Where the Harry Potter hall was.... grrr
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Oxford
There was a day trip planned through school to go to Oxford one Saturday a couple weeks ago!! I jumped on that bus and got to go see where all the smartie pants studied..
First thing learned- Oxford is not just one school. Oxford is the town where a bunch of different smart schools are located. Each school offers all the same majors; one school does not specialize in one area, which I find quite weird. It must be hard for the students applying to decide which school to go to since all of them offer everything... very peculiar to me.
Right when we got there, our tour guide, who was graduate student at one of the school warned us that we really really really need to be careful of bikers. They are very dangerous and many people have gotten seriously hurt when they weren't paying attention. Great one more thing to have to worry about when crossing the street... bikers. I instantly became worried about my well-being.
We walked around the town, viewing all the different schools for an hour or two. It was yet again a GORGEOUS day.. actually quite hot. I definitely dressed to warm for the adventure. Our guide was kind of odd though. When she would try to explain things, she hesitated a lot and she really didn't seem to know what she was talking about. Which is yet again odd considering she attends one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I zoned her out half way through the trip when she couldn't remember what the name for an arch was.
The last time we made was to the famous Harry Potter dining all. Yes, the dining hall that is in the Harry Potter movies is in Oxford. But did we see it, NOOOOOOO. It was under construction that day. The one day out of the whole year it was under maintenance. You would think that since we were going through the school they would have warned us or known that it was not opened that day. After learning this, EVERYONE was furious. That was really the only thing I was interested in seeing and it was shut downnnn.
The next 4 hours we had to ourselves. A group of 10 or so of us got lunch at a cute little pub on the river. It was lovely and the sun was sooo wonderful. Unfortunately when I got home later that night, I discovered that have of my face only was enjoying the sun... I was two faced: burnt on one half and pale on the other. Attractive I know.
We walked around for quite awhile after our long, lovely lunch. Happened to come across an Alice in Wonderland shop. (Meg is OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland, we always joke about how she is like Alice) Ended up spending quite some time in that store with the rabbit....
Then we went to a church tower, climbed the top and saw a wonderful panoramic view of the glorious Oxford willage. Our guide lady also informed us that we COULD NOT by any means go on the grass. TRuly, I have never seen such well-kept, green, short grass in my life. Luke and I wanted so badly to step on, but were nervous that there was an alarm system or something on it that would get us in trouble. Anyways, from the tower view it looked even better! We were able to refrain ourselves, luckily and made it the whole day without going on it.
Our last stop was a famous pub that many famousssss people hang out.... wish I remembered the name of it but I will figure that out and get back to ya. It was a very cozy, relaxed setting and I could definitely see some celebs hanging, sipping on some drinks at that place.
First thing learned- Oxford is not just one school. Oxford is the town where a bunch of different smart schools are located. Each school offers all the same majors; one school does not specialize in one area, which I find quite weird. It must be hard for the students applying to decide which school to go to since all of them offer everything... very peculiar to me.
Right when we got there, our tour guide, who was graduate student at one of the school warned us that we really really really need to be careful of bikers. They are very dangerous and many people have gotten seriously hurt when they weren't paying attention. Great one more thing to have to worry about when crossing the street... bikers. I instantly became worried about my well-being.
We walked around the town, viewing all the different schools for an hour or two. It was yet again a GORGEOUS day.. actually quite hot. I definitely dressed to warm for the adventure. Our guide was kind of odd though. When she would try to explain things, she hesitated a lot and she really didn't seem to know what she was talking about. Which is yet again odd considering she attends one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I zoned her out half way through the trip when she couldn't remember what the name for an arch was.
The last time we made was to the famous Harry Potter dining all. Yes, the dining hall that is in the Harry Potter movies is in Oxford. But did we see it, NOOOOOOO. It was under construction that day. The one day out of the whole year it was under maintenance. You would think that since we were going through the school they would have warned us or known that it was not opened that day. After learning this, EVERYONE was furious. That was really the only thing I was interested in seeing and it was shut downnnn.
The next 4 hours we had to ourselves. A group of 10 or so of us got lunch at a cute little pub on the river. It was lovely and the sun was sooo wonderful. Unfortunately when I got home later that night, I discovered that have of my face only was enjoying the sun... I was two faced: burnt on one half and pale on the other. Attractive I know.
We walked around for quite awhile after our long, lovely lunch. Happened to come across an Alice in Wonderland shop. (Meg is OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland, we always joke about how she is like Alice) Ended up spending quite some time in that store with the rabbit....
Then we went to a church tower, climbed the top and saw a wonderful panoramic view of the glorious Oxford willage. Our guide lady also informed us that we COULD NOT by any means go on the grass. TRuly, I have never seen such well-kept, green, short grass in my life. Luke and I wanted so badly to step on, but were nervous that there was an alarm system or something on it that would get us in trouble. Anyways, from the tower view it looked even better! We were able to refrain ourselves, luckily and made it the whole day without going on it.
Our last stop was a famous pub that many famousssss people hang out.... wish I remembered the name of it but I will figure that out and get back to ya. It was a very cozy, relaxed setting and I could definitely see some celebs hanging, sipping on some drinks at that place.
panoramic view!
Wimbledon
Considering the weather has also been super nice, we are able to do other activities besides going to the park that are touristy. One day a couple weeks ago Luke, Lain and I took the tube alllllll the way until you could not go anymore at the WIMBLEDON stop. We walked around the area surrounding where the tennis matches were for about an hour. Wimbledon is a suburban area, which I really like. Being in the city has been very eventful, but seeing houses and parks was really comforting and made me really excited to go home.
Weather was sooooo beautifulll. Wimbledon also is not as big slash exciting as I thought it would be... still AWESOME to see though. Saw the scoreboard of all the people who had won. ALSO, as we walked out of the courts... there were other courts next to wimbledon. There were little kids playing that we stoppped to watch. Kids were crazy goooood. Working to go next to door to the big courts Forrr Suree.
Weather was sooooo beautifulll. Wimbledon also is not as big slash exciting as I thought it would be... still AWESOME to see though. Saw the scoreboard of all the people who had won. ALSO, as we walked out of the courts... there were other courts next to wimbledon. There were little kids playing that we stoppped to watch. Kids were crazy goooood. Working to go next to door to the big courts Forrr Suree.
Good Life
Ever since we got back from Prague, the weather has be UNBELIEVABLE!! It has made it sooo hard to stay inside and do school work. Most of our days are spent at the Kensington Park, a couple blocks away from our campus. We either do homework there and bring blankets, take a stroll in the park or mainly kick the soccer ball around. It has been so much fun getting a bunch of us in our program who have or haven't played soccer to try to juggle or play pick-up soccer games. Also since the weather has been nice, one of our housing directors, Thomas (who is by the way is the cutest English Man I have met since being here) anyways, he's in his late 20s maybe early 30s and has organized pick up soccer games for every Friday afternoon. He sends emails out early in the week so everyone in the program who wants to can join in the park to play soccer. Literally it has been so amazing and so much fun. SO much fun. It has made me really miss soccer though but that's okay because I can actually play now without my knee hurting!
A couple weeks ago, only a few of us showed up to play Friday. Instead of playing 6 on 6 or 7 on 7 like we had played in previous weeks, we only had enough to do 3 v 3..... thus a lot of running. It was also extremely hot that day. Got a sweet tan actually. That's besides the point...afterwards, we decided to go jump in the pond that was located in the middle of the park. Many people thought we were crazy. When I said it was hot, I was talking like 60, 65 degrees. When we jumped into the pond, people started to take pictures of us. In the pond, there are little row boats you can rent as well so people rowing by also snapped some shots of us as well. The water was BEYOND freezing. I had jumped in with my tshirt and shorts and when I got out I was soaking wet, with nothing to dry off with. Making the truck home made me resent jumping in.
One afternoon, instead of playing soccer, we decided to throw a baseball and frisbee. There was a group of probably 6 or 8 of us in a huge circle right near the pond tossing the ball and frisbee. You had to be on your toes because you had to watch for the frisbee and baseball. I freaked out one time when the ball was thrown to me and then a second later the frisbee was thrown to me too that I accidentally chucked the baseball into the pond. The ball had landed just far enough into the pond where you it was arm distance away, almost reachable but not quite. It was a the tip of our fingers. This kid Tyler almost fell trying to reach for it. We didn't know how deep the water was so we literally had a line of the 6 of us holding arms to dip Tyler over the pond to try and grab the ball. Yet again, people surrounding the pond took pictures of the stupid American kids trying to get a baseball out of the pond. They probably just didn't understand why the baseball was that important to us, considering they don't have baseball in the UK.
A couple weeks ago, only a few of us showed up to play Friday. Instead of playing 6 on 6 or 7 on 7 like we had played in previous weeks, we only had enough to do 3 v 3..... thus a lot of running. It was also extremely hot that day. Got a sweet tan actually. That's besides the point...afterwards, we decided to go jump in the pond that was located in the middle of the park. Many people thought we were crazy. When I said it was hot, I was talking like 60, 65 degrees. When we jumped into the pond, people started to take pictures of us. In the pond, there are little row boats you can rent as well so people rowing by also snapped some shots of us as well. The water was BEYOND freezing. I had jumped in with my tshirt and shorts and when I got out I was soaking wet, with nothing to dry off with. Making the truck home made me resent jumping in.
One afternoon, instead of playing soccer, we decided to throw a baseball and frisbee. There was a group of probably 6 or 8 of us in a huge circle right near the pond tossing the ball and frisbee. You had to be on your toes because you had to watch for the frisbee and baseball. I freaked out one time when the ball was thrown to me and then a second later the frisbee was thrown to me too that I accidentally chucked the baseball into the pond. The ball had landed just far enough into the pond where you it was arm distance away, almost reachable but not quite. It was a the tip of our fingers. This kid Tyler almost fell trying to reach for it. We didn't know how deep the water was so we literally had a line of the 6 of us holding arms to dip Tyler over the pond to try and grab the ball. Yet again, people surrounding the pond took pictures of the stupid American kids trying to get a baseball out of the pond. They probably just didn't understand why the baseball was that important to us, considering they don't have baseball in the UK.
doing hw in the park the basball
prague continued....
Alright sooooo next morning... snuck out of the room in hopes of NOT seeing our not so friendly roomie. They served breakfast at the hostel, which was very convenient so naturally we consumed as much free food as we could possibly intake.
After stuffing our faces with bowls, and bowls of cereal we went on a hunt to find Lauren. She had landed early early in the morning and was wandering around the city trying to find us. We finally ran into her hours after the hunt started. Just a little tid bit, there are approximately 4 different clock tower churches in Prague... all on different corners of the city. yessss
Since it was Easter, in the main square there were little stands of food and people selling trinkets all over. There were also decorations for easter, with easter eggs in the trees and little people dressed up as bunnies. Along with food, people were selling KAVA!!!!!!! I was amazed to see signs for kava all over! (remember kava is the polish word for coffee). Thus I was advertised everywhere, and thus felt pretty special of my heritage right then. Another reason why I loved Prague so much. I was constantly reminded of myself everywhere I turned and able to smile every time I saw a sign for coffee.
It was a nice day that day so we decided the best way to see all the sites was a free walking tour. Free is always better too. Our tour guide was pretty hilarious. He had a weird sense of humor and was extremely animated so it made the tour pretty entertaining. We walked around for literally three hours, which was great but sooo sooo long and we were dead afterwards, considering we did not get a lot of sleep the night before because of our roommate situation....
Went back to the lovely hostel and took a quick cat nap before our adventurous pub crawl. I have a friend studying abroad in Prague and she said the best thing to do at night in Prague is go on a pub crawl because then you can experience many places in just one night. Took her advice and it was a complete success. We went to three different pubs and then a club to the end the night off. Yet again met soooo many people from all over. One group of kids were actually study abroad students as well studying in Spain. Other then them, they were mainly young adults in their 20s from Ireland, Australia, Portugal, China.... that is about all I can remember. Mostly people from Australia though. We met a lot of different groups of people from Australia, ironically.
Since we booked our hostel only a couple days before we arrived in Prague, the hotel didn't have room for all four of us to be in the same room each night. We were all placed in different rooms with random people. Of course, the four of us were too scared to sleep by ourselves that we paired up and bunked in each others rooms. I slept with Lauren in one room and Bree and Meg slept in another room. There were no issues that morning, thankfully. When Lauren and I woke up we went into Meg and Bree's hostel room to see the kind of people they were rooming with. Surprise, surprise that there were three boys from Australia and another older lady from Australia. These boys were SOOOO SOO funny. We sat in the hostel room for over two hours talking to these mates. They were telling us hilarious stories about there experiences in Europe and giving us some of the hot songs in Australia. Ironically again we discovered that the boys were just in Prague for the holiday and were currently living in Noting Hill, London.... the town right next to Kensington.... small small world it is. But the holiday they were here for was not the Easter holiday. It was Sports Day in Australia. That was the holiday they were here for. I guess in Australia they have a full day of just constant sporting events. It was their favorite holiday of the whooolllllleeee year. There plan was to go to an Australian pub alll day and night and watch the events. Us girls were not really into watching sporting events all day while we were in Prague so we decided we would meet up with them later that night at the pub to end the holiday off.
Our plan for the day was to do a spider bike tour. We saw advertising for an eight-person bike tour while we were on a hunt to find Lauren the morning before. It was a beautiful day so we were determined to find this spider vehicle.
The streets in Prague are very very confusing. They were so small, and all intertwined that it made it hard for tourist to get around. Luckily, we had tour guide Meg figured out the maze and led us to our destination.
The bike was SOOO BIZARRE. It was shaped in a circle with eight little mini bikes around the circle. It's hard to describe but all in all we looked soo silly. As we were riding down the streets, people could not stop staring. I felt like a celebrity with all the pictures that were taken of us.... apparently the spider bike is not used that often so people were in awe when we traveled through the city on it. Our tour guide was pretty excited about it and he appreciated us advertising his bike and tour company.
After the tour, we went to the clock tower church that was right behind out hostel. We climbed to the top to get a panoramic view of the entire city. It was crazy how all the building tops had the same red roofs. At the stoke of every hour, a little man toots a little horn. He plays a little song from the tower top and people crowd around to listen to him do his performance. We happened to be up there on the hour so saw him playing his song.
Dinner time came around pretty fast. We went to the oldest cellar in Prague that was underground. There was a little banjo band playing in the dark cellar as we ate our huge portions of food. Pretty coool.... then we promised the Australians we would stop by the pub to see how the events were going. It was a pretty small pub and we were so tired from the night before that we were literally planning on stopping in, say hello and peace out to go to bed. This was not the case at all. The boys made us try the Australian drink.. rum and coke before we left. We only had one drink and clearly they had way more cus they kept on buying us more and more and more. haha. I don't know why but they were so entertaining and sooo much fun. The pub was playing Australian music and every time one of their favorite songs came on, they jumped up on either the bar or table to do some sort of dance and sing to the music. Luckily, they had made friends with the owner earlier on in the night, so he was completely fine with three, pretty big boys dancing all over his tables. Only once out of many many attempts did they manage to drag us up on to the table with them.
Next day, we shopped a little more at the easter square celebration and bought some souvenirs. After that we walked all the way to the river to the famous Charles Bridge to hike up the hill to see the Prague Castle. Yet again we witnessed a wonderful view of the city.... went to bed soon afterand woke up early and flew home back to London.
Last european trip, and it was a great way to end it. Exhausted from traveling, that's for sure.
After stuffing our faces with bowls, and bowls of cereal we went on a hunt to find Lauren. She had landed early early in the morning and was wandering around the city trying to find us. We finally ran into her hours after the hunt started. Just a little tid bit, there are approximately 4 different clock tower churches in Prague... all on different corners of the city. yessss
Since it was Easter, in the main square there were little stands of food and people selling trinkets all over. There were also decorations for easter, with easter eggs in the trees and little people dressed up as bunnies. Along with food, people were selling KAVA!!!!!!! I was amazed to see signs for kava all over! (remember kava is the polish word for coffee). Thus I was advertised everywhere, and thus felt pretty special of my heritage right then. Another reason why I loved Prague so much. I was constantly reminded of myself everywhere I turned and able to smile every time I saw a sign for coffee.
It was a nice day that day so we decided the best way to see all the sites was a free walking tour. Free is always better too. Our tour guide was pretty hilarious. He had a weird sense of humor and was extremely animated so it made the tour pretty entertaining. We walked around for literally three hours, which was great but sooo sooo long and we were dead afterwards, considering we did not get a lot of sleep the night before because of our roommate situation....
Went back to the lovely hostel and took a quick cat nap before our adventurous pub crawl. I have a friend studying abroad in Prague and she said the best thing to do at night in Prague is go on a pub crawl because then you can experience many places in just one night. Took her advice and it was a complete success. We went to three different pubs and then a club to the end the night off. Yet again met soooo many people from all over. One group of kids were actually study abroad students as well studying in Spain. Other then them, they were mainly young adults in their 20s from Ireland, Australia, Portugal, China.... that is about all I can remember. Mostly people from Australia though. We met a lot of different groups of people from Australia, ironically.
Since we booked our hostel only a couple days before we arrived in Prague, the hotel didn't have room for all four of us to be in the same room each night. We were all placed in different rooms with random people. Of course, the four of us were too scared to sleep by ourselves that we paired up and bunked in each others rooms. I slept with Lauren in one room and Bree and Meg slept in another room. There were no issues that morning, thankfully. When Lauren and I woke up we went into Meg and Bree's hostel room to see the kind of people they were rooming with. Surprise, surprise that there were three boys from Australia and another older lady from Australia. These boys were SOOOO SOO funny. We sat in the hostel room for over two hours talking to these mates. They were telling us hilarious stories about there experiences in Europe and giving us some of the hot songs in Australia. Ironically again we discovered that the boys were just in Prague for the holiday and were currently living in Noting Hill, London.... the town right next to Kensington.... small small world it is. But the holiday they were here for was not the Easter holiday. It was Sports Day in Australia. That was the holiday they were here for. I guess in Australia they have a full day of just constant sporting events. It was their favorite holiday of the whooolllllleeee year. There plan was to go to an Australian pub alll day and night and watch the events. Us girls were not really into watching sporting events all day while we were in Prague so we decided we would meet up with them later that night at the pub to end the holiday off.
Our plan for the day was to do a spider bike tour. We saw advertising for an eight-person bike tour while we were on a hunt to find Lauren the morning before. It was a beautiful day so we were determined to find this spider vehicle.
The streets in Prague are very very confusing. They were so small, and all intertwined that it made it hard for tourist to get around. Luckily, we had tour guide Meg figured out the maze and led us to our destination.
The bike was SOOO BIZARRE. It was shaped in a circle with eight little mini bikes around the circle. It's hard to describe but all in all we looked soo silly. As we were riding down the streets, people could not stop staring. I felt like a celebrity with all the pictures that were taken of us.... apparently the spider bike is not used that often so people were in awe when we traveled through the city on it. Our tour guide was pretty excited about it and he appreciated us advertising his bike and tour company.
After the tour, we went to the clock tower church that was right behind out hostel. We climbed to the top to get a panoramic view of the entire city. It was crazy how all the building tops had the same red roofs. At the stoke of every hour, a little man toots a little horn. He plays a little song from the tower top and people crowd around to listen to him do his performance. We happened to be up there on the hour so saw him playing his song.
Dinner time came around pretty fast. We went to the oldest cellar in Prague that was underground. There was a little banjo band playing in the dark cellar as we ate our huge portions of food. Pretty coool.... then we promised the Australians we would stop by the pub to see how the events were going. It was a pretty small pub and we were so tired from the night before that we were literally planning on stopping in, say hello and peace out to go to bed. This was not the case at all. The boys made us try the Australian drink.. rum and coke before we left. We only had one drink and clearly they had way more cus they kept on buying us more and more and more. haha. I don't know why but they were so entertaining and sooo much fun. The pub was playing Australian music and every time one of their favorite songs came on, they jumped up on either the bar or table to do some sort of dance and sing to the music. Luckily, they had made friends with the owner earlier on in the night, so he was completely fine with three, pretty big boys dancing all over his tables. Only once out of many many attempts did they manage to drag us up on to the table with them.
Next day, we shopped a little more at the easter square celebration and bought some souvenirs. After that we walked all the way to the river to the famous Charles Bridge to hike up the hill to see the Prague Castle. Yet again we witnessed a wonderful view of the city.... went to bed soon afterand woke up early and flew home back to London.
Last european trip, and it was a great way to end it. Exhausted from traveling, that's for sure.
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