Hello all,
Yesterday was a travel day again, from Chester to Huddersfield. Unforntunately, our train was canceled so we got into town a little late and our friends Kim and Katie were waiting for us for a half an hour without any idea where we were. We found eachother though and it was all good. They took us out for a proper afternoon tea and then we got into town and Kim took us to the oldest pub in Yorkshire which was really neat and then we went home and relaxed and went to bed.
Today was a whole lot of fun. We woke up early and went to Bolton Abby. This is a church ruin in a gorgeous field of green with a very fast river runing beside it. We walked through the ruins and through all the lovely nature for a few hours. We lucked out because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was really nice to see the country side. We then drove over to York, which was a very pretty city as well. We walked around for a bit, went to see the Minster (A very very large pretty church), and walked up to Cliford Tower. It was a very relaxing and beautiful day and we had a great time hanging out with our old friends from Central America. After the long day of walking around we came back and played board games which was really fun. Well, until tomorrow...
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Day 13- Liverpool and Chester again
Hi all!
This was another very busy day- we were hanging out with our friend Carly, as well as her two friends Helen and Chrissy- we started out in the morning in Wales, then drove into Chester to pick them up. After, we had a big day planned in Liverpool, and a great big long list of touristy things to get done. We started out by going to the Beatles Experience, which was a really cool museum that has a lot of displays and information as well as a guided audio tour- I love the Beatles but actually learned a lot about them and how they got started etc. Plus they had some neat things like the famous 4 grey jackets they wore, and John Lennons round yellow glasses. There was a lot of cool stuff in the gift shop but all very pricey so the five of us ended up buying a knock off of the Lennon glasses in all different colors and wearing them for a good part of the day (we totally fit in- they all do that in Liverpool). (Ok that was sarcasm we looked ridiculous but it was funny) After we went into the main part of town and walked around and did some shopping- they had this amazing amazing store of really cute clothes/shoes that was sooo cheap in comparison to everything else there called Pricemark I think? Anyways we went in to get some nice shoes because we had both just brought sneakers and we were going out that night in Chester with the girls, but both ended up buying a few things more! I actually bought 3 shirts and 2 pairs of shoes and pajamas.. and then remembered that I had to cram them into my backpack with everything else I had already bought. Needless to say, it's getting pretty hard to zip up! After that we walked down Mathew Street where a lot of Beatles stuff is, like the Cavern Club where they started playing and becoming super popular, and then The Grapes Pub where they used to go out drinking afterwards. Then we drove over to Penny Lane and afterwards to the Liverpool John Lennon Airport where they had a big yellow submarine- basically a lot of really cheesy touristy pictures. Then we drove back to Wales and had a great big tasty Chinese dinner and said goodbye to Carly's family before driving back into Chester to Helen's apartment. We all spent a bit getting ready together, which was a lot of fun with a big group of girls, then headed out to this club called RB's. We had a lot of fun dancing the night away, and even danced with the wierd old man that comes every Friday and Saturday(apparently a tradition there!). We danced for sooooo long, almost 5 hours straight!! By the time we got home we were really really pooped but it was well worth it. Luckily we didn't have to wake up super early the next day, and I'll stop now and let Nyssa fill you in from there. Bye for now!
This was another very busy day- we were hanging out with our friend Carly, as well as her two friends Helen and Chrissy- we started out in the morning in Wales, then drove into Chester to pick them up. After, we had a big day planned in Liverpool, and a great big long list of touristy things to get done. We started out by going to the Beatles Experience, which was a really cool museum that has a lot of displays and information as well as a guided audio tour- I love the Beatles but actually learned a lot about them and how they got started etc. Plus they had some neat things like the famous 4 grey jackets they wore, and John Lennons round yellow glasses. There was a lot of cool stuff in the gift shop but all very pricey so the five of us ended up buying a knock off of the Lennon glasses in all different colors and wearing them for a good part of the day (we totally fit in- they all do that in Liverpool). (Ok that was sarcasm we looked ridiculous but it was funny) After we went into the main part of town and walked around and did some shopping- they had this amazing amazing store of really cute clothes/shoes that was sooo cheap in comparison to everything else there called Pricemark I think? Anyways we went in to get some nice shoes because we had both just brought sneakers and we were going out that night in Chester with the girls, but both ended up buying a few things more! I actually bought 3 shirts and 2 pairs of shoes and pajamas.. and then remembered that I had to cram them into my backpack with everything else I had already bought. Needless to say, it's getting pretty hard to zip up! After that we walked down Mathew Street where a lot of Beatles stuff is, like the Cavern Club where they started playing and becoming super popular, and then The Grapes Pub where they used to go out drinking afterwards. Then we drove over to Penny Lane and afterwards to the Liverpool John Lennon Airport where they had a big yellow submarine- basically a lot of really cheesy touristy pictures. Then we drove back to Wales and had a great big tasty Chinese dinner and said goodbye to Carly's family before driving back into Chester to Helen's apartment. We all spent a bit getting ready together, which was a lot of fun with a big group of girls, then headed out to this club called RB's. We had a lot of fun dancing the night away, and even danced with the wierd old man that comes every Friday and Saturday(apparently a tradition there!). We danced for sooooo long, almost 5 hours straight!! By the time we got home we were really really pooped but it was well worth it. Luckily we didn't have to wake up super early the next day, and I'll stop now and let Nyssa fill you in from there. Bye for now!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Edinburgh/Chester/Wales
Hello again,
So this morning we woke up at 6:30 so we could catch an early train into Chester to meet one of my old camp friends, Carly. The trains had been shut down for 2 days now and no one in the entire country could travel so needless to say today was a crazy travel day... so much in fact that we ended up getting kicked off one of the trains because there were too many people on it and it was a saftey hazard so we had to get on the next one. After four connections, a bunch of delays, and lots of people we finally made it to Chester an hour and a half later than we wanted. When we got here though Carly picked us up from the train station and showed us all around the city. There were sooo many people out shopping, it was like the day after thanksgiving over here. She showed us the Chester clock, which apparently every American takes a picture of so we had to in good American style, and walked through some Roman ruins, and went to a really pretty Cathedral. From there we went back to Carly's place in Wales (where her younger sister was very excited to hear an American accent) and relaxed... which was really nice. Her mom made us a proper English style fish and chips and mushy peas dinner and then we sat around watching TV and eating chocolate. Her family is so nice and it was great to be in a home rather then a hostel. We both had a hot shower this morning and got to blow dry our hair!!! ya!!!!! Anyways we are off to Liverpool now for a very busy and exciting day. Can't wait to go to the Yellow Submarine!!!
Until tomorrow.
So this morning we woke up at 6:30 so we could catch an early train into Chester to meet one of my old camp friends, Carly. The trains had been shut down for 2 days now and no one in the entire country could travel so needless to say today was a crazy travel day... so much in fact that we ended up getting kicked off one of the trains because there were too many people on it and it was a saftey hazard so we had to get on the next one. After four connections, a bunch of delays, and lots of people we finally made it to Chester an hour and a half later than we wanted. When we got here though Carly picked us up from the train station and showed us all around the city. There were sooo many people out shopping, it was like the day after thanksgiving over here. She showed us the Chester clock, which apparently every American takes a picture of so we had to in good American style, and walked through some Roman ruins, and went to a really pretty Cathedral. From there we went back to Carly's place in Wales (where her younger sister was very excited to hear an American accent) and relaxed... which was really nice. Her mom made us a proper English style fish and chips and mushy peas dinner and then we sat around watching TV and eating chocolate. Her family is so nice and it was great to be in a home rather then a hostel. We both had a hot shower this morning and got to blow dry our hair!!! ya!!!!! Anyways we are off to Liverpool now for a very busy and exciting day. Can't wait to go to the Yellow Submarine!!!
Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Day 11 Edinburgh
Hello all,
So it is still only noon, but internet acess is limited so I am going to write you about our morning and fill you in on the rest of the day tomorrow. So today is boxing day which is a national holiday that no one really knows why it is called boxing day, basically what is means to Lucy and I though is that everything is closed! Well there are more things open today than there were on christmas, but not that many touristy things. To our luck though the "Whiskey Experience" was open! YAY! Yes, I know that you now realize that I just told you it was noon, so yes we did go on a whisky tour at 10am... nothing else was open though what did you want us to do??? Anyways, it was actually really interesting learning about how whisky was made, and how to tell the difference between the hundreds of different types of whisky that are made. As part of the tour we got a free whisky glass and a free dram of whisky (we tried black bottle which is apparently pretty rare and the bottle cost about $50 in the store). They told us the 5 steps to drinking whisky and that is color, body, nose, palate, and finish. We then learned from a ghost how to blend Scotch whisky (no we weren't drunk it was part of the tour...). After hanging out with the ghost we went on a barrel ride through time and learned all about the history of scotch whiskey, which was a little bit smelly, but quite entertaining. Now we are here, writing to you, so I hope that everyone that celebrates it had a very Merry Chistmas yesterday and Happy Boxing day today!
Until tomorrow!
So it is still only noon, but internet acess is limited so I am going to write you about our morning and fill you in on the rest of the day tomorrow. So today is boxing day which is a national holiday that no one really knows why it is called boxing day, basically what is means to Lucy and I though is that everything is closed! Well there are more things open today than there were on christmas, but not that many touristy things. To our luck though the "Whiskey Experience" was open! YAY! Yes, I know that you now realize that I just told you it was noon, so yes we did go on a whisky tour at 10am... nothing else was open though what did you want us to do??? Anyways, it was actually really interesting learning about how whisky was made, and how to tell the difference between the hundreds of different types of whisky that are made. As part of the tour we got a free whisky glass and a free dram of whisky (we tried black bottle which is apparently pretty rare and the bottle cost about $50 in the store). They told us the 5 steps to drinking whisky and that is color, body, nose, palate, and finish. We then learned from a ghost how to blend Scotch whisky (no we weren't drunk it was part of the tour...). After hanging out with the ghost we went on a barrel ride through time and learned all about the history of scotch whiskey, which was a little bit smelly, but quite entertaining. Now we are here, writing to you, so I hope that everyone that celebrates it had a very Merry Chistmas yesterday and Happy Boxing day today!
Until tomorrow!
Days 9/10 - Bristol and Edinburgh, Scotland
Hi again!
So, after our last entry, we in fact did not go out anywhere cool for dinner/drinks. We went back to our room and fell asleep at about 5 pm and didn't wake up till 9(pm again)! We both contemplated just sleeping straight through the night, but Nyssa needed to get some work done and I was hungry so we went to the cafe downstairs, got a small bite to eat and both did some reading for a few hours, then off to bed around midnight. That morning we woke up pretty early, had the awesome breakfast feast again, then headed to the train station for our ride to Edinburgh. It was a long trip with one change in Birmingham- we left at 9:30 am and then didn't get in till 4:30 pm! While in BIrmingham, we had about an hour layover so stopped into one of the station pubs for some tea and a muffin. I jokingly asked Nyssa if she was going to get a 'morning beer' as it was only 11ish, but then noticed we were actually the only ones in there NOT drinking some form of alcohol! Apparently Brits are bigger drinkers than we thought... During the ride later in the afternoon I started to get hungry and got a sandwich- it was Christmas Eve, which is the day my family usually ahs our big dinner, and i actually found a sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce inside it!! I thought it was pretty funny anyways. We got there and had a bit of trouble finding our hostel, since it was already dark and the directions on our sheet were wrong, but finally did get settled into our room with about 8 other people mostly from Hong Kong. We went down and hung out in the bar for a bit, and during our drinks decided to have a shot for Jesus(which was pretty funny), and then went to bed reasonably early at 10ish. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, and then left for a free walkign tour around the city. It said on the voucher that it was open 365 days a year, regarless of weather or holidays, so we figured that would be one of our only fun options to do on Christmas. They were having a big holiday party at the hostel, but it cost £25, which is about $50, and frankly at this point in the trip neither of us had that much to spend! The walking tour is through the same company that we went on in Amsterdam, and the guide did a really really good job. We learned all about the history of the city and Scotand in general, about William Wallace(and how Braveheart isn't really historically accurate- for example he didn't live in a humble little hut in the forest, he was actually a duke or something with loads of money! But, still did awesome things for the country), about all the witchburnings that used to go on there, the famous bodysnatchers Burke and (Haige?), saw where Harry Potter was written and the building that inspired Hogwarts, learned a lot about famous writers that lived there, and of course went up and saw the beautiful castle and all the different views from it. We stopped for a break for lunch in the middle, and the pub we went into had free santa hats and those crackers with little presents inside, so that was pretty neat and made me feel all Christmas-y even though I wasn't at home. After that there wasn't really a whole lot else to do, so we went back to the hostel to do some much-needed laundry and watched the Grinch(the one with Jim Carrey) on TV in the lounge room. I had gone out earlier to make some phone calls and saw that the only place around open was the Chinese buffet, so we decided for dinner to celebrate Christmas Jewish-style and go there! Buuuut when we got there, they obviously knew they were the only game in town and were charging £20!!!! for dinner that is usually half that! (that's 40 bucks, which is absolutely ridiculous- not very much in the Christmas spirit if you ask me!) Neither of us wanted to pay that much for dinner, so we instead wandered around trying to find somewhere- even the kitchen at our hostel was closed because of the Christmas party, and we though for a while we would have to buy chips and candy from one of the little stores that were still open! Luckily we came upon an Indian place, and had a pretty good(albeit still quite pricey) meal there. After that, we went back home to watch some TV and hang otu a bit more before calling it an early night- we weren't really even that tired, but since there wasn't anything else to do we figured we might as well go to bed! But, overall, a pretty good Christmas!
So, after our last entry, we in fact did not go out anywhere cool for dinner/drinks. We went back to our room and fell asleep at about 5 pm and didn't wake up till 9(pm again)! We both contemplated just sleeping straight through the night, but Nyssa needed to get some work done and I was hungry so we went to the cafe downstairs, got a small bite to eat and both did some reading for a few hours, then off to bed around midnight. That morning we woke up pretty early, had the awesome breakfast feast again, then headed to the train station for our ride to Edinburgh. It was a long trip with one change in Birmingham- we left at 9:30 am and then didn't get in till 4:30 pm! While in BIrmingham, we had about an hour layover so stopped into one of the station pubs for some tea and a muffin. I jokingly asked Nyssa if she was going to get a 'morning beer' as it was only 11ish, but then noticed we were actually the only ones in there NOT drinking some form of alcohol! Apparently Brits are bigger drinkers than we thought... During the ride later in the afternoon I started to get hungry and got a sandwich- it was Christmas Eve, which is the day my family usually ahs our big dinner, and i actually found a sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce inside it!! I thought it was pretty funny anyways. We got there and had a bit of trouble finding our hostel, since it was already dark and the directions on our sheet were wrong, but finally did get settled into our room with about 8 other people mostly from Hong Kong. We went down and hung out in the bar for a bit, and during our drinks decided to have a shot for Jesus(which was pretty funny), and then went to bed reasonably early at 10ish. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, and then left for a free walkign tour around the city. It said on the voucher that it was open 365 days a year, regarless of weather or holidays, so we figured that would be one of our only fun options to do on Christmas. They were having a big holiday party at the hostel, but it cost £25, which is about $50, and frankly at this point in the trip neither of us had that much to spend! The walking tour is through the same company that we went on in Amsterdam, and the guide did a really really good job. We learned all about the history of the city and Scotand in general, about William Wallace(and how Braveheart isn't really historically accurate- for example he didn't live in a humble little hut in the forest, he was actually a duke or something with loads of money! But, still did awesome things for the country), about all the witchburnings that used to go on there, the famous bodysnatchers Burke and (Haige?), saw where Harry Potter was written and the building that inspired Hogwarts, learned a lot about famous writers that lived there, and of course went up and saw the beautiful castle and all the different views from it. We stopped for a break for lunch in the middle, and the pub we went into had free santa hats and those crackers with little presents inside, so that was pretty neat and made me feel all Christmas-y even though I wasn't at home. After that there wasn't really a whole lot else to do, so we went back to the hostel to do some much-needed laundry and watched the Grinch(the one with Jim Carrey) on TV in the lounge room. I had gone out earlier to make some phone calls and saw that the only place around open was the Chinese buffet, so we decided for dinner to celebrate Christmas Jewish-style and go there! Buuuut when we got there, they obviously knew they were the only game in town and were charging £20!!!! for dinner that is usually half that! (that's 40 bucks, which is absolutely ridiculous- not very much in the Christmas spirit if you ask me!) Neither of us wanted to pay that much for dinner, so we instead wandered around trying to find somewhere- even the kitchen at our hostel was closed because of the Christmas party, and we though for a while we would have to buy chips and candy from one of the little stores that were still open! Luckily we came upon an Indian place, and had a pretty good(albeit still quite pricey) meal there. After that, we went back home to watch some TV and hang otu a bit more before calling it an early night- we weren't really even that tired, but since there wasn't anything else to do we figured we might as well go to bed! But, overall, a pretty good Christmas!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Day 8- Bristol
Hello all!
It gets dark here ridiculously early so we decided to get an early start on our day. I woke up at 730 for a hot(yesssss) shower and then we went downstairs for the free breakfast- all the hostels we have stayed at so far had free breakfast, but generally its just toast and tea, or cereal or something. Well, this breakfast was awesome! They had all kinds of meats and eggs and pastries and FRUIT(which was fabulous) as well as hot chocolate and yogurt and granola etc etc. Being that the dollar is worth crap over here, we definitely took advantage of free food! (In fact, I still have a plum in my purse!) We were in a 4 bed room but it was just us and an older British lady, she found us at breakfast and sat down, and we commenceed to have a 20 minute conversation about bats, leading into how americans, and us specifically, were incredibly wasteful. So, interesting morning convo. After that we hopped a bus over to the Bristol Zoo, which was actually really good! The carribbean reef again was underrepresented, but they had lots of everything else, It was sooo cold outsid though, I felt pretty bad for the monkeys/lions/gorillas because you could tell they were cold. The water for the pygmy hippos pond was even partly iced over! But, the penguins were happy. After that we came back to town and had lunch in the chapest place around we could find(which is still $10 min for lunch), then walked around a bit taking pictures of neat fountains etc in Bristol, and now are taking advantage of some free internet in a movie theatre cafe! Later on, we'll probably do dinner and try to find somewhere cool for drinks, but not be out too late because we're waking up crazy early to leave for Scotland! But we'll fill you in more on that later- we will probably have loads of time for internet as everything will be closed for xmas and boxing day! till then!
It gets dark here ridiculously early so we decided to get an early start on our day. I woke up at 730 for a hot(yesssss) shower and then we went downstairs for the free breakfast- all the hostels we have stayed at so far had free breakfast, but generally its just toast and tea, or cereal or something. Well, this breakfast was awesome! They had all kinds of meats and eggs and pastries and FRUIT(which was fabulous) as well as hot chocolate and yogurt and granola etc etc. Being that the dollar is worth crap over here, we definitely took advantage of free food! (In fact, I still have a plum in my purse!) We were in a 4 bed room but it was just us and an older British lady, she found us at breakfast and sat down, and we commenceed to have a 20 minute conversation about bats, leading into how americans, and us specifically, were incredibly wasteful. So, interesting morning convo. After that we hopped a bus over to the Bristol Zoo, which was actually really good! The carribbean reef again was underrepresented, but they had lots of everything else, It was sooo cold outsid though, I felt pretty bad for the monkeys/lions/gorillas because you could tell they were cold. The water for the pygmy hippos pond was even partly iced over! But, the penguins were happy. After that we came back to town and had lunch in the chapest place around we could find(which is still $10 min for lunch), then walked around a bit taking pictures of neat fountains etc in Bristol, and now are taking advantage of some free internet in a movie theatre cafe! Later on, we'll probably do dinner and try to find somewhere cool for drinks, but not be out too late because we're waking up crazy early to leave for Scotland! But we'll fill you in more on that later- we will probably have loads of time for internet as everything will be closed for xmas and boxing day! till then!
Day 7 London/Bristol
Hello all,
So last night [being as it was a friday night] we decided we didn't want to be losers and go out in London. Now it gets dark here ae about 4pm so apparently all the Brits start drinking at about the same time. We were walking back to our hostel from the internet cafe at 4:30 and the street and clubs were packed! very bizzare... anyways there was a nice aussie girl names Gabrielle that was in our room and we made friends and went out for a drink at a pub down the street called the Midas Touch. It was nice to relax and have a couple beers and we were still back in our hostel by 10:30.
We woke up early the next morning to catch our train to Bristol. It was only a 2 hour ride, but it seemes like forever because we had the most abnoxious little children screeming and running up and down our car. And they didn't stop once! Finally we got into Bristol, checked into our hostel and walked around the beautiful city. We went to a church called St. Mary Redcliff which was absolutely gorgeous. It is over 600 years old and has people like Sir william Penn burried inside. There was a lot of interesting information about all the history the church went through and lots of pretty stain glass windows. Lucy and I also lit a memorial candle for Matt since it is the one-year anniversary of the accident. From there we just walked around the city a little more and looked at all the beautiful architecture before it got dark at 4. A guy at our hostel gave us some insight at a fun place called The Mall [ thank g-d he wrote it down because weboth swore he said the mau] for dinner and a drink in Clifton Village. He also drew us a map which was completely wrong according to everyone we showed it to and told us to what bus to get on [and the bus driver droped us off in the wrong town]. Needless to say it took us close to 2-hours to find it with the bad directions and the crappy bus driver, but we found it! There apparently was some fraternity christmas party because there were about 30 18-22 year old guys all drinking and dressed up like Santa Claus. It was pretty funny to watch. So I would write more detail about our day, but the computer I am using has metal keys and it hurts to write so until tomorrow!
So last night [being as it was a friday night] we decided we didn't want to be losers and go out in London. Now it gets dark here ae about 4pm so apparently all the Brits start drinking at about the same time. We were walking back to our hostel from the internet cafe at 4:30 and the street and clubs were packed! very bizzare... anyways there was a nice aussie girl names Gabrielle that was in our room and we made friends and went out for a drink at a pub down the street called the Midas Touch. It was nice to relax and have a couple beers and we were still back in our hostel by 10:30.
We woke up early the next morning to catch our train to Bristol. It was only a 2 hour ride, but it seemes like forever because we had the most abnoxious little children screeming and running up and down our car. And they didn't stop once! Finally we got into Bristol, checked into our hostel and walked around the beautiful city. We went to a church called St. Mary Redcliff which was absolutely gorgeous. It is over 600 years old and has people like Sir william Penn burried inside. There was a lot of interesting information about all the history the church went through and lots of pretty stain glass windows. Lucy and I also lit a memorial candle for Matt since it is the one-year anniversary of the accident. From there we just walked around the city a little more and looked at all the beautiful architecture before it got dark at 4. A guy at our hostel gave us some insight at a fun place called The Mall [ thank g-d he wrote it down because weboth swore he said the mau] for dinner and a drink in Clifton Village. He also drew us a map which was completely wrong according to everyone we showed it to and told us to what bus to get on [and the bus driver droped us off in the wrong town]. Needless to say it took us close to 2-hours to find it with the bad directions and the crappy bus driver, but we found it! There apparently was some fraternity christmas party because there were about 30 18-22 year old guys all drinking and dressed up like Santa Claus. It was pretty funny to watch. So I would write more detail about our day, but the computer I am using has metal keys and it hurts to write so until tomorrow!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Day 6 London
Hello all,
So today was a whole lot of fun. We woke up this morning at around 8:30 (not terribly early) and took the tube over to Harrods where we ooed and awwed at all the things we were afraid to touch because if broken would deplete our bank accounts twice over. It was kinda of cool walking around and feeling quite posh looking at De Beers and Versacci and Gucci etc. From there we met up with our friends Helen and Bonnie at the palace to watch the changing of the guards. It was a little chilly standing still for an hour (still 10 degrees warmer than Amsterdam though), but it was really fun to watch. The two girls then took us on a little walking tour past the parliament, Westminster Abby, and some other important historical buildings. We also went to the London aquarium after that. It was pretty neat, but I was a little upset that the Caribbean wasn't represented in it so I couldn't show my friends the organisms that I studied. But in any case it was still a lot of fun. We then went out to lunch with our friends so we could prove to them that we could eat like proper brits (fork on the left) which they used to joke around with us about a lot in Central America :). After that we went on a walk through Covent gardens which was really cool. Lots of little shops and mime people running around (well I guess the mimes weren't running). It kind of reminded me of Malory Square in Key West at sunset minus some of the crazy people. Then we got an amazing chocolate chip cookie and said our goodbyes. We are leaving for Bristol in the morning so until then!
So today was a whole lot of fun. We woke up this morning at around 8:30 (not terribly early) and took the tube over to Harrods where we ooed and awwed at all the things we were afraid to touch because if broken would deplete our bank accounts twice over. It was kinda of cool walking around and feeling quite posh looking at De Beers and Versacci and Gucci etc. From there we met up with our friends Helen and Bonnie at the palace to watch the changing of the guards. It was a little chilly standing still for an hour (still 10 degrees warmer than Amsterdam though), but it was really fun to watch. The two girls then took us on a little walking tour past the parliament, Westminster Abby, and some other important historical buildings. We also went to the London aquarium after that. It was pretty neat, but I was a little upset that the Caribbean wasn't represented in it so I couldn't show my friends the organisms that I studied. But in any case it was still a lot of fun. We then went out to lunch with our friends so we could prove to them that we could eat like proper brits (fork on the left) which they used to joke around with us about a lot in Central America :). After that we went on a walk through Covent gardens which was really cool. Lots of little shops and mime people running around (well I guess the mimes weren't running). It kind of reminded me of Malory Square in Key West at sunset minus some of the crazy people. Then we got an amazing chocolate chip cookie and said our goodbyes. We are leaving for Bristol in the morning so until then!
Day 5- Uterecht/London
This was a really long travel day- we woke up early in the morning at our friend Rose's apartment (which was amazingly nice and had 4 whole stories with a rooftop terrace and everything!). Hostels are fun, but it was a nice change of pace to have a room to ourselves, a big clean bathroom and a computer that we didnt have to pay loads to check our email on! She usually rides her bike for about an hour in the cold to work, but since we were there she took a bus with us to the train station and then showed us where we needed to go to get back to the airport in Amsterdam for our flight back to London. It was really good to see her again and then we said goodbye on the platform and waited a few minutes for our train to arrive. Well, having been on the train for maybe 15 minutes or even more, we realized we were at a stop that neither of us thought we ought to be passing through- luckily about 80% of the Dutch population speaks english and a man in the seat next to us had been listening to our conversation and told us we had actually gotten on the wrong train! Apparently it was the right platform when Rose dropped us off, but then it was changed by announcement over loudspeaker, and of course being in Dutch we didn't realize! So, we had to get off at the next stop and wait on the outside platform for the right train to come by- it was cooooooooooooold but it also started snowing big, fluffy flakes so I didn't really mind! Nyssa and I both took pictures of eachother frolicking around in the snow and acting like little kids, as the locals watched and shook their heads. Finally we get back on the right train and to the airport with lots of time to spare, because we have had some really close calls in the past! However, because of the snow, the big screen with all the flights kept popping up more and more 'delayed' signs, until about 75% of the board was in red! We were getting pretty nervous because we had plans to go to a show that night with friends at a certain time, but luckily ours only left 30-45 mins late, as compared to others that sat on the runway for some 5 hours! We got into London after a jam-packed 45 min tube ride from the airport, and luckily our next hostel was really close to the stop and easy to find. We pretty much jjust threw down our bags and put on more deoderant and were out the door! We met up with our friends Helen and Bonnie, who we had travelled with through Central America. We were running a bit late so had a classy dinner at Subway, then went to see JOseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was a really really great show! Nyssa had seen it before elsewhere but I never had- I was pretty impressed that they could make a several hour long really fun and entertaining musical out of a short religious story! It was really colorful and really loud, and in a packed house too, according to our Brit friends because the new guy playing Joseph is 'really fit.' (aka studmuffin in american english) It was actually pretty bizarre- while we were in the hallway during the intermission we recognized a guy we met while we were all in Nicaragua! Not someone on our tour, just a random guy we ran into in Nicaragua and then again in Honduras I think- PLUS he was sitting directly behind us, PLUS his friend that he came with actually knew our friend Helen! Crazy! After the show the two of them joined us in a fancy bar for a drink, then we headed home since we wanted to wake up early the next morning and do lots of sightseeing with Helen and Bonnie. And Nyssa is writing the next day(today), but I just wanted to add that this morning in the hostel I had not a cold shower, but an icy freezing rain of death shower! It was sooooo cold I could only bear to wet myself , then get out for soaping and shampooing, then literally psych myself up for going back under the spigot to rinse off! I thought it was gettign warmer towards the end, but then realized no, in fact, I had just gone numb and could no longer feel the coldness. It was intense. Anyways just wanted to throw that tidbit in! More later!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
day 4 amsterdam/Utrecht
Hello again!
So today was quite a long day. We woke up bright and early so that we could go on a 3-hour walking tour. Besides the fact that it was -5C (thats in the 20's for all you Americans) and it was allllll outside walking in the cold cold weather... it was very very interesting. We got to learn a lot of the history of amsterdam, like the miracle of the moldy bread which I will not get into right now, and see some really cool buildings. There is so much history and culture to this city it is amazing. It is the most diverse city in the world (only 750,000 people and over 170 different cultures... compare that to NY with millions of people and about 150 different cutures). We also learned that bikes rule Amsterdam, over 1,000,000 bikes and again only 750,000 people... i dont know where the other 250,000 bikes go??? Our tour guide also showed us all the hidden art/porn sculptures... for example there was a metal statue I guess in the middle of the ground titled hand on boob with a lock and chain on it. It was put in by a local who was trying to put out some hidden message into the city, but nobody really knows what it stands for. In a more serious note they also took us to the jewish quarters, which was really interesting to hear about how they used to live during the war and how most of them died from the cold winters of 1944. We also went to the royal palace, some cool monuments, the "old" and "new" churches (both have some cool stories behind them as well) and the amsterdam historical museum. We got a whole lot of history in three hours. Needless to say, after that we were beat and cold so we went to get some hot chocolate and relax before our train to Utrecht.
We got into Utrecht at around 7 tonight and met up with our friend Rosilde (who we traveled with in Central America). It was so nice to see her again and reminise about our trip together. She took us to a really nice Indian restraunt in the main part of the city, then out for a drink. We are now at her very nice house and are going to bed soon so we can get up in time to catch our flight back to London.
Until Tomorrow!
So today was quite a long day. We woke up bright and early so that we could go on a 3-hour walking tour. Besides the fact that it was -5C (thats in the 20's for all you Americans) and it was allllll outside walking in the cold cold weather... it was very very interesting. We got to learn a lot of the history of amsterdam, like the miracle of the moldy bread which I will not get into right now, and see some really cool buildings. There is so much history and culture to this city it is amazing. It is the most diverse city in the world (only 750,000 people and over 170 different cultures... compare that to NY with millions of people and about 150 different cutures). We also learned that bikes rule Amsterdam, over 1,000,000 bikes and again only 750,000 people... i dont know where the other 250,000 bikes go??? Our tour guide also showed us all the hidden art/porn sculptures... for example there was a metal statue I guess in the middle of the ground titled hand on boob with a lock and chain on it. It was put in by a local who was trying to put out some hidden message into the city, but nobody really knows what it stands for. In a more serious note they also took us to the jewish quarters, which was really interesting to hear about how they used to live during the war and how most of them died from the cold winters of 1944. We also went to the royal palace, some cool monuments, the "old" and "new" churches (both have some cool stories behind them as well) and the amsterdam historical museum. We got a whole lot of history in three hours. Needless to say, after that we were beat and cold so we went to get some hot chocolate and relax before our train to Utrecht.
We got into Utrecht at around 7 tonight and met up with our friend Rosilde (who we traveled with in Central America). It was so nice to see her again and reminise about our trip together. She took us to a really nice Indian restraunt in the main part of the city, then out for a drink. We are now at her very nice house and are going to bed soon so we can get up in time to catch our flight back to London.
Until Tomorrow!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
day 3 amsterdam
We had a great and very full day today. We woke up bright and early and walked over to the Anne Frank Museum. The only plus about the cold outside (well below freezing!) is that there was no line for the Anne Frank Huis since people were to cold to go outside. It was a very moving exhibit. It was interesting to see the real scenery after reading her diary as a child. The house was kept exactly the same after the war (no furniture and the original writings of Anne Frank on the wall of her room). It was also very interesting to listen to some of the europeans talking to eachother about how they never thought the war was "that bad" before they saw the exibit. They also had the original diary handwritten in Dutch by Anne herself. Again, it was a really moving experience. From there we went straight to the Van Gough museum. This was so cool. I personally have never really been into art history, but his paintings are so interesting and you could see how his styles changed throughout the years (from a semi-normal person to totally crazy I guess...). We also got a little bit of his history. Like how he was diagnosed with epilepsy then shot himself when he was in his 40s (i think 40s). The art was amazing of course and it was very relaxing. From there we wanted to go to the Heiniken brewery. We walked (crazy I know, but we are poor backpackers) in teh freeeeeeezing cold. It was pretty amazing that we found it in only about 20 minutes because here all the street names look and sound like volndelstraat.... or when you ask for directions all you hear is snookinindekookin. But we found it!!!!! lol saddened though the brewery was closed for recontruction... we were very upset because I heard it was a cool tour. All that work for nothing... so we went to the bar next store and had a Heiniken because we felt we needed one. So after that we decided we were too cold to do anything so now we are here writing to you. We were going to go the the bar attached to our hostel and I was going to do some homework (boring right????) anyways, we are going on a walking tour of the city tomorrow that we will tell you all about and then off to Utrecht to visit our friend Rosilde!until then!
day 2- london/1st night in amsterdam!
We woke up early in the morning from our hostel room with 8 other people, then dropped off our bags in the luggage room and went to go see the British Museum before we left for amsterdam. The museum was really neat- it was divided up into geographical areas so you could see artifacts drom everywhere, from all kinds of time periods- really an impressive collection, they even had a room devoted soley to clocks! We saw the Rosetta Stone, which was impressive- and something I thought was really cool is that we saw several replicas of things we had already seen on our central american travels! needless to say, i felt somewhat snooty. After that we got to the airport schlepping our huge backpacks on the Tube, rushed through check in and security only to have our flight leave almost 2 hours late!!! Once we got here, it was even colder, to where you cant really feel your legs when you are outside! We walked around a bit, went to a hilarious( and strangely historical) sex museum, then had a few drinks before going to bed. my internet times up so gotta run!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Day 1 in London
Hello all,
So Lucy and I landed at 7:40 am after an 8 hour flight and started our trip right away. We dropped our stuff off at our hostel (because we weren't allowed to check in until 2pm) then got on the tube and went to a few of the free museums. We couldn't resist going to the science museum (not as exciting as I had hoped) and the natural history museum where we learned all about rocks, volcanos, and earthquakes. After being extrememly jet lagged we decided we couldn't walk much longer and went back to our hostel at around 3. We couldn't call it a day yet though, so we called our friend Helen from the Central America trip and met up with her in East London. It was so great to see her again and she showed us around some beautiful historic sites such as the London Bridge and the Tower of London. They were both so beautiful at night because it was all lit up. The hostel we are staying at is really neat. It reminds me of a college dorm except there is a bar inside. :) We are not doing anything exciting tonight because we have to wake up early to leave for Amsterdam in the morning and we need to catch up on some sleep. So until tomorrow!
So Lucy and I landed at 7:40 am after an 8 hour flight and started our trip right away. We dropped our stuff off at our hostel (because we weren't allowed to check in until 2pm) then got on the tube and went to a few of the free museums. We couldn't resist going to the science museum (not as exciting as I had hoped) and the natural history museum where we learned all about rocks, volcanos, and earthquakes. After being extrememly jet lagged we decided we couldn't walk much longer and went back to our hostel at around 3. We couldn't call it a day yet though, so we called our friend Helen from the Central America trip and met up with her in East London. It was so great to see her again and she showed us around some beautiful historic sites such as the London Bridge and the Tower of London. They were both so beautiful at night because it was all lit up. The hostel we are staying at is really neat. It reminds me of a college dorm except there is a bar inside. :) We are not doing anything exciting tonight because we have to wake up early to leave for Amsterdam in the morning and we need to catch up on some sleep. So until tomorrow!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The adventures begin again
Hello all,
Since our last travel blog seemed to go over so well we decided to make one for this trip as well. Lucy and I are about to embark on our trip to the UK landing in London at 7am tomorrow. We are super excited to travel around and catch up with some friends from our last trip as well. So until tomorrow!
-Nyssa and Lucy
Since our last travel blog seemed to go over so well we decided to make one for this trip as well. Lucy and I are about to embark on our trip to the UK landing in London at 7am tomorrow. We are super excited to travel around and catch up with some friends from our last trip as well. So until tomorrow!
-Nyssa and Lucy
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