Liverpool!

Well I was going to put pictures up of when we went to the Portobello Road street market but for some reason they refuse to load onto my computer. But last Saturday we went to Portobello Road where we looked at antiques, tried on old clothes, and got tasty street crepes. The rest of the weekend and beginning of the next week we both had papers and tests so we were pretty busy with that stuff. The weather also got freakishly nice so we hung out in Regent's Park for a bit.

Tuesday was our Liverpool trip day. Between us, Sara and I had three alarms set, yet somehow none of them woke us up. I luckily just coincidentally woke up at 8:20, woke Sara up, we flew into a rush and were out the door at 8:30 so we could catch my 9:15 train. We had to take different trains, but met up in Liverpool a little before 1pm.

We then went on our Magical Myster Tour! We saw lots of neat things:


Sara and the Magical Mystery Tourbus!



This is George Harrison's house and birthplace.




Sara at Strawberry Fields.




Me at Penny Lane.




John Lennon's house, where they practiced a lot.



The fifth house down (the white one) is where Ringo lived--- his neighborhood was kind of sketch compared to the other neighborhoods.


Paul McCartney's house; our tourguide said Paul McCartney lived in like nine houses when he was growing up (because his mother was a midwife) but this is the only house that is a national site because over a hundred Beatles songs were written in here. Apparently most of these were written in the bathroom, because that is where the acoustics are the best.

Our tourguide was neat and actually knows Paul McCartney. Our tourguide was also in the movie "In His Life: The John Lennon Story," which he repeatedly plugged throughout the tour.

After the tour we dropped by the Cavern Club, and got free souvenir pictures.




Inside, where they played as they were gaining fame (292 shows total).

After the Cavern Club we rushed to the Beatles Story Museum which was pretty okay. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside so I only got to sneak pictures of being in the yellow submarine!



After the Beatles Story we went back to the train station and caught our train, and got back to the flat at about 11:30 pm. So that was our fun Liverpool daytrip.
Since we are flying back to the States the day after tomorrow, this will probably be our last blog post. So long devoted fans!

Hadrian's Wall

So to begin our awesome weekend, we saw Speed-the-Plow at the Old Vic Theatre which stars Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldbloom. Since we had nothing better to do we hung around after the play, and low and behold we got to meet them and got ourselves some autographs! Let me just say, Jeff Goldbloom is really tall and lanky, he kind of overwhelms you. So all of this stuff happened on Wednesday, and on Friday we left for our trip to Hadrian's Wall!

 The train ride up there was about 3 hrs, and then another hour lay over to get to the town where we were staying that goes by the name of Haltwhistle. We get there and it turns out to be the most quaint town ever, and of course it is raining. Thus, we get out our umbrellas and proceed to walk the mile and half to the B&B which is on a farm. On the way there we saw many a baby sheep and I got to watch Linz almost fall into a giant like puddle of muddy water, all good fun. 

    

We finally arrived at the B&B at turns out it is really nice, with this cool shower that is just kind in the bathroom, meaning that there is no shower curtain or anything its just really open. So we hung around there for a bit, and then hauled ourselves back to town to get food and the like. So the next morning we walked back to town again after having a really good breakfast, and we catch the Hadrian's Wall Bus. There is a tour guide on the bus who first proceeds to make us put this Roman Helmet and then I talked to him for a bit about Hadrian and stuff. 

  

So we arrived at Housesteads, which is apparently the most well preserved Roman Fort in the area. However, there was a fee to get into the fort itself, so we went around back and jumped the wall for free. Inside the fort we got to see the ruins and the most well preserved latrine from Roman times! So after we checked out the fort, we decided that we were going to hike our way to the next one, and looking at the map it didn't seem so far. So off we went. On the way there Linz convinced me to roll down this really muddy hill, and of course I did it, and proceeded to get covered in dirt. So we are walking, and somehow we got off course and lost the wall, don't ask me how we did this, but it happened. So we got like who knows how far off and had to wander our way back to the wall and up this giant hill. Once we get there we just keep walking and finally hit the 3 mile mark and check on the map how far we are. Turns out we were a little overambitious and were hardly to the next fort at all, so we turned back. Got some great pictures on the way back though.

   

After we got back from this hell of a walk, the lady from the B&B picked us up in town because it was too far to walk and brought us back to the B&B. Turns out we were the only people staying there and we go the entire thing to ourselves, and it was awesome. Linz and I spent the night watching a Power Ballad countdown, while sitting in front of the fire playing Jenga and Monopoly. 

   

In the morning we had another amazing breakfast and then we were driven back into town to catch the bus to Vindolanda. In Vindolanda we saw some more Roman ruins, and the Britains greatest Ancient Treasure, roman writing tablets. They had really cool museum there and we pretty much hung out around there for a good 6 hrs. We then caught the bus back into town and realized that we had been reading the bus schedule instead of the train schedule and freaked out about how we were going to get back to Newcastle in time to catch our train. However, just as our panic was reaching a peak, a magical bus showed up and took us to Hexham, where we caught the train to Newcastle and all was well. We ended back in London around 10, and proceeded to promptly pass out. And now pictures....

  Me with socks on my hands because it was freezing and I had no gloves.

  Linz freakishly framed in the doorway at Vindolanda.

  More baby sheep, they were everywhere.

Paris!

The day we went from Amsterdam to Paris was pretty much the longest day ever. We flew from Amsterdam back to London and then from London to Paris. We had issues finding our hostel but it turned out to be surprisingly nice, and we had a room for three all to ourselves. Our first full day in Paris we went to the Eiffel Tower which was crowded and cold but very cool. We then walked around the Seine and took a boat-ferry kind of deal. We then saw Napoleon's tomb! It was huge.





The second day we went to the Arc de Triomphe, then walked down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to buy Sara some new shoes because sadly her chucks died. We then went to the Louvre where we saw loads of cool stuff and emerged hours later completely exhausted.









The next day was our bicycle tour to Versailles! We went to the bicycle tour headquarters, road bikes to the train station, then took the train to Versailles. We stopped at this marketplace and bought stuff for our picnic lunch. I had to use the limited French I learned in highschool combined with the international language of hand gesturing to secure food. We had a legit french picnic of cheese, meat, baguette, and wine right on Marie-Antoinette's favorite picnic spot. Also, Sara had to ride her bike with the baguette sticking conspicuously out of it, as detailed in this hilarious picture.





After lunch we went into the palace in Versailles and got audioguide tours. I proceeded to take millions of pictures of the palace, including the Hall of Mirrors.




After the palace we biked back to the train station where I almost died on a hill. And so concludes our trip to Versailles.

The day after Versailles we went to the Musee d'Orsay which was possibly even neater than the Louvre, even though the building is really confusing. We conveniently were leaving right as they were evacuating everyone for some reason we never found out about. After the Orsay we went to Notre Dame, very pretty.





Our last day in Paris was by far the nicest weather-wise, so we decided to take advantage of it and hang out in a cemetary. We saw the graves of Jim Morrison, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Moliere, Sarah Bernhardt, and others.



Jim Morrison.

So after the cemetary (which was called Pere Lachaise) we randomly decided to go to a park. Which was the best decision ever because it was the best park ever, complete with a waterfall, a cliff, pony rides, people getting married, and ICE CREAM. So yeah, great way to spend our last day in Paris.





So we went back to our hostel and went out to eat for our 'big night out'. Afterwards we went up to Sacre Coeur, a really pretty church a two-minute walk from our hostel. We went inside and caught the end of mass and nuns singing. Afterwards we hung out on the front steps for a long time listening to these guys with guitars sing Beatles and U2 covers. Then we got crepes, which were incredible and one of the things I miss most about Paris. So all in all, good trip.

Amsterdam

Alright so we're back from spring break. After our respective mothers and younger siblings came to visit we flew out to Amsterdam for four days. Sara's umbrella broke within two minutes of opening it so she bought a new one. It was rainy/snowy and frigidly cold the entire time we were there. For our first full day we went to the Van Gogh museum which was neat and very crowded. We then went to the movies and saw There Will Be Blood because it was miserable outside, though neither of us particularly cared for the movie. The next day was only slightly less frigid so we decided to go to Amsterdam's amazing zoo that had an aquarium and planetarium, which was in Dutch but enjoyable nonetheless. The zoo had a severe lack of cages and we got to see the lions being fed!


After the zoo we went back to the movies and saw Juno where we were both weirded out that movies in Amsterdam always have intermissions and sell alcohol (and of course have Dutch subtitles, though pretty much everyone there speaks English). The next day we went to Anne Frank's house where we got snowed on and waited forever in line. Anne Frank's house was neat even though her diary and wallpaper were not original, but "fascimiles." That night we had our big night out where we went to Tio Pepe's for mexican food. A cat hung out with us while we waited for our food and the waitress told us he was Pepe, the owner of the restaurant! He drooled all over Sara and got fur in her food.



On our last day we walked around and went to a town square kind of deal, then went to the sex museum, which apparently is the thing to do in Amsterdam. The last day wasn't as terribly cold which was nice because we shunned public transportation and walked everywhere the entire time. Amsterdam is practically half water and more people ride bikes than drive cars. Surprisingly we weren't lost a lot of the time despite the odd, unfamiliar street names. Since this entry is getting pretty long I'll make spring break a two-parter, and write about Paris in the next entry. Until then, random pictures of Amsterdam!

Our hostel.

A canal.

Snow.

Amsterdam at night.

Bath, Cotswolds, and Stonehenge

So this weekend we got ourselves out of London and took a tour of the Cotswolds, Bath and Stonehenge. The tour itself was pretty amazing and made us realize how pretty England really is. We headed to three different villages in the Cotswolds (English Countryside), Stow-on-the-Wold, Borton-on-the-Water, and Bibury. All of them were extremely pretty, but Bibury was probably the prettiest out of all of them.

   

We stopped on some random hill after we visited the villages and got to run around for like 20 minutes. It was really windy up there but there were cows, and I found myself(Sara) bonding with some. There is something very entertaining about running about on huge hills with cows in the blistering wind. 

 

After we visited the random hills, we found ourselves in Glouscester where we visited Glouscester Cathedral where Harry Potter was filmed! It was very pretty and we heard a really amazing choir while we were here. 

We then headed to the Hotel, which ended up being a Holiday Inn, and Linz had to room with a dude, because his name is Jessie and they got confused, but he is quite the gentleman so it is alright. Today we went to Bath and Stonehenge. Bath is really pretty and we got a two hour tour with a slighty creepy but amusing ex policeman. We toured the Ancient Roman Baths, and with that tour got our sample of Bath water, which is not horrible but not great.

   

After Bath, we headed to Stonehenge which was very cool and majestic, and reallllly windy and cold. There isn't really much to say about Stonehenge except, pictures! Oh, and Linz got a postcard with the napkin dancers in front of Stonehenge, she really enjoyed that.

   

It's been a week since we updated. Neither of us can remember what we did on Sunday so we must not have done much. On Monday we were a bit early for our art class so we climbed on the lion statues that were surprisingly really difficult to get on.

After class we walked around Regent's Park since Sara hadn't been and saw the millions of different kinds of ducks they have. They are pretty neat but Sara freaked out when the swans got a little too close. This is us at Regent's park.




On Tuesday we got out of theatre class early in order to have a backstage tour of the Royal National Theatre, which was actually really interesting. Laurence Olivier was its first artistic director.

On Wednesday I went to the Tate Modern while Sara was supposed to have class. It was gigantic and very cool, they especially had a lot of Jackson Pollock and minimalist stuff. That night we saw a very strange interpretation of Women of Troy (a Greek tragedy). It had yet more nakedness, as well as odd swing dancing sequences and lots of fire and explosions. On the way back to the flat we saw some crew filming something but we couldn't figure out what it was. Plus I messed around with the night scenery setting on my camera. This is the Thames. It's kind of blurry but the shutter speed on this setting is so slow I don't think it wouldn't be blurry unless I had a tripod.


Thursday I went to class and Sara didn't because she lost her London Met ID card. But she found it so all is well. That night we got Chinese takeout and watched Death at a Funeral which was hysterical. Today I had class early (10am) and Sara had a horse lesson at 11am, so after we got back from those things we both fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon. And we haven't done much since.

Tomorrow we are going on a weekend trip with other people from the program to Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury Cathedral, so I should have lots of good pictures when we come back from that.

Everything Cool

Alright, so it has been awhile since we last posted. Sorry bout that. We have been busy, and just generally been lazy. So first off, we have some lovely photos that we got the night we went to see A Prayer for Our Daughter, where we got to see a little full frontal. The walk was lovely and I(Sara), got a copy of the Amber Spyglass signed by Philip Pullman from the National Theatre! We also have some pictures out our window at sunset and a video of this really awesome guy in the underground.

   

Friday, we finally got ourselves some fish and chips from a good place called Fishbone. Linz was slighty horrified to discover that the fish is fried with the scales on, but she was persuaded to eat it anyways. I(Sara) woke up Friday with a delightful cold, which is simply wondeful. Today, we hauled ourselves down to towards the Thames and went to the Old Operating Theatre, which was actually pretty sweet and full of alot of creepy old Timey operating tools and directions. We also headed to a market, where we saw some lovely dead animals hanging, if you can't tell that is a rabbit, and a type of deer with the head and hooves cut off.

             

After that, we headed to McDonalds (or MacDonalds as they say here), and finally got ourselves the Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry, it was delish. On the way back we also saw a bit of the Globe Theatre, but didn't head in because we are going there for class at a later date. While we were at King's Cross Station, we ran into an interesting sight and just had to photo op. 

  

Off to Hogwarts!