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 34 : The Last Day

Corinne:

Let me just start by saying that we didn’t miss this flight. And I don’t think we are ever going to live down the flack we keep getting…

Sarah warned us this morning that she was going to mention everything we did that was our “last.” And she lived up to her word fairly accurately.

We woke up pretty early so there would be no question of making the plane. I bathed in the in-room shower, and then did my hair in two french braids to match the other two. Solidarity for our trip back. We had an easy journey on the tube to Heathrow, where check-in was easy and the comfy couches were accessible. During the wait, Sarah saw a woman eating a cucumber as a hand food. We are pleased : we left an impression on Europe.

Now, I am sitting in Rosie’s bedroom in New York. My eyes are drooping a bit, and I’ve just had conversations with people I haven’t talked to in weeks. I’m taking the bus down to D.C. tomorrow afternoon, and that will be that. The end of the trip. The end of June in Europe. But, to finish things up, we wrote a list of questions we are going to answer for you. Stay posted.

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 0-1 : New York-London-Warsaw : “Is the Globe made of metal?”

Corinne:

Being the Computer Scientist I am, I am happy to announce to all of the others of you out there that we actually started travel on Day 0 (May 28). It was a day of packing and frantic shopping (no yellow Converse for Sarah. The entire mall was out. And New Yorkers like their shoes, so there were plenty of shops to choose from.) We got to the airport (approximately) the three hours early, had a breezy check-in and waited at the gate.

So our flight, in order to stick with the trend of “as cheap as possible”, was booked with Air India. Now I know there are those of you out there who have stereotypes of AI, ranging from just not comfortable to sleeping with goats and chickens. Happily, none of that happened. We got the cool individual tvs, chicken curry for dinner, and the most eventful thing that happened was during dinner. We got little trays of chicken curry, a little dish of cut vegetables with salad underneath, a dish of thick, liquidy yellow stuff, and a dish of thick, liquidy white stuff. Now, I ate the chicken curry, then moved on to the peppers and carrots. To my defense, the lettuce was covered, so I expected the white stuff to be Ranch dressing. So I dipped all my veggies in it, then got to the salad and dipped my fork in the dressing then forked the lettuce.

So then Sarah looks over and we have a chat about milk-based things, and in the conversation, it comes out that I just finished half my salad with plain yogurt. That’s right; there’s a reason that it wasn’t very good Ranch. It was plain yogurt.

Which tasted a lot better plain than with lettuce, by the way.

And the yellowy stuff was tapioca-ish pudding. I figured that one out by myself.

Then we slept. And actually started Day 1.

We wake up (and had breakfast if you are Sarah or Rosie), then get off the plane at Heathrow. That’s London. That’s England. That’s a new country (for me and Sarah at least)!

We get off the plane, then decide to take the Tube to the London Bridge stop, where we know we can catch a train to Luton Airport where our flight to Warsaw was taking off at 17:30.

We wander out of the airport, starving after going through customs and getting our bags, and get some sandwiches after some amount of indecision. We then skip over to the Burroughs Market, which was quaint, then to the replica of Sir Francis Drake’s “Golden Hinde”, a view of London Bridge, and start wandering down the Thames.

I know that the Globe is up the bank, so we walk along cute little cobblestone streets and through a tunnel and some alleys then look upriver and see this metal curved protrusion. Which looks like a huge globe. Someone may have guessed that the metal had something to do with the Globe theater… they may remain unnamed… Anyways, we get to the actual Globe, people-watch, see the Tate Modern (but don’t go inside), cross the Millenium Bridge, see St. Paul’s Cathedral, see the Bank of England, walk across the London Bridge, and sit at the courtyard of Southwark Cathedral people watching and playing cards until our train left.

Then it was a fairly boring train ride. (Sarah and I didn’t get the hang of Polish. We tried. A little. Rosie slept.) Then there was a very intense game of War between Sarah and Rosie. (Rosie won. Sarah has cooled off now.)

Then plane, then bus adventures (Polish people are nice), then hostel check-in, and we are still alive, so no night shanking. Welcome to Warsaw!