Weekend Adventures: London Edition

I bet that you have given up all hopes of following my adventures abroad via this blog.  I don't blame you; my postings are becoming more infrequent.  I blame this on my frequent traveling, busy schedule, laziness, and realization that I have to fit studying into my study abroad experience.  From March 7th - 11th, my friend Rani and I flew to London via Ryanair (my first Ryanair adventure - SO many advertisements).  We stayed with a fellow Hendrix student, Elizabeth Davis.  She was the perfect combination of tour guide, host, and friend from back home.  This post appears very long because I included many pictures.  If you feel that reading the whole thing is too daunting of a task, here is a recap of the trip: fun, rainy, cold, ate lots of English food, walked until we could walk no more, saw lots of things.  Now, follows the more in-depth version told via the photo captions...

After arriving in London, Rani and I headed into the first restaurant we saw - one that serves English breakfast all day (it was run by an Indian family, so we got a truly global experience_.

After setting our bags down in Elizabeth's flat, Rani and I set off on our first London adventure - we found the Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, a square that was not Trafalgar Square, St. Jame's Park, and a Glimpse of the Buckingham Palace.

Thankfully, they have nifty signs on the ground telling us which way to look when crossing the road.

There it is, there's BIG BEN!

So beautiful, Westminster Abbey.  I am good at taking pictures of the outsides of buildings.  I don't take pictures of the insides...because you have to pay to go inside.

We had our first English dinner!  Bangers (sausage) and mash ( mashed potatoes) at a GREAT English pub - we felt like locals! 

Following our great dinner, we headed to our final adventure of the night - Wicked!  It was such a great show!

The next day, we went on quite the sightseeing expedition.  We started off in the fire tower monument and climbed ALL of the stairs to the top!

We also crossed the London Bridge.

And the Globe Theatre.

And a sign that says "conway."  How appropriate for two Hendrix students to stumble upon this!

We also gazed upon St. Paul's Cathedral from the outside - once again, no paying to go in!

We went to Borough Market.  There we wandered around all of the food (and sampled food too!).  We shared a chicken pie, empenada, and salted beef sandwich.  The chocolate cake was all mine.  Have I mentioned that I bought a gym membership?  I have.

Our last sight for the day was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  Then, it was time to call it quits - we were cold, tired, and wet.

The next day we woke up early and headed to see the changing of the guard.  I was very excited to see my favorite spring flowers blooming in the park nearby Buckingham Palace.

After watching the changing of the guard, we wandered over to Hyde Park for a bit.

Thankfully, I took a mandatory red phone booth photo.  I can now officially call myself a London tourist.

We met up with my camp friend Kelly while in London.  This brings my total camp friend meetings up to 3 now!  While with Kelly, we explored Harrod's, Covent Garden, M&M World, and Trafalgar Square.

This is by far the most fancy and expensive department store (does that even do it justice?) that I have ever been to.  Playing the game "how much do you think this is" is ridiculous in there.

Our last full day was spent wandering around Camden Market.  We tried to explore the mostly indoor parts of the market because it was so super cold that day - so cold that I bought ridiculous looking gloves.  Camden Market was a great experience - I loved every minute of it.  The last day that we were in London, Rani and I browsed the shops along Oxford Street.  Thankfully, we had already visited Primark earlier in the weekend (Primark...think forever 21, but not quite as many strange clothes).

London was such a great experience.  It is not the cheapest city, but I would go back again in a heartbeat.  Also, I was able to master the Tube system, which is saying something for this direction challenged individual.

Until next time, London, until next time!

Weekend Adventures: Antwerp and Brussels

My apologies for the very late post.  Not this past weekend, but the weekend before (I told you this was overdue) I went to Belgium with three Australian friends.  We boarded the train early Friday morning and headed to Antwerp.  I did not have many expectations set for Antwerp, which was rude of me.  Antwerp is a wonderful city.  From the moment I stepped into the gorgeous train station until the moment I left, I constantly found myself saying "Well done, Antwerp, well done."  From the train station, we caught the tram to our hostel.  It was in a beautiful (slightly shabby - it's a hostel of course) old house.  After we dropped our luggage off, we went into town with three goals: shopping, chocolate, and waffles.  I am happy to say that we met each goal.  Antwerp has a lovely shopping street filled with great stores, waffle stands, and some chocolate shops.  For dinner, we broke out the travel guide to find a restaurant.  After a fair bit of wandering, a few feelings of hopelessness, and frequent map-looking, we walked down a beautiful side road only to end up right in front of our destination.  It was fate.

inside of our hostel room

lobby of our hostel

antwerp central station

first REAL belgian waffle

massive chocolate frog

this beautiful building is on the shopping street.  many of the buildings are so old and ornate

some cathedral? like i said, we didn't do much learning this trip.  but we did do LOTS of eating!

the beautiful alleyway

my traditional belgian meal!  (Mashed potatoes with ham and lettuce stuff)

this is how tiny restaurants on the beautiful alleyway advertised their menu for the night

main square

leaving antwerp

kimmi's favorite church in brussels

inside of the church

the market we went to in brussels

our group!

the buildings are all just so old and beautiful

view down a street

hot chocolate!

the sun came out!  it was a miracle.  this is in gran pleis 

the most underwhelming tourist attraction you will ever see

fries!

The next day, we woke up early and headed to Brussels.  Again, our goals were much the same.  Our group was not that keen for museums - we had limited time in each city and felt that spending 2+ hours inside a museum would be a waste.  Also, museums cost money...  In Brussels we met up with my friend Kimmi from camp.  She is an au pair for a family there.  Thankfully, she had the day off and played tour guide for us.  Kimmi was such a great tour guide - we walked all over Brussels, went to the best chocolate shops, saw all the mandatory tourist sights, stood on top of a parking garage to get a great view of the city, bargained in french (well, kimmi bargained in french) at an outdoor market that the locals go to, ate waffles and fries, and did some more walking.  I had a great time catching up with Kimmi in Brussels, but I still feel partial to Antwerp.  I would like to go back to both of these cities in the future!
Also, if you ever find yourself in Brussels central station alone and you're trying to get home...avoid reading the signs on your own.  No matter how close you think dutch and french are to english, you are wrong.  you will get lost and have to take three wrong trains and interact with a conductor that speaks only french before you make it on the correct train....at least i never have a dull moment while traveling?