The Strike

April 2, 2010 - En Route to Paris

What a journey this has been! I went to bed early last night so waking up this morning at 4:40 wasn't too horribly painful. I took an early tub to Embankment station where I was picked up by the tour company International Friends at 6:20. There was some initial confusion when it was discovered that I wasn't on the passenger list for some reason. I was so thankful that my mom has always stressed being prepared because I had printed off and brought my confirmation e-mail of my booking. They let me on the coach finally and we pressed on. I was extremely happy to not have to share my seat on the coach and snoozed a bit on my way to Dover, where we were to board the ferry.

Things were going fairly uneventually in Dover as we boarded the ferry. We did board a bit later than expected but it was a normal, relaxing journey until it was announced that SeaFrance (our ferry operator) was now on strike. The engines seemed to shut off and we came to a standstill. Everyone on board just kind of nervously looked around at one another. They told us that it would be 15 minutes until we were in port in Calais, France. At this point, we were sitting right next to shore. Two hours later, they said it would be 30 minutes before they found out if we were going to get a port or if we were going back to Dover. Surely they can't just leave us out in the English Channel right? Wrong! We ended up being on the ferry for a total of six hours! They gave us sausages and chips (fries) which was nearly a riot in itself of people just grabbing whatever they wanted from the food area.

We did finally make it off though and I've never been so happy to be on a coach! It did mess up our plans a bit since we can't do the boat cruise tonight but I really am just happy that we didn't get turned around to Dover. Soemtimes I think France just doesn't want me here. : )

Valetine's Day Weekend in Paris: Day 3

For my last day in Paris, I went on a three and a half hour walking tour of the city. Since it was Valentine's Day, I definitely did not want to spent it alone so it was nice to be with a group and make some friends! I went with the same tour guide that I had the first night when I went on the tour of Montmartre. Prior to the tour, I went to a French restaurant where I had a croque-monsieur, salad, and a glass of wine (hey, it was cheaper than the water, why not?). The tour itself was a lot of fun and extremely interesting. Here are some highlights from the tour itself, again the rest of the pictures are on Facebook.

A view from the middle of the street looking down towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Looking off a bridge down to the River Seine.

The Notre Dame with our tour guide, Alex.

Me standing in front of the Louvre!

The Mona Lisa

The Winged Victory (I think)

The Venus de Milo!

Overall, my trip to Paris was absolutely wonderful. The atmosphere there is definitely completely different than here in London which was something to get used to but I now know for when I go back what the better expect. I met a lot of cool people and will actually be meeting up with a girl I met through this trip while I'm there over Easter break. The journey back to London felt a lot longer than the trip to Paris. I had to take the tube from the station back to my flat and I can honestly say I have never been happier to see my roommates than I was this night. I have become a lot more thankful for the little family we've created here since it's a nice cushion to fall back on. I looove London. : )

Valentine's Day Weekend in Paris: Day 2: My Pilgrimmage

On my second day in Paris, I decided to go to Disneyland Paris. If you are reading this, it's very likely you already know about my Disney obsession so this should come as no surprise to you at all. Considering Disney is basically my religion, this was very much a pilgrimage I was obliged to make. While it was extremely cold, icy, and snowy while I was there, I still had a great time. I was in Disney! How could I not?

There was some sort of party-theme going on throughout the park which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of balloons and welcoming signs that showed this theme, as shown in the picture below:

The entrance to Disneyland Paris was a lot different than at Walt Disney World in that it was actually a hotel that made up the entrance. I can't even imagine the awesome views that some of these rooms must have. I mean to actually be able to see into Disneyland after it closes?! I would be in absolute heaven. Here is the entrance/hotel:

After going through the entrance, you're dropped off at the point where you need to collect a map and park schedule. I had forgotten that I was actually in France until this point when I grabbed the standard map and realized it was completely in French. I put it back and made my way towards the international map section where I happily got my map in English. I walked through the final gates and was greeted by Main Street USA and this wonder:

I realized quickly that I just simply love Disney castles in general. I have a preference for Cinderella Castle but I will really take a Disney castle any day over pretty much anything else. I was amazed by how familiar the park was feeling to me but this feeling was going to fade fast. I made my way towards what I thought was the Indiana Jones roller coaster they have and instead showed up at Pirates of the Caribbean. Since I had wanted to ride this anyway, I went ahead and rode it. I was amazed that there were two large drops in this version! There was also a noticeable absence of Johnny Depp which was quick unfortunate. This version was different, not better or worse, just different! It still had the same feel as the one in Florida though which is all that really matters. I then wandered around the park for awhile in search of the Indiana Jones ride and finally gave into the fact that I was going to have to regress in my Disney park skills and just use the darn map. I used the map and was successfully at the Indiana Jones ride within 10 minutes. The ride itself was pretty anticlimactic, lasting a whole 60 seconds but looked pretty cool anyway so at least I can say that I did it.

I had lunch at Casey's, a hot dog diner that they also have at Disney World. These were not the same hot dogs though. They prided themselves on serving an American hot dog but if we made hot dogs this great I might eat a lot more of them. The hot dogs were served on freshly made buns with tons of cheese (and mayo on the side? I requested ketchup...). The best part was that all of the other tourists there with me used a fork and knife to eat it! At this point, I had a bit of cultural nervousness. I mean, these people came to an American-owned theme park to an American hot dog joint, so should I conform and eat how they were eating or just show it how it's really eaten in America? I tried to be brave and just eat it with my fingers but after some small children started staring at how messy I was being, I decided to just go ahead and use the fork and knife. That afternoon, there was a token Disney parade that I basically just blacked out through from the enjoyment. Here is one of the pictures that I did manage to take, of the Mary Poppins float. I was so excited because Big Ben was on it!

After the parade, I was extremely cold so made my way to a bakery where I got a free hot chocolate and a Mickey brioche. I hadn't ever heard of a brioche of any kind prior to this so didn't know what I was in for. It was this wonderful sweet roll (in the shape of Mickey of course) with chocolate icing inside it. It was absolutely heavenly. After this, I wandered around the park taking in as many rides as I could and even stumbled upon the Black Pearl, albeit frozen in the water.

I then finished out my day in the Studios, the second park. It had a lot of different rides than at any of the other parks so was a lot of fun. There was a coaster from Finding Nemo about riding the EAC with Crush that I seriously want them to bring to Florida! It was awesome. There were also some very French attractions - such as Animagique and Cinemagique. Very fun and very different.
Overall, I really enjoyed my day here and didn't regret at all taking a day out of the normal Paris sightseeing routine to see it. It was interesting to see just how prevalent Disney is everywhere - even in Europe! I loved this day and was totally relaxed upon leaving.

Valentine's Day Weekend in Paris! Day 1

I know this is a little overdue but better late than never right! This is about my long weekend spent in Paris, France.

I left London from St. Pancras International train station on the Eurostar - which is the high-speed train that goes through the chunnel under the English Channel. It was only a little over two hours so it was a pretty enjoyable journey. I decided to go with a tour company and I was glad that I did because I ended up meeting a lot of people that were there with me! I was seated next to Ricardo who was a student from Mexico studying English in the UK. He was a little exhausting to talk to though because he was very eager to practice his English. I, on the other hand, was very eager to get some sleep!

When we arrived in Paris, our tour manager led us to the coach that would be taking us on a panoramic tour of the city. It was really exciting to see everything that I only hazily remembered from my last trip to Paris. The city is laid out so much differently from London so it was great to be constantly reminded of where I was. The best part was that we took a photo stop so I could take a picture with this gem:

Yep, that's me with the Eiffel Tower! No matter how many times I saw it while I was there, it would still make me stop and take a deep breath everytime. It was truly breathtaking! After the panoramic tour, we got checked into our hotel in Paris. I was paired up with a woman from Australia to room with. This all sounded fine until we walked into our room and it was literally two twin beds pushed together - with no room to seperate them! She ended up being very nice thank goodness or that would have been a couple of awkward nights!

View from my hotel room

I was planning on going on an organized tour of Montmartre that evening but had a couple of hours to kill so I decided to hit up a supermarket to get some of my favorite Paris snacks! I got enough cookies for a whole kindergarten class and headed out for my tour. The tour guide was absolutely hilarious and extremely informative as to what we were seeing. I've taken a few tours with this company and I've yet to be at all disappointed. Here are some pictures from my tour and . The rest are on Facebook if you want to check those out.

The Moulin Rouge

Me holding the guy who is stuck in the wall's hand

The Sacre Couer (and Alex the tour guide)

Um, well...I'm an American.

I had an interesting experience on the tube ride home tonight. My school organized an outing to a West End (like NYC's Broadway) show, The Lion King, for the night. It was absolutely amazing and so pretty! Anyway, when the show let out, we all funnelled towards the tube station so it was madly busy. We finally got packed onto the train and I was somehow separated from the other girl I was with on the opposite end of the car because I had made a beeline for the only available seat! I've learned quickly here that you don't pause to think about getting a seat - if you want one, you go for it. The only exception is if someone obviously needs the seat - a child, pregnant woman, elder, you get the picture.

So we had been on the move for a bit when I noticed a very loud young American woman describing her work day in detail to her English friend. She was complaining about her boss, former boss, co-workers, you name it - and very personal stuff about these people. It's useful here to note that the English never talk on the tube. They could ride together with the same person for years and never actually speak. Seriously. So this would be comparable to someone having this conversation at a library or during a church service. You just don't do it. I hear people muttering around me and kind of join in the eye rolling with the group of men and women around me. The man next to me mutters "Damn Americans" at which point, for some crazy patriotic reason, I felt I had to identify myself. I looked at him sheepishly and whispered "Well...I'm an American." He looks at me, starts laughing, then whispers back "Me too." I am not kidding you, the whole crowd of people around me were actually Americans that self-identified very quickly! Of course it would be Americans actually complaining about someone being rude - the English just sit and politely bear it. We all had a good laugh - coupled with a good stare and laugh from the English around us, and went about our night. It was so unexpected but funny to kind of learn about the American culture so unexpectedly. Very cool night. : ) Plus I'm all packed for and off to Paris in the morning - can't get any better than that!

My trip to Scotland

This past weekend, I took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland with a couple of friends I've made in London. It was absolutely amazing and I totally did not want to leave at the end of the weekend. The journey to Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-bra) took a little over four hours but we had absolutely beautiful views. We went past the ocean on the way there which was entirely unexpected but so cool. There were huge rocky cliffs next to the ocean and even an old, ancient looking home of some sort. Super cool to see!

On Friday, we arrived a little after noon so set off to check in at our hostel. Since I had never really been to a hostel before, I was a little bit nervous about what I might find. However, it was extremely cosy and comfortable - almost moreso than my flat in London! It was set up like a home, with a kitchen and living room with comfy couches downstairs. We grabbed a late lunch at The Elephant Cafe - which was were J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher here in the UK) Stone! She sat at this window in the cafe all day with a cup of tea to write. After eating there, it was simple to see where she got her inspiration for the book. From the window she sat at, you could see the castle up on a rocky cliff, a fancy school (thought to be the inspiration for Hogwarts), and a cemetary (from which she got many of her characters' names, including Tom Riddle!). I had a yummy jerk chicken stromboli and huge cup of coffee. It was heaven. : ) We wandered around the town a bit just getting our bearings and exploring what it had to offer. We spent over an hour in a quaint bookshop then went to a pub for a bit. The night in the hostel was pretty uneventful and warm. This may not sound like a huge thing but since they turn the heat off in our London flat at nice, it was wonderful.

The next day, we had to meet at 7:50 for our Loch Ness tour. We admittedly didn't do a lot of research so we didn't realize until we got there that this was literally a 12-hour tour! It was awesome though. We travelled through the Highlands of Scotland, which are these huge, majestic mountains. I never have thought of myself to be an avid nature fan but after this trip, I'm seriously reconsidering this. It was so pretty! We stopped many places along the four-hour journey to Loch Ness, including Glencoe, which may be the prettiest place I have ever been. I got motion sick pretty bad going through the mountain roads but finally made it to Loch Ness. We were given a picnic lunch and sent off through the town. I had a ham and tomato sandwich, an apple, a bottle of water, and pickled onion crisps (chips). They were the most horrible flavor of chip I have ever had and left a lingering taste for quite awhile. I'm still trying to figure out if people seriously buy that flavor for enjoyment or just to mess with tourists. After lunch, we took a cruise of Loch Ness. The boat we rode in was fitted with all sorts of sonar machines so we could detect the Loch Ness monster, Nessie, herself! While we didn't see anything too crazy, our tour guide absolutely believes that Nessie exists. He had a picture of something that looked very dinosaur (and very Photoshopped) that he claimed he took two years ago. He was mildly crazy but quite entertaining at the same time. After the cruise, we started back towards Edinburgh and then stopped along the way for supper in a small village. I had the best, freshest fish and chips of my life and then enjoyed the trip back.

Saturday evening, we had planned to take a pub crawl with a tour company we always take free tours with. We showed up and they wouldn't accept our student cards as proper ID! Considering that the drinking age here is only 18, I thought this was a little bit ridiculous. So we continued onward and found ourselves our own happening pub to spend the evening at. I should note that right now the 6 nations rugby tournament is happening and Sunday happened to be Scotland v. France - in Edinburgh. The French were out in full force and we met some very interesting characters in the pub. It was hilarious and one of the best nights out I've ever had.

On Sunday we were thoroughly depressed it was our last day so we went for a late breakfast at The Elephant Cafe again. Breakfast was just as good as lunch had been so we left pretty happy. At 1 p.m., we took a free tour of the city which was very informative and interesting. We left a little bit early so we would have time to grab supper then make our 5:30 train back to London.

Arriving back in London was kind of bittersweet and I'm still left feeling a little sad about being back. I love London but the hustle and bustle is so much more noticeable now after spending a weekend away in peaceful Scotland. It was nice though to have my own food, shower, and bed though. Plus I am going away again this weekend to beautiful Paris so I won't even be here very long, which is kind of strange. I've been here in London for almost a month now and am still just so excited and in awe that I get to experience this all! I'm definitely enjoying ever second of it.

(Also, I don't know if I will be able to put up very many pictures within the blog itself because I have pretty stringent bandwidth restrictions at my flat but I will put up a lot on Facebook later today!)

But dear, you do realize that you can’t get a train here to Cardiff?

On Friday, I made my very first train trip in London and it was quite an adventure! My destination was Cardiff, Wales with a plan to leave from Victoria Station (which is a ten minute walk from my flat) by 8:30. I got to the station at about 7:45 so thought I would have plenty of time. A nice older gentleman activated my rail pass for me and asked where I was going. I told him I was planning on going to Cardiff and he spoke to me for about five-ten minutes about how wonderful the city is, what to see, and so on. As I turned to walk away, he said “But dear, you do realize that you can’t get a train here to Cardiff?” Ughh nope definitely didn’t realize that one! He continued being his absolutely un-English self and was very helpful. He gave me a number to call to check for train times in case I couldn’t figure it out and sent me off with the numbers of two busses that I could catch to get to Paddington Station, where the trains would leave for Cardiff. This was my first experience on a bus here in London (yes, it was double decker) and it actually worked out quite well.

I got to Paddington Station and went to check the board to see which platform I would be leaving from. I noticed the Cardiff train but it didn’t have a platform number listed so I went up to the Paddington counter and asked why the board didn’t say which platform was for Cardiff, since the train was departing in less than 15 minutes! This man, in typical English way, snuffed “Well of course it doesn’t, they’re not ready to board yet!” Ah, okay, thanks a bunch for you help! Hmphf. I went back out and stood like an idiot looking up at the board with a massive group until the platform number for Cardiff popped up. Then the scene turned into something very reminiscent of the running of the bulls. Since seats aren’t assigned, everyone scrambled to try to get the forward facing seats. I grabbed mine quickly and the journey to Cardiff began.

The scenery on the way there was absolutely gorgeous. I obviously don’t see countryside in London so simple things like fields of grass were extremely nice to see. The journey took about two hours and I really enjoyed the time to myself. I read a newspaper, caught up on some of my school reading, and just watched the scenery going by.

I got to Cardiff and proceeded to eat lunch at the Prince of Wales pub. I got fish and chips with a cup of tea for under 5 pounds! Considering just getting fish and chips here in London is 7 pounds, this was quite a steal. I then went to Cardiff Castle, where I spent my day. I started on the self-led audio tour and made it through about one-fourth of the castle walls when it started to absolutely pour. I hurriedly made my way to the welcome center at the front of the castle where I watched a film about the castle’s history. It was a very slow day in Cardiff so I was the only one in the huge theater watching the film. After that, I went and ordered a cup of tea from the café. I don’t know if I just looked miserable from the rain/air conditioning combo but the server gave me the whole pot of tea which was wholly appreciated by this point! I then went on my guided tour and spent the rest of the day exploring the castle. It was one of my favorite days here thus far!

On Saturday, one of my roommates Betsy and I went to La Perla, a Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden. I have discovered I can make it through life without burgers but I need my Mexican. After dinner, the rest of our roommates came to meet us and we headed to Camden Town for a night out on the town. We went to a club called Underworld, which was literally under the pub called World’s End. It was amazing and a real cultural experience as everyone there were locals! They dance very differently here which was something to get used to but a really great time! I also experienced a night bus for the first time since the tube shuts down around midnight. It was largely uneventful but entertaining.

London has been really great. I keep waiting for things to slow down or to get tired of buzzing about but I absolutely have loved everything so far. My roommates and other people on the Missouri-London Program are extremely friendly and energetic which is way helpful to being comfortable here so far from home. Tomorrow I am going on a Harry Potter walking tour of London and then this weekend I am going to Edinburgh, Scotland with one of my roommates and another friend we’ve made here. Then the weekend after I am going to Paris! I am so lucky and so grateful for everything. : )

Walking through the streets of Cardiff - you can see the castle in the distance.

Cardiff Castle's keep in the middle of the courtyard

Inside the apartments (palace) of Cardiff Castle - this was the entertaining room

Cardiff Castle through the small forest

The front of the castle and entrance/exit.