Sorrento/Capri

Okay, LONG overdue, but give me a break.

So the weekend of November 13, 14 and 15th Parisa and I went to Sorrento.
It was really fun!
We took a train about mid-day and had to switch trains a couple times, but we finally got there and grabbed a taxi to get to our hotel.
The taxi driver was really nice, but seemed really confused as to why we were going to the hotel we were (it was allll the way up on a hill on the outskirts of town)
We told him it was fine, it was a cheap hotel because it was off-season and that’s where we wanted to stay.
He then warned us like three more times that it was going to be an expensive cab ride, but we needed to get there regardless.

So he took us up this huuuge, winding hill. There were so many hairpin turns, and, of course, true to European driving style, he was going like 9,000 miles an hour. He reassured us by saying that he lived up in this area so he drove this every day.
Anyways, finally we got to the hotel, only to find it was closed for the season…
Wait a second. We had fully booked it.
Our nice driver got out and looked at the notice and told us to call the number on the paper posted to the door.
We called the number and found out that since our original hotel was closed for the season we were being moved (free of charge – minus the heinous cab charge).
So we went halfway back down the mountain and to our new hotel.
Our cab driver also cut like ten bucks off of our fare (he was the best!)

And our hotel was legit!
It was sooo nice.
By the time we got there it was pretty late so we just went to bed.

The view from our hotel.

The next day we went to catch a ferry to Capri and see the Blue Grotto.
It was pretty neat, the ferry ride was about 30 minutes.
Once we got to Capri it was about lunch time, so, of course, everything was closed.
We also found out that the Blue Grotto was closed for the season. Lame!
So we walked around Capri.. a lot.
And then eventually took a bus up to the blue grotto, but could only see a little bit of it because the boat tours were closed.
Also, there were SOOOO many cats!
They were EVERYWHERE!!!

Capri.

Blue Grotto.

Cat.

Another cat.

After that we went back to Sorrento and met up with Bryn for drinks.
It was really pretty at night because all the Christmas lights and decorations were up and the close off the main street for people to walk.
So we went out to dinner and then a pub, which was really neat.
The bartender at the pub was really friendly and let us go behind the counter and pour our own drinks. Hahaha. I think he was probably drunk, but oh well, he was funny.

Pouring my drink.

Me and Gino, the super rad bartender.

After that we caught the last shuttle back to our hotel and crashed out.
The next morning we had breakfast and then got back on the train to Florence.
And actually, the second train ride was much longer. We were on a really really sketchy train (duh, down in Souther Italy.. mafia country..) that was packed.
We were standing in between train cars because there was no room.
Nuts!
Anyways, we got back to Florence safe and sound.

Us outside our hotel in Sorrento.

Finals

Finals are kicking my butt.
Actually, procrastination is kicking my butt.

I’m a certified pro at procrastinating.
Really, ask anyone.
I will do anything to distract myself from studying.
My current distraction is Yogurt/Nutella gelato and www.tuckermax.com (if you’re sensitive, don’t go there – it’s vulgar).

Anyways, studying always amazes me because sometimes I really learn more studying than I did in my actual lessons.
Mostly for my History of Modern Italy class, that professor has absolutely no structure to his lessons, so studying is tricky.
Even my notes echo my confusion:
“d. ***SEE HANDOUT***
e. I don’t even know what’s going on right now, wtf.
f. Aldo Moro represented the father of the Italian republic”
But, if I actually do study it’s usually helpful (his midterm I got 98/100 – fridge worthy).

Currently I’m reading about the 1961 elections and the “opening to the Left”.
Blah blah blah, meaning that the Christian Democrats couldn’t hold the whole government hostage anymore because they were forced to add members of the Socialist party.
Boring, I know.

But, on a more interesting note:
Luther (you know, Protestant reformation, 95 thesis, la la la) had a close shave with a lightning bolt, which caused him to join a monastery.
And Zwingli (again, Protestant reformation) drown (drowned?) heretics (in his eyes it was Jews, sorry Seth Rogan and Zac Efron ((Jewish heritage, close enough))) in the Lake of Zurich.

A bit more interesting I guess?
Back to studying.
Keep checking back, I’ll try to get updates from SWITZERLAND up!
Also, to keep you interested, here’s a picture from the German Christmas Market thats set up in Piazza Santa Croce.
They have brauts and beer and Christmas ornaments and mulled wine and lots of other cool stuff.

**UPDATE**
I pretty much have aced all my finals so far.
The end.

Milano

Erin and I took what was supposed to be a day trip to Milan the weekend after Fall Break. (Nov. 6&7)
I say it was supposed to be a day trip because it ended up being a two day trip.
Which was fine.

We were supposed to go with Parisa and Bryn fairly early Friday morning because it’s a three and a half hour train ride..
But Parisa and Bryn were still sleeping, so, we left without them.

It was a fairly uneventful train ride, except that the Italian girl sitting across from me kept talking to me and I didn’t understand.
But apparently whatever she said was funny, because laughing got me by.

While we were on the train Bryn called and said she was going to book us a hotel for the night and then meet us in Milan.
Sweet.

Erin and I got to Milan and then took a pretty expensive taxi ride over to the outskirts of the city to the Apple Store.
My computer was broken and Italy only has two Apple Stores: Milan and Rome.
Once we were there we got my computer fixed (yaaay for Genius Bar nerds!) and shopped at the mall a bit before heading back.
The only problem was that we were in the middle of nowhere.
We ended up finding a bus stop and some nice, yet very very creepy man told us how to get to the train station.
He even offered to show us because, of course, that’s where he was going too.

So we rode the bus with this Kenyan man.
And he just looooved to talk about Obama.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind listening to it.
But, after being in Italy for three months I’ve come to realize that when you tell someone that you’re American all they want to talk about is Obama.
And trust me, Obama is NOT on my good side right now.

Finally we came to the train station and the creepy Kenyan disappeared into a field or something.
Once we were back in the city we found Bryn and then went to find food.

After eating appertivi we headed out to find clubs/bars/discoteques/etc.
A guy I met in Munich at Oktoberfest lived in Milan so he gave us a few hints on where to go.

We ended up in the bar district at some random bar.
I don’t even remember the name of it, it was so unimportant.

Anyways, so we’re sitting in this random bar and this guy comes up to us and is like,
“Are you girls American?”
(Boy, that’s a pick-up line if I’ve every heard one)
Long story short he convinced us he knew we were American because of the way we were dressed or some BS and he and his friends came to sit with us.
Nice guys. Two were from Canada, one was from Poland, they were in Milan for a business conference.
Computer science geeks to the max.

Here’s a picture of us, apparently “looking American”.

So we sat with them for awhile and then decided to go to a different club to dance.
And we were there foooorever.
Which, was fun, but not so fun at the same time.
Somehow, I got left with creepy Polish guy while everyone sat outside and smoked. (I know, I’ve lived in Europe for a semester and still haven’t picked it up. Good, it’s disgusting).
I ditched him eventually which was great.
The bartender also stood on the bar and poured a shot down my throat?
I wish I had a picture of that.
Interesting night.

Finally, after everyone (minus me, don’t worry Mom, I’m not that stupid) was sufficiently wasted we took a taxi back to our hotel.

Oh, our ONE STAR hotel.
Hahaha. And it was deserving of it’s one-star-ness.
It was a shit hole.
But, we slept for like five hours and then got up to wander the city the next day.

Saturday we mostly shopped.
I mean, it’s Milan, fashion capital of the world, blah blah blah, so of course we shopped.

We also decided to go get piercings.
Which no one’s parents were happy about.
Erin and Bryn’s moms think that piercings=whores.
So, naturally, we all got piercings.
Hahaha.
Erin and Bryn got their cartiledge done and I got my lip done.
And no, it didn’t hurt, but it was black and blue for a good week.

After wandering we met up with Matt (one of the Canadian guys) and had dinner on him (or his company I guess?).
Then, Erin and I decided that we wanted to go home because we didn’t have a hotel for the night.
Bryn decided to stay with the boys in their five star hotel.

So, Erin and I book it back to the train station but miss the last train to Firenze by thirty minutes.
Great.
So we end up buying tickets for the first train the next morning, which is 7.30.
But, since neither of us want to stay in the boys hotel we decide to stay in the train station.

Which was quite and adventure!
Actually, it wasn’t bad at all, it was just FREEEEZING.
Il Polizia came around every hour or so, so that was nice.
I def. didn’t sleep though.
I colored a bit, I listened to music, I wrote a letter, pretty much anything to keep awake (since I had my computer with me and def. did not want to get that stolen).

Finally, at 7.30 the next morning we took the train home, slept the whole way, got home, and then slept some more.
Hahaha.

Okay, here’s the only pictures of the actual city I have (and I actually stole them from Erin.. they were taken out the window of the cab on our way to the Apple Store)

This is a picture of, uhm, a castle-thing. I have absolutely no idea what it is..

Aaaaand this is the Duomo, whoop-dee-freaking-doo.
Literally, every Duomo looks the same.
Also, if you want to read these in order you should start from the bottom (i.e. London).

Paris

Day 1:

Our wake-up call came bright and early at 4:15.
Too bad for us, no one knew how to answer the phone and turn it off.
So the phone just kept ringing, even after we all took turns answering it.
Hahaha.
We got up and moving, checked out of the hotel and took the 5 o’clock bus to the airport.
From there we went through the whole check in deal and boarded the plane.
I sat next to a very nice lady who lived in Gallway, Ireland. She grew up in Scotland and was visiting Paris.
This was also the nicest RyanAir flight yet.
Except for when we went to land (per usual).
We like nosedived through the clouds, pulled up real quick and then landed.
We landed in a small airport outside of Paris and were surrounded by foggy, green fields.
From there we took and hour bus ride into the city to look for our hotel.
We finally took a cab to our hotel because the underground was closed for the weekend.
We really have the worst luck with public transportation.

When we got to the hotel, Parisa and I went to check in and the lady gave us free champagne.
Yayy for Paris. (Just like the time we got into VIP in Twice and had free drinks all night. Until Erin fell all over the tables and broke the bottles, but that’s another story. Hahahahah.)
After that we got dressed and then headed back into the city for some sightseeing.

It took us a long time to figure out how to get into the city from where we were, but once we got it we headed to see the Arch de Triomphe and stroll down Champs de Elysees.

We also stopped at this aaaamazing pasty place called Laduree. We had to wait in line for like an hour, but it was well worth it. They’re famous for their macaroons, which I don’t even know what they really are, but they were sooo good!


After that we walked to the Eiffel Tower. And it was a faaar walk. It didn’t help that Parisa kept complaining either, haha.
The Eiffel Tower was so pretty at night. And every hour (I think) it sparkles and all the lights twinkle or whatever.


From there we just headed back to our hotel and went to sleep.

Day 2:

Whooo, Happy Halloween!
Today we got up and headed to see the Lourve, just from outside unfortunately. It was really pretty, and from one spot you could see the Louvre, the Arch de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.


We also went and saw Notre Dame. Whoo.
And then went and had some lunch and a restaurant nearby.
Yay for escargot?!

And then we went BACK to the Eiffel tower to go to the top.
We waited in line foreverrrr to get to the top.
The elevators were really creepy too. They were these big car-like things and they were really shaky. They also packed a million and one people inside them so it was hot.
But once we got to the top (well, not the top top, that was closed) it was worth it. You could see ALL of Paris. I had no idea that it was such a huge city.

Once we were done taking it in we went back down and went to our hotel to check out.
Then we took another train to the outskirts of the city to our other hotel (seriously, we switched hotels so much) and got ready to go to Disneyland Paris!

Disneyland Paris was soooo cool. It was all decked out for Halloween with these creepy pumpkin things shooting fake orange pumpkin paint everywhere.
And the Indiana Jones ride was siiick. It was so different that the American one. It was a rollercoaster too, like it goes upside down. All the other rides were pretty much the same though. Pirates didn’t have Johnny Depp, and it took a picture on the drop.
Haunted Mansion and Small World were the same. At least I think small world was – I haven’t ridden that ride in ages.



The only sucky thing was that no food places were open and we were all starving. When we went to leave we also had problems because there was only one bus back like every hour and a half. And by then it was like 130am.
Thankfully, after awhile we got a taxi. Right at perfect timing too, as we were getting in the police were letting drug dogs or something attack a guy. Creeepy. Our taxi driver was mad crazy too! He was all over the road. And driving really fast too. But he was nice and didn’t make us pay all of our fare (okay, it was only 60 cents). I think it was because I was just so dazzling and charming… or maybe because we were complaining at how fast the meter was going up.
Once we got back to the hotel we slept for like two hours and went to the airport for our flight back to Pisa (which was on EasyJet – much nicer and much more legit than RyanAir).
When we were finally back in Pisa we took the train back to Florence.
Whew.

What a fall break, right?

Dublin

Day (Night, actually) 1:

We finally got into our hostel in Dublin at maybe 9at night.
Luckily, the bus driver told us exactly where to get off or else we probably wouldn’t have seen it.

We checked in, which was easy, but kinduv troublesome. I had booked a room for four of us, but I didn’t specify that we all wanted to be in the SAME room.
The very nice (and super hot) guy at the front desk told us that he could get it fixed for the next night, but there were no open four person rooms for tonight.
That was fine, we were at least there, so we went across the street to a pub. Each of us had a pint of cider in the nearly empty pub and then went back to the hostel to our respective rooms.
Erin and I were together with some like twelve year old girls and Bryn and Parisa in a separate room with some big German dudes (dangit!)

Day 2:

We got up fairly early Wednesday morning to do another free walking tour.
You know, another three hour one. Lucky for us it was a gorgeous day.
So we walked around the city and learned about how the crowned jewels were stolen (and never returned, so if you happen to see them I’m sure Dublin would like them back) and about the 1916 rebellion and the only iron bridge in the world that was rebuilt by the same company that built the Titanic (good thing there are no icebergs in the river in Dublin).
It was really neat, and again, our guide was really into it and way proud of his city and his alma mater (Trinity College – which we also got to see) so it made it exciting.
After that we hung out in St. James Gardens for awhile.





After hanging in the gardens we went and had the “best fish n chips in Dublin”.
And when they say fish, they mean fish. It was a FULL fish. But, the onliy problem was that they didn’t have any tartar sauce.
So we were all bummed and took our fish n chips over to a bench outside the Christ Church Cathedral to eat.
And then!
The little old man outside of the pub next door to the restaurant brought us tartar sauce!
So we scarfed our cod and chips, went to the old man’s pub for a drink and then went back to take a nap before we went on a Pub crawl that night.

The pub crawl was pretty interesting.
We started at a music pub where these two guys were playing cover songs. And they weren’t half bad either.
From there we went to like six different pubs.

The coolest one was the last one that I was at (Parisa and I left early because we were tired). It was huuuuuge and everyone there was so pretty! They also had really good cider called WKD Core. It was sweeter than other ciders.
When Parisa and I got back to the room we hung out for awhile and ate some of the chips Erin had bought earlier, then went to bed.

Day 3:

Our last day in Dublin we decided to just chill around and be lazy for awhile.
We checked out of the hostel, left our bags in the lockers, and sat in the café and had coffee/food. The coffee was really really good too. Our hostel was famous for “the best espresso in Dublin”.

After hanging around for a bit we decided to go to the coast and explore. We took the dart (the train) to Howeth, a coastal fishing port. It was so cute! It was a really cold, foggy day, but the water still looked seafoam green.
We bummed around the pier for a bit and watched the sea lions play in the water around the docks. Then we went and hung out at the lighthouse for a bit and watched sailboats race around in the water.



After that we decided to go get some warm food. We ended up going into this random pub/tavern/restaurant and had fisherman’s chowder which was baby shrimp, mussels, cod and other fish of some sort. And, of course, we had a glass of cider (told you it’s all I want to drink for the rest of my life).
After that we went down to the beach and looked around and put hour hands in the Irish sea (it was cold, go figure). Then we headed back to the train station to go back to Dublin. On the train we met these guys from Escondido (small freaking world) who thought it was cool to talk about how they had done crack in the 80’s. Reeeal cool….not.

Anyways, once we were back in Dublin we wandered around Temple Bar for a bit and ended up at the Hard Rock café for dessert.

From there we went and got our luggage from the hostel and took the bus to the airport to go to a closer hotel because we had a really early flight to Paris the next day.
We finally got to the hotel (where my name was on the TV! (I booked the hotel)) and took showers and crashed for like three hours before our 4:15 wake up call.
Yikes!

Edinburgh

Our 70€ overnight train ride to Scotland wasn’t too bad.
It wasn’t comfortable, but we all slept.

Once we got into Edinburgh we went and found our hostel.
That’s a funny story in itself. We were supposed to have stayed there the night before, but that didn’t happen.
So when I called to cancel our reservation the lady said since it was less than 24 hours we would still have to pay.
So, thinking that was stupid, I told her we’d be there at 8am.
Which was fine because checkout wasn’t until 10.
So we got there, got to change clothes, repack our bags a little bit and then head out.
It was also good because since we “stayed” there, we could leave our bags in their bag check room instead of carrying them around all day.

After a quick change of clothes we hit up a Starbucks (duh) and waited there a bit to go on a free tour.
But, not just any free tour.
It was a free WALKING tour.
A free THREE-HOUR walking tour.

But, it was well worth the sore feet.
(And plus, we walk everywhere anyways so we were used to it)

Our tour guide was really into it and very knowledgeable.
We learned about ghosts and murders and the stone of destiny. Hahah.





We also got to see the school that inspired Hogwarts and the coffee shop that J.K. Rowling wrote the books in!


The only sucky part of the tour was that it was raining, but we bought ponchos! HAHA.
Once the tour was over we went and had some soup to warm up.
Then we went to a museum (I have no idea what it was called..) and saw Dolly!
Like, the cloned sheep.
They had her stuffed body on display.

After that we went to the airport and hopped on another sketchy RyanAir flight to Dublin.
Luckily it was only 45 minutes.
Unluckily it was another freaky landing – this time the plane was tilting side to side the whole time we were landing.

Keep checking back, I’ll try and get pictures up tomorrow.
I really was going to do it yesterday, here’s why I didn’t:
Yesterday it POURED. Which, isn’t too bad, I really enjoy the rain actually (it means snow!) but my History of Christianity teacher made us walk 45 minutes in the downpour to visit a Russian Orthodox Church.
It was really cool, not worth the shower I got in the process.
My Uggs are still soaked all the way to the top.
Tomorrow is looking better..

London

Alright.
Finally.
I’ve stopped being a slacker.
Aren’t you glad I wrote everything down so I wouldn’t forget what to write here?
Let’s get started..

Day 1:
Fall Break was epic to say the least.
Friday afternoon (October 23rd) we took the train to Pisa to catch our RyanAir flight to London.
Bad news was that there was an air traffic controller strike (transportation is ALWAYS striking in Italy, it’s ridiculous) so our flight was cancelled.
We had to wait in line with at least a hundered other people with the same cancelled flight (mostly angry, American college students. They just don’t understand patience or the hilarity of different cultures. HAH!)

After thirty minutes of waiting at a standstill we decided to call RyanAir (see, told you American college students were impatient..)
Our flight had originally been at 2-something in the afternoon, the next flight they could get us on was at 10:30 that night.
We took it graciously and decided to go wander around Pisa and get food.
After sufficiently gorging ourselves on pizza and beer we went back to the airport to hang around for a few hours before our flight.
At 10 o’clock a notice went up that our flight was delayed another hour.
This put us on the plane at 11:30, putting us in London at almost 2am.
Yikes.

Finally we were able to board the plane, which was an experience in itself.
Most planes I’ve been on, minus Greg’s tiny plane that we took to Groveland like eight years ago, have that ramp/tunnel thing for you to get from the waiting area onto the plane.
Yeah, this plane didn’t.

We walked downstairs, outside and then up some rickety stairs onto the plane.
Once on the plane it was a free for all.
No assigned seats is never a good thing, especially with tons of people who have just been delayed almost eight hours.
I finally found a seat (ironically next to a Spanish guy I had seen at the pizza shop earlier that day).
But just because I found a seat didn’t mean that I had room in an overhead compartment.
We had decided just to take backpacks for the week so we wouldn’t have to check any bags.
Great idea, but my backpack was pretty big and there was absolutely no more room in the overhead compartments.
I shoved it under my seat, propping my feet up on it, definitely not complying with whatever flight regulations were in place.
The pilot came over the loud speaker, apologized for the delay and started down the runway.

Now, I don’t necessary LIKE flying per say, but I can tolerate it and usually just sleep.
Not the case on this flight.
One, it was dark, never fun. Two, it was windy, never fun. Three, we were on a smaller plane, never fun.
There was turbulence throughout the WHOLE flight.
Lucky me got to sit by the window.
There’s no exaggeration when I say this: I sat and watched the wing bounce up and down more than I have ever ever ever seen any wing move. It looked like it would snap in half at any moment.
It didn’t help any that the safety regulations and procedures were posted on the seat back right in front of my face.
Finally, after almost two hours of holding my breath and clenching my fists the pilot asked the flight attendants to take their seats for landing.
Now, if you thought the flight sounded bad, the landing was the worst.
We landed at light speed, and hit the ground haaard.
And I swear we were on one wheel.
The plane drunkenly swerved down the runway, finally coming to a halt.
After they opened the doors I practically ran down the stairs, out into the freezing London air and kissed the ground.

My friends, who had all been happily sleeping (up until the landing, of course) followed me out and we headed into the airport to figure out how to get to our hotel at 2am.
The man at customs was extremely nice, especially for how early in the morning it was, and helped us figure out where to go.
Unfortunately, trains had stopped as well as the city busses. (Duh, it was 2am)
We had to take a “coach”, which is pretty much the European version of a VIA bus.
The only problem was the next coach didn’t leave until 3:45 am.

Not really a problem for us since we had just been sitting around all day.
We wandered around the airport, found some Dr. Pepper (YESS!!!!!) and hot chocolate before boarding our coach.

Thankfully, it was a quick trip, maybe a little over an hour.
From our stop we then had to board another bus to get to our hotel which was near the Heathrow airport.
(We flew into the Stansend airport – RyanAir/EasyJet/WizzAir/pretty much all cheap European airlines fly into smaller airports because it’s cheaper.. Meaning that our flights are cheaper.)
By the time we finally go to our hotel it was a little after 6am.
Our hotel, by the way, was soooo nice.
We crashed for like three hours and then got up at 9:30 to sight-see.
Quite the long day.

Day 2:
After our three hours of sleep we took the hotel shuttle to the Heathrow airport because from there we could catch the tube into London.
The Picadilly line, which went everywhere we needed to go, was down (go figure), but that just meant that we got cheaper tickets for the Heathrow Express, which was waaay faster.
It took us 15 minutes to get into Paddington Station.
At the station we found a bagel shop and a Starbucks! (My partner numbers worked too, score)

Sucking down coffee, we headed out of the station and started walking to Hyde Park.
It was so gorgeous, especially since it was the middle of October and all the leaves were changing color.
It was just spectacular: vivid yellows, oranges and reds on the trees contrasting the lush green of the grass.
Every path was lined with trees and the grass was covered in fallen leaves.
I wish my pictures did it justice, but it looked much much prettier in person.
While at the park we saw the Princess Diana Memorial fountain, the Peter Pan statue, and Kensington Palace.





From there we walked to Buckingham Palace (which wasn’t as pretty as I thought it would be. Sad day.)
And. The guards weren’t outside. Well, not outside in front of the gates at least.

At the palace we met up with Lee (he lives like four hours out of London so he came to visit) and headed to Abbey Road.
But, silly us, got on the wrong underground line.
So we went to King’s Cross Station instead.
Which is where Platform 9 and 3/4 is.
And if you don’t know what that is then I suggest you read the Harry Potter books.
But, warning: you WILL become obsessed. Hahaha.
(But if you don’t want to read to find out what Platform 9 and 3/4 is: it’s where wizards cross over from the muggle (human) world into the wizard world. Wow. That makes me sound like a super nerd..)
And this could have been the highlight of my whole week.

So we took a million pictures there before heading to get dinner.
We ate dinner at a pretty sweet restaurant. Fish and chips. Yummm.
After that we went to meet up with one of Erin’s friends at a pub.
We sat around and drank a round of Stongbow (thanks Lee), which is a hard cider.

I guess maybe like an apple beer? I’m not sure exactly, but it’s extremely good and I’m hooked.
That’s all I plan on drinking for the rest of my life pretty much.
After sitting around for awhile longer we got our stuff together to leave so we wouldn’t miss the last train/bus/metro/whatever to our hotel.

As we were about to leave Bryn started freaking out because she couldn’t find her camera.
Figuring she dropped it we looked under our table, under the table next to us and then finally resorted to giving the bartender her number in case it showed up.
All the searching for the camera meant that we didn’t get out of the pub until later then intended, consequently meaning that we missed our train/bus/metro/whatever back to the hotel.
So we ended up having to take two different busses to Victoria station and then from there we were supposed to get a coach to the airport but all the coaches had stopped running for the night (which Lee tried to tell us but we didn’t listen. Ooops.).
We ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel, which set us back 55£, aka almost a hundred bucks.
Sucky.
But it was a really fun cab ride because we were all so tired and Bryn was so angry.
I’m sure the cab driver enjoyed our conversations.
Once we got back to the hotel we crashed out.
Also, the British summer ended at 2am on Sunday, meaning we either lost an hour or gained an hour.
I’m still not sure which it was actually.

Side note: I’m so curious to know what my accent sounds like. Because to me, it sounds normal, obviously.
The man at the Pisa pizzeria said that Americans sound like “meowmeowmeow”, which I think is hilarious. Mostly because I meow on a daily basis.
I asked Lee what it sounded like to him and he said it sounds like the OC or the Hills (you know, the TV shows).
Interesting interesting.

Day 3:
After very little sleep (again) we got up at nine and went to the airport to catch the Heathrow Express into Paddington Station.
And again, grabbed a bagel and Sbux.. =] Duh.

Then we headed to… Abbey Road!
It was legit. Or, as legit as a street can be.
We were there for quite awhile, taking pictures and trying to dodge traffic.
It’s actually a very very busy street.


We had a guy (who happened to be from LA) take our picture walking across the road. Typical tourists.
It took him a minute to get it right, and since there was so much traffic, the car that was stopped behind him got mad and hit him.
Well, not hit him, but they did give him a little nudge with their front bumper. After he moved the car then sped off.

We also got to see their recording studios, from the outside, you weren’t allowed inside.
And! While we were messing around and taking pictures we met Linda.
Now, meeting a woman named Linda doesn’t seem interesting at all.
But when her last name is Casey and her brother is Harry Casey from KC and the Sunshine band, it IS interesting.
She and her husband were very nice and talked to us for a bit.

After taking about 794375948754839 pictures we got back on the tube to go to Westminster Abbey and see everything around there.
We saw Westminster, the houses of Parliament, Big Bed and the London Eye.





All of it was really neat. Too bad we didn’t ride the London Eye though, the line was mad long.
Also to bad that Westminster is closed on Sundays so we couldn’t go inside.
But we did wander around the area for awhile and ended up finding this really cool used book market.
It was just rows and rows and rows of books. Some new, some old.
I ended up getting two books, one about the rise of independent films and one about Andy Warhol.
Which, in the long run, was a stupid idea because they’re both really thick books and were a pain to carry around for the next week.
After that we went to find dinner.

We ended up in Tarfalgar Square (no idea if that’s spelled right..) at the Texas Embassy for dinner.
Because, when silly Texas wanted to be it’s own country they set up an embassy in London.
And then when they decided they wanted to play nice again it got turned into a Tex Mex restaurant.
Yummm.
After a sufficient amount of Tex Mex and a round of margaritas we headed back to the hotel (and actually missed our stop and had to ride aaalllll the way around again. We don’t do well with public transportation I guess.)

Day 4:
Another glorious day in London!
We got up, went to the underground and took the Picadilly line into the city (it was working now), which took us like 45 minutes.
Once we got into the city we headed over to the Tower Bridge and saw that as well as the London Tower.
After that we went to look at London Bridge, which is nothing spectacular, it’s just a bridge.
And I’m pretty sure it’s never fallen down like the song says.
It has been remade like three times though.

After that we went to look at the Old Globe theatre.
I got to hang out with my main man, Shakespeare. Haha.

Then we wen to Harrods, which is like this huuuge department store.
And it has an “Egyptian escalator”, which was really a normal escalator decorated all Egyptian-like.
Since Parisa was like obsessed with Harrods we stayed in there a bit too long
By the time we left it was 4:30, and our flight to Scotland left at 7:45.
Which wouldn’t have been a problem if our stuff wasn’t back at the hotel and the airport we needed to be at wasn’t an hour from that.
(Side note: the hotel we stayed at was where all the flight and crew usually stayed so that was neat. The concierge was always asking if we were part of the crew)
Anyways, we hustled back to the hotel and Parisa and I went to get the bags from the hotel while Bryn and Erin went to check on trains to the airport we needed to be at.
All the busses were full, so we had to just forego our flight and take an overnight train.
Which set us back 70 pounds. YIKES.
But we had to do it or else all the rest of our flights would be screwed up.

Anyways, we went to book our train tickets (leaving London at 11:50, getting into Edinburgh at 7:20 the next morning) and then we went to Top Shop and did some shopping.
Glorious. www.us.topshop.com could be my downfall once I get home.
Then we went to this fish market thing and had sushi. Yummm!! And went back to Platform 9 and 3/4 for another photo sesh.

Then, back to the train station for our overnight journey! Hooray.