nottanothertravelblog

[nottanothertravelblog]

June 2, 2013-London and Gone

Well, I am back in in US again so I suppose it's time for me to write my last post. (Okay, not my last seeing as I still have to blog about my time in Eastern Europe. But you know what I mean.) It's been one heck of an adventure, and certainly not something I'm going to forget anytime soon. That said, let me tell you about my last trip to London and my final trip home. 

Friday

Thankfully, I did not have to get up super early in order to catch my bus, so I didn't have to rush around doing last minute things as I left. Brenda and Rylea came to say goodbye, and David loaded my suitcases into the car. He dropped me off at the bus station and said goodbye. I managed not to cry until he left, at which point I was the crying girl with four bags at the bus stop. Classy. The bus ride was fine, and I was eventually dropped off at Victoria Station in the middle of London. That's when things got difficult. 

If you are ever travelling in London, I highly recommend that you do not try to take four bags (two large suitcases, one carry-on, and a very heavy backpack) with you. Especially if you plan on riding the Tube. I was surprised to learn that the Victoria stop (a pretty large/central stop) does not have elevators. It actually doesn't even have escalators. Luckily, as I stood at the top of the stairs contemplating how to get down, a nice boy offered to help carry my bags. Getting through the gates was another struggle as I first discovered that I needed to top up my Oyster card which necessitated going up yet more stairs (fewer this time, but still annoying), waiting in line, going back down a couple of stairs, and through the gate. But do you think I went through the handicapped gate? (Why they have a handicapped gate in a handicap-inaccessible Tube stop is beyond me.) No. I went through the one with a separate thing for your luggage. Except I don't even know why the put it there, because it DOESN'T WORK. Luckily a nice lady helped me push and pull and drag my bags through, or I don't know what I would have done. Then came...can you guess?..more stairs! This time a couple helped me carry my bags down. Some people are so nice. I managed to throw all my bags on the train in time, then rode across town. There must have been an elevator at my stop, because I don't remember anyone helping me up the stairs, though they let me through the handicapped gate.

Finally I got a taxi to take me the rest of the way to my hostel, where I was finally able to sit down for a bit and let my muscles stop shaking. After some recovery, I left and got on the Tube headed for Leicester Square. I had been hoping to see a show, but I was pretty low on cash. I really wanted to see Book of Mormon, a show new to the West End, but one I've wanted to see for a long time. Advance tickets were all sold out, but they run a lottery before every show where they give out 21 tickets for just £20. So I went to the theatre and entered the lottery. I was hoping that since I was only going for a single ticket, unlike most people who were going for pairs, I would have an advantage. As I was waiting, I was talking to a couple of really nice Canadian guys on vacation who were rooting for me to win. Unfortunately, I did not win. So instead I got some dinner. 

I miss Pret already. I sat outside where some woman asked me when the big football game was (I had no idea, but had enjoyed seeing all of the German football fans around town. They all seemed so happy.) and then she started talking to me about art. I smiled and nodded for a little bit before leaving. 

I people-watched for a little bit in Trafalgar Square, then just started wandering. I ended up on Oxford Street, which was nice. I got to visit the Waterstone's that is the location of one of my favorite Twitter accounts, @WaterstonesOxfordSt. 

They are hilarious, so it was fun to go into the actual store. Eventually I got tired of walking around, so I went back to my hostel where I spent the evening chatting with a lovely Australian girl named Amelie. In a quest to find Carlsberg (she claimed it was a beer she actually like and that I should try it), we went to several different pubs. None of them had it, so we settled for cider. It was a lovely night, until I actually had to sleep. Putting it nicely, my bed was basically a thinly veiled set of springs and my pillow was about the same thickness as a folded tee shirt. At least it was clean?

Saturday

After trying one shower that refused to warm up, I waited for another and finally got down to breakfast. I then headed down to the Tube and was off on my day's adventure.

First stop: the Sherlock Holmes museum! Okay, so I actually didn't go into the museum because it was really expensive (like, £8). But I looked around the gift shop. 

From there I headed to the Tower Bridge, a London landmark I had somehow missed in my other trips to the city. 

I also saw the Tower of London, but didn't go in because, again, it was very expensive. 

Those are not real lions. But back in the day, they had actual lions guarding the Tower. 

I never realized the bridge was painted blue. 

What a lovely view. 

My next stop was the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. It was free and came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. There was a large exhibit detailing the evolution of textile and clothing that was really cool. There was also a bunch of other art, but that was my favorite part. I stopped for a quick lunch on my way to Harrods. 

This place is amazing. It is huge and very fancy.

Seriously, if you ever want to feel like you're in a place you aren't supposed to be, go to Harrod's with less than £20 in your possession and touch Dior gowns and Loui Vuitton luggage and Christian Louboutin heels. The first time I ever heard about Harrods was in Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and I felt almost as confused and lost as the main character in that book. I had the slight advantage of knowing what I was going into, but that didn't really make it any less intimidating. But my favorite part was the window displays Harrods is known for. 

The ones on the main street were all Gatsby themed! 20's inspired beaded dresses were everywhere, and I loved looking at them and wishing I had somewhere to wear one so I could justify purchasing one.

I am just in love with the 20's aesthetic.

I just had one more stop to make before going back to my hostel.

They upgraded it since the first time I went, so I had to go again. 

I went back to my hostel, making a stop at England's largest mall, though it was close to closing so I didn't stay long. I spent much of the early evening laughing and telling stories with Amalie and Barbra from Baltimore. 

And one last cider. I tried to make sure I had as much packed up and ready to go as I could so I wouldn't wake anybody up when I left in the morning, and settled down for a restless night. 

Monday

I was actually awake before my alarm when off at 5am, so I got off to a good start. And I was all packed up and ready to leave when my taxi arrived at 6 to take me to the Tube stop. Unfortunately there were no helpful people around to help me down the stairs, but there weren't many people around, so it wasn't too hard. I made it to the airport in plenty of time, and my bags were just at or just under 50lbs each, which was good because I literally could not have afforded an extra fee. 

My first flight was good. I had tried to exhaust myself so that I would sleep on my 10 hour flight, but I didn't really sleep very much. I watched a few movies, including (most of) Wreck-It Ralph, Bridget Jones's Diary, A Young Doctor's Notebook, and all but the last 20 minutes of The Hobbit. They also fed me two meals and a snack, which was very nice of them. The food was even pretty decent. 

I only had an hour and 25 minutes to get my connection, so I got a sort of "fast pass" that let me bypass the lines, which was good because there were several. First I had to stop and fill out a customs sheet because they ran out on the plane. Then I had to go through Immigration/Border Control. Then I had to wait for my check bags, grab those, go through Customs, drop off my bags, and find my gate. I had to do all of this while trying to cope with the fact that nobody seemed to know proper escalator/moving sidewalk etiquette. If you do not plan on walking on the moving sidewalk (which is what you are supposed to do! It is there to make things speedier, not so you can be even lazier than usual), please DO NOT STAND IN THE MIDDLE. It would have been faster for me to have just walked normally. By the time I got to my gate, I had just enough time for a bathroom break before they were boarding my group. So that was fun. The flight was only 2 hours (we got in 20 minutes early, thanks tailwinds!), and I sat next to a really nice guy travelling with his family. 

I then got off the plane and finally met my mom at baggage claim! It was a joyous reunion, and she even offered to carry my insanely heavy backpack for me. How nice of her. 

Then she took me to Mexican food. Our entrees were taking a long time, so the waiter offered us free queso and Mom was about to turn it down when I said "I'm not turning down free queso." She is a fool. Then our food came, so I just drizzled queso all over everything. It was delicious. We stayed in a hotel for the night. 

Tuesday

We stayed overnight so that we could visit the outlet mall in Medford, but the mall was actually really disappointing. Lots of stores have pulled out and it just isn't what it used to be. Though I did encounter some reverse culture shock. So, in the UK, store employees will just leave you alone. They don't greet you when you come in, and they never try to make small talk with you. But if you ask for help, they are very helpful. Basically, it is a perfect system. Back here, I find I get jumpy and irritable every time someone asks if I'm finding everything alright or wonders how I'm doing today. Just let me shop in peace. 

Since that was a bust, we drove on and did some more shopping at Jordan Creek Mall in Des Moines. And finally, I was back where I began. 

Before. 

After. 

And I was quickly reunited with these lovely ladies: 

Fin. 

#London #Leaving is hard #Back in Iowa #travel

[nottanothertravelblog]

May 24, 2013-On Leaving

Well, I'm all packed (I hope), so I might as well give you an update on my last week here in Nottingham. 

Monday

It was the day I had been waiting for for most of this semester, the day I was through with Utopianism. I had to wait what felt like an obnoxiously long time to leave for the final, as it wasn't until 1:30, but I finally got there and two hours later I was finished. I think I did fairly well, I know my first essay was good, and my other was passable. 

I also spent some time attempting to call my bank. Even though I have told them I am in England at least 3 times, they flagged my card for whatever reason and I had to call them once again. I didn't actually get all the way through before the internet gave up on me. The second time I got through and the lady was in the middle of fixing it when the internet gave up again. I tried again to make sure it was fixed, but was disconnected almost as soon as I told the second lady what my problem was. I went downstairs to see if that would be better, and I finally got the issue fixed. I was tweeting about my frustration, and mentioned Bank of the West, and they found it and tweeted me back apologizing for my inconvienience and offering help. That is an example of a company using Twitter effectively. Also, I had the following exchange with not one, but two of the ladies I spoke to: 

Them: "Have you been travelling recently?"

Me: "Oh, just the last EIGHT MONTHS"

I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't. 

I also had to say goodbye to Marin, who left very early the next morning. These goodbyes were weird, because they didn't feel real. Even now with just three of us left and all of my stuff packed up, I still feel like everybody else will be home soon.

Tuesday

Most of Tuesday I alternated between studying, avoiding studying, and packing.

I also made a trip to campus to retrieve the paper I wrote for my prehistory class. I was relived to find that I did just fine on it, and my lecturer actually gave really helpful criticism. 

That night it was goodbyes for Phil and Regina. 

Wednesday

When we woke up Wednesday morning, we discovered that Phil didn't actually clean his room before he left. Seriously, he left it an absolute mess, and Marissa being on a cleaning rampage cleaned up after him. He also left four overdue library books. I suppose he just assumed that we would take care of them for him. Well, I did, but mostly because people who don't return library books are a**holes. I met Marissa in the city centre and we had lunch at Wetherspoons. I'm going to miss Wetherspoons and their £6 Beer & Burger deal. I'm also going to miss chips dipped in ketchup and mayo. That's not something I thought I'd be saying 9 months ago. When I first encountered that combination, I was disgusted, but it is actually delicious. We also did our last round of shopping. It was actually really sad. I'm going to miss the way shopping works here. 

We finally went home and I got started on making dinner. Since there were so few of us left, I was by myself. I unintentionally brought my cooking full circle, and make the exact same meal that Marissa and I made the first week here, broccoli cheddar soup and homemade bread. I used one of Brenda's recipes, though, so the soup turned out much better. 

It was also the night to say goodbye to Marissa. 

Thursday

Marissa was gone early in the morning, and I awoke to an empty room. I spent the first part of the day doing so last minute studying and packing up my second bag. I went to campus for my 4:30 exam (yeah, 4:30, I'm just lucky it was only an hour long). I got to the right building, but for some reason I waited outside the wrong room. Luckily I realized my mistake in time and made it to the right room just in time. The exam itself went okay. I felt really alarmingly apathetic toward this exam going in. It's so hard to care about a class you know won't affect your GPA (as long as you pass), and that you know won't ever apply to your life in any way. Anyway, it was fine and I came home to a shockingly empty table, as there were just three of us and the Ranums left. It was bizarre. Angela was off meeting a friend, so I spent the night watching Les Miserables (for the first time), drinking (half of) my last bottle of fancy wine, and crying. 

Friday

Packing is really hard. I know I brought too much stuff, but how was I to know I would never need to look dressy? I also acquired some new stuff, but not that much. Plus, I got rid of some of the things I wore out or didn't (and probably won't ever again) wear. But it is still the worlds biggest challenge to fit it all into two bags that both weigh under 50 lbs. I can't tell you how many times I've rearranged all my bags so they're under. How are my clothes that heavy?! Seriously, one of the bags is nothing but clothes and nail polish, and it's right at 49 lbs. My 'purse' (a.k.a. my backpack) is completely full of books because they're too heavy. Luckily, I think there's an empty seat in my row on the plane, so hopefully I'll be able to stick it under the seat beside me and I'll get some extra legroom. A girl can dream. 

But I couldn't spend my last day just lounging around the flat. I also had some extra cash to acquire. Unfortunately it was cold, windy, and rainy but I walked to ASDA to turn the small change I'd collected all year into cash. I got £13 back, so I was pleased. I hopped on a bus and went to city centre where my first stop was a game store so I could sell the Nintendo 64 games and controller that were left here. I also sold the PC game that Phil left in his room. That got me £8. I then spent most of that on some of my favorite snacks to bring back to the US. But I still came out ahead. I also just went around to my favorite stores and soaked up all the bizarre British fashion trends. 

These 'dork' and 'geek' shirts are everywhere, but I was particularly fond of the 'boffin' shirt. 

I do not like the overall trend one bit. Though this is not so bad. You should see some of the overalls they're selling right now. It is insane.

There are lots of these, and they also sell matching pencil skirts. 

I kind of like these clear plastic rain coats. They amuse me. 

I am a big fan of this 'Great British Tits' shirt. 

I came back and ate leftover tater tots for dinner (there is not a lot of food left) and rearranged stuff again. I think I'm going to be okay as far as packing goes. My biggest worry is getting through London tomorrow and Monday morning. I can navigate the Tube just fine, but add four bags and I'm more than a little nervous for how that will go. I would take a taxi, but they are really expensive, especially in London, so I'm going to try not to use them too much. Once I get to the airport, I can put them on a trolley and be fine, but until then, it's going to suck. This is probably a terrible idea, but I would really regret not going to London one more time. I'm hoping to go to several places. I'm going to go to Harrods, which is this huge, amazing department store that also features in one of my favorite books. I went once with Marin, but it was really crowded and we didn't stay long. I also need to visit 221 B Baker Street and the Tower Bridge. Angela told me I must go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, so I'm doing that. And hopefully I'm going to see the musical Book of Mormon. I've wanted to see it for a long time, but you can't get tickets this close except through a lottery, so I'm going to try my luck tomorrow night. 

And that's all I've got for right now. I'll leave you with this picture of my packed bags. 

#Nottingham #leaving

[nottanothertravelblog]

May 19, 2013-Revision and Eurovision

I'm going to try to make this a short post, as not much happened this week and I need to study and start packing. Unbelievably, I have about a week left here in England. I have a my Utopianism final on Monday, Prehistory on Thursday, I leave for London on Saturday, and I fly out next Monday. 

Wow. That just hit me. I hadn't thought of it in such small terms before just now. And I'm going to stop before I break down.

(I've come to the conclusion that I won't be catching up on spring break travel blogs until I get back to the US, I don't have much time left here, but I have a lot to do.)

Monday

This flat is covered in lots of weird and, ah, eclectic artwork. We think that every year, art get bought and just left so we're left with this odd assortment. We've been thinking all year about our own contribution, and we have a couple already, including improving one poster with bat window gels and a scratch art thing of a gargoyle. I decided to use my crafting skills and contribute this: 

We live on Homefield Road. I started it on the way to Edinburgh and finished it on Monday. I am really pleased at how well it turned out. I'm getting pretty good at cross stitch. 

In addition to my crafting, I also made two lasagnes for dinner, so I was pretty domestic. 

Tuesday

I didn't do much. I basically alternated between trying to bring myself to study and avoiding studying. There was a lot of that this week. 

Aimee wanted to see a group playing at a pub in town, so Marissa, Regina, and I went with. It was a really fun night. We had a couple of drinks at the pub, and the band was pretty good (even though they only did a few songs). But we weren't done yet, so we headed to Cucamara, where they sell cheap cocktails and spit a couple of pitchers. We probably should have just gone home after the first pub, but we were having too much fun to stop, and it was our goodbye to Aimee. Also, Regina and I got kebabs and they were delicious. 

(This is kebab meat. Sometimes they put the shaved strips in a pita or other bread, but ours were just the meat on top of chips with some sauce. In a word, delicious.)

Wednesday

I went into town for my last chiropractor appointment over here on Wednesday morning. There was a girl filling in for my usual chiropractor (who was actually visiting his family in the US), and she was awesome and I felt really good afterwards. 

Later in the evening, Aimee was packing up (she left Friday morning), and Marissa started doing the same. That got me motivated to start doing a little packing of my own, and I nearly filled up one suitcase and wrapped up all the shot glasses I bought as souvenirs from each country. I'm really hoping that none of them get broken. Packing was surprisingly easy, probably because leaving isn't so immediate for me yet, and also it was all just clothes. Packing up all the little things is going to be the really hard part. And I'm getting nervous feelings now so I'm going to stop talking about that.

Thursday

One of the things I'm really going to miss about the UK is the shopping. I mean, I won't miss the exchange rate and how alarming many of the fads are, but I'm going to miss how easy it is to go from one side of town to the other. It'll be weird having to get in a car to go to the next shop rather than being able to walk over. So naturally I'm doing all the shopping I can while I'm here, so Marissa and I went into city centre in search of sales. We found quite a lot, but I didn't buy anything except a frame for my cross stitch. But I did try a bunch of dresses on because that's the only thing I ever want to buy, especially here where jeans are weird. We met up with Aimee, who was doing her last minute spend-all-the-pounds run. It was a good time. 

That night was also our first bout of Eurovision! I don't know if you know this about me, but I LOVE Eurovision. I remember seeing it all over Twitter and Tumblr last year, and I was SO EXCITED to be able to see it this year. Thursday night was the second round of semifinals. I should explain how it works, I will do so in bullet points

Each European country submits a song/singer to send to this annual contest (they don't have to participate if they don't want)

The Big Five (UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy, plus the host country) have guaranteed spots in the final because they pay the big bucks.

Everybody else participates in the semifinals. There were 17 in each this year, with 10 from each night advancing to the final. 

The vote is split 50/50. Half is from call-in votes, the other half comes from a judge representing each country. Each judge awards their top three acts 12, 10, and 8 points respectively.

And that's where it gets suuuuuuper political and interesting. For example, all the Scandinavian countries always vote for each other, ditto Greece and Cyprus, the former Yugoslavian nations, and so forth. Unfortunately, the UK gets no love from this. Last year they got 12 points and came in second-to-last. 

That's the important things to know. I also saw it described today as "a big gay Olympics but with singing that only Europe got invited to." Which is not inaccurate. So Thursday night was the second round of semifinals, and Marissa and I were planted in front of the TV to enjoy the spectacle. It was weird to watch a singing competition like that without having to sit through commercials. (Thank you, BBC!) It just cooked right along, and your only opportunity for breaks are what you determine to be the boring acts. It was amazing, and the lack of commercials made it much more enjoyable. 

I live tweeted the event. 

Friday

Friday marked the first departure from the flat. Aimee left early in the morning. It's still weird and many of us keep expecting her home at any minute. To cope with our sadness, several of us went shopping. Marin and Angela wanted to go out, and Marissa and I both wanted to go back for dresses we'd tried on while we were out Thursday. 

Hooray for sales! 

After rummaging in the cupboards for dinner, some of us were considering going out, but decided instead to stay in and have a pajama party. We drank wine and watched Pitch Perfect and it was an excellent evening. 

Saturday

And finally it was Eurovision Day. The day I had been waiting for. I had my bottle of wine ready and we made up a drinking game. 

It was awesome. I think we watched the better night for finals, because the ones we'd seen on Thursday were the most entertaining of the bunch. I mean,

Greece. 

Romania. 

Finland.

The names of the countries should link to the video of their performance. These were my favorites, and the ones I voted for because they were all awesome and also crazy and I loved it. The UK sent Bonnie Tyler. She did a fine job, but was pretty boring compared to some of the others. Denmark ended up winning. Their song was also good, but not the amazing spectacle I want from every Eurovision entry. 

A sampling of my live-tweets. I am definitely going to have to find a way to watch this next year or I will have to just move here because this is my favorite thing. 

Sunday

I have spent today avoiding studying for the most part. I did vaccuum though. I'm going to stop typing now and go study. I don't know if I'll blog next Sunday because I'll be enjoying one last weekend in London, but I'll have something for my last week. 

#Nottingham #flat life #Eurovision

[nottanothertravelblog]

[nottanothertravelblog]

May 12, 2013-Paris!

First of all, happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this. Special thanks to my own mom, who is awesome and resigned to the fact that I'm actually not coming back, I'm staying here and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME LEAVE. Sorry, I've been having a lot of feelings lately. But seriously, Mom, you are the best. Thank you for everything you've done for me. 

Okay, now to some serious blogging. I've been here for 9 months now, but I still can't believe that I have the ability to go to to Paris on a weekday. But that's exactly what I did this week. 

Monday

May 6 was a bank holiday, so we all had the day off from classes. I spent the day lounging and recovering from the crazy Edinburgh weekend. I did laundry and repacked my bag in preparation for Paris. Aimee and I made chicken fried rice for dinner, which was weirdly easy for both of us, as we are used to big, complicated meals. 

Some of the others in the flat threw a party downstairs, and due to the noise, it took me a long time to be able to get to sleep, which didn't really help me the next morning. 

Tuesday

All year, I have rarely had two classes on the same day, let alone one right after the other. That ended on my last day of classes. I had my usual Utopianism seminar at 9, which was just as (if not more) painful as usual. Seriously, getting people to talk in there is like pulling teeth. I am so glad it's over. I then stayed in that room for the lecture, since we didn't have it on Monday like usual. It was also boring and awful. The book we actually read wasn't even mentioned until over halfway in, and not discussed until the last 5 minutes. Ugh. Again, I am glad that class is over and done with (except for the final, of course). Oh, and I got my paper back. You know, the one I wrote in about 2 1/2 days and was pretty sure was just absolute crap? I got a 65! That's about a B+/A- in this system. (Actually, I got 10 points off because it was a day and 15 minutes late, but I still passed!) I still can't believe it. 

You would think that would be enough classes, but no. I also had my last Prehistory seminar. I actually really enjoyed the few seminars for that class because we talked about practical and interesting things. For example, we were talking about the Celts, who contrary to popular belief weren't actually in Britain at all. But in the seminar we talked about national identity and what we feel like defines us and how most of the things we use to define us aren't material, and how that makes it hard for archaeologists to really have a real idea of what really mattered to ancient people. I got singled out a bit because I'm not English, and discovered that it's really difficult to pick out what defines me as an American, partially because it's such a big, diverse place and also because you don't usually think about what defines you until you're forced to. So that was really interesting. 

I ran home and quickly gathered up my bag and Aimee and I headed to meet Marissa at the train station. It was about then that my body realized that I'd only had 5 or so hours of sleep and nothing but 2 slices of banana bread for breakfast. I grabbed a sandwich at Gregg's and boarded the train to London. I sat alone (our reservations weren't together) and thought about how much I'm going to miss riding on trains and got pretty teary-eyed. 

We made it to London just fine and easily went through security (much more lenient than airport security). We charged our phones and waited for our Eurostar train to Paris. We were again split up, Aimee in the very last coach, and Marissa and I in the very first. I dozed most of the time, and suddenly we were in Paris! I'm really going to miss having the ability to be just four hours from Paris. Also, the daylight savings is still messing with me really bad. It was about 8:30 pm when we got there, but it could easily have been noon. Weird. Anyway, we got to our hostel (I thought I was going to suffocate from all of the secondhand smoke), and had a little bit of a problem. When we made the reservations back in March, only Aimee's went through and we didn't realize that until last week. Marissa emailed them, and was told that we were added on. But when we got there, the angry man at the reception informed us that our reservation was just for one night. We waited anxiously while he huffed and puffed and finally gave us a room. I don't know why he was so upset, after the first night, we had the entire 6-bed room to ourselves so there was clearly enough room. 

After settling in, we tried to do some quick grocery shopping for dinner, but found both stores near us closed. Luckily, Aimee had packed some pasta packets and apples from home, and the leftover banana bread so we had something. The beds were not very comfortable, and even as exhausted as I was, it took a long time to fall asleep. 

Wednesday

We only had 2 1/2 days to see everything we could see, so we started pretty early and were out the door by 9 am. 

Our first stop was Notre Dame. It was also very rainy that morning, which is why I'm wearing my very Parisian yellow jacket. 

The cathedral was very pretty and very large. I mean, this is at least my 10th cathedral, and after a few, they start to look pretty similar. 

I guess right now they're replacing the bells because the ones they have now are old and bad. But it's the cathedral's 850th birthday this year. 

Next we wandered over to Sainte Chapelle, which is much smaller, but I thought it was much more interesting. 

All those stained glass windows depict 1134 different bible stories. Christians really love their stained glass stories. The best part, though was that we didn't have to pay to get in. Actually, we didn't have to pay to get in anywhere because we are EU residents between 18-26. So our $500 visas actually started to pay themselves off (finally!). All added up, we saved about €54 (about $70)! So that was really nice. Since it was icky and rainy, we decided to forgo the walking tour we had planned and stay warm and dry inside the Louvre.

Our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! 

The Louvre! Fortunately it started drying up, and by the time we grabbed some food and got in line, it was pretty nice. 

We are very French. 

The line wasn't actually that bad, but I think that since we're EU residents, we could have skipped the queue. Oops. Now you know. The Louvre was pretty cool. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be, which was very nice. 

First stop: the Mona Lisa. I am no art person, so I can't tell you it was an amazing experience or anything. There were a ton of people trying to look at it, so we snapped some quick pictures and went off to find other things. 

Mostly, Marissa and I laughed at things we found weird or amusing. Like why on earth this man had a machete in his head. 

I prefer the ancient Greek statues. Look at those bootays. 

This one has a tail?! I don't know. 

I really liked this exhibit. It was pretty. 

Napoleon's apartments. 

This was one of the "must-see things" on the map. 

And then we came out looking like "art zombies" as our guide the next day would describe the feeling of having looked at too much art. 

I was surprised to find this statue of myself in the gardens.

We then proceeded to walk down the very long Champs Elysees street to the Arc de Triomphe. We didn't go in then, but made plans to come back the next night so we could get a good view of the city.

We took the subway back to our hostel, got groceries, and ate dinner. 

We also got a bottle of wine, which we drank along the canal. We weren't the only ones with this idea, as at least 4 separate (very cute) French guys asked to borrow our corkscrew. We didn't have cups, so like the classy ladies we are, we drank straight from the bottle. 

The beds didn't get any more comfortable. 

Thursday

We were again up at 7 to shower and eat a breakfast of mostly bread. We used some of the leftover bread to make sandwiches for a sack lunch later. 

 First stop, the Eiffel Tower!

Aren't we adorable?

Selfies! 

I am the cheesiest of tourists. 

Whenever I thought of the Eiffel Tower, I always imagined it being black for some reason, but it's actually three different shades of brown. So that was interesting. We didn't go up to the top because we were already exhausted from the previous day's walking and decided to save our money and our energy for other things. 

We walked down Champs Elysees again and had our little picnic by the Arc before making a stop in the Musee de L'orangerie so that Aimee could see Monet's Waterlilies. They were pretty splendid, but we couldn't stay long because we had a walking tour to get to! 

The Seine is a very dirty river. 

The tour was a really good one, though we had already seen much of what it covered. The guide was interesting (not to mention easy on the eyes) and by the end it didn't feel like it had been 3 hours, even though my legs were aching from all the standing. 

This is the original "love locks" bridge. I'm not super into the trend, I mean, I think it's a nice idea, but I've become a bit jaded in my old age. Just kidding. It was cool to see from a distance because all the locks make the bridge look gold. Also, did you know that this trend was started in 2004 thanks to the season finale of Sex and the City? I didn't. 

Our smiles mask our pain. 

When the tour finally ended, we asked our guide to recommend us a place to eat and then sat down for what felt like the first time that day. We proceeded to wander over by the river where people were selling prints and old Playboy magazines out of little pop-up stands and we all bought some very inexpensive art. I then blindly followed Aimee and Marissa to the place our guide had recommended for dinner. 

It was scary because everything was in French and the waiter didn't speak English. Luckily they had free wifi, so I was typing things into Google translate in hopes of finding something that sounded good. I ended up ordering spaghetti bolognese  which turned out to be spaghetti noodles with 1/4 pound of ground beef and a splash of tomato juice on top. I can't say I was impressed. 

We went back to the hostel to recuperate a little bit and have another bottle of wine on the canal before paying a visit to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. 

We got there in time to see the sun go down, and to see the little light show that the Eiffel tower does every hour. 

It was beautiful. Just beautiful. 

The roundabout circling the Arc is one of the most dangerous places to drive. It averages about 1 minor accident every 8 minutes. If you rent a car, you are not insured for anything that happens on that roundabout. 

After all that beauty, we headed back for one more terrible night of sleep. 

Friday

Once again we were up early to make sure we had everything packed and ready to check out. One last bread-based breakfast and we were ready to go. We left our luggage there and headed to the train station. We thought that buying tickets for the RER train out to Versailles would be easy, but it wasn't. None of the machines took bills or our credit cards (none of us has a chip & pin) so we had to go to the counter. It actually ended up saving us money somehow, so I was okay with that. 

Two trains and about an hour later, we found ourselves standing in a ridiculous line to get into the Palace of Versailles. 

It just kept looping around and around. And this was just for people who already had tickets. I think we waited for about 1 1/2-2 hours to get in. 

Also there was this group of curiously dressed people. I have no idea what was up with that. 

We finally got inside and everything was incredibly lavish. It was almost impossible to believe. It was also very crowded on account of all the people. I was very tense in there. 

The chapel? I couldn't actually see what a lot of the rooms were because I couldn't get around all the people. 

I don't even know what to think. 

The king's bedchamber.

The Hall of Mirrors! 

Exhaustion! 

We spent some time trying to figure out what's going on here. I'm thinking either secret lady fighting as a dude or awesome gay lovers. But either way, that person behind them is super jealous. 

The gardens are insanely huge and pretty. 

Those hedges/trees get trimmed at least once a week, if not more. 

We sat down on the edge of a pond.

We were feeding the ducks leftover banana bread when suddenly,

SURPRISE GIANT CARP! 

I was not expecting that, and I may or may not have screamed a little bit. I am not a fan of fish. Especially large ones. 

After that we did a little souvenir shopping (I bought the last shot glass for my collection) and headed back. We all took turns napping because we were all exhausted. Paris was amazing, which isn't what I expected. Honestly, I felt obliged to go to Paris, which was partially why I went, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It also helped that we got into all the attractions for free. 

We had to walk from the train station back to our hostel, and back again with our luggage. My legs got such a workout. We spent our leftover change on snacks for the train ride (you can't exchange coins in most places, so it's better to just use them up). We went through French passport control, then straight on to UK Border security, which was weird and very emotional for me. I've just been having a lot of feelings about leaving the UK, and the realization that that was the last time I would be entering the UK for who knows how long just really hit me and I had a little cry on the train. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back in the States, I really don't want to leave the home I've made here. Ok, enough of that or I'm going to start crying again.

The Eurostar was uneventful. The Chunnel is dark, so you can't actually see anything. We got food once we were back in London, and got on the train. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong coach. Usually, you can just walk on through, but this train was actually two trains pushed nose-to-nose and we couldn't get to our coach and there was nowhere to sit. After being really awkward and walking up and down the aisle several times, we waited and at the first stop got out and legged it to the other side. It was all smooth from there. 

Probably my last time at Nottingham station as I will be taking a bus to London when I leave. I'm really going to miss trains and all the places they took me. 

Saturday

Because my body got adjusted to getting up early, I was up before I wanted to be on Saturday. But it was okay, because Marissa and I wanted to go into town. You see, it's the end of the football season for Nottingham Forest so everything in the Forest Store is on sale. 

What better way to remember England and Nottingham than with a football jersey. (It is actually really comfortable, I'm wearing it right now.) I spent the rest of the day avoiding the things I probably should be doing. 

Sunday

I also spent most of Sunday avoiding the things I should probably be doing. Luckily I don't have anymore classes, so I have time. 

Dinner was weird because Phil and Marin are both travelling, and Brenda when back home to help her dad who just had surgery. (He is doing well, and we miss Brenda but she'll be back next Monday.) 

And that's it for this week. It's been quite the adventure. Just a couple of finals and *hopefully* a weekend in London and I'll be back in the US. 

#travels #Paris #France #Nottingham Forest

[nottanothertravelblog]

[nottanothertravelblog]

March 31-April 3, 2013-Cardiff, Wales

This is how far Kyle of Lochalsh is from Cardiff: 

That's not exactly the route I took, but you get the picture. I was on trains  for a very long time. Actually, on Sunday, I got on a train at 9:05, got off for about 20 minutes around noon, and finally got to Cardiff at 4:30. I think I read two entire books. Let's start with my arrival.

Sunday

I really did try to follow the directions the hostel had given me, I did. But the streets in the UK don't ever make any real sense (nothing is on a grid, street signs are often hard to see or nonexistent  and streets have a tendency to change names after awhile), so I had some difficulty. I stopped in a Starbucks and drank some really awful coffee while I used the wifi to find the hostel on Google Maps. I finally found it and checked myself in. I was getting hungry, so I went back to the city centre and walked around looking for food. It was Easter Sunday, so it wasn't very crowded and not a lot was open, so I decided to treat myself to Pizza Hut where I accidentally ate the whole pizza. (I know what you're thinking, but it really wasn't that big of a pizza. Portions are much more reasonably sized over here.) After that I wanted to try and see if I could get to Cardiff Bay by following the street signs. I could not and once it got dark I went back to my hostel. 

Monday

So, as many of you know, I am a big fan of Doctor Who. What you might not know is that Doctor Who is filmed in Cardiff. Put those two statements together and you get part of the reason I wanted to go to Cardiff. Not the whole reason, but a significant part. When I got there, I realized that filming for the 50th Anniversary episode (airing in November) was starting that very week. I also learned that David Tennant and Billie Piper are involved. So I basically spent the whole time I was there with my eyes peeled for any sign of them. (Sadly, I didn't see them.) But I do know that they did the read-through for the episode on that Monday! 

Anyway, I decided to head for Cardiff Bay and the Doctor Who Experience. I went armed with Google Maps, and after realizing I was trying to follow the driving directions rather than the walking ones, I made it there. 

It was much farther than it looked. Also, it was very windy and cold, and only got windier and colder when I got to the Bay. 

I made it there! Yay! I paid my admission and waited in line. 

So, when you first get to the Experience, they take your group through a little adventure with the Doctor. You get to 'fly' the TARDIS and you see lots of monsters and it's really well done and very cool. But my favorite part had to be the little kids who, whenever a monster came out, they would point their sonic screwdrivers at them. It was the cutest thing I think I've ever seen. After that, you were free to roam around. 

They had costumes from all of the Doctors, most of which were originals. (I think just the 9th's was a reproduction.)

I really wanted Ten's sonic screwdriver, but they didn't sell any in the shop. 

That's the real set! (This is the only picture I have from Cardiff that isn't a selfie. One of the downsides to travelling alone.)

The Face of Boe is actually really creepy in real life. 

The M&M Daleks are much bigger than all the other Daleks.

Mmmmmm.....

They had costumes from all of the New Who companions, and I saw one woman with her husband and son who was carefully comparing her Donna Noble cosplay (costume) to the original. Her's was very good. I hope I'm that awesome when I'm married with children. 

I love the Ood! 

So basically, I had a lot of fun there. My only disappointment was that the shop was very Matt Smith-centric. I like Matt Smith, but I would have rather had some David Tennant merch. 

I tried to walk around because the Bay is pretty cool, but it was too windy and cold, so I ate lunch and lounged in a Starbucks to use the wifi. The filter coffee may be terrible, and the other drinks really overpriced, but you can always count on Starbucks for free wifi. Eventually I ventured out into the wind. 

Fans of the Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood might recognise this as the 'tourist entrance' to the Hub. 

Welsh is a really bizarre language. 

The actual Torchwood Hub entrance is a shrine to a certain character who died. 

At that point I headed back to the city centre and explored the malls (which were huge and confusing in their layout), but everything was closing early for Easter Monday so I bought some food to eat in my hostel. My roomates that night were really nice and we talked for quite some time before I fell asleep. 

Tuesday 

I really enjoyed Cardiff. It gave off a really nice vibe and there was plenty to do and it was just really nice. I spent the morning shopping for my souvenirs and walking around city centre. 

It was beautiful day! I went back to the hostel to drop off my purchases , eat lunch, and grab my sunglasses.

I decided to head for the bay again so that I could enjoy it in the sunshine. 

Look at all the sun! 

I walked over to the BBC studios where they film all number of BBC shows including Doctor Who and Sherlock. 

I took a quick little boat trip around the bay, which was very nice, if a little cold. 

That is a very fancy hotel that's supposed to look like the front of a ship moving through the water. 

I needed to warm up after the boat, and I found a sunny spot out of the wind to sit. Then, an older gentleman sat down next to me and just started talking to me. Or rather, at me. He was nice, if a little forgetful and very repetitive. It honestly felt like I was in a movie where the main character learns valuable life lessons from an elderly stranger. It was weird. I finally extricated myself and got some delicious ice cream. 

I was tired of people watching, so I headed back to city centre with the intention of finding a delicious burger for dinner, but most places were out of my budget, so I found a Wetherspoon's and had a chicken burger while I listened to a large group of guys shouting about who shagged who's sister. Lovely. 

I went back to my hostel and found that my new roomates were a couple of girls from Australia who were more than happy to talk about books and Doctor Who. My kind of people! It was a good last night on my own, and I was more than ready to see Marissa again. 

Wednesday

Basically a travel day. I got up, packed, and headed for the train station. It was a little hard to find, so it was a good thing I left as early as I did. But two hours later I was pulling into London and on my way to Heathrow. (It was much cheaper to fly to Prague via London.) 

Did you know that you can get to the airport too early? You can. I know because I had to wait an hour before they would let me check my bag. It was not very much fun. After much waiting, I finally got on a plane. 

I was a little nervous for how I was going to get to where Marissa was meeting me, but I managed it. It was so good to see her after travelling alone for so long. She led me to our hostel where she fed me the nacho cheese she found in the market. 

#Cardiff #Doctor Who Experience #Wales #not Whales

[nottanothertravelblog]

May 5, 2013-Starting 21 Off Right

I just spent most of the day on a coach that was going down the most winding roads in the entire United Kingdom. But I am determined to blog this week, especially the weekend, because it was definitely one of the best weekends I've had. 

Monday

I went to class where I was bored by the lecture. I so wanted my utopianism class to be fun. I mean, it sounds so promising. But the lecturer is just bad and makes it boring. Oh well, just one more lecture left. I came back for lunch, then went back to campus for Prehistory, which is surprisingly enjoyable, thanks to a very charismatic lecturer. I spent much of the night hiding in the basement with Marin and Marissa because Aimee and Angela had a bunch of friends over. 

Tuesday

If the lectures for Utopianism are bad, then the seminars are downright painful. I think maybe half the class reads, maybe. Then nobody wants to talk and the lecturer can't pose questions in a way that facilitates discussion very well. It's incredibly frustrating.

I cooked dinner with Marissa. We dubbed this week International Food Week and we all had to make food from countries we had visited. We made goulash (goulash is not what you think it is), which is pretty generally Eastern European (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, etc.). We also made Polish zapekanki.  

This is not one that we made, but one I ate in Poland. 

The dinner was a success, and everybody left the table full, which is always my goal. After dinner, we each did a little slideshow of pictures of where we went during the break. That's when we learned that David Ranum has secretly hot, rich cousins in Norway. 

Wednesday

Wednesday I didn't do much. But according to my Twitter, I started getting sad about leaving because it's happening very soon, and I'm not ready to go. I have a lot of feelings all happening at once, and I think I may do a post on that sometime soon. Maybe. If I have time. 

Thursday

I went into town with Marissa to do some shopping, mostly window shopping. It was a beautiful day and it was wonderful to get outside and do something. When I went back to the flat, I made banana bread to take on our weekend trip (it actually never got eaten on the trip..oops). At dinner, we celebrated my birthday with Brenda-made treats. I requested Surprise Cupcakes, so basically cupcakes with chocolate or caramel inside. She went above and beyond my expectations by putting cheesecake inside them. And she made peanut butter bars! She really is splendid. Marissa and I spent the night drinking some of my fancy wine and getting ready for our trip. 

Friday

I went to class and it was fine. I came back and ate lunch while finishing up my blog about the Isle of Skye. We were expecting Bob (our coach driver) at 2, but he showed up at 1:30, throwing everyone into a panic. I managed to forget to bring any make-up, a pajama top, my headband for washing my face, and my camera's memory card. I'm still mad about that. All of my photos were taken on my iPhone, but Marissa took lots of me, so I will try to put lots of those in. So that wasn't the greatest. But we loaded up, picked Angela up on campus and began our journey to Edinburgh. The drive up wasn't too bad, and I was able to complete about half of my cross stitch project for the flat. I will post pictures when it is complete. The drive itself was mostly uneventful. We did get very defensive when some youths threw ice cream at our window for no reason as we were stopping for gas. We seriously considered getting out and following them to scare them, but we didn't. 

We made it to our hotel (a Holiday Inn Express, which is probably one of the nicest places I've stayed over here) around 8 pm. We settled into our rooms (I was with Angela) and promptly left to procure adult beverages at a nearby Tesco. We came back, and the party somehow came to my room. I was a little put-off by all of the togetherness that was happening, but it ended up being really fun. We played 'My vagina is...' where you have to come up with an adjective starting with 'A', then when someone can't think of another 'a' adjective, it moves on. It was fantastic. 

Saturday

My birthday!! I really love my birthday because deep down, I just want to be the center of attention, and my birthday gives me the excuse to be just that. 

Since this was a David Ranum trip, we had several places to go. First up was the castle. I had wanted to go when I was with my mom back in December, but admission is £16 per person. Yikes. But Luther had us covered. 

It was the most 'castle-y' of the castles I've been to. We did a guided tour inside to help us figure out what was what. 

And we got some pretty spectacular views.

Edinburgh is such a beautiful city.

We also got to see the Scottish crown jewels (we weren't allowed to take pictures).

This is from the POW prison. The castle was pretty awesome. Afterwards, we headed to the Scottish National Museum. It was also cool.

I drove a car for the first time in 8 months. It was very hard. Hopefully real driving will be much easier. 

There were two peacocks fighting.

And narwhals dueling. And lots of other pretty neat stuff. We didn't stay too long, because it was lunch time. 

We all went to the Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. 

The bathroom walls were covered in messages and signatures. You can faintly see up near the top where I wrote 'Thank you' and signed my name. I not going to lie, I got pretty emotional seeing it. It really was beautiful. 

We walked down to the Scottish Parliament building, which would be a cool building in a modern city, but it doesn't fit with the rest of Edinburgh at all. 

Look how excited we all are! 

From there, we all (minus Erika) hiked up to the top of Arthur's Seat, the big extinct volcano in Edinburgh. It was quite the hike. I think we took the very, very steep way up. But it was so worth it. 

It was insanely windy. We actually were taking turns holding Rylea because we were sincerely afraid she might blow away. (Also, there are some really excellent group shots of us on the Ranums' camera, so I will put those on here when I get access to them.)

Phil wanted a dude picture with David. 

It's so beautiful, it hurts. We got back down alive and intact, then split off to do some shopping. Marissa and I helped Marin pick out a flask and we touched lots of cashmere scarves. 

Then it was back to the hotel to recuperate before dinner. To get back into town, we took the most roundabout bus in the world. We ate at the Maggie Dickson's pub (named for a woman who famously survived a hanging). I had chicken stuffed with haggis covered with mushroom gravy on a bed of mashed potatoes. It was delicious. 

And I had my first drink as a 21-year-old! (Angela let me borrow her makeup, so I look a bit like a ghost. It was worse with the flash.) From there we went to a real Scottish pub with a live musician. It was fabulous, and Angela got him to play 'Happy Birthday' for me and it was amazing. You haven't heard 'Happy Birthday' until you've heard it sung/yelled by a bunch of tipsy Scots. 

Nerd Alert. Alcohol and asthma don't actually go together very well. 

Marissa bought me a birthday shot of whiskey at the second pub. It was there we met a lot of people. We met three people from the midwest (Minneapolis/Chicago areas) who were fun. One of them bought me another shot when she learned it was my birthday which was very nice. Fun fact: drinking straight whiskey earns you major respect points. 

Then we met a stag do (stag do=bachelor party) and things got interesting. One of the guys (I never actually learned his name, but he was carrying a stuffed dog so I'll call him Dog Guy) was trying to hook me up with the bride's brother, Sam. Sam was very attractive. I wish I had a picture to show you but I don't. Sam was also a bit nerdy and shy, so basically he was exactly my type. But he was reluctant, so I took advantage of Dog Guy's insistence and let him buy me another whiskey. 

They invited us to go with them to their next pub. I had been planning for the one we were in to be the last, then go back to the hotel and drink there. But I was having so much fun, and you're allowed to go a little crazy on your birthday, so I went with them. I wasn't alone, Angela, Regina, and Phil also came while the others went back. We were led across the street to a club-type place where I was handed another drink. Actually, Dog Guy was making poor Sam give me his drinks until we made out. Three drinks later, to quote Phil quoting me, "I made out with a guy and he was HOT". I did and he was. And not even just physically attractive. Given the chance, I would date him in a heartbeat. We tried to sneak off somewhere quieter, but Angela saw us slipping away and chased me down. The bouncer also suggested that maybe it was time for me to leave. We did, and I really wish I would've gotten Sam's number, or last name, or email address. But everything was a bit of a blur and Angela and Phil dragged me (and to a lesser extent, Regina) away to a cab and back to the hotel. 

I'm really pleased that I remember everything (mostly, some things feel like a dream, but I remembered everything they told me) and also that I didn't puke or have a hangover in the morning. I would call that a very successful night. 

Sunday

Unfortunately, we had to leave at 10 am, so that was all we got to see of one of my favorite cities. We loaded up the coach and Bob started driving us down all of the most winding roads he could find. I just wanted to sleep (I had a hard time actually sleeping the night before), but I kept being jerked awake by sudden hills and roundabouts. We made a stop to see Hadrian's Wall.

It was cold and my stomach was upset. I think it was a little bit from the alcohol and a lot from the driving. 

Marissa doesn't handle physical affection very well. 

All of us! (Minus Erika. She wasn't around when we took this one, and she hasn't uploaded the ones with her in them yet. I'll put those with the others from Arthur's Seat when I get them.)

We got back in the coach and it was more misery and winding roads. The Ranums got us snacks to tide us over until we stopped for an early dinner in Ripon. We ate at a Wetherspoons and I got a Gourmet Hot Dog. I'm sure it didn't help the nauseous feeling in my stomach, but it was delicious. And then we drove for a couple more hours (mostly on the highway, thankfully) and were deposited safely at home. 

#Edinburgh #flat trips #Hadrian's Wall #I just really love Scotland #I made out with a boy and he was HOT

[nottanothertravelblog]

March 22-31-The Isle of Skye Part Two

I had half of this written, but it got lost to the Internet Gods so here we go again. 

Tuesday

When you work at Skye Backpackers for more than a week, you get a day off. I took advantage of the time and joined a day tour of the island. I'm really glad I did because the whole island (and really, Scotland in general) is just majestic and beautiful. 

I left the hostel at 8:45 and took the last seat on a nearly-full coach. I was sitting next to a nice Chinese girl and as we were chatting I mentioned that I was studying at the University of Nottingham. It just so happened that the girl sitting behind us also was, and so was what seemed like half the group. What a weird little coincidence. I latched on to the girl behind me and a couple of friends she'd made (they were all on a 3-day highlands/Skye tour) so I wouldn't be all awkward by myself. 

Our first stop was a river by the Cuillin mountains. 

According to legend, if you stick your face in for 10 seconds, you won't age for a year. It was cold and I didn't have anything to dry my face with, so I decided to accept my fate. 

Those are the black Cuillin mountains in the background. They are majestic. Also, mountain climbers often use these as practice for Mount Everest because they are similar, just smaller. 

Our next stop was Skye's capital, Portree, a tiny little town of about 2,000. We stopped in various shops to gather lunch and look at cool things before ending up in a little cafe to warm up and drink coffee. 

We hopped back on the coach and were taken to the Old Man of Storr. 

Scotland is full of legends, so naturally the Old Man has a few. Some say it's a man and wife who got lost and were turned to stone, some say a giant fell, and that's his thumb. I much prefer the version we got. A giant was being chased by some nymphs who got him rather...excited. They were dancing all around him and he fell over. The rock is what's left of his...excitement. 

You can't really tell from the pictures how high up this was, but it took about an hour of hiking to get up there. 

Every time I thought it couldn't get more beautiful, I turned around and I was proved wrong. 

Fun fact: This is where they filmed the dragon scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 

We walked back down and got back in the coach. We made several little stops as we drove along, including: 

These cool cliffs. 

These castle ruins.

This sheep who could not be bothered. 

And this super calm lake. 

Our last stop was the coolest place, the Faerie Glen. Obviously associated with the fae rumoured to inhabit the island, it's really cool. 

I climbed up that hill. It was very steep. 

It's easy to see why people would associate this area with the fae. 

A beautiful end to a lovely tour. 

Wednesday

Since I had Tuesday off, I had to work four hours on Wednesday. I spent it cleaning out the house where they put tour groups, Loch Buie. I made beds, cleaned bathrooms, and hoovered/mopped. I was mostly alone, so I listened to some podcasts and it went by pretty quickly. 

I ate lunch, then went on a little walk with Katrine. We went up to the castle ruins that I had failed to get to a few days prior.

  You have to walk across that rocky beach. 

This must have been a very small castle. 

From there we spotted a monument and decided to check it out. 

On the way we met the friendliest cat on the planet. I bent down and he jumped right on my leg. It was awesome. 

There was a great view from the monument. 

Unfortunately, Katrine had to leave for Iceland after that, and I was sad. But! I happened to find out the pen name of the 'author' who'd been staying with us. Gabriel Fitzpatrick. I am not making this up. You can find his self-published work on amazon. Honestly, the summaries are a riot. He is so pretentious and it is hilarious. 

Helga happened to have a friend from Holland visiting that night and after they almost threw a beer at me, I ended up talking to them for several hilarious hours. You know, sometimes you don't really realize how weird your own country is until someone else points it out to you. Like, I thought that having really patriotic passports was a normal thing. It's not. Dutch passports have 23 different languages in them. Mine has three. It was very eye-opening. Also, I found that my propensity for telling a story about something dumb and then getting teased mercilessly is alive and well. The thought that my story about being scared in the Vienna airport because everything was in German was hilarious. 

Thursday

I started the day with two hours of hoovering and bed-making. It wasn't terrible. I needed some more groceries, so I started walking across the bridge to Kyle. As I was walking, I noticed my right heel was really starting to hurt. I pushed through, but by the time I got to town, I was fully limping thanks to a bruised heel. I limped around in search of postcards, but they were all pretty expensive and kind of weird. I got some food at the Coop, and since my heel was still hurting, I decided to wait 45 minutes for a bus that would take me back. 

Good thing it was a nice day. 

A pizza party was planned for that night as a goodbye party for Helga, who had been there for several weeks. I waited and waited, and finally the pizza (and beer) showed up. Somehow, I got put in charge of making all 12 frozen pizzas, 2 at a time. I didn't mind. I got free pizza and alcohol.  People started trickling in as the pizzas got done, and soon the party was going. Pizza and beer is a universal language. After a time, Ruthie brought out a bottle of whiskey and we all had a toast. Then the drinking games started. 

Inaki kept making up rules to the game he suggested, and it never got far due to these rules. Then Rosie taught us one where you put a deck of cards on top of a shot, everyone takes turns blowing the cards off, and the person who gets the last card takes the shot. (I won a round of that.) Then we started playing Kings, or Ring of Fire, or whatever you happen to call the game where you draw cards and each card has a different rule associated with it. I was having a great time, until Michael (a.k.a. Gabriel Fitzpatrick) started being a drunken ass about everything. I tried to make a rule that he wasn't allowed to speak, but he just took it as licence to drink every time he said something. Other than that, I had a great time. The people I met on Skye were some of the coolest people I've ever met and I'm so glad I spent a week there. 

Friday

Friday was my last full day on the island, and I spent the morning making no less than 11 beds. I'd actually gotten quite good at it. Lunch was spent saying goodbye to Helga and Jordan, who wasn't a HelpXer, but had joined our little temporary family. 

(Any guesses as to who might be 'Gabriel Fitzpatrick'?) 

I hadn't planned on going anywhere because my heel was still really bugging me, but Elena and Lea invited me to walk to Kyle with them, so I tried walking in my boots, and everything was fine. 

I spent dinner trying to eat up the random bits of food I had left and hanging out with Ruthie, Maddie, and a friend of theirs. They were really fun to talk to, and Ruthie made me my first gin & tonic. It was alright. She makes them very strong. 

Saturday

Mid-afternoon is the worst time to leave, I swear. There isn't enough time to do anything in the morning, so you just have to sit around and wait. I guess it was ok because I was still doing my laundry, but still. It was an awkward amount of time. 

I walked across the bridge one last time and boarded my train. 

I had two trains that day, got to Edinburgh around 9 pm, stayed in a crowded, smelly hostel, left at 9 am, and finally got to Cardiff at 4:30 in the afternoon. 

#Isle of Skye #Scotland #travels

[nottanothertravelblog]

March 22-31-The Isle of Skye Part One

I keep putting off blogging this break because the first one is a week long, and that's daunting. But I'm starting now. I'm going to label the days so maybe it's not so confusing?

Friday

I spent basically all of Friday on trains. Six different trains, in fact. I left at 9:15 am, and finally arrived in Kyle of Lochalsh around 8:30 pm. So it was a long day. Luckily, the person I was sitting next to on the last train was headed for the same place I was, so I didn't have to wait for the bus to Kyleakin (where the hostel I was staying at was) alone. The wind nearly knocked me over when I got off the train (and the bus), but I made it to Skye Backpackers and started to get settled in. I was staying there on HelpX, which meant I would work at the hostel for 2 hours a day in exchange for a bed (and breakfast and wifi). I was staying in a sort of staff room and it was nice because then I was around the same people all week rather than a constantly rotating cast of characters. And the people were pretty cool, which always helps to make a place more pleasant. 

Saturday

I am not an early riser, so I was pleased to discover that I didn't need to be ready to clean until after check out at 10:30. I got put to work right away cleaning the bathrooms and showers. Not my favorite chore (is it anybody's?) but not terrible because they get cleaned every day so dirt and grime don't get a chance to build up. I finished that, then mopped the kitchen and wiped down the glass doors. Pretty easy. My only problem was getting used to how the hostel was arranged. It's very twisty-turny and I was always sure I was missing a whole chunk of the house. But it was a very nice hostel, the walls were all painted with murals and the windows were bright with sun. My favorite part was that the rooms all have themes. One was Rivers and all the beds were named for rivers, another was mountains, but I really liked the ones like Wizards, with names like Gandalf and Dumbledore, and there was a caravan that was completely Star Trek themed. Awesome. 

After cleaning, I hopped on a bus to the nearby town of Broadford with two of the other girls working at the hostel, Helga (from Austria) and Katerine (from Iceland). We sort of just started walking and ended up doing a little 7 km hike. 

It was nice to get some exercise after all the sitting around on my bum I do at home. 

Have I told you how beautiful Scotland is yet? It is gorgeous. I'm just going to keep repeating that. I can't get over it. 

It was also cold that day. 

After our hike, we went to the Coop for some much-needed (on my part at least) groceries. It was at that moment I realized that I've never really shopped for just myself for more than a couple of days worth of food. I've done plenty of grocery shopping for groups, but not for one. So that was weird. When that was done, we still had an hour to kill before the bus returned (the buses on Skye are not frequent), so we had coffee in a little cafe. It was lovely and I was very pleased to spend my day with two such nice people. 

I made pasta for myself, and spent much of the evening reading by the fire in the common room. Later that night, I went to the pub down the road (Saucy Mary's) with Elena and Lea (both from France) and had a really good time. It started off rather awkwardly, with nobody really talking, but we were soon joined by a friend of their's, Fernando (from Venezuela) who got a conversation going. I actually spent the rest of the night just talking to him and having fun. I went home a happy camper. 

Sunday

On Sunday I learned to make beds, a job I like less than cleaning bathrooms. The hostel had these weird sheets that are all connected so you don't have to bother with a flat and a fitted sheet which is nice, but doesn't make putting it on a top bunk any easier. Also, I feel like the bed never looks good enough, but there isn't enough time to make it completely perfect. Oh well.

I got done with that and had a leisurely lunch and became acquainted with the "horror writer from the US" that all the staff were buzzing about. He goes by a pseudonym  but was refusing to tell us for some unknown reason, so I was unable to find him (I did try). Anyway, this guy was the most pretentious asshat I've ever met. You know the type, the guy who thinks he's super cool and knows everything, but everyone with eyes can see that he really doesn't know anything and he's trying way too hard to be impressive. I can't stand those people. Someone asked him something about his editor and he said that he doesn't believe in editors because "I don't think paying people to criticize me is a very good business model." Those are the actual words he said. I'm not going to rant about how wrong he is because we'd be here all day if I did. Oh, and lest I forget to mention, he makes 1/3 of his money from editing. Hypocrite. 

After all that I decided that a walk across the Skye Bridge that connects the Isle of Skye to mainland Scotland would be nice. 

Looks nice, right? 

It was a little too cold and windy for my taste. I got almost halfway before I had to turn back. I could have made it all the way, but I wouldn't have wanted to come all the way back again. At least I tried. I went back and read by the fire the rest of the day and had a terrible frozen pizza for dinner. 

Also, this was funny. I guess sometimes the longer term staff will guess who is coming based on their names. Two thought I would be French, which is fair, Aubrey is actually a French name, another guessed German, one thought I would be a Canadian boy, and Inyaki (from Spain) guessed right, an American girl. 

Monday

One of my favorite British terms is 'hoover/ing' instead of vaccuum/ing. I just really enjoy the way it sounds, especially with a Scottish accent. Also, the hoovers here are adorable.

I recently discovered that you can get a 'Henry' mug, so I may have found my new favorite mug. 

Anyway, I spent Monday morning hoovering all over the hostel.After lunch, I decided to go out and explore. I tried to go to the Castle Moil ruins nearby, but I wasn't sure how to get there. 

Since it was nicer than the previous day, I decided to cross the Skye Bridge and visit Kyle of Lochalsh. It was still really windy, but I made it across. Everyone I passed was really friendly, they would wave and smile and say hello, which I hadn't really experienced since moving to the UK. It was a little like being back at Luther, and it was nice.

I made it into town where I quickly found a knit/crafty shop and bought a headband because like the idiot I am, I forgot to pack anything to cover my ears. 

It much improved my situation. 

I walked around and explored the town a little, but there wasn't much to explore because it's a very small town. Eventually, I walked back to the hostel and read for the rest of the day. I was pretty proud of myself for having walked 5.5 miles without stopping or really feeling very tired. Actually, I was fine except that my shoe bruised my right heel and my pinky toe scratched the toe next to it and made it bleed. So my right foot was basically in pain every time I put my shoes on for the rest of the week. Not cool. 

While in Kyle, I bought a small bottle of Irn-Bru, the alarmingly orange pop that is so popular it actually outsells Coke in Scotland. I'm told it's supposed to be a miracle hangover cure. 

I was struck by the very strong bubble-gum smell of the drink (I was maybe expecting orange, if anything). I had a very difficult time reconciling the bubble gum smell with the orange color in my mind. It tasted about the same as it smelled, I think. It may have actually just been the smell tricking my mind. Anyway, I think I'll stick to Cherry Coke.

Also, it says on the label: "Sunset Yellow & Ponceau may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children." So that's not exactly promising. 

I spent much of the night just hanging out and keeping Katerine company while she worked the reception desk. She was super cool and also gave me some Icelandic chocolate. Also, she cracked my back, which was in agony thanks to the (literal) egg crate foam mattress I was sleeping on. 

This is getting really long, and I still have a few days left to cover, so I'm going to split it right here. Part Two will come soon!

[nottanothertravelblog]

April 28, 2013-Not Slowing Down

I meant to start catching up on this blog right away when I got back. Obviously that didn't happen for a number of reasons, and not just because the thought of writing about four weeks is a largely daunting task. This week was crazy, so I'm going to start with it, then start catching up on the break next week. 

Saturday

I got back to Nottingham on Saturday afternoon. Ideally I would have liked to just relax, unpack, and catch up on the last three weeks of Doctor Who. Unfortunately, I was a terrible person and didn't write the paper I should have written before I left. So I pretty much went straight to work on that. At least the flat was quiet that night, seeing as only half of us were home at that point. 

Sunday

I spent Sunday writing and greeting flatmates and the Ranums as they appeared. I could feel my anxiety about my paper in that I couldn't stand anyone. Everything that ever bugged me about my flatmates seemed amplified 10x and I was not happy. The Ranums made us soup for dinner, and I went back to work. 

Monday

This is when things started to get interesting. I went to class at 9 like usual. I came back and worked some more on the paper. It was due at 4:00 that day, but by noon I knew I wasn't going to get it done, so I decided to accept the consequences of turning it in late (a 5 point deduction). I have never felt like a worse student than during the process of writing that paper. I really don't know what was wrong with me, but I didn't like it and I'm not doing that again. Anyway, I went to my other class at 3, then came back and worked a little bit more on my paper. I soon had to stop however, because I, along with Angela, Phil, Marin, and Aimee were going to the fun. concert! 

(Phil is secretly a middle-aged woman.)

We ate quickly, then left to stand in line. We waited outside for about an hour, I think, and it was totally worth it because we had an awesome spot really close to the stage. 

(That's the opening band, Miniature Tigers. I very much enjoyed them.)

Oh, also. I got myself a cider. 

(It was a better deal than getting 2 single pints, plus I didn't have to fight my way to the bar.)

Then it was time for fun. If you aren't sure who fun. is, click that link there. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts

It's hard to describe the concert without using the word "fun", because that's exactly what it was. I had such a blast. I confess I didn't know all to the words to many of the songs, but it didn't matter. I was waving my arms and singing along the best I could anyway. But I think the best part was just watching how much fun the band was having. 

I mean, look at that face. That is the face of someone living their dream. 

We are all in agreement that the girl on keyboard was super pretty. 

After the concert, Miniature Tigers were outside taking pictures and signing autographs. 

This is Charlie. He is really adorable. 

So basically, it was a really excellent night and I'm not sad at all that I wasn't able to see them at Luther. 

Tuesday

I finished my paper at about 1:00, but I couldn't turn it in quite yet because I had a chiropractor appointment at 2:00. I went to city centre to switch bus lines, then proceeded to get on the wrong bus. It was the right line, but the number 10 doesn't go to the same place as the 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Who would've thought? Luckily I realized it pretty quickly and corrected my mistake. I was still late and ended up having to wait 45 minutes. That wasn't so bad though, because I hadn't eaten lunch so I got a muffin and frappe at Cafe Nero. Fun fact, when you get a frappe at Cafe Nero, they give you the extra. They don't throw it away like everywhere else. I like Cafe Nero. I finally saw my chiropractor for the last time. :( I'm going one more time, but he's leaving for a trip home to the U.S. and won't be back until the day I'm gone. It was a little sad. 

From there, I went to campus where my ordeal was not yet over. I had to go to the most confusingly laid out building on campus, Trent. I managed to find the office I needed, but I was 15 minutes late and it was closed. So I had to find another place to fill out a submission sheet, then go back to the office and stick the paper through a slot. It was 20 minutes of walking back and forth and I'm glad I don't have to do that again. 

I got back and had dinner, then began catching up on the TV I missed while on break. I could finally relax. 

Wednesday

I took full advantage of my newfound freedom to do absolutely nothing. I should have properly unpacked or started blogging, but instead I put up some pictures from break and watched TV all day. Sometimes you need a break. 

Thursday

You all know how much I love the Royals, right? I do. A lot. Especially Harry and Kate (for different reasons, of course). So imagine my excitement when I discovered that Prince Harry would be coming to Nottingham. I was pretty bleeping  excited. Thanks to Marissa, we figured out where he would be. His first stop was actually pretty close by, so we hopped on a bus and went! To our surprise, David was there with Rylea, but Brenda didn't want to go! I was appalled, but when I asked her at dinner she said she'd just worked out and didn't think we'd get that close. Boy was she wrong on that point!

We started out along the road where his car drove by and he totally waved at me. At that point, we were actually disappointed because we thought that's all we were going to get to see, and we hardly saw that because they drove so fast.

But we waited until he came back out in hopes of a better drive-by. We had been standing there envying the schoolchildren who got to stand up close for about a half hour when they told us we could go stand with the children! I guess not as many people as they were expecting showed up, so they let us through. I was standing behind about 3-4 rows of 9 year-olds, so basically I had a perfect view. There were also 2 paparazzi standing by us, so we knew we were in a good spot. 

Yeah. It was a good spot. He is just as attractive in person as he is in pictures. 

But I have bad news, folks. He's starting to get a bald spot like William. But it's okay, I still love him. 

He was doing various events the rest of the day, but by our estimation, the crowds were pretty bad, and that was the closest we were going to get to him, so we finished our Royal Watch there. I am really pleased I got to see Prince Harry before I leave England. It feels like my year is more complete. Now, if only I could see Kate Middleton, it would be perfect, just like her hair. 

I put more pictures on Facebook and made dinner with Marin. We made homemade mac&cheese, a salad, and fruit kabobs. It was delicious. 

Friday

On Friday I woke up, went to class, then came home for lunch. I then went to city centre (finally). There was some sort of fashion show going on and I was hoping to meet up with Marissa, Marin, and Aimee, who I know had gone. Unsurprisingly, I found them in Primark. We did some shopping as a group, including a visit to Boots where Aimee got a free makeover and Topshop where I wondered why on earth overalls are back in style. They went home, but I continued shopping and purchased some much-needed bras. The night was quiet and ended fairly early in preparation for the next day. 

Saturday

We were all up and ready to go at 9:30 am for our trip to the birthplace of Shakespeare himself, Stratford-Upon-Avon. We took the coach there, then David took us on a little walking tour of the town. 

We saw Shakespeare's birthplace. 

This is where Shakespeare died, but the house was torn down. You can pay money to go through the gardens. We didn't see the gardens. 

Fun fact: Shakespeare (and his family) is buried in this very prominent place in the church not because he was a famous playwright, but because he paid a lot of money to the church. 

We had a picnic lunch and took a group photo. 

This one is pretty derpy. 

That's the whole group! Back Row (L-R): David, Brenda, Erika, Phil, Regina, Aubrey. Front Row: Rylea, Marin, Marissa, Aimee, Angela.

After lunch it was time to see a Shakespeare play put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. We saw a weird production on Hamlet. It was good, but nobody could figure out where it was actually taking place, or when it was taking place. But I think we all enjoyed it.

All the world's a stage.

After the play we had dinner. I went to a pub with Marissa, Marin, Aimee, and Erika and we got ice cream afterwards. 

One last stop for another English Major picture, and we were on our way home. We passed the time by playing Kill, Marry, Snog. It was fun. 

Sunday

You might be thinking at this point that there can't be anything left to do. You would be wrong. Today, David was kind enough to shuttle us all out to Sherwood Forest. Marissa had tried to plan a way to get out there, but it's tricky and we didn't want to get stranded so David offered. 

First we went through a little exhibition area. 

You know, thinking about it, I have a lot of pictures of me with my head in the stocks. 

This is the Major Oak, the main attraction in the forest. It's pretty old, and like many old people, needs some support standing up. 

I am a tree. 

Angela exploded because she got to pet a dog.

Marissa made David a crown of flowers. He puts up with so much of our shenanigans. 

So basically, that was it. Sherwood Forest is certainly not what it used to be in terms of size, but it was well-kept and had nice paths and was free of empty alcohol containers. 

For dinner, Brenda kicked off our "International Food Week" with Mediterranean food. As always, it was amazing. I hope one day I can cook like Brenda, because her food is magical.

And that was my week! It was a big one full of lots of stuff. Next week should be calmer, but we're taking our last trip to Edinburgh on the weekend, so the fun just doesn't end here. I'm really excited, because next Saturday is also my birthday! Brenda will make something amazing to celebrate on Thursday, and I'm planning to have a drink or two on Saturday. 

#Nottingham #Prince Harry #fun. concert #Sherwood Forest #Stratford-Upon-Avon

[nottanothertravelblog]

Where in the world is Aubrey?!

22 March-30 March Isle of Skye, Scotland 30 March Overnight in Edinburgh 31 March-4 April Cardiff, Wales 4 April-7 April Prague, Czech Republic 7 April-8 April Bratislava, Slovakia 8 April-13 April Budapest, Hungary 13 April-15 April Warsaw, Poland 15 April-20 April Krakow, Poland 20 April Return to Nottingham

#Travel Schedule

[nottanothertravelblog]

March 22, 2013-Spring Break is upon us

Hello! Have you missed me? I’ve missed you. I didn’t blog last week because I was very busy writing a paper. The good news is that I’ve finished that paper, but the bad news is that I still have another one to write. So I’ve decided to combine last week and this week, and I’ll write in between packing and paper writing and panicking and such. By the time you read this, I will be on my way to Scotland! (Actually I’m already in Scotland) And you probably won’t hear from me for the next four weeks, but come April 20, be ready for lots of pictures and stories! Ok, enough rambling, let’s get this done.

I spent Monday feeling miserable. I had a sore throat and I was achy and it was just awful. I really didn’t want to go to either of my classes, but I did anyway. I’ve always hated missing class at Luther, but I’m even more concerned about it here because the classes are so infrequent. To be honest, I wouldn’t have really missed anything if I’d skipped either of my lectures, but I felt a moral obligation to go. After class I got to do the grocery shopping for the week. I really love grocery shopping. Is that weird? I just find it to be really fun and satisfying (I suppose it helps that I’m not actually paying the bill..). Ask me next year how I feel. After my afternoon class, I went into the city centre to get shampoo because I was out, and I picked up some cold medicine (I usually just ride it out when I get sick, but my throat hurt so badly I couldn’t swallow). The one I got is hilariously old fashioned. It comes in a glass bottle and everything.

But it at least relieved the pain a little.

Tuesday I also woke up feeling awful. My throat hurt so badly I couldn’t swallow without wincing in pain unless I was drinking something. I spent my morning seminar guzzling coffee to ease the pain and not talking loudly. As the day went on I could feel my illness moving on to the next stage: the constant feeling like you’re about to sneeze and your nose hurts. It was better than the sore throat. Also, a PSA for everybody. Don’t touch the stove to check if it’s hot. That only leads to burned fingers and sadness. After dinner we had our food class where we watched parts of SuperSize Me and talked about fast food and all the problems that come with eating lots of fast food and how to change the culture of fast food.

Wednesday I was still in the constant almost sneeze stage of sickness, but feeling much better. I countered this good feeling by burning my hand (just a little bit) by accidentally touching a hot pan. Ouch. But the best part of my day was definitely making dinner. Phil and I planned to attempt a chicken and dumpling casserole with cheesy cauliflower as a side. It was all very British and included things like leeks and turnips and parsnips. It also called for chicken quarters, but mentioned that using a whole chicken would be more economical. So naturally, I went the more difficult/fun route and got a whole chicken to carve up.

It was a bit more difficult than I remember, but I felt so accomplished when I was done. And the whole dinner turned out magical and delicious and I ate cauliflower and liked it. That may or may not have had something to do with the fact that it was covered in cheese…

I seem to not really do much on Thursdays. Sometimes I look at my Twitter to remind myself what I did, but Thursdays are almost always blank. I’m pretty sure I spent a significant portion reading a book that I’m going to use in my Utopianism paper. (I’m going to compare to feminist utopian texts because apparently gender is the only thing I can write about this year.) Other than that, I’ve got nothing.

I went to lecture on Friday where the lecturer used no less than three euphemisms for an erection in as many sentences, which always makes class more fun. When I got home, I finally found out my finals schedule, and I really lucked out. The testing period goes from May 20-June 7, so there was a possibility I would be here until June. Fortunately, my exams are the 20th and 23rd so I don’t have to mess around with hanging out here while everyone else goes home. I’ve decided to spend that last weekend in London because I haven’t been able to do everything I wanted to yet and I’ll fly out on the 27th. Mom is picking me up in Minneapolis and I’ll be back in Neola the 28th. You should probably start planning the parade now.

It feels really weird to actually have a ticket back. Before Friday, it was a very abstract “oh yeah, I’m going home sometime in this 3-week timeframe”, but now it’s very real. I have very mixed feelings about going back. On the one hand, I’m excited to go home where everything is familiar and start my last year at Luther in the fall. But on the other hand, I do really like it here. There are things I’m really going to miss about the UK, and I’m really scared to go back to the ‘real world’ where I’m going to be 500% more busy and I’m going to have to seriously think about schoolwork and what I’m doing after I graduate. Those are terrifying thoughts. I have one more year before I’m a poor 20-something trying to live on (hopefully) a publishing salary or doing unpaid internships wile also working at Starbucks or something. And because I want to go into publishing, I basically have no choice but to move to New York. Well, I’ve freaked myself out enough now, so I’m going to stop there.

I attempted to avoid writing my paper by going thrifting with Aimee, Marissa, and Marin. There are a ton of thrift and charity stores in England. It’s like every charity has their own line of shops. I didn’t find anything, but Aimee managed to find some things she needed for her trip. I spent the rest of the day alternately working on my paper and avoiding working on my paper. I usually blog on Sundays, but my paper was in desperate need of attention, so I did that instead. I went to class Monday morning and sat through lecture. I went home and worked on my paper some more. I went back to campus for my other lecture. I came home, mostly finished my paper and ate dinner. Utopianism seminar on Tuesday was just as painful as ever. Our teacher is really bad about asking really broad, open-ended questions that don’t work for opening up discussion. Also, it seems like in any given week, only about half of us actually read the text, so that doesn’t help. I stayed on campus after that was over because I had one of my prehistory seminars (there are only 3 over the course of the semester) but I had two hours to wait so I went to Costa to read and drink coffee. It just so happened that Angela was grabbing coffee after class also so we had a little impromptu coffee date, which was really nice. Also, Costa does not mess around when they say large. The prehistory seminar was actually pretty fun. Both of the lecturers were there and you could tell they were having fun. When your teacher is having fun, it’s a lot easier to learn. I went home and tried in vain to work on my Utopianism paper (due when I get back), but it was hard to find the motivation. By that point, I just wanted break to start. I was feeling a little trapped in the flat and was just irritated by everything everyone was doing. Spring break fever, I guess. I figured I should start packing on Wednesday. It’s weird, before winter break I was freaking out and had practiced packing weeks before and was generally freaking out. But this time felt really not real. I’m on a train right now, and it still just barely feels like its actually happening. Anyway, I went into town to get a few things I needed (and maybe one I didn’t neeeed…). I got my back adjusted at the chiropractor, then came back home and made spaghetti and garlic bread with Marissa. I spent the evening blogging and trying to do a little work on my paper. Thursday was my last day in Nottingham for a month, but it didn’t quite feel like it. I went to campus to turn in my paper, then met Marissa in city centre to do some more shopping. I made final adjustments to my packing and did a little bit of work on my paper before dinner and spent the rest of the night trying to tie up loose ends. It’s Friday as I write this. I got up, hopefully packed everything I need, and started my journey. Currently I’m on train #4 of 6 and I’m halfway to the Isle of Skye. Edit: I am posting this from the train station in Inverness. Scotland is cold. Another Edit: The Isle of Skye is WINDY! Also cold.

#Nottingham #spring break

[nottanothertravelblog]

March 10, 2013-Where is the time going?!

I leave for break in less than two weeks. Wow. Okay. I'm not freaking out. Nope not me. I just have two papers I need to write. No big deal. Okay maybe I'm starting to freak out a little now. I'm going to try my best to make this short and sweet because I don't have pictures for you and I'm not feeling my best. 

I had been hoping for Monday to be nice and lazy after my big weekend in the Lake District. My morning lecture was even cancelled! But I had a list of large tasks to complete in that off time. I had to blog about the week (I didn't get to that), sweep the dining room, prepare one lasanga for dinner, meet with my group to discuss/figure out our presentation on Tuesday, go to class, and then make and bake a second lasagna  It was weird being so busy again. I am not used to that anymore. I am worried about what's going to happen to me when I go back to Luther and have to actually be productive on a regular basis. It's going to be hard. 

For my Utopianism seminar on Tuesday I had to give a short presentation with a group about Brook Farm, a failed utopian community from the mid-1800's. To be quite honest, it went much better than I feared it might. I did think it was really weird that the other three group members had their parts written out word for word like a speech. These students are not used to giving group presentations. Or any presentations, really. Sometimes I wonder how this education system produces any functioning adults. I spent the rest of the day uploading pictures from the weekend and blogging. I even mailed some postcards! After dinner we had our food class where we talked about labels and watched the first part of SuperSize Me. It makes me want to avoid McDonald's and the like more than I already do. 

Wednesday was pretty unproductive. But I did go to the pub quiz! I'm really going to miss pub quizzes when I go back to the US. Phil Juggins was telling us about his upcoming wedding, where he would be arriving on an elephant. I refused to believe him (I mean, where do you get an elephant in the UK?), until he mentioned that the wedding would be held in Thailand. Then it made sense. In the end, we won and I even contributed several answers! Woo! Also, nobody won the hi-lo game, so next week the prize is up to £120 I think. I could use that. 

I don't think I did anything on Thursday. 

Friday I went to class. We had a little practice test thing to prepare us for the exam at the end of the semester and I learned that I should probably start studying for that now. Memorizing and dates. Two of my least favorite things. I then went home and made homemade chicken strips for lunch and watched the UK version of Four Weddings. They're much harsher when it comes to judging the other weddings over here. Also, there were two grooms, one who was gay, the other just wanted to do the competition instead of the bride. So that gave it an interesting dynamic. That afternoon I finally finished the blogs from my winter trip! 

Many of our flatmates were gone that night (some went on a weekend trip, and Aimee went to London that day) so Marissa and I reveled in the nearly empty flat with wine and a mini-marathon of The Client List. Also I made toffee bars, which did not take long to disappear.

It was an excellent way to spend the night. 

I slept in waaay late on Saturday and after lunch Marissa and I went out shopping. We looked at beautiful things and cried over how expensive they are. (On the plus side, the GBP keeps going down! I know that's not good for the UK, but it sure is helpful for me!) In looking back really quickly to see if I had already told you that (I did, but it's still going down), I realized that I never told you that we did, in fact get a Prairie House! I am incredibly relieved because the prospect of living in the dorms again made me want to cry. 

Sunday (today), I woke up achy and with a sore throat so I'm not feeling the best. I'm trying to get up the motivation to write a paper and read for Utopianism, but it's hard so I'm doing this instead. But now I'm done, so I guess I have to choose another productive activity. Have a lovely week, everybody. 

#Nottingham #The Client List

[nottanothertravelblog]

January 13, 2013-Glasgow, Scotland

Hooray! We've reached the last of these blogs about far away places! This one's from Glasgow, the last stop on my winter European adventure. You may think I will have forgotten everything, but have no fear! I wrote it all down! And there are lots of pictures! So let's go! 

This particular leg of my trip didn't start out so great. When I got to my layover, I discovered that my bank account was, ah, a bit slim. I frantically tried to get a hold of my mom, but she didn't get back to me until much later. My hostel was really nice, but I didn't have enough money to pay for my whole stay, so I was paying my the night and hoping that things would resolve themselves before my small supply of cash ran out. I found I had a very interesting roommate. (A film student from New York who was in the UK to attend several concerts and mildly stalk the singers. She was very intense, but at least she was friendly.)

My first day was not a terribly exciting one, but after the craziness of the previous weeks, I was looking forward to just hanging around and doing things at my own pace. I woke up and had the meager (but free!) breakfast the hostel provided before showering and heading out into the city. I admit I hadn't done a ton of research about the city so I didn't quite know what to expect, but Glasgow is like, the place for shopping. To make it doubly cool, all of the cool/designer stores are housed in old mansions so everything just feels classier and looks beautiful.

One of the stores I went into was the Americandy store. I'm sure you can guess what they sell. It never fails to amaze me what they charge for American candy and other goods. A box of Lucky Charms/Apple Jacks/Fruit Loops/Reeses Puffs/etc. will run you £8. A standard box of Pop-Tarts goes for £6.50!! I like to step in these stores whenever I see them and just marvel at the prices. Glasgow was by far the most expensive, especially in terms of the Pop-Tarts (here in Nottingham they're £4, and in Edinburgh were £5). They also sell cans of pop (£1.70), Twinkies (£2 each!), and marshmallow fluff (£5). Just amazing. 

I wandered around until I was hungry. Since I was on an extreme budget and the hostel had a kitchen, I bought enough pasta and sauce to also serve as my dinner. I went back to the hostel and ate. It was rather chilly out and I wasn't keen on going back out right away so I stayed in and read. When I did go back out, I started out by figuring out how to get to where I needed to be for my tour the next morning. It ended up being close to the Museum of Modern Art, and since it was free and I was cold, I went in. Usually I find modern art to just be weird and not make sense, but this wasn't so bad. I mean, I still didn't get all of it, but it wasn't unpleasant. 

As I headed back to my hostel (it was dark and I was hungry), I admired just how easy Glasgow is to navigate. I never really felt lost and there were signs everywhere. I ate my pasta again and spent the night reading and calling my dad to thank him for coming to my rescue with enough money to get me by for the rest of my stay. I tried my best to go to bed early because I had to be up early for my tour the next morning. 

Would you believe I managed to get myself up and out of bed on time and even made it to the meeting point early? Because I totally did! I even had time to grab cappuccino on the way. (I was proud of my accomplishment.) It turned out that there were only two of us in the group, but that actually ended up being just fine. Also, our tour guide was really nice and had a Scottish accent and was really attractive. So basically I just want to marry him right now. But I'm getting off topic. We started off by driving to Loch Lomond. (Quick Scotland lesson: lock=lake, glen=valley.) Loch Lomond is the UK's largest lake by area. It was a quick stop, but I got to actually meet my fellow tour-taker, a P.E. teacher from Australia who was very nice. 

It can be quite difficult to take a picture with the self-timer and I ended up with several that looked like this: 

We were back on the terrifying Scotland back roads. At least that's what I'm going to assume they were. It was like driving on a gravel road that's really twisty but just a hair wider and paved-ish. This is where we started entering the highlands and I started really falling in love with Scotland. Seriously, I cannot describe to you how beautiful Scotland is. It was a bit foggy, but still unbelievably beautiful will all the mountains and valleys. 

I can't imagine how pretty this would be in the spring and summer. We got to stop quite often so we could take pictures.

The water at this stop was eerily still. Like, impossibly still. 

It was like glass.

The next stop might look a little familiar to Harry Potter fans like myself.

These are the Three Sister's Mountains, and were sometimes used as backdrops to Hogwarts in the movies. Hagrid's hut was also in this area, but they had to take it down even though the people in the area wanted to keep it to attract more tourists. 

As we drove, our guide told us stories of Scotland's (often bloody) history as they related to where we were. When he wasn't talking, he played us Scottish music to keep the mood going. 

We got to stop and see a Highland cow! I guess they aren't usually out, so we got lucky. We ate lunch as we got to Loch Ness, then drove up the length of the loch. From there we stopped in a Nessie-themed souvenir shop before boarding a fancy yacht for a cruise.

The sun came out just in time for our cruise, which was lovely. You could sit on the top, which afforded better views, but was really cold. I sat up there for nearly half the journey, but eventually went inside to warm up. 

Gorgeous. 

This is right after Nessie jumped up and gave me a high-five. She doesn't like having her picture taken. It ruins the aura of mystery she's cultivated. 

That's totally Nessie down there. 

This is my desktop background right now. 

Loch Ness was the mid-point of the day, so after the cruise we started heading back south. I tried really hard to stay awake so I could continue gazing at the scenery, but my body said no and I napped until our next stop. We paused in a little town to get coffee and pick up a couple who'd been on a 2-day tour. 

We got back into Glasgow around 7, and I just got myself a microwaveable meal to eat before just vegging out after my long day. Wow do I want to go back to Scotland right now. 

The next day I had my sad breakfast (the coffee and the juice tasted terrible, and the only things that looked marginally appetizing were toast and the canned fruit cocktail they serve in schools) before heading out in a new direction. 

I'm not sure what this mural was for, but there was a Dalek just down the street from my hostel. 

I soon found myself in the Glasgow Green, a lovely park that I imagine is teeming with people during warm days (even on that only slightly warmer day there were lots of people out). I walked through until I reached the People's Palace, a building that's part greenhouse, part Glasgow history museum. I sat and wrote my Italy journals in the greenhouse because it was pretty (though I stupidly didn't take any pictures) and warm and had benches. When I finished, I headed up the stairs to the museum portion. It was really interesting, showing the history and evolution of the people and social aspects of Glasgow. (I think they didn't allow pictures, because I don't have any from there.) Hilariously, the museum hasn't really been updated since the 90's, so there are examples of Air Jordans being the 'cool' shoes to have, and my favorite quote: "They even show advertisements for sanitary products on television now!" It was much more extensive than I first thought, and I learned a lot. 

By that point I was really hungry, so I bought lunch to make at the hostel before setting off in yet another direction. This time I ended up in another shopping area, so I was pleased. I found a side street with nothing but diamonds and fancy watches for sale. I spent a fair amount of time just looking at all the shiny things. I also found the cinema, and decided I would go see The Hobbit later that night.

I also saw a TARDIS in the wild! I didn't see the Doctor. You can't have everything, I guess. 

I went back to the hostel for dinner and a bit of relaxing before the movie. I figured that I'd be able to get into the 8pm showing, considering the movie had already been out for a month, but I was wrong. It was already sold out by 7:45 and nothing I wanted to see was playing for at least another hour and a half. I walked back sadly, berating myself for not buying an advance ticket when I had the chance. 

I went to bed before either of my roommates got back, so I left the entry light on so I wouldn't get woken up by them turning it on, but it never actually got turned off until I woke up at 1:30. I went back to sleep until 4:30 when some moron decided to try smoking in his room. The fire alarm went off and I had to walk down 8 flights of stairs, stand in the cold for 20 minutes, then walk back up 8 flights of stairs where I couldn't get back to sleep for another half hour. Ugh. There is a special place in hell for people who pull/set off fire alarms in the middle of the night. 

Finally we arrive at my last day of this big adventure. I had breakfast and showered before packing, hoping my roommate would be awake by then so I didn't have to try and pack quietly, but to no avail. I checked out and left my luggage at the hostel since it was right next to the train station. I set off to try and find my mom a lanyard (she requested one), but couldn't find any. I also went to Waterstone's (B&N's UK equivalent, but I dare say I might like Waterstone's better) because when I woke up I couldn't find the charger cord for my Nook. I don't know where it would've gone because it would be a stupid thing to steal, plus all my other stuff was still there. I'm still mad, because of course this would be the time for my Nook to die, right before a 5-hour train ride. (Don't lecture me on the values of print vs. ebook. I know. Believe me. I know. But it's a heck of a lot easier to take one little ereader travelling than several books.) Anyway. I found a book to buy and got Subway before boarding my train and heading back to Nottingham. 

#Glasgow #Highlands #Travel

[nottanothertravelblog]

March 3, 2013-The Lake District

Sorry I'm late with this, I got back late Sunday and have been trying to catch up with everything (it all seemed to come at me all at once). But to make up for my lateness, I have 200 photos from the Lake District for you to peruse. So enjoy that. 

Monday was fairly basic, I went to class, I came home, I went to class again. I made dinner (gnocchi and garlic bread) with Angela. I tried to help Marissa plan a trip to the Lake District. I went to bed. 

Tuesday was more exciting. I went to class and I didn't do much during the day. BUT! When 4:00 came, I was off to the train station with Angela to pick up my dear friend and former roommate, Cate! 

(She is in France right now. This is her in France because she hasn't put up the pictures she took during her visit.)

We were all very happy to see each other and there was much hugging. She even brought us flowers because she is the sweetest. As we were walking to the bus stop, (I was holding the flowers) I heard a man's voice say "Are those for me?" I immediately started walking quicker and away, before I realized it was Dave Juggins! Boy did he scare me! He rode the bus with us (his wife had the car) and sat on the top for the first time in years and chatted with us all the way home. Cate and Angela went to get Cate's groceries and I went home to set the table (my chore for the week). It was really nice to have a fresh, but familiar face in our midst. I think it really cheered everyone up. 

Usually on Tuesday we have our food class, but this week, Phil Juggins came to give his talk on sport. He was supposed to do it last semester, but his schedule didn't work out. His talk was all about the similarities and differences between sporting culture in the UK and the US and it was legitimately really interesting. Then he told us stories of him basically growing up in the flat (first time getting drunk and first kiss) and it was fantastic. 

On Wednesday, Angela and I took Cate on a little tour of Nottingham. We showed her the castle and an old church and did a lot of wandering because Angela didn't actually know where she was going. That night we took her to the pub quiz. Well, we meant to take her to the pub quiz. I guess last week they decided to start early, but everyone forgot. So we stood at the bar and chatted with Dave and David and tried to do the picture round. Amazingly, at the end of the night, my number got called to do the hi-lo game for the 4th time. I think that must be some kind of record. I really wish I had won though, because the prize was up to £100. I could use that. Alas, I got bested by a sneaky face card. 

Thursday is a black hole in my memory. 

After class on Friday, I met Cate for a little lunch date in the city centre. I don't often eat out in Nottingham, so it was a nice treat and it was great to spend some time alone with her. Sometimes you don't even notice how much you miss a person until you see them again. After lunch, Cate met up with Angela and I met up with Marissa. We did a little wishful shopping and picked up our train tickets because we didn't feel like picking them up in the morning. That night I got ambitious with my cooking for one and made a BBQ chicken breast and a baked potato. Lesson learned: start something like that sooner. I got very impatient. We closed the night by watching Hamlet 2 (a favorite of Aimee, Marissa, and me). I packed my bag and tried to go to sleep early in preparation for Marissa's and my trip to the Lake District. 

Unfortunately I took forever to fall asleep and 4:30 a.m. came far too early for my taste. But I got up and showered. After waiting for a taxi that we think drove by the flat and then left, we were off to the train station. We got on just fine and made our first three connections with ease. Unfortunately, when we boarded our final train, we were told that the driver's seat was broken and the train would be cancelled. This was a problem because we had planned to be in Windermere by 9:30 because our tour was scheduled to leave at 9:45. We were informed that the next train would run at 10:05. We weren't the only ones who needed to be in town quickly, and we ran into two other ladies and decided to split a cab with them (the town was only 20 minutes away. I don't know why the train driver couldn't stand for that long.) So we got there just a few minutes late. We then discovered that the group of seven that was also on our tour were on our train and still stuck in Oxenholme. This resulted in our tour starting an hour late. But it turned out ok! We just took a shorter boat cruise at lunch and we were back on schedule. I will now tell the rest of the day mostly in pictures because I don't remember the actual names of most of the places. 

I have a lot of these kinds of shots. They are all from the coach window. Anyway, this is the first(?) of the 10 lakes that we saw. 

This is called the Bridge House. It's a house that is also a bridge. They really don't mess around with names in England. (They built a new theatre on Nottingham's campus. They named it New Theatre.)

Look at me being a good English major. 

These were only brave daffodils out. 

D'aww. 

We stopped in Keswick for lunch. I accidentally ordered a pie instead of a pasty and wasn't sure how exactly I was supposed to eat it. 

Also milkshakes. They were delicious. 

Next up was a little boat cruise on another lake. I don't remember which one it was. But it was pretty and there was some ice on parts of it that was cool and fun to listen to. 

This is called 'Surprise View' and is at the top of a large hill. 

Not only were there great views, there were great photo opps. 

This is a much-photographed bridge because it's on a chocolate logo. It reminded me of Dunning Springs. 

Here I am outside a slate mine. It was cold. 

Here is a pretty waterfall. It was like Dunning Spring but much bigger.

Marissa was very excited about the sheep.

Stone circles are a good place to relax. It got all nice and sunny when we were here. 

Our last stop was very chilly. So that was our tour! It was great and we saw a ton! (I took almost 200 pictures that day alone!)

We got back to Windermere around 4:30 and went straight to our hostel so we could nap before dinner. When we finally ventured out in search of food, we found a lot of Chinese and Indian restaurants and several others that were way out of our price range. We ended up at a fish & chip shop where I got lasagna and chips. When I opened it up, I discovered that it was more like chili cheese fries.

And I was just fine with that. (Though my stomach was not quite so happy afterwards.)

As we sat in the common room reading, another group of what appeared to be students came in. They invited us to play spoons with them, and we quickly found out that they were all (except the two French guys in their group) from Concordia Moorhead. They're spending this semester in Liverpool. Seriously, what are the chances of meeting a group of students from the same area? It really is a small world. We played spoons with them and then turned in for the night. I proceeded to sleep terribly due to the flat pillow and the thinly veiled springs I was laying on.

We packed up our things and went on a little hike. 

I would be lost without Marissa and her skills.

We climbed to the top of a really big hill and had an amazing 360 view. 

 We tried to get close to some sheep, but they did not want to play. 

We went over this little ladder. (Hiking in England is intense.)

Recreation of a senior picture. (You might notice that I'm wearing my old boots. I didn't want to get my new ones icky, so I taped in some gel pads in there. But they are now officially retired for good.)

We sat by a lake and encountered a swan. I ran away because swans are creepy. 

Suddenly we were back in a train station. And that's where everything went wrong. Our first train was fine, and we were scheduled to have an hour wait for the next one. But then, just five minutes before our train was to arrive, we were informed that it would be another 30 minutes before it would be there. This caused us to miss our connection in Manchester by 15 minutes. So we had to wait an extra 45 minutes. We finally got on the train, and found it very full, but we managed to find two seats together. You would think that everything would be the last of our troubles. But no. A family came and tried to tell us they had reservations for our seats (we were in a car without reservations). Rather than try to fight them, we went to find new seats. But there were none. We sat/stood in the area between the cars until the next stop. It was awful. We finally got to sit down and made it home. To add insult to injury, because of the delays we missed dinner. And Brenda made Mexican food. But we ate the leftovers and they were delicious. I went to bed early because I was tired and mad. I just wish we could've had a better end to such a lovely trip. 

#Lake District #Nottingham

[nottanothertravelblog]

February 24, 2013-Cave Tours and New Boots

The book I'm reading for class is making me fall asleep, so I'm going to do this instead. I'm just going to jump right in. 

Monday is always a little difficult because it's one of two days I have to get up early. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that it makes it much harder to get up. Plus there are four of us all trying to shower at the same time and I usually end up being the last one in and have to take my bagel on the go. Also, with a 9am class, you are either going to be a little late, or really early. This week we were really early. The lecture was meh, I am not a fan of the book we were reading (Walden, by Henry David Thoreau) and I still can't wait to get out of the 19th century and on to the science fiction. Enough complaining! I went home for lunch, then back to campus for class at 3. I'm going to need to start taking coffee with me to that lecture because I am sleepy by that point. I then came home and made baked potatoes for dinner with Marissa. I spent the rest of the night reading the rest of Walden. 

I was up early again on Tuesday for seminar. This was the worst one yet. I couldn't even think of anything to say. I felt like I hadn't read the book, even though I did. It was awful. I stayed on campus after that because I had my first of three seminars for my prehistory class at 12. I ran a couple errands, then decided to just get a big coffee and sit in Costa and read. I did that for awhile until a very friendly Canadian girl asked to sit with me and chat. She was here with some group gauging student interest in religion, I think. Anyway, she was very nice and helped me pass the time between classes. The seminar was actually pretty interesting, and I think I'll do my paper on the seminar's subject (Minoan and Mycenaean palaces). In addition to talking about the palaces, we also got to translate our names into Linear B script, an early form of Greek writing. My name doesn't have a Greek/Hebrew/Latin root, so the prof just did a direct translation of my name to Greek and then I had to put it into the Linear B. It was actually pretty cool, and even looked a little like my name. 

Wednesday I decided to go out shopping for new boots. On the one hand, all the boots were on sale, but on the other hand, none of them came in my size, or were still expensive even on sale. To cap off my bad luck shopping that day, I went into a bra store because I need new ones, but though they were attractive and reasonably priced, none of them actually worked. On the plus side, the GBP is getting weaker, which is bad for Britain, but good for me! (At the beginning of the year, it was $164 for £100, but now it's only $154, and going down!) I went home empty-handed, only to find that the internet wasn't working very well, and my Nook needed to be charged. I couldn't win. But I did wash my sheets and make my bed, so that was nice. Also, my group turned in the application for Prairie Houses, so fingers crossed! (We'll know next Thursday!)

This Thursday was pretty blah. I thought about going out shopping again, but it was cold and I didn't feel like leaving the flat. 

Friday; however, I went to class at the correct time, then went to the city centre to do some more looking. I actually ended up finding a pair that I liked and fit and were cheap, but they were brown instead of black so I had to consult my fashion adviser (aka, my mom). She talked me into it as I ate lunch and read. I went to my chiropractor appointment at 2, then came back and bought them! They were only £23! A steal! When I got home I went to the fruit&veg and got some tiny potatoes to fry. 

Tasty potatoes. 

That night after a trip to Tesco, I made chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. 

According to Angela: 

Needless to say, they were gone by Sunday afternoon. Food really is the way to anyone's heart. 

Saturday was a really successful day. Aimee, Angela, Marissa, and I decided to go on a tour of Nottingham's caves, led by none other than our very own Robin Hood! We were hoping it might be this Robin Hood: 

but our Robin Hood was decidedly less hot. Though he was a good guide and very game to take pictures at the end. We got a nice tour of some of Nottingham's many sandstone caves

and got to see a view of Nottingham that we don't usually get. 

As I said, our Robin Hood was game to take pictures. 

We also got an English Major picture with Nottingham's own D.H. Lawrence. 

Our ticket let us back into the castle, so we went back up and looked around. We went inside and looked at some of the stuff they had on display (typical museum stuff, military uniforms, decorative figurines, etc), and took a trip down to the children's grotto where they had lots of costumes for playing dress up! And since they were adult-sized....

(These aren't so good quality, as my camera died and we switched to the iPhone)

Ok, enough of that. We also explored the outside a bit before heading back home.

(You can see my new boots here! Good news, they only hurt my feet a little bit! That's okay because I'm still breaking them in!)

The rest of the evening was chill. We tried to watch Ruby Sparks, but the internet pooped out halfway through so we didn't get to finish it.

Today (Sunday), I vaccuumed the flat and de-haired the rug (gross). I tried to read for class, but I kept falling asleep, I started playing Draw Something because of Rylea Ranum, and now I'm here, finishing my blog in what feels like record time! So that's all for now, folks! Have a good week! 

#Nottingham #New boots #Robin Hood