Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Spring Break so far
The places I've seen in the past few days have been truly beautiful and amazing. I won't go into much detail now, because I don't have much time, but once I return to Cheltenham you can count on some substantial entries about my journeys.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Barcelona...numero uno
Tiff and I have made it safely to continental Europe! Our hostel is located in a strange part of the building but a convenient part of town. It has free internet, so that´s a huge plus!
We arrived in Barcelona and Melissa was waiting for us at the airport! I can´t express in writing how amazing it was to see her and how great it will be having her as our personal tour guide this weekend. Travelling has gone pretty smoothly, but without Melissa today I think Barcelona would have been a little tricky to maneuver alone. Tomorrow we will be seeing the city with Melissa. I think we are seeing the mountain and the palace. I´m sure we will find more than enough things to do.
We had McDonald´s for dinner. I know, I know, that´s too American, BUT I ordered my meal IN SPANISH! So that was pretty exciting. We will be experiencing more authentic Spanish food tomorrow for sure.
We arrived in Barcelona and Melissa was waiting for us at the airport! I can´t express in writing how amazing it was to see her and how great it will be having her as our personal tour guide this weekend. Travelling has gone pretty smoothly, but without Melissa today I think Barcelona would have been a little tricky to maneuver alone. Tomorrow we will be seeing the city with Melissa. I think we are seeing the mountain and the palace. I´m sure we will find more than enough things to do.
We had McDonald´s for dinner. I know, I know, that´s too American, BUT I ordered my meal IN SPANISH! So that was pretty exciting. We will be experiencing more authentic Spanish food tomorrow for sure.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Easter Vacation
The Itinerary for my journey across Europe:
March 14-17Barcelona , Spain
March 17-23 Aix enProvence , France
March 23-25Rome , Italy
Rome to Milan, Italy
March 26-April 1Prague
April 1-2London , England
April 2-3Amsterdam , Netherlands
April 3-6 Londonderry,Northern Ireland
I will update as I am able. It should be a great trip!
March 14-17
March 17-23 Aix en
March 23-25
March 26-April 1
April 1-2
April 2-3
April 3-6 Londonderry,
I will update as I am able. It should be a great trip!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Stones, Salisbury, Ships and Shoes
Stones...
Salisbury:
The Cathedral holds one of the four copies of the Magna Carta, but we didn't have enough time to look inside.
Ships...
the coast at Portsmouth: SO COLD, but the ships were quite lovely. We went on a tour of an old ship, and I definitely learned a lot.
and SHOES!
Portsmouth had an outlet mall where I found two pairs of Pumas for an incredibly reasonable price!
Salisbury:
The Cathedral holds one of the four copies of the Magna Carta, but we didn't have enough time to look inside.
Ships...
the coast at Portsmouth: SO COLD, but the ships were quite lovely. We went on a tour of an old ship, and I definitely learned a lot.
and SHOES!
Portsmouth had an outlet mall where I found two pairs of Pumas for an incredibly reasonable price!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Just sleep
I turned in my enormous psychology paper yesterday afternoon, and it ended up being 18 pages with all of my appendixes and the written analysis. It's crazy that I actually wrote all of that for one paper, but I felt extremely accomplished after I turned it in. So accomplished in fact, that today I not only slept in, but I also took a lovely nap this afternoon. It's been a very unproductive day, and this weekend is a BCA trip with my program to Stonehenge and Portsmouth, so I won't be getting work done until Monday anyhow. I have picked up five books from the library, so once I dig into those I should be able to get some solid work done to be ready to turn it in Thursday since we leave Friday for Easter vacation!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Norway: Part Two
Oslo in Pictures...
The second day was a WONDERFUL day! We slept in and headed to the sculpture park on the other side of town. We ended up getting a day pass on the tram, so we took that around everywhere all day (definitely worth the money). We made it to the park and spent an hour or so there, and I really loved it! I could tell that Tiff wasn't really enjoying it, but I didn't let that affect my experience. I took tons of pictures, and the artsy part of me can't wait to see more sculpture parks in Europe and then maybe find some in the States when I get back.
There was a waffle stand outside the park and we hadn't had anything to eat yet, so Tiff and I got waffles, which were really more like French crepes in waffle form. We had raspberry jelly on them and they were sooo good! I thought I got orange juice, but it turned out to be orange flavored soda, but we haven't had much of that here in England, so it was still really tasty.
We hopped back on the tram and headed to the Nobel Peace Center, which was a really amazing museum. We spent an hour there, and I loaded up on gifts in the museum shop. We took the tram back to the hostel (I swear we rode it around the entire city of Oslo) and asked the guy at the desk how to get to the restaurant we were planning on going to that night. He gave us directions and we went out in search of the bus station so that we knew how to get back there in the morning to get back to the airport.
Nobel Peace Center
We got back on the tram and went to Karl Johans square where we ate at HARD ROCK CAFE!!!! I had an amazing quesadilla and splurged on the most delicious chocolate mousse cake ever. The waitress spoke English, so that was a plus, too.
The delicious chocolate cake
Most people we met spoke some English, especially people in service-related jobs, but the first night at the little restaurant was definitely a situation that got lost in translation somewhere. Okay, so Hard Rock was awesome, and after that we rode the tram back to the hostel, which was another trip around the city.
The outside of our hostel
The second night we had a guy from Poland, some guy from London and two Chinese exchange teachers living in London. We spent the remainder of the night talking to them and I wrote a couple post cards before I went to bed.
Kind of blurry, but my bed was the one closest to the window. Not too bad for a hostel.
We woke up early Sunday morning and managed to make it back safely to Cheltenham a little after 10pm. It's strange how Cheltenham has become another one of my homes away from home, and it was really great to see my housemates when I got back.
The second day was a WONDERFUL day! We slept in and headed to the sculpture park on the other side of town. We ended up getting a day pass on the tram, so we took that around everywhere all day (definitely worth the money). We made it to the park and spent an hour or so there, and I really loved it! I could tell that Tiff wasn't really enjoying it, but I didn't let that affect my experience. I took tons of pictures, and the artsy part of me can't wait to see more sculpture parks in Europe and then maybe find some in the States when I get back.
There was a waffle stand outside the park and we hadn't had anything to eat yet, so Tiff and I got waffles, which were really more like French crepes in waffle form. We had raspberry jelly on them and they were sooo good! I thought I got orange juice, but it turned out to be orange flavored soda, but we haven't had much of that here in England, so it was still really tasty.
We hopped back on the tram and headed to the Nobel Peace Center, which was a really amazing museum. We spent an hour there, and I loaded up on gifts in the museum shop. We took the tram back to the hostel (I swear we rode it around the entire city of Oslo) and asked the guy at the desk how to get to the restaurant we were planning on going to that night. He gave us directions and we went out in search of the bus station so that we knew how to get back there in the morning to get back to the airport.
Nobel Peace Center
We got back on the tram and went to Karl Johans square where we ate at HARD ROCK CAFE!!!! I had an amazing quesadilla and splurged on the most delicious chocolate mousse cake ever. The waitress spoke English, so that was a plus, too.
The delicious chocolate cake
Most people we met spoke some English, especially people in service-related jobs, but the first night at the little restaurant was definitely a situation that got lost in translation somewhere. Okay, so Hard Rock was awesome, and after that we rode the tram back to the hostel, which was another trip around the city.
The outside of our hostel
The second night we had a guy from Poland, some guy from London and two Chinese exchange teachers living in London. We spent the remainder of the night talking to them and I wrote a couple post cards before I went to bed.
Kind of blurry, but my bed was the one closest to the window. Not too bad for a hostel.
We woke up early Sunday morning and managed to make it back safely to Cheltenham a little after 10pm. It's strange how Cheltenham has become another one of my homes away from home, and it was really great to see my housemates when I got back.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Norway: Part One
Basically, Norway was amazing! I'm really busy this week, so this will be a two part post at least.
Just outside the Torp Airport, two hours away from Oslo.
When we arrived at the airport it really wasn't much colder than it had been here in England. There was some snow on the ground, but not as much as there is back home right now. I had packed for the extreme cold and it was only chilly, but I'm glad I was more prepared rather than the other way. It just meant that my backpack was packed to the max, but it all worked out alright.
The first day we were in Oslo was pretty uneventful, minus the side account of getting lost on our way to the hostel. We weren't lost for very long, but the girl I was with was getting a bit grumpy about the whole thing. We ended up making it to the hostel well before our check-in time, and I guess you can't check in until after your time, so we just sat around in the lobby reading a booklet about what there was to do in Oslo.
We checked into our room (it was pretty nice for the little money that we were paying) and we just relaxed most of the evening. We hadn't slept much the night before because we stayed in the airport overnight to catch our 6:30am plane, so we took a nice nap before dinner time and then went down the street to a little pizza and calzone place. The pizza was alright but nothing special.
We got back to the room and chatted it up with our roommates for the evening- an Iranian man and a guy from Melbourne, Australia. They both spoke English (clearly the one from Australia would) so it was cool to talk to them for a little bit before we went to bed. I woke up at 1am and couldn't sleep, so I just listened to some music on my ipod before I finally fell asleep around 3am or so.
Just outside the Torp Airport, two hours away from Oslo.
When we arrived at the airport it really wasn't much colder than it had been here in England. There was some snow on the ground, but not as much as there is back home right now. I had packed for the extreme cold and it was only chilly, but I'm glad I was more prepared rather than the other way. It just meant that my backpack was packed to the max, but it all worked out alright.
The first day we were in Oslo was pretty uneventful, minus the side account of getting lost on our way to the hostel. We weren't lost for very long, but the girl I was with was getting a bit grumpy about the whole thing. We ended up making it to the hostel well before our check-in time, and I guess you can't check in until after your time, so we just sat around in the lobby reading a booklet about what there was to do in Oslo.
We checked into our room (it was pretty nice for the little money that we were paying) and we just relaxed most of the evening. We hadn't slept much the night before because we stayed in the airport overnight to catch our 6:30am plane, so we took a nice nap before dinner time and then went down the street to a little pizza and calzone place. The pizza was alright but nothing special.
We got back to the room and chatted it up with our roommates for the evening- an Iranian man and a guy from Melbourne, Australia. They both spoke English (clearly the one from Australia would) so it was cool to talk to them for a little bit before we went to bed. I woke up at 1am and couldn't sleep, so I just listened to some music on my ipod before I finally fell asleep around 3am or so.
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