ITALY tomorrow!

I am literally shaking right now because I am SO EXCITED!

Tomorrow I leave for ITALY!!!! My plan is to spend 3 nights in Venice, 3 in Florence, 2 in Pisa then 3 in Rome! I've also already scheduled a gondola ride for venice, a CHIANTI REGION TUSCANY WINE TASTING TOUR for Florence, and a tour of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica for Rome. ahhh! It's going to be so fun!

I won't have my computer on me during the week, so unfortunately this is my last post for the month of October! (It's too heavy to carry and just in case our room get's broken into -- it's happened to me before in Costa Rica -- I don't want it to get stolen.) So expect a crazy update November 1st or 2nd! I return the 1st, but I have stuff to do that day (like go to class haha) so I might be too exhausted to upload pictures and write.

I'M SO EXCITED! Everyone check their mailboxes in the next few weeks for postcards! I'm going to go postcard mad. ;)

vedervi in 12 giorni!(see you in 12 days) ciao!

ps: I tried to upload more Scotland pictures, but blogger's down for maintenance. So if you'd like to see more, click this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068062&id=1326840221&l=53f4244646

Edinburgh, Scotland: The only place where Cashmere, Haggis and Ghosts belong together

Hey everyone! This weekend I traveld to Edinburgh, Scotland. We left from Kings cross station, Platform 8, which conviently had a tribute to Harry Potter right next to it! I got to take a picture at 9 3/4 pretending to jump through the brick wall! :)

While in Edinburg I stayed at the Edinburgh Backpaker's Hostel, right off of the Royal Mile Road which is the main street in the area. It was alright, kind of dirty and the bathrooms were gross too. I did not realize how small Edinburgh is until I realized we could access all parts of the city from our hostel by foot! MUCH different than London. I really enjoyed this aspect of Edinburgh because it made the city more accessible and feel more friendly.

The stairs in our hostel. Of course we stayed on the 2nd highest floor!

Edinburgh is full of cashmere shops because there are so many sheep in the area. I was able to buy myself 2 scarves for only £19.99 each! What a steal! Never before have I seen so many "CASHMERE HERE" signs in one small area! Also, there was a shop called Chocolate Soup which served chocolate any way you can possibly imagine. I bought a Choco-ana Latte I believe it was called. It was basically a chocolate milkshake with caramel and banana in it. Cashmere + Chocolate = Heaven. How could I not be in love?

The city is absolutely beautiful as well. We climbed to the top of King Edward's seat (this giant mountain) as well as a few other places and saw terrific views. The city is breathtakingly gorgeous from every angle. Plus, since the city is full of hills, it adds a lot of dimensions to the views. I could not stop snapping photos, it was gorgeous.


Friday afternoon we explored the city to get a feel of the area. We saw a bagpiper playing in the center park area! I was so excited. Then that night Jenna, Jason and I went on a pub crawl that was organized by some tourist group in Edinburgh. For £10 we were taken to 5 different pubs and received a free beer (I tried the local one which was frothy and warm and tasted like drinking bread, yuck.) and four free shots. I only took two of the shots because some were whiskey shots. (Or whisky as they spell it in Scotland.) And whisky grosses me out so I passed on those. Although it was somewhat annoying to travel in such a large group, (hard to meet locals when you change bars every 25 min) I enjoyed the pub crawl because I had fun with my friends and got to see a bunch of pubs that I likely wouldn't have seen otherwise. I'll upload pictures of the night as soon as Jason's not looking... ;)

The second day we did most of our exploring. We went to St. Mary's Cathedral, which was made originally to honour someone's mother but then the Bishop from Edinburgh needed a place to stay, so it was given to him. Then we went to the Royal Mile and walked the street. It was so tempting to buy all of the beautiful cashmere sweaters, scarves and gloves! Then after some lunch, which was DELICIOUS, we climbed King Arthur's seat. It is basically this giant cliff. It was sooo steep! I thought I was going to pass out climbing it, but it was definitely worth the effort because the views were beautiful!

King Arthur's seat. Overlooking the city. I'm wearing a purple cashmere scarf I bought there!

UNH kids on top of King Edward's seat. L to R: Jenna, Jason, Jill and I

On Saturday night we went on a ghost tour of the underground vaults. Edinburgh has an underground city because they ran out of room above ground and wanted to stay within the tall building walls to avoid attacks from the English. So the poor people, prostitues, and murderers had to live underground. And boy I felt bad once I had to see them! Our tour guide told us that the underground vaults remained unknown for a couple hundred years until some students one day banged something against one of their apartment walls and heard an echo. They pushed the wall down and found a stone city! After research by archeologists and such, they realized what the students had discovered. The underground vaults had been an area of refuge for prositutes, murderors, the poor and the like. Today people consider the rooms to be haunted because many souls died there. I was not scared of the souls, but it was eerie to be in a room where so many people had died. Plus they barely light the area so that was disturbing as well. One room was particularly disturbing: the coldest, largest room. In that room many women and children fled a great fire in the mid 1700s. Whilst the men fought above ground, the women thought they'd be safe underground because stone does not burn. Stone does, however, conduct heat. When the men went to go retrieve their wives and children, they discovered that they had all perished. It is said that while in that room you might feel scratches, shoves, or feel your hair being tugged. This is because that is likely what all of the women and children did while trying to escape the locked room. Eerie!

Our tour guide. Flambouyant but hysterical. (Yes, he was wearing a black cape.)

Then on Sunday we woke up around 8:30 so that we could visit Edinburgh Castle before heading home at 1:30. The castle was impressive because it is built high up on a hill into a giant stone rock slope. It must have been quite the fortress in its day. It was not as marvelously decorated as many English castles, and although this bothered Jill, I was not upset by it. The fact that the Scotsmen of that day were able to drag heavy stones up such a steep and high slopeside must have been quite the feat!

Part of Edinburgh Castle!

View from Edinburgh Castle

Here are some more pictures from the weekend!:

All the girls who hiked King Arthur's seat

Part of the Royal Mile street

Walking around

A real live bagpipe player!

Homework today, Scotland tomorrow!

Today I am living in the library. I have a lot of papers to get done before I can leave for Scotland tomorrow. Next week is Midterms Week, so understandably school has become a bit more demanding. I'm not in the homework mindset because classes have been fairly easy and enjoyable so far, so i'm struggling to get into the correct mindset! I'm an English major though, so whipping out 3 papers shouldn't take THAT long...(hopefully)... (even though one is a research paper...)

Then tomorrow i leave for Edinburgh! WOOO! Should be so fun! We are taking a train there, should be around a 3 hour train ride, and I will be gone Friday morning and return Sunday night. I'm going with 6 other friends, so I think it should be a really enjoyable weekend! The Scots are famous for their cashmere, so I really want to get a scarf there!!

All for now.. I'm clearly procrastinating on my homework!

Who's coat is that jacket? "Tidy" Wales!

I went to WALES this weekend! SO FUN! We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast called Parc-le-Bones owned by a little guy named Olive in Gower, Wales. It was beautiful there! The owners of the bed and breakfast also own a bunch of animals. The b&b had a pet dog and a BUNCH of cows and of course... PONIES! So I went pony trekking through the Welsh country side in Wales along the Atlantic ocean on both Saturday and Sunday! I rode for 4 hours on Sat and 6 on Sunday!

Parc-le-Boes (the B&B)

Favor and I on Friday

Saturday night we went into Mumbles, Wales (which apparently means breasts, because there are 2 hills, named by some french guy who discovered the area??) and went to a pub called the White Rose. I met some locals there who taught Jill and I some expressions! Like for instance "tidy" means cool, ace, or neat. It's a compliment if something's good. Like "yeah it was a tidy party!"

I also learned the expression "who's coast is that jacket?" which although they know it is repetitive, they say it anyway! It just means whose jacket is this.

They also say "sound" as in good. Like "He's a sound guy"... which means he's good! The guys were funny that we met because they were a group of friends from the town over, Swansea, and they were "bantering." The English and Welsh LOVE to banter! Apparntly it's "bad form" if you don't take it well, so they just spend all of their time literally (pronounced lit-cha-ra-lee) throwing beer at each other and generally making each other as disgusting as possible! Some guys even gave Jill and I facepaint and told us to "have a go" at his friend's face! WHAT!?!

Here are some pictures from the trip! I saw WILD PONIES while horseback riding! it was incredible! They were so brave. We got pretty close to them and they didn't seem to mind at all!

Another funny thing I noticed about Wales is that it looks like the SHIRE in LOTR! It is so green and the people LOOK EXACTLY LIKE HOBBITS! So bizarre! The country folk are worse than the ones in the cities, but still. The guys are mostly all between 5' 5" to 5' 8". The younger generation doesn't really follow this trend as much... but the middle aged and older people definitely do!

The younger generation seemed quite odd actually. Maybe because I've been living in London, (a city which is obsessed with Fashion) but I thought they looked quite odd on the whole. They wore JORTS! JEAN SHORTS! ewww! So that was strange. And if they had to have jean pants on, they'd role them to a capri length. Bizarre. Also, eyebrow piercings seemed to be strangely popular. Bad form Welshies, bad form.

But omggggg the FOOD was SO GOOD! The B&B served DELICIOUS home-cooked meals! It was so nice to eat yummy food! Such a good change from the dining hall food here!

It only took 3 hours to get to Wales. By train. It's so impressive how easily you can travel to another completely different area when you're in Europe! I love it!

That's all for now... hope you like my pictures! There are more on facebook if you're interested!

View of the Atlantic Ocean while pony trekking!

It's the Weekend!

Hello!

Today is a BEAUTIFUL sunny day in London! The weather is a comfortable 65F and the sun is shining! Yay!!!

View from outside one of my windows today.. that's the lake in the background!

Monday night I went on a field trip to the Young Vic theatre and saw the play Faust. I hateeeedddd ittt! It was so weird. It was done by an Icelandic Company and they were acrobats so the story was mostly told through movement. Being an English major, I was looking for plot and words, and it was more of a visual experience. I didn't mind the visual, and actually enjoyed it a lot, but as for plot and meaning I was stumped. Oh -- and for plays here -- the normal thing to do is arrive early and either have a few drinks with friends at the bar first or get dinner either at the theatre (most have resturants attached) or nearby. Here's a picture of Becky and I with a glass of white wine before the play. (This was taken only moments before Jason accidently knocked Becky's wine onto the floor and one of the workers had to clean it up! haha)

Here's a link to an article about the Faust Play I saw: www.ft.com/cms/s/2/670f5780-cfce-11df-bb9e-00144feab49a.html

Then today I went on a field trip to the Foundling Museum and learned about all of the poor babies who were abandoned by their mothers because they could not afford to feed them. :( So sad! But then I learned that George Frideric Handel performed the MESSIAH at the Foundling Museum to raise money for the charity! It went so well that for the next couple years he'd preferm the Messiah all the time!

... It's a little later now...

So I just found out that I need to wear waterproof track-like pants for Wales tomorrow! Jill, this girl Haley, and I just ran to a sports goods store nearby and bought some! They're so hideous! haha oh well. I also got a body bag (the kind that sling across your body) to wear on the horse so I can have my arms free but be able to carry my money and camera! I also have to wear my rainboots too apparently because if it rains at all I hear we can get pretty muddy! eww! haha should be an interesting weekend!

From what I've heard, we're staying in a really nice 4 star hotel in the countryside of wales! Friday night we meet our horses and learn how to tie them up and deal with the reins and stuff. Then Saturday we explore ALL DAY! Through the mountains and on beaches as well! Then Saturday night they are bringing us into town, so we'll be able to go out and meet locals that night.

Then Sunday we can either ride some more or explore the town!

Sounds so fun! I'm so excited! :) I'm going to put on my pony-trekking outfit now and post a picture! I look so ridiculous!!!

Picture Update!

Guilty! eating ice cream across from Hyde Park



Eliza and I on the tube!


By the Princess Diana memorial in Hyde Park


Us pretending to be royalty in a market shop in Bath.

Liz, Becky and I at the Italian Gardens in Hyde Park!

In (a) Bath

Yesterday I went to Bath, England! It is such a beautiful area of the country. I really enjoyed it because I was able to finally hear real British accents! It was so fun. I found this small hole in the wall breakfast/lunch place where we ate lunch. I ordered like a breakfast sandwhich which was sooo good, but different! They didn't have a wheat option, so it was white bread with this canadian thick bacon, a fried egg, and DELICIOUS shaved cheddar cheese. IT WAS SO GOOD!


Me checking out the menu at the restaurant in Bath!

We also toured Roman Baths which were very impressive. I wish that the museum hadn't built on top of the remains though, because I feel like that took away from it. It was distracting. But the Bath itself was very cool because I did not realize that it exists because it is essentially just a hot, natural gyser. The Romans thought that the hot spring was created by the Gods, but now adays we obviously realize otherwise!



I touched the water too, and it actually was very warm!


After the Baths we just explored the city. I stumbled upon the Jane Austen museum and obviously had to go inside and take a picture with her!

Jane and I, best friends 4 lyfe

Hope you enjoyed my pictures!

Kensington Palace/Hyde Park and Windsor Castle

This week I went to Hampton Court with my English Palaces class. Thursday I went to Hyde Park with Becky, Liz and Sheila and we walked around. We saw the Princess Diana memorial and the Peter Pan statue and the Kensington gardens. Today I had an all day field trip with me English Palaces house to Windsor Castle. It was POURING rain, which really sucked, so looking at the outside was fairly unenjoyable. It was very windy and rainy. But the inside was GORGEOUS! Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of the inside but that's alright... I bought a book to remember it by. Here are some pictures from the last few days!


Windsor Castle!


Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park! Sept 30


swan's in hyde park

Champion Bar last night in Notting Hill


Me at a Scottish store across from Windsor Castle earlier today (Oct 1)