Monday, September 16, 2013

Friends...who has those??

Well I have been here for a week and a half. Generally it has been a good two weeks. I got to see the pruhealth triathlon, Carnaby Street, Hyde Park, and Regents Park in the past of couple of days. All of which are amazing. I still have to say my favorite park in Zone 1 we will say is Saint James Park. The Pruhealth traithlon was actually really cool cause at one point you could see the cycling, running and swimming parts. There were people from all over the world. I got to talk to Americans, Canadians, Brits, and even Romanians.

Hyde Park


Regents Park

I also have had the pleasure of meeting some of my classmates from Hult. 



I also had the pleasure of celebrating my flatmates birthday!

So far London has been AMAZING. I also get my bank account today which means I am so much closer to getting a phone!




Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Nobody said moving was easy

Well I have been here for a couple days, and I now all I want to do is sleep. I eat, I sleep, I eat, I sleep that is what I do with my days now. Actually I have been trying to become more settled with London. The hard part is to get a cell phone, one has to have a UK bank account. To get a UK bank account, one has to have a letter from their school. To get a letter from the school, one has to register tomorrow. I really hope that I can get a phone soon, then I won't get lost as much as I do now.
delicious asian food

My fuzzy friend

West Minster Abbey

My favorite store

life in the big city
I have to say I really love London. I love all the surprises of being here. All of the people are very friendly, and everywhere you go there is something to be amazed at.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Moving In

Before reading this post, since I don't really want to reveal names and such. Roommate is whom I share a room with and will be calling her that from now on. Flatmate is the girl right next door in another room, which is what I will be calling her from now on.

Well I have had an eventful two days, which include furnishing, cleaning and meeting. First of all, my beginning moments of being a resident did not go at all like planned, but frankly, I was too tired to care.  My flight got in around 2 am, which means customs was really long. I didn't get through until about 3. I got a taxi to my hotel, and went and took a long shower. By the time I went to asleep it was around 3:45 am. Needless to say you would think I slept in until noon. No, my internal clock was like, "YOUR NOT JETLAGGED LETS WAKE UP AT 7," stupid body... I decided to relax that morning before taking on the venture of going to find the bus to take me back to the airport, so I could catch a bus into town. The bus was only just across the road from the hotel, one problem, they didn't mention the road was over the hill yonder. I found the bus, nonetheless. I made it to the airport and caught my bus into London. Stansted airport is about an hour away from London. The british country side is absolutely gorgeous, so one could say it wasn't a bad bus ride. I got into Liverpool station, in which I had no idea which way to go. I wandered around until I saw a sign that said "Bethnal Green that way," forty minutes later in the pooring rain I made it to my apartment. I talked to the reception, I signed a contract, I got the key, I came in, I took a nap. I decided after this that I needed to buy some food. I went to the store, got some breakfasty items and a premade dinner seeing that I had no idea what was actually in my apartment. I came back and my roommate and flatmate were both here! My roommate is from Brazil, she is very nice and fun. My other flatmate is from the Netherlands, she is also very
my room so far, purple bed
friendly. We have been getting along great so far, and I believe we will all be good friends by the end of this. My roommate will be attending Hult with me. My flatmate, however, is here on an internship. That night we got to know each other, and the apartment. Since my flatmate had been here for a couple of days she knew that my roommate and I didn't have pillows, or bed spreads, or blankets. So she took us to a Primark (the most amazing store ever), and we got all the furnishing (that we absolutely needed). We came back, and crashed.
The next day, I decided to go to Primark to buy some hangers, and other things I needed. They have everything from hangers, to purses, to makeup, to clothes all for very cheap! Well London cheap, but that is ok. I came back and then my roommate and I went out and bought more food that we needed and went to a stationary store to get things like pens, paper, tape, scissors. We also got the largest medium sized coffee ever, from Costa. I was very surprised because everybody says, "American larges are too large," but this was huge! When we came back to the apartment, our flatmate was here. We decided what we were going to do about the kitchen, and we decided that the apartment needed a nice cleaning. It was so grossss, ew! So we cleaned for about an hour, and it feels a lot better. However, the cleaning is not done. Today is a new day though, and it started out by my making tea and eating a chocolate croissant. I have to say not a bad start!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Well then....

Well it has been awhile. I have been through Paris, Rome and now I am in Florence. Since it is a lot to go over considering I am still in Florence I am just going to give a quick travel guide to these places/country. Disclaimer: I did not go to see everything, I am on a student budget, and I am an eighteen year old girl. These things aren't meant to offend anybody.

London:

Best Meal: Sunday Roast/Fish and Chips
Best Dessert: Cinnabon (I know I am a horrible American)
Best Attraction: Palace of Placentia
Best Church: Southwark cathedral (I didn't go into Saint Pauls :(  )
People: Nice
Best Part: People/ free museums
Worst Part: cold

Paris:

Best Meal: Raclette (keep in mind I am poor, I mostly ate sandwiches)
Best Dessert: Crepes (of course)
Best Attraction: Opera House/Versailles
Best Church: Saint Chappelle
People:Nice
Best Part: Food
Worst Part: Smell in metros

Rome:

Best Meal: Pasta (all of it)
Best Dessert: Tiramisu
Best Attraction: Forum/Vatican/Cat Sanctuary
Best Church: Saint Peters (climb the stairs to the top gorgeous!)
People: Nice
Best Part: Everything
Worst Part: HOT

Florence:

Best Meal: Pasta (my favorite thing in the world)
Best Dessert: Rose Gelato (HOLY MOLY it was good)
Best Attraction: Uffizi
Best Church: The Duomo
People: Nice as usual
Best Part: Gorgeous
Worst Part: HOTTT


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

London Calling!

Well, we are now done with London. I think I have fallen in love with this city, everything from people to pub grub. This city is enchanting, and I am so excited to be living in it. Right now I report to you from a small hotel outside of Heathrow, it seems more like a sea bunk. It makes writing this rather interesting, it makes it seems like a should be writing Gulliver's Travels. Well to start the story of Carli's Travels, we made it to London on a rather cloudy day, not much different than any other day. We were staying at the Great Eastern, a fantastic hostel just outside of London near Canary Wharf. We stayed and had dinner at the pub below the hostel, and it was all good fun. We were in a nine bed mixed dorm, which actually turned out to be fantastic. I met some great people, three were from the States, one from Russia, one from South Africa, and one from Poland. The others in the room I did not meet so I wouldn't know. It was a really fun experience, everybody was really nice, and I would definitely stay there again. It is also in a fantastic locations, about twenty minutes to Tower Hill and about five minutes from Greenwich. We spent our next day roaming the streets of London from the Tower of London, all the way, to Millenium Bridge. On the way we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral, and one of the oldest gothic churches in England.




The next day we went out and saw Buckingham Palace, Kings Cross, Big Ben, Piccadilly, Soho, Leicester Square, Greenwich Maritime College, and Trafalgar Square. It was all in good fun!




Sorry for the shortness of the posts, it is just really hard to get lots of time to thoroughly write what has happened. Now I am in Paris, the post will be coming soon!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Lots of Moving

Well, I have returned from the amazing country of Estonia. All I have to say is Estonia should be on everybody's list of places to go before you die because it is absolutely spectacular.

When I wrote the two sentences above was probably about three days ago, and things have definitely changed. I have left Tallinn and Helsinki, and I am now in the beautiful city of London. We arrived yesterday in the evening at Gatwick Airport (quite a dodgy airport). For a future hint, if you don't have to travel Norwegian Air save yourself the trouble. You don't even get complementary water, yes they expect you to die of dehydration for 3 hours.
 We rode the trains from Gatwick to Milton Keynes a quaint town north of London. We stayed with my friend's relatives. The train was long, however, everybody was so helpful and kind. Our hosts were so kind, and very accommodating. It was the first time I had ever tried a crumpet and they are addictive. I am going to become fat here, just by eating crumpets. We went to bed completely sore because we also had to carry my two heavy suitcases both weighing around 50 pounds. Both of them weigh around the same weight as my travel companion. So now we are bruised and sore, and glad to be rid of them. The next day, which is today, we woke up and ate a traditional english breakfast.
It was completely delicious, then we went and walked through the town with their especially cute dog, Jasper. It was such a stereotypic old English town, and it was adorable. We walked along the picturesque countryside, and it seemed like the perfect life. Soon after we went to a Carvery, which is where you get delicious slow roasted meats and vegetables. It was delicious. We sadly had to say goodbye to our hosts, although I will be seeing them again to get my bags. We rode the train into London, now we are at our hostel. For being booked last minute the hostel is great. It is in a good part of london and the service is fantastic. We are roomed with some nice people, well I have only met two. One ran out of the room once he saw us, the other is a nice polish guy who is here to meet up with old colleagues. Overall, I am quite excited to be in London and can't wait to start exploring it!