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
Thursday 19 February 2009
Feb. 13-15th: Bath-Stonehenge-Avebury-Glastonbury
The buzzing sound of my phone alarm woke me from a deep sleep. I groggily got up to cross my room and turn it off. I got back under my warm covers and lied my head down on my perfectly positioned pillow to sleep till my second alarm would go off. The second alarm did it this time. I woke up instantly without lingering in my bed and routinely opened my door to grab my towel and take a shower. Once showered and semi-ready, I went to the kitchen to make a big breakfast. I ate three eggs on toast, an apple, and a glass of milk. I went back to my room to finish packing and organize my room somewhat before departure. It was fifteen past eight when I made my way down stairs to wait for the coach. Once on the coach, I turned my iPod onto my ‘Wicked’ soundtrack, positioned my pillow to rest against the window and then I put my ‘sea bands’ on and fell asleep. I woke up when we were just outside of Bath. Once at the hostel, we found out that only one room booked was clean and ready, therefore we had to unload all our luggage in room 7. The entire group then got back on the coach to have it take us down the hill to City Centre. A group of us girls and one boy, Von, found a “Pizza Hut,” to have lunch before we started wondering the city. After a very delicious lunch, we found the Roman Baths. We spent about one hour touring the Roman Baths. It was very beautiful and rather fascinating to learn about all its history. Funny story, a group of us were posing for a picture like we were going to jump in the Roman Baths…turns out I almost fell in for real! There is a picture of me falling and my friend catching me! Oops! After the tour, you could try the water from the famous fountain in the pump room. Let me tell you, it was disgusting. It tasted like I was drinking iron. Sick. After the baths, we just walked around the city seeing the Bath Abbey and the Pulteney Bridge. The night most of us just stayed in the hostel and made dinner there instead of going out. I enjoyed a yummy dish of Spiderman Mac n’ Cheese (Thanks MOM!).
The next morning we woke bright and early to make our way to Stonehenge. Stonehenge is Europe’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was very cool to see and a lot bigger in person that I thought! But since it’s a bunch of rocks, we only spent about 30 minutes there. Next we drove to Avebury. Avebury is known for its stone circles…so in other words, we had a day of taking pictures of big rocks. That night we hung out at the hostel for a bit and then the majority of the SIE group walked down a little path to get down to Bath. We went to a posh pub called “Weathering Spoons” or something like that for a Valentine’s pint. The next morning we took off for Glastonbury. Glastonbury was an interesting town…witchcraft and incents were in every window! It’s mainly known for its Tor, people in the town say it’s ‘no ordinary hill: people develop personal, profound relationships with it.’ I didn’t actually develop a relationship with it besides the fact that I’ll never walk up it again. Apparently, Glastonbury Tor is home to Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fairies. Yeah…about that.I went there. After walking the Tor, we got some lunch at this organic food restaurant and enjoyed some yummy Guinness Cake! Finally, we left around 2:30ish and headed back home to Brum. It was a good trip but it's always nice to get home. Although we got back around 5...I decided instead of doing homework I'll watch a few hours of "planet earth"...oops.
This Saturday I’m taking a day trip with some of my SIE friends to Stratford-upon-Avon. I’ll let you know how that goes!
Kirsten
The next morning we woke bright and early to make our way to Stonehenge. Stonehenge is Europe’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was very cool to see and a lot bigger in person that I thought! But since it’s a bunch of rocks, we only spent about 30 minutes there. Next we drove to Avebury. Avebury is known for its stone circles…so in other words, we had a day of taking pictures of big rocks. That night we hung out at the hostel for a bit and then the majority of the SIE group walked down a little path to get down to Bath. We went to a posh pub called “Weathering Spoons” or something like that for a Valentine’s pint. The next morning we took off for Glastonbury. Glastonbury was an interesting town…witchcraft and incents were in every window! It’s mainly known for its Tor, people in the town say it’s ‘no ordinary hill: people develop personal, profound relationships with it.’ I didn’t actually develop a relationship with it besides the fact that I’ll never walk up it again. Apparently, Glastonbury Tor is home to Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fairies. Yeah…about that.I went there. After walking the Tor, we got some lunch at this organic food restaurant and enjoyed some yummy Guinness Cake! Finally, we left around 2:30ish and headed back home to Brum. It was a good trip but it's always nice to get home. Although we got back around 5...I decided instead of doing homework I'll watch a few hours of "planet earth"...oops.
This Saturday I’m taking a day trip with some of my SIE friends to Stratford-upon-Avon. I’ll let you know how that goes!
Kirsten
Sunday 8 February 2009
Saturday Feb. 7th: 'Play Day' in London!
WOW! What an amazing day in London! On Friday, Ashley’s friend who is currently studying in Italy came to visit for the weekend and we ended up doing some baking and hanging out. I ended up not getting bed till 2:30…oops. I had my alarm set for 4am…yup I only got 1.5 hours of sleep. We woke up early to catch the 5:50 train to London. We arrived in London about 15 to 8. Ashley’s friend, Tara, had to catch a 6:50 AM flight back to Italy on Sunday morning and we discovered that the last train from London to Birmingham on Saturday was a 9:42 PM….that was going to be a problem. The reason why wanted to get to London so early was to stand in line for 25 pound front row Wicked tickets! We ran off the train, jumped on the tube to Victoria Station and headed towards a “London Travel Help Desk” to get directions to the Apollo Victoria Theatre were Wicked was showing. We went up to the person behind the desk and asked for directions and he was like “Yeah, I’ve never heard of the Apollo Victoria.” Then he motioned his head behind us and we turned to see a huge sign saying “Wicked” and above it in huge letters was “Apollo Victoria.” Hahahaha! So we apologized for being Americans and dashed out the door. We noticed the line was only 15 people long, but we still wanted to just get there and get our spot. Once in line, Ashley and Tara went into the station to get coffee and some rolls. The ticket office wouldn’t open till 10 AM so we had two hours to sit out in the cold…burr….! After two hours of chit chat, coffee, and reading Twilight, they finally opened the doors! We GOT OUR TICKETS! Woot Woot! We paid 25 pounds each for front row tickets to ‘Wicked!’ It was 10:15 AM and after taking a bunch of pictures outside the theatre we headed to the tube to show Tara around London till the 2:30 showing of ‘Wicked.’ It was an absolutely beautiful day! First we went to Buckingham Palace, then to Westminster, and the Parliament to see Big Ben. After a little bit of walking around, we headed back to the theatre to see ‘Wicked!’ AHHHH! On the way there, I was getting so fired up I couldn’t handle it! The show was SPECTACULAR! It was absolutely AMAZING! I can’t wait to see it again someday! We sat front row and I could see everything and….wow! I’m speechless …it was so good. Wow.
After seeing ‘Wicked’ we went to the National Express Bus station hopefully get information on buses going to Birmingham. We had a feeling that there was no way that we were going to make our 9:42 train because our next show that we were going to would get out at that time more or less. So we ended up just buying tickets for the 11pm 3 hour bus ride home, just in case. If we would wait to buy them till we knew for sure that we missed the train, we’d be screwed. I was really proud of myself as far as spending money, before we left to catch our train that morning I made myself eat two big bowls of cereal and pack a few apples, granola bars, and a water bottle full of apple juice. So with those snacks in my bag, I only spent 2.25 pounds on food the entire day! I bought a huge baguette and ate half for lunch along with an apple and granola bar and then for dinner we went to Sainsbury’s again, and I bought lunch meat and a can of coke to wake me up before the “Three Days of Rain’ performance with yup, you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY! AHHH! We ran from station to station from tube to tube case we were getting so fired up! Once at the theatre and we had our tickets in our hands, we sat down in our seats with anticipation! I was almost going to faint I was getting so excited!
Then…the theatre went dark, everything went quiet…then suddenly, the lights turned on and focused on the stage as the set door opened abruptly and in stumbled in…James McAvoy! I and Ashley were shaking! Right before the lights turned off, we noticed in the program that there were understudies and we were freaking out that they’d use an understudy for James MvAvoy the night we come! But, we were relieved that it was him who we saw! The performance was outstanding and it was sure something else to see James at is craft. He was phenomenal. The acting was brilliant. The story of the play was deep but with a hint of comedy. Wow. We sat in the stalls, floor, and were only 15 rows back…it was a small theatre and it was like he was right in front of me….!!! Ahh! You’re not allowed to take photos or anything during anytime in the theatre…but we did kind of. Oops…. After the show we lingered around to see if, you know, he would just happen to come out. He didn’t but I didn’t care, it was a fantastic show and I still can’t believe I got to see it! The only way I knew about it was reading an article about it on the train one time! After the show, we made our way back to the National Express Bus Station, got on the bus, feel asleep instantly and woke up in Birmingham.
It was a wonderful day and I’ll never forget it! Wow! As I type this I’m listening to the ‘Wicked’ soundtrack…hehehehe.
Well I better go and get some homework done. Icky.
Cheers!
Kirsten
After seeing ‘Wicked’ we went to the National Express Bus station hopefully get information on buses going to Birmingham. We had a feeling that there was no way that we were going to make our 9:42 train because our next show that we were going to would get out at that time more or less. So we ended up just buying tickets for the 11pm 3 hour bus ride home, just in case. If we would wait to buy them till we knew for sure that we missed the train, we’d be screwed. I was really proud of myself as far as spending money, before we left to catch our train that morning I made myself eat two big bowls of cereal and pack a few apples, granola bars, and a water bottle full of apple juice. So with those snacks in my bag, I only spent 2.25 pounds on food the entire day! I bought a huge baguette and ate half for lunch along with an apple and granola bar and then for dinner we went to Sainsbury’s again, and I bought lunch meat and a can of coke to wake me up before the “Three Days of Rain’ performance with yup, you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY! AHHH! We ran from station to station from tube to tube case we were getting so fired up! Once at the theatre and we had our tickets in our hands, we sat down in our seats with anticipation! I was almost going to faint I was getting so excited!
Then…the theatre went dark, everything went quiet…then suddenly, the lights turned on and focused on the stage as the set door opened abruptly and in stumbled in…James McAvoy! I and Ashley were shaking! Right before the lights turned off, we noticed in the program that there were understudies and we were freaking out that they’d use an understudy for James MvAvoy the night we come! But, we were relieved that it was him who we saw! The performance was outstanding and it was sure something else to see James at is craft. He was phenomenal. The acting was brilliant. The story of the play was deep but with a hint of comedy. Wow. We sat in the stalls, floor, and were only 15 rows back…it was a small theatre and it was like he was right in front of me….!!! Ahh! You’re not allowed to take photos or anything during anytime in the theatre…but we did kind of. Oops…. After the show we lingered around to see if, you know, he would just happen to come out. He didn’t but I didn’t care, it was a fantastic show and I still can’t believe I got to see it! The only way I knew about it was reading an article about it on the train one time! After the show, we made our way back to the National Express Bus Station, got on the bus, feel asleep instantly and woke up in Birmingham.
It was a wonderful day and I’ll never forget it! Wow! As I type this I’m listening to the ‘Wicked’ soundtrack…hehehehe.
Well I better go and get some homework done. Icky.
Cheers!
Kirsten
Sunday 1 February 2009
Second Term Starts and York & Whitby Feild Trip...
Second term started the Monday the 12th. I’m enrolled in 5 classes:
Journal and Memoir
Advanced Writing: Arts and Letters
Organizational Behavior and Management
British Short Stories
British Art and Museums
I love my class schedule! I have class everyday from 9-12:30 and its perfect! I’m usually home by a little past one, and then I have the entire day to go to the gym, get work done, and work for MJ. Speaking of MJ Catering….I worked two weeks past at the Darby Football Game and this time I was in charge of a ‘box.’ They asked if I’d ever worked a box before and I was like “sure I have!”….NOT! Anyway, it was a good day’s work and I enjoyed it very much! Now with MJ I can be a Bar Supervisor and in charge of a Box. Nice.
On Wednesday the 29th for my Arts and Museums class we met at the “The Barber Institute of Fine Arts” on the University of Birmingham campus for class. Before our hour tour of the art Institute, we had time to go through the “Jack Kerouac” exhibition. Here we got to see the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel. “One the Road,” is displayed here in Britain for the first time! I got to see one of the most iconic literary manuscripts in existence. In April 1951, Kerouac taped together eight twenty-foot strips of teletype paper to form a single scroll some 150 feet long. Feeding it into a portable typewriter, he began composing the work that was to become the bible of the post-war Beat Generation. He completed the novel in only twenty days or rapid. Continuous typing, fuelled chiefly by caffeine! It was very cool!
On Friday the 30th we left Tennis Courts at precisely 8am to make our two hour journey to York. We first stopped at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park before dropping out stuff off at the York International Youth Hostel. Naturally I frolicked around the park and imitated the various sculptures. It was rather windy and cold but still a fun time! From the Park we when to the youth hostel to get unloaded and situated. We had about two hours to just relax and hang out or wonder through York till the group would meet at the York Minster at 3pm for a guided tour. The York Minster was absolutely beautiful! York Minster is a Gothic cathedral and one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The Minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York which is the second-highest office of the Church of England. Its formal title is “The Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Peter in York.” It was constructed in 1338 and contains the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In its existence, it’s been through three fires but still stands today as beautiful as ever!
After the tour, we got the option to stay for “Evensong” at 5:15. Evensong is a liturgy in the use in the Anglican Communion and is celebrated in the late afternoon or evening. It’s commonly known as Evensong when the pray is rendered chorally, where most of the service is sung. It was the boys and men’s choir singing this night and it was beautiful! I could listen to them sing the “Lords Prayer” forever!
After evensong we went back to the hostel to make some pasta! We decided to bring pasta, sauce, and food form home and cook in the hostel instead of spending money to go out and eat what a fantastic idea! The next day was a free day! We slept in a bit and then at one met up with the group to go to the “Jorvik Viking Centre.” “Jorvik’ is the Viking name for York, and this museum is actually the site of a number of 10th century Viking buildings which they are still excavating. The ground is very moist and spongy, which has helped reserve wood, leather, and cloth artifacts that would have normally disintegrated by now. It was very interesting! They had this ride that you took through a ‘wax’ set up of how it would look and SMELL (icky) like during that time. From the skeletons discovered in there excavations at this site, they made the wax people from the profile of their skulls and what they would have looked like through the use of amazing technology…..WOW! After the museum a few of use wondered around York for a few hours before going back to the hostel to make another cheap dinner. After dinner, the majority of us were pretty tired from the long day and we watched “Underworld” in the TV lounge. It was fantastic!
This morning we woke up bright and early for some full English breakfast provided by the hostel and got on the coach for a two hour ride to Whitby, in Northern Yorkshire. There was an OPTION to take a 7 mile hike along the coast from Robin Hoods Bay to Whitby…it was snowy, windy, and really really cold…I opted out thank you! About 25 people from the group took the hike and the rest of us wandered around Whitby. From the people on the hike, they said it was a good time and they got some beautiful pictures, BUT it was REALLY REALLY cold. Yup, I made a good decision. Once we dropped of the crew stupid enough to hike, we went to the Whitby Abbey Ruins and it was really cool! Did I mention we kind of jumped the brink fence and snuck in….. A few of us just wondered around Whitby for a few hours before catching the coach to go back to Brum. In Whitby I found a good sized, not too big and not too small, backpacking backpack for Spring Break. WOOT WOOT! Whitby is known for is yummy fish n’ chips, so naturally we just had to get some! Hehehe! They were right, it was delicious! After fish ‘n chips we went to a small café and got some hot coca cause we were really cold! Burrrrr…Then it was time to get on the coach for a four hour trip back home. As I type, a good chunk of my SIE group is at the “Bar One” a mile up the road watching the Super Bowl….no thank you. It’s 12:23am and I’m soooo tired! The game wouldn’t get done till about 4am my time and they aren’t even showing the commercials…well, it makes sense…we are in England and the commercials they play are American commercials, but still!
Well I best bet to bed! I have a long week ahead of me! Oh yeah, this weekend my and Ashley are taking a day trip down to London on Saturday to see a matinee of “Wicked” and evening show of “Three Days of Rain,” which is a NEW play with, yup you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY!! AHHHHH! I’ll let you know how that goes! I’m getting so excited!
Goodnight!
Kirsten
Journal and Memoir
Advanced Writing: Arts and Letters
Organizational Behavior and Management
British Short Stories
British Art and Museums
I love my class schedule! I have class everyday from 9-12:30 and its perfect! I’m usually home by a little past one, and then I have the entire day to go to the gym, get work done, and work for MJ. Speaking of MJ Catering….I worked two weeks past at the Darby Football Game and this time I was in charge of a ‘box.’ They asked if I’d ever worked a box before and I was like “sure I have!”….NOT! Anyway, it was a good day’s work and I enjoyed it very much! Now with MJ I can be a Bar Supervisor and in charge of a Box. Nice.
On Wednesday the 29th for my Arts and Museums class we met at the “The Barber Institute of Fine Arts” on the University of Birmingham campus for class. Before our hour tour of the art Institute, we had time to go through the “Jack Kerouac” exhibition. Here we got to see the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel. “One the Road,” is displayed here in Britain for the first time! I got to see one of the most iconic literary manuscripts in existence. In April 1951, Kerouac taped together eight twenty-foot strips of teletype paper to form a single scroll some 150 feet long. Feeding it into a portable typewriter, he began composing the work that was to become the bible of the post-war Beat Generation. He completed the novel in only twenty days or rapid. Continuous typing, fuelled chiefly by caffeine! It was very cool!
On Friday the 30th we left Tennis Courts at precisely 8am to make our two hour journey to York. We first stopped at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park before dropping out stuff off at the York International Youth Hostel. Naturally I frolicked around the park and imitated the various sculptures. It was rather windy and cold but still a fun time! From the Park we when to the youth hostel to get unloaded and situated. We had about two hours to just relax and hang out or wonder through York till the group would meet at the York Minster at 3pm for a guided tour. The York Minster was absolutely beautiful! York Minster is a Gothic cathedral and one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The Minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York which is the second-highest office of the Church of England. Its formal title is “The Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Peter in York.” It was constructed in 1338 and contains the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In its existence, it’s been through three fires but still stands today as beautiful as ever!
After the tour, we got the option to stay for “Evensong” at 5:15. Evensong is a liturgy in the use in the Anglican Communion and is celebrated in the late afternoon or evening. It’s commonly known as Evensong when the pray is rendered chorally, where most of the service is sung. It was the boys and men’s choir singing this night and it was beautiful! I could listen to them sing the “Lords Prayer” forever!
After evensong we went back to the hostel to make some pasta! We decided to bring pasta, sauce, and food form home and cook in the hostel instead of spending money to go out and eat what a fantastic idea! The next day was a free day! We slept in a bit and then at one met up with the group to go to the “Jorvik Viking Centre.” “Jorvik’ is the Viking name for York, and this museum is actually the site of a number of 10th century Viking buildings which they are still excavating. The ground is very moist and spongy, which has helped reserve wood, leather, and cloth artifacts that would have normally disintegrated by now. It was very interesting! They had this ride that you took through a ‘wax’ set up of how it would look and SMELL (icky) like during that time. From the skeletons discovered in there excavations at this site, they made the wax people from the profile of their skulls and what they would have looked like through the use of amazing technology…..WOW! After the museum a few of use wondered around York for a few hours before going back to the hostel to make another cheap dinner. After dinner, the majority of us were pretty tired from the long day and we watched “Underworld” in the TV lounge. It was fantastic!
This morning we woke up bright and early for some full English breakfast provided by the hostel and got on the coach for a two hour ride to Whitby, in Northern Yorkshire. There was an OPTION to take a 7 mile hike along the coast from Robin Hoods Bay to Whitby…it was snowy, windy, and really really cold…I opted out thank you! About 25 people from the group took the hike and the rest of us wandered around Whitby. From the people on the hike, they said it was a good time and they got some beautiful pictures, BUT it was REALLY REALLY cold. Yup, I made a good decision. Once we dropped of the crew stupid enough to hike, we went to the Whitby Abbey Ruins and it was really cool! Did I mention we kind of jumped the brink fence and snuck in….. A few of us just wondered around Whitby for a few hours before catching the coach to go back to Brum. In Whitby I found a good sized, not too big and not too small, backpacking backpack for Spring Break. WOOT WOOT! Whitby is known for is yummy fish n’ chips, so naturally we just had to get some! Hehehe! They were right, it was delicious! After fish ‘n chips we went to a small café and got some hot coca cause we were really cold! Burrrrr…Then it was time to get on the coach for a four hour trip back home. As I type, a good chunk of my SIE group is at the “Bar One” a mile up the road watching the Super Bowl….no thank you. It’s 12:23am and I’m soooo tired! The game wouldn’t get done till about 4am my time and they aren’t even showing the commercials…well, it makes sense…we are in England and the commercials they play are American commercials, but still!
Well I best bet to bed! I have a long week ahead of me! Oh yeah, this weekend my and Ashley are taking a day trip down to London on Saturday to see a matinee of “Wicked” and evening show of “Three Days of Rain,” which is a NEW play with, yup you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY!! AHHHHH! I’ll let you know how that goes! I’m getting so excited!
Goodnight!
Kirsten
Thursday 8 January 2009
Birthday, Christmas, Munich, London, and Paris!
Yikes! It’s been a long time since I wrote about what’s been going on in my life! Sorry about that! I’ll do my best to catch up to the most recent ‘experience.’
November 28th 2008: Day Trip to Oxford (the last SIE group field trip till second term)
What a beautiful place! We woke up bright and early to jump on the coach to make our way down to Oxford for a pretty short day trip. When we arrived our group got split into two for the separate tours that would take place throughout the day. My group first toured around the city of Oxford itself. We saw some beautiful architecture, but mainly focused on Oxford University and the colleges that make it up. It was rather fascinating learning about the Oxford University system. There are 38 colleges of the University of Oxford and 6 Permanent Private Halls, each with its own internal structure and activities. Undergraduate teaching is centered upon the tutorial, where 1-4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week’s work. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is also regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions!
Next we toured the famous Bodleian Library! The main research library of the University of Oxford and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. The Bodleian Group now cares for some 8 million items on 117 miles of shelving, and a staff of over 400. Over 1.5 million items are currently stored in locations outside Oxford! Dang! When you enter the library you have to leave your bags and jackets in lockers or have to go through security where they have to go through everything you’re bringing into the library. They also don’t allow you to check out books, you have to read them there! I noticed as I toured the library that some books were chained to the wall; this is to prevent people from stealing the older books and most precious books in the library.
We also saw the room that was used for all the hospital scenes in Harry Potter. After touring the library we had a few hours to kill till the bus would depart. So a few of us went off on our own to do some shopping and explore. Well….some of us really had to use the bathroom and we didn’t want to pay so we walked around for a bit till we saw an open door into some huge building….looked legit. We walked in the huge double doors and discovered it was one of the many colleges! One thing that we learned from our tour is that unless you go to the college or are on an actual tour, you are not allowed in the college…oops. In a very sneaky way we found another door that lead downstairs. This huge building was shaped as a rectangle and a garden was in the middle. We found the loo and left as quickly as possible…phew! We stopped at the markets to look around in some shops and next to a shop where I bought a cute black hat was dead animal’s hanging above the meat market….rabbits, foxes, birds, you know the usual. Since one of my friends who I was with is vegetarian, we left ASAP. One our way to the bus we were walking down a busy shopping street and I could hear a group of boys singing, naturally I told the girls that we needed to pursue in that direction. We listened to the group of boys singing; known as “Out of the Blue,” while they finished the song they were on before heading back to the bus. My day in Oxford was a very interesting and I learned a lot! I’m defiantly considering making another trip down there…
December 5th 2008: My 20th Birthday!
Yay! I’m 20! Woot Woot! So this day started with my friend Jared taking me to my favorite place, Selly Sausage, for some yummy full English breakfast! Then Katie and I went down to City Center to do some shopping for my birthday party that would take place that night. Katie also bought me a Coldplay mug and Troy HSM3 poster…YEAH! Ashley left the night before for a trip to Sweden! After some shopping we got ready for my birthday party! So about the size of my flat…very very small, but we managed to have just over 55 people show up! Daaaang! Good times!
December 7th 2008: Carol Singing at Nursing Home and SIE Christmas Party
For my Marriages and Families Psychology class, our teacher asked if a few of us would be interested in earning some extra credit by volunteering at a nursing home to do some carol singing! Naturally, I was all about that and my friend AJ and I decided to sing a duet for it. We sang Christmas Shoes as a duet and with the choir we sang all the usual fun Christmas songs to a bunch of people at the nursing home. It was a fun time, especially when some of the older ladies started singing with us. My Professor brought us Santa Hats, but naturally she found one that she thought suited me better! Hehehehe!
After singing at the Nursing home, I hurried back home to get ready for our Study in England Christmas Party. This would be the very last get together till second term! Crazy! It was more of snack party with mince pies and Christmas crackers! We also did Secret Santa which was a good time! After a few hours of chit chat with our first term professors who also came to the party, Greg who is the director of the program came into the room dressed as Santa and it was fantastic!
Thursday 11th December: Last day of first Term in England!
Wow! I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone! It feels like just yesterday when we got off the plane. Time sure flies, but it feels as though here it’s on high-speed! Stop it! I had a wonderful first semester here in England filled with wonderful experiences and meeting some wonderful people! Academically school went great! Which of course I can’t forget is the reason I’m here! Hehehehe! I’m very excited for what is in store for me second term but hoping it doesn’t come and go so fast!
Since my family was coming the 21st of December, I decided to just hang out at the flats the first week and just relax and save some money! It actually turned out pretty good that I did that because I was terribly sick the first 4 days! In bed all day…ick. Unfortunately, so was Katie. The good thing about staying here the first week, not only saving a lot of money, but Katie and Ashley were here as well. Katie left that following Tuesday for her flight back to the states for Christmas and Ashley didn’t leave till that Friday to go meet her family and head of to Ireland. Throughout the first week I read the first 3 Twilight books, therefore you can come to the assumption that I’m in LOVE with Edward Cullen….and I am. Just about to start the fourth today!
So it came the night before when my parents were suppose to be getting on a plane to come see me…..there was a snow storm taking place in Nodak. Yay. I get a call from my mom saying that they were going to head into town early and try to catch the earliest flight they can to get to Minneapolis to catch their flight to Heathrow. So I’m in my flat pacing around and very anxious. I go to bed leaving my laptop on so my Dad or Jill can call me and let me know if they made their flight or not….2 am England time rolls around and I’m awaken by the sound of my Skype ringer. Crap. Turns out my parents missed their flight by 30 minutes to Heathrow. Of all the flights that day out of Minneapolis, the one that they missed was the only one that left EARLY! What the heck! Just my luck. So I already had a train ticket down to London that day and my parents had a hotel book, I decided I would just go down and spend the day in London on my own since they were to arrive Monday at the same time they were expected to arrive that Sunday. I took a noon train down to London, a taxi to the hotel to freshen up and then made my way down to the theatre where “Lion King” was to be performed. We bought theatre tickets about a month ago to see Lion King, but since they missed their flight I wasn’t about to NOT go! So I saw the performance with 4 empty seats to my left but I still had a fantastic time! The musical was amazing!
After the show I went across the street for some dinner and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning I hung out in the lobby of the hotel for 2 hours waiting for them to walk through the door….tick tock tick tock. I decided to go upstairs and make a quick cup of tea and just as I walked into the door I got a call from the front desk…it was Steve! Crap! So I ran downstairs and AHHH! There they were! It felt so weird having them in England! After they settled a bit, we went out to eat at Pizza Express and then made our way to Central London to show them Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and other neat places around London. The next day we headed off to Munich! We stayed at a friend of my mom’s while they were in the States and it was a wonderful time! We made German Stew in Germany and slept in till noon! The day after Christmas we drove to Nurnberg, where my mom was born! Although a lot of places were closed due to holiday, we still had a great time! We came back to Birmingham the next day for a few days before making our way to Paris. The best part of them seeing Birmingham…..GROCERIES! We left Birmingham the 29th to fly to Paris for New Years! New Years Eve day my mom, Steve, Molly, Barb, and I stood in line at the Eiffel Tower for about two hours in the bitter cold, but it was worth it! The Eiffel Tower is a lot bigger and more elegant that I ever thought! After the Eiffel Tower we took a taxi to the Louvre! We waited in a long line for a bit only to realize we were in the wrong line. Oops. By the time we found the right line, they had signs up saying it was closing and that no more people could go in. Sorry Mom! We left the Louvre to go back to the Hotel where Katie and Ashley were! They were meeting us in Paris because when my parents left, I would stay with them and we’d travel France a bit. New Years Eve my parents stayed in a the hotel and Katie, Ashley and I made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with some people on the program who were also in Paris! We stood on the Balcony of Palais De Chaillot across the bridge from the lit up Eiffel Tower! It was beautiful and such a fun night!
The next day my parents left bright and early to catch a flight back to London. Katie, Ashley and I slept in as long as we could before we had to sneak out since they weren’t supposed to be in our room! Hehehe! From the hotel we walked about 45 minutes to the nearest train station to catch at train to Strasbourg. So we made it to the station to find out that the train left from a different train station across town…crap. We took the Metro to the station and waited in line yet again for tickets. We found out that it would cost each of us a little under $300 for a round trip to Strasbourg! Um…yeah no thank you. So with that plan falling through we got back on the Metro to find a place to stay for the night till we figured out what we wanted to do with our lives. Keep in mind we all had return tickets for Friday the 9th of January back to London. The night before, New Years Eve, we remembered one of our SIE friends saying that they were staying at the “Peace and Love” Hostel near the Le Blanc Metro stop. So we took the metro there and decided we’d just try to find it. Once we finally found the hostel, it had already been a long long day with walking and jumping Metro’s with all our huge backpacks. We walk into the Hostel, obviously looking tired and desperate. There was a lady sitting at a table eating her lunch and when we asked if there were any rooms available for the night she just shook her head very slowly with a sympathetic expression on her face. She told us No, but to sit down and talk to her a bit. We told her about our day thus far walking around Paris and that our friends stayed here the night before, which was the only reason why we knew of this place. She gave us a plate of Salmon and a baguette to eat…we must have looked hungry too…. She said she knew of a lot of different hostels around the area and people she knew who might be able to give us a place to stay. She was making a few phone calls when a man came down the stairs with all his luggage. She looked at him in surprise and said “Leaving already?” He told her that he needed to leave a day early in order to catch the right train to where ever he was going. She looked up at us and said, “Can you girls wait an hour?” A sudden relief washed through us knowing that we had a place to stay! We had no problem waiting while they cleaned the only room available…a two person, one bed room with us three girls…that was going to be interesting. Although we didn’t really car, we were just so relieved to have a place to stay.
That night we hung out with our SIE friends who were still staying there. Actually their train ticket for that day actually didn’t exist so they had to stay an extra night. Bradie, a boy in my SIE program, didn’t have a place to stay so we let him sleep on our floor in the Hostel…..that was also very interesting. We had to be out of the Hostel by 10am the next morning so we packed all our things and left them in the closet of the hostel till we figured out what we were going to do. They weren’t sure if they had room for us that night either so we just had to wait. We ended up doing our make-up in the upstairs of the McDonald’s across the street while we waited for news of a room being available as well as for the boys to meet us. Ashley, Katie, me, Bradie, Andrew, Andy, and Mike, all SIE students besides Andrew’s friends from home Andy and Mike, decided to spend the day together around Paris. We went to ‘Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise’ where James Morrison from The Doors is buried. Next we walked to the “Bastille” and from there we decided to just walk around Paris for the rest of the day. We saw a lot of really cool architecture! We ended up staying at the Peace and Love Hostel that night as well, this time Ashley and I were in a two person room and Katie was in a dorm style room with two random boys but we didn’t care, as long as we had a place to stay. The next day we also could stay at the Peace and Love, although this time we had a three person room! It was a three person bunk bed! That day we took a tour from the Hostel! The hostel does tours for 10 Euro and we meet a lot of really cool people from all over the world! Here is a list of everything we saw on our tour: Notre Dame, Napoleons’ Tomb, Pont Neuf (Oldest Bridge in Paris), Comedie Francaise, Opera House (Phantom of the Opera!), Ferris wheel, Louvre, The Grand Palasis, The Arc de Triomph, La Madeleine, Petit Palais, Palais Royal, Place des Vosges, and the Pantheon. It was a fantastic day seeing so much and learning so much fascinating history about Paris.
That night we meet two boys from South Africa who were staying at the Hostel and decided to go to the Louvre with them the next day. I have been to the Louvre twice now, but only on the outside! Sunday it was going to be free admission, therefore the perfect time to go! We meet them in the lobby of the Hostel at 9am to make our way to the Louvre! The inside of the Louvre was amazing! I got to see the Mona Lisa and when we saw it, one of the South African’s was like “Nice Frame.” We walked around a bit in the art portion of this huge museum and I saw paintings in front of me that a few years ago were pictures in my English book! It was so cool! I saw real Picasso’s! Ahhh! After the Louvre we were so hungry that we found a little shop and got something to eat. After that we walked down to Angelina’s which apparently has the best hot chocolate you’ll ever have…..it was true! It was thick, warm, melted chocolate almost, with almond whipped cream on top….yum! After hanging out there for about an hour, we walked around the Jardin des Tuileries and then went back to the hostel. The South African’s hung out with us a bit at the hostel before they had to go check in to their new hostel on the other side of Paris. We were sitting in the lobby area of the Hostel and Karin, who works at the hostel, asked if Ashley could go downstairs and lock the closet door where all our luggage is in because some guy walked down there a long time ago and was acting suspicious….When we went down to grab our luggage and take it to Karin’s house to stay, our bags were open and some of our stuff were out of our bags! I man went through our stuff but didn’t take anything! How lucky! Turns out when Ashley went downstairs, it spooked him and he dropped everything and left. Phew. Lucky Lucky Lucky! Although there really wasn’t anything to steal besides come dirty clothes and shampoo because we all kept all our money, credit cards, and passport with us at all times.
The next day it snowed and it was so very cold but we still had stuff to see before we leave the next day for home! We first went to Sacre Coeur Basilica which was beautiful! It’s the highest elevation in Paris and you see the entire city, although when we were there it was snowing and foggy! From there we walked down Moulin Rouge and then took the Metro to Notre Dame to go to the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop to look inside a bit. After that we stopped for some hot cocoa at a little restaurant nearby, we then made our way back to the Farris Wheel to meet up with the South African’s again. We went to the Arc de le Triumph and then to the Latin Quarter to have some dinner and hang out with Diederick and Gary for a bit.
So now I can tell you a little bit about the stress that was taking place throughout our travels thus far…..
Our flight got cancelled on Friday and changed to a different time that same day. Since our Strasbourg plans feel through, we decided it would be too expensive to stay in Paris till Friday so we decided to go online and change our flight to Monday. We were online for about 2 hours trying to find contact information and we found a few numbers for which we had to walk down the street to use a pay phone to call them at and NONE of the numbers worked! There was always a message saying that the number for “Easyjet Airlines was no longer in use and to please call this number….” Well long long long story short, none of the many many numbers that we called worked and there was no way of contacting the airlines to switch our flight and everyday online the price got more and more expensive. It was very frustrating to be in the middle of Paris trying to get a hold of someone to get us on a plane out of there to get home! We decided to just pay the money to leave on Tuesday because it would be cheaper than paying to stay and buy food. We actually ended up staying at Karin, our hostel tour guides flat, for the last two nights in Paris, she charged us 25 Euro each, but it was still cheaper than the hostel. Okay, so by this time we HATE Easyjet and aren’t very happy with their customer service. We started our long day of travel at 7am Tuesday morning. First we took two Metro’s to the Airport, about an hour long journey, then waited in line at Security for about 30 minutes to enter a locked room with no TV screen of what’s going on with our flight or a loo. 11:05 rolls around, the time where our flight was suppose to leave and everyone was clumped around the front desk asking questions about what’s going on…..Apparently the flight from Paris to London Lutton doesn’t exist…um????? After a bit, we all get herded to yet another security line to the plane that they finally FOUND!
After security the second time, we go down a staircase that leads us outside to the freezing cold to stand on a crowded bus with all the doors open to take us to the plane. After about 20 minutes on the bus, we finally move towards the plane. Once on the plane Ashley, Katie and I fell asleep right away to wake up an hour later thinking we already landed to find that WE HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT YET! I HATE EASYJET! Once landed in London Lutton we grab our luggage and head to EasyJet Costumer Service desk. Sorry EasyJet, but a storm is coming! Once there they give us yet another number to call and after a little over an hour on the phone mixed with being on hold to some yelling……Ashely, Katie and I got a full refund for our plane tickets to get switched from Friday to Tuesday. Yeah, that just happened.
Ashley, Katie and I at this point are very happy about our refund but then suddenly hit by that fact that we are in the London Lutton airport and we still have a long day to go to get back Birmingham. We had to walk to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up the luggage that they left before heading to Paris for New Years so we walked to the hotel, picked up the luggage, walked back to the airport, jumped on the bus to the train station, got our tickets for the train to Birmingham, jumped back on the bus back to the airport cause that is where the bus to take us to the right train station would be. Once on the right bus, we had about a 45 minute drive till we could catch our Train to Birmingham. We arrived in Birmingham around 7pm Tuesday night. Took a taxi home. Went to bed. Yikes. Definitely was a day of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.’
Paris was a fantastic experience and we learned a lot! It was a beautiful city and I would go back in a heartbeat! Although, maybe when I have more money! We meet some wonderful people and I could probably write about our Paris adventure for ever….but I’ll stop here!
Miss you!
Kirsten
November 28th 2008: Day Trip to Oxford (the last SIE group field trip till second term)
What a beautiful place! We woke up bright and early to jump on the coach to make our way down to Oxford for a pretty short day trip. When we arrived our group got split into two for the separate tours that would take place throughout the day. My group first toured around the city of Oxford itself. We saw some beautiful architecture, but mainly focused on Oxford University and the colleges that make it up. It was rather fascinating learning about the Oxford University system. There are 38 colleges of the University of Oxford and 6 Permanent Private Halls, each with its own internal structure and activities. Undergraduate teaching is centered upon the tutorial, where 1-4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week’s work. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is also regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions!
Next we toured the famous Bodleian Library! The main research library of the University of Oxford and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. The Bodleian Group now cares for some 8 million items on 117 miles of shelving, and a staff of over 400. Over 1.5 million items are currently stored in locations outside Oxford! Dang! When you enter the library you have to leave your bags and jackets in lockers or have to go through security where they have to go through everything you’re bringing into the library. They also don’t allow you to check out books, you have to read them there! I noticed as I toured the library that some books were chained to the wall; this is to prevent people from stealing the older books and most precious books in the library.
We also saw the room that was used for all the hospital scenes in Harry Potter. After touring the library we had a few hours to kill till the bus would depart. So a few of us went off on our own to do some shopping and explore. Well….some of us really had to use the bathroom and we didn’t want to pay so we walked around for a bit till we saw an open door into some huge building….looked legit. We walked in the huge double doors and discovered it was one of the many colleges! One thing that we learned from our tour is that unless you go to the college or are on an actual tour, you are not allowed in the college…oops. In a very sneaky way we found another door that lead downstairs. This huge building was shaped as a rectangle and a garden was in the middle. We found the loo and left as quickly as possible…phew! We stopped at the markets to look around in some shops and next to a shop where I bought a cute black hat was dead animal’s hanging above the meat market….rabbits, foxes, birds, you know the usual. Since one of my friends who I was with is vegetarian, we left ASAP. One our way to the bus we were walking down a busy shopping street and I could hear a group of boys singing, naturally I told the girls that we needed to pursue in that direction. We listened to the group of boys singing; known as “Out of the Blue,” while they finished the song they were on before heading back to the bus. My day in Oxford was a very interesting and I learned a lot! I’m defiantly considering making another trip down there…
December 5th 2008: My 20th Birthday!
Yay! I’m 20! Woot Woot! So this day started with my friend Jared taking me to my favorite place, Selly Sausage, for some yummy full English breakfast! Then Katie and I went down to City Center to do some shopping for my birthday party that would take place that night. Katie also bought me a Coldplay mug and Troy HSM3 poster…YEAH! Ashley left the night before for a trip to Sweden! After some shopping we got ready for my birthday party! So about the size of my flat…very very small, but we managed to have just over 55 people show up! Daaaang! Good times!
December 7th 2008: Carol Singing at Nursing Home and SIE Christmas Party
For my Marriages and Families Psychology class, our teacher asked if a few of us would be interested in earning some extra credit by volunteering at a nursing home to do some carol singing! Naturally, I was all about that and my friend AJ and I decided to sing a duet for it. We sang Christmas Shoes as a duet and with the choir we sang all the usual fun Christmas songs to a bunch of people at the nursing home. It was a fun time, especially when some of the older ladies started singing with us. My Professor brought us Santa Hats, but naturally she found one that she thought suited me better! Hehehehe!
After singing at the Nursing home, I hurried back home to get ready for our Study in England Christmas Party. This would be the very last get together till second term! Crazy! It was more of snack party with mince pies and Christmas crackers! We also did Secret Santa which was a good time! After a few hours of chit chat with our first term professors who also came to the party, Greg who is the director of the program came into the room dressed as Santa and it was fantastic!
Thursday 11th December: Last day of first Term in England!
Wow! I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone! It feels like just yesterday when we got off the plane. Time sure flies, but it feels as though here it’s on high-speed! Stop it! I had a wonderful first semester here in England filled with wonderful experiences and meeting some wonderful people! Academically school went great! Which of course I can’t forget is the reason I’m here! Hehehehe! I’m very excited for what is in store for me second term but hoping it doesn’t come and go so fast!
Since my family was coming the 21st of December, I decided to just hang out at the flats the first week and just relax and save some money! It actually turned out pretty good that I did that because I was terribly sick the first 4 days! In bed all day…ick. Unfortunately, so was Katie. The good thing about staying here the first week, not only saving a lot of money, but Katie and Ashley were here as well. Katie left that following Tuesday for her flight back to the states for Christmas and Ashley didn’t leave till that Friday to go meet her family and head of to Ireland. Throughout the first week I read the first 3 Twilight books, therefore you can come to the assumption that I’m in LOVE with Edward Cullen….and I am. Just about to start the fourth today!
So it came the night before when my parents were suppose to be getting on a plane to come see me…..there was a snow storm taking place in Nodak. Yay. I get a call from my mom saying that they were going to head into town early and try to catch the earliest flight they can to get to Minneapolis to catch their flight to Heathrow. So I’m in my flat pacing around and very anxious. I go to bed leaving my laptop on so my Dad or Jill can call me and let me know if they made their flight or not….2 am England time rolls around and I’m awaken by the sound of my Skype ringer. Crap. Turns out my parents missed their flight by 30 minutes to Heathrow. Of all the flights that day out of Minneapolis, the one that they missed was the only one that left EARLY! What the heck! Just my luck. So I already had a train ticket down to London that day and my parents had a hotel book, I decided I would just go down and spend the day in London on my own since they were to arrive Monday at the same time they were expected to arrive that Sunday. I took a noon train down to London, a taxi to the hotel to freshen up and then made my way down to the theatre where “Lion King” was to be performed. We bought theatre tickets about a month ago to see Lion King, but since they missed their flight I wasn’t about to NOT go! So I saw the performance with 4 empty seats to my left but I still had a fantastic time! The musical was amazing!
After the show I went across the street for some dinner and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning I hung out in the lobby of the hotel for 2 hours waiting for them to walk through the door….tick tock tick tock. I decided to go upstairs and make a quick cup of tea and just as I walked into the door I got a call from the front desk…it was Steve! Crap! So I ran downstairs and AHHH! There they were! It felt so weird having them in England! After they settled a bit, we went out to eat at Pizza Express and then made our way to Central London to show them Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and other neat places around London. The next day we headed off to Munich! We stayed at a friend of my mom’s while they were in the States and it was a wonderful time! We made German Stew in Germany and slept in till noon! The day after Christmas we drove to Nurnberg, where my mom was born! Although a lot of places were closed due to holiday, we still had a great time! We came back to Birmingham the next day for a few days before making our way to Paris. The best part of them seeing Birmingham…..GROCERIES! We left Birmingham the 29th to fly to Paris for New Years! New Years Eve day my mom, Steve, Molly, Barb, and I stood in line at the Eiffel Tower for about two hours in the bitter cold, but it was worth it! The Eiffel Tower is a lot bigger and more elegant that I ever thought! After the Eiffel Tower we took a taxi to the Louvre! We waited in a long line for a bit only to realize we were in the wrong line. Oops. By the time we found the right line, they had signs up saying it was closing and that no more people could go in. Sorry Mom! We left the Louvre to go back to the Hotel where Katie and Ashley were! They were meeting us in Paris because when my parents left, I would stay with them and we’d travel France a bit. New Years Eve my parents stayed in a the hotel and Katie, Ashley and I made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with some people on the program who were also in Paris! We stood on the Balcony of Palais De Chaillot across the bridge from the lit up Eiffel Tower! It was beautiful and such a fun night!
The next day my parents left bright and early to catch a flight back to London. Katie, Ashley and I slept in as long as we could before we had to sneak out since they weren’t supposed to be in our room! Hehehe! From the hotel we walked about 45 minutes to the nearest train station to catch at train to Strasbourg. So we made it to the station to find out that the train left from a different train station across town…crap. We took the Metro to the station and waited in line yet again for tickets. We found out that it would cost each of us a little under $300 for a round trip to Strasbourg! Um…yeah no thank you. So with that plan falling through we got back on the Metro to find a place to stay for the night till we figured out what we wanted to do with our lives. Keep in mind we all had return tickets for Friday the 9th of January back to London. The night before, New Years Eve, we remembered one of our SIE friends saying that they were staying at the “Peace and Love” Hostel near the Le Blanc Metro stop. So we took the metro there and decided we’d just try to find it. Once we finally found the hostel, it had already been a long long day with walking and jumping Metro’s with all our huge backpacks. We walk into the Hostel, obviously looking tired and desperate. There was a lady sitting at a table eating her lunch and when we asked if there were any rooms available for the night she just shook her head very slowly with a sympathetic expression on her face. She told us No, but to sit down and talk to her a bit. We told her about our day thus far walking around Paris and that our friends stayed here the night before, which was the only reason why we knew of this place. She gave us a plate of Salmon and a baguette to eat…we must have looked hungry too…. She said she knew of a lot of different hostels around the area and people she knew who might be able to give us a place to stay. She was making a few phone calls when a man came down the stairs with all his luggage. She looked at him in surprise and said “Leaving already?” He told her that he needed to leave a day early in order to catch the right train to where ever he was going. She looked up at us and said, “Can you girls wait an hour?” A sudden relief washed through us knowing that we had a place to stay! We had no problem waiting while they cleaned the only room available…a two person, one bed room with us three girls…that was going to be interesting. Although we didn’t really car, we were just so relieved to have a place to stay.
That night we hung out with our SIE friends who were still staying there. Actually their train ticket for that day actually didn’t exist so they had to stay an extra night. Bradie, a boy in my SIE program, didn’t have a place to stay so we let him sleep on our floor in the Hostel…..that was also very interesting. We had to be out of the Hostel by 10am the next morning so we packed all our things and left them in the closet of the hostel till we figured out what we were going to do. They weren’t sure if they had room for us that night either so we just had to wait. We ended up doing our make-up in the upstairs of the McDonald’s across the street while we waited for news of a room being available as well as for the boys to meet us. Ashley, Katie, me, Bradie, Andrew, Andy, and Mike, all SIE students besides Andrew’s friends from home Andy and Mike, decided to spend the day together around Paris. We went to ‘Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise’ where James Morrison from The Doors is buried. Next we walked to the “Bastille” and from there we decided to just walk around Paris for the rest of the day. We saw a lot of really cool architecture! We ended up staying at the Peace and Love Hostel that night as well, this time Ashley and I were in a two person room and Katie was in a dorm style room with two random boys but we didn’t care, as long as we had a place to stay. The next day we also could stay at the Peace and Love, although this time we had a three person room! It was a three person bunk bed! That day we took a tour from the Hostel! The hostel does tours for 10 Euro and we meet a lot of really cool people from all over the world! Here is a list of everything we saw on our tour: Notre Dame, Napoleons’ Tomb, Pont Neuf (Oldest Bridge in Paris), Comedie Francaise, Opera House (Phantom of the Opera!), Ferris wheel, Louvre, The Grand Palasis, The Arc de Triomph, La Madeleine, Petit Palais, Palais Royal, Place des Vosges, and the Pantheon. It was a fantastic day seeing so much and learning so much fascinating history about Paris.
That night we meet two boys from South Africa who were staying at the Hostel and decided to go to the Louvre with them the next day. I have been to the Louvre twice now, but only on the outside! Sunday it was going to be free admission, therefore the perfect time to go! We meet them in the lobby of the Hostel at 9am to make our way to the Louvre! The inside of the Louvre was amazing! I got to see the Mona Lisa and when we saw it, one of the South African’s was like “Nice Frame.” We walked around a bit in the art portion of this huge museum and I saw paintings in front of me that a few years ago were pictures in my English book! It was so cool! I saw real Picasso’s! Ahhh! After the Louvre we were so hungry that we found a little shop and got something to eat. After that we walked down to Angelina’s which apparently has the best hot chocolate you’ll ever have…..it was true! It was thick, warm, melted chocolate almost, with almond whipped cream on top….yum! After hanging out there for about an hour, we walked around the Jardin des Tuileries and then went back to the hostel. The South African’s hung out with us a bit at the hostel before they had to go check in to their new hostel on the other side of Paris. We were sitting in the lobby area of the Hostel and Karin, who works at the hostel, asked if Ashley could go downstairs and lock the closet door where all our luggage is in because some guy walked down there a long time ago and was acting suspicious….When we went down to grab our luggage and take it to Karin’s house to stay, our bags were open and some of our stuff were out of our bags! I man went through our stuff but didn’t take anything! How lucky! Turns out when Ashley went downstairs, it spooked him and he dropped everything and left. Phew. Lucky Lucky Lucky! Although there really wasn’t anything to steal besides come dirty clothes and shampoo because we all kept all our money, credit cards, and passport with us at all times.
The next day it snowed and it was so very cold but we still had stuff to see before we leave the next day for home! We first went to Sacre Coeur Basilica which was beautiful! It’s the highest elevation in Paris and you see the entire city, although when we were there it was snowing and foggy! From there we walked down Moulin Rouge and then took the Metro to Notre Dame to go to the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop to look inside a bit. After that we stopped for some hot cocoa at a little restaurant nearby, we then made our way back to the Farris Wheel to meet up with the South African’s again. We went to the Arc de le Triumph and then to the Latin Quarter to have some dinner and hang out with Diederick and Gary for a bit.
So now I can tell you a little bit about the stress that was taking place throughout our travels thus far…..
Our flight got cancelled on Friday and changed to a different time that same day. Since our Strasbourg plans feel through, we decided it would be too expensive to stay in Paris till Friday so we decided to go online and change our flight to Monday. We were online for about 2 hours trying to find contact information and we found a few numbers for which we had to walk down the street to use a pay phone to call them at and NONE of the numbers worked! There was always a message saying that the number for “Easyjet Airlines was no longer in use and to please call this number….” Well long long long story short, none of the many many numbers that we called worked and there was no way of contacting the airlines to switch our flight and everyday online the price got more and more expensive. It was very frustrating to be in the middle of Paris trying to get a hold of someone to get us on a plane out of there to get home! We decided to just pay the money to leave on Tuesday because it would be cheaper than paying to stay and buy food. We actually ended up staying at Karin, our hostel tour guides flat, for the last two nights in Paris, she charged us 25 Euro each, but it was still cheaper than the hostel. Okay, so by this time we HATE Easyjet and aren’t very happy with their customer service. We started our long day of travel at 7am Tuesday morning. First we took two Metro’s to the Airport, about an hour long journey, then waited in line at Security for about 30 minutes to enter a locked room with no TV screen of what’s going on with our flight or a loo. 11:05 rolls around, the time where our flight was suppose to leave and everyone was clumped around the front desk asking questions about what’s going on…..Apparently the flight from Paris to London Lutton doesn’t exist…um????? After a bit, we all get herded to yet another security line to the plane that they finally FOUND!
After security the second time, we go down a staircase that leads us outside to the freezing cold to stand on a crowded bus with all the doors open to take us to the plane. After about 20 minutes on the bus, we finally move towards the plane. Once on the plane Ashley, Katie and I fell asleep right away to wake up an hour later thinking we already landed to find that WE HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT YET! I HATE EASYJET! Once landed in London Lutton we grab our luggage and head to EasyJet Costumer Service desk. Sorry EasyJet, but a storm is coming! Once there they give us yet another number to call and after a little over an hour on the phone mixed with being on hold to some yelling……Ashely, Katie and I got a full refund for our plane tickets to get switched from Friday to Tuesday. Yeah, that just happened.
Ashley, Katie and I at this point are very happy about our refund but then suddenly hit by that fact that we are in the London Lutton airport and we still have a long day to go to get back Birmingham. We had to walk to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up the luggage that they left before heading to Paris for New Years so we walked to the hotel, picked up the luggage, walked back to the airport, jumped on the bus to the train station, got our tickets for the train to Birmingham, jumped back on the bus back to the airport cause that is where the bus to take us to the right train station would be. Once on the right bus, we had about a 45 minute drive till we could catch our Train to Birmingham. We arrived in Birmingham around 7pm Tuesday night. Took a taxi home. Went to bed. Yikes. Definitely was a day of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.’
Paris was a fantastic experience and we learned a lot! It was a beautiful city and I would go back in a heartbeat! Although, maybe when I have more money! We meet some wonderful people and I could probably write about our Paris adventure for ever….but I’ll stop here!
Miss you!
Kirsten
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