Pisa and Cinque Terre

Last weekend, Erin and I took a trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre. We hadn’t originally planned on going to Pisa, but it actually turned out to be an easier way to get to Cinque Terre, so it worked out in the end. Pisa was an interesting city, but there was basically nothing else to do there besides look at the Leaning Tower and visit the Duomo.

Cinque Terre was absolutely beautiful. We actually lucked out quite a bit as, according to the weather forecast all week, it was supposed to rain while we were there. We had packed accordingly and everything in our backpacks was wrapped in multiple plastic bags to make sure it would be dry. I also packed a few extra pieces of clothing and an extra sweatshirt in case it rained. However, when we got there, it was very bright out with just a few clouds in the sky, not to mention very warm. Oh well, at least we were prepared. We arrived in Monterosso, the northernmost town in the Cinque Terre, and, after getting a little lost a couple times, found our way to the hiking trail leading to Vernazza, the next town over. The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza is the hardest of the four hikes, but it also has the best views. The trail was very narrow and offered fantastic views of the vineyards and olive groves on the hills themselves and the Mediterranean Sea to our right. Often there was nothing but a steep drop to one side of the trail and the face of the hill on the other. At the end, it rose high above Vernazza before leading us down into town. The town of Vernazza was very quaint and the scenery reminded me a bit of Taormina in Sicily. I’ll post some pictures of the hike and Vernazza once I am able to more easily access my pictures.

So a couple weekends ago I had a fieldtrip to Rome with my Roman Empire class. Our teacher is extremely interested in the subject and very knowledgeable (thankfully) and so he was a great person to go on a trip to Rome with. He showed us nearly everything that still exists of ancient Rome in Rome today. The only bad thing was that, since he was trying to fit so much at once, we weren’t able to stay very long in one place. On our own, Erin and I went to pretty much every other site in Rome that we hadn’t covered on the trip. We went to the Vatican, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately it was two days before Palm Sunday and fairly late in the evening, so St. Peter’s Basilica was closed, but we were able to see the set up for all the people who would be coming to see the Palm Sunday mass there. The next day, we headed to Ostia Antica, a well preserved ancient Roman city. We have a paper due for that class relatively soon and one of the options is to write about one of the buildings we observed there, but I am doing my project based on a Roman document, so Erin and I were able to just walk around and enjoy the ruins. After that, our teacher took us to Ostia Lido, the beach town of Ostia, for lunch.

Tonight Erin and I ate at the restaurant on the way down to the Minimetro. It's situated right on a cliff and has gorgeous views of the outskirts of Perugia below. They brought two little pieces of pita bread with sliced salami and a bit of cheese on top before the meal. It was a nice start. The waiter was friendly and the atmosphere was surprisingly modern for such an old city. I had the eggplant parmasian, which was pretty good, but not an eye-opening culinary revelation. Erin did not enjoy her papardelle con cingiale nearly as much as the first time she had it at Liz's birthday, but she still liked it. All-in-all, it was definitely worth going to - especially for the wonderful views.

Barcelona, a little late Part II

There is very interesting architecture all throughout the city by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi. He had a very interesting style (you'll see in the photos that I'll upload later). He designed one park, Parc Guell, which is hard to believe, was constructed between 1900 and 1914 considering how whimsical its design is. There are areas made to look like rock formations that feel as if they were pulled straight from Disneyworld. Parc Guell is built on a hill side and had beautiful views of the nearby city. You can see Sagrada Familia, a cathedral which is one of his most famous works on which construction started in 1884 and is still going on. Another fantastic park was Parc Laberint, which is on a hill a bit outside of the city, but worth the subway ride. It was extremely tranquil and I would have never guessed that I was in a major city until I got a glimpse through the trees of the city and the sea far below. In the center of the park is a large labyrinth, something I’ve always wanted to do but never had a chance to. It was a lot of fun. We also tried some hot chocolate and churros, which Barcelona is famous for. However, Spanish hot chocolate is known for having spices in it, so it wasn’t quite what we were expecting. There was also Font Montjuic, a massive fountain that is light up and grows and swells according to the music being played. We were only able to see a few minutes of the show, but it was excellent. It seemed like something that belonged in Disneyworld.

Barcelona, a little late Part I

So in order to actually get to Barcelona, we first had to take a train in Paris to a bus which then took us on a long journey to the airport. The nice thing about RyanAir, one of the budget airlines I flew, is that, so far as I could tell, they are the only airline that flies out of the airports they fly out of. This is convenient because, once one actually manages to find their way to the airport, there is little question about where they have to go. Getting there is always the adventure, though. They also do not us jetways, so you get to feel rather important walking across the runway and climbing the stairs into the plane.

Barcelona was very enjoyable, however, considering how much I enjoyed Paris, it was a hard adjustment. The layout of much of Barcelona is very gridlike. While this makes it hard to get lost in the newer section of the city and allows for dedicated bike lanes and the like, it seems to take away a bit of the charm most other European cities have. It also makes it a very long process to cross the street. There are parking lots at nearly every intersection which ends up making the intersections into octagons instead of squares, so one cannot simply walk from corner to corner. That aside, the older section of the city does feel much more "European" than the newer section. Running right through the center of the historic section is a street, La Rambla, filled with street performers and merchants ranging from flower merchants and little outdoor pet stores to art stands and places where you can get your caricature drawn. It ran right down to the Mediterranean Sea. Similar to Paris, Barcelona has bikes spread all over the city meant for the locals to use. The way it works is that you subscribe for the year for a relatively low cost (compared to other forms of transportation), around 30EURO I think. You are then able to take a bike from any of the stands throughout the city and you have 30 minutes to get the bike back to another "station".

I have a larger update at my laptop back in my apartment, but I was here in the photography lab editing my pictures for our next assignment and, since I am extremely behind on updating my blog, I thought I would post about my experience at the questura yesterday. The questura is the Italian police station, don't worry, everyone has to go to get their fingerprints taken. This was the second time I had to go to the questura. The first time, which only took an hour and a half, for other people it took much longer, I waited in line for most of that time to simply get my fingerprints scanned into a computer. However, once that was done I was told that I would need to return to have my fringerprints taken again. Apparently the Italian police department isn't able to share my fingerprints between the two different departments. So I arrived at the questura at 9:00AM, which is when I was told to arrive. There was a pretty large group of people waiting there to also get their fingerprints taken and we waited for 25 minutes for a police officer to finally arrive. When he did, he came around and collected everyone's appointment papers and then told us to wait. He didn't return again for another 45 minutes and, when he did, he called me and two older ladies with him and took us into the police station. Once there, he had us sit in the hallway and disappeared into his empty office for another 25 minutes. He finally came out again and called the first and then second lady in with him to take their fingerprints and pictures. After they were finished, about an hour later, he called me into the office. When I handed him my passport he exclaimed "Ahhh, Stati Uniti!!! (United States)" and while taking my picture kept laughing and saying to himself "Americani, americani." Since I am used to Italians not particularly liking people from the United States, I wasn't too surprised at his reaction, but thought it was getting to be a bit much when he took me over to his desk and, looking at my passport exclaimed, "Stati Uniti, numero uno!" At first I just laughed along with him a little, but soon realized that he was being completely serious. He was enamoured with the United States. He proceeded to open up my passport and go through each page, pointing at the pictures of various American scenes and saying how beautiful they were. He also read several of the quotes from different presidents at the tops of the pages. He finally took my fingerprints and told me where to go next. As I was leaving, his partner walked and he called my back, asking if he could show my passport to his friend. He showed his friend all the pages and again said how beautiful all the pictures and quotes were. Unfortunately his friend didn't seem to share the same love of the U.S and simply grunted and walked away. I then walked back to one of the windows I was originally directed to and, after waiting another 40 minutes, found out that I would have to return, again, to the questura to actually pick up my permit of stay.

One of the pictures from my photography projects.

Paris Part II

The first night we walked around the city – from the Latin Quarter, up to the Notre Dame, over to the Louvre, and back to the Latin Quarter on the other side of the river. The next day we headed to Pere Lachaise, a famous and extremely large graveyard (it sounds much more morbid writing it out than actually visiting it). Many famous people including Chopin, Proust, and Jim Morrison, are buried there and it’s a pretty big tourist attraction. After Pere Lachaise, we went to the top of the Notre Dame where there are spectacular views of the entire city and you’re able to see inside one of the bell towers. After lingering at the top enjoying the view for a while, we headed back down and walked over to the Eiffel Tower area where we bought dinner which consisted, again, of bread and croissants. On our way back to the Latin Quarter, we happened to pick up a brochure for Disneyland Paris, so early the next morning we caught an early train and arrived at Disneyland in time for opening. We stayed in Disneyland for the whole day and, of course, went on many, many rides, I think around 15 in total, with the highlight of course being Buzz Lightyear, although it was not the same ride and unfortunately I didn’t max out, but got relatively close. After having lived in a foreign country for the past couple of months, it was nice to be somewhere where we understood things a bit more. Disneyland was set up in a very similar way to the Magic Kingdom in Florida, only some of the lands were switched around and had slightly different names (for instance, Tomorrowland became Discoveryland). We stayed until closing at 10:00PM and headed back to the center of Paris. Although it might seem strange that we decided to spend a whole day while in Paris at Disneyland, I'm very glad to have gone, it was a lot of fun! The next day, we had a few hours before we had to start heading to Barcelona, so we grabbed some breakfast, which was, yet again, bread and croissants, and went to a large park in the Latin Quarter.

At around noon, we headed onto the metro and found our way to the bus that would take us on the 90km journey to the airport, but more on that in a couple of days. I have to get to bed as I will be waking up early to catch a train to go to Florence! I apologize in advance if something in this doesn’t make sense or there are a vast amount of typos, as I did not get a chance to read it over yet.

I hope all is well back home.

Paris Part I

Last week was spring break here in Perugia. I went to Paris and Barcelona, but first I had to get through midterms. Luckily I only had three, as there was no midterm for my photography class, and I feel I did well them.

For spring break I went to Paris first. All my flights for spring break were booked with budget airlines, which usually means having to travel a bit outside of your destination city in return for much cheaper flights, but luckily my first flight flew out of Rome’s main airport and into Paris’s main airport, so that portion of the traveling experience was a bit easier. Unfortunately we missed one of our connecting trains on our way to Rome because the train we were on arrived quite a bit late, but luckily there was another train leaving a few minutes after we arrived. I had forgotten how enjoyable of a city Paris is to be in. The temperature was much more pleasant this time around. Instead of being 20 degrees with wind chill, it was a breezy 60. This made walking around the city much easier, and walking was definitely in order considering all we ate was bread and croissants (shockingly it’s rather hard to find a reasonable place to eat in Paris, but I’m not going to complain considering how magnificent the bread and pastries were).

All my midterms are finally over and I feel I did well on all of them. There were a few confusing questions on my Roman Empire one, but I'm sure it'll turn out well in the end. Now, however, is time for the projects. We have one paper that has to be a group paper, which I find annoying to be forced on me, but luckily Erin is in my class so I don't have to worry about the other person doing their own work for it. The school is also obsessed with presentations here, so we have a presentation in nearly every class to go along with our projects. I'm sure it's good practice and all, but it's frustrating being stuck inside when it's starting to get nicer out and we're in Italy!

Yesterday I had my first midterm (in Italian). I feel that it went well, but I still have a couple more coming up that I need to study for and papers that will be due soon, so it feels more like I'm going to school here, in Italy of all places. It still hasn't sunk in yet.

It's been rather cold here for the past few days - about 35 degrees. It's certainly a lot warmer than back home, but still surprising since I had gotten used to 45 degree weather. It actually snowed twice! The first time all I saw was about a 3 foot round area lightly dusted in snow in the piazza outside my window. The next time, which was actually just a couple of days ago, there was a little over a quarter inch of snow covering most of Perugia. It was funny to see all the native Perugians in their heavy winter gear in order to weather the deep snow while I was thinking about how it's probably 20 degrees plus wind chill back home and I'm sure it's snowed several times by now.

This morning we took another go at a tour of the Perugian chocolate factory. This time it was actually successful and we weren't thrown off the bus by the bus driver on the way there. I even came home with about 15 free samples of Baci and other assorted chocolates that I had stuffed in my jacket pockets before leaving. The tour was very interesting. They brought us along a raised walkway through the factory. Unfortunately much of the production line was closed for the season and we're not allowed to see the part where they make the chocolate before it gets poured into the moulds, however, we were able to see large amounts of chocolate riding along conveyor belts and being wrapped and boxed up and the entire factory smelled like a warm brownie, so it was fully worth the trek out there (plus all the free samples of course).

Chocolate

Classes are going well. Midterms and projects are starting to come in, though. I have my Italian midterm next week and a couple others soon after that. I'm not too worried about Italian. Most of the grammar is easy, so I'll just need to focus on memorizing more vocab. The other midterm in my history class should be interesting as he wants us to know a bunch of dates, but the material is interesting and the teacher is very nice. Yesterday I finished editing my pictures for my first photography project, so I'll have to see how she grades. Since we get to choose what our topics are for our future projects, hopefully it'll be more interesting than 200 pictures of the same object.

So today we decided to attempt to go on a tour of the Perugina chocolate factory, about a half hour from the city center. I called ahead a few days ago and made a reservation for a free English speaking tour today at 3:00. We found out that there's a bus, the R bus, that brings you relatively close to the factory and there was a bus that left at 2:10. We arrived at the bus station at 2:00 and waited for the bus to arrive. When it did, we got on and asked the driver politely in Italian if he knew which station we should get off at for the Perugina chocolate factory. He told us that we the bus doesn't go right to the factory, only near it, and he promptly left the bus. A little confused but assuming we'd figure things out, we went and took a seat. A few minutes later he came back on the bus and came over to us and angrily told us that if we were in a hurry we should take the H bus. We responded thank you, but we weren't in a hurry, so we'd just stay on this bus. He returned to the front of the bus and a few more minutes later, right before he was about to leave, he called me up to the front of the bus and started yelling that we should get off his bus and take the H bus. He wasn't leaving with us on it. Not knowing how to respond, we went over to the H bus stop and, right as the bus we were just on pulled away, we saw that the bus had left 10 minutes ago. I'm not sure if something was just lost in translation, but he seemed to be a very angry Italian man. I then went over to the small bus ticket booth and asked them if they knew which bus I should take to get to the Perugina chocolate factory, to which they responded the R bus, which is the one we were thrown off of. A bit distraught, I called the chocolate factory to try to explain and see if it would be all right if we were a few minutes late. It was not. We decided to try to go anyway since we had already swiped our bus ticket. Half an hour later, another R bus arrived, luckily with a different driver, and we headed off. About 20 minutes later, we realized that none of the stops were labeled and nothing was ever being announced, so I went over to the bus driver and asked him if he knew when we would arrive at the San Sista stop (the people on the phone had told me that would be the best stop). He said that we had passed it, but we would be looping around soon and would be back at that stop in about 15 minutes. He even said he would signal to us when to get off the bus. So we finally were able to get off at the San Sista stop and proceeded to walk, basically down a highway, in the direction of the Perugina factory. This was at 4:10. About 10 minute later, we arrived, 2 hours after we started our journey, at the factory. Right in front of the factory was an evidentally unknown bus stop, this one for the I buses. Inside we inquired if we were too late to catch a tour, in any language. Unfortunately, we were, the last tour was at 3:30, but the worker offered us some free chocolates and said we could watch a short movie in English about the factory. After eating our fill of free Baci and other assorted chocolates, we headed back out and caught the bus back to the city center 4 hours after we started. Now that we know what we're doing, we'll have to make a reservation for another weekend. Unfortunately no cameras are allowed in the factory.

Last Friday Erin, Liz, Krista and I went to Assisi, which is just a 20 minute train ride followed by a 5 minute bus ride from Perguia. It was a beautiful city, a bit cleaner than Perugia, and there were churches basically on every street. Everywhere we looked we saw a sign pointing in the direction of a different church. It was a bit more touristy than Perugia, but still had a very small city feel. I believe it actually is a good bit smaller than Perguia. While we were outside of the Basilica of St. Francis, a nun, who later told us that she lived near by, came up to us and offered to take our picture. After taking one, she decided to move us around in attempt to get better pictures. It was quite a funny experience. From the top of a wall near the Basilica there were beautiful vistas of the surrounding countryside. Perguia is somewhere in the distance there.

A view of the countryside.


Another view.


The Basilica of St. Francis.


There was also a castle/fortress on the top of the hill that we didn't quite make it to. Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back and see if we can make it up there.


Something was a bit lost in translation (porcini mushrooms have become porky mushrooms).

I also had my first project for photography class, which was to take 200 pictures of one object. I chose a water spigot in the piazza near my apartment. Last class we put the pictures on the photography lab computers and we'll start working on our six favorites next week. Unfortunately the pictures look a lot more dull and less sharp after I have uploaded them, but there are a couple attached below.

I have a few papers to work on this weekend. One, my photography paper on Henri Cartier-Bresson, I have started and hope to mostly finish by this weekend. We also have to present an in-class presentation on the photographer, so I will get working on that. Neither paper is due soon, but I want to make sure to get them done so I have other weekends free. Next Saturday, my Contemporary Italy class is actually going to Sienna for the day. I will update more regarding that once it has happened.

Overdue

So my second week of classes is almost over. It’s a strange transition going from working for six months back to classes (and in Italy at that). I have much more “spare” time on my hands, but more things to actually do in that spare time. Classes are going well. My schedule changes nearly every day, so it’s hard to get into a routine of making lunches and dinners, etc., although I suppose I should be used to that after working in the hotel for 6 months.

Anyway, today I did laundry for the first time. I have heard some horror stories from people who have spent upwards of 4 hours in the laundromat attempting to get all their clothes clean, so I was a little worried going in as I had to get to class in a few hours, but I gathered up my dirty clothes along with a book and headed out. The laundromat is just up the street from my apartment, so it’s in a convenient location. Everything was going fine until I tried to put money into the machine. For some reason it was refusing to read my paper money and I only had €2.59 in coins on me, but a wash cost €3.00. I went out to a small grocery store nearby and asked (in somewhat broken Italian) if I could have change for a €5 bill. They refused. I checked with a few other places and received a similar response until, finally, I asked the owner of the café below my apartment who gladly exchanged the money with me. Getting that over with, I started my wash. Several minutes later, a couple of other people came into the laundromat and put their wash in as well. A wash is supposed to take about 25 minutes. By some magic the other people’s laundry finished first and they put their wash into the only two driers in the place, but I took solace in knowing that surely my clothes would be cleaner than theirs, having spent more time in the washing machine. My wash finished a few minutes later, leaving me to wait around for their load to finish before I could get my clothes dry (and by dry I mean slightly warm…Italian driers don’t seem to be very effective). Once my “drier” finished, I gathered up my clothes and brought them back to my apartment where I spread them all over the open areas in my room to give them a chance to actually dry. All-in-all it was a relatively smooth experience and I finally have clean clothes.

La Prima Settimana Pictures

Taken from inside the MiniMetro with another MiniMetro car coming at us.

Most of the people in Perugia seem very friendly, especially the people in the stores. Despite my broken Italian, the vast majority of the store workers try their best to understand me and help figure out what I'm after instead of just resorting to using English, which most of them seem to know pretty well.

Next week actual classes start. I'm looking forward to them and hope that I enjoy them, although how could I not considering where I am.

The view from out my window.



The military installation across the street.



It's been raining a bit in the past couple of days.



The view out my window down the street.

The walkway in the center of the picture is actually the top of an ancient aqueduct.



The view from the road right near my apartment.



More of said view.

La Prima Settimana

The past week has been dedicated solely to Italian. We went to class for around 5 hours a day for four days and spoke Italian the whole time. It was a little mentally draining, but it definitely helped me to get back up to speed since I haven't taken Italian in well over a year. The teacher was very friendly and really helpful, even if he just keeps talking in Italian to explain grammar or vocab that you don't understand. During one of our classes, he took us on the MiniMetro, which is a bizarrely modern miniature subway system running from the center of Perugia to its outskirts, to a larger and cheaper grocery store than the ones here in the city center.

Today, Erin and I took the MiniMetro to the sixth stop, the very last one on the MiniMetro, to go to the huge outdoor market that takes place near the soccer stadium every Saturday morning. When we got there, we were a little surprised as it was a bit more chaotic and disorganized than we had imagined. They had everything from fruits and vegetables to clothes and toothbrushes all arranged on large tables. We ended up leaving pretty quickly as the produce didn't seem to be in very good condition and it wasn't that much cheaper than from the nearby grocery store. We hopped back on the MiniMetro and headed to the grocery store our Italian teacher had taken us to.

Pictures to follow...

Ho Arrivato

Finally! The long awaited moment has finally arrived. I am finally in Perugia to start my four month study abroad experience. Currently I am sitting in my room borrowing internet from the cafe below. My apartment is about a 10-15 minute walk from the main area of the city and where my classes will take place, which is a bit closer than I thought we were going to be based on the map that they gave us. The actual apartment is great. There are 5 of us in here and we all have single bedrooms. My bedroom has a view overlooking a small piazza with a cafe below. If I lean out a little I can also see up and down the streets. The furniture throughout the apartment is very nice. In addition to a bed, I also have a large desk with shelving above it, an armoire and two small end tables. The kitchen has granite counter tops and a granite table and even a small TV (granted all the channels are in Italian, I guess I'll eventually be able to understand somewhat). We even have two bathrooms with standing showers (and they don't drain into the middle of the bathroom!). I am very surprised at how good the apartment is. It definitely far exceeds my expectations.

At 2:00PM we had an orientation meeting in the city's town hall which was a gorgeous room with fresco paintings covering the ceilings and walls and, oddly enough, large, light blue, cushioned leather chairs. A good number of my questions were answered during the orientation, but there's still a bit to get done. At the orientation we got a heads up about a few things we need to get done still, received some practical information, and there was a humorous Italian police officer who gave us some safety advice. Once the orientation was over, a lot of the students went over to the nearby grocery store and got a bit of grocery shopping done since all the stores are closed tomorrow (Sunday).

Later on, Erin and I went to pick up our textbooks from the bookstore. I was surprised at how modern it was inside and seemed to have a decent selection of books, mostly in Italian of course, considering how small most of the shops in the area are. As a plus, as Umbra Institute students we receive a 10% discount on all purchases there.

One of my favorite parts of the city so far, not that I know much of it yet, is the panoramic view on the side of a curving part of the road just around the corner from my apartment. From there you can see the lower part of the city with a large staircase running underneath ancient aqueducts below, as well as rolling hills covered in stereotypical Italian buildings. Hopefully I'll have pictures of the view to put up soon, but I'm not sure if those will do it justice, though.

Paris

And now we're in Paris...

London

So we have just arrived in Paris after spending 5 days in London. London was very nice, but much colder than expected. The following is a little overview of each day:

Day 1
We arrived at London's Heathrow airport very early in the morning and, with the exception of forgetting what color my luggage is and subsequently worrying that I would have to deal with Virgin Atlantic customer service with far too little sleep, had a smooth trip into central London. The only tricky part of getting to our hostel was having to navigate the many flights of stairs between there and Heathrow airport. Erin would wait at the bottom of the stairs while I ran up and down transporting our luggage. This seemed to have been far too much stress for my tired suitcase as it decided that this would be prime time for it to break one of its wheels, requiring me to drag my fully loaded suitcase with stuffed duffle bag perched on top the half mile to the hostel. Despite all this, we finally arrived at our hostel, which ended up being clean and simple – perfect for what we needed.

Not wanting to fall prey to jet lag, we dragged ourselves through London, seeing Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Thames, King’s Cross (for Platform 9¾), and the area around our hostel. We also picked up a loaf of bread for breakfast in the morning.

Big Ben.

The Underground (Tube).

Actually in the Underground.

Posing with the ubiquitous phone booths.

Lunch across from the Thames.

Posing with the guards.

Day 2

We had a pretty early start and headed to Buckingham Palace first thing in the morning. The first thing I saw when exiting the subway station was The Ritz (picture below for Brian). We then entered through Green Park and followed the path to Buckingham Palace, which we would visit twice more in attempts to see the changing of the guards. After taking copious pictures of Buckingham Palace and the neighboring St. James’s Park, we heard the sound of drums beating in the distance. We decided to follow the sounds and soon fell upon London’s New Year’s Day parade in full swing. There were lots of different bands and performers all moving throughout the streets and thousands and thousands of onlookers. We followed the parade along for quite some time until we were too cold and went into a bookstore for a short respite.

Later on that day, we headed to the other side of the Thames (opposite Big Ben) so we could take some night photos of the Parliament building and Big Ben. We then crossed the river again to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey up close at night. I think that this area of the city (although very touristy, I’m sure) is my favorite.

The Ritz right outside of Green Park near Buckingham Palace.

Posing with a guard (a little braver this time).

St. James's Park next to Buckingham Palace.

The London Eye as seen from St. James's Park.

The beginning of the New Year's Day parade.

Little kid on stilts at the New Year's Day parade.

Lots of people at the parade.

More people.

Patriotism.

There were some odd characters there too.

Some onlookers trying to get a good view.

Big Ben at night.

Big Ben at night and a double decker bus zooming by.

Day 3

The next day we headed to the area just south of Kensington Gardens. There is a whole row of free museums there and we wanted to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Upon exiting the Tube, we were met immediately by Harrod’s, the famous British department store. We went inside for a quick look around. It was much larger than I expected and had pretty much everything imaginable. We then made our way over to the Victoria and Albert Museum followed by Kensington Gardens. Kensington was very nice and extremely large. I liked St. James’s Park (by Buckingham Palace) more, but I’m sure both would be gorgeous in the spring and summer months.We ate lunch in Kensington Gardens and headed over to Kensington Palace, but did not go in as it cost far too much and we still had a lot of other things in the area we wanted to see.

From Kensington we made the short walk up to Notting Hill, which, while at first did not appear to be what we expected, proved to be home to the world’s best hot chocolate (located at Caffé Nero). Later that evening we went to Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes is said to have lived. Despite its quaint name, Baker Street was not at all and we quickly decided to head back to the areas of the city we were more familiar with.

It was very clean in London, so it was very surprising to see this bit of litter

Day 4

This morning we attempted for a second time to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, but were, again, out of luck. We were informed, however, that the ceremony would definitely occur the next day (our last in London). This was the first day that we had blue skies in London, so we took advantage of that and headed over to the Tower Bridge/London Bridge and the Tower of London. It was quite odd to see a very old castle of sorts in the middle of a major city. While walking from the Tower of London to the Tower Bridge, we were met by a huge swarm of seagulls being fed by a man on the edge of the river. I took advantage of the feeding frenzy to get some pictures of the birds up close. We then headed over to the British Library, but were not able to see much because we were lacking a certain “reader pass” and a home address in the UK.

Swiss Re Building in the background with part of the Tower of London in the foreground.

Seagull squabble.

Ready to dive in.

The Tower Bridge.

The best hot chocolate in the world (to go).

Day 5

We were finally able to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace today, although it seemed odd that they were playing music from the Wizard of Oz during the ceremony. After enjoying a little bit more of St. James’s Park and the surrounding area, we headed over the British Museum, which is near our hostel and home to the Rosetta Stone and many other famous artifacts.

Changing of the guards.

Rosetta Stone.