Picture Synopsis

For those of you not on Facebook, here is a link to an album with the best pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42419&l=8318c&id=731281502

Day 33: We are on a Perpendicular Street and One Cannot Paddleboat Alone

Rosie:

Today we entered back in to the English speaking world. We woke up and had our second home-cooked breakfast. Delicious. Karen made us eggs in this really cool pan with holes in it. Sarah and I, being engineers, tried to figure it out. There were basically no problems getting to the Chunnel and the ride was pretty short, probably because we slept.

Once we got off of the train we visited platform 9 and 3/4. It was fun but I feel like they could have done a better job with it. The only attraction was an empty shopping cart that was partially sticking out of the wall. We then had to take the Underground to Victoria’s station. The prices were kind of outrageous. A single subway ride was $8. Anyway, after paying way too much for the short ride, they were charging way too much for luggage storage. Sarah and I decided to carry ours, but Corinne payed to keep hers there.

Our first destination was Harrod’s because I remembered going to the Harrod’s in Knightsbridge with my mom 6 years ago and having the best hot chocolate ever. Corinne found a free map that was not detailed at all and we began to make our way there. We kept getting turned around and eventually she asked somebody for directions. He informed us that we were going completely the wrong way, but after walking a few blocks we asked another woman and found out that that was not entirely true. Either way, she gave us really clear directions the store was pretty easy to find. About a block away from Harrod’s, however, Sarah and I lost Corinne. She walked off down the street to check something and disappeared. We actually found her again but then a bus drove in front of us and she was gone again. We decided that we should just go to Harrod’s and find her there . It worked. We met up right outside the main entrance.

After the best hot chocolate ever, Sarah and I decided to go to the hostel area and drop our bags off while Corinne did her site-seeing. It was probably our best decision on the whole trip because the bags had definitely gotten heavier. We had to ask a couple of people for directions to the bust stop, but overall Sarah and I were really impressed with our navigational skills. Also, the people that wee asked for directions were basically the nicest people ever.

The bus did a really bad job of announcing the stops. It never used street names and sometimes did not even say the name of the stop. Sarah spotted the street that we wanted on a sign, which saved us from getting lost. Our hostel was number 639 on the street, but after number 621 there was a giant cemetery and no buildings. Eventually we decided to walk past the cemetery and we found our hostel. Apparently 639 is right across the street from 850.

Anyway, after checking in and dropping our stuff off, we went for a walk to find dinner. There were a ton of places, but after misreading a sign that said “Nodes” as “Noodles” Sarah and I both craved noodles. There was a street with 4 Indian restaurants in one block, but apparently Indian food does not have noodles. One of the places was Indian/Thai though, so we went there. After ordering, the waiter informed us that they were phasing out the Thai food so there were no noodles. We were going to just leave and go somewhere else, but the waiter really didn’t want us to. After a little while and a lot of confusion, we had our noodles. They were pretty good.

After dinner we found our way back to the hostel despite the fact that Sarah gets confused between parallel and perpendicular. The hostel owned 100s of DVDs and after looking through all of them we settled on Braveheart. After waiting for some guys to finish watching a couple music videos, we started playing the movie only to realize that it was broken. We then chose Pretty Woman, but the guy there actually grimaced when we showed him our choice. He insisted on “the Doors” saying it was very good and just popping it in the VCR. It sucked. Like a lot. We left half way through to walk around and sleep. Oh yeah, Sarah almost bought 10 Kinder Eggs, but I talked her out of it.

Corinne:

So because we split up in London, here is my version of events after we went to the Harrod’s Chocolate Bar for suckao.

I began my adventures alone by helping someone find Harrod’s (apparently it is a common question). I had decided earlier to see Hype Park and BuckinghamPalace, so headed the couple blocks to the former. On the way, I was stopped by a motorcade, so if you know anyone famous who was driving by Hyde Park the other day…. Once there, I found Serpentine Lake, which was covered in paddle boats. Sadly, one cannot paddle boat alone. Instead I walked the Princess Diana Memorial Path to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the Princess Diana Memorial Playground and to Kensington Palace which had Princess Di birthday cards on the fence outside (her birthday is July 1st), and a Princess Di exhibit inside. What can you say? The English love their princess.

While I was meandering on my own, I had my iPod shuffle playing, and it was doing a great job of matching music to the scenery. It was playing slow, melodic stuff while I was at the fountain, and upbeat stuff while I was walking. Apple is creepily amazing.

By the way, found the obelisk again.

I stopped and sat in the rose garden for a couple minutes to eat some pretzels and discovered I was not the friendliest person in Europe (take that, Rosie and Sarah). A nice Indian gentleman sat down next to me, and we had this conversation:

IG: Do you have the time?

Me: 5:40

IG: Lovely weather we’re having.

Me: Yeah, beautiful and sunny.

IG: (something indistinguishable) from?

Me: Where am I from? I’m not from London.

IG: You don’t look like London. Maybe Europe?

Me: No, America.

IG: America?

Me: Yeah, the United States.

IG: Oh, I see. On holiday?

Me: Yeah.

IG: How long are you in London?

Me: 24 hours.

IG: (Laughs and pats me on the knee)

Me: Yep, just seeing some sights before I go home.

(Long pause)

IG: It was nice meeting you.

Me: You too.

(IG rides into the sunset.)

I exited Hyde Park and headed toward the Marble Arch, which I thought was on the way to Buckingham Palace. Actually, it’s not. Should’ve listened to my iPod after it started playing some dissonant music. Good thing I didn’t have to explain my lack of orientation to Sarah or Rosie. I just got a lovely walk up Park Street, the London equivalent of Park Avenue.

Buckingham Palace was extremely underwhelming. After all the palaces with grandiose architecture and manicured gardens, it was a cemented-in blob. With guards. So I decided not to end there, but continue on toward the Thames. I headed to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I didn’t go in either, but seeing the famous structures (and the London Eye) was a lot more impressive than the Palace.

I scurried my was back to Victoria station to pick up my luggage, paid with my last pounds, then couldn’t call the hostel for their free shuttle (my card didn’t work in the machine, then I didn’t know whether to include the 0 or not, then was too late). I ended up taking the Underground to find Sarah and Rosie watching some creepy Doors movie. And the rest is (or will be) in Rosie’s blog.

Day 32 : Drinking Alone with People

Today was our only full day in Belgium, since, I’m not sure if you know this but, we missed our flight two days ago. It started off very strangely since Corinne, who is usually the one to wake us up, decided to ignore her phone and sleep in. Of course, I’m not complaining, but still…it was weird. Anyway, we went down stairs and had the best breakfast we’ve had in about 4 weeks. We had some pastries and these really delicious rolls with cheese. I’m not really sure how rolls can be so good, but they were.

Afterwards, we went to Lier (leer) and walked around for a bit. Lier was really peaceful and cute. It had cobble stone street in part of it and some really cool churches. One of them had four figures that moved and struck bells on the hour and then showed pictures of some of Belgium’s kings. We also saw a beautiful church in Antwerp which Karen’s mom described as small…it was not, but is was pretty.

Here is a quick list of the things we did in Antwerp (not in order): went shopping (Rosie bought a pretty dress), ate delicious waffles, went inside a pretty building, had hot chocolate/tea at a café where I sneakily stole some sugar with the help of Corinne’s bag and a very convincing stretch/yawn on my part, and bought tons of chocolate.

After we came back to Karen’s house, we walked into town and got fries for dinner. Beforehand we were all thinking, “fries? for dinner?”. Then we learned how filling fries are, especially when they come with meat and sauce and are delicious. Also, there were these litle plastic forks to eat the fries with and they were adorable.

After dinner, we walked back, relaxed in our room for a little while, and then went down stairs to watch the EuroCup finals (Spain won! yay!). So yesterday, I found an abandoned German flag colored lei in the bathroom at the airport and I took it as a souvenir. Today, Corinne wore it for the second part of the game, but it did not help Germany win. Meanwhile, we all ate more chocolate and cookies and Corinne had some Belgian beer, because apparently it is better than American beer. Rosie and I had water, thus Corinne was drinking alone with people.

After the game, we were all tired so we went back upstairs and talked about our plans for London. Rosie had the best hot chocolate of her life in London so of course we are going to go there. We were all very disappointed in Corinne’s inability to navegate the Chocolate Bar’s web page. So far our plan for tomorrow includes getting hot chocolate, visiting platform nine and three quarters at King’s Cross, and seeing Buckingham Palace. Corinne wants to harass the guards, but I’ve always felt bad for them because people do that and because that job must be boring. I realy want to do something nice for them, so we might read them a story or something to keep them entertained. Rosie suggested we make one up about a young boy named Guard, but we haven’t decided whether that would end up being harassing behavior or not. We might also get tea and hang out in front of the palace. All I know is that if Corinne makes me learn anything, I’m going AWOL and taking Rosie with me.

K, so no pictures, obviously, and I’m not going to pretend that there will ever be any. Way to end it on a high note, I know. (Yay! Pictures now!)

Day 31: Oh. That looks delicious.

Corinne:

It’s been one of those days where you aren’t quite sure where one stops and the next begins.

I feel like Rosie kind of down-played the fact that we missed our flight and were stuck in an airport for nearly 24 hours. About 14 of which took place today.

We had decided to take shifts being awake, and Sarah and I fell asleep at 2 (after running around the airport for an hour making post 30.5). We were on linoleum, and it was hard and cold. Rosie woke me up at 4:30 for my shift and I never got comfortable enough to go back to sleep. And here I am still going (chalk one up for living on little sleep during freshman year).

We dilly-dallied in our little bit of wall, having a nutritious breakfast of rolls, possibly with some Nutella and pretzels. I had a delicious sandwich of Nutella and Honey Nut Cheerios (not quite as good as the peanuts, but still worth a try). Sarah, on her lack of sleep, reacted with a little disjointed but empathic ‘Oh. That looks delicious.’ She was running on as little as I was.

At noon, we checked in for our flight (on time this time).

At 2, we took off.

At 3, we went down through some turbulance that got us all jittery, (including some less annoying gaspers behind us), but an extremely smooth landing.

At 3:15, we were walking through the huge airport making up a story problem about the speed of luggage reaching the conveyor versus the time it takes a passenger to get there.

At 4, we had our luggage and started looking at the cars for an Audi and our host for the weekend, Karen.

At 4:25, we used a payphone to call her.

At 4:45, we finally connected.

Then we spent a pleasant evening with her and her friends and her town. More info later, but we are safe and tired in Belgium. Finally. And have been harassed at every turn not to miss our flight back to the US.