Author Archives: reb5156

Hold on, I’m back in the States?

Wow, has time gone by fast. I truly feel like I just went through all of the hustle of packing and traveling to England, and now I’ve done it to go back to America… over a week ago. I know it may sound silly, but I hired a car to take me to the airport for the morning of my flight. I remembered the problems I went through to get to the hostel and then to my dorms when I arrived in London and I figured that since I’ve gone through it once, I’d be stupid to do it again.

BUT if any study abroad students are reading this from London, go to batransfers.com and hire a car. It’s only 30 pounds to get to Heathrow and it’ll save you a lot of mental and physical exhaustion on the way to the airport.

Anyway, the ride to the airport gave me time to think about this past semester (something I didn’t want to do because that means it’s really over). I truly can’t put into words how thankful I am that I took the opportunity to study abroad. These last 4 months have been the best and most exciting months of my entire life. I have had the opportunity to see so many places and learn so many lessons; I didn’t know anything like this was ever possible. I have become so attached to London – this was one of the hardest departures I’ve ever had.

Thankfully, my ride to the airport went smoothly and I was able to check my bags without going overweight (something I find to be somewhat of a miracle)! I know that I’ll be back someday, hopefully soon. Keeping this in mind is the only way I was able to step foot on the plane back to reality…

I know this may be somewhat out of sequence now, but to get back on track I have to go back to March 15^th – I’ve become rather side tracked these last 2 months! My apologies!

Location: Mayfield, PA

A Concert to remember – in London <3

Sunday (March 13th) was pretty much the best night of my entire life (in a really silly way)! One of the girls I became friends with when I came here told us about a Yellowcard and All Time Low concert that was happening while we were in London – and for only 18 pounds! I of course bought a ticket because I love All Time Low but I’ve never been to one of their concerts. A few other girls bought tickets too – the concert was the Sunday after I went to Stonehenge and doors opened at 7pm.

When we got to the venue in Brixton, the queue wrapped almost all the way around the building – we were there a bit past 6 and the doors didn’t open until 7. We got inside and it was so cool! It was all open and it looked like a bigger version of a normal music venue at home. Apparently there were seats above too, but it was cool being in the center of it all downstairs. We had really good spots surprisingly enough! The first band that came on was a local band called Young Guns – amazing band with a lovely lead singer.

During Young Guns performance, All Time Low came out on stage and they all took shots together.

Yellowcard was next and they were great – I love the violin player because he’s an amazing violinist and a really incredible singer.

After Yellowcard was All Time Low. I’m going to sound like a complete girl for a minute and say that I can’t describe my love for the lead guitarist and the lead singer. WOW. They were so absolutely amazing and seemed like such nice guys.

It was really interesting because girls kept throwing bras onstage! The lead guitarist (Jack) kept picking them up and hanging them on his microphone – it was about to fall over from all of the bras! We were standing behind really tall guys for the beginning of the concert but luckily the crowd moved us away from them.

There were mosh pits breaking out RIGHT in front of me and I had to push people to move the guys away from me so that I wouldn’t get hit. After the concert was over, we stayed inside to watch some of the clean up.

Security started kicking people out so we went outside to look for All Time Low’s tour bus (this doesn’t sound stalkerish at all). We realized they wouldn’t have one so we were just walking around the building when we heard a bunch of people screaming. We ran to see what was going on. Apparently, the bands go outside to sign autographs and whatnot so we walked over the group of people surrounding the gate. No one was outside yet but everyone was waiting. I got out the ticket and my camera and waited. While we were waiting, we met this really cool girl that followed almost the whole tour. We talked for a while and then Yellowcard’s lead singer and guitarist came out.

They were real cool; since this girl that we met has been following them all over Europe, they actually recognized her and were talking to her (and us because we were next to her)! We waited a bit more and then All Time Low came outside. Jack Barakat (the lead guitarist) came out first and then Alex Gaskarth (the lead singer) came out. I got my picture with Jack and then when Alex came over, I told him I was from the States. He asked where so I told him as he was signing my ticket – then I asked for a picture and he told me that I look like Sarah Barillas, but prettier. *Another girl moment* but I almost died. I got my picture with him and then wanted to just end my life right there because life couldn’t possibly get any better than that.

So basically, this was just the best night of my life. Monday, i went for a really lovely walk around the neighborhood that I live in. We ended up going to H&M and trying on tons of clothes. I’m pretty sure that H&M didn’t enjoy me handing this to them.

All in all, it was a really great ending to the weekend (Monday’s included in my weekend since I don’t have any scheduled classes that day)! I don’t ever want to leave.

Location: Brixton, London

“Time flies” is an understatement.

Well, if I didn’t feel like I was actually going to school before, I do now! I’ve been slammed with coursework and exam preparations for about 2 weeks. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if study abroad meant traveling as much as you can and then writing a paper on each place about your experiences? If only life were so amazing. Regardless of the intense studying (I should be doing), I’ve traveled a TON lately – which would be the reason I haven’t blogged in almost a month.

So the Saturday after my last blog, I took a trip to Stonehenge. I traveled with one of my friends from the dorms; it was nice having only one other person to travel with. Naturally, a coach to Salisbury was the traveling method of choice. There are no coaches that go directly to Stonehenge, so we took a coach to Salisbury, the surrounding town. We later found out that the reason there aren’t any buses directly to Stonehenge is because they’re stones in the middle of nowhere! The weather was beautiful; it was sunny and mild when we got there. It was around 10:30am at this point, and we hadn’t slept much so we decided to find a caf� nearby. We walked around the corner from the bus station and saw that there was a market in the city centre and a really cute little caf�/restaurant on the corner called Nuggs. They had the history of the building posted around the restaurant; apparently, Nugg was the last name of the family who owned the property and the building was built in the 13^th century! The floorboards have been replaced and it’s been restored to some extent so that it’s safe to occupy; however, there was definitely a historic atmosphere about the place.

When we were done, we went outside to walk around a bit and find the tourist information. We walked through a part of the market and then into an “Olde Sweet Shoppee”.

After that, we found the tourist information shop and went inside to buy a ticket to get to Stonehenge. We wandered in and out of little shops and walked some streets of Salisbury. There were a lot of locals out and about with their families because of the nice weather, so we really got a feel of local life. When the time came, we got the bus at the station. The way to the stones was really beautiful; we passed pigs, and cows, and sheep!! It was also really interesting to listen to the history of the area and of Stonehenge before getting there.

We arrived at the stones about 30 minutes later. We got our guide and then spent about an hour walking around the stones.

There isn’t that big of a circle to walk in but the audio guides had a lot of information so we walked really slowly and kept taking breaks to take pictures.

Listening to the history and the theories of how the stones got there was so much more interesting and captivating with the stones right in front of you. We then went to the field across the way and walked in the grass. We saw ancient burial mounds when we were in the field! On the way back to Salisbury, we went a different way than we had come. The streets are so narrow and the bus was going so fast I thought we were going to die! When we got back to town and my feet were firmly on the ground, we realized that it had gotten cloudy and cooler. Good old English weather! Parts of the market were getting ready to close, so we walked through the whole of the market. After the market, we journeyed over to the Cathedral to get a quick look at it before getting some dinner. The architecture was gorgeous – I love the Gothic style!!

Going back to London, the bus smelled pretty awful, but I guess that’s one of the risks you take when you decide to travel by coach. When we got back to London, the bus driver didn’t know where he was going at all; he took a wrong turn but finally found the station. When we stopped, I stood right up because I wanted to get home. The woman sitting in the front just gave me a nasty look and said something to me. I was so confused so I just looked at her and walked past. I left the station with Mary and we walked quickly to the corner to catch the bus. We glanced across the street to the left and saw the bus we take to the dorms was sitting at the bus stop. We looked at each other and RAN across the street without looking and just made it on the bus in time. It was quite the interesting end to our day but a successful day nonetheless!

**More blogs will be posted within the next few days hopefully. I have two essay exams on Monday and Tuesday so if the blogs are late, that’s why! 🙂

Location: Salisbury, England

Spring has Spring (“touch wood”)

Let me just start by saying, the English Countryside is absolutely gorgeous.

So, this past Friday I left really early in the morning to catch the Megabus from St. Pancras Station to York for my HOST stay. At first, I was confused when I got to the St. Pancras station because I didn’t know I had to take a train first. As it turns out, I had to take the train to a stop about 2 hours away and then switch to the Megabus. It was about a 2 hour ride on the train and then a 4 hour ride on the coach. As we were getting closer to York and further north, the sights around me became increasingly green and open. I was in such awe at all of the open green fields. With all of the rain they get here, things better be green!! About 2 minutes after I got there, Maggie (my host) showed up behind me! She was an older woman who has grown children; she lives in a quaint little market town of Kirkbymoorside. There was another girl, Quinyu, who was scheduled to stay at Maggie’s house too, so we headed to the train station to pick her up. Quinyu’s train was supposed to get in 15 minutes after mine, so we walked around looking for her. Maggie accidentally forgot Quinyu’s phone number at home and we couldn’t find her anywhere, so Maggie decided that we should sit down for tea as we wait. We waited until another train came in from Quinyu’s place of study, and then decided that we didn’t know what was happening and that we should just go back home. Funny thing is that as we were walking to the car, a girl rushed up to us and asked if we were the people from HOST! It was really good luck because we were about to leave. On our way to Kirkbymoorside, the sights were just breathtaking! We stopped once and Maggie let us get out of the car to take pictures. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

Maggie’s house was about an hour away. One thing I noticed while in a car with a woman that’s in her 70’s – people drive SO fast here! Maggie was speeding like an American teenager; however, it was quite obvious that’s the driving culture here for the most part. There were still people passing us even though I thought we were going so fast, especially on little countryside roads.

Maggie’s house was so cute! It was smaller and decorated with a ton of art; I later found out that she drew most of it. The house was pretty freezing; thankfully, there was a little gas fireplace in the living room. Maggie also has a cat named Cassie who greeted us as we found the way to our room.

By the time we were situated, it was already past 4pm so we had tea and Maggie prepared dinner. Since she was aware of my eating habits, she bought me soya milk and prepared animal-free meals (for the most part)! It was so kind of her to buy me my own milk and cater to my dietary lifestyle. For dinner that night, Maggie made stuffed tomatoes with rice and vegetables – it was so yummy! We all sat down in her kitchen with tea and dinner and chatted about our lives. Quinyu was very interesting to talk to; she has lived in China all her life so I was having so much fun asking her all types of questions. She’s never been to America, so she had quite a few questions herself! After dinner, we had more tea and some chocolate (Maggie had a dark chocolate bar). We talked around the fire and watched a bit of TV. I was going on about 4 hours of sleep, but I thought that Maggie would be going to bed early. Well boy oh boy was I wrong because we didn’t end up going to bed until almost midnight! I was so exhausted. The next morning, we woke up and got ready for the day. When we were all downstairs we sat down in the kitchen and had tea, oatmeal with fresh fruit, and talked for a while. Maggie is a very interesting woman herself and has done a lot of traveling. I always love meeting other people with a passion for traveling, especially when they know more about it then I do because then I get to ask them all about their experiences. After breakfast, we left the house and walked around the market town of Kirkbymoorside and the surrounding villages.

I found out that a market town is a town that has a “market” and a few shops (one size smaller is a village). Kirkbymoorside is pretty much what I thought the English countryside would look like, except it’s about 94759873 times more gorgeous then I expected. As we were walking, we saw some sheep! There was also a lot of mud but it wasn’t rainy so I was happy.

We walked in a really big circle and eventually got back to Maggie’s house. After our walk, we went back to Maggie’s house for some lunch; she made salad and bread and we had tea again. After we ate lunch and chatted a bit more, we went in the car and drove to a village that was on the way to the moors. It was an adorable little village that had a stream running through it and cute little strips of shops. There were glass makers, stained-glass makers, pottery makers, candle makers, and chocolate makers. After we walked around the village and the town for a bit, we left there and headed to the moors. From what Maggie told me, the moors is an area of land that isn’t good for anything other than feeding sheep because the soil is so poor. Farmers put dye on their sheep and then let them wander in the moors. I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the landscape was – we stopped two times on the way to get out of the car and take pictures. There were a ton of sheep roaming all around the grasslands grazing and walking around; so,me and Quinyu went to take pictures of the sheep. We ran over to the fence and 3 of the sheep looked at us and made a sheep-ish noise. All of a sudden the whole field of sheep was walking towards us!!

It was really funny (and kind of scary)! When we got to the moors, we went on a nature preserve walk. It was a mile and a half walk through the moors with a caf� at the end called the Daffy Caffy. The landscape was so so pretty and I couldn’t help myself from just standing and staring. The walk was gorgeous – I wish a camera could have done the landscape justice, but it’s impossible. Everything was just so pretty.

We all had a really good talk and we arrived at the caf�. It was really cute and apparently Maggie knew the man who owned it and his family. One really cool thing is that the caf� was the house of this family (they have 4 young children)! We had some tea and then headed back to Maggie’s house. We had some more tea and ate beans, potatoes, carrots, and squash with coconut and mushrooms for dinner! It was so yummy. Maggie asked us to write in her book that all her students write in. I wrote her a nice little message and told her to keep in touch. We put the TV on and looked for interesting shows when we came upon traveling programs on the Dave channel. Luckily, we went to bed around 11pm Saturday night.

When we woke up, we had cereal for breakfast and got ready to leave. We left Maggie’s house around 10:30am and stopped on the way at a castle to see the grounds. We saw a peacock with its tail open and then we continued on the journey back to York. When we got there, Maggie decided she wanted to walk half of the walls surrounding the original city of York.

It was actually really beautiful and I’m glad we got to go. After we walked the walls, we were just walking around the streets. We went to the York minster (church) and the Shambles, which is the oldest street in York.

After walking around for a bit, we stopped for lunch. Maggie packed us sandwiches and we sat in the sun and ate. At this point, we decided that it’d be a good move to head back to the car. On the way to the station, we stopped again to take pictures at a lake.

We got to the station, figured out where Quinyu’s train was getting her, and then had tea. Quinyu left and then Maggie took me to the bus stop. I waited there for about 20 minutes until the bus came. I was on a bus to Leeds for an hour and then I got off at the Leeds coach station to transfer to another bus. I got on the bus and was on it for about 4 hours (or so). It was a lovely feeling when I finally got home; I love traveling but I love London so much. Monday, I had to take a trip to the grocery store and then write 2 papers that were due Tuesday. Nothing like procrastination in another country! About halfway through, I took a break when for dinner. While I was trying to get out the pans I needed, there was one on the stove (that was turned off)! I touched the bottom of the pot for some reason and ended up burning the CRAP out of my. Obviously my mom never taught me to not touch hot objects. It was really painful but I think I will refrain from procrastinating papers from now on!!

Wednesday morning, I was in such a wonderful mood! It was sunny and pretty in London. We had our last trip for historic London class and it was at the British Museum. It was actually a great museum – we had a tour guide that was an archeologist from Greece! I definitely want to go back there.

I decided to walk home and I took the route so that I would go through all the parks nearby; I went past Green Park, Hyde Park and I walked through Kensington Gardens. The gardens were gorgeous – I can’t believe I’m living here. I walked through a Rose garden and the flowers were blooming and they smelled so wonderful. Spring in London = WONDERFUL<3

I found an amazing vegan (homemade) bakery that does “pop-up” stands all over. I went to one of the stands today and I bought some. They are the most amazing cupcakes ever.

Tomorrow I’m headed to Stonehenge and then a concert on Sunday so I’ll be blogging all about that next!

Location: Kirkbymoorside, England

Adventures of Amsterdam

Well, if you’re reading this on Saturday (March 5^th) I’m currently in the countryside of England in a little “market town” called Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire. I’m on a HOST program visit with another girl, but I’m not sure where she’s from yet.

My latest adventure (besides my current one) was to Amsterdam! We took the coach there, obviously, and it was scheduled to leave at 7pm London time and arrive at 7:45am Amsterdam time (1 hour ahead). When we got on the bus, some guy came on and asked if he could sit next to me. I wasn’t going to say no, so I let him. He turned out to be very creepy. Since it was such an early bus, I couldn’t fall asleep right away. The guy sitting next to me kept talking to me; he started talking about traveling, which is my favorite topic, so we talked for a while and I was fine with that. We took the ferry again and when we were parked, we went upstairs and were walking around when the creep guy tried to talk to me again.

When it was time to board the bus again, I put my iPod in, so that the guy knew I was sleeping, and fell asleep. Luckily, I was in and out of sleep the rest of the time. Around 5:30am we were coming to a stop; Mary and Kate asked me if we were there and I said no, we still had about 2 hours left. I happened to look out at the station sign and it read “Amsterdam Amstel”. I was so confused because I knew that was the name of the station but I couldn’t figure out why we were there so early. We were all still half asleep so we got out, got our luggage, and wandered into the station. I was a bit nervous at first because every sign was in Dutch and none of them were translated into English. I wandered over to the maps to look but had no clue what I was looking for. I pulled out the hostel paper and we tried to find the street name on the map but it was impossible; the street names looked like letters jumbled together. The three of us sat down on a bench and just stared at the floor for a while. We didn’t know what to do since it was so early and we were seriously still partly asleep. All of a sudden, the creepy guy came up to me and asked me for my number; I told him that I didn’t have a phone (and then I realized he saw me on it earlier). He then proceeded to ask me for my yahoo, g-mail, or facebook name. I told him I had a facebook but that my profile was private so he couldn’t find me. About 10 minutes later, he came back over and told us to give the woman he was with the name and directions to our hostel so she could tell us how to get there. I ignored him and told him we were fine; there was no way I was giving him that information. We must have been so out of it; no one would go up to the security guards to ask them how to get to the hostel and I was apparently reading the directions wrong that the hostel has online. After almost 2 hours of sitting there, I realized that the directions told us exactly how to get to the hostel. We saw people just walking into the open doors to get onto the metro, so we did the same without buying a ticket (oops). When we got to the central station, we realized that there were actually security guards at this one and the doors weren’t open. We were initially like “Oh no!” but then we saw a door open in the very corner so we went through that one. It was such an easy walk to the hostel from the central station! We were walking down the street and were already getting whiffs of marijuana. And it wasn’t even 8am! I loved our hostel so much; the atmosphere of the place was so chill. When we checked in, they told us that we could go into our rooms at 10:30am and that we could “smoke anything legal in Amsterdam” in the smoke room but not anywhere else in the hostel. There was also free breakfast downstairs that we could have; I love the word free!

The first place we wanted to go was to the I Amsterdam sign. Of course we walked everywhere; it was so pretty. The canals are breathtaking and the architecture there is different from anything I’ve seen so far. I loved that the main transportation is bicycles and that they always have the right of way. We didn’t rent a bike though, it was way too rainy for us!

We finally ended up at the sign and there were so many people there!

We went to a Dutch pancake restaurant for lunch and sat upstairs; the steps were small and steep and we were talking about how I almost fell. It was funny because one of the workers overheard us and said something along the lines of “try working here and having to go up them all the time! It’s alright though, just get high before you go up them and you’ll be fine! It helps me when I’m working!” I loved how he was just so open about it and it was completely normal. It was really rainy, so we went back to the hostel and rested for about an hour. We didn’t want to feel completely lazy, so we went outside on an adventure. One thing to keep in mind, Caf�’s are where you get coffee and pastries, Coffee shops is where you buy marijuana.

I wanted to at least go into a coffee shop while we were there because it’s a part of Amsterdam’s culture. Wow is that a different way of life! When you walk in, they card you immediately because you have to be 18 to even be in there. In the one we went into, there was a separate place to smoke; they aren’t all like that, some of them you can smoke wherever. There was munchy food and drinks being sold and a menu of marijuana. The list was about 25 names long and in parenthesis next to the name was the type of high you’d get from that specific type. It was so bizarre to see but actually really interesting to think about. Mainly because Amsterdam has it right; they regulate the legalization of Marijuana by making it illegal to purchase under the age of 18 and making it illegal to smoke outside in public. Since this is the case, there aren’t any marijuana drug lords and there aren’t any concerns that you’ll be buying something that is either laced or isn’t worth what you paid. Everyone in Amsterdam is so chill and friendly!

The friends I went with wanted to go to a museum and I wasn’t feeling it, so I stayed behind to wander around alone. I went in and out of all the souvenir shops comparing prices and items they had and just walked around the area close to our hostel. I was in such shock because in the shops, there were more accessories for drugs and less for actual souvenirs; they literally had signs in the glass displays that said “cocaine accessories”. That was a bit excessive to me. I wanted to take a picture of them, but I was afraid the store owners wouldn’t like that. Later that evening, we went to go get some food quick. We didn’t really want anything big because we were paying 15 euros for a pub crawl. For the first hour of the pub crawl, we met in a bar and it was an hour of all you can drink shots. The shots were awful; it was vodka splashed with some cranberry juice for coloring. The worst part was that they didn’t supply anything to chase it with. It was actually a lot of fun and it was one of the first times I’ve really gone out since I’ve been here. We went to 5 other bars and a club. I met so many people; one of the guys was from Scotland and I talked to him for a while about traveling, I met a guy from Ireland that told me he was going to show me all around Dublin, I met a guy from London that I said reminded me of Russell Brand, and I met a girl that was on our pub crawl that is living in London in Shortidge. We talked for a while and she was telling me all about her love for traveling and everywhere she’s been and how much she loves living in London. All in all, it was a good night.

The next morning, they asked us to be checked out by 10:30am. We had our free breakfast and then went off on our merry way. We didn’t realize it, but it was incredibly windy and rainy outside. There was a caf� where we all sat for a while because it was too windy to walk around with our umbrellas. The rest of the day, we walked in and out of the souvenir shops and caf�s. Later in the afternoon, we decided to walk towards the Red Light District.

We were walking through it, and all I can say is that it is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. I later learned that it is a legitamte job and they have a union, pensions, and benefits! It started to get incredibly windy again, so we went into the museum we were clostest to, which happened to be named “The Erotic museum”. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I really didn’t enjoy the erotic art, but it was not raining in there so I was happier than I was outside.

We eventually made it back to the hostel to get our bags and then headed to the metro station. I left the hostel and then realized (when we were almost at the metro station) that I left my passport and tickets at the desk of the hostel in the safe. I was so lucky I remembered them before we got to the coach station! We actually paid for the metro this time and took the train to the Amstel Station. We were told that our bus was going to be boarding at 10pm so around 9:50, we went outside in the rain. About 10:15 this bus pulls into the station, almost tips over going around a turn, and then pulls in the spot we were standing next to. There was a girl in front of me that asked the bus driver where the bus was going the bus driver freaked out and asked why we were standing in the rain because he didn’t even have his paperwork yet. He was so rude and I wasn’t looking forward to him. When he came back, he told us that we have to put our luggage on first and then we could board. He closed all the doors and then made us give him out suitcases in order of size called by him. Of course my bag was a backpack, so he freaked when I asked if I could put my bag in the little corner. He ended up taking it and shoving this huge suitcase on top of it. When we got on, he told us that he’s very mean if we get on his bad side and if we don’t keep the coach clean to remember that “he’s the one controlling the gas”. I happened to be putting my coat in the overhead compartment when he asked me to sit down. I said that I was just putting my coat up and he goes “I know, I’m watching you; I like watching you”. I was terrified! Fortunately, I slept most of the way and didn’t have a creepy man sitting with me. I woke up and realized we were in London. As we were pulling into the station, we were redirected to a different spot and we were told that we had to go through more security but they didn’t tell us why. We ended up having to get our passports checked again and our luggage was scanned through 3 different scanners. There were also bomb dogs there that had to sniff every single suitcase. We had to stand outside in the freezing cold for about an hour and it wasn’t enjoyable in the least. It wasn’t the most pleasant ending to our weekend, but I was happy to be back home. Even though our weekend wasn’t filled with adventure and seeing lots of sights, it was the perfect trip to end February with because it was so relaxing and not demanding at all.

Tuesday, I left for class a few hours later than usual because my tutorial was cancelled. As usual, I took the tube to get there. I got 2 stops away from my stop and then we weren’t moving from the platform. I started to get antsy after we were sitting there for 5 minutes when someone came over the loud speaker. I thought they were going to say they were trying to space out the trains (they do that a lot; usually around 10am). Instead, the woman said that there was “a person on the track” at Arnos Grove and all trains were instructed to stay put until further notice. When they say that, it means that someone threw themselves in front of the train to commit suicide. From what I’ve heard, it’s not that uncommon here. It’s really sad to think about, but when you’re on a 45 minute commute to school, the last thing you want is for someone to mess that up. Oddly enough, people’s reactions to this were basically that whoever did this to kill themselves should be a little less selfish and think about all of the commutes they’re messing up. I feel like you can’t help but think that in the moment. I sat there for about 10 more minutes and then decided to just try and find a bus to class. I ended up being about 25 minutes late, but the professor totally understood.

This past Wednesday, my Historic London lecture was at the Imperial War Museum. I didn’t think I’d like it but I ended up loving it so much that I want to go back. As I sat down that night to do my first bit of homework since I’ve been here, the fire alarm went off! I thought it was just being tested, but it didn’t stop. It’s such a loud and horrible noise so I followed everyone outside. Apparently, there actually was a small fire in one of the kitchens. It was pretty comical because the fire department came and we were watching the fire fighters standing at the elevator doors for a few minutes waiting for one to get them. Is it just me, or is it Fire 101 that says you have to take the stairs? It was a very funny thing to watch.

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s already March; I feel like my time here is dwindling down and I really don’t want it to. I’ve learned so many things about myself since being here and there’s no way I’ll be returning home the same person that left.

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Fashion Week(end) in London!

So, last week on Thursday I went to the first night of London Fashion Week(end).

Fashion week(end) is the fashion show that starts the day after Fashion Week ends and people can buy tickets to; you have to be invited to normal Fashion Week. The doors opened at 5pm; we wanted to be there early because seats were given on a first come first serve basis. Apparently, they were filming and taking pictures for the advertisements of the Fashion Show because when we were standing in line, cameras kept coming up behind us. They looked like ducks flocking! They finally opened the gates at 5pm and we went inside to wait in line for the Catwalk that started at 6pm.

We were right in the front and when we got let in, we were directed to sit in the first row!

The show was absolutely fantastic; there was an Emcee to tell us about the different lines we were seeing and talked about the events of Fashion Week. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to love it so much, but I loved everything about it. There were 4 different styles: Black Swan inspired, Bora Aksu, color blocking, and then Mark Fast.

When it was over, we walked around the designer shopping. I met some Juicy Couture boys and some other people working at the fashion show.

I liked walking around and meeting people involved in the fashion show. It was a really cool experience and I ended up having a lot more fun than I thought I would!

Location: Temple, London, England

Truffles from Brussels <3

To say that Brussels was a better trip would be an understatement. I can’t describe in words how much I love the city of Brussels. This time, our coach ride there was during the day (it left at 8am); it was not the most pleasant bus ride but it wasn’t horrible either. When we left the station, we heard two little British boys sitting behind us talking to their parents in the seats behind them. At first, I couldn’t help but think how cute they were with their little British accent! However, as the ride went on my frustration grew. The entire ride they were kicking my seat, screaming at each other, and whining about one thing or another. I was most frustrated at the parents because they were both asleep with their face masks on. Oh well, nothing I could do about it!

When we finally got there, I was nervous to see all the signs in French again. I had such a hard time in Paris because no one was willing to talk to me in English and I didn’t want to have to be lost all weekend again! Since there were six of us going, we decided to pay for a triple hotel room and sneak 6 people in. it was genius because we ended up only having to pay 25 euros each for the 2 nights we were there! I forgot to print off the name and address of the hotel, so I had one of the girls traveling by eurostar text me the address. Still, we didn’t know how to get to there, so we went up to the information desk. When the man asked me where I was looking to go, I didn’t even know what the street name was as opposed to the hotel name so he just asked to see my phone. He was so nice; he showed us on a map exactly what we had to do to get there. We had to go into the other line with “his friend” to get our tickets for the metro and when it was our turn, the information guy that helped us took over and got the tickets we needed and asked for the money. He was so nice and helpful I wanted to cry and kiss him (but I didn’t)! The metro itself was actually pretty nice (especially after Paris).

Even though the information man told us to get to the hotel by tram after the metro, we were really confused as to how the tram system worked. We must have looked really confused because someone came up to us and asked us where we were trying to go; all I had to do was show her the text and she said it was within walking distance and then directed us in the right way. I was happily surprised by how nice everyone was! The area that we were walking through reminded me of home in Chelsea (London); it was super high end stores and really fancy shops.

When we walked into the hotel, we didn’t want to make it obvious that we were sneaking people in so as three of the people staying in the room were checking in, the other three took the elevator to a random floor to wait for the room number. We’re so sneaky! The hotel itself was gorgeous; I couldn’t believe we were staying there for so cheap. Since it was already 6pm by the time we were checked in and settled down, we went out for dinner and to a bar near the hotel. Apparently you’re allowed to smoke in bars in Brussels because it was really smoky in there.

Saturday, we headed out with the first destination being the Grand Place. It was only a 20-30 minute walk from our hotel so I suggested that we walk everywhere while in Brussels. As I always say, it’s the best way to explore. To my pleasant surprise, everyone agreed! On our way there, we walked past 2 antique markets and a ton of chocolate places. Apparently, Godiva Chocolates originated in Brussels! As we approached the Grand Place, I could see parts of the buildings from the side road. Once we entered the square, I was speechless. This was the most strikingly gorgeous and breathtaking square I’ve ever seen in my life. The architecture style was Gothic (not sure which era); which is my favorite style. I think that seeing different architecture is one of my favorite things about traveling to different places.

We all stood there kind of speechless for a while before taking a ton of pictures. Since Belgium is obviously known for their waffles, everyone wanted to find a non-touristy place to go for breakfast. We walked a short way from the square and found a little place to eat. I was also told that you had to try the coffee (and beer and fries and chocolate) while in Belgium, so I ordered a coffee for breakfast. Everyone else ordered waffles with toppings and chocolate. My coffee was absolutely delicious and everyone else’s waffles looked so good – and they apparently were!

We walked through one of the markets and then we went into a chocolate store called Chocopolis. It was really expensive chocolate but it looked so delicious. Since I don’t eat dairy, I asked the workers if they had any “dairy free” truffles (when I was in Stratford-Upon-Avon, there was a Belgian truffle place that had a whole list of dairy free truffles!) but this time, the workers looked at me as though I had 7 heads. I walked away thinking that there was no way I’d be having any chocolate this weekend. Bummer. We left there and set out to find the Chocolate Museum. When we got there, I went up to one of the people working and asked them if there was any chocolate that didn’t have dairy in it. They told me that any of the dark chocolates they make are all dairy free (there are 3 different kinds of dark chocolate). They had little bowls all around the museum of the 5 different kinds of chocolate, so I got to sample all of the dark chocolates, yay! The chocolate was extremely delicious. The museum itself was really cool inside because there were chocolate statues, art, and information all over. About 10 minutes after we went inside, we got to watch a demonstration of how the Professional Chocolatier makes the chocolate.

Luckily for me, he was making dark chocolate so when he finished, I got to taste fresh made chocolate. It was unlike anything I’ve ever had before! After the demonstration, we walked through the rest of the museum and then left to go adventure more. I didn’t realize this, but there’s a Royal Palace in Brussels; so we headed in the direction of that. There was a really pretty “garden” across from the palace so we walked through first and then made our way to the road to cross the street to the palace. The road was so incredibly wide! I don’t know how people drive on it without lines; it’s totally beyond me. Before we crossed, we noticed the lions that were “protecting” the gardens and the palace; they looked so scared!

I’ve never seen lions that had that kind of face so it was funny. We didn’t spend too much time there; it really wasn’t all that impressive. We ended up finding a cathedral as we were walking around, so we went into it to see what it looked like. It was really pretty inside; we left shortly after going and walked back to the place where we wanted to try the “frites” right across from where they had breakfast. The thing that’s good about the fries here is that they aren’t gross and sopping in grease, they’re actually potatoes lightly browned (in grease LOL). One of the girls was dead set on seeing the Manneken Pis, so we figured out where it was and arrived there quickly. It was so much smaller than I had imagined!

Seriously, there were chocolate replicas that were bigger. There were at least 6 chocolate stores around the statue so we went into all of them to look at their presentations of truffles and check out the prices.

Everywhere we went, I asked if they had “dairy free” truffles and at each place I was looked at like I was an alien. I found that most dark chocolate bars were dairy free, so I bought them instead. As we were leaving the last store, it really started to rain. I was one of the only people with an umbrella, so we headed back to walk to the hotel and rest before dinner. We left for dinner around 8pm and walked back to the Grand Place; we found a restaurant there that seemed pretty cute. One thing about Europe that I’m finding – waiters usually take pride in their jobs, they don’t always take your order unless you tell them you’re ready to order, and they don’t ever give you the check until you ask for it. I was so amused for the whole of the dinner because they had a food elevator and a phone to ring the kitchen upstairs, place the orders, and then the food would be delivered via the food elevator! I couldn’t help but watch it – I was mesmerized.

Apparently there’s a bar in Brussels that serves over 2500 beers and has 3 floors. Everyone wanted to see what it was all about, but I didn’t stay for very long. It was really late and I was exhausted! I headed back with one other girl and I thought I knew exactly where I was going. We got a bit off course and I started to get nervous because it was late and dark and we weren’t on a main road. Luckily, I quickly saw outdoor elevators that we were standing near earlier in the day so I knew that all we had to do was get on the elevator and go up and we’d be on the street right by our hotel.

Sunday, we had to be checked out by noon. Luckily, we were able to leave our bags at the hotel, which was really nice and unexpected. We headed back towards the Manneken Pis because there were chocolate stores everyone wanted to go into. On our way there, we decided to stop at a chocolate store called Leonidas as we were passing it. I went in and approached the women at the counter in a different way; I asked them if there were any truffles that were free of milk and cream. They looked at me and asked if it was an allergy and I said that “I don’t know if it’s the same word here, but I’m vegan”. The younger girl looked at me and said “oh, yes! Vegan!”! She pulled out a huge binder and looked through everything for me and showed me what I had to choose from that was dairy free. Apparently, I approached the question wrong in the past. I was so happy that I was actually able to get chocolate truffle-like treats!!

Since it was Sunday, most of the shops (other than souvenir shops) were closed. We spent the remainder of the day walking around the deserted fashion district and traveling on the metro to get to places that were further away. Apparently, when there was the “World Fair”, every country had to have a specific site that was theirs; Brussels built an “Atom” was considered the site for Belgium. I think it’s supposed to represent the different countries connecting together in Europe. You can walk to the top and through the connecting bars, but no one wanted to do it.

After that, we went to the area that is the headquarters of the EU. It was so windy and cold but we walked for a while to find the buildings. As it turns out, you can take tours of the buildings during the week but since it was a Sunday, the buildings were all closed. We got to see a part of the Berlin wall and all of the EU flags.

We headed back to the area of our hotel and went into some final chocolate stores.

When we got to the coach station, there was hardly anyone in there. I double checked that our bus was coming at 10:30 (it was about 9:45 at this point); it’s a good thing we looked because the coach was coming at 9:45. The bad thing about taking coaches everywhere is that they leave at whatever time you’re ticket says whether you’re on the coach or not; they don’t announce boarding or check in either. When we got out to where the coaches were waiting, we saw that a coach to London was already sitting there. Apparently, you have to check in at the Eurolines office; we didn’t know that so literally at the last few minutes, we checked in and ran to the bus 2 minutes before it left the station. Talk about lucky! When I woke up from my attempt to sleep, I was really confused because we weren’t at the train station; we were driving into the waiting lot of a ton of ferries! They were huge and I was scared at first because I thought you just drive on and then sit in the coach. Well, apparently that’s not how it happens because when we parked, everyone got off. We followed and went inside; holy crow it was like a cruise ship! There were 7 floors total and 2 of them were filled with shops, a restaurant, a caf� and bar, toilets everywhere, and an outside deck.

It was so incredibly nice! I wasn’t expecting it at all. The ferry ride probably lasted a total of 2 hours and 30 minutes and it was a relatively smooth ride. We were back in London around 5:30am and it was so lovely to hear Camille’s voice (we named the voice that speaks over the loudspeaker on the buses). Even though I love to travel and adventure, I am so glad that I’m living in London. It is such an amazing city and I hope there comes a day when I can actually live and work here.

Location: Louise, Brussels, Belgium

Wasn’t it just Monday…?

Apparently, time just flies out the window here… because I thought I just got home from Brussels! I’m heading to Amsterdam in about 15 minutes for the weekend so I will be doing 2 blogs about my Brussels trip and my Amsterdam trip! Let’s just say that Brussels is an absolutely amazing city and I love it so much <3 Talk to you all soon!! 🙂

Location: Chelsea, London, England

The French don’t like American’s? Hm, what a surprise.

Hey everyone! Following up from the last message, here’s the picture of a delicious meal at Hummus Bros. I love this place so much!

I swear the time has switched into ultra fast gear over the past two weeks. Every Wednesday, the only class I have is a Historic London class and instead of meeting at the campus, we meet at different sites around London and walk around for our lecture. Last Wednesday, we went to Borough High Street/Borough Market. If you ever come to London and you want to go to a really cool market- go there! Even though it wasn’t fully opened (it wasn’t a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) it was still really cool to see the set up and the variety of fresh food they offer.

Last weekend, I left Friday night for Paris! Again, we took the National Express (via Eurolines) coach there and back. This was my first time taking the coach across the ocean, so it was interesting! The first thing we encountered was when we had to stop at border patrol. The police came on the coach and took our passports and then we had to get out and to take all of our stuff inside a building for the customs officers to check our stuff. Once we were back on the coach, we had to drive to wait in line for the train to come. Apparently, we were taking a train through the tunnel (I didn’t know if we were taking a ferry or what). It was kind of weird because the coach drives into a train car that’s attached to the front of the train. After we’re positioned in the car, a metal wall closes the coach in so that it has its own car and then locks it in place.

It gets so stuffy inside the coach because it has to be shut off while the train is in motion. I almost freaked out at first because I could feel the train moving but I couldn’t see anything (I tend to get motion sickness); I didn’t like that part but I sucked it up and tried to fall asleep. The rest of the ride wasn’t bad at all. We got to the airport (where the coach was set to drop us off) and we found out we had to pay 9 Euros to get to the hostel. I didn’t like that part but oh well! After we dropped our bags off at the hostel, we walked to a nearby church. I just stood at the top of the steps looking over Paris and I couldn’t help but think “how did my life get like this?!” It really is insane; I can’t believe where I’m at and all that I’m doing here!

Our first day was a pretty dreary and rainy day in Paris. Most of the people I traveled to Paris with are very interested in museums, and well, I’d much rather walk around and see the city. Since I was with someone else who would rather walk around outside then in the Louvre, we did just that! We walked to the Louvre with everyone, and then split off to walk to The Eiffel Tower. We took side streets and what not so it took us probably 2 hours to get there but I loved just walking around and seeing little shops. There were so many bakeries!!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed the first time I saw The Eiffel Tower. I think it’s because it was a really rainy grey day, but I kind of thought it was ugly. Right as we got there, it started pouring so we hid under a porch of a ticket booth. We tried to find a metro but walked around for 2 hours in the rain because no one would tell us how to get there (in English). I have always heard that the French could be not so friendly to Americans, but I didn’t know it was that bad! Literally, no one would talk to us in English even after we attempted to speak in French.

The second day we were there, it was cloudy but it luckily didn’t rain. It was Sunday, so the places that were open didn’t open until around 11am so I got to sleep in. That was nice because I didn’t want to be too run down for the day. We all went souvenir shopping and walked around the more expensive stretch of shops leading to the Arc de Triomphe.

When we were done wandering around, we went back to the Eiffel Tower. It was a little nicer when we went back that time, but I still am not a huge fan. My favorite part of the day was when I got a French Baguette — it was SO SO good! Our ride home was great (for me) because I literally slept the entire time; with the exception of border control. Tomorrow, I leave bright and early for Brussels, Belgium!

I’ve learned that when you travel, you can’t go into something with expectations. I expected so much of Paris – the glamour, high end fashion designers everywhere, and an overall clean city (Paris smells like “homeless pee”) – and I got none of them. It was definitely great to see Paris, but it’s just not the place for me! Hopefully Brussels will be a better trip.

Location: Paris, France

Not everyone dislikes Americans?!

Well, I went to Edinburgh this past weekend and it was AMAZING! But before that, I had a pretty fun day Friday as well. I went with one of my friends to a restaurant in London (Holborn, specifically) called Hummus Bros. and it was absolutely delicious! I was so excited because I could actually eat it and I love hummus. It was really cool how they arranged it too – it was a bowl with hummus shaped around it and then your “topping” inside. I just got chickpeas as the topping but it was still so good. The pita bread they give you is freshly made in the restaurant and is given on the side. I’ll definitely be going back so I’ll take a picture the next time I go. Afterwards, we went to Trafalgar Square. It was so cool, I got a picture at the fountain Russell Brand – confession: I love him – was at for Get Him to the Greek and we climbed the lions (super touristy thing to do but it’s still so cool).

We left Trafalgar Square after a lot of pictures and went to a building across St James’s Park from Buckingham palace. It just so happened that we got there in time to see an “inspection” of the guards.

We walked through a part of St James’s park and then up close to Buckingham Palace. We wanted to figure out where we could see the traditional guards on Buckingham Palace so the friend that I went with approached the guards that were standing at the main gate. Well it turns out that they no longer have the “traditional” guards in front! UGH, modern times.

That night, we were scheduled to leave for Edinburgh on the National Express Coach at 11pm.

Since I’m a college student with limited funds and an unlimited passion for traveling, I decided that I was going to take advantage of the extremely cheap coach transportation available (even if it means hours and hours on a bus)! Other study abroad students: I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a cheap way to travel and don’t mind it being on a coach. If you want any info just comment on the blog and let me know! J

Anyway, we got on the coach and began our 7 hour and 25 minute bus ride to Edinburgh. I had the joy of sitting behind a man that wasn’t giving off the best of aromas but I was able to spray my neck pillow with perfume and I fell asleep almost instantly! I did wake up a few times and one of the times it was because I could hear the wind outside and what sounded like rain. I was in a sleepy daze but I looked out the window to see what was going on outside and I literally thought we were driving through a hurricane. I’ve come to realize that speed limits have little meaning here because I am absolutely positive that we were going about 120mph, at least, in the rain. At the time, I thought it was pouring but when we stopped at the “services” soon after I contemplated the hurricane possibility, I realized it was only lightly raining (that’s how fast we were going). Somehow, we arrived safely in Edinburgh around 6:20am. We got inside the coach station and found someone to ask about getting to our hostel. She was so nice! The lady gave us a map and marked everything for us which really helped. It turns out that I picked a pretty good hostel – it was about a 10 minute walk from the station! I was really excited because this time, I was traveling with a backpack and a purse and that’s it!! It was lovely walking around and not having 100 pounds of luggage to carry around. We walked outside and it wasn’t raining so we were really excited. We began our walk to the hostel; just from what we saw on the walk, we realized how gorgeous Edinburgh is. When we arrived to the hostel, the guy working was incredibly entertaining! He was telling us about how much he drank the night before and he still had the open bottle of vodka on the table behind him! The hostel was absolutely amazing, not to mention it was literally across the road from the Castle. Once we regrouped, we decided to walk around for a bit and then head to the castle. On our walk, we found a farmers market. One of the vendors there was selling hot apple cider so I decided to get some. It was really good!

When we got to the castle, the view from the top was just unbelievable. I noticed that there was a “mountain” (quotations because it wasn’t all that big) not too far from where we were and I mentioned to everyone how I wanted to find it and climb it. Everyone laughed but I was being very serious! We got tickets to the castle and once we were inside, we walked around and explored the grounds and the different war museums inside. There was a gun firing exhibition at 1pm which was really cool to see.

Later on that afternoon, everyone was trying to decide where to go. It turns out that we all wanted to see different things around Edinburgh so I suggested that we split up and meet later for dinner. I mentioned the mountain climbing again and one other girl agreed to go with me! I was so excited, mainly because I wasn’t able to make it to the Highlands and I am really upset about that. This mountain was the closest thing I had to nature and mountain climbing! We set out after lunch to try and find the mountain. We ended up getting a little off course a few times (we couldn’t see it from where we were so we were just walking in the direction I thought it was in). Finally, we were walking to the end of a road and almost turned the opposite way when I glanced down the other side of the street and there was the mountain!!! I was so happy I wanted to run! We had to walk through a questionable part of town, up steps, down a muddy hill, and around half the mountain to get to the path to take us to the top. It was so completely worth it though – and hey, the journey is half the fun.

We climbed up the mountain and almost made it to the top but it was getting really dark and we didn’t want to put ourselves in an uncomfortable situation. I’ve never been to Edinburgh before, so I figured that 2 girls climbing a mountain in the dark and then coming back down and walking back to the hostel in the dark wasn’t the best idea. I was so glad that we made it so close to the top though, it was so incredibly breathtaking. Even though it was still in the city and not a big mountain by any means it gave me just enough of a reminder of what it’s like to be in the country. It was very refreshing and so much fun. Dinner that night was interesting. The waiter was really funny but kept picking on me! Most of the people I was with got bangers and mash and another got haggis. Apparently everything was delicious; however, I’ve come to the conclusion that people in Scotland don’t know what dairy is. But oh well, good thing I always think ahead and bring my own snacks.

The next day we spent the morning in the National Museum of Scotland. They had a “Shining Lights” exhibit celebrating the Bell Rock lighthouse that’s been around for 200 years and is the oldest remaining lighthouse that’s made of rock. The exhibit was really cool – I wish I could have visited a lighthouse while I was there. We got some souvenir shopping done and then we decided to take a break and go to the Fudge Kitchen. When we walked in, they had someone in the main area showing everyone how fudge is made. It was so cool because apparently they always make their fudge for everyone and anyone to see. I happened to glance at the menu and noticed that they had dairy free fudge! I couldn’t pass that up, so I bought a slice. It was literally amazing!!! I was so excited that I got to have dessert with everyone HAHA. Later that afternoon, we decided to do the Scottish Whiskey Experience tour near the castle. I highly recommend this! I now know that I truly don’t like whiskey but it was so interesting to learn how Scotch Whiskey is made and how to properly smell/drink it. We got to taste our whiskey of choice – I chose the Speyside one because it smelled fruity. It was not fruity at all and was incredibly strong! No wonder people get warm from drinking that stuff. We also got to see the biggest collection of Scotch Whiskey in the world which was ridiculously huge and included a lot of really different bottles.

When we were done with the tour, we still had about 5 hours left until our bus came. I saw another mountain/hill when we were on top of the mountain the night before so we all decided to venture there. It was definitely easier to find and had monuments on the top of it. It was dark again when we got to the top, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. The pictures that I took did the view no justice at all! It was very pretty and I had a lot of fun just walking around and looking over the city. I didn’t realize how separated the “old and new” of the city is; there is such a distinct separation between the two.

That night at 10pm, we headed back to London via National Express coach. This bus ride was incredibly uncomfortable. I think I slept a total of about 2 hours during the 8 � hour bus ride back. It wasn’t pleasant at all! But we did arrive home safely Monday morning around 7:30am. I loved Edinburgh so much; I am really hoping to get to visit the Highlands and the Isle of Skye someday in the future.

I was able to really take a lot out of this trip, especially since this was my first time out of England since being here. First and foremost, Scots do NOT like people from London but they love Americans. We were more afraid when people asked us where we were studying! We actually had bouncers and people we met respond to us with “London is shit” when we told them we were studying here. However, they were so very nice overall. The random people walking up and down the streets were all so nice and polite; I absolutely loved it.

Apparently, the Scottish cuisine (IE haggis and pretty much any kind of red meat with any and all parts of animals ground up and “mash” on the side) is really good. My advice, don’t ask what it is just try it. It wasn’t the easiest place to find food with my eating lifestyle but definitely possible if I tried hard enough. Traditional/folk Scottish music is amazing and is played on the streets! I heard a bagpiper both days we were there for most of the day and on Sunday, there was a folk band playing in the streets that was so good!

It should never just be about the destination, because the journey is just as important.

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

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