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Exploring Chelsea

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Galentines Day celebration

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Exploring London

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Paris

This past weekend we traveled with our program to Paris for 3 days. We took a EuroStar train under the channel early Friday morning and got to Paris around 1 pm. I always get confused with the one hour time difference between the UK and Europe but at least it’s a lot easier then figuring out the 5 hour time difference between London and the US. Going in and out of Britain is a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be because of border control, customs, and security. I thought that traveling between the UK and Europe would be really easy but the UK is a lot more strict about immigration and who comes in and out of the country. Everyone says that it’s because of Brexit but that isn’t even official yet and I’m pretty sure the UK has always been like this and it’s not some new policy change. Either way, the lines to get on a train, plane, or bus to leave or enter the country are always very long and frustrating. 

When we got to Paris, our metro transportation was already taken care of in the original price of the trip which was really nice because we just got unlimited passes for the weekend. The metro isn’t as nice or clean or quiet as the tube but it was definitely efficient and ran much quicker than the tube. We checked into our hotel, which was actually really nice, but of course there was some sort of confusion and me and Maeg’s room was the only room not ready. We just left our bags in Sammie’s room and went on the guided walking tour with our tour guide David (the same one we had for Stonehenge/Bath). It was one of the most pointless tours I have ever taken. He stopped at the Arc de Triomphe for about 2 minutes and wouldn’t let us go up it. Instead he kept walking and decided to focus on some of the shops in that area including Abercrombie and Fitch- because obviously that is really important to see when you’re in Paris. We did stop at this cute little cafe for lunch and I essentially got a warmed up loaf of bread stuffed with olives and cheese for 3 euro. I still have dreams about that bread.

It was so rainy and miserably cold that we were already in bad moods but the fact that he did not want to stop at any of the “major tourist attractions” because “anyone can do that in France” was so unbelievably annoying. I spent $360 so that I could see the main attractions in France, not American stores that you can see anywhere in any mall in the US. We slowly (and I mean really slowly because this tour guide walked at the pace of a snail) made our way to the Seine where we were getting on a boat to see Paris from the water. I remember doing this when I went to Paris a few summers ago and all I can say is that it is much more enjoyable in nice weather than in cold, wet weather. We were so cold by the end of it that once we got off, we ran into the nearest restaurant we could find just to warm up. The restaurant we chose ended being a little French place in the Latin Quarter that had a “tourist menu” where you could get an appetizer, entree, and dessert for 10 euro. Of course we all opted for that and also ordered a bunch of wine for the table. That dinner was as fun as the tour had been miserable. I’m pretty sure everyone there thought of us as obnoxious Americans but none of us really cared because we were laughing too much and having a good time. It was me, Maegan, Sammie, Rupali, Constance, Charlie, and Ben that mainly hung out together on this trip.

After dinner, everyone wanted to go out but I was so tired that I ended up taking a nap and by the time I woke up I had no desire to drink anymore. We met up with our friend Allie who is studying abroad in Paris and she took us to some really cool bars (one of them, they lit the bar on fire for half of their drinks) but they were so expensive that I didn’t end up buying anything. A double vodka soda was 15 euros and I tried Sammie’s but it was so strong that it burned the back of my throat so that was really unappealing. We still had a lot of fun though and of course got ham and cheese crepes on the way home. In the morning, we had to wake up early for another fabulous walking tour. Thankfully it only went until 2pm and then the rest of the day way ours. He took us through a bunch of back streets to see a little bit of Paris but again, he didn’t even take us to cool places. At one point we ended up at a very generic shopping plaza where he stopped to tell us that it’s where all the teenagers come to hang out. Like cool dude no one cares?? Unfortunately it was still really rainy and cold too so all of us were ready to get away from our awful tour guide.

The rest of the day ended up being really fun though. We walked a total of 12 miles and went everywhere from Notre Dame to the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We ate Croque Madames and Nutella crepes and macroons (basically all carbs) and did our best to stay warm and dry. I brought the wrong student ID so instead of getting into the Louvre for free it ended up costing me 15 euro. It was kind of a waste of money because I had been there before and my friends really only wanted to go see Mona Lisa (aka the most underwhelming painting of all time), but it is one of the most famous museums in the world and who knows when I’ll be back so I felt obligated to go. Paying money to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower was absolutely worth the money though. We waited in very long lines and it took a while to get to the top but once we did it was totally worth it. By the time we got to the top it was completely dark out, but all of Paris was lit up and beautiful. I made sure to stand in the middle of the elevator on the way up and had my friends stand in a circle around me because I was shaking so much from my fear of heights. I could literally feel my stomach in my throat. Ben was just as nervous as me though so we just talked to each other as a distraction and tried our best not to look down or up, just out. 

When we finally got to the top, however, it was really breathtaking. You could see all the streets and houses and buildings for miles. At one point I caught myself asking “I wonder if you can see the Eiffel Tower from here”, which Charlie immediately made fun of me for. I tried to FaceTime as many people as possible while I was up there including my dad and brother but the connection was pretty bad so the conversations didn’t last long. I just wanted to share the view with the people back home. We stayed up there for a while taking in the beauty of everything, but at some point we started getting hungry and cold and realized we needed to eat. We stopped at a cute French restaurant not far from the Eiffel Tower where I got a truffle risotto that was literally to die for. It melted in my mouth and I’m pretty sure I finished it in about 5 bites. Since the Eiffel Tower sparkles for 5 minutes at the top of every hour starting at 6pm, we decided to finish dinner early and go watch the light show. We grabbed some crepes to enjoy during it and then just sat staring at this beautiful, beautiful monument sparkle in the night. It really was mesmerizing and as Ben and I found out, if you stared at it hard enough, the Eiffel Tower itself faded away from view and all you could see were the lights in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. Those lights alone explain why Paris is called the City of Love.

After walking over 20,000 steps, we all decided that it would probably be best not to go out that night and just get some sleep for the next day. Maeg and I watched some BBC news (the only channel that wasn’t in French) and passed out. We had to wake up pretty early because we had bought tickets to get a tour of Versailles. Our tour guide told us to meet in the lobby at 9am but of course he didn’t show up until 9:30 and we didn’t leave the hotel until closer to 10. I’m not kidding when I say that this guy was the most inefficient, aloof tour guide I had ever met. When he finally got to Versailles, he informed us that the government in fact had made entry into the palace free for that particularly day so our official group tour had been canceled and we would be refunded. (We later learned from our friend Allie that Versailles is free every Sunday so there was no reason for us to pay for it in the first place). We then had to wait in an hour long line just to get into the palace.

Waiting in line wasn’t actually too bad because the weather had warmed up a little and the 7 of us were trying to come up with fun conversation topics. We talked about everything we could think of, most notably different conspiracy theories that we knew about. We finally got into the palace and made our way through the luxurious rooms. The best parts, however, were the gardens. It was acres and acres of beautiful ponds and trees and artistically trimmed bushes. We probably strolled around for an hour and a half just enjoying the beautiful scenery and the nicest weather that we had experienced in 3 days. We then slowly made our way back to our hotel (it was over an hour away from Versailles) and got ready to take the train back to London. Our tour guide said to meet in the lobby at 6pm (which we were all on time for) but of course he didn’t show up until 6:45pm. Which made us super later to the train; you’re supposed to check in a minimum of an hour before departure and we got there 10 minutes before that deadline. Once we checked in, we had to wait in a 45 minute long border control/passport check line. It was taking so long that we were actually nervous about missing our train. Luckily because the line was so bad they opened up a few more windows and things started to move much quicker. 

Once we got to the other side, our tour guide was no where to be found and we had to find out where we were supposed to be by ourselves. Right before we boarded the train, our tour guide showed up. He is literally the worst, I hope I never have to see him again. The train was then delayed 30 minutes because the checkin line had been so long so we got back to London even later then expected and then we had to take a 25 minute tube right back to our apartment. Traveling this much two weekends in a row was absolutely exhausting and while both weekends were so fun, I am really happy to be home for 2 weekends. All of us agreed that we were very homesick- not for our American homes, but for London. We are all so in love with London and it felt really good to be back. 

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Best Indian food I’ve ever had- (Paneer Tikka, Awadhi Lamb Biryani, and Chicken Ruby Curry)

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Head and the Heart Concert at O2 in Shepard’s Bush

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Amsterdam

After an eventful 24 hours in Belgium, we were looking forward to spending some time in Amsterdam. What we thought was going to be a relaxing, chill day and a half in the city turned out to be one of the most chaotic trips of my life. We met our Airbnb host at the train station, which was actually very nice of her because otherwise we would have had no idea how to get to the house. At the station, a mother and daughter who had been just visiting for the day gave us their 24 hour day passes saying that they didn’t expire until 11 AM the next day if we wanted them. It ended up working out really well because we only had to pay for one tram ticket the entire time we were there. We took a tram to our apartment which was in a nice, quiet area of town and unpacked our stuff before heading right back out to meet up with Rupali, Liz, Constance, and Sammie who had been there all weekend.

We started our night at an awesome hole in the wall Mexican restaurant where the owner gave us sombreros and ponchos to wear while we ate our burritos and quesadillas. We got a free tequila shot with our meal and took advantage of their $5 margaritas that were delicious. After that we decided to go bar hopping and didn’t have to pay a dime for a drink for the rest of the night. Every bar we went to gave us either free shots or free mixed drinks so we ended up just getting our free alcohol, dancing for a little bit and then moving onto the next bar. It was a super fun night but since we weren’t ready to go home until 2 AM, there wasn’t any public transportation still running. We ended up walking 2 miles home and probably burned off everything we had eaten at the Mexican restaurant. We finally crashed into bed around 3 AM, only to wake up again at 8 because we had tickets to see the Anne Frank Museum at 9.

It was quite a struggle getting up and getting ourselves there, but it was a very very cool museum and I’m so glad we went. It took you through the building in which the Franks were hidden and even the actual rooms that they lived in for a few years. I had never read her book so I learned so much from the exhibits there. The building they stayed at was actually the business that her father helped run and they just converted the attic into a two floor apartment where the Franks (a family of 5) lived with another family of 3. The stairs to this apartment were hidden by a giant bookshelf that acted as a door; however, Anne and her siblings were rarely ever allowed to leave for fear of being seen or heard. She often wrote in her diaries that she longed to be free and ride a bike and sing and just watch the trees- none of which she could do during her time hiding in the attic. It broke my heart to hear of this young girl having her childhood ruined because of her religious beliefs. Her family actually applied to become refugees in America but they were denied because of the US’ reluctance to let European Jews into the country during this time. (Sound familiar????)

Otto Frank, Anne’s father, was the only one of his family to survive the Holocaust after his family was discovered and split up into different concentration camps. After reading his daughter’s diary, he was quoted saying that he realized that he never really knew his daughter at all because she had never shared these thoughts and feelings with him during their time in hiding. He made it his life’s mission to make sure that her diary was published because it was one of her last wishes to be a famous writer. The whole museum was very sobering but an awesome experience that I would recommend to everyone who visits the city. After the museum, we had to go back to our apartment to check out because our host wanted us to be gone by 11 AM.

We grabbed our bags and headed back to the downtown area where the I Amsterdam sign is (which was pretty cool but was so covered in tourists that it was impossible to get pictures with) and the Van Gogh museum (which we didn’t go into because it was like $20 and we had just seen some of his paintings in London’s National Gallery). From there we just wondered the streets and canals looking at the cool architecture and trying not to get hit by bikes. There are more bikes than people in Amsterdam and they absolutely have the right of way over cars and people. It was cool to see a city that was so centered around biking because it is the most sustainable mode of transportation and really takes the focus away from the automobile. Instead of building the city around the car, it was built around the pedestrian which tends to be a very foreign concept in America.

It was absolutely freezing all day-probably the coldest I had been since arriving in the UK/Europe- so we made our way to the airport a little early and relaxed in the warmth until our flight was ready. On the Uber ride there, Maegan got car sick and ended up throwing up multiple times in our driver’s Mercedes Benz. He was so nice about it though and ran into a store to buy her wet wipes and a bag incase she needed to throw up again. Luckily it didn’t stain his car so we weren’t charged the typical $200 fee, but it did smell pretty bad so we had to drive the rest of the way with the windows open which was not a good feeling considering how cold it was.

Amsterdam’s airport was the largest one I had ever been to and it took us a solid 20-25 minutes to walk to our gate. Our flight ended up being only about 45 minutes but because of weather delays we ended up sitting on the plane for 20 minutes even after we landed in London. Then we had to go through customs where the guard gave me shit about being a student studying in London because I forgot to bring my entry letter with me. Luckily he let me in anyway and then we had to endure an hour long tube ride back to our apartment. We were so exhausted and cold by the time we got back that we just passed out. Overall, the trip was definitely a learning experience and while we had a lot of fun, we also made a lot of mistakes that we won’t be making for future trips (aka making sure we buy the right tickets and not getting too drunk that you can’t do anything the next day).

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Brussels

Being that this was our first weekend trip to Europe by ourselves, there was bound to be a lot of mishaps along the way. Maeg and I got off to a little bit of a rough start as we realized we bought bus tickets for the wrong night. When we got to the bus station, we waited in line for 30 minutes only to have the bus driver tell us that our tickets were for a different trip. Luckily we were able to buy tickets for a bus the following morning and would only miss out on a few hours in Belgium. Instead of sitting on an overnight bus for 11 hours, we went home ti eat cheese and wine and go to bed early. On the way home we even had a lady ask us for directions and we were able to help her find our way which made us feel pretty good because we felt like locals. But then almost directly afterwards a drug dealer tried to give us his business card and told us we looked like we were into cocaine. So that brought our morale right back down. 

In the morning we got on to the (correct) bus and braced ourselves for a very interesting/strange ride. When we got to the channel, we had to get off the bus, have our passports scanned, get back on the bus, drive to a check station where policemen took our passports again to be checked, then drove onto a platform where there were tunnel like trains that our bus fit into. From there we crossed under the English Channel which took about 35-40 minutes and was a little unnerving knowing that we were under water but couldn't see anything. We mostly slept or read the whole time so it didn’t feel too long but we were right by the toilet so every 2 minutes someone was going in and out of the world’s smallest bathroom.  

When we finally got to Brussels we had to find a taxi driver and get to our Airbnb. The house we stayed at was very nice on the inside but you had to walk up 3 flights of stairs in a dark cold stairway. It literally looked like a scene of a horror movie where two dumb teenage girls were making there way towards a door that the whole audience is screaming “Don’t go in there!”. When we finally reached our door, there were 3 separate locks with 2 separate keys that we had to unlock. The whole thing was like a puzzle and we ended up having to ask the cleaning lady to help.

Our Airbnb host was super adorable. His name was Jacques and he spoke 8 different languages so he had no trouble communicating with us in English; however, we did teach him the word ATM. He recommended us to a restaurant down the street with traditional Belgian food and he suggested his favorite beer, the St. Bernardus Tripel. I don’t like beer and I thought it was delicious. I got a chicken and mushroom dish that came with a puff pastry on top and fries. Given that I hadn’t eaten since the night before, I was so hungry that anything would have tasted good- but this was especially good. A little fun fact is that in Europe they love to put mayo on their fries instead of ketchup. 

After dinner we were exhausted but wanted to do a little bit of exploring. We walked to the “downtown” area which was about a 25 minute walk from our Airbnb. It probably wasn’t the best neighborhood to walk through at night but we stayed to the main roads and were fine. We saw a little plaza up ahead that looked lit up and decided to see what it was. When we walked up only to realize that it was La Grand Place (super famous square in Brussels) and it was surrounded by some of the most beautiful buildings I had ever seen. After taking tons of pictures (see below), we explored the tiny, cobblestone streets that branched out from the plaza and discovered about 8-9 chocolate stores right in a row. I have never seen so much beautiful chocolate in my life- it was awesome. And of course we bought some. 

After that we went to the famous bar in Brussels called Delirium, which is hands down the coolest bar I’ve ever been to. It has over 3,000 beers and is home to the famous “Delirium” beer. We got Delirium Red which was basically a cherry beer and my new favorite beer. It was served in a really cool glass with their signature pink elephants all over it so of course I had to take one for myself. Some old guy watched me sneak it into my jacket and just started laughing to his friend saying “I can’t believe that she just stole that”. It's amazing how drunk you get after one beer because the alcohol content is 8% compared to like 4-5% in the States. Besides that bar, there really wasn’t much nightlife going on which was a little surprising. For a Friday night, the whole city was pretty dead and not many people were out. We were so tired from our bus trip, however, that we had one beer and went home where we immediately passed out. 

In the morning, we ventured back to the same area hoping that there would be more activity. Luckily there was a lot more people out and the more we walked around, the more cool little markets and landmarks we found. We went back to La Grand Place to get pictures of it in the day time and buy postcards. Then we bought more chocolate (obviously) and made our way slowly around the city. We learned that Brussels holds the headquarters of the EU (who knew?) and that politically it was a pretty important city. We found an awesome little coffee shop with some of the best coffee we ever had so that was a highlight of the trip. We had to catch a bus to Amsterdam at 3:15ish though so we didn’t have too much time to venture around. Luckily we bought those bus tickets for the correct date and time so we were all set to be in Amsterdam by 6pm. 

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Third time seeing Wicked (other two times were in Philly and Boston) but it was totally worth it.

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Classes & Traveling

I haven’t had a chance to write about my classes yet (probably because they aren’t that important, sorry Dad) but I really do enjoy them so far. I am taking 20th Century British History, Analyzing and Exploring the Global City, International Economics, and Introduction to Modern Art. Two of them count towards my major and one of them is a Gen Ed I need to graduate so the credits actually work out well. Unfortunately, we cannot take any classes pass fail so all my grades will count towards my cumulative GPA but so far it doesn’t seem like it will be too hard to keep up good grades. Each class is only once a week but 3 ½ hours long which is a lot more torturous than I thought it would be. Thankfully I only have class Monday through Wednesday, but that means 7 hours of class on Wednesdays with only 1 hour of break for lunch. It’s not enjoyable but it does mean that I get 4 day weekends to travel and explore the city more so it is definitely worth it. In my history class, my teacher is at least 70 years old and walks with a cane but is possibly the cutest old lady I have ever met. We go on 3 field trips to museums throughout the semester which is great because it gives me an opportunity to explore places that I might not have a chance to go to otherwise. In my Analyzing and Exploring the Global City class, our teacher is Canadian which you think would be fine but she pronounces everything so differently than both American English and British English. About half of our classes are field trips or as she calls them “field experiments” so that will also allow me to explore a lot of the city that I wouldn’t normally get to. My International Econ class is by far my favorite so far. The teacher is somewhat of a hard ass but he has a great sense of British humor and is constantly mocking the US, the monarchy, and basically anything that he deems hypocritical. But he gives a very unbiased view of economics. Aka he doesn’t lean right or left, he just teaches the material as its supposed to be taught which I really appreciate. The material itself is also very interesting so I am really excited for the rest of the semester. Lastly, my Introduction of Modern Art class will probably be the most difficult for me just because I really don’t have an appreciation for art nor do I really care much about it (sorry mom). However, we do go to a bunch of art galleries throughout the semester including the Tate Modern which actually seems really fun since it’s one of the most famous museums in the world. In terms of traveling outside the UK this semester, I’ll be hitting 11 cities in 9 countries (not including London or anywhere in Britain). The list includes Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Galway, Rome, Florence, Split (Croatia), Budapest, Berlin, and Vienna. The last 3 cities I listed will be our spring break since it is in February and there won’t really be anywhere warm for us to travel. Maegan and I will be doing Brussels and Amsterdam just the two of us, although Constance, Sammie, Charlie, Phil, Ben, Rupali, and Liz will be in Amsterdam too so we will get to see them for one night. The Paris trip we booked through CAPA and everyone I named above minus Liz and Phil will be going on that. Ireland and Italy will be when Logan comes to visit and Split, Croatia will be the last trip of my semester and the second weekend in April. I am actually most excited for Budapest and Croatia just because of all the good things I have heard about both places. But pretty much everywhere I go will be amazing and I am extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to go to as many cities as I am.

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Stonehenge and Bath

Included in our CAPA program is a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath which are both West of London. We had to wake up at 7:30AM (which wasn’t fun after going on a pub crawl the night before) and be in front of our school by 8:30. We then took an hour and a half bus ride to Stonehenge, in which we all slept the entire ride. I wish I could say that it took by breathe away and that it was truly an amazing experience, but it was really just a bunch of rocks. The mystery behind it is interesting to learn, but even locals don’t understand why tourists, specifically Americans, are so intrigued by this archaic rock formation. I think I have to agree with the Brits on that one. It served for some good pictures though and then we quickly ran back onto the bus because it was so cold we immediately lost feeling in our hands and feet. Then we drove another hour or so to the city of Bath which is famous for its Roman Baths. I thought the town was absolutely beautiful and wish we had more time to wander around, but again the baths themselves were very underwhelming. We snapped a few pictures and then found the nearest pub to order burgers and beers. It was incredibly fun day and all of my roommates went so of course we were laughing and having fun the entire time; but I wouldn’t recommend the rocks or the baths to anyone visiting London. Our tour guide also wasn’t that great and we made the poor decision of sitting in the front of the bus where we had to deal with his incredibly bad breathe- so that could have also been a factor. 

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Harrods

Harrods is by far the most magical store I have ever been to in my life. There is nothing that even rivals it in the US. It’s over 1,000,000 square feet and is 6 floors of shoes, clothes, food, wine, chocolate, technology, furniture, kids toys, books, bags, accessories, etc. I believe it’s the largest and most famous department store in the world and is every shopping lover’s heaven. There is literally an entire section of the store called “Shoe Heaven” and has designer brands like Chanel, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Laurent, Jimmy Choo, and Valentino. I will probably never be able to afford half the items that they sell but just the experience of walking around and looking at everything is worth it enough for me. We spent about two hours walking around that store and we didn’t even see the majority of it. They have a whole section called “Millionaire Gallery” that has a bunch of expensive spy gear, an underwater 1 person submarine, and framed autographs of famous people such as Marilyn Monroe and numerous kings and queens. And of course celebrities love it- we saw Kim Kardashian’s best friend Jonathan Cheban walking around looking for luggage. We followed him around the store for a little while until his friends started to notice but no one else seemed surprised that he was there. I don’t even really have words to describe what Harrods is like; it is something you have to experience for yourself to really get an idea.

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Camden Market/Daunt Books

The past few days of exploring have by far been the most fun since arriving in London. Since I don’t have any classes on Thursday, my two roommates and I decided to take the tube to Camden and explore one of the most famous outdoor markets in London. It definitely did not disappoint. Everywhere you turned there was a new alley way or open space filled with every type of merchant you can think of. Jewelry, wall art, cameras, lamps, books, t-shirts, literally everything you could ever want in a market place. We walked around for about an hour and a half and I am pretty positive that we didn’t even get to half of it. Most importantly though was all the different type of street food there. Taiwanese, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, American, Italian. They even have a “Cereal Killer Cafe” with every type of cereal imaginable that you can mix and match and add toppings too. Everything looked so incredibly good and it wasn’t even overpriced either. We decided to head to a restaurant nearby called Poppies because they allegedly had the best fish and chips in London (I’m sad to report that it was overpriced and I definitely have had better) but I will absolutely be back multiple times to check out this market again and hopefully sample these foods from around the world. 

Next we headed back to Marylebone in search for Daunt Books. Before I had left for London I had received a gift card from someone for this book store and it is apparently one of the most famous places in London. As for as incredible book stores go, this one certainly did not disappoint. The second I walked up I knew I would be spending hours here over the next few months just enjoying the floor to ceiling shelves of books. It’s as quiet as a library and has everything from fiction to New York Times bestsellers to travel guides for all over Europe. Anyone who plans on visiting me in London will be visiting this wonderful bookstore. The neighborhood it is located in is about a 15-20 minute walk from our flat but is a totally different atmosphere. Instead of wide open busy streets, Marylebone is comprised of smaller back streets and cute little store fronts. We didn’t get much time to explore the area because it was so damn cold and our feet were numb at this point but I want to make it a point to go back and get to know the area better. 

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Weird Things about the U.K.

Commercials are so so strange- way weirder than any American commercial

They call wallets purses and purses handbags

Policemen don’t carry guns and the crime rate is very low

British TV shows are also really weird and the hosts are kinda mean

Almost all pubs and bars play throwback American music

There are no trash cans anywhere but it’s cleaner than any city in America

Pizza Hut is a nice restaurant here

When you use your debit or credit card to pay for things, they make you verify your signature multiple times

London has more Broadway shows and theaters than actual Broadway

You never tip at pubs but you always tip at bars and clubs

The washers are really small and double as dryers. It takes about 4-6 hours to do one really small load of laundry

Their “exit” signs say “way out” which always makes me feel like I’m escaping somewhere

Drivers are all crazy and there doesn’t seem to be any traffic laws

Opening and closing times mean nothing unless its a big chain store. Shops open and close as they please.

Everything is either dine in or take out- but dining in actually costs more money.

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Pictures from the tours

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6 Hours Worth of Tours

Today was filled with tours all over London. We started with a 90 minute walk around our neighborhood in which we discovered so many hidden side streets with restaurants, grocery stores, stationary stores, and “chocolate hotels”. It also turns out the Madonna lives about 3 blocks away from us and T.S. Elliot used to live only a block away from us. Right down Edgware Street, there is a plaque showing where an execution site used to stand and our guide informed us that over 10,000 people were hanged there. Further down near Oxford Street is the original Hard Rock cafe that sells burgers at 1971 prices every year on the anniversary of its opening. Every street you turn down in London has a fascinating piece of history to it. The most interesting piece of history near us is a memorial commemorating the hundreds of thousands of animals that died during war; the motto being “They Had No Choice”. Obviously I was in tears after reading that.

The next tour was a 4 hour bus tour that took us from Kensington to Westminster to South Bank to Covenant Gardens to the City of London to Shoreditch. Interestingly enough, London is technically divided into two city areas: Westminster and the City of London. The City of London was founded by the Romans thousands of years ago as Londinium with Westminster coming later to host all the kings and queens of England. We saw so many historical and tourist landmarks that I cannot even remember them all. I didn’t take many pictures because I wanted to soak it all in first and I knew I would be back to most of the sites over the next few months. The coolest part of the tour though was all the different Harry Potter references that the tour guide pointed out. We saw where the Leaky Cauldron scenes were filmed, where the Gringotts scene was shot, and the Death Eaters bridge. I will definitely be going on a Harry Potter experience tour which takes you around to all these different sites and then gives you admission to the studios where the actual set of Harry Potter is including life sized Hogwarts buildings.

I will say that the weather here is absolutely miserable. It was freezing and rainy and grey all day except for about a 30 minute period where the sun came out and it stopped raining. I lost feeling in my feet multiple times and am still cold even though I have been curled up in my bed for about an hour. It’s the kind of cold that sits in your bones and never leaves, which is pretty much the same as Pittsburgh without the snow. Thank God snow is very very rare here and I can get through this winter without it.

The highlight of the whole day was at Covenant Gardens. We had about 50 minutes to walk around, get some food, and explore the area. We decided to grab lunch at a very small French place that we stumbled upon and I ended up getting one of the best sausage sandwiches I have ever had in my life for 3 pounds. There was no place to sit down and eat our food there so we walked around the market place looking for a bench. We ended up sitting in front of a street performance and of course the entertainer picked Maegan to be a volunteer. This guy was the strangest weirdo I have ever met and he had Maegan walk barefoot over his stomach and chest while he lay shirtless on a bed of nails. It was so strange and funny at the same time, Aarti and I had no idea what to do with ourselves. Maeg was even more uncomfortable and as soon as it was over we immediately ran away. We at least caught it on video.

Another cool market place we had a half hour to walk around in was Spitalfield Market that was Northeast of the City of London near Shoreditch. It was filled with food trucks and clothing vendors in an covered, outdoor market space. The food ranged from cheese bars to naan wraps to Mexican food. We definitely plan on going back and doing some more exploring. I’m excited to actually go back and explore the places we saw more in depth including the Tower Bridge, the Churchill War Rooms, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and of course everything to do with Harry Potter.

Last night was also really fun because we did our first pub crawl. It started in Piccadilly Circus, which is like NYC Times Square, and ended at one of the top 10 clubs in Europe. It was really fun and we met a lot of cool people- but the last club was completely overrated. Normally the cover charge is 30 pounds and drinks average at about 8 pounds but we just paid 15 pounds for the whole crawl and bought drinks at the previous places so we didn’t have to spend any money there. We ended up leaving it earlier and finding our way home- which is always a fun adventure- instead of staying even though the club is open until 6 am. The other bars were really fun though and most of them played American music because, as we are finding out, Britain doesn’t have a whole lot to offer for pop music so they listen to ours.