Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Day 138-140: Scotland


Since I am feeling particularly reminiscent of the Netherlands today (and eating Smarties...and procrastinating), I am going to write one of the few remaining posts I have on this blog. Although my time in Scotland was nearly five months ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday, and thinking about our time there brings a smile to my face. Enjoy the following excerpt about my time in Scotland!


Wednesday, June 2, 2010: Glasgow Scotland


Mateja and I woke up super early in our individual bed's tucked away in the loft rooms of Katie's cozy home. We got ready and headed downstairs for a departure breakfast and saying goodbye to Katie's amazing parents who had been so kind to us! They even packed us a breakfast sack for our trip with snacks and things.

We took a cab to the nearby Belfast airport in time to catch our Ryanair flight to Glasgow, Scotland, the next stop on our U.K. trip. Our flight was super short (and totally worth the 6 GBP we paid for it!). We arrived quickly in Glasgow and managed to find our way through the airport to the train station. Daniel had given us directions to board the train and get off at Glasgow Central, where he would meet us and take us to his place.

We got off the train, tired and hungry! We didn't have any trouble finding Daniel at the station and were glad to be reunited with our mutual friend from Tilburg. Daniel told us the plan for the afternoon and we headed out to hit the streets of Glasgow. We took turns carrying each other's backpacks so that none of us would get too worn out from all the luggage. We walked up Sauchihall street, glancing at all the shops and Scottish sites to see. Daniel guided us to this fabulous little Italian restaurant, Sarti's (that shared a bathroom with another restaurant and was a maze to get to!), where we had a late lunch. We ordered an appetizer before proceeding to order our main course. I had risotto, thanks to our common love for cooking risotto in Tilburg. We sipped wine, and leisurely enjoyed our fabulous Italian meal before heading back outside. It was a gorgeous day! Cool, sunny and beautiful!
Mateja's Sadness due to the mirror :(

We walked through the busy streets back down Sauchihall Street and through the Buchanan Galleries. We decided to revisit a shoppe we had passed on our way to lunch, a Cupcake Shoppe! Mateja and I each ordered a cupcake decorated like a bee...so cute! Unfortunately, while we were in the shoppe, Mateja dropped her mirror that she had purchased the day before in Belfast. Daniel and I tried to comfort her outside the shoppe as we ate our cupcakes, but Mateja was pretty sad (see picture).

 Next, we boarded the train again to go to Daniel's University, Glasgow University. We hopped off the train, prepared for a short (according to Daniel) 5-10 minute walk to the Uni, however, it ended up taking quite a bit longer, which quite irritated Mateja :). We finally made it and relaxed outside a few minutes before exploring the University. It was giant and set high up, with a great view! We wandered down to the University bar for a quick drink (and some Nuts on the quiz machine). After relaxing for a bit, we hopped on the metro to get back to the train station and took the train back to Helensburg, where Daniel's family stays.

Glasgow University
Glasgow University
Posing in the archway
Pretty Arches
Exploring the Uni
Helensburg, Scotland
We arrived at Helensburg Central, an unassuming, quaint little train station of only two platforms. Daniel's younger sister, Anna, picked us up from the train station and took us to their home in her car. First impressions of Helensburg: adorable! Such a cute little place on the water. It seemed like a good, quiet place to retire.

We arrived at Daniel's house (not far at all from the station) and rested for a while before Daniel's mom called us to dinner. It was good to see Daniel's parents again, as I had met them previously in Netherlands, when they came to help Daniel pack his things to take back to Scotland. We had burgers for dinner, prepared by Daniel's mom.

Headed to Pub Quiz
After supper, we chilled out for a bit and settled into our room before heading out for the night. Daniel was anxious to take us to Pub Quiz, as it was a notorious story of his that we had heard all about in Tilburg. We decided to walk, as the sun was setting and the weather was gorgeous. We headed down the giant hill that Daniel lived off of and walked all the way down to the river. We were way early for the quiz, so we stopped first at the Logie Baird where we sipped drinks and Mateja and I split a yummy cookie dessert. We played another quiz machine (epic fail!) before heading to Riverbank, where we met up with Daniel's friends for quiz. Liam, Gio and Robbie were on our team too. Unfortunately, we didn't do so hot, placing fifth. But we had a great time getting to know each other :)

Mateja left quiz a bit early, as she was really tired from a long day of traveling and sightseeing. After Pub quiz, Daniel and I went out for late night pizza at the take out place next door, Lido, before trekking back up the hill to his house and hitting the sack.

Thursday, June 3, 2010: Balloch, Scotland


Loch Lomond, Scotland
The next morning we woke and had a nice breakfast at Daniel's house (thanks to his mom :) before heading out for our next Scottish adventure--Loch Lomond. We were driven to the train station by Daniel's mom and took the train north to the Scottish Loch. It was a substantial train ride, but consisted of some beautiful Scottish scenery. It was pleasant.


Paddle Boats!
We arrived at the Loch, where Daniel had been many times before with his family, yet it was all new to Mateja and I.  We wandered down from the train station toward the lake and came to the paddle boat rental area. I have not done paddle boats in years, and it was only 12 GBP for one boat for half an hour, so we decided to have a go and rented a three-seater. With Daniel in the middle, Mateja and I paddled the boat (go girl power!) and Daniel steered...bad decision! Soon we were attempting to run into the ducks in the pond. Although they were too fast and we were too slow. We enjoyed the workout and some good laughter in the paddle boats before hopping out and heading up to the small shopping and restaurant area. We stopped for lunch at Thornton's. I had a yummy sandwich and Magners (of course...gotta do as the Scottish do!).

Magners :)
After our relaxing lunch, we walked to the castle that Daniel had told us all about. It was a nice walk, but the castle was relatively disappointing. The more exciting part of it all was the dog that was walking freely near the castle. I chose to take the opportunity to talk to the dog, in French of course! Well, this particular dog did not take too well to 'Bonjour' and started growling at Mateja and I. I began to walk away, but the dog continued to bark and come closer to Mateja (who was not to happy with me for the whole incident!).

Loch Lomond Castle
Since it was a rather long walk to the castle, we decided to take a short break and chill for a few minutes on the lawn. Mateja thought this would be a good photo op (as it had been in Slo), and we used her camera to take a timed picture. Well, it ended up taking a picture about every second, so we turned out to have an entire flip book of the whole thing! We laughed about the whole thing as we laid out on the grass and chatted for a bit. Favorite quote of the afternoon: "It would be nice to die because of eating chocolate." --Mateja (who else!?!)
Failed attempt at a picture

On the way back to the train station, we walked along the water, which was really scenic and nice. There were people getting ready too swim in the lake, others walking their dogs, and some just sitting watching it all. What a nice, relaxing place. I tried to soak it all in as I laughed and chatted with my friends on the way back to the train station.

Off to another Scottish trek!
Typical teasing :)
We had to wait a few minutes at the station before the train came (in which time we managed to find bathrooms that we could use), but we got back to Helensburgh in time to squeeze in one more activity before heading back to Daniel's for supper. Daniel walked us down by the water in Helensburgh to Ardencable, an old-time house that is now a restaurant/bar. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather that we had already been enjoying all day and shared a drink together outside on their front lawn. Daniel ordered me a Bulmers, which is another cider very similar to Magners. We sipped our drinks before heading to another outdoors trek in the woodlands of Helensburgh. We walked the trail through H. Hill and admired the great views we had of Helensburgh from the various points of the trail. It was a nice hike, but very tiring since we had been walking all day already! The trail ended near Daniel's house and we headed back for some supper.

Daniel's mom had made us all a nice dinner consisting of beef, veggies, an potatoes. We enjoyed the meal with his mom and sister before relaxing from our long day out. We chilled that evening, and watched the movie 21. I also took the opportunity to blog a bit...trying to play catch up! After the movie finished up, we all hit the sack, exhausted from our long day.



Friday, June 4, 2010: Glasgow, Scotland

Argyle Street, Glasgow
We slept in a bit the next morning and woke to another nice breakfast courtesy of Daniel's mom. After breakfast we walked to the train station and caught the train to Glasgow Central. We decided to take the day to explore Glasgow some more, instead of trying to squeeze in Edinburgh. We decided to take our usual shopping detour and hit up  Argyle street for some deals. I was not feeling too well and had an incident with a monk (long story ;).  Thankfully, I began to begin feeling better after I finally got some Tylenol-ish substance in my system.

Hemlay's
We were excited to visit the Scottish Primarck, as we had already visited on in Ireland and one in London. Daniel was sweet to take us there so that we could look around a bit, although we didn't buy anything this time (guess we were Primarcked out!). Next we went to Hemlay's (an awesome toy palace) in this awesome indoor shopping area and enjoyed a nice lunch in the  food court.

Daniel...
In the afternoon, Daniel coaxed us into boarding the tour bus for a bus tour of Glasgow. Although a bit reluctant to do so (due to our disdain of said tacky tour buses in nearly every major European city), but in retrospect, I am glad we did. We got a great riding tour of the city, which was a nice break after a long morning of shopping. The guide was a bit lousy (hard to hear and quite monotone), but the tour was enjoyable and we learned some cool facts about the city. My favorite part was the statue with the orange cone on his head...Daniel may or may not have had something to do with this at one point in his life!


Scottish Bagpiper sighting!
We hopped off the bus when Daniel said and stopped for a drink at Witherspoon's where we "enjoyed a pint and a chat". Actually, I'm  pretty sure that whatever I had to drink was not too good, but we split some chips and played some electronic card game (well, I watched Daniel and Mateja play). It was a nice break from all the turismo!

Afterward, we headed back to the train station to catch the train to Helensburgh. Daniel's dad was arriving home in the evening from his weekly business trip to Machester, England, and we were excited to see him again (Mateja and I had previously met him in NL). We were greeted back at Daniel's by his father and sister who were home. We asked Anna, Daniel's sister, if she would like to play football (American soccer) with us and she agreed. I was more or less the cheerleader (I don't do soccer!), but enjoyed playing and watching a bit.

Awesome bridge
For our final dinner in Scotland, we ordered take out from one of Daniel's family's favorite take out restaurants (that serves fish and chips!). We all drove down to pick up the food together and enjoyed a relaxing dinner back at the house. After supper, we hung out with Daniel's family for a bit, watching rugby and Britain's Got Talent. To wind down on our final evening in Scotland, Mateja, Daniel and I all crawled onto Daniel's bed again and watched the movie 21. We went to bed pretty early since we had to catch an early flight the next morning.

On Saturday, Daniel's dad was nice enough to drive us to Glasgow Prestwick airport where he and Daniel dropped us off to head back to Tilburg for a few final days. It was a difficult good-bye to our friend who had shared so much with us both in the Netherlands and in his own home country. We did our best to hold back the tears as we parted ways and headed to security. We arrived safely back in Schipol later on that evening (via our EasyJet flight) and took the train down to Tilburg where we reunited with Bali and Arlette who hosted us the remainder of our time in the Netherlands since we had to move out of our rooms to avoid paying rent!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Day 136-137: Irish Exploration

Monday, May 31, 2010: Dublin, Ireland

The beauty that is Dublin
Early, early Monday morning, Mateja and I stealthily left the hostel hotel room armed with our backpacks and checked out at the front desk below. It was just before 4AM that we began walking down the street to the bus stop about a kilometer away to catch the last night bus that would take us to Victoria Station. We bought our bus tickets at the automated machine just across the street from the hostel and began walking towards our stop. About halfway, we ran into the girl from our hostel dorm room that had so abruptly left late in the previous night. We were surprised to see her just now heading back to the hostel from her night out (apparently she was in some kind of dance program/group) and told her a quick goodbye.

 Mateja's first KK!
We made it to the bus stop with time to spare and attempted to make conversation with one another in order to stay awake and not miss our bus. We managed to do so and boarded the nearly empty bus that took us to Victoria Station. Once we arrived, we had to walk a ways to get to the coach station, and we sleepily ambled our way there. We arrived early again to the bus stop and spoke to the driver in the coach. He explained that the bus he was driving was also going to London Stansted Airport, our destination, but left 20 minutes earlier than the one we had booked tickets for. We explained that we were on the later bus, but he offered to take us on his, since it was nowhere near full. We put our things down below and boarded the bus, thankful to have a seat in which to sleep for the next hour.

Quickly enough, the coach arrived at Stansted and let us all out. We were early to the airport as well, as our whole day was running early so far (better that than late I guess!). By this time it was nearing 7AM, so we stopped at the Krispy Kreme in the airport and treated ourselves to a hot cup of coffee and a tasty donut. This was Mateja's first Krispy Kreme, a fun experience indeed! She decided after one bite that it was too sweet and decided to scrape off the chocolate and sprinkles that adorned the top of her fried ring of dough. Fair enough :)

We boarded our 6 GBP (Great British Pound) Ryanair flight to Dublin, the first of four flights we would be taking on this trip alone! We landed in the capital of the Republic of Ireland mid-morning and caught a bus to the city centre. I was super excited at the airport after the security officer that scrutinized my reason for being in Ireland stamped a green seal in my passport that served as proof of my stay in Ireland! Not to mention, Mateja and I were both happy to be back in a land that accepts euros....you do not even know!

Our waterfront view
We knew that we would have limited time in Dublin, as it was essentially just a layover between London and Belfast. Our first chore (after stopping at the Tourist Info point we passed to get a map) was to locate the Dublin coach station and buy our bus tickets for the afternoon trip to Belfast. We managed to find the bus station easily and were sold two tickets to Belfast at 4PM by a typical Irish boy, that is, he had red hair! We also visited the basement of the station where there were lockers available for rent. We stowed our things together in a locker and inserted our coins to secure our belongings. Thinking back to our trip to Marseilles, we were so thankful to have the lockers for the day; the French really need to take a hint!

Trinity College, Dublin
As it was nearing noon and we had not eaten much yet this day, we stopped to get some lunch. Mateja had the brilliant idea to go the the Subway we had passed on our way to the train station so that we could each get a stamp for my card that I had been working on filling the entire semester. This would give me a free sub for when I got back to Tilburg!

Book of Kells
Unfortunatley, this Subway did not do the stamps, but we decided to get subs anyhow, and took our deli lunch to the riverfront where we ate and watched the happenings of the city all around us. After finishing our lunch, we walked to Trinity College, a historic site and University that Mateja had researched online. We toured the campus on our own and walked over to the line for the viewing of the Book of Kells. Deciding that the fee of somewhere around 10 GBP was too high just to see a book (that you know is probably under glass and you can only get as close as about five feet away from) , we turned back and exited the beautiful campus, anxious to make the most of our time and explore the city.

St. Stephen's Park
We walked along the famous Grafton Street and window shopped as we wandered to our next stop. We came to St. Stephen's Park, a beautiful area full of greenery and people relaxing. We enjoyed resting there for a few minutes as Mateja wrote postcards and I caught up on my blog notes. Sitting in the heat of the sun, we realized that we were quite thirsty and decided to find a nice Irish pub where we could get a drink.

Magners vs. Guinness
Mateja had Guinness on her mind (hey,  we were in Dublin!), and so we found a place, Sinnott's Bar, that served Guinness at a reasonable price and headed inside. We had to take the stairs down, as the pub was below ground! We chose a cozy table for two and ordered a drink each from the waitress. Mateja was satisfied with her Guinness and I was content with my Magners (Irish cider that Daniel got me started on).

Mateja's fresh manicure
After we were refreshed from our afternoon drink, we continued our hurried exploration of Dublin. Passing by, we couldn't refrain from venturing inside H&M, a store we were quite familiar with from all of our shopping both in Tilburg and on all our trips. I think we went in at least one H&M on every single trip this semester! Although each one has just about the same things, we never tired of looking around at the relatively inexpensive clothes and accessories. Neither of us bought anything, but Mateja took advantage of a free manicure by painting all five nails on one of her hands, each finger sporting a different color. I followed suit, but decided to just paint one nail on one of my hands. Silliness! We left H&M and right outside we bumped into a "Wet Paint" sign. Struck by the irony, I captured this moment through the lens of my camera, as Mateja showed off her fresh manicure next to the sign.

Dublin Castle
We headed next to Dublin Castle, which we were both excited to see and hoping to take a tour. However, we got there late enough that the tours were done for the day and the last one running would make us miss our bus. So we explored the castle whereabouts on our own and were sadly disappointed with what we saw. There really was not much to the place. We looked around for a bit before heading back through town to the bus station.

View from the bus window
On the way, we stopped for a pre-dinner/bus journey snack, which we ate in the bus station while waiting for our departure. We boarded the bus shortly after 4PM, and it was packed with other tourists heading north to Belfast. We said goodbye to Dublin as the bus pulled out and our two-hour journey north began. While I wanted to stay awake during the ride and see the lovely Irish countryside, I could not ward off the sleepiness that was coming over me. We had been going all day, since 3AM, and we were pooped! Mateja and I both fell asleep seated next to one another on the bus, waking up intermittently as the bus rolled over bumps and catching short glimpses of the country we were passing through. We were both lucky enough to get a view of the Irish sheep in the fields as we rode.

Katie showing us the map of Belfast
We arrived in Belfast around 6PM and were to meet my friend, Katie McKinney, who had studied abroad a whole year at Agnes Scott during my sophomore year, at the bus station. We had just disembarked the bus when I heard my name, looked up and spotted Katie walking towards us. I gave her a big hug and introduced her to Mateja. We gathered our things and headed through the station to the street side where Katie's father was parked with the car to take us to her home in Newton Breda, essentially a suburb of  Belfast. We rode sleepily through the hills of Belfast up to Katie's quaint home. We unpacked the car and headed inside where we were introduced to her mother and shown our rooms.

Katie's family was so sweet! They had prepared a room each for Mateja and I. Mateja stayed in Katie's room upstairs, while I stayed across the hall in Katie's sister's bedroom. It was so nice to have our own space where we could spread out and relax! We were so appreciative of their hospitality, especially as we descended the stairs and were greeted by a table laden with Irish beef stew and bread. We joined Katie's family for a yummy warm meal and enjoyed sharing with them about our trip so far.They were anxious to hear all about Tilburg and our semester, and we chatted with them for awhile.

Graffiti in Northern Ireland
Since we had a limited time in Belfast, we decided to make the most of the night (even though Mateja and I were exhausted) and go ahead and explore a bit of Belfast. We returned to the city by car, with Katie's mother driving us this time. She dropped us off and Katie began giving us a tour of the city. We awed at the buildings and graffiti reminiscent of the ongoing strife between the two sectors of Ireland that adorned the exterior walls.

Proost to Magners!
As the sun set and it began to get dark, Katie invited us to go to an Irish pub for a drink. We went first to Duke of York, which was rather busy, and enjoyed a drink. I had Magners again....hey, I was in Ireland! We relaxed and enjoyed our drinks for a bit before heading to another Irish pub nearby that Katie explained was 400 years old! It was called Kellys Cellars and we walked in and looked around a bit. We didn't stay too long, as it was super noisy and crowded. Our final pub for the evening was called Madden's. Katie took us here, becuase this pub features live traditional Irish music. We sat and enjoyed the sounds of the Irish tunes and took in the whole experience.

Worn out from our long day and mini pub crawl, we returned back to Katie's home via bus and settled in for the night. Mateja and I both slept comfortably in our own bedrooms.


Tuesday, June 1, 2010: Belfast, Ireland

View of Belfast from Tesco
The next morning we slept in a bit, but rose early enough to get in a full day of Belfast! We found Katie downstairs and she showed us our breakfast options. We chose to eat potato bread, an Irish specialty! It was super yummy :)

Botanic Garden
After breakfast, we headed to Tesco, a local grocery store (where Katie actually works) in our attempt to find an outlet converter that would allow me to straighten my hair and Mateja to charge her phone, which was dead at this point. Unfortunately, this Tesco was out of the proper converters, so we bought chocolate instead and awed at the view of the rolling hills of Belfast from the strategic viewpoint of the enormous Tesco front windows.

C.S. Lewis Reading Room
We opted to take the bus into the city, since we had walked a ways already to get to Tesco. Our first stop was at Queen's University, Katie's Uni. She gave us a tour of her school, which was really fun to see, especially since she knows all about my home University. We walked the campus and looked at an art exhibit before passing through the adjacent botanic gardens and coming to the Ulster Museum. We also visted the Uni's libary, which features a C.S. Lewis reading room. We had to be super quiet since it was exam time, but we still managed to take a photo at this memorable local.

Traditional Irish dress
Back at the Ulster Museum, we explored the multiple stories of this interactive museum that told all about the history of Northern Ireland and its inhabitants. We saw memorabilia from the Titanic (which was built near Belfast) and played around in the childrens' section. We dressed up in traditional Irish clothes and hats and laughed at our own appearances. As we left, we stopped in the gift shop where Mateja bought a new mini mirror to keep in her purse. It was really cute and she really liked it!
Lovin' the hats, ladies!

After the museum, we revisited a sight we had seen the night before when we drove into town. Just around the corner from the museum was a small cupcake shop called "Once Upon a Cupcake". We thought we would go see what it was all about, since we were enthusiastic about the idea of cupcake shops in Europe. Inside the shop, we were amazed at their variety and creativity of flavors, but decided not to order anything.

Cupcakes in Belfast!
We began to get hungry and phoned a friend of Katie's to meet up. Mateja and I treated Katie to lunch at a burrito place she recommended close to the University, Bonjum. We were so hungry that we ate very quicjly, but thoroughly enjoyed our tasty burritos!

Afterward, we crossed the street to a cafe called Clement's where we met Katie's friend, Sarah, for coffee. I sipped my mocha latte and we all caught up. After we finished our coffee, Sarah drove us to the City Hall, where we planned to continue our tour of Belfast, led by the marvelous Katie McKinney.  We were disappointed to find out that the tours of the City Hall were not running that day, but we got to go inside and look around a bit. We  said goodbye to Sarah who had to leave and headed down to a nearby shopping street.
City Hall, Belfast

Katie had heard that we had visited Primark in London and promised to take us to the one in Belfast. We were excited to go again, and enjoyed this visit to Primark much more. The store was much less crowded, making it much easier to actually shop. We milled around in the shop for nearly an hour, leaving with bags full of goodies and gifts that we got for super cheap! (for example, I bought two nice pairs of tights for 50 pence each!)

Victoria Square
After we were through in Primark, we headed to Victoria Square, an outdoor shopping area kind of similar to a mall in America. We looked around and checked out the films playing at the theater. We made a game plan for the evening. Mateja and I would go watch the film Tooth Fairy at the 3 GBP movie deal night, while Katie would go to school and work on a project she had to complete for her art class. Before we separated, Katie took us to Marks and Spencers, a gigantic department store, where we each picked out some items from their food shop for supper.

We parted ways, and Mateja and I returned to ODEON cinema for the movie. We ate our small packaged sandwiches we had bought for supper and decided to spoil ourselves and indulge in Ben and Jerry's ice cream during the movie (since they conveniently sold it at the theater!). We relaxed and enjoyed the film, which turned out to be really good. I did not think it was going to be, but I really enjoyed it!

Posing with Katie's Uni
Afterward,  we met up with Katie outside Victoria Station and took the bus back to her home. It would be another early morning for us, as we would be boarding our second flight of the trip to go back to Britain, this time to Glasgow, Scotland. We rested comfortably again for the night in Katie's home, excited about the prospect of Scotland and seeing our friend, Daniel, again in the morning.

Altogether, I enjoyed our time in Ireland. Although it was quite hurried and we only got to spend two days in the country, I was thankful that we had the chance to go and that we got to stay with Katie and meet her family. Katie was a great tour guide, and we really enjoyed staying with her and seeing her again. I wish we could have seen more of the countryside or gotten to explore more, but I feel like we packed a lot into two short days! Next time I visit Ireland, I will definitely allot more time to take in the beautiful country.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Day 132-135 : UK Trip Part I - London, England

Thursday, May 27, 2010: Breda, Netherlands

What d'ya know, a red telephone booth!
Wow, here it is the end of May already....never thought I would see this day, nearly the end of my study abroad experience! Its crazy how fast time really does fly when you are having the time of your life!

Today was the long-awaited day. From the moment I arrived in the Netherlands, I had started planning this epic trip to the UK. I had decided to wait and do it at the end of the semester, as I wanted to spend a large chunk of time over the English Channel in the various countries that make up the United Kingdom. I knew that there were people I wanted to visit while over there, and the trip kept evolving over the course of the semester into a truly amazing trip!

Earlier on in the semester, I had mentioned my plans of going to the U.K. to Mateja and Bali. While Bali did not have the proper visas to visit the U.K., Mateja displayed some interest in going along with me. We had to wait for some exam results, but in April, we confirmed that we would both be going. We contacted my friend, Katie McKinney who had studied abroad at Agnes Scott last year, and arranged to meet up and stay with her in Ireland. Our mutual friend Daniel from Tilburg invited us to visit him and stay with his family in Scotland, as he would be home for the summer at that point. And Bali had a friend, Karu, in London who we also arranged to meet. What a great way to see a place with so many guides!

Hard goodbye to Shaun :(
So on Thursday evening, Mateja and I headed down to the Tilburg West train station to board the Dutch train to Breda, Netherlands, just a twenty minute train ride. We were accompanied to the station by our friends Shaun (S. Africa) and Bali. We would be seeing Bali again upon our return to Tilburg in June, but Shaun was leaving the next day to head back to South Africa for the summer. He was so great and helped us carry our luggage to the train station. We arrived a few minutes before the train and chatted and said our goodbyes. It was really hard saying goodbye to Shaun. He had been such a good friend at Tilburg. If you will remember, he baked me the birthday cake and was always up for going out! He had also lived on Mateja's floor in Verbs 88. It was super hard  for her to say goodbye. Tears rolled down her cheeks as we boarded the train and set off on our adventure.

One (of many) elephant statues
We reached Breda around 9:00PM, as our Eurolines bus was set to leave at 9:40. Bali had told us about the difficulty she had finding  the bus stop in Breda and gave us some instruction, but we still had to walk around for a good half hour and ask for directions twice before we finally found the spot. It was supposed to be an "International Bus Stop". Okay, this thing was not even labeled! There was no signage, nothing! The only reason we found it was because we saw some other people standing on the corner with big backpacks. We joined them and the bus arrived shortly thereafter. The driver (who spoke English this time!) assisted us with our bags and gave us our tickets. We boarded the bus and could tell it had already made several stops, as it was pretty full already! Mateja and I found a seat together and made ourselves comfortable. I was not excited about the prospect of another 10 hours on one of these buses, but it was made better by the fact that our driver was funny and friendly, and he was super helpful!

Shortly after boarding the bus, we stopped at a McDonald's for break. Not really needing a break, as we had literally only been on the bus for about 45 minutes, Mateja and I decided to get of the bus and go inside and chat since we knew we would be on the bus for quite awhile. We got back on the bus after the break ended and attempted to sleep for a bit.

Buckingham Palace
At 1:45AM, we were awakened by the driver as we had reached French and British Customs. We were told to gather our documents, including a Customs declaration form we had to fill out about where we were going in the U.K. and our passports and visas. I had a momentary panic attack, as I thought the driver was saying that I, as an American, would need a visa in order to get into the U.K., but it turned out that my Dutch Residence Permit would suffice. Whew!

We went through customs, and, despite all the hype, it was actually a pretty chill process. The guy asked me where I was headed, when I would return to the Netherlands and when I would return to the United States. He was nice and let me through, no worries!

Double Decker spotting!
After everyone had made it through, we got back on the bus and drove to where the ferry would depart. We were given the chance to use the bathroom before the bus boarded the ferry to be transported across the sea to the U.K. Once the bus was parked (along with tons of other vehicles) on the ferry, we were allowed to get off and find a place on the ship to relax for the 2-hour ride. Although initially perturbed by all of this disturbance in my attempt to sleep, it turned out to be good that we got on the ferry, as Mateja and I were able to get nearly two hours of uninterrupted sleep! We explored the ferry and found two cozy couches next to each other that we camped out on and slept for the whole time.

Our alarms woke us up at 3AM (time-change calculated in) and we got ready to get off the ferry and board the bus again. We were now in the Port of Dover on the coast of England. We got back on the bus and were off the ferry shortly thereafter. The driver was great, pointing out to us some of the features of the city of Dover. It was beginning to get light outside, so we could see the cliffs of Dover and some of the architecture of the buildings. This made the bus trip worthwhile to be able to see all of this.

Westminster
At 5:15AM, we arrived at Victoria Station in London. As we entered the city of London, our driver began too give us some interesting tidbits of information and point out some things. I wish I had captured it on film, because we saw the most amazing view of London, as we crossed one of the many bridges and entered the main part of the city. Our majestic view was composed of the rising sun, Westminster and Big Ben. It was golden and absolutely magnificent. I will never forget this as my first impression of London.

Our tour guide reminded us that we were "Not in Amsterdam anymore" and that "coffee shops here actually sell coffee", before we got off the bus and began our exploration of London. He gave us some instruction on how to get where we needed to be, but we were slightly confused and ended up just sleepily following these other girls from South Africa that had been on the bus with us, hoping that we would find where we needed to be.

London Bridge is....
Victoria Station is a  major hub in London for public transportation. There are a gazillion buses that run through this area (and ten times that many bus stops) plus a giant tube and train station. We managed to get over to the tube station and purchase day passes that allowed us unlimited rides on the buses and tube. We got all our transport for three days for under 20 British Pounds! Although the guy tried to scam us by selling us oyster cards that would end up costing way more. Ha, we beat the system!

Reminder: they drive on the left!
Equipped with our day passes, we boarded bus 52 to take us to our hostel. It was a long ride (or maybe it just seemed that way since we were so tired!), but we made it to the stop and disembarked the bus. Now we just had to follow our walking directions  (that said the hostel was close-by) and we would be there! After guessing which was the correct direction and walking nearly a kilometer (since our directions had lied about the distance!) past a graveyard, we came to the hostel and went inside to check-in. To our amazement, our room was ready for us to go into. Wow, it was not even 8AM! We headed up the three flights of stairs to our 6-bed female room and passed out in our beds for 3 hours! Mateja took the bed by the window, only to find out the view was that of the cemetery the hostel backed up to. We were exhausted from the turbulent bus ride and so thankful for the chance to rest before heading out to enjoy our first full day in London.

Friday, May 28, 2010: London, England

Our primary Tube stop
After our 3-hour nap, Mateja and I awoke, refreshed and ready to explore this massive, historical city. We crossed the road and boarded the tube at the Kensal Green Station (first time tubers!) to Hyde Park, where we arrived in plenty of time to walk around on our own a bit and grab a kopje koffie before beginning the free tour (same as Berlin) at noon.

The tour met near Hyde Park and broke into groups. Patrick, also from Ireland, was our tour guide. We began the walking tour by strolling through Green Park. Patrick shared some very interesting stories with us about everything we saw, including Buckingham Palace. He recalled how some German tourists had unintentionally camped out in the Queen's gardens behind the palace, only to be caught when they asked the guards where they could purchase ice cream! We enjoyed his stories and tidbits as we ambled through the streets of London. At one point near the Palace, I jokingly asked Patrick if there were any garbage cans around, since I was still holding my empty coffee cup. He unexpectedly answered, "no" since they don't want to risk bombs being put in garbage bins so close to the Palace. I was taken aback, and thought it kind of humorous (and had to hold on to my trash for awhile longer!).

Patrick our Irish guide!
Mateja and I enjoyed the tour: seeing the British guards, taking pictures of Big Ben, resting in Trafalgar Square and finally ending up at Westminster. We were still getting used to the fact that everything was written in English and we could understand the people speaking around us. It had been nearly five months since I had been in an English-speaking place, and Mateja had only been in one environment before where English was the prominent language- Monaco.

When the tour ended, we arranged to meet Bali's friend, Karu, in front of Westminster. Mateja and I took a bathroom and photo-taking break before plopping ourselves down on the lawn of Westminster to wait for Karu, as we were exhausted from all our walking! About 4:30pm, Karu met us and we all introduced ourselves. He is studying at London School of Economics for four years and is pretty familiar with the London domain. We were excited to meet him and he was anxious to show us around.

Meeting Karu in London
Perhaps since he knew we were Bali's friends, the first thing Karu did was take us to some of London's premeir shopping: Bond Street. We were a bit overwhelmed by the hectic nature of this busy street and wandered in and out of several shops looking for postcards and souvenirs. Karu pointed us in the direction of Primarck, one of Great Britain's cheapest and largest department stores. Our first encounter here in London with Primarck was so-so. It was unbelievably crowded and rather hot inside. And since we were so tired, we were not really in the mood to push through people or try things on. Not the best first impression of the store, but we would later come to love it!

Loved the architecture!
Karu showed us down another major street where he said there are typically street performers and the like. We warily followed him and took pictures with the red telephone booth we found. At this point, Karu could tell we were pooped! We thanked him for showing us around and arranged to meet up with him the following day (and promised to have more energy!). We waved goodbye and went our separate ways as we boarded the tube and headed back to the hostel.

Its in English!
Although we were super tired, we decided to make the trek back down towards the bus stop (nearly a kilometer!) and down another street to the closest grocery store, Sainsbury's. Mateja and I (the wise travelers that we are) had packed some food from Albert Heijn to take with us to London, since we were told how expensive everything is there. We had brought pasta, sauce, cookies, apples and some other snack items. However, we decided to go to Sainsbury's and pick up a few more things to complement our dinner. We pooled our money (the infamous 'communal pot') and purchased some french bread, a whole roasted chicken, pasta cheese, peppers and some sandwich deli items. We intended to cook dinner for ourselves each night and pack sandwiches for lunch in order to save money. We purchased our items and exited through the back of the store.

Amsterdam-like Canal
Behind the Sainsbury's was a small canal (reminiscent of Amsterdam). We sat on a bench facing the canal and broke into the french bread and chicken we had just purchased. We were famished from not having eaten since the morning, and could not stop talking about how much we were enjoying our current meal!

Our horrible hostel...uggh!
After we had finished our dinner, we packed up and headed back to the hostel. I don't think I mentioned before how crummy this hostel was. At this point, I had stayed in numerous hostels throughout Europe, but this was by far the worst! There were so many things wrong with it, its hard to remember them all! One thing that irked us when we got back for the evening was the lack of internet. We planned to buy a short amount of time just to check our e-mail and let everyone know we were okay. However, the internet decided not to work and we asked for a refund for our money. The woman, who was rather rude, reluctantly gave us our coins back. We put our things away in the communal fridge and headed upstairs for the evening. On the way, we stopped by this guys room on the first floor who rented outlet converters for European/American plugs. Mateja and I both needed this, as we had our phones and Ipods to charge (and I wanted to straighten my hair in the morning!).  We had to pay a 4 GBP deposit, but got the converter, for which we were very thankful.

Back in the room, we were greeted by the obnoxious German woman we had met earlier. Don't get me wrong, she was super nice, but she would not stop talking! Every time we went in the room, she was there and would begin drilling us on how our day was and what we did. At first we found her very annoying, but we later came to see that she just lightened the mood of the whole place. 

We took our showers (in the shower located in the corner of the dorm room itself!) and hit the bed....neither of us had any trouble falling asleep after our long day!

Saturday, May 29, 2010: London, England

We woke up for an early start with breakfast at the hostel. We always tried to choose hostels where breakfast was included, to save the added time and expense. However, we were disappointed with the lack of both nutrition and selection that this breakfast offered. All they had was bland cereal or toast with butter/jam. Not even Nutella! However, we were thankful they had coffee (even if it was instant) and ate our breakfast before heading to the tube station.

Busy Portobello Market
Our first stop for the day was the Notting Hill Portobello Market. Prior to this trip, I had not seen the movie Notting Hill, but I did see it shortly after returning to the States. I must say, it does look like the film! We strolled through the market, wandering in and out of shops and looking at all kinds of things. It was a bit rainy, so we had to keep pulling out and putting away our umbrellas to stay dry. Although I hate rain, I was glad that we got to experience this key feature of London!

Cupcakes!
A ways down the market, we came across a small bakery that Karu had told us about the day before, Hummingbird Cafe. He said it was famous for its yummy cupcakes and always very busy. He was right in both dimensions! We waited in line to try a yummy cupcake, which was okay....very buttery and a bit too sweet for Mateja's liking. But we got to try an English cupcake and were happy to have had the experience.

Outside the KK :)
After we had finished perusing the market, we headed back to the tube station and took the tube to Holborn, where it was still raining. To avoid the crowds and getting drenched, we slipped into the McDonald's across the street and ordered a coffee and ate our packed lunch while waiting for Karu. He met us and we headed out, stopping first at the Krispy Kreme right across the street (which I had amazingly not even seen yet) so that I  could have my long-awaited fill of the sugary goodness. I ordered a maple donut and packed it away in my bag for later.

St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Karu offered to show us around several of the places on our map that we had marked to see while in the city. We walked a short while down to St. Paul's Cathedral and passed by the small campus of LSE. We stopped at the Tate Gallery so that Mateja and I could check it out. Karu had already been before, so he ran back to his student housing quickly to grab a bite of lunch and told us to call him when we were through so that he could meet us again. We walked through the museum and studied the various forms of artwork glistening the walls. It had some very interesting exhibits, indeed!

Harry Potter Bridge, London
All finished, we called Karu and waited outside for him to meet us. His dorm was literally a five minute walk away, just behind the Tate Gallery. He graciously showed us the way to his dorm building so that we could use the internet quickly, as we had told him our tragic story of the night before!

Globe Theatre
After taking care of our online needs, we continued the walking tour with Karu, stopping first at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, right next to the train station. We also took pictures of the Millennium Bridge that crossed the Thames just in front of the Tate Gallery, noting that it was the bridge in the 4th Harry Potter film (when the dementors sweep through London and rattle the bridge...). We proceeded to go all the way down to London Bridge (which was quite decrepit and disappointing) and finally crossed the massive Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge was truly amazing and quite an impressive structure!

Tower Bridge
Across the river, we checked out the Tower of London, although we did not have the chance to go inside (a. it was closed; b. its expensive!). Not quite sure of what to do next, we thanked Karu for his time in showing us around and said goodbye, tentatively arranging to meet up again the following day. Mateja and I hopped on the tube at the nearest tube station and headed for Trafalgar Square to check out bus times for our early morning trek back to Victoria station on Monday morning.

Trafalgar Sq.
We reached Trafalgar and noted the bus timings according to the signs on the actual bus stops. We were going to have to take the night bus in order to catch our Coach from Victoria on time, since the regular buses don't run that early in the morning. We would have to transfer twice, making the fare kind of expensive and the whole thing kind of nerve-racking.

Another Cupcake Shoppe
It was starting to drizzle again, so we took shelter under the terrace roof of a nearby museum to decide what to do next. We decided to ignore the rain and explore the area, as there was supposed to be some decent shopping in the area. Winding through the streets, we found ourselves in the Convent Garden area and found some great entertainment along the way. There was a guy performing magic tricks in front of a rather large crowd, as well as a quartet of violinists playing some pretty music and getting their audience involved. We also enjoyed the shops in the area, including cupcake bakeries and stationary stores. On our way back to the tube station, we encountered a man on a unicycle performing on a raised stage in front of a cheering crowd....craziness!

We headed back to the hostel, again tired from another long day out. Once back, we retrieved our food and rented some pans and dishes to cook supper. We headed up to the third floor and down to the community kitchen. Although the stove burners were not fully functioning and we had to make do with our limited dishware, we managed to cook ourselves a nice warm dinner. We made pasta with a tomato pepper sauce and roasted chicken. And I can't forget Mateja's favorite part- the pasta cheese we sprinkled on top!

Our bellies full from our yummy supper, we took turns showering before heading to bed. Tomorrow would be our last full day in London, so we wanted to be rested to make the most of it!

Sunday, May 30, 2010: London, England

Cemetery View
Nearly a third of the way through our trip, we woke on Sunday morning to see the sun in the sky, shining over the cemetery! We attended breakfast again at the hostel, just appreciating the fact that there was breakfast. We packed our sandwiches for lunch (and received the comment, "what a good idea!" from the German lady) before heading out for another day of roaming around London.

King's Cross St...look familiar?
As it was Sunday and we realized most things would not open until later, we decided to do something that did not require admission or opening hours first. We boarded the tube and headed north to King's Cross Station, yes the same King's Cross as in Harry Potter. We were in pursuit of finding the Platform nine-and-three-quarters, so that we could get our pictures made with said platform. We found it odd that we had to use our tube cards to get into the station, but did so and headed to the area between platforms nine and ten. I had remembered reading somewhere that there was a sign or something denoting the spot where Harry and Ron run into the wall with their loaded trolleys, but when we arrived on the platform, we saw no such thing!

The real deal :)
The first (failed) attempt!
Taking matters into our own hands, we wheeled an unattended trolley over to a blank spot on the wall that resembled the platform from the movie. It was a mediocre location, but we figured it would have to do! We laughed as we looked like such tourists (idiots, really) taking pictures of each other pretending to run into the brick wall. Laughing at ourselves, we exited the station and some troubles getting out with our cards. The gaurd came over to let us out and out of nowhere asked us, "Are you looking for platform nine-and-three-quarters?" (in a British accent of course!), to which we answered 'yes'. He pointed us in another direction, and low and behold, there it was! In fact, there was a sign that stated the name of the platform, and even half of a fake trolley sticking out of the brick wall. In true British fashion, we queued up to take our very own pictures with the famous wizard landmark. Finally, success!

Enjoying Camden
Camden Market
Feeling like idiots from our picture-taking mistake, we again boarded the tube and headed down to the Camden Town Market. This was another market that is renowned in London for its diverse selection of items. We enjoyed walking through and seeing so many interesting things! We bought some small souvenirs and looped our way around through the entire market. As we finished our shopping, we took a short snack break at Starbucks, where we each purchased a coffee and split a muffin. I had a minor issue when paying for the items, as I was confused between the two pence and the two pound coins...let's just say I way underpaid and was asked for four more pounds! We were disappointed to find out that they did not have a restroom for customers, so that became our next agenda item, as we both had to go!

Regent's Park
Without Bali to guide us and read the map, we had to use our own map reading skills to find our next place of interest, Regent's Park. We were told to visit the magnificent parks in London, and thought this one would be lovely on such a beautiful, sunny day! After finding a toilet that we could use for free (and not the kiddie one we initially tried to go into), we sat for a bit on a bench and enjoyed the loveliness of the park.

At Harrods
We navigated our way back out of the park and found ourselves a tube station and headed to Knightsbridge. This is another shopping and museum district (a.k.a. tourist haven!). Our first stop was Harrods, the famous London department store that is like ten times bigger than anything you have ever seen. I felt like we were shopping in a mansion, as each spacious room had its own theme and sold incredibly expensive perfume, jewelry, purses and the like. Mateja and I were not planning on actually buying anything, but just enjoyed the museum-esque vibe we got from this store. We proceeded up its multiple stories and saw toys, shoes and clothes galore! There seemed to be no end!

Nap time in the courtyard
Back outside the store, we chose a shady bench and enjoyed our packed lunch with pigeons begging for our crumbs at our feet. That is one thing I do not miss about Europe, the pesky pigeons! They were always everywhere! After finishing our sandwiches (and shooing away multiple birds), we headed down the street to an area containing some of the major museums in London. We found our way into the Victoria and Albert Museum which we explored for a bit before taking a break in the sunny courtyard surrounded by the museum's facade. Many other people had the same idea, and I people watched as Mateja closed her eyes for a short nap.

Goofing off in the gift shop
After our rest, we went through a bit more of the museum before heading over to the Natural History museum next door. Here, we found a more interactive place that we enjoyed roaming and exploring. We learned quite a bit and enjoyed perusing the gift shop before hitting the streets again. We walked down a set of stairs into the tube station outside and hopped on the tube to Victoria Station. Our mission was to figure out where our bus would be picking us up the following morning to take us to Stansted airport. After some dispute and lots of walking, we found the Coach office and asked them for more specifics about our departure location. They were helpful and told us precisely where to go. Feeling better about our early morning trek the following day, we began walking back to the tube station, stopping at Governor's Park for a short break. We were told the park was closing shortly after we sat down, so we picked up and headed back to the tube station.

Not even close!
In an attempt to photograph that magnificent view I mentioned earlier of our arrival in London, Mateja and I took the tube to Westminster, where we walked to a nearby bridge to take pictures. While I could not capture the exact view I remember from the previous day, we did get some nice pictures of the London backdrop (despite the sun plopping itself in an annoying spot).

We boarded the tube one last time, heading back to the hostel for the evening. We rented our pots and pans again and cooked another meal for ourselves in the third floor kitchen. We had another yummy meal before heading back to the room where we got our things in order for the next day. We would be leaving shortly before 4AM to catch a bus to Victoria Station. Thankfully, we had figured out a way that we could only take one bus (located close to the hostel) that would take us straight to Victoria so we would not have to switch. This not only would save us time, but money as well, as each ride was two pounds!

One final funny memory from London was that of this other girl who was also studying in the Netherlands (in Leiden) who was staying in our hostel dorm room. She kept the oddest hours, going out at all hours of the morning and sleeping during the day. We couldn't quite figure her out! Anyways, when we had come back in this evening to the room to get our things to make supper, she was sleeping on the top bunk of her bed and snapped at Mateja and I for "making too much noise". We were just trying to get our things and were hardly making any noise, and it was 7 o'clock at night! Give me a break! She complained that she could not sleep and asked us to be more quiet. We promptly left, fuming about this girl who thought she had the right to have 24/7 quiet in a hostel, puh-lease!

Long story short, we got back to the room later and were getting ready for bed when we noticed the girl's cell phone alarm was going off. We weren't sure what to do (whether or not to wake her) and the thing kept going off every five minutes. Mateja attempted to turn it off several times, with no luck. She finally tried waking the girl up, but she would not wake. So we left it and managed to get the thing to stop beeping after awhile. We went to bed and thought no more of it.

Well, I was having some trouble sleeping, so decided to write some things down in my journal. All of a sudden, I hear the girl startle in her bed just across the room. She sat up and clicked on her phone to see the time. Suddenly, she starting scrambling out of bed and digging through her suitcase. Upon finding her clothes, she went down to the communal bathroom to change. During this time, the German woman had woken up. I was pretending to be asleep so that she would not talk to me, but I watched her stand up and get out of bed. She walked over to the room door, which opened as the other girl was coming back in. The German woman lifted both of her arms above her head and said "Boo!", in an attempt to scare the girl. The girl just ignored her and pushed her way into the room, gathered her things and left. Okay, this does not sound so funny, but at the time, I was cracking up in my mind! I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud! I looked over to see if Mateja was awake so we could laugh about this together after both had left the room, but unfortunately, she was fast asleep. Just one of those random funny memories!

A memorable view of London
Reflecting on our time in London, I realized we saw and did a lot! I was surprised at how dirty London was, although you really could not tell until you blew your nose and what came out was black. While this massive metropolis was not my favorite place that we visited in all our travels, I did enjoy seeing and experiencing London, after hearing so much about this place. I would love to go back another time and do some of the things that we either did not have time for or did not want to pay for. I also think it would be great to travel to some other places in England, as there is far more to see in the country besides London City. I would love to see some of the countryside and more of the seaside, and also go up north a bit. One day!