As I mentioned in my previous post, I just got back from a weekend in Amsterdam and Bruges. It was not just a bad hair day, but a bad hair weekend. The rain and my hair just do not like to cooperate. I always seemed to leave my umbrella behind just when I needed it.
On Friday morning, my friend Kat and I left our dorm at around 5:30 to take the tube to our bus stop which was picking us up at 6:05. We neglected to factor in that the tube does not run as often really early in the morning, so to say we were running late was an understatement. We finally arrived at our bus stop almost a half hour late, only to find out that the bus had left without us. Luckily, someone was there to assist us and point us in the right direction. We ended up having to take a cab to Lewisham in south London, which cost us 40 pounds, but at least we made it.
The bus then departed for Dover, where we stopped for a photo opportunity at Dover Castle. It was then that I realized that I had left my camera at home, which was basically the last thing I wanted to forget. Luckily Kat was generous and let me take plenty of pictures with her camera all weekend, so I will have plenty to post later on. We took a ferry from Dover to Calais, a city in northern France just across the English channel. From Calais we got back on our bus and started the drive to Amsterdam. The trip was a grueling 7 hours, and I can honestly say that I don't want to set foot on a bus again for a long time. Unfortunately the trip I am taking to Wales in 2 weeks will probably involve bus travel.
When we finally got to Amsterdam, we dropped off our bags at our hotel, and then took a short tour of the Red Light District. It is world famous, but also very small. Just from walking around the city for 10 minutes, it is pretty obvious that the Netherlands is a very tolerant country. There are coffee shops, as the Dutch call them, on practically every corner. And if you know anything about Amsterdam, these coffee shops are nothing like your run-of-the-mill Starbucks. After seeing the Red Light District, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.
The following morning, we left for Zaanse Schanse, a living Dutch heritage museum. There, we saw demonstrations on how clogs and cheese were made. They had plenty of free cheese samples, and I am not afraid to admit that I went through the sample line more than once. I took home some goat cheese for myself, so I didn't feel so bad about it. After leaving the museum, we headed back to downtown Amsterdam and took a cruise through the canals. I found the cruise to be rather pointless and boring, and would have preferred to have more time to visit the museums. After the canal tour, we were given free time to explore the museums. I would have preferred that the trip was more organized, since the only museum we had time to go to was
Anne Frank's house. It was very moving, and although I was not able to visit the Rijksmuseum or the Van Gogh Museum, I am glad I got to experience at least one important Amsterdam landmark.
On Sunday, we left Amsterdam for Bruges, a small city in Belgium. Our tour guide explanined it as the Venice of the north, although I am not sure why since I saw more canals in Amsterdam than I did here. We were given an hour and a half to explore the city, which I found to be very pretty with all of its medieval buildings. To me, the highlight of Bruges was the french fries. I don't think I have ever had better fries in my life, and I would go back just to have them again. After leaving Bruges, we stopped at a chocolate factory, since it is one of Belgium's specialities. I bought some chocolate here, but ended up regretting not buying some in the actual city of Bruges, since the chocolate there was kind of disappointing. I was only upset I wasn't able to try some Belgian beer, another specialty of the country. From there, we headed back to Calais to get on the ferry to Dover. Again, we got on the bus, and headed back to London.
On the bus, Kat and watched the most recent episode of America's Next Top Model. Although it sounds strange, it really was the perfect way to end the trip. For those of you that don't watch the show, towards the end of each season the models go to a foreign country. Tyra usually surprises them at judging, by including some sort of challenge that involves the heritage of the country. Both the models (and myself) did not consider the fact that making them walk down the catwalk in clogs, was the hint she was giving them that they were going to...AMSTERDAM!
PICTURES HERE
A Bad Hair Weekend
Monday, October 27, 2008
Posted by Rachel at 11:17 AM 1 comments
"Insert witty title here"
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I have seriously been struggling to come up with witty titles for my blogs, so Chris... I am jealous!
On Friday, I went to Hampton Court Palace. I have struggled to explain to people exactly what it is, so I have just been calling it the vacation home of Henry VIII and other British monarchs. Apparently it was the place where everyone decided to flee to when the Black Plague struck London. Speaking of the Black Plague, I feel like I have some variation of that right now. I might be exaggerating just a little bit, because I have been getting progressively better in the past few days. Hampton Court was seriously beautiful though, especially the gardens. I was happy that all the flowers were still in bloom. They provided for some pretty good pictures. (which you can see here) After touring the Palace itself, we walked through the hedge maze in the gardens. I expected it to be way more difficult than it was, as we only hit 2 dead ends before making it to the center. If you ever go to Hampton Court, make sure to walk through the Queen's apartments. Above one of the doorways, there is a painting of a man leaning up against a tree with a hoof for a foot. If you look closely, you can see that one of the art restorers has painted a modern day wristwatch on the man. The art restorer no longer works for the palace but he wanted to leave his mark on Hampton Court. I highly recommend making a day trip and visiting the place, it was beautiful.
The rest of the weekend I basically relaxed and mostly recovered from my illness. I slept way more than I should have, but it was nice.
On Monday, I decided to venture out on my own while again, everyone else was in class. I went to a store called Primark, which was incredibly cheap but a little overwhelming. I managed to make a few good purchases though, and I look for any excuse to get a lot for only a little money. From there, I decided to an audio tour that I found online of some places I hadn't seen yet in London. The audio tour took me through Kensington Gardens, which was especially pretty because of all the fall colors from the leaves that are currently changing. Fall is definitely a season I miss when I am in Arizona. I walked past Kensington Palace, the place where Princess Diana and Prince Charles lived. If you've seen pictures, this was the gate where millions of flowers were placed after her death. After walking through Kensington Gardens, the tour took me past the Albert Memorial, where I was stopped by a silly old British man who proceded to rant to me about how awful the Albert Memorial looks since they have painted him gold. He was also upset about the fact that there are currently gates around the memorial, which prevent anyone from scratching the gold off of the statue of Prince Albert. Across from the memorial is the Royal Albert Hall, where concerts and movies are still played to this day. After passing both monuments to Prince Albert, I walked by the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and some random churches. The tour ended at Harrod's and I was so hungry that it stopped me from going inside this time. I am still planning my trip back for the gelato from the food halls. The only thing I regretted about the tour was that I forgot my camera.
Today was the start of the school week, so if I don't update again before Friday you'll know why. I am leaving for Amsterdam this weekend, so expect a detailed post about that trip when I return!
Posted by Rachel at 9:23 AM 2 comments
Tourist-y Goodness
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Since this blog will basically consist of mainly tourist attractions, I figured this would be a fairly appropriate title. Sunday afternoon, my friend and I headed off to the Tower of London. For those of you that don't know, the Tower has served multiple purposes, including an army fortress, a "luxurious royal home" (quoting the brochure on that one), and a prison. It was also the place where Queen Anne Boleyn (among others) was beheaded. Today, it houses more bling than a Tiffany and Co., also known as the Crown Jewels. My personal favorite was the crown most recently worn by Queen Elizabeth I, mostly because it contains the Koh-i-Noor diamond, a pretty impressive rock if I do say so myself. Its quite a massive place, my friend and I took around 2 hours to explore almost every building. After leaving we grabbed some ice cream (some soft serve that tasted more like whipped cream in my opinion), and headed back to the dorms. Click here for my album from the Tower.
On Monday, while everyone else I knew was in class, I took the opportunity to go to the British Museum. I took a tour through a company called London Walks, and right off the bat I found our tourguide Tom to be pretty hilarious. My favorite joke was the one in reference to him and another member of our group being "folically challenged." I am sure him and Larry David would have gotten along famously (for all you Curb Your Enthusiasm fans). I learned some random interesting tidbits about the museum from the guide, none of which I could tell you now. The one thing I do remember is that apparently most of the items at the British Museum have been stolen from other ancient civilations, or in the words of our guide "acquired." The only critique I had of the tour is that the company should be called "London Stands" as I felt we spent the majority of the time in the museum standing. I personally like my tours a la college campus, where the tour guide walks backwards and tries not to trip over anything.
Last night I soared 450 feet above London on the London Eye. Although the views were more spectacular than I remembered, especially at night, it only reiterated my fear of heights. After leaving the London Eye, a tour guide walked us to a pub for the start of our pub crawl. Upon entering the room they reserved for us, it was so crowded that myself and a few other Americans that I met decided to venture off on our own to a completely different pub called the Blackfriar. The night consisted of enjoying my first cider with some new friends, and then heading home on the tube. Although the Brits I have met have been really friendly, I feel like its such a cultural difference that its hard to get along with anyone but Americans. And finally, pictures from the London Eye.
Until next time, don't forget to check back in my main album from time to time. I'll be adding random pictures that don't really fit in any album. The link is now permanently in the sidebar under "My Blog List."
Posted by Rachel at 11:55 AM 0 comments
Prêt-à-Portea and Stonehenge & Bath
Friday, October 10, 2008
With my internet being so poor lately, the blog I was writing was lost to cyberspace, so now I will try to rewrite what I meant to post yesterday.
On Friday, two of my friends and I went to Prêt-à-Portea at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge. It comes from the phrase prêt-à-port, meaning ready-to-wear. It was described as “a fashionista’s tea”, and that is exactly what it was. All of the pastries were modeled after the clothes at London Fashion Week, and were almost too adorable to eat. I enjoyed tea for the first time in my life, but I am disappointed by the fact that it is probably impossible to find pear-caramel tea anywhere else. After tea, we went and explored Harrods, a massive upscale department store. I was again, disappointed, that everything is way out of my price range. I do plan on going back to have gelato from the food halls though.
Yesterday was the first of the events through my university’s social program, a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Although I had already been to Stonehenge seven years ago, it was nice to experience it as an adult. It took about 45 minutes to circle the park, while listening to an audio tour giving us background about the monument. The audio tour listed many possibilities as to what the purpose of Stonehenge is, including everything from a burial ground, to a landing site for UFOs. Our tour guide for the day encouraged us to “use our imaginations” to decipher the purpose of Stonehenge. To me, the most logical explanation seems to be that it was created as a monument through which to view the summer solstice. Look at this picture to understand what I mean, or read up on it here.
After walking through Stonehenge, we made our way over to the ancient city of Bath. This city was the inspiration for two Jane Austen novels: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. After visiting Bath, I am interested in reading both in order to see how she portrayed the city. When we arrived, we were given an hour for lunch, and then met up with our tour guide who showed us around the main monuments in the city. Architecturally, circles and triangles play an important role, as they are considered to be the two “perfect” shapes. After touring the city, we walked through the ancient Roman bath house in the center of town, which as partially been converted into a museum in order to showcase its artifacts. Although I didn’t find the audio tour to be all that interesting or informative this time around, the bath house was certainly beautiful. Upon leaving the bath house, I walked through the Bath Abbey, which had beautiful stained glass windows and vaulted ceilings. After spending four hours in Bath, we headed back to London.
I am working on updating pictures, with my incredibly slow internet, but you can find the link to my album from this weekend here.
Posted by Rachel at 3:06 PM 2 comments
3 things I learned while in Germany
Sunday, October 5, 2008
1. The trains there are on the honor system. The process involves buying a ticket from a kiosk, getting it stamped with the current day's date, and making your way onto the train. Not once did I have a single person look at my train ticket, but apparently if you get caught without one there is a huge fine. I don't really like this system, I want to be recognized for the effort (aka money) I put into things.
2. This will probably be the first and last time I will ever go to Oktoberfest. I knew going into it that you have to be a beer drinker, one of which I am not. The first night in Munich we went to Hofbrauhaus, knowing we wouldn't be able to get into a tent at Oktoberfest. The loud music, yelling, and beermaidens carrying up to 5 liters of beer in each hand was pretty impressive (trust me...just one of them is really heavy). Also, you wouldn't believe how I excited I was when I saw someone wearing an Oakland A's hat, only to find out that they had no idea who the A's were. The next day we got up at 7 to line up early to attempt to get a space in a tent at Oktoberfest. After waiting for about an hour we found seats outside at the Schottenhamel tent. It was cold and rainy, but the heat lamps provided some warmth. Once sitting down, we were served our first beer before 10 AM. It didn't help that I woke up with a sore throat, so that kind of put a damper on the day. I ended up leaving around one to go back to hotel, because I really was not feeling well. Ultimately, that was my Oktoberfest experience and although I didn't get the whole entire "drunk" experience, it was still fun
3. Munich has the best chocolate croissants EVER
Click here for the link to my album from Oktoberfest (I'm sorry about the lack of pictures of me, but there were plenty of them taken by others so I will add those eventually)
Posted by Rachel at 9:32 AM 2 comments
Time flies when you're having fun...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Just a note...this is an incredibly (long) detailed account of the past two days.
These past couple days have been a blur. I have been so busy that I have barely had time to breathe, let alone make time for the people I want to make time for. Yesterday started with meeting with my orientation group and exploring the area surrounding Piccadilly Circus looking for answers to extremely obscure questions. Normally I would looked forward to getting to know London more, but the mass of amounts of rain sort of put a damper on that. It took us around three hours to navigate "theatreland" in order to find things like the stage door to a theater that has a quote above that has "cheered generations of ambitious thespians". It probably would have taken less time, had the rain not slowed us down so much.
I spent the latter part of the day traveling out to west London to Asda (the British version of Wal-Mart...exactly the same company and everything). Although it was sort of a far trip, I was able to find things I hadn't been able to find thus far. I was definitely having trouble surviving with only 5 hangers. On our return trip, we made it safely back to central London, but when transferring trains we realized we had hit rush hour. It wasn't like rush hour at home, where you might have to stand on BART for your 45 minute ride home. The train was so packed, faces were smushed against the glass windows. My friend and I watched two trains go by, with only two or three people being able to shove themselves into the crowded car each time. It was then that we decided to just walk, we were only one stop from home anyway (again...in the rain)
When I returned back to my dorm, I immediately started to get ready to go out and meet friends from my program at a place called Sports Cafe. Although I did have a great time, Sports Cafe was certainly not what I expected. Sure, there were sports on all the televisions, but the music was so deafeningly loud there was no way I could hear the commentary I wanted to about the Oakland Raiders. All in all it was a good first night out, especially since we made our train home just before the tube closed for the night.
Today my friend and I set out to complete the photo challenge for our orientation quiz. It involved us going all the way out to north London, where the Harrow campus is, just to take a picture to the door of an art gallery. The trip was pretty pointless in my opinion, but if anything now I am even more grateful for the fact that I am only two tube stops away from school. Harrow campus students have classes there, but they are about 45 minutes away from all the action in central London. We headed back to central London to finish the photo challenge which took us another three hours. I have found that solicitors in London will not take no for an answer, today we were forced to answer questions about Britain by a man from BBC. Supposedly our answers could be on national radio, although I don't know when or where to listen to it. After that we stopped at TopShop, an amazing store that I could spend hours upon hours in given I had the time and money. Its times like those when I really hate the exchange rate with the pound. I did end up buying a cute purse, and I even got a 15% discount for being a student! England scores points in my book for that one.
On the way home we stopped at McDonald's, which I did not feel one bit guilty about because of all the walking I did today. I was disappointed to learn that they did not have ranch for my chicken nuggets. I wish I had taken a picture of the man's expression when I asked for my beloved ranch, he looked at me like I was certifiably insane. Exasperated and starving, I asked for ketchup and went on my merry way. After eating, I took a well-needed nap and then made myself dinner. Yes...I was still hungry, can you blame me? Even though I have only been here for 4 full days, it feels like it has been way longer. Because of this, I am starting to doubt the saying that time flies when you're having fun. Now, I can say I am glad I passed on going out again tonight. Its nice to finally have some time to breathe. (even if it means listening this awful girl cackle all night long...I am still working on where all the noise comes from in my dorm)
Posted by Rachel at 4:06 PM 2 comments