so... this is going to be my attempt to discuss the entire 2/3 of the semester that i didn't talk about. super consolidated, 'cause at this point i'm happy i remember anything. the semester seems like such a blur.
shortly before spring break, i did london fashion week with sarah, kara, brittany, chris & john, which was pretty cool. we got to watch a catwalk from the front row!
me & john
then... spring break. me, brittany, chris & kara went to rome & athens. amazing. absolutely amazing. in rome we found the best food in the world at a restaurant named la Taverna dei Fori Imperiali, saw the spanish steps, trevi fountain, day 2 was the Colosseum, saw an art exhibit in Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (where we had gorgeous views of the city), day 3 i went to the catacombs and saw where bodies were buried in like the years 100-300 (very eerie) - where st cecilia, the patron saint of music had been buried, and we went to the Pantheon.
day 4 was vatican day, where, oh yeah, THE POPE WAVED AT US. yep, he drove by. freaking awesome. the vatican was just..... ugh. ridiculously amazing. no words. we also went to the vatican museum, where the sistine chapel is. same ugh there. just.... too much beauty. by then my eyes were starting to hurt cause they couldn't take everything in / appreciate it. seriously you could spend 3 years in the vatican and still not take in 1/3 of it.
SISTINE CHAPEL.
then was athens, home of lots of homeless dogs. we found an equally amazing restaurant there (which i have no idea what the name was), but i remember that i ate something called "green balls" which was the inside of spanikopita aka heaven. and they gave us shots of ouzo for free which is like really alcoholic licorice [[which, sidenote, i tried the absinthe i bought in athens finally yesterday... it's like ouzo x 10. hideously disgusting. don't ever drink it. then again, it was 160 proof, but still. ew.]] we took this little touristy thing around at night called the "happy train," which we had to drag kara on, but it was still really fun and it enabled us to see the streets at night.
day 2 we went to the Temple of Hephaestus, Agora, Plaka [the shopping district], the Temple of the Olympian Zeus (which used to be a wonder of the world but was partially destroyed for some reason so now it's just a bunch of poles), the Panathinaiko (home of the original olympics & a major arena for the ones in 2004).
day 3 we successfully went to the Acropolis, which is home to the Temple of Athena Nike & the Parthenon. we also saw the theatre of Dionysus & the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. later that day me and Chris wandered to this awesome store called "Remember," which if you look it up it's a world famous fashion boutique where everyone from Queen to the Sex Pistols shopped. [[just google all the places i mentioned if you wanna see what they're about, i'm too lazy to do descriptions now]]
after athens, back in london i saw st paul's and brick lane finally. st paul's is absolutely gorgeous -- a bitch of a hike to the top, but totally worth it. brick lane is home to the best 20 pence bagels, stolen bikes, and cool clothes (and delicious food).
(we climbed to the very top!)
somewhere before then i saw wicked with celia and ave q, which were both fantastic.
the last weekend in march was amsterdam. which... you can imagine what happened there.
chris, john and i also went to the anne frank museum, rembrandt house (where there were no rembrandt paintings -- lame. but there were a few beautiful etchings), van gogh museum where i got to see STARRY NIGHT in person (i fucking love that painting) & we went to the heineken museum. i also participated with john in a sex show. yep. the architecture in amsterdam is BEAUTIFUL, a lot like venice. evidently it's called the venice of the north or something, and deservedly so. also, the indonesian & thai food there is fantastic. for some reason scotland invaded when we went, i think it was because of a football or rugby match. i saw more kilts in holland than i saw in scotland though. the last day in holland we went on a bus tour of Volendam where we saw them make clogs & we got to see lots of windmills, & then we went to a cheese factory (where they had pesto cheese = so good), and we hopped on a boat to Marken, which was a beautiful little city.
sidenote -- the stairs in holland are THE WORST IN THE WORLD.
the next weekend my brother came to london, [4/3-4/5]. we walked around westminster at night, & the next day did the "millennium mile" walk which consisted of the tower of london (where they have the crown jewels - biggest diamond ever = insane), crossed the tower bridge, and walked all the way up to the london eye which we rode on and ate fish and chips after and watched the sunset over the houses of parliament.
beautiful. the next day we did a beatles walk with school which consisted of carnaby street, saville row, & obv abbey road where we signed our names and stopped traffic walking across the street like idiots :) 4/9 (thursday) paul came back and we saw we will rock you, the queen musical, which was awesome.
the next day paul & i were off to belgium. we spent easter weekend in brugge, and unbelievably gorgeous town (like amsterdam/venice, rivers everywhere and really old beautiful buildings). the weather was perfect, but unfortunately i was sick, so i didn't get to take in as many sights as i would've liked.
we wandered around aimlessly, eating chocolates everywhere and taking in the beautiful museums and buildings (& we did a boat trip which was nice as well). we ate mussels soaked in beer which i hated but paul loved, the fries weren't that great, but damnit, the beer selection (800+ which paul had probably half of in his several days in belgium) & the chocolates were unbelievable.
i'm still eating the chocolates now (i saved them). we also climbed the belfry tower, which is the famous one from the movie "in brugge". we wandered around aimlessly some more, then sunday we got to spend a few hours in brussels where i saw the grand place (an unbelievable square), and the famous peeing boy statue.
(i finally got a belgian waffle in brussels right before leaving -- it was AMAZING)
4/17-19 we went to scotland with school. we stayed at the Castle Rock Hostel, located on the Royal Mile within a few steps of Edinburgh Castle. so obviously we went to the Edinburgh Castle, which had a nice view of the city and held the crown jewels (they had nothing on england's).
afterwards bill showed us around town, and i took in all of the puns of the city "chairman meow, thistle do nicely, cute-icle," need i go on? at night we went on a ghost tour which took us into the underground vaults of the old South Bridge, which wasn't scary except for the tour guide who kept screaming in our faces. evidently the Duke of Queensberry had a cannibal for a son, but the story she told us of him roasting some little boy and a pig only made me hungry (i had tried haggis earlier that night and didn't eat it 'cause it was grossly spiced). whoops. the next day i went to the Scottish Parliament, which was pretty but all the tour guide knew was the architecture which was kind of a let down. katie rausch & i then went to some hilariously stupid museum named the "people's story," which was just mannequins and descriptions of their jobs (so obviously we mocked it).
we also walked around greyfriars kirkyard, home of Greyfriars Bobby, a really famous dog for some weird reason (he spent 14 years guarding then died on his owner's grave).
that night we went to a caleigh dance, which was like line dancing / a square dance for scottish people. exhausting & hilarious.
before we left on sunday we went to the elephant house cafe, where jk rowling started writing the harry potter books.
the next week my parents came, and i explored kew gardens, greenwich (home to the 0 degree latitude/ GMT),
windsor castle,
houses of parliament (we got to see them in session), walked around the east end and saw where the liberty bell was built (whitechapel bell foundry), i finally saw harrod's, kensington gardens, we went in westminster abbey during a flower show, and we went to the tate modern. i also went to thorpe park with celia, where we rode the stealth, tidal wave, x:/ no way out, colossus, and nemesis inferno. we couldn't go on the saw ride 'cause the wait was 3 hours long :(
throw in a few goodbye dinners, an A/A/A-/P, and a lot of other things that i'm too tired to write about (this post has taken me almost an hour to write), and there's my semester. drama i saw 12 plays with, brit pop i have my whole journal to remember, same with my internship at curious generation, and youth culture... i'm sure i learned something.
going to london was the best decision of my life, and i will never forget all of the friends and memories i made there. if you were a part of it, thank you. i'll be back soon, london. i promise.
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