Alrighty, like I promised, I went up to Edinburgh (that's in Scotland) this past weekend. And, as I roomed and roamed with my roommates, Alana and Lyndsey, it was eventful to say the least. To start things off, Alana and I thought the bus pulled out at 9 on Friday, not 8, so we were rushing around after our showers to finish packing and grab some random food for breakfast. So we rush downstairs like 10 minutes before the bus is supposed to leave and everyone going on the trip is still chilling in the lounge next to the reception area. So we go find Lyndsey and she has no idea what's going on so we just sit on the ground and wait and eat some pop tarts (thanks parents!). Heather, who's the staff member that was going on the trip with us finally comes in and tells us that the bus had mechanical problems and the driver had to go back and get a new one, so it might be awhile, but don't go anywhere because we want to be ready to go whenever he gets here. So what do we do but take turns going to the bathroom and room for stuff we forgot (somehow I never remembered that I had forgotten my brush, and they never realized they forgot converters. but between the three of us everything was covered). The bus finally pulls up in the Front Circle around 9, just when we had originally thought we were going to be leaving. So we could've actually finished getting ready instead of rushing around! Once we got on the bus the driver explained to us what had happened and why it took so long, apparently they have to do a 20 minute systems check on a bus before they take it out, so he had to do that twice. But we were soon on the road. We stopped twice on the way to Edinburgh, once at a truck stop to eat our packed lunches from the Refectory, and once at the Scottish border for pictures, which was cool, but I just wanted to get there. We finally got to the hotel around 4.
Once we checked in and dropped our stuff off in our room the three of us went out onto Princes St., where our hotel is, to look in the shops and such. As soon as we got into H&M and started looking around, we hear an alarm going off! At first we thought it was the security at the door, because the workers were still checking people out, but it turned out that it was the fire alarm and we had to go down some back stairs! Seriously, we started laughing because it would just be our luck with all the fire alarms Alana and I have had back at UE and all the ones that we have here at Harlaxton. So H&M shopping didn't happen, but much of the other street did. We stopped and got dinner at this nice Italian place right off of Princes St., which had some good carbonara. I had forgotten that I loved that sauce before coming here! Then it was back to our hotel to get ready for the rest of the night.
That night we went on a Literary Pub Tour. It was really neat! We started at this pub called the Beehive Inn, where we got a drink and took it up to a private room. They started it off there, with one guy standing up and talking and telling us about the dirty side of the Edinburgh authors (Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis-Stevenson, among others) when another person started arguing with him about how he should be telling us more facts and such! He was another actor/guide and so he would tell us that part while the other would tell us the other part. So it was a really cool back and forth between the two of them, each telling us a different side to the story and both quoting different authors at various times. That wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I'm glad they did it that way! It made it a lot more interesting and fun! We went to three pubs and one square during the course of 2 hours. The pub that we ended at was really pretty on the inside! We stayed there after the tour ended and got another drink, which we had to drink standing up near the fireplace because it was so crowded! The tour started out on Grassmarket, but it ended right behind Princes St., so it was really easy to get back to our hotel. On the way back we were discussing our craving for ice cream and then we walked past a McDonalds! So we went in and got a mcflurry and fries and Lyndsey got asked if she was Canadian. She's from Wisconsin, so it's close, but not right. Then we walked back to our hotel (which was right around the corner) and happily ate those before going to bed.
We got up bright and early on Saturday and were ready by the time breakfast started at 8. After stuffing ourselves with free food, we got our coats and such on and went down to the Royal Mile, where lots of smaller shops and pubs are, with Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace at either end of it. Alana and I wanted to go on the Scotch Whisky Experience tour, but it wasn't open to buy tickets yet, so we decided to go up to the castle first. It's on top of this extinct volcano, so you get a really awesome view of the town and the estuary (mouth) of the river that flows by it. We actually saw a lot of Harlaxton people there, so we went in with a few of them. While we were waiting for it to open, we saw a lot of people in t-shirts, a bear, and a bagpipe player marching down from the castle. It seemed to be a promo of some kind. They did multiple takes. We just wanted them to be done so we could go into the castle! The castle was expensive to get in, but I think it was worth it. Because this castle is huge! We took a tour of it, so we got some facts that weren't on signs and such around. Like the fact that the castle had 6 gates (7 if you count the one at the very top to the royal apartments) and it was never taken by force! He did mention about how they could be starved out, but there was lots of farmland inside the walls, so it would take at least 2 years to do that. And at one point in time the English had gotten the castle, so the Scots climbed the walls at night during the winter and (supposedly) 300 Scots killed 3,000 English soldiers! Once the Scots got the castle back they burned all the buildings (which were made of wood at that time) so that the English wouldn't be tempted to try to come and take it back. The oldest building in Edinburgh is located here, which is St. Margaret's Chapel, built in the 11th century by her son. She had been a queen and once he became king after she and her husband died he built it in her honor. She became a saint in the 12th century, which is why it's known today as St. Margaret's Chapel. It's tiny! They said that the limit is 20 people in there but I doubt that many people could actually fit in there! At the top of the castle are old royal apartments and great hall, some of which were more elaborate than others. There was also the Scot Crown Jewels, which were very pretty, and the Stone of Destiny, which is this rock that the first Scot king was crowned on and all since were crowned on until the English king Edward I took it as a prize of war and had a coronation throne made with a slot for it to go into. Since then all English/United Kingdom monarchs have been crowned on this stone. Queen Elizabeth II finally gave it back to Scotland in the 1990s, but it has to come back to Westminster for every coronation, though it will go back to Scotland within 5 days of the coronation. There's also the Scottish National Memorial up there, which was started after the Great War (1914-18) and has a book in it with every name of Scots who died in active duty in it. This has continued, so every Scot that had died in active duty since 1914 has been written down in a special book just for that purpose. It was really cool to see because the official book is kept in a special silver box at the very highest point of the volcano, you can actually see it poking through the floor, and they then break it up into the different parts of the military, with books there as well that you can look through. The last thing that starts up there is the Prisons of War exhibit. Basically it's the castle's prisons, which has housed prisoners from all wars they've been involved in, including Americans because of the U.S. Revolution! So that was interesting to look around at. The castle is also headquarters for some Scot military and there's a museum there for the calvary as well. There's also a War Museum for all the wars Scotland has been involved in. Lastly, there's two fire arms worth noting. One is this ginormous cannon that could shoot this really heavy rock 2 miles! the cannon ball is way bigger than our heads. The other one is a huge gun that is shot every day at 1.
So after we spent hours in the castle, we went back down to the Scotch Whisky Experience and Alana and I were able to go on the tour that was just now starting! It started with a ride in a whisky barrel that explained how whisky was made. Then we all went into a room while someone (an American, which really unnerved me for some reason) told us about the 4 different whisky regions of Scotland. Then we got to taste one. I tried a Highlands region and Alana tried a blend. Even with water added to it it was WAY too strong for me! We got to keep the glasses though, which is really cool. Especially since they're made so that if the drink falls over, none of the whisky falls out! (and yes, I did try this when we got back to the room later with water, it's true) We did the actual tasting in this collection room. There are well over 3,000 bottles of whisky there, making it the largest collection in the world, and none have been opened! There's some really funny bottles too, like golf balls and an entire chess set (the whisky's in the pieces).
We met up with Lyndsey after the tour, who had been wandering around the Royal Mile, and it was off to find lunch. We settled for Pizza Hut because we were all really hungry and craving pizza and it was cheap. It satisfied our hunger and we went off to look around in shops and make our way to the other end of the Royal Mile. I picked up a present for Mindy in one of the shops (and I had picked up a key chain for me back at the castle). When we got to Holyrood Palace at the other end of the Royal Mile, we didn't end up going in because not everyone wanted to spend the money to do so. So we just took pictures from outside the gate. I would've liked to go in because it's the Queen's official residence when she's in Scotland, but I understand about not wanting to spend money.
On the way back up Lyndsey told us that her stomach was hurting her, she thought from the pizza (later we decided it was probably a bug), so we headed back to the hotel for a bit. But not before we walked past the Balmoral where J.K. Rowling finished writing the last Harry Potter book ever, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I got a picture in front of it! (it's right across the street from our hotel!) Because of her stomach, we didn't get to go to the National Museum, go see Greyfriars Bobby, or go search for The Elephant Room, which is the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (book 1) but that's ok. We still had fun. After resting awhile she was feeling better, so we went out and did a little more shopping, actually getting to look around in H&M, where I bought 2 shirts. Then she started to feel bad again, so Alana and I just got some hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin at Costa (a chain cafe) since we weren't that hungry at the time and we went back to our room. Around about 9, we all got hungry, so we went out to a grocery store and got some cheese biscuits (crackers everybody), bread, peanut butter, and drinks (well for 2 of us) and took it back to the room and had a lot of fun eating and talking and watching Juno.
The next morning we were up nice and early again because breakfast started at 8 and the bus left at 9. We almost left without 2 people because they weren't back from climbing Arthur's Seat yet, even though they had left to do that at 6 in the morning! But right as we were getting ready to pull out, they came running up the street, so we waited for them to grab their bags and check out before leaving. Apparently they basically ran all the way from the top of the mound across town to the hotel. Once we left it was a while before another stop at the English-Scottish border where Heather had us take a group photo and then back on the bus to Hadrian's Wall and one of the fortresses. They're ruins now, but it was still cool to see all of the stuff out in the middle of nowhere and get to climb on stuff from way back to at least the 800s. After Hadrian's Wall it was back on the bus to Durham, where we stopped for an hour for lunch. We just got some chicken nuggets and chips (fries) at a shop on the square. Unfortunately since we were crunched for time we didn't get to go see Durham Cathedral (where some Harry Potter scenes were filmed; part of the castle) so someone will have to take me back there. Then it was a 3 hour bus ride back to Harlaxton, where we made it back just in time for the end of dinner.
Ok, I think that's it. This upcoming weekend I'm not planning on going anywhere, so unless something interesting happens the next thing you'll be reading about is my trip to Ireland!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Lincoln:...Maybe Hermione Read the Book?
Ok, so I lied. I forgot that we were going on a British Studies Field Trip to Lincoln before Edinburgh, so you get to read about that first! And yes, the ENTIRE College went on this field trip. There's only like 170 of us or something, so the only needed 3 coaches to get us there. (granted, one was a double-decker.) So we left after breakfast and got there around 10. They had split us off into four different large groups, then those groups into three smaller groups, all alphabetically. So I ended up in group D1 with fellow history major, Jillian. (we have the same last name) Each of the big groups did something different and the smaller groups were just to make it more manageable for tours and such.
The first thing we did was walk around Lincoln with one of our professors, looking at all the Roman remains/ruins. Our professor was Welsh, who is my Marketing professor. He started out by telling us about the four different types of acrchitecture on the Cathedral, as they added on to it or whatever. After that we passed by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's statue (because he was from Lincolnshire). Then it was on to Roman stuff. The first thing we were supposed to look at was actually all covered up with tarps and such! But it was essentially what was left of one of the towers of one of the main gates into their fortress/town. The ground level has actually risen about 8-10 feet since they got there in about 50 a.d., so some of this stuff must have been absolutely massive! We also got to see some old walls and what they think was a water well/tower, since it's near where the Roman Baths were. Another gate/archway. And one wall that remains of their main meeting place, which was originally 3 stories high I think. While it was kinda cool to see this stuff, it really just looked like a bunch of old stones to me. The history is just to old there to hold my interest.
After that we had the time that was the "self-guided" part, which they were hoping you would've done the walking tour that they gave you. If it hadn't been so cold and windy and rainy and miserable I would've been much more inclined to do it. As would the people I was with I'm sure, considering it was 4 history majors. But seeing what the weather was like, we decided to pop in and out of stores instead. We went into this chocolate and sweet (candy) shop. I was looking for this one kind of sweet that Chloe had let me try and it was really good, but I didn't see it there. I did see some really cute little chocolate mice though, so I bought those instead. This free time also coincided with our lunch hour, so some of us were eating out of our lunch that we had picked up in the Refectory (cafeteria) before we left while we were walking. We eventually decided to to into a little tea room though because we wanted to warm up. Most of us just got hot chocolate, which was really good, but Jessica got tea and both of us got toasted cheese scones, which were also very good. We stayed in there awhile before going back out into the weather. By that time it was close to the time we needed to meet and head to the next place on our list, so we meandered back that way.
Our next place was Lincoln Castle. There we had a castle tour guide show our group around. This was probably my favorite part of the day. I just love castles! The castle was originally built by the Normans after their conquest (battle: 1066, castle:1068ish). It was a proper castle, not like Clifford's Tower in York. There's a lot of more (for them) recent history that's really interesting. There used to be a prison inside the castle walls, and they used both the grounds inside and outside, and the top of one of the castle towers, for hanging people. The reason they moved the gallows to the top of the tower was so that the people coming to watch wouldn't interfere with the execution. The main inside area of the castle is currently courtrooms, so we didn't get to go in and look around. We did get to go into the prison though, which was cool. They still have some of the cells set up and they still have the original chapel that is really the only one like it in the world. There's one in someplace like Tanzania I think the tour guide said, but it's a reconstruction of the one that burnt down there, so he says it doesn't really count. This set up was actually taken from an American system. The prisoners each had their own room and were only allowed out for 2 hours a day, one for exercise and one for chapel. Both inside and out they weren't allowed to speak to anyone unless one of the guards/workers spoke to them. So the chapel was set up were everyone had individual cubicles that they went in and the door was shut behind them. The walls and doors were high enough that the prisoners couldn't see each other, only the preacher in the pulpit. Most of the prisoners in Lincoln were either waiting for sentencing or serving out a short-term punishment. This prison system was tested in a London prison first, while Lincoln was getting their set up for it, and it was found out that some 15% of prisoners went crazy from the isolation, so the idea was abandoned and a new prison was built in Lincoln about a mile away from this one before they could change everything back, so the chapel and everything stayed as it was. We also went up to the keep in the castle. It's a stone structure on a high, steep mound and would've been where the defenders would have gone if all three gates into the castle had been breached by the attackers (they never were the two times it was attacked). The steps were originally wooden, so the last defender up would set fire to the steps so the attackers couldn't reach them. The mound was also kept free of growth and covered with clay, which was doused with water from the well at the top to make it harder for the attackers to climb the already steep hill. At the top in the keep would have been where the king or lord had lived during Norman times. In the more recent history that he was telling us, it was used as a burial ground for those who died in prison or were executed. There were two stories that he told us about those executed, one where a woman was hanged for killing her husband (she was innocent. her boarder had done it so he could be with her and confessed on his deathbed. they just pardoned her in 2000, well over 100 years after her death) and a man who was a killed his wife and was the first long-drop hanging in the world (the one with the trap door underneath their feet where the fall was long enough to break their neck and kill them faster, as opposed to the traditional short-drop where they kick a stool from underneath your feet and you were slowly strangled). I find all these stories interesting.
After that was the last stop on the trip, which was Lincoln Cathedral. It's massive! And we actually were allowed to take pictures inside, so that was nice. One of the Assistant Deans, Heather, was the one who gave my group the tour here. It was strange hearing all the stuff from an American for some reason. Anyways, we learned about the history and how all the statues had their heads taken off (many were later put back on in the Victorian Era, though not always how they were originally. for example, the 12 apostles turned into important Lincoln Cathedral bishops). All of the paint on the stone carvings and decorations were taken off too, though you can still see the remnants of some of it in flowers and such. Lincoln Cathedral became a pilgrimage site after miracles were said to occur after touching a murdered boy's body (it was a famous case at the time because he went missing for awhile first), so he was moved into the cathedral. Becoming a pilgrimage site invigorated the Lincoln economy (like tourism does). There are also several other famous people buried there, including a mistress-turned-wife of a noble, a bishop, and a queen (only the innards, the rest of her is in Westminster with all the other kings and queens). It is all very ornate, with lots of carvings and pretty stained glass windows. There's also the Lincoln Imp. He's this stone carving way up on one of the stone poles in the cathedral. The legend is that the devil had him sneak in here and he got stuck and turned to stone. But it was probably just a stonemason having some fun. The last thing we saw in here was the Chapter House, where administrative things took place, where they think parliament was held when King Edward I was in Lincoln, and where they think that Edward I gave his son (Edward, to be the II) the title Prince of Wales (he was the first Prince of Wales and heir-apparent). Also, this is where part of the DaVinci Code was filmed! If I remember correctly, it's where Robert opens up the little capsule or something, right before the Sir guy comes in and eventually gets arrested. But I'll have to watch the movie again to be sure. Which I want to do now! Maybe Hermione read the book?
After that, Jillian and another girl in our group went into the little cafe in the cathedral, where I bought another hot chocolate in an attempt to warm up. We passed our time there until it was time to get back on the buses and go back to Harlaxton, just in time for dinner.
Ok, Edinburgh next time!
The first thing we did was walk around Lincoln with one of our professors, looking at all the Roman remains/ruins. Our professor was Welsh, who is my Marketing professor. He started out by telling us about the four different types of acrchitecture on the Cathedral, as they added on to it or whatever. After that we passed by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's statue (because he was from Lincolnshire). Then it was on to Roman stuff. The first thing we were supposed to look at was actually all covered up with tarps and such! But it was essentially what was left of one of the towers of one of the main gates into their fortress/town. The ground level has actually risen about 8-10 feet since they got there in about 50 a.d., so some of this stuff must have been absolutely massive! We also got to see some old walls and what they think was a water well/tower, since it's near where the Roman Baths were. Another gate/archway. And one wall that remains of their main meeting place, which was originally 3 stories high I think. While it was kinda cool to see this stuff, it really just looked like a bunch of old stones to me. The history is just to old there to hold my interest.
After that we had the time that was the "self-guided" part, which they were hoping you would've done the walking tour that they gave you. If it hadn't been so cold and windy and rainy and miserable I would've been much more inclined to do it. As would the people I was with I'm sure, considering it was 4 history majors. But seeing what the weather was like, we decided to pop in and out of stores instead. We went into this chocolate and sweet (candy) shop. I was looking for this one kind of sweet that Chloe had let me try and it was really good, but I didn't see it there. I did see some really cute little chocolate mice though, so I bought those instead. This free time also coincided with our lunch hour, so some of us were eating out of our lunch that we had picked up in the Refectory (cafeteria) before we left while we were walking. We eventually decided to to into a little tea room though because we wanted to warm up. Most of us just got hot chocolate, which was really good, but Jessica got tea and both of us got toasted cheese scones, which were also very good. We stayed in there awhile before going back out into the weather. By that time it was close to the time we needed to meet and head to the next place on our list, so we meandered back that way.
Our next place was Lincoln Castle. There we had a castle tour guide show our group around. This was probably my favorite part of the day. I just love castles! The castle was originally built by the Normans after their conquest (battle: 1066, castle:1068ish). It was a proper castle, not like Clifford's Tower in York. There's a lot of more (for them) recent history that's really interesting. There used to be a prison inside the castle walls, and they used both the grounds inside and outside, and the top of one of the castle towers, for hanging people. The reason they moved the gallows to the top of the tower was so that the people coming to watch wouldn't interfere with the execution. The main inside area of the castle is currently courtrooms, so we didn't get to go in and look around. We did get to go into the prison though, which was cool. They still have some of the cells set up and they still have the original chapel that is really the only one like it in the world. There's one in someplace like Tanzania I think the tour guide said, but it's a reconstruction of the one that burnt down there, so he says it doesn't really count. This set up was actually taken from an American system. The prisoners each had their own room and were only allowed out for 2 hours a day, one for exercise and one for chapel. Both inside and out they weren't allowed to speak to anyone unless one of the guards/workers spoke to them. So the chapel was set up were everyone had individual cubicles that they went in and the door was shut behind them. The walls and doors were high enough that the prisoners couldn't see each other, only the preacher in the pulpit. Most of the prisoners in Lincoln were either waiting for sentencing or serving out a short-term punishment. This prison system was tested in a London prison first, while Lincoln was getting their set up for it, and it was found out that some 15% of prisoners went crazy from the isolation, so the idea was abandoned and a new prison was built in Lincoln about a mile away from this one before they could change everything back, so the chapel and everything stayed as it was. We also went up to the keep in the castle. It's a stone structure on a high, steep mound and would've been where the defenders would have gone if all three gates into the castle had been breached by the attackers (they never were the two times it was attacked). The steps were originally wooden, so the last defender up would set fire to the steps so the attackers couldn't reach them. The mound was also kept free of growth and covered with clay, which was doused with water from the well at the top to make it harder for the attackers to climb the already steep hill. At the top in the keep would have been where the king or lord had lived during Norman times. In the more recent history that he was telling us, it was used as a burial ground for those who died in prison or were executed. There were two stories that he told us about those executed, one where a woman was hanged for killing her husband (she was innocent. her boarder had done it so he could be with her and confessed on his deathbed. they just pardoned her in 2000, well over 100 years after her death) and a man who was a killed his wife and was the first long-drop hanging in the world (the one with the trap door underneath their feet where the fall was long enough to break their neck and kill them faster, as opposed to the traditional short-drop where they kick a stool from underneath your feet and you were slowly strangled). I find all these stories interesting.
After that was the last stop on the trip, which was Lincoln Cathedral. It's massive! And we actually were allowed to take pictures inside, so that was nice. One of the Assistant Deans, Heather, was the one who gave my group the tour here. It was strange hearing all the stuff from an American for some reason. Anyways, we learned about the history and how all the statues had their heads taken off (many were later put back on in the Victorian Era, though not always how they were originally. for example, the 12 apostles turned into important Lincoln Cathedral bishops). All of the paint on the stone carvings and decorations were taken off too, though you can still see the remnants of some of it in flowers and such. Lincoln Cathedral became a pilgrimage site after miracles were said to occur after touching a murdered boy's body (it was a famous case at the time because he went missing for awhile first), so he was moved into the cathedral. Becoming a pilgrimage site invigorated the Lincoln economy (like tourism does). There are also several other famous people buried there, including a mistress-turned-wife of a noble, a bishop, and a queen (only the innards, the rest of her is in Westminster with all the other kings and queens). It is all very ornate, with lots of carvings and pretty stained glass windows. There's also the Lincoln Imp. He's this stone carving way up on one of the stone poles in the cathedral. The legend is that the devil had him sneak in here and he got stuck and turned to stone. But it was probably just a stonemason having some fun. The last thing we saw in here was the Chapter House, where administrative things took place, where they think parliament was held when King Edward I was in Lincoln, and where they think that Edward I gave his son (Edward, to be the II) the title Prince of Wales (he was the first Prince of Wales and heir-apparent). Also, this is where part of the DaVinci Code was filmed! If I remember correctly, it's where Robert opens up the little capsule or something, right before the Sir guy comes in and eventually gets arrested. But I'll have to watch the movie again to be sure. Which I want to do now! Maybe Hermione read the book?
After that, Jillian and another girl in our group went into the little cafe in the cathedral, where I bought another hot chocolate in an attempt to warm up. We passed our time there until it was time to get back on the buses and go back to Harlaxton, just in time for dinner.
Ok, Edinburgh next time!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
York: All I've Got is Hagrid and Harry
So yesterday three of my friends and I went to York, which was absolutely amazing! We had to leave at half seven (7:30), so we had a cab coming to pick us up at 7, that way we would have plenty of time to get there and get our tickets and everything. As I came down the stairs I met the security guard and after asking where we were going and what we were doing, he let all of us into the Refectory to get food! It was so nice of him! So we all made sandwiches and Alayna and Christine had coffee before the cab got to the manor. Once we got to the train station and picked up our tickets, Alayna and I got coffee and hot chocolate (respectively) from a Costa stand. Once on the train Chloe got tea and we all ate our sandwiches. The train was nice. It was only the second time I'd ever been on a train and since the first one was a bullet train (in Japan) Chloe said it didn't count. But it was fun and an easy way to get around.
Once getting off the train we started walking towards the city center. Chloe had been there before so she knew where to go and what some things were. There's an old wall (I think Roman? Either that or Norman) that originally went around the whole city (it doesn't now) and you can walk on it, so up we went to do that. It went over the roads too, so besides being really cool that we actually got to walk on something that old, we also got to skip having to wait for traffic lights!
The first thing we did was go to York Minster and have a look around. The Church was open, but there weren't any workers in it, so we must have gotten there sometime after a service and before it officially opened for tourists so we got in for free. It was really neat though. There weren't as many dead people as Westminster, but we still got to see the tombs of a dead king and queen and their son! Also, none of the saint's statues had any heads. This is because during the Reformation they had all of the statue's heads either defaced or taken off because it was seen as idolatry when you prayed to the statue. This was during Henry VII's reign, just to put a reference point on it. So that was really cool to see, because there weren't any signs explaining this and I already knew the significance of it, so I could explain it to everyone else. They were also doing some restoration to the stained glass and stonework, so they had pictures (and some of the glass) laid out with explanations of what was going on in each pane. Which was really helpful because it was hard to make out or understand whats going on. They also had some examples of how the restoration was done with the stones, so it was cool to see how they would go about doing that.
A lot of the day was spent wandering around and going into shops, which was actually a lot of fun, and that's what we started to do after York Minster. First we went into another Cath Kidston store because Chloe wanted to get some fabric that was on sale. Then we went to this cute teddy bear shop that had everything from the cheaper bears and animal to the really expensive handmade ones. They were really nice! Right next store to that was a Peter Rabbit store! I was so excited because I remembered some of that stuff from when I was little. I ended up buying some coasters, each with either a story or a character that I remembered.
After that we walked around a bit more, looking inside a church that I thought was this church that I had researched that was unrestored, which would've been really cool to see, but it wasn't. Then we decided to have a real tea in a pretty famous tea house in York called Betty's. We had to wait a couple of minutes to get seated, but once we did it was definitely worth it. The three of them all had tea and scones, but (seeing as I don't really like tea much) I had hot chocolate, a toasted scone, and a croissant, all of which were absolutely amazing! This was about lunchtime, so it filled us up enough to pretty much last until dinner. Christine and I were tempted to buy some of Betty's chocolate truffles, but we managed to refrain. Everything looked so good though!
After that it was a bit more shopping (I bought my first gift for people back home!) and we walked out to Clifford's Tower, which is this castle (not too big) from Norman times up on top of a big, steep, man-made hill. This cost us 3 pounds, but I think it was worth it to go into a castle that old! We got to go up to the top and walk around, which I thought was really cool because it gave an awesome view of York, even though I wasn't particularly fond of the spiral stairs. That was about the time that my camera decided to die because apparently it didn't charge all the way up like it was supposed to before I left, so the rest of the day's pictures are on other people's cameras, mainly Chloe's. It was really cool to just be on something that old that had so much history.
After that it was off to do some more shopping and find Christine some new shoes! Her boot zipper had completely broken and the boot was currently being held up by a rubber band. Luckily for her, she found some that she liked in the first shop we looked in. I also found a pair of military type boots that I likes (I'd been wanting some but I didn't really like the styles as much in the States as here) and a cheap belt that was on sale that I also needed so I wouldn't have to keep pulling up my pants there. We didn't really have anywhere else we wanted to go, so we just wandered into shops and such, from cute little ones to the more department store or chain ones, passing the time until we needed to go meet our train at 5:25. While doing this, I found a bag that I absolutely loved from an English company, Radley, that's one of those well-made, more expensive lines. They're mark is a little Scotty dog and they put it somewhere on all of their products. The purse is nice and big and on sale. And, once converted into dollars, is the most expensive purse I've ever bought. I think it's worth it though. I love it and it's something that I wouldn't be able to find back home.
Back in the train station, Chloe told us that she had found out that the bridge over the tracks to get to other platforms was the one used in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when Hagrid gave Harry his ticket! So of course Alayna and I had to take a picture of it (well using Alayna's camera) and pose on it. She was Harry and I was Hagrid, so it made for a really funny photo! We also found out that, for one week in February, the Hogwart's Express is going to be in York! So she's not completely convinced yet, but I'm totally willing to skip a day of classes in order to go see that! Because there'll be other stuff there too, not just the train! Now it's just the convincing on my part.
Once we got back to Grantham we walked into town and had dinner at a pub called Wetherspoons, closer to Chloe's house. The food was really good! And cheap! It was probably one of the best carbonara's I've had and that and my drink cost less than 8 pounds. We all tried different ciders with dinner. Mine was Savannah Dry, a South African cider, and it was really quite good! I got used to the bubbly after a bit.
After dinner we went back to Chloe's and called a cab to come take us back to the manor. While we waited we watched an episode of Miranda, which is a hilarious British comedy.
Next week I'm going to Edinburgh, so look out for a post on that!
Once getting off the train we started walking towards the city center. Chloe had been there before so she knew where to go and what some things were. There's an old wall (I think Roman? Either that or Norman) that originally went around the whole city (it doesn't now) and you can walk on it, so up we went to do that. It went over the roads too, so besides being really cool that we actually got to walk on something that old, we also got to skip having to wait for traffic lights!
The first thing we did was go to York Minster and have a look around. The Church was open, but there weren't any workers in it, so we must have gotten there sometime after a service and before it officially opened for tourists so we got in for free. It was really neat though. There weren't as many dead people as Westminster, but we still got to see the tombs of a dead king and queen and their son! Also, none of the saint's statues had any heads. This is because during the Reformation they had all of the statue's heads either defaced or taken off because it was seen as idolatry when you prayed to the statue. This was during Henry VII's reign, just to put a reference point on it. So that was really cool to see, because there weren't any signs explaining this and I already knew the significance of it, so I could explain it to everyone else. They were also doing some restoration to the stained glass and stonework, so they had pictures (and some of the glass) laid out with explanations of what was going on in each pane. Which was really helpful because it was hard to make out or understand whats going on. They also had some examples of how the restoration was done with the stones, so it was cool to see how they would go about doing that.
A lot of the day was spent wandering around and going into shops, which was actually a lot of fun, and that's what we started to do after York Minster. First we went into another Cath Kidston store because Chloe wanted to get some fabric that was on sale. Then we went to this cute teddy bear shop that had everything from the cheaper bears and animal to the really expensive handmade ones. They were really nice! Right next store to that was a Peter Rabbit store! I was so excited because I remembered some of that stuff from when I was little. I ended up buying some coasters, each with either a story or a character that I remembered.
After that we walked around a bit more, looking inside a church that I thought was this church that I had researched that was unrestored, which would've been really cool to see, but it wasn't. Then we decided to have a real tea in a pretty famous tea house in York called Betty's. We had to wait a couple of minutes to get seated, but once we did it was definitely worth it. The three of them all had tea and scones, but (seeing as I don't really like tea much) I had hot chocolate, a toasted scone, and a croissant, all of which were absolutely amazing! This was about lunchtime, so it filled us up enough to pretty much last until dinner. Christine and I were tempted to buy some of Betty's chocolate truffles, but we managed to refrain. Everything looked so good though!
After that it was a bit more shopping (I bought my first gift for people back home!) and we walked out to Clifford's Tower, which is this castle (not too big) from Norman times up on top of a big, steep, man-made hill. This cost us 3 pounds, but I think it was worth it to go into a castle that old! We got to go up to the top and walk around, which I thought was really cool because it gave an awesome view of York, even though I wasn't particularly fond of the spiral stairs. That was about the time that my camera decided to die because apparently it didn't charge all the way up like it was supposed to before I left, so the rest of the day's pictures are on other people's cameras, mainly Chloe's. It was really cool to just be on something that old that had so much history.
After that it was off to do some more shopping and find Christine some new shoes! Her boot zipper had completely broken and the boot was currently being held up by a rubber band. Luckily for her, she found some that she liked in the first shop we looked in. I also found a pair of military type boots that I likes (I'd been wanting some but I didn't really like the styles as much in the States as here) and a cheap belt that was on sale that I also needed so I wouldn't have to keep pulling up my pants there. We didn't really have anywhere else we wanted to go, so we just wandered into shops and such, from cute little ones to the more department store or chain ones, passing the time until we needed to go meet our train at 5:25. While doing this, I found a bag that I absolutely loved from an English company, Radley, that's one of those well-made, more expensive lines. They're mark is a little Scotty dog and they put it somewhere on all of their products. The purse is nice and big and on sale. And, once converted into dollars, is the most expensive purse I've ever bought. I think it's worth it though. I love it and it's something that I wouldn't be able to find back home.
Back in the train station, Chloe told us that she had found out that the bridge over the tracks to get to other platforms was the one used in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when Hagrid gave Harry his ticket! So of course Alayna and I had to take a picture of it (well using Alayna's camera) and pose on it. She was Harry and I was Hagrid, so it made for a really funny photo! We also found out that, for one week in February, the Hogwart's Express is going to be in York! So she's not completely convinced yet, but I'm totally willing to skip a day of classes in order to go see that! Because there'll be other stuff there too, not just the train! Now it's just the convincing on my part.
Once we got back to Grantham we walked into town and had dinner at a pub called Wetherspoons, closer to Chloe's house. The food was really good! And cheap! It was probably one of the best carbonara's I've had and that and my drink cost less than 8 pounds. We all tried different ciders with dinner. Mine was Savannah Dry, a South African cider, and it was really quite good! I got used to the bubbly after a bit.
After dinner we went back to Chloe's and called a cab to come take us back to the manor. While we waited we watched an episode of Miranda, which is a hilarious British comedy.
Next week I'm going to Edinburgh, so look out for a post on that!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
London: My Magical Version
Ok, so sorry this is a few days late, but I was too tired to write about my awesome trip to London this past weekend when I got back on Sunday and then my computer yelled at me last night because it was dying and I couldn't charge it because I had lent out my charger to someone thinking it had been charging for the past few hours I had been on it, but it hadn't because the outlet wasn't on! (yeah, they have little switches on their outlets to turn them on and off. it's hard to remember that.) So here I am now to tell you all about my London Adventure, which will start on Friday morning because all I chose to do was sleep when we got in on Thursday night.
Friday:
Two of my friends and I had dedicated Friday to sightseeing. So the first thing we did after breakfast was break out our map to make sure we knew where we were going and set off down the road (and through a little park, with some turns here and there) to the British Museum, which was only a few blocks away. I thought the museum was pretty cool. It's basically all of the stuff that the British took from their colonies when they had their huge empire. There was a ton of Egyptian and Greek stuff! Egypt was what we saw first. There were all the statues of different gods and such, which was cool, but what I really liked looking at was the mummies. They had a lot of them there. I think it's neat to see how the dead were treated and buried and all of that at different points in history. Some people may think it's creepy and disrespectful to have them all out on display like that, but I think that if you're dead you're dead and future people can feel free to display me if they find my body/burial interesting for some reason. After that I think we kind of saw a bit of Assyrian stuff, but I'm not entirely sure because apparently I didn't take a picture of a sign so that I would actually remember what I was taking pictures of. We also got to see a little bit of Iran, but then they wanted to look at the Greek stuff, which disappointed me because I love learning about the Middle East and we didn't get to go into that section. We didn't get to the more modern Britain/Europe stuff either, which I wanted to see. But it's only an hour away by train and the museum is free so I can always go back! The Greek area had a lot of the facing of the Parthenon and statues and things like that. Which was pretty cool, but not what I'm very interested in. The bit of British/Europe things that we got to look through was the best. Like everything else there was a lot of pottery and statues and such, but there was also things like remains from Roman Legion armor and one of the oldest British burials that they've found. The guy was all curled up like he was sleeping, it was cute! On our way out we passed some totem poles, which made me really excited and I made them stop so I could take pictures and read the signs. I hadn't heard of one of the tribes, but the other was Haida! (since I'm sure you don't understand why I was so excited over this, let me explain: we spent several weeks on that Northwest tribe in my Anthropology course last semester.) To make it even better, I was able to recognize some of the animals on it! I didn't look too closely at it, so I wasn't able to tell what moity it was but I can always look at my picture again and figure it out.
After the museum we turned down Tottingham Court Road/Charing Cross Road (the name changes right around where we were) and headed off towards the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament. There were a ton of restaurants and shops down this road! We passed the theatre where we were going to go later that night, so of course we had to take a picture of it in the daylight. We made it to Wesminster and the Houses of Parliament a few minutes before noon so we passed the time taking pictures of the building until Big Ben chimed. (for those of you who weren't aware, Big Ben is the bell, not the tower.) I wanted to take the stereotypical picture of Parliament, so off we went across the bridge so I could stand halfway over the Thames and take it. It turned out quite nicely. There happened to be a man playing the bagpipes on the bridge as well, so that was fun music to listen to while getting the shot.
A quick lunch of sandwiches followed at a little cafe we found and then it was back down the street to Westminster Abbey! This was one of the places that you had to pay to get in, but it was totally worth it. There was so much history in there, and so many dead people! You literally almost couldn't walk without stepping on someone's stone. Pictures weren't allowed in here unfortunately, but I got some very nice exterior ones! We got to see a lot of famous and royal resting places. Among them were Chaucer, Charles Darwin, various King Richards and Edwards and Henrys, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Mary I and Elizabeth I (Henry VIII's daughters). I found Mary and Elizabeth's graves particularly humorous, particularly since they were the ones that I most wanted to see. There are signs pointing the way to their graves, but when you get there, all you see is the sleeping statue of Elizabeth! Mary must just be chillin' underneath her. Our speculation is that it must have been a prime piece of real estate in the Abbey and Elizabeth was determined to get it and not be shunted off into some less important side chamber. Of course, I doubt that's true, but it was fun to come up with all the same! Westminster Abbey was were I made my first souvenir purchase of the trip. It's a lovely mug with a black and white picture of Parliament and such with a red bus. Classy, not tacky. And once I find some hot chocolate it will totally be worth it!
After Westminster Abbey we walked over to Buckingham Palace. We didn't see the changing of the guards, but we did see them moving around! And, to make it even better, the flag was flying so the Queen was in residence! I was super excited about that. Loads of pictures were taken of the palace, the square in front of it, and the surrounding gardens. Then we set off down a road to head back to our hotel so we could change before dinner and a show. We had made it part of the way back when it started pouring down rain! We had our umbrellas, but we still rushed off to the nearest underground station, especially once we looked down and saw that it was hailing too! (well, actually, it was the second nearest station, the first was closed and flooding.) There we bought our Oyster Cards (since we were going to be coming back multiple times it made more sense) and got on the trains to go back to our hotel.
By the time we left for dinner, it had stopped raining, which was good! We ate at a nice restaurant called med kitchen, which my dad payed for because he wanted me to have a nice birthday dinner. And it was very good! Then we went to go see Mousetrap, the ticket was my friends' birthday present to me. Mousetrap is a play by Agatha Christie and is in it's 59th year, making it the longest running play in history! And it was amazing. Not only was the story very good (it was Agatha Christie, obviously it was going to be good) but the acting was superb. It was like watching a movie instead of a play. Now, I can't tell you the ending because the actors came out afterwards and swore us to secrecy so that "the magic of the play could continue" and I'm not going to ruin it for any of you! Suffice it to say that it is totally worth it. Even if you buy the cheapest tickets like we did in the balcony. You could still see the actor's expressions, it was that small of a theatre.
After the play consisted of walking around our hotel for a bit, then going back in to eat some Ben & Jerry's from the vending machine and trying and failing to find some good British TV. Also for me, it included resting my feet, which had started to get blisters. I didn't know how soft the balls of my feet had gotten since I finished softball!
Saturday: Saturday was our designated shopping day. We got a little later start than we had the day before, but that was fine because we still had plenty of time to do everything we wanted to. We started out by walking to Covent Gardens. Outside it there's a lot of nice boutiques and bigger shops that we spent most of our time looking around in. Alayna bought a nice coat on sale at H&M. Our lunch was another little cafe, eat on the go, type thing and we found a bench to sit on while we ate. Which turned out to be quite a good spot! There were several street actors there who kept us entertained, including one who looked uncannily like Johnny Depp! He was dressed up as Jack Sparrow and had the mannerisms down and everything! It was pretty neat. The actual Covent Gardens seemed to be a lot of little eating places and more expensive (at least for us) boutiques, so we didn't spend much time there.
Our next stop was Portobello Road, in Notting Hill. We took the tube to get there, because it is a long ways away. Our intended route was actually closed for maitenance, so we had to figure out an alternate route! We figured it out pretty quickly though and got there alright. Portobello Road turns into a HUGE market on Saturdays. Once in the market proper there was no way a car could get down the road, and before that they only could with much honking. We didn't get to go all the way down it, just halfway, but it was still pretty cool to see. There were a lot of antique and jewelry shops and stands where we were. I ended up buying a couple pairs of earrings at a cute little place called Oi! where their daughter was in the shop and just learning to walk. It was so cute! We also made it far enough down to a Cath Kidston store, which we compared to Vera Bradley. Alayna found the over-the-shoulder purse that she wanted and Christine found a nice wallet. It was much too girly and flowery for me, so I spent much of my time huddled in a corner, trying to stay out of the way of the sale-shoppers.
We made the long ride back to the hotel before walking to King's Cross Station, which wasn't that far away, so that we could go to Platform 9 3/4! We got there alright, but we couldn't find the platform! Alayna had to ask the people at the information desk where it was and he replied "on holiday in Northern Ireland" before telling her where it actually was. We were on the right path but just hadn't walked down far enough. We were disappointed when we got there though. There was construction going on so the actual platform wasn't there. It was just some brick wallpaper stuck up on a construction wall with the (real) sign for Platform 9 3/4 and the partly pushed through cart on it. The pictures still turned out good, but we plan on going back in the spring to see if it's all done and back to where it should be. Hopefully it will be! If not, oh well.
Then we walked back to the hotel so Christine could get ready for date night and Alayna and I could decide what we wanted to do for dinner. It was also so I could rest my feet. I'm not going to lie, they really really really hurt (I was walking on the sides of my feet by this time) and I was not in the best of moods. It didn't help any that my allergies were worse there too. But I digress. Alayna and I decided to look around and ended up at a place called Pizza Express. It had pretty good pizza, but definitely not enough cheese. And I felt like I had to cut it since everyone else around us was. Using a fork with pizza is just not natural!
After that we went back to the hotel for a bit and tried to figure out what to do. Since we didn't really want to spend much money, going to a bar or something was out. We ended up discovering that the Tate Modern was open till 10, so we took the underground over there and walked around looking at modern art and trying to figure out our own interpretations of it for an hour or so. The fact that a lot of museums are free here is so nice! We were going to walk over to the Tower Bridge after that since it was pretty close, but there was a lot of construction and stuff around so we just ended up going back to the hotel, where we had a much more successful round 2 of Ben & Jerry's and TV! We found this historical celebrity game show, which was fun to listen to. Someone compared the Bayeux Tapestry to Facebook! Then we watched a show like Whose Line is it Anyways, which was very entertaining.
Sunday: We left London this day, so we checked out of our rooms and waited for the buses to arrive and pick us up. After that we took an our trip out to the suburbs and went to Hampton Court Palace! (we were also in Surrey for about 5 seconds, which made me happy, but also sad because I didn't know it until after the fact. It's where the Dursleys live everyone.) Mini history lesson here: Hampton Court was originally built by Cardinal Wolsey, who was the main chancellor (basically the second in command) to King Henry VIII. When Henry wanted to divorce Katharine of Aragon (wife #1) and marry Anne Boleyn, he asked Wolsey to secure him a divorce from the Pope. Wolsey was unable to do this (the Pope had already given him special permission to marry Katharine 20 years earlier) and fell out of favor with the King. In an attempt to save himself and his position, Wolsey gave Hampton Court to Henry VIII. It didn't work and Wolsey was eventually sent to prison and died there. Henry himself simply embraced Martin Luther's ideas and started an new Church of England with himself as the head and divorced Katharine and married Anne anyways. This is the original Palace. The palace has since been added onto by King William III and Queen Mary II. You can see the difference in styles of both architecture and interior design when you walk through the rooms. We had about 3.5-4 hours at Hampton Court and I immediately set off on my own to explore. I started off with the young Henry VIII section, which included much on Cardinal Wolsey as well and then somehow ended up in William III's rooms! I went through them and then went out to find Henry's apartments, which was really amazing to look through, simply because I love learning about him and his family so much. I also got to see his kitchens, which were three ginormous rooms, and his big wine cellar, where things were kept by the barrel. I then went to see Mary II's rooms, which were even more elaborate than her husband's, before going out to explore the grounds. The grounds are massive! There is so much to walk around and see. I thought I had walked around all of them and was wondering where the maze was so I pulled out my map and discovered that I had only seen half of the grounds! So I made my way to the other half and found the maze. It took a bit, but I found the center! While I was in the grounds I also saw some deer, the oldest vine in Britain (it makes a ton of grapes), a swan fishing, some goldfish that, if I remember what was told to me correctly, were the descendents of the fish that Wolsey gave to Anne as an attempt to get in her favor and therefore stay in the King's, and a film set, which someone apparently found out was Sherlock Holmes 2 (I don't know if that's true or not, I just thought it was some historical promotional thing like most people did, but we'll find out eventually I suppose!). I had lunch in the Privy Kitchen Cafe in the Palace, the cookie was good, but an egg sandwich should really not have a 2/3 mayonnaise to 1/3 egg ratio. After that it was about time to find the buses and take the 2.5 hour trip back to Harlaxton.
Whew! That was a lot of stuff! There was a lot I didn't get to see that I really wanted to, but since I know I'm going to go back at least once more before I come back to the States, I think seeing less and walking more was totally worth it. Even if my feet don't agree! Tune in next week when I'll get to tell you all about my day trip to York!
Friday:
Two of my friends and I had dedicated Friday to sightseeing. So the first thing we did after breakfast was break out our map to make sure we knew where we were going and set off down the road (and through a little park, with some turns here and there) to the British Museum, which was only a few blocks away. I thought the museum was pretty cool. It's basically all of the stuff that the British took from their colonies when they had their huge empire. There was a ton of Egyptian and Greek stuff! Egypt was what we saw first. There were all the statues of different gods and such, which was cool, but what I really liked looking at was the mummies. They had a lot of them there. I think it's neat to see how the dead were treated and buried and all of that at different points in history. Some people may think it's creepy and disrespectful to have them all out on display like that, but I think that if you're dead you're dead and future people can feel free to display me if they find my body/burial interesting for some reason. After that I think we kind of saw a bit of Assyrian stuff, but I'm not entirely sure because apparently I didn't take a picture of a sign so that I would actually remember what I was taking pictures of. We also got to see a little bit of Iran, but then they wanted to look at the Greek stuff, which disappointed me because I love learning about the Middle East and we didn't get to go into that section. We didn't get to the more modern Britain/Europe stuff either, which I wanted to see. But it's only an hour away by train and the museum is free so I can always go back! The Greek area had a lot of the facing of the Parthenon and statues and things like that. Which was pretty cool, but not what I'm very interested in. The bit of British/Europe things that we got to look through was the best. Like everything else there was a lot of pottery and statues and such, but there was also things like remains from Roman Legion armor and one of the oldest British burials that they've found. The guy was all curled up like he was sleeping, it was cute! On our way out we passed some totem poles, which made me really excited and I made them stop so I could take pictures and read the signs. I hadn't heard of one of the tribes, but the other was Haida! (since I'm sure you don't understand why I was so excited over this, let me explain: we spent several weeks on that Northwest tribe in my Anthropology course last semester.) To make it even better, I was able to recognize some of the animals on it! I didn't look too closely at it, so I wasn't able to tell what moity it was but I can always look at my picture again and figure it out.
After the museum we turned down Tottingham Court Road/Charing Cross Road (the name changes right around where we were) and headed off towards the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament. There were a ton of restaurants and shops down this road! We passed the theatre where we were going to go later that night, so of course we had to take a picture of it in the daylight. We made it to Wesminster and the Houses of Parliament a few minutes before noon so we passed the time taking pictures of the building until Big Ben chimed. (for those of you who weren't aware, Big Ben is the bell, not the tower.) I wanted to take the stereotypical picture of Parliament, so off we went across the bridge so I could stand halfway over the Thames and take it. It turned out quite nicely. There happened to be a man playing the bagpipes on the bridge as well, so that was fun music to listen to while getting the shot.
A quick lunch of sandwiches followed at a little cafe we found and then it was back down the street to Westminster Abbey! This was one of the places that you had to pay to get in, but it was totally worth it. There was so much history in there, and so many dead people! You literally almost couldn't walk without stepping on someone's stone. Pictures weren't allowed in here unfortunately, but I got some very nice exterior ones! We got to see a lot of famous and royal resting places. Among them were Chaucer, Charles Darwin, various King Richards and Edwards and Henrys, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Mary I and Elizabeth I (Henry VIII's daughters). I found Mary and Elizabeth's graves particularly humorous, particularly since they were the ones that I most wanted to see. There are signs pointing the way to their graves, but when you get there, all you see is the sleeping statue of Elizabeth! Mary must just be chillin' underneath her. Our speculation is that it must have been a prime piece of real estate in the Abbey and Elizabeth was determined to get it and not be shunted off into some less important side chamber. Of course, I doubt that's true, but it was fun to come up with all the same! Westminster Abbey was were I made my first souvenir purchase of the trip. It's a lovely mug with a black and white picture of Parliament and such with a red bus. Classy, not tacky. And once I find some hot chocolate it will totally be worth it!
After Westminster Abbey we walked over to Buckingham Palace. We didn't see the changing of the guards, but we did see them moving around! And, to make it even better, the flag was flying so the Queen was in residence! I was super excited about that. Loads of pictures were taken of the palace, the square in front of it, and the surrounding gardens. Then we set off down a road to head back to our hotel so we could change before dinner and a show. We had made it part of the way back when it started pouring down rain! We had our umbrellas, but we still rushed off to the nearest underground station, especially once we looked down and saw that it was hailing too! (well, actually, it was the second nearest station, the first was closed and flooding.) There we bought our Oyster Cards (since we were going to be coming back multiple times it made more sense) and got on the trains to go back to our hotel.
By the time we left for dinner, it had stopped raining, which was good! We ate at a nice restaurant called med kitchen, which my dad payed for because he wanted me to have a nice birthday dinner. And it was very good! Then we went to go see Mousetrap, the ticket was my friends' birthday present to me. Mousetrap is a play by Agatha Christie and is in it's 59th year, making it the longest running play in history! And it was amazing. Not only was the story very good (it was Agatha Christie, obviously it was going to be good) but the acting was superb. It was like watching a movie instead of a play. Now, I can't tell you the ending because the actors came out afterwards and swore us to secrecy so that "the magic of the play could continue" and I'm not going to ruin it for any of you! Suffice it to say that it is totally worth it. Even if you buy the cheapest tickets like we did in the balcony. You could still see the actor's expressions, it was that small of a theatre.
After the play consisted of walking around our hotel for a bit, then going back in to eat some Ben & Jerry's from the vending machine and trying and failing to find some good British TV. Also for me, it included resting my feet, which had started to get blisters. I didn't know how soft the balls of my feet had gotten since I finished softball!
Saturday: Saturday was our designated shopping day. We got a little later start than we had the day before, but that was fine because we still had plenty of time to do everything we wanted to. We started out by walking to Covent Gardens. Outside it there's a lot of nice boutiques and bigger shops that we spent most of our time looking around in. Alayna bought a nice coat on sale at H&M. Our lunch was another little cafe, eat on the go, type thing and we found a bench to sit on while we ate. Which turned out to be quite a good spot! There were several street actors there who kept us entertained, including one who looked uncannily like Johnny Depp! He was dressed up as Jack Sparrow and had the mannerisms down and everything! It was pretty neat. The actual Covent Gardens seemed to be a lot of little eating places and more expensive (at least for us) boutiques, so we didn't spend much time there.
Our next stop was Portobello Road, in Notting Hill. We took the tube to get there, because it is a long ways away. Our intended route was actually closed for maitenance, so we had to figure out an alternate route! We figured it out pretty quickly though and got there alright. Portobello Road turns into a HUGE market on Saturdays. Once in the market proper there was no way a car could get down the road, and before that they only could with much honking. We didn't get to go all the way down it, just halfway, but it was still pretty cool to see. There were a lot of antique and jewelry shops and stands where we were. I ended up buying a couple pairs of earrings at a cute little place called Oi! where their daughter was in the shop and just learning to walk. It was so cute! We also made it far enough down to a Cath Kidston store, which we compared to Vera Bradley. Alayna found the over-the-shoulder purse that she wanted and Christine found a nice wallet. It was much too girly and flowery for me, so I spent much of my time huddled in a corner, trying to stay out of the way of the sale-shoppers.
We made the long ride back to the hotel before walking to King's Cross Station, which wasn't that far away, so that we could go to Platform 9 3/4! We got there alright, but we couldn't find the platform! Alayna had to ask the people at the information desk where it was and he replied "on holiday in Northern Ireland" before telling her where it actually was. We were on the right path but just hadn't walked down far enough. We were disappointed when we got there though. There was construction going on so the actual platform wasn't there. It was just some brick wallpaper stuck up on a construction wall with the (real) sign for Platform 9 3/4 and the partly pushed through cart on it. The pictures still turned out good, but we plan on going back in the spring to see if it's all done and back to where it should be. Hopefully it will be! If not, oh well.
Then we walked back to the hotel so Christine could get ready for date night and Alayna and I could decide what we wanted to do for dinner. It was also so I could rest my feet. I'm not going to lie, they really really really hurt (I was walking on the sides of my feet by this time) and I was not in the best of moods. It didn't help any that my allergies were worse there too. But I digress. Alayna and I decided to look around and ended up at a place called Pizza Express. It had pretty good pizza, but definitely not enough cheese. And I felt like I had to cut it since everyone else around us was. Using a fork with pizza is just not natural!
After that we went back to the hotel for a bit and tried to figure out what to do. Since we didn't really want to spend much money, going to a bar or something was out. We ended up discovering that the Tate Modern was open till 10, so we took the underground over there and walked around looking at modern art and trying to figure out our own interpretations of it for an hour or so. The fact that a lot of museums are free here is so nice! We were going to walk over to the Tower Bridge after that since it was pretty close, but there was a lot of construction and stuff around so we just ended up going back to the hotel, where we had a much more successful round 2 of Ben & Jerry's and TV! We found this historical celebrity game show, which was fun to listen to. Someone compared the Bayeux Tapestry to Facebook! Then we watched a show like Whose Line is it Anyways, which was very entertaining.
Sunday: We left London this day, so we checked out of our rooms and waited for the buses to arrive and pick us up. After that we took an our trip out to the suburbs and went to Hampton Court Palace! (we were also in Surrey for about 5 seconds, which made me happy, but also sad because I didn't know it until after the fact. It's where the Dursleys live everyone.) Mini history lesson here: Hampton Court was originally built by Cardinal Wolsey, who was the main chancellor (basically the second in command) to King Henry VIII. When Henry wanted to divorce Katharine of Aragon (wife #1) and marry Anne Boleyn, he asked Wolsey to secure him a divorce from the Pope. Wolsey was unable to do this (the Pope had already given him special permission to marry Katharine 20 years earlier) and fell out of favor with the King. In an attempt to save himself and his position, Wolsey gave Hampton Court to Henry VIII. It didn't work and Wolsey was eventually sent to prison and died there. Henry himself simply embraced Martin Luther's ideas and started an new Church of England with himself as the head and divorced Katharine and married Anne anyways. This is the original Palace. The palace has since been added onto by King William III and Queen Mary II. You can see the difference in styles of both architecture and interior design when you walk through the rooms. We had about 3.5-4 hours at Hampton Court and I immediately set off on my own to explore. I started off with the young Henry VIII section, which included much on Cardinal Wolsey as well and then somehow ended up in William III's rooms! I went through them and then went out to find Henry's apartments, which was really amazing to look through, simply because I love learning about him and his family so much. I also got to see his kitchens, which were three ginormous rooms, and his big wine cellar, where things were kept by the barrel. I then went to see Mary II's rooms, which were even more elaborate than her husband's, before going out to explore the grounds. The grounds are massive! There is so much to walk around and see. I thought I had walked around all of them and was wondering where the maze was so I pulled out my map and discovered that I had only seen half of the grounds! So I made my way to the other half and found the maze. It took a bit, but I found the center! While I was in the grounds I also saw some deer, the oldest vine in Britain (it makes a ton of grapes), a swan fishing, some goldfish that, if I remember what was told to me correctly, were the descendents of the fish that Wolsey gave to Anne as an attempt to get in her favor and therefore stay in the King's, and a film set, which someone apparently found out was Sherlock Holmes 2 (I don't know if that's true or not, I just thought it was some historical promotional thing like most people did, but we'll find out eventually I suppose!). I had lunch in the Privy Kitchen Cafe in the Palace, the cookie was good, but an egg sandwich should really not have a 2/3 mayonnaise to 1/3 egg ratio. After that it was about time to find the buses and take the 2.5 hour trip back to Harlaxton.
Whew! That was a lot of stuff! There was a lot I didn't get to see that I really wanted to, but since I know I'm going to go back at least once more before I come back to the States, I think seeing less and walking more was totally worth it. Even if my feet don't agree! Tune in next week when I'll get to tell you all about my day trip to York!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Hogsmeade, Part II
So today Alayna and I got to see our British Best Friend! After waking up at 11:30, we had a quick brunch and called a cab to go into town. It was so good to see Chloe again! We got to see her house and meet her cats and mum, who's really nice. Then we walked around Grantham a bit and got some pay as you go phones. Mine's blue and awesome. =) I'm still getting the hang of using it because it's a different brand than what I've had in the past and it's not set up quite the same way. Unfortunately we couldn't spend the entire day in Grantham with her, we had to get back for the 5 minutes that it takes to take our i.d. photo. But we both agreed that it was a good 12 pounds well spent! Chloe moves in tomorrow as well, so it's not like we won't get to see her a lot really soon.
That was about it for what happened today, Alayna and I hung out for a bit, we had dinner, with Yorkshire Pudding, which wasn't what we thought it would be. But it was still good! We did go on a hunt for Christine's "surprise" that she had for Alayna. We searched all over the manor and went over to the carriage house to try to find her and turns out that all we had to do was go on her facebook! Classes start tomorrow, so I'll be getting busy again. Then it's off to London for the weekend!
That was about it for what happened today, Alayna and I hung out for a bit, we had dinner, with Yorkshire Pudding, which wasn't what we thought it would be. But it was still good! We did go on a hunt for Christine's "surprise" that she had for Alayna. We searched all over the manor and went over to the carriage house to try to find her and turns out that all we had to do was go on her facebook! Classes start tomorrow, so I'll be getting busy again. Then it's off to London for the weekend!
Hogsmeade, Start-of-the-Year Feast, "A Nice Chat before Bed"
Ok, so I'm doing about a blog a day right now, just because everything's so new and so much is going on. After classes start it'll probably be down to about once a week or so. And I just write whatever comes into my head at the moment, so if it seems a little random that's why. I didn't get a chance to write anything about yesterday, so here it goes!
In the morning, we started out with the Opening Convocation. It was a lot shorter than the one at UE! There was a bagpiper who piped all the faculty in and then we had an opening prayer, sang both national anthems, and the faculty was introduced. After that, it was Principal Gordon Kingsley's speech. Which was actually fairly interesting for a speech. He told a story about how he ran away to Ireland and heard this song that he then made us sing about 10 times. (and that number isn't even much of an exaggeration!)
After that, it was time for the boring orientation lectures. There were four different ones: academics, what's allowed and not allowed here, fire safety, and travel. I was still pretty tired, so it was hard to really pay attention. But the grounds were pretty, and the rooms are interesting, so they kept me occupied!
After lunch we went into Grantham, which I totally see as our Hogsmeade. We walked around for a bit (getting a little lost along the way), trying to find the shop where Chloe worked. We found the shop and Alayna got what she needed from there, but no Chloe! =( So we went back to the shopping center where we got dropped off and went to a store called Morrison's (which is kind of like Krogers) and got a few of the things we needed. Among mine included a hair dryer and straightener. I had bought a converter so that I could use my stuff here since I know it works well on my hair, but when I went to dry my hair that morning the dryer worked for about 10 seconds and then stopped and wouldn't work again! Needless to say, there was no way in heck I was going to risk my really good straightener in that outlet. So I spent 19 pounds on a new set. The dryer actually works really well and the straightener should be ok as long as I have dried my hair before. There were a ton of shops and cafes and restaurants and such that we walked by and didn't go in, so I definitely look forward to going back and doing all that!
Once we got back, we hit up the Boutique because I really wanted a Harlaxton zip-up fleece (which I got, not the color, but it's the right fit) and Alayna and Christine ended up getting one too. Then it was up four flights of stairs so Alayna and I could drop our stuff off in our rooms and then outside to do some more exploring and start taking pictures! We had to walk about halfway down the drive in order to get the entire manor in the picture! After we were done with the front of the manor and the front circle, we attempted to get into the gardens. We had to go inside and, once we couldn't get in the conservatory (you slide the door, not pull/push it!), we went out one of the back fire exits. But everything seems to be a fire exit here! It wasn't emergency only, so we were allowed. We didn't get a chance to explore all of the gardens because the grass was fairly wet and someone was wearing flats, but I took a lot of pictures and could definitely tell how pretty it will be come spring. And at the top of one of the hills there's a really awesome view of the manor, more from the side.
That night was the High Table Dinner, where we got all dressed up (and froze) and got to eat yummy chicken and corn and such and had this awesome cheesecake-y thing for dessert. We were assigned seats, so I got to meet some new people and it was actually a lot of fun, despite being cold! They had this really good fruit punch wine in the Great Hall before dinner, when we were mingling and such. And then there was crappy white and red wine at dinner. It's really weird having that served to you at school! We're only allowed to drink in the manor in the Bistro, which is like a bar in the basement/dungeons, and at official school functions where they provide it. Like at our little meeting of our British Studies Seminar where we had it too!
After the dinner I was still pretty tired due to the complete lack of sleep on the plane, so my intention was to pull on some comfy clothes and get my whole schedule for the semester written out, write the blog, and go to bed early; well, that didn't entirely happen. My roommates were getting ready to go out into Grantham, so I was talking to them. After they left I got the whole schedule thing done, and was about to start on this when Lyndsey came back with two of her friends. They didn't end up going in because it was going to take so long to get a cab. So we were talking and such, we all tried her violin, which was fun. And eventually Alana, my other roommate, came in as well, so all of us were chatting. Lyndsey's two friends eventually left and the three of us got ready for bed, then stayed up for another 45 minutes, just talking. We didn't get to bed till 2! But it was a lot of fun just meeting new people and doing that, so I'm glad that I did that and that they decided to stay in. I'll probably put up one last post tonight about everything that went on today before bed and school in the morning! (Oh, and if you didn't get it because you're not as big a Harry Potter fan as me and/or you didn't think it was funny/odd-sounding enough to commit to memory, in Half-Blood Prince [movie, lets specify] Ron's complaining to Hermione/Harry that he likes to have a nice chat before bed, but now all Harry does is read that bloody book [his potions book]. I don't think that's an exact quote, but it's pretty close!]
In the morning, we started out with the Opening Convocation. It was a lot shorter than the one at UE! There was a bagpiper who piped all the faculty in and then we had an opening prayer, sang both national anthems, and the faculty was introduced. After that, it was Principal Gordon Kingsley's speech. Which was actually fairly interesting for a speech. He told a story about how he ran away to Ireland and heard this song that he then made us sing about 10 times. (and that number isn't even much of an exaggeration!)
After that, it was time for the boring orientation lectures. There were four different ones: academics, what's allowed and not allowed here, fire safety, and travel. I was still pretty tired, so it was hard to really pay attention. But the grounds were pretty, and the rooms are interesting, so they kept me occupied!
After lunch we went into Grantham, which I totally see as our Hogsmeade. We walked around for a bit (getting a little lost along the way), trying to find the shop where Chloe worked. We found the shop and Alayna got what she needed from there, but no Chloe! =( So we went back to the shopping center where we got dropped off and went to a store called Morrison's (which is kind of like Krogers) and got a few of the things we needed. Among mine included a hair dryer and straightener. I had bought a converter so that I could use my stuff here since I know it works well on my hair, but when I went to dry my hair that morning the dryer worked for about 10 seconds and then stopped and wouldn't work again! Needless to say, there was no way in heck I was going to risk my really good straightener in that outlet. So I spent 19 pounds on a new set. The dryer actually works really well and the straightener should be ok as long as I have dried my hair before. There were a ton of shops and cafes and restaurants and such that we walked by and didn't go in, so I definitely look forward to going back and doing all that!
Once we got back, we hit up the Boutique because I really wanted a Harlaxton zip-up fleece (which I got, not the color, but it's the right fit) and Alayna and Christine ended up getting one too. Then it was up four flights of stairs so Alayna and I could drop our stuff off in our rooms and then outside to do some more exploring and start taking pictures! We had to walk about halfway down the drive in order to get the entire manor in the picture! After we were done with the front of the manor and the front circle, we attempted to get into the gardens. We had to go inside and, once we couldn't get in the conservatory (you slide the door, not pull/push it!), we went out one of the back fire exits. But everything seems to be a fire exit here! It wasn't emergency only, so we were allowed. We didn't get a chance to explore all of the gardens because the grass was fairly wet and someone was wearing flats, but I took a lot of pictures and could definitely tell how pretty it will be come spring. And at the top of one of the hills there's a really awesome view of the manor, more from the side.
That night was the High Table Dinner, where we got all dressed up (and froze) and got to eat yummy chicken and corn and such and had this awesome cheesecake-y thing for dessert. We were assigned seats, so I got to meet some new people and it was actually a lot of fun, despite being cold! They had this really good fruit punch wine in the Great Hall before dinner, when we were mingling and such. And then there was crappy white and red wine at dinner. It's really weird having that served to you at school! We're only allowed to drink in the manor in the Bistro, which is like a bar in the basement/dungeons, and at official school functions where they provide it. Like at our little meeting of our British Studies Seminar where we had it too!
After the dinner I was still pretty tired due to the complete lack of sleep on the plane, so my intention was to pull on some comfy clothes and get my whole schedule for the semester written out, write the blog, and go to bed early; well, that didn't entirely happen. My roommates were getting ready to go out into Grantham, so I was talking to them. After they left I got the whole schedule thing done, and was about to start on this when Lyndsey came back with two of her friends. They didn't end up going in because it was going to take so long to get a cab. So we were talking and such, we all tried her violin, which was fun. And eventually Alana, my other roommate, came in as well, so all of us were chatting. Lyndsey's two friends eventually left and the three of us got ready for bed, then stayed up for another 45 minutes, just talking. We didn't get to bed till 2! But it was a lot of fun just meeting new people and doing that, so I'm glad that I did that and that they decided to stay in. I'll probably put up one last post tonight about everything that went on today before bed and school in the morning! (Oh, and if you didn't get it because you're not as big a Harry Potter fan as me and/or you didn't think it was funny/odd-sounding enough to commit to memory, in Half-Blood Prince [movie, lets specify] Ron's complaining to Hermione/Harry that he likes to have a nice chat before bed, but now all Harry does is read that bloody book [his potions book]. I don't think that's an exact quote, but it's pretty close!]
Friday, January 7, 2011
Harlaxton: Hogwarts Express/One Big Room of Requirement
Hey! So I made it to England! I was anxious about flying by myself, even though I knew rationally that I'd be fine, and I was. =) Though the whole 1 hour layover in Newark thing had me worried when we were late taking off because they had to spray that no-ice stuff on the first plane. Safety first! No worries though, I made it in plenty of time. That transatlantic flight was the smallest plane I'd ever been on when going to a different country! Two rows of three seats each. I'm used to at least 4 extra seats in there! I sat next to these two really nice Mexican girls who were coming over to England to study English, one until July and one until September. Having them there worrying about things and getting excited with me made the whole trip more fun. And when they talked in Spanish I understood about half of what they were saying! Not much in the way of sleep happened on that flight, about 2 hours of dozing was about it. And dinner at 10 p.m. EST and then breakfast at 3 a.m. EST, which got me totally off. I mean, why have dinner when it's popcorn time?! Once I landed I had to get my bags and take a train/tram to a completely different terminal and then walk what seemed about a mile, lugging 2 40+ lb. suitcases behind me! But I made it there on time. In fact, there was plenty of time, because some flights had been delayed and we were waiting around for them. Four people still had to make their own way there though! We left them at 12. Then it was a good 3 hour nap on the bus until we got to Harlaxton! That 3 hour nap is what allowed me to go the rest of the day, though I'm dead tired now.
Harlaxton is huge! The pictures do not do it justice. And it's confusing as heck to get around too, what with all the staircases and random half staircases and twisting and turning hallways. Good thing is, there were people who carried all our luggage up to our floor! Well, they took it up the lift (literally. like one of the ones with the grates and everything.), but that made my life so much easier! I live on the 4th floor with two other girls, who seem nice. And I'm right next to Alayna! My room is actually quite big. And there's plenty of drawer and wardrobe space for everything. And we have a sink in our room! Everything else is communal, but I think having our own sink is awesome. After unpacking and such and dinner, several of us were off to explore the manor. There seem to be toilets everywhere! There's even one in an alcove with a chair that looks out the big bay windows! So no matter where I am, a bathroom will be available to me. Just like Dumbledore said. And there's secret passages and such too, which we found and honestly probably had more fun looking for them than actually exploring them. The Principal (Dean) even explained the reasons they were there for us when we asked him! The servants used them so that they would be invisible.
So, in one day, I've been on the Hogwarts Express and moved into a manor that is not only one big room of requirement, but also an invisibility cloak! All in all, a pretty great day. =)
Harlaxton is huge! The pictures do not do it justice. And it's confusing as heck to get around too, what with all the staircases and random half staircases and twisting and turning hallways. Good thing is, there were people who carried all our luggage up to our floor! Well, they took it up the lift (literally. like one of the ones with the grates and everything.), but that made my life so much easier! I live on the 4th floor with two other girls, who seem nice. And I'm right next to Alayna! My room is actually quite big. And there's plenty of drawer and wardrobe space for everything. And we have a sink in our room! Everything else is communal, but I think having our own sink is awesome. After unpacking and such and dinner, several of us were off to explore the manor. There seem to be toilets everywhere! There's even one in an alcove with a chair that looks out the big bay windows! So no matter where I am, a bathroom will be available to me. Just like Dumbledore said. And there's secret passages and such too, which we found and honestly probably had more fun looking for them than actually exploring them. The Principal (Dean) even explained the reasons they were there for us when we asked him! The servants used them so that they would be invisible.
So, in one day, I've been on the Hogwarts Express and moved into a manor that is not only one big room of requirement, but also an invisibility cloak! All in all, a pretty great day. =)
Monday, January 3, 2011
It's Nearly Time!
If you're reading this, it's probably because you already know me and know that I am starting this blog for my semester at Harlaxton College in England. I actually get to spend the semester studying in a manor near Grantham, England. It'll be like my own personal Hogwarts! And I get to spend most weekends traveling around the United Kingdom and Europe as well, which makes it all even better. I'm super excited, made more so by the fact that I leave in a mere 3 days!!! Packing is foremost on my mind right now, trying to fit 4 months worth of stuff into two suitcases. I plan on updating this blog every week or two, or whenever I actually have something interesting to say! As for me, England's the one country that I've always really wanted to go to and haven't yet had the chance. There's so much history my friends probably won't be able to drag me out of the museums! Keep checking back and reading and I'll update with my exciting solitary travel across the Atlantic!
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