The Best Sight in All of Europe

One thing I absolutely hate is leaving a story only half-finished. So now I must apologize for becoming so wrapped up in my life back at home that I’ve nearly forgotten to recount my biggest and last month of European travel. I actually started this blog post back in March, but never quite found the time to finish it. So here begins another retrospective blog post that I started writing near the beginning of the year and am finally finishing today.

From the end of March 2008…

After fifteen amazing weeks in Europe, my greatest fear is that I'll get lost in my busy schedule back here in the States and forget to finish this blog. To give you an idea of where I am now, I have been back in the U.S. for four months and am gradually readjusting to American life. Before I delve too deeply into the quirks of moving home after a semester abroad, I'd like to finish my travel stories and eventually end with the bittersweet finale of my final flight back to Cincinnati. So bear with me as I organize my memories and recount my last month in Europe (which contained the bulk of my travels, ironically).

And so begins the story of the best sight in all of Europe...

After finishing our last day of classes on Friday, November 16th, Bill and I began frantically packing for separate trips in which we would part ways for the first time since arriving in Britain a few months earlier. Bill was leaving that night to catch a bus to Paris with a large group of Surrey students eager to enjoy a few days in Disneyland. An avid fan of animation, Bill was excited to see the European version of America's "happiest place on earth". Though I must admit that the Disneyland trip seemed like a lot of fun, the timing worked out perfectly for me to shoot off on my own two-week excursion around other areas of Europe. Treating Bill to a cup of tea before he left Guildford, I finished my packing and checked into bed early to find a few hours of sleep before waking up to an even earlier morning.

Waking well before dawn on Saturday morning, I was filled with a rush of excitement as I caught the 6 a.m. train from Guildford to London. With final exams only two weeks away, I settled into a window seat and began looking through a few Enzymology notes as the train began its early morning trek through Surrey.

Before I continue on about my solo trip to London, I'd like to take a brief moment to comment on the British train system and how I managed to hitch a free ride that would've normally cost me around $30. There are three main ways that you can purchase a train ticket in England. During normal business hours at major rail stations (like the one in Guildford), you would normally buy your ticket at a ticket booth, scan the ticket to reach the platforms, and be required to show your ticket to the train attendant sometime during your trip. At times when the ticket booths are closed, some stations have automated ticket machines that will print tickets as long as you provide a credit or debit card. If you're running late (as I was that Saturday morning) and the ticket booths have not opened yet for the day, you can hop on a train and pay the attendant as they pass through the passenger cars. Lucky for me, passenger trains are sometimes short-staffed on early weekend mornings and late at night. Running to catch the 6 o’clock train to London, I managed to hop on the train just as the doors were closing when I realized that I had forgotten to buy a ticket at the automated ticket machine. Planning to pay an attendant for my train fare, I scanned the aisles for ticket collector fully expecting to buy a ticket as he passed through my car. Waiting and waiting, I was surprised to reach London with not once seeing an attendant aboard the train. Shouldering my bags at the final train stop, I eventually gave up looking for an attendant and thought to myself, “Well, I guess that’s one way to hitchhike to London!”

“Why London?” you might be asking. Despite several trips to England’s capital city, there remained one sight that I had yet to see. Though not a landmark or famous theatrical show, I had planned to arrive in London a few hours early so as not to miss my “favorite sight” debut. Leaving the London train station, I found a comfortable tea shop and settled into a comfortable chair with a cup of hot chocolate, a croissant, and my well-worn Enzymology notes. While trying to cram the chymotrypsin cascade into my already over-flowing brain, I had to fight myself from glancing at my watch every ten minutes or so. By 8 o’clock the line at the tea counter began to grow as Brits and foreigners alike sauntered around the tables with morning beverage and Saturday newspaper in hand. Slowly sipping my hot chocolate, I forced myself to study until eventually giving up on my notes around a quarter ‘til nine. Packing up my study supplies, I decided to meander to my destination and wait patiently near the gate with several other early morning travelers. Many were gathered near the schedule board, but I merely shifted my bag from shoulder to shoulder while glancing impatiently at my watch every few seconds or so.

“Oh how I wish time would pass more quickly!” I thought to myself. Almost at that moment, I glanced up at the schedule board and saw the good news that I had been waiting to see.

“LANDED: 9:35 a.m.” flashed across the left side of the screen. From that point, my anticipation and impatience grew as I stood near the arrival gate. “Where could he be?” I asked myself. “I really hope that U.K. customs aren’t holding him up.”

After what seemed like an eternity, my favorite site in Europe walked through the airport gate. With big blue eyes, sandy hair, and a happy dimpled grin on his face, I was nearly jumping up and down to catch his attention.

“CRAIG!” I yelled while waving to catch his eye.

“Why, hello there,” he beamed while pulling me in for a big hug and quick kiss. “You’re a sight for sore eyes!”

For me, the best sight abroad was a special face from home.

Back into Blogging

Deepest apologies for my month-long blogging sabbatical... December proved to be a bit busier than I had expected. Ironically, my most amazing European stories are those that I've haven't even written yet. Needless to say, I have a ton of catching up to do!

Before anyone gets too confused with where I have been for the past month and where I am now, let me bring you up to speed with my latest travel happenings.

Oh dear, where should I start...

I last left off with stories from my whirlwind weekend in Munich, Germany... which now brings me to a short day trip in Windsor, England.

Merely three days after returning from Germany, Bill and I met up with several other exchange students and our international adviser, Christina Ehlers, for a field trip to Windsor Castle located approximately one hour from the University of Surrey. As the largest inhabited castle in Europe, Windsor Castle is a treat for people of all types (e.g. history buffs, art fanatics, people who just love big buildings, etc.), which made it a perfect destination for our internationally diverse student group.

Starting with a quick walk around the outside of the castle before dusk, we snapped pictures of the sturdy stone walls before beginning our tour of the interior. Having toured nearly every major palace in Europe, I quickly saw the similarities between Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. With ornate gold leaf walls and elegant furniture, Windsor Castle is distinctly British. Originally built in 1070, Windsor has undergone several renovations since its earliest wooden beams were commissioned by William the Conqueror. Though many of the stone foundations presently remain, the castle has been understandably outfitted with all of the modern necessities. (Honestly, does anyone expect the queen to live in the Middle Ages??)

Our tour of Windsor Castle began with an exhibit of Queen Mary's doll house. Queen Mary's cousin, Princess Marie Louise, commissioned a doll house to be built as a present to her aunt. Working with one of the area's top architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Princess Marie requested that the house be built and furnished with only miniature functional items. As you can probably imagine, this project quickly became one of the most extravagant of its time. Famous artists and various craftsmen contributed miniature paintings, furniture, and gadgets for the doll house. Even readable books where typed and bound at one-twelfth their normal size in order to fit on the bookshelves of the house. The doll house was also equipped with modern plumbing and electricity. While marveling at the creativity and ingenuity of the miniature palace, one outrageous thought popped into my head, "I wonder if they can shrink me down to a twelfth of my normal size to check out the wine collection in the cellar..."

Moving from the doll house exhibit, I stepped into a small royal art gallery to view a few pieces of Her Majesty's collection. Though not as large as most art museums, I was incredibly impressed with the plethora of notebook sketches scribbled by Leonardo DaVinci. Besides being an avid fan of the master painter, Da Vinci was much more than a mere artist. In his notebook sketches, his mind seemed to flit from thought to thought much like a child with ADD. In one corner, he may have sketched out facial expressions for the Virgin Mary in his painting "Virgin of the Rocks". While another corner will have schematics for his latest Rube Goldberg invention, and the margins have notes on human anatomy. It's virtually impossible to decipher what Da Vinci was thinking on a particular day because no notebook page seems to follow a specific theme. Looking back, I guess this is probably the best example of "creative thinking".

As much as I despise restoration and redecoration of historic homes and buildings (it destroys the historical integrity of the building), I must admit that there are exceptions and some events at Windsor Castle provide an understandable excuse to re-do a few of the queen's chambers. In 1992, a fire ravaged through the queen's private rooms and quickly spread throughout the castle. After fifteen hours of dousing the castle walls with water, the dying flames revealed nine completely destroyed rooms and over 100 other rooms damaged by the fire. Of course, like any other monarchy, the royal family was determined to refurbish their home to its original grandeur. General public dislike for the British monarchy, however, required them to be a bit creative with funding for the reconstruction project. Though it might sound odd to us Americans, the British have no great love for kings and queens -- particularly the Windsors. The biggest complaint is that they aren't even British. (Yes, it's true. The royal family has a primarily German heritage.) The second biggest complaint is that they are expensive for taxpayers to support. (Would you be willing to give money to an already wealthy family so that they can wine and dine with world leaders?) Facing a large amount of opposition, the royal family needed a way to fund the rebuilding of Windsor castle without using tax dollars. So what would any other European do to raise a bit of fast cash? Open a tourist attraction! Yes indeed, Queen Elizabeth opened the state rooms of Buckingham Palace to tourists and used the admission fees to rebuild her weekend home in Windsor. Though the royal family is taking blatant advantage of unsuspecting tourists, the reconstruction of Windsor Castle took only 5 years to complete and the damaged rooms look as good as new.

Upon leaving our audio-guided tour of the castle, we stepped outside just in time to catch the slightly ceremonial "changing of the guard" on the castle grounds. Though I truly doubt that anyone would be dumb enough to raid the queen's favorite weekend hideaway, I'm sure it's probably good to ensure security nonetheless. With this in mind, have you ever heard the phrase, "Some men are just compensating for something"? This was our exact reaction while watching the guards march from one end of the courtyard to the other. The changing of the guard happens something like this:

Three guards march in perfect synchronization from the guardhouse to their posts along the castle gate. One guard shouts commands while the other two follow silently to the castle gate.

The irony of this situation was that the two silent guards were of average height while the "commanding" guard was the loudest, most annoying shrimp that I've ever seen in my life. Reaching only 5 foot 5 inches in height, he shouted louder and louder as we rolled to the ground laughing at his tiny size. To make matters worse, we pushed Bill (who is well over 6 feet tall) to the forefront of the group so that we could snap a picture of the tiny commander next to a much larger giant. ;)

Noticing our great amusement over the ceremonial guards, an older guardsman approached our group and laughingly asked, "Are there by any chance a few Americans in this group?" Not quite knowing where he was heading with his question, we reluctantly admitted to hailing from the U.S. of A. "Are any of you from Boston?" he asked. Thankfully, we could honestly shake our heads and breath of sigh of relief. "It always amazes me," he continued, "how schools in your country can teach American history when the U.S. is slightly over 200 years old. To us, that is practically current news! So as you can imagine, we've hardly forgotten a little "tea party" in Boston that occurred just a few centuries ago. Now that you've lived in the United Kingdom, I would like to ask you one question. Why would you waste such great tea?" (After becoming a complete tea addict while in England, I must admit that he has a good point...)

After a few hours at the castle, the rest of our evening in Windsor was a nice relaxing chance to browse through the picturesque town and spend some time with our international friends. Though Christina (our adviser) is technically a German citizen, she has lived in England long enough to point us to the best tea and chocolate shops in the southern U.K. Stepping into a shop entitled "Whittards of Chelsea", I was surrounded by some of the best gourmet teas and hot chocolate mixes that I had yet to find in England. Splurging a bit on English breakfast tea and coconut hot chocolate mix, I made myself a promise to visit the company's store in Guildford to stock up on teabags before flying back to the States.

As night began to fall and people became anxious to get back to campus to start studying for exams, we loaded back into the bus and headed back to Guildford. Though Windsor was a only a short trip, it was a great chance to see one last British town before taking off on a three-week tour of Paris, Belgium, and Rome. I had a great time and am incredibly thankful to Christina Ehlers for putting together this incredibly fun field trip!

Finally Back in Guildford!

Whew! I'm finally back in the U.K. after a whirlwind European tour!!

To put everything in the simplest possible terms, I'm pooped...

In two weeks, I traveled from London to Paris to Brussels to Bruges (also in Belgium) then back to Brussels and back to Paris then back to London and flew to Rome and then a train to Pompeii via Naples and back to Rome and got stuck in Rome and couldn't leave Rome and realized that this was a trip that refused to end before finally arriving safely back in England this afternoon.

(dramatic sigh)

So...

I have a million crazy stories to tell!

From massive transportation strikes to kamikaze tour groups, I now have enough material to fill this blog for months. So if you were worried that my blog entries would suddenly end after arriving back in the States, YOU'RE IN LUCK! Since I have final exams this week, there's no way that I'll be able to re-cap all of my travel adventures while trying to cram random facts into my head. Therefore, I'm planning to post pictures and blog posts gradually over the next month whenever I can find time to work on my websites. (Christmas break will be a great chance for me to catch up on some blogging...)

So keep checking back for travel stories and definitely view my European pictures for a quick preview of future blog posts.

Stay tuned for updates!

Ciao!

Back to London for Round Two!

Hello again from Paris!

Craig and I decided to leave France for a few days during the public transportation strike and travel to Belgium. Belgium is positively enchanting! After splurging a bit on the world's most amazing chocolates and finest lace, we headed back to Paris to catch a view from the Eiffel Tower and the famous palace at Versailles.

Loving both Paris and Belgium, Craig and I are now flying back to London for the last day of our European tour together.

On Sunday, Bill is meeting me in London before flying off to Rome. I've been so incredibly busy with country-hopping that I will eventually look forward to returning home to the States in a few weeks for a little Christmas relaxation!

Cheers!

Bonjour from Paris!

Bonjour!

Just wanted to post a quick note to say hello from Paris! (I love free hotel internet...)

To catch the Americans up on current European events, the entire Paris public transportation system has been on strike for weeks, which means that the entire city has been without subway trains and buses for most of the month. Thankfully, Craig and I have found our way around the city on foot without any problems.

Despite common stereotypes, Craig and I have found the French to be incredibly friendly and Paris is absolutely wonderful.

Tomorrow, we are taking a train to Belgium for chocolate, beer, and lace.

Stay tuned for small updates on my grand finalè tour of Europe!

Au revoir!

A Short Blogging Sabbatical

Don't be alarmed by the title of this blog post! The stories don't end here! There is so much left to tell!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a short break from blogging due to a 13-day tour of Europe. Beginning with England, I am meeting Craig (my incredible boyfriend) tomorrow in London for a few comfortable days of touring before flying off to Paris. After touring France's capital city, we're hitching a high-speed train to Belgium for a few relaxing days in Brussels and Bruges. Hopping back on the train, we're backtracking to Paris before catching a later flight back to London.

Making sure that Craig grabs his flight back to the States, Bill is meeting me in London to re-group before flying for a 5-day vacation in Rome, Italy. From there, who knows were we may end up!

Add in a much-needed entry on the highlights of my recent visit to Windsor Castle, and you'll have more than enough to read over the weeks when I get back to the U.K.!

So bear with me over the next 2 weeks, and I promise that you'll hear plenty of stories about my giant tour of Europe. In the meantime, leave a comment or send me a few lines via email!

Cheers! :)

Munich, Germany: Ich Liebe Deutschland! (Part 3)

Not wanting to leave you on a such a sad note in my Munich-trip-recap, I do have one final story to tell... about planes.

Feeling slightly smug that we had caught our flight to Germany without any glitches, Bill and I thought that we had finally mastered the art of flying across Europe... well, at least that's what we thought. The German subway system is an ingenious work of technology that is actually quite well-planned and easy to follow -- if you know what you're doing. Knowing which line we needed to grab in order to bring ourselves back to the Munich airport, Bill and I felt no stress about catching our flight since we had allowed ourselves plenty of time to arrive at the airport before check-in. Unfortunately, we made two fatal mistakes. The first was hopping on the right train going in the wrong direction. The second was not realizing that we were traveling directly away from the airport until we were 20 minutes outside the city. (YIKES!)

When it finally hit me that we were traveling in the wrong direction, I frantically told Bill that we needed to jump off at the next stop and wait for the next train heading back into the city. Waiting anxiously for the next train to arrive 15 minutes later, I watched minutes tick away on my watch as we began the hour-long trek back towards the airport. Feeling completely defeated by my inability to read German subway signs, I had begun to accept the fact that Bill and I were going to miss our flight back to the U.K.

By some miracle of high-speed German subway technology, however, we arrived at the Munich airport just 10 minutes before the check-in ticket counter was scheduled to close for our flight. Dashing across the large airport, Bill and I darted left and right without ever completely knowing where we were supposed to go. By the grace of fate, I spotted the EasyJet ticket kiosk with just a few minutes left before boarding. Expecting long lines at the customs gates and security checkpoints, Bill and I grabbed our boarding passes and ran to the metal detectors. Surprisingly, there were no lines! Thinking that our boarding gate would be located remotely far from the customs officials, I briefly thanked the customs officer as I dashed to the gates only to discover that I only needed to walk 20 feet to my waiting area. Such amazing luck!! Ironically, Bill and I arrived at the airport only 10 minutes before boarding was scheduled to begin, and we still managed to grab a few minutes to catch our breath before passengers were allowed to board the plane.

The best lesson that I have learned from this nerve-wrecking experience is:

People plan. God laughs.