Bristol and Oxford

Last Friday, I took a trip to Bristol, a city on the west coast of England, with my friend Corey. We had some drama with getting there- the tube was having delays which meant that by the time we got to the coach station, our bus was already gone! We bought tickets for the next bus going to Bristol then napped the whole way there (it took 2.5 hours). Once in Bristol, we spent the day walking around the city, which has a harbor and a few BIG hills. We stopped by the City Museum (it had a lot of random stuff- like gemstones, a few paintings -and my favorite- a gypsy wagon), then climbed 2 tight spiral staircases to the top of a tower that had 360* view of the area. After that little adventure, we trekked over to the harbor, found a big covered market and stopped by the cathedral.

The next day we visited Oxford and went by train, which now is my favorite mode of transportation. After about an hour, we arrived in Oxford and had lunch by the canal, which had a whole bunch of houseboats. We window shopped, took a tour of the city and got to see a little bit of the campuses. We found [another] covered market (these things are all over the place) and dropped by the History of Science Museum. The special exhibit was "Clocks of England" and it was a hall full of old, ticking clocks. It was... interesting. I thought Oxford was very nice; the streets were cobblestone and there were thousands of bikes all over the place (since cars aren't allowed in parts of the city).

Overall, I had a good time just wandering around both cities and window shopping. Oxford was more interesting probably because we got a tour but also because they filmed parts of Harry Potter there. (We didn't get to see the actual spots they filmed in, unfortunately, but I still thought it was cool! yeah Harry Potter!!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

The theme this week has been planning my trips! Tonight, I am planning this weekend's trip to somewhere in England. My friend and I are going to take a bus or train to a location to be decided later and just go! I'm also slated to go to Paris with my roommate and Italy for spring break.

The weather has started getting a little bit rainy-er. However, it keeps clearing up after a while and then raining again- that's English weather for you! On one of the nicer days I took a stroll thru Regent's Park and found this man I named Flute Man playing (you guessed it) a flute under a tree! I had a lot of fun stealthily taking his picture from every angle. On Monday, I walked to Buckingham Palace and had a photo shoot in front of it. It started raining right as I had to leave to meet my class for a look at Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We walked around from the Abbey up to Trafalgar Square in the wind and rain where class ended. I was very glad I decided to throw my umbrella in my backpack! My professor actually almost got blown away at one point! It was pretty funny.

Flute Man :)

I hope your Valentine's Day is awesome! I miss my Valentine and mom's fudge: flavor, delicious.

Still in England

Hello! I am in the beginning stages of figuring out my first weekend trip. For some reason it's taking longer than I thought to go somewhere. Hopefully I'll be going to France or Germany next weekend. Since we have 4 day weeks [yeah, it's very tough :)] I'll probably leave on Friday and get back Sunday.

Well, what I have been doing since being in the city is visiting everything I can. This week I visited the Victoria and Albert museum. Like all the museums here, it was enormous! I spent 3 hours there and only got through 2 floors of a single wing! There was an exhibit on Kylie Minogue's clothes- supposedly she was there the day I was! Unfortunately, I didn't see her or her clothes- you had to pay for that part! It was about an hour's walk both ways to the V&A, and I walked back a different way than on the way there. I have been getting used to walking so much and don't feel wicked tired and dizzy when I get back to my room anymore! I walked through Hyde Park on the way to the museum and saw some type of royal horse practice thing (I describe it so well, don't I?). There was a big crowd around watching them, and I joined them for a few minutes. There were about 20 horses and riders wearing red, silver and shiny hats or dark blue.

Apparently England shuts down when there is more than a dusting of snow! There was about 2-4" (5-10 cm, as the English say) two days ago and schools were shut down and flights were delayed or cancelled! They don't have the gear to move the snow, so instead what happens is sand is sprinkled over everything and you just hope not to fall into the slush!

Still enjoying myself in this city

Last weekend, I went on the school day trip to Leeds castle and Canterbury. The castle is pretty cool, I wouldn't mind living there! Our trip coordinator is kind of a disaster, so we only had enough time in Canterbury to eat lunch and take a few pictures of the cathedral. It was a nice little town with LOTS of shops. I had my first fish and chips experience- yummy! The theme of this week has been walking (not surprising since I refuse to take the tube unless it's very far away or at night) and getting to know the city better. An exciting trip was the hour+ long walk to a tube station to meet my class. Turns out it wasn't such a great idea since we had to power walk around for class once we got there! Needless to say, I got a pair of blisters.

My roommate Christina and I spent this weekend doing all the touristy things we didn't get to do last week- our favorite was Trafalgar Square. We wanted to climb on the lions like everyone else but we also didn't want to fall off and die, so we posed next to them instead! It was a fun time, especially with all the ridiculous pictures we took!

The weather is getting better each day- before I got here, I thought it was going to be raining every day; when I got here I thought it was always going to be windy; but now that I've been here for a few weeks, it looks like it's going to keep getting warmer and more beautiful! The flowers in the park are already blooming (roses, daffodils, crocuses and more) and everyone brings their dogs to the park (that makes me miss my little Petey! kinda). As for the food.... well that myth about English food, sadly, is TRUE! At the dining hall, it tastes good for the first few bites- then like nothing after that! Outside the dining hall it's much better- last night we went out to a Japanese restaurant and it was pretty amazing!