My last week in London (Pt 1)...

...was filled with so much fun!

I went to see the Phantom of the Opera. 

It was so good and I still have some of the songs stuck in my head. We bought really cheap tickets so we were in the second row of the balcony. The view was a little difficult. We had a hard time seeing over the ledge and the people in front of us. And, certain parts of the stage were a little bit covered by things hanging from the ceiling. haha. Liz and I ended up leaning into Emily's seat and we all leaned forward the whole time, resulting in some cricks in our necks my the end, but so worth it!

We couldnt' let the fourth of July pass us by without a good American celebration. 

We clelbrate the 4th at the Chicago Rib Shack in London. The whole meal we entertained (and/or annoyed) everyone in the resteraunt by sining along to some of the good American songs that they played. Liz and Morgan ran around the resteraunt turning all of the American flags the right way cause the British couldn't seem to get the hang of it. We fully enjoyed the bbq (although nothing compares to home) complete with bibs and brought a the USA to London.

The whole Auburn group went on a Jack the Ripper tour. I'll spare you the gorey details cause I definately don't want to think about it again. We also went to see a play called 39 Steps. The entire play was performed by only 4 actors. They did a great job and were very funny. It was definately a different type of play than I had every seen.

We went to class and snacked on Ben's Cookies. 

During the week we went to the EUSA office and did a simulation for the international marketing class. Our team (unofficially named Cheers Yall) dominated, well kind of. During our lunch break we took a trip to enjoy Ben's Cookies. So delicious and the only motivation you need to venture over to South Kinsington (besides all the the pretty buildings and streets and that fact the Pippa and Hugh Grant walk around that area.)

We spent one afternoon wondering around the city.

We went to the always wonderful Buckingham palace. Where we envisioned the royal wedding and where they road in the carriage, kissed on the balcony, etc.

We also wondered around St. James' Park. I can't believe that their is such a beautiful park in the middle of the city. London really does a wonderful job of having lots of very very nice parks in the city. While we were there Morgan met a squirrel sister. She went along talking to it for a little bit and then ran away when it looked at her "ferosciously."

 

I saw the fancy (and smelly) horses and the guards rode them away.

Soccer practice...

One thing I loved about the view from my room was the soccer field I could see through the buildings. Almost everyday the players would be out there practicing after I got back from work. It was such a pleasant and friendly sight. Just one things I loved about my Spitalfields neighbourhood.

Wimbledon...

I loved Wimbeldon. A day filled with sun, the outdoors, tennis, fun friends, adventure, and strawberries and cream!

Our day began with a 4 am wake up call. Then we grogilly headed to catch the night bus to Wimbledon. We got some funny looks since we were all dressed up for the day and everyone else was returning from really really late nights. Once we successfully changed busses 3 times we got to our stop and wandered around the town not knowing where to go until we found some other Wimbledon fans and followed them to the field.

 When we walked up to join the queue (fancy British word for the line) there was a line of tents from the very dedicated fans who spent the night.

I got a queue card and got in line.

I was #202. Even though it was 5am!

I even got a guide book on how to queue with lots of instructions and info for the day.

 And then the waiting began! 

It was freezing cold so we were really happy when the sun came up!

I was the only one even remotely prepared for how cold it was and I was still freezing!

While we were in line we got onto the Bristish tv station BBC. A bounch of us auburn girls were interviewed live on their "breakfast telly" show.

This older worker came by and woke everyone in the tents up. The next few hours was a series of moving and waiting, then moving and waiting, and moving and waiting.

We moved out fo the field and stood in another line for 2 hours (where we sent a few people off to Starbucks to get us some very needed breakfast). Then went through security and stood in another line. Then bought tickets and stood waiting to get into the game area. Then went into the game area and stood waiting to get to the courts. Then once the whole court area was opened we found our spot on the mound and waited until 1 until the first match started. 

Let me say all of that waiting was definately worth it!

(We were then on the radio. We had quite the day with the media!)

We got to watch Tsonga and Jackovitch play while we sat on the mound and ate pizza and strawberries and cream (very yummy).

It was amazing weather!

Later that day we bough tickets to Court #1 and got to see the Bryan brothers and then Lindsay Davenport play in doubles.

Then it was on to watch the Nadal v. Murray match. It was a HUGE deal since Murray is from Scotland and was a home town favorite. 

The crowed gathered on the mound to watch.

Then, thirteen hours later, we headed back to Liverpool Street!

Barcelona...

Barcelona update, better late than never!....

Barcelona was absolutely amazing! Spain was one of the first countries I ever visited when I was younger and it was fun to go back and see it again. Coming from lovely England, the weather in Spain was MUCH warmer and sunnier.  It was great to finally stay in a nice hotel too (thanks to our Orbits discount coupon!)

List of (the best) activities in Spain: 

1. Eat as much Spainsh food as possible.

Paella

Sangria

This meal was followed by tapas and a nice Spanish meal at a resteraunt our hotel recomended.

2. Speak as much Spanish as possible. 

We all had fun trying to use our very very rusty (and very bad sounding) spanish skills while we were there. And we particularly enjoyed listening to John trying to talk to the taxi drivers. 

3. Tour the harbor. 

The harbor in barcelona is beautiful both at night and during the day. I loved walking around the harbor and seeing the water and all of the boats. 

4. Wander the streets.

We wantered down Las Ramblas and looked at all of the stands. There are beautiful paintings and all kinds of other stuff in Spain, not to mention the awesome nock off sunglasses and purses by the bay.

5. Soak up the sun.

We spent all most of Saturday at the beach. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining bright (....and I have the worst sunburn ever to prove it!) We had lunch on a terrace by the beach and then went to enjoy the sand. The water was freezing cold and I will say that Florida sand definately winds out! While all of the vendors walking up and down the beach were super annoying, but the two guitarists that sat in front of us and played a free concert made up for it. Nothing could have been more wonderful than a relaxing time on the beach.

6. Go to local hangouts (that are filled with Americans).

We folowed tips from some friends and went to Dow Jones and Espete Chupitos. Both places were filled almost entirely with Americans. Chupitos was espically fun with the Georgian and Harry Potter. 

7. Tour the home of champions. 

I absolutely loved goign to tour the Barcelona Football Club. We got to go through the entire stadium and even up into the coaches box. Some of the coolest parts were going into the press room and getting to hold the actual trophy that they just won, and also going into the players locker room. I got chills when we went through the tunnel that the players exit from to go out to the field for a game.

           Us auburn people felt a connection with the FCB because we are both recent champions.

Practice field...we wonder if the team was actually the ones practicing!

7. Climb La Sagrada Familia.

La Sagrada is amazing! The whole church is so detailed and beautiful! This felt like a flash back to when I was little! The Cathedral is still under construction and has been forever and will be for a long time still. We went up the lift (a very European term) and climbed through the towers. Lovely views but very steep and winding stiarcase down. I loved it but when glad to make it to the bottom.

Even the ceiling is detailed.

The whole outside is covered with carvings.

In the tower.

The winding stairs down.

8. Head back to cheery England!!!!

Dublin...

Here is a slideshow with pictures from the trip! They all have captions so it should somewhat explain what the weekend was like.

Behing the scenes at the airport...

                                                                                                                I have gotten to have so many adventures while in London. One of the funnest adventures definately has been getting to go behind the scenes at the airport. Twice as a part of my internship I have gotten to go to the airport for a "walk a mile," which is pretty much an inside look at how an airport is run.

I was able to go into the premier passenger lounges. They showed me into the kitchen (where they were making some desert that smelled really good.) I also saw inside the "maid" workroom where they take the remove the suits from the door panel while people are showering and press them. I also went behing the checkin counters and into the security area. It was really cool to have an airside pass and be allowed into all of the different areas.

The funnest part was getting to actually go down onto the runway. I went down into the ramp workers rest area. There were lots of rough and tumble guys but they were all very sweet and friendly to me. One man took me out into the tug (one of those funny looking car things you see driving around on the tarmac).

We rode all over the airport and onto the runway. He told me all about the airport terminology and what all of the signs meant. We also listened to the control tower and called into them when we drove onto the runway. It was cool to learn the jargon and then listen to the pilots call into the tower before they took off and know what they were talking about and what they were about to do. I was even able to go inside one of the AA planes that was at the holding stall. We sat in the cockpit and the guy explained to me where the brake was, how the power worked, and what all of the controls meant. 

After that the ramp crew took me out to load the bags onto the plane. I got to put a couple of suitcases onto the ramp and joke around with the workers while they did the rest of the work. The plane was full of people and it was so weird to think that I was one of those people that you can see out of the plane window standing on the tarmac. Then I rode in the tug while we pushed the plane with all of the passengers in it away from the gate and into position to taxi to the runway. 

 

The whole thing was definately a once in a lifetime experience that I never thought I would get to have!

Cookie Dough...

So its true, the food here is a little bland. A lady a worked with was talking to me about how the food in America is so much sweeter and salter...and I was thinking and boy is it good! As a result I have eaten more Italian food here than I think I have eaten in my entire life!

The grocery stores are surprisingly different! We have sooooo much more food and sooo much more variely thant they have in England.Even the food that is the same brand as we have at home tastes different. For example, here the Ritz crackers and more dense, not a crispy and have no salt on them! Its crazy!

One things it is impossible to find is cheese dip. Trust me, we have looked at every mexican and latin resteraunt!

Secondly, they don't seem to sell pre-made, packaged cookie dough! It does not exist!! We have asked all the people at Tesco and they have never heard of it. We found an italian resteraunt that had a cookie dough desert it in Oxford and got so excited. We ordered it and they told us they were all out. We saw the same resteraunt in Edinburgh and asked for it and they were out too! So, Monday when we went to Victoria station and saw the resteraunt again we decided to try one last time...and they had just the right number left for the three of us! We were so excited about the cookie dough that the waiter thought we were kind of odd.

Doesn't it look yummy! 

Lesson: Bring your own cookie dough, ritz crackers, and cheese dip to London!

Oh, Edinburgh...

I LOVE Edinburgh! This past weekend was my second time to go and I loved it just as much as the first. I went probably six or seven years ago with my family. It was really fun to pass places and remember going there with Mom, Dad, Anna, and Lauren. We went with our wonderful little travel group and John and Colin.

We had a beautiful ride to Edinburgh on the train and passed all of the countryside and the water  (which Morgan thought was a lake, I told her was the Ocean, and the lady next to me corrected us and told us the North Sea...oops!) I loved being still to sleep, read, and look out the window. We stayed in ta perfect location, really near the train station and right off the Royal Mile. It was probably one of the nicest hostels I have ever seen (although I really haven't seen very many I guess!).

We wandered around the shops on the Royal Mile, listened to the bag pipes, and saw all of the wool and cashmere. I remembered that there were gardens near by to we headed that way and ended up walking on a path through a field next to the Castle. It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!

Seeing all of the fields and the wonderful sun made my heart happy! I love walking around beautiful countryside like this SO much!

 Because we had so much fun in the Princess Gardens we decided to walk to the Botanical Gardens...boy did we not know what we were getting ourselves into!!! Some people we met in the Park told us everyone knew where it was and could give us directions. We figured in that case it would be really close and easy to get to. After for walking around for a while in the direction we assumed we were supposed to go (the Botanics were off of our map so that wasn't very helpful), we stopped and asked a mail man how to get there. He told us to take a few turns and we'd be there, and then rolled down his window when he drove by to make sure we knew which turn to take. After another 20 minutes of walking, no gardens. A sweet old man saw us looking lost and came over to help us, telling us to go down the windy windy bridge and take a few turns. After that we still weren't there! By that point the weather had changed it started to rain.

We finally saw a sign pointing to the gardens. But now it was poring rain and we had come to a bus stop and decided it would be better to take the bus back than walk around the gardens and then walk an hour back in the rain. Sadly, we never made it to the gardens, but we had quite an adventure getting there!





That night we ate at the most wonderful restaurant ever, Monteiths!!! It was so nice and quaint and had great food! We loved it so much that we decided to make reservations and bring the guys back the next night.

Saturday was a very grey and raining day...not to mention freezing cold. After breakfast we decided to go tour the the Endiburgh Castle...bad idea! We waited in the rain to get a ticket for thirty minutes. Once we got inside the wind was blowing so hard we thought we were going to freeze. The castle and views are great on a sunny day, but there is not much of a change to see stuff inside the castle building away from the rain. After this we decided to take our sightseeing inside and go on the Scotch whisky tour. They told us all about the whisky from the different regions of Scotland and we got to smell the differences in them. The places was cool but I think whisky is nasty!!!

That night we went to the bank bar pub to celebrate Colin's 21st bday. They had a guitarist and we was playing all sorts of songs we would have at a band party! The second song he played was Brown Eyed Girl. Of course we loved and it all sang. After that a man came over and said that was his and his wife's song from 1970's and he couldn't believe we knew it...he thought it was so great that he bought all six of us a round. Turned out he was from Atlanta and had come over to play golf. Colin brought the place to life by trying to get literally EVERYONE in the pub to dance! It was so much fun to dance! We also met four older Scottish people who we talked to a lot that night! They were hilarious and dancing with all of us (while playing matchmaker with Liz)! haha such a fun night and wonderful memories!

Sunday we climbed Arthur's Seat. Again, I LOVED it! Beautiful views! John had bought a mini bagpipe and played it for us on the hill lol! Kaz, one of Colin's friends from UVA who is from Edinburgh invited us to her house for lunch. We had so much fun hanging out with her and her sister, and friend and the food was to die for!

That's the end of my long and wonderful weekend and back to London on the train I went!

My new friend, the London Tube...

I have quite a commute to work every day, an hour and thirty minutes each way! During my spare time during my ride (which I have tons of!) I counted the number of stops I have to go through on my way. This comes out to be a grand total of 22! (I travel from one black arrow to the other black arrow.) Thus, I have lots of time to listen to music, pray, read, and people watch every morning and afternoon. Lately, I have been having a hard time not dosing off to sleep!

Lots of kids ride the tube to school. It is really cute to see all of them getting on with their uniforms in the morning. i missed seeing them last week because they were on their version of "spring break." I was on the tube one afternoon earlier this week during my regular commute to work, when I heard two girls quizzing each other for a test. They were talking about the bombing of Birmingham, Alabama and the desegregation of the University of Alabama, and other civil rights events in the US. It was so surprised! Who would have thought that they would be learning about good ole Birmingham, AL all the way over here across the pond! After a little while, I talked to the girls and told them that I was from Birmingham. I think they were really surprised! Both were very sweet, one was in her 8th year and the other was in her 11th (they don't use grades).

My lovely surprise yesterday morning was that the chip in my Oyster travel card no longer works so I cannot get through the tube station. I have to have a new card mailed to me and then go through the confusing process of having my old card refunded and buying another travel plan for the new card and then getting reimbursed for my temporary card. Please pray that the process for getting a new card set up goes smoothly and quickly! 

I am sure that my adventures in the tube will only continue!

I survived Amsterdam...

The weekend was quite the adventure beginning with leaving our place at 5:45 am for our flight. I had stayed up late the night before finishing a paper, so I fell asleep before the safety presentation and didn't wake up again until after we landed!

We spent the first afternoon in Amsterdam wandering around the canals and different squares. We did wander through the red light district just to say we had been. It was kind of similar to Bourbon street until you got the the actual red light zones. Very interesting to say the least! Then late we went on a boat tour of all of the canals and it was beautiful to see the sights. 

I stayed in my first hostel ever! The four of us girls actually stayed in the "hotel" part of the hostel in a private room but I figure that still counts right? Saturday morning came a lot earlier than expected, especially when the pigeons who had landed on the window sill of our open window and started cooing at 6 morning and scared me and Emily half to death. The stairs in those dutch buildings are something else! The stairs up to our room seemed more like a crooked ladder. They were incredibly steep and hardly wide enough to put your whole foot on!

We toured the Heineken beer factory. The factory tour was great with lots of entertainment and even a simulated ride... and beer tasting of course! While we were at Heineken we meet a guy working there who was from Philly and talked to him for a bit. Later that afternoon we were walking down the street and someone called out "hey girls!" We turned around and saw him at a pub with his friends, small world!

The highlight of the trip was our bike tour through the city. Amsterdam is a huge bike city. There are more bikes in Amsterdam than there are people! They even have a huge bike parking deck next to the train station.

Our bike tour guide was the epitome of what you would image when you think of someone from Amsterdam. Born and raised in Amsterdam, she was unashamed to talk about anything and everything Amsterdam related, and was complete with dread locks, scraggly teeth, and blew bubbles in the air as we peddled down the street. We went all over the city on our tour. Sadly, I didn't end up with many pictures because my biking skill are not quite at that level of multitasking yet.

We rounded out the weekend on the rainy Sunday (which I had brought no rain gear for and was completely unprepared) by taking the trolley every. We went to a well known pancake place (really more like crepes) and had a wonderful brunch. We had to scrap the original plan of going to she the flower market due to the rain. However, we did go to Van Gogh Museum which was really cool. Thanks to Emily we spotted Kristen Wiig while we were there!

Thank you to my Uncle Chap who gave me lots of wonderful tips for the weekend! They were so helpful!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Then it was back to London, which for now is Home sweet home!