A Kentuckian in England

Things I learned in Europe: A Summary

2009-06-03T18:41:00.000+01:00

I am safely back home (have been for a week and a half or so now)! Flights were uneventful, but I totally forgot to finish up this post and publish it. Here you go!

I'm a list maker, so this was the easiest way for me to summarize all the knowledge I've acquired in almost six months of living abroad. It's been quite a ride (as you've read throughout the semester), but I'm more than ready to get home and dive in to my last summer of showing (*sniff*), my senior of college, and all that lay beyond.

1. I'll never be able to drive on the left side of the road without injuring masses of people. Not a good idea.
2. As much as I love globetrotting, I always want to call one place home. I miss the country way too much. (Although, Scotland definitely qualifies as "country." *wiggles eyebrows*)
3. I've met a lot of great people over here, but I've discovered (to no one's surprise, except mine) that I prefer my own company. I'm an introvert at heart.
4. You can, in fact, pack enough clothes for two and a half weeks in one backpack.
5. Sign language is universal enough to get your point across.
6. European food takes some getting used to.
7. I like writing, but I don't have enough time for it.
8. British-isms crack me up and I might have picked a few up.
9. Scottish accents > Irish accents. End of story.
10. Watching the entire series of LOST to date is actually enlightening. And an excellent way to waste time.
11. My camera eats batteries.
12. I've taken well over 3,500 pictures.
13. Thanks to Jori, I have discovered a plethora of new music. Let me tell you about it!
14. Nutella is addicting.
15. I like Earl Grey, but NOTHING can replace a tall glass of Cracker Barrel or McDonald's Sweet Tea.
16. Over here, UK =/= University of Kentucky. In case there was any doubt.
17. Classes only meet once a week?!
18. Yes, Kentucky is where the chicken comes from, thanks for asking.
19. We really should have more cathedrals in the States. Behemoth stone structures really do make you feel closer to God. Trust me.
20. Public transportation in the US needs to make a comeback. Trains are awesome.
21. Always double check your flight times/dates before you book them. Again, trust me.
22. Hostels are excellent. It makes you appreciate peace and quiet, your own bedroom, and hot breakfast all the more.
23. You can watch almost any movie on the internet.
24. Its hard to motivate yourself to do well when you don't give a crap about your classes.
25. I have a higher walking tolerance/stamina than most. This makes traveling in groups tricky.
26. Laughter and booze are also universal. These should probably play a more central role in international diplomacy. You heard it here first.
27. Its easy to forget Flat Stanley.
28. Europeans only hate obnoxious tourists, and for good reason.
29. Don't drink the water in Bath. Urgh.
30. We have couch potatoes for sheep.
31. Gorgonzola cheese is very strong. And should not be combined with gnocchi. Don't do it!
32. Grazing at fresh markets is a perfectly accepted form of eating.
33. I can (and have) survived on less than 5 euros a day in food.
34. Pizza and gelato is better in Italy. Trust me.
35. Scottish people find it endlessly entertaining that we have squirrel hunting season in Kentucky.
36. Flat Stanley was an excellent travel companion.
37. Number one travel annoyance: screaming babies/children. And I am a magnet for them. ARGH.
38. A steady diet of bread, pasta, muesli, and water is surprisingly filling. And cheap.
39. It is kinda disappointing to realize that the Trapp family didn't REALLY randomly burst into song.
40. French people aren't rude, as long as you attempt to speak French first.
41. I can ask "Do you speak English?" in 4 languages.
42. Crépes: a gift from God.
43. Renting bikes is a surprisingly nice way to see a city. Provided you remember how to ride them.
44. Being tossed into a foreign country all alone teaches you a lot about yourself. Namely, your language skills and resourcefulness. I think I passed the test.
45. I STILL don't know what I'm doing after I graduate. I *might* have narrowed it down, but I'm still open to suggestions.
46. Lush products are awesome. I'm glad I found it late in the term though, because I'd be broke broke broke if I hadn't.
47. I didn't get much done on my Honors thesis. Oops.
48. Digestives and biscuits are code words for cookies.
49. I could consider being a beach bum.
50. Take those free tours in the big cities. You won't regret it.

Thank you all SO SO much for reading this blog. I had a lot of fun writing it!

Pink Lemonade and Apple Streudel

2009-05-22T22:32:00.000+01:00

Oops, sorry it has taken me so long, but can you believe that I've been busy? Packing, vacuuming (it takes a long time, believe it or not.), last minute day trips, and whatnot, I've been swamped. Alternatively: I've been a lazy bum. That sounds about right.

Anywho, here's the lowdown on Salzburg, Austria. The town itself is relatively small, but it has a surprising amount of stuff to do. Obviously, there's the requisite Sound of Music tour (which I did, of course), but there is also a lot of history (Mozart was born there!) to discover.

I arrived in Salzburg from Interlaken about 4PM on Wednesday, which was really too late to start exploring, so I found the hostel, found a grocery store and found my bed. In that order. Actually, I had to do a scholarship interview via phone with the Governor's Scholar Program in Frankfort (Kentucky, duh). That was strange, but I think I did fine.

I booked my Sound of Music tour at the front desk of the hostel, and then promptly went to bed. My tour was bright and early on Thursday, and lasted until mid-afternoon. Totally worth the money, if the guide was slightly annoying. I've found that annoying tour guides kinda come with the territory, though. The tour took us around to the sights where the movie was filmed in and out of Salzburg. We went to a little town outside called Mondsee (it means Moon Lake), where the wedding scene was filmed. All in all, an excellent tour. Here goes:

No, no we weren't conspicuous at all.

Can you see kids in clothes made from draperies singing and hanging out of the trees? Me too!

Schloss Leopoldskron, where the children and Maria fall out of the boat and Uncle Max partakes in pink lemonade. Only the back was used in the movie, for the terrace scenes.

Untersberg Mountain, where Maria sang the opening scenes of the movie. She could not have run down to the abbey in three minutes like she did in the film. Just saying.

THE GLASS GAZEBO! Most disappointingly, they built it especially for the film (you mean the Baron and Maria didn't REALLY sing romantic songs to each other there? Drat!)

The little town of Mondsee.

St. Michael's church, where they filmed the wedding scene. It looks ENORMOUS in the movie, but it is really very small.

And ugly. I think its ugly. Who paints a church pink?

See? Not that big! They must have done that in miniature or something...

Seriously, though. It isn't very big at all. I think FCC in Hopkinsville is bigger, actually.

hehe, its crisp apple streudel! With warm vanilla sauce! I'm going to make some when I get home.

Mondsee is a cute little town.

At the end of the tour, they dropped us off at the Mirabel Gardens, where most of the Do-Re-Mi song was filmed (obviously, the best part!). These are the steps at the end of the song!

How cool is that?!

The covered trellis! "Doe, a deer, a female deer..." Okay, I'll stop.

Almost to the end of the song...

Yep, yep!

After the tour, I walked around the Mirabel Gardens some more, which were beautiful. Then it rained, for the first time the ENTIRE trip. And I got soaked, but I got some good pictures.

Atop the Do-Re-Mi steps (seriously, they're called that now) with a good view of Hohensalzburg, the fortress overlooking the city.

Big fountain with Mirabel Palace and statues. Very nice.

To avoid the rain, I went back to the hostel, with plans to re-visit all the stuff I'd missed earlier. The first place I went on Friday was Hohensalzburg, the fortress. Salzburg had been ruled for centuries by the Prince-Archbishop, which I take to be both a religious and government leader. All of the Prince-Archbisops (what is plural for that? Archbisopi? Archbishopus? Who knows?) put their own spin on the fortress, so it doesn't look very coherent, architecturally.

And guess what? I walked up there instead of taking the cable car! Go me!

Farmer's market where Maria juggles the tomatoes. I think that's right.

Great views of Salzburg and surrounding area.

More Salzburg.

Because I was in Salzburg by myself, taking pictures with Flat Stanley was a bit of a problem, so I had to ask an older couple to take the picture for me. They were the first people to recognize FS the WHOLE TRIP. I was overjoyed! Turns out they were from southern Illinois (they knew Paducah!) and retired and just traveling around. Man, that sounds nice.

More of the fortress.

It seems that a lot of the castles and fortresses I've been to have had weapons and torture exhibits. Fun stuff!

On the Sound of Music tour, they told us that this used to be the executioner's house. No one liked him, clearly.

After I'd gotten my fill of the fortress, I went back down to the city to explore some more. There are something like 45 Roman Catholic churches in the little city of Salzburg, so I had plenty to do.

A bakery that used to be run by one of the churches. It is still powered by water!

Wheel that operates the bakery.

Little chapel of St. Peter's. The cemetery is gorgeous. I read that they lease the plots for 10 years and if you don't maintain it to their standards, out you (or your loved one) go.

Very pretty.

So after a long day of walking around and browsing, I headed back to the hostel and ate at the hostel restaurant (yes, they do exist, and they're quite nice and cheap!) and had a schnitzel. Mmmmm....

Saturday, my destination was Frankfurt, Germany. The train ride was longer than I thought I was going to be (5 hours, yay!), but it turns out, there wasn't that much to do in Frankfurt anyway. Guess why? The Allies obliterated most of it during World War II, so most of the buildings were modern and therefore, not very interesting. But, there was a festival going on, which only means one thing: BEER. Lots and lots of BEER.

The river that runs through Frankfurt is the Main, and they were holding the Drachenboot Festival (I believe it translates to Dragon Boat). At any rate, there was a lot of good food and they were racing long paddle boats (small, but Viking-style, with the dragons on the ends).

...And they're off!

Some of the Old Town was still preserved.

Further proof that Germans like their beer: A beer bike! I saw one rolling through town, and found it quite disturbing.

I went back to the hostel, because guess what! They had a free pasta party! Excellent! They the bar opened, and I made some interesting friends (we tried to guess the origins of everyone's accents. We failed. I guessed Greek on an Israeli. Oops.). I had an early afternoon flight back to England, so Sunday, I wandered back down to the Drachenboot Festival, had a crépe (a cherry and nutella one, very yummy), and then got a bus to the airport which was TWO HOURS AWAY. I had planned for that, but we can thank my least favorite budget airline, RyanAir, for picking the furthest possible one from the town center.

So, that concludes the last hoorah, the two and a half week tour of Europe. I met some great people, ate some amazing food, had some wonderful experiences, but best of all, I have the memories to go with them. And I've shared them with you all! This isn't quite the end of the blog, I'm planning a wrap up post, so stay tuned.

Also, I'm coming home tomorrow (due to arrive in Nashville at ~7PM CST). I have mixed emotions (as expected), but I'm definitely ready for some American food. And I miss the goats! And I suppose I miss you people too! :o]

The Swiss are made of different stuff- cheese and chocolate! Interlaken

2009-05-20T12:11:00.000+01:00

Does anyone know the capital of Switzerland? Carly and I assumed it was Geneva or Zurich, but its Bern! Random, yes. Anyway, that's where we had to change trains on Sunday to get to Interlaken, which took about 3 hours. The first thing we do in any new city is stake out the grocery stores and find food, so that is what we did. Interlaken is a tiny little town between (guess what....) two lakes and smack in the middle of the Alps. Their main attraction and means of income is tourism. It is also close to the Simme Valley, namesake of the Simmetal breed of cattle, which I saw in abundance.

This, friends, is Jungfrau, the main summit of the Bernese Alps. Our hostel was at the foot of the green mountains.

How awesome is this? Yes, we are in the mountains!

Closer view of the Jungfrau.

The next day, Monday, we were interested in doing a high Ropes course, but the place wasn't open, so we decided to go to the small town of Grindelwald, about a 45 minute train ride away from Interlaken. I laughed all day, Harry Potter fans!

This is where they make car commericials. I actually made that up, but they should.

These are real-deal Simmetals, not the homogenized black variety that we have in the States.

Church in the Alps!

Luckily, there weren't many people on the train, so we got to make fools of ourselves at our leisure. While we were doing this, Carly told me a story of some idiot who got decapitated on Space Mountain at Disneyland because he stood up on the ride.

Switzerland is pretty!

The little town of Grindelwald. Carly doesn't seem to think that the people can possibly survive the winter because they are in this little valley and the snow would fill it up, burying them. I told her that the Swiss are made of different stuff than we Americans. She said, yes, they're made of chocolate and cheese. ahahaha

Here is Carly doing what she does best- setting up our timed pictures. :o]

I don't know why its a little fuzzy... But the big mountain is Eiger, one of the deadliest slopes in Switzerland.

I had to have chocolate in Switzerland, so I went whole hog and got some fantastic truffles. Three of these cost 6.25 francs, which is roughly equivalent to a US dollar. O.o

The next day, Carly booked a sky-diving adventure, and I got my book and read outside pretty much all day while she was gone. I wish I could do that all the time, but as soon as I get home I know that activity will stop REAL quick. haha

After she got back, we both wanted to visit one of the lakes that Interlaken is, well, between. The nearest one was Lake Thun (pronounced "tune") and it was gorgeous. Most of the lakes in the Alps are glacier fed, so the water is FREEZING but perfectly clear.

Whoa, cool clouds!

Ahhh, Lake Thun.

hehe, cute little Swiss chalet on the way back to Interlaken.

I think this one might be frameable. I got it just before we left Thun.

After Thun, we went back to Interlaken and had our ritual dinner of pasta and sauce. I have taken to adding Gruyere cheese to mine and it is gooooood. Its a Swiss cheese (not with the holes....its made in Switzerland.). The next day, Wednesday, I had my epically long (8 hour) train ride to Salzburg, Austria, which will have to wait to another post.

Nerd Camp 101- Geneva

2009-05-19T23:16:00.000+01:00

Geneva is a Swiss city that is right on the border of France and Switzerland, so it's official language is French, but German and Italian are also spoken. Supposedly, 40% of Geneva's population aren't native to Switzerland at all. So its a very international city.

So we arrived in Geneva fine, mid-afternoonish. They use a different currency, the Swiss Franc. We managed to get lost finding our hostel, but Geneva is pretty small, so we called the hostel and got directions. We had issues with the booking way back when we started planning the trip, so we had to switch hostels after the first day, but it didn't cause any problems. The first one, Home St. Pierre, was right in front of the Catedral St. Pierre, where John Calvin preached.

Cathedral St. Pierre

Later that evening, we found food and settled into the hostel. SWITZERLAND IS EXPENSIVE. Just saying. Everything was costs more than it does in France or England, but especially the US. Geneva is reputed as being to most expensive city in Europe (so don't ask me why we chose to visit there...).

The next day, we wanted to visit the UN. There was a protest going on in front of the main building. Something about Vietnamese human rights.

Vietnamese monks/priests and other protesters.

In front of the United Nations.

We went around to the side and found the visitor's entrance, so we could do a tour. We had to go through security, but I got a fantastic visitor's badge. The tour was increeeeeedibly boring. Our tour guide was horrific, I think I knew more about the UN than he did, or at least it was all stuff I could have found on Wikipedia. We still got to see some interesting, important things though.

Obama and Ahmadinejad have both given speeches in this room.

This was a 5 part mural by a Spanish artist (I forget the name). It was really interesting because it showed all the different areas of human progress. But it pointed out that despite all of our advances culturally, scientifically, and technologically, we still haven't managed to overcome war.

After the UN, we walked around the center of Geneva. We saw banks, chocolate shops, and knife stores (typical, haha). We mostly wandered around the city for the rest of the day.

We found a park with giant checkerboards. Carly kicked by butt, as you can see.

Our next hostel was a little more centrally located and had a handy brochure of stuff to see in and around Geneva. I completely geeked out and wanted to go see CERN, which I had no idea was so close to Geneva. OK, a little bit about CERN: it was created in the 1950s in an effort to promote international scientific cooperation and understanding. It stands for European Organization for Nuclear Research, and I believe that the compound has more Nobel Prizes per square inch than any other place in the world. I totally made that statistic up, but I bet its true. CERN was featured in (big surprise here) Angels & Demons, but they recently made headlines, in the past year or so, for their new Large Hadron Collidor. A lot of people were (and still are) afraid that the LHC is going to create a black hole and suck the Earth into it, thereby ending the world as we know it.

CERN has dabbled in antimatter (made some, in fact!), and they generally research stuff that makes me really excited, but gives me a headache. Its a lot of theoretical stuff, but it has practical application, particular in engineering and medicine. In fact, the Internet was invented there, as a means of sharing scientific work. So, you are reading this blog post thanks to CERN! CERN had a small museum called the Cosmos. It was watered down enough that I could grasp some of it, but I still left with a headache. Whew.

Please note my tan. eep.

Outside one of the stations of the LHC. I came away unscathed. :o]

We next went to the opposite end of the city, to Mount Saléve. We took a cable car to the top, and we got some great views of Lake Geneva and the rest of the city.

Some neat trails and hiking.

Ha, I like this pose.

ALPS!

So with my big headache from CERN, we headed back to the hostel. They showed a movie every night, and that night I got the pleasure of seeing Waking Ned Devine. Hilarious movie about a tiny Irish town. You should watch it.

The next day, Sunday, we were supposed to go to Interlaken. We weren't in a particular hurry, but there were a few last minute things we wanted to see in Geneva before we headed out (via train). The annual Geneva Marathon was going on, so we got to see hoardes of annoying runners (runners in general annoy me, mostly because I hate running and they obviously love it. hahaha).

Floral clock with enthusiastic band to keep the runners' energy up.

The Jet d'Eau, which shoots water from Lake Geneva 140 meters up into the air. I don't think it exactly qualifies as a fountain.

We got a late morning train to Interlaken, which was a very scenic ride. More on Interlaken in another post! :o]

This is enough adventure for me for one day! Nice (Part 1 of 1)

2009-05-18T22:10:00.000+01:00

So, we landed in Nice about 10:30 at night, after the buses quit running, but our hostel was awesome and came to pick us up at the airport. This was completely the best hostel I've ever stayed at (better than Florence, even!). Free breakfast, towels, internet, and ...hello? Its in NICE!

Because we'd been so busy in Paris, we just wanted to sit by the beach and be, well, bums. Tuesday morning, we asked reception where a good beach was and they told us Villefranche, a short train ride away. The girl behind us was asking the same question, and she asked if she could come with us. Of course, we said she could and she is possibly the most interesting person alive (after Thomas Jefferson. But that's a long story. And he's not alive, anyway). Sophie is from Quebec, so she speaks French (horray!) and she is in Europe just traveling for a few months. I can't wrap my mind around doing something like that, just traveling for a few months or even a year.

We went down to the nearest super market and got food and booze. Carly is from Southern California, so she knows how to be a beach bum. Whereas for me, the nearest beach is...Land Between the Lakes? Yeah. But we got vodka, orange juice, and pineapple rum. I won't lie. It was tasty.

That day, I made the egregious error of not putting on enough (or in some parts, NONE) sunscreen. I had a spectacular sunburn for a few days that was quite painful (especially the back of my legs). Here are the pictures of our extremely lazy day on the beach in Villefranche.

The view from our hostel, Villa St. Exupery.

Beach at Villefranche.

Toes in the sand...and rum. Eeeeeeeexcellent.

YAY BEACH! Look how clear that water is!

Charming medieval town of Villefranche.

Feet in the gorgeous clear water.

Sophie, me, and Carly. You can begin to see how fried I am.

Cruise ship on the beach.

After toasting on the beach for a good 8 hours, we headed back to the hostel and COLD showers. It felt really good. We went down to the "Chapel" which was the common room at the hostel and drank some more and chatted. It was nice. :o]

Carly had booked a scuba diving adventure for the next day (Wednesday) and Sophie and I wanted to go to Monaco, which was about an hour bus ride away from Nice. Monaco, as you might suspect, is quite glamorous and ritzy. I saw more Porshes and Lambourginis in that teensy little municipality than I've seen in my entire life. Seriously.

THE Monte Carlo Casino. James Bond, anyone? We couldn't go in...because we had shorts on. I kid you not.

Birds of Paradise!

We got some great sorbet in Monaco (and it wasn't expensive, actually!). That's Sophie. She's so cute.

The Prince's Palace is up there.

We basically sat around and read all day (I was definitely in the shade!). We walked around some, and then headed back to Nice to meet up with Carly. She had a good time on her scuba diving, even though it was short. We walked around the Old Town of Nice for a while, and then headed back to the hostel.

Cute shops.

And cute little apartments.

And, the beach again. In Nice. :o]

It turns out that we were in Nice at the perfect time of year. Its before the main tourist season and we were there a week before the Cannes Film Festival (Cannes is about half an hour from Nice) and two weeks or so before the Monte Carlo Grand Prix F1 race in Monaco. Awesome!

We went back to the hostel and finished up all the alcohol. I might be a fan of rum, lol. I slept really well that night.

When Carly was in Barcelona, she rented a bike and rode down Las Ramblas and along the beach, and she thought it'd be a good idea to rent some and ride along the beach in Nice. It was a good idea, and the view was spectacular. She got some cool pictures while we were riding, so I'll have to wait until I get her pictures to get those posted. So that is what we did Thursday morning. Rode bikes and walked a little more on the beach.

We then went back to the hostel, got our stuff, and set out for the Nice airport. Nice has two terminals, one for the main airlines and one for the budget airlines (that's us, hehe). We assumed that the bus stopped at both terminals. WRONG. We quickly realized that it only stopped at the first terminal, and got off at the next stop, a good mile away from the airport. We timed it so that we'd arrive 2 hours before the flight (like you're supposed to), but that walk with all our backpacks and such made it a little tight. Too close for comfort (hence the title of this post). But we got to Geneva (our next stop) perfectly fine, so no harm, no foul.

But, as you can tell by the length of this post, we didn't DO a whole lot in Nice. We just basically bummed around, which was the idea in the first place.

...And when you're hungry, you see crépes everywhere! Paris, Part 2

2009-05-18T21:13:00.000+01:00

Saturday (Day 3) we decided to head to Versailles. For my fellow Kentuckians, this is pronounced Ver-sigh. I pronounced correctly the whole time, so this was just a public service announcement. It was pretty cheap to get there, less than 5 euros. It was also very close, roughly a 20 minute train ride.

We got there, and it was, of course, beautiful.

And cloudy, apparently. I don't remember it being rainy...

Golden gates.

Back of the Palace and some of the gardens.

More of the gardens.

Okay, so sad story here. We got to Versailles fine. We started to get in line to go in. Then we realized it was 8 euros to get in (which we would have paid), but the line was 2 hours long. And that was just to get a ticket. Then you had to get in ANOTHER line to get into the palace itself. THAT line was another 2 hours. Thanks, but no thanks. Louis XVI can have his opulent palace, and I'll save some time. I did want to see the gardens though. We were under the impression that they were free (that's what Lonely Planet said!). LIES. 10 euros to get in. Good grief. Let them eat cake, I ask you....

So we walked through the small town of Versailles for a while. Its pretty and not very commercialized, which was nice. After that, we went back to Paris. Carly and I split up, as she wanted to go shopping and I wanted to do some more sight seeing. I went back to the Latin Quarter. I first went to the cathedral of St. Sulpice. And I'm slightly ashamed to say this was also in the Da Vinci Code. Seriously, I'm not obsessed with the book or anything! It isn't that well written but the history and plot are really cool!

Saw this on the way, and I really have no explanation.

I also got a macaroon on the way to St. Sulpice. Its hard to describe, sort of like a Moon Pie, but more....French? Two cake-like things with a chocolate filling. Lots of different flavors to choose from.

St. Sulpice was, sadly, under construction, so the outside shots weren't the best.

Fountain in front of St. Sulpice.

Ceiling just before going inside.

More ceiling.

Altar.

Obelisk, marking the location of the original Prime Meridian. Also one of the rumored locations of the Holy Grail. Seriously, somebody stop me!

Next, I headed over to the Luxembourg Gardens, which were beautiful. It was a former palace for the French Royalty, but now it is home of the French Senate (ironic...).

Louxembourg Palace.

Gardens.

Catherine de Medici was a Queen of France, but her son banished her to...Italy? She (well, her money) built the gardens and the palace, and all she got was this corner of the gardens and banished. Geez.

Gardens + People

There's a little gazebo in the gardens that is for free public concerts. There was some kind of school jazz band (I don't know where they were from) and they were great.

More gardens and palace.

Next, I went to the Pantheon. It is not at all like the one in Rome. For one, its not free (bummer). Also, it wasn't designed by Raphael and it doesn't have a big hole in the ceiling (as far as I know, anyway. I didn't go in).

The Pantheon is in the heart of the Latin Quarter, right next to Sorbonne University.

A lot of famous people are buried here: Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I guess its France's answer to Westminster Abbey.

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.

Yay! Rene Descartes! I think therefore I am!

After the Pantheon, I headed back to the hostel. Carly and I had a big day ahead: MUSEUM-ING!!!

I forget where Carly went Sunday morning (maybe more shopping, I can't remember), but I went to Musee d'Orsay, which houses the French National Collection. This is probably blasphemous, but I probably liked the Orsay better than the Louvre. There aren't as many famous works there, but it is no less awesome. Because it was free for everyone, both places were pretty well packed. We could take pictures of all the art, so I don't feel bad for posting some of them here. I decided that I really like French art, but particularly peasant realism.

Musee d'Orsay, a former train station on the River Seine.

This is a good example of that peasant realism. Millet was one of my favorites.

Inside the Orsay.

I really liked these busts, because they aren't directly facing you. And they have a lot of expression. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was the sculptor, I think.

French Impressionism is also cool.

This is possibly one of my all time favorite paintings (and I'm no art geek). It was ENORMOUS, over 6 feet tall. Painted by René-Emilé Ménard.

There was a whole lot to see in the Orsay. Pastels, impressionism, sculptures, etc. I was running around like a crazy person trying to see it all and get back to the Louvre by noonish to meet Carly. Whew!

Carly got to the Louvre a little before I did, so she got a spot in line for us. The line moved pretty fast, so we were in there in about 45 minutes. The Palace of Versailles could take a few tips from them. The Louvre is MASSIVE. They say that if you spent 30 seconds at each and every work of art at the Louvre, you'd be in there for 3 solid months, no eating or sleeping. So it was a little daunting. But we saw the Mona Lisa!

The woman herself. It really is small and its encased in bullet proof glass.

That's Napoleon crowning himself emperor. I might have seen that in a history book.

As most of you know, I'm in a sorority at UK called Ceres, named for the Roman goddess of agriculture (we're a bunch of farm girls, essentially. lol). While we were in the Louvre, it occurred to me that there was probably a statue of Ceres somewhere. Only, I didn't have a clue where to look. I told Carly to look for a statue of a woman holding a sheaf of wheat (the symbol for agriculture). We were in the Italian sculpture gallery, so we had to be close. Just when I was about to give up, lo and behold, we stumbled upon the woman herself!

YAY! I found our namesake!

After we had our fill of the Louvre (except there is no way to get your fill of the Louvre), we headed up to the Arc d'Triomphe. The Champs Elysées is decievingly long.

High stakes frogger.

Looking down the Champs Elysées.

Carly hadn't been to the Pantheon yet, so I tagged along with her as we hiked back down to the Latin Quarter. Along the way, we decided that were starving. Carly's lifelong dream was to eat a crépe in France, so we told ourselves that is what we'd do after we got done at the Pantheon. Only, we kept seeing creperies everywhere. I told her, "You know when you have to pee really bad and you hear water everywhere? When you're hungry you see crépes everywhere!" We saw the Pantheon again (we were under the impression that it was free, like most things on the first Sunday of the month, but nooooooo) and then found the. best. crépes. ever.

Here is the guy making them. Ho boy. I got a nutella and banana one and it was heavenly. For those that don't know, a crépe is just a really thin pancake that you put a filling in, it can be sweet or savory. Sweet is better, obviously. Carly got a nutella, banana, and Gran Marnier one. She said, "I didn't want it to end!"

So. good.

Later that night, we went back to the Louvre to see it light up.

I swear, last Da Vinci code reference in France.

THAT'S WHERE THE HOLY GRAIL IS! (not really, but still)

Kind of underwhelming, light-wise.

Monday was our last day in Paris. We decided to take it a little easier, as we'd been running around like crazy people the whole time, trying to see everything (I think we accomplished it, for the most part). I sat around and read in the Tuleries and then Luxembourg Gardens. Very nice, and I even got a little pink (but nothing compared to the next day). We caught our late afternoon flight to Nice, and all the remains shall be in the next post.

George IV and his plastered friends: Paris, Part 1

2009-05-18T18:11:00.000+01:00

Here we go with the documentation of my two-and-a-half week backpacking trip around Europe. Paris is going to require two posts, but I hope to get all of France written and posted today. Buckle up!

I started, technically, on April 29. Like when I went to Italy, my flight to Paris left early in the morning from Liverpool, which meant, yes, that I got the privilege of sleeping in the airport. I managed to get a collective total of 3 hours of sleep that night, but I got to Paris in one piece, so its all good. I won't lie, I was a little (OK, a lot) terrified of making it from the airport to the hostel without getting hopelessly lost. Luckily, signs are amazing, especially when they're in both French and English. Carly left a few days before me and went to Barcelona, so we met in Paris. She got to the hostel a little bit before I did, and the cell phone did come in handy! St. Christopher's (the hostel) was a chain hostel, but it had free breakfast, which is always a plus in my book. The hostel advertised a free walking tour of Paris, and it came recommended by a friend, so we went. The tour guides work on a tips basis, so that is how you can ensure that you get a good guide, because they go out of there way to be awesome.

We managed to conquer the Paris metro system, and because our hostel was WAY outside of the city center, we kind of needed to. So we made our way down to St. Michel, where the tour was to begin. We had a fantastic guide, from Australia, named Jacqueline. She was super enthusiastic about Paris and hilarious. She might have glossed over some of the history of Paris (I think I noticed some inconsistencies and errors), but overall she was great. The walking tour was 4 hours long and we really did get to see everything. And it was a good way to see something and then go back later to see it more thoroughly, which is the point, I guess.

St. Michel, banishing Lucifer to...hell.

St. Michel is in the Latin Quarter, so called because it is home to Sorbonne University. They used to speak exclusively in Latin at universities, so they called the area the Latin Quarter. Also, because it is a student area, food is cheaper. Woohoo!

Notre Dame!

See the bullet holes? These are practically the only scars that Paris has from WWII, because the Nazis got smart and decided that Paris was too important culturally to destroy. Well played.

Jacqueline, our super-enthusiastic and hilarious guide.

So this was my favorite part of the tour, Pont Neuf. The story goes that the king of France at the time, George IV, was a good time Charlie. He had a bunch of friends over in the palace, all sipping champagne. They proceeded to get hammered, and drank ALL the champagne. George IV ordered wine for all the guests. Now, I don't know this from experience, but I hear that wine after champagne is not the best idea. So everyone then got PLASTERED. Following an enormous hangover, George IV looked back on that night fondly and ordered the bridge, Pont Neuf, to be built. He wanted to memorialize the night somehow, so he got the designer to make likenesses of his plastered friends and put them on the new bridge. Hence, George IV and his plastered friends. hahahaha

That's my favorite guy, he looks like he's about to vomit.

George IV himself! Jacqueline told us a bit about equestrian statue lore: if the horse has one front hoof raised, the rider was murdered. If it has two front feet up (like he's rearing), the rider was killed in battle. If all 4 hooves are on the ground, the rider died of natural causes, like old age. So George IV was murdered.

Are you ready? The Louvre!

Ahhhhh! Dreams really do come true!

The old Prime Meridian, Rose Line, whathaveyou. I think I have officially been almost everywhere mentioned in the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. hehehehe

This is where the French Revolution started. I think.

Cool, right?

Rue St. Honoré, second most expensive street in the world (after 5th Avenue in NYC). Every major fashion house in the industry has a store on this street.

The only McDonald's in the world to have white arches. You can order a Royal with Cheese there. But I haven't seen Pulp Fiction, so it means nothing to me.

The Tuileries! And that is the Mussee d'Orsay in the background (it used to be a train station).

You can *just* see the Sacre Coeur between those two buildings. We went there the next day...

aaaaaaaaand, our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower! WHY can't I open my eyes during pictures?! Srsly.

Luxor obelisk. It was a "gift" from the Egyptians (riiiight). It is located at the bottom of the Champs Elysées, in a square known as the Place de la Revolution. There was a guillotine there before the obelisk. Lovely.

Fun fact: this is the fountain that Anne Hathaway threw her cell phone in during the Devil Wears Prada. Also, that hotel behind the fountain is super duper expensive, but it gives the winner of the Tour de France one free night, and they get to fly a flag of their choice on the roof. Lance Armstrong chooses to fly the Texas flag. Nice.

The Champs Elysées, with the Arc de Triomphe at the end, home of the most dangerous roundabout in France, possibly the world. Fact.

This is the Grand Palais, I think. The Petit Palais was right next to it.

The Hotel des Invalides, I think it is a bunch of military museums, but it used to be a home for retired and injured veterans. Nice digs, though.

So, we had a pretty packed day, you might say. After that walking tour, I was pretty much swaying on the spot, having only gotten 3 hours of sleep. So we headed back towards the hostel, and got some sustenance for the next few days (read: bananas and muesli. This can be surprisingly filling.).

We got up early-ish the next morning, got breakfast, and went to the Eiffel Tower for our ritual photoshoot. Carly and I have developed a tradition (of sorts) of setting up her camera on the self timer, so we can both be in the picture with something awesome in the background (like that one in Pisa, in front of the tower). Carly still has those pictures, but I'll post the results when I get them. I still took a lot of pictures there, though.

There it is! Perfect sky!

And again. Beautiful. Jacqueline (the tour guide from the previous day) told us that there are something like 5 marriage proposals A DAY at the Eiffel Tower. Could you get any more cliché?

After we took approximately 100 pictures at the Eiffel Tower, we headed up toward the Montmatre area, where the Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge are, and it is the birthplace of the Bohemian movement. Very artsy and vibrant. And it was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG walk. Took us about 2 hours. And we're not slow and lazy.

Clearly, I was excited about being at the most famous cabaret in the world. Site of one of my most favorite movies, though. Carly and I decided it would be inappropriate to whip out Flat Stanley here. heehee

The Sacre Coeur. It is in the most northern tip of Paris, and there was a TON of people there. My teensy bit of agoraphobia nearly got me.

Excellent gargoyles and flying buttresses.

The very tall bell tower at Sacre Coeur.

We then walked back toward the city center. We stopped by the Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera takes place. After reading through some of my posts, I have decided that the only reason I came to Europe in the first place is because of books and movies, not entirely for historical or cultural reasons. This is a little embarrassing, but its the truth.

The phaaaaaaaaaaaaaantom of the opera is there, inside your mind.

Back to the Tuileries, right outside the Louvre. They're racing sailboats, how awesome!

We had heard that the Louvre was free on Friday evenings for people under 26, so we were going to take advantage of that, BIG TIME. Except we were thwarted: it was a bank holiday. But no matter! The first Sunday of every month is free for everybody, and (guess what) we happened to be there for that. WOOHOO!

We then went back to the Eiffel Tower, because Jacqueline had told us that it lights up at night and sparkles on the hour. No way were we going to miss that! So to kill time, we went over to Notre Dame.

Clearly, I have not seen enough movies, as I did not understand the movie reference on the tour. Its from the Bourne Identity. Apparently, Jason Bourne is hiding behind the "M" on the Samartaine Hotel, waiting to kill someone.

Notre Dame, again!

Famous rose window.

Jean d'Arc.

Rose window again.

I do a shot like this at every cathedral.

It was about twilight at that point, so we headed on over to the Eiffel Tower. There weren't as many people there at night (surprisingly).

Kind of awesome shot on the way there.

I got a video of the Tower as soon as it started sparkling!

SPARKLES!

Whew, so that was day 2 in Paris. Days 3, 4, and 5 will require a separate post. Then I'll do Nice. Hopefully by this evening? We'll see.

OH! I got ALL the pictures up on photobucket! They're hopelessly out of order, but it'll give you a good preview of what's coming here. Also, I finally figured out how to embed videos. Snazzy, right?

Wilkommen á mi life

2009-05-17T23:24:00.000+01:00

I'M BACK Y'ALL! I made all my flights and trains, had a great time and took over a thousand pictures. I am sunburnt to oblivion and my head is a very strange mix of Spanish, French, German and English. My blogging for these past few weeks will have to come in several posts, so get ready!

2.5 weeks + 1 backpack = a packing challenge of epic proportions

2009-04-29T12:30:00.000+01:00

That's right, folks! I'm off again! This is likely the last trip, though (*tear*). April 30-May 17. I'm coming home May 23 to Nashville. eeeeeeeeeeee! Here's the rundown

Paris-Nice-Geneva-Interlaken-Salzburg-Frankfurt

so that's France-Switzerland-Austria-Germany

Mom made me get a cell phone, so I'll be able to call her when I need to.

Anyway, wish me luck, and see you on the flip side!

PS. No worries about the swine flu, I'm armed with hand sanitizer!

Firenze e Pisa: Italia Part 2

2009-04-23T21:21:00.005+01:00

So, we took a train from Rome to Florence, and the ride was long (about 4 hours) but beautiful, right up through Tuscany. We made our way to our hostel, which turned out to be BY FAR the best I've ever stayed at, but basically the same price we paid in Rome. This one even had a swimming pool, sauna, and restaurant. Sweeeeeeeeeet.

No one had a specific agenda in Florence, so we chose to take things slowly, which turned out great. We basically wandered around the city, seeing stuff along the way. Also, my camera eats batteries, and I didn't get new ones until Thursday, so some of the following pictures are Carly's.

Piazza de Repubblica, where we had another great gelato. This one was called "semi-freddo," which had the consistency of really cold whipped cream. Still excellent though!

Katie might have liked the gelato?

The Duomo, which I personally think is rather hideous.

The front. Still ugly, though. I think its the colors that make me gag.

The next morning (Thursday) we got up early-ish and decided to hit the multitude of fresh markets in Florence. As most everyone knows, I love farmer's markets and fresh markets and the like. These were pretty freaking fantastic, as it had wonderful, spectacular, splendid, fragrant, tasty (I could go on...) ITALIAN food. aaaaaaand go!

Parma ham! Covered in...peppercorns?

Oh my geez, fresh pasta.

Spices. Wonderful spices. And biscotti. And wine.

So we just wandered around the fresh markets, grazing on samples all morning. And that is how you should eat when in Italy. We then continued our meandering ways:

One of three bridges in the world with shops on it. Where is another one, Mom?

On said bridge, over the Arno River.

One of three copies of The David. This was an outdoor statue gallery, and rainy! boo!

A particularly violent/awesome statue.

The guy is holding Medusa's head. I kinda like this picture, except its a bit dark.

Yes, people. This is a 5 kg TUB of Nutella. I demonstrated incredible will power by not swiping it and diving in. oooooooooo

Because of the crappy weather, we went back to the hostel and deposited our wares, and put rain coats on. Katie, Carly, and I decided we wanted to hike up to the Piazza de Michelangelo, as it was supposed to have great views of the city. So we did. And it did. (did that make sense?)

Steps leading up to Piazza de Michelangelo. They don't look steep in the picture, but trust me, they were.

Ah, the Tuscan countryside. Incidentally, that wall was once part of a big fortress that the Medicis lived in.

Firenze from above, including the Duomo.

And again.

The other copy of the The David. With a pigeon on his head? hehe

Around to the side of the Piazza, there was a small wooded area that was less populated. We wandered around there for a while and got some even better views of the country side.

Slightly creepy damp wooded area.

Gorgeous!!

More beautiful views.

Eventually we got tired of wandering, so we headed back down to the hostel, which was across the city.

Grotto thing on the way down.

Carly and I were exhausted after wandering/walking all day, so we decided to stay in the hostel and watch TV in our room. Katie and Cat, though, went for some more pasta in Florence. The next day, we got up late-ish and got a train to Pisa, which only took an hour or so.

We had quite a time finding our hostel which turned out to be another sketchy one. Oh, well. It was only one night.

Big cathedral on the Field of Miracles.

And there you have it. Carly and I decided that it was a big fat FAIL for Pisa though. They have this messed up tower and they charge unsuspecting tourists (not us, though) 15 euros to go up in the thing. Come on, people.

hehehehe. We had to.

Carly put her camera on the timed setting and got this super awesome picture. Very contemplative.

We discovered, to our horror, that there is positively nothing to do in Pisa but the see the Tower. So we sat on the Field of Miracles for most of the afternoon then ate food. I had my first experience with gnocchi (this is a fresh pasta made from potatoes). With gorgonzola cheese. Don't try that at home, kids. STRONG stuff. Made me a bit nauseous, and I have a pretty strong stomach. Oy.

Our flight left from Pisa the next morning to East Midlands airport. On the plane, I got stuck in front of an obnoxious, talkative, screaming child, my #1 travel annoyance. PARENTS: give your kids a HEFTY dose of Benadryl before flying or traveling. Really, for all our sakes.

East Midlands airport is near Nottingham and Derby, so we got a train there, but didn't manage to get back to Preston before 11PM. Stupid delays. Then, I showered, blogged the first part of the week and went to Scotland! Wow, that was fast!

Also, I have massively updated Flat Stanley's blog: www.flatstanleyinengland.blogspot.com. Check it out!

We have couch potatoes for sheep

2009-04-23T13:43:00.001+01:00

I'm not going in chronological order with the next couple of posts, so bear with me. Also, if you are not a sheep/livestock nerd, you are going to be bored and confused. Also, if you are easily grossed out, don't read the whole thing. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I left on the 6:44AM train to Edinburgh in order to make it to the SAC by 10:20AM. I got into Edinburgh at 9:30ish, but the bus system is so confusing for this hapless American that I BARELY made it to the Scottish Agriculture College by 10:30. Fortunately, they were running a little late, so I was fine. There were only 5 students (including me) on this tour of SAC sheep unit and research projects.

SAC has two farms where they conduct sheep research, Castlelaw (the one we went to) and Kirkton, in the north of Scotland. As you might have guessed, sheep production in Scotland and the UK is VASTLY different from how we do it in the US. They have an entirely different lingo! Fore example: Tups= rams, therefore tupping time= breeding season. And that is just the beginning! Hill sheep fascinate me, they do something called "hefting" on their particular spot in the hill. They way I understand it, it is kind of like imprinting on a certain geographical area. Weird.

Castlelaw Farm, currently owned by the Ministry of Defense (note the firing range in the bottom right hand corner) and it is a national park.

We mostly learned about the genetic research they're doing at SAC. (Also, EPD = EBV [Expected Breeding Values], took me a while to get that one). Apparently, there is a genetic link between foot rot and slaughter weight. Lighter weight lambs tend to have less foot rot, which is disappointing. But the trait is only low to moderately heritable. They're also looking at the genetic resistance to flukes and intestinal parasites, yay!

They next took us to the CT Scan lab. They use the CT Scanner on a variety of animals (including penguins and sharks, no lie!) to study all sorts of things, including meat production. One of the more interesting things they do with it is very precisely measure hip dimensions, to help avoid dystocia in ewes. Cool!

The CT Scanner.

We then went to the SAC meat lab where they showed us some technology that I was mostly already familiar with, Warner-Bratzler testing and sheer force testing, among other things. We then went to EGENES which is an organization that analyzes EPDs. Fun, right? Mostly dairy and beef EPDs.

After we finished up at SAC, I totally screwed up the bus system again and spent an hour and a half around Edinburgh on a bus. FAIL. I finally, finally found the right bus to get to Hawick, which is about 60 miles south of Edinburgh, but its a two hour ride. I (somehow) managed to get off on the right stop in Hawick and my ride was waiting there for me! Well, Gregor Hepburn, the youngest of the family came to pick me up. Mom had warned me that the Scottish people she had interacted with in Edinburgh were not talkative, and that I would probably have to do most of the talking. In other words, pretend to be an extrovert. LIES. Gregor talked my arm off on the 20 minute ride to Northhouse, their 1,567 acre farm just outside of Hawick. He told me about the Common Ride coming up, which is a festival based on when riders in the community would patrol the borders of their local farms preventing sheep thefts. At that point, I told him the totally lame-o (in comparison) story of the Night Riders in Hopkinsville. He said it sounded like a bunch of super heroes. hehe

We arrived at Northhouse and let me just tell you, it is BEAUTIFUL. Here are the pictures.

Rock fences and hedgerows abound. And a lot of sheep.

TURNIPS. They don't feed their lambing ewes grain-- this is what they get. And they eat it like candy!

They also have cattle, Shorthorns (in Scotland!) and Aberdeen Angus.

They don't build barns like this anymore.

It was getting close to dark, so we all went in and had dinner. Katherine, the mom and the person we're technically related to (and yes, her name is Katherine Hepburn, lol), is a blur of constant motion. The woman never stops. She wanted to make sure I ate as much Scottish food as possible, so I had oat cakes and cheese. Most disappointingly, she didn't have haggis in the freezer, but we had an excellent chicken casserole and they have tea about 5 times a day, which suits me just fine. I did not go hungry on this adventure, I assure you.

Ian (the dad) and Adam (the middle son) started opening a big stack of mail and informed me that they had just received their cattle passports they'd ordered. I must have had a confounded look on my face, so they explained that every cow born on the place (and in all of Europe) must be registered to a national central database within 27 days of birth. When/if they're sold, the 'passport' goes along with them. I explained that the US was moving towards a similar system with NAIS, but a lot of American farmers are in an uproar because its costing us money. In the UK, they still have to pay for tags, but the database is free. However, there has been talk of charging for the database, which would not make them happy. Right now, only some sheep have to be registered in the database, but they're moving towards ALL of them registered. Since the Hepburns own over 2,000 sheep I can see how that would be cost prohibitive. Wow.

The next day, I got up bright and early and wandered around outside for a while until they put me to work (which didn't take long, haha). I grabbed my camera and took pictures:

In the lambing shed, where they can lamb out over 150 ewes at a time. I counted. They lamb from January to April, with different breeds each month. I would die.

Hills and rock fences.

Ha, I couldn't resist the butt picture of the Texels. I would like the Texels if it didn't look like they ran headlong into a brick wall.

Sheep! Feasting on turnips.

A pheasant!

Northhouse.

A painting of the old house in Thurso, where the Coghills/Campbells came from or worked or something. I can't get it all straight.

That horse is Suzy, a Belgian Warmblood. I think she's Adam's. I helped him put the horses up the night before and she nearly took my arm off in the process. Clearly, horses can sense when you hate them. Adam and Gregor interrogated me about horses and racing. I could tell them about the Triple Crown, but I can't talk intelligently about much else.

In the lambing shed, where I spent a large part of the day. Those are the jugs, about 3 1/2 feet long and wide each.

Because they lamb out so many ewes, they have a person on watch all the time. On their busiest day, they had 30 ewes go. I must say, the mind reels. I got to help out that day, and I haven't lost my touch even though its been two years since I've pulled a lamb. The hired guy, Kevin, and I worked on one lamb for about 20 minutes, but its head was turned back. Katherine came in and tried; no luck. Then Ian came and pulled the lamb like it was nothing. I hate people like that. I thought sure the lamb wouldn't make it, as it had been in the birth canal for about 30 minutes, but my straw in the nose trick (which I don't think they'd ever used) worked and it was an enormous healthy ewe lamb. A jab (code word for shot) of penicillin for the ewe, iodine on the navel, and Orojet (Scottish NutriDrench) orally, and toss them in a jug, and we're set for the next of several ewes to lamb. Since that lamb was a single, they grafted a smaller triplet with no problem. They just rubbed afterbirth all over her and they ewe had no idea. They also skinned dead lambs and tied the skins on orphan lambs, so they were wearing slightly morbid shirts. And it all works like a charm!

Most lambs stay in the jugs for a few days and then they toss them into the hills. This is why we have couch potatoes for sheep at home: we baby them and feed them grain and give them constant antibiotics and generally hover over them. I guess the difference is that we aren't *trying* to make a living out of it, its just a hobby for us. That afternoon, we got on the bikes (code word for 4-wheelers, haha) and went out to work in the hills. I even got to drive one, but I totally spazzed and forgot how to start it (HEY, I'm mechanically challenged, okay?). I'm sure they got a good chuckle out of that one.

You can just make out their circular stone working pen there in the middle. COOL!

The bike out in the hills.

I'm not sure who or what we were sorting/hauling, but I don't think I was much help because I didn't know what was going on. They have a bunch of excellently trained Border Collies that do most of the work. I just drove around and pretended to help while I got pictures on the sly. haha

We went back to the lambing shed for a while, where Katherine asked me if I could tube a lamb. Once again, I haven't done it in two years, but I managed not to kill the lamb (WIN!). They had a calf that was badly dehydrated and they vet came by and gave it a glucose IV. They later tried to milk the cow and tube it, but the calf didn't make it, sadly.

After that long day, we went back and had lamb chops for dinner. Home grown ones! And they have this lambing tradition of making a very strange strawberry mousse thing. I suppose it is like us making doughnuts on the first snow day of the school year. We talked about Gregor's plans for the upcoming year. He will turn 18 in November and its already been accepted at (are you ready?) the University of Edinburgh Vet School. That's because Britain's education system is a lot different than ours. Their high school is 6 years long and you get to choose what you study. So he'll be a vet 4 years before anyone else his age in the US will be. Bizarre.

That night, I showed them pictures of the goats. They were impressed, even though the only goats they have had contact with are WAY WAY back in the hills and are consequently feral. They were also impressed that I can kill, skin, and process a sheep or goat with just a knife. Who says those meat science skills won't come in handy?

And I couldn't get a picture of the whole family because, basically, they wouldn't stay still long enough for that. Last summer, they hosted Scotsheep 2008, which is basically a huge festival/convention/meeting for the Scottish sheep industry. They had over 3500 people traipsing around their farm for tours and convention stuff, which must have been an enormous headache. I did find this picture on the internet of Ian and Katherine.

Ian, Katherine, and the Scotsheep chairman (don't know him...).

I had to leave the next day, as I've got a paper and a take home history exam to do. Not cool. I could definitely live there, just working sheep all day in the Scottish borders. I might yet.

I went back to Edinburgh, as I had a small Harry Potter pilgrimage to complete. I went to the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter on napkins when she was poor and couldn't afford paper (I think she can afford plenty now, needless to say). It was way overpriced and the tea wasn't that great (I know these things, as I've had LOTS of tea over here), but I did break down and get a mug. I made it back to Preston around 6PM, but I already miss being with the sheep in Hawick. And the very friendly Hepburns.

Plus, who knew that I'd get lamb slime all over me while on my study abroad semester in Europe.

Senatus Populusque Romanus (Italy, Part 1: Roma)

2009-04-19T16:48:00.001+01:00

Whew, I got back really late last night from a whirlwind week in Italy. It was great! The weather wasn't the best, but we still had fun and saw some amazing stuff and ate gooooooood food. I took about 500 pictures and Carly took around 800 and then we traded pictures this morning, so I am not short of photographic evidence of the trip.

I got Mom and Mary off fine at the train station, Manchester bound. I then ran back to my flat, finished packing and met Carly out in front of Whitendale. Katie (from TN, but she goes to Bellarmine) and her friend Cat (from TX, but goes to University of Memphis. She is studying in Glasgow this semester. She doesn't care about basketball, which could have made for a miserable week if she had!) joined us shortly. Our flight was from Liverpool at 6:30AM. There weren't any early trains to Liverpool, so we got the latest possible train there and just hung out at the airport that night. It wasn't as bad as Dublin, as I actually got some sleep. Our flight went fine, we arrived at Roma Ciampino airport around 10:30 local time (they're an hour ahead of GMT). We took a bus from the airport to Termini Station, which is about a 10 minute walk from our hostel.

Carly is on top of all things travel, which makes it really easy for me to travel with her, because I really don't have to do much. She had directions from Termini to the hostel and knew the weather for the week, etc. Our hostel was actually one of the crappiest I've stayed at so far, but the location was good and it had a bed and a means of cleaning yourself (not exactly a working shower though, lol). We dumped our stuff at the hostel, then set out in search of food. We were starving, as airport food doesn't get the job done well. We found this neat little place close to the hostel. We took pictures of our food:

Our cute restuarant. Clockwise from left: Carly, Cat, and Katie.

My massive pizza magherita (just sauce and cheese and oh so good!). Katie had 4 cheese and Carly had gnocchi. More on gnocchi later.

But we laid waste to every bite. yum.

Our main destination that day (Monday) was the Coliseum. Its one of those cultural icons you see on TV or in books, but nothing prepares you for seeing the real thing. This was kind of the tone for all of Rome, seriously. We went inside the Coliseum, and our tour included a walking tour of the Palatine Hills and the Roman Forum (which were, incidentally more interesting than the Coliseum itself). Here are the pictures!

Carly and me in front of the Coliseum. We look very European with our scarves, haha.

Its really old. And cool. I'm still at a loss for words, evidently.

The inside! There is a series of passages that housed lions and tigers and the like for gladiator fights. At one time, there was a giant stage covered in sand that was the floor. But it is long gone.

Carly and I took a ton more pictures from the Coliseum, but they're mostly superfluous and don't begin to do the place justice. So I'll continue on with the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum.

On top of the Palatine Hill, with a neat view of the Coliseum (on the left). This was where Rome was actually founded and the rumored location of the Lupercal, where the she-wolf raised Romulus and Remus. It used to be a big palace complex, covered in marble and beautiful structures, but in the Middle Ages the Catholic Church stole/took/recycled the columns and other marble structures for their own use and built a big church nearby. We call it St. Peter's Basilica.

This was one of the gladiator fighting arenas, where a lot of the marble once was.

The Roman Forum! This was the economic and political center for one of the world's largest, most powerful empires. We were able to walk down there among all the ruins.

WOW!!!

We continued to stroll through the Forum. It is still so strange to be able to walk through all these centuries, MILLENIA, of history. One of our missions for the week was to eat gelato every single day. Mission accomplished. Gelato is like ice cream, only better. It is a little softer and just generally more awesome. The first day, I had nutella flavored. Holy cow, it was goooooooood.

We went to the Trevi Fountain next. It is an enormous, gorgeous Baroque fountain.

And lots of people. Rome has lots of people.

Legend says that if you throw a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder, you are ensured a return to Rome. We did it, so I'll be going back to Rome sometime. Excellent!

So, we had a full day. We were tired. So we went back to the hostel.

I snapped this picture in the middle of Via Nazionale.

After a rather pathetic shower, we went to bed, and we all got up and left around 8AM. Destination: Vatican City and St. Peters. We went to Termini Station and got a one way metro ticket to Vatican City. We decided that Rome is not very big, area wise (at least, not NEARLY as big as London), so it was feasible to get the metro to the other end of the city and meander back for the rest of the day, which is what we did. We got to just outside St. Peter's and there were hawkers selling tours, which were mostly ripoffs. Because this was not Carly and mine's big trip, we decided to skip the 40 euro tour into the Sistine Chapel and just do the free stuff, which was a wise decision, we feel. However, this was Cat and Katie's big trip for the semester, so they decided to do it. They felt it was worth it. This was the first time the Vatican and St. Peter's had been open in two weeks (for Easter) so the place was SWAMPED with tourists. The lines were extraordinarily long, but they went surprisingly fast.

This was our breakfast, for only a euro and a half. Cornetto (crossiant) and the strongest cappuccino I've ever had in my life. Seriously, the stuff had enough caffiene to keep me awake for 24 hrs.

The first glimpse of St. Peter's Square, which is more of an oval.

Colonade in St. Peter's Square/Oval.

I was super excited that we were allowed to take pictures INSIDE St. Peter's Basilica. There aren't any words to describe the beauty and majesty of this place. It hasn't over taken the cathedral in Cordoba, Spain as my favorite cathedral, but it was close. I think it might be tied with Westminster Abbey, just because I know more of the people buried in Westminster and more of the history. St. Peter's had a bunch of dead popes, more than anything. But it was still overwhelming.

The Swiss Guard and their awesome outfits. I would have a hard time taking these guys seriously.

Still recovering from Easter services.

....And the ceiling. Dude.

A lot of people. That's the altar in the back.

This is La Pieta- sculpted by Michelangleo (not the Ninja Turtle). We couldn't get very close to it. And the quality stinks.

More ceiling.

If you click on the picture, you can see the larger version. Find all the itty bitty people around the dome for scale. Eeep.

The catacombs beneath our feet, home to a bunch of dead popes and important people.

The tomb of St. Peter. Yes, THE St. Peter. Jesus' disciple St. Peter. Yeah, that one.

Carly and I combined probably took over 150 pictures in St. Peter's and there is no way I could get them all up here in a timely fashion. I keep saying this about some of the places I've visited, but I could have spent all day in there. Except there was a lot more to see in Rome!

The Castel Sant' Angelo. If you've read Angels & Demons you know what this is. (There is supposedly a secret passage from the Vatican to here. I love conspiracy theories, lol).

Cat and Katie were still on their overpriced tour, so Carly and I wandered around for a little while longer. We next went to the Piazza del Popolo.

Piazza del Popolo from the top of the Pincio. The dome in the back is St. Peter's. The obelisk is covered in heiroglyphs and originated in Egypt.

Great view of St. Peter's from Piazza del Popolo.

There was a park right behind the Pincino (I can't remember the name of it), that our map said that Mussolini and Ghandi both liked to stroll around. I'm not sure how the two are connected, but we strolled around it and enjoyed a little slower pace. We then went to the Piazza de Spagna (Spanish Steps), where we met back up with Cat and Katie.

More PEOPLE. Cool steps, though.

The Trevi Fountain is right by the Piazza de Spagna, so we went back there and had gelato. There are no words to describe this batch. I had the tiramisu flavor that night and it was AMAZING. It was a good moment, eating gelato on a sunny day in Rome by the Trevi Fountain.

Next, we went to the Pantheon, which was wicked cool. It was an ancient temple to the Roman gods, but (naturally) converted to a Catholic church. The inside is cooler, and was free!

The famous oculus/devil's hole inside the Pantheon. What do they do when it rains?

Right behind the Pantheon was the Piazza Novano, which had Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers.

Piazza Novano also had a neat market with paintings and prints.

We trekked back to the hostel after this, because we were gross and tired. We took showers, rested, and went back to the Coliseum after dark. Mainly because we had forgotten Flat Stanley the first day. But it was pretty at night, too!

Beautiful!

Yup.

That wraps up our two days in Rome. Wednesday, we got a mid-morning train from Roma to Firenze. The rest of the week will require another post, which will be posted during the middle of the week, because I'm off again! I know, I know. But I'm going to the Scottish Agricultural College tomorrow on a research tour of their sheep unit, then I'm going to visit some relatives in Hawick, south of Edinburgh for a few days. We're so distantly related though, that it really doesn't count any more. But they live on a big sheep farm in the Borders of Scotland and England, so I get my farm fix for a while before I come back to UCLan and finish up papers and assessments. Yay.

This week!

2009-04-12T17:48:00.000+01:00

ITALY! Two days in Rome, two days in Florence, and one day in Pisa. Then I'm back in Preston next Sunday, then I'm going to Edinburgh to visit the Scottish Agriculture College. Hopefully, I'll sleep sometime in there. :o)

Give my best to Phil and Liz...

2009-04-06T22:30:00.001+01:00

Mom, Mary and I had a wonderful weekend! They were a little concerned about missing their flight to Manchester, because of rainy/stormy weather in Nashville, but both of them made it perfectly fine. I met them at the airport and we all got on the train to Bath. I had to teach them about switching trains and tickets and such, but they caught on quick-- I hope they made it to London okay this morning. Mom got excited every time we saw sheep out the window, which was a lot, heehee. We actually counted that we had been to Wales, as we switched trains in Newport South Wales. :o]

P.S. I'll try to go easy on the Jane Austen references, as I recognize that not everyone has read the books. In which case, stop reading this blog and go to your nearest bookstore/library and READ THEM. But still, JA lived in Bath for six years, so I went a little nuts.

We got to Bath fine, and got to our B&B fine. Its a nice change to stay at a B&B, where you get your own room and they make a hot breakfast for you. Ah, but I like hostels as well. After we dumped our stuff in the room, we walked a little around Bath. It was about 2PM at this point (I think), which wasn't enough time to visit the Roman Baths or anything, so we just walked around. Bath is one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture, and we got to see the full extent of it.

This is the Pump Room, home of a very posh restaurant.

Ah, the Circus. There's a roundabout in the middle, and all of the building are in a huge circle. BEAUTIFUL.

See? Gorgeous.

More of the Circus.

The Royal Crescent. Again, beautiful.

The rather upscale Crescent Hotel, with excellent gardens in the back.

See? They even let us commoners in the back to their marvelous landscaping. The weather was perfect for the weekend, by the way. I ordered it especially.

In front of the Royal Cresent. William Wilberforce was at 2 Royal Crescent to woo Barbara Spooner! Who knew? [that's from Amazing Grace, and based on a true story].

Walking along the River Avon in Bath.

Bath rugby pitch.

I think these are the Royal Victoria Gardens. Pretty, nonetheless.

Steve, the guy that ran our B&B, recommended a place called the Moon and Six Pence for dinner. So there we went. Food was goooooooood. And quite upscale. Mom had lamb, it was even better than Dr. Ely's lamb! And I had buffalo mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto, which was really goooooood. And they gave us these little tiny cups of essence of mushroom with truffle cream. I should have gagged, but it was actually quite tasty. After dinner, we made our way back to the B&B, and caught some great views of the Bath Abbey.

It's a little fuzzy. Sorry.

All lit up!

Mom and Mary had to catch up with their jetlag, so we crashed when we got back to the B&B (both of them snore, in case you were wondering). I am still struggling through a book that have to read for my lit class (The Mill on the Floss. Awful book.), so that's what I tried to do for the rest of the evening. If anyone has any insight, send it my way, ASAP.

The next morning we got out before breakfast started at the B&B and walked around some more. Bath is chock full of tiny little cute shops, so we window shopped for a while and then when back for breakfast. We were treated to a 'full English' breakfast which includes eggs, bacon (code word for ham, actually), link sausage, toast, and occasionally beans. Mmmmmm.

We then went to the Roman Baths, the main attraction in Bath (hence the name). Bath was a very active Roman town, complete with a temple and government centers. The Roman Baths have a lot of neat artifacts and history, AND we were allowed to take pictures. Awesome!

Inside, where we bought our tickets. Pretty ceiling.

The largest public bath. The water is green because of the sunlight reflecting on the minerals, bacteria, and algae. mmmmm

Roman guys keeping watch out on the terrace.

You can see the Abbey from the terrace of the baths! Sweet!

Scale model of what Bath probably looked like in Roman times.

This is the back of a MOST impressive hair do popular among Roman women of the time. They coveted abudantly thick, curly hair and frequently imported dark hair from Italy and blonde hair from Germany. Here is a better picture. More on the hair in a bit.

Sea monster mosaics.

The main Roman bath at ground level. Most of the exhibits were underground in a labyrinth kinda thing.

The frigidarium. I bet you can guess the temperature of the water....

Bath was originally discovered because pigs were found to be wallowing in the warm mud around the area. This was because of the hot mineral springs, and it also explains why there were so many pig statues around Bath. Hee.

Next, we RAN to the Jane Austen Centre to catch the walking tour, only to discover it started from the tourist centre, next to the Roman Baths. So we RAN back there, and just barely made it. I offered to let Mom and Mary stay at the Roman Baths, as I knew they hadn't read much JA, but they suffered through it, completely oblivious to all the sights the guide was taking us to.

Anyway, it was fantastic, and now I have to go reread/rewatch all of the JA stuff. For those sad souls who don't know, all six of JA's books mention Bath at some point and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey take place there. Here's a clip from the 2007 BBC version of Persuasion. *drool*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Sm85x7CI0&feature=related

The guide took us to all those places! Fabulous. Here are some pictures:

A better view of the Royal Crescent.

The gravel walk near the Royal Crescent, where Anne Eliot and Capt. Wentworth walked.... :o]

The Assembly Rooms! Many marriage deals went down here.

Grand Ballroom, complete with dancers. haha

Another room. Someone got married in there! *sigh*

We browsed around the gift shop in the JA Centre for a while (I got some souvenirs, no one is surprised...). We then went to the Bath Abbey. It has a pretty cool ceiling, if nothing else really happened there.

Bath Abbey.

Stained glass.

Next, we went to a tea shop on the Abbey Green and had high tea. Oh yes we did. It was quite tasty. Halfway through, we realized we had TOTALLY forgotten about Flat Stanley. So we dashed back to the Roman Baths to get some pictures. Mom somehow talked our way back in (they don't let people come back in once they've left) and we ran around and took pictures. The best part was when we got some of the Roman actors to hold FS for the picture. It was a Roman noblewoman and her servant. They asked if my hair was real and if I'd ever considered selling it for a wig. hahaha Mom took all the pictures of FS, so she'll have to email them to me so I can get them posted.

We then went to the Pump Room for our free spa water, which was included in our admission to the Roman Baths. It is supposed to cure your ills and be good for gout, etc. They pump it right from the big bath (hopefully they filter it a little), and really, its just like warm hard tap water. Urgh. Mom and Mary both finished theirs, but I didn't quite make it.

Mom looking like a tourist with her Nikon and spa water. lol

Mary wisely wore a pedometer the whole time and we discovered exactly how much we walked that day-- 14,000 steps, which is roughly equivalent to 7 miles. SHEESH. And I didn't even consider that a long day. The Friday of my London trip I must've walked 10 miles....

We headed back to the B&B and rested. Mary wanted to do another walking tour that Rick Steves' book recommended called "Bizarre Bath." Mom and I weren't particularly interested, so we stayed in the room and watched TV, while I *tried* to read my book. I was unsuccessful, FYI. Mary got back from the tour late-ish, but she had a good time. It didn't have any history or culture, but it was supposed to be a comedy tour. :o]

We slept pretty hard that night. We got up to have breakfast and we met this really neat woman who is the Education Abroad director at a small college in Richmond, Virginia. She had been visiting colleges that her school partners with in Spain and England. She was headed to London to do some sightseeing and then back to the US. We actually ended up on the same train that morning. She was pretty cool!

Our train left for Windsor at 10AM, and we had to change twice. But we got to Windsor about 12:30PM. We arrived at the Windsor Central Station, and BAM! the Castle is RIGHT THERE. Haha, love it when that happens. We had all our luggage with us, so we hiked to the next B&B (after a slight detour). We then headed back to the castle in all its glory. Fortunately, the Queen wasn't in this weekend, so the State Apartments were open for visitors. w00t! Naturally, we couldn't take pictures inside. But suffice it to say, it is everything that you see on TV and much, much more.

Outside, of course, we were free to photograph away.

The world's oldest, working castle.

Another proof-I-was-there pictures. In front of the Keep.

Gardens on the moat that never actually had water in it. Go figure.

St. George's Chapel.

THIS is what a castle is supposed to look like. Not some phony reproduction in Versailles. Kentucky, I mean!

More St. George's Chapel.

Courtyard near the State Apartments.

Mom and Mary at Windsor Castle.

Aaaaaaaaand, because we could. Excellent.

All in all, Windsor Castle is pretty fantastic. Appropriately castle-y, generally awesome. Possibly my favorite room was St. George's Hall where all the fancy banquets take place. It has the crests of all the monarchs and the folks who were given the Royal Order of the Garter (aka, knighthood). It is probably not a coincidence that QEII gave Prince William the 1000th Order of the Garter. haha

Across the River Thames from Windsor is the small town of Eton, home to the famous boys college (here, college is for 13-18 year olds. University is the US equivalent of college). After touring the castle, we walked around Eton and saw some of the buildings there. We figured it was Easter Holiday for the students though, as the town was fairly deserted.

Eton Chapel.

The school library. Nice.

After that, it was about time to get my train back to Preston. We went back to the B&B, got my stuff and went to the other train station in town, Windsor & Eton Riverside. I gave Mom and Mary explicit instructions on which trains to catch when, so I hope they got to London okay this morning (I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm assuming they did). I, obviously, got back to Preston fine, sleeping most of the time on the train.

Friday, I'm meeting Mom and Mary in York, where we will celebrate Easter at the Minster (YAY!), and then they'll come back here to see lovely Preston. Afterwards, they'll go back to Manchester and get their flight for Monday morning.

Monday, I'm starting my grand European tour, as classes end this week. I'm spending a week somewhere wonderful, but I'm not telling where just yet. I'll leave you in suspense, teehee.

In related news....

2009-04-01T17:27:00.001+01:00

Sorry that last post took me forever to get up. I had a perfect storm of papers, exams, and jetlag hindering me.

But Mom and her friend Mary are coming to visit this week. They'll be getting here Friday. They have quite an ambitious schedule to keep up. I'm going to Bath and Windsor with them this weekend. Then they're doing London and Edinburgh during the week, and then we're all going to York next weekend for Easter services. YAY!!!!!!

Also, Flat Stanley went on a two-week sojourn through central and western Europe with Carly and Ted (both from sunny California): Hungary, Austria, and Belgium. They sent me some pictures, and I updated Flat Stanley's blog here. Enjoy!!

One more thing. I realize that I have fallen off the postcard wagon pretty hard. Sorry about that.

Éireann

2009-04-01T16:55:00.000+01:00

Holy cow, it was a long weekend. But as it is kind of considered a rite of passage in the Riley family, I was a little obligated to see Ireland and enjoy it. Don't worry, I did! It's a beautiful country. So I flew from Manchester to Dublin, a flight that took all of 1 hour. I got to my hostel via bus, and had the rest of the morning and afternoon to start to explore Dublin.

First, I went to Trinity College, which has a GORGEOUS campus, is home to the Book of Kells, and boasts many famous alums (Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, etc.).

Green!

Trinity College. Beautiful campus!

More Trinity College.

Keep off the lawns! Also in gobbledegook, aka Celtic. The grass really was that shade of green.

Next, I went to one of Dublin's many parks, Merrion Square. Dublin is a very walkable city (in my view, but I think I have a higher walking tolerance than most), there isn't an outstanding bus, underground, or train system to speak of. So, getting from one end of the city to the other isn't hard, nor does it take much time. There was a statue of Oscar Wilde there, and I must say, it was pretty fantastic.

This statue of Oscar Wilde had more personality than a lot of people I know. If you don't know much about Mr. Wilde, Wikipedia him. He was...interesting.

Almost all green!

Next, I headed towards (guess what?) St. Patrick's Cathedral. Another interesting building, but it wasn't very well kept as far as cathedrals go (at least of the big ones I've been to), especially since they charge four and a half euros in admission. Still, it had a lot of cool stuff.

St. Patrick's.

I love how vague this sign is. haha

Inside.

Cool floor.

One of the oldest known copies of Handel's Messiah. Its opened to the Hallelujah chorus. The Messiah was first performed at St. Patrick's back in the day.

Stained glass.

Ancient Celtic burial slab, you can just make out the cross.

I went back to the hostel after St. Patricks. We're reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles (one of my favorites) in my lit class, so I did that for the rest of the evening, in addition to listening to the random, strange live music in the lobby of the hostel.

Friday, I booked a day tour of Newgrange for Saturday, which came recommended from Uncle Clark. And it did not disappoint! Newgrange (all one word) is in the Boyne Valley (Brú na Bóinne, in Celtic), about 50 km outside Dublin city centre. Anyway, the first people that settled in Ireland were farmers that most likely worshipped the sun. They're not positive, because they prehistoric and hadn't invented writing yet. In the Boyne Valley, there are several ancient passage tombs, referred to as such because there is a short passage ending in a (or several) tombs. Newgrange has 3. It's huge, awesome, and astoundingly old-- built about 500 years before the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Here are some pictures!

View from the entrance.

The wheel wasn't even invented at this point. I must say, the mind reels.

Can you see the megalithic artwork on the rock? No one is certain quite what the symbols mean. There are three rocks around the base that have these carvings. The main, famous one is at the entrance.

The hole on top of the entrance is called the "roofbox." For two or three days around the Winter Solstice (December 21) the sun shines directly into the passage tomb, illuminating it. They have an annual lottery to see who gets to go inside and see it. Sweet!

The Boyne Valley. There hundreds of tombs in the Boyne Valley, but the other two large ones are Knowth and Douth.

This was in the Visitor's Centre. We had to cross that river (I forget what its called...) to get to Newgrange.

So we got back to Dublin around 2PM, which gave me enough time to do some more exploring. I went to the Guinness Storehouse next. I didn't go in, because a) beer is gross b) it was a ripoff and c) beer is gross. Yup. But it smelled DELIGHTFUL around the storehouse. Yeasty and fermenty and malty. Mmmm.

Where they make the black stuff.

Mmmm, malty goodness.

I did some more strolling around Dublin for the rest of the afternoon.

Dublin's Millenium Bridge. Not *quite* the same as London's.

Bizarro building.

Potato famine memorial. That's not depressing AT ALL.

There was more live music in the hostel that night. So I read more of Tess, listened to the music, and went to bed. I lead such a glamorous life.

My flight left at 1:00PM Sunday afternoon, so I had more of the morning to walk around.

7 Eccles Street. It is apparently in Ulysses by James Joyce. I haven't read it yet, but its on my short (long) list of books to read.

Truly international cuisine spotted in Dublin, Ireland.

Neat church on a corner in Dublin.

So. I got the bus to the airport without incident. I checked my flight on the departures board. My stomach plummeted. My flight was on 1PM Saturday. I missed my flight, by 24 hours. So I frantically went to the ticket sales desk and asked what I should do. To get on the 1PM Sunday flight, it would cost 242 euros. Er, nope. She suggested I get online and get a cheaper flight off ryanair.com for the next day. So that's what I ended up doing, I got a flight for 6:30 AM on Monday. I would have gone back into the city, but I was fresh out of cash and I hate using my debit card over here (but don't worry, I had food with me!). So, I stayed in the Dublin airport for 16 hours. I have done a VERY close reading of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and I even met a girl from Pennsylvania who shows sheep and hogs. Small world.

There was actually a surprising amount of people who stayed in the airport that night. We slept in uncomfortable restaurant chairs, on the floor, etc. We were quite creative. The best sleep I got though, was on the airplane. I was ZONKED. So, that is my tale of adventure in the homeland, Ireland.

This weekend is...

2009-03-26T14:02:00.000Z

Eiré. The homeland. IRELAND.

After an idiotic mixup with my flight details, I'll be in Dublin Friday through Sunday. Saturday I'm hoping to take a daytrip out in the countryside a bit, probably to Newgrange and Boyne County. I should have a post up Sunday afternoon, GMT. For family members that have been to Dublin and the surrounding area, I'm open to suggestions, but get 'em in quick-- I'm leaving in the morning!!

A hiking we will go

2009-03-21T21:47:00.090Z

Whew-we did we have an adventure this weekend.

We got up exceptionally early to leave for Nottingham. A nice train ride down there (though we had to change twice), we arrived. Google maps gave us horrendous directions to the hostel, so we ended up getting turned around (a theme for the weekend). We found the tourism office and got proper directions and found the hostel. It was pretty nice, very cheap, overall, a pretty good hostel. I'm becoming a hostel officianado!

Anyway, we walked toward the city centre first, as we noticed a giant ferris wheel on the way in. It was right in the middle of the city centre square, which happened to be hosting a regional farmer's market (of sorts). I get unreasonably excited about locally grown and produced food, so you'll just have to bear with me and endure the pictures. :o]

Some of the stalls at the regional farmer's market

Pedigree Longhorns, yeah!

Local game....care for some squirrel?

Or GOAT? No idea they had goats in Britian, lol.

Anyway, we decided to be tourists and do the ferris wheel thing. This was actually good, because we got to see all the places we wanted to visit from WAY up high.

The ferris wheel.

After the ferris wheel, we set off in search of Nottingham Castle. The former home of the Sheriff (Alan Rickman). Actually, there IS a Sheriff of Nottingham these days, but the position is entirely honorary. He doesn't actually hunt outlaws. Boo. Anyway, the Castle was pretty cool. The inside was actually contained an art museum, so it wasn't particularly historic, but it was cool nonetheless.

Robin Hood!

Nice grounds at the Castle of Nottingham.

Springtime!!

Entrance to the Art Museum part of the castle.

Side of the Castle.

Next, we went to the city of caves, which is located, bizarrely, on the first level of the shopping center in Nottingham. Nottingham has an extensive cave system, handy for outlaws and all sorts of interesting people. In medieval times, it was used as an underground tannery. We got the ins and outs of all that went on (and in) while tanning hides back in 1400s. Not pretty, needless to say. In the 1940s, it was used as a giant air-raid shelter, which makes perfect sense. At full capacity, it could hold up to 30,000 people. After that, it was used as storage for local breweries. And after THAT, it was mostly filled in for the egregious shopping center.

Mockup of the air raid shelter.

Just a stray bomb in the caves. Don't worry, it not real. I think.

From the ferris wheel, we could see a large windmill in the opposite direction of the castle, so we headed that way. We got there (eventually) and walked around a little. It is actually a working wheat mill, and produces award winning organic flour. Also a science center attached too it. The former owner was a mathematician and discovered a theorem of some kind. We went all the way to the top, and I got two bags of the flour (not sure what I'm going to do with it yet...), which subsequently added about 6 pounds to my backpack.

Green's Mill from the road.

The Mill again.

It was getting dark at this point, so we headed back towards the city and the hostel. We grabbed some food, and then hung out in the lobby. We watched comedians on one girl's computer, we laughed the entire time. I introduced everyone to Eddie Izzard (You! Cake or death? Erm, I'll have the cake, please. Oh, all right then...) and I discovered the greatness that is John Pinnette (There was this one guy with us, Timmy. He was too skinny. Half way through the meal, he DIED.). Look both of them up on youtube if you've got time, they're great. And we all loved Dane Cook, who is world renown, apparently. After that, we crashed.

This morning, we got to the train station at 7:45 and headed north(ish) toward the little town of Edale, in Derbyshire. Derbyshire is home of the Peak District, which does not actually refer to the "peaks;" it refers to the ancient Pict tribe (Druids, I think?) that lived there way back when. Edale is the start of the Pennine Way, basically the British version of the Appalachian Trail. It's really long. While on the train, we noticed a lot of hard-core hikers (with hiking poles, etc), which made us wonder what we were getting ourselves into.

Don't let that blue sky fool you.

Anyway, we got of the train and headed towards the visitor's center (even a tiny town like Edale has a visitor's center). We found a guidebook that had a list of walks that were between 2 and 10 miles. We were slightly ambitious and decided to pursue a 6 mile hike. We did, after all, have all day. We did complete the hike, which we have to say, was VERY poorly marked. This caused us to backtrack quite a bit, adding about 3/4 mile to our journey. The big downer of the day, though, was the clouds and fog. We got on top of these huge hills/rises/what have you and couldn't see a thing. So my pictures aren't the greatest, but you'll probably get the idea.

The directions had us traipsing through sheep and cattle fields. This house is where I'm going to live in at some point. Just FYI.

Now that fog is more like what we saw all day.

We had to climb an assortment of fences.

After one hell of a climb, we arrived at the top. But we were not finished! The hike we chose took us across a series of moors, all of which ultimately led us to Mam Tor, a former bronze age settlement.

A heather covered moor. And a stray glove? Yeah, it was cold.

That's Mam Tor in the back. We still had a while to go at this point. We walked along the ridge line.

On top of Mam Tor. This is looking back on where we'd been already.

Finally made it to the top of Mam Tor. Please note the wind.

The path to Hollin's Cross. We crossed over at the lowest point on the ridge and descended into the Edale Valley, back to civilization.

Ooooooooh.

A decent picture of the Edale Valley, before we left the ridge.

Hi, sheep! There were a bunch nearly at the top of the moors. They're borderline feral sheep.

A bunch of lazy cows. We walked through their field.

Sheep! We walked through their field too.

Rock fences everywhere.

Families, dogs, and muddy boots welcome. Excellent.

In summary, we made it. And we're very sore.

Traveling again!

2009-03-19T19:28:00.003Z

This time, Katie and I are off in search of men in tights. Yes, people, we're going to Nottingham staying there Friday night, and then going through Derbyshire. We'll spend most of the day in Edale, a little town in the Peak District in Derbyshire.

London, Part 2

2009-03-18T09:07:00.001Z

So my CERES sister, Jen and I agreed to meet at her hostel around noon on Saturday. So I had the morning to myself, and decided to go to Greenwich to see the Royal Observatory. I had to switch trains and undergrounds a million times to get there, but I eventually got there. We went through Canary Wharf (lots of big, tall buildings) to get there.

This was on the train to get there. Future Olympic stadium!

I had to walk through the University of Greenwich to get the Observatory. Beautiful campus!

Royal Naval Museum.

Whoa. Cool picture.

The Observatory itself. Looooooong, steep walk to get up there.

But I crossed the Prime Meridian for the second time! The first was in Spain.

So I went back into London proper towards Jen's hostel which was right by Kensington Gardens. It was in a nice, residential area, but the hostel was TINY, so I liked mine better. When I got there, they hadn't shown up yet, so I told the guy at reception that I'd be back around 2:30. So I went into Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. London is chock full of gardens of all shapes and sizes, it appears. Beautiful!

Italian Gardens near the Pumphouse in Kensington Gardens.

Statues by the lake they call "The Serpentine."

Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.

Perfect day for flying kites!

Rather imposing walkway leading up to the Orangery.

Kensington Palace and the raised garden. Queen Victoria (before she was queen) and Princess Diana lived here. Dunno who lives here now.

At that point, I went back to Jen's hostel and thankfully, they had arrived. I met Jen's sister Audrey, who is studying English in Swansea, Wales and Jen's friend Tessa, who lives in Maryland. They wanted to go to the British Museum again, which I had no problem with because there was a lot I hadn't seen yet.

Mummies!!

I had only one request (okay, demand) of them while they were with me. They had to take my picture at King's Cross Station. We took the tube there, and my life is now almost complete as a result.

King's Cross Station.

There it is.

Yup.

We headed in the direction of my hostel and found a little cafe nearby. We parted ways, and once again, I crashed in my hostel, though I wasn't as tired as the night before.

My coach left at 1:30PM the next day (Sunday), but they told me to get there an hour early, so I basically had the morning to finish up sightseeing. I wanted to get to Abbey Road, and it actually was only one tube stop away from my hostel. Cue the Beatles' music.

Abbey Road.

For real!

The Abbey Road Studios.

Next stop: Notting Hill and Portobello Road. (Cue "Bedknobs and Broomsticks.")

Final stop: Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park.

The Royal Albert Exhibition Hall.

Kind of a hideous memorial to Prince Albert.

That building there? That's where I'm going to live, overlooking Hyde Park.

So I got back to the coach station, got on the bus and got back to Preston. There is still a lot of stuff I didn't get to see. I really want to go back sometime. London is a fantastic city.

London, Part 1

2009-03-17T16:05:00.001Z

This is going to take a while, and multiple posts, so brace yourselves!

My bus left Preston at 6:50AM GMT, Thursday morning. I had no trouble getting there, and the ride was fairly uneventful, but loooong. I slept through Derbyshire, but we stopped in Birmingham and Coventry, and finally arrived (7 hours later) at Victoria Coach Station at 1:50PM. I knew that Victoria coach, train, and tube stations were all in the same general vicinity (how convenient!), so I went to the train station first, to get Mom and Mary's tickets for their visit in a few weeks. It took me about half an hour to get all that straight, but I think I got everything right.

Then I headed down to the tube station. I love the tube. Several friends recommended that I get a tube pass rather than an Oyster Card (it's pay-as-you-go). I used the pass enough that it was totally worth it. Everyone knows that I am not so great with directions and maps, etc, but the underground system in London is easy enough for me to understand, and I'm a pro now. It also helps if you map out exactly where you need to go, what stops, and how to get to your hostel from the stop. Glad I did that. I got to my hostel fine, which was really easy to find. I stayed at Palmer's Lodge, and will definitely stay there again, if/when I go back to London. By the time I got checked in and found my bed, it was 3:30, and not really enough time left to do significant sightseeing. So I decided to go to the British Museum for the rest of afternoon. AMAZING. And--the best part-- ITS FREE.

Rear entrance to the British Museum.

Famous lions outside the British Museum.

There is a ton (literally, I'm sure) of stuff to see there, stuff you see on National Geographic, the History Channel, and in documentaries. Indiana Jones stuff. Mummies, Easter Island statues, statues from the Parthenon (in Greece, NOT Nashville, haha), Roman currency, and the Rosetta Stone. Yes, the actual Rosetta Stone, not the one in Memphis, either. This is one of the best museums in the world, no exaggeration. I could have quite easily spent all day in there.

Easter Island guy.

Room of Enlightenment.

Famous ceiling of the British Museum.

Whoa.

The real deal.

They used to be on the Parthenon in Greece.

The front entrance.

So I went back to the hostel because it was getting dark. More people showed up in my room (14 beds), and I met a few of them. There was one crazy girl from Zimbabwe, who is really into American politics (she watched the inauguration in Zimbabwe!). There were two American girls who were studying in France for the semester, one from Texas and the other from Wisconsin. Another girl I met was from San Francisco, and she'd been in Paris the whole week. She went for UC Santa Barbara for her undergrad. Neither of us had eaten, so we both wandered down the street next to the hostel and found a really neat Italian pizza place. She gave me some great recommendations for Paris and we had some really good pizza. She highly recommends that I go to UC Davis for grad school (as do several family members, lol) and we found each other on Facebook, so now I have proof that I can be sociable when necessary!

The next morning (Friday), I got up and ate the free breakfast in the hostel. Palmer's Lodge is geared toward families and school groups, it seems, so I plunked down smack in the middle of about 20 German thirteen year olds. Grrrrrrrrrreat. For all I know they could have been making fun of the strange American, I had NO CLUE what they were saying. Whatever.

I got an early start, getting on the tube about 8:45AM. My first planned stop were the obvious sightseeing things, which were all in walking distance of the Westminster tube station. I got off the tube, and headed toward the "House of Parliament" exit. They weren't kidding. The exit was smack dab by the House of Parliament. I emerged in the sunlight (I know, right? Sun? In England?) and bam! There was Big Ben! My jaw dropped and remained that way for pretty much the whole day.

View from Westminster Bridge.

Big Ben.

The whole thing from across the Thames.

Queen's Walk along the River Thames.

I walked across the Westminster Bridge and got some more spectacular views of the House of Parliament. The Queen's Walk is a nice path that runs along either side of the Thames. It's been in a bunch of movies (*cough* Love Actually *cough*) and there were lots of runners that morning. I could almost be convinced to take up running if it meant I could run by the River Thames. So I strolled around for a while and saw these bureaucratic-looking buildings a little way from the House of Parliament. I was fairly certain it was Thames House, so I crossed back over and had a look. Indeed! It was the Thames House! Okay. Nobody knows who works in the Thames House do they? Its the headquarters of MI5 and MI6! Like James Bond and...all the spies-turned-Austen-leading-men (Mathew McFadyen, Rupert Penry-Jones, and Richard Armitage. *drools*) from the BBC series Spooks. So I geeked out a little right there, sorry.

Thames House from Westminster Bridge.

Wooo! Thames House!

Visitor's entrance. I was tempted to see if there were tours. But I didn't. Please note all the guys in dark suits. SPIES!!

From the Thames House, I walked back toward the House of Parliament. There was a big, colorful monument commemorating the abolition of slavery in England. And NO mention of William Wilberforce. Humph. Go rent the movie Amazing Grace to understand.

The Buxton Memorial.

I continued along Millbank Street and I saw a short line of people into the House of Parliament. I went to see what it was, and it turns out the House of Commons was in session that day and were holding debates! And the public could watch! In the House of Commons! You know the rest. I went. Big rigamarole of security checks and bag searches and metal detectors, but it was SO COOL. I even got a somewhat official-looking badge. They weren't debating anything earth shattering, but it was an actual debate, support on one side, and opposition on the other. They were very polite, but you could tell each member was passionate about what they were talking about. Of course, there was no photography inside. But the green leather seats really are that ugly color.

Next, I headed towards Westminster Abbey. Jaw-dropping doesn't even cover it. My hobby of cathedral stalking has been taken to new heights. There were free audio guides, which was really helpful because there is SO MUCH to take in in Westminster Abbey. So many famous people buried there. So much symbolism and history. And guess who my narrator was? Jeremy Irons. Yep. He lended a very creepy aura to the Abbey. As if it weren't imposing enough. Anyway, I stopped by all the big effigies and stuff you're supposed to see: Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots' grave (they're buried together; does everyone else see the irony in that?), Poet's Corner (Tennyson, Dickens, Lawerence Olivier, Byron, etc. And a memorial to Shakespeare, who is still at Stratford), the Cloisters, the Chapter House, and of course, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin's graves (I also find this highly ironic). And for the record, they're both roped off, so there is no way that Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu could have gotten that close. Just saying.

Whoa. The outside.

I'm a rebel and took pictures in the Cloisters.

Outside again.

Once again, I could have spent all day there, and still not done it justice.

After tearing myself away from Westminster Abbey, I went toward Buckingham Palace. I knew the changing of the gaurd took place at 11:30 PM, so I tried to make it in time for that. In fact, I was 10 minutes early. But, lordy, there were at least 500 people there already! So I didn't really see anything. I heard some of it, but there was too many people to understand what was going on. But I have the pictures to prove I was there. :o]

Buckingham Palace + PEOPLE.

A little closer.

Get a load of those gates. Wow.

I had someone take my picture to prove that I was there!

I next walked in the direction of the Cabinet War Rooms and Downing Street.

I think these are the Cabinet War Rooms. Pretty sure.

And that's as close as you can get to the PM.

I then got back on the tube and went to St. Paul's Cathedral. It is vastly different architecturally from Westminster, which is mainly Gothic. St. Paul's is more English Baroque (yes, I just looked that up. Sorry. I really did notice the differences, though!). I went inside a little, but didn't pay admission.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

More St. Paul's.

I might have snuck a picture in the cathedral. Maybe.

St. Paul's was in walking distance of the other stuff I wanted to see that day, so I walked across the Millenium Bridge to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Although it is a reproduction, it is still quite cool. They weren't having tours in the actual theater, as there was a performance going on (Romeo and Juliet. Go figure.). But I got some souvenirs and pictures.

The Millenium Bridge with the Tate Modern Gallery in the background. The Millenium is a pedestrian only bridge.

The Globe!

I then walked along the Queen's Walk towards the Tower Bridge. Not to be confused with London Bridge or Big Ben. Common mistake.

Tower Bridge!

I think Italian tourists might have taken this one.

The Tower of London came highly recommended from my friends that had already been to London, so that was my final destination for the day. It was great, totally worth the steep admission! They had free tours done by the Yeoman Guard (Beefeaters!), who actually live with their families IN the Tower of London. We learned the sordid, bloody, treacherous history of the Tower of London and got to see the Crown Jewels. The. Crown. Jewels. All of them. Spectacular. And, of course, there was no photography allowed in the rooms with the Jewels. Bummer.

Western Gate to the Tower of London.

More Tower of London. Clearly, not just a tower.

Our own personal Yeoman Guard, Chris. He was hilarious. My favorite quote of the day:

Beefeater: Any Americans in the crowd?

*several cheers*

Beefeater: This all could have been yours if you'd paid your taxes!

Cathedral of St. Peter ad Vincula, where most of the executed people were buried, including St. Thomas More and most of Henry VIII's wives.

Ravens on the Tower Green.

Residences of some of the Yeoman Guard.

View from the Tower Hill tube stop.

As you can tell by the length of this post, I had a loooooooooong day, and my feet were killing me, so I promptly crashed in the hostel. Whew.

I'm baaaaaaaack!

2009-03-15T20:56:00.001Z

...In Preston, that is. I had an awesome 4 days in London, I already miss it. I saw so much, and I definitely want to go back (don't know when, but it's going to happen). Anyway, I have two large papers that require extensive editing and revision, so the London post is going to be a little slow in coming. Because I know so many of you are waiting with baited breath at your keyboards for my next post. At least that's what I tell myself. I will, however upload the pictures (all 450 of them!) so you can get a preview. Man, I'm beat!

EDIT: I hate photosharing websites. Picasa has a storage limit (which I've alreadry reached, big surprise) and Photobucket gets everything out of order. I'm in the market for a streamlined, free, photosharing website with unlimited upload capacity, so let me know if you know of one! Also, Flat Stanley arrived while I was gone! And he's life size, not the little guy I remember! Whoa!

Upcoming Travels!

2009-03-11T11:32:00.000Z

Okay, I am way to excited about this weekend's travels. A CERES sister from home, Jen, is going to be visiting her sister (who is studying in Wales) this weekend in London. And I'm leaving TOMORROW to meet her. FOUR days in London. I am jumping out of my skin I'm so excited. I'm taking the coach down there (cheaper than the train, but a longer trip. whatever.), at 6:50AM from the bus station here in Preston. I'll be getting in late-ish on Sunday, so expect a rather lengthy post sometime after that. I have this master list of everything I want to see in London, and I'm pretty certain there is NO WAY I can get it all done, but I'm going to try my hardest, dang it. Wish me luck! :o]

Oh, and for everyone out there doing the math (*cough* Alvin *cough*), YES, I will be skipping class on Thursday. My professor doesn't take attendance anyway, and my friend is getting the notes for me. So there.

This weekend

2009-03-06T12:37:00.001Z

A few things:

*I'm not traveling anywhere this weekend because I've got two nasty essays to write (one about US foreign policy 1910-1929 and another about local food systems. Joy.), a presentation to get done and a Spanish podcast to summarize. They're due right after I get back from London, so I want to get them out of the way. This is just to clear up any lingering doubts that some people may have that I'm actually going to school. Sorry there won't be any thrilling escapades to report. I might go see "The Young Victoria," though, it came out yesterday in the UK.

*I finally, finally, FINALLY switched my photo hosting website. I finally got Picasa to work on my computer (no idea why it hadn't been working...). You can view all 206 pictures from Belgium here. I'll work on getting the rest from this semester up this weekend, so they'll all be in the same place. EDIT: Got 'em all up. It didn't take as long as I thought! Check it out here. I've even included some never-before-seen pictures of Preston (ha, they're just the ones that didn't make it to the blog.).

Ok, that's all.

Thanks...I mean, Gracias...no, wait. CRAP. Merci beaucoup!

2009-03-01T15:59:00.001Z

Before I get to Brussels, let me tell you about the night before, Thursday night. My new friend, Aubrey is a member of the Christian Union here at UCLan, and she invited a bunch of us to a free dinner they were putting on. I don't pass up free food, and neither does Jori, lol. So we all sat a table with people we didn't know and they quizzed us about life in America (I didn't know it was so fascinating). We covered school systems and where we all lived. I knew Aubrey was from Missouri, but I didn't know she was only half an hour from Kansas City. I made the mistake of mentioning that I had been to KC recently for the American Royal (she had no idea what that was). All of the British people at the table pounced on it. What in heaven's name is the American Royal (I suppose this sounds oxymoronic, American + Royal...)? Well, I explained, its a livestock show. Livestock? Yes, livestock. Sighing, I explained that in the US, I'm an animal science major. No, I don't want to be a vet. Well, what do you want to do, then? Research, probably. You mean animal testing? *Facepalm* This is why I hate explaining myself over here. It's opens the door to awkward questions and even more awkward looks.

Apparently word got around that there were three Americans in the room. A group several tables over set out to name all 50 states, if we could name three counties in England. I was actually quite impressed, they got about 43! However, they spelled Massachusetts horrendously wrong and thought Columbia was a state. Of course, the counties were a cinch, I can name about 8 (Wanna see? Derbyshire [Mr. Darcy], Yorkshire [Brönte sisters, pigs], Cheshire [cats, pigs], Hampshire [sheep, pigs], Dorset [sheep], Berkshire [pigs], Lancashire [where I'm at now...], and Hartfordshire [Elizabeth Bennet]. Aren't you impressed?).

Anyway, I finally got to bed that night. We got up bright and early, trudged to the rail station and got to Manchester Airport with no problem. We made our flight in plenty of time and got to Brussels about 11AM (they're GMT +1, an hour ahead of England). We flew with RyanAir, a European discount airline. Discount airlines don't usually use the main airport in the city, its typically a regional airport, farther away from the city itself. This is how they rip you off. Charleroi Airport (the one we flew into) is a 45 minute coach ride into the city of Brussels. It cost 13 euros to use the coach one way. Good grief. We grudgingly paid this (we couldn't very well walk, after all), and got to the Gare du Midi station on the south end of Brussels. I was armed with a map I got at the aiport and we set off in search of our hostel, on the north end of the city. Katie was under the impression that we would forfeit our beds if we showed up past noon. I was skeptical, but we decided to attempt the Brussels Metro system in favor of walking to the other side of town. Fortunately, its really cheap and we found a very nice woman at the ticket station that spoke English and directed us to where we needed to go.

We got to the hostel fine, after realizing that all the street signs, I mean ALL of them, are in both French and Flemish (or German, I'm not positive). We dropped our backpacks off and set out in search of the Grand Place (creative, I know), which is the main square in the heart of the city. Along the way, we found the Place du Martyrs (Martyr Plaza, rougly).

Place du Martyrs

Kinda a crappy day for sight-seeing, but welcome to Northern Europe.

The Grand Place is reputed to be one of the most beautiful squares in all of Europe. It doesn't disappoint in terms of scale and oppulence.

We were really hungry by then, so we looked for somewhere to eat nearby. Europe is handy because most places post their menu with prices outside, so you can decide if you want to eat there or not. We managed to find a cafe close by. So we got inside, had a closer look at the menu and it was ALL IN FRENCH. Not that I was surprised, but I thought being halfway fluent in another Romance language would help. Nope. Not at all. So we cast our fate to the winds and ordered in French. I wound up with a ham and cheese pannini thing (jambon et fromage), which was quite good, and warm wine (vin chaud) which was gross. Belgium doesn't have the smoking ban that the UK does, so it was VERY smokey in the restaurant. And every. single. person. had a beer. No kidding.

After we finished up, we walked around the Grand Place some more and found a store solely dedicated to BEER, lots and lots of beer.

A girl I met Thursday night recommended I try a raspberry beer, and assured me it was "quite lovely." I got some. It wasn't. We continued to walk around the city centre-ish area. We found a waffle vendor, and I got a waffle with chocolate syrup.

YUM!

The Grand Place is famous for it's incredibly intricate façades. Have a look at this:

Behind the Grand Place.

The whole place is cobblestone! Everywhere!

There is a really great shopping center near the Grand Place. It has a lot of higher end stores, but also chocolateries and lace stores. Brussels is famous for its lace, but I had no idea what to get as a souvenir. So I didn't get any. By this time, it was about 3ish and the combination of walking a lot and getting up really early prompted us to go back to the hostel for a nap. We got out again around 5 to get something to eat. Again, we cast our fate to the winds and ordered in French again. I got a ham sandwich with pesto (only it didn't have pesto...odd).

We did manage to see the Manneken Pis Friday. The picture is self explanatory.

Don't ask me why this is a cultural landmark. Totally underwhelming.

Katie and I had been talking about how we were going to get to the airport on Sunday morning. As far as we could tell, the coach that got us into Brussels started running at 8:30 AM, which wouldn't work because our flight left at 7:20. So we decided we would cancel our reservation at the hostel for Saturday, go to the airport the night before and hang out/doze off until our flight the next morning. We got back from dinner and told the lady at the desk our predicament and she told us that we were insane. Well, not in so many words. Apparently the coach left at 4:30AM and would get us to the airport in plenty of time. So she ordered us a cab to get us to the station at 4AM and we got to sleep in a decent bed Saturday night. YAY!

We got up fairly early Saturday morning to begin our full day of Brussels. The hostel had a free, if spartan, breakfast and we partook of that before we started our sight seeing. I figured out that it would be easiest if we started on the south end of Brussels and moseyed along to the north end throughout the day. Because we had conquered the Belgian Metro system the day before, we took it to the Louiza station, just outside the Palais de Justice, which is where we officially began. The Palais de Jusice is the Law Courts of Belgium. It is supposedly the largest secular building constructed in the 19th century. It is rather huge, but currently undergoing renovations, so there was a lot of scaffolding in the way.

Neat view of the city from the Palais de Justice.

It was totally open, no one inside. Lots of grafitti on some of the stone.

The Palais de Justice is a short walk from the Royal Palace (the Belgian royal family's "official" residence, but not their regular residence, go figure). So we walked there next, and to the large gardens there.

Impressive, huh?

Our next stop was St. Michael's Cathedral. They began to build it in 1305 and finished up in the 1500s some time.

Now THAT is what I call an altar.

St. Michael himself killing a lizard of some kind.

We made our way back towards the city centre and found what I had been looking for all along:

TO DIE FOR.

Need I say more? I will anyway: they were EXPENSIVE. But I enjoyed every bite.

Mission accomplished.

Belgium is big on their comics (dunno why...). There was something comic-related going on, but neither Katie nor I could figure out what.

We went back to the beer store and as I wanted to bring back some stuff for my college friends (hahahahahaha). Actually, just Leeann. She had requested a Belgian beer. I had quite a time explaining that I wanted a wheat beer to the woman in the store. Eventually we figured it out and I got what I wanted.

We got back to the hostel and crashed. We had an early start, after all. We got to the airport without incident. And then we got to security. I had a nasty feeling that the beer wasn't going to make it through. It didn't. The security gaurd told me that I could go back into the lobby and drink it (it was 6AM, mind you) and keep the bottle if I wanted. In the end, he dumped it out (though I'm not entirely convinced HE didn't go into the lobby and drink it himself) and gave me the bottle. I found the duty-free store past security, but they didn't have the brand I wanted. I think I can find it over here though. Not the same, though!

We made it back to Preston without incident, though we were (and still are) tired.

We decided that there isn't enough to do in Brussels to keep us occupied for a solid two days, but it was interesting nonetheless. We saw everything we wanted to see, had some great food, and even learned a teensy bit of French.

I'm having a horrendous time uploading all the pictures to photobucket. I'm working on switching them over to something else, I'll let you all know when that is!

Mmmmmm, waffles!

2009-02-26T17:02:00.002Z

Katie and I are leaving realllllllllly early tomorrow for Belgium. Like, the plane leaves Manchester at 7:20, which means we need to be there in the 5:30 vicinity, which means we have to leave Preston at 4AM (yes, the trains are operating then, believe it or not!). So while you are warm in your beds, think of us hanging out in an airport in England. But then, we're going to a freaking CHOCOLATE MUSEUM. In Belgium. Try not to be too jealous. Ha. Barring any delays, we should arrive back in Manchester at 8AM GMT on Sunday, putting us back in Preston at 9:30/10ish. I'll probably want a nap, but I'll try to put up a post then.

York Is All You Need

2009-02-22T12:54:00.000Z

If you had only one weekend to spend in England, after London (even though I haven't been there yet), I'd say go to York. York has cathedrals (yes, plural), ancient ruins, and tons of history. And we (there were six of us this time- Carly, Alma, Cassie, Jori, Aubrey, and me) happened to be there during the annual Viking Festival. So it was pretty awesome to walk around ancient ruins and run into a Viking, hehe. It was pretty crowded this weekend, so when I go back with Mom and Mary in April, I'll probably enjoy it even more. So, here we go!

We all met out in the quad at 6:20AM, so we could get the 6:54 direct train to York. Some of our other friends who had already been to York had been up ALL NIGHT (doing goodness knows what, lol) and were just getting back to bed when we were leaving. They had a mattress out in their flat and were mattress surfing down the stairs. Jori wanted to join in, so I got her picture.

Jori mattress surfing. No injuries!

So we got to the rail station in plenty of time to get our train. It was a two and a half hour ride, so most of our crew slept. I did *try* to read my book for my Lit class (Tale of Two Cities, yuck), but I didn't get very far. The route went through Leeds, so we got to see a little from our train. As we got into Yorkshire, it got FLAT. Like, Indiana flat. Only with more trees, and much, much prettier. And the soil is so dark, very rich.

We got into York at about 9:30. The weather was pretty mild in the morning, great weather for walking around. We headed toward the city centre, crossing the York River. There were rowers out early practicing, and some other neat things.

Female rowers, even!

Pigeons on a turret, near the bridge.

Bridge near river.

Our first Viking sighting!

We continued to walk towards the city centre and stopped at the Museum Gardens, where our program said battle practice was supposed to be. In April, I'm sure the gardens will be even more spectacular. I got some video of the Viking practice. And enjoy my commentary, haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPGvdGU2rO0

Here are some pictures:

This is an old hospital near the gardens. St. Leonard's Hospital, built in the 1200s, dissolved in the 1500s. Wow.

Inside part of the hospital. Those are tombs/caskets, right? Awesome.

One of my favorite pictures of the day, inside the hospital. They don't make hospitals like this anymore. Shame, really.

Cool window outside the hospital.

Vikings!! Preparing for battle. Awesome shields. Today, there are female Vikings, which I have a feeling weren't around (at least in battles) back in the day.

Part of an old castle, near the gardens.

I have NO IDEA why, but there was a "Birds of Prey" exhibit right beside the gardens, and they had a Bald Eagle. I don't know how they managed to get it into England (pretty sure they're not native!).

We kept walking, and got quite close to the Minster Area. There is an old 13th Century wall around the city centre, and we walked around a lot of it.

Monk Bar, medieval gate into the city centre.

Inside the Monk Bar looking into the streets.

We walked around a lot of the wall-- this is the Minster!

We were hungry about now, and we knew there was a huge food market a short walk down the city centre. It wasn't Viking food, but a lot of international food. I took a lot of pictures, because there was a lot of cool food!

No, I didn't try any.

German sausages/salami.

LOOK AT ALL THAT CANDY.

Artisan bread.

Olives + Spices

Cheeses

Paella!! A traditional Spanish dish (I had some when I was in Spain). It has rice, onions, peppers, usually seafood and/or shrimp and saffron gives it the color. This kind had chicken in it and sausage on top, and you couldn't taste the saffron. I need to learn how to make this stuff.

Next, we walked to the Shambles. They're not *in* shambles, its a twisting of the word "shamel" meaning stall or bench, where merchants would sell their wares. They're tiny twisted streets with tons of little shops, cafes, tea shops, etc.

Diagon Alley, anyone?

Everything looks like its about to fall in on itself, but its been there for centuries, so no worries.

There was another market right next to the Shambles, more pictures!

Cheese, seafood, and meat.

All of their meat was raised within 25 miles of York.

We all sat down for a while and tried to decide what to do next. I was the only one who wanted to go the Minster, so I borrowed one of their cell phones and went by myself. I don't know what they did while I was gone, but I got to indulge in my new favorite hobby of cathedral-stalking.

It's HUGE!!

And beautiful..

Remember, remember the fifth of November, of gunpowder, treason, and plot.

PLEASE tell me somebody knows what I'm talking about.

Ceiling.

Columns, etc.

Apparently I can't center a photo properly...

Great West Wall.

Rose Window

Choir area, facing west.

The Tower

The Great East Window. They're doing a massive, decade-long repair/restoration of the Great East Window and the outside. It took me a good 10 minutes to realize that this was NOT the actual window, but, in fact, the largest printed photograph in the world. No kidding!

BIG column.

After I saw all I wanted to see inside the Minster, I wandered down to the opposite side of town, towards Clifford's Tower.

This is all that's left of the medieval York Castle.

The Viking battle was supposed to take place in the York Eye (an area between three museums), but it was sold out! We watched the fire dancers practice (without the fire, lol) and went back to Preston. We met a creepy English guy and his creepy Polish friends and we were very thankful when they got off at Accrington, close to Leeds.

Also, Flat Stanley hasn't come yet. Hopefully, he'll get here before I go to Belgium this weekend!

All of my pictures (I took 185 in an 8 hour span!) are here.

Photobucket got all of my pictures hopelessly out of order, so good luck sorting through them. I might switch to another photo hosting website this week when I have time. Maybe.

Flat Stanley!

2009-02-15T12:26:00.004Z

I got in contact with my first grade teacher before I left in January, and told her I'd love to do a Flat Stanley project with a class at her school (she doesn't teach anymore, she's a curriculum specialist). For those of you who don't know, Flat Stanley is a children's book about a boy who gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. His parents don't know what to do with him, so they put him in an envelope and send him around the world. He sends postcards and letters from all his travels. When I was in first grade, we each made a Flat Stanley and sent him to our family and friends around the country. Aunt Gail got mine and she did a great trip to New York City and London, as I recall. The great thing is, I get to be Flat Stanley's travel companion this time. Ms. Tribble's class at MLK Elementary School (Ms. Adam's daughter is in the class) sent Flat Stanley off this past Friday, so I should be getting him sometime this week. I've told my friends about him (a lot of them never heard of him! Shocking!) and I think they're just as excited as I am. Carly is going on a trip to Hungary with one of her friends from home and she has requested custody of Flat Stanley that weekend, haha. I'm hoping to get him in time to go York on our Viking adventure. I'm also planning to keep a separate blog for Flat Stanley's adventures (flatstanleyinengland.blogspot.com) so everyone, especially Ms. Tribble's class, can keep up with Flat Stanley. I'm going to try to do a scrapbook (or an iPhoto book, something) at the end.

More info about Flat Stanley: www.flatstanley.com

Surf's Up!

2009-02-14T17:09:00.001Z

I'm not a control freak, really I'm not! I just prefer to know where I'm going on a trip at least 2-3 days in advance! That way I can read up on the place, look at maps, etc. Well, Jori, Carly and I decided we would go somewhere this weekend together. So last night (at 10PM, mind you) I almost had them talked into York. Then Jori and Carly mentioned that they wanted to go somewhere outdoorsy... beaches, hiking, etc. The Yorkshire Dales were an option, but that would have been a longer trip and more expensive than we liked. So we decided beaches would be good (in February? In England?). We decided that Southport Beach looked promising, so we decided to catch the 9:09AM train. We got to the Rail Station and were told that its actually a bus that would take us there, and we'd have to swich buses at some point. And we couldn't find the bus we wanted anyway. So we made a group decision to go to Blackpool. It was only a 30 minute train ride anyway. I was a little irritated because I had no idea what was in Blackpool, as far as what to see and stuff to do. Carly felt the same way, but she knew there was the beach (obviously) and an amusement park called Pleasure Beach.

We walked down to the beach and of course it is COLD. But we made it all the way down to the water. I got some pretty good pictures.

Blackpool Pier. We wondered why it was closed, but Jori mentioned that they probably closed it for Valentine's Day because single people throw themselves off. hahahaha

The Golden Mile at Blackpool.

Ripples in the sand!

Pier + Blackpool Tower

Carly is from southern California...this was obviously a disappointment.

Pleasure Beach

Note how high the barnacles are on the posts...

Donkeys on the beach! Yes, Jori is smelling them. The little one bit me!

After walking around on the beach for a while, we were popsicles. We decided to go warm up, so we walked along the Golden Mile for a while. If you've ever been to the Western Kentucky State Fair, you'll have a pretty good idea of what the Golden Mile in Blackpool is like. TACKY. Only a lot more raunchy than our county fair. Some of the stuff in there was truly horrifying, so I won't go into detail. Apparently, Blackpool is England's second most visited city, after London. I suppose it is a lot nicer in the summer, but good grief. So we ate some warm food and tea (I've developed a liking for tea, yum) and walked around a little more. By the time we went back down to the beach, the whole thing was gone! The Irish Sea ate it (or the tide came in, whichever version you prefer)!

AH! We had just been walking under that pier earlier!

Jori was smart and wore rain boots (er, Wellingtons).

We were still cold, so we walked back towards the rail station. The walk there was a whole lot less trashy.

Grand Theatre, I think...

Another interesting, non-tacky building in Blackpool.

Aaaaaaand, just because I hadn't done it yet! Me in a legit British phonebooth.

Thankfully, my next two weekends are already planned. Next weekend we ARE going to York, because there is a Viking festival going on, and who doesn't want to see Vikings? The weekend after that, Katie and I are going to....Belgium! We found dirt cheap tickets online (seriously, they were less than $30) so we're going to have waffles and chocolate and beer in Brussels. We're really really really excited. And on one of the two weekends after that Toni (from Wisconsin, not mom!) and I are going to London to do the Harry Potter thing and see a musical called "Spring Awakening" on the West End. And Jori, Carly, and I are planning a weekend trip to Bath, Stonehenge, and Swansea (in Wales). And I want to go to Ireland and some point. Whew, that makes me tired!

All of my pictures are up....www.photobucket.com/eariley

Also...

2009-02-07T19:52:00.025Z

Jori, Jessica, and I went to the movies last night! We saw Slumdog Millionaire! Go see it. NOW. There was a dance scene at the end, and we think it would be pretty super if the international students do it at the Preston Rail Station. Here's the clip, from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIUx4j9-msU

And there was a fantastic preview, for a movie I am DYING to see. Called The Young Victoria about (three guesses, and the first two don't count!)-- Queen Victoria. It looks AMAZING. But surely they could have come up with a better title? Anyway, here's a clip to the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKs3yIZolsM

Okay, anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm a movie buff. I can identify actors within a few minutes of seeing them on screen. So I was freaking out in the theater because there are SO many great British actors in this film. 10 points to who knows who plays King William, 20 points to who knows who plays Prince Albert, and 1,000 to who knows who plays the Viscount Melbourne (he's the guy who says "You have an ally in me"). NO CHEATING WITH IMDB!! Why so many points for Viscount Melbourne? Because I had to watch the trailer about five times before I figured it out. And, 10 points to who knows where the music from the last bit of the trailer is from. (*Hint* One of my all-time favorite movies!!). Good luck! :o]

No Cats in Chesire...

2009-02-07T17:03:00.175Z

Chester is one of the oldest cities in England, originally known as Castra Devana, an old Roman port. In fact, it was the busiest and most important port city in the northwest, until the River Dee silted up and Liverpool took over in importance. Chester is also in the county of Chesire, right at the top of Wales. I actually had no idea I was that close to Wales until I got there and noticed that most of the signs were in two languages, English and Gobbledegook. :o] Anyway, I had NO transportation problems this time. In fact, I have quite gotten the hang of the train thing! YAY!

This week, I traveled alone. Everyone was wanting to take a break from traveling, or wanted to save their money. I spent a grand total of 20 pounds this weekend (train ticket + lunch + entry into the cathedral), so I think I did quite well. I'm not going to waste a weekend here! As a result, I didn't feel bad for dragging everyone to places I wanted to go and I got to set my own pace. But I didn't have anyone to take my picture in front of things, but that is a small concern...

I left bright and early this morning, so I had plenty of time to explore Chester. It occurred to me that I hadn't taken a picture of the rail station in Preston. I go there a lot, so it deserves a picture!

Preston Rail Station.

I had to switch trains at Crewe, and I got a kick out of this picture. Not London, but still great!

Where's 9 3/4??

The first place I went when I got to Chester was the St. John the Baptist Cathedral. Not a huge church, but it has a lot of history. It was built in 1075 AD (I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that...its almost 1000 years old! Good grief!) by the Saxons. The original church is mostly in ruins, but a new parish was built sometime after that. Here are some pictures:

Part of the original Saxon church.

More ruins.

Dead people on the floor!

Altar.

Ceiling!

Just adjacent to St. John's is the Roman amphitheatre. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed with this. I was expecting Roman Coliseum sized amphitheatre (okay, not that big, but at least recognizable!). It was kinda this shallow pit in the ground with some rocks around it. Oh well...

Crumbling rocks.

See why its kind of a letdown? I suppose you just have to use your imagination when it comes to the gladiator fights and such.

The main thing that Chester is known for is its spectacular Roman wall. It wraps all the way around the city, and if you're so inclined, you can walk all two and a half miles of it. I did walk about a mile (once again, I need to invest in a pedometer. Seriously.)! The started building the wall around 70 AD (again! That was just...40ish years after Jesus! WOW!) and it has remained in the same position ever since. There is a small park where a clay tobacco pipe factory used to be, and here are some pictures of the River Dee and the wall.

Park with old Roman columns.

More of the park.

The River Dee.

River Dee + Wall.

Bridge over the River Dee. I don't think its Roman, but I'm sure its pretty old. :o]

Another old bridge, found as I continued around the wall. At one time this was the world's largest single arch stone bridge. I've noticed that the various English towns I've visited are always trying to one-up each other: "home of the oldest Paul McCartney-used napkin known to be in existence" or "the original thatch roof" or "world's largest natural lake by the name of Windermere." You get the point.

I next traveled up Grosvenor Street, where I stopped in the (free!) Grosvenor Museum. I wasn't bowled over by any fascinating exhibits, but they did have some neat silver displays.

Kinda puts our silver tray collection to shame...

After a quick lunch at a tea room (let me just say that ifreakinglove tea rooms. I'm considering opening one some day. With lots of pie.), I headed back down to the river, where there was a big green spot on my handy-dandy map labeled "racecourse." Obviously, I had to investigate. And lo and behold! I found the most ancient racecourse still using its original course in all of England.

Turf! The racecourse is actually called Roodee-- Welsh, I think?

It is green ALL the time!

I hadn't seen a good cathedral in two weeks, so at this point, I wanted to see one! Lucky for me, Chester has a fantastic Anglican one. It was once a Benedictine abbey built on the remains of a Saxon church dedicated to St Werburgh, patron saint of Chester, it has been in use for over 1000 years (!!!). I got in and the lady at the reception asked where I was visiting from (I told her) and she gave me one of the free audio thingies that tells you about certain points in the cathedral. Then, "Oh, and you'll have to turn your volume up, they're having practice for a concert in there." Seriously? Seriously. I. Am. The. Luckiest. Traveler. Alive. From what I could tell, it was mostly a youth orchestra and they were AWESOME. I got video! My cinematography skills have improved somewhat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE48UukBZRM

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr8l5jMG_sY

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLZDOcY8q0

Not the best quality, but I do what I can. And here is my photographic tour of the cathedral:

Outside.

Old columns! I love old columns!

Great ceiling!

In the first video I posted, I turned my camera to the left and there were some murals depicting Old Testament scenes. Well, they were mosaics! The first one was of Abraham.

Very impressive pipes for the organ.

Original Roman arch on the left and the newer (still OLD) Saxon arch on the right.

The Lady Chapel, I think.

Gotta love those floors.

Shrine to St. Werburgh. She was an interesting lady.

After I'd gotten my fill of the cathedral (really, I could have spent all day in there!), I headed back to catch the train. I found this fantastic hat shop on the way:

You could get some serious Derby hats there.

Found in the Chester train station!

As usual, all of my pictures are up here.