Queen's Park Rangers, London Sushi & Kensington Gardens

I went to my first British football game! Capa bought out a big section for students at the Loftus Road Stadium, the home of Chelsea's Queens Park Rangers! Before this game, QPR ranked 21 out of the 92 teams in the league, which is a big change from past years. As you walked to the stadium there were crowds of people wearing the blue and white scarves, headed towards the entrance. My favorite was seeing little kids in the QPR jerseys.

Walking into the stadium was an exciting feeling. Although the stadium held much fewer people, the excitement could almost match that at the Pitt football games. There were a lot of Nottingham Forrest fans too, and they may have been even more rowdy than those of the home team. We sat on the first level, so I felt more apart of the game than when in a huge football stadium. The ball bounced from each players head just as much as from their feet, and they managed to throw in some fancy tricks. We were very close to the action, and even though I'm not much of a sports fan, I was really interested in the game. When they scored a goal, they all ran over and hugged each other, and it struck me as very different than a lot of other (American) sports teams. The game ended in a tie, but apparently that means that everyone gets a point, so the fans were in relatively good spirits. Even though they may not have been in a huge league, I thought they were impressive!

Of course I have had to try sushi in London. Unfortunately it is extra expensive, so my flatmates and I saved a nice sushi dinner for a special occasion. On Valentine's Day we all met at a relatively fancy sushi restaurant near our flat. It was decked out with red napkins and roses on the table. They served us complementary wine during the meal, and some free chocolate truffles came with the check! Not to distract from the sushi though, it was DELICIOUS. It was not noticeably different from sushi in the States, as some food is, but that's a good thing! It was a great way to spend the evening, and definitely worth the cost!

I have discovered a new favorite place in London; Kensington Gardens. It is a huge park close to where I live, and houses the Kensington Palace and Albert memorial. It has tons of bike paths and open lawns surrounding a lake. The lake has lots of ducks and best of all- swans! I had never seen a swan close up until my first trip to Kensington Gardens. On a sunny day it is packed with couples, kids, and dogs, but still manages to be peaceful and relaxing. Unlike some other city parks (in both London and US cities) this park really feels as though you have left the city. As I [reluctantly] walked out the first time, I was almost shocked to see the hustling and bustling streets in London right in front of me again. I have liked all of the parks in London that I've seen, but none of them had the same effect on me as Kensington Gardens has.

Prince Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens

Ireland- Green, Guinness & Gorgeous

This weekend 3 of my roommates and my sister and I went to Ireland! We took a short flight very early on Friday morning, and arrived in Dublin by 10:30 am. Our first stop was our hostel. This was my first time staying in a hostel, and I was really impressed by how nice it was! The rooms were spacious, the beds were comfy, and the whole place was very clean. They offered free breakfast on the weekends, and had welcome drinks that evening! I'm not exactly sure what I thought I would find, but it definitely exceeded by expectations!


After dropping our stuff at the hostel, we headed to grab lunch and catch a tour of Dublin. The (free!) tour was excellent, and our tour guide was really great. In the 3.5 hours of walking, we saw a whole lot of Dublin! Our first stop was the city hall, and then we went to Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle is not....a castle. The castle burned down years ago, and was rebuilt in the architecture of that time, the 18th century. The buildings create a rectangle around a large open area. This is where the British ruled before Ireland's independence in 1922, and now serves as a government building. A main part of the old castle that is still standing is the Tower of Records. This medieval tower has walls that are 4.5 meters thick. Yep, four point five. This makes it pretty indestructible. Our tour guide told us lots about the history of the castle and how it was involved in the Irish uprisings against the British.

Dublin Castle

Tower of Records

We also saw Dublin gardens, Christ Church Cathedral, and Trinity College. Trinity College was founded in 1592, but is still active today! It is a very prestigious institution in Ireland, and our tour guide even went there. There is lots of really pretty old architecture there, as well as some less attractive modern architecture. The Trinity college library is where the Book of Kells is kept, which is said to be the most beautiful book. It is a gospel writing written in Latin around the 6th century, and has been very well preserved. It is well known for being extremely colorful. Unfortunately I didn't actually see it, since they charged admissions and the tour was moving on.

Dublin Gardens

Christ Church Cathedral

Trinity College

After the tour was over, we went to the Guinness Store house. Here we learned about what goes into Guiness beer and the history of its brewing. Guinness has been a huge export for Ireland, and honestly they are a little obsessed with it. There was also an exhibit about the history of advertising Guinness, which I thought was the most interesting! At the very top of the building there is the 'Gravity Bar' where you can see a huge view of Dublin. We were given 2 free samples of the beer, too. I was surprised that I didn't hate it, since its pretty much the darkest beer ever. But it was not too bad!

For dinner we went to a pub near our hostel, and then headed to a street called Temple Bar where there are lots of bars and pubs. Here went to THE Temple Bar, which is a pretty well known bar. It was absolutely packed, and as we walked in we could hear a live band played 'Sweet Home Alabama'. The best part was that everyone was really enjoying, shouting out the words and swinging their beers in the air. The band also played some Beatles songs and U2, which seemed a bit more appropriate. We tried to sneak our way around the place, and soon realized it was pretty big. Every time we would struggle our way into one room, we would find another room! Unfortunately, we found a smoking room. As soon as we walked in, I thought I was going to drop dead with lung cancer. The air was literally dense with smoke. But since smoking seems like such a common European thing, I'm glad they created something like that instead of allowing people to smoke throughout!


The most entertaining part about going out was the walk home. It's not uncommon for drunk Americans to shout things at people walking by to be funny, but this was entirely different. Its hard to explain people's reaction to us, but its like groups of people walked by and stopped to talk to us, completely seriously. Clearly we were heading home too early for the Irish. One guy walked right up to me and hugged me. By the time this happened for the third time, we decided it must be an Irish thing.


Saturday morning we went on a tour of Wicklow county. This was a coach tour to several places in Wicklow. The first stop was Glencree, where there was a pretty church and some rugby players. The scenery on the way was unbelievable, but unfortunately it was hard to take (good) pictures through the windows. There were so many mountains, rivers, and a huge bog on the way. We did make a picture stop though, and even looking at the pictures now I can't believe it was real.

We spent a lot of the day at Glendalough, which is a town with the remains of the first church and lot of historical remaints. Our tour guide explained so much history about St. Kevin and the monks that built Glendalough.

In addition to all of the old buildings, there was a long river there. We look a long walk up to the source of the river, where it was once again unbelievably beautiful.

We stopped at a DELICIOUS pub for a late lunch, and then headed to the town of Avoca, where there is a famous weavermill. We were given a brief tour of the mills, and saw all of the scarves, blankets, and sweaters that are made. The products are now sold in stores, one of which we saw in Dublin.


When we got back to Dublin, we did some souvenir shopping on Graffton street, a pretty large shopping area. We saw at least 10 street performers and musicians, which made it feel much less commercial. After taking a quick nap in the hostel, we got some dinner and headed back to temple bar to try out some other pubs. Everywhere was equally as packed as the Temple Bar had been, but proved to be a good night nonetheless. An interesting thing about going out in Dublin was that everyone was sooo dressed up! Every single girl was in a dress and 5 inch heels. Seriously every one. We were clearly underdressed! I thought that people in London and Paris were pretty dressed up, but it didn't even compare to Dublin!


Early Sunday morning we headed back to London; to warmer weather, similar beer, and less dressy people :)

"Bling, bling. Excuse me!" --Paris!

The time has come for me to finally post about PARIS! Get ready, this is a super long one.

So 3 of my roommates and I went on a three day trip to Paris with a travel group that was recommended to us from Capa, our school. Being Capa students we got a discount as well, and the whole thing was pretty cheap! It included getting there and back, a hotel to stay in, a boat cruise, and a tour guide. This all seemed perfect since it was our first trip out of the England, and most things were planned for us. When going to Paris from London, most people take the Eurostar, which takes only 2 hours or so, but it costs about as much as our whole weekend did. So instead, this program took us on a ferry. The only thing that wasn't made clear was that we would be traveling for 10 hours before making it to Paris. Oops.

We left our flat at 5 AM and made our way to the coach, which took us to the ferry. The ferry took us to Calais, and then we continued on the coach. The ferry was much nicer than I expected, including several levels, a bar, casino, restaurants, cafes, etc. When we finally arrived in Paris, it was just getting dark. Our first sight was the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It was a kind of weird feeling, looking up at such a famous landmark for the first time. It didn't quite feel real.

We headed right to a boat cruise on the Seine river. The boat went very quickly, and we tried to snap lots of pictures of the city lit up at night.

Finally, we headed towards the hotel and had a chance to eat dinner. For a Friday night, the area was very quiet. We managed to find a reasonably priced pizza place, with a very friendly waiter who spoke excellent English. After dinner we headed to a bar to have a drink or two. The bartender's English was not even close to that of the waiter, and ordering was a bit of an adventure. But in the end we had a fun but relaxing evening.

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to go on tours! Our first stop was Sacre Coeur, a beautiful cathedral. There were 180 steps leading up to the cathedral, and as we climbed, the view became increasingly expansive. By the top you could see a huge panoramic view of the city. The inside of the cathedral itself was equally as beautiful. There were some interesting additions due to tourism. On the walk up, there were men who tried to grab your wrist and put a bracelet on you, and then would charge you for it. One of them practically lunged for one of my friends, it was odd. But luckily we had been warned. Also, inside the cathedral, there were penny machines to create souvenirs. You put in one pence, and it pressed into it an image of Sacre Coeur. I thought  that it was kind of bizarre that something like this and several gift shops would be included inside a cathedral, which holds religious value for many people.

Our next stop was Moulin Rouge, which I learned means red windmill. We only saw the outside though.  We didn't spend much time here, but made our way to my favorite sight in all of Paris, Notre Dame. No pictures I could have taken were able to capture how beautiful the interior of this place is (and trust me I tried). I was obsessed with the chandeliers, high ceilings, and stained glass. The stained glass was so abundant, colorful, and truly impressive. Sometimes when I see famous sights, I don't really appreciate what I am looking at until later. But in this case, I was so moved by Notre Dame the moment I was in it. I was really surprised to have this reaction.

After this it was time for a lunch break- crepes! I got a chicken, potato, and mushroom crepe, not a sweet one. It was DELICIOUS. I could have eaten about four. Ordering off of the menu was a bit difficult, but luckily a friend with me knew some key words like chicken and potato. Disaster averted.

The real journey began after lunch. We parted from our tour group and wandered by ourselves. We walked along the Seine River, roughly following the map, with a few sights targeted. We made it to the Arc de Triomphe, of course, which we had seen from the bus the night before. I was surprised by how big it was, and how chaotic! Everyone says that driving in London is bad, but it cannot possibly compare to the driving in Paris. There are lots of traffic circles, including a large one around the Arc de Triomphe, and there is no rhyme or reason involved. No lanes, lots of awkward yielding, and no clear right of way, Our tour guide told us that at the particular circle around the Arc de Triomphe, there is no insurance coverage. Any accidents at the circle are automatically treated on a 50/50 basis. And we definitely witnessed about 20 near accidents while we were there. Sounds like a risky place to be driving!

Next we went to see the Eiffel Tower in the daylight. The Eiffel Tower has got to be one of the most recognized structures in the world, right? Even people who may not have traveled or know a lot about other countries will likely be able to recognize the Eiffel Tower as being in Paris. Well, I learned that the Eiffel Tower wasn't even supposed to be in Paris, it was originally planned to be in Italy! But Italy didn't want it, so it came to Paris, with the intent that it would only be up for 20 years! Its interesting that something that is now so famously Parisian, was meant for a different location and to be temporary! The line to go up the Eiffel Tower was a good 2 hours long, so we didn't try to go. All around the structure there were men selling little models of the Eiffel Tower on key chains. They would come up to us incessantly, offering different prices. They said some really comical things to get our attention too. The first one we heard was, "Bling bling. Excuse me?" Another time a man just said, "Lady Gaga," and held up the key chains. We don't know if it was because we are American (people always seem to know instantly), or because they did it to everyone, but each time we just laughed, shook our heads, and kept walking.

And then we walked FOREVER. We walked for about 8 hours straight, and I wish that I was exaggerating. We walked along the Seine and saw about 100 little street vendors selling art and souvenirs. Here we noticed something really odd that young men in Paris did. Very frequently, as we walked towards them, they would start to make a noise at us, and continue as we passed them. The noise sounded almost like a fake whisper, and was definitely intentional. We could not figure out this out, and found it pretty bizarre. At this point in the trip we made a purchase which may have changed my life. We each bought a huge donut filled with melty, hot, drippy, chocolate. At first we attempted to keep walking and eat at the same time, but that quickly proved to be messy and inefficient. Once you bit into the (wonderful) donut, the chocolate would start to drip and you would keep taking bites simply to keep it together. Unfortunately, this meant we ended up eating them quickly, desperately trying not to cause a chocolate mess. This was all rather futile though, since we ended up with sticky hands, mouths, chins, and sometimes noses. Regardless of the un-elegant way we ate it, we were all satisfied, and continued to rave about the donut for the rest of the day. Even 7 hours later someone would say, "The donut was soooooo gooooooood." Well done, Paris.

One of my favorite parts of Paris was the bridges over the Seine. There were so many and most of them look very different. On some of them, there were hundreds of padlocks linked to the fence. Couples would come to the bridge, write their names on a lock, and put it on the bridge to "lock their love." We walked on one bridge for a very long time, simply looking at all of the diverse locks. We even saw one couple doing it, and said our appropriate "awwwwwww." Our tour guide told us that the police hate this trend, and from time to time they go on to the bridges and remove all of the locks, but within a day or so, the bridges are again filled with locks!

Our last destination was Galleries de Lafayette, where we hoped to do some shopping. However, by the time we FINALLY made it there, we were exhausted, hungry, and needed to sit down. We managed to do a lap through the massive mall, and then went to examining our maps to make it back to our hotel. But, we went in about 6 circles before we could quite figure out which street we were on at which time, and which street we wanted to be on in the first place. It was made worse by the fact that the streets were packed, and we were too insecure about our little knowledge of French (or in my case, complete lack of French) to ask anyone for help. Finally, we trudged back in the right direction, and found a lovely little restaurant on the way. After awkwardly ordering in French, our waitress began to speak a little bit of English to us. Better late than never, I guess?

After collapsing onto the hotel beds and massaging our feet, we decided to check out some of the night life. We were advised to visit Rue de Lappe, a street with lots of bars and clubs. To get there we rode the metro, which was much easier than I expected. Of course it cannot compare to the organization of London tube, but it was very manageable, not packed, and well kept. Better than a lot of US metros, at least!

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to the Louvre, which is free on the first Sunday of every month. This was great for us, but also great for every other person in Europe, so we were instructed by our tour guide how to get in through a back entrance. Later, I looked through the window and saw the massive line to get in. Yikes!

I enjoyed the Louvre much more than I thought I was going to. From the outside, the Louvre looks absolutely huge! But the inside interior of the museum is the most impressive. Some rooms are constructed of huge arches with sunlight coming in from ceiling windows. Others have unbelievably huge ceiling paintings. Some have intricate golden decorating, and other have beautiful red and white marble walls and doorways. The building was originally used as a hotel, and costumers paid for their rooms by submitting art. It was clearly a very fancy hotel though!

 Besides the art of the museum itself, my favorite section was the Italian paintings. I really liked the bright colors, and how they all looked sort of similar. Some of them were absolutely huge, maybe even 15 feet tall! In this section we saw the Mona Lisa, which was perhaps the smallest painting in its section. It was set apart on a wall by itself, and surrounded by a glass case. It was hard to get a good picture of it, since there was a dense mob surrounding it the whole time. I was exciting to see such a famous work, but honestly, I enjoyed the other Italian paintings much more.

I also really liked the rooms filled with white statues. I saw lots of famous ones, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, and St. Mary Magdalene. There is a whole floor or so for Mesopotamian remains, which I was not expecting! Another surprise was that none of the descriptions or names were in English! My best hope for learning about the works was to looks for the year they were made. Of course they offered audio guides which were in English, but I was very surprised that the plaques on the actual artwork was only in French at such a tourist attraction. I must be so spoiled by living in London!

While eating after the museum, we happened to start chatting with some Americans! The couple are living in Germany for a few years with their children, as the Dad is working at a military base. They were just visiting Paris for the weekend, as we were. They talked to us for a while about differences in culture, how they are liking living in Germany, and suggested countries to visit. After a weekend of feeling like such a foreigner and unable to speak to anyone besides my friends, I was really relieved to have a familiar experience! While meeting foreign people and experiencing other cultures is exciting and definitely worth while, I didn't realize how much I identified myself as an American until just then.

After our lunch at the Louvre, we began our long journey back to London. The weekend felt a little bit too short, and I was disappointed to be leaving Paris.

I have two regrets about my trip to Paris. First of all, I didn't eat enough food! Yes, that is rarely something that I can say. When telling people that I went to Paris, I have been asked every time about the food. I wish I had eaten more from the street vendors and cafes to better experience French food! Next time I go I will be sure to eat my way through the streets.(But I will be sure to skip the horse meat). Also, I would like to learn some key phrases in French. It was really humbling to go to a place were I couldn't ask where the bathroom was or discriminate options on a menu. Luckily a few of my friends had taken French in high school, and we were able to struggle through, but I wish that I could have done things a bit more competently on my own. Next time, I'm bringing a little traveler's guide. And yes, there will definitely be a next time!

Stonehenge & Bath

A few weeks ago, Capa sent all students on a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. It was just a day trip: a few hours on a bus with a tour guide. Our first stop was Stonehenge, which was...freezing. It looks exactly like the pictures you've seen of it. In fact, it was smaller than I expected. It was in the middle of this hilly area, surrounded by sheep. While the site itself was sort of underwhelming, the history that we learned about it made the visit. Its hard to even imagine how old it is, since it was made 3 centuries ago. With this in mind, the sophistication of the monument is pretty mysterious. There are many myths about what the purposes of the stone ring were. But the most fascinating question is how it was made! The stones range from 4 to 25 tons, and it is believed that it would have taken 30 million hours of labor to create. There are 900 other stone rings similar to Stonehenge in the British Isles. Learning all of this made the trek around the pile of rocks much more worth it.

The rest of the day was spent traveling to and exploring the city of Bath in Somerset. We visited the Roman baths, which are still filled with (green) hot water, supplied from hot springs. 

The city outside the baths is so old, and so beautiful. The roads were all cobble stones, the buildings all made of limestone, and the streets were small and filled with little shops. There was something so quaint and charming about the little city. Our tour guide showed us examples of the Roman, medieval, and Georgian aspects of the history. 

My favorite part of all was the Circus, or the Royal Crescent. It was built in the 1700's and was inspired by the Roman Colosseum, but instead the front of the structure is the inside of the circle. It is a huge circular building, shaped much like the Colosseum, 3 stories high, and very big. It creates a half circle around a huge lawn. With the sun shining above the circular building, the scene was so breath taking and peaceful. The use something called a "ha-ha" instead of a fence. Since fences would take away from the physical appearance of the scene, they built a sort of ditch to keep unwanted animals out. It is kind of hard to explain, but the lawn has a cliff, almost like a big stair. But the most interesting part is that it is hard to see the cliff, because the green of the lawn blends in together. It was even difficult to get a picture in which you could tell the "ha-ha" was there! I thought this was really clever!

I was sad to leave Bath by the end of the day, but in that time we had actually seen the whole city. It was  pretty small, which almost makes it more endearing! I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

Blog Slacker

So it turns out I'm not too consistent at this blogging thing. In my defense though, I haven't had a computer! Unfortunately, my flat was broken into, and my laptop was taken. It is truly a bizarre story. Our lock was a little spotty in the first place; sometimes it didn't stick quite right. I was staying with my sister for the night in Harrow, a Westminster campus out of Central London.When I came back late on Sunday, I realized that I couldn't find my laptop. Our flat is rather small, and after we all looked for about an hour, it became obvious that it was not in the flat, and no one had moved it. I had left it on our kitchen table, and it was definitely seen there before my flatmates went to bed. After reviewing where all 5 of my flatmates had been at what times, we figured out that there was about a 20 minute time gap between when 4 of them went to bed, and the final girl came home and dead bolted the doors. There were 3 laptops on that table but only mine is gone. My sister's ipod was plugged into my laptop to charge, but the ipod was sitting there on the table. Who ever took the laptop took the time to unplug the ipod and the charger. It is so strange, and its almost hard to believe its not just lost. But after searching and talking to everyone, there is no other answer besides it is just...gone.

The police came to the flat, and they were very very nice. There was very little that they could do, except take a statement and explain how they think it might have happened. The area I'm living in is not usually unsafe, but apparently theft is somewhat common because there are so many bars and pubs nearby. We got a new (and better) lock on our door, and we are getting a second lock put on. Dramadramadrama.

On a slightly humorous side, my laptop was in awful condition! It is broken, and will not turn on unless it is plugged into the charger. Well, since they kindly left the charger behind, they will not get very far with it. Also the screen has a huge streak across it. It makes me feel a little bit better that the thief won't benefit too much from it.

I am now missing about 1000 pictures from the past 2.5 years of my life (thank god for facebook, right?) and will have to borrow my flatmates' laptops for skyping, facebooking, and blogging. But I'd rather be enjoying London than sitting on a computer anyway! Which is what I'm going to do right now. I have lots more to update on here; a trip to Stonehenge and Bath, my internship, and a trip to Paris! Stay tuned.