LONDON:
Man alive. I just need to live there. I am seriously in LOVE with the city. GAHH! We arrived at our hotel, and we all were so tired from travelling all day (flew into Brussels and then took the Eurostar to London) we totally crashed - we had a big day ahead of us because it was the BEGINNING OF OUR ADVENTURE! We ended up taking a double decker bus tour - SO worth it. With delish Starbucks in our hands, we walked to the bus stop and awaited our amazing tour. There is so much to see in London, I was a bit overwhelmed (and I've already been there). This past semester, I got hooked on the show "The Tudors" - and am in love with Jonathon Rys Meyers and Henry Cavill - and all I could think about while we were there was "OH MY GOODNESS! I know this....They probably walked here!...." and yadda yadda and that sort of thing. I know, I'm SUPER cool. But back to the good stuff...I decided that instead of writing a full novel for each thing we saw in each country, I'm going to make lists for your sanity and mine :)
What we saw/heard on our double decker bus tour (in no particular order):
-"Mind the gap!" = the tube (our most expensive best friend)
-St. Paul's Cathedral = 365 ft tall (1 foot for every day of the year)
-over 68,000 people recorded died from the Bubonic Plague = we were in the vicinity of the square where they gathered the bodies (GROSS!)
-Thames River = 2nd longest river (?)
-Hyde Park = which used to be the royal (deer) hunting grounds...Henry the VIII was a fan
-some large marble arch near Hyde Park = was supposed to be put in front of the palace, but the queen (I think it was either Victoria or Elizabeth I) didn't like it so she had her coach made to wide to fit through the arch...so it was moved to it's current locale *When we heard this little tidbit, Celina and I both said, at the same time "Bi**h!"
-Madame Tussads = wax museum, although we didn't go in because the line was obscene
-the British Museum
-Buckingham Palace = my home away from home
-Westminster Abbey = where a lot of dead, important people are buried
-Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
-the London Eye
-Tower Bridge
-HMS Belfast
-Prince Albert's Memorial
-the Natural History Museum
-the Victoria and Albert Museum
-Harrod's = a fantastic store :)
-Harvey Nichols = Princess Di's favorite store
-the Telecom Tower = crazy looking for sure
-Trafalgar Square = it was "World Reading Day" or something to that effect - there was a bunch of press and a giant tent and mics everywhere....I don't know
-the Tower of London = once a castle turned dungeon (creepy vibes for sure)
-and so much more....
The next day we decided to go to see the "Changing of the Guards" at Buckingham Palace at 11am - we got there like 15 minutes ahead of time and were shocked to see the mass amount of people waiting already. Good lord - NOT very easy for shrimpy girls to see what is going on, but I did manage to get a few decent pics. *See below* After the procession was finished with, we moseyed on over to Westminster (and got in line just in time!) to get a tour. Wow oh wow. That building may just be my favorite thing I saw in London - it is breathtaking. Although you are not supposed to take pictures, I totally have a contraband picture of the ceiling in one of the wings - MWUAHAHA! Anywayyyy, I took some notes and here is what I have for ya:
-Henry III built the building which is now Westminster Abbey
-he became a saint after reigning for 56 years
-the coronation chair
-stolen from the Scots - captured in 1296
-first to use it was Edward I in around 1300
-it is STILL used!!!
-tomb of Queen Elizabeth I (which was absolutely gorgeous)
-Mary Tudor, her 1/2 sister is buried underneath her tomb
-Mary, Queen of Scots
-the great-granddaughter of Henry VI
-imprisoned for 19 years then executed
-her tomb is exactly opposite of Queen Elizabeth I (in another chamber though)
-Geoffrey Chaucer
-death: 1400, author of the "Canterbury Tales"
-William Shakespeare monument (wasn't buried there, just a cool monument)
-Britain's oldest door - from around 1050 (it was my size!)
-Sir Isaac Newton's monument (he is buried there)
-grave of Charles Darwin
-memorial to Winston Churchill
-and, again, SO much more...
After our visit at Westminster Abbey, we trekked it to the Tower of London and got a tour from a Beefeater (officially called Yeoman Warders) He was just the bee's knees - loud, charismatic, funny and a real charmer. I also took notes on this tour as well - I know, I'm a total nerd, but I wanted to remember.
-it was built by William I (aka William the Conquerer) around 1097
-there are 13 towers on the inside and 6 towers on the outside
-the Tower of London was a royal residence until 1603
-after it was home to the royal mint (1810)
-it was once the royal menagerie for exotic animals
-and, as we all know the Tower of London - a state prison
-there were only 6 people (3 queens) to be beheaded INSIDE, the rest were taken out of the building and over to the public square (Tower Hill) to be executed
-the original drop gate is still intact from 1303 and weighs over 1 1/2 tons --- trust me, we scurried under that REALLY fast
-Sir Isaac Newton actually lived there
-the bell tower = housing the oldest bell in London (I think) and it rung 1 hour before attacks (when it was a royal residence) and then 1 hour before an execution (when it became a state prison)
-Charles II was the one to use the ravens = old folks tale that if there were not ravens in the Tower of London, the city would crumble (or something to that effect)
-there are still ravens there, 7 to be exact (and they are HUGE!) and they can live up to 40 years old
-there are over 1,500 remains in the chapel
-only 33 were identifiable, including George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Jane Boleyn and others **Tudors obsession comes into play here
-in 1485, the Beefeaters were started
-EIIR (on their jackets): Queen Elizabeth II
After our tour, we went on a search for Kensington Palace, but the park was closed and it was dark and drizzly, so we found our way into an old pub where Celina and Tessa enjoyed a yummy dish of the classic "fish 'n chips". We were sad to say goodbye to London, but we were happy to be continuing our adventure!
'Ello there!
Harrod's!
The arch I was talking about - I rather like it :)
Entrance to Hyde Park
Trafalgar Square festivities
Hey there, Big Ben! Nice to see you again :)
The London EYE - look at the only red globe thingy!
St. Paul's Cathedral
Tower Bridge - YIIPES!
My humble abode
Procession for "Changing of the Guards"
Me in front of Westminster Abbey
In front of the Tower of London - people in Europe don't like to smile, so I wanted to fit in (this picture was after a couple of takes - it is very hard for me to keep a straight face..hahaha!)
Our tour guide
1 of 7 - he jumped off the bench and I thought he was coming for me so I ducked and screamed...the surrounding tourists thought it was quite funny; I did not!
Our friend, the tube: one last time - MIND THE GAP!
PARIS
J'aime Paris (of course said in frenchy french accent!) Wow. I was in awe of the city - after living in London (and after I catch up on my french skills) I want to live here. Gahhhh!!! You just can't feel sad in Paris - it is truly impossible. I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time we were there. We ventured around our first day while our JANKY room was getting prepared (see photo below) and ate some very delicious ravioli! After taking a much-needed nap, we walked along the Seine River - we were going to take a night bus tour (but to our dismay, there was only 1 bus instead of 2 - which the flyer said - so we just walked around). We sat down on a really pretty bridge and watched as the river tour boat's floated down the river. I definitely had a moment: I was just sitting and taking Paris in, every last drop of it and then I saw it...the Eiffel Tower, all lit up. I started crying. Dumb. But it was just so unbelievable. I have goosebumps just picturing it. The next day, we ventured back towards Notre Dame and hopped on a double decker bus tour (which was valid for 2-days....AWESOMENESS!). I attempted to speak in french to ask for a ticket and the bus driver said, with a very thick accent "Your french isn't very good." DUH HELLO, SIR! I wanted to slap him. At least I tried. Whatevs. We scurried up to the top and here are some of the things I took notes on (was very hard to pay attention when I was looking at all the beautiful things to see!!!):
-clock tower = over 600 years old (oldest public clock in Paris)
-the Egyptian monument = 3,300 YEARS OLD! Say what?!
-Opera House, "Academie Naturale de Musique"
- just over 2,000 seats and only used for ballet *there is another opera house actually used for opera
-Tessa got pooped on by a pigeon while waiting in line to go up the Eiffel Tower (LUCKILY she had her hood on!)
-TESSA AND I WENT TO THE TOP OF THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!!!!! It was absolutely the best thing I think in Paris. GORGEOUS views. I still can't even believe I was on the TOP of the Eiffel Tower. Wow. Still blows my mind.
-We liked to say "Bon jour! (Good day/hello) Bon nuit! (Good night) Bon soir! (Good night, again) Bon Qui-Qui! (SA-currrrity! - if you have to ask, just youtube it)...and we had to add in Bon Wee-Wee when Ma had a VERY close encounter with an accident...of the 'potty' nature.
-We saw the Sacre Coeur ("Sacred Heart") - was VERY close to our hostel
-We went to see the Moulin Rouge!!! Although, it was on a very provocative/sketchy street with a bunch of sex shops and such...we were VERY flustered to say the least
-the next day we went to the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery
-has over 1 MILLION graves
-including Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde
-12pm mass and Notre Dame for Ash Wednesday. It was beautiful...gorgeous (insert any other synonym here!) But the french people do NOT get ashes here...a waiter asked us where we were from and pointed to our foreheads and then someone asked if I knew I had dirt on my forehead. I try and be a good girl and go to church and get ashes...the french didn't make it easy. Sheesh.
-we ate crepes smothered in Nutella (if you don't know what Nutella is, you are a loon and need to go buy some ASAP!)
-we got into the Louvre Museum for FREE thanks to our student visas :)
-we saw the Venus de Milo statue
-the sphinx and the Egyptian exhibit --- Tessa and I walked like Egyptians (and we got a laugh out of a few museum-goers)
-and the big shabang....THE MONA LISA! (actually very small...but still incredible!)
We then left pretty early that next morning so our night was nothing too crazy. The airport was an empty GIANT room....with birds in it. Very strange. But we were on our way to PRAGUE!!!!
I know, we are SO pretty in our janky room in Paris :)
On the Seine River our first night
It's kind of blurry, but that is the Eiffel Tower - my first sight of it! *Yes, this is when I cried.
The Egyptian monument that is over 3,000 years old!
My love.
My second love.
A really pretty building that I can't remember the name of...
EIFFEL TOWER TIME!
In front of my favorite "building" ever.
A church I believe...?
Parking scene in the Pink Panther - end of story.
Me and my girls in front of the Arc de Triomphe
The first stop on the Eiffel Tower :)
ON THE TOP OF THE WORLD!
When we came down, it was all lit up :)
Tourist in front of Notre Dame
The second day on our tour bus
Love locks. An old accordion player. The Seine River. Doesn't get much better than that.
The Sacre Coeur
Moulin Rouge, baby!
James Douglas Morrison
Oscar Wilde
Beautiful stained glass inside the Notre Dame (on Ash Wednesday)
Ma, me and Tessa with "dirt" on our foreheads
Another Pink Panther reference: DEMBURGAAAAH!
Bon WEE-WEE :)
In front of the Louvre
Venus de Milo
Me and the Mona Lisa!
Walk like an Egyptian!!
PRAGUE:
An awesome city with some crazy-amazing food. Also, a city with a VERY strange sounding language. It's pretty much sounds such as grunting and things like that - so we fit right in with our own "language" of noises and sounds. [But, it was kind of nice not knowing what people were saying around us - it was like we were in our own world.] When we figured out where our hostel was, we trekked it over there and I was in desperate need of a nap, so we got in contact with Celina's friend, Jen, who is studying there and decided on a meeting place and time. After a very nice rest, we met with Jen at the train station, which was a bit difficult to navigate through. But we found her and we were off to explore the city of Praha! We saw the giant/beautiful museum, we ate fried cheese from a street vendor (and it was DELISH!), we walked through "old town" where we stumbled upon a fair in the courtyard - more awesome food/drink, we ventured through the courtyard and saw the church and the clock tower, the big bridge leading to the palace - which literally looked like a Disney fairytale!!!! - then we headed to a cutesy bar to have a traditional Prague beer, then we hit up the BEST mexican restaurant EVER. It was to die for. I love food. And in Santiago, their food is definitely lacking in flavor, so this was an amazing change of pace :)
The next day, we set out to meet our tour guide Jen, who took us on another trek around the city! We ate some more deliciously flavorful food at the fair that was still going on, then we walked over the river to the castle and ventured around there for a while, taking in all the amazing views and architecture (the City of Spires...or something to that effect - there were so many pointy things on top of buildings!), we walked along the river and hung out with some swans (I was definitely freaking out because of my fear of birds!), the "dancing" buildings - top 10 interesting buildings in the world or somewhere in that ballpark, the Loreta (which we think was a church, but you had to pay to get in so we decided against it), and we also saw the John Lennon Wall, which was awesome. Jen said that since she had been there last, new quotes/things had been added. I signed the wall, but the pen was not meant to write on paint, so I think it disappeared, but whatevs. Goodness gracious. Praha (czech)/Praga (spanish) is an amazing place and if I ever have the chance to get back there (maybe with my parents to show them around - as it is my Daddy's dream city!), I would absolutely love it. I'm sad that we were only there for 2 days, but at least we were there. Gahhhh!!! I can just picture all the pretty sights and taste the yummy, flavor-blasted goodness as I'm reminiscing.
We ended up taking an over-night train to Krakow, Poland. Well...that was just plain FUNNY!
A pretty building in Praha
CASH MONEY :)
The museum
The clock tower - the designer of this clock had his eyes plucked, by the king's request, so he could not make another clock like this...sheesh!
Fairy tale church
Ma and me enjoying our hot wine
The bridge!
Ma and our wonderful tour guide, Jen at the yummy mexican restaurant
Margarita and Sol - what more can you ask for :)
A blacksmith just chillin' at the fair
Mmmmm smoked cheese on bread!
Kabobs
Tessa, Ma and me with the "guard" on the bridge - "shifty eyes"
Touching the dog's butt for good luck!
Ma, Tessa and me with the lovely Praha as our backdrop
The girls!
The John Lennon Wall - awesomeness in its purist form
Peace, man.
The palace!
Hardcore statues
Oh, hello friend!
A gorgeous church near the palace
FRIENDS! They walk funny.
Look at all those spikes - it seriously looked like a spider web
Tourist shot
The beautiful city
Mmm Pilsner.
Gorgeous.
Me in front of the dancing buildings
Feed the birds...the very LARGE birds
POLAND:
Let me begin with the overnight train experience first, then we shall move on. Well, we had to retrieve our belongings from the hostel around 7pm, so after we just went to the train station and chilled there for a while since our train wasn't boarding until around 9:30 or so. There was a Sephora in the train station and we about died - for those of you who don't know, it is a GIANT and beautiful cosmetics store, which we like to venture into and spray ourselves with yummy smell-goods (usually man-scented) - and the 2 security guards who were in there (one on the opposite end of the store from the other) were talking about us on their walky-talkies. They were super cool...NOT. Anyway, after we sprayed ourselves with smell-goods, we were just waiting for our platform number so we could get on our way to POLAND! While waiting, this super oober creepy, BEYOND drunk man comes up to us as we were laughing and starts laughing with us and then attempts to speak to us and we were just staring at him because a) he was a creep, b) we had no idea what he was saying. Ew. Just gross. So he really wouldn't leave us alone and then finally he walked away, but dude was just staring at us from another part of the train station - and naturally we were all FREAKING out. So I went into Sephora to see if the lovely cops could escort us to our platform, but by the time I hunted down the only person who spoke english to translate for me, he was long gone, thank the Lord in Heaven. We finally got to our platform and had to ask directions to our car because we did not have the slightest clue what was the front and what was the end of the train. But, we got to our car and the cute little train-man (who reminded us of the conductor in the Polar Express) showed us to our room. Boy was it going to be a very cozy night for us. There was a triple-decker bunk-bed, so Ma got the bottom, Tessa got the top (which allowed for her feet to dangle since it was a bit shorter than the rest...) and I was in the middle. Let me tell you it was a VERY difficult task to get into my bed because I had to leap off the ladder in order to swing myself into the bed...but I succeeded. It was also very scary because there were some abrupt stops and lots of bumps before and after the stops...and there was only a TINY little bar that was supposed to hold me in the bed. Needless to say I slept as close to the wall as I could. Our cute conductor-man came and woke us up when we were close to Krakow. Wow oh wow were we pretty that morning. We took a taxi to our hostel, the Deco Hostel to be exact and checked in. The guy working the desk (who Ma and Tessa named my boyfriend) mentioned we were early....like 5 times - we KNOW. Just let us into our room. We walked up the 3-flights of stairs and arrived at "La Cabaret" - oh boy was it a beaut (see photos if you don't believe me). After putting our bags upstairs, we ate breakfast and arranged for a tour of Auschwitz - a bus would come pick us up at the hostel, take us to Auschwitz and Birkenau (both concentration camps), we would have an english tour and it would take us back to the hostel when the tours were over.
Both these camps were mind-blowing. You could just feel the energy there - just spirits and such (bad joo-joo as my family would say). It's so calm, yet there was so much unrest. I don't really know how to explain it except it was weird and eerie. Also, it really erks me to no end when there are people that say that the Holocaust didn't actually happen - I saw the ashes of one of the victims; I saw the photos of the people when the entered the camp (and, if they were lucky, when they were rescued); I saw the crematoriums and the execution wall. HOW can someone think this did not exist?! It truly boggles my mind.
Here are some facts that I learned along the way:
-at Auschwitz, there were about 30,000 shoes found
-less than 10% of the SS guards were prosecuted (so they got away with their wretched doings. God knows what you did!!!)
-there were experiments performed on children - absurd!
-Cyclone B was the poison used in the gas chambers
-the "gyno" tested things to try and sterilize the Jewish women
-at first, the camp took pictures of the prisoners - but after a few weeks, they couldn't tell who was who (because of the definite lack of food and over working), so that's when they started tattooing numbers on people
-at Birkenau, the wooden barracks (shipped from Germany) were to have held 52 horses...but there, housed 400-800 men
-on the other side of Birkenau in the brick barracks were the women and children (the bricks were taken from houses that the SS destroyed in order to build Birkenau)
-the railroad track just ends at Birkenau (next to the 2 used-to-be crematoriums)
*The pictures can tell you a lot more than I can.
It truly was an exceptional experience to visit Auschwitz - I studied it a little, but I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that I would actually have the privilege to actually SEE it. Absolutely incredible. There truly are no words to describe it...so here are some pictures to help me:
Our sleeper-train from Prague to Krakow :)
Enjoying a Buvar to calm my nerves
My Polish boyfriend bringing us the keys to "La Cabaret"
"La Cabaret" aka The Love Lair (yes, that is a pink feahter-boa on the left)
The entrance to Auschwitz - "Abreit Macht Frei" (Work makes one free)
Love and remembrance for 36377
All the towns that were linked into Auschwitz
Nauseating.
The hundreds of glasses that were found
These are crutches, false legs, wheel chairs, etc. that were found as well
Some of the 30,000 shoes found
The execution wall
The electric barbed-wire fences
Ashes of a prisoner (in gas chamber)
Crematorium
A group of Catholic nuns at Auschwitz
Birkenau
The barracks that were meant for 52 horses, yet housed 400-800 men (each bed would have 4-8 people sharing, with one measly "blanket")
The remnants of a gas chamber and crematorium
There are 22 of these - one for each language that was spoken by the prisoners at Birkenau
The end of the tracks...
Cool sculpture on the railway
On a lighter note - my sour kraut and mushroom perogies with carmalized onion on top - YUM!
Tessa ready to go back to Santi
The end our of fabulous journey...
I seriously cannot believe that this adventure happened. Gahh!!! It was absoultely INCREDIBLE and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel (with some pretty amazing company, I might add!) around Europe.
"...Kid, you'll move mountains!
So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!"
...And that is just what I'm going to do. I'm going to move mountains. So my adventure is not over - I just turned the page. Watch out world, Olivia Catherine Young is coming and you better be ready :)
