OH and i forgot to mention - it SNOWED in london for like the first time i think since the 80's
It was so weird!
Luckily its getting "warmer"
Its funny how temperatures in the 60's = shorts and sandals weather for londoners.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Big Trip
I really don't have the time to elaborate on my trip with William, but i'll try and summarize briefly!
We were gone for about 10 days... we went to 3 different countries that spoke 3 different languages with 3 different currencies on 4 different airlines!
Czech Republic - Prague
Prague is a really pretty city - which is probably why Koreans made a drama that took place here! That said, it seemed very asian-tourist friendly. Although by the end of my trip I got sick of people asking us "are you from china? korea?" NO america!
Honestly, theres just a lot of old stuff - Prague castle being the main attraction.
Sweden - Stockholm
It was about 2 degrees celsius here. But otherwise, the weather was good. Stockholm is cool because it's built on I think 17 different islands of varying sizes. There's a lot of water surrounding everything so it's nice to take a boat tour (which we did).
Although Stockholm (well, scandinavia in general) is REALLY expensive (i'm talking London expensive, maybe more) it's a fun place.
We saw scandinavian animals like reindeer, moose, bears, wolverines...
We saw a VERY large sunken ship recovered from Stockholm harbour
We had really good meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries!
Poland - Krakow
Krakow is probably Poland's biggest tourist destination. It's a pretty small city but it has lot of interesting city. First of all, it was founded (according to legend) by Prince KRAK who defeated the fire breathing dragon that was taunting the city ... hmmmm
We saw Oscar Schindler's factory but it was closed for remodeling so we couldn't go in.
We climbed this random mound where prince krak was apprently buried.
I think the best part though was the side trip we took to Auschwitz/Birkenau.
Auschwitz (which is really the german name ... its liek Ochweicm in polish)
It was SO eerie visting this place. Auschwitz itself is made up of a lot more concentration camps - Birkenau being the largest.
You walk first under this gate that says Arbeit Macht Frei (~ work sets you free) where prisoners had to march under back from work everyday. Its so cruel, knowing that work certainly DIDN'T and could NEVER set them free.
We had a guide who showed us around - we saw rooms full of human hair ( they cut off prisoner's hair to make textiles... disgusting!), eye glasses, plates, shoes... and a lot more
Then she told us a lot about the evil things that went on there - very depressing.
We walked into a small gas chamber (because the other ones had been destroyed by the germans when they knew they were going to lose the war) which was really scary.
It's really a place everyone should experience. It makes you realize that seemingly normal people are capable of the most horrific things.
Anyways, Poland was pretty cheap - we had lunch for like 3 dollars or something at this "milk bar" which were instituted during communist times. Overall though, the country really isn't that well developed and just looking at it makes you think of communist times...
One thing that happened that still kind of disturbs me - we were just walking in the city minding out own business and these random polish men come up from behind us and say "you are in poland, white power!" Its just so sad... in this day and age racism like that still exists.
We were gone for about 10 days... we went to 3 different countries that spoke 3 different languages with 3 different currencies on 4 different airlines!
Czech Republic - Prague
Prague is a really pretty city - which is probably why Koreans made a drama that took place here! That said, it seemed very asian-tourist friendly. Although by the end of my trip I got sick of people asking us "are you from china? korea?" NO america!
Honestly, theres just a lot of old stuff - Prague castle being the main attraction.
Sweden - Stockholm
It was about 2 degrees celsius here. But otherwise, the weather was good. Stockholm is cool because it's built on I think 17 different islands of varying sizes. There's a lot of water surrounding everything so it's nice to take a boat tour (which we did).
Although Stockholm (well, scandinavia in general) is REALLY expensive (i'm talking London expensive, maybe more) it's a fun place.
We saw scandinavian animals like reindeer, moose, bears, wolverines...
We saw a VERY large sunken ship recovered from Stockholm harbour
We had really good meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries!
Poland - Krakow
Krakow is probably Poland's biggest tourist destination. It's a pretty small city but it has lot of interesting city. First of all, it was founded (according to legend) by Prince KRAK who defeated the fire breathing dragon that was taunting the city ... hmmmm
We saw Oscar Schindler's factory but it was closed for remodeling so we couldn't go in.
We climbed this random mound where prince krak was apprently buried.
I think the best part though was the side trip we took to Auschwitz/Birkenau.
Auschwitz (which is really the german name ... its liek Ochweicm in polish)
It was SO eerie visting this place. Auschwitz itself is made up of a lot more concentration camps - Birkenau being the largest.
You walk first under this gate that says Arbeit Macht Frei (~ work sets you free) where prisoners had to march under back from work everyday. Its so cruel, knowing that work certainly DIDN'T and could NEVER set them free.
We had a guide who showed us around - we saw rooms full of human hair ( they cut off prisoner's hair to make textiles... disgusting!), eye glasses, plates, shoes... and a lot more
Then she told us a lot about the evil things that went on there - very depressing.
We walked into a small gas chamber (because the other ones had been destroyed by the germans when they knew they were going to lose the war) which was really scary.
It's really a place everyone should experience. It makes you realize that seemingly normal people are capable of the most horrific things.
Anyways, Poland was pretty cheap - we had lunch for like 3 dollars or something at this "milk bar" which were instituted during communist times. Overall though, the country really isn't that well developed and just looking at it makes you think of communist times...
One thing that happened that still kind of disturbs me - we were just walking in the city minding out own business and these random polish men come up from behind us and say "you are in poland, white power!" Its just so sad... in this day and age racism like that still exists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
this is really... disturbing?
Studying has commenced and it's very painful!
this is really... disturbing?
Studying has commenced and it's very painful!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Berlin
Ugh, Ryanair is horrible. ALWAYS delayed. I dont understand how they advertise that they the "ONTIME AIRLINE!"
Anyways, I wasn't really that excited about going to Germany, but it ended up being really fun!
I still dont really understand the public transportation system there.. its like S-BAHN U-BAHN... but i guess it is pretty efficient.
The hostel we stayed at was just opened a few months ago so it was really nice and a good location.
The first day we started at Brandenburg gate - which is the really famous gate, symbol of the cold war. Then we walked over to the Reichstag which is their parliament building. we waited in line for 2 HOURS to go inside and go up an elevator. At the top they this glass dome thing that you can look out from. I guess it was worth the wait... especially because it was free.
After that we headed over to the Jewish Museum. It was a really well put together museum - lots to see! Their audio guides were Ipods! anways, the museum basically just outlined the history of the jewish people from the waaaay beginning. There were memorials to the holocaust that were really interesting. Like this one room was full of these faces that were carved out of iron. There were probably like thousands on the ground and when people on top of them it makes this eerie clanking noise. They also had this weird room powered solely by natural light.
After that we went to checkpoint charlie - which is the famous border between the east and west when the wall was there. it has that sign that says "You are now leaving the American sector" and there's like dressed up guards and things. We walked further down and saw this part of the berlin wall that had an exhibit about the SS and Gestapo. These like Turkish people or something kept bothering us. They'd come up and ask ENGLISH??? and then they would make you read something and it would be sad story about their father or something and then ask for money.. so we kind of hurried through that part and went back to our hostel.
The next day we saw the best preserved part of the wall. Where the graffiti of the two old men kissing (i'm not really sure who they are.. but i think they were political figures...) and then the car that smashed through the wall. The wall is really covered in Graffiti everywhere and its kidn of cool to walk alongside it.
Then we saw the Holocaust memorial which is just a lot of rectangular columns of different sizes (i'll post pictures later) We walked down Unter den Linden which is a main street in Berlin and made our way to the "Museum Island" and went into the Pergamuseum. It had this reconstruction of a big alter from Greek times from asia minor (turkey). They also had this big gate from Babylonian times that was reconstructed. It came with a free audioguide so I think I got a lot more out of it.
Anways, after that we got Bratwurst and then later I got this Curryworst which is a Berlin creation. pretty good! We also tried schnitzel - which is just breaded pork.
I think we all got a kick out of listening to the German language in general.. it just sounds funny. I dont know why. Amy had these peopel come up to her and ask Sprechen Sie Englisch?? - NEIN! Which is funny because those were the only phrases we had learned how to say. Also there were a lot of asians there! it seemed quite strange.
Anyways, I wasn't really that excited about going to Germany, but it ended up being really fun!
I still dont really understand the public transportation system there.. its like S-BAHN U-BAHN... but i guess it is pretty efficient.
The hostel we stayed at was just opened a few months ago so it was really nice and a good location.
The first day we started at Brandenburg gate - which is the really famous gate, symbol of the cold war. Then we walked over to the Reichstag which is their parliament building. we waited in line for 2 HOURS to go inside and go up an elevator. At the top they this glass dome thing that you can look out from. I guess it was worth the wait... especially because it was free.
After that we headed over to the Jewish Museum. It was a really well put together museum - lots to see! Their audio guides were Ipods! anways, the museum basically just outlined the history of the jewish people from the waaaay beginning. There were memorials to the holocaust that were really interesting. Like this one room was full of these faces that were carved out of iron. There were probably like thousands on the ground and when people on top of them it makes this eerie clanking noise. They also had this weird room powered solely by natural light.
After that we went to checkpoint charlie - which is the famous border between the east and west when the wall was there. it has that sign that says "You are now leaving the American sector" and there's like dressed up guards and things. We walked further down and saw this part of the berlin wall that had an exhibit about the SS and Gestapo. These like Turkish people or something kept bothering us. They'd come up and ask ENGLISH??? and then they would make you read something and it would be sad story about their father or something and then ask for money.. so we kind of hurried through that part and went back to our hostel.
The next day we saw the best preserved part of the wall. Where the graffiti of the two old men kissing (i'm not really sure who they are.. but i think they were political figures...) and then the car that smashed through the wall. The wall is really covered in Graffiti everywhere and its kidn of cool to walk alongside it.
Then we saw the Holocaust memorial which is just a lot of rectangular columns of different sizes (i'll post pictures later) We walked down Unter den Linden which is a main street in Berlin and made our way to the "Museum Island" and went into the Pergamuseum. It had this reconstruction of a big alter from Greek times from asia minor (turkey). They also had this big gate from Babylonian times that was reconstructed. It came with a free audioguide so I think I got a lot more out of it.
Anways, after that we got Bratwurst and then later I got this Curryworst which is a Berlin creation. pretty good! We also tried schnitzel - which is just breaded pork.
I think we all got a kick out of listening to the German language in general.. it just sounds funny. I dont know why. Amy had these peopel come up to her and ask Sprechen Sie Englisch?? - NEIN! Which is funny because those were the only phrases we had learned how to say. Also there were a lot of asians there! it seemed quite strange.
Spain
So this is pretty long overdue, but I was in spain over Easter weekend until that Wednesday.
First of all, our plane was delayed a pretty long time because the aircraft was delayed getting to the airport.. and then the pilot wanted the engineers to check something about their plane. So by the time we got into Alicante it was pretty late... although not at all late for spanish standards.
Took some bus to the city center and found our hotel (yes, hotel! not hostel)
We had booked this hotel in Alicante because there weren't any hostels I think... but anyways it ended up being the same price as hostel because the three of us shared a two person room... we kind of sneaked in one person late at night when the receptionist changed!
Spanish life is kind of weird. First of all, their big meal of the day is lunch and you can buy these set menu's where you get a first plate, second plate, and then a dessert. Then for dinner, they dont eat until at the earliest 8pm. Like restaurants are NOT open at 6. Then the clubs and nightlife STARTS around 2am. I was talking to my friend who is studying abroad in Alicante, and he was just like "yeah the bars open maybe around 11, the clubs open at 2 and don't close until maybe 8AM" Thats just really weird.
It was Amy's birthday on Easter sunday, the 23rd so we stayed out a little on saturday night
Anyways, on sunday it was easter. Alicante is pretty small city. They had a parade and confetti flying from this building. It was a nice day and Alicante has a really nice beach. We were going to catch a train to Barcelona that afternoon, but when we went to go buy our tickets, the man said there were no more... apprently we should have bought them the day before. We already had housing arrangements in Barcelona, so we went to the bus station, and they luckily had tickets left for a bus that left a 10 that night. (it was only 4). So we just sort of relaxed for a few hours... but it got really cold! The bus was 8 HOURS just like the bus to scotland! We were not pleased. We stopped in like valencia for a little bit, and these new people got on and caused some sort of BRAWL on the bus and the bus driver got really angry and this like Witch like lady was causing lots of problems. So i was trying to sleep, and all these Spanish people were like YELLING about i dont know what.
We got to Barcelona around 7 am.. and found our hostel which was really far from the city center. From this point, we had 3 days left in Barcelona so we just sort of took our time with everything.
We walked down Las Ramblas and saw all of the fun street performers. They sell the most random things on that street ... like PIGEONS, FERRETS, rabbits, flowers...
Its like the main street of barcelona and its ALWAYS full of pedestrians and a prime spot of pickpocketing!
The next few days we saw the gothic cathedral of the city and this museum that uncovered a lot of the Roman past of the city with a lot of the original foundations on display. Then of course we saw La Sagrada Familia - the famous cathedral by Gaudi that is still under construction. It was really interesting to see up close. The inside is so far from being completed its kind of surprising. We payed 2 euro to go to the top via elevator (that carried 4 people at a time!!!) We waited like an hour. Gaudi's work is so fun!
From there we went to Park Guell which is basically this big park on a hill where a lot of Gaudi's works are on display. On the way there, there's escalators in the middle of the street because its so steep! The main thing at the park is this little lizard mosaic. But you get to see a lot more of Gaudi's work. So much of it is inspired by natural elements like he modeled stairways after seashells, and this walkway was modeled after an ocean wave (pictures make more sense hahaha)
While we here we accomplished our list of things to do: tapas, sangria, paella, churros! the only thing we didn't do was drink horchata.
Honestly though, I think I liked Spain the other time I came. It might have been just the cities I went to. Barcelona was a lot of fun, but Alicante when the weather isn't hot.. wasn't that fun. I watn to go back to andalucia!
First of all, our plane was delayed a pretty long time because the aircraft was delayed getting to the airport.. and then the pilot wanted the engineers to check something about their plane. So by the time we got into Alicante it was pretty late... although not at all late for spanish standards.
Took some bus to the city center and found our hotel (yes, hotel! not hostel)
We had booked this hotel in Alicante because there weren't any hostels I think... but anyways it ended up being the same price as hostel because the three of us shared a two person room... we kind of sneaked in one person late at night when the receptionist changed!
Spanish life is kind of weird. First of all, their big meal of the day is lunch and you can buy these set menu's where you get a first plate, second plate, and then a dessert. Then for dinner, they dont eat until at the earliest 8pm. Like restaurants are NOT open at 6. Then the clubs and nightlife STARTS around 2am. I was talking to my friend who is studying abroad in Alicante, and he was just like "yeah the bars open maybe around 11, the clubs open at 2 and don't close until maybe 8AM" Thats just really weird.
It was Amy's birthday on Easter sunday, the 23rd so we stayed out a little on saturday night
Anyways, on sunday it was easter. Alicante is pretty small city. They had a parade and confetti flying from this building. It was a nice day and Alicante has a really nice beach. We were going to catch a train to Barcelona that afternoon, but when we went to go buy our tickets, the man said there were no more... apprently we should have bought them the day before. We already had housing arrangements in Barcelona, so we went to the bus station, and they luckily had tickets left for a bus that left a 10 that night. (it was only 4). So we just sort of relaxed for a few hours... but it got really cold! The bus was 8 HOURS just like the bus to scotland! We were not pleased. We stopped in like valencia for a little bit, and these new people got on and caused some sort of BRAWL on the bus and the bus driver got really angry and this like Witch like lady was causing lots of problems. So i was trying to sleep, and all these Spanish people were like YELLING about i dont know what.
We got to Barcelona around 7 am.. and found our hostel which was really far from the city center. From this point, we had 3 days left in Barcelona so we just sort of took our time with everything.
We walked down Las Ramblas and saw all of the fun street performers. They sell the most random things on that street ... like PIGEONS, FERRETS, rabbits, flowers...
Its like the main street of barcelona and its ALWAYS full of pedestrians and a prime spot of pickpocketing!
The next few days we saw the gothic cathedral of the city and this museum that uncovered a lot of the Roman past of the city with a lot of the original foundations on display. Then of course we saw La Sagrada Familia - the famous cathedral by Gaudi that is still under construction. It was really interesting to see up close. The inside is so far from being completed its kind of surprising. We payed 2 euro to go to the top via elevator (that carried 4 people at a time!!!) We waited like an hour. Gaudi's work is so fun!
From there we went to Park Guell which is basically this big park on a hill where a lot of Gaudi's works are on display. On the way there, there's escalators in the middle of the street because its so steep! The main thing at the park is this little lizard mosaic. But you get to see a lot more of Gaudi's work. So much of it is inspired by natural elements like he modeled stairways after seashells, and this walkway was modeled after an ocean wave (pictures make more sense hahaha)
While we here we accomplished our list of things to do: tapas, sangria, paella, churros! the only thing we didn't do was drink horchata.
Honestly though, I think I liked Spain the other time I came. It might have been just the cities I went to. Barcelona was a lot of fun, but Alicante when the weather isn't hot.. wasn't that fun. I watn to go back to andalucia!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Greece Pictures
This is the Stadium for the first contemporary olympic games in 1894.
This is a view of athens from Lykavittos hill. It looks like it goes on forever! It was a sunny day, but it looked like there was this layer of SMOG all over the city. Athens wasn't the cleanest city.
I thought this was amusing. It was "JAPAN DAY" in athens and these ladies walked around posing like this! Um, why are there so many japanese in GREECE?
Ruins - leading into some theatre right near the acropolis.
Changing of the guards... it was unique. They make lots of motions with their shoes.
Ok, so we tried to take a picture with all three of us and when we went up there, he STOMPED HIS GUN to the floor and then the attendant guy and yelled at us "ONLY TWO!!!!" It was scary.
Stuffed tomatoes, dolmades, pork slouvaki. yum!
The sanctuary of Olympian Zeus, on the the most important and ancient sanctuaries in Athens was built by Deucalion the first ancestor of the Greeks as a tribute to Zeus for his salvation after the deluge.
It was erected in 515 BC.
View of the acropolis. You can see part of the parthenon. The arch there is Hadrians arch
This is in the ancient Agora (marketplace) you can see how HIGH the acropolis actually is!
Athens from on top of the Acropolis - that big hill in the background is Lykavittos hill
Parthenon. ughhhh scaffolding!!!
This is on the way to Sounion where the Temple of Poseiden is. You can see it in this picture. It was so pretty!
Temple of Poseiden - So it was erected for Poseiden the god of the sea or something. Apparently in ancient times this temple was the first thing that sailors coming into Greece would see. So the wives of sailors would come here and pray for the safety of their husbands while at sea.
THIS is why you need to go to greece!
Scotland Pictures
We went on this free walking tour ... and the only worthwhile thing we learned from it was about this heart in the middle of the street. It was built associated with some building people hated so everytime they walked by they would SPIT into the heart to mark their disgust. When the building was taken down, the heart remained and natives still walk by and spit into it. So... if you ever find yourself walking down Royal Mile ... don't step on it.
This is Hamish the highland bull. We stopped at this rest stop and he lives there... people can feed him vegetables and things.
This is haggis - the scottish 'specialty" (its the middle one) served with turnips and potatoes. I was kind of sad it didn't come in the stomach thing I saw pictures of. I dont really know what it is... but it tasted like ssundae
waterfall - it was raining.
Glencoe (glen is the scottish word for valley with steep sides).
This is Loch Ness (loch is just the scottish word for lake) It is so deep you can fit ALL of the people in the world in it apparently. impressive!
It rained so much that day this dam was working at full capacity!
Edinburgh - you can sort of make out Edinburgh castle.
View of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat . I didn't realize how close to the ocean it was!
Arthur's Seat. After you climb that, there is more.
I climbed that. This is "arthur's seat" which is this really big hill. It was actually really dangerous bec there was intermittent raining, VERY POWERFUL wind, and at one point hail. The path is these stone steps that got pretty slippery - my friends wouldn't come with me... hahahaha
At the top it was SO WINDY I had to stand at a 45 degree angle with the ground just to stay still. I like couldn't breathe it was so windy. do you SEE how small those people are in that picture!
People in kilts. hahahahahaha
Edinburgh castle - it was raining. a lot. Honestly the castle really wasn't that impressive and not really worth the 11 POUNDS it costs to get in (NO DISCOUNTS TO STUDENTS!!!) But maybe it was bec. it was like ALL OUTSIDE and pouring and cold...
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Bruges - Pictures
view of a canal
View from on top of the belfort. This is a stadhuis or town hall - the oldest in belgium
Windmill - apparently built by the dutch
Feminism in flanders was born around the year 1200. A group of religious women got a bit mystical in their belifs - getting married to Jesus and things like that - and the catholic church wanted to bury them alive. The women (called beguins) thought otherwise: they started their own independent communites all over flanders.
I like this picture. It was on the way to Damme... and then I almost got ran over by a car. hahaha
View of a canal - stupid tacky tourist boats.
Rotterdam - Pictures
Overblaack development - those are the "cube" apartments
Creepy man coming out of the museum floor.. haahhaha
The ducks are walking on water. It was that cold.
That is the Euromast
Rotterdam is known for its many bridges. The white bridge is the Erasmus Bridge constructed in 2000. It is the biggest bascule bridge in the world. A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span, or "leaf," throughout the entire upward swing in providing clearance for boat traffic. Bascule is a French term for seesaw and balance, and bascule bridges operate along the same principle. They are the most common type of movable bridge in existence because they open quickly and require relatively little energy to operate.
Brussels - pictures
"Is this it? he's much smaller than i thought! Indeed, the pissing boy called Mannekin pis is the ideal national symbol for a country that is also very small and absurd. In 2007, for example, the guy did not pee for one day, with a sign warning for a prostate cancer. His suit is changed a few times per month, always by a guy called Jean-Marc." you can see all of his "costumes"
Schaerbeek cherries macerate in two-year old lambic for 5 to 6 months. 30% of young lambic added beofre bottling causes refermentation. basically it has cherries. It had an interestingtaste... pretty sour, kinda tasted more like wine than beer... but it was obviously really bubbly like beer.
This is like Belgium's Eiffel tower: its outside of the centre of the city, you have to pay a lot to enter, it looks the same up close as it does from a distance, but you go there anyway because you think you have to. The atomium was built for the world exhibition in 1958 when everybody still believed that the future was bright and that atomic energy would save the world. The nine balls represent an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. You can go from ball to ball inside, on long moving staircases."
Grand Place Grote Markt
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Belgium - Bruges
The last city I went to on my trip was Bruges - the venice of the north!
In my opinion it was more fun than venice and in some parts prettier!
I wandered around this medieval city for a little while ... it had cute little cobblestone streets and old churchs, buildings, and houses everywhere. I think they receive something liek 3 million tourists a year... and it only has a population of 100,000!
I ended up renting a bike.. which was acutally kinda scary. Bicycles just rode in the street with cars in whatever direction and I always felt liek I was goign to get run over... and it was especially disturbing bec I didn't have a helmet. Anyways, my bike made it a lot of fun. I biked to this nearby city called Damme, which was about 5 km away. I biked along this nice little canal and it was such a nice day ... lot of fun. Damme is where part of the movie Girl with a Pearl Earring (w/ scarlett johanssen) was filmed ... so thats pretty much why I went there even tho I never saw the movie hahaha. But it was a really nice quiet small town. I saw a lot of windmills on the way, which is odd bec. my book said they are dutch... ( also i like how i saw no windmills while I was actually in the netherlands)
Anyways, I took some really nice pictures in both cities - it was such a nice day and everything was so pretty! Bruges also has canals everywhere but I didn't take a canal tour bec. it was just tacky. People also take these little horse drawn carriages around the city (form my guide book: check out the horse fountain. Have you noticed that the animals carry bags for their droppings? people used to think this was hilarious, but we got used to the idea and now we're just happy that there's no horse shit on the street. its better for the lace-and-chocolate business too) I climbed this bell tower... as usual and saw out over the city. OH and then I the chance to "touch christ's blood" at this one random church. You go into the church is holding this chalice with a few drops of his blood apprently and you make a donation and touch it. The little cylinder was taken on a crusade to Jerusalem in the 12th century, and true catholics believe that it is filled with Jesus' blood. Every day, the shiny cylinder is taken out of its safe and put on a pillow to be worshipped. The really really true believers are convinced that this is the moment when the blood actually changes from fixed to fluid. Scientists, on the other hand, established that it's a matter of temperature changes... WEIRD.
And finally I went to this place where Beguines once lived ... it is now declared a UNESCO heritage site. Feminism in flanders was born around the year 1200. A group of religious women got a bit mystical in their beliefs - getting married to Jesus and things like that - and the catholic church wanted to bury them alive. The women (called beguins) thought otherwise: they started their own independent communites all over flanders. It really wasn't that impressive. It just has a lot of daffodils and seems kinda creepy.
Oh yeah, I also had these pancakes at this place my book recommended and said "was the best place in the world to get pancakes" It was the thin kind and came with butter and brown sugar... and I got this traditional pancake drink called cidre which made it taste even better!
So then the next morning I got up at 5AM and caught a train back to brussels and I was supposed to catch a coach back to this small airport at 715... But bec. I wasn't in the UK... the bus didn'tcome until like 45 minutes late, nobody queued up and I was not happy. People were pushign their way on the bus. and i was espeically irritated bec I ALREAYD HAD MY TICKET and i was supposed to have LEFT 45 MINUTES AGO!!!! I didn't get on the first bus , but another once came like a minute later. But by that time I was alreayd too late to catch my flight bec it was so late. It was SO irritated. My flight was at 9:15 but I got to the airport at about 9:00. So i met these two girls who were form the US and studying abroad in London and Spain... they also missed their flights. We were put on the waitlist for the later flight back to London that day (AT 10 PM!!!!!) the flight was full so we were even gambling getting on that flight back. THere were talks about taking eurostar back to london (160 quid) OR taking a train to Lille, a train to calais, and then a ferry to dover, and then a coach back to london. WONDERFUL. I wasn't about to do that, so I stayed in the airport with this girl (who ended up being my fraternity hahaha) from missouri FOR 12 HOURSSSSSSS. I think what made it worse was there were 2 cafes and 1 store in the WHOLE AIRPORT. I was going out of my mind with boredom, but I couldn't waste any more money to go back into burssels (11 euro!) All I ate that day was a 4 euro sandwhich. If i didn't make that 10 pm flight I dont' know what I would have done.
So anyways, yeah I made the flight along with 4 hours that missed the flight as well. While we were about to land, the pilot is liketheres heavy fog, we may have to land somewhere int he east midlands. I was NOT pleased, but luckily things cleared up and we landed in stansted at around 11 something with a slight delay. I had to change my ticket on the bus I booked back to London victoria. I Got bac kto victoria and of course the tube wasn't running so i had to figure out how the night bus system worked... after about an hour of that I FINALLY made it back to my lovely flat and was never SO HAPPY in my LIFE to be back!
So, in the end, Belgium was fun... lots of "special" experiences.
In my opinion it was more fun than venice and in some parts prettier!
I wandered around this medieval city for a little while ... it had cute little cobblestone streets and old churchs, buildings, and houses everywhere. I think they receive something liek 3 million tourists a year... and it only has a population of 100,000!
I ended up renting a bike.. which was acutally kinda scary. Bicycles just rode in the street with cars in whatever direction and I always felt liek I was goign to get run over... and it was especially disturbing bec I didn't have a helmet. Anyways, my bike made it a lot of fun. I biked to this nearby city called Damme, which was about 5 km away. I biked along this nice little canal and it was such a nice day ... lot of fun. Damme is where part of the movie Girl with a Pearl Earring (w/ scarlett johanssen) was filmed ... so thats pretty much why I went there even tho I never saw the movie hahaha. But it was a really nice quiet small town. I saw a lot of windmills on the way, which is odd bec. my book said they are dutch... ( also i like how i saw no windmills while I was actually in the netherlands)
Anyways, I took some really nice pictures in both cities - it was such a nice day and everything was so pretty! Bruges also has canals everywhere but I didn't take a canal tour bec. it was just tacky. People also take these little horse drawn carriages around the city (form my guide book: check out the horse fountain. Have you noticed that the animals carry bags for their droppings? people used to think this was hilarious, but we got used to the idea and now we're just happy that there's no horse shit on the street. its better for the lace-and-chocolate business too) I climbed this bell tower... as usual and saw out over the city. OH and then I the chance to "touch christ's blood" at this one random church. You go into the church is holding this chalice with a few drops of his blood apprently and you make a donation and touch it. The little cylinder was taken on a crusade to Jerusalem in the 12th century, and true catholics believe that it is filled with Jesus' blood. Every day, the shiny cylinder is taken out of its safe and put on a pillow to be worshipped. The really really true believers are convinced that this is the moment when the blood actually changes from fixed to fluid. Scientists, on the other hand, established that it's a matter of temperature changes... WEIRD.
And finally I went to this place where Beguines once lived ... it is now declared a UNESCO heritage site. Feminism in flanders was born around the year 1200. A group of religious women got a bit mystical in their beliefs - getting married to Jesus and things like that - and the catholic church wanted to bury them alive. The women (called beguins) thought otherwise: they started their own independent communites all over flanders. It really wasn't that impressive. It just has a lot of daffodils and seems kinda creepy.
Oh yeah, I also had these pancakes at this place my book recommended and said "was the best place in the world to get pancakes" It was the thin kind and came with butter and brown sugar... and I got this traditional pancake drink called cidre which made it taste even better!
So then the next morning I got up at 5AM and caught a train back to brussels and I was supposed to catch a coach back to this small airport at 715... But bec. I wasn't in the UK... the bus didn'tcome until like 45 minutes late, nobody queued up and I was not happy. People were pushign their way on the bus. and i was espeically irritated bec I ALREAYD HAD MY TICKET and i was supposed to have LEFT 45 MINUTES AGO!!!! I didn't get on the first bus , but another once came like a minute later. But by that time I was alreayd too late to catch my flight bec it was so late. It was SO irritated. My flight was at 9:15 but I got to the airport at about 9:00. So i met these two girls who were form the US and studying abroad in London and Spain... they also missed their flights. We were put on the waitlist for the later flight back to London that day (AT 10 PM!!!!!) the flight was full so we were even gambling getting on that flight back. THere were talks about taking eurostar back to london (160 quid) OR taking a train to Lille, a train to calais, and then a ferry to dover, and then a coach back to london. WONDERFUL. I wasn't about to do that, so I stayed in the airport with this girl (who ended up being my fraternity hahaha) from missouri FOR 12 HOURSSSSSSS. I think what made it worse was there were 2 cafes and 1 store in the WHOLE AIRPORT. I was going out of my mind with boredom, but I couldn't waste any more money to go back into burssels (11 euro!) All I ate that day was a 4 euro sandwhich. If i didn't make that 10 pm flight I dont' know what I would have done.
So anyways, yeah I made the flight along with 4 hours that missed the flight as well. While we were about to land, the pilot is liketheres heavy fog, we may have to land somewhere int he east midlands. I was NOT pleased, but luckily things cleared up and we landed in stansted at around 11 something with a slight delay. I had to change my ticket on the bus I booked back to London victoria. I Got bac kto victoria and of course the tube wasn't running so i had to figure out how the night bus system worked... after about an hour of that I FINALLY made it back to my lovely flat and was never SO HAPPY in my LIFE to be back!
So, in the end, Belgium was fun... lots of "special" experiences.
The Netherlands - Rotterdam
So, the next day I had booked a train to go to Rotterdam on this high speed train company called Thalys (which also runs thru to amsterdam, come cities in germany, and paris) Yeah, so I missed my train because I forgot to change the time on my phone which I was using as an alarm clock. but I only had to pay a little to catch a later train and I got put into first class... so that was cool. They served me lunch at least and I got a nice comfy chair!
It only took about 1.5 hours to get to Rotterdam. Because I had taken a later train I was only there for about 5-6 hours I think. So i bought a day pass for transportation and went to this art museum that had some really interesting stuff... both modern and ancient. Probably most notable were works by Dali, Money, Degas... + more
Dutch is such a strange language...
But anyways, after that I walked through this Park to the main attraction of the city which is this big tower called Euromast. Its acutally not THAT big... smaller than a lot of the other towers I've gone up before. It over looked the city so I got to see everything. Rotterdam is known as a big port city (and they actually ahve a really big rivalry with Amsterdam. Rotterdam is the 2nd biggest city in the netherlands, and amsterdam is the largest) There is this rotating elevator type thing that lets you see the city as it raises you higher and higher.
After that, I just wandered around, found my way to these cool little apartmnets called the overblaak development which is basically these cube shaped apartments. A picture would probably describe them better than I could.
Overall, I didn't have enough time to really get any sort of impression ... I was so rushed... but Rotterdam seems like a decent city, a lot less touristy than Amsterdam is. It is konwn for its architecture as well because it was bombed flat during one of the world wars so a lot of it was rebuilt recently.
Took the same train back to Brussels and then made my way onto Bruges that night...
It only took about 1.5 hours to get to Rotterdam. Because I had taken a later train I was only there for about 5-6 hours I think. So i bought a day pass for transportation and went to this art museum that had some really interesting stuff... both modern and ancient. Probably most notable were works by Dali, Money, Degas... + more
Dutch is such a strange language...
But anyways, after that I walked through this Park to the main attraction of the city which is this big tower called Euromast. Its acutally not THAT big... smaller than a lot of the other towers I've gone up before. It over looked the city so I got to see everything. Rotterdam is known as a big port city (and they actually ahve a really big rivalry with Amsterdam. Rotterdam is the 2nd biggest city in the netherlands, and amsterdam is the largest) There is this rotating elevator type thing that lets you see the city as it raises you higher and higher.
After that, I just wandered around, found my way to these cool little apartmnets called the overblaak development which is basically these cube shaped apartments. A picture would probably describe them better than I could.
Overall, I didn't have enough time to really get any sort of impression ... I was so rushed... but Rotterdam seems like a decent city, a lot less touristy than Amsterdam is. It is konwn for its architecture as well because it was bombed flat during one of the world wars so a lot of it was rebuilt recently.
Took the same train back to Brussels and then made my way onto Bruges that night...
Belgium - Brussels
So I planned a trip to Belgium that would be the only trip I went on by myself (just bec. i wanted to have that experience) It was plagued with misfortune especially as far as FLIGHTS are concerned...
So I had a late flight out to Brussels, but of course it is delayed bec. there is "fog all over europe" I was really mad because I had planned out my buses from the airport (bec i was taking ryanair and they fly to airports that are small and far from city center) and the last one was at like 11:15. My plane is delayed perhaps like 1-2 hours. So with the 1 hour time ddifference I'm going to miss the last bus from the airport... which is kind of a problem! Not the mention the fact that I already paid 20 euros for a return ticket on the bus! So we finally leave London and we can't LAND in the airport we were supposed to but instead we land in Liege... which is east of Brussels. There are several other flighs that are due to land. Ryanair says "we have coaches to take you to the other airport" I run to get on the bus but its already full. Its REALLY CHAOTIC, people yelling in French, flemish, spanish, english, etc etc etc Its 1 am, I don't know how i'm goign to get to my hostel now since even if i get BACK to the original airport I have NO way of getting into burssels form there bec ther are no more buses until 6 am! I try to get on this ONE bus goign into burssels but they are full. So, luckily I meet these 3 chinese people who are actually studying in the UK who were on my flight. We talk for awhile and basically just figure the only way we're goign to get into town is by taxi. We get this other lady who needs to go and we tkae a taxi to brussels for 200 EURO!!! Luckily the lady paid more, so it only cost us 35 euro. It was only about a 50 minute drive...
So I finally make it into my hostel bed at 3 am 35 euros down the drain.
ANYWAYS, I really had a fun time in Brussels. Its such a random city.
The first day, I just did a few things like saw the city center or "markt" and walked around that area. I saw the famous "mannekin pis" which is basically a fountain of a little boy peeing. Apparently he put out a fire with his pee. HAHA Its a lot smaller than I thought, but it was still pretty funny. After I saw that I had a belgian waffle (yum!) and then went to this national art museum of belgium... blahhh Walked around the city center to shop for chocolate and I went to this really expensive place called Neuhaus and bought 250g of chocolate for like 23 euro. hahaha But at least I know it is quality. There are an obscene amount of chocolate shops all boasting to be the best chocolate in belgium...
later that night I met up with those chinese people I met the night before, and we went out with these spanish people... some argentinian and an austrailian. it was pretty fun ... i got to practice my spanish although they spoke better English than I did spanish. hahahha
My second day in Brussels, I first bought a day pass on the metro and headed out to the "Atomium" This is what my guide had to say about it : This is like Belgium's Eiffel tower: its outside of the centre of the city, you have to pay a lot to enter, it looks the same up close as it does from a distance, but you go there anyway because you think you have to. The atomium was built for the world exhibition in 1958 when everybody still believed that the future was bright and that atomic energy would save the world. The nine balls represent an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. You can go from ball to ball inside, on long moving staircases." I WOULD go somewhere that had something to do with chemistry...
Then I walked over to this museum for comics, because I'm pretty sure TinTin, the Smurfs, and Asterix are all belgian creations. I didn't acutally go in bec it was really expesnvie, so i just browsed the extensive bookstore.
After that, I went over to this unique brewery called Cantillon. So background: This is like the only brewery left that makes this special kind of beer called Lambic and gueze. They also make these odd "fruit" beers by infusing fruits like cherries, apricots, grapes and raspberries. Legend has it they use bacteria that is only available in the Brussels area, which is what makes these beers so unique. Belgium is really known for their beers .. there are some impressive stats about how many different types of beers they have but I forgot. Anyways, I got to try Kriek: Schaerbeek cherries macerated in two-year old lambic for 5 to 6 months. 30% of young lambic added beofre bottling causes refermentation. basically it has cherries. It had an interesting taste... pretty sour, kinda tasted more like wine than beer... but it was obviously really bubbly. Then I tried the Gueuze: Blend of 1,2, and 3 year old lambic, fermented in the bottle. Can be kept for a long time. again, it tasted pretty sour. from the guidebook: "You will probably think a real gueuze tastes rotten, but that's because you don't' know anything about beer, my friend"
pretty awesome
Ok after that I went to one of the famous Frites stands and got some fries! Belgians are REALLY big on their fries... like they REALLY like that. They come with neat sauces... i tried "americain" which tasted kind of meaty... and spicy. I wouldn't be surprised if it had some sort of raw meat origin because there some dish here called steak americain that is like minced raw beef... hmmm suspiciious. I wanted to get mussels at this one stand but I got there too late and they closed. Oh yeah, and they installed these public urinals against this really old and dirty church ... and i peed there bec. my guidebook told me about it HAHAH "In Italy or Poland, you might end up in jail if you would pee against the church, but we installed a public urinal here to "drain the potatoes". Welcome to Belgium!
So in brussels, I ate delicious waffles, fries, and chocolates... had some unique fruit beers, saw public paintings of tintin all over the city, peed against a church, climbed these massive balls resembling an iron atom, and saw a glorified peeing boy. Welcome to belgium indeed!
So I had a late flight out to Brussels, but of course it is delayed bec. there is "fog all over europe" I was really mad because I had planned out my buses from the airport (bec i was taking ryanair and they fly to airports that are small and far from city center) and the last one was at like 11:15. My plane is delayed perhaps like 1-2 hours. So with the 1 hour time ddifference I'm going to miss the last bus from the airport... which is kind of a problem! Not the mention the fact that I already paid 20 euros for a return ticket on the bus! So we finally leave London and we can't LAND in the airport we were supposed to but instead we land in Liege... which is east of Brussels. There are several other flighs that are due to land. Ryanair says "we have coaches to take you to the other airport" I run to get on the bus but its already full. Its REALLY CHAOTIC, people yelling in French, flemish, spanish, english, etc etc etc Its 1 am, I don't know how i'm goign to get to my hostel now since even if i get BACK to the original airport I have NO way of getting into burssels form there bec ther are no more buses until 6 am! I try to get on this ONE bus goign into burssels but they are full. So, luckily I meet these 3 chinese people who are actually studying in the UK who were on my flight. We talk for awhile and basically just figure the only way we're goign to get into town is by taxi. We get this other lady who needs to go and we tkae a taxi to brussels for 200 EURO!!! Luckily the lady paid more, so it only cost us 35 euro. It was only about a 50 minute drive...
So I finally make it into my hostel bed at 3 am 35 euros down the drain.
ANYWAYS, I really had a fun time in Brussels. Its such a random city.
The first day, I just did a few things like saw the city center or "markt" and walked around that area. I saw the famous "mannekin pis" which is basically a fountain of a little boy peeing. Apparently he put out a fire with his pee. HAHA Its a lot smaller than I thought, but it was still pretty funny. After I saw that I had a belgian waffle (yum!) and then went to this national art museum of belgium... blahhh Walked around the city center to shop for chocolate and I went to this really expensive place called Neuhaus and bought 250g of chocolate for like 23 euro. hahaha But at least I know it is quality. There are an obscene amount of chocolate shops all boasting to be the best chocolate in belgium...
later that night I met up with those chinese people I met the night before, and we went out with these spanish people... some argentinian and an austrailian. it was pretty fun ... i got to practice my spanish although they spoke better English than I did spanish. hahahha
My second day in Brussels, I first bought a day pass on the metro and headed out to the "Atomium" This is what my guide had to say about it : This is like Belgium's Eiffel tower: its outside of the centre of the city, you have to pay a lot to enter, it looks the same up close as it does from a distance, but you go there anyway because you think you have to. The atomium was built for the world exhibition in 1958 when everybody still believed that the future was bright and that atomic energy would save the world. The nine balls represent an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. You can go from ball to ball inside, on long moving staircases." I WOULD go somewhere that had something to do with chemistry...
Then I walked over to this museum for comics, because I'm pretty sure TinTin, the Smurfs, and Asterix are all belgian creations. I didn't acutally go in bec it was really expesnvie, so i just browsed the extensive bookstore.
After that, I went over to this unique brewery called Cantillon. So background: This is like the only brewery left that makes this special kind of beer called Lambic and gueze. They also make these odd "fruit" beers by infusing fruits like cherries, apricots, grapes and raspberries. Legend has it they use bacteria that is only available in the Brussels area, which is what makes these beers so unique. Belgium is really known for their beers .. there are some impressive stats about how many different types of beers they have but I forgot. Anyways, I got to try Kriek: Schaerbeek cherries macerated in two-year old lambic for 5 to 6 months. 30% of young lambic added beofre bottling causes refermentation. basically it has cherries. It had an interesting taste... pretty sour, kinda tasted more like wine than beer... but it was obviously really bubbly. Then I tried the Gueuze: Blend of 1,2, and 3 year old lambic, fermented in the bottle. Can be kept for a long time. again, it tasted pretty sour. from the guidebook: "You will probably think a real gueuze tastes rotten, but that's because you don't' know anything about beer, my friend"
pretty awesome
Ok after that I went to one of the famous Frites stands and got some fries! Belgians are REALLY big on their fries... like they REALLY like that. They come with neat sauces... i tried "americain" which tasted kind of meaty... and spicy. I wouldn't be surprised if it had some sort of raw meat origin because there some dish here called steak americain that is like minced raw beef... hmmm suspiciious. I wanted to get mussels at this one stand but I got there too late and they closed. Oh yeah, and they installed these public urinals against this really old and dirty church ... and i peed there bec. my guidebook told me about it HAHAH "In Italy or Poland, you might end up in jail if you would pee against the church, but we installed a public urinal here to "drain the potatoes". Welcome to Belgium!
So in brussels, I ate delicious waffles, fries, and chocolates... had some unique fruit beers, saw public paintings of tintin all over the city, peed against a church, climbed these massive balls resembling an iron atom, and saw a glorified peeing boy. Welcome to belgium indeed!
More on London
Things I did:
Hyde Park ( the new Princess Diana memorial fountain is lame...its just a stream of water going in an "endless" circle)
Wellington Arch
Portobello Market
British Museum (they have the terracotta warriers here as a temporary exhibit. HA i already saw them!)
St. Paul's ( second time climbing to the top!)
Chinese New Year in Leicester Square/Trafalger Sq (which was CRAZY busy... probably about 400,000 people came)
Had Korean Food (at "bibimbap cafe" and I made kimchi chiggae! satisfied my cravings = )
Hyde Park ( the new Princess Diana memorial fountain is lame...its just a stream of water going in an "endless" circle)
Wellington Arch
Portobello Market
British Museum (they have the terracotta warriers here as a temporary exhibit. HA i already saw them!)
St. Paul's ( second time climbing to the top!)
Chinese New Year in Leicester Square/Trafalger Sq (which was CRAZY busy... probably about 400,000 people came)
Had Korean Food (at "bibimbap cafe" and I made kimchi chiggae! satisfied my cravings = )
Dublin
Our first trip out of the country!
It was extrememly cold throughout the whole journey... "land of eternal winter" is what we learned Ireland is also called. All thoughout our trip we ran in to obnoxious Italians who were in Dublin for hte weekend bec of a big rubgy match against ireland. They took over our hostel and were loud = (
Anyways, our hostel was decent, some austrailian came in drunk and gave amy a us dollar. we were confused.
The next day, we did all of the touristy stuff, like Trinity College which houses the Book of Kells. We went to the National Museum which was not that impressive except for the awesome bog bodies...which are strangely preserved bodies due just to chance. Walked by St. Stephan's green to Dublin Castle and had a really well led tour. Dublin castle is a working government building but was a real castle at one point in Dublin's history. This is the building where the new presidents get inaugurated. also, i didn't realize that ireland has a female president.
After, we walked over to St. Patrick's cathedral which was also very impressive.
For dinner I had Irish stew with lamb... and a LOT of potatoes. after we just sort of went bar hopping and came back to our hostel.
The next day we headed over to the Guinness storehouse which was on the other side of town. We took the self-guided tour where they just told us about the process of making it. It was kind of dumb, but at least it came with a free beer at the top where you could overlook the city! We did some shopping and by then it was time to head back to the airport!
All throughout my stay I was reminded of James Joyce... which brings back amusing memories of reading his book "the Dubliners" in high school. oyyy lets just say he wasn't exactly a wonderful view. but i took a picture with his statue nevertheless.
I wish I had taken a bus tour of the rest of the country, but we didn't have enough time. We sort of planned this trip last minute and so many of the hostels were booked ... probably bec of the stupid rugby match. Perhaps I'll make my way back another time.. .when its not winter.
It was extrememly cold throughout the whole journey... "land of eternal winter" is what we learned Ireland is also called. All thoughout our trip we ran in to obnoxious Italians who were in Dublin for hte weekend bec of a big rubgy match against ireland. They took over our hostel and were loud = (
Anyways, our hostel was decent, some austrailian came in drunk and gave amy a us dollar. we were confused.
The next day, we did all of the touristy stuff, like Trinity College which houses the Book of Kells. We went to the National Museum which was not that impressive except for the awesome bog bodies...which are strangely preserved bodies due just to chance. Walked by St. Stephan's green to Dublin Castle and had a really well led tour. Dublin castle is a working government building but was a real castle at one point in Dublin's history. This is the building where the new presidents get inaugurated. also, i didn't realize that ireland has a female president.
After, we walked over to St. Patrick's cathedral which was also very impressive.
For dinner I had Irish stew with lamb... and a LOT of potatoes. after we just sort of went bar hopping and came back to our hostel.
The next day we headed over to the Guinness storehouse which was on the other side of town. We took the self-guided tour where they just told us about the process of making it. It was kind of dumb, but at least it came with a free beer at the top where you could overlook the city! We did some shopping and by then it was time to head back to the airport!
All throughout my stay I was reminded of James Joyce... which brings back amusing memories of reading his book "the Dubliners" in high school. oyyy lets just say he wasn't exactly a wonderful view. but i took a picture with his statue nevertheless.
I wish I had taken a bus tour of the rest of the country, but we didn't have enough time. We sort of planned this trip last minute and so many of the hostels were booked ... probably bec of the stupid rugby match. Perhaps I'll make my way back another time.. .when its not winter.
Random Stuff
Just some random things I did other than my main trips.
Took a class field trip to Kew Gardens... the Royal botanical gardens. it was FREEZING and the worst fieldtrip ever. but at least it was free! My prof just walked around, pointed at plants and talked about them. meanwhile, we couldn't hear and I didn't bring any gloves or anything so my fingers were about to fall off. Everyone was really frustrated by the end and half the people just sort of gave up. My prof said we were having a "minitest" in that class..and then when we were taking it he said it was open note! ARGHH
Went to visit the houses of parliament.. and we acutally got to sit in on some house of commons session. It was honestly quite boring! There was so much security.. they installed this like bullet proof screen between the visitors seats and the speakers.
Browsed a lot of the street markets which are close to me... brick lane, spitalfields, and petticoat lane. SO busy on sundays and nothing worth buying... but probably a good place to go if you need to get cheap luggage...
Somewhere in the middle of all of this my computer broke... and it didn't work for a two week period. Eventually I reformatted it and now its in good working order. I don't think I even had any viruses, i just turned my computer on one morning and it said I was missing a system file. wonderful! I 'm never getting a dell again. I say apple is the way to go!
Took a class field trip to Kew Gardens... the Royal botanical gardens. it was FREEZING and the worst fieldtrip ever. but at least it was free! My prof just walked around, pointed at plants and talked about them. meanwhile, we couldn't hear and I didn't bring any gloves or anything so my fingers were about to fall off. Everyone was really frustrated by the end and half the people just sort of gave up. My prof said we were having a "minitest" in that class..and then when we were taking it he said it was open note! ARGHH
Went to visit the houses of parliament.. and we acutally got to sit in on some house of commons session. It was honestly quite boring! There was so much security.. they installed this like bullet proof screen between the visitors seats and the speakers.
Browsed a lot of the street markets which are close to me... brick lane, spitalfields, and petticoat lane. SO busy on sundays and nothing worth buying... but probably a good place to go if you need to get cheap luggage...
Somewhere in the middle of all of this my computer broke... and it didn't work for a two week period. Eventually I reformatted it and now its in good working order. I don't think I even had any viruses, i just turned my computer on one morning and it said I was missing a system file. wonderful! I 'm never getting a dell again. I say apple is the way to go!
Leeds Castle
Updating again... too bad this is REALLY behind! I'll just make this brief!
We bought these tickets from national express that are like a combined ticket for transport and entry into leeds Castle. We got there and walked through the castle gardens for a while. It was actually a REALLY nice day even ifi t was cold... The gardens has a "duckery" so there are hundreds of birds everywhere... like peacocks, ducks, swans... and probably more. I got REALLY close to a lot of the peacocks it was kind of disturbing.
The castle itself served more as a living quarters than an acutal defense fortress thing... So inside it was all redone by this lady who inherited it somehow. I don't really remember who, but some famous royalty stayed in the castle at one point or another... i think i remember something about henry VII.
The castle grounds also has an aviary... with EVEN MORE birds (all of this with birds is especially amusing to liz and me bec. amy is scared of birds - so we had a lot of fun with that...) The aviary had some endangered birds which i thought was strange. They had toucans, parrots, macaws, weird birds i've never heard of. Ok so after that they had this little labyrinth made out of shrubs. It was really fun... we got lost for a while.. but i finally got to the center and had to guide the others to the end. losers! All of the little kids were beating us!
That was about it... it really wasn't THAT exciting, just something pretty to look at.
We bought these tickets from national express that are like a combined ticket for transport and entry into leeds Castle. We got there and walked through the castle gardens for a while. It was actually a REALLY nice day even ifi t was cold... The gardens has a "duckery" so there are hundreds of birds everywhere... like peacocks, ducks, swans... and probably more. I got REALLY close to a lot of the peacocks it was kind of disturbing.
The castle itself served more as a living quarters than an acutal defense fortress thing... So inside it was all redone by this lady who inherited it somehow. I don't really remember who, but some famous royalty stayed in the castle at one point or another... i think i remember something about henry VII.
The castle grounds also has an aviary... with EVEN MORE birds (all of this with birds is especially amusing to liz and me bec. amy is scared of birds - so we had a lot of fun with that...) The aviary had some endangered birds which i thought was strange. They had toucans, parrots, macaws, weird birds i've never heard of. Ok so after that they had this little labyrinth made out of shrubs. It was really fun... we got lost for a while.. but i finally got to the center and had to guide the others to the end. losers! All of the little kids were beating us!
That was about it... it really wasn't THAT exciting, just something pretty to look at.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Oxford
So originally we had planned to go to Leeds Castle on Friday... Our coach left at 9am, so we left our flat at 8 to get to Victoria Coach station. Stupid district line didn't have a train in the right direction for like over 10 minutes and it was commuting time so the doors stayed open EXTRA long at each station. Plus, victoria normally takes 30 min + from where we are. So we get off the tube and RUN to the coach station, but we already missed our coach. So we had to pay 3 pounds to change our ticket for saturday. Then we ended up buying tickets to Oxford.
We took the "oxford express" there... it only took an hour, maybe a little more. Oxford doesn't really have THAT much to do there except for the university. There are lots of old buildings everywhere, but most of them are associated with the university. Oxford university consists of i think over 40 "colleges." You have to PAY to get into each of them, so we only went into the most famous one: Christ Church college. This is where scenes from Harry Potter are shot! We couldn't go into the Dining Hall, which is like the "great hall" in harry potter and also has some relation to Alice in Wonderland? But everywhere you go there are students and some portions of the college visitors aren't allowed in.
We had a cornish pasty for lunch (yummy!) and then went to the oxford university National History Museum which had random stuffed animals you could touch, dinosaurs, random skeletons... Then we went to this museum that was attached called Pitt Rivers. It had REALLY weird things, like shrunken heads from So. America, mutilated heads, Japanese drama masks, totem poles, voodoo dolls. weird, but kind of cool. I like how Amy spotted this guy that just graduated from Pacific randomly riding a bike on the street ... i guess he's doing some post-grad work in oxford. RANDOM.
Then we walked over to Oxford castle, which is a newly opened tourist attraction. It was originally built as a castle, then converted to a jail (until 1996) and recently opened to the public. We had a tour guide (who called herself our "warden") who told us random stories about how the castle and prison were used. I learned that a crypt isn't where you bury people, its just where you store them before you bury them... and I learned that the staircases twist in a clockwise way to make it easier to defend the castle and harder for the offense to attack because if they were Right handed the positioning would be off if they tried to use a sword or something. Anyways, we saw some random prison punishments like this stair stepper and this CRANK people had to turn... kind of disturbing.
By then it was around 6, so we got on the bus and back to London.
We took the "oxford express" there... it only took an hour, maybe a little more. Oxford doesn't really have THAT much to do there except for the university. There are lots of old buildings everywhere, but most of them are associated with the university. Oxford university consists of i think over 40 "colleges." You have to PAY to get into each of them, so we only went into the most famous one: Christ Church college. This is where scenes from Harry Potter are shot! We couldn't go into the Dining Hall, which is like the "great hall" in harry potter and also has some relation to Alice in Wonderland? But everywhere you go there are students and some portions of the college visitors aren't allowed in.
We had a cornish pasty for lunch (yummy!) and then went to the oxford university National History Museum which had random stuffed animals you could touch, dinosaurs, random skeletons... Then we went to this museum that was attached called Pitt Rivers. It had REALLY weird things, like shrunken heads from So. America, mutilated heads, Japanese drama masks, totem poles, voodoo dolls. weird, but kind of cool. I like how Amy spotted this guy that just graduated from Pacific randomly riding a bike on the street ... i guess he's doing some post-grad work in oxford. RANDOM.
Then we walked over to Oxford castle, which is a newly opened tourist attraction. It was originally built as a castle, then converted to a jail (until 1996) and recently opened to the public. We had a tour guide (who called herself our "warden") who told us random stories about how the castle and prison were used. I learned that a crypt isn't where you bury people, its just where you store them before you bury them... and I learned that the staircases twist in a clockwise way to make it easier to defend the castle and harder for the offense to attack because if they were Right handed the positioning would be off if they tried to use a sword or something. Anyways, we saw some random prison punishments like this stair stepper and this CRANK people had to turn... kind of disturbing.
By then it was around 6, so we got on the bus and back to London.
Jan 23 - 24
So, on Wednesday after our class we went to Leicester sq. to buy some tickets for a show. We ended up buying tickets for Avenue Q for only 16.25 pounds, normally like 40. We walked over to trafalger sq. and took A LOT of pictures with the lions hahaha. Walked along the strand until we got to Somerset House. They had this skating rank set up, so we did that for an hour. It was really pretty and the even though the ice was starting to melt, it was really nice! But then some guy fell and hit his head, the paramedics came, blood was on the ice, so... we left. We looked at some exhibits in Somerset House, then made our way to London School of Economics (for Amy).
Had dinner and then went back to Leicester Sq. They were having a premiere for the Bucket List so we just randomly stayed. After like an hour of standing in a crowd of pushy people, we saw Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman! It was really exciting and I almost fell over because people were TOO excited.
After that we went to our show which was nearby. Avenue Q started out in the US and its this play with people that control these Muppets. Its really witty and supposed to be kind of like a parody of lilke the muppets/sesame street? But it was really funny and we had pretty good seats! Meaning not all the way in the furthest balcony.
Thursday night we went to this Bangladeshi restaurant near our school. It was really random... we kind of just wanted Indian food so we all ordered curry, except some "traditional Bangladeshi starter" It was OK... it had some like beans and was spicy... I don't know. The waiter was really nice though and was very confused when we said we were from America. My Lamb curry was REALLY hot , but still good.
Meanwhile, we were planning all of our trips... so stressful!
Had dinner and then went back to Leicester Sq. They were having a premiere for the Bucket List so we just randomly stayed. After like an hour of standing in a crowd of pushy people, we saw Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman! It was really exciting and I almost fell over because people were TOO excited.
After that we went to our show which was nearby. Avenue Q started out in the US and its this play with people that control these Muppets. Its really witty and supposed to be kind of like a parody of lilke the muppets/sesame street? But it was really funny and we had pretty good seats! Meaning not all the way in the furthest balcony.
Thursday night we went to this Bangladeshi restaurant near our school. It was really random... we kind of just wanted Indian food so we all ordered curry, except some "traditional Bangladeshi starter" It was OK... it had some like beans and was spicy... I don't know. The waiter was really nice though and was very confused when we said we were from America. My Lamb curry was REALLY hot , but still good.
Meanwhile, we were planning all of our trips... so stressful!
Oy, its been a really long time...
Starting with the weekend of the 19th,
Since the weather was so horrible we decided to go to some museums for the day. We went over to south kensington, and first went to the National History Museum. It was actually really entertaining even if it was full of little kids. I especially enjoyed the "human bio" section hahaha The main attraction there is the dinosaur exhibit.. which was kind of lame because I dont even think all of the dinosaurs were real fossils. There was this large animated T-rex that seemed to enchant a lot of people.
After that, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It had a lot of RANDOM stuff from paintings to sculptures to parts of random buildings. But I really enjoyed this "plaster room" that had these effigies where kings were buried, parts of old cathedrals, and other random buildings. They also had a Korean exhibit.. but it was just VASES and bronzework, nothing I hadn't seen before.
After all of that, we were pretty tired, so we just came back to our flat, went out to dinner and went out for a drink near Brick Lane / Spitalfields.
Sunday I had to do a lab write up (Which i got an A- in... apparently in the British grading system a "B" is equivalent to an American "A". go figure. so whatever, i'm pretty happy with that and makes me feel like pacific actually taught me how to be an adequate "biologist" heh) Honestly, this doesn't feel like school because I hardly go to class! I did some calculations, and i enjoy how I can get straight C's (which im pretty sure isn't possible) and still graduage magna cum laude, and not be rejected from ucsf =)
Starting with the weekend of the 19th,
Since the weather was so horrible we decided to go to some museums for the day. We went over to south kensington, and first went to the National History Museum. It was actually really entertaining even if it was full of little kids. I especially enjoyed the "human bio" section hahaha The main attraction there is the dinosaur exhibit.. which was kind of lame because I dont even think all of the dinosaurs were real fossils. There was this large animated T-rex that seemed to enchant a lot of people.
After that, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It had a lot of RANDOM stuff from paintings to sculptures to parts of random buildings. But I really enjoyed this "plaster room" that had these effigies where kings were buried, parts of old cathedrals, and other random buildings. They also had a Korean exhibit.. but it was just VASES and bronzework, nothing I hadn't seen before.
After all of that, we were pretty tired, so we just came back to our flat, went out to dinner and went out for a drink near Brick Lane / Spitalfields.
Sunday I had to do a lab write up (Which i got an A- in... apparently in the British grading system a "B" is equivalent to an American "A". go figure. so whatever, i'm pretty happy with that and makes me feel like pacific actually taught me how to be an adequate "biologist" heh) Honestly, this doesn't feel like school because I hardly go to class! I did some calculations, and i enjoy how I can get straight C's (which im pretty sure isn't possible) and still graduage magna cum laude, and not be rejected from ucsf =)
Friday, January 18, 2008
Hello!
So i need to update what I did last weekend.
Liz and I went to the National Gallery because it was really rainy. We looked around for a couple hours and then walked around (in the rain....) We walked across the Thames to the south bank to near the area where the London Eye is and saw it all lit up at night. Walked back and had dinner at a pub and then walked around the Covent garden areas to look at some shops around there. Then we wandered over to Leicestor Square and we randomly waited with a lot of other people for this movie premiere for Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp... so in hopes of seeing him we waited for like an hour... except he left without showing his face. bummer. There were these crazy fans there obsessed with getting his signature and I think they were planning on following him to the afterparty... disturbing. They had pictures of themselves touching his star in Hollywood that they wanted him to sign.
On Friday, i was starting to get sick, so I stayed in most of the day and then later went out and walked across Millenium Bridge from St. Paul's to Tate Modern. I looked around Tate for awhile ... they had some really weird stuff because it is a modern art museum like this 26 foot spider sculpture that was a recent donation to the gallery. They also had this random CRACK running through the bottom floor of the gallery.
Saturday we went shopping on Oxford St. and then made our way through Soho to Chinatown. Bought some stuff at the market (like RICE ... too bad they don't sell short grain) they had korean ramen which tasted especially good since i was sick. We walked over to Picadilly Circus and just looked around and then went back to have dinner in China town.
Sunday I just stayed in because i was sick
Classes are going ok I guess... I had a "practical" in my global change biology class. It was SO LONG and dumb. We weighed pieces of celery and moss to learn about water loss in plants. And in lecture we are learning about tropical rainforest environments ... dumb. My materials class is kind of scary because there are only like 10 of us. I showed up to class one morning and no one was there... not even the teacher SO i thought i was in the wrong place but then my prof showed up and only like 3 people came to class. Her lectures are perhaps the worst I've ever heard. I just hope what I'm learning is useful in dent school... and that I can actually understand it enough to do well on the final. My Spanish class will be easy... considering it IS a beginers course... but she has a different accent than I'm used to since she's from Spain. She has that lisp thing going on as well as other weird nuances (llamas = JJamas, zoo = THou) Lastly, my Geology class... we learned about rocks hahahaha
Anyways, this next week's weather is going to be pretty horrible... there are warnings of flooding all over the country and evertime i look outside its BLACK. That and the fact that it gets dark at 4:30 is pretty depressing. The weather makes me really hesitant about making any plans for travel.. because I dont want to get rained on.
So i need to update what I did last weekend.
Liz and I went to the National Gallery because it was really rainy. We looked around for a couple hours and then walked around (in the rain....) We walked across the Thames to the south bank to near the area where the London Eye is and saw it all lit up at night. Walked back and had dinner at a pub and then walked around the Covent garden areas to look at some shops around there. Then we wandered over to Leicestor Square and we randomly waited with a lot of other people for this movie premiere for Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp... so in hopes of seeing him we waited for like an hour... except he left without showing his face. bummer. There were these crazy fans there obsessed with getting his signature and I think they were planning on following him to the afterparty... disturbing. They had pictures of themselves touching his star in Hollywood that they wanted him to sign.
On Friday, i was starting to get sick, so I stayed in most of the day and then later went out and walked across Millenium Bridge from St. Paul's to Tate Modern. I looked around Tate for awhile ... they had some really weird stuff because it is a modern art museum like this 26 foot spider sculpture that was a recent donation to the gallery. They also had this random CRACK running through the bottom floor of the gallery.
Saturday we went shopping on Oxford St. and then made our way through Soho to Chinatown. Bought some stuff at the market (like RICE ... too bad they don't sell short grain) they had korean ramen which tasted especially good since i was sick. We walked over to Picadilly Circus and just looked around and then went back to have dinner in China town.
Sunday I just stayed in because i was sick
Classes are going ok I guess... I had a "practical" in my global change biology class. It was SO LONG and dumb. We weighed pieces of celery and moss to learn about water loss in plants. And in lecture we are learning about tropical rainforest environments ... dumb. My materials class is kind of scary because there are only like 10 of us. I showed up to class one morning and no one was there... not even the teacher SO i thought i was in the wrong place but then my prof showed up and only like 3 people came to class. Her lectures are perhaps the worst I've ever heard. I just hope what I'm learning is useful in dent school... and that I can actually understand it enough to do well on the final. My Spanish class will be easy... considering it IS a beginers course... but she has a different accent than I'm used to since she's from Spain. She has that lisp thing going on as well as other weird nuances (llamas = JJamas, zoo = THou) Lastly, my Geology class... we learned about rocks hahahaha
Anyways, this next week's weather is going to be pretty horrible... there are warnings of flooding all over the country and evertime i look outside its BLACK. That and the fact that it gets dark at 4:30 is pretty depressing. The weather makes me really hesitant about making any plans for travel.. because I dont want to get rained on.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
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