Tales from Italy ch. 8: SPRING BREAK! Part 1: Scotland + New Castle, England

As I’ve said before, I really love how easy it is to travel while in Europe. Ridiculous fees and ticket prices that are all too common back in the states are unheard of here. And thank God too. So, with my friend, Janelle and tickets in hand, I boarded airplane #1 on it’s way to Edinburgh, Scotland 2 weeks ago and my spring break began.

The day before my trip, I had plans to do laundry, pack, and tie up any loose ends before leaving early the next morning for a bus that would take me to Pesaro. From there I would catch a train to Bologna and then fly across Europe to Scotland. It was an overwhelming start to my journey so I wanted to take it easy. Didn’t happen. Turns out that the flight was at 10:55am, not 10am like I had been planning on. I know what you’re thinking- big deal, right? It’s only 55 minutes. Well, those 55 minutes were enough to make 10:55am too early to get a bus to Pesaro in order to catch a train that would get me to Bologna on time. Janelle and I were going to have to leave that night and find some sort of accommodation in Pesaro so we could catch a really early train in the morning. Since this was almost impossible because it was last minute, we had planned on just sleeping in the train station that night- a very uncomfortable, yet desperate prospect.
Fortunately for us, Janelle had become friends with a girl in our Ceramics class named Sylvia who lived in Pesaro. She was able to get in touch with her in time for us to leave, and we were able to stay the night. She and her boyfriend live in this old manor that is absolutely stunning. But because it’s a manor, its also difficult to heat, so the two of them had set up a bed in the kitchen and were living out of this one room. It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. In this small space, they were happy and content; and it was contagious- just the thing we needed to bring our trip to a good start after all. So, after a delicious meal cooked by the two of them themselves and some music sung to us by her boyfriend with his guitar, we were off to bed.
The next morning we got a taxi back to the train station at 430am and took the first train, at 520am, to Bologna. I slept through most of it, as was expected. After our flight, we arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, got our passports stamped (YAY!), exchanged our Euros to Pounds, and set off for our hostel. It was then that I noticed that it was a bit chillier than I had expected and I had underpacked; for some stupid reason or another I had assumed Europe to be roughly the same temperature all around. Scotland is way too far north to be the same temperature as Italy. It was gonna be a chilly two weeks. Or at least until I got further south.
Our hostel, the Edinburgh Backpackers, was by far the coolest place I’d stayed in yet. Despite its 97-stair hike just to get to the reception desk, this is the most social, homey, and welcoming place we could have stayed for a low price (LOVE low prices :P). One of the things that really made it cool was the murals that coated every inch of every wall of the hostel. Because I liked it so much, I videotaped it from the entrance of the hostel, up the 97 stairs, and the hallway to our room. (At one point in the video, you can even hear Jai, our Aussie friend who worked at reception comment on my jacket- a simple means of recognition for me :P).
Views on the way to my room

Our room, Room “U” (each room was a letter of the alphabet), had 3 bunk-beds. Each bed was labeled with a word that began with the letter U: Ugly, Upside Down, Unsafe, Unbearable, Unsure, Unsatisfied. I slept in Ugly and Janelle in Upside Down. It was really amusing.

Outside the hostel was just as lovely. Our hostel was located on a road just behind Princes Street, one of the main streets in Edinburgh. There were tons of sights that we could see from here. The castle was across the river and the famous Balmoral Hostel was across the street.

Prior to visiting Scotland, I would have said that a stereotype of Scotland would be bagpipers around every corner dressed in kilts. However while in Scotland, it was hard to ignore how true this really is. Bagpipes can be heard around all of Edinburgh because there are indeed bagpipers, dressed in kilts, standing on various street corners for the majority of the day.

On our first day, Janelle and I took a tour around the city. In addition to the regular history that is to be expected, we learned a lot of funny stories too:
-this is King Alexander. He ran off a cliff on his horse and so his statue is him and his wild horse:

-King Charles the second, in hopes of gaining popularity, poured wine out of here for 24 hours. The people, ecstatic with wine, loved the King. Unfortunately this only lasted a day since 24 hour binge-drinking brings pretty severe hangovers the next day. Poor King Charles II’s plan backfired lol:

-Statue of King Charles II. This poor king. If his unpopularity wasn’t enough, he had the pleasure of this statue:
1- He’s dressed like Julius Caesar. This pretty much became a joke to the people who couldn’t comprehend why their king was dressed as if going to a costume party.
2- He was a short guy so he made his statue taller. Unfortunately it was out of proportion to his horse, which now looked small like a donkey. So now the people had a statue of their king dressed up going to a costume party on a donkey.
3- Every year on King Charles II’s birthday, Parliament sent 2 small boys to climb the statue and place a crown on the king’s head. This eventually wore away holes in the head of the statue that began to gather water and tilt the horse to the side. So now the people had a statue of their king, dressed as if going to a costume party, riding a drunken donkey.
4- In an attempt to relieve the statue of the water it was now gathering and fix the “drunken donkey” appearance due to the tilt, a hole was drilled in the bottom of the horse. So now the people had a statue of their king, dressed as if going to a costume party, riding a drunken donkey that was pissing all over the street. HAHAHAHAHA. Poor King Charles II:

-The heart was the symbol on the door of the tax collector and on the cell of people who were on death row. Weird, right? Well since people liked neither of these things, they would always spit on the doors and so the hearts were removed. Unfortunately now there was no target to spit on, so people were spitting all over the square. To solve this problem, the city put this heart in the coblestone. It is now the only patch of ground in Edinburgh that is legal to spit on and people still do:

-This is a picture of a trip step. While this one is old and therefore plastered into the wall, trip steps were actually part of staircases that were meant to act as a sort of security system. The trip step was a step that was double the height of the others; in the dark, you wouldn’t know that it was there unless you frequented the house often. So, burgalars and whatnot generally tripped on these trip-steps (go figure) and either made enough noise to alert the house inhabitants, or were knocked to the ground where they’d be found the next day:

-This is Maggie Dickenson’s Pub. This is her story:
Maggie Dickenson was happily married to her husband until he ran off with some random chick. Devastated, she was outcasted because she could not do anything since she was still legally married to her stupid husband. So, Maggie fled and started working at an inn. In time, she fell in love with the inn keeper’s son and ended up pregnant (some stories say she was raped, but I don’t know which is true). Because she was still married to her husband, she had to hide the pregnancy. Due to stress, Maggie miscarried. She took the body to the river where she buried it on the shore. Somehow however, the body was found and traced back to Maggie. Maggie was taken to trial for concealment of pregnancy, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging. The day of her hanging, Maggie was taken to the “Last Drop Pub” which is actually just a few doors down from her pub in the picture. All people sentenced to hanging were taken here on their death day (hence it’s name) since the gallows were actually right in front of this line of pubs in the picture. Anyway, Maggie was hanged, put in a coffin and taken away by carriage.
At one point in the journey, the carriage driver stopped for a drink. When he returned, he heard a knocking from the back of the carriage. The driver went to Maggies coffin and crowbarred it open. Maggie sat upright. Confused as what to do with her, the driver took Maggie back to the court where they decided to hang her again and finish the job. So, Maggie was taken back to “Last Drop Pub” where she again had her last whiskey, and went back to the gallows. With the noose around her neck, a priest in the crowd shouted to stop- he believed it to be a sign from God that Maggie had returned from the dead. There was a breif debate and they decided to hang her anyway. At this point a lawyer in the crowd shouted to stop- her sentence had already been carried out with the first hanging so she was legally free to go.
So, Maggie was freed. In addition to this good fortune, she also was freed of her legal marriage to her husband due to the vows “till death do us part,” and she had already once been legally pronounced dead. A happy ending indeed. Maggie went on to marry the inn keeper’s son, opened her own pub (in the picture below) and lived a long life. There are rumors though that on hanging days, she’d call out from her window above her pub to the poor victim and say tell them not to worry- maybe they’d come back:

-HARRY POTTER FANS: This is the window of J.K Rowling’s old apartment. She wrote the first few Harry Potter books from here where she was able to look out over Edinburgh. Ideas for her book came from things she saw like Edinburgh Castle- what she based the design of Hogwarts off of:

-Grave Safe/ Cage. Since grave-robbing brought in much $$, graves were frequently dug up and the bodies were sold. For Christians, this was an awful thing since they didn’t believe that the body could go to heaven if it was destroyed after death. So, families of the death had 2 options: 1- sit at the grave for 3 weeks until the body was known to have decomposed enough that it was no longer valuable to grave robbers (origin of the term “graveyard shift”)
2- rent one of these:

-George “Bloody” McKensie’s tomb. This little room is known to contain the most paranormal activity in the world.
In 2005, the tomb became permanently locked after a homeless man took shelter here for the night. Poor guy- the floor caved in and he woke up face to face with McKensie’s corpse. Screaming, he ran out of the tomb in the middle of the night all bloodied from his fall. The guard of the graveyard, as any normal person would, started screaming at the sight of this crazy, screaming, bloody man coming out of “Bloody” McKensie’s tomb in the middle of the night. The homeless guy, seeing the guard screaming in fear of him, thought the guard was screaming at something behind him and so he started screaming even more.
Thus, it is now locked:

-Greyfriar’s Bobby was the graveyard keeper’s, Greyfriar’s, loyal dog. Greyfriar died when Bobby was 2 but while he was alive the two were inseparable. When Greyfriar died Bobby spent every day of the next 14 years of his life at his owner’s grave.
Unfortunately, Bobby is not buried here because the cemetery is just for Christians. He has an unmarked grave outside of the cemetery. However, there is a statue of him just outside as well:

-North Lake (“Nor Loch”). It’s no longer a lake today; instead it is a beautiful garden. When it was a lake however, it was referred to as the “Lake of Poo” by our tour guide because it basically was the town’s sewage system. Notice the extra-special greenery?:

That night, Janelle and I met up with other friends of ours who were visiting Scotland and we took a ghost tour. Our guide was self-employed and wrote his own book. He was hilarious.
The next day, we took a trip to the Moorfoot Hills and did some hiking. The views were gorgeous but there was a ton of mud. Both Janelle and our friend, Ryan, slipped several times and ended up coated with mud. Lucky enough for me I didn’t meet the same fate.

The last day, Janelle and I decided we had seen enough of Edinburgh and headed to Glasgow. We had heard a lot about it, and of course the famous Gerard Butler is from there. So, we set the whole day to be for Glasgow. Unfortunately, we were let down. Glasgow was entertaining for about two hours and then we were out of things to do and still had the whole day. We had seen the old cathedral and medieval area of Glasgow, the oldest house, and had gone to the life/religious art museum before sitting down and trying some haggis, neeps, and tatties- after learning what it was. We were proud of that. After the haggis, to kill time, we went to the cinema to see Alice in Wonderland and then headed home.

Durham and New Castle, England were on the schedule for the next day and we took a bus down. On the way we passed loads and loads and sheep and sights of the North Sea. It was a beautiful trip. In Durham, I met up with my friend, “Cheese” who I’d met at camp. Just like the other girls I met up with around England, it was really nice to see her after camp had ended. She showed us around Durham. We saw the Durham Cathedral, Wear River, and Durham Castle. It was in the castle that some scenes from the first Harry Potter movie were filmed. The weather was lovely, especially for England, and it made for some really lovely pictures:

That night we went out dancing and it was nice to just get out and not be traveling and touring. It made for a splendid evening before our 6 hour 20 minute bus ride the next day to Chester.


Pictures from Scotland and New Castle

Why Wales? Entry #9: The Italian Adventure “Days 1-3”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day 1.  March 20, 2010

Day one was a day of travel.

We were all set to take the megabus from Cardiff to London and then another bus to the London-Stansted Airport, but we realized the night before that that the times we planned did not give us enough time to check in to the airport. So we had to replan. A big part of traveling, especially independently is not only planning, but replanning. We were not only ready to see and do everything, but we were ready for things to go wrong- and times to not match up properly. We were able to fix it by taking a train to London instead. We took the train from Cardiff to London, then the tube to abother train station- and finally another train to the London Stansted airport, which took us to Venice.

We arrived in Venice around 11pm, and got to our hotel by midnight. Venice was so quiet and beautiful at night. After checking into our room, we wandered around a bit and enjoyed some water. We didn’t spend too long out since we wanted to get up early and enjoy the day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day 2 March 21st 2010

Venice and Piacenza

We started the day off realizing just how confusing it is to get around Venice. Since there are no roads, only waterways for boats, and small pathways for pedestrians; we seemed to be wandering aimlessly until we found a sign. The interesting thing is that even though there are official signs pointing to places of interest, there are apparently not enough. Some graffitti artists took it upon themselves to make sure that the tourists find their way.

We enjoyed some italian pastries and then went to the Rialto Bridge. The city is beautiful from all angles! We shopped in the stores and admired the multitude of Murano Glass. We then headed to St. Mark’s Square and enjoyed some pizza and gelato as the infamous pigeons flew about.

After a casual day in the city, we went to the train station to head to Piacenza. Piacenza is a small city where Marissa’s family lives. She has met these second cousins (Lorenzo and Miriam) several times, but this was the first time she visited them on her own. We arrived at their lovely home where a late dinner had been prepared for us. We met both of their mothers, who are stereotypical Italian grandmothers. They would make sure we were well fed, and taken care of. Even though I couldn’t communicate with them, I really enjoyed being around them. We also met Miriam and Lorenzo’s daughter who is 22 years old.

Dinner was delicious! Tortellini, and plenty of it! All the food was amazing. It was such an experience to be with a real Italian family and enjoy a real Italian meal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day 3 March 22, 2010

Piacenza

We woke up around 9am, and enjoyed some breakfast as the grandmothers did their best with conversing. I was surprised how much I was able to understand without knowing any Italian. Since I used to major in French, the similarites, as well as the context and body language made it easier to understand.

After breakfast, Lorenzo and Miriam took us on a walking tour of Piacenza. It is a small city, but very beautiful. We saw many churches, and enjoyed some tea at the theater cafe. After a few hours out, we headed back to their home for lunch. This lunch had so much food I had to double check the clock and make sure it wasn’t dinner. I wasn’t expecting so much food for lunch!

We relaxed a bit more, and then headed back out to Castell’ Arquato which is outside of Piacenza. The views from Castell’ Arquato were amazing, and the castle was so grand. Then we headed to a mideval village called Grazano Visconti .

Upon returning home, Miriam provided us with cozy slippers and we relaxed until dinner. Dinner was pizza, with assorted meats, cheeses, and vegetables.

The time I spent in Piacenza with Marissa’s family was one of the best experiences. Not only did I get to have real Italian cuisine, but I met her wonderful family. Lorenzo and Miriam were so friendly and hospitable and really enjoyed having us there. It made me miss speaking a foreign language because I wanted to express how thankful I am for their generosity. I will be sending them a thank you card soon. Spending the time in Piacenza made the Italian adventure unique. 🙂

The view outside our window in Piacenza.

 

 

Why Wales? Entry #8: The Italian Adventure “Planning”

Why Wales?

Well the obvious reason is that we had 3 weeks off for Spring break!

Now, classes are important, but so is travel. Three weeks off allows us to choose places outside of the UK and truly taste that traveling bug that has been fluttering around us since we initially decided to study abroad.

PLANNING-

Planning 3 weeks of spring break is tough. There is so many places to go. Out of the 9 Americans here, only one knew where she was going.

 Meg had her trips planned early. Malta, Barcelona, and Ireland.  She had a friend in Malta and Barcelona, and her mom would be flying in for some quality time in Ireland. Everyone was welcomed to join her.

and most people did.

Christine, Maggie, Justine, and Meg spend their first week in Malta; a small island south of Sicily.

As for me, it took me a while to decide. It went from Italy to Greece, to Croatia, to Malta, to specifically Venice, and then back to the drawing board.

Nina was originally going to spend the week with Marissa and myself in Italy for the first week, but then decided to go the independent route. She ended up having a great time in Amsterdam with the psych club.

Garrett was planning on skiing the alps, and Elysse was set on Italy. She had a friend in Italy, which always helps travel. Having friends around the areas makes it easier to plan the days, since one city is more probable to match with the dates that the friend is available.

The problem was that there was so many places to go. How do we get there? How do we get around once we are there? Some of us were considering meeting others inbetween their travels. How could we assure we would meet up?

After a lot of planning, we finally set an itinerary. Everybody had a place to go, hostels/hotels were booked, and flights there and back had been arranged.

The first week was to start off like this:

  • From Cardiff- to London.
  • Fly from London, England to Venice, Italy via RyanAir.
  • One night in Venice.
  • Spend most of the next day in Venice, then
  • take the train to Piacenza where Marissa’s family lives.
  • 2 nights with her lovely italian family.
  • back to Venice via train for one more night.
  • head to San Marino via train.
  • 2 nights in San Marino
  • head to Rome via train to meet Maggie and Justine (who were in Malta with Meg and Christine for week 1)

Week 2:

  • Rome
  • Naples
  • Florence
  • Venice

Week three:

Originally I was determined to spend all 3 weeks out, but as expences greatened- and laundry dirtied…. being back on campus for the third week sounded better and better. Original plans included more of Italy, Romania, and random Welsh adventures. We ended up just relaxing and doing laundry, but more about that later.

I packed my favorite suitcase (15 days worth into a carryon!!) and was ready to go!

My suitcase fit 15 days of travel, and can be used as a backpack or with wheels! 🙂

We (Maggie, Justine, and myself) also purchased EURAIL passes from eurail.com. This way all our tickets for local trains were taken care of.  We only needed to purchase a seat reservation if it was a high speed train.

More on its way: from day 1 to day 15!

🙂

Why Wales? Entry #7: Ireland Adventure.

Ireland. was. amazing.

Reading Week. It is a week given to the students so that they have extra time to prepare for exams, and catch up on their reading, etc. Needless to say, ‘reading’ was not going to be a part of my Reading Week- except for maps, street signs and menus. My reading week was going to consist of an Irish adventure… with 3 of my best friends whom I only met less than 2 months ago. Go Figure! I received this message from Christine, which opened the invite up to everyone and further confirmed that this trip was happening.

 OKEY so for those who want to go to Ireland during reading week, we should start to book flights. I was thinking we should go Saturday February 27- Wednesday or thursday March 3rd or 4th! Sound good? I wanted to leave thursday or friday but they are expensive because they all have extra fees and taxes and they are at 6am which would be ridiculous to try n make. So Saturday has a 8:25pm flight for 35pounds total and then for leaving wed or thursday there are no fees and it is only 8pounds! Lemme know cuz we gotta start booking!!!

That was only the beginning. As it turned out, the only people able to come were the same people who went to London weeks earlier. As sad as we were that the others couldn’t adventure with us, we were happy that the four of us were traveling together again. 🙂

We decided to fly into Dublin. I bought a new suitcase that I can test out and see if it will work for the Italian adventure to come over Spring break. Anyway, we flew into Dublin via Ryan Air, and took the bus to our hostel. This was our first hostel where we didn’t have a private room. It was definately an experience being in the room with strangers and trying to avoid awkward situations. The Shining Hostel was actually really nice! The people were really friendly, and the rooms were clean.

top bunk! Our hostel.

We were delighted with a plentiful breakfast of bread and butter. 8 beds in the room, 4 of us. The first night we met 2 really nice girls who were studying in England I think. We actually saw them the next morning when we were leaving for our bus tour.

That's our roommates, riding bikes!

We  also met two girls traveling from outside the UK- it’s so cool to meet so many different people. So as I said, we started day one with some delisious bread and butter. But since bread and butter isn’t filling, we had to go elsewhere and get some real food.

This was the day we were set to discover Dublin. We bought a bus ticket that takes you around the city and provides you with an audio tour. These tickets were valid for 24 hours, so we could hop on and hop off the bus at any time and spend time at a museum or whatnot. We didn’t do too much the first day besides the bus tour. A lot of the things that are typical things to do didn’t seem worth the money once we got there. We ended up walking around the city taking a lot of pictures and enjoying eachother’s company.

We did some shopping (I bought some doughnuts, as usual) and went out for the night. We went to a club called Sin, where some Irish boys were telling us (over and over again) how amazing Ireland is. Ireland is amazing. 🙂

The second day was the most adventurous, and is tied with the third day for different reasons. We were set off to try to find the location where ‘P.S I Love You’ was filmed. It was in this park with a waterfall and whatnot. We never made it to that location, but where we did end up made the entire trip so worthwile.

We took the bus to Eniskerry, which is the small town that was supposed to lead us to the scenes of the movie. We got off the bus, and our good friend Christine led the way with her wanderings. We went down a small path to a beautiful church and cemetary alongside a field with ponies. We then headed back on the road up the random road. We knew we were headed in the right direction for the Wiklow Park where the movie was filmed- we just didn’t know the distance.

Ireland is beautiful.

The air was so crisp, and it was so nice to finally get out of the city for a while and see the green green grass of Ireland. We veered off the road and discovered a stream and collected unique rocks.

Pac-Man Rock!

As we were walking down the road, we came across our only sign of human interaction. Along the side of the road, a coach bus driver was stopped at a station of some sorts and was washing his bus. We chatted with him for a while and the asked him for some directions. Since we were wandering about for such a long time, we were sort of hungry. He told us that the closest place with food was a gas station that was pretty far, but not nearly as far as our original destination. So, we headed to the gas station, which the man also informed us is right by a bus station to take us back to Dublin.

Along the way, we kept the same leisurely pace, and took lots of photographs. We passesd a house where a little boy was in the front, and he was singing the “mama mia” song. It was adorable. Then as we’re walking, we here a car coming, and to our surprise it was our friend with his coach bus. He offered us a lift, not only to the gas station- but to a great city on the coast, Dun Laoghaire. We accepted. On the way there, he pointed out several points of interest including Bono’s house. He suggested a few things to see in Dun Laoghaire and also reccomended to take the train to the peninsula of Howth.

We decided to do that, and immidiately fell in love with it. Howth is a small fishing villiage on a penninsula of Ireland. We ended up spending a good part of the last day there hiking. We hiked up a tall mountain and saw incredible views.

At the top of the mountain in Howth.

Ireland was one of the greatest trips, because my experience was so unique. It was the first trip where we left the city and explored some of the country. It was nice to see some of the country, because it really made it special. The city attractions are nice too, but the balance of city and country on the Ireland trip made it extra special!

🙂

Frieeeend!

Oy, I missed another week of posts! I have a legitimate excuse this time I believe. I had friends visit from the states, for the whole week.

I got that off to a good start, as I missed my alarm to pick up one friend early Saturday morning (7am). I ended up being 3 hours late and finding him in the airport bar, paying for drinks that were as much as a whole meal in town. I showed him a good time the first night, then I had to get up early again to pick up a different friend from the airport.

Unfortunately, he had given me the wrong time to pick him up, which was about 10:30am. He forgot the time difference, so I was in the airport for about 3.5/4 hours trying to find him. Naturally, we had to reciprocate. So, we let him sweat it out in the airport for about an hour when 5:30 rolled around.

We started off the week with a couple strolls around town, and a little sight seeing. But mostly seeing the night life, as that was what they wanted to see. The rest of the week went about the same as I introduced them to all the Euros I had met so far, although I had a mid term on Tuesday so I had to take it easy one of the days. Luckily, both of them are fairly versatile people so I could leave them alone if I needed to. We had a blast for the whole week they were here, as far as I know anyway haha. They only trouble we ran into was one of them had some side effects from some medications, and had to get checked out in the hospital. Hopefully that did not put too much of a damper on his trip.

Now I just need to study for my last midterm, because this one is gonna be a tough one. I never knew how complicated “Middle Europa” was until I took this class. But, after this Wednesday I need to start looking into more weekend trips!

Dan’s Visit – SUCCESS!

Wow, guys. As I sit here on this (of course) cloudy day in London, I can’t help but think about how quickly time is flying. Just this past Thursday was our last day of classes for the term. Seriously?! It feels like just yesterday I was getting to JFK with my luggage and my anxiety (especially about this “blizzard” if you could call it that), and then landing in Heathrow ready to embark on this epic journey. And now, it’s already over!

Well, not exactly; I still have about a month left. But it’s going to be pretty lax for the most part. Starting yesterday, I am officially on Spring Break for the next two weeks. (Side note: I think it’s a little strange that they call it Spring Break. It’s not like we go back to classes; we just have finals when we get back.) I have one actual exam on the 28th, and the other three are just papers that are all due May 5th. Pretty sweet if you ask me. For Spring Break, I’m going to Dublin to visit my family and staying with them for the whole two weeks. During that time, I’m also visiting my friend Allison (the same Allison who came to visit a few weeks ago) in Rome. I’m SO excited for this upcoming vacation; I’ve been waiting to go to Ireland for so long. Also, a bunch of my friends just got back from Ireland and told me it was fantastic which of course got me even more excited! But before getting excited for this trip, I had something else to be excited about….

Last Saturday, my boyfriend, Dan came to visit for the week! It was SOOOOOOOOOO good seeing him again; I’ve missed him a LOT! Also, we’ve been talking about this week since the end of January, so it was great to have it finally happen. You see, this trip was more than just a week together after months apart: even before we were dating, we would talk about London and how we both have always really wanted to go. We would say that we should go together, since it was a big dream of both of ours, knowing it would probably never happen. But look, it did! It felt great to actually be in London with him, like we always talked about.

It was also great to see someone from New York; it made me feel at home and miss it quite a bit. Anyway, that’s why I haven’t been around to blog this past week; I’ve been showing him the greatness that is this beautiful city! From what he’s told me, he loved it! While we covered most of the major “London-esque” things (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc.), we also got to do a bunch of things I haven’t even done yet. Here’s how it went:

Saturday: He got here in the morning and of course was exhausted, so we didn’t do much. Had fish and chips of course! Showed him around Oakwood and Southgate and went food shopping for the week. A pretty anti-climatic first day in London. Afterward, we made dinner in the Sassoon kitchen and had an early night.

Sunday: We made some breakfast, then headed over to Covent Garden since it’s the best on the weekends. Saw a few street performers, went into a bunch of the shops, had Ben’s Cookies (Mmmm!), and ate British pub food. Later that night, we met up in Central London with a bunch of my friends so he could meet them.

Monday: This was our busiest day! After Dan had his very first English Breakfast (and loved it, of course!) we started off with something I had yet to do – see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace! We got there early, but not early enough; it was PACKED. Got to see it with a limited view, but it was still cool. The band played an assortment of ABBA songs which we weren’t expecting at all. Afterward, we took a stroll in St. James Park, right next to the Palace, and got some hot chocolate. Then we headed over to Big Ben and Parliament – which, of course, was a favorite – and got a few shots of Westminster Abbey. Then, because we had time and we were semi-close, we headed over to the Imperial War Museum. We didn’t get to see all of it, obviously, but I knew there was an exhibit on the Holocaust which I was interested in. Not exactly the cheeriest moment of his trip, but interesting nonetheless. We were both pretty exhausted – museums wear me out and we had already done a lot of walking – so we headed back over to Parliament Square for our next adventure: The London Eye. This was one of the things Dan told me he wanted to do and, even though I am absolutely TERRIFIED of heights, I agreed. Plus, it was a reduced price because it was the 10th anniversary of the Eye, so why not? BAH, I would not recommend this for people afraid of heights. It was amazing to see the view from the top, but for about 80% of the ride I was glued to the seat, along with an older woman who seemed to be cursing under her breath in a different language, out of fear. I felt bad because Dan was totally enjoying it; I wished I could’ve been more into it, but I think he understood.

Tuesday: Didn’t do much during the day, especially since it was pouring. Well, at least he got to experience typical London weather. At night, I had planned on going to see Avenue Q, but because of “the holiday” (Easter, I’m assuming?) ticket prices weren’t as reduced as they normally were. We didn’t really want to spend 36 quid each, so we saw a movie instead. Not as thrilling, I know, but oh well. We saw Bounty Hunter, and it was pretty good. Probably not as good as Avenue Q would’ve been, I imagine, but it was good to get out of the rain. Before the movie we got these coupons for a free dish at Yo! Sushi, a sushi bar that ran on conveyor belts. We were both getting hungry so we figured we’d take advantage of the offer. It was pretty tasty, and a cool thing to experience. I don’t believe I’ve seen anything like that at home, but I’ll definitely keep my eye out in May. 🙂

Wednesday: We went to Bath for the day, which we were both really looking forward to. From what I saw on the website, it was beautiful. But OY! What a morning! We got up at around 6am, got the first uni bus at 7, and stopped into Tesco for an amazing chocolate croissant. No croissants! The manager told me they’d be done in “about 10-15 minutes, not long.” Me being the ridiculous person that I am, I insisted on waiting because these croissants are just THAT good. Well, almost a half an hour had gone by before I realized how long we’d been standing there. Then Dan told me the guy was JUST starting to make them. You think I’m joking, but I’m not. I was starving and stressing about time, so we got coffee/hot chocolate and muffins and left. Took a long tube ride to Paddington station for the train to Bath. Upon arriving at the ticket kiosk, I realized how crucial it was to buy tickets online/in advance. I was expecting we would pay £29.50 for two tickets to Bath, but it was A LOT more. Then we JUST missed the train by seconds and had to wait a half an hour for the next. This whole morning was turning into a giant fail and I got really upset, but once we were on the train and finally arrived at Bath at 11, I had calmed down. Only to realize that I never wrote down the name of the B&B we were going to stay at! AH! After what felt like a wild goose chase, we finally got the name and address of the place and after lunch, we checked in to the Radnor (an adorable and pretty inexpensive B&B for anyone planning a trip to Bath – I recommend!) and continued our Bath adventure. We originally wanted to visit Bath Abbey first and do the Tower Tour, but we had missed the last tour by 15 minutes. Oh well, we got to walk around the church for a bit. So, first stop was the Roman Baths. We walked around for about 90 minutes and even got to taste Spa water! I thought it was pretty gross because it was hot, but it was cool to drink water from the actual spa. Then we went to the Fashion Museum (sounds random, I know, but we got a discounted ticket with our ticket to the Roman Baths). It was interesting I guess, but if it hadn’t been for the discount, I probably wouldn’t have gone in. After that, we walked around a bit more. I realized that Bath was different than I expected. Sure, there were historical buildings/sights, but it was also this really cute, small town with a lot of small shops. But then you turn the corner and BAM! There’s an H&M and Quiksilver? So it had its modern moments. Then we reached The Circus and the Royal Crescent. Walking back to the B&B to change for dinner, we also saw Pulteney Bridge. I was confused because as I was walking along this path with shops on it, I was looking in the distance for a bridge, only to discover that I was walking Pulteney Bridge! Apparently it’s the only bridge in the area to have shops built along it. Later that night, we went to a cute restaurant called The Real Italian Pizza Co. It was a very colorful place with great Italian food at a good price. After an exhausting day in Bath, we SLEPT!

Thursday: We woke up at 7am and got ready for our full English Breakfast (included with the price of the B&B) which was delicious! They also had a bunch of cereals and juices and teas, all of which I took advantage of. Mm mm mmm!! Then we checked out at 8 (after purchasing our tickets back to London ONLINE this time) and headed back into the city for our guided tour to Stonehenge! I’ll admit, it wasn’t all it was hyped up to be. Sure, it was really great seeing something that’s so historically famous, and it was obviously something I needed to see during my stay in the UK, but there wasn’t much to do. The tour gave us an hour on the site, but Dan and I were done in about 30 minutes. It was SO WINDY at the sight, so we didn’t mind heading back to the tour bus early. And I felt like such a jerk that day, because when I went to take a picture of Dan with his camera and dropped it!!! The screen cracked 🙁 It still works, but if you can’t see what you’re taking a picture of, what’s the point? I felt awful for the rest of the day/his visit. I still feel bad. Oy, I’m so clumsy sometimes… Anywho, we got back to London at around 5 and met Ashley for dinner; she wanted to meet Dan.

Friday: LAZY MORNING! After an exhausting and jam-packed week, it’s exactly what we needed. At around 11:30, we went over to Tesco; I needed some ingredients for lunch and dinner that night. Lo and behold, they had croissants! They weren’t on display yet, but the guy let me have 2….straight from the oven. OMG. Best croissants I’ve ever had from Tesco. Yum! After making lunch, we headed over to Tower Bridge, the last must-see on my list. It was around sunset when we got there. I figured we could walk the Thames Path for a bit – between Tower Bridge and Millennium Bridge – as the sun was setting. A nice romantic, laid-back way to end the week. And it wasn’t even that cold! (Forgot to mention that I stupidly told Dan not to bring a heavy coat because it was getting nicer; naturally, it was cold and rainy this whole week, despite the conditions last week.) We got back to Middlesex and made another delicious meal and had tea and crumpets for dessert. 🙂

Today: Woke up, Dan wanted another English Breakfast before heading back to New York. Then chilled out in my room until around 1:30 when we left for Heathrow. This week seemed to fly by, but like I said before, it was great to be in London with him. And just to see him in general – I’ve missed him so much! This goodbye wasn’t as emotional and heart-wrenching as the one we had in January, mostly because we know we’ll be seeing each other in about a month. But I know I’ll still be missing him until May.

Now I just have to upload my pictures, clean my room, do some laundry, and prepare for MY upcoming trips. Also, I’ll wish everyone a Happy Easter! 🙂

xx