Homeward Bound

It seems absolutely surreal that I am hopping on a plane tomorrow to go home.

My last 24 hours in London were very relaxed, but a perfect way to end the trip. To celebrate my last day in Parliament Leah and I grabbed tea with Dulcie. I sadly handed in my awesome Parliament security pass, then I came home and got ready to go out for the night with Amanda, Teal, Tom, and Spencer. If you ask me it was the perfect last night in London. We went to Waxy O’Conners, the same place as last weekend, in addition to Tiger Tiger, which ended up exceeding our expectations based on previous visits.


This morning Amanda and I took the morning slow, getting our stuff together in preparation for our flights tomorrow. We made the sad realization that our flights leave from different terminals, so we won’t get to hang out in the airport tomorrow like we originally planned :( After everything was sorted we took the tube down to Southwark and explored the Borough Market, which is an AMAZING food market. It had everything from raw ingredients to full meals and desserts. It was incredible, and we literally had to walk away so we wouldn’t eat our weight in food.


From the market we headed over to the Imperial War Museum; since the beginning of the trip we had been hearing about how amazing it was, so naturally we had to explore and see for ourselves. It definitely lived up to its reputation, and we spent hours there looking at all their exhibits. Our favorites were the ones about British children in WWII, the Holocaust, and International War Crime.


Ever since we got back to the flat we’ve been taking an easy night because our taxi arrives to get us at 6 in the morning, and we need to pack and clean up the flat before we leave. It was sad saying goodbye to Teal and Tory, who were two other girls on our program. It is amazing at how fast time passes when you're having fun.

So looking back on the trip, I made some realizations. Don’t get too excited because they’re not incredibly deep, but I’m sure you all would ask me at some point anyways so I’ll jump the bullet and answer them here:

“Would you ever want to move to London?”: Don’t know. Honestly, I love the city, but this whole being 8 time zones away from everyone I love thing hasn’t been easy for me. And to think this has just been 10 weeks, not a permanent move. I guess I will see where life takes me, but I have definitely loved living in London, and the UK as a whole.

“What did you learn on the trip?”: Well, first and foremost, the UK is a LOT more different than the US than I originally thought. Just because we speak the same language does not mean we have the same culture. It is interesting because most English people are pretty well tuned into American culture, but not vice versa. Having British friends from outside of the program has made this even more evident to me, and I am super thankful to all of them for opening my eyes and letting me into their world.

“Will you miss London?”: Most definitely. I will not miss steaming hot tube commutes, rude people shoving me around, and being called judged based off of my accent (which I will still argue is non-existent, but that is besides the point). On the other hand, I will deeply miss living with Amanda, my awesome internship, and literally living in the center of one of the biggest, liveliest cities in the world. I literally could not have been more lucky.

I am still having a hard time fathoming that at this moment tomorrow, I will most likely be hopping out of the car, hot dog in hand (or stomach), and running into my house in Stockton. You all probably don’t know how much I have missed all of your smiling faces, and how excited I am to see them in person again.

Thank you for following my blog, and making me feel special for the past couple of months! Make sure you shoot me a call or text tomorrow after 1:35pm PST, because I will be dying to talk to you all! Sending lots of last minute love from across the pond, one last time!

Did you know...

...the reason why the London Underground is set up the way it is? Well, I did not until last night. Apparently the reason why the lines do not cross over certain sections of the city is because they are amongst the catacombs from the Plague! Because there is so much fear of the Plauge coming back, and out of respect of course, the Underground was built specifically to avoid these areas. Think about that one next time your train gets stuck between stations...

My past couple of days have been dominated by doing laundry, finishing my research paper, and packing to come home! Seeing my suitcase with all my clothes in it is making it feel so much closer, and real. I am now mentally starting to switch gears to think past London, and am making plans with friends at home and arranging things for Washington DC. For those of you who don't have a Facebook I found out on Tuesday that I got a paid internship for the fall, so I am really excited about that! I also spent a lot of time online shopping for my room in DC while I was procrastinating on my paper (typical), so now all I have to figure out when I get to DC is the whole "school" thing.

The last couple of days at my internship have been really enjoyable as well. Because of the recess there is no more parliamentary TV, so we have been watching "Friends", "Made in Chelsea", and a lot of other random daytime TV as we do our work. I am so glad my coworker Leah is here with me, otherwise I would be so bored! We have also been enjoying mini-adventures during lunchtime, and have been battling each other on sporcle quizes when we have absolutely run out of things to do. I will definitely miss her!

Tomorrow is my last free day in London, and then I will be back home! Can't wait to see you all SO soon!!!

A British Invasion

For those of you who have been religiously following my blog, I'm sure you are all well aware of who my friend Peter is (to jog your memory just in case... British friend I met through Lauren, took me camping the first weekend I arrived and on a pub crawl in his hometown before he moved to Geneva, generally awesome bloak). Anyways this weekend Peter came back to visit London, so we had the honor of hanging out with him and his friends for our last weekend in the UK.

Peter didn't arrive until later on Friday night, so pretty much right after he came we rounded up the troops and headed down to Soho to enjoy the nightlife. We decided to follow Spencer's lead since he has lived in London for a while, which ended up as a slight failure because we ended up in this tiny "club" (that was more like a basement actually) that played medicore music. It was fine though because we were still having fun hanging out with each other. After a bit we ended up leaving in search of finding a better place, but ended up walking home and just crashing instead (although none of us were too upset with that plan).

Saturday morning we woke up relatively early and headed to Notting Hill to check out the Portobello Road market. It was insanely large and had stands full of antiques, food, and everything in between. I had a delicious goat cheese sandwich (nom nom nom), and had a bite of Amanda's nutella crepe. I'm pretty sure we didn't even get to see the entire market, but it was still awesome.


By the time we were done at the market Pete had to run off to meet his parents for tea and Amanda needed to do some work on her papers for class (fail), so Spencer and I were left to figure out what we should do for the afternoon. We decided to go to Oxford Circus to check out some shops and meander around and enjoy the nice weather (it was sunny and nice all weekend, so we definitely wanted to take advantage of it). We had so much fun walking around that we ended up walking all the way back to my flat instead of taking the tube. It was cool seeing what I whiz by underground every day on my way to work.

When Peter returned from tea (with his sister Georgina in tow), we hung out at our flat for a bit, and enjoyed the view from our roof -- it was nice, and definitely made Amanda and I miss our flat 10 friends (since we frequented the roof with them). We quickly got ready and headed out to Waxy O'Conners, a ridiculous bar/dancing place off of Picadilly Circus. I say ridiculous because the music ranged from the Backstreet Boys, to the Macarena, and Irish jig music, and back again. The interior of this bar was very cool as well because it looked like you were in the middle of a tree! Everyone was legitimately disappointed at how early this place closed because we were having so much fun and didn't want to leave! The rest of the night was spent wandering around Leicester Square seeing if we wanted to go anywhere else (which we didn't), grabbing pizza and watching a ridiculous street fight, and running after taxis in order to get home.


We slept for a whole 4 hours before waking up to say goodbye to Georgina and Spencer, and heading to Oxford Circus to do a little shopping, and ultimatly go to Hyde Park. We spent the majority of the day laying in the sun enjoying lemonade and talking. Tom also tried making a "kite", aka a plastic bag tied to string, that quickly turned into his "pet dog" named Nigel Baggins. Needless to say we got some funny looks from passer-bys as the four of us were talking to and playing with a plastic bag.


After we had enough time outside we decided to head over to Liverpool Street to show Peter the Spitalfields Market, and east London in general. It was so funny to Amanda and I the entire weekend because more often than not we were the London experts compared to our British friends. Anyways, our main destination was Brick Lane, because the boys love curry and Amanda and I had been DYING to grab Indian food since arriving here, and we were running out of opportunities to do so. We ended up finding a restaurant that costed £10 for a 4 course meal, including drinks. SCORE. It was delicious, and I was so full I could barely move by the end of the meal.


After dinner we hopped off the tube at St. Paul's Cathedral, since Peter had never been before, and took a walk around before heading down Fleet Street to meet up with some of Peter's friends from uni. Some of London's oldest pubs are located on that street so I thought it would be a fun place to hang out and grab a drink. Turns out though that no pubs are open on Sundays... who would have thought? (Read: Al fail). So we ended up wandering around looking for open places, realized there were none, and bid Peter's friends adieu and headed home. Of course as soon as we set off to go home we found a pub that was open so Peter, Tom, and I stopped to have a drink before heading back to the flat. It was so much fun getting to see Peter and crew for the weekend, and I am really bummed that he had to go back to Geneva. Stupid work.

Even though it is Monday, it seems like the weekend still hasn't stopped for me. Today at work was very low key, and tonight we saw Chicago! We found an amazing deal online that got us dinner at a nice restaurant in Leicester Square and show tickets for £20 (where tickets usually start at £30 at least... score!) so we were pumped. The show itself was amazing too, and starred Christie Brinkley (who is 57, but still the lead in the show! Amazing!). I'm definitely going to have those songs stuck in my head for quite some time now.


Since it is officially Tuesday in London, I now have less than 5 full days left in the UK. Now the countdown can be reduced to one hand! Who's excited? ;)

PS. Happy Birthday Mom! Love you <3

I think I definitely miss my sister

I mean yeah, she's cute and small and I always miss her, but I had such a typical "Robyn" day today it is a bit out of control.

Of course every Robyn day starts out slow. I had the day off of work (and Amanda didn't, neener neener neenerrrr) so I took my sweet time getting up, and eating breakfast whilst watching "Gilmore Girls". Once I was finally ready I grabbed my book and headed over to the tube to go to Kew Gardens, which is home of the Royal Botanical Gardens and a palace along the southwest bank of the Thames. This is where I spent my morning hours wandering around taking pictures of FLOWERS, mixed in with a bit of chillen in the sun, chasing peacocks, and reading with a Starbucks Chai Latte in hand. Here is a little sample of some of the pictures I took:




Sidenote: a weird happening at Kew Gardens - as some of you may know, today is my Grandmom's birthday (the one who passed away this past October), and when I was sitting on a bench reading this really annoying bird kept chirping at me... but then when i looked at it, it cocked his head, stared at me, and then silently flew away. To make matters even more strange it was a cardinal bird, and my mom has seen cardinal birds in the past and has thought they were signs from my Grandmom. Coincidence, or fate? Who knows. Either way, you were in my thoughts today, Grandmom <3

After a couple of hours I got back on the tube and headed to Kensington to check out the Victoria and Albert Museum of Art and Design, which was awesome. It covered areas such as British theater, the history of British fashion from 1500-1900, jewelry, stained glass, and more (but those were my favorites). I really liked the museum because you didn't have to do a lot of reading to figure out what things were, and it wasn't your usual art museum collection. And now I have retired back to the flat, laying on the couch enjoying an afternoon snack and watching "Glee" and "Friends" on TV. Wish you were here, Lil Robz.


In case you were wondering, yesterday wasn't such a bad day either. Went into work and hung out with Leah, and we took an extended lunch break to enjoy the National Gallery and some Magnum ice cream bars! I ended up recognizing many paintings in the National Gallery, including works by Van Gough, Monet, Renoir, and Rembrandt. I'm guess I'm a little more cultured than I thought I was ;)

Top 10

Because I have only 10 days left in London (!!!), I decided to share with you some of my "top 10" lists that I have been compiling on my laptop. Anyone who has ever seen my computer knows that my desktop is flooded with millions of sticky notes - well, here is a sneak peak to what these stick notes currently say:

10 things I still need to do before I leave London
1. Visit a soccer stadium (most likely Wembly Park)
2. Go to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill
3. Go to the National Gallery
4. Go to the Victoria and Albert Museum
5. Go to the Churchill War Rooms
6. Go to the Imperial War Museum
7. Hang out in Regents Park
8. Visit Kew Gardens (apparently they have beautiful flowers there... so this would be for Robyn)
9. Peruse the Borough Market (apparently known for its fresh food!)
10. See a West End show! But never fear, Amanda and I have tickets to see "Chicago" on August 1st!

10 places I want to eat as soon as I get home
1. In N Out Burger
2. Chipotle
3. Mongolian BBQ
4. Yen Du
5. Casa Flores
6. Costco (for hot dogs...obviously)
7. Grandma's house (spaghetti please!)
8. My house (Mom, you know what to do. I would start shopping now.)
9. Chandni's house (Indian food here doesn't even begin to compare)
10. Bob's at the Marina

10 songs that will forever remind me of this trip
1. Take On Me (A-ha)
2. Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
3. One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
4. Move It Like Bernie (don't know the artist, but look it up on YouTube)
5. Show Goes On (Lupe Fiasco)
6. Wonderwall (Oasis)
7. Graduation (Vitamin C)
8. Kids (MGMT)
9. Black and Yellow (Wiz Khalifa)
10. Who Dat Girl
... and every Jason DeRulo song ever.

10 things I am going to miss about the UK
1. My job, and my coworkers
2. Living/traveling/spending every moment with my partner in crime, the wonderful and hysterical Miss Amanda St. Hilaire
3. British accents and slang
4. British snacks and candy
5. Being able to frolick around Europe on the weekend
6. Having cool pubs to hang out at
7. Having new places to explore every day
8. Fish N Chips. Enough said.
9. Cornish pasties. Yum.
10. Being conveniently located to everything on the Tube

10 things I am NOT going to miss about the UK
1. Conversion rates... I love it when my money means something!
2. My uncomfortable bed
3. Being across the ocean from everyone I love
4. My crappy cell phone
5. Seeing the same "Friends" episode on TV like 5 times a day
6. Having limited Internet usage
7. Not having beef hot dogs... anywhere.
8. People who lack self awareness on the Tube
9. Night buses
10. RAIN.

In case you were wondering, not much has happened since my last post on Sunday evening. Monday was pretty uneventful - went to work and enjoyed a picnic in St. James Park because the weather was a BEAUTIFUL 72 degrees and sunny, and spent the night in watching "P.S. I Love You" with Amanda. Tuesday was even more uneventful than Monday, seeing that I was deathly ill, presumably with food poisoning, so I ended up calling in sick to work and alternated between sleeping and watching some of the DVDs my dad sent me, including the movie I watch everytime I'm sick without fail, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Luckily this morning I felt a bit better so I came back into work, and went with Leah to the National Portrait Gallery during our lunch break! Since I have so much I still want to see and so little time to do it (and since Leah is secretly a nerd and loves museums), we've agreed to eat lunch in the office and use our lunch hour to explore free museums! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me! Also as we were walking by Trafalgar Square we peeked in to see a big press release about the Olympics, that is apparently officially one year away as of today! Kinda exciting, although if you ask any Londoner they are plotting to leave during those 2 weeks so they can avoid all the chaos the Olympics will bring to the city.

Tonight is my weekly stay-in night, and I am determined to get a lot done on my research paper (that I have not had much time to work on recently...oops) because my friend Peter is coming to visit this weekend (yay!). Because of this we will get to see him along with a bunch of other friends I went camping with in Cornwall the first weekend I was here. I guess it's appropriate that I spent my first weekend in the UK with them, as well as my last :) Until next time!

"No one provokes me without punishment!"

Just to clarify, neither Amanda nor I had violent outbursts this weekend. That is just the translation of Edinburgh Castle's motto, "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit", and we thought it was absolutely brilliant. Anyways...

Thankfully, the overnight bus to Edinburgh was exponentially more pleasant than the overnight bus home from Liverpool. In order to ensure neither Amanda nor I sat by gremlins, we decided to switch off on the window seat (me on the way there, Amanda on the way back) and sit in the same row. Also, the bus to Edinburgh didn’t have other stops to pick up additional passengers, so it was a lot smoother ride than before.

When Amanda and I finally arrived in Edinburgh, we were surprised to see SUN! And no rain! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Edinburgh, apparently it is almost always rainy and foggy there, but we were lucky enough to have good weather for the entire weekend! We were also excited to discover that our hostel was very close to Edinburgh castle, which means it was centrally located and close enough to walk to everything.

Before setting out for the day Amanda and I grabbed a full Scottish breakfast, which is basically a full English breakfast with a slight twist, and headed over to Waverly Bridge, where we decided to embark on city bus tour. Unlike the one we did in Lisbon this wasn’t one of those obnoxious red ones you see in every city with the audio guides – this one was much smaller, and had a live tour guide explaining the history of the new and old city of Edinburgh. However, like the one in Lisbon it was hop on/hop off, so we could easily choose what we wanted to see, get off, and easily get back on again.


First we chose to hop off at Holyrood, which is where the Scottish House of Parliament, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and Arthur’s Seat are located. The Parliament building was extremely strange – the design was extremely modern, and there was almost no security. This is in great contrast to Westminster, where security is extremely strict and the design is very sophisticated and elegant. The Scots currently have a bill going through Westminster petitioning to break away from the UK and have their Parliament be the sole ruling body… I guess only time will tell to see if that actually happens!


Next we wandered across the street to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the royal residence for the Queen’s visits to Scotland, and most famously where Mary, Queen of Scots spent most of her time. The inside of the palace was beautiful, as expected, but even more Amanda and I enjoyed the gardens and abbey ruins outside of the palace. Apparently there used to be an abbey adjoined to the palace that was accidentally burned down, but the remains are still in tact. The gardens are HUGE, and with beautiful flowers and large stretches of grass everywhere. Walking through there you can totally imagine the Queen throwing a spectacular garden party!



From there we crossed over the Holyrood National Park, which is where Arthur’s Seat is located. The tour guide on the bus said that this would be a “gradual walk” to the top – however this was far from the truth. In true form Amanda and I got some soft-serve ice cream at the bottom of the hill, and started the ascent. As we got further up the path got steeper, which proved to be interesting for me especially because I was wearing my flip-flops. Despite the obstacles we made it to the top, which was DEFINITELY worth it because we got to see some beautiful views of the Edinburgh region.

At the end of our hike we were happy to re-board the bus, and head to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Calmly wandering around the museum was the perfect activity after our accidental hike. Plus it was awesome because there was an exhibit of portraits of important Scottish figures, so we got a history lesson along with the art.

When we were done at the Portrait Gallery we took a quick, but much needed nap, and embarked on a ghost tour that we had seen earlier in the day. The man giving the tour was crazy, but awesome – he was dressed in full costume and was acting in character the entire time, and had a good balance of jokes mixed in with his scary stories so we were fully entertained.


At the end of the tour we were pretty hungry, so we stopped at an Italian restaurant near our hostel. Amanda got a gelato meant for at least three people, and finished it herself. Epic win. When we finished dinner we happened across a pub that was playing Scottish folk music, so we decided to hang out and listen for a bit before heading to bed early (I know, we’re lame, but we were really tired from the bus ride and the full day we had!).


The next morning we woke up early to get the most out of our day. Since it was about midnight in California I thought it would be fun to call my sister Robyn and wish her a happy birthday. However, because she didn’t recognize the telephone number she decided to have her friend Frannie answer the phone instead, which thoroughly confused me. We ended up talking in the end though, which was sooo nice.

After a quick breakfast, Amanda and I took the short walk over to the Edinburgh Castle, and immediately hopped on a free tour to look around. Edinburgh Castle is apparently the second most visited castle in the UK (after the Tower of London), and we were quickly able to see why. The castle itself was beautiful, and since it was a clear day you could see all the way out over the city of Edinburgh, which was awesome. Not to mention that it was built on what used to be a volcano, and the mountain blends in with the castle, which looks really intense and intimidating. We also got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Coronation Stone, and the Scottish National War Museum while we were there, which was very cool as well.




We grabbed a fast lunch right outside the castle, did a little shopping at the Grassmarket, and then continued on to the Scottish National Museum. Amongst other exhibits this museum basically gave the entire history of Scotland from prehistoric times to the present. While we enjoyed the museum, we were tired of being inside looking at exhibits so we left, grabbed our bags from the hostel, and hung out in Princes Street Gardens to enjoy the beautiful weather. We were lucky to happen upon a guy playing bagpipes in the street so we hung out for a while to listen to him. We also ended up meandering around Charlotte and St. Andrews squares before ending up at a pub, where we got cheap food (yay!) before going to the bus station to hop on the coach home. We were definitely sad to leave Edinburgh, and Amanda and I both agreed that this has been one of our favorite cities that we have seen thus far in the UK.



Today got off to a slow start needless to say since we were so tired. However we got it together by the afternoon, and went to enjoy the rare London sunshine out at the Camden Market! That place was insane, but definitely a good place to explore and people watch. It was also nice to be walking around after sitting in the bus cramped up for so long. We’re also done a fair share of movie-watching today, since my unlimited internet pass runs out tomorrow. Today’s viewings included “Notting Hill”, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”, and of course this past week’s episode of “Pretty Little Liars” thus far, but I’m sure there will be more to come by the end of the night.

I absolutely cannot believe that I only have two more weeks left in London – the time has absolutely flown by! Even though I was only in Spain for five weeks last summer that trip has felt eons longer than this one. I still have a lengthy “to do” list of places to see in London before I leave, so I will be sure to keep you all updated as I check those off! Hope you are all staying cool in the heat waves!

Television

Not too many eventful things happened this week, but I figured I would make a quick post before heading off to Edinburgh for my last weekend excursion!

I think after two months of being here, I’ve finally hit a point of exhaustion. I know this is the case because instead of coming home from work and wanting to go out and explore or do something fun, I opt to veg on the couch and watch movies and television on my computer instead. Work has been pretty crazy this week too, which hasn’t helped the whole “tired” thing. I’m sure most of you have seen, or at least heard about the Murdoch hearings happening in Parliament, so needless to say the building was crazy for the first half of the week. On the up side, apparently I made a brief appearance on Channel 4 news in one of their shots! And I got to see Murdoch in person, as well as several famous BBC reporters.

In case you were wondering, to make my vegetation a little less lame, I did watch British movies and TV to make up for not going out. By British movie I mean “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (necessary throwback because of the premiere last week), and by British television I mean “Geordie Shore” (Britain’s knockoff of “Jersey Shore”) and “The Inbetweeners”. I highly recommend both shows, but for very different reasons as you may have guessed. Also, on Monday night our friend Spencer came over to hang out with us, and I introduced him to American macaroni and cheese, which he loved.

Thankfully today at work was a lot more relaxing, because the hearing was over and the House of Commons is officially on recess. Coincidentally this was also my coworker Grace’s last day in the office, so we had a really chill day in celebration. The four girls in my office shared a box of Krispy Kremes and hung out until lunchtime, where we met up with my friend Terra and her mom to give them a tour around the building. I also enjoyed the tour because I got to see many of the rooms for the first time as well, because we’re not allowed in while the House is in session! When the tour ended we met up with another coworker Dulcie for some tea, and soon after headed to the Sports and Social, one of Parliament’s many pubs on site, to have a quick drink to celebrate Grace.



Grace, by the way, is the lovely intern who takes it upon herself to insult me everyday (since I am American and need to be put in my place, obviously), and randomly gets into “pass wars” with me. Our Parliamentary passes are on retractable lanyards, and we quickly learned that “zinging” each other with said lanyards is quite fun. I am going to miss her terribly, and am trying to convince her to come get a job in DC next year so we can hang out again.



I am proud of how short this post is! But it is probably just as well because my bus leaves in two hours and I’m not quite packed yet. Pro of overnight bus: I will wake up in Scotland! Con of overnight bus: lack of sleep. Here’s to hoping that I don’t sit next to a gremlin this time!

PS. Happy Birthday, Robyn! Last year in Barcelona, this year in Edinburgh… maybe next year I will be home to celebrate with you. Love you, little sissy!

A magical weekend of wizards and mystery tours

This was a weekend undoubtedly full of obsessions – it was awesome.

Obviously Amanda and I had to get dressed up for the Harry Potter premiere, so we threw on some make-shift costumes (Amanda in a homemade deathly hallows t-shirt, and me in maroon v-neck, gold scarf, and a lightening bolt on my head). We purposefully took the tube through Kings Cross up to Camden Town, where we had reserved tickets for the midnight showing. Much to our disappointment, most of the crowd did not dress up – but it was alright because they were cheering just as loud as us in the theater. I had never seen a movie in a country outside of the US before this, and I noticed that the commercials were very different – they have an entire reel of regular commercials, then the previews, and THEN the movie. Needless to say we were extremely anxious and excited when the movie actually got started. I don’t want to ruin the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but I can assure you it was very good. I was overall impressed with it, and had trouble going to bed that night because I was on such a Harry Potter high.



The next morning Amanda and I got up early, threw together a quick overnight bag, and rushed over to Victoria Coach station to catch the morning bus up to Liverpool! I am definitely my mother’s daughter, in that I LOVE the Beatles, so I wanted to go to where it all started. Luckily the bus ride went fast because we were so tired from the night before we slept through it, and we were in Liverpool before we knew it.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel we decided to walk around the city to gain our bearings. Let me tell you – Liverpool has an extremely strange vibe. It is definitely less refined than London, and has a personality of its own. We ended up at Albert Dock, which is where the “Beatles Story” museum was. This museum basically goes through the career of the Beatles, from their origins up until the band broke up. Amanda and I were both extremely impressed with the set-up of the museum – it was put together really well and gave a great overview of the Beatles in context of what was going on in the world during each of their albums.



When we finished at the museum we continued to wander along the docks, but when it started to rain we quickly wanted to seek shelter so we went over to The Cavern, which is the pub where the Beatles performed over 292 times throughout their career. We absolutely loved the vibe of this pub. To this day, they still have live music playing from 2pm until closing every day, and have had all types of groups from no names, to the Beatles, Queen, and Journey all play there. I almost wish there was a place like The Cavern in London to go hang out at.



On the way back to the hostel we saw a pub advertising two plates of fish ‘n chips for 5.50 (which is a steal), so we stopped for a quick dinner. Amanda made friends with a local there… although the friendship was very short-lived, since the local quickly moved on from Amanda to the random street performer.



Once we were revived after a quick nap, Amanda and I made friends with Kara, a girl from Australia who was also staying in our hostel, and the three of us took off to explore Liverpool’s nightlife. I have to admit, Liverpool has one of the strangest night scenes I have ever encountered. Everybody was extremely dressed up (we felt underdressed at every place we were at, even the more relaxed pubs), and many people were dressed in costumes to a point that we thought it was Halloween. There were also many older people out, which was surprising. We ended up going back to The Cavern for a bit amongst other places, and ultimately ended up staying at The Grapes, which is a bar that the Beatles would hang out at after their shows at The Cavern in order to escape the screaming hoards of girls. They sat at the same table every time, and we got a picture sitting at that table!



The next morning we woke up early, took advantage of the hostel’s free breakfast, and went back to Albert Dock in order to purchase our tickets for The Magical Mystery Tour, which was a 2-hour bus tour to all of the Beatles landmarks throughout Liverpool. Because we couldn’t get on the tour until 12:30pm (they sell out so fast!), Amanda and I headed down the pier to the John Lennon exhibit, which was created by his first wife Cynthia and his son Julian. They had a lot of extra stories and pictures of John, and spoke a lot on what it was like to be the family members of a Beatle. Also at this exhibit was collection of pictures called “The Beatles Uncovered” taken by a student photographer from Liverpool when the Beatles had just gotten together for a school project. He did not release them until this past fall, and there were countless candid images of them that have never been seen before, which was pretty cool.



After getting a quick cup of tea, we met up with Kara again and jumped on the Magical Mystery Tour bus! It was literally painted like the bus seen on the albums, and the interior had a very funky feel. Our tour guide’s name was Paul (coincidence?), and when he wasn’t talking, Beatles music was blasting. It was AWESOME. We stopped by many cool places, including (just to name a few):


Ringo’s house


Penny Lane (yes, all the places in the song actually exist)


George’s House


Strawberry Fields


John’s House


The church community center where John and Paul first met, and


Paul’s House.


When we hopped off the bus we grabbed a bite to eat, said goodbye to Kara, and then hiked up to the Liverpool Cathedral. It is at a high point, so you can overlook the entire city, and it is the largest cathedral in the UK and the fifth largest in Europe. Fun fact about this cathedral as well – Paul had tried out to be in its choir as a kid, and was rejected! They said he didn’t have a strong enough voice… boy were they wrong!



We meandered back down to city center and quickly realized that unless we wanted to go shopping, which we neither had the money nor desire to do, we didn’t really have much to do until our bus ride. To eat up time we decided to go to the movies and see “Bridesmaids”, which I thought was hilarious. Another bizarre thing that happens at movie theaters in the UK which I didn’t mention before is that they make you queue (or line up) outside of the theater and wait until literally the moment that the movie starts before going in to take your seats. It is kinda strange, and we were frustrated because we had done a lot of walking for the day and just wanted to sit down. It was alright though because we got in line just as the movie was going to start anyways so our wait was minimal.

For dinner we found a place called “MexiGo”, which was Chipotle’s lame second cousin. However, it did its job because I have missed Mexican food so much. We were absolutely stuffed, so we basically shuffled up the hill, through St. George’s place to the bus station to wait for our bus back to London. Amanda and I were thrilled to discover that her little brother Paul had put the movie “Dumb and Dumber” on her iPod, so we had some entertainment while waiting for the bus.



The bus ride would have been good, except for the fact that I sat next to a gremlin. Literally. Amanda and I originally thought sitting on opposite sides of the same row would be a good idea at first because then we would both have window seats, and potentially have room to spread out…but no. This little man would not stop talking to me (even though I was clearly asleep), was munching on the loudest food for hours, and felt the need to move around constantly. Not the best situation for trying to fall asleep, but it turned out ok in the end because we still made it back to our flat early enough to sleep some more before actually starting our day.

When we finally decided to get up, we walked over and spent some time in the British Museum. I don’t know whether it’s because it is a Sunday, or because of the rain, or what, but it was so crowded that I was having even more problems concentrating than usual. Also, the plaques did not do that great of a job explaining what each of the artifacts were, so overall I was a bit disappointed. However it did get a lot better at the end because we went on a guided tour of the Roman section, which was way more interesting, and then got crepes at a stand outside of the museum.



The rest of the day was relatively uneventful – we just did some grocery shopping and watched some movies/chilled after having so much to do over the weekend. I’m also actually REALLY excited to go to work tomorrow, because lots of stuff has happened with the phone hacking scandal over the weekend! I’m going to try my best to keep up this habit of updating more than once a week :)

A Spot of Sangria with Al

I don’t know what it is about Wednesday nights, but last night Wednesday night I stayed in to chill and blog, and this Wednesday night I decided to stay in and catch up on laundry/redoing my resume and cover letter for DC internships/call my family/breathe, and now update my blog after an insane week.

Thursday was not overly exciting, just went to work and went out at night with the internship students in our program to a couple of places in Picadilly Circus. Along the way we met some Americans from Bucknell University who are doing a summer program at the London School of Economics, so that was pretty cool. We were laughing because they were saying that they felt like they did not get to enjoy much of their time in London because they had so much class and homework (bummer…). I also discovered this night that I am hopeless at understanding Scottish accents, which will prove to be interesting when I go to Edinburgh in a couple of weeks. This poor guy and his friend were trying to talk to Amanda and I, and I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I tried to convey this in the nicest way possible, which apparently he did not appreciate because he said that I was a “rubbish American”. Sorry bro…

Friday morning Amanda and I woke up early and went over to Tottenham Court Road, because we had scheduled ourselves to get haircuts at the Toni & Guy salon’s hairdressing school. This was a great idea because my bangs were in my face and SO annoying and it was only 5 pounds, but a not-so-great idea because it took a long time (3 hours!), and the Japanese guy who was cutting my hair interpreted me telling him to cut off as little as possible as four inches :/ Needless to say I’m not sure yet if I like it or if it was worth it, but I guess only time will tell.

After our haircuts we rushed over to Gatwick Airport, grabbed some McDonalds (I don’t think I’ve eaten so much McDonalds EVER in my life), and got on a plane to LISBON, Portugal! We were pleasantly surprised when they fed us on the plane, along with unlimited free drinks, coffee, and tea! As we were preparing to land over Lisbon I was completely shocked because there was a Golden Gate Bridge there! Well, it’s actually called Ponte 25 de Abril, but they look identical!



By the time Amanda and I got into the hostel and settled in it was already getting dark, so we decided to just walk around a bit to get our bearings in the neighborhood, and grab some tapas and sangria. We found this amazing viewpoint over the city, and hung out there for a while before heading to bed so we could get up early and explore the next day. We were happy to find that our beds in the hostel were more comfortable than our beds in our London flat!



Amanda and I thoroughly enjoyed our free breakfast at the hostel, and then set off to Costa de Caparica, a beach town just outside of Lisbon. We spent all morning laying in the sand, reading, and soaking up all the Vitamin D we have been so desperately lacking due to the London fog and rain. While I felt right at home and walked away with a nice sun-kissed tan, Amanda resembled a lobster… this New Hampshire girl need to learn how we do it in California!



We didn’t want to get back to the hostel until about 3pm, and we wanted to get going on seeing the rest of the city, so we took quick showers and hopped on one of those obnoxious red double-decker tourist buses. As cliché as it is, it was perfect because we got a taste of everything in a short amount of time, and it was extra perfect because the sites in Lisbon are relatively spread out. From the monastery at Belem to statues dedicated to various Portuguese historic figures, we got to see it all.



We hopped off the bus at the end of the tour in Baixa, where we sat outside in one of Lisbon’s many squares and ordered seafood paella for dinner. I made fun of Amanda because she looked like a lobster, and was eating seafood! :) But it was delicious. Paella is one of few foods I have missed since leaving Spain last summer.



Luckily for us, the Portuguese love siestas as much as the Spanish, so after dinner Amanda and I took a nap before getting ready to go out for the night. We were told by everyone we talked to about Portugal that we needed to go to Barrio Alto to experience the Portuguese discotecas, but they don't even open until after midnight so we determined that a nap would be necessary in order to survive the night. Barrio Alto was indeed lots of fun - there were loads of people everywhere, just hanging out on the street with lots of Portuguese live music. As Amanda and I were walking down the street we heard people speaking English with American accents, so of course we had to stop and talk to them. It turns out that this group were some of the US Embassy's foreign service officers and Marines, who were celebrating with one of the service officers, Rebecca, who was leaving the following week. They were all awesome, and knew all of the fun (and not sketchy) places to go so Amanda and I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. We were grateful to find such awesome people to spend the night with, and on top of that we got a free ride back to the hostel from the Marine's personal driver (my tax dollars being put to good use, sweet!).



The next morning Amanda and I woke up relatively early again, and got back on the bus for the second part of our tour after a quick breakfast at the hostel. During this section of the tour we saw more of modern Lisbon, whereas the bus tour from Saturday focused on historic Lisbon. For example we got to see the facilities they built for the World Expo in 1998, which were absolutely incredible. We hopped off the bus at Se de Lisboa, which is the main cathedral in Lisbon. Since it was Sunday morning we actually sat in on a bit of the service, and listened to the Portuguese hymns (which were beautiful, by the way).



Lisbon is like San Francisco in more ways than just the fake Golden Gate Bridge - it is also built in hills, and they have trolleys going up and down the hills. Amanda and I didn't want to pay for a trolley, however, so we left from Se de Lisboa and started the hike up to the top of the hill to see the Castelo de Sao Jorge, a moorish castle and fortress. The views on the walk up were absolutely incredible, overlooking both the Tagus River and the entire city.



Castelo de Sao Jorge itself was definitely the highlight of Lisbon for me. It was absolutely incredible and beautiful. Out of all the castles I have seen so far in my life, this one is definitely my favorite. Amanda and I spent a lot of time there walking around and taking pictures and taking in the beautiful views. Robyn would have also been very impressed, because there were tons of peacocks roaming around as well! So random, but so awesome at the same time.



After descending from the top of the hill we returned to Baixa, and immediately stopped to grab gelato (which was exactly what we wanted/needed in the warm weather). We meandered around the little shops and downtown area for a bit before hanging out by a statue in one of the squares just to enjoy the nice weather for a bit more (and to people watch, obviously) before we had to get on the plane home. We encountered some strange people there, most notably a man who was very intent on selling us marajuana (after we said "no" for the millionth time, he screamed "I hate you both!!!" and ran away) and a foreigner (Italian maybe?) who wanted to take a picture with us. As a result of the latter we decided it was time to go, and got on the bus back to the airport.



The trip home was interesting, to say the least. Amanda was struggling the entire time because she was so sunburnt. As we were passing through security the guard screamed "Jesus! What happened to her? Has she ever heard of suncream?!" I thought this was all hilarious, but Amanda was not quite as amused by all of this. Then when we got on the plane I fell asleep immediately, where poor Amanda kept getting bothered by a Brazilian teenager sitting next to her who wanted to talk the entire way. To make matters worse our return flight went to Heathrow, where security back into the UK took an hour (as opposed to the 5 minutes it took in Gatwick coming back from Dublin), and by time we got on the tube to come back home they had closed parts of it down for construction, so we had to take night buses and a taxi instead. Needless to say, we were pretty miserable and exhausted when we got home at 2am (especially since in theory we should have been back at 11pm).

Getting back into the swing of work was quite difficult the next day, but I had to wake up quickly because there is a lot going on in Parliament this week since the term ends next Tuesday. After work on Monday we hung out with Zack, one of my friends from the program that left the previous week who was stopping through London on his way back to the US, and his friends. It was a lot of fun but did not help with the exhaustion factor at all. Then on Tuesday my friend Marc, who had been in Spain with Zack, also came back to London, so he met me for lunch at Parliament and then went to a pub with Amanda, Teal, and I after work. The pub we went to was awesome - it was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and it was rebuilt in 1666 after the Great Fire (but it existed before that too). It is in this tiny unassuming alley off of Fleet Street, and had a fun atmosphere. Fortunately for us Marc had to get up early on Wednesday too so we actually got a full night's sleep, but I wasn't fully recovered until now.

For those of you who are paying attention, yes I started this on Wednesday night, but ended up finishing it today (on Thursday) because I got quite distracted last night talking to friends on Skype/gchat/Facebook. No complaints though, because I realize I have been quite crappy at keeping in touch with you all, and I greatly apologize for that. But today has been quite interesting at work – I got to sit in on a debate in the House of Lords, and I got to write amendments for a bill that is going through right now! I would say that’s pretty cool. Hopefully the bill passes so my words can go down eternally in British history!

Lots of exciting stuff coming up this weekend… I am going to see that midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie tonight (I get to see it earlier than you all! Haha!), and then tomorrow morning we are heading off to Liverpool! I will try my best to wait less than a week before my next post!