More London, Belgium, and Dublin

I’m the worst, I know. 3 weekends have passed since I’ve posted. But I was busy, and then it got harder and harder to post because more and more had happened. Spiraled.

The first of those 3 weekends- Halfway weekend, I went to London with my friend Darcy. Oh boy we did a lot. We went to the London Eye, Victoria & Albert Museum (amazing), Changing of the Guard, Kensington Créperie again, Tower of London, and Westminster. It was amazing. I’ll let my pictures tell about those. But some funny stories from that weekend- we were getting into a subway car and as we stepped in a pigeon flew out, right at us and Darcy screamed. It got on the stop before and was trying to get out the whole time and this huge group of guys in the car were obviously watching this, anticipating it and they just died. Great.  There was a lot of accidental J. Crew matching between Darcy and I, resulting in many references to Mary-Kate and Ashley winning London.  We also took a selfie with guards at Tower of London, so I think that was a win.

View from the Eye

Changing of the Guard

Favorite Westminster Picture (sorry couldn't use cameras in most parts)

The next weekend- Belgium with my mom.  After a quick pit stop in London Friday night (and quick trip to Platform 9 ¾), we took the train to Brussels on Saturday morning. Gotta say, train is the way to travel within Europe. We left our room in the King’s Cross Renaissance Hotel, and 45 minutes later were through security and customs, had grabbed a quick breakfast, and were departing for Belgium. While there were some minor difficulties when we first got there because much less English was spoken than we expected, it all went very well.  The fries and chocolate were on par.  And waffles and beer. It was just great. And Saturday we continued on the Brugge in Belgium via train, which was an adorable little town. My mom was not pleased when I did not inform her that there were exactly 336 stairs on our ascent in a tower in the main square. I assumed she realized that since it was one of the few things in English there. It was crazy though, I knew prior to going to Belgium that it was a country created by England as a buffer state prior to WWI, and consisted of little pieces of many countries, but was unaware of how that still affected it much today.  The country is split in half by languages, half of the country (including Brugge) speaks Dutch and half of the country (including Brussels) speaks French. So it was very, very interesting. So Saturday we spent in Brussels, and I have to say the Grand Place is my favorite European square yet, it’s absolutely beautiful.  Besides that, the Royal Palace was amazing. And bizarre because there was no admission or line for a tour. You just walked in the gates, and followed the people. It was beautiful and even better because it was free and quick.

Brugge 

Brugge

My favorite part of the Grand Place

Royal Palace

Inside the Royal Palace

Now this past weekend- Dublin with Caitlin and my cousin Stephen.  It was so much fun.  We went to the Guinness Factory Saturday, which was so great.  The best beer I have ever had in my life. And one of the best lunches as well. But the first beer Caitlin and I had there we looked at each other amazed, it was so smooth that you tasted it, but didn’t even feel it go down your throat. It was just an amazing experience there. And then the next day we started our day at the Kilmainham jail, a historic jail that housed many leaders of the Irish Liberation Army. From there, we went to the Jameson Factory tour.  Very similar to the Guinness tour, just on a smaller scale.  Caitlin was chosen as one of the 6 or 7 tasters who compared Jameson triple-distilled whiskey to Scotch double-distilled whiskey to American single-distilled whiskey. 5/7 said Jameson’s was the best. And then we went to HURLING. It was unreal. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s a Gaelic sport, which we described as field hockey combined with rugby.  It is so violent.  About 7 people went down with injuries during the game.  There were 62,000 fans there so it was just a lot of fun.

Sorry no Ireland pictures yet!

So there’s my life the past few weeks! Plus a few classes, formal halls, and some punting.

Parliament, Crêpes, and Macbeth

Long one here! Sorry!! 

One of the many great things my program does is that it plans London trips throughout the weekends for us to choose 1 to go on. So I went this weekend, and everything except food and the ticket fee for a tour of Parliament was provided for. The bus there and back, the ticket itself, and a ticket to Macbeth at the Globe were provided. 

So I started at Parliament, which was unbelievable.  Absolutely beautiful.  We started at the entrance the Queen goes in when she goes for the Opening Day of Parliament each year and followed the path she takes into the House of the Lords.  The rooms were just insanely decorated in the House of the Lords, but the House of the Commons was built at a different time so was much less so. 

From there, my friends and I walked to Buckingham Palace and past Hyde Park, through the Wellington Arc.  Then we walked by Harrods to go to a Créperie that my friend remembered from 5 years ago. It was amazing. Worth the walk.  We all got a Savoury Crépe and a Sweet Crépe.  My second crépe was the best thing ever.  Berries and dark chocolate with cream on top.  Amazing.  Such happiness. 

After we returned to Harrods and yay! I didn’t get lost!  Growing up my Dad would go to London all the time and bring me back bears from Harrods so obviously I went to the bear section.  One of the ones I had is still being made.  Made me happy.  From there we walked to the Thames and along it to get us to the Globe.  We walked across the Millenium Bridge since it’s the one in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that collapses.  Thankfully it did not collapse.  And then we were at the Globe!  Considering our lunch was the only time we sat all day, the whole standing the entire play thing was not appreciated.  All of us said the only thing we could think about was how much longer we would have to be standing.  But the show was amazing.  Lady Macbeth was out of her mind, as she should be, and basically stole the show.  It was pretty cool to have the actors enter from all around us, as they entered doors at ground level in the back and walked up front to the stage.  And I was actually shocked how much of Macbeth I remembered from high school.  Brought back fond memories of my insane AP Lit teacher who had us stretch before reading so that we would wake up and get oxygen to our brains.  Athletes would lead.  She was insane.

The next big thing was our second Formal Hall Tuesday night, which was again so much fun.  We made a scene obviously when we found out the Royal Baby was born and all cheered, resulting in the entire dining hall turning to stare at us.  Whoops.  Classic though, another table started cheering 15 minutes later for the same exact reason.  Late.

            It’s also so bizarre how normal it is to drink with professors here.  The cocktail hour and the dinner is with the professors, and my Spooks and Spies professors walked over to the Kings bar with us.  Just feels weird.

So that’s that.  And as of Friday I am halfway done! Crazy!

Struggles and Busy Schedules

Sorry it’s been a while!

Life’s great- there’s a fudge shop across the street from my dorm, as well as a café that has crepes, milkshakes, and pancakes.  And there’s a candy shop across from my classes.  Not tempting at all.  No struggles here.

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been told almost everyday not to get used to the weather, it will be cold and rainy soon.  It just keeps getting hotter.  Oh the lies.

However, the hotter it gets, the more people go punting (essentially the British version of gondolas).  And punting happens in the River Cam outside my dorm, so I spend a decent amount of time laughing at the failures as people attempt to do it on their own.  The poles used to push the punts are about 12 feet tall, so there are a lot of struggles.

Last weekend I went into London Friday night for my friend from school’s birthday and that was a blast.  Seeing half of JE and 5 boys from my hometown did not freak me out at all.  But really, it was great.  And I had a really dumb moment at dinner that night- a cake came out of the kitchen and I said “Oh a cake!  Hal, we should get you a cake!”  And then the cake turned, towards us “maybe we did get you a cake…”  Whoops..

After the struggle back to Cambridge the next day I had the most delicious dinner (dessert?) ever.  A peanut butter and banana crepe.  Anyone who knows me at all knows how much I would love that.

So the next day, I had a Spooks and Spies field trip to Bletchley Park, the code-breaking center for Britain during World War II. On the way there we stopped at the Cambridge Cemetery for Americans during World War II, which was incredibly interesting.  At Bletchley Park we saw the main building which is a mansion that is just an architectural mess. The family who lived there would go on vacation and come back saying “we want this from Spain” or wherever, so just combined so many styles.  So there we saw the first computer, which was enormous.  We also saw the ENIGMA cypher machine that the German’s used, and the Bombe, which the British used to decode it.  And we saw how all of that worked which was just absolutely mind-blowing.

So that’s it.  This weekend I have a London trip to Parliament and the Shakespeare Globe for Macbeth, which should be a blast.  Then a crazy few days with another Formal Hall Monday night, Final Paper for Spooks Tuesday, and Final Exam for Spooks Friday.  Almost halfway done. 

Scotland Trip: Harry Potter and Hikes

Ah so much to get into this post and I have no idea where to start! This weekend, the program went to Scotland for 4 days and wifi was essentially unavailable.

Let’s start with some entertaining stories.  On the coach buses, the bathroom is in the center of the bus, built into the side, with stairs going down.  So where seats should be there are little stairs.  Getting on the bus the first morning, I was watching this girl and all of a sudden she disappeared and there was a crash.  She fell.  This same girl also played a claw game at a rest stop while the rest of us got food or went to the bathroom.  And she lost her phone.  Struggles.

Second entertaining story- somehow a boy in the program lost all of his suitcases. He was late to his bus and a PA (program assistant) went to go find him and started packing his stuff because he was missing and it looked like he hadn’t returned from formal hall the night before.  The PA packed his stuff in grocery bags.  Turns out the kid was at breakfast.  They pushed him to a later bus and the PA returned to his bus saying, “Homeless boy isn’t coming.”  How on earth someone loses their suitcases after arriving to Cambridge, but nothing else, is beyond me.

All right so back to true Scottish things.  After essentially an all-day bus ride we reached Edinburgh. First night was fun, not too much to report.  Second day though, we started the day hiking Arthur’s seat, this mountain(ish) that overlooks Edinburgh.  Pretty cool.  Except the peak was incredibly windy, so at one point 3 of us were literally blown backwards and had to regain our balance after stumbling over.  A bird was flying up there and literally had no control.  We watched as it was whipped around with the wind. 

From the hike, we walked down to Central Edinburgh, got lunch, and went to the Elephant House.  The Elephant House is where JK Rowling wrote much of the first Harry Potter book.  The place is practically a shrine to her.  Actually the bathrooms are legitimately.  People signed thank you all over as well as their favorite quotes.  Obviously some friends and I wrote in it.  The funniest were over the toilets of both bathrooms.  In the women’s it said “This way to the Ministry” with an arrow pointing down, and the boys said the men’s said “Tom Riddle did a piddle.”  Tons more happened after that, but typical tourist stuff.

Next day, the full day hike I signed up for.  Dunkeld Hike, which was beautiful and so peaceful.  It was less of a hike and more of a walk.  Although as one of my friends said, “I want this hike to be less of walk and more of an amble.”  We ate at a Loch, where I was one of four people to wade in the water.  It was pretty nice.  But then, the saddest thing-  A poor sheep got out of his pen and couldn’t get back in.  And he was terrified of us, but he kept running around the fence and trying to jam his body into the gate.

Then that night, we had a céidihl (pronounced KAY-LAY), which is a Scottish dance thing.  Basically they told you to get in pairs, 3s, or 4s and yelled out what to do.  It was basically a lot of “forward 2-3-4, clap, clap, back 2-3-4, and spin, and spin, and polka!!”  So that was interesting.  From there though, some friends from my hike brought me and a few other people to Greyfriars Kirk, a graveyard by the Elephant House.  Arriving after midnight, we saw the grave of “Tom Riddell, esq.”, “Moodie”, and “McGonagall”.  The supposed story with McGonagall was that he was a poet, but was pretty bad.  So after his death people would “transform” his work. 

After the graveyard, I slept 2 hours and woke up to hike Arthur’s Seat again.  I wasn’t too pleased when the kid leading my group made me scale a mountain at one point, but I’m trying to forget about that.  There were literally 100 people there for the 4:30 sunrise.  Of course it was cloudy so all you saw was a sliver of red.  But it was entertaining.  Edinburgh University had it’s grad ball the night before, and grads came still in dresses and kilts, and still quite drunk.  So that was a scene.

Ah so much! And I didn’t even include the drunk altercation with one man and his girlfriend had with a bouncer, and then the police on our way to the cemetery!