Jackee and Allison Go to Porto

I'm a little behind on updating again. A lot has happened within the past few weeks, but I'm just going to focus on the beginning of the month in this post.

It's fitting that the first time I leave the UK, it's with Jackee. I wish she and I could have traveled to London together, but I'm so glad she came to visit!

On the first day she arrived, we hung out at the hostel and just caught up since it's been quite some time since we've seen each other. The following day, we met Kay at Vapiano for dinner. I know I've said it before, but I love the food there! Although, as far as I'm concerned, it's really hard to go wrong with Italian..

The real fun began Friday evening, which is when we flew down to Porto, Portugal for the weekend. When we initially started to plan our trip, Dublin, Paris, and Madrid were among the destinations we were considering; however, then we decided that our goal was to go somewhere interesting but less typical than the usual traveler would venture. That decision landed us in Portugal.

And now some pictures, courtesy of Jackee::

Wandering around the city




Down by the Douro River


Porto from across the river


Restaurant where we ate lunch


Wine tasting


Boats on the Douro River


Vila Nova de Guia




Dom Luis Bridge (Eiffel Bridge)


On our cruise


Toward the Atlantic Ocean


Old city wall


View from the bridge


Beautiful sunset over Porto


Night view


Park in Casa da Musica


Casa da Musica

"Borrowed" Pictures

Compliments of Kay, here are some photos from the past few weeks:

Outside church




Windsor




Windsor Castle




St. George's Chapel


Bridge to Eton


Eton




Oxford Castle


St. Aldate's and George & Danver


St. Mary's Church


Climbing St. Mary's


All Souls College


Radcliffe Camera


View from St. Mary's Church


Bodleian Library


New College


Jesus College


Dining Hall


Chapel at Jesus College


Merton College


Harry Potter scene!


University College


Bridge of Sighs


Christ Church College


Magdalen College


Eagle and Child


Lamb and Flag


Ice-cream at G&D


At the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race


Pub where we watched the race


Barbeque


Watching the race inside the pub


Oxford wins


Kay, Mara, and I sporting our Oxford gear

A London Weekend Well Spent

I still haven't found my camera cable so my apologies, but this is going to be another picture-less post. I honestly have no idea where it is at the moment, but I'm hoping it'll turn up soon..

Happy April! My time here in London is flying by so quickly. I honestly cannot believe I've been here for three months already. The first month seemed to almost crawl along, but once February started, time appeared to have sped up. It really needs to slow down again because there's still so much to do and see.

With that said, I spent this past weekend in London. Traveling to Windsor and Oxford definitely whetted my taste for exploring other cities; however, the fact that the weather didn't look too promising, coupled with the several trips I may have planned for the upcoming weekends, convinced me to stay put and enjoy my immediate surroundings. Truth be told, I've probably only seen a fraction of London since there's truly so much here. I've sort of made it a personal goal to not spend two weekends in a row in London though, but we'll see how realistic that is since my pockets just aren't that deep.

On Saturday, I visited the Natural History Museum with Jonathan. The museum was pretty interesting, but the Museum of Natural History in D.C. is more impressive. We didn't have time to see all of the exhibits, so there's a slight chance we missed the better ones. We saw the dinosaurs, of course, but we didn't visit the mammal or human biology rooms. I'm thinking I'll have to go back to explore those areas.

One of the girls from my church group, Sarah, returned to London this past weekend. She had worked in the UK for six months through the same program I'm doing and then spent several weeks traveling Europe. There was a surprise dinner for her that I was hoping to attend, but it was rainy and cold and by the time I got back to my room, I didn't want to venture out again. I wish I had gone, but at the same time, it was nice to just relax and catch up with people here.

On Sunday, Azrai, Lucinda, and I were planning to go to Greenwich; however, things changed and Lucinda and I ended up meeting Kay and Mara for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Kay, Mara, and I wore the t-shirts and sweatshirts we bought while we were in Oxford so we were very happy when Oxford won. The pub we went to was in an ideal location right where the race ended, but it was so crowded. Nonetheless, I’m glad we went because it was a really fun day. I'm glad I'm a vegetarian because I wasn't tempted to buy the £4 burgers they were selling at the concession stand. Afterwards, we went to church.. but not before we stopped at Hummingbird, which is the most adorable cupcake café. If I ever find my camera cord, I'll put pictures up here. Later, Heidi, Mara, Kay, Enoch, and I got Japanese for dinner.

Yesterday evening, Azrai, Lucinda, and I ate at a Thai restaurant in Bayswater. It’s funny because I walk past there every day on my way back from work, but I've never taken the time to see the area. It’s a pretty cool place and definitely worth returning to in the future.

Tuesday is my favorite day because each week, I meet with a group from church. We usually meet at the flat of one of the guys and eat, pray, sing, and just hang out together, but every so often, we have a "social." Tonight we ventured to Fulham and got dessert at Del'aziz. It's a cute restaurant with MASSIVE cups of coffee and tea and the most delicious-looking cakes, cookies, and pastries. It was a good night.

I'm grateful to have this core group here because there are times when I do feel rather homesick, and it's nice to know I have people I can count on seeing each week. Even though I've spent rather lengthy periods of time away from home, I've never been out of the country for so long (even though it hasn't been that long). Strangely enough, I think that's made a huge difference on some level. It's odd because I'm not typically the "homesick" type, but I do miss home and everything associated with it. Family. Friends. Pets. Even some silly things, such as my bed and own room, Kashi cereal, Stoneyfield yogurt, and my mom's washing machine and dryer.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. It's definitely time for bed. Chao for now! xo

Randomness Around England

It's definitely been a while. I know I've been absent from the blogging scene for almost two months, but don't be fooled: this is not due to a lack of adventures in the UK. I won't go into great detail describing everything that's happened as I imagine that might become boring. As a sidenote, I wanted to include pictures in this post, but a cursory search for my cable proved that I've (hopefully) temporarily misplaced it. Anyhow..

In the beginning of February, I witnessed London's first major snowfall in eighteen years. This city is not equipped to deal with this type of weather. Eight inches of snow shut down the major airports in the area and the entire public transportation system for much of the day. With going to school in upstate New York, this was a little comical.

I've also explored a couple other museums in London, namely the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert. Although, truth be told, I wish I had a greater appreciation for art, many of the paintings in the National Portrait Gallery were quite impressive. Several people have told me that their favorite museum is Victoria and Albert, and after visiting it, I could see why. It had massive collections of a wide variety of art, ranging from clothing and jewelry from different eras to sculptures and paintings created by well-known artists.

One of my former roommates Asa had free tickets to a cinema in Piccadilly Circus to see BAFTA Award nominated films, so we watched The Dutchess and Changeling. Both were enjoyable, but for some reason, I thought the latter was better the first time I saw it in Cannes.

A few weeks ago, in an effort to temporarily escape the madness of London, Kay, Mara, and I took a spontaneous trip to Windsor. Don't get me wrong; we LOVE London, but sometimes it's just nice to leave the city for a while. We were so surprised by how close Windsor was. Oddly enough, we were all under the impression that it was at least an hour away, but it took us less than thirty minutes to get there. The castle was exciting to see, and there was a particular painting of a thirteen-year-old Elizabeth I that I found fascinating. Maybe the commentary from the headset I was listening to had a little to do with this, but I wish I could have taken a picture of it. After exploring the castle grounds, we walked around the town for a while and wandered over to Eaton College, which is the school Prince William attended. It was rather late by the time we walked there so we couldn't tour the actual campus because it was closed to the public, but it looked nice even from a distance.

Not that I needed to be reminded that I love live theatre, but seeing The Lion King on the West End definitely did that for me. Although the story is familiar because of the animated movie, the musical was still spectacular and nothing less than what I had expected. I'm not sure why I had never been interested in seeing this show on Broadway. The costumes were absolutely incredible as were the actors' performances. People's creativity never ceases to amaze me. It was quite possibly the best live show I've ever seen. The ensemble completely blew me away.

The other day, Mara, some of her university friends, Kay, and I ate at Vapiano, which is a German chain that has Italian food. Mara is from Berlin and has been to several in Germany so she recommended that we go there. I'd never heard of it before, but apparently there are a few restaurants in the U.S. The food is delicious and I have to say that now it's our favorite restaurant. We've eaten there twice in the past two weeks and tentatively plan to go again when Kay's sister and Jackee visit.

We had been talking about booking tickets for weeks, but Kay, Mara, and I finally visited Oxford on Sunday. We truly lucked out with the weather as it was absolutely gorgeous. Oxford is a beautiful city, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We climbed to the top of St. Mary's Church to get an amazing aerial view, took a walking tour of the city, which included admission into several of the University of Oxford's thirty-eight colleges, and attempted to eat at two of the rather famous pubs in Oxford: Eagle and Child and then Lamb and Flag. Apparently, a writers' group that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were members of frequently met at these places. Unfortunately, Eagle and Child didn't have the dishes we wanted to order and Lamb and Flag was no longer serving food by the time we got there. As an alternative, we opted for Thai food at a different pub. My Pad Thai was amazing and lasted me three meals! After dinner, we got ice-cream at a quaint cafe that a friend from church and Kay's friend from home recommended. It was a fantastic way to end a perfect day.

I also recently finished reading Revolutionary Road. Although the events that unfold are hardly uplifting, it's such a well-written book. I don't want to ruin the plot for anyone who wants to read the novel or see the movie, but I would have to say that few stories move me the way this one did. The characters are so rich and multi-dimensional that you can't help but empathize with them.

Last but not least, I suppose I should mention that I've found a job. It's just a temporary position and far from the most exciting work in the world, but I'm lucky to have it. It's paying the bills and providing me with all my necessities: food, accommodation, transportation..... and traveling, of course. :D

The next several weeks should be fun. I'm looking forward to it all. Until next time.. (and hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later.) xo