I’ve really been slacking on my blogs. I know. I thought when I went to study abroad I would be blogging non stop, but I’ve been busier than I ever thought I would be. This is a big reason why:

This is a map of every place I’ve been since I’ve last blogged. List wise, it goes like this: Oxford, Dover, Cambridge, Salisbury, Bath, Paris, Edinburgh, Melrose, Roslin, St. Andrews, Anstruther, Pittenweem, Glasgow, Luss, Glencoe, and Fort Augustus/Loch Ness–in short, I’ve been exploring England and Scotland and I went to France for a weekend. Whew. I’ve no idea how to go about describing all the incredible things I’ve done over the past month, so I’ll give a list of a few of the highlights.

-Scotland. Just Scotland. I hope to get a blog up on my week excursion up north soon, so stay tuned!

Dover

-Climbing the Cliffs of Dover: It may have seemed like maybe not the best idea to head down to Dover in January, but the weather that day was 100% on our side–which in England means any day that is over 40 degrees and not raining! We climbed along the tops of the misty cliffs and it was absolutely breathtaking! I still haven’t gotten all of the mud off my shoes though!

-Cambridge: Cambridge is simply gorgeous. The old buildings, the boats punting along the river, and the random professors walking around in full academic regalia is an amazing change of pace from London, even if it’s only an hour away!

-Drinking the water from the Roman Baths in Bath:

Bath

don’t worry, it was the filtered stuff at the end of the museum, not the algae-riddled water in the main pools. It certainly wasn’t great–something about the taste of sulfur and iron is generally not refreshing. Did I mention it was warm?

-Theatre in London: We saw the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Wicked in London’s famed west end–relatively inexpensive tickets are not as difficult to come by as one might expect in London!

Champagne at Louis Vuitton

-Paris: Paris isn’t a new city for me, but it was awesome to go with friends (and to get away from the pound for a while– it might not be great for the global economy but the state of the euro right now is great for a student budget). Croque monsieurs, steak frites, macarons, french onion soup, crepes, champagne, the Mona Lisa, and the Eiffel Tower at night is how I want to spend every weekend ever.

-Market Crawling: Old Spitalfields, Borough, & Camden Lock markets are a foodie’s paradise–aka my paradise. You can get full on samples alone, but it’s impossible to leave without picking up something amazing.

-Pub culture and Icebar: I’m really going to miss being able to drink when I go back to the states. Pub culture is just awesome, sitting back and enjoying a pint with friends is a great way to end a day. Some friends and I went to a bar in Soho called Icebar (I believe they have multiple locations), and everything inside was made from ice, from the bar itself to the cups we were drinking out of! A poncho and gloves were included, seeing as it was around 25 degree in there–but as chilly as it was, it’s still warmer than Penn State.

That’s all for now–cheers!

Location: wc1x 0hd