Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year!
Before I get into new years wishes and all that good stuff, i came across something in the grocery store this morning and i just had to share it with everyone.
I decided to go to the grocery store early this morning (well, early for me) to get a few things for our new years day brunch. It was unusually quiet today and I found myself wandering around the aisles enjoying the quiet. And if you know me at all, you know that I can be in a grocery store for HOURS just wandering around looking at food. Weird, I know. Anyway, I found myself wandering down the candy aisle (me in the candy aisle?? never!!) when I saw the most disturbing candy Ive ever seen. Foam Shrimp and Bananas. Yup, read it again. Foam Shrimp and Bananas. By "foam" they mean a marshmallow type candy, kind of like a circus peanut. Bananas and strawberries I can understand. Maybe I can even accept a bag of foam shrimp all by itself. Its weird but who am I to judge. But bananas AND shrimp?? What?? Couldn't they have come up with a better combo than that?? I wonder if the foam shrimp actually taste like shrimp...so gross.
Heres a picture for your viewing pleasure
Ok, back to my New Years greeting. Happy New Year to you all, I hope you have a fun and safe night of celebrating. Brian and I are keeping it fairly quiet this year. We are going out to dinner with some friends and some of their friends, and then out for a drink or two after that. Should be a good time, but nothing crazy. Certainly not like our past NYE parties...I feel a bit lost without having one this year! I miss you all!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
ps - if you get a random drunk dial from brian and I at 8 pm, please remember we are at least 5 hours ahead of you guys, its not that were lushes :)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Christmas Recap - pt 3
December 26, 2008
We decided to stick around Salzburg for our last day of vacation (we had kicked around the idea 
of going skiing all day on one of the many surrounding mountains). Feeling a bit lathargic from all of the heavy austrian food (and beer) we had been eating, we decided to get the blood pumping with a nice hike in the morning. And by "we decided" I mean Brian decided to go for a hike and drag me with him :) In front of our hotel there was a big hill, and we had seen on some of the maps that you could hike up to the top. Right off the bat I was dying, huffing and puffing the whole way up. Brian faired slightly better, and was practically running all the way to the top. We got really lucky and the clouds that brought snow on christmas day, cleared out and we had an amazing blue sky all day on friday. After our hike to the top of the hill we decided to make our way across town to the Augustiner Brewery.
of going skiing all day on one of the many surrounding mountains). Feeling a bit lathargic from all of the heavy austrian food (and beer) we had been eating, we decided to get the blood pumping with a nice hike in the morning. And by "we decided" I mean Brian decided to go for a hike and drag me with him :) In front of our hotel there was a big hill, and we had seen on some of the maps that you could hike up to the top. Right off the bat I was dying, huffing and puffing the whole way up. Brian faired slightly better, and was practically running all the way to the top. We got really lucky and the clouds that brought snow on christmas day, cleared out and we had an amazing blue sky all day on friday. After our hike to the top of the hill we decided to make our way across town to the Augustiner Brewery.The Augustiner Brewery is run by a group of monks, and they make a very fine brew. 
Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got over there, and so we had to find something to do for a couple of hours before it opened. In brians delight, this meant taking another hike. The fortress is connected along a big ridge that runs the length of Old Town in the city. We had already hiked up to the fortress, and brian was anxious to hike up the other side. It wasnt nearly as bad as the hike that we made in the morning, but it was more than enough exercise for me for one week. We managed to get panoramic views of the city from all angles on friday! Again, we got some amazing shots of the city (take a look at the link in the original recap posting). And again, without sounding too greedy, it was almost too sunny. At one point we were even using our sunglasses as filter for the camera, in order to get a better shot.
Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got over there, and so we had to find something to do for a couple of hours before it opened. In brians delight, this meant taking another hike. The fortress is connected along a big ridge that runs the length of Old Town in the city. We had already hiked up to the fortress, and brian was anxious to hike up the other side. It wasnt nearly as bad as the hike that we made in the morning, but it was more than enough exercise for me for one week. We managed to get panoramic views of the city from all angles on friday! Again, we got some amazing shots of the city (take a look at the link in the original recap posting). And again, without sounding too greedy, it was almost too sunny. At one point we were even using our sunglasses as filter for the camera, in order to get a better shot.The brewery finally opened and we made our way bank to enjoy the monks brew. There are communal tables and we met some really interesting locals...which we couldnt really talk to because we dont speak their language and they dont speak ours...but those are just details. Its a great place to see some very interesting people...I saw some *amazing* hairdos, let me tell you.
We made our way back into the old town for dinner to a traditional pub we had found the other day. It was a great way to end the trip!
I hope you guys enjoy the pictures - and I hope you had a great holiday with your friends and family!!
Christmas Recap - pt 2
Christmas Recap - pt 2
Christmas Day - December 25, 2008
For Christmas Day, we wanted to do something a little bit special, a little bit snowy, and a little bit out of town 
(since everything in town was closed all day!). We booked a Sleigh Ride tour with Panorama tours. Basically what it involved was a 2 hour bus ride up into the mountains (specifically, the alps) to a small town. here we were to have lunch, a little walk about and finish with a 2 hour sleigh ride. The reason we chose Salzburg for our christmas trip is because we figured it would be nice and snowy, and super christmasy. Well, it was christmasy but Salzburg itself was not that snowy. Once we got to Ramsau, the town where the sleigh ride was to take place, it was very snowy. They had a lot of snow on the ground and there was more coming down. It ended up snowing the whole time that we were there!
(since everything in town was closed all day!). We booked a Sleigh Ride tour with Panorama tours. Basically what it involved was a 2 hour bus ride up into the mountains (specifically, the alps) to a small town. here we were to have lunch, a little walk about and finish with a 2 hour sleigh ride. The reason we chose Salzburg for our christmas trip is because we figured it would be nice and snowy, and super christmasy. Well, it was christmasy but Salzburg itself was not that snowy. Once we got to Ramsau, the town where the sleigh ride was to take place, it was very snowy. They had a lot of snow on the ground and there was more coming down. It ended up snowing the whole time that we were there!Once we walked around the (very small) town and had a light lunch (of goulash and bread dumplings) it was finally time for our sleigh ride. We lucked out and got a great sleigh driver, Hans, who was funny and talkative, and really made the ride great! 
We started off going through the woods and then continued through the country side, passing small clusters of houses and farms. Cross country skiing is a big sport in Ramsau, so we passed a lot of the locals out on their skiis for a christmas day outting. The sleigh ride was amazing (brandy schnapps helped keep us warm), and in danger of sounding cliche and sappy, it was truly out of a story book. There was snow falling the whole time, it was really magical. The best decision we made the whole trip!
We started off going through the woods and then continued through the country side, passing small clusters of houses and farms. Cross country skiing is a big sport in Ramsau, so we passed a lot of the locals out on their skiis for a christmas day outting. The sleigh ride was amazing (brandy schnapps helped keep us warm), and in danger of sounding cliche and sappy, it was truly out of a story book. There was snow falling the whole time, it was really magical. The best decision we made the whole trip!By the time it was time to head back to Salzburg the roads were covered with a couple inches of snow. I wasnt sure the bus driver was going to be able to make it down the hairpin turns down the steep mountain, but we made it back alive! Dinner and drinks in town wrapped up the day, a very successful christmas day indeed!
Christmas Recap
Merry Christmas (a little bit belated!)
I hope you all had a nice holiday. We had an AMAZING time in Salzburg. In order to make the posts a little more bearable for you, the reader, im going to split up the posts one for each day. So, lets start with Christmas Eve.
December 24, 2008
We managed to get our flight to Salzburg without any problems or delays. We were able to check into our hotel early as well, which was a big help. We were settled just after noon, and so made our way to Old 
Town to do a little site seeing and to see the christmas markets! Now, I have been to Salzburg once before while studying abroad in Italy. It was in my top 3 trips that I took while there, so clearly I was excited to be back. Brian had never been, but I am happy to report it is now one of his favorite cities ever. We made our way across the river to the Old Town, which has most of the main sites to see, and hit up the christmas markets first. Since it was christmas eve a lot of the shops and markets were closing early, so we hit those up first. We went inside the Dom, which might be my favorite church in all of europe, and had a look around. After we bought a few christmas ornaments from the market and indulged in a couple of glasses of Gluhein (mulled wine), Brian was eager to explore the Fortress.
Town to do a little site seeing and to see the christmas markets! Now, I have been to Salzburg once before while studying abroad in Italy. It was in my top 3 trips that I took while there, so clearly I was excited to be back. Brian had never been, but I am happy to report it is now one of his favorite cities ever. We made our way across the river to the Old Town, which has most of the main sites to see, and hit up the christmas markets first. Since it was christmas eve a lot of the shops and markets were closing early, so we hit those up first. We went inside the Dom, which might be my favorite church in all of europe, and had a look around. After we bought a few christmas ornaments from the market and indulged in a couple of glasses of Gluhein (mulled wine), Brian was eager to explore the Fortress.From the pictures youll be able to see the fortress, as it sits high above 
the city. Its quite an impressive building, and offers the most amazing views of the city. Its quite a steep hike to the top, there is a railway to the top but of course we had to walk it. Once we got to the top we explored the fortress - they have a pub and a restaurant, and many many places to view the city and the alps. check out the pictures, they are amazing. we spent a couple of hours at the fortress, brian was like a kid in a candy shop up there, it was totally up his alley. The sun started to go down and the wind started to pick up, so we made our way back down into town. We had reservations at our hotel for a traditional Austrin Christmas Eve dinner. Overall it was fine, although a couple of the dishes were rather interesting. All in all, a great start to our vacation!
the city. Its quite an impressive building, and offers the most amazing views of the city. Its quite a steep hike to the top, there is a railway to the top but of course we had to walk it. Once we got to the top we explored the fortress - they have a pub and a restaurant, and many many places to view the city and the alps. check out the pictures, they are amazing. we spent a couple of hours at the fortress, brian was like a kid in a candy shop up there, it was totally up his alley. The sun started to go down and the wind started to pick up, so we made our way back down into town. We had reservations at our hotel for a traditional Austrin Christmas Eve dinner. Overall it was fine, although a couple of the dishes were rather interesting. All in all, a great start to our vacation!above is the link for the pictures...there are a lot, just warning you :)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
weekend wrap up
i hope you all had a nice weekend, and hopefully many of you are done digging out of the snow! no snow here, but hopefully Salzburg will be covered in snow when we get there on Wed. Keep your fingers crossed!
this week i finally went to Harrods for the first time. fantastic. its all decorated for christmas and even though i went 5
days before christmas the crowds werent that bad once you left the first floor. i soon discovered why. the clothes there are amazing, no doubt, but definately WAY out of my price range...maybe i should stick to Topshop :) as amazing as the clothes were, i have to say i was most impressed by (and in awe of, since i walked around the entire time with my mouth open wide) was the food hall. they have EVERYTHING you can imagine, all broken up into their own seperate rooms. they have a patisserie, a chocolate shop, a candy shop, a GELATO BAR, sushi bar, several cafes and restaurants, fruit and veggie shop, a full Krispie Kreme shop...the list goes on and on. it was awesome.brian and i went to a german christmas fair on saturday. there is a big fair set up in hyde park for the christmas season. they have a ferris wheel, rides for kids and adults, and a big german "village" with food, mulled wine, beer and shops. it was pretty cool. we had the obligitory german sausage, beer and mulled wine and then walked around a bit. since it was the saturday before christmas the place was a bit of a mad house, so we left as soon as we saw all the sites, but it was a lot of fun. a little weird to be at a christmas festival and it was 55* out...but hey, im not complaining.
We leave EARLY Wed morning for Salzburg. We have a few things on out itinerary including a traditional Austrian christmas eve dinner, a sleigh ride in the alps on christmas day, and perhaps some snow shoeing or cross country skiing. im sure ill have tons of pictures and stories to post once we return, so check back here next week!
have a wonderful and safe holiday!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
randoms
the weather was super gross the entire weekend, so we spent most of it holed up inside the apt watching tv and movies...all around a good time.
we finally booked a trip for christmas! since we wont be going home for christmas we wanted to go somewhere snowy and super traditional christmas (me, not so crazy about the snow part, but its way better than rain). we finally decided on Salzburg for our mini vacation. i have been once before, but brian has never been. we are leaving christmas eve and will be back on saturday. salzburg is supposed to be traditionally decked out for the season - christmas markets, special dinners and carols...the whole nine yards! we have a special christmas eve dinner planned and a sleigh ride for christmas day. needless to say, we are VERY excited!
i went to the royal opera house yesterday for one of their lunch time recitals. the royal opera house has a 2 year program for recent graduates (im taking opera singer\musician\dancer graduates, not your average business grad) - they spend the mornings in class, and in the afternoon they have to perform recitals for the public. their lunch time recitals are on mondays at 1pm, tickets are first come first serve and totally free. the singer was amazing, singing opera will always be a mistery to me. it was really fun, and something i will definately keep on my calendar!
i hope you guys have some fun plans for the holidays!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
christmas tree
since december started we noticed that the street markets and some flower shops had begun selling christmas trees. now brian has always had a fake tree, and i have always had a real tree for christmas. luckily (and this is the only time youll hear me say this) we dont have enough storage space to keep a fake tree, so brian agreed that we would get a real tree for christmas. while poking around the street markets we noticed that all of the "christmas trees" were really sad looking - sparse, uneven branches, usually no more than 4 or 5 feet tall...think charlie brown christmas tree but worse. and it seems like the brits are fine with these trees. now i dont know if this is because they dont farm massive national lampoon size christmas trees here in the UK, or if they just dont really care about what their christmas tree looks like. but we, were not settling for a charlie brown christmas tree.
a little online research revealed a christmas tree farm that sells their christmas trees in several locations in london. it seemed like they had a good selection judging from the pictures online, and there happened to be a selling location fairly close to our neighborhood. so sunday morning brian went to get us a christmas tree. a couple of hours after he left i hear someone struggling to get in the front door. assuming it was him with a tree i ran out to help. he had found a tree (a great tree!) but then had to walk 2 miles back to our apt with it, because the buses and cabs wouldnt pick him up with this big tree. as he says, he was that asshole walking down the busy street with a 6' christmas tree on his back knocking over everyone. god bless him. we got the tree inside and he was covered in sap - on his hands, neck, jacket, everywhere - and we had a little bit of a hard time getting the tree in the stand. but once it was up it was beautiful! make sure to cimpliment brian on the wonderful christmas tree he got the next time you talk to him :)
pictures of the decorated and undecorated tree
hooray!
last week brians brother gavin was staying with us after he finished his peace corp assignment in morocco. brian was able to take off one day and we did a little site seeing, they went to a rugby game at wembley stadium and all around we had a great week! the weather was unusually nice...not really that warm, but it has been quite sunny....which is very unusual.
our was good, watched WallE a few times (and highly recommend it) and spent a lot of time working on the apt (We are very domesiticated these days). Saturday night we went out for my friend Jess's birthday. we went to an area called Shoreditch and its just south of where we live. think lower east side. we went to a couple bars and had a great time.
This week has been busy trying to get my computer up and running. now that its back i can resume looking for jobs and things to do. i cant believe christmas is coming up so quick! we are trying to take a short holiday christmas weekend, but havent booked anything yet. it would be nice to spend christmas someplace really snowy, but it turns out most of europe will be rainy, so im scouring the alps trying to find someplace to stay for a few nights. What are your plans for christmas? new years?
hope you guys have had a nice couple of weeks, id love to hear from you!!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
moving and thanksgiving!
finally - we have furniture!! as i mentioned, last week was busy. we got our furniture delivered, internet installed, and we got cell phones! i feel connected to the world once again!
so our furniture was delivered on wed, 
and the movers wasted no time bringing in all the boxes and unpacking them right away. and by unpacking i mean taking everything out of the boxes and putting it randomly all over the floor or beds. but whatever, help is help. it was an exhausting day, and thank god brian was able to take the day off and help, but it was SO nice to see our stuff! and it seems the apt was made for our big american furniture, everything fits perfectly! we were worried about a couple of pieces not fitting, but everything managed to squeeze in.
and the movers wasted no time bringing in all the boxes and unpacking them right away. and by unpacking i mean taking everything out of the boxes and putting it randomly all over the floor or beds. but whatever, help is help. it was an exhausting day, and thank god brian was able to take the day off and help, but it was SO nice to see our stuff! and it seems the apt was made for our big american furniture, everything fits perfectly! we were worried about a couple of pieces not fitting, but everything managed to squeeze in.we had a thanksgiving party at the apt on saturday night, which helped force us to finish 
unpacking! we had a bunch of friends (ok, basically all the friends that we have here) over for dinner, i made the turkey and everyone else brought a dish to pass. i have to say - the turkey turned out well! no one died, and i got a lot of compliments! hooray!! unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of the beautiful bird before brian started hacking into it, but you can get the idea...i have to say, i have see enough of the inside of a turkey for one year. and guess what - someone brought a pumpkin pie! turns out whole foods got another shipment in, not only of canned pumpkins, but of premade pumpkin pies. so, i got my pie this year after all :)
unpacking! we had a bunch of friends (ok, basically all the friends that we have here) over for dinner, i made the turkey and everyone else brought a dish to pass. i have to say - the turkey turned out well! no one died, and i got a lot of compliments! hooray!! unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of the beautiful bird before brian started hacking into it, but you can get the idea...i have to say, i have see enough of the inside of a turkey for one year. and guess what - someone brought a pumpkin pie! turns out whole foods got another shipment in, not only of canned pumpkins, but of premade pumpkin pies. so, i got my pie this year after all :)i hope you all had a nice thanksgiving!!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
the great pumpkin search
i started my search for canned pumpkin (assuming at there wouldnt be any ready made pumpkin pie filling like there is in america, and assuming i am waaaayyy too lazy to actually boil/mash/make my own pumpkin filling) yesterday at our local grocery stores. i searched high and low and couldnt find any, though i wasnt that surprised. racking my brain of some other grocery stores, even specialty grocery stores in london i remembered that there was at least 1 Wholefoods in the city. thinking that they are an american company, perhaps they would have some canned pumpkin.
i trekked down to the west side of the city today to wholefoods. again, i searched high and low and couldnt find anything. since i had travelled out of my way i asked customer service if they had any. they assured me that they did, and i had simply over looked it (silly me!). i was led down to a big display area where the pumpkin was kept, only to find the entire shelving unit empty! after my customer service rep conferred with a coworker, it turns out that they sold out of the whole lot yesterday! they even helped me out and called the other 4 wholefoods in london to see if they had any laying around, and everyone was sold out. turns out there are more americans here celebrating thanksgiving than i thought! next year ill have to remember to stock up on pumpkin a few weeks beforehand....
until then, pecan pie here i come.
Monday, November 24, 2008
11/24 - hooray!
1. our tv was delivered today! we will only be able to watch a couple of the local channels until our cable in installed (in another 2.5 weeks, ugh) but at least we can watch those!
2. i discoverd today that british DVDs work on my computer!!!! this is big...well maybe not as big as it would have been a few weeks ago (since we have our tv now we can buy a dvd player) but up until today i didnt think that british dvds would work on my comptuer, since they are both formatted differently. my comptuers one smart cookie though and rearranged its setting to accomodate the dvd! yahoo! like i said, not as big of a deal since i can just go buy a dvd player for the tv...this information would have come in a lot more handy the past 2 weeks weve been in the apt without any tv or shows to watch....sometimes its the little things i guess :)
3. our furniture is getting delivered on WEDNESDAY!!!! two days from now i will be sitting on my couch!! and sleeping in a real bed!! and have all of my pots and pans to cook with!! im starting to feel normal again!
4. we get internet hooked up at the apt in friday!! yahoo!!!! now i wont have to go to the internet cafe anymore, i can surf the web from my own home!!! im almost crying with joy...
5. well ok, i guess thats it...oh yeah, were having a thanksgiving day party at our (newly furnished!) apt on saturday! cross your fingers i dont burn the bird...i should stock up on frozen pizza just in case....
hope you guys have a lovely week, and a great thanksgiving!!
11/22 Saturday and 11/23 Sunday - Oxford
hello! i hope you all had a nice weekend. brian and i took a last minute trip over the weekend to Oxford. and i mean last minute...we didnt secure a hotel room or get the bus tickets until friday afternoon! we left london early (and i mean the-sun-wasnt-even-up early) saturday morning and made our way to oxford. its only about an hour to an hour and a half bus ride from here, so not bad at all. we werent sure how the weather was going to turn out as there were clouds and darkness looming on the horizon...in typical english fashion. but thankfully, we ended up having a gorgeous day!
we arrived in oxford a little after 9. after a quick stop in the tourist information office to get a
couple maps, we were on our way to the first stop on our weekend get away - Blenheim Palace. It is 20 mins or so outside of Oxford and where Sir Winston Churchhill was born and raised. what a lucky bastard. the place was ENORMOUS. seriously, the pictures dont even do it justice! we got there around 10 and thank god we got there early...there just so happened to be a christmas craft fair going on in the palace grounds that weekend and by the end of the day the place was a mob scene. anyway, a little history for you...Blenheim Palace was built for the 11th Duke of Marlborough as a gift from Queen Anne when he defeated the french. it took over 30 years to build. it was declared a world heritage site in the 80s and is quite an amazing site. the palace is situated on 2100 acres of property, and although it seemed like we covered 2099 acres, im sure it was more like 20. we explored as much of the grounds as possible, without me freezing to death, and saw many of the palace gardens, waterfalls and other hidden spots.
we pretty much spent the first half of the day at the palace and then returned to oxford in the
afternoon. after a quick lunch we went on a little walking tour around town, and then checked into our hotel. a little bit about the hotel...all i can say is that our room looked like Victorian era floral prints had thrown up all over the place. not one inch was not covered in flowers or floral prints. oh, except for the brown carpet. it suited our needs just fine though, and was clean and warm (once we closed the window) so we decided to stay. we headed back into town that night for a couple of pubs and dinner. mulled wine seemed to be a favorite of the town, and i happily went along with that. over all we give oxford two thumbs up, cute town with lots of history and culture, lots of shopping and pubs. we saved some exploring to do for sunday, but woke up in the morning with remnants of snow on the ground and pouring cold rain. brian and i looked at each other and headed straight to the bus back to london. overall a fun weekend :)
pictures will be posted tomorrow...i forgot my jump drive today so i dont have them on me. but make sure you check out the blog tomorrow, the pictures of blenheim palace are amazing!
we arrived in oxford a little after 9. after a quick stop in the tourist information office to get a
couple maps, we were on our way to the first stop on our weekend get away - Blenheim Palace. It is 20 mins or so outside of Oxford and where Sir Winston Churchhill was born and raised. what a lucky bastard. the place was ENORMOUS. seriously, the pictures dont even do it justice! we got there around 10 and thank god we got there early...there just so happened to be a christmas craft fair going on in the palace grounds that weekend and by the end of the day the place was a mob scene. anyway, a little history for you...Blenheim Palace was built for the 11th Duke of Marlborough as a gift from Queen Anne when he defeated the french. it took over 30 years to build. it was declared a world heritage site in the 80s and is quite an amazing site. the palace is situated on 2100 acres of property, and although it seemed like we covered 2099 acres, im sure it was more like 20. we explored as much of the grounds as possible, without me freezing to death, and saw many of the palace gardens, waterfalls and other hidden spots.we pretty much spent the first half of the day at the palace and then returned to oxford in the
afternoon. after a quick lunch we went on a little walking tour around town, and then checked into our hotel. a little bit about the hotel...all i can say is that our room looked like Victorian era floral prints had thrown up all over the place. not one inch was not covered in flowers or floral prints. oh, except for the brown carpet. it suited our needs just fine though, and was clean and warm (once we closed the window) so we decided to stay. we headed back into town that night for a couple of pubs and dinner. mulled wine seemed to be a favorite of the town, and i happily went along with that. over all we give oxford two thumbs up, cute town with lots of history and culture, lots of shopping and pubs. we saved some exploring to do for sunday, but woke up in the morning with remnants of snow on the ground and pouring cold rain. brian and i looked at each other and headed straight to the bus back to london. overall a fun weekend :)pictures will be posted tomorrow...i forgot my jump drive today so i dont have them on me. but make sure you check out the blog tomorrow, the pictures of blenheim palace are amazing!
**UPDATED 11/28 - pictures have been added! also, click on the link below to see all of the pictures from Oxford**
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
11/19 Buckingham Palace
I woke up this morning and had quite the surprise…it was sunny out! Not London sunny, when there are still clouds roaming here and there, many of them black and ominous. It was completely 100% sunny out! I guess someone was upstairs listening to me complain yesterday :)
So, I scrapped my plans to go to the museum and chose to do a little site seeing instead, since the 
weather was so nice. Museums can wait for rainy days. I decided to make my way over to Buckingham Palace.
I got over there pretty early and since it is the middle of the week, it was fairly empty. I was able to get some great shots of the palace. I decided not to do the inside tour, again that can wait for another, darker day.
After visiting the palace I walked along the mall that heads to Trafalgar Square. I decided to cut through St. James Park on along the way, its a little more scenic than the mall. All in all it was a beautiful fall day, and even a little warm!
And on another good note, we finally know when our furniture is coming!! It will be delivered in one week, on the 26th!! Hooray!!! We are getting our new TV next week, and if all goes well tomorrow, we will have our internet hooked up by Thanksgiving. Cross your fingers for me! Since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving over here and all of our American friends have to work, we are going to have a little thanksgiving gathering over here the Saturday after. Im just glad well have all of our furniture so people don’t have to sit on the floor and eat off of paper plates :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/deliapink/BuckinghamPalace#
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
11/18 - raining again
i know i know...i moved to london, so i should get used to the rain already. ok, fine. im trying. anyway, its another cold and rainy day today. ive claimed my seet in the internet cafe for a little while trying to find a good exhibit or something else fun to do inside today.
i hope you guys had a nice weekend. we laid pretty slow friday night and saturday during the day. sat night was a different story. leave it to brian and his friends to book a reservation at a bavarian beer hall for 20 people for a saturday night. actually, its The Bavarian Beer Hall, and there only ended up being 10 of us. but still. ill include a picture or two, from those im sure you can draw your own conclusions.
i have to say though, they have quite sharp marketing skills those bavarians...conveniently displayed next to our table was a glass case full of beer glasses, hats, and other ridiculous garb...which of course seem completely necessary to own and wear after youve downed a couple liters of beer and had a few 'jager trains' (for the ride of your life...CHOO CHOO!!). dont ask. if you come to visit, we will take you there.
so far, no internet and/or cable...im starting to understand why people complain about Sky TV, BT TV and general customer service skills in this country. ill be back on the phone this afternoon pleading with both companies for someone to install cable and internet before the end of this century. hey, at least we speak the same language...i can see this type of issue being an even bigger problem/hassle to deal with in say Italy or France. speaking of which, i think ill go look at flights :)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
11/11 Big Ben and Parliament/Westminster Abbey
Hooray! Finally a break from the pouring rain and hurricane strength winds that consumed Monday. I woke up today and the sun was shining! Granted, there were still dark rain clouds looming around, but for all intensive purposes – this was a beautiful day! I spent the morning running errands – library, finally finding the post office, internet…the usual. After lunch I decided to enjoy the nice weather and take in some tourist sites. Since it was a Tuesday, I was hoping they wouldn’t be too crowded.
I took the tube to Westminster. I exited the underground and while spinning around trying to get my bearings, I found myself face to face with Big Ben. I couldn’t believe how close I was right away; it took me a minute to come out of my tourist trance. Even though the sun was out, the wind was still a force to be reckoned with and the temperature was cold, so I got right to the site seeing. I walked around Big Ben and the Parliament buildings and then headed across the street to Westminster Abbey. I didn’t go inside any of them (save that for another day), but I made sure to see them from every angle from the outside.
Since it is winter and we all know I have a low tolerance for weather below 75*, I wandered over to the Tate British Museum. It has a nice collection of artwork, mostly paintings, by British artists from the 1500s – present day. I spent a couple of hours walking around taking in some culture and then decided to call it a day.
Once I get my internet hooked up to the apt (hopefully by next week!!) I will post a link so you can view all the pics I took today…until then, these couple will have to do!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Wednesday 11/5
The reason we went to the apt though, was to see the new carpet!! Thankfully I don’t have pictures of the original, hideous sea green carpeting that was in the apt when we first saw it…you would probably throw up looking at it. But the landlord out in new, beige carpeting throughout the whole apt, it looks so much better!
Wed night we went to our friend Katie's apt for a fireworks party. Wed was Remembrance Day...i believe it was the day Parliament was bombed during WWII…and they celebrate this holiday by setting off fireworks and having bonfires and a big party. The big question was, why do they set off fireworks in the middle of the city…sometimes in the middle of apt complexes or on the street! Katies apt building has a large backyard, so all the residents built a big bonfire and set off fireworks. As you can imagine we were pretty confused, since fireworks are pretty much illegal to buy on your own in NYC, let alone be able to shoot them off in such a crowded city!! And yet here…you can buy them at the supermarket…interesting…
Windsor Castle - 11/4
So the weather didn’t turn out to be amazing when we went to Windsor Castle, but at least it didn’t rain – so we were fine with it. We took the train
from London to Windsor Castle, it was about an hour outside the city. The royal family still lives in Windsor Castle, and usually stay there on the weekends when they are in town. No sightings of the queen or the princes though…oh well, maybe next time. We took a guided tour of the outside of the grounds and then were left on our own to explore the inside. A very large, destructive fire swept through a lot of the castle in the early 90s, and much of it was destroyed. You would never had known it though, because it was fully renovated to the original décor – the furniture, paintings and flooring are all exact replicates of the items that were originally there but lost in the fire. Miraculously, a lot of the original furniture and paintings could be saved, before the fire and water were able to destroy them.
from London to Windsor Castle, it was about an hour outside the city. The royal family still lives in Windsor Castle, and usually stay there on the weekends when they are in town. No sightings of the queen or the princes though…oh well, maybe next time. We took a guided tour of the outside of the grounds and then were left on our own to explore the inside. A very large, destructive fire swept through a lot of the castle in the early 90s, and much of it was destroyed. You would never had known it though, because it was fully renovated to the original décor – the furniture, paintings and flooring are all exact replicates of the items that were originally there but lost in the fire. Miraculously, a lot of the original furniture and paintings could be saved, before the fire and water were able to destroy them.
We stayed until lunch and then made our way back to London for the evening. We went to an election night party at our friend Sarahs apartment in Islington (where we live now!). I am completely surprised at the amount of coverage that OUR election had over here. Every time we turned on the tv there was a story on about the election, or on Obama, or on McCain. I think they were paying more attention to it than some of the cities in the US were!
It was an early night though, we had to be up early the next morning to go see our new apt!
It was an early night though, we had to be up early the next morning to go see our new apt!
Monday, November 03, 2008
around town
hello!
today brian and i went to the Science Museum, we have to force ourselves to go out and do things even though the weather was gross. its hard to spend more than a couple of hours in this tiny apt without climbing up the walls. the Science Museum, for the most part, was pretty interesting. if there werent 932048392 kids there, it might have been slightly more fun. its a pretty interactive museum, which explains the high concentration of kids running around. the great thing about all of the major london museums is that they are FREE! FREE! amazing! we went to the Victoria and Albert museum last week, which has an interesting and vast collection of pretty much anything created by humans that you can imagine - from paintings, sculpture, iron works and jewelry...the list goes on and on! i am saving all of the major art museums (tate, tate modern, etc etc) until brian starts work...that way i can enjoy them without him getting bored!
we took a long walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens yesterday...we basically started out from the furthest corner away and walked through the entire thing, to end up at the corner that is closest to our apt. it is such a great park - it is absolutely HUGE, with tons of open area to run, walk, bike, ride horses, anything you can imagine! it definately seems bigger than central park..but what do i know.
we came across royal alberts hall yesterday (we have yet to go inside) quite by accident, but it was cool to see.
we came across royal alberts hall yesterday (we have yet to go inside) quite by accident, but it was cool to see. its nearing the end of autumn here in london, so we were lucky to be able to enjoy some crisp sunny weather and the changing leaves for one more afternoon.
tomorrow we are planning on going to Windsor Castle for the day, i hope the weather is nice!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
first post
hey everyone!
id like to welcome everyone to my blog - basically its just an easy way for me to update my friends and family while im over here in the UK with brian for the next couple of years. bear with me at first, im not used to this whole blogging thing. i'll be posting pictures, travel adventures and stories of our every day life while in london.
ps - here is the contraption that we have to plug the laptop into in order to get power....im sure that there is an easier way to do this, but for now - were just hoping this doesnt blow up!
id like to welcome everyone to my blog - basically its just an easy way for me to update my friends and family while im over here in the UK with brian for the next couple of years. bear with me at first, im not used to this whole blogging thing. i'll be posting pictures, travel adventures and stories of our every day life while in london.
ps - here is the contraption that we have to plug the laptop into in order to get power....im sure that there is an easier way to do this, but for now - were just hoping this doesnt blow up!
I hope you enjoy it, and please leave me feedback\comments so i know whats going on in your life as well!
*tracy
*tracy
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