My time is winding down

I can't believe it's almost done.

My time here has been so full of wonderul new adventures and people that I'm sorely going to miss!! We have got one more day left in classes and it's hard not to get sentimental about it. What with Christmas coming around the corner, everyone is in a cheerfull sprirt and if you had to pick one day out of the entire year to be super sentimental, I would say that Christmas would be the day to do it.

Andrea, Lauren and I at the Thanks
giving service before dinner

Here at the manor, the staff had a huge Thanksgiving Dinner for all the students and faculty. We got to get all dressed up and eat in the super fancy rooms! That, for me is what REALLY put me in the holiday spirit. It felt like a mini Christmas! The next day, Harlaxton put up the Christmas tree. 16ft tall, this tree is the focal point of the great hall. Everyone got together to decorate it with lights, ornaments, and tinsel. They lit the fire in the fire place for mood (and warmth...it's legit cold here) and we sat around drinking coffee and hot chocolate. I had taken a 45 minute walk around the campus just before going to decorate the tree, so coming into a room lit with a fire, surrounded by some of the greastest people was perfect!

Me putting an orniment
on the Christmas tree! It was
a stocking orniment!

I just mentioned that it's legitimately cold here. And it is! It's not Northern Wisconsin middle of January cold, but it's reached freezing. I talk about the weather because in addition to wanting to see all of the places that I have gone, (Dover, Canterbury, Vienna, London, Ireland, etc.) I really wanted it to snow! Winter is my favorite season, and snow one of the best forms of precipitation there is. Well, to say the least, I got my wish! The day after we decorated the Christmas tree, we woke up to an inch of snow blanketing the grounds. It's PERFECT! To be in England, and have it look the way it does is so beautiful! Parts of it remind me of back home....but I keep interjecting my thoughts with, "yes, but YOU'RE IN ENGLAND!" It's bascially all of the emotions I felt the first couple of day I got here happening again, only this time there's snow on the ground!



The first snowfall of the season at Harlaxton! I've got an
identical picture to this of when I first got here! Ha!



I know I said that I would blog about my trip to Prague, but there really isn't much to tell. We walked around and took a crap-ton of pictures. We did learn about some interesting stories of Prauge from the people we satyed with, but other than that, it was just Kenzie, Andrea and I exploring! Then, a couple of days ago I went to Canterbury and Dover!! It was the first time traveling on my own, and I'm really glad I did! You can totally see the things you want to see, and go at your own pace. In Canterbury, I wanted to see the cathedral, and that was it. I did get to see it, and it's awesome, but I found some cool ruins and a park that I didn't expect and that was even MORE exciting!! In Dover, I wanted to see the white cliffs. I gave myself five hours in Dover to do so. I'm glad I did, because I spent three of those hours walking the ten or so miles it took to get the lighthouse and back into town. I got there at 1p.m. and got back to town just as it was getting dark. Then I went up to the castle, took a picture, and walked around down town to kill time before my bus left to get back to London at 6 p.m. Let me tell you, my back STILL is sore from carrying my backpack all that way!!

White cliffs of Dover in the Snow!!
So pretty!

Rooftops and St. Charles bridge,
Prague, Czech Republic



Canterbury Cathedral!! Woot Chaucer!



Anyways, now it's crunch time, and everyone is settling into studying for finals. I have one Saturday morning, one Monday afternoon, and my last one is Wednesday morning. Then, the next day I'm off to Italy for a week then back home!! I can't wait to see all of you soon, and hope that until then you're doing well and staying healthy! Happy Thanksgiving to all and cheers!!

Having a Ball!

I went to Vienna for one reason. My Uncle Mac.

Before I left to hop across the pond, we got to hang out and he told me that he was stationed there during the second world war. He told me that it was a beautiful city, and that if I like music at all, that I should go there. Well, I did! It was so beautiful to be there! Even though Kenzie, Andrea, and I kind of just wandered around, just saying that we got to go there is pretty spectactular, I think.

Kenzie, Andrea, and I on the train into Vienna from the
airport.

It all started with our plane ride from Heathrow to Vienna. We got to the airport on Wednesday, hung out, chatted, I did more work on my paper that was due today, and just chilled. Our gate popped up on the big electronic list and he headed towards it. It was while we were standing in line to get on the plane that we all got excited. It was then that it hit us. We were going to VIENNA! Like, as in Austria, as in the hills are alive, as in the country!! The flight was good; I got a nice surprise when I woke up from my snooze mid-air and there was a tiny little cupcake near my elbow on the tray station. It ended up being EasyJet's 15th birthday that day! What luck! Not only are they the number one low cost airline in europe, their miniature cakes are delicious! We won't talk about the absurd ratio between cupcake and frosting....it may have been something like 2:5. Frosting:Cupcake. But that's beside the point.

Stables of the Lippizaner Stallions.
 Odd fact: they refer to them as
the Spanish horses there, not
Lippizaner!

We landed and ventured our way to our hostel, where upon being greeted by a really really good looking young man, (tee-hee) we headed to bed. It was around eleven or so at night. The next day, we woke up early to start our adventure. We saw A LOT! We went to a park and saw a statue of Mozart, walked around and wondered why there were so many stautes for this dude names Franz Joseph, and got to see the ACTUAL Lippizaner Stallions! It was so cool! I geeked out a bit. One walked right by us! Bah! I was in horse heaven! 

Then, we toured the castle in Vienna, the Hofburg. This is where the last empirial family lived, the Hapsburgs. We couldn't take any photos, but trust me, it was really cool to see where the royal family lived. You remember that Franz Joseph guy I was talking about earlier? Yeah, it turned out to be either the last or close to last emperor of Austria before Germany took over. Oops! Our bad! No wonder there were so many statues of him.....At the castle, we learned a lot about his wife Elizabeth, or Sisi as she was known. I knew nothing about her previous to this, so I thought her story was really cool! 

I learned that she married Franz J. when she was 15. She was obsessed with her fitness, and had her own set of gym equiptment set up in her room. She was so obsessed that she wieghed her self and never wieghed more than 103 lbs. Even though she was 5.8. Yeah! Tiny! Like, 20 inch waist tiny! Unfortunatley, sadness shrouded her after her son committed suicide. :( She eventually was assassinated by a man on the street with a three sided file. What's interesting is that she wasn't his primary target! The person he REALLY wanted to kill wasn't home, so after learning that the incognito Sisi was in the neighborhood......well, the rest is history. Kinda sucky. 

Many of the streets were tree lined! It made the city look even
more beatuiful!

Anyways!! :P We also toured the state opera house! THAT was cool! It's really gorgeous and we even got to go backstage!! While we were waiting for our English speaking group to start the tour, we met a really nice couple from Colorado! They had been in Eastern Europe for a couple weeks, just taking a vacation. The guy ended up being orginally from Grand Rapids, MN!! Small world! :P   It's here, at the state opera that the REAL Viennese Ball happens! Eau Claire doesn't its best to recreate what the Autrians do, but I'm afraid that after seeing what it's supposed to be, I gotta say that my school falls short. By a lot. :P I've got a postcard that shows how they transform the opera into one long dance hall. It's pretty impressive!! Tip to the organizers of the V-Ball at EC: to make it more authentic, ya gotta put a super cheap hotdog stand out back of Davies! That's what all the fancy Austrians do!! :P

So, this all happened on Thursday last week. That night, Kenzie's parents were gracious enough to pay for us to go to a concert. A legit concert! Not one with electric guitars and moshing, but a concert that had strings and played Mozart and Strauss. It was reallt REALLY cool! That was the first legit concert I'd been to, and I really enjoyed it! It had the opportunity to be boring, but it incorporated a few ballet pieces to the music and arias every now and then, so it was different!  By no means am I a snob when it comes to classical music; Andrea, Kenzie and Lauren know so much more than I do, but I must say that, from what I heard that night, I like Mozart better than Strauss. His music is more lively!

Oh! I almost forgot! Before the concert, we went the a pub and had Wiener Schnitzel! It was good! I had no idea what I was going to get, because the menu was in German, but I figured why not? It turns out Wiener Schnitzel is deep fried pork! I was leery about the pork, because it's not my favorite meat, but I kind of tasted like Dad's fried fish! I know, that sounds gross, but it's what it tasted like! Andrea and I also split an Austrian beer. We can't remember what it was called, but we do know that it was a wheat beer. Not very bitter, which we both enjoyed!

Did I mention that it rained Friday
morning? Yeah, it did. There was
one umbrella and it wasn't shared.
:(

Stephandom Cathedral! It took forever to get this
baby completed!!That's why the part to the left
looks newer than the right. Because it is!

The next day,Friday, we walked around some more. We walked through a market, which was primarily produce, but also sold coffee and scarves and whatnot. I bought another scarf, and some coffee! :P Austria is known for their coffee houses, so I thought it fitting. We actually went to one after dinner the night before, before the concert , to have a traditional cake called sachuntorte? I don't know how to spell it, but what it is is three delicious layers of chocolate! Yum! Anyways, after the market, we went up to the Stephandom. It's this great gothic church! The roof of which, has some great details! It was here that we met up with my high school foreign exchange friend Gilbert!                                                          

Gilbert got some lunch with us, consisting of brats at the cart nearby, and walked us around town. He walked us to city hall, explaining that the "oldest" part of Vienna is inside a "ring" that the retro trollies run along. I put oldest in parenthesis because as Gilbert told us, so much of Vienna as distroyed during WWII,and that the ring has a lot of modern buildings. We walked along it and asked him stuff about Austria. It was really fun to see him!! He's still as tall as I remember him as! He pointed out what different buildings were and showed us the courtyard of the University of Vienna, the big school in the city. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings....wierd? Yes.

Me and Gilbert! Fun fact: I'm on my tip toes
and he is crouching down....haha!!!

Finally, Gilbert caught the underground with us to the train station, where we were headed to catch another train to Prague. He got off a few stops before us, give us all hugs goodbye and headed to the philharmonic! Fancy Fancy!! :P So, the two days in Vienna came to an end. After lots of pictures, shopping, and soaking up the Viennese culture, our five hour train to the Czech Republic commensed.

Vienna has a lot of history to it, that won't be forgetable. It's a city that combines old and new, creating a totally unique beautiful place. I'm so thankful that I got the chance to go there. The memories will stay with me for sure! Once I'm stateside again, I can't wait to show Uncle Mac the photos I took, to see if he remembers anything of when he was there, maybe I'll get a good story or two out of him! 

Cheers!

Leash

P.S. The Prague post will be coming soon!

P.S.S. I think I've decided that I want to do toasts and cheers before meals....I think it's cool!

I have always preferred Baths....

Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope this finds you all happy and healthy! I'm going to give you all the quick low down on what's been happening here in England. Which really isn't very different from what I normally do!

Anyways, A couple of weeks ago, I went to BATH! Oh my gosh it was beautiful! The architecture was awesome, the history of the town, the roman baths...uh! It's one of the best places I've gone so far!

Michelle, Kelly and I went there and decided that we travel together quite well! This trip, we experienced our first hostel experience on our own! It wasn't too bad, at least...well okay fine, it was sorta weird.

The weirdness started after we had checked in, made our beds with the linens the front desk gave us, and had retured from our tour of the baths. The general rule in hostels is, the bed you make is the one you sleep in. Makes sense to me! However, the small asian girl sprawled out on my bed when we returned didn't understand that. :( So, the most awkward five minutes of my life passed as we tried to figure out a.) what was happening and b.) what we should do about it. I finally ended up explaining to her the rules, and asking for the linens SHE was given so I could make another bed for my self. I couldn't get too mad, she was really nice.

This occurance happened in the afternoon. That night, after wandering around the entirety of Bath (which is stellar when it's dead at night) we came back to the room to sleep. We all crawled into bed and settled down when the coughing started. This cough wasn't just a quick clearing of the throat either, it was a legit "lets hack my lungs out" kind of cough. ALL NIGHT LONG. The cougher? The girl who stole my bed.

So, Miss Coughy pant was to the left of me in the room. To the right of me was Lady Needs A Breath Right Strip. Halfway through the night and inbetween the bed stealers coughing, the lady next to me on the other side starts to snore like there is no tomorrow. She ACTUALLY sounded like a saw. There wasn't any pittering out of the snore at the end of her breath, no. She SNORED!

The Great Bath

Somehow, I managed to ignore most of the sounds and finished the night pretty well rested. I woke up in the morning and was going to shake Michelle awake, when I noticed that she had her pillow wrapped around her head like a taco, covering her ears. Obviously she was distracted by the sounds too.

So, minus the odd sounds coming from the night of Bath, Michelle also said she heard drunken screaming and swearing on the street below us, the trip was great!

I visited the Jane Austen center and bought some books and generally geeked out a little bit. We saw the Royal Cresant street which is archetectually famous, saw the Roman baths, pump room, and assembly rooms which were beautiful, and got to see some of Princess Di's dresses on display at a fashion museum!!

The Jane Austen Statue outside the Center

The Baths were actually warm too!
There was steam coming from them and everything!

Panoramic shot of the Royal Cresant, a hot air ballon went up
about five minute I took this, just the the left of the picture.

Oh! And, we totally saw a rainbow!! It was so vibrant! 

It was a full one too! We could see the
other end of it down the riverway we
were standing next to.

So, that's Bath in a nut shell! I'm so lucky that I got to go, I'm still kind of reeling that it happened (and I went two weeks ago!) Tomorrow I'm headed to London with Lauren to see a show, have dinner with her parents, and hang out with her brother for Halloween! I don't have a costume this year, which is strange for me! I've always had them! But, never fear, there is a costume ball towards the end of November that I'm going to be ready for!! I just haven't decided on what to be....any ideas?

At the fashion museum! We may or may not have
been the ONLY adults trying the little girls's dressup
stuff on... Hey, it was FUN!

I'm going to fill another post of photos after this one! Hope you enjoy! And let me know if you have any favorites so far!

Cheers!

Alicia

Picture taking time in Europe!

Hey everyone!!
This weekend was spent here in Harlaxton. I did go into Nottingham to go shopping with a couple of friends, which was a lot of fun, but other than that I studied and organized my life! I decided to dedicate the post to the interesting photos I've taken so far in my trips. I've really gotten into taking photos since I've been here, and I'm really enjoying finding things to take pictures of!! I hope you enjoy!

If you have any questions at all, just let me know!

Cows in Ireland!

Fruit Fly on a flower, Cliffs of Mohor

Weeds and Cliffs of Mohor!

Dandelion, Cliffs of Mohor

Popeye, one of Willie's horses!

Pigeon in the wall of the Licoln Castle!

Oldest pub in England!

Harlaxton Manor

Harlaxton Manor

Clonmacnoise, Ireland

Wispering Door, Conmacnoise

Clonmacnoise and the Moon!

Cheers!

Leash

October Already?

Hello everyone!

     I'm very sorry for the delays in the postings...last week we had our first British Studies Exam, so we were all studying pretty hard for it. Those exams are usually the same format; three questions that you have to answer in essay form. Boo!! My hand hurt a lot after the two hours alotted but I'm happy with what I had to say, and I will be waiting to hear my grade hopefully this coming week! My fingers are crossed that I did well! But now I have two presentations to focus on that are coming up next week that I really need to put my time into...if I get lots done early in the week, I may travel again next weekend! We will see how it pans out.

     The weather here has turned pretty rainy and bleak. Last week we had a big storm come through while a lot of the students were out side playing capture the flag. Kenzie and I were just hangin' out inside, and decided to go play in the rain! Which we did...for almost an hour! We were totally soaked within five minutes, but had lots of fun running around, skipping, and just enjoying nature. Talking about rain....I just got back from a wet weekend in IRELAND!!  Yay!!!!! I will give you the overview of my travels!

     We started from Harlaxton Wednesday night, at 8 pm. Here, we hopped on a coach that drove through the night, through Wales and finally to the port of Holyhead, which is where our ferry was leaving. Luckily, our coach had TV, so we got to watch a movie, which ended up being Hook! I forgot how much I love the story of Peter Pan! Also what was kinda cool about the coach ride, was that at night, out my window, the big dipper constalation was right outside directly to the right of me! That was really cool! By the time we got to Holyhead, it was 1 am. We had a three hour ferry ride into Dublin where we had breakfast at the Hotel we were going to be staying at on Saturday night. We then hopped back onto the coach and rode another three to four hours to the other side of Irelnad, to a place called Doolin. At first, we were really confused as to what to do here because there was a hostel, three pubs and a couple shops in town. However, we discovered the beautiful rocky coastline just down the road, the pub food, and the local characters and festivals that made my stay there totally worth it!



Some of the over 600 gravesites that
are a part of the landscape of
Clonmacnoise!

I should mention that between Dublin and Doolin, we stopped at a monastic ruin called Clonmacnoise. It was an ancient pilgrammage site founded by St. Kilan(? I think that's his name...) I got some beautiful photos there because right when we got there, all the clouds burnt off and it was blue skies!! It's here that I realized that I really enjoy taking photos of cemetaries. I think there are really interesting. Anyways, it was a great way to start my Ireland experience. Also, we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which is a beautiful place to go see! The cliffs are humongous, and you can walk right up to the edge on parts of the trail! It was creepy, but astonishing all at the same time!!!


The beautiful Cliffs of Mohor. It's quite a fall...let me tell ya!



     But, back to Doolin! The first night, we ate at Gus O'Conners pub which was delicious, and walked the mile to the other side of town to eat some dessert at Fitzpatricks. Their Tiramisu was AWESOME!!!! Then had an early bedtime! The next day, we woke up early to see if we could get a ferry to the Eiran Islands which are supposidly spectacularly wonderful, but couldn't becasue the water was too choppy and dangerous. So, instead we were able to ride some horses!! We called up the man, named Willie, and said that he'd come pick us (being a group of nine or so) up from the hostel. In the mean time, we walked down to the shore and took some photos! Willie ended up showing up with only one car, in which six of us (two in the front seat FOUR  in the back!) crammed into. From the hostel to his farm, he sang us beautiful irish songs and told us he was a matchmaker and such. It was probably the highlight of my entire weekend!! He also told us stories about his mathcmaking and neighbors. One apparently had 25 kids, but only one by her husband! :P On the way back, we asked about the matchmaking festival that was in Lisdoonvarna, the next town over, and he said that seeing as he was the last matchmaker around, he may stop in that night.



Meet Popcorn, Popeye, and Juliet! These are the horses at Willie's
farm. I rode Popcorn, and the people there were impressed that I kew
how to ride! :P I think it's something that Popcorn looks so much like
Beauty! But she was a great horse!!



     Well, Willie turns out to be a lot more cooler than we thought because this matchmaking festival (which we popped in to see that night) was essentially made around HIM! There was a huge poster of him on the Matchmaker's Bar we went to and a sign saying, meet the famous Willie Daly! We couldn't believe it!! We also found out that he wrote a book! Yeah, this old man with Einstein hair, a missing tooth, and unbelievable stories wrote a book!! Which, is now in my possesion. :P  I haven't gotten into it yet, but I'm sure it'll be a hoot to read! We didn't end up seeing him that night, but it was fun to see lots of older people flirt, have fun, and dance!

The coast in Doolin was awesome too. It was sort of like a much smaller version of the Moher. We were able to climb around on the rocks, right to the edge and see the tide come in off the Atlantic Ocean. Actually, where we were when the tide came in was on the edge of a little cove of the rocks. There was one especially rough wave that came and splashed so hard up against the rocks that my whole right side got soaked!! But again, I didn't mind at all and it was totally worth it because it was so much fun!!!



The Doolin Coast! One can't get too much
farther west than that!



     The people, places, and things in Doolin are all so wonderful, that I know that at some point of my life, I'm going back. It felt too good to be there not to.

     So, with a sad heart, I left Doolin and we headed to Dublin. Talk about from one extreme to the other! Doolin, with its quiet easy life, then Dublin and its almost constant scream of ambulance sirens! I'm serious, we probably saw eight or nine with in just a couple hours! In Dublin, we saw St. Patricks Cathedral and was able to hear the choir there practice! It sounded amazing! We also went to see the Book of Kells, which is the four gospels of the bible written over a THOUSAND years ago!!! It's all calligraphy, in latin, and gorgeously decorated! It was incredible!! The book was at the Trinity College in Dublin, so I got two birds with one stone! It's a great campus! Acutally, one of our British Studies professors used to work there, so that is kind of cool!

     Then, last night, Andrea, Kenzie and I went to eat at a Spanish Tappas bar, which was yummy and walked in the rain down by the river. I kind of hate to admit it, but I almost like Dublin more at night than by day! I don't know why....but I do! In the Temple Bar area, which is the big restaurant/pub section of town, Andrea and I found a pub to have a Guinness in! For a beer, it's really not too bad! It was a great place with live music, and while we had our pint, talked about life, love, and the pursuits of happiness! We finished the night by getting some DELICIOUS ice cream from a corner store. I had dark chocolate and cookies! :P

Had my first Guinness in an Irish pub...
fitting? I think so.

     And with that, sums up most of my journey to the Emerald Island. And, although I didn't totally want to leave, it was time. The saying holds true that you don't REALLY know someone until you travel with them; and I think I have found out a little too much of too many people. :P Nerves were getting frayed from exhaustion and being stuck on a coach for too long, so the now familliar sights and sounds of Harlaxton are a nice welcome home.

So, if I may have come across a bit less than energetic....know you know why! :P

Cheers!

Playin' Catchup!

Sorry for the wait everyone! School is definitely in full swing and that means a lot of time devoted to the work.

I think I left off in London? Yeah!

Cool, well, the next weekend Michelle, who goes to Eau Claire, and her roommate Melissa and I

hopped a couple of trains to Nottingham!! We got sack luches and headed out early in the morning. We rode the Robin Hood Line from Grantham to Nottingham, and caught another train North to a place called Kirkby in Ashfield. Here, we had a cab wating for us to take us into the small villiage of Blidworth. Here, we found St. Mary's Cathedral and, tucked into the woods behind the church, the cemetary and gravestone of Will Scarlet!! It's so old that the wasn't any name or anything on it, but they say that it's supposed to be his final resting place! I was extatic! The cemetary itself was

beautiful and I took a lot of photos.

That didn't take too long, so we ended up walking into town and looking at some of the shops and stopping to eat lunch outside a pub. It was rainy so we ducked into a tent that kept us nice and dry until our cab showed up to bring us back to the train.



Outside Nottingham Castle!!



Where Edward II was
dragged after the
deed.



There, we ho

pped onto the train and went back to Nottingham to see the castle!! The original castle actually burnt down, so what is standing is an 18th century palace of sorts to Edward II. Even that doesn't really look like what it's supposed to because IT was ransacked by rioters and was torched. :( So, the building holds a art gallery, museum, and cafe. However, the tour wasn't a complete disaster becasue we opted to go on the tour of the caves that are within the cliff that the castle rests on. These caves were AWESOME! They were used by the servants of the castle, as well as many other poor peo ple as homes, and by the royalty as Dungeons and places to bring your King after he got a red hot poker up his butt. Yeah....poor Eddy II. He wasn't very loved by his peers. Anyways! They were the highlight of the trip for all of us!!

And so ends last weekend!



Then, on Wednesday of this week, the 15th, we had a field trip to Lincoln! That was REALLY fun! It was crazy windy and a bit cold, but definitely worth it! There we got to see the castle, which holds a prison(which holds one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta!) and the courthouse(which is still used today for trials. There was one going on while we were on our tour.) and Lucy's keep.



Lucy's Tower



Tree in cemetary of
Lucy's Tower



Lucy's keep was my favorite part of the tour because it's just

the ruins of what is left. It's a hallowed out skeleton of the two story circular building, in which the floor is a cemetary whith a giant tree growing in the middle. The second stroy isn't there anymore. 



We also got to go up to Cobb's Tower, which was tower in the corner of the wall surrounding the keep, where all the public hangings used to take place. Creepy! :) We also got to walk on top of the walls for a bit, which was an awesome view point to look over the city.

We then had the chance to go into the Cathedral, which is only about two hundred feet away from the castle. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!  Words can't describe it.



Lincoln Cathedral



Oh! we also got to see the only remaining Roman archway that is still in use today! Pretty awesome!!

Lincoln had some great tea places, and shopping so I hope to get back there soon to do some of it!! It's a wonderful place!

That's right!

So, there ya go! That is the update! I'm doing well, studying a lot  and making friends, stuff like that. I did wake up with a sore throat today...and I just sneezed a couple of times a few minutes ago, so I really hope I'm not getting sick!! :( That would suck!!

Anyways, my journey to Ireland is in a couple of weeks, so I'm excited for that and I will definitely update you all on that! I hope this finds you safe, happy, and warm!!



Cheers!

There's No Place Like London!

Is it weird for me to say that I may want to live here some day?

I have totally fallen in love with this city! It's hustle and bustle, the buildings, oh the buildings!, the history, the whole feeling of being in that place was exciting and wonderful! I will tell the tale of my first adventure to London.

So, we headed out of Grantham around six Thursday night. We took up three coaches (buses) and had a wonderful three hour trip. I sat next to Lauren, and we talked about theater (shes' a theater ed. major) food, our families....the entire trip! Oh! We also talked about our past vehicles we've had. Random? Yes. But a lot of fun!!

On the coach to London!!

Finally, around nine thirty we get into London and at our hotel. The Royal National. It's supposed to have the largest amount of rooms in London. I can't remember the exact amount, but there were a lot!! We had a bit of a hiccup at the front desk, becasue the attenants didn't know there was a group of 130 university kids coming and checking in at once. Anyways, we all finally got our keys, and after running up to drop my bag off, I went back down into the lobby to meet Andrea, Kenzie, and Lauren to go out. By going out, all I mean to say is that we met up with Laurens brother, Lee, to go to a pub and relax and hang out. Lindsey, a girl from Eau Claire came with us too! There, Andrea and I (who became halfsie-buddies for the weekend) split a pint of a local beer. I can't remember what the name of it was, but I can hartily say that beer is an accquired taste. At least for she and I. I tried a sip of Lindsey's beer which they said was a bit friuty, thinking it would taste better, but it actually tasted worse than the stuff I had! :( Sorry Dad! The pubs start to shut down at eleven, so we left at close and realized we were STARVING, so wandered back to our hotel, stopped at a quick place across the road from the hotel to grab some food, and went to eat it in the lobby. We ate, said goodnight to Lee, and headed up to our rooms. There, we chatted until about one thirty when we realized that we had to get up at like seven the next morning. So, we went to bed. Haha!

The next day, Kenzie and I went to the Tower of London! We took the tube, which is a LOT of fun! It's a good thing Kenzie has been through the tube experience before, because I'm not sure I would be able to to it alone! The tour of the Tower was good! We got to see the Bloody Tower, the Ravens, and generally walk through the White Tower, which is the actual castle. We had to meet up with Andrea and Lauren, so we couldn't stay for as long as I wanted, but for what we got to see, I loved!! It was really cool! I hope to go back and stay so I could see the crown jewels that are there. Fun fact! The governor, his family, and about a hundred other people still live at the Tower of London!

We met up with Andrea, Lauren, Lee, Alex(his friend) and two other girls at the National Gallery in Trafalger Square, which is BEAUTIFUL! Just sayin'. We spent an hour and a half in the gallery, and we saw VanGoughs, DaVinci, Monet, and a whole lot more!!! I loved it! Only, we only got to see about a quarter of the whole exhibit. Again, I wnat to go back so I can spend more time there!

Yay! High Tea in a Crypt!

After the gallery, we all went to St. Martin's cathedral and had high tea in the Crypt! It was so much fun, and it was great food too! We spent a lot of time there, just hanging out and chatting. I didn't realize that we were actually sitting on the tombs of people until about half way through the meal, after which I felt slightly uncomfortable. When we were getting up to leave, I was trying to read some of the inscriptions on the floor of who I sat by, and one was a little girl who died when she was only five or six months old. I felt really bad.  :(  I would go there again too, just make sure that I wasn't going to sit on anyone!

Katie, Lauren, Lee, Alex, Andrea, and I in The Globe

That night, we're talking about Friday night, we all got a chance to go to Shakespeare's Globe! We had heard from Lee that we could either buy cheap "groundling" tickets (where you stand in front of the stage, I knew about that) or we could wait to see if people didn't show up, so we could take their places. There was a group of eight of us. First, we were waiting in the wrong line and started to get hungry so Lee and Alex went to get us some food. Then, the doors opened, we realized we were in the wrong line, went to the front of the theater and waited and waited for tickets and food. Finally! Lee and Alex came back with sandwhich supplies where, while we waited some more for tickets, we had dinner in line! All of a sudden, Lee walks a way from us, goes up to a guy and brings him over to our place. He had, for five pounds, six standing tickets and two sitting which is EXACTLY what we needed!!! What are the odds!?! So, we got to go and see A Comedy of Errors that night. It was FANTASTIC!! It's about mistaken identity between two sets of twins. It's so funny! At the end, they had life sized photo cutouts of the two characters and were wheeling them all around the stage!!!! SO FUNNY!! It was the highlight of my weekend. We went to a pub after, and Andrea and I split a pear cider. Yummy!!

After the play

The next day, we all went to Portobello Market in Notting Hill, where I got a scarf and a gift or two. Then Andrea, Kenzie and I headed out to Westminster Abby, which Andrea went inside while Kenzie and I gazed at Big Ben!! Yeah! Big Ben!! He's big. We also had some ice cream. The three of us then went to Buckingham Palace which we toured. It made Harlaxton look cheap! It was beautiful! I can't believe that we actually went into the house that the Queen of England lives in!!

We almost had tea at Buckingham Palace!!

So cool! That night, Kenzie and I went to see Les Miserables on stage. I was blown away. It's a beautiful story that is executed wonderfully!! I cried.

Whew. We are now onto Sunday, I'll wrap this up quick.

We left London in the morning, and headed out to see Hampton Court, which is where Henry VIII lived!!THAT place made Buckingham Palace look tiny! It's actually two palaces that are put together. First for Henry VIII then for William II and his wife. We had four hours from when we got there to when our busses left, I partook in the optional free audio tour guide, finished the whole thing, and still never made it out to the gardens that are on the property!!! It was AWESOME!

We then all piled onto the bus, and went home, and here ends my story of my first trip to London. My camera unfortunately died after four pictures....so, I don't have a lot to show you. The pictures here are basically all that I have. But, the girls were nice and said that I could take some of their photos...so yeah!! Sorry to all of you who probably found this extremely mundane, but I wanted to get all the details out before I forgot them.

Anyways, I need to go back to reading Robinson Crusoe for my Literature class, so I'll leave you all be.

Cheers!