Adventures in Traveling

First off, apologies for not updating this blog over the past several days! I have no excuses really, just being lazy.

Anyway, This weekend marked the first of a few journeys outside of London that I will be taking over the semester. I went with a few other girls in my program to Edinburgh, Scotland. Kind of a random destination, and not somewhere I was completely set on going but I am so glad I did. Scotland (at least all of the parts I saw, and I did see a lot) is beautiful. We took a tour through the Highlands our first full day there, and it was definitely worth it. Our tour went from Edinburgh all the way up to Loch Ness (home to Nessie, of course!) and then down the other side. I saw plenty of lochs, mountains, and fields. The pictures do not do any of it justice, it was absolutely breathtaking.
Here is an example of some of the scenery I saw:

Pretty cool! Although I was told these mountains are only half the size of the Rockies, so I'm thinking that's first on my list of places I want to go in the US.

Edinburgh itself was such a cool city! It was full of beautiful buildings, and much quieter than London. Probably because it is only double the size of Madison, at just over half a million people. My favorite part was The Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.

It's kind of small, but straight out the window is the Edinburgh Castle. I have a feeling this had to have given her inspiration for Hogwarts. Amazing!

This weekend also marked my first time staying in a hostel. I was a little apprehensive going in to it (I enjoy comfortable beds, only sharing a room with the people I'm traveling with etc.) but it was not bad at all. We ended up rooming with girls from the US, who were studying abroad in London as well. They were from the University of Minnesota, so that made it even better! It was nice to talk to some fellow midwesterners who weren't from our program. Made it feel a little more like home. The hostel itself was clean, the showers had good pressure, and the staff was very friendly. They recommended that we eat at a restaurant called Biddy Mulligans, which was delicious! We ended up going back there for dinner yesterday.

Deciding to be adventurous, I tried haggis, a popular Scottish dish. I won't say what it's made of, it's kind of gross! But it tasted suprisingly good.

Next up on the list is Windsor Castle, and then Switzerland. I've almost been here a month and it still seems surreal to me!

Has it really (only) been a week and a half?

Well it has now been a week and four days since I touched down in London. It feels like it has been a week and four days, a month and a minute all at the same time. I've done so much in the short amount of time that I've been here, I hardly can believe I still have another three months to go!

Yetserday I went with a couple other people in my program to a Sung Eucharist (I didn't know what it meant really, but it was just a regular church service) at Westminster Abbey. Words cannot describe how beautiful that church is. We couldn't take any pictures, but thanks to the trusty search engine known as google, I'm sure you could easily find some on your own.

Here is William and Kate's wedding. 

We sat in a row on the left that is just cut out of the picture. 

 

Today we went to The Houses of Parliament - sadly no pictures were allowed anywhere besides the area known as Westminster Hall. This is the oldest part of Parliament, where people used to be charged for all types of different crimes. Our guide today said if you were found guilty in Westminster Hall, you were pretty much screwed. It also was used as a banquet hall, and would get pretty rowdy because they would set up temporary balconies where friends of the Lords would be invited to eat, although usually they wouldn't actually get to eat the food, so people would toss food up to them. Really great friends.

 

 Here I am in the Hall! It was very cold, and is even bigger in person. 

Also look at my fancy badge. Basically, I'm super important.

Well in my week and a half I have played tourist and seen quite a lot, but I also have had a couple of "I'm turning into a Londoner!" moments too. These types of moments are nice, because as fun as it is to be a tourist it is fun to pretend you actually belong too. Or at least I think so. Yesterday I spent my afternoon after the service walking up Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar's Square. Charing Cross Road is full of bookstores, and I know I will need to go back and spend more time in each of them. (Me and books, cannot get enough!) It was cool because I took the tube there and back by myself, and managed not to get lost. I guess I did have to ask a police officer where Charing Cross Road was after I got there and walked around aimlessly (turns out I was on it... Maybe I should have put two and two together that Charing Cross Station would likely be on Charing Cross Road?) But other than that I was fine. I do think part of it is because of NYC, I have an added two and a half months of city life under my belt, so I am managing much better this time around (like with the tubes, big crowds, dodging pidgeons etc.)

This is a picture I snapped to remember my day. It's just a bargain book bin outside of one of the stores. It's not a very good picture because I didn't want a lot of people to notice the weird girl taking pictures of books all by herself.

The next week will (and already) has been so busy! We are going to The Museum of London on Wednesday, and Oxford on Thursday. Then Friday is a lunch at a place called Maggie Jones (I don't know too much about it, but the food sounds delicious) and a classical music concert that night. I'm also going to get coffee with my Mom's friend from high school that afternoon. Such a rough life I'm leading in London. I know I still have three months of this, but it will be so difficult to come back to the real world come April. I can only imagine how I am going to feel then. Tonight was the walking tour with my theatre professor/class around the Globe Theatre area, which was super interesting. The area is kind of creepy at night, and I can see why it was so slummy during Shakespeare's days.

Travel plans have changed again. Prague is out (traveling in Europe isn't quite as easy as everyone says it is) but I think my roommate Hannah and I are going to try and see some cool stuff around the UK before heading to Interlaken, Switzerland with two other girls from our program. Then we are going straight to Paris, because who couldn't use an extra day there? Oh and next weekend is Edinburgh already! Crazy. I'm excited to see the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. which speaking of JK Rowling - I'm 99% sure this couldn't have been her, especially because whenever I see anyone in a big city who looks remotely like a celebrity I always think it's them (Hey! Kanye!). I'm like the boy who cried wolf, except the girl who cried celebrity. But anyway I was running and heading back to the flat and this woman walked up next to me at a crosswalk who looked just like her. And she does live so close to me, so it is entirely plausible. Who knows. I'm going to go with yes. :)

Classes have begun!

After spending the summer in New York City and just under a week in London, I can't help but compare the two. After I spend more time in London I know I will compare it less and less to NYC and instead turn it into its own unique place in my brain, but for right now I keep seeing many similarities.

London has won in my head on several occasions. The city itself (at least the part we're staying in) is much cleaner. I've hardly seen any garbage, and during my summer in the city there were heaps and heaps on every corner, outside every restaurant, and even in the entryway of my apartment. But here, the streets are virtually empty of black plastic bags. Sorry to go so deep into a conversation about garbage but it's something that really shocked me. There's also one homeless man in the whole area that I have walked in. In New York, on my very last day there, I had to shoo a homeless man from my step that served as a porch. Even up in the nice area of the Upper East Side, which is what Kensington has been compared to, I was heckled by the occasional homeless man.

But after those two comparisons, I have to compare my time spent in London's version of Times Square, a set of blocks known as Piccadilly Circus. Last night the whole group of us went to see The 39 Steps, a play based off of Alfred Hitchcock's movie of the same title. We were running behind, the tube was stopped because of a fight at King's Cross Station (where platform 9 and 3/4 is located... a picture of that will come at some point, I'm not passing that up!) so our train was delayed for twenty minutes and we were almost late to the show. Because of that, I did not get to look at the supposed great view of Piccadilly Circus at night.

Well after the show we had all the time in the world, so I decided to take some pictures! Maybe it's because I've been to New York so many times and seen so many Broadway shows in the Times Square area that I am a little biased towards it, but I was not as impressed as I thought I would be.

Here is Piccadilly Square.

Here is Time Square. 

(Do know I did not take this photo. I couldn't find one I had taken.
I don't think any I took ever looked that cool.)

Sure I know this probably is a comment on America's consumerism with the monster amount of advertisements in Times Square, but I don't care. I did not get the same feeling of excitement walking out of The 39 Steps that I did when I walked out of Legally Blonde at the Palace Theater, or 9 to 5 at the Marriott Theater. But the show itself, that is definitely something I would recommend.

The 39 Steps is a play based on Alfred Hitchcock's movie of the same title, and oh my gosh was it hilarious! It's a cast of four people (three men one woman) playing over a hundred different roles between them. While that sounds like it would be way too much to handle, it was not. It was surprisingly very easy to follow.

Everything else is going well. I've started class (such a rough schedule... ;)) and the three that I've had so far I think are going to be very interesting. British professors are much more laid back than American ones, yet not afraid to speak their mind. They also treat students like human beings, and are willing to discuss their opinions with us. Not that all American professors are soulless and closed-off, but I've definitely had a few where I've wondered if they are robots.

My favorite class so far is Introduction to London Theater. It's taught by a professor (who I can't remember his name) who is very enthusiastic, and quite funny. He's taking us to some interesting shows to say the least (we're going to one inside of disused tubelines... um what? Definitely more to come on that.) Monday we're walking the river Thames and taking a glance at the Globe Theater (!!!) - okay so I know that it isn't the original one but still! We aren't doing an indoor tour of that until the weather gets a little nicer. We're also visiting some of the surrounding area, including an old prostitute's graveyard (the area where the theater was used to be pretty shady). I'm excited because one of my ancestors possibly used to be a an actor in Shakespeare so I'm wondering if I'll have some sort of connection with the area. Just kidding. But I do think that's kind of cool! 

Tomorrow I have the morning off, and after going on a run to Buckingham Palace (did I really just say that??! I still can't believe I'm here!) I'm going to see what I can find to do. Maybe a trip to a museum? Trip to the park? Who knows! 

I also figured out some *tentative* travel plans. I do know I am going to Edinburgh on January 26th. For spring break I am doing a loop from Prague, Switzerland, the South of France, then Paris. We're also taking a trip to Ireland. It's going to be a busy semester. 

I can't believe I'm going to get to see that. Switzerland. Wow.

Best Walking Tour Ever - Experience only hindered a bit by jet lag

Wow! What a whirlwind the past two days have been. With all I have seen so far, it feels like I've been here at least a week! Please pay no attention to spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, jet lag is very real, and I definitely have it. Here are two things I have done since arriving (and I'm blaming them all on the jetlag.)

1.) Got up at 2:30 in the morning thinking it was 8:30am because I hadn't set my phone to London time, and took a shower/started getting ready until one of my roommates informed me of my mistake.
2.) Melted my straightener even though I had a converter for it. The room in turn smelled like burnt rubber for the rest of the day. Fabulous. 

Hopefully the list will not continue to grow.

Other than that, things are going quite fabulously! As I wrote that, I thought it in a British accent. After only being here for just about three days, I feel like I already could completely switch over to to talking in a British accent. As I listen to the accents here, I really have noticed how loud Americans are! I'm sure there are loud British people, but overall it seems like they are much more reserved. I am completely in love with the accents though.

Exciting news, I found out at my orientation that we only have class Monday-Wednesdays. Excellent!

Now, on to the fun parts! :) Yesterday we did a walking tour around our neighborhood (The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to be specific). I was very lucky and managed to be in the group with the awesome tour guide named Britt, who knew all there is to know about the area. She showed us several famous houses, which you can find in my Facebook album, but we were also shown Virgina Woolf's childhood home, which I did not manage to get a picture of. I thought that it was pretty awesome, because she grew up literally around the corner from our flat. But that's what I have learned about London so far, there is history pretty much everywhere you walk. Everything has a back story, and I absolutely love it.

My roommates and I! Please don't mind my appearance... Jet lag sucks.

Today was spent doing a major walking tour of the city. We went to Buckingham Palace, although the queen wasn't home. She was spending a weekend in Windsor, I'm guessing with Charles and Camilla as well because they weren't home either. We went to their place as well, just a little (haha) mansion down the road. Our guide (Britt, the one from yesterday) informed us of a way to check where the royal family will be doing public appearances. Apparently the "Queen's Diary" is up on the royal monarchy website, listing all public appearances. I'm going to check it out ASAP.

 This was at Prince Charles and Camilla's mansion. They have their own soldiers as well. We learned today that those hats are made of real bear skin! Right when we got there, they did their exercises. They are allowed to move every fifteen minutes. The soldier I took a picture of looked very proud as he was walking back and forth, and he looked like he couldn't have been more than twenty.

For lunch we went to Covent Garden Market which was once an open vegetable market and now is converted into little shops and restaurant.  My roommate and I went into this fun little shop that kind of reminded me of Pop Deluxe in Madison, except with more clothes. I almost bought a dress, but resisted. I will have much more time to shop!

Other things we saw today included: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower of London, The Tower Bridge, The London Eye, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral (where Charles and Princess Diana got married), and many more things that since we're all so connected on the social networking websites, you can find pictures of these different things on Facebook.

But I do have to include this: 

 

I'm pretty sure this is a hair salon for redheads only. I'm home.

I'm thinking maybe touring Westminster Abbey since tomorrow is a free day, although I'm not sure if it's open on Sundays. Maybe a shopping trip is in order? We'll see what else I can find to do. I'm sure there will be something! But for now, cheers!

Bon Voyage!

As I sit here watching my flight get delayed from the original time of 8:35pm to 1am, 2:10am and the latest now at 3:10am, I figured, I may as well start the travel blog I've been thinking about. I can't say I will be very good at updating this once I actually cross the pond, but for right now here it is!

I will be studying abroad here:

Literally, inside of Big Ben. Just kidding. But I will be in London, and hopefully getting to see Big Ben and take a ride in the London Eye (the Ferris wheel behind the building on the left), and on one of those double-decker buses (on right. Okay I hope everyone knows what a bus looks like).

I actually will be living here:

Fancy no? 

37 Hyde Park Gate here I come! I'll be living right on the border of Hyde Park in Kensington borough, and *hopefully* will have some royal sightings since Prince William and Kate are living Kensington Palace, located in Hyde Park. 

Overall I am incredibly excited, and just a little nervous (okay kind of a lot nervous, but this is my first time out of the country!). Having the experience of spending the summer in New York City I think will help me out this time around, as I feel much more confident in my ability to travel. 

I have a check list of sights and places I want to see saved in my word docs. Since I was told that my classes are going to be 50% in the classroom, 50% travel (plus no class on Fridays... SWEET!) I think I should be able to check off many of those. I'm all packed, and now just hoping my flight doesn't get delayed until 4am.

More to come!!! :)