Ireland

May 27, 2009 at 9:56 am (Blarney Castle, Cliffs of Moher, Food, hostel, Ireland, Travel)
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Leah and I went to Ireland last week.  We had to take the train to Woking and then catch a bus to the airport, which was not fun because the bus was over a half hour late!  We were worried about getting there on time after that, but it all worked out!  We flew into Cork airport in Ireland. 

As soon as we got to the airport we headed to Doolin.  Now, if we had thought about the long journey we had to take, we probably would have flown in closer to Doolin.  The first bus took three hours, and once we arrived to that station we had to wait three hours for the second bus that would take us to Doolin.  Apparently they do not run very often.  It did give us time to explore the nice little town of Ennis.  The buildings were so colorful!  The only downside is that the stores were so expensive, or else I would have bought something!  We ate at a traditional pub, but the food was pretty normal for a place to eat.  I had chicken curry and it was pretty good! 

Our next bus ride was a bit over an hour long, but we finally arrived to Doolin and to our hostel!  The hostel was Paddy’s Doolin Hostel and I would recommend it if anyone is going!  The owner was French and so amusing!  He let us have the room to ourselves for only two euro more because it was a slow day, he drew us a map to the pier where we could see the cliffs of Moher, and gave us advice on a pub that plays traditional Irish music.  Then he said we could have breakfast in the morning, which he would prepare for us.  The dialogue for the tea was something like this:

“I’ll make the tea at 7, but you probably shouldn’t come down at 7 because it will be too hot.  But if you come down at 7:30 it might be to cold, so you should probably come down around 7:15.”  We were leaving at 8, so it had to be early, but he was insistent on a specific time.  We also got scones!  It was a good breakfast. 

Anyway, on to the most important part of Doolin- The Cliffs of Moher! They were so pretty!  Ireland in general is such a beautiful place.  The sea is right there and you just look on to the cliffs.  During the day you can take a ferry over to the cliffs, but we didn’t really want to do that.  I don’t think words can explain what I thought of the place.  It was so green, full of cows, and space.  I was so happy that I went!  If you like scenery, it is for you!  The town is very nice and quaint, with colorful buildings and nice people.  I didn’t want to leave!   

The next day we made the journey back to Cork where we had to take another bus to Blarney Castle.  On the bus in Doolin we were happy to meet people from Ohio!  It was only nice because I had met tons of people from New York, California, Wisconsin, and Florida, but none from Ohio!  And so close to where we live.  Small world! 

Blarney Castle is more what Leah wanted to do, and she got to kiss the Blarney stone!  The castle was nice, but I always think the scenery is nicer!  Overall it was a nice day.  We had to make our way back to the airport.  We had decided not to stay long because of the expense, but it was a good two days anyway.  The only bad part was getting back to England and not catching all the right trains, but we made it back eventually and that’s all that matters!  I’m really glad that I went to Ireland, it ended up being one of my favorite places to visit.

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Host UK

May 18, 2009 at 7:02 pm (Cultural differences, entertainment, Food, HostUK, study abroad, Travel)
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I thought I’d get caught up on the last journey I took so that I might have the motivation to write about Ireland when i come back on Thursday.  Well, it probably wouldn’t be up until at least friday.  Anyway, on to Host UK.  For anyone who is coming to the UK, I would recommend it!  It’s a good way to meet a family from the United Kingdom and see what their daily life is like. 

I was a little nervous before I even set out for Devon where the family lived.  We were told beforehand that they would be doing a re-enactment of a historical time and they asked us for our dress sizes.  We didn’t really know what to expect since neither of us had done one before, but we thought it would be a fun experience.  The only glitch we ran into getting to their house was missing the first bus.  We had to wait two hours in the diner at the train station for the next one to come.  They literally live in the middle of nowhere, but honestly I didn’t feel like it was a bad place.  I would love to have so much land to roam around and be able to grow my own food!  They raise sheep, chickens, had two house cats, and an alpaca.  I guess they used to have cows, but it was no longer profitable after awhile and they got rid of them.  I felt bad that one of their lambs was sick.  I wasn’t expecting it, but our Host asked me to give the lamb a shot.  I didn’t want to, but she insisted that if she was holding him she couldn’t give him the shot herself.  It all went fine, and I hope the little lamb has returned to good health! 

One thing I really enjoyed about being there is getting fresh food!  All of the vegetables came from the garden and were fresh!  It really made me want to start a garden when I get home, but I don’t think it would grow well in my back yard.  Everyone was really nice, and it was interesting because they had lots of people in the house!  It was a husband and wife, three of their kids, one set of grandparents lived in the same house, one set on the same land, and the husband’s sister and brother-in-law, plus their four kids were visiting.  It was a bunch of people, but it was great!

We arrived on Friday, but we didn’t do anything until Saturday, which was the day of the re-enactment.  It was taking place during the time of Henry VIII and I was a common person and Leah was one of the gentry.  We had to go by what fit us, but Leah’s outfit was a little too short.  It was also really funny because the lady putting Leah’s hairpiece on kept telling her to lose the fringe (bangs)!!  I was amused.  The only downside is that because of the time period, we were not allowed to wear our glasses. Now, I can see without my glasses OK, but I get a headache after a little while.  Leah was pretty much blind the entire time! I had to lead her around a bit.  Luckily for us we didn’t have to do much.  I say luckily because we had no idea what to say if people asked us questions.  This happened a few times, but someone else was usually around to answer it.  Leah and I mostly got to wander around the castle grounds where it was taking place.  It was a little out of character since she was above me, but oh well! 

We tried our hands at spinning, but that went horribly!  We weren’t bad at making the wreaths though!  Those were hung on a tree as part of some type of ceremonial May day procession.  After the May day procession we were able to dance.  Leah and I were able to because they were allowing the crowd to join, so it wasn’t a dance where you already had to know the steps.  It was a lot of fun!  If dancing was like that I wouldn’t mind it so much!  We met some interesting people and drank tea out of pewter cups, so we had a wonderful day! 

The next day we had the choice to once again go to a re-enactment, or go sailing.  Because I had never sailed before, I wanted to go sailing and Leah agreed.  I was a little perturbed when they told us we had to wear wetsuits, but I decided to suck it up and put it on.  However there was a bit of an embarrasing moment because we had put them on backwards!!  Hey, I had never worn one before!  Well, we corrected the problem and once they were on right, we headed out to sail.  In the boat was Leah, me, Phil (the brother-in-law), one of his sons, and the son of our Host.  It wasn’t a very big boat and it was a really windy day, but it was great fun!  The idea of having to balance out the weight so that we didn’t capsize was thrilling!  Phil would have to tell us when to go about and we would switch to the other side of the boat.  We came extremely close to completely going over a few times.  His son and the Host’s son would hang outside the boat only holding on to these bars (they were hooked to it also so that they stayed with us).  It was funny when we could almost go over because they would get thrown into the water.  It looked fun.  I only wish it had been warmer that day, I would have gone out a second time!  But my hands and feet were freezing and feeling numb, so it was nicer to sit on the side in nice, dry clothes.  I really want to go sailing again now.  I wish there were more places to do it where I live! 

I really enjoyed the food while we were there.  They had a few different types of cheeses as an after dinner snack. I wish I could remember what the yellow one was called because I loved it!  For the dinners we had a vegetable stew the first day, lamb the second, and spaghetti and meatsauce the third.  For desserts we had fruitcake and cheesecake.  The tea that they had was also very good!!  And they were nice enough to let us have sandwiches for our ride back to Winchester! 

I really enjoyed staying with them and was grateful to them for allowing us to stay.  It was a wonderful experience! Do it if you get the chance!

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Italy

May 13, 2009 at 9:48 pm (British Airways, Cultural differences, entertainment, Florence, Food, hostel, Italy, Pompeii, Rome, Travel, Uncategorized)
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I figure since it’s only been a little over two weeks since I got back, it’s not too late to talk about Italy.  Hopefully I will be able to remember enough!  Well, the first part of our journey was not the greatest.  We flew with Meridiana this time, from Barcelona to Florence.  The only part I really disliked was when we were landing.  The turbulence was so scary, especially when we seemed to make a sudden drop.  I actually had to hold hands with one of the girls it made me so nervous.  I think what impacted it was that we were landing over a half hour earlier than expected and there were mountains everywhere, we just weren’t sure if there was something wrong or not.  Anyway, almost all of use felt sick after that one, so our main goal was to find our hostel.

As far as hostels go, it was not bad.  The shower was interesting because the floor wasn’t separated at all, so afterwards the entire floor of the bathroom was soaked.  There were six of us sharing it, so it definitely was wet for most of the time we were there.  The main aspect I liked out this hostel is that breakfast and a dinner was included in the price!  This never happened at any other hostel, usually you would only get the breakfast.  The pizza there was very good, and it was more than enough to feed one person!  The breakfast was also nice, I usually got french toast!  Lastly, it was neat to walk around the hostel because people were allowed to write on the walls!  There was definitely some…intriguing…things written there.

Now, before I say anything, I would like to give advice to anyone planning to go to Italy.  Go during the week of Rome’s birthday!  Museums and attractions are often free during this time, as we found out!  We had no idea before we went, it was just how our plans worked out.  Even in Florence, the museums were completely free to enter.  We went to see the Statue of David and didn’t pay even a euro to get in!  It was the same in Rome, even for the Colosseum and Roman Forum and such.  It is definitely worth it to go at this time. 

We didn’t do a lot except walk around in Florence and get gelato!  I tend to prefer walking because I am able to see more of the city that way.  We did have a walking tour that the hostel sponsored, but it wasn’t the greatest and it was difficult to keep up with and hear the guide.  It rained almost the entire time we were in Florence, so it wasn’t the best tour weather either.  We decided to take a day trip to Venice, which was nice.  The best part was when we randomly took a bunch of jumping pictures.  Many of them did not come out properly, and my hair kept getting in the way!  It was definitely a fun day!

The main part of our Italy visit was spent in Rome.  The hostel here wasn’t the best, wasn’t the worst.  It had a really nice lounge area and we had breakfast in the morning, even if it only consisted of cookies and this bread-type of thing.  The worst part was the shower.  There were two, but neither were ideal for showering at all.  One was like a faucet, and it was so difficult to get all of the shampoo out of my hair with it!  The other was so small that you could hardly move around.  The worst feeling after a month of traveling is not being able to feel clean.  That is probably the thing I disliked the most!  It was hard or expensive to do laundry, so we often had to wear our clothes multiple times, which in itself does not help you to feel clean.  To add a bad shower to that is not fun.  I guess you don’t go to a hostel for the  shower facilities though.  At least I’m clean now! 

Anyway, on to Rome!  The first time I saw the Colosseum  was amazing.  You see it in movies and picture all the time, but it doesn’t really do it justice!  It’s hard to believe that civilizations so long ago were able to create something so large!  I only wish that it was still intact, being able to see the seats and all would be truly spectacular.  We did have a tour guide, but he said little that I didn’t already know.  During this time we also went to see Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.  I wish there was a way to go back in time to see what it was like back then.  We can look at the ruins of these places now, but how nice would it have been when people were bustling about doing their daily tasks? 

One of the better day trips was going to Pompeii (though in Italy it was always spelled with only one ‘i’).  I’ve heard the story of Pompeii many of times in Latin or anthropology classes, but seeing it in person was fantastic.  Again, it was hard to believe that it was once a place where people had lives.  They lived in houses, painted their walls, went to the public baths, raised animals to survive!  In a way it would have been nice to have a guide there, but we didn’t want to spend the money for one, especially because it was free to get in that day!  We did, however, stop near some groups sometimes to learn things.  We had to be pretty discrete of course!  Apparently, it was easy to tell if a house belonged to someone rich by the entrance, maybe they had a yard or fountain?  I think it was something like that, but it was hard to hear.  Anyway, walking around was enough!  Anyone who has learned about this place knows that it was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.  However, what makes this place even more interesting is that bodies were found.  People were actually dug out in the running, crouching, and other positions that they were in when the debris came down from the eruption.  I felt a little strange looking, but there are actually a few on display in glass cases.  They are a little scary to look at in all honesty, but fascinating at the same time.  They even found the bodies of animals.  It’s sad to think of all of the people that died, it wiped out everyone who was there and buried them from the world for many years.  I can’t imagine the terror they must have felt when they realized what was happening, if they had enough time to realize that is.  It just shows that things can change in an instant! 

We saw so many other things in Rome, like the Pantheon, Castel Sant’Angelo, the Circus Maximus, the Trevi fountain, Archs of Titus and Constantine, the Spanish steps and so much more than I can really remember!  I think the people you meet are sometimes the most memorable occurrences.  There was one instance by the Trevi fountain that we were eating gelato and a man, looking quite like the tin man, came up to us and insisted on taking pictures with us.  He did it with me and Leah, he just pointed to one of our other friends and told them to take the picture!  Now, I was wary of this ploy because I realized he would want money for it.  It may be rude, but I refused.  I did not want a picture with him and he forced it on us, which I think is obvious from the way I look in the picture!  But it is definitely an interesting story to tell.

I know you may be asking why we didn’t visit the Vatican.  Well, Leah and I simply had no desire to do so, and we stayed behind when the rest of our group went.  We did want to see St. Peter’s Basilica, but the line was too long just to see that one thing, so we chose not to go.  After all, it was free entrance and there were tons of people around!! 

The driving in Italy is truly what frightened me the most while I was there!  There don’t seem to be any rules!  A lot of people drive motorcycles there and weave in and out of traffic.  Also, it never seems like they will stop at the lights, and the crosswalks always felt dangerous to cross.  I definitely like there to be lights at the crosswalks!!  Ambulance sirens are constantly going off, yet they can barely get through to the emergency!!  I would hate to be in trouble there, no one seems to pull over for them like they do in the U.S.  That is one thing I do not miss about Italy!

The food was alright in Italy, but of course I mostly liked the Gelato!  I had one bad instance of food with a macaroni and cheese dish.  Well, it didn’t have any cheese, and it tasted like pepper!  It was a very unsatisfying meal for ten euros.  Plus they charged us for bread that we didn’t ask for!  We didn’t realize that they don’t just give it to you.  Oy,  but that was the main complaint where food was concerned.  I loved the pizza, which is what I usually ate. 

The flight back was great, I honestly love British Airways!!!  It was only a 2 hr 45 min flight, but they gave us sandwiches and tea!  That was so nice after having flights where you had to pay if you wanted a glass of water!  I would fly with British Airways every time if I could.  The only problem was that some of the people in my group who had checked luggage didn’t get it back that day.  It wasn’t put on the plane, so they had to send it to Winchester when it finally arrived.  It was two days late,  but it came! 

Well, that was my month of adventure for you!  My next post will probably be about my Host UK visit!

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Spain

May 5, 2009 at 9:58 am (Cultural differences, entertainment, Food, Spain, Travel)
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Spain was a lovely place to go, but there were certain areas I loved more than others.  This probably has to do with what I enjoy because I am more of an outside person.  Our first place was Madrid.  Getting there turned out to be a bit of a hassle because our original plans of taking a night train did not go through.  Our intention had been to take a night train from Paris to Madrid, but because it was the week of Easter, the trains were completely booked!  We ended up having to go on a plane.  We flew through Easyjet, which was not very easy to do.  We had to pay for any checked baggage, and could only have one carry on even if it was just a purse.  This might not have been so bad if we could have payed at the desk where we were checking in, but they made us walk somewhere completely different to pay.  We then had to walk back to send the bags through.  It did not help that Charles de Gaulle International Airport was horrible to navigate through.  It is a huge airport and extremely confusing! 

Once we made it to Madrid, we had to go to a different hostel for the first night since we arrived there earlier than planned.  It was an amazing hostel! We actually got more than we payed for because they were not expecting all six of us and they only had nicer rooms available.  It was more like a hotel room, and the bathroom and shower were much nicer than some of the others that we encountered!  The next day we moved to our originally booked hostel.  It was much better than the Paris hostel!  While we had to share the room with three other people we did not know, we had lockers to keep our valuables in, a computer we could use for 15 minutes, and a nice breakfast layout of toast and cereal. 

The first thing we did was go to the Prado museum in Madrid.  This was a big museum with lots of amazing art!  They are known for having paintings by artisits such as Velázquez, Goya, and Raphael.  It was definitely interesting to walk through even though I am not much into art. 

It was a beautiful place when the sun was out and about!  However, it did end up raining some of the time we were there.  When this happened, we usually wandered into stores where we played with then clothes and hats!!  When it was fairly nice, we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens there.  Those were amazing!  I love flowers and plants a great deal, so this was one of my favorite places in Madrid.  The variety was fantastic and I simply love red flowers!  I would have loved to stay there longer, but it began to rain. 

We did a very good tour called a Tapas tour that I would highly recommend!  Tapas is basically a starter that you get when you order a drink in Spain.  It can be almost anything, but a lot of times it is some kind of pork.  Pork is a very popular food in Spain, so you see it everywhere!  Anyway, the tour took us to four places where we could get tapas.  We were technically supposed to drink alcoholic beverages, but I stuck to pop.  I’m not a drinker and I didn’t really want to start in a foreign country!  The first place was alright, they gave us some type of pork and olives.  I liked the taste of the pork, but the texture was too much for me to handle, and I didn’t end up eating it.  The second place was good!  It served tiny sausage-like tapas. They did not taste like sausage, but were very good!  I did not have a problem with the texture at all, and I enjoyed it quite a bit!  While I did not try it, a few members in the group ordered a pig’s ear to eat.  It did not look very appetizing to me, though some of them did like it.  A lot of it seemed to depend on whether or not you could stand to chew it!  Now, the third tapas place was my favorite!  They gave more variety with their tapas, and my favorite was these small round potato cakes with a creamy sauce on top.  Also included were peppers (it was a draw whether they were hot or not, you could get either and you weren’t able to tell before you ate it!), small pork pieces, and I think some kind of cooked onion.  I was definitely a fan of this place!!  The last place we went to was mainly for the people who were drinking alcohol.  As tapas, they gave us bread and some kind of pork that I disliked.  The main attraction here was to drink this specifc type of drink, but putting it through this machine to allow air to get into it.  You pulled this lever and held your drink down low to fill it up.  Each person who was drinking went through the line three times.  They seemed to have fun doing it.  I really enjoyed the tour and anyone going to Spain should look for one.  

In Spain, one of my favorite things to do was look for Gelato!  This was so in Italy as well.  Gelato is very good and I loved almost every flavor I tried.  My favorites were Dulce de Leche and Creme Caramel.  Both were amazing!  There were a variety of flavors to choose from and it could be very difficult to decide!  I usually enjoyed the chocolate quite a bit, and once in a while there would be a good Tiramisu-flavored one.  I also had a wonderful cheesecake one!  The possibilities are endless, and they even have fruit-flavored ones with actual fruit in it!  Gelato is definitely worth giving a try if you have a sweet-tooth like me!

 The Royal Palace in Madrid was amazing! We took a tour of it, and I learned quite of bit of interesting information.  However, my favorite part was simply looking around.  To think that people were able to build these palaces is incredible! I swear, if I could build a palace I would!  Since I can’t, any house I live in will probably be really small!  I don’t like a lot of extra space, but these palaces are wonderful!  I can imagine sliding on the floors in just my socks!  Well, that was a little strange, but that’s ok! I really liked seeing the peacock at the bottom of a set of stairs, someone was even able to get it to open its feathers!  We also saw the temple of Debod from the outside.  It is an ancient Egyptian temple.  The line was a little too long for us to go in, especially because we were running out of time.

There were two foods in Madrid that I truly enjoyed.  One was paella, I got a vegetable one and it was very good!  It is brought out in a pan and there is so much of it! I would have shared if I had known it would be so big!  While we were eating, some guy came up to us and convinced us to buy these bracelets he was selling for 2 euros.  We didn’t feel as if we had a choice because he started putting them one some of out wrists! And he kept telling us what a special price we were getting.  Well, we bought them, and later saw them for only a euro in one of the side stores.  Oh well I suppose, at least it produced an interesting story to tell people.  The second food I enjoyed was Chocolate and Churros.  They bring the chocolate out in a cup, and it looks like hot chocolate.  The churros are basically cooked dough, similar to an elephant ear.  All you do is dip the churros in the chocolate and eat them, they are so good!  I want some right now!

We finally ended our stay in Madrid and took a train down to Granada.  Granada was my absolute favorite place of the trip!  The mountains and hills were amazing and it was such a beautiful place to visit!  The hostel where we stayed was great! Because we had six people, we were able to get one that was like an apartment!  We had the entire top floor to ourselves, a kitchen, tv, and we could go up the stairs to the roof!  It had an amazing view, plus we could sit out there and eat at the table if we wanted!  It was very difficult to find, however, because the place where we had to turn did not even look like a road!  We finally found it and I am so glad we did!  It was a nice place to come back to, espcially because they had Sex and the City dvds to watch! 

Our first adventure in Granada was Alhambra.  It was a castle built by the Spanish while they were taking over and converting everything to Christianity.  It was definitely intricate and great to walk through!  You had a great view of the city from there!  I’m always amazed at the things people were able to build so long ago!

We took a free walking tour of the city the next day which was awesome!  He told us a lot of information that I had no clue about!  It seems that almost every church in Granada was one a muslim mosque.  When the Christians came, they chose to convert them instead of building new ones.  Also, they left the three orbs on the mosque and simply put a cross on top of them.  This had a lot to do with showing dominance over the religion.  It had to have been a horrible time when the Christians were taking over, it seems so unfair!  Even now, a new mosque was only recently built and it still causes controversey.  I don’t know why people have to cause so many problems over religion, they should just accept the differences and move on!  Another interesting thing I learned in Granada is able the people who lived in caves!  It doesn’t cost anything to dig one, so I guess why not? 

The food in Spain is a little bland.  We did find this nice place in Granada for sandwiches, but we found food in convenience stores a lot because it tended to be cheaper.  This is especially true of the drinks!  The last bit of time we spent in Granada was looking for souvenirs to buy.  The only thing I really bought was an orange wrap-around skirt.  I hope that I actually wear it at some point!! 

We went to Barcelona next.  I’m afraid I wasn’t there long enough to truly form an opinion on it.  Somehow our plans made it so that we only had one full day there.  The main thing that we did with this time was go on a bus tour, but I didn’t feel that this did the city justice.  However, I was really tired that day and was asleep for most of the tour, so that might be why!  At least we stayed in a good hostel for two nights!  It was very clean and I was happy with it! 

The last stage of out journey was Italy, which I find the time to write soon!

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France

April 30, 2009 at 2:48 pm (bike tour, Cultural differences, entertainment, Food, Travel)
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France was definitely an interesting place to go.  While the attractions were great, I think my favorite part of the trip was the different desserts I tried.  They just do them so well, even if they can get a little pricey.  My favorite dessert there was Creme Brulee, it was amazing!!!  I attempted crepes, but the only one I truly enjoyed was the one with sugar.  They also have waffles everywhere, and I had one with chocolate and whipped cream!  I never tasted such great hot chocolate as I had in Paris.  I went to this place called Laduree, and I would completely recommend it!  They have such good pastries and hot chocolate!  I would almost compare the hot chocolate with just a melted candy bar, how I loved it!!  And I had this wonderful pastry called Tarte Tatin, which is an apple tart with carmalized butter and sugar!!!  Their Macaroons were also delicious!  I could go on about their desserts and chocolates for awhile, but I think you can get the point.  Laduree is also good for normal food (but who needs that?).  I had french toast and scrambled eggs and felt that it was really good!  However, those used to an American breakfast should be aware, they don’t come together!  If you order both, they only bring one out at a time, as in courses.  I was a little disappointed because I enjoy eating everything together, but it’s just the way that they do it!  

Now, this goes for every restaurant in Paris that I went, but one thing I found very nice is that the waitors do not rush you out!  They’ll let you sit there for hours and they’ll only bring you the check if you asked for it.  The same was true in Spain and Italy as well.  I was very happy with this, I hate always being rushed and this happens often in the U.S.  The downside to these European restaurants is the drinks.  Unlike the free refills you get with your meal at most American places, in France, Spain, and Italy, you only get a small drink and they never ask you if you want more.  Apparently people there do not get very thristy while eating.  Maybe I’m just spoiled with the refill thing.  Anyway, I think that’s enough about restaurants.  Although on a last note, I may want to comment on how it was very difficult to find any convenience stores.  It was cheaper to buy drinks there, but they were few and far between where we were staying. 

The first four days in France were spent at the Academie hotel.  It was a nice little place.  We only at breakfast there once, but it was oddly full of cheese and bread.  While it was very good, I’m not sure I would make that a normal breakfast!  We had a TV in the room, but of course it was a little difficult to watch if you don’t know French.  However, it was very interesting to watch music videos in the morning.  Virgin records would always have some kind of a count down and I really enjoyed some of the French music!  I plan to find some of the songs when I get the chance.  Also, I never realized that other countries listened to so much American music!  I was only able to keep up with some of the new songs because they showed the music videos, not only in France, but Spain and Italy as well.  It’s such a shame they we don’t regularly play foreign music in the U.S.  I have some on my ipod, but it can be hard to find. 

Of course, one of the first things we did in Paris is go to the Louvre.  We spent about four hours there, and didn’t see even a quarter of everything there.  I think you would have to spend the entire day in there for weeks in order to do that!  It’s just so big!  I got to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, which are very popular there.  I really liked the room with the signs of the zodiac on the ceiling, though I have no idea what the name of it was.  We were a little disappointed that Vermeer’s the Lacemaker was away in Japan, I had really wanted to see that!  There was also another painting I really liked, but I’m not sure what the name of it was.  It had a girl in water who looked dead, and she had a halo under her.  I will have to eventually find out what it is. 

The next great adventure was the Eiffel Tower! The lines are pretty long, but if you’re willing to walk up the stairs, it’s not so bad.  You have to walk up to the second level, and then an elevator has to take you the rest of the way up no matter what.  One would think climbing up all those stairs would be horrible, but it actually was not so bad!  And it was a nice exercise.  The view from the top of the Eiffel tower was amazing!  Being able to see things like the Louvre from so high up was a great experience.  It was just so pretty!!  Leah and I got some good ice cream afterwards. It ended up being a good day.  I believe we ate at a tex mex place that was pretty good!

We took a day trip to Versailles that was pretty interesting.  It’s odd to see a place where people you have heard about lived.  Marie Antoinette’s story has always fascinated me, so it was intriguing to see the place where she lived.  We had an audioguide to tell us facts about each room and about the lives of the people. 

I really enjoyed walking around the Champs-Elysee, I went into some of the stores and couldn’t even think of affording anything!  I’m never a fan of stores where everything seems breakable! There was also some tall men in suits at the door with an ear piece in, I always felt so awkward.  This was especially true at the Louis Vuitton store!  I would never be able to buy anything in there, but it was cool to look around!  There are interesting purses and luggage available!  One suitcase even had a fold-out bed in it!  It can be crazy!  They have a ceiling on the top floor that had points coming down and I think a mirror.  It’s very hard to describe, but it looked neat!

My pants ripped during the trip and I had to buy a pair at the gap.  I found an affordable corduroy pair that sadly did not fair the rest of my journey well.  They aren’t really easy to keep clean, and they ended up ripping.  Out well, they served their purpose I suppose. 

Leah and I also went into the adidas store, we had fun in there!  They had this activity where you could test things like your balance, running ability, and jumping.  I really wish I had a store with that kind of stuff in it!  I felt a little childish because it was mostly young kids doing it, but I simply couldn’t resist!  The clothes in there were pretty expensive, so I didn’t buy anything, but I was glad we went in anyway!

The last four days after my cousin left were spent in a hostel which I won’t say the name of.  I was very disappointed with this hostel.  I didn’t expect it to be fabulous, but I really wish it was cleaner!  I never felt clean after I took a shower, and I had doubts that they actually washed the sheets.  Also, breakfast was just a piece of bread that was a little too hard.  I think the first day was impacted because we had a bad day.  First, after we left the hostel to explore, we got lost and ended up in a shady area.  This guy was pointing to Leah and asking if she wanted him to be her boyfriend.  He also wanted to walk around with us.  We just kept saying no. He shook my hand goodbye, but when he went to shake leah’s, he pulled her in and kissed her on the cheek.  She was definitely not happy about this!  We got out of there as quickly as possible.  On our way away from there we walked under a tree and both of us got pooped on by a pidgeon.  Now, the hostel where we stayed had a lock-out from 11-4, and we still had three hours before we could go back to take a shower.  It’s so hard to find a public restroom to clean up in!!  We eventually went to a McDonalds and were able to clean up a bit.  Can you believe you need a code to get into the bathroom there??  You can only get this code if you bought something, but we got to the restroom at the right time and walked in with a lady already entering.  After we cleaned up we didn’t really want to eat at McDonalds, so we went on a search for somewhere else.  We went to this one place, but the waitor was really rude and we had to leave. It took us forever to find a place with a welcoming waitress who was extremely nice!  This is the day we had sugar and chocolate crepes, creme brulee, and hot chocolate.  We sat in the restaurant for the remaining time we had before we could go to the hostel.  The shower was not amazing though.  I’m guessing this was to save money, but the shower was like a sink that you push down and eventually it slowly comes up and turns off.  In order to keep showering, you had to keep pushing the knob!  It gets so cold when water isn’t continuously running.  I only took a shower there when I needed to, especially because it didn’t look clean anyway. 

One aspect I did enjoy was one of the roommates we had. It was this old Australian women with us most of the time.  The entire time she was there, she would spend all day in either the Louvre or one of the other museums.  She traveled a lot, and was able to make our stay a little more enjoyable.  I always love those old woman who are just always moving.  She was a retired teacher, but I found it cool that being retired didn’t confine her to staying at home.  I swear I have never met anyone that has traveled to so many countires!!

We only really had one bad food incident, and that was with Pizza Hut! lol, we got a four cheese pizza, but for anyone who wants to consider this, beware that a four cheese pizza in France does not use the same kinds of cheeses as it does in the U.S.  I mean, I am a big fan of cheese, but there was this one that had a very funky flavor to it!!

We went to this huge library in Paris, but quickly found it was not a normal library.  First of all, you have to go through metal detectors and have your bags looked through just to get in the door.  And you seem to have to pass another check to get into other areas of the library.  We couldn’t even find any books!  I know I saw Harry Potter signs, so they had to be somewhere, but for the life of me I have no idea where!!  We eventually gave up and left! 

Besides the food, one of my favorite things that we did in France was the bike tour.  Ours was headed by this guy from New Zealand and it was a really good tour.  We learned a lot, and not just about the normal attractions.  The wonderful thing about this tour is that he took us to places that most tourists don’t get the chance to see.  The restaurants that are more for the locals, secret gardens that only the owners of the house knows about, and parks.  The secret gardens or courtyards were great.  He snuck us into one (because they are owned privately of course if they are people’s backyards), and it was so beautiful!  It would be a nice place to sit and relax! I wish my house had one!!!  A little fact I learned about Notre Dame cathedral is that there are thirteen statues at the top.  Twelve are the apostles, and one was the designer of the building!  How is that for leaving your mark?   Notre Dame cathedral was beautiful to walk into by the way!  I would suggest a bike tour to anyone who enjoys a little physical exertion, you learn so much more on these!  Ours was three hours, and just in case you’re considering it the website for the one we did is www.bikeabouttours.com. 

We spent a lot of time walking around Paris, espcially near the Louvre.  There are some pretty gardens and a few fountains to sit around.  If the day is nice, it’s enjoyable just to sit in the sun and take it all in.  You usually have a pretty sight of the Eiffel tower or the Seine river! 

On a final note, did you realize the Eiffel tower lights up at night?  We fould this out by mistake, but starting at 9pm, the tower lights up and flashes for five minutes.  It then does it on each hour.  I was really excited that I happened to be out to see this!  I saw it from far away, but it would have been awesome to actually be near the tower during this time!

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London

April 28, 2009 at 7:38 am (Travel)
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Well, I’m finally back from my journey abroad!  The first two places I visited were London and France.  I can’t say too much about London because I was only really there for two days, but I did see a few things of interest.  I went there with Kim and Wade, and we stayed in a wonderful hotel!  It was called the Beaufort Hotel, and the room and bathroom were the best I’ve seen the entire trip! We even had heated towel racks!  Each morning we had breakfast delivered to our room, I usually just had cereal and toast, and they would serve us cream tea with scones in the evening.  It was amazing!  They also had a computer in the lounge that worked very well, as well as free drinks in a little fridge, and a bowl of chips as well as olives sitting on a table at all times!  In addition to that, I saw some…interesting…programs on tv that you probably wouldn’t find on normal cable tv in the US.  Anyway, that’s probably enough about the hotel.

The first day we were there, we attempted to see changing of the gaurd. This did not work out as well as we planned because there were so many people.  I am way to short to deal with crowds!  The only thing I really saw was the band! After that we went on a tour of the Spencer house, which is the family home of Princess Diana.  It was actually pretty interesting!  It has been in the family for ages, and we learned how each person dealt with it.  However, it is a little depressing to know that while they have attempted to put the original furniture in the house that most of it cannot be found.  Some of it was even destroyed or is around the globe.  We learned one particularly odd fact about women of long ago.  They didn’t bathe as much, and their hair was always gross because they wanted to keep it the way that it was.  In order to do this, they would sometimes have to wear a wire cage around their head to bed!  Plus they wore lead based white paint for their faces and shaved their eyebrows off.  They replaced the eyebrows with mouse skin. I could never imagine going through that!  I am definitely glad I live during these times!

We took a bus tour (which is a slight rip off for the price).  It was ok, but it went very slow because there was a lot of construction going on at the time of our visit. It was also difficult to hear the tour guide, and he was usually muttering nonsense.  Anyway, we did not get off at as many stops as planned, but it did take us the Tower of London.  It was a bit disappointing, but maybe it was because we got there towards the end of the day.  My friends who went at a different time loved it.  It was cool to see the jewlery, but the main reason for us going was the Bloody tower.  It contains different torture devices used long ago, and some of them definitely did not look fun.  One device crushes you into this tiny squashed ball, it looked very painful in the picture!  The castle was cool to see though, and it may have made a little more sense if we had the audioguide, but we didn’t stop to get one. 

One place I loved in London was Hyde Park.  I really wish we had gone when the trees and flowers were in bloom!  It was such a big park, and even without everything it was still very pretty.  We had to search quite a bit to find the Peter Pan statue, but we finally found it!  It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it’s interesting to know that it is where the inspiration for the book came from! 

We mostly just walked around our last day there.  We went in to a huge store called Harrods and got lost!  This is an interesting store because they don’t allow groups in!  They were actually turning people away!  I can’t tell you how many floors it had, but we just kept going up and up!  Everything there was way to expensive for us to buy, but I wish I could have gotten something from the candy store.  It was amazing, but I would never pay that much for candy even if it looked good.  Besides that, it was still cool to look around!

And of course, how do I go to London without taking my platform 9 and 3/4 picture?  It’s a little difficult to find, but they have signs leading to it after a certain point.  That was one of the highlights of my London experience.  If only I got to actually go through the wall and enter an entirely new world!!!

So that was my time in London, I’ll try to have France up soon!

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Off on an Adventure

March 27, 2009 at 7:49 pm (Travel)
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I’m about to embark on a great jouney through France, Spain, and Italy.  It will be unlike anything I have ever done and that makes me slightly nervous.  However, I think it is good to branch out at times.  Coming to the University was a great leap for me, and I’m happy that I did it!  Now it is Spring Break and it is time to set out with my friends.  I will hopefully update every so often, especially because if I wait until the end I will definitely forget some things.  I think this will be an interesting experience and I know I’ll want to record it for the history books! :)

See ya for now. Hopefully I will have something interesting to post soon.

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Stonehenge

March 22, 2009 at 2:42 pm (Travel)
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This is a tad late considering that I went to see Stonehenge on Thursday, but oh well.   We went on the Stonhenge tour that started from Salisbury bus station.  One thing I like about these tours is that you get to go on a double decker bus!  It’s so strange to be riding so up high and seeing the trees and buildings from that angle.  It gives a completely different view!  Anyway, it went through Old Sarum, which was made by Iron Age settlers, and the Normans were the last to settle there.  It has fallen into ruin over the years. 

Stonehenge was an interesting site.  When we went in, they have us little phones that told us about the history of Stonehenge.  The odd thing is that they really don’t know why it was built.  It has been around for over 4000 years in alignment with the midsummer sunrise.  They are made with these bluestones, but they have absolutely no idea how they could have brought them there over the great expanse of land from Wales.  Some believe it was built for astonomy purposes, or rituals having to do with the sun, as simple as raising succesful crops, and many others.  They have no idea what the stones were actually meant to do.  The reason it is so important is that it draws people in to look at it.

When you go on the tour, they give you those phones I mentioned, and you walk around the stones in a roped off area.  It is cool to see it from so many different angles, though I wish I could have touched the stones.  They do not allow you to get close enough.  I truly enjoyed the landscape of the area around Stonehenge.  It is so pretty, and there is a field of sheep that I personally liked to see.  However, I’m not used to seeing sheep, so that’s probably why.  I wish you could do more with Stonehenge, while it was fun to see, not being able to touch or go near them was a bit disappointing.  I really wished I was one of the birds that could just perch on the stones!  It would be so neat! 

You know, Stonehenge would have made for a fun playground!  Who knows, maybe that’s what it really was!!! 

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Riverdance

March 19, 2009 at 12:04 am (entertainment, Riverdance, Travel)
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I had an amazing time today! Leah and I went to Riverdance at the Nottingham Royal Centre.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was worried because it ended up being really expensive to go.  However, I wasn’t disappointed in the least!!  The dancers were awesome!  It was so cool to see them all dancing in sync and making formations.  They were so fluid and elegant, it made me jealous!  I was never able to dance, but watching them made me want to try!  Step-dancing is fun to watch, and I love the way it sounds!  I enjoyed the lead male performance the best.  I was far away, but he seemed cute!  Oddly enough, I enjoyed the male performers better.  They were very pronounced in there moves and I could hear them really well. 

My favorite act was a kind of Tap dancing versus step-dancing performance.  There were two tap dancers and three Irish step dancers and it looked like a competition.  They were going back and forth, and sometimes they would imitate the other in the funniest of ways.  But they were also just trying to show off.  It was hilarious and my favorite part.  I also really liked the Russian dancers and the moves they did, especially when the males would swing the girls around in the air.  The music and dance was just so rhythmic, and I could feel the pounding.  It was an awesome experience and a great performance. I wish I could see it again!

One of the performers I also really enjoyed was the fiddle player. She had a few solos and she was good.  She played during the ‘competition’ of the tap dancers and the step dancers, it made it much more dramatic. 

It’s so difficult for me to even express in words how Riverdance made me feel.  It definitely made me happy, and I’m glad I went, even though it cost me 8 hours on a train.  However, it was a very enjoyable experience.  I really wish I could put as much passion and enthusiasm into something as they do with step-dancing!

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Papers and Indian Restaurants and Leah’s b-day

March 15, 2009 at 9:36 pm (Food)
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I’m rather proud of myself, I actually finished a rough draft for one assignment and am close to being done with another one.  It took a lot of focus,  but I did it. Now I just need to see if my tutors feel they are good enough.  I still have to finish the one outline before tuesday.  I’ll work on that tomorrow. I want to finish the rough draft for Romanticism tonight.  Anyway, I’m sure no one wants to hear about my school assignments.

Today we celebrated Leah’s b-day! It’s actually tomorrow, but she wanted to go to the Indian restaurant and they give a student discount on Sundays and Tuesdays.  It was really good, and we did a lot better today. There was a different waiter and he was much easier to understand.  It was cool, the other host guy remembered us! They gave us a dish (no idea what it was, but it was yummy!) for free!  Just like last time, we were the only ones in the place.  Maybe they just want us to keep coming back.  They’re really nice, and I definitely want to go again before I leave here.  I wish I could remember what my dish was called, it started out Tandoori Mushroom D….I can’t remember the d word.  It was awesome though.  Last time I went I had chicken tikka massalam.  I’ve tasted other dishes that my friends got and everything has been really good.  I wish there was something like it back home! 

After we came back we had chocolate cake! I bought it from Sainsbury’s yesterday and it was delicious.  I ate way too much. I think I might actually have to fast tomorrow to make up for it!  It was called Seriously Chocolate Cakes, and believe me it was!

I’m getting sick and it really is not good.  I have a cough and I’m acquiring a cold now.  Hopefully I’m better before I leave for Europe, otherwise it will really not be a fun vacation.  I still have two weeks, so maybe if I really try to take care of myself I’ll get better!  I honestly can’t wait for break! I get to go to London, Paris, Spain, and Italy.  We have all of the hostels booked and everything is ready.  It’ll definitely be an interesting time, especially because I only know English.  I’m just dying for an adventure though!

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