LONDON

Getting back on a Monday and leaving on a Wednesday was not easy this week. With only one full day in between trips, we went to our classes, responded to a few emails and re-packed just in time to make our 7:30 night flight to London! Upon arrival, Bonnie and I walked to our hostel, “Hyde Park Hostel.” While the name makes it sound like a pleasant place to sleep for the night, don’t be fooled! We walked into our 15 roommate room and were greeted with a blend of ages and genders, some conscious, and some unconscious, none speaking. We tried our best not to laugh, set down our things and quickly left for dinner! We got in late and got up early, spending minimal time there. (That’s what 7 pounds gets you). Although the hostel was sub-par, the location was ideal. Right across the street was Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We spent the morning roaming around the gardens, sitting by a pond with some swans, and visiting Peter Pan. By noon we headed to the outskirts of London to meet our friends who had a later flight. And by outskirts I mean the London projects. In short…it was an experience!

I won’t bore you with all the sites we saw…we hit all the typical tourist hot spots that one sees when they go to London. It was grand, yes, but it wasn’t the high point of our trip by far. My favorite things we did began on Friday night, when we all went to see the Lion King on Broadway! Thanks to Erin we had floor seats that were in the center of the audience. The show exceeded my expectations. The movements of the actors, the costumes, the overwhelming backgrounds and props, the color, the songs and voices…it was remarkable to be honest. I would be happy and lucky to be able to see it again. The next day, Erin’s dream to ride a double-decker bus came true! While she and three others explored London on wheels, Leah, Bonnie and I left the projects and headed to the city on foot. The first thing we saw was Buckingham Palace. We only stayed there a few minutes, and headed towards the London Eye. On the way there we stopped to take a few pictures and mock the guards (like in the movies) who were “defending” some building. It looked like a telephone booth, but I’m sure it was important. As we were leaving--we ran into the infantry performing the famous “Changing of the Guards” ceremony. This wasn’t supposed to happen on the main street for another half hour, so this was a definite surprise for us! It also made it a lot more exciting to watch since it wasn’t planned and being literally an arms length away from them! On the way to Westminster’s Abbey, again, we stumbled upon something we weren’t expecting. Right behind Parliament a British “Freedom Rally” was being held. There were probably 50 to 100 tents put up, tons of banners, and signs with typical political sayings and phrases. After talking to a few people we found out that this rally had been going since May 1st, and this coming Thursday they were being taken to court by the mayor of London in effort to make them move location. Now I know that political rallies happen everywhere, and though I’m trying not to get caught up in thinking this was neat, merely because I was in London… it really was. We talked to a few guys in charge of the rally, and the first thing they asked us was our views on our government, the war, and Obama. Shamefully, none of us could form a good answer or opinion. They knew a great deal more about what was going on in the states than we did, and were clearly more “concerned citizens” than we were.

That night we met up with our double-decker friends at the Texas Embassy! This is a Tex-Mex restaurant with everything Texas imaginable. Upstairs there were even banners of universities from Texas, Baylor included! It was a great taste of what we were missing at home, especially since the 4th of July was so near. During dinner, we watched the U.S. soccer team lose to Ghana in overtime, but our spirits were too high to care. (Holland is picked to win anyway!)

The following day (Sunday), was our last day in London and Blake, Bonnie and I were lucky enough to spend it in Hyde Park with Paul McCartney! This was by far the most exciting part of our entire trip and completely worth the sunburn and overpriced food and drinks. We had been anticipating this for awhile. We planned our trip around this concert. In fact we didn’t even have a place to sleep until the day before we left, but had these concert tickets since March! We arrived at 2p.m. and left at 11p.m. Joshua Radin, The Alternatives, Elvis Costello and a few more opened for Paul. This was a huge surprise since we thought we only had tickets to see Paul, but instead got a full day of entertainment. He deserves an entire page of me doting over him, but it still wouldn’t put in perspective how happy we were to be there. Out of the thousands of fans that attended, we managed to push our way up to the 8th row, centered with the stage. He played all the favorites, told us stories about Lennon, and kept us smiling for over three hours without taking one break. It was amazing to see the range of demographics the Beatles appeal to. Just in front of us was a gay couple from Brazil. In the back of us was an old man with his shirt off wearing high socks and a diaper from London. All around us there were kids, families, couples, friends, and singles singing and dancing along. Just three days before the concert we went to visit Abbey Road to recapture the “walk” that has been printed on t-shirts, posters, mouse pads, and key chains. Sunday brought that to life for us.

London thoughts: Expensive, grand, over-populated, green, lively. Great!

Vienna and Budapest!

As mentioned in my previous post, we decided to book a "blind flight" last weekend. Wednesday night we headed to Cologne, Germany by train and spent the night in the train station to wait for our train to the airport at 4:21a.m. We arrived in Vienna groggy and tired, found our hostel, grabbed lunch, wandered around for awhile and called it an early night. The next morning, we got up early and headed to the city for a tour of the Hofburg House. This is overrated in my opinion...the entire first floor is comprised of dishes and linens. (I'm supposed to write a paper about this somehow). My impression of Vienna is sub-par. It's somehow dreary, smells bad, and yet it's elegant. All to say, I'm glad we had the chance to go, but this wasn't the highlight of our trip and probably not somewhere I need to go back and see. That afternoon was fairly drizzly so we found a place to have something to drink and watched the U.S. soccer game! We stood out like sore-thumbs, it was very American.

That night was possibly the highlight of Vienna for me, we found Mexican food! They nickel and dimed us for each tortilla and each round of 10 chips, but it was worth it!

The next morning we headed to Budapest!! We arrived around 1 and were immediately welcomed by money-hungry Hungarians. In Hungary's defense, the train station where we got off is in one of the worst parts of town. The first thing on our agenda was the find an ATM. We were warned that the currency rate is modestly different than the euro, but as we pulled out 10,000, 15,000, and 20,000 Forints at a time, we felt rich. Holding a 10,000 bill in any form is a strange feeling. By the way--10,000 Forints is roughly 40 euro.

Next on our list, was to find our hostel, also known as "The Goat Hostel." This sounded sketchy from the beginning, but it was 13 euro or 3,260 Forints, and we couldn't pass it up. Looking for a large sign with a goat on it, we must have passed our future home 3 or 4 times before realizing that their form of advertising consists of a tiny plaque on the side of a building, plainly written in small font, "The Goat Hostel." We hesitantly walked through the door into a dark room, marched up a spiral staircase which led us to a balcony and rang the door bell. We all exchanged worried looks until Avey, the owner, opened the door. She said, "Oh, the five Americans are here, come in, come in!" This wasn’t a typical hostel. It was an apartment with 3 private rooms, a cute kitchen, and a lounge/computer area overlooking the city. Sighs of relief came from all of us.

We quickly put our things away and headed out the door, across the balcony, down the stairs, into the dark room and out the other door to go explore. We only had 24 hours here so we had to make the most it. This place was surprisingly beautiful! Everything about Budapest appealed to us. There was so much character to the city, it was populated but not too loud, it was sunny but not too hot. We stumbled upon a wedding reception outside of a Cathedral, then headed to see Parliament and the Opera. In search of finding the Budapest Castle to watch the sunset, we managed to take a wrong turn and ran into live music. We took a seat in the grass, and from what we could manage to understand, this was a Hungarian/American Christian concert. Although this wasn't what we were expecting, it was really neat to find that across the world, in what is considered a rather dark place for religion, it was vibrantly being expressed.

We headed to Fisherman's Bastion, a medieval looking castle on the hill to find a bakery known for their chocolate cake, and to look out over the city skyline. This is probably what won us all over. We sat there awhile looking out over the city, happy. We were determined to find this underground bar that a friend from home who had just returned from Budapest after living there all semester had suggested. Thanks to Sam's iphone, we managed to. This again, was awesome! We didn't stay there long, but Traci bought us a round of Hungarian shots (which tasted like petroleum), in celebration for my birthday. Although we were exhausted we had one last thing on our list to do--The Hot Spring Baths! These are therapeutic baths with various temperatures that were built by the Romans years ago. It is said that Napoleon actually went to the same baths we were at in his time. It was a perfect ending to the night...despite the fat men and the owner who stole our locker key and tried to make us pay for it.

Our flight left Sunday night at 8:50 and landed in Cologne 10 minutes shy of catching the last train home. So…back to the Cologne train station where we spent the night with bums on the floor! We caught the 5:15 a.m. train, and arrived at 7:45 in Maastricht just in time to walk to breakfast and greet everyone. Great trip!

Tonight, Bonnie and I fly to London and the other five girls will meet us there tomorrow after class! Our plans for London include so far: Horseback riding, a tour on a double-decker bus (Erin's dream), Lion King, and a Paul McCartney concert in Hyde Park!

Cheers.

THE CUP!

Upon deciding to stay in Maastricht last weekend, the World Cup games began in full swing! We went to a popular pub in town, “The Highlander” to watch the United States vs. England game on Saturday. We were all decked out in our best American apparel and rallied back in forth with the rowdy England fans all night. Luckily, we tied!


The following Monday afternoon, we revisited our favorite pub, this time in bright orange to cheer for Holland! We won! The spirit for the games here is incomparable. It's going to be a fun summer.

This week, with no plans in mind we decided to book a blind flight. Five of our friends were unlucky, and their flight leaves tomorrow from Cologne, Germany to Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig is known for their gay bars, and zoo. As for the rest of us, we are headed to Vienna, Austria for the weekend! We also have hopes to visit Budapest for the day...one more thing to mark off our list! Until then...

GROUP TRIP

I'm taking the easy way out this week and posting our abbreviated itinerary for the group trip we took last week. We embarked on our 5 day trip at 8 a.m. in Maastricht on Thursday, and returned home at 7:30 p.m. the following Monday 8 countries richer.

Group Trip Itinerary:
Thursday, June 3
Day 1
Maastricht to Boppard (127 miles)
Boppard to Würzburg (148 miles)
Würzburg to Rothenburg (41 miles)

Friday, June 4
Day 2
Rothenburg to Hohenschwangau (157 miles)
Hohenschwangau to Ettal (31 miles)
Ettal to Bregenz (91 miles)

Saturday, June 5
Day 3
Bregenz to Vitznau (134 miles)
Vitznau to Montreux (161 miles)

Sunday, June 6
Day 4
Montreux to Chillon (2 miles)
Vevey to Schaffhausen (156 miles)
Schaffhausen to Freiburg (58 miles)

Monday, June 7
Day 5
Freiburg to Verdun (202 miles)
Verdun to Bastogne (76 miles)
Bastogne to Maastricht (74 miles)

IRELAND!

It's true, Ireland really is the friendliest place on Earth. Let’s back up though…

Since our flight out of Brussels was at 7 on Wednesday morning--Bonnie and I had the bright idea to motivate our group to sleep in the Brussels airport to save money on a hostel, and for fun!? However, upon arrival in Brussels we found ourselves stranded at 1 a.m. in the train station, unsure of what to do and quickly walked (sprinted) with our backpacks on to the nearest safe haven. Fortunately, the place we walked into happened to be a nice hotel with an even nicer hotel front desk manager. We are blessed to say the least; he let all six of us stay in the lobby until our bus arrived to the airport at 4:30 a.m.

As soon as we walked outside of the Dublin Airport we were greeted by natives and the bus conductor (probably because we looked like lost tourists). We spent the first day walking around Dublin, say and people watched in two lovely parks, visited Trinity University. Our original goal for the day, well Erin's goal was to find the Dublin Castle--which ended up being quite a disappointment actually. Day 2 consisted of us being on a 14 hour day tour to see the Cliffs of Moher...which were not at all a disappointment! We literally drove across Ireland (east to west) that day. That night we explored the night life of Dublin. Temple Bar is what we were told was the cultural spot to go for locals, so naturally...we went. We each had a Guinness, (when in Ireland, right?). By the way…it’s a waste of 5 euro. Traci liked it though, and helped finish all of ours.

Waking up to no plans in mind on Friday morning except to find a B&B, we hopped on a bus and headed to a town we had never heard of called--Enniskerry. Heard of it? Yeah, we hadn't either, but to our delightful surprise this little town was a dream. Enniskerry consists of 1 pub, 2 restaurants, 1 ice cream shop and 1 pub/restaurant combination...in short, we were happy. This was the typical Ireland we had all been picturing in movies. Our dream came true, we stayed in the Ferndale B&B, the most precious and comfortable place to spend the night. We woke up the next morning to breakfast made for us, coffee, tea and cookies on our way out. A 10 minute walk North to the Enniskerry Golf Club we spent the day surrounded by the most beautiful landscape imaginable—The Powerscourt Gardens! (We ended up going back again the next day). We went to Nancy Murphy’s for dinner that night to watch the Ireland soccer match. We made friends with some older folks, and they informed us that “kids our age should be in Bray for a good time.” A three mile bus ride later, with again, not a clue to as where we were headed and what we were going to do once we arrived, we were in the middle of nowhere. Literally, all to be seen was a taxi service and an ATM machine. Luckily we met a few Bray locals that were headed to the same bar we were. A few dark alleys and a right turn later we were at the Bray Harbor Bar and listening to live music with our new friends. The singer happened to be the brother of one of guys we met. This should give you an idea of how small this town is…everyone in this bar was related or grew up with each other, and they more than made sure we felt welcomed! Best night by far.

Sad to say, we dreaded returning to Dublin. It was so much louder, dirtier, over-populated than our new favorite towns—Enniskerry and Bray. The following morning, while Leah, Erin, Traci and Kaitlin had an early flight home to make it in time for the first day of class; Bonnie and I had an extra day to spend in Ireland. We successfully wasted an entire day laying in the Trinity park reading, listening to music and watching a game of cricket.

We were feeling that luck was on our side this time around and decided to give sleeping in the airport another try. And this time…it happened! I can’t say that we slept well or really saved money since we spent close to 20 euro on airport food and drink, but it was a memory for a few reasons. On the bus to the airport we met a 26 year old girl from London who was in Dublin for a few days to visit friends. She was by far the most fascinating person we met all trip and had many stories to share. We were sad to see her leave, but were all smiles to have met someone so interesting when we thought our trip in Ireland couldn’t get any better.

Classes were in full swing once we arrived in Maastricht on Monday afternoon. We leave early again tomorrow on a group trip to get a taste of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. How we are supposed to do this in five days is a mystery to me. Stay tuned!