At long last – MY TRIP TO ENGLAND AND IRELAND! This post has been LONG delayed for several reasons, and I apologize for keeping you all waiting. My internet server has been down at home, and I’ve not only started school, but come down with yet another cold, and have been incredibly busy. So, without further ado, let’s get to it!
First of all, you may have noticed the name change of my blog. This has been a short time in the making, but I finally decided to change it after realizing that after this post, my adventures I logged here would no longer just be Viennese adventures, but would span Europe! So, I changed the title to a mantra that I have grown particularly fond of since my arrival here in Vienna. Everyone on staff tells you to “squeeze the juice,” or, in other words “make the most of your time in a foreign country,” and I’ve been doing just that! So, new title, same blog, let’s be off to England!
I woke up on Friday the 3rd of February anxious and excited for the long trip that lay ahead. It was the first trip that I had planned entirely without the help of my parents, and to be honest, really the first trip I had ever planned. Period. The way my family plans trips goes something like this: (And when I say “my family” I really just mean “my mom”)
20 books are borrowed from the library
Multiple maps are borrowed/found
Flights are booked MONTHS in advance
Walking tours are downloaded off iTunes to cut entry costs to major monuments
Rick Steves is worshiped above any other source of information
Though my version was a little (a LOT) more condensed than this, I still managed to plan something to do every day, and book flights soon enough in advance that the prices were still fairly reasonable.
So, off I went with two of my girl friends from my program on a 10-day trip on Friday evening! We flew for about 2 hours and when we reached the airport, took a bus to our first hotel, pictured below:
It had some nice accommodations, and after a good night’s sleep, we were ready to hit up London! We took a train in on the next morning to find our hostel and drop off our minimal luggage (you may have seen the red backpack in the picture above. That’s the only luggage I had with me for 10 days!) and then after we had gotten settled and oriented, we were off to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London! Here are some pictures below:
The outside of the tower from the Tube stop
Tower Bridge
The skyline across the river - that new building is called the Shard and when it is completed, it will be the tallest building in London.
We took a tour with a Beefeater! These men actually live in the Tower of London with their families and are very “in-character.” They love to dramatize the tours they give and talk about all the gruesome events that took place there over the hundreds of years it’s been open!
The next day, we went to look at platform 9 ¾ and took many touristy pictures (below) and then we were off to the British Museum! It was a VERY cold day, and made me glad that I had remembered to bring my long underwear along. However, this is where I have to explain how I got lost at the museum for 3 hours.
(*Note: This is not the real platform! The real one was under construction when we got there, so we had to take pictures with this one instead. Too bad, but still fun!)
When we arrived, I asked if one of my friends would be willing to carry my backpack for a while because I was carrying some of their things and could use a break for a little while. We went down to the Africa exhibit, and since I wanted to take a little more time to look around, we decided to meet upstairs in the Egypt exhibit. Unfortunately, I underestimated how incredibly large the exhibit would be, AND how crowded it was that day. It was PACKED! And not only were they not where I was expecting them to be, but I wandered around for 45 minutes trying to find them and STILL couldn’t catch a glimpse of them ANYWHERE! Eventually, after running through the exhibits they said they had also wanted to visit that day, I gave up and headed down to the information desk. The conversation I had with the clerk went very much like this:
Me – Hello.
Clerk – How can I help you today?
Me – If you were a lost person, where would you need to go?
Clerk – Anyone in the museum would send you right here to the information desk.
Me – So, say I AM a lost person…
Clerk – and you have no way of contacting the people you were with?
Me – Not only do they have my backpack, coat, and wallet, they also have my phone.
Clerk – Wow. You’re in quite a spot then, aren’t you?
Me – Yeah, so here I am, checking in.
Clerk – (jokingly upbeat) Welcome to the lost and found! Please feel free to take a seat.
Me – grumblegrumble…
And so I sat.
And waited.
And waited.
And sat.
For over an hour.
And finally, when I had gotten so cold I couldn’t stand it any more (because this place has a huge vaulted ceiling and it was a terribly cold day) and I was too hungry to sit and think about it, I went back up to the desk.
Clerk – So they still haven’t come for you?
Me – Nope. Would it be ok if I left my name with you and came back in 45 minutes? I haven’t gotten to see everything I wanted to yet.
Clerk - Walking around IS more fun than sitting here. Let me get you something to write down your information on. (gets a piece of paper and a pen)
Me – (I write my name down in a childish scrawl because I can’t hold the pen correctly or make my fingers move because I was so cold)
Clerk – (Seeing I have only written down my name) Don’t you have a phone numb- oh, that’s right… See you later, then!
So, I went to see the Rosetta Stone and some other snazzy stuff, and came back in 45 minutes.
Me – They haven’t come looking for me yet, have they?
Clerk – Nope. Sorry.
Me – I’ll just be sitting over here, then…
And I sat some more.
For another 15-20 minutes.
And FINALLY – I SAW THEM! I ran up to them, and this is the conversation that took place:
Me – Hey guys, I need my jacket, gloves, hat, and wallet. I’m STARVING!
Them – Oh my gosh! We were so worried we weren’t going to find you until the museum closed and then we had no idea what we were going to do!
Me – I’ve been sitting at the Information desk where they tell all the lost people to go pretty much ever since you lost me! Didn’t you ask anybody about where you could find a lost person?
They hadn’t, but all ended well and I headed off to the in-museum café to buy myself some lunch and an enormous chocolate muffin. I had had a rough day…
That afternoon we went to the British Library and saw such documents as the original of Handel’s Messiah, a 15th century King James bible with unicorns depicted in the Garden of Eden, but also the Magna Carta. It was incredibly interesting, and we ended up spending a decent amount of time browsing through the exhibits there.
The next morning we woke up and had plans to go to the Westminster Abbey. We were briefly waylaid because my camera battery had died and I needed to get it recharged. I don’t know how we managed to stumble upon a store that had a “charging fee” where they would charge your camera battery for the price of 15 pounds, but we did! And I got it all sorted out so I could come back in the afternoon to pick it up. Though it was a steep price, it was well worth the money as I had come on the trip not only for the educational and fun experiences, but to also practice photography. In the afternoon, we met up with another friend of ours from IES for lunch and went with her through the Abbey before going that evening to the London Eye. I had picked up my camera, and went a little photo-crazy, but here are some of the highlights from that evening. We also went to a London pub for dinner, and it was some of the best food I had the entire trip!
Big Ben
Clock Face
Across from the Westminster Abbey
The Westminster Abbey
The London Eye as the sun is setting
Me in front of the clock tower!
London skyline at sunset
The London Eye
Nighttime at the Eye
On Tuesday, we went to Buckingham Palace in the morning to meet up with another IES friend and to see the Changing of the Guard. It was a great, relaxing morning, and even though we couldn’t tour the castle because the queen was currently in residence, it was a beautiful day to be outside. After watching the marching and yelling and music playing, we went to lunch at a small pub and then walked to the National Gallery to look around. (And this time I didn’t get lost in the museum! Yay!)
Note the (faux) bear skin hats!
The other band - without the hats.
The National Gallery
Looking out at the square.
Climbing up on this statue was quite a chore! But I got a picture with a lion as a result :)
That evening while my friends went to see a show, I got the great opportunity to go see my family friends who live an hour or two south of London. They live on a small farm and have two boys who are about the same age as my sister and I.
After a short bus ride, I was there! Only the parents were home as the two boys are off at University, but it was wonderful to get to see the two of them. They made me an excellent dinner, and after staying up late and chatting a while, it was time for bed. I woke up early the next morning, and after a quick breakfast, I was off again, back to London.
The last day was kind of a free day, and we did an odd assortment of things. My friends got their hair cut at a train station, and we bought tickets to hear a few bands play at a jazz club in the evening. After we got there, however, we decided instead to go to a bar across the street and to make friends with the people learning how to tie balloon animals. It was an incredibly interesting and fun night getting to know new people, and a great way to say goodbye to London, because the next morning we were off to Dublin, Ireland!
The Phone Booths never get old in London
And neither do the double-decker busses!
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