Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Adventures
It's 9:30 pm in London. That means there are about 24 hours before I pack my bag and get on the Tube to take me, to where I get on a bus to take me, to where I get on a plane, to take me to Munich, Germany. That is where I will be spending the first half of my spring break trip. I'm a bit nervous about everything working out with travel and accommodations, but I have planned so much for it that it will hopefully work out. After 4 days in Munich, with a trip to Schloss Neuschwanstein, we will be flying back to London and spending part of a day here repacking and showering. Following that break, we will be flying to Rome, Italy and spending the last 4 days of our spring break there. Hopefully we will get to see much of what Rome has to offer and experience some authentic Italian food. I'm again nervous about everything working out, but it should be fine. Wish me luck, and I will hopefully return with some great stories and pictures!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
If you don't read this, I won't be upset.
OK...Bonjour! I know it has been a super duper long time since I updated this, but I have been very busy. And I've had so much to write about that I just haven't had time. I hope I don't forget too much since it has been so long. So I guess I'll start with the good stuff.
Last friday morning I woke up very early...and by very early I mean 4:30, got on a bus and headed for Kings Cross. There, we sat and waited for a while and then recieved tickets and headed for customs. There my world changed. We passed through the French boarder police and everything turned well, French. Luckily, while in the train station, they still had English translations for everything...it would be a different story when we got there. We boarded the train and were luckly enough to have no one across from us so I could put my feet up and sleep. It was nice. I didn't sleep much at first though because I was too excited. Once we went through the Chunnel though I slept. Overall, the trip was interesting. The train we took is called the EuroStar and it is a high speed train to major cities in Europe. What made it interesting was that at such a high speed, when we went through tunnels, there was a pressure change! I was constantly popping and unpopping my ears.
Finally, after about 2 hours or so we arrived in Paris. Paris is a beautiful city. I could do without the smell and the people, but it is definitely a gorgeous place. What I learned in Paris is that I speak absolutely no French. It sucked. Anyways, in the train station we met our tour guide Lawrence (whose name was actually French and something like Loren (pronounced Lawraw) just say it with a French accent and your good). :-/ Anyways, he took us out to our tour bus and on the way we had our first encounter with gypsies (who he called weirdos) :-) I can understand why he called them weirdos though. Ok, so what is your first thought when I say gypsy. I'm going to guess a pretty young belly dancing girl wearing jingles. Whats your next thought, old hag-ish roaming person. That second idea is closer to the truth. Most wear long velvet skirts and scarves around their head and they have scraggly hair and are weather worn. They actually look a lot like gypsies if you would see one. But gypsies aren't cool. Not like ones in movies or songs. They'll walk up to you and ask you if you speak English. The answer is always no. If you say yes, they'll start asking you for money. They are also pickpockets and you have to be careful around them and in most touristy areas.
So, we make it to the bus ok. From there our bus driver, Yenik, and Lawrence drive us around the city giving us a full tour of the sights. We saw pretty much everything there is to see in Paris. The Eiffle Tower, The Arch of Triumph, Les Invalides, The Lourve, Napolean's Tomb, Musee D'Orsay, Alexander III Bridge, Notre Dame, The monument to the Bastille, The Opera House, and a lot of other things I will probably never remember. The weather was yucky and I was glad I was on the bus. It was cold and wet outside and there was a constant stream of water running down the window of the bus. It was so foggy you couldn't see the top of the Eiffle Tower! The bus was warm and nice though. We got off at two stops for pictures and then were dropped off at the Hotel. The hotel was cute. It was decently clean and served a good breakfast. The rooms were tiny, but it was ok. My roommate for the weekend was nice and shared my love of nutella!
However, by this point it was about 3 in the afternoon and I hadn't eaten anything at all. I was famished. We went on a quest to find a place to eat. Our hotel was by the monument to the Bastille and there were a bunch of little food shops around...but we had a problem. I'm a picky eater, and I don't speak French. All the places had menus outside, but they were all in French. It was awful. We walked for probably an hour before we found a suitable place, and by suitable I mean one where the people spoke English.
I know I came to England to blend in and not seem American, but let's face it. I went to France to be a tourist, and I didn't care if the peeple there knew it.
Dinner was amazing. We found a little Italian place where the menu was in both French and English and learned a little bit of French from it that way. I got pasta and Alan got pizza, and maybe it was just because I hadn't eaten since the night before, but it was really the most delicious pasta I have ever eaten. From there we walked to the Lourve. Why? Because the Lourve has free admission to anyone under 26 on Fridays. We waited in line for a while, but eventually got inside. Inside we saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Rembrandt's, and some really other famous artwork. We probably walked around for about 2.5 hours and didn't see nearly as much as we should have or would have liked to. But we had been awake since 4 in the morning and were feeling like we had jet lag all over again. It was about 8:30 at night, and like London, things tend to close early. So, when we left and Alan wanted a soda to get his blood sugar back up, nothing was open. We ended up going into a McDonald's and I had to order in French. 2, Coke, Grand. Wasn't so hard...yes it was. I couldn't even count the money right. I felt retarded.
But oh well. We had soda now and started a very long walk to the Eiffle Tower. Every hour on the hour they make it twinkle for 5 minutes. It is gorgeous so we had heard and we wanted to go see it. I thought we could make it, but I was wrong. It was a very long walk and we made it there by about 9:45. But on the way we got to see some really cool sights in the night time. It really is gorgeous.
We took some pictures, and waited for it to twinkle. Luckily, the fog had cleared up so that we could see the top now. And the twinkling was pretty! We walked a bit afterwards and learned to say where is the metro in French...even though we never used it. Let me rephrase that. We used the metro, not the french words. The metro was difficult to find, and we had been walking all day and our feet hurt. Much to our dismay, it would only get worse. But our philosophy was that we only have 2.5 days in France and we aren't going to waste it by complaining our feet hurt and sitting on our butts in our rooms. So we wanted to get metro tickets, but there was a line and the Japanese girls in front of us couldn't figure out how to use the machine, and a woman had to come help them. She helped us too, figuring I guess that we couldn't use it either (but there is a button to make it English so we were fine, actually). Anyways, she was nice and we got on the metro and went back to our hotel.
I hate the metro. That is all I have to say about it. It is full of homeless people. It is dirty. It smells. People pee wherever they want...just...on the walls, on the ground. People rip down the posters. There are over flowing trash cans. I'm pretty sure the floors have never been swept and dogs poop wherever they want. Actually...people pee on the streets and buildings and dogs poop wherever they want above ground too...but up there at least everything can air out. It's still gross though. Paris is the grossest city I have ever been to and the metro is the worst of the worst.
I went to sleep in the beds in the hotel. I used hotel pillows, hotel blakents, and hotel sheets. I don't think I have ever done that in my life. Especially not in a 2 star hotel. It was the most comfortable and delicious bed I have ever slept in. I was so tired I didn't even care if there were germs in it. It was fantastic. I don't think I moved all night. I was out. And I was up bright and early at 7:30 the next morning. Alan and I got breakfast and then we headed down the road a couple blocks to the Harley Davidson store to buy a gift for Alan's dad. In theh store we met a couple from Indiana, and the lady in the store lived in New York for a while, so she spoke English and was nice. We bought the most expensive T-Shirt I have ever bought and ran back to the hotel so that we didn't miss the tour. We were 2 minutes late, and we were the first people there. I hate the people on this trip.
Bright and early 9:15, day 2 in Paris, Valentine's Day. Lawrence took us on a walking tour all over the city. We started out from our Hotel and headed towards the Bastille. Its not there anymore, as it was torn down during the revolution (well, one of the revolutions). It was a prison for those of you who don't know. It held prisoners of the upper class variety. There were only 7 prisoners in it when it was stormed. The people mostly wanted the weapons inside it. From there the tour continued. We saw statues, and buildings, and museums, and learned history and...I'll probably never remember half of it. But it was interesting. A lot of people hated it. It was educational. It was also optional and they didn't have to go, but went and complained about it. I repeat, I hate the people on this trip. I, personally, loved the tour, though my feet did not.
The tour ended at Notre Dame. We went inside and I was a bad girl and took pictures. I did take off my hat though, which is more than most people can say. Did I mention I hate the people on this trip? Notre Dame is a lot different inside than I imagined. It is gorgeous...but, I dunno. I think I expected it to be more open and spacious. Don't get me wrong, it was...but there were walls in all the wrong places. It had random tiny rooms...and...it was still gorgeous. It was fun, I liked it, but we left cuz Alan felt disrespectful being in a church as tourists. From there we walked around trying to find a place to eat. We walked for an hour and failed. So, we got in line to climb to the top of Notre Dame and I got out of line to buy a crepe. Crepes are delicious. Think nutella and pancake. Mmmm. There is a very strange man who entertains the people waiting in line by wearing a funny mask and jumping out behind people walking past and scaring them. The line moves slowly.
We finally get to the point where we can climb the tower. Yeah. Our feet hurt. Then we had to climb 400 stairs. It hurt. But it was totally worth it. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We saw the stairs to Esmerelda's cell. We saw the gargoyles on top of the building, we saw the giant bell in the bell tower. We saw the tops of all the buildings in Paris. It was lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My feet didn't.
After, we walked to a little market. This isn't a difficult task. There are little markets splattered all over the city. We spent most of our time walking through markets like like Latin district and near the Pompidue centre. I did a lot of shopping in them. Not like the other people on the trip, one of whom litterally bought a $2,200 Chanel purse. WHO HAS THAT KIND OF MONEY!?! Anyway, we went cause we figured we could find something to eat there. We found a bakery. We bought a delicious bagette. It was cheap and I loved it. Alan loved it more.
Umm, interlude, Alan is cooking me steak right now and it smells delicious.
So, right. I bought some things in the market, and then we got on the metro to go to the Eiffle tower. We got there and of course the lines to go to the top were mad long because it was Valentine's day and that is what everyone wants to do on Valentine's day. We decided not to wait in line and to go find dinner instead. I said we have to not find dinner, but let dinner find us, because every other time we had gone looking it was frustrating. So what do you know, we turn a corner and there is a little place right there that was perfect. It was expensive, but we were in Paris adn it was Valentine's Day, and we were going to go climb the Eiffel tower. The food was delicious. De-licious. I ended up getting not the dessert I wanted cuz I had to order in French and screwed it up, and I have no idea what I got, but it was delicious. It was cold and trapezoid shaped and white and coved in raspberry sauce and had like nuts or something in it. I don't know. It was good. Alan shared his chocolate mousse with me. :-)
Then we waited in line to climb the Eiffle tower. It was cold. Not just cold, but bitter cold. And if we thought it was cold on the ground, it was more so once we got up there. But it was beautiful. We got up there just as it was twinkling! Then there were all the lights of the city and it was beautiful. It was cold. I don't think I have ever seen Alan shiver like he did up there. It was awful. On the way home we took the metro back to the market so I could buy a baret. I now own a baret. Its adorable. But I had to pee really bad, so we went back to the Hotel for the night around 11:30 again. We pretty much passed out.
Bright and early the next morning, we had more croissants and nutella for breakfast, more tea and toast and biscuts. Delicious. Then we were off. First we went to go see the Invalides in better light. We saw it on the tour in the gray bleakness, but it was sunny and warm and beautiful this day and wanted to see it better. From there we walked across the Albert the Whatever-th Bridge and got some nice pictures. From there we walked to the Champs Elyise (or however you spell it) and walked toward the Arch of Triumph. That was fun. We walked through the tunnel and were going to climb it, but our blisters convinced us not to. Instead we walked to the Paris Opera House.
You know, that place where the phantom of the opera is set?!! Yeah! It is by far the most gorgeous building I have ever been in in my entire life. By far. It was the BEST part of my trip. I loved it. Alan and I waltzed in it. So that now I can say I waltzed in the Paris Opera House. It was phenomenal. My words and pictures can't do it justice. I wish I could say more about it. The whole theater was marble and gold and red velvet and beautiful. I imagined myself walking around in a giant ball gown in the summer with all the doors open having a drink of champagne during intermission or something. I sat in a chair in one of the box seats in the theater. I saw the chandelier. I walked on the balcony and was sad the show for that night was sold out. Not that we could have gone anyway...we had a train to catch at 8...but the thought of it was cool.
At the opera house, I used all the picture space on my camera. I was super sad. Alan let me borrow his. From there we walked to Montmartre (or however you spell it) and saw the Moulin Rouge. It is now part of the city of Paris, but when it was built was way out on the country side. It didn't move. The city expanded. We saw Van Gogh's house and some other really cool things up there. We bought 26 euros worth of bonbons. They were delicious. I haggled with a guy in front of Sacred Heart Basillica to get Alan a really cheap Eiffel Tower statue. He said he'll use it for his dudes. I was pleased. But my feet were not, so we walked back to the metro and got a train back to the hotel, were we had to be by 7. We got there around 6, but the rest was nice. Then we headed towards London again.
I still have blisters on my feet.
Moving on from there, Tuesday we went to a traditional British Cream Tea. I have never indulged in something so delicious in my life. It was heaven, if heaven could be a food. It was mmm...its making me hungry. I loved it. I wish I had more!
Yesterday, we toured the Lord's Cricket Grounds. It was very fun and informational...despite that I know nothing about cricket. Alan and I just really wanted to walk barefoot through the bright green grass. It was so warm and nice after all.
Today, we went to some crazy British markets. We went to borough market, which specializes in foods of all varieties, and then we went to Camden Market which specializes in crazyness. At borough market we bought some steak and bacon and juice and bread and basically stuff to make a really nice dinner tonight, which Alan is now cooking, and which smells delicious!!!
Scratch that. Dinner WAS delicious. I just finished. Now I can't move. My typing will be much slower from now.
The only thing I have left to talk about is the trip Alan and I went on before Paris. Alan's birthday was February 11th. We went to Nottingham. We had to get up early and get on a train. It was about 2 hours north, and it was a cute, quaint little town. We got lost, because apparantly Nottingham is notoriously bad for road signs and we didn't have a map. We walked for like two hours before I found a computer store. We went in to use the internet to google maps where we were. Then we went to McDonalds for milkshakes. Finally we found the dudes store and spent lots of money on Alan for his birthday. He is sad though because he doesn't have any of his paints here to paint or put together his miniatures.
But anyways, I have two papers to write...so I have to go.
Last friday morning I woke up very early...and by very early I mean 4:30, got on a bus and headed for Kings Cross. There, we sat and waited for a while and then recieved tickets and headed for customs. There my world changed. We passed through the French boarder police and everything turned well, French. Luckily, while in the train station, they still had English translations for everything...it would be a different story when we got there. We boarded the train and were luckly enough to have no one across from us so I could put my feet up and sleep. It was nice. I didn't sleep much at first though because I was too excited. Once we went through the Chunnel though I slept. Overall, the trip was interesting. The train we took is called the EuroStar and it is a high speed train to major cities in Europe. What made it interesting was that at such a high speed, when we went through tunnels, there was a pressure change! I was constantly popping and unpopping my ears.
Finally, after about 2 hours or so we arrived in Paris. Paris is a beautiful city. I could do without the smell and the people, but it is definitely a gorgeous place. What I learned in Paris is that I speak absolutely no French. It sucked. Anyways, in the train station we met our tour guide Lawrence (whose name was actually French and something like Loren (pronounced Lawraw) just say it with a French accent and your good). :-/ Anyways, he took us out to our tour bus and on the way we had our first encounter with gypsies (who he called weirdos) :-) I can understand why he called them weirdos though. Ok, so what is your first thought when I say gypsy. I'm going to guess a pretty young belly dancing girl wearing jingles. Whats your next thought, old hag-ish roaming person. That second idea is closer to the truth. Most wear long velvet skirts and scarves around their head and they have scraggly hair and are weather worn. They actually look a lot like gypsies if you would see one. But gypsies aren't cool. Not like ones in movies or songs. They'll walk up to you and ask you if you speak English. The answer is always no. If you say yes, they'll start asking you for money. They are also pickpockets and you have to be careful around them and in most touristy areas.
So, we make it to the bus ok. From there our bus driver, Yenik, and Lawrence drive us around the city giving us a full tour of the sights. We saw pretty much everything there is to see in Paris. The Eiffle Tower, The Arch of Triumph, Les Invalides, The Lourve, Napolean's Tomb, Musee D'Orsay, Alexander III Bridge, Notre Dame, The monument to the Bastille, The Opera House, and a lot of other things I will probably never remember. The weather was yucky and I was glad I was on the bus. It was cold and wet outside and there was a constant stream of water running down the window of the bus. It was so foggy you couldn't see the top of the Eiffle Tower! The bus was warm and nice though. We got off at two stops for pictures and then were dropped off at the Hotel. The hotel was cute. It was decently clean and served a good breakfast. The rooms were tiny, but it was ok. My roommate for the weekend was nice and shared my love of nutella!
However, by this point it was about 3 in the afternoon and I hadn't eaten anything at all. I was famished. We went on a quest to find a place to eat. Our hotel was by the monument to the Bastille and there were a bunch of little food shops around...but we had a problem. I'm a picky eater, and I don't speak French. All the places had menus outside, but they were all in French. It was awful. We walked for probably an hour before we found a suitable place, and by suitable I mean one where the people spoke English.
I know I came to England to blend in and not seem American, but let's face it. I went to France to be a tourist, and I didn't care if the peeple there knew it.
Dinner was amazing. We found a little Italian place where the menu was in both French and English and learned a little bit of French from it that way. I got pasta and Alan got pizza, and maybe it was just because I hadn't eaten since the night before, but it was really the most delicious pasta I have ever eaten. From there we walked to the Lourve. Why? Because the Lourve has free admission to anyone under 26 on Fridays. We waited in line for a while, but eventually got inside. Inside we saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Rembrandt's, and some really other famous artwork. We probably walked around for about 2.5 hours and didn't see nearly as much as we should have or would have liked to. But we had been awake since 4 in the morning and were feeling like we had jet lag all over again. It was about 8:30 at night, and like London, things tend to close early. So, when we left and Alan wanted a soda to get his blood sugar back up, nothing was open. We ended up going into a McDonald's and I had to order in French. 2, Coke, Grand. Wasn't so hard...yes it was. I couldn't even count the money right. I felt retarded.
But oh well. We had soda now and started a very long walk to the Eiffle Tower. Every hour on the hour they make it twinkle for 5 minutes. It is gorgeous so we had heard and we wanted to go see it. I thought we could make it, but I was wrong. It was a very long walk and we made it there by about 9:45. But on the way we got to see some really cool sights in the night time. It really is gorgeous.
We took some pictures, and waited for it to twinkle. Luckily, the fog had cleared up so that we could see the top now. And the twinkling was pretty! We walked a bit afterwards and learned to say where is the metro in French...even though we never used it. Let me rephrase that. We used the metro, not the french words. The metro was difficult to find, and we had been walking all day and our feet hurt. Much to our dismay, it would only get worse. But our philosophy was that we only have 2.5 days in France and we aren't going to waste it by complaining our feet hurt and sitting on our butts in our rooms. So we wanted to get metro tickets, but there was a line and the Japanese girls in front of us couldn't figure out how to use the machine, and a woman had to come help them. She helped us too, figuring I guess that we couldn't use it either (but there is a button to make it English so we were fine, actually). Anyways, she was nice and we got on the metro and went back to our hotel.
I hate the metro. That is all I have to say about it. It is full of homeless people. It is dirty. It smells. People pee wherever they want...just...on the walls, on the ground. People rip down the posters. There are over flowing trash cans. I'm pretty sure the floors have never been swept and dogs poop wherever they want. Actually...people pee on the streets and buildings and dogs poop wherever they want above ground too...but up there at least everything can air out. It's still gross though. Paris is the grossest city I have ever been to and the metro is the worst of the worst.
I went to sleep in the beds in the hotel. I used hotel pillows, hotel blakents, and hotel sheets. I don't think I have ever done that in my life. Especially not in a 2 star hotel. It was the most comfortable and delicious bed I have ever slept in. I was so tired I didn't even care if there were germs in it. It was fantastic. I don't think I moved all night. I was out. And I was up bright and early at 7:30 the next morning. Alan and I got breakfast and then we headed down the road a couple blocks to the Harley Davidson store to buy a gift for Alan's dad. In theh store we met a couple from Indiana, and the lady in the store lived in New York for a while, so she spoke English and was nice. We bought the most expensive T-Shirt I have ever bought and ran back to the hotel so that we didn't miss the tour. We were 2 minutes late, and we were the first people there. I hate the people on this trip.
Bright and early 9:15, day 2 in Paris, Valentine's Day. Lawrence took us on a walking tour all over the city. We started out from our Hotel and headed towards the Bastille. Its not there anymore, as it was torn down during the revolution (well, one of the revolutions). It was a prison for those of you who don't know. It held prisoners of the upper class variety. There were only 7 prisoners in it when it was stormed. The people mostly wanted the weapons inside it. From there the tour continued. We saw statues, and buildings, and museums, and learned history and...I'll probably never remember half of it. But it was interesting. A lot of people hated it. It was educational. It was also optional and they didn't have to go, but went and complained about it. I repeat, I hate the people on this trip. I, personally, loved the tour, though my feet did not.
The tour ended at Notre Dame. We went inside and I was a bad girl and took pictures. I did take off my hat though, which is more than most people can say. Did I mention I hate the people on this trip? Notre Dame is a lot different inside than I imagined. It is gorgeous...but, I dunno. I think I expected it to be more open and spacious. Don't get me wrong, it was...but there were walls in all the wrong places. It had random tiny rooms...and...it was still gorgeous. It was fun, I liked it, but we left cuz Alan felt disrespectful being in a church as tourists. From there we walked around trying to find a place to eat. We walked for an hour and failed. So, we got in line to climb to the top of Notre Dame and I got out of line to buy a crepe. Crepes are delicious. Think nutella and pancake. Mmmm. There is a very strange man who entertains the people waiting in line by wearing a funny mask and jumping out behind people walking past and scaring them. The line moves slowly.
We finally get to the point where we can climb the tower. Yeah. Our feet hurt. Then we had to climb 400 stairs. It hurt. But it was totally worth it. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We saw the stairs to Esmerelda's cell. We saw the gargoyles on top of the building, we saw the giant bell in the bell tower. We saw the tops of all the buildings in Paris. It was lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My feet didn't.
After, we walked to a little market. This isn't a difficult task. There are little markets splattered all over the city. We spent most of our time walking through markets like like Latin district and near the Pompidue centre. I did a lot of shopping in them. Not like the other people on the trip, one of whom litterally bought a $2,200 Chanel purse. WHO HAS THAT KIND OF MONEY!?! Anyway, we went cause we figured we could find something to eat there. We found a bakery. We bought a delicious bagette. It was cheap and I loved it. Alan loved it more.
Umm, interlude, Alan is cooking me steak right now and it smells delicious.
So, right. I bought some things in the market, and then we got on the metro to go to the Eiffle tower. We got there and of course the lines to go to the top were mad long because it was Valentine's day and that is what everyone wants to do on Valentine's day. We decided not to wait in line and to go find dinner instead. I said we have to not find dinner, but let dinner find us, because every other time we had gone looking it was frustrating. So what do you know, we turn a corner and there is a little place right there that was perfect. It was expensive, but we were in Paris adn it was Valentine's Day, and we were going to go climb the Eiffel tower. The food was delicious. De-licious. I ended up getting not the dessert I wanted cuz I had to order in French and screwed it up, and I have no idea what I got, but it was delicious. It was cold and trapezoid shaped and white and coved in raspberry sauce and had like nuts or something in it. I don't know. It was good. Alan shared his chocolate mousse with me. :-)
Then we waited in line to climb the Eiffle tower. It was cold. Not just cold, but bitter cold. And if we thought it was cold on the ground, it was more so once we got up there. But it was beautiful. We got up there just as it was twinkling! Then there were all the lights of the city and it was beautiful. It was cold. I don't think I have ever seen Alan shiver like he did up there. It was awful. On the way home we took the metro back to the market so I could buy a baret. I now own a baret. Its adorable. But I had to pee really bad, so we went back to the Hotel for the night around 11:30 again. We pretty much passed out.
Bright and early the next morning, we had more croissants and nutella for breakfast, more tea and toast and biscuts. Delicious. Then we were off. First we went to go see the Invalides in better light. We saw it on the tour in the gray bleakness, but it was sunny and warm and beautiful this day and wanted to see it better. From there we walked across the Albert the Whatever-th Bridge and got some nice pictures. From there we walked to the Champs Elyise (or however you spell it) and walked toward the Arch of Triumph. That was fun. We walked through the tunnel and were going to climb it, but our blisters convinced us not to. Instead we walked to the Paris Opera House.
You know, that place where the phantom of the opera is set?!! Yeah! It is by far the most gorgeous building I have ever been in in my entire life. By far. It was the BEST part of my trip. I loved it. Alan and I waltzed in it. So that now I can say I waltzed in the Paris Opera House. It was phenomenal. My words and pictures can't do it justice. I wish I could say more about it. The whole theater was marble and gold and red velvet and beautiful. I imagined myself walking around in a giant ball gown in the summer with all the doors open having a drink of champagne during intermission or something. I sat in a chair in one of the box seats in the theater. I saw the chandelier. I walked on the balcony and was sad the show for that night was sold out. Not that we could have gone anyway...we had a train to catch at 8...but the thought of it was cool.
At the opera house, I used all the picture space on my camera. I was super sad. Alan let me borrow his. From there we walked to Montmartre (or however you spell it) and saw the Moulin Rouge. It is now part of the city of Paris, but when it was built was way out on the country side. It didn't move. The city expanded. We saw Van Gogh's house and some other really cool things up there. We bought 26 euros worth of bonbons. They were delicious. I haggled with a guy in front of Sacred Heart Basillica to get Alan a really cheap Eiffel Tower statue. He said he'll use it for his dudes. I was pleased. But my feet were not, so we walked back to the metro and got a train back to the hotel, were we had to be by 7. We got there around 6, but the rest was nice. Then we headed towards London again.
I still have blisters on my feet.
Moving on from there, Tuesday we went to a traditional British Cream Tea. I have never indulged in something so delicious in my life. It was heaven, if heaven could be a food. It was mmm...its making me hungry. I loved it. I wish I had more!
Yesterday, we toured the Lord's Cricket Grounds. It was very fun and informational...despite that I know nothing about cricket. Alan and I just really wanted to walk barefoot through the bright green grass. It was so warm and nice after all.
Today, we went to some crazy British markets. We went to borough market, which specializes in foods of all varieties, and then we went to Camden Market which specializes in crazyness. At borough market we bought some steak and bacon and juice and bread and basically stuff to make a really nice dinner tonight, which Alan is now cooking, and which smells delicious!!!
Scratch that. Dinner WAS delicious. I just finished. Now I can't move. My typing will be much slower from now.
The only thing I have left to talk about is the trip Alan and I went on before Paris. Alan's birthday was February 11th. We went to Nottingham. We had to get up early and get on a train. It was about 2 hours north, and it was a cute, quaint little town. We got lost, because apparantly Nottingham is notoriously bad for road signs and we didn't have a map. We walked for like two hours before I found a computer store. We went in to use the internet to google maps where we were. Then we went to McDonalds for milkshakes. Finally we found the dudes store and spent lots of money on Alan for his birthday. He is sad though because he doesn't have any of his paints here to paint or put together his miniatures.
But anyways, I have two papers to write...so I have to go.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Not the Destination, but the Journey
So, where I left off from...
Following our trip to the Tower of London on Friday, not terribly much happened. Saturday morning, we had a project to do. And by "do" I mean we went to Kensington Palace. We spent most of the morning exploring the palace and sneaking pictures of rooms were not supposed to take pictures of. And it really was for a project. After that, we walked through a strange riot on the street which we think may have been for a cricket game or something because there were a bunch of people wearing New Zealand flags as capes and carrying cricket bats. It was all rather odd. Mostly we just wanted to avoid it.
Then we got lunch at New Cornwall Pasties, which is kind of like a British fast food place that only sells pasties. They are kinda strange things, like, umm, if you were to make a pot pie into something you can hold and eat with your hands. I think i would have liked it more if they had had some of the one I wanted, but they didn't and the one I ended up getting turned out to be really spicey and I wasn't so much a fan.
Afterwards, we decided to go visit platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. Our rationality was that we go to Kings Cross everyday on the underground be had not yet been to visit the overground or anything like that. So we get there, and it's really not as impressive as you would think, but I did give the wall a nice little push. Nothing happened. Oh well. The best part was when someone walked by on the other side of a wall and shouted "Harry Potter Wasn't Real!" It was funny.
Now, it would have been very easy for us to turn around and get back on the Tube and get a train home, one stop north east. It would have taken about 3 minutes maybe and then we would have been home. But I decided it was a better idea to walk. I mean, its one stop, not so far, and it gave us the opportunity to see the city some more since you don't really see anything on the underground. So we walk. And we follow a sign to Islington and it brings us out to this street which is all well and good except that the British don't seem to like street signs so we have no idea what street it is or which direction we need to walk. So we walk to the bus stop because most have maps on the back, but this one doesn't. What it does have is a bus stop map and there is a bus that stops at that stop and right in front of our flat. So, we are on the right street, but still don't know if we need to walk to the left or right. Well, I determined that since our flat is north east of Kings Cross and we were near to Kings Cross and the Sun was setting over our left shoulders we should keep walking forward because that would take us north. Plus, there was a really cool church up there that I wanted to see.
It turns out that the St. Pancras Church is one of the oldest ones in London and when we went into its graveyard to see the giant memorial thing it turned out that we found the grave of Johann Christian Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous composer. Cool. After this Alan really felt like we were walking the wrong direction and should turn around, but the moss was on the trees and the sun was setting and I was convinced we were going the right way. So we keep on walking and find The Working Mens College, which is still a college today and I thought that was cool cuz its strange to hear someone say that they went to the Working Mens College. Anyways, we kept walking and ended up in Mornington Crescent. Ah. mornington crescent. One stop on the train...in the wrong direction. It turned out that Alan was right and I was wrong, despite the fact that we WERE walking north. But instead we got on the train and took it two stops the other direction, with one transfer, but hey...it was a fun journey.
Sunday, we woke up early because we had a day trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. The whole trip was amazing, though cold. I loved every second of it. We are actually thinking about going back to Oxford for a day trip. It was beautiful there, and I loved it. We ate lunch at the Eagle and Child (The Bird and Baby) which is the pub where the Inklings met. The Inklings were a group of authors who met and discussed and argued about their writing and other things. They included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The authors of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. It was cool and the food was good. We ate our first Sunday Roasts there. Mmmm.
After that we had a tour of Christ Church College, one of the 39 or so colleges that make up the University of Oxford in the city of Oxford. Christ Church College happens to be the one where some of Harry Potter was filmed. It was neat. I enjoyed myself. I just wish there had been less people.
In fact the people have been my only issue on this trip. People. Not everyone, and for different reasons. Most of the other students here I very much dislike. There are a select few that I enjoy being around and talking to. My roomates are really nice and a couple people in classes are as well. But most people treat this program as a joke. They don't do work for their classes, they don't even think class is worth anything. They wouldn't go at all if they wouldn't get thrown out of the country for not going. They are also SO UNGRATEFUL!!! They are all always complaining about how much they hate the program and how much they hate the school and company that brought us here and that nothing is good enough for them. They all have their parents credit cards and go out and get drunk most nights and are just not how I could ever imagine myself being. Its obnoxious and I can't stand it. The other people I have problems with are the British. There seems to be a rift among the society in that half the people are always in a rush to get ANYWHERE and the other half really enjoy standing still. This creates a great mass of a traffic jam no matter where you are. The impatient ones push there way around the ones standing still and no one says excuse me. People push there way to the front of lines and will push to get on the train one person ahead. Really? One person? Is that absolutely necessary? You're still going to get on the train...just one person later. Wait your turn and deal. And then the people that enjoy standing still...they will just stop walking anywhere willy-nilly and you'll end up tripping over them or running into them or getting push because someone needs to get passed right now. Its all rather frustrating and I have been kind of angry about it for two days now. I owe Alan an apology for taking all my anger out on him. It's not his fault. The other people I hate are Alan's flatmates. His roommate is nice, but often complains about a lot of things that really don't need complaining about. He is a nice guy though otherwise. But the rest of them really bother me. They have these really great habits of leaving the refrigerator door open so that all the food goes bad and we end up spending twice the money we have to because we throw away half our food because they can't shut the freaking door. They also don't do their dishes. Ever. In fact, they will load up the dish washer and put soap in it but not run it. They will stack dishes in teh sink until they grow mold. They will put dishes away dirty even. But they won't wash them. And every morning Alan and I cook breakfast, and every morning, if we want to cook I have to wash their dishes. And we have asked them...and they do nothing. And I hate it.
So...that is my rant about people who I hate and what I have been doing for the last couple of days. Now on to the future.
Tomorrow is Alan's birthday (so if you have made it this far reading you should wish him a happy birthday). For his birthday, we are taking a trip to Nottingham. The would be the Nottingham from the Robin Hood legends. Also, underground there is a whole city built out of the cave system beneath the city. And also, the dudes store is there. By dudes store I mean the main headquaters of the company that sells Alan's little miniature dudes that he puts together and paints and plays with. Its his big hobby so were going for his birthday and it should be fun. I am looking forward to it.
The weekend afterwards we are going to Paris. Yes, I will be in Paris for Valentines Day. That will be nifty. But I gotta go...so later.
Following our trip to the Tower of London on Friday, not terribly much happened. Saturday morning, we had a project to do. And by "do" I mean we went to Kensington Palace. We spent most of the morning exploring the palace and sneaking pictures of rooms were not supposed to take pictures of. And it really was for a project. After that, we walked through a strange riot on the street which we think may have been for a cricket game or something because there were a bunch of people wearing New Zealand flags as capes and carrying cricket bats. It was all rather odd. Mostly we just wanted to avoid it.
Then we got lunch at New Cornwall Pasties, which is kind of like a British fast food place that only sells pasties. They are kinda strange things, like, umm, if you were to make a pot pie into something you can hold and eat with your hands. I think i would have liked it more if they had had some of the one I wanted, but they didn't and the one I ended up getting turned out to be really spicey and I wasn't so much a fan.
Afterwards, we decided to go visit platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. Our rationality was that we go to Kings Cross everyday on the underground be had not yet been to visit the overground or anything like that. So we get there, and it's really not as impressive as you would think, but I did give the wall a nice little push. Nothing happened. Oh well. The best part was when someone walked by on the other side of a wall and shouted "Harry Potter Wasn't Real!" It was funny.
Now, it would have been very easy for us to turn around and get back on the Tube and get a train home, one stop north east. It would have taken about 3 minutes maybe and then we would have been home. But I decided it was a better idea to walk. I mean, its one stop, not so far, and it gave us the opportunity to see the city some more since you don't really see anything on the underground. So we walk. And we follow a sign to Islington and it brings us out to this street which is all well and good except that the British don't seem to like street signs so we have no idea what street it is or which direction we need to walk. So we walk to the bus stop because most have maps on the back, but this one doesn't. What it does have is a bus stop map and there is a bus that stops at that stop and right in front of our flat. So, we are on the right street, but still don't know if we need to walk to the left or right. Well, I determined that since our flat is north east of Kings Cross and we were near to Kings Cross and the Sun was setting over our left shoulders we should keep walking forward because that would take us north. Plus, there was a really cool church up there that I wanted to see.
It turns out that the St. Pancras Church is one of the oldest ones in London and when we went into its graveyard to see the giant memorial thing it turned out that we found the grave of Johann Christian Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous composer. Cool. After this Alan really felt like we were walking the wrong direction and should turn around, but the moss was on the trees and the sun was setting and I was convinced we were going the right way. So we keep on walking and find The Working Mens College, which is still a college today and I thought that was cool cuz its strange to hear someone say that they went to the Working Mens College. Anyways, we kept walking and ended up in Mornington Crescent. Ah. mornington crescent. One stop on the train...in the wrong direction. It turned out that Alan was right and I was wrong, despite the fact that we WERE walking north. But instead we got on the train and took it two stops the other direction, with one transfer, but hey...it was a fun journey.
Sunday, we woke up early because we had a day trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. The whole trip was amazing, though cold. I loved every second of it. We are actually thinking about going back to Oxford for a day trip. It was beautiful there, and I loved it. We ate lunch at the Eagle and Child (The Bird and Baby) which is the pub where the Inklings met. The Inklings were a group of authors who met and discussed and argued about their writing and other things. They included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The authors of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. It was cool and the food was good. We ate our first Sunday Roasts there. Mmmm.
After that we had a tour of Christ Church College, one of the 39 or so colleges that make up the University of Oxford in the city of Oxford. Christ Church College happens to be the one where some of Harry Potter was filmed. It was neat. I enjoyed myself. I just wish there had been less people.
In fact the people have been my only issue on this trip. People. Not everyone, and for different reasons. Most of the other students here I very much dislike. There are a select few that I enjoy being around and talking to. My roomates are really nice and a couple people in classes are as well. But most people treat this program as a joke. They don't do work for their classes, they don't even think class is worth anything. They wouldn't go at all if they wouldn't get thrown out of the country for not going. They are also SO UNGRATEFUL!!! They are all always complaining about how much they hate the program and how much they hate the school and company that brought us here and that nothing is good enough for them. They all have their parents credit cards and go out and get drunk most nights and are just not how I could ever imagine myself being. Its obnoxious and I can't stand it. The other people I have problems with are the British. There seems to be a rift among the society in that half the people are always in a rush to get ANYWHERE and the other half really enjoy standing still. This creates a great mass of a traffic jam no matter where you are. The impatient ones push there way around the ones standing still and no one says excuse me. People push there way to the front of lines and will push to get on the train one person ahead. Really? One person? Is that absolutely necessary? You're still going to get on the train...just one person later. Wait your turn and deal. And then the people that enjoy standing still...they will just stop walking anywhere willy-nilly and you'll end up tripping over them or running into them or getting push because someone needs to get passed right now. Its all rather frustrating and I have been kind of angry about it for two days now. I owe Alan an apology for taking all my anger out on him. It's not his fault. The other people I hate are Alan's flatmates. His roommate is nice, but often complains about a lot of things that really don't need complaining about. He is a nice guy though otherwise. But the rest of them really bother me. They have these really great habits of leaving the refrigerator door open so that all the food goes bad and we end up spending twice the money we have to because we throw away half our food because they can't shut the freaking door. They also don't do their dishes. Ever. In fact, they will load up the dish washer and put soap in it but not run it. They will stack dishes in teh sink until they grow mold. They will put dishes away dirty even. But they won't wash them. And every morning Alan and I cook breakfast, and every morning, if we want to cook I have to wash their dishes. And we have asked them...and they do nothing. And I hate it.
So...that is my rant about people who I hate and what I have been doing for the last couple of days. Now on to the future.
Tomorrow is Alan's birthday (so if you have made it this far reading you should wish him a happy birthday). For his birthday, we are taking a trip to Nottingham. The would be the Nottingham from the Robin Hood legends. Also, underground there is a whole city built out of the cave system beneath the city. And also, the dudes store is there. By dudes store I mean the main headquaters of the company that sells Alan's little miniature dudes that he puts together and paints and plays with. Its his big hobby so were going for his birthday and it should be fun. I am looking forward to it.
The weekend afterwards we are going to Paris. Yes, I will be in Paris for Valentines Day. That will be nifty. But I gotta go...so later.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Catch Up...not Ketchup!
Right, so I've been lazy and not updating this so now none of you know what I have been up to and, in fact, I had to go back through my pictures to remember what I have been up to. But now I will enlighten you.
Last Saturday, we went to Westfield. Westfield is the largest mall in Europe. It's very American, except that the stores were like Prada, Dolce and Gabana, Louis Vioutton (yeah, I'm sure I've butchered spellings), etc. The had an entire Crocs store and an entire Ugg boots store (umm, yeah, there was a security guard, in a suit, monitoring the number of people allowed into that store). There was a full on Apple store, a whole Nike store, a whole Adidas store, and some crystalythings hanging from the ceiling. There was a Hollister. It had a line that wrapped around the store of people waiting to get in side. Yeah. Anyways, we had some really expensive milkshakes while we were there from this store called Shakeabout or something like that. It was cool though because they let us pick from this giant selection of candy bars to put in it!!
Sunday was Chinese New Year, and London happens to have a large Asian so there was a big celebration! There were Chinese dances and singing and Chinese food and paper lanterns everywhere. Following our walk through the mad house that was China town, we walked through London down to Buckingham Palace and up through Green Park to get hot chocolate (which was amazing, despite being expensive). Anyways, then we went back to China town for the fireworks. The fireworks were phenomenal, not because they were big and up in the sky and beautiful, but because they were hand lit, in your face, loud, and bright! I have never been so close to fire works in my life! I felt like I was in a war zone or something! We all left coughing and brushing bits of fireworks off of ouselves. And oh yeah, I bought a little paper dragon named Herman!
Sunday night, we watched the Superbowl. It aired from 11pm-4am ish. The Steelers won, YAY! But I did fall asleep. What was unfortunate, however, is that they didn't show any commercials. BBC broadcasted it the same as NBC, except that since they didn't get any royalties from the ads, everytime they cut to commercials, BBC cut to commentary. That was sad.
Anyways, the next day we woke up to 3 inches of snow (as it had snowed all through the Super bowl and the rest of the night). It was the biggest snow storm in about 2 decades here, and the city had no idea how to deal with it. Pretty much every school had a snow day (including ours), and most adults had a day off work. I saw more snowmen in this city that I have ever seen. But I guess if you only get the chance to make one every decade or so... Anyway, pretty much all public transportation was shut down for two days and generally the situation was just ridiculous. Things are starting to get back to normal now, but they are calling for another light dusting of snow tonight and the newspaper are all predicting more 'treacherous' conditions. Lame. :-)
Wednesday, we went on a Jack the Ripper tour of London and are now all under the impression that the killings of the 5 prostitutes was a conspiracy of the royal family. It's hard to describe; it was fun though! Despite being outside for like 2 hours and freezing our butts off...it was fun.
Yesterday, we went on a random walk through London and the British Museum. It was for a class and our professor gave us random talks about different displays. It was...I just...don't know about that class. Sometimes I think it has no point. Afterwards, we went out for dinner, and had some really good food and dessert! Following that, we went to the Games Workshop where Alan gets his dudes from in America. There we met some other Americans and some British kids, and hung out for a while.
Today we went to the Tower of London. The tour was free because our school paid for it, but we didn't quite have enough time. It was really great fun though. The jewelery was beautiful and I want it. All of it. The 580 k diamond and all!
That's all I have time for, for now, but I'll post pictures later. Talk to you guys later.
Last Saturday, we went to Westfield. Westfield is the largest mall in Europe. It's very American, except that the stores were like Prada, Dolce and Gabana, Louis Vioutton (yeah, I'm sure I've butchered spellings), etc. The had an entire Crocs store and an entire Ugg boots store (umm, yeah, there was a security guard, in a suit, monitoring the number of people allowed into that store). There was a full on Apple store, a whole Nike store, a whole Adidas store, and some crystalythings hanging from the ceiling. There was a Hollister. It had a line that wrapped around the store of people waiting to get in side. Yeah. Anyways, we had some really expensive milkshakes while we were there from this store called Shakeabout or something like that. It was cool though because they let us pick from this giant selection of candy bars to put in it!!
Sunday was Chinese New Year, and London happens to have a large Asian so there was a big celebration! There were Chinese dances and singing and Chinese food and paper lanterns everywhere. Following our walk through the mad house that was China town, we walked through London down to Buckingham Palace and up through Green Park to get hot chocolate (which was amazing, despite being expensive). Anyways, then we went back to China town for the fireworks. The fireworks were phenomenal, not because they were big and up in the sky and beautiful, but because they were hand lit, in your face, loud, and bright! I have never been so close to fire works in my life! I felt like I was in a war zone or something! We all left coughing and brushing bits of fireworks off of ouselves. And oh yeah, I bought a little paper dragon named Herman!
Sunday night, we watched the Superbowl. It aired from 11pm-4am ish. The Steelers won, YAY! But I did fall asleep. What was unfortunate, however, is that they didn't show any commercials. BBC broadcasted it the same as NBC, except that since they didn't get any royalties from the ads, everytime they cut to commercials, BBC cut to commentary. That was sad.
Anyways, the next day we woke up to 3 inches of snow (as it had snowed all through the Super bowl and the rest of the night). It was the biggest snow storm in about 2 decades here, and the city had no idea how to deal with it. Pretty much every school had a snow day (including ours), and most adults had a day off work. I saw more snowmen in this city that I have ever seen. But I guess if you only get the chance to make one every decade or so... Anyway, pretty much all public transportation was shut down for two days and generally the situation was just ridiculous. Things are starting to get back to normal now, but they are calling for another light dusting of snow tonight and the newspaper are all predicting more 'treacherous' conditions. Lame. :-)
Wednesday, we went on a Jack the Ripper tour of London and are now all under the impression that the killings of the 5 prostitutes was a conspiracy of the royal family. It's hard to describe; it was fun though! Despite being outside for like 2 hours and freezing our butts off...it was fun.
Yesterday, we went on a random walk through London and the British Museum. It was for a class and our professor gave us random talks about different displays. It was...I just...don't know about that class. Sometimes I think it has no point. Afterwards, we went out for dinner, and had some really good food and dessert! Following that, we went to the Games Workshop where Alan gets his dudes from in America. There we met some other Americans and some British kids, and hung out for a while.
Today we went to the Tower of London. The tour was free because our school paid for it, but we didn't quite have enough time. It was really great fun though. The jewelery was beautiful and I want it. All of it. The 580 k diamond and all!
That's all I have time for, for now, but I'll post pictures later. Talk to you guys later.
Monday, February 2, 2009
SNOW DAY!!!!!!!
I have a bunch of stuff I should tell you guys about the superbowl and chinese new year and everything I've been doing all week. But all I will say is
SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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