When in Rome Part 2

Views from the Spanish Steps in Rome:

When in Rome

The Colosseum

Arch of Constantine

Another impressive Italian Piazza

The Pantheon (very impressive)

Trevi Fountain

Back home

So, I'm now back in the U.S., after what seems like an endless amount of time travelling. On my last morning in London, I was woken up by the piercing sound of the fire alarm. I then proceeded to take my two massive suitcases down four flights of stairs. Then, I got on the bus to Heathrow airport, where I then checked into my flight, went through security and spent the next two and half hours killing time before my nine hour flight back to Chicago O'Hare airport. The flight didn't seem as long as the flight over to London. That's in part to good movies- like Marley and Me and Yes Man. Once I got to O'Hare, I had to go through customs, and re-check my bags (Yes- for anyone flying internationally, you have to pick up your bags and recheck them in the U.S). I then found out that there were a huge flight delays. According to an United airline flight attendant, these delays were due to weather. There wasn't any bad weather- it was just a little bit of rain. So, if a little bit of rain can significanly delay that many flights, I would HATE to fly out of O-Hare in a snowstorm. But after four gate changes (yes, that right) and a 2 hour and 15 minute delay, I finally got on to my plane to Orlando. So, now I'm back home in sunny Florida and missing London and all of its AMAZINGNESS greatly.

This experience has been truly life-changing and one that I will never forget. Here's a list of the 25 things that I will miss most about London.

1. MSN UK (my internship)
2. London Underground (the tube)
3. Regents Park
4. the Natural History Museum
5. Covent Garden
6. Piccadilly Circus
7. Indian food
8. fresh and cheap baguettes
9. Sainsbury's
10. the enormous pub culture
11. V&A museum
12. Westfield Mall
13. Thames River
14. Portobello Road/Markets
15. fish and chips
16. Brighton
17. Living in an international city
18. British accents (enough said?)
19. Imperial College
20. Science museum
21. Kensington Gardens
22. Trafalgar Square
23. Houses of Parliament
24. Oxford Circus
25. and so much more!!

Final days in London

"Mind the Gap" sign in the London Underground

Westminster tube stop (where the Houses of Parliament are and Big Ben)

Living in the moment

So sadly, this is my last week in London. I am truly living in the moment and trying to do everything that I want before I go back to the U.S. Here are some more London pictures. These pictures are from Camden Markets and the infamous Tower of London. Cheers!


Camden Markets

Camden Markets

Canal in Camden

Tower of London

Tower of London

More Fun in London

So today, I took advantage of another sunny London day and walked along Festival Pier on the Thames River, which is by the Waterloo tube stop. I found some guys making amazing sand sculptures along the pier. I wanted to share some of the pictures. Enjoy!


Dragonfly

Buddha

An insect

Awesome Sand Couch

A lizard

Fun in the Sun pictures

Pictures from Brighton

Brighton Pier in the distance

A sailboat in the ocean

The Beach

Royal Pavilion (King George's seaside retreat)

Brighton Dome

A day in Brighton

Yesterday, I took advantage of my day off from work and went down to Brighton, a cute seaside town. The train ride to Brighton was fairly short- only an hour. When I got there, I immediately went to Brighton's must-see attraction- The Royal Pavilion. This palace, which was owned by King George, was spectacular. The Royal Pavilion was located next to this open grassy courtyard. It was surrounded by the Brighton Art Museum, The Brighton Dome and some quaint historic theaters. All of which were gorgeous. After exploring there, I walked down to the coast and Brighton Pier. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous, sunny and fairly warm for London standards that is. So, I explored the coast and found a place to sit on the beach to soak up the rays. Unlike Florida sandy beaches, the entire beach was full of pebbles not sand. I was surprised by how many pebbles there were. According to the Brighton city guide, there are something like 500 billion pebbles along the coast. That's a serious amount of pebbles! It was surprisingly comfortable with the added plus that you didn't have to worry about getting sand in your face and hair.

After eating lunch, I walked down the boardwalk and found a bunch of jewelry, antique and clothing booths. Then, I walked the other way to the famous Brighton Pier. That was pretty awesome. It had video games, a gambling casino, thrill rides, carnival games, and every sort of junk food that you can imagine. Since I had just eaten lunch, I decided to skip the "throw-up rides." Some of the rides looked WICKED! But, I did try the famous Brighton candy- called Brighton Rock. It's basically a really sugary hard candy stick (resembling a peppermint stick but with different flavors).

Then walking back to the train stattion, I explored more of the town. It had a really Bohemian and beachy feel. Some of the stores were pretty neat, including a couple of bookstores that sold old-fashioned books. So, that was my amazing day in Brighton!

Sadly, I only have 11 more days in London before going back to the U.S. More to come on my last few days here! Cheers!

Paris Adventures Part 3

My final day:

Sadly, I only had a few hours left in Paris. So, my day began with taking the Metro to Bastille. I saw the huge Bastille monument. Then, I discovered a really neat Sunday farmer's market. It was really cool since it wasn't as touristy. So, I got a small taste of Paris daily life. After that, I went off and further explored the area around Avenue de Champs Elysees and the Arc. Besides window shopping, I took the underground tunnel into the Arc. You can climb up the 250 plus stairs to the top of the Arc, but sadly I didn't have enough time. After that, I wandered by the finish line of the Paris Marathon. It was interesting to watch the exhausted runners go through the finish line. After that, we went back to our hostel to pick up our luggage that we stored there. Then, we took the long metro ride back to the Charles de Gaulle airport, and got on a plane back to London.

Paris Adventures Part 2

Saturday: Day 2

Well, it was another busy, fun and long day exploring Paris. My day began with taking the metro to the Opera house and Gallery Lafayette. The opera house was beautiful. Gallery Lafayette was cool too, It reminded me a little bit of Harrods. It was basically a giant, expensive department store with a bunch of smaller boutique shops inside. It had all the famous fashion designers, such as Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton, etc. After that, I wanted to go back and further explore the Latin Quarter and look for some Paris souvenirs. Then, we decided to walk from The Latin Quarter all the way to the Eiffel Tower for a night river cruise on the Seine. Needless to say, this probably wasn't our smartest idea. It's easy to get there since you just follow the Seine. But on the other hand, it is very FAR. It was an hour and half walk at a normal pace. The weather was gorgeous, and unusually warm. It was great to take in the river. But, I would recommend taking the Metro since it's really far. The one hour guided river cruise on the Seine was worth every penny. It cost 10 euros, by the way. That was fairly cheap considering that Paris is the most expensive city in Europe. We took the tour at dusk so that we could see "The City of Lights." What can I say, it was AWESOME!

Paris Adventures Part 1

Friday: Day 1

So, I went to Paris this weekend. It was AMAZING. My friend and I arrived late Thursday evening. So, we didn't have time to start sightseeing until early Friday morning.

Needless to say on Friday morning, we woke up super early to head to the Eiffel Tower. Obviously, this is a must-see attraction. We took a long "lift" ride to the top, which stopped at the 2nd and 3rd level. For the best pictures, take them on the 2nd level not the top level. It sounds strange, but trust me on this one. After the Eiffel Tower, I took the metro to the Latin Quarter. I walked past St. Michel's Fountain, a bunch of markets, and Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral was free and super neat. Another must-see. After a few hours and a quick lunch, we wound up at Avenue de Champs Elysees. The Avenue de Champs Elysees is the famous and very expensive shopping street. It's where the original Louis Vuitton department store is. That store is amazing, and just a little intimidating considering some of the merchandise in the store is literally worth a large fortune. As you can imagine, there are store salespeople and security guards everywhere. After exploring about half of Champs Elysees, we walked near the Arc de Tromphe, the famous and gigantic arch. Finally, I took the Metro to the Musee de Louvre. It's really nice since every Friday night after 6 p.m. the Louvre is free to students. I saw the original Mona Lisa painting, which was amazing but a lot smaller than I expected.

An American in Paris Part 3

Highlights from Sunday April 5th

Inscriptions in the Arc

the Arc (from Avenue de Champs)

A fountain at the beginning of Avenue de Champs

The Bastille Monument

The original Louis Vuitton Store

An American in Paris Part 2

Highlights from Saturday April 4th

French National Assembly (a.k.a Parliament)

The Latin Quarter

The Seine River (which runs through the city of Paris)

An advertisment for Confessions of a Shopaholic at Gallery Lafayette

Gallery Lafayette

An American in Paris

Highlights From Friday April 3rd

Mona Lisa in the Louvre

The Louvre

The Eiffel Tower

Charlemagne's statue outside Notre Dame

Notre Dame Cathedral

Spring in London

On Wednesday, I went to the Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice for our weekly field trip. It was really neat particuarly since we got to sit it on an actual court case. The English legal system dates back to the medieval times. It's incredible to think that some of the established traditions and legal procedures still remain today. For instance, the barristers, specialized attorneys, wear traditional long black robes and powdered horsetail wigs while in the courtroom.

It was back to work at my internship on Thursday. That was good. Then since I'm a devoted Mizzou tiger fan, I watched the Suite Sixteen game against Memphis at 1:30a.m. We won!! So, it was definitely worth being a little tired at work on Friday.

Yesterday, I finally went to the Imperial War Museum. The museum details the history of Britain's war involvement since World War I. The exhibits, particuarly the interactive exhibits, were fascinating. Two must-see exhibits are the WWI trench experience and the WWII Blitz Experience. After spending some time in the museum, I went back to my favorite part of London- Covent Garden. I wandered around there for awhile. Afterwards, I watched the Elite 8 game on my laptop. Sadly, UConn beat Mizzou. But, Mizzou actually made it to the Elite 8, and that's a big accomplishment considering how bad they were just last year.

Today, I walked around Westminister and Embankment Pier. I walked across the Millenium and Westminister bridges. I also saw a bunch of neat street performers and accidentally found a big video arcade. It was right near the London Aquarium and the London Eye- so big surprise in an area with lots of kids' activities, that there would be a video arcade, right? But, that was cool. So now, I have to work on a paper for my journalism class. Cheers!

Another amazing weekend

So, last Saturday I took a 2 hour train ride down to Cardiff. It was super cool! First, I went to Cardiff Castle, the one must-see attraction in Cardiff. Then, I took advantage of the beautiful Spring weather and walked around a pretty park near the castle. Afterwards, I spent my day walking around Cardiff and exploring the bustling shopping scene. They have my two new favorite stores- Top Shop and H&M. So of course, I spent probably too much money shopping. I also went on an unusually crazy day since there was a big Rugby game at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Specifically, it was the Six Nations Championship game and Wales played Ireland. I actually saw the Ireland rugby team get off the bus at the stadium- which was amazing.

After my eventful day in Cardiff, I spent my Sunday exploring Regent Park. Regent Park was really pretty and spacious. It had all these quaint little cafes, pretty gardens, small rock waterfalls, duck ponds, football fields (a.k.a soccer fields) etc. Sunday was also Mother's day in the U.K, ironically enough. After Regent Park, I FINALLY went and saw Confessions of a Shopalcholic. It was amazing. More to come later. Cheers.

Pictures from Cardiff (in Wales)

Cardiff Central Station: The sign is in Welsh and English- pretty cool, right?

Millenium Stadium

A Street-Performer in Cardiff City Centre

-A river in Cardiff's Bute Park

Cardiff Castle