guided tour of the Vatican and got to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica. The tour focused heavily on the artwork that the Vatican has collected over the years, which was so interesting and beautiful to see. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel, and were able to sneak a few pictures of the ceiling :) They had guards everywhere yelling "NO PHOTO" at anyone they saw trying to get a picture. I thought everything we saw that day was amazing. Later that day, the 5 of us wandered by the river and did some shopping and met up with two other girls for dinner, Rochelle and Erin, from our trip that had arrived in Rome that day. It's so cool getting to experience all of these new places with the new friends I have made on the trip.
Some other interesting things about Italy:
1. You can't get free water in the restaurants, which is really annoying.
2. Don't mix up sparkling water with still water. Tastes terrible.
3. Some of the restaurants have a service charge and a cover charge, which we found out the hard way. They charge you for just sitting in the restaurant!
4. Everyone smokes and a lot of people smelled really bad. The air in London seemed so fresh compared to Italy. I can't wait for clean Minnesota air!!
5. The street vendors were an interesting sight! They lined almost every street and wanted you to buy their crap, like fake designer purses with the brand name glued on or random nicknacks.
6. The restaurant workers were very pushy, every time you would walk by a restaurant they would say "Table for 5?" or "Want to see the menu?" Nope, just walking here.
7. Like I previously said, the cobblestone streets are killer on your feet.
8. Gelato is amazing and comes in pretty much any flavor imaginable :) My favorites were Nutella and Creme Caramel. I had it 6 times in 5 days. Definitely not addicted to it or anything....
9. It was unbelievable how the old historical buildings were right in the middle of stores, restaurants, and hotels.
10. Overall, we had an amazing time and have so many funny stories to tell when we come home :)
Here are some pictures from the trip! I miss everyone back home so much, but I am very much enjoying my time traveling around the world. Love you all :)
Our flight to Venice was scheduled at 6 in the morning. Since the tubes close around midnight, we had to take two different buses in order to get to the London Stansted airport, which is about 40 miles from where I live. In order for us to arrive at the airport on time, we had to leave my house at 12:45am. I luckily was able to sleep from 7:30pm to 11pm. By the time we got through security and were ready to board the plane, we were absolutely exhausted. Sam and Teresa were on the same flight as us so we were able to entertain each other and try to stay awake! After an hour and a half flight, we were in Venice! From there, we had to take a bus to get to where we were staying. Here is where it gets interesting. Once we got off the bus, we knew the general direction and address of our hotel, but that was it. Patrick and I started walking and figured we should ask for some help. We went into a nearby hotel and figured someone there would be able to speak English and asked them for directions to our hotel. We weren't too far away and were able to find it after a few wrong turns :) The hotel was very nice but small, which was fine. After settling in, Patrick and I got a map from reception and had to figure out the bus system in order to get into the actual city of Venice. Hands down one of the most stressful situations of my life! Their bus system is so much different than London's. You are supposed to buy a ticket from a nearby tobacco shop, but we couldn't find any that were open in the middle of the day. It is also very difficult to ask anyone for help since we can't speak Italian and most of them couldn't understand English very well. At the bus stop, we FINALLY heard some American girls speaking English and asked them if they knew what to do. They told us we could just pay the driver when we got on, so we decided to just try that instead. Patrick and I got on the bus with the 2 American girls and one of them attempted to pay the driver and he just shooed us away as we moved down into the bus aisles. We weren't sure if we were supposed to wait and pay once we got off or if there was a machine on the bus to pay so we waited until we got to Venice and the driver didn't say anything so we just got off! We later figured out that people do this all the time. It was nice to save some money, even though I was terrified we would get in trouble the entire time!
Venice is a beautiful city. I could not believe how pretty the scenery was! Colorful buildings and houses line the edges of the water, and gondolas and speed boats are constantly everywhere. There isn't a ton to do, so it was probably a good thing we only had two full days there. The first day, Patrick and I walked around for hours after getting barely any sleep the night before. We went to Piazza San Marco, which is a huge public square. We also saw the Rialto Bridge. I had really wanted to do a gondola ride, but they wanted 120 euro, which is about 155 US dollars for a 30 minute ride. They wouldn't budge on the price so we decided not to do it. I was bummed but we definitely made the right choice. After dinner of lasagna and spaghetti on the water, we crashed at our hotel and slept for 13 hours!
During our 2nd day in Venice, we met up with 3 of our friends from our group, Sam, Kyle, and Teresa. We decided to take a boat to 3 islands off the coast of Venice: Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Each island specialized in something different; Murano is known for its glass, Burano for its lace, and the oldest church in Venice is on the island of Torcello. We had a great day exploring the islands and learning more about each place. I had some wonderful spaghetti for dinner that night and gelato for dessert of course :) Speaking of gelato, I made it my goal to get it every day I was in Italy and definitely accomplished that goal :)
The next morning, the five of us took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Rome. Surprisingly, it was cheaper and faster to fly to Rome instead of take the train. The flight was only about 45 minutes and we took a bus from the airport to the train station that was near our hotel. This part also got very interesting. We arrived in Rome at about 12:30pm and were supposed to check in at 2pm. At our previous hotel, we were able to check in early so we figured we would maybe be able to do the same here. Well, we figured wrong. After finally finding our hotel (it was in an apartment building on the 3rd floor), we tried to buzz them so they would let us in and nobody answered. We didn't have anything to do for an hour and a half so we sat in a nearby park THE ENTIRE TIME. Looking back on it now it is hilarious, but we were miserable for that hour and a half! It was so warm outside and we had no way to change our clothes into shorts and t-shirts. Finally at 2, we walked back and buzzed in and someone answered. We walked up to the 3rd floor and the maid let us in and said "15 minutes". Slightly confused, we sat until she was done cleaning. Unlike most hotels, there was no reception area or lobby. This had a living room type area, a kitchen, and 4 bedrooms. That was it. It was also called "Mr. Frills" so we had no idea what we were in for. The place itself was brand new and very nice. The first thing the maid said to us was "I don't really speak English." That was a great start. Her English was very broken and she would switch into Italian most of the time while explaining to us how the hotel worked and where to go. Luckily, Italian is very similar to Spanish so I was able to understand most of the things she said. Once we paid and had our room key, we were very relieved. We changed into more weather appropriate clothes (the weather was sunny and high 70's the entire time!!) and ventured off to the Coliseum, which was a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We had a map of the city that showed all the major monuments, which we definitely wore out by the end of our trip. Patrick and I did a tour of the inside of the Coliseum, and we both really enjoyed it! It was so crazy that the Coliseum was just right in the middle of restaurants and hotels. We had dinner at a place nearby and met up with Sam, Kyle, and Teresa later that night. Once again, we were completely exhausted after everything that happened that day!
On our 2nd day in Rome, we started by walking to the Trevi Fountain. It is so unbelievable to see these sights in person that you have only seen in movies and TV shows before. Plenty of pictures were taken! Once again we met up with Sam, Teresa and Kyle for the entire day. After the Trevi Fountain, we went to the Spanish steps and Spagna, a very high-end fashion district with stores like Armani, Prada, Gucci, and Burberry just to name a few. The 5 of us had a great time wandering the streets of Rome, but I can definitely say that my feet have never hurt so bad. The cobblestone streets are cool but tough on the feet after hours of walking on them :) We also saw the Pantheon and had dinner nearby. After getting some gelato, we wanted to go back to the Trevi Fountain to see it at night. Of course, being the clumsy person that I am, I tripped on the cobblestone street and hurt my toe pretty badly. It was difficult for me to walk so we stopped for a bit. This definitely drew a crowd around me wondering what had happened. An Italian man told us to ice my toe with gelato, which we all found to be hilarious! Patrick and Kyle got me some ice packs and I iced my foot while we sat by the Trevi Fountain. It was a terrible ending to a wonderful day.
On day 3 we went on a self-guided tour of the Vatican and got to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica. The tour focused heavily on the artwork that the Vatican has collected over the years, which was so interesting and beautiful to see. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel, and were able to sneak a few pictures of the ceiling :) They had guards everywhere yelling "NO PHOTO" at anyone they saw trying to get a picture. I thought everything we saw that day was amazing. Later that day, the 5 of us wandered by the river and did some shopping and met up with two other girls for dinner, Rochelle and Erin, from our trip that had arrived in Rome that day. It's so cool getting to experience all of these new places with the new friends I have made on the trip.
Some other interesting things about Italy:
1. You can't get free water in the restaurants, which is really annoying.
2. Don't mix up sparkling water with still water. Tastes terrible.
3. Some of the restaurants have a service charge and a cover charge, which we found out the hard way. They charge you for just sitting in the restaurant!
4. Everyone smokes and a lot of people smelled really bad. The air in London seemed so fresh compared to Italy. I can't wait for clean Minnesota air!!
5. The street vendors were an interesting sight! They lined almost every street and wanted you to buy their crap, like fake designer purses with the brand name glued on or random nicknacks.
6. The restaurant workers were very pushy, every time you would walk by a restaurant they would say "Table for 5?" or "Want to see the menu?" Nope, just walking here.
7. Like I previously said, the cobblestone streets are killer on your feet.
8. Gelato is amazing and comes in pretty much any flavor imaginable :) My favorites were Nutella and Creme Caramel. I had it 6 times in 5 days. Definitely not addicted to it or anything....
9. It was unbelievable how the old historical buildings were right in the middle of stores, restaurants, and hotels.
10. Overall, we had an amazing time and have so many funny stories to tell when we come home :)
Here are some pictures from the trip! I miss everyone back home so much, but I am very much enjoying my time traveling around the world. Love you all :)
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| Venice! |
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| First time getting gelato! |
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| Rialto Bridge |
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| Inside the Coliseum |
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| Teresa, Sam and I in front of the Trevi Fountain! |
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| Spanish Steps |
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| Inside the Sistine Chapel |
Sunday, October 14, 2012
A Dream Come True
Hello everyone! This weekend was the first we've had so far where absolutely nothing was planned for us. That shows how busy we are! :) I managed to keep myself very busy though. I'll give an update of what I did each day.
Starting with Thursday night, they had karaoke at one of the bars located in our school. About 15 or so of us showed up to hang out and relax after a long week of classes. There were a ton of people there! Around 6 of us (all girls of course) and one of our program directors got up on stage and sang the classic American favorite, Don't Stop Believing by Journey in front of the crowd. It was so much fun!! The whole bar was singing along. It's always nice to do something fun like that after a long week.
On Friday, Kari and I decided to go shopping. We started at Piccadilly Circus and went to a sporting goods store called Lillywhites. It has 6 floors! I could not believe how much was in there. Then, we went to a gigantic souvenir store called Cool Britannica. I also was in shock at how much they had in the store. Everything was fairly inexpensive as well, so of course I picked up a few things :) After these 2 stores, we continued walking and found ourselves at M&M's world! They had 4 floors of everything M&M related. (Mom, you would have been in there for hours!) We then found our way to Chinatown and had some excellent Chinese food for lunch. It's nice to find good, inexpensive food over here since it's pretty difficult to do. After lunch, we made our way to Oxford Street! This is a very famous fashion area in London. We shopped at H&M for a bit and then went into some stores that we had no chance of buying anything in, like Burberry and Michael Kors. The atmosphere in these stores was so much different, and I couldn't believe how many people were buying things there!! Must be nice to afford that :)
The title of this blog is referring to what I did yesterday. Anna, Taylor, and I went to Wimbledon for a tour and to look around the museum. As a tennis player since the age of 4, I was in awe the entire duration of our time there. I could not believe I was in the same place that my favorite professional tennis players have played at. Seeing Centre Court was an unforgettable experience, and I hope I can go back someday when there is some actual tennis being played :) We learned that to get tickets, you either have to queue (stand in line) SUPER early and hope you are lucky enough to get a seat, or, your name is put into a lottery system and you have no choice on what day or match you will get to see. I'll definitely be putting my name in the lottery in a few years :) Another highlight of the tour was being in the interview room that the players go in after a match. I definitely soaked up the moment of sitting in the same chair (yes, the SAME chair) that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have sat in while giving interviews. The museum was amazing as well. We got to see and learn about how Wimbledon got started and how much different tennis was in the early 1900's than it is now! We all had a great time, and Anna and I spent way too much money at the gift shop afterwards :)
This upcoming week is the week before our fall break. Unfortunately, that means I have two tests :( I will be spending most of today studying and relaxing in preparation for the busy week ahead. On Tuesday, I will be seeing the play Phantom of the Opera! I love the movie and all musicals in general so I'm very excited for this :) Patrick and I leave for Italy very early Friday morning! We are spending 2 nights in Venice and 3 nights in Rome. When we come back, Patrick's mom and aunt will be here and we will get to spend the rest of our fall break with them and Patrick's brother! Can't wait to see some familiar faces! As usual, here are some pictures of my weekend. Cheers!
Starting with Thursday night, they had karaoke at one of the bars located in our school. About 15 or so of us showed up to hang out and relax after a long week of classes. There were a ton of people there! Around 6 of us (all girls of course) and one of our program directors got up on stage and sang the classic American favorite, Don't Stop Believing by Journey in front of the crowd. It was so much fun!! The whole bar was singing along. It's always nice to do something fun like that after a long week.
On Friday, Kari and I decided to go shopping. We started at Piccadilly Circus and went to a sporting goods store called Lillywhites. It has 6 floors! I could not believe how much was in there. Then, we went to a gigantic souvenir store called Cool Britannica. I also was in shock at how much they had in the store. Everything was fairly inexpensive as well, so of course I picked up a few things :) After these 2 stores, we continued walking and found ourselves at M&M's world! They had 4 floors of everything M&M related. (Mom, you would have been in there for hours!) We then found our way to Chinatown and had some excellent Chinese food for lunch. It's nice to find good, inexpensive food over here since it's pretty difficult to do. After lunch, we made our way to Oxford Street! This is a very famous fashion area in London. We shopped at H&M for a bit and then went into some stores that we had no chance of buying anything in, like Burberry and Michael Kors. The atmosphere in these stores was so much different, and I couldn't believe how many people were buying things there!! Must be nice to afford that :)
The title of this blog is referring to what I did yesterday. Anna, Taylor, and I went to Wimbledon for a tour and to look around the museum. As a tennis player since the age of 4, I was in awe the entire duration of our time there. I could not believe I was in the same place that my favorite professional tennis players have played at. Seeing Centre Court was an unforgettable experience, and I hope I can go back someday when there is some actual tennis being played :) We learned that to get tickets, you either have to queue (stand in line) SUPER early and hope you are lucky enough to get a seat, or, your name is put into a lottery system and you have no choice on what day or match you will get to see. I'll definitely be putting my name in the lottery in a few years :) Another highlight of the tour was being in the interview room that the players go in after a match. I definitely soaked up the moment of sitting in the same chair (yes, the SAME chair) that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have sat in while giving interviews. The museum was amazing as well. We got to see and learn about how Wimbledon got started and how much different tennis was in the early 1900's than it is now! We all had a great time, and Anna and I spent way too much money at the gift shop afterwards :)
This upcoming week is the week before our fall break. Unfortunately, that means I have two tests :( I will be spending most of today studying and relaxing in preparation for the busy week ahead. On Tuesday, I will be seeing the play Phantom of the Opera! I love the movie and all musicals in general so I'm very excited for this :) Patrick and I leave for Italy very early Friday morning! We are spending 2 nights in Venice and 3 nights in Rome. When we come back, Patrick's mom and aunt will be here and we will get to spend the rest of our fall break with them and Patrick's brother! Can't wait to see some familiar faces! As usual, here are some pictures of my weekend. Cheers!
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| Piccadilly Circus |
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| M&M's World |
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| Chinatown |
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| Anna, Taylor, and I in front of the court of the longest match! |
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| FEDERER HAS SAT HERE |
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| Centre Court! |
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The Land of Men in Skirts
Hello everyone!! I just had the most wonderful weekend of my life in Scotland with the rest of my group! There is way too much to write about so I'm just going to hit the main highlights of the trip. Basically, I had the time of my life :)
On Thursday, our entire group met at the train station around 3pm to take our 5 hour long train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland. The ride seemed long at times, but we were all so excited to arrive that it barely seemed like we spent any time on the train. We arrived in Edinburgh around 8 and then had to walk with all of our luggage to our hostel about 10 minutes from the station. This was my first time staying in a hostel and it was a very interesting experience!! It was nice that we knew everyone in our room. I could not imagine being in there with complete strangers. All of the hostels could usually fit 6 or 8 people, so there were bunk beds, a shower, and a bathroom. Not very exciting but very cheap :) Our hostel had a bar downstairs so most of us hung out there for a while. Sam, Kari, Erin, and I decided we wanted to explore Edinburgh since we were only there for a night. We walked for a bit and stopped in a local pub and talked with a professor that was originally from Seattle but was teaching in Edinburgh for a year. It was so interesting to talk to him and be able to relate to someone from the states! Then we made our way to Edinburgh castle!! It was closed since it was so late at night but we were still able to get some pictures and see it from the outside. We had a great night!
Early on Friday morning, our group was split into two as we were about to start on our journey through Scotland. We had two buses (each of them called Wild & Sexy) and young Scottish tour guides that stayed with us the duration of the weekend. As you might infer from the name of the buses, it was a crazy weekend. Our guide, Scot, cracked jokes and told hilarious stories throughout the whole trip. He made everything a lot more relaxed and fun! The tour guides here actually go to school for it so they know a ton of information about absolutely everything. Our bus had so much fun learning new facts about Scotland (some real and some fake) and playing the white horse game (every time you saw a white horse you had to scream "WHITE HORSE WHITE HORSE WHITE HORSE" as loud and high-pitched as you can.) Our first stop on Friday was to the William Wallace Monument. Everywhere we went in Scotland was so stunning!! I have never seen more beautiful landscapes and scenery in my entire life. The pictures I got on my camera will never be able to do it justice. The other places we stopped on Friday include: Tyndrum
On Thursday, our entire group met at the train station around 3pm to take our 5 hour long train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland. The ride seemed long at times, but we were all so excited to arrive that it barely seemed like we spent any time on the train. We arrived in Edinburgh around 8 and then had to walk with all of our luggage to our hostel about 10 minutes from the station. This was my first time staying in a hostel and it was a very interesting experience!! It was nice that we knew everyone in our room. I could not imagine being in there with complete strangers. All of the hostels could usually fit 6 or 8 people, so there were bunk beds, a shower, and a bathroom. Not very exciting but very cheap :) Our hostel had a bar downstairs so most of us hung out there for a while. Sam, Kari, Erin, and I decided we wanted to explore Edinburgh since we were only there for a night. We walked for a bit and stopped in a local pub and talked with a professor that was originally from Seattle but was teaching in Edinburgh for a year. It was so interesting to talk to him and be able to relate to someone from the states! Then we made our way to Edinburgh castle!! It was closed since it was so late at night but we were still able to get some pictures and see it from the outside. We had a great night!
Early on Friday morning, our group was split into two as we were about to start on our journey through Scotland. We had two buses (each of them called Wild & Sexy) and young Scottish tour guides that stayed with us the duration of the weekend. As you might infer from the name of the buses, it was a crazy weekend. Our guide, Scot, cracked jokes and told hilarious stories throughout the whole trip. He made everything a lot more relaxed and fun! The tour guides here actually go to school for it so they know a ton of information about absolutely everything. Our bus had so much fun learning new facts about Scotland (some real and some fake) and playing the white horse game (every time you saw a white horse you had to scream "WHITE HORSE WHITE HORSE WHITE HORSE" as loud and high-pitched as you can.) Our first stop on Friday was to the William Wallace Monument. Everywhere we went in Scotland was so stunning!! I have never seen more beautiful landscapes and scenery in my entire life. The pictures I got on my camera will never be able to do it justice. The other places we stopped on Friday include: Tyndrum
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Beautiful Scenery! |
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| Patrick and I :) |
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| Emily, Ashley, and I dipping our faces in the river for eternal beauty! |
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| Anna and I in front of Loch Ness! See any monsters? :) |
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
A month already??
Wow! I cannot believe I have been in London for a month now. I have seen and done so many things that I will never forget, and have already created friendships that will last a lifetime. I can't wait to see what the next 2 months have in store! It's been so nice being able to stay in touch closely with my family and close friends. I think that is what is helping me to not be so homesick. One of the main topics our group seems to frequently talk about is the food we miss. As some of you might know, England is not really known for their food. The fish and chips are one of the only exceptions to this! In case you were wondering, the food I'm missing most is Kraft mac & cheese, Jif peanut butter, Taco Bell, ice cream, Buffalo Wild Wings/Boneless Buffalo Wings from Applebees, my mom's cookies, and my dad's fish. (Dad, your fish is impossible to beat, even in the country that is known for it.) You really learn to appreciate parents that will cook for you when you have to start cooking for yourself in a foreign country :)
Almost our entire group is traveling together to Scotland for the weekend. The only thing I'm not excited for is the 5 hour train ride. I'm not a big fan of sitting still for long periods of time. Hopefully I can sleep!! I will also get to experience staying in a hostel for the first time ever this weekend. I'm sure there will be some great stories about that...and I am currently regretting the hundreds of scary movies I have watched with Annie, Connor, and Hunter.
I have so many great things coming up in October! Patrick and I are going to Italy for 6 days over our midterm break, Anna and I plan on touring Wimbledon, and Patrick's mom, aunt, and brother will be visiting over our midterm break as well! I really wish my parents would be able to visit, but it will be so nice to have some of Patrick's family here for a bit.
I apologize that this blog is all over the place, but I figured that keeps it interesting to read :)
Since I won't have another post written until next week after I return from Scotland, I want to wish a very happy 21st birthday to one of my best friends, Courtney! I love you and miss you lots and will be celebrating in your honor all weekend!!
I will write about Scotland and post pictures next week sometime! I hope everyone has an amazing weekend :) lots of love from London!
Almost our entire group is traveling together to Scotland for the weekend. The only thing I'm not excited for is the 5 hour train ride. I'm not a big fan of sitting still for long periods of time. Hopefully I can sleep!! I will also get to experience staying in a hostel for the first time ever this weekend. I'm sure there will be some great stories about that...and I am currently regretting the hundreds of scary movies I have watched with Annie, Connor, and Hunter.
I have so many great things coming up in October! Patrick and I are going to Italy for 6 days over our midterm break, Anna and I plan on touring Wimbledon, and Patrick's mom, aunt, and brother will be visiting over our midterm break as well! I really wish my parents would be able to visit, but it will be so nice to have some of Patrick's family here for a bit.
I apologize that this blog is all over the place, but I figured that keeps it interesting to read :)
Since I won't have another post written until next week after I return from Scotland, I want to wish a very happy 21st birthday to one of my best friends, Courtney! I love you and miss you lots and will be celebrating in your honor all weekend!!
I will write about Scotland and post pictures next week sometime! I hope everyone has an amazing weekend :) lots of love from London!
Monday, October 1, 2012
I solemnly swear that I am up to no good
Hello everyone!! Just going to start off saying that yesterday was one of the greatest days of my life and an extreme highlight of my trip so far. Patrick, Kari, and I went to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour!! I honestly did not think it was going to be as amazing as it was. They had the real sets, props, and costumes from all of the different movies. Just knowing I was walking around where Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson had worked for ten years of their lives was amazing. If you ever make it out to London, this is a must see for any Harry Potter fans!! For sets, we got to see the Great Hall, the Hogwarts gates, Hagrid's hut, the boys' dormitory, the Gryffindor common room, Diagon alley, Privet Drive, The Potter's cottage, the cupboard under the stairs, Dumbledore's office, the potions classroom, the burrow where the Weasleys lived, Umbridge's office, the Ministry of Magic, and the actual model of Hogwarts. I was pretty much in shock the entire time. Other fun things we got to see include: the purple knight bus, Hagrid's motorcycle, the flying car, the golden snitch, the different Quidditch broomsticks, the horcruxes, Harry's invisibility cloak, actual costumes from each movie, and soooo much more. I took over 300 pictures the entire duration we were there. Kari and I tried the butterbeer and it tasted very similar to root beer. It was unbelievable seeing the things we have grown up seeing in every Harry Potter movie. Before the tour, we stopped at King's Cross to take some pictures at Platform 9 3/4! :) We were all very sad when the day was over. Here are some pictures from the trip!
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| Platform 9 3/4 |
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| Inside the Great Hall |
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| In front of the Hogwarts Gates |
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| Dumbledore's office |
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| Harry's Hogwarts Letter |
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| Trying butterbeer! |
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| The Flying Car |
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| Hagrid's motorcycle |
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| Hogwarts bridge |
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| In front of Hogwarts! |
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| Ready for some Quidditch |
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