Welp our 12 weeks are quickly coming to an end. We have a 3 course dinner at a pub tonight, paid for by AIFS (thankfully), then tomorrow is last minute London things, and Saturday we all fly back over to the States. It’s been both a long and short time, and it has been an incredible adventure.
So to wrap up this week, I’ll start with last Friday. Since we had our big portfolios due we decided to go to down to the river in Hyde Park, order some tea, and work on our projects next to the river.
It was a perfect way to start the morning. After quiet a lot of chit chat, and not so much work, we headed out. Courtney and I decided that we would hit the National Portrait Gallery, but didn’t really make it that far. Instead we had a fabulous 3 course lunner for cheap at a French place. The dessert was incredible, except I’m pretty sure they served us those poison berries that grow on bushes.
But both of us are still kicking so I guess they weren’t so poisonous. Then we popped into this really cool shop where they were selling old postcards, which neither of us could resist. That night I went out with people from work as a celebration for our hard work this summer. We went to the oldest pub in London, established 1722, and I may or may not have snagged a glass… Anyway, the pub was right on the Thames and was surrounded by boathouses.
So I saw that they had an eight outside, and went over to talk with them about their program. We talked for awhile about different regattas they go to, and different programs they offer. I even got to go into the boathouse, and it was huge! There were probably like 50 or so boats stuffed all the way back. We hung out there till the pub closed and then decided to call it a night. It was a fun last night out with all my work friends.
Saturday we got up, worked a little bit on our portfolio, and then headed off to Portobello Market which is an antique market. The market was huge and must have stretched on for miles and miles. There were so many cool antique shop, some having just an aray of junk, while others had silver and old teapots. We indulged on some crepes half through the market, and kept trudging along.
(yummy crepe!)
The market just would not stop and there were so many antiques. It was really cool to walk all the way through it though. Afterwards we came back, ate some dinner, and headed off for a night out… well sort of. The first place we wanted to go to was booked for a private party. Then everywhere else we went to was closing, or was too expensive. So we basically just walked around the city of London for hours. The night wasn’t a total loss though, we did get a picture in front of Platform 9 3/4, which is a Harry Potter thing.
Sunday we again rose bright and early, and worked on our portfolios. Then we got all dressed up and headed for afternoon tea. We all looked so proper in our tea attire. The tea was delicious as were the finger sandwiches, and scones. We sat there and chatted for quite some time, and it was so nice to just be together.
After we popped into Self Ridges a huge department store, and then headed back to work more on our portfolios. Thankfully I finally finished, and rewarded myself with dinner at DaMario’s. That night we all just hung out and watched a movie.
Monday we went to go see this immersive theatre performance at the theatre where Courtney works. It was so strange! They brought us all around and yelled stuff at us, but there was no plot to follow so it wasn’t really that great. But we did enjoy a nice after theatre drink at the pub upstairs.
Tuesday was my night to go to the Globe!!! I went nice and early and of course hit up the gift shop. I then stood in line and waited for the doors to be opened. I had bought one of the Yard tickets which is where you stand and are right up next to the stage. I saw Antony and Cleopatra and the show was so cool! It rained for about an hour on us, which did dampen the mood a bit… But the actors were all wonderful and I could tell they were well trained. For the second act they removed the stairs, and I quickly shoved my way in and got to stand front row, center, literally touching the stage!
It was an incredible experience, and I can check on of the top things off my bucket list.
On Wednesday I decided to skip a day of work (oh well) and head over to Stratford-Upon-Avon. It took about 2 hours on a train, but we were lucky enough to see the beautiful country side. Also I ran into my Shakespeare professor at Hofstra on the train going to Stratford… talk about a small world! Our first hit was the birth house of Shakespeare. It was quite quaint and had beautiful gardens in the back where a few people were performing some of the monologues from different shows.
We got to see where John Shakespeare, his father, worked on his gloves in his glove shop, and where Shakespeare slept! It was really cool! Next we headed over to the Royal Shakespeare Company and took a few pictures. Unfortunately we were unable to see a show because it would have gotten us back to London quite late, but we did enjoy the gift shop. Next we hopped on a boat and took a canal cruise on the Avon. I never knew how beautiful Stratford really was! After that we went to the church where Shakespeare, Anne, his daughter, and his daughter’s husband are all buried. Anne’s grave is quite small and I wonder if she was shorter than me. It was so cool to be that close to William Shakespeare though.
On his grave he wrote a little message basically telling people that if you move my bones a curse will be put on you, so his bones have stayed there for hundreds of years. Next we went to afternoon tea at this little ’40s themed cafe. We enjoyed some tea, scones, and sandwiches. Since it was quite late we headed back to London, only getting a little confused by the trains, and began the slow process of packing. I already have one suitcase packed and you’ll all be happy to know that it only weighs 40lbs! Hopefully I can fit the rest into my other one and my carry ons…
I cannot believe that my time in London is almost over. Whenever something ends I usually like to say the phrase, “Don’t be sad that it’s over, be happy that it happened.” But I can honestly say that I have never been more sad for something to be over and have never been more happy that it happened. It has been quite an incredible 12 weeks filled with so many fun adventures and experiences and I could not be happier with how I spent my summer. Thank you to everyone who helped me get here and who helped me while I was here. I love you all very much, and saying goodbye to such a wonderful city will certainly be bittersweet. ❤
I am quickly approaching my last week in London, and right now am enjoying my last weekend in London. It’s been an exciting adventure!
So last week was just a typical work week. I went to camps and helped watch the kids. But the weekend was much more fun! On Friday we started off by going to the Royal Botanical Gardens, also known as Kew Gardens. I’m not sure why there are two different names but I like the Royal version better.
It was only about a 25 minute tube ride outside the city itself, but once we arrived we felt like we were miles and miles away. The gardens were beautiful! We walked into one greenhouse that was filled to the roof with all different kinds of plants from Africa, South America, North America, and the list goes on and on. The greenhouse had a staircase that led up to a balcony that allowed us to get a great view from above the plants. I felt like I was in a jungle.
We walked around, exploring all of the gardens and smells and everything around us. We stumbled upon a wedding and attempted to invite ourselves but unfortunately they didn’t allow us to enter. After the disappointment of our failed attempt at wedding crashing we decided to sit and have lunch. Courtney and I split this amazing tomato, mango salsa, and goat cheese salad and had a cider to go along with it.
We basked in the sun and ate our salad and sipped on our cider. After lunch we continued to walk around and we did manage to get a bit lost since the gardens are so huge. We found this amazing Walk In The Trees that they offer. You climb a lot of stairs, but then you are literally in the trees. There is a path way all the way around and you walk through the trees seeing the beauty of the gardens at a new height.
We also stumbled upon this cute little bamboo garden that had bamboo growing. We walked along the river in the park and ended up in front of an old Pagoda. The Pagoda is only open every 8 years or so, and we decided that it was worth climbing the 253 steps to get to the top. Slightly out of breathe at the top we looked around and could see the entire gardens as well as the city of London. It was beautiful!
Saturday was our queen’s day where we got to take a tour of Buckingham Palace. The Palace is only open for about one month a year while the queen takes holiday in Scotland. But before I even talk about the Palace I need to talk about our breakfast! We went to this lovely little place called Ffiona’s (yes there are two “f”s) and we indulged ourselves on some banana pancakes! It was nice to have some “american” style pancakes, but it could not be compared to my favorite mickey mouse waffles or buttermilk pancakes. But the pancakes were still delicious! So Buckingham Palace was incredibly packed with people, but they only allow you to enter at certain times. Upon entering the Palace we were given an audio guide head set which actually made the tour a lot more interesting. The Palace was beautiful and filled with such pretty things! Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, but I did snag one of where newly weds of the Royal Family usually take their pictures.
They also had an exhibit on Royal Children and they had dresses, pictures, dolls, playhouses, and other toys that the royal children had played with on display. We also got to hear about one of the Queen’s secret doors where she can enter from her own flat and come out into a room where she entertains guests. Then we got to walk along the Palace gardens and again you feel like you are miles away from the bustling city of London.
It was one of the girl’s on the program last night with us in London so we all went to this fun restaurant called “Streaky Gin” and had delicious food and some fun cocktails. Then we headed back to our house for some movies and dessert as a farewell night for our friend.
The next day we decided to get up and head out to Greenwich which is only a quick train ride from the city. They had this really fun and interesting market there with all sorts of different things. It wasn’t a junky market, but a more modernesque type of market. We had a fun time looking around, and going in and out of shops. They had a great food market there as well. The boutiques and the shops were the funniest part cause they were all so cute! We decided that we were hungry enough so we took a seat in a pub and I had my first glass of Pimms!
It was light and refreshing, like a cool summer evening. We then met up with our friends at this adorable little pub in Greenwich. The front part was very pub like and the back had this beautiful glass ceiling and a great outdoor seating area. We found a table underneath the glass and had some food and lots and lots of laughs!
One of my friend’s friend was performing at an open mic night at the pub, so we got to hear some live music as well! We were all so tired that we decided to head home early and enjoy a walk home in the cool London air.
Tuesday night was a great night! We all met up after work at South Bank, my favorite spot in London for a ride on the London Eye. We started off with dinner at the Mexican Street Kitchen, a Mexican place, then headed over to the Eye. Now the Eye is quite large and is slightly terrifying to embark. It never stops moving so inorder to get on we had to literally jump into the little bubble that is attached to the ferris wheel. Then you start to move up into the sky and over the Thames. We headed up over the sky line of London and had a beautiful view of the city at dusk. We saw the houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and all of London as we flew over the city.
It was so much fun! After the ride, which was only slightly terrifying, we needed some frozen yoghurt to calm our nerves, so we headed to Snog. Next we all headed over to the roof top bar on South Bank and I had my second glass of Pimms.
Then since we were all taken by the beauty of the city we decided to walk along the Bank and ended up infront of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben all lit up and glowing.We turned around and behind us was the Thames and the London Eye reflecting off of the river. It was a beautiful night to all be together.
Wednesday we had our presentations and afterwards indulged in a delicious dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, DeMarios. We headed back after a long day and worked on our portfolios.
Thursday we decided to go see Medea. We paid super cheap for standing room seats at the National Theatre. The performance was excellent! Medea is an ancient Greek play that they turned modern and it was spectacular, I mean really unbelievably good. The set was really interesting as well as the dance movements. The chorus was Medea’s inner spirits and when they spoke they would twitch all together. It was like they were trying to help Medea conjure her spirits. The show was just incredible, absolutely incredible. Then we stopped by our favorite frozen yoghurt place, Snog, and headed back home for much needed rest.
The fun just never seems to stop here in London. I’m loving the cool, brisk nights, and the warm summer days! Our last weekend in London and there is much to do!
the spot light is a memorial for the 100 year anniversary of WWI
Well today as I’m writing this post I realize that there are only two short weeks left in this beautiful city of London. I’ve looked back at all my posts and went over all of the things I’ve done. I thought about what I wanted out of this wonderful experience, and I’ve pretty much achieved it all. I have most certainly caught the travel bug and I know that this adventure must soon come to an end, but there are so many more to come. But enough of that, I still have two whole weeks left!
This past weekend started off with quite a bang! We went to DeMario’s a pizzeria right down the road which is best known for being Princess Diana’s favorite pizza place in London. We were celebrating Mac’s birthday, who’s in the internship program. Now once you walk past this place (which we have to do everyday), you can just smell the delicious aroma of pizza, and pasta, and garlic cooking and it makes your mouth water. But once you’re inside, oh man, it’s like you were transported to a family owned restaurant in the heart of Rome. The pizza is so delicious and it does bring me back to Italy. After we were all so full from all the food but we found some energy and headed over to our favorite bar, O’Neil’s and hung around there for quite a bit. There was a live band that night so we danced the night away.
Then came Friday and another “Courtney and Katie Date” commenced. We hit up all the big sites! We got lost in Harrod’s, somehow finding ourselves in the food court where we split a delicious croissant (it was similar to a cro-nut, fried with sugar). Then we hopped on the tube and headed to the British Museum where we spent about half an hour, saw the rosetta stone, and then continued to our next stop, Gordon’s Wine Bar. Now this is probably one of my favorite things I’ve done in London. Gordon’s is the oldest wine bar in London and inside resembles a dungeon. However you’re filled with lots of wine and cheese so it doesn’t feel that dreary. But we were lucky enough to find two chairs outside and enjoyed our bottle of Rose with a plate of mozzarella, brie, bread, and cranberry spread. It was so wonderful to just chat, relax, and watch the people go by as we indulged on our wine and cheese.
Next on our date we ventured over to South Bank, one of our favorite places in London. We saw this very large swing ride that we were both intrigued by. Now it’s not your typical swing that you see at a carnival but a much larger version. There are two seats next to each other which they double, and triple strap you into. Then they lower a plexi-glass cover over you and strap that down (for all of those who are claustrophobic this ride is not for you). Then you’re lifted up into the air and it starts to turn around and around. How high up we were was difficult to tell because we were distracted by our screams and holding on for dear life. Courtney did muster up some courage and snapped a view pictures, all of which came out blurry. But it was so much fun to be up that high!
We saw the London Eye, the Thames, the houses of Parliament, and everything inbetween. After our terrifying flight we decided to hit up some frozen yoghurt at a place called Snog, right along the river. They basically revamped a London bus, where the bottom is where they take your order and make it, and the top has seating which looks out over the Thames. After our “guilt free snog” we decided to head back and call it a night.
Saturday was quite a summer day on the beaches of Brighton. We all got up bright and early and headed for the train station which was overly crowded and hot. We somehow managed to squeeze our way onto the train and had lovely seats on the floor. The beaches at Brighton aren’t quite your typical beach. It is actually made up of large stones, not sand, so it is very painful on your feet. But we did dive into the English Channel a few times to cool off since it was so hot out. And you would all be proud to know that I actually got a slight tan (don’t believe me, ask my roommates). We walked along the boardwalk and the pier and had some delicious “99 Pence” which is essentially soft serve vanilla ice cream on a cone with a chocolate flake. It was originally called “99 pence” because way back in the day that’s how much it cost, not so true anymore. Then we pursued the streets of Brighton, hit up a few shops, enjoyed some afternoon iced tea, and headed on home.
That night we hit up this really cool club called Roxy where students get in for a reduced price. The DJ wasn’t that great, but that didn’t stop us from dancing our feet off!
Sunday was a tourist day. We woke up and decided to hit up Abbey Road! We popped on the tube and made our way over. What’s cool is that the crosswalk is still actually in use. Like cars still zoom through it and have no patience for tourists. Quite a few people were honked and screamed at while reenacting the famous Beatle’s cover.
We walked along the road for a bit which was lined with beautiful houses, and that part of town is actually the most expensive places to live in London. After we got tired of all the tourists (ugh, tourists), we headed over to the British Museum for a longer look. My friend John and I explored this amazing exhibit of mummies. They had eight real mummies there, the oldest dating back to 3500 BC, and we got to see it! It was an incredible exhibit because it showed the lives of the mummies as well as what is inside. Now-a-days they don’t unwrap the mummies because it could break the bones or destroy other evidence. So what they do is take CAT scans of what’s inside and the exhibit had the CAT scans showing exactly what was left inside the coffin. In the mummy dating back to 3500 BC you could still see part of his brain in the CAT scan! After we were through with the mummies we explored around a bit more and then decided to call it quits. We headed back to the room, and I got ready to go to Pilates with my friend Katie. Pilates was nothing like what I was expecting it to be. It was so difficult and worked every muscle in my body. I basically couldn’t move the next day but it was a lot of fun!
Monday was a typical work day. I was “coaching” at a camp at one of the primary schools for the week. We did a lot of sports with them, and let me tell you those kids have a lot of energy! But by the end of the week I had actually grown attached to some of them, especially the little ones with their cute British accents. But on Monday night Courtney, two other friends, and I went to go see Miss Saigon. I have never walked out of a show wanting to see it again that badly. We had front row seats (no I’m not kidding) because we did student rush, and the show was incredible!
(that’s the conductor’s head)
The tears, the laughter, the set, the lighting, the dancing, everything was just incredible! The lead female was only 18 years old from America, and the lead male was one of the actors in the movie Les Miserables. If you ever get a chance to see this show, go because it is amazing, amazing, amazing! I mean they even had a real helicopter fly on stage at one point! After the emotional drain of the show we all headed back to our room, not before stopping to grab some ice cream of course.
All in all a wonderful weekend. This weekend Buckingham Palace is number one our list and we are all so excited to get a chance to see it!
HARROD’S!!!
Rosetta Stone!
“the most famous chess set”
a grave that is now on display in the British Museum
Well now that the craziness of the past week and a half has calmed down, I can finally write this weeks blog.
It was basically a typical work week. I attended a few sessions, and did a few things in the office. Still working out the last little kinks and things in the Westminster bid. Soon we will be contacting businesses for consultations. School is finally over for everyone over in London, which means that this was the last week of school sessions. Next comes summer camps… Should be interesting.
On Monday after work my roommate and I went to go see Shakespeare in Love. The show is actually still in previews, but it was wonderful! The show is about William Shakespeare, and he falls in love with a woman (not Anne Hathaway). Through out the play, Shakespeare is attempting to write a show, first entitled Romeo and the Pirates Daughter. But through the things that happen to Shakespeare the play he’s writing becomes a tragedy, entitled Romeo and Juliet. But even though it sounds like a tragedy it’s very much a comedy. Throughout the show characters would have lines from other Shakespeare plays. My favourite one was when they dog named Spot ran across the stage, jumped on someone, and someone yelled, “Out damn Spot.” Which I’m sure you all recognize from Lady Macbeth’s most famous speech in the play Macbeth. The show was quite cute, and very funny. I really enjoyed it and now I want to watch the movie. After the show, Courtney and I went for a glass of wine and some pasta to end our night.
Skipping ahead a day, on Wednesday we went to go see Les Miserables. Now, talk about an incredible show! The tickets were provided to us from AIFS and they amazing. We were in the stalls in row J. Close enough to see everything, not so close that our necks were hurting!
The show itself was incredible, and thankfully Russell Crowe didn’t make an appearance. All the actors did a beautiful job, and I was brought to tears at the end. The set was absolutely incredible. It was on this giant turn table and the set could switch in an instant. During the scene where Jean is carrying the boy through the sewers, they used the turntable and the lighting to switch moments. As Jean was walking around the turntable, the lights would go off, and a few seconds later it would go back on and Jean would be carrying the boy in a different way. It was just a wonderful, wonderful show.
Since it was a rather a long week for us all, my friend John and I went to a restaurant called Burlan and enjoyed Happy Hour and a delicious dinner. It was so nice and relaxing, and was just what we needed to unwind after the week. After dinner we went over to Holland Park and walked around. The thing I really love about London is the countless number of parks and how beautiful each one is. This one in particular was absolutely beautiful. We walked through a Japanese Garden, where peacocks were roaming free, and giant koi fish were swimming in the pond.
We walked through beautiful flower gardens, passed by a fountain with baby ducks swimming around in it, and even walked by a cow farm.
It was truly a perfect way to end the week. That night we headed off to a club called Verve, which was pretty dead, but the music was great and we had a lot of fun dancing! As we were heading home, a promoter came up to us and said he offered free entry. So we decided why not try out a Salsa club. Now this club was hopping, and we all split a pitcher of sangeria. We danced, and laughed, and finally decided we were all exhausted from the week and headed home.
Friday was our last British Contemporary Culture class with Justin. We talked about diversity and all the different cultures in London. I’m going to miss this class and Justin specifically because he is just an incredible professor. He truly loves London and loves teaching about it. We all tell him that if being a professor doesn’t work out he should go into the theatre because he tells a great story. It had been so hot that we had originally planned to be outside, but we just couldn’t handle the heat. So instead we went to explore The Tate Museum of Modern Art. Ah, modern art… Some of it was quite interesting and they had artists there like Picasso, and Dali. But then they had artists like Jackson Polluck. I had two favourite pieces. One was a mirror to show that we, the viewers, are the ever changing art. The best part was when someone called it, “Brillant.” I laughed out loud at that, and quickly walked along. My other favourite piece of art work was this huge canvas painted grey, and was entitled… any guesses? Yep, it was entitled, “Grey.” Really wonderful…
But like I said some of the modern art was really interesting. I love looking at pieces and trying to interpret what the artist is trying to convey. Not when an artist dumps cans of paint on a canvas, lets it drip down, and calls it “art.” Maybe I’m ignorant, but modern art just isn’t my thing. But after the lovely art, Courtney and I went to the Borough Market. We enjoyed a prosseco spritzer and cooled off. The market was very similar to the food market in Brooklyn. Local meats, cheeses, vegatables, baked goods, wine, beer, the list goes on and on. It was a really cool market and I’m glad we stumbled upon it. Then we headed back home, and went out. We had plans to go to Gordon’s Wine Bar, the oldest wine bar in London, but it was closed. So we headed to a local pub and waited for the rest of our friends to get there. We hopped around a bit and a very fun girls night! Great way to end the week.
Saturday was entitled, “Courtney’s and Katie’s Date Day.” We literally spent the entire day together, and nicknamed it our date day. We woke up early and headed off for Bath which is about two and a half hours outside of London. Bath is most famous for the Roman Baths. Unfortunately it was bombed in World War II, and some of the architecture was ruined. We had a tour guide that walked us around a bit, and the city is beautiful! We felt like we had left England and had been transported to an italian city. We started our “date day” off by heading into a medieval church that was actually filled with light because there are large windows that aren’t stained, so a lot of natural light flows into the church. Then we had a quick walk around the gardens, and headed over for afternoon tea. Courtney found the cutest little place right next to the river off of the bridge that was influenced by the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. We had our afternoon tea, scones, and locally made jam.
After the rain stopped pouring we walked around looking at the architecture, saw the Crest, and the Circle. Apparently the Circle is where Nicholas Cage had a house for awhile. Then we got to tour the Roman Baths! It was so cool! We weren’t allowed to touch the water because it is polluted, hence why its that strange blue color.
There are baths inside closed spaces and they still have clear water which was it would have looked like back in the day. They had a lot of ancient pieces of the baths on display, and it did feel like we were transported back into Roman times. At the very end of the tour you can drink the clean mineral water and it’s supposed to make you feel 10 years younger! All in all Bath was a great day! Once we got back, the “Courtney and Katie” date continued to dinner, where we shared Bruschetta and Gnocchi. We headed back to the room where we split a bottle of wine and watched Midnight in Paris. Then drifted off to sleep. It was a wonderful day!
Sunday was somewhat of a relaxed day. We got up and headed over to Brick Lane Market to see what the market was all about, but more importantly Brick Lane is famous for their bagels, or beigels is how they spell it. We walked around for quite a bit, but finally ended up at Brick Lane. The beigel was so delicious, and well worth the wait! However, it still wasn’t as good as a New York bagel, but since were thousands of miles away and bagels are not a thing around here, they were delicious! Brick Lane was essentially just Camden Market, just in little India. A huge market with cheap stuff. We then ate our delicious beigels and headed back to work on our essays. That wraps up this week. With only 4 weeks left to go theres quite a lot that needs to be checked off our lists.
moooooo
Picasso
Picasso
Monet
yes that white outline is indeed art
the crest
These are the windows that allowed the church to be filled with so much natural light
This would have hung above the entrance
The thermal bath
This was a sauna room
Tonight there was a gang of rollerbladers accompanied with music that road down our street!
This past week was quite a busy one. From the crazy start on Monday to the World Cup final on Sunday. So for starters Monday was a relaxed day. Since we got back in too late I wasn’t able to go to work, but I did manage to go to one session with some of the older kids at a secondary school. After that it was back to the room for a nice long nap. Afterwards we got dinner, hung around for a bit, worked on our essays and then went to bed.
On Tuesday it was another typical work day in the office. But afterwards I got to see the show Once. It was so amazing! The music was beautiful and the story, however slightly predictable, was still great. There was no orchestra or pit and all the music was performed by the actors. It was a very Mumford and Sons style music, similar to modern folk music. All the actors had a different instrument like a violin, cello, flute, guitars, an accordion, and a few other things. There was just one set and it was an old run down bar. When they needed a different scene they would use the lights to just highlight one section of the stage where the actors were performing. When the actors weren’t acting they were sitting on the side of the set with their instruments. My favorite part of the whole musical was when the chorus would sing. Their voices were just amazing and so perfectly in tune and together I would melt a little bit every time they sung. Also during intermission they invited the audience up on stage to walk around and buy a drink. We, of course, took quite a few selfies on stage, and bought a drink (which came with a free Once tumbler!). The only thing that I didn’t like was that since the tickets were free (provided by AIFS) we were all the way up in the top balcony. The show is a very intimate show and I would love to watch it closer to see the actors faces as they react to each other. I think that way you can really feel and understand what the actors feel. But other than that I can absolutely see why it won the Tony Award for Best Musical. I highly recommend it and you should definitely go see it!
Wednesday was again a typical work day, just in the office doing office work. I’ve actually been working on a bid for the London Sports Trust. They want to start doing sessions in Westminster and in order to do that they have to put in a bid to the borough. So I’ve been helping by doing research and creating the presentation. Anyway, after work we all came back, had a quick dinner and got to work on our essays and our final that were due the next day. It was a typical work night of food, and lots of writing. Thankfully I had been working on the two projects throughout the day and had some of it done. It wasn’t too late of a night, and I got to bed relatively early.
So apparently over here in the UK teachers are allowed to go on strike and that’s what they did today. Because of this there was no one in the school to open the office for us so I had the whole day off to work on my essays, and catch up on sleep. It was a wonderfully relaxing day (besides the essay writing). I went to a coffee shop and finished my essay, and then walked around Kensington Park for a bit. Then for our final class our professor took us on a tour of Greenwich. We started at Canary Wharf, and he talked a bit about that neighborhood and area which is the financial district of London. Afterwards we hopped on the DRL (basically the tube) and headed over to Greenwich. We walked by the Thames and I got to see rowers row by which was very exciting! Then we took a huge elevator down underneath to the depths of the earth. Okay not that far, but we did take it down underneath the Thames and walked a very long, ominous tunnel to the other side. We then walked around and made our way up a large hill (which I actually didn’t know there were any in London) and saw the Prime Meridian line! For a moment I was standing on both the East and West hemispheres of the world! It was very, very cool! One of the cool parts of taking a summer class in London is that your professor takes you to a pub after the class is over. So we went to this very cool pub right on the Thames called Trafalgar Bar and had a pint with our professor to end the term. We walked back along the river and headed for some dinner in Leicester Square and then headed to bed. All in all I really, really enjoyed this class. Despite the fact that the European Business Environment is sometimes not all that interesting, our professor made it very interesting and he was such a blast! I’m going to miss his class and his fun field trips!
On Friday we had our other class with Justin which is British Contemporary Culture, and we talked about the most famous London mobsters, the Kray twins. They are really interesting! They really put on an image of good, but behind the scenes they were true mobsters. Our professor wrote a theory on them and told us this wicked story about how he was giving a lecture about the Kray twins and when he had finished a guy in a trench coat and a hat told him that he represented a man who had listened to the talk and was very interested in meeting with him. The catch was that the man was sitting at the pub next store. So reluctantly my professor went over to meet this man, and it turned out to be a representative of one of the Kray twins who was interested in my professor’s article. I believe it was Reggie Kray who was in jail at the time, and my professor actually sent him drafts of his article. He would get the drafts back with comments and corrections from Reggie himself! Slightly creepy, but still really really interesting. The Kray twins were really interesting and are still very relevant in todays London world. Even last week a news story broke out about how some things had been covered up that are now being uncovered from back when the Kray twins ruled. We only have one more of this class and we all are going to be very sad when it’s over. After class I had to pop over to work for a bit to even out my schedule because I didn’t work on Thursday. After work my roommate Courtney took me to go see Two Gentlemen of Verona put on by a grad program that she’s looking into. Unfortunately the show was pretty awful. The acting was lacking, and clearly the Shakespeare training wasn’t there. But we made a night out of it and stopped in at Scoop for some delicious gelato!
Saturday was a fun day as well! Marielle and I hopped over to Convent Garden Markets and walked around there for quite a bit. This market is a little more upscale and filled with more tea shops and other fun stores. We stopped into a delicious crepe place and indulged ourselves with the OMG crepe and the Cheap date. The OMG crepe was a delicious combination of fresh strawberries, white chocolate, cream, and nutella, and let me tell you “OMG” was indeed the first word that came out of my mouth when I took my first bite. The Cheap Date was also delicatable with Mars Bars and Bailey cream. It was super duper delicious! After lunch we walked by a tattoo stand and I did indeed get one! So you all probably won’t even get to see it, but you can look at the picture! (it doesn’t look that much like a cross in person)
Then we headed back and I got ready to hit the town with the guys at my internship. All the employees are actually my age from like 21-24. We headed over to Hammersmith and started out at one of the oldest pubs in London, established in 1722! We were right on the water and walked past quite a few rowing clubs. No one was rowing, but quite a few of them were throwing parties. After Hammersmith one of the guys drove us to Shoreditch, which is a cool sort of hipster area. We walked around for a bit, popping into places to watch the World Cup game. Then we ended up at one of the guy’s friend’s bar. It was really a lot of fun with good music, and ping pong in the back. I played a few games and won one of them! Then the other intern and I decided that it was time to hit the hay and we headed back to Kensington. Surprisingly the other intern, Cody, and I live on the same street in Kensington! It was a really fun night out with everyone and it was fun to get to know them outside of work.
On Sunday we all decided that we wanted to go see Westminster Abbey but we didn’t want to pay to get in. So we found a loophole! If you go on Sunday for the mass you get in for free, which is exactly what we did! We did have to go to mass though, but it was pretty to see the Abbey. It is absolutely stunning inside! Unfortunately because it was mass I didn’t get to take that many pictures, but I did sneak a few. During the mass one of the priests got up and was giving us a little story and it was about a US president. It’s amazing that even in Westminster Abbey in the heart of London the US is still relevant. After mass we got to walk around for a brief moment, and as we were leaving we looked to our right and there was Issac Newton’s crypt! I also accidentally walked over Winston Churchill’s grave before I noticed what I was walking over. It’s a beautiful church filled with lots of history! Next since we were on that free church grind we headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Once we got there we learned that they actually don’t allow visitors into the galleries or for people to go up to the top on Sundays. So we just walked around and looked at the beautiful statues that are in the church. We then hit up lunch and headed back. We relaxed for awhile, and I went for a mid afternoon run through Kensington and Hyde Park. The wonderful thing about London is that it’s basically always a good temperature. Even when it’s raining, it might be a little chilly but its never too hot. There’s usually a breeze even when the sun is beating down. After my run I showered up and got ready to go watch the final game of the World cup! We headed over to Porterhouse which is a very cool pub! There are so many different levels with lots of different bars, and they even brew some of their own beer. They even had blue moon which was like a little piece of home! However the game was slightly uninteresting and we had work to get done so we left at half time. Once we got back home there were quite a few people watching it across the street, so we came up with the brilliant idea to just lean out our window and watch it through someone else’s window! It worked really well and we even saw Germany score the winning goal!! Yay Germany!!! They deserved to win and it was a great game!
It was a busy but productive week in London. Our weeks seem to be getting shorter and we can’t believe how soon it’s all finishing! But we still have quite a lot left to do in London! Next up… who knows! Actually this week I’m seeing quite a few shows including Shakespeare in Love, Les Miserables, and hopefully Julius Caesar at the Globe! More to come!
PS: Don’t worry (I can hear the gasps from here about my “tattoo”) it’s only a temporary henna tattoo and will be off in 2-3 weeks.
The Prime Meridian Line!!
Some of you may recognize this as the Les Mis courtyard!
(i’m sorry about the people’s heads I couldn’t avoid them)
Winston Churchill
Throughout London they are doing a special where they have decorated these book benches with different books. There are about 50 all through the city. It’s very similar to what Pittsfield does with the cows and sheeps. This one is Mary Poppins
This weekend we jetted off to Amsterdam! We first had to take a bus from the airport, to a train that would take us to Amsterdam. Taking the train was a good journey because it was quiet and we got to see the countryside of Holland. Holland is pretty much what you’re thinking it is. Rolling hills, small towns in between the fields, and of course, windmills. There were lots of modern windmills actually. As we were flying home I looked out the window and saw a windmill farm in the ocean about 2 miles away from the shore. They’re trying to do this on Long Island but people are afraid that the windmills will obstruct their view.
But anyway, back to Amsterdam. We passed through Utrecht on the train and it was pretty much just an ordinary city. Finally we arrived in Amsterdam, walked out of the train station, and immediately to our left was a station that holds over 2,500 bikes. Yep, 2,500 bikes! It was huge!! Thankfully we had printed out directions to our hostel before leaving and it turned out to be a quick five minute walk from the station. Our hostel was no ordinary hostel, but rather we were staying in a houseboat hostel. We walked down a dock and loaded onto the boat. There our lovely host, Christian, was waiting for us on the terrace. He lead us down some very, very steep stairs, showed us around the kitchen/common room/dining room/hang out room. Then he lead us to our room, opened the door, and we all gasped. We knew that the room was supposed to be small, but the room was literally 8×8. Two bunks on each side, a sink in the middle up against the wall, two shelfs on both walls, and a little tiny porthole window no bigger than my head.
Plus it was about 1000 degrees inside. There was a communal shower and bathroom just like any other hostel, but we could not get over how tiny our room was. When we needed to be in there we had to take turns because only two of us could really fit in there at a time. But don’t get me wrong we had so much fun on that boat! After we saw the mouse sized hole we were sleeping in we decided to go explore the city a bit and grab some dinner. We ate at this really cool, modern place right on the water.
At this point it was late night, like 11pm, but we wanted to go out and explore. We were just a quick walk away from the city center, which is better known as the Red Light District. So being in Amsterdam we of course had to walk around the Red Light District. It was definitely interesting to say the least. There are quite a few strange people in this world. We weren’t there for too long, just walked up and down it and then headed back to the hostel. We got ready two people at a time, and we all hopped into our tiny little room. It was now about 1500 degrees in there and we all just couldn’t handle it. But we all finally drifted off into a heat induced sleep.
The next day we couldn’t wait for the alarm to go off to get out of that room. We had a bright and early start, and ate some of the free breakfast which was actually quite good! Then we jetted off to get our “I Amsterdam” tickets which is essentially a card that gives you free entrance to almost all museums, free transportation around the city and a free canal cruise. So we hopped on the tram (Amsterdam actually had one of the worst transportation systems yet) and we were off to the Van Gogh museum.
We got there early enough to not wait in a huge line and got right in. The museum was so cool! It was three floors and each floor was a progression of his paintings and his life. So we could actually see him getting more mentally unstable through his paintings as we walked through the museum. Van Gogh was an amazing artist in the way he say things differently but could still create something we can all relate to. I loved his different uses of color and palettes, and light. He was truly a gifted artist and it’s such a shame that he killed himself. Fun fact that I learned from that museum is that Van Gogh did quite a lot of self portraits. He would draw them on the back of a lot of his paintings, which was really cool to discover.Next we were all a bit tired so we walked over to a cute coffeehouse (don’t worry it was strictly just coffee) and had a cappuccino. Next we walked over to the “I Amsterdam” sign, but not before we bought our tickets to the Ice Bar and Rijkmuseum.
It was kind of a crummy day and raining so our pictures all are a little dark, but they still came out cute! Next we headed into the Diamond museum which was basically just a giant sales room. However they did have that gorilla skull that is encrusted in diamonds. After the diamond museum we asked someone local where a good place for lunch was. First he informed us that,”there is no such thing as Dutch food,” and then told us about this great Moroccan place. We walked over and there was a huge market going on. There was fresh fruit, seafood, cheeses, olives, clothes, hand bags, pretty much everything and anything. We walked through the market and got to the restaurant. It was so cool! The ceilings must have been 30 feet high, the tables were mosaic, and they had these beautiful, huge chandeliers. The food was really good as well! While we had been eating the rain had started to pour down. Thankfully when we had finished the rain had stopped and we headed over to Rembrandt’s House. It was right on one of the canals and was quite large. He had actually been on of the more wealthy artists, but sadly went bankrupt and had to sell everything in his house. But through the inventory the historians managed to restore it back to what it looked like while he lived there. We did an audio tour through the house, and even got to see a woman making paint! I never knew so much about Rembrandt, but now I know quite a bit more. Since the sun was now shining we decided to take our canal cruise. The weather was perfect and the city was too. I never knew that Amsterdam was such a beautiful city!
It’s considered to be the “Venice of the north,” and it certainly is with all of the canals. We cruised by Anne Frank’s house which had a line for miles outside of it, and saw some interesting buildings. It was the perfect way to relax in the late afternoon. Afterwards we walked back to our hostel, changed, and got ready to go to the ice bar! We headed over and had some dinner, then headed over. Before you head into the Ice Bar they give you these huge poncho type coats and some gloves.
Then our “Eskimo Guide” (aka our bartender) for the night opened the door, and this rush of freezing cold air hit us. It was so incredibly cold in there! After about five minutes the coats and gloves weren’t even helping. Our drinks came in glasses that were made out of ice. Some people in there had dropped quite a few of them, and throughout the 30 minutes we were in there you would hear load crashed when people dropped them. But the bar was really cool. They had ice carvings of polar bears, penguins, and they had things frozen in the walls. But it was so cold! Our session was about 45 minutes long, and we could not wait to get out. After we stayed in the normal non-iced bar for a bit and warmed up. Now on Saturday the Holland World Cup game was on, so everyone was watching! We tried to find a pub that wasn’t too crowded but it was a bit difficult. We walked around for awhile and then someone told us one of the parks was playing it. Unfortuntely there was no screen, and no one in the park watching the game. Since it was pretty late at this time we decided to go chill on our hostel boat. Thankfully they had the game on so we did get to see the ending which was the most exciting part anyway. The hostel had beer in the fridge for very inexpensive so after the game we sat on the roof terrace for a bit, and just soaked in the beautiful view of the city and the canal. Our room was much cooler because it had rained through out the day, so we all had a much better sleep.
The next morning was again an early rise. We packed up, ate some breakfast and headed off the famous Rijkmuseum. The Rijkmuseum holds Rembrandt’s most famous works, as well as hundreds of other artists. There were a few Van Goghs, a Monet, and many other spectacular artists. I learned quite a lot from this museum. For example that in 1975 there was a man near Rembrandt’s Night Watch painting, and somehow he fell into it slashing it with a knife seven times.
They restored all but one slash which can still be seen above the dog. Also it actually used to be larger but when they put it up in the town hall long ago, they cut some of it off and the canvas was never recovered. However they have the technology and Rembrandt’s original sketch to show what it would’ve looked it. Also some information on The Syndics of Draper’s Guild,
the painting was intended to hang on a wall at a great height. So Rembrandt painted the table at the angle that would look best if you were looking up at it. But because the painting is displayed quite low in the Rijkmuseum you can see the optical illusion and the table actually looks quite large and disproportionate. The museum was had an exhibit called Art is Therapy going on through out the entire museum. Near different works of art there would be this yellow piece of paper next to it asking questions and making you think very differently and in a modern way about the painting. It was very, very cool and I’m so happy we had the chance to see this museum. After the museum we decided to get the only “Dutch Food” there is: Dutch Pancakes. So we found the Pancake Corner and we ordered this giant pancake with bananas and whipped cream. It was absolutely delicious! Well worth waiting for the last meal in Amsterdam. Next we walked the Red Light District during the day, which is quite different than at night. It’s much calmer and not as strange. After we found the oldest church in Amsterdam that dates back to the 1300’s. Unfortunately the church is no longer in use and is instead used for modern art. We were walking through this beautiful church and it was somewhat strange and unnatural that there was “modern art” in the church. There was a cute coffee shop next to the church so we sat and had some coffee before heading back to our hostel. We grabbed a few souvenirs and then had to head back to our hostel. Right next to our hostel was NEMO, the science museum, and you can go all the way to the roof and see the city. We climbed up there and looked out at the beautiful city of Amsterdam.
We had so much fun, and in such a beautiful old city. After we took many pictures we headed back to our hostel to load up our things and head out. I should now take this time to also say that our hostel boat was right next to the largest Chinese restaurant in the Netherlands and possibly Europe. It’s a floating restaurant and hold 900 people. I have no idea when you’re going to need to fit 900 people into a Chinese restaurant, but if you ever need to now you know where to go.
So now comes our lovely flight back or rather long journey back to London. We grab a train and arrive at the airport on time and early. We go through security and all that jazz. We’re sitting in the terminal, waiting for our plane, and an announcement comes on and says that our plane has been delayed. We’re like, okay whatever it will get here eventually. So then they call us to board, and still no plane, but we line up anyway. They let us go through the gate and line us up on the tarmac. Now I should explain that I do not like flying. I hate flying, it’s terrifying and gives me anxiety (surprisingly I’m better on longer flights than 45 minute flights). So anyway we’re now standing on the tarmac and the plane is making this really loud beeping noise. They aren’t letting us board and people keep going in and out of the plane, and keep fixing and doing things to the plane. I begin to panic just a little bit because clearly something is wrong with the plane. Then one of the wonderful flight attendants tells us to just start boarding. About 10 of us board, including me and my friends, and the captain comes on and says, “due to technical difficulties we will not be flying this plane.” We unload the plane, and have to go wait on the tarmac some more. But before we are given another plane, my panic just starts to unfold and I did cry a little bit. Thankfully my friends are quite wonderful and calmed me down. After my nutty on the tarmac was over we were asked to go wait to board the plane that was next to us. So we all go over there and wait for about a half hour on the tarmac while they are cleaning and refueling the plane. Then they board us all on the plane, and about 45 minutes later the captain comes on and says, “Due to a curfew issue at this airport we will not be flying tonight.” I am beyond panicked now, and am completely livid. Then to add to the joy that is RyanAir, three planes land next to us, and they have to unboard before we can unboard. So another half an hour goes by and we are finally allowed to unboard. Our flight was originally scheduled for 10pm, and now its 12:30am. We are all incredibly angry and exhausted at this point. They give us this piece of paper explaining our rights as a passenger on a delayed flight. Now here comes the real kicker. In order for us to get our money back they have to not allow us to board. So they must have known that there was a curfew at the airport and we weren’t going to fly anyway. But to save themselves money they let us board, and let us sit on the plane. Thankfully there was a hotel a the airport and we were given a free room, but not till 1:30 in the morning. They also told us that our rescheduled flight would be for 7:45 and we would need to be there at 5:15am. So we slept in our nice hotel room, got up bright and early, and went to go wait in line. However the wonderful people of RyanAir didn’t start checking us in until 6:15, an hour after they said they would. Don’t worry I made some comments. We finally got to board our plane and took off a little late, but we made it to London with no problems. Then just to end our wonderful flight experience with Ryan Air we had to wait to unboard because another plane had to unboard before us. A few days later we got an email saying that because of extraordinary circumstances we would not be reimbursed. But I haven’t had the chance to give them a ring yet.
But other than that whole debacle we had so much fun and a great time in Amsterdam! The Venice of the North didn’t let us down!
So I’ll just briefly sum up last week since I didn’t really have a chance to post about last week. It was week 2 of my internship and it was a fun week! I spent most of the days in the office, and only had to go to one session. I worked on a lot of different things! I wrote articles for their website, I helped update some of their social media outlets, I imputed names into the databases, and I started a project for a bid that they are working on. The bid is to get funding to set up sports sessions in one of the more deprived areas of the city. It’s cool to work on a project this big and to get a feel for how much research a project can entail.
Then the coolest part of the week (not including the weekend) was that we got to see Phantom of the Opera in the West End (the equivalent to the US’s Broadway). I’ve never seen the show and was really excited! The show was amazing in every aspect. The singing was beautiful, although at some points it was difficult to understand what was going on because of their accents. But everyone’s voice was just so beautiful. The set just kept surprising me because they kept adding more and more pieces to it. Or when the scene changed the set would also change to another massive backdrop, or lights, or candles that appeared out of the ground. The boat that the Phantom rides to get to his lair just seemed to seamlessly float on the stage. The chandler was exquisite as well! The way it dropped down from the ceiling and went back up was just so cool and quite surprising. I didn’t know they could lift something that big all the way up to the ceiling above the audience. At one point a gargoyle statue that was positioned on the top of the stage dropped down during one of the scenes and as soon as the main characters existed, the Phantom appeared out of it! The whole show was just amazing and I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to see it. Next post, Amsterdam with many pictures to follow!
Well my first week of my internship has flown by! I’m working for a company called the London Sports Trust. It’s a very small company with only four full time employees. The company provides sports sessions for kids in schools. It’s not geared toward under privileged children, but really towards any children in any age group. While I’m there I’m going to be working on corporate sponsors and trying to find some that will be willing to work with and sponsor the company. I’m working on a list of about 100 corporations that are either local or have local branches. All I’ve done so far the first week is go through that list and see if they would be a good fit with the London Sports Trust or not. I’ve also gone on two sessions which is when I go help with the kids. My first session was with a very young group about 5 or 6 years in age, and my second session was with kids who were 10 or 11. There are other coaches at the sessions that have been working with the kids for a few years, so I let them really handle the activities. I’m basically just there to make sure none of the kids run into the street or something. But it’s a nice alternative to being in the office all day. Besides being at my internship, we had a fun weekend!
On Thursday night we decided to do something crazy and go an adventure to the White Cliffs of Dover! So we decided to hop on the midnight bus to Dover and got there around 2am. It was pitch black and we needed to find the trail to the cliffs so we walked around for a bit and finally saw a sign. Now when I say “trail” I really just mean a paved road that lead up to the cliffs. The trail didn’t really turn into a trail until we got the cliffs. Once we finally made it up there it was still very dark, but as we looked out over the channel we could see France and it was so beautiful! We found a good spot to sit and waited for the sunrise. We all got a little ancy after a bit and decided to walk around the trails some more. As we were walking around the trails we actually ran into the other group of students that had gone as well! They were on the very edge, and we all decided to just sit them with and wait for the sunrise. By this time it was 3:30 in the morning and we are feeling pretty tired. We found an old barricade and just sat for awhile. Finally it started to get brighter out and the sun began to rise. It was just so beautiful to see the White Cliffs sparkle off the channel. It was such an amazing experience and so much fun! Even though I got basically no sleep, it was totally and completely worth it! That night we were all still pretty tired so we just took it easy, grabbed some wine, and headed for a relaxing evening in Kensington Park. Then at around 9:30pm, I was tired that I just headed back home and went straight to bed.
On Saturday it was a pretty relaxing day as well. I didn’t wake up until late, and then took a nice run around the park. I did some errands around High Street Kensington, and then came back and worked on some school work. Afterwards I met up with my friend John, and my roommate Marielle and we headed over to gay pride in London. It was so crowded there! But the list of performers was pretty amazing. I did get to see Ian McKellen and Conchita. If you don’t know who Conchita is look her up because she has made a huge impact here in Europe! After a few performers, we decided to bounce and have some dinner in Chinatown. We went to this great dumpling place! Then later that night we went to one of our favorite pubs, O’Neils, for one of the girl’s birthdays! It was a very fun night with lots of dancing!
Yesterday was also a low key day since we’re all still recovering from the Cliffs of Dover trip. But we woke up quite late and then decided to check out a book store called Treadwells. It’s a very odd bookstore and is known for its strangeness. The books are all about witches, witchcraft, ancient Egypt, voodoo, spells, and other strange things like that. It’s quite small, but it did have some cool things! Next we bopped around that area of London for a bit and then headed on back. Unfortunately we have some big essays to do so we had to work on those for most of the night. But we got a little restless and decided to talk a nice stroll around Kensington park for a bit. Then we went to one of our favorite little restaurants called Nandos and had some dinner. Then came back to do some more homework. Overall a pretty relaxing weekend! Up next week 2 of my internship!!
So since my last post was quite a long time ago I’m just going to start with this past weekend which was Switzerland! On Friday morning we had class, and then hopped on the tube, to get the coach bus, to get the plane. It was quite a journey but we did eventually make it to the airport. Our plane was delayed by a few minutes which gave me some more time to freak out over the flight. But the flight was only an hour so it actually wasn’t too bad. Thankfully for me my roommate Marielle knows pretty much the entirety of Bridesmaids (the movie) and quoted all of the airplane scene. Once we landed in Basel we caught the bus, to the train to Zurich, to the taxi to the hostel. It was slightly confusing since we were arriving around 12:30 in the morning. But once we got to our hostel we all just made our beds and went to sleep.
The next morning we had an early rise for breakfast and “planned out” our day. By “planned out” I mean we decided to hop on the tram lines and just go near the water and see what the day brings us. We got off right near the water and there was a little antique market where we walked around for a bit. Then we headed over to this giant boat and bought a ticket for a boat cruise around the lake. It was so spectacular to see Zurich from the water. The water is crystal clear and a beautiful aqua color. Pretty much exactly what water should look like (there are a ton of pictures which I have included below). After our boat cruise we hopped off and decided to explore some of the old city of Zurich. We walked along the river and popped in and out of a few churches. The cool thing about these churches was that the stained glass was created specially for each church. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of them, but don’t worry I snagged a few! Then we walked into a protest against what we think was the government of Zurich. They hung this giant banner from an old crane in the middle of the city and marched around the city. Next we found this outlook on top of a hill and sat and decided what we wanted to do next. After a little discussion we decided that we were going to hike up the mountain called Uetliberg. Everyone we talked to about it said that it was an easy climb and basically a hill. Well let me tell you, it was not a “hill.” We took the tram to the last stop and found a map of the mountain. We ran into these three guys who were also looking for the trail. I read the map and found the trail which was the opposite way those guys were going. So we decided to follow the trail and end up at the summit. Little did we know that Zurich doesn’t like to label their trails. So we ended up just picking trails that were headed upwards. Eventually we got to the point on the mountain where there were steps and we were just climbing literally hand over foot (at this point I was having flashbacks to Yellowstone and the trail of tears). Finally we reached the summit which actually only took us about an hour, so it wasn’t even that bad. It was such a gorgeous view of all of Zurich and since it was a relatively clear day we could even make out the Alps! Once we were at the top we were the only ones who were sweaty and gross. Apparently the locals know the right trail to climb which doesn’t go straight up the mountain. We also ran into that group of guys who were dressed in jeans and sandals, and they didn’t have a drop of sweat on them. So if you ever decide to go hiking in Zurich make sure you find a map that you can bring along with you. Once we were at the top there was a tower you could climb to get even better views! There was even a wedding going on at the top. It was such a perfect day! On the way down we thought we had found the right path, but thanks to the lack of signage we ended up on the opposite side of the mountain. Thankfully however, Zurich does have quite a few tram lines, so we just picked one up from there and headed back to our second hotel for the night. This hotel was so cute! It was above a funky coffee house/bar, and the room was perfect! We all showered, changed and headed out for the night. By this time it was around 10pm and we were all starving! We took the tram back down to the river and found a lovely restaurant right by the water. The food was delicious, and it was the perfect way to end a perfect day. We walked around for a little bit longer, but had to catch the tram before it closed for the night.
The next day was again beautiful weather! We decided that we wanted to go for a swim, so we walked down to the lake and rented a paddle boat. We went out towards the middle and all jumped in! So I can say that I’ve gone swimming in lake Zurich! The water was a beautiful temperature and like I said before was crystal clear and beautifully blue! After about an hour of relaxing and sunbathing on the lake, we headed back to meet up with Marielle’s brother who lives and plays baseball in Zurich (yep I didn’t know they had baseball in Switzerland either). We caught up with him and he showed us around. Unfortunately most places on Sundays are closed so we couldn’t do too much shopping or chocolate eating. Her brother then took us to this really cool spot where you can jump in the river and just float down it. It was a beautiful day so we all hopped in again and floated along the river! It was just perfect. Next we sat by the river and drank a mojito and then headed back to our hotel to grab our things and say goodbye to beautiful Zurich.But don’t worry I did buy some truffles and ate them all! I had to get some Swiss chocolate before I left! Honestly Zurich is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to, and hopefully one day I can go back.
this is the “hill” we climbed
the water is just beautiful!
hand over foot, I wasn’t kidding
but the view was totally worth it
THE ALPS!!
first night in the hostel!
stained glass
stained glass
this guy was my favorite
swiss chocolate
more swiss chocolate
even more swiss chocolate
proof that I was in the water!
we finally made it!
this isn’t from Zurich, but from the last England match. I just thought it was a cute picture of us!
Hello everyone! I apologize I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile, but I wanted you all to know that I am having a wonderful, wonderful time! Switzerland was amazing and so beautiful! Pictures and an actual post will come shortly. My internship is definitely interesting. I’m adjusting to working on a smaller scale, but its fun so far and the people I work with are great! Tonight we are heading out to the cliffs of Dover to watch the sunrise! Hopefully the rain stops so we can actually see it! (unlike that time we hiked up that mountain at 5am to watch the sunrise and it was completed socked in with clouds) But anyway, a real post will come shortly! Hopefully tomorrow! Hope all is well back in the States! Also yay USA for advancing in the World Cup!!!! Also funny story, so when the England team came home last night after a horrible performance in the world cup they were greeted by one fan. Yep that’s right, one single fan standing and waiting. Shows you how seriously they take their football over here! I’ve included a few pictures of Switzerland just to give you a preview!
(yummy crepe!)
Katie Navarino 