handjexpeditions-blog

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Englischer Garten, Munich 🗓May 31, 2017

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Marienplatz, Munich 🗓May 31, 2017

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The Germans rely on honesty when entering the subway or bus. The lone ticket taker in the top left photo is the only means of slowing you from entering the subway. No ticket lines, no turnstiles, nothing. Rode by some famous house of some famous duke. Went to the top of a really talll tower. Saw a cool town hall. Had beer and snacks. Had fun day 5/31/17

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Wo ist das Bier? (Where is the beer?) "You mean you have beer for breakfast?" "Yea" says the German to Justin's delight. No, we didn't have beer for breakfast. But we did for lunch and an afternoon snack. And by we, it was really Justin did. We did however grab that hop-on/hop-off bus to Olympia Park, where the Munich summer games were held. So maybe the Germans do know a few things about Engineering. Ps. We went to a big fancy house was built by a man for his wife for giving birth. Justin has been instructed to take notes. Pps. The Germans were trying to build canals like the one seen in the pictures, but then the war happen. 🗓May 31, 2017

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Hallo Deutschland What a welcome to Germany. We were almost an hour late but we're welcomed with pretzels, cheese and beer. Matthias brought us these wonderful presents and taught us it is totally normal to be drinking alcohol just about everywhere in Germany, including the streets. With such beautiful Instagram-worthy streets, I could resist taking a few ransoms. With our bellies filled, off we went to explore Munich. Ps. That dog eat half my pretzel 😭 and kept giving me puppy eyes till I gave him more. 🗓May 31, 2017

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Pip pip Well, that was the end of Newark-on-Trent. That first picture is Heeral attempting to take a selfie with Teddy, the dog who can't sit still. We enjoyed our last meals and headed to the land of beers and pretzels. Thank you James and Jaz, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot about how the English live. It was excite an experience. Ps. Sometimes there is no proper way to eat dessert. You just stick your face into it 🗓June 30, 2017

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A Proper Stately Estate Started the day in the town of Matlock, the nearest thing to being the seaside without being seaside. Google it, Matlock is straight in the middle of England. The English, I tell ya, I don't understand them. Anyway, apparently, it's place to get fish and chips (i.e. Deep fried fish and super thick fries). Obvs as non-Carnivores, we had another English breakfast instead. And then off we went to The Chatsworth House, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and has been passed down through 16 generations of the Cavendish family. The Chatsworth House is renowned for the quality of its art, landscape and hospitality, and it has evolved through the centuries to reflect the tastes, passions and interests of succeeding generations.Today, Chatsworth contains works of art that span 4,000 years, from ancient Roman and Egyptian sculpture, and masterpieces by Rembrandt, Reynolds and Veronese, to work by outstanding modern artists, including Lucian Freud, Edmund de Waal and David Nash. There are over 30 rooms to explore*, from the magnificent Painted Hall, regal State Rooms, restored Sketch Galleries and beautiful Sculpture Gallery. In the guest bedrooms, meet an Edwardian lady's maid who will reveal the secrets of her mistress's suitcase of clothes. Hope that was a good read. We didn't do any of that. We really went there for the stream there, where Teddy can run around and play. Ain't no body wanna pay £20 something for a fancy house. Took some pictures and headed home to chill. Had another round of Indian food and called it a day. ps. We learned that a 2 bed house here is around £200k. We told them how much a similar house would be in cupertino and they really went into shock. We also looked up how much a pharmacist makes here, don't worry definitely not moving here 😔. 🗓May 29, 2017

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The quest for the world's best Indian food Tonight's mission was to eat delicious Indian food. We went to the Ashiana, a "curry house" (for the record, Indians don't make curry but the British insist we do 😒). It turned out to be more Bangladeshi food, which is from Bangladesh, a country right next to India. The food, though, was amazing. It was completely different from what we have in the States. This was a lot sweeter than what we have. I also think we just over use garam masala in the US. The mushrooms were so freaking good. Completely different than anything we've had. All in all, 👍🏽 for The Ashiana. Ps. I'm working on expanding my vocabulary so I can use another word, other than “delicious” 🗓May 28, 2017

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Proper castle. This is the outside of the castle. No Dracula outside either. Went to a proper English estate. Duke and Duchess of Can't Remember. Hopped on a proper metal horse. All the children were doing it so I figured it would be proper for a grown man child to do it too. 5/29/17

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Not sure what day we are on. James’s dog Teddy is super cute. Im making sure I write this differently than my traveling partner. And plenty disorderly… or proper disordered, as the English would say. I tried to see how many times I could “proper” in a sentence. It was proper funny! Church in the background at coffee. Some castle in Newark-on-Trent. Climbed the spiral staircase… not afraid to find Dracula this time. 5/28/17

#proper

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New day, New castle (part 2) A proper English Sunday is spent at home, watching the sport of the season (i.e. Cricket or tennis) or having a Barbie. It is also proper English way to have a proper pint in the middle of the afternoon. So, we did. Well, justin did. Heeral is on a mission to drink as much tea as possible and be a proper English lady. Breaks the fourth wall: F that. These people stole my country's land, diamonds, spices and tea. And they don't even drink their tea the right way. With masala in it. Re-enters the fourth wall: anyway, it's still rather strange to have tea with milk. Tea and coffee are supposed to be drunk black, like my soul. ps. That pub was literally on the the river hence its name The Floating Pub. 🗓May 28, 2017

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New day, new castle (part 1)

Like all good lazy Sundays, we started the day at a coffee shop called Strays. Although there were no stray animals, we did get some good Instagram-worthy coffee. #cappuccino #latte #proper.

Then we went to see a castle. Not as big as Lincoln but still pretty cool. They had some Reenactors and whatnots. Ps. See part 2 for rest

🗓[May 28, 2017]

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Friends welcome, Relatives must make appointments

So, James, like a proper English son, took us to a pub before we went to his parents for a Barbie (a proper English barbecue, of course). The pub was located right on the River Trent. It looks like it’s going to rain but it didn’t. We had a quick beer and on we went to the Turners.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to take pictures with Marion and Nick, James’s parents. However, Marion (the proper Mum and from a farming lot), decided to make us outrageous amounts of delicious food. Kinda like the Sutton-Grover-Ringer-McNulty-Kobely family. Anyway, the Turners are a good lot, really. And the treated us like family. Please note, we attempted to have a barbie outside, but due to the weather conditions, had to move everything inside. #StoryOfTheEngishWeather

On a side note, although the food here doesn’t have a lot of spices, Marion’s cooking was so freaking good. We could taste the actual vegetables she used. And there were so many vegetables. We were so stuffed. Then, she brought out the dessert 😍. That meringue pie was to die for. It was flaky and chewy and just straight AMAZING.

ps. The Turners are like totes friends with the The Queen. Just kidding, but they were invited to Buckingham palace for a Garden Party with The Queen because of all the charity work they do.

🗓May 27, 2017

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Proper English Breakfast

Now that we’ve settled in finally, we had the time for a proper English breakfast with proper Earl Grey tea (please, read that in an English accent. It sounds more fun and, well, proper). The first picture is James’s backyard. Their houses here are so cute with all that brick. We went to a place called Newfield Dairy, where they used to milk the cows and walk over a few hundred yards and made their ice cream. Obviously, ain’t nobody got time to milk cows these days, but they still make ice cream. We had the ginger and “honeycombe” ice cream with the proper amounts of ginger and honeycomb. It was proper “flavourful” really. And they had a vegetarian English breakfast too with Quorn sausages and beans 😍. That other dude is James and that’s his brownie Sundae.

Oh yea, there were some cows there too. They smelled like, well, proper cows.

Ps: everything is sooooo green. Like extremely green.

🗓May 27, 2017

#gif

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Lincoln and the proper pint

Day 1 in England and we’re off looking for castles. We went to the city of Lincoln, where they have a castle on a hill. Obvs, these hills are nothing like SF hills but nevertheless it was a hill. We got to the castle and took a quick picture because £13 to get in. We were like “nah brah, we’d rather get beer”. Took another picture of the cathedral and off we went for beer. We hiked up that hill to a pub outside the castle walls. Heeral accidentally ordered a peach Belgian beer, which turned out rather “flavourful”. Justin got an IPA (meh).

Ps. That sign was by the “toilet”. So true and funny. We’re having that made back at home.

🗓May 27, 2017

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Beer. Beer. Beer. The reason Justin wants to travel. Reunited with James. In front of some church.

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We made it!