For our final SIE field trip, we assembled in Tennis Courts on May 15th at precisely 7:30am for our long journey to Cornwall! It was a little over a 5 hour trip to our first destination, the Eden Project. The Eden Project brings together science, art, technology and commerce to promote conservation and develop new strategies for sustainability. The Eden Project is made up of biomes (Rainforest and the Mediterranean) that explore the relationship of people, plants, and the planet.
We stayed for just under 4 hours and it was very cool! The biomes were absolutely amazing and beautiful. Just walking around the Eden Project was a stunning view. After our short, but worthwhile visit, we took off for our Youth Hostel at Treyarnon Bay in Padstow. We had a group meal, which was yummy and FREE! Then a bunch of us took off to explore the beach right outside the hostel for a few hours and had a great time playing in the water and taking pictures of the breathtaking scenery!
Saturday May 16th, we woke up bright and early, had yet another free meal, and took off for St Ives to do some shopping and walk around a bit. It was a lovely little town full of cute shops and yummy bistros. We first made our way to the beach to take some photos and then took off for city centre to get those last minute treasures. I managed to trip off the curb and land on my face in front of a group of people as I was window shopping. Great. After St. Ives we stopped for a bit in Penzance (Pirates of Penzance) and then made our way back to the hostel for yet another free meal and fun on the beach!
Sunday May 17th we had ANOTHER free meal at the hostel and then took off for Newquay to go SURFING! We arrived at 10am to get our suits on and surf boards. The place where we got our suits and surfboards was a ‘bit’ away from the actual beach in which we were to surf and it was a ‘bitch’ of a walk. It was about a 15 minute walk downhill and all of us knew that walking up that after surfing for three hours was going to be ‘hell.’ We had a quick lesson and then the surfing instructor set us loose. I got up twice but that was about it. After two hours of high winds, waves crashing on to me, hitting a few rocks with my feet, and a gallon of salt water in my eyes and mouth, we had to stop. It was a blast and I can’t wait to do it again! As I said before, the walk uphill was a bitch. My arms were like noodles and it was a pain. That I don’t want to do again!
We then had ten minutes to change out of sandy, wetsuits into dry clothes and get back on the coach. We all had sand everywhere and there was no place to rinse off….cool. We made a quick stop at Tintagel to see King Arthur’s Castle by the sea and then we were off to Bham.
Cornwall was absolutely beautiful and a truly lovely place. I hope to someday make it back to Cornwall because I had such a great time! It was sad to know that this was my last trip ever with these 42 special people who now make up my new family.
“You have to deal with the knowledge that what you’ve just lived will never be recreated.”
I leave on Thursday morning at 7:30am for Heathrow and will be arrive in Minneapolis airport at approximately 11:30pm. It’s going to be a long, sad journey but good to be home. I will miss England dearly and I will forever cherish the time I’ve had here.
Cheers and will be seeing you very soon,
Kirsten
Monday 18 May 2009
Thursday 14 May 2009
About Spring Break Blog....
Just want you to know that the blog is my journal that I wrote as the trip was happening, I haven't really gone through and edited much of it so please mind the language, run-on sentances, and more or less, lots of gramatical errors.
The rest of my trip will be up soon! (slash, I need to finish the last trip)
The rest of my trip will be up soon! (slash, I need to finish the last trip)
Spring Break: Oporto, Portugal through Montpellier, Southern France...
Oporto, Portugal: March 27th 2009:
Friday morning was a busy one! Between running back and forth from the laundry room and getting my last minute stuff packed, I was already exhausted! I strapped on my over packed and over sized backpack and stood up. I looked in the mirror and could see my sleeping bag tied on the outside and my travel pillow hanging off the side strap. I looked like I was carrying my entire home on my back. I immediately knew that I packed way too much but decided to just go with it. Katie and I caught the 44 Bus down to New Street Station to catch an 8 minute train to Birmingham International to catch our flight to Oporto Portugal. At the airport we ended up meeting up with two kids from my SIE group, Nick VW and Claire. They were going to be on the same flight to Portugal.
Once in Oporto, after getting through costems, the four of us made it too the main part of the airport to find out how to get to the tram. After about 10 minutes of walking up and down the airport, we finally found the tram. Since Katie and I were couchsurfing, we got off two stops before Nick and Claire. It was dark by this time, so walking to the address given by our couchsurfer was a bit sketch but we found it fine. This was going to be our first couchsurfing experience and we were very fired up! People who have couchsurfed before told us that when you meet your couchsurfer, it’s like your ‘instant friends.’ That statement is one hundred percent true! Her name was Carmo and she was very nice. We got to her place around 8pm at night and she was in the middle of preparing food. We had a delicious meal and the best part, it was free! She told us stories and important cultural aspects of Portugal. She was very nice and hospitable. Our first experience with couchsurfing was a great one and it defiantly set the bar for the rest of our trip!
We weren’t the only couchsurfer’s surfing with Carmo, there was an older woman from Zurich there as well. She was weird to say the least. She wouldn’t stop talking and she snored very loud.
The next day, we headed to LISBON!
Lisboa, Portugal: March 28th 2009:
What a day! We woke up at 5:30am in Porto and got ready in a snap and headed towards the Metro towards the train station to catch the 6:52 IC train to Lisbon. Today was our first day using our Eurail so we had to get it authorized. 4 Euros later we on our 3 hour train to Lisboa, Portugal. I was exhausted from only sleeping 4 hours the night before so as soon as I was comfortable in my seat, I passed out. I slept for two straight hours before I woke up to the sun shining. I looked out the window to notice the most beautiful landscape and bright sun! The weather looked wonderful and it was finally starting to hit me where I was going. We were to get off at the S.A train station to meet Ana Pinho, who we met on couchsurfing. The train came to a stop at a major train station and everyone got off the train, therefore we did the same. My instructions from Ana stated that we were to meet at the subway entrance so we first walked there. It was a little after 10, the time we planned to meet, and she wasn’t there. We waited a few minutes before we decided to give her a call. Unfortunately our cell phones weren’t working properly so we paid 2 Euros to use the pay phone.
After some confusion and having the guy working at the coffee shop in the subway help us, we found out that we were at the wrong Lisboa train station. We were supposed to get off at the second stop but since we didn’t speak Portuguese, we didn’t get that memo so we were kind of stuck. Since Ana is great, she told us to wait there and she’ll come and get us. Finally after about 20 minutes, Ana was there and she was very sweet and understanding with our mistake. Our oversized backpacks are huge and so heavy that we got on the metro to get to her house so we could drop them off before exploring. We got to her lovely home near central Lisbon, dropped our luggage and freshened up a bit while she made us a wonderfully delicious lunch! It was a Russian Salad (potatoes, peas, carrots, and tuna), yummy bread and cheese, green salad, and cabbage soup. It was absolutely delicious and well needed. Since me and Katie hadn’t eaten since the night before, we pretty much shoveled the food in our mouths.
After lunch all three of us took off for Lisboa City Centre. We walked around for a few hours and saw some amazing sites. We stopped for legit Portugal coffee and some authentic Portugal cream cakes. We learned so much history and fascinating information about Lisboa that we would never have learned if we weren’t couchsurfing! Ana is an architect, so we knew the information she was giving us was pretty legit! She then took us to the proper train station so we could purchase our train tickets for the following night to Madrid and then we hopped on the Metro back to her place. She had a meeting at 5 for some work stuff and we decided we’d go back home with her so we could shower and rest up a little before meeting her at 8:30.
We were suppose to meet Ana at some shore in Lisboa, but Katie and I got turned around and ended up on the opposite side of town.
Since Ana is so nice, she told us to wait there and she’ll come find us. After Ana found us on the steps of some major government building, we went to Ana’s favorite local posh bar for a drink. She bought us some mulled wine and we chit chatted for a while before walking back to her place to rest up for a full day in Sintra! The other nice part about staying with Ana, was we got our own, nice bedroom!
Sintra, Portugal:
We got ready pretty fast and took off for a little bakery for some yummy breakfast and something to eat for lunch in Sintra. We spent 3.40 Euros for a 40 minute train ride from Lisboa to Sintra. Once in Sintra we paid 4.50 for a bus that takes us up the hill to the Palace and it was WAY worth it. It was an absolutely frightening ride up the steep, narrow roads. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to make it! We walked a little hike up the narrow road to the palace, but it wasn’t bad. Those stupid people who think it would be fun to hike up to the palaces….are dumb. We stayed at the palace for a few hours and it was absolutely beautiful and the coolest palace I have ever seen. We walked down through the garden to get back to the bus stop on the other side and that was a lot of fun as well. The huge garden of the palace was like an enchanted forest! After a full day at the Palace, Katie and I packed our bags and then her ‘friend’ brought us to the train station so we could catch our 22:30 train to Madrid.
Madrid, Spain:
At the train station, I went to almost every shop and café that was open to see if they had a plastic spoon or knife so I could use it to cut our cheese and spread our peanut butter but everyone was pretty rude or didn’t understand me because I walked away empty handed.
We boarded the ‘moving’ train and found that our seats were in the last coach. We were pissed. That night was horrible! Well at first it was okay because for some reason Katie and I couldn’t stop laughing about every little thing! But then, the people in the back of the coach we extremely loud ALL NIGHT and I was terribly uncomfortable. Since the seats we had were also facing two seats, we had very little leg room and it was very sucky! That night went by very slow and I thank God it’s over! Never again! I think we’ll buy sleeper’s next time….also, another thing that sucked was that our coach was the last one therefore it moved too much back and forth and was extremely hot for a little bit and then would get too cold.
When we finally arrived in Madrid, we were so anxious to get off the train I thought I was going to explode! I slept some, but Katie hardly slept, therefore making us both rather cranky. We first when to the toilets to put our eyes in and freshened up a bit. Then we walked over to the information desk to ask for the ‘left luggage’ area. The woman didn’t speak any English and was rather rude about it. Great, we’re off to a fabulous start. When we got to the luggage area, the man behind the desk kept yelling at us in Spanish and waving his arms….cool. Exhausted and sleep deprived, we exited the Madrid train station to go explore the city.
We were couch surfing that night, which was great, but that sucky part was that we weren’t meeting up with him till 11pm at night. It was about 10 in the morning, very cold, and rainy. Yay, just what we wanted when we decided to visit Spain. We walked around a bit and discovered that there were a few museums that would be good to see since it was such an icky day. Little did we now, all the public meusems and galleries are closed on Mondays. We found one, Renier, and got in on a student rate for 3 Euros and got too see Picaso’s Gurrinica! It was absolutely fantastic!
Then we decided we were pretty tired and it was still really early so we walked/ran over to the Starbucks across from the museum and got a 4 Euro coffee.
Katie and I have discovered that people in Spain are very forward and PDA with their affection towards there significant others and it’s very disturbing and uncomfortable to watch. We also found out that people pick/dig for
gold a LOT in Spain. We saw a total of 12 nose pickers with one eater. Sick.
After coffee we headed to the Biotanical Gardens and Katie found 4 kitties.
Barcelona, Spain: March 31st- April 2nd
We arrived in Barcelona at about 8pm and once off the train we made our way to the Metro to meet our couchsurfer for the night, Eli Gonzalez. She was very nice and sweet and she picked us up in her car outside the Metro station. She doesn’t live in Barcelona city, just outside and that was just fine with Katie and I. She had a very cute little house and again we had our own bedroom. Since we arrived late, we went straight to her house instead of exploring. After she showed us our room, Katie and I changed in our Pj’s and went into the kitchen to make a little snack before going to bed. Eli joined us and for the next hour or so we had a great conversation about Peanut Butter and how great couchsurfing is. Eli, like us, is very new with couchsurfing so she asked if it was okay that she brought us back to the metro early in the morning because she didn’t feel comfortable with leaving us the key. We had no problem with that, even though we were leaving at 7am, because we were just appreaciative to have a free place to stay.
The next morning we left Eli’s house at 7am sharp and made our 15 minute drive to the metro station she picked us up the night before. We went on separate lines because we were going to be catching a metro line to the train station to get our tickets for the next day’s train to Montpellier, Southern France. So we get to the train station that we were at the night before and ask for directions to the train station that our Eurail ticket works for. The man told us to catch the 8:10 train from this intercity line and we raced to catch it. When we got to the platform he told us, a train was just about to leave but it was 5 minutes past the time the train was set to leave…we jumped on any way. He told us that after three stops we’d be there….we’ll turns out the train we wanted did leave on time and this was a train that went to some random little towns an hour outside of Barcelona. To a very sketch area, yay. Katie and I were suppose to meet Ashley and Mindy for breakfast at 9am since they were also in town and at this point we knew that that wasn’t going to happen. We texted Ashley and said we call when we got back into town. After two hours on a train that we weren’t suppose to be on, we were finally at the right train station. We bought our tickets and headed to city centre to meet up with Ashley and Mindy.
We spent the day with Ashley, Mindy, Bradie, and Robbie. We checked out some cool sites and had a great day! It was a bit chilly, but still great.
The next morning, we were on our way to Montpellier, Southern France! Yay!
Montpellier, S. France: April 3, 2009
What a day! Last night we arrived in Montpellier at 1pm. We got off the train and it was pouring rain. Great. For some reason, when I put on my backpack, my straps disconnected from the bag and I didn’t know it. I was wondering why my backpack hurt so bad, turns out it was putting about 30 plus pounds of stress on my neck and shoulders…ouch. Anyway, we went outside to buy a tram ticket to her house but the stupid machine only takes coins which we found out AFTER we tried a credit card, debit card, AND cash…dang it. Finally Katie took a 5 Euro from me, because she doesn’t have any money due to her card being over drafted and she went up to a counter a bought a Pepsi so we could get some coins.
The tram was very nice, new, and clean and very easy to read. We were at the appropriate stop within minutes and exited ourselves into the pouring rain. Although we had umbrellas, they didn’t do justice. We had directions to get to our couchsurfing Lucy’s home, but we didn’t have a map. Katie tried to call her but again like Lisboa, we were having a lot of trouble. She got a hold of her but her phone doesn’t work very well and it was very hard to hear her so she tried to use my phone but for some reason it wasn’t working. Finally we found our way to Lucy’s flat! Soaked and tired. Lucy was very nice but she runs a small babysitting business in her home so we quickly and quietly, the kids were sleeping, got ready and went to walk around city centre. It was very nice because Montpellier is very small yet, charming. We had no itinerary and there are only a few things like the Opera house and the Arc that you need to see, otherwise it’s nice to just stroll around and pop into the shops. We chit chatted and munched on a yummy sugar crepes. Although it wasn’t the time we said we’d be home, we headed back early to go online and check email and just relax.
The afternoon was pleasant just chilling out and having nothing to do and not feeling bad about. Lucy made us some yummy beef and noodles with balsamic vinegar and we introduced her to peanut butter, and she was thrilled. Oh yeah, it was so precious, since we got back so early her babysitting kids haven’t left yet so we got to see them off and the one little girl gave me a cute little kiss! It was adorable! That night we went to bed at about 10:30pm. We turned on Hercules for the hundredth time, I took a Tylenol PM and we were out.
This morning we woke up at 8am to get ready for the day. It was really strange because in Lucy’s apartment, her toilet room is down the hall from the shower room. What I don’t understand is why in every country we have been to , they don’t put garbage cans in their toilet rooms? I mean what do they do when they have to throw away feminine hygiene products? Interesting to say the least. Anyway, the shower was going to be another interesting situation. She didn’t have a curtain and only fake ivy hung down in place of the shower curtain. Also, the shower didn’t have a hook, you had to wet your hair, set the shower head down on the ground, lather, and then pick up the shower head and rise, let’s just say my shower was a long process mixed with slipping and accidently spraying the entire room with shooting water.
By the time we showered and got ready for the day and had a quick bite to eat, homemade bread from Lucy, we made a few sandwiches and headed back to do some shopping in city centre again. Lucy walked with us to city centre with her babysitting kids and showed us the best place to go for a chocolate croissant and a espresso and the she went back home. We actually ended up going to a different place where we got to sit out in the sun and enjoy the scenery and listen to some music. Although they didn’t have our chocolate croissants, we did have pretty good espresso. We then decided that we’d better walk to the train station to book our reservation for our overnight train tonight. We grabbed a chocolate croissant on the way and we were at this point in a pretty merry mood.
After waiting in line for about 20 minutes it was finally our turn. Katie asked if she spoked English and she said ‘no’, great. Turns out all the Eurail tickets for the train we NEEDED were already booked and it was the same for the following day. Great. Now the thing is, is that we CANNOT have our plans changed because the previous night we booked a hostel for Rome and we didn’t want to lose that money and have our plans all mixed up. So we ended up having to buy 240 Euro tickets to get us to Milan today in order to catch our train to Piedmont. It’s absolutely ridiculous that Eurail doesn’t have a backup plan if their customers run into a problem like ours. For instance, shouldn’t we get discounted tickets or something like that? So we had to rush to Lucy’s place to get packed and back to the station to catch our 13:56 train. Well first we stopped at a fresh fruit stand and loaded up. Then we went to a grocery store and bought some banana juice and fresh bread, also two chocolate croissants. The line for the store took about 20 minutes so that put us in even more of a rush. We got to Lucy’s, explained ourselves and got to work to get everything situated. We said our goodbyes to Lucy and took a few pictures.
It was now 31 after and we had a little more than 20 minutes to make it to the train station. With our huge backpacks and food, we sort of ran to the tram stop. We made it just in time! The door closed part way on me and I kept going in and out not sure what to do and Katie just said to go in so we did. We made the tram just in time! We didn’t pay though; we just got on and found a place to stand and catch our breath. I was shaking on the tram and my heart was pounding. If we missed the train, we were fucked. When we got off the tram I raced into the station to find where to go and ended up ‘punching’ the wrong ticket. Shit. After much rushing and we made it on the train, although we got on the wrong coach. We ended up walking all the way from one end of the train to the next. Since there weren’t many tickets left, we had to buy first class tickets. Finally settled, we had some lunch and banana juice. We then switched trains at Lyon Part Dieu to get to Modane and then we’ll catch another train to Milan where we will be staying with Augusto, Katie’s father’s friend from high school. It’s going to be an interesting evening and I hope everything turns out okay.
Friday morning was a busy one! Between running back and forth from the laundry room and getting my last minute stuff packed, I was already exhausted! I strapped on my over packed and over sized backpack and stood up. I looked in the mirror and could see my sleeping bag tied on the outside and my travel pillow hanging off the side strap. I looked like I was carrying my entire home on my back. I immediately knew that I packed way too much but decided to just go with it. Katie and I caught the 44 Bus down to New Street Station to catch an 8 minute train to Birmingham International to catch our flight to Oporto Portugal. At the airport we ended up meeting up with two kids from my SIE group, Nick VW and Claire. They were going to be on the same flight to Portugal.
Once in Oporto, after getting through costems, the four of us made it too the main part of the airport to find out how to get to the tram. After about 10 minutes of walking up and down the airport, we finally found the tram. Since Katie and I were couchsurfing, we got off two stops before Nick and Claire. It was dark by this time, so walking to the address given by our couchsurfer was a bit sketch but we found it fine. This was going to be our first couchsurfing experience and we were very fired up! People who have couchsurfed before told us that when you meet your couchsurfer, it’s like your ‘instant friends.’ That statement is one hundred percent true! Her name was Carmo and she was very nice. We got to her place around 8pm at night and she was in the middle of preparing food. We had a delicious meal and the best part, it was free! She told us stories and important cultural aspects of Portugal. She was very nice and hospitable. Our first experience with couchsurfing was a great one and it defiantly set the bar for the rest of our trip!
We weren’t the only couchsurfer’s surfing with Carmo, there was an older woman from Zurich there as well. She was weird to say the least. She wouldn’t stop talking and she snored very loud.
The next day, we headed to LISBON!
Lisboa, Portugal: March 28th 2009:
What a day! We woke up at 5:30am in Porto and got ready in a snap and headed towards the Metro towards the train station to catch the 6:52 IC train to Lisbon. Today was our first day using our Eurail so we had to get it authorized. 4 Euros later we on our 3 hour train to Lisboa, Portugal. I was exhausted from only sleeping 4 hours the night before so as soon as I was comfortable in my seat, I passed out. I slept for two straight hours before I woke up to the sun shining. I looked out the window to notice the most beautiful landscape and bright sun! The weather looked wonderful and it was finally starting to hit me where I was going. We were to get off at the S.A train station to meet Ana Pinho, who we met on couchsurfing. The train came to a stop at a major train station and everyone got off the train, therefore we did the same. My instructions from Ana stated that we were to meet at the subway entrance so we first walked there. It was a little after 10, the time we planned to meet, and she wasn’t there. We waited a few minutes before we decided to give her a call. Unfortunately our cell phones weren’t working properly so we paid 2 Euros to use the pay phone.
After some confusion and having the guy working at the coffee shop in the subway help us, we found out that we were at the wrong Lisboa train station. We were supposed to get off at the second stop but since we didn’t speak Portuguese, we didn’t get that memo so we were kind of stuck. Since Ana is great, she told us to wait there and she’ll come and get us. Finally after about 20 minutes, Ana was there and she was very sweet and understanding with our mistake. Our oversized backpacks are huge and so heavy that we got on the metro to get to her house so we could drop them off before exploring. We got to her lovely home near central Lisbon, dropped our luggage and freshened up a bit while she made us a wonderfully delicious lunch! It was a Russian Salad (potatoes, peas, carrots, and tuna), yummy bread and cheese, green salad, and cabbage soup. It was absolutely delicious and well needed. Since me and Katie hadn’t eaten since the night before, we pretty much shoveled the food in our mouths.
After lunch all three of us took off for Lisboa City Centre. We walked around for a few hours and saw some amazing sites. We stopped for legit Portugal coffee and some authentic Portugal cream cakes. We learned so much history and fascinating information about Lisboa that we would never have learned if we weren’t couchsurfing! Ana is an architect, so we knew the information she was giving us was pretty legit! She then took us to the proper train station so we could purchase our train tickets for the following night to Madrid and then we hopped on the Metro back to her place. She had a meeting at 5 for some work stuff and we decided we’d go back home with her so we could shower and rest up a little before meeting her at 8:30.
We were suppose to meet Ana at some shore in Lisboa, but Katie and I got turned around and ended up on the opposite side of town.
Since Ana is so nice, she told us to wait there and she’ll come find us. After Ana found us on the steps of some major government building, we went to Ana’s favorite local posh bar for a drink. She bought us some mulled wine and we chit chatted for a while before walking back to her place to rest up for a full day in Sintra! The other nice part about staying with Ana, was we got our own, nice bedroom!
Sintra, Portugal:
We got ready pretty fast and took off for a little bakery for some yummy breakfast and something to eat for lunch in Sintra. We spent 3.40 Euros for a 40 minute train ride from Lisboa to Sintra. Once in Sintra we paid 4.50 for a bus that takes us up the hill to the Palace and it was WAY worth it. It was an absolutely frightening ride up the steep, narrow roads. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to make it! We walked a little hike up the narrow road to the palace, but it wasn’t bad. Those stupid people who think it would be fun to hike up to the palaces….are dumb. We stayed at the palace for a few hours and it was absolutely beautiful and the coolest palace I have ever seen. We walked down through the garden to get back to the bus stop on the other side and that was a lot of fun as well. The huge garden of the palace was like an enchanted forest! After a full day at the Palace, Katie and I packed our bags and then her ‘friend’ brought us to the train station so we could catch our 22:30 train to Madrid.
Madrid, Spain:
At the train station, I went to almost every shop and café that was open to see if they had a plastic spoon or knife so I could use it to cut our cheese and spread our peanut butter but everyone was pretty rude or didn’t understand me because I walked away empty handed.
We boarded the ‘moving’ train and found that our seats were in the last coach. We were pissed. That night was horrible! Well at first it was okay because for some reason Katie and I couldn’t stop laughing about every little thing! But then, the people in the back of the coach we extremely loud ALL NIGHT and I was terribly uncomfortable. Since the seats we had were also facing two seats, we had very little leg room and it was very sucky! That night went by very slow and I thank God it’s over! Never again! I think we’ll buy sleeper’s next time….also, another thing that sucked was that our coach was the last one therefore it moved too much back and forth and was extremely hot for a little bit and then would get too cold.
When we finally arrived in Madrid, we were so anxious to get off the train I thought I was going to explode! I slept some, but Katie hardly slept, therefore making us both rather cranky. We first when to the toilets to put our eyes in and freshened up a bit. Then we walked over to the information desk to ask for the ‘left luggage’ area. The woman didn’t speak any English and was rather rude about it. Great, we’re off to a fabulous start. When we got to the luggage area, the man behind the desk kept yelling at us in Spanish and waving his arms….cool. Exhausted and sleep deprived, we exited the Madrid train station to go explore the city.
We were couch surfing that night, which was great, but that sucky part was that we weren’t meeting up with him till 11pm at night. It was about 10 in the morning, very cold, and rainy. Yay, just what we wanted when we decided to visit Spain. We walked around a bit and discovered that there were a few museums that would be good to see since it was such an icky day. Little did we now, all the public meusems and galleries are closed on Mondays. We found one, Renier, and got in on a student rate for 3 Euros and got too see Picaso’s Gurrinica! It was absolutely fantastic!
Then we decided we were pretty tired and it was still really early so we walked/ran over to the Starbucks across from the museum and got a 4 Euro coffee.
Katie and I have discovered that people in Spain are very forward and PDA with their affection towards there significant others and it’s very disturbing and uncomfortable to watch. We also found out that people pick/dig for
gold a LOT in Spain. We saw a total of 12 nose pickers with one eater. Sick.
After coffee we headed to the Biotanical Gardens and Katie found 4 kitties.
Barcelona, Spain: March 31st- April 2nd
We arrived in Barcelona at about 8pm and once off the train we made our way to the Metro to meet our couchsurfer for the night, Eli Gonzalez. She was very nice and sweet and she picked us up in her car outside the Metro station. She doesn’t live in Barcelona city, just outside and that was just fine with Katie and I. She had a very cute little house and again we had our own bedroom. Since we arrived late, we went straight to her house instead of exploring. After she showed us our room, Katie and I changed in our Pj’s and went into the kitchen to make a little snack before going to bed. Eli joined us and for the next hour or so we had a great conversation about Peanut Butter and how great couchsurfing is. Eli, like us, is very new with couchsurfing so she asked if it was okay that she brought us back to the metro early in the morning because she didn’t feel comfortable with leaving us the key. We had no problem with that, even though we were leaving at 7am, because we were just appreaciative to have a free place to stay.
The next morning we left Eli’s house at 7am sharp and made our 15 minute drive to the metro station she picked us up the night before. We went on separate lines because we were going to be catching a metro line to the train station to get our tickets for the next day’s train to Montpellier, Southern France. So we get to the train station that we were at the night before and ask for directions to the train station that our Eurail ticket works for. The man told us to catch the 8:10 train from this intercity line and we raced to catch it. When we got to the platform he told us, a train was just about to leave but it was 5 minutes past the time the train was set to leave…we jumped on any way. He told us that after three stops we’d be there….we’ll turns out the train we wanted did leave on time and this was a train that went to some random little towns an hour outside of Barcelona. To a very sketch area, yay. Katie and I were suppose to meet Ashley and Mindy for breakfast at 9am since they were also in town and at this point we knew that that wasn’t going to happen. We texted Ashley and said we call when we got back into town. After two hours on a train that we weren’t suppose to be on, we were finally at the right train station. We bought our tickets and headed to city centre to meet up with Ashley and Mindy.
We spent the day with Ashley, Mindy, Bradie, and Robbie. We checked out some cool sites and had a great day! It was a bit chilly, but still great.
The next morning, we were on our way to Montpellier, Southern France! Yay!
Montpellier, S. France: April 3, 2009
What a day! Last night we arrived in Montpellier at 1pm. We got off the train and it was pouring rain. Great. For some reason, when I put on my backpack, my straps disconnected from the bag and I didn’t know it. I was wondering why my backpack hurt so bad, turns out it was putting about 30 plus pounds of stress on my neck and shoulders…ouch. Anyway, we went outside to buy a tram ticket to her house but the stupid machine only takes coins which we found out AFTER we tried a credit card, debit card, AND cash…dang it. Finally Katie took a 5 Euro from me, because she doesn’t have any money due to her card being over drafted and she went up to a counter a bought a Pepsi so we could get some coins.
The tram was very nice, new, and clean and very easy to read. We were at the appropriate stop within minutes and exited ourselves into the pouring rain. Although we had umbrellas, they didn’t do justice. We had directions to get to our couchsurfing Lucy’s home, but we didn’t have a map. Katie tried to call her but again like Lisboa, we were having a lot of trouble. She got a hold of her but her phone doesn’t work very well and it was very hard to hear her so she tried to use my phone but for some reason it wasn’t working. Finally we found our way to Lucy’s flat! Soaked and tired. Lucy was very nice but she runs a small babysitting business in her home so we quickly and quietly, the kids were sleeping, got ready and went to walk around city centre. It was very nice because Montpellier is very small yet, charming. We had no itinerary and there are only a few things like the Opera house and the Arc that you need to see, otherwise it’s nice to just stroll around and pop into the shops. We chit chatted and munched on a yummy sugar crepes. Although it wasn’t the time we said we’d be home, we headed back early to go online and check email and just relax.
The afternoon was pleasant just chilling out and having nothing to do and not feeling bad about. Lucy made us some yummy beef and noodles with balsamic vinegar and we introduced her to peanut butter, and she was thrilled. Oh yeah, it was so precious, since we got back so early her babysitting kids haven’t left yet so we got to see them off and the one little girl gave me a cute little kiss! It was adorable! That night we went to bed at about 10:30pm. We turned on Hercules for the hundredth time, I took a Tylenol PM and we were out.
This morning we woke up at 8am to get ready for the day. It was really strange because in Lucy’s apartment, her toilet room is down the hall from the shower room. What I don’t understand is why in every country we have been to , they don’t put garbage cans in their toilet rooms? I mean what do they do when they have to throw away feminine hygiene products? Interesting to say the least. Anyway, the shower was going to be another interesting situation. She didn’t have a curtain and only fake ivy hung down in place of the shower curtain. Also, the shower didn’t have a hook, you had to wet your hair, set the shower head down on the ground, lather, and then pick up the shower head and rise, let’s just say my shower was a long process mixed with slipping and accidently spraying the entire room with shooting water.
By the time we showered and got ready for the day and had a quick bite to eat, homemade bread from Lucy, we made a few sandwiches and headed back to do some shopping in city centre again. Lucy walked with us to city centre with her babysitting kids and showed us the best place to go for a chocolate croissant and a espresso and the she went back home. We actually ended up going to a different place where we got to sit out in the sun and enjoy the scenery and listen to some music. Although they didn’t have our chocolate croissants, we did have pretty good espresso. We then decided that we’d better walk to the train station to book our reservation for our overnight train tonight. We grabbed a chocolate croissant on the way and we were at this point in a pretty merry mood.
After waiting in line for about 20 minutes it was finally our turn. Katie asked if she spoked English and she said ‘no’, great. Turns out all the Eurail tickets for the train we NEEDED were already booked and it was the same for the following day. Great. Now the thing is, is that we CANNOT have our plans changed because the previous night we booked a hostel for Rome and we didn’t want to lose that money and have our plans all mixed up. So we ended up having to buy 240 Euro tickets to get us to Milan today in order to catch our train to Piedmont. It’s absolutely ridiculous that Eurail doesn’t have a backup plan if their customers run into a problem like ours. For instance, shouldn’t we get discounted tickets or something like that? So we had to rush to Lucy’s place to get packed and back to the station to catch our 13:56 train. Well first we stopped at a fresh fruit stand and loaded up. Then we went to a grocery store and bought some banana juice and fresh bread, also two chocolate croissants. The line for the store took about 20 minutes so that put us in even more of a rush. We got to Lucy’s, explained ourselves and got to work to get everything situated. We said our goodbyes to Lucy and took a few pictures.
It was now 31 after and we had a little more than 20 minutes to make it to the train station. With our huge backpacks and food, we sort of ran to the tram stop. We made it just in time! The door closed part way on me and I kept going in and out not sure what to do and Katie just said to go in so we did. We made the tram just in time! We didn’t pay though; we just got on and found a place to stand and catch our breath. I was shaking on the tram and my heart was pounding. If we missed the train, we were fucked. When we got off the tram I raced into the station to find where to go and ended up ‘punching’ the wrong ticket. Shit. After much rushing and we made it on the train, although we got on the wrong coach. We ended up walking all the way from one end of the train to the next. Since there weren’t many tickets left, we had to buy first class tickets. Finally settled, we had some lunch and banana juice. We then switched trains at Lyon Part Dieu to get to Modane and then we’ll catch another train to Milan where we will be staying with Augusto, Katie’s father’s friend from high school. It’s going to be an interesting evening and I hope everything turns out okay.
Friday 24 April 2009
Monday 23 March 2009
Canterbury, Allison, Travis, and London
At 5:30pm on Thursday the 12th of March, Liz Pawlik and I hopped on a 44 bus down to National Express bus station to catch a 7pm bus down to London. Liz’s friend Liz was to arrive at 7:30am the next morning and my Allison were to arrive at 11am. We arrived at the bus station a good 30 minutes before departure so we just chit chatted about how excited we were till we heard the announcement to board the bus. I went to grab my ticket out of my backpack to find that it wasn’t there! I tore apart my bag and realized I left it on my desk at home. Crap. I told Liz to just get on the bus and I’ll figure it out. I went up to the information desk and informed them on my problem and they said as long as I have the reference number they’ll allow me on the bus. Well, I didn’t have that either. I called Katie who was still at the flats to go into my email box and get me the reference number. Since Allison and I would also take a bus from London to Canterbury the next day she gave me the reference number for that ticket. I was now outside waiting to get on the bus with the wrong number. After some negotiation and one more call to Katie, he finally let me on the bus. Phew.
Liz and I stayed with her friend Remi that night in London and woke up bright and early to take the hour tube ride to Heathrow. I waited in the arrival area of Heathrow for three hours before Allison finally walked through the doors! It was so crazy to have Allie there! Ahhh! We hugged forever and there may have been a few tears involved as well. We then jumped back on the tube to central London. We walked around London for a few hours before going back to the bus station to catch our 7:30 bus to Canterbury to meet up with my SIE group. We arrived around 10:30pm at the hostel, thanks to the bus driver dropping us off right outside the door. I introduced her to a few people but we immediately got ready for bed and crashed.
The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and then got on the coach with everyone else and headed to Dover. We first walked around Dover Castle. Since it was early, the castle was closed and rather boring. A group of us walked down the hill through town to the water to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We then stopped into a pub for a pint and then got back on the coach for Canterbury.
That night we went to Canterbury College’s production of “Sweeney Todd.” It was a fun time because almost 20 people from the group went to the performance, but it wasn’t a very good performance unfortunately. Then next day we all got back on the coach and went to Leeds Castle.
Leeds Castle was absolutely breathe taking and beautiful. Of all the castles I’ve seen thus far, this one is my favorite. I was so happy that Allie got to see such a beautiful place on such a beautiful, warm, and sunny day. We walked around there for a few hours till heading back to Birmingham.
Canterbury and Dover weren’t the best, but Leeds Castle was fantastic! We arrived in Birmingham around 5pm. The next morning I was to pick up Travis Peterson at 6am at Birmingham International!
I was so happy and I feel very fortunate to have two friends visit me while I’m here in England. Allison stayed from Friday to Friday, and Travis is here till the Thursday before I leave for Portugal.
It was a fun week with both Allie and Travis here! Allie and I had a shopping day in City Center and I made sure to take them to a few clubs and pubs during their visit.
Allie took a bus to Heathrow at 4am on Friday morning and I was very sad to see her go! Travis is still here and the same day I put Allie on the bus, me and Travis took a bus at 10am to spend the day in London.
We got off at Victoria Bus Station and walked to Buckingham Palace. From there we walked through St. James Park to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster. Then we walked along the Thames River by the London Eye. We jumped on the Tube from Embankment to Tower Hill to see the London Tower and Tower Bridge. We were pretty tired from our already busy day so we sat down for a break and to look at the map to see what to do next. As we were sitting there, a woman walked up and gave us two free tickets to the City Cruise! So we walked down to Millennium Pier, got on the Cruise and took it all the way back down to Big Ben. It was so much fun! After that we decided to take a long, scenic route through Leicester Square back to the coach station.
It was such a wonderful day in London with Travis and we were so very lucky to have such beautiful weather!
I leave for Spring Break on Friday morning where Katie and I first head to Porto Portugal. From there we will travel to Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Torino, Vienna, Rome, and then Greece. This is our tentative plan and things may change but we are very excited!
I’ll let you know how Spring Break goes when I get back the 26th of April!
See you!
Kirsten
Liz and I stayed with her friend Remi that night in London and woke up bright and early to take the hour tube ride to Heathrow. I waited in the arrival area of Heathrow for three hours before Allison finally walked through the doors! It was so crazy to have Allie there! Ahhh! We hugged forever and there may have been a few tears involved as well. We then jumped back on the tube to central London. We walked around London for a few hours before going back to the bus station to catch our 7:30 bus to Canterbury to meet up with my SIE group. We arrived around 10:30pm at the hostel, thanks to the bus driver dropping us off right outside the door. I introduced her to a few people but we immediately got ready for bed and crashed.
The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and then got on the coach with everyone else and headed to Dover. We first walked around Dover Castle. Since it was early, the castle was closed and rather boring. A group of us walked down the hill through town to the water to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We then stopped into a pub for a pint and then got back on the coach for Canterbury.
That night we went to Canterbury College’s production of “Sweeney Todd.” It was a fun time because almost 20 people from the group went to the performance, but it wasn’t a very good performance unfortunately. Then next day we all got back on the coach and went to Leeds Castle.
Leeds Castle was absolutely breathe taking and beautiful. Of all the castles I’ve seen thus far, this one is my favorite. I was so happy that Allie got to see such a beautiful place on such a beautiful, warm, and sunny day. We walked around there for a few hours till heading back to Birmingham.
Canterbury and Dover weren’t the best, but Leeds Castle was fantastic! We arrived in Birmingham around 5pm. The next morning I was to pick up Travis Peterson at 6am at Birmingham International!
I was so happy and I feel very fortunate to have two friends visit me while I’m here in England. Allison stayed from Friday to Friday, and Travis is here till the Thursday before I leave for Portugal.
It was a fun week with both Allie and Travis here! Allie and I had a shopping day in City Center and I made sure to take them to a few clubs and pubs during their visit.
Allie took a bus to Heathrow at 4am on Friday morning and I was very sad to see her go! Travis is still here and the same day I put Allie on the bus, me and Travis took a bus at 10am to spend the day in London.
We got off at Victoria Bus Station and walked to Buckingham Palace. From there we walked through St. James Park to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster. Then we walked along the Thames River by the London Eye. We jumped on the Tube from Embankment to Tower Hill to see the London Tower and Tower Bridge. We were pretty tired from our already busy day so we sat down for a break and to look at the map to see what to do next. As we were sitting there, a woman walked up and gave us two free tickets to the City Cruise! So we walked down to Millennium Pier, got on the Cruise and took it all the way back down to Big Ben. It was so much fun! After that we decided to take a long, scenic route through Leicester Square back to the coach station.
It was such a wonderful day in London with Travis and we were so very lucky to have such beautiful weather!
I leave for Spring Break on Friday morning where Katie and I first head to Porto Portugal. From there we will travel to Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Torino, Vienna, Rome, and then Greece. This is our tentative plan and things may change but we are very excited!
I’ll let you know how Spring Break goes when I get back the 26th of April!
See you!
Kirsten
Wednesday 11 March 2009
March 5th-7th: Dublin, Ireland
Thursday, March 5th Katie Binning, Ashley Willeck, Mary Owen, Nicole Cartier, and Allie Kopp got on the 44 Bus and made our way down to New Street Station. After an 8 minute train ride, we were at Birmingham International. We were a little less than two hours early for our 7:45 flight to Dublin. After going through security and having to take all my stuff out of my bag because I forgot to take out my umbrella and getting searched myself, we sat down at a table and waited with anticipation for our time to board the 25 pound, Ryan Air Flight. It was a short, 45 minute flight till we landed in Dublin. We hopped on a city that cost us only 2.20 Euros, and after a 40 minute ride we were at O’Connell Street. From there we wondered a bit and finally found our hostel off this busy street down a rather sketch alley way. We were staying that “Litton Lane Hostel.” It was pretty descent, but not really worth the money. It was cheap, but after staying there it wasn’t cheap enough. After checking into the hostel, we quick dropped off our backpacks in our rooms. Katie, Ashley and I were staying in an 8 Bedroom dorm style room and just down the hall from us, Allie and Mary, were staying in a 10 Bedroom mixed dorm style room. Nicole was staying at the “Ashfield House” down the road with another friend from the SIE programme, Rachael Johnson. After a quick freshen up from our evening of travels, we all met up outside the hostel and walked around Dublin. We found ourselves in the Temple Bar area, an area on the south bank of the River Liffey. After stopping for a pint and being serenaded by an Irish man, we headed back for a much needed night’s rest. The next morning we got ready early and went down to the hostel’s lounge for breakfast that was included. The breakfast consisted of cornflakes, tea, and cardboard toast. It wasn’t the best, but we ate as much as we could so we could be nice and full for as long as possible. We grabbed some maps and got some information from the reception worker, and made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse was originally built in 1904 to house the Guinness fermentation process. This incredible building was constructed in the style of the Chicago school of architecture, with massive steel beams providing the support for the structure of the building.
The core of this unique building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from reception on the ground floor to The Gravity Bar in the sky. If filled, this giant pint would hold approximately 14.3 million pints of Guinness! After your tour, your ticket allows you one free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top level of storehouse. It was my first time ever having Guinness and although I was expecting to hate it, it was actually pretty tasty! From there were just walked around the streets of Dublin for the next few hours before Katie, Ashley, Rachael and I made our way to the opposite side of town for a Football game. It was the League of Ireland against Galway United who ended up winning 3-1. During admission, we got a hamburger and a 7 Up and wondered to the merchandise stand to check it out. As we were walking back through the gates to take our seat, the Irish man thought it would be funny to mess with us and say that our student tickets weren’t real and after him joking about kicking us out and us girls believing every word with panic, he burst out laughing and let us in. We didn’t think it was that funny. The next day, we got up early and stashed our backpacks in the luggage room before heading out. We wondered down through the shops on ‘Grafton Street’ that lead us to St. Stephen’s Green. After walking around the park we noticed a long line of horse and carriages. We approached one of the carriage drivers and asked how much it would be to take a ride and what it consisted of. He said for 7 of us, it’ll be 7 quid and it’s about a 30 minute ride. We thought I’d be fun and decided to go ahead and do it. I can’t remember everything we saw, but we got to see all the main buildings of Dublin while ride this neat, antique horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a lot of fun! After the carriage ride we stopped for something to eat at ‘Abrakebabra’ and enjoyed a yummy lamb kabab. We had a few hours left before we needed to be at the airport so we walked along the canal towards the docks. Along the way we came across a really fancy and grand boat. For the past few weeks, we have been singing “I’m on a Boat” by The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) and T-Pain. So we thought it’d be fun to ‘play’ on the boat and sing that song. We chit chatted with the bartender for a bit before heading out on deck to record our very own music video of the song. It was one of the highlights of the weekend! We finished our walk down to the docks and then turned around and went back out our hostel to pick up our luggage and get to the airport.
It was a smooth ride home and a quick train ride. We caught the 44 Bus home and it wasn’t even 10pm before I was comfy in my bed. Dublin is a wonderful city and I had a fantastic time!
Miss you!
Cheers!
Kirsten
The core of this unique building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from reception on the ground floor to The Gravity Bar in the sky. If filled, this giant pint would hold approximately 14.3 million pints of Guinness! After your tour, your ticket allows you one free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top level of storehouse. It was my first time ever having Guinness and although I was expecting to hate it, it was actually pretty tasty! From there were just walked around the streets of Dublin for the next few hours before Katie, Ashley, Rachael and I made our way to the opposite side of town for a Football game. It was the League of Ireland against Galway United who ended up winning 3-1. During admission, we got a hamburger and a 7 Up and wondered to the merchandise stand to check it out. As we were walking back through the gates to take our seat, the Irish man thought it would be funny to mess with us and say that our student tickets weren’t real and after him joking about kicking us out and us girls believing every word with panic, he burst out laughing and let us in. We didn’t think it was that funny. The next day, we got up early and stashed our backpacks in the luggage room before heading out. We wondered down through the shops on ‘Grafton Street’ that lead us to St. Stephen’s Green. After walking around the park we noticed a long line of horse and carriages. We approached one of the carriage drivers and asked how much it would be to take a ride and what it consisted of. He said for 7 of us, it’ll be 7 quid and it’s about a 30 minute ride. We thought I’d be fun and decided to go ahead and do it. I can’t remember everything we saw, but we got to see all the main buildings of Dublin while ride this neat, antique horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a lot of fun! After the carriage ride we stopped for something to eat at ‘Abrakebabra’ and enjoyed a yummy lamb kabab. We had a few hours left before we needed to be at the airport so we walked along the canal towards the docks. Along the way we came across a really fancy and grand boat. For the past few weeks, we have been singing “I’m on a Boat” by The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) and T-Pain. So we thought it’d be fun to ‘play’ on the boat and sing that song. We chit chatted with the bartender for a bit before heading out on deck to record our very own music video of the song. It was one of the highlights of the weekend! We finished our walk down to the docks and then turned around and went back out our hostel to pick up our luggage and get to the airport.
It was a smooth ride home and a quick train ride. We caught the 44 Bus home and it wasn’t even 10pm before I was comfy in my bed. Dublin is a wonderful city and I had a fantastic time!
Miss you!
Cheers!
Kirsten
Sunday 22 February 2009
Feb.21st: Stratford-Upon-Avon
For some reason, whether I just didn’t notice it much or perhaps it didn’t really bother me, Tennis Courts is getting awfully loud every night. This semester I can tell I haven’t slept very well because Brit’s and Americans are way loud outside my window. Although I love where my room is, it is somewhat of a nuisance at night. On Friday night, everyone was either having a party or coming back from the pubs/clubs being extremely loud! From all the noise, I didn’t get to sleep till 2:30am. Now, I wouldn’t be complaining this much if I didn’t have to wake up at 5 am the next morning.
I woke up at 5am on Saturday the 21st of February to go to Stratford with a couple SIE friends. I was all ready and was waiting in centre court waiting for the rest of our group to come so we could take off for the train station. After waiting about ten minutes, still missing Geoff, Marcie, and Michelle, we decided to split up and track them down. Even though I knew it was really early and I wouldn’t like if someone rang my doorbell at 6am in the morning, I was cranky and upset for not getting sleep that I didn’t care and rang Geoff’s doorbell anyway. He answered within seconds still wearing his pajamas and his eyes were half open. He said set his alarm wrong and that he’ll meet us in Stratford. As I made my way down the steps of block 20, I noticed that Kristin and Ashley Miller were also empty handed and reported that Marcie and Michelle we more likely going to meet us there as well. We got to the train station just in time to catch the 24 past train. It only cost 3.95…FANTASTIC! It was a little over 40minute train ride till we arrived in Stratford. The whole reason why we came to Stratford so early was to get the cheap student tickets to “The Tempest” playing at the Courtyard Theatre. So we hurried to the theatre to get in the queue. Since Stratford is a little town, it took a few minutes. We were the first one’s there and at first we were a little nervous about this being the right place, but soon other’s showed. After we were there only about 20 minutes, around the corner as fast as lightning, was Geoff! We waited in line till 9:30am when the box office opened, purchases our 5 pound tickets and took off to see the Holy Trinity Church where William Shakespeare is buried. It was a cute little church and it was even more precious when you walked in. An older woman was sitting at a rickety little wooden desk with a pad of paper, brochures, and a bowl of money. She looked up at us with pleasant eyes and told us the price to see Shakespeare’s grave. It was 50 pence. After a few pictures, we left to go and get a little snack. We went to “Anne Hathaway’s Tea House’ to get scones and tea. After our warm, yummy scones we went to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, the statue garden of all his famous characters, and then back to the Courtyard theatre to catch the show. It was a fantastic performance and really interesting because it was ‘The African Tempest.’ It was only a two hour show, so we got out a little after 3:30. Marcie, Michelle, Kristin, and Ashley left to catch the train home while Geoff and I went to Starbucks to wait for Theatre Tour of the Courtyard that was at 5. The Theatre tour was neat, although I was told things I already knew about theatres. After the little tour, which was free, we got on the train and headed home. We arrived a little after 7:15. I ate some dinner, got ready for bed, and was asleep by ten.
Stratford was a fun little town and I’m going to be going back in May, right before I come home, to see “Julius Caesar”. It’s 8:45pm on a Sunday evening and I still have a business test to study for, snap.
Cheers!
Kirsten
I woke up at 5am on Saturday the 21st of February to go to Stratford with a couple SIE friends. I was all ready and was waiting in centre court waiting for the rest of our group to come so we could take off for the train station. After waiting about ten minutes, still missing Geoff, Marcie, and Michelle, we decided to split up and track them down. Even though I knew it was really early and I wouldn’t like if someone rang my doorbell at 6am in the morning, I was cranky and upset for not getting sleep that I didn’t care and rang Geoff’s doorbell anyway. He answered within seconds still wearing his pajamas and his eyes were half open. He said set his alarm wrong and that he’ll meet us in Stratford. As I made my way down the steps of block 20, I noticed that Kristin and Ashley Miller were also empty handed and reported that Marcie and Michelle we more likely going to meet us there as well. We got to the train station just in time to catch the 24 past train. It only cost 3.95…FANTASTIC! It was a little over 40minute train ride till we arrived in Stratford. The whole reason why we came to Stratford so early was to get the cheap student tickets to “The Tempest” playing at the Courtyard Theatre. So we hurried to the theatre to get in the queue. Since Stratford is a little town, it took a few minutes. We were the first one’s there and at first we were a little nervous about this being the right place, but soon other’s showed. After we were there only about 20 minutes, around the corner as fast as lightning, was Geoff! We waited in line till 9:30am when the box office opened, purchases our 5 pound tickets and took off to see the Holy Trinity Church where William Shakespeare is buried. It was a cute little church and it was even more precious when you walked in. An older woman was sitting at a rickety little wooden desk with a pad of paper, brochures, and a bowl of money. She looked up at us with pleasant eyes and told us the price to see Shakespeare’s grave. It was 50 pence. After a few pictures, we left to go and get a little snack. We went to “Anne Hathaway’s Tea House’ to get scones and tea. After our warm, yummy scones we went to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, the statue garden of all his famous characters, and then back to the Courtyard theatre to catch the show. It was a fantastic performance and really interesting because it was ‘The African Tempest.’ It was only a two hour show, so we got out a little after 3:30. Marcie, Michelle, Kristin, and Ashley left to catch the train home while Geoff and I went to Starbucks to wait for Theatre Tour of the Courtyard that was at 5. The Theatre tour was neat, although I was told things I already knew about theatres. After the little tour, which was free, we got on the train and headed home. We arrived a little after 7:15. I ate some dinner, got ready for bed, and was asleep by ten.
Stratford was a fun little town and I’m going to be going back in May, right before I come home, to see “Julius Caesar”. It’s 8:45pm on a Sunday evening and I still have a business test to study for, snap.
Cheers!
Kirsten
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