Homeward Bound!

So, for now, I'm going to ignore the fact that I was in Scotland the last four days. Expect a debriefing on how amazing Edinburgh was soon! Fortunately (or in my present state of mind, unfortunately) that blog post will be made all the way from my couch in Mississippi!

Last night, Christin, Blake, James, and I made a frantic dash from the Charleroi airport in hopes of catching the last train out to Maastricht at 11:00. We made it with a stealth like agility and found ourselve in Liege (Belguim) just after midnight where we took a taxi to Maastricht. We were home by 1:00 in the morning! This was lovely considering plan b was to spend yet another night in the airport. Instead, I got to sleep in a bed!

Today was devoted to packing, which happened very quickly considering I'm only traveling home with two thirds of the stuff I traveled over here with (including souvenirs, my painstaking rules on shopping really payed off). With a little ingenuity, I could ditch a bag if I really wanted to- but I don't.

So, Lindsay It's 18:30 the bus leaves at 3:30, what are you planning to do in the mean time? Answer: Youtube.
Christin and I have planned a feast of Pringles, stroop waffles, and Who's the Boss with perhaps a bit of swooning over my "Love Never Dies" soundtrack.

See you in the states!!! (Unless a certain volcano decides to act up)

Whoohoo!!!

Tomorrow at 3:00 my summer officially begins!!!!

Whoohoo!!!

Aside from the one class I have to go to tomorrow, however, I finished my coursework this morning at 10:30 with my history final. Boy, have I had the most magnificent day.

After my final, it all started with a nap... (you know that had to be in there somewhere), after that a trip to get some money and do a little packing and laundry in preparation for my summer vacation. At 13:00, I indulged in my new favorite addiction. I am no officially a "Who's the Boss" a-holic. I've spent the majority of my rest time watching old episodes on you tube (though I tell myself this is me basically watching tv because there's never anything on over here). I am currently lamenting the fact that Sony only released the 1st season on DVD, but nonetheless I am enjoying my new infatuation with the relationship of Angela and Tony. After "Who's the Boss" went off I took a walk, that lasted for 3 hours.

The most amazing history nerd moment of the day? I found the place of the city walls where D'Artagnon was killed in the 1600. You know D'Artagnon, right? He's of the "Three Musketeers" fame, but he was a real historical figure before Alexander Dumas wrote a story about him and he died fighting the Spanish in Maastricht. There's a statue of him on the sight. (It's beautiful, too) and the bottom is inscribed with the ever popular motto, "Tous pour un, un pour tous," All for one, one for all.

In all, I had a marvelous day, my last full day in Maastricht. When I get back here there are going to be too many formalities and meetings to indulge in any exploring or even revisiting of favorite sights. Which brings me to my next point.

I'm going to Italy!!!!

Whoohoo!!!
(there are alot of things to Whoohoo about today)

I've been waiting form my Italy trip pretty much sense I started Baylor in the fall of 2007. I'm so excited to actually get there, you have absolutely no idea. We leave tomorrow directly from class and start 2 1/2 weeks of individual travel. In this time I'm going to see Venice, Lake Como, Milan, Rome, London (again), Dublin, and Edinburgh. The good news is that I've protected all the documents on my computer so I can take my laptop with me.

Whoohoo!!!
(told ya)

Mom actually made this suggestion, though I think it was just a scheme to make it so we can have the occasional skype chat. But it's going to be beneficial for you too! A laptop means internet and internet means blog posts.

Whoohoo!!!

Not every day, mind you, but when I get the opportunity. So that's all for now. Wish me safe travels and I'll see you when I can!

So begins the Finals push

My Dutch Art History final was today. Technically means one down, one today and then its "watch out Italy here I come!" Oh yea, there's a couple of papers due in there somewhere. I can't believe we're almost to the long trip. Before I know it I'll be gearing up to come home. But here's a testament to what a wonderful time I've been having:

That's one post card from every city I've been to.

Today has just been a rainy afternoon in Maastricht. We're sitting at out desks with the windows open listening to the water dribble down the vinyl awning. For the time being there isn't any stress, just a lot of focused energy, so I'll leave it at that.
Hope all is well! Now it's back to the paper writing!

"Water, water everywhere/ and all the boards did shrink..."~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What do you think of when you think of visiting Europe? Do you think of visiting Paris? or Spain? What about London? That one seems to be very popular. Have you ever thought about Sweden or Norway? No, me neither. That's what makes this past weekend so Amazing!

While the Baylor in Maastricht program gives up three Month Eurail passes, sometimes there isn't enough time in a weekend to go someplace further away and sightseeing. In that case let me introduce you to this little gem, it's called Ryan Airlines. Ryan Air is a discount airline that services Europe, and when I say discount, I mean discount. My flight to Sweden cost me a whopping 7.00 Euro, that's a little less than $14.00 for you American currency fans, and the flight home from Oslo cost a little less than that.

So Friday morning me and four of my Maastricht buddies boarded a plane bound for Stockholm, Sweden for a bit of Scandinavian bliss. Here's what I saw: lots and lots of boats, ranging in age from new to old, to holy cow that thing still exists?

Stockholm was my favorite for some reason I can't explain in rational terms. I think perhaps we had a very relaxed day. All that was really scheduled was a trip to the Vasa Museum so we got to take out time wandering through souvenir shops and little markets along the way. Oh, and don't forget strolling by the harbor.














I've spent the past three summers working the USS Cairo Museum at Vicksburg National Military Park, and I have heard the Vasa referenced at least once a month by some well travelled retired couple, usually the wife as the husband has already disappeared somewhere into the depths of the museum leaving her to entertain herself i. e. talk to the Park Ranger. "Have you ever heard of the Vasa." "Oh, you should definitely take a trip to see the Vasa" (said as if this trip would take only a couple of hours from Vicksburg). "The Vasa is the best preserved ship I've ever seen!" Really, I've heard just about everything in connection to the Vasa. I knew most of the story, I just hadn't seen it yet. Now I have, and I can say that everything everyone ever mentioned about it.... it's all true.

(These pictures turned out really dark, so I messed with the brightness so you can see them better. This, however makes them look slightly strange I think.)

The Vasa was commissioned by the King of Sweden in 1628, (so think... Spanish Armada, end of Elizabeth's reign, around that time period). It must have been absolutely beautiful for its time with all the decorations and painted sculptures that adorned her facade. Unfortunately this wasn't going to last too long because the ship had not longer been afloat more than 30 minutes before it sank. Why you ask? Well, the Vasa was one of the first ships that was built with not one, but two gun decks, this meant she weighed more and this fact was coupled with the problem that she was disporportionately tall compared to her width. She was top heavy and stared to lag to once side. Since the gun portals were so close to the water line, in goes the water and down goes the ship. She was recovered in 1961 (around the same time as the Cairo, interestingly enough) and now it the central sight to see in Stockholm.


Friday night our Swedish adventures ended, I am sad to say and we all boarded a train for an eleven hour trip to Oslo, but this time we had a sleeper compartment with I thought was really cool. I spent several hours hanging off the edge of my bunk taking pictures at the scenery as it wizzed by at 200+ miles an hour.

Saturday morning brought us to the Norwegian Folk Museum that was primarily about the cultural traditions of Norway. I'm ashamed to admit it, but it took me back to my American Girl doll days and my love for all things Kirsten. She was really supposed to be Swedish but the clothes and furniture all looked the same! There were a couple of permanent museums and then the village which is basically made up of buildings from the 1600s and later that were taken down and moved to the museum. It was a nice little stroll.



Then we high tailed it over to the Viking Museum to see move boats that had sunk and then dug up. Except this time they were older. I know what you're thinking, Lindsay how much older can you get than the Vasa? Uh, alot older actually, and since I haven't seen any Roman stuff yet, I think these ships are the oldest that I've seen since I've been over here. There was one ship in particular, the Gokstad Ship, that was amazingly preserved and it was built in 810 AD!



Can you imagine, the people settled Iceland and Greenland and made it all the way to Canada from Norway in little boats like these...

That was about it for my Scandinavian adventure. Oh, and my interesting food find of the trip was a grilled Moose Hotdog. Yea, instead of ketchup or mustard they put potato salad on top. Yummy.

Bye, bye, Holland and good luck!

I'm off once again! This time were heading out for a nice long weekend in Norway and Sweden. Who knows what'll happen in Scandinavia! My biggest disappoinment is that I won't get to see the World Cup Championship Sunday night at 8:30. It's Holland V. Spain. Keep me up to date, will ya?

"Ich bin ein Berliner!"- JFK

After some great deliberation on how to write this weekend's blog post, I think I finally settled on the only way I can think to tell you everything about the weekend (yes, it was that amazing of a weekend). I'm going to break it down into several smaller posts. Then, I'll feel free to talk as much as I like!

I LOVE BERLIN!

You can imagine how surprised I was, especially after I planned to be in the city less than twelve hours on Thursday. I'd heard good things about the city from the other students who'd travelled before me, but the consensual favorite was Munich. With that in mind, I simply planned to take a walking tour around the city and be off to Bavaria. My how we can surprise ourselves.

Berlin is a city saturated with history, an imperial history, a dark history, a young history, a history of pain and perseverance. In the three hours I walked around the city, I learned more about her existence than I thought I'd ever know. I have seen sights dripping with a past, a story. I think everyone needs to know these stories.


Brandenburg Gate was built in the late 1600s as an entrance into the city. She was originally decorated with the goddess of Peace, who drove her chariot into the city with a wreath made of olive leaves held high over her head. After Prussia's fall to Napoleon's army, the statue was confiscated by The Emperor for his personal art collection. The Prussians took the sculpture back and in the process renamed her Victoria, the goddess of victory. They then changed the name of the square over which to presides to "Pariser Platz," or "Paris Plaza" so there would forever be victory over Paris.

But then again, she has another history as well...

It's strange to stand in a place you've seen a photograph of over and over again and have it look completely different and yet very much the same. It's even more strange when that place is so beautiful was it is today.

The Reichstag was (and still is today) the German Parliamentary building. It is an absolutely looming building that was rebuilt as the capital for the German government in 1999, seriously, folks when I'm saying Berlin is a young city, I'm not joking. After everything she has been through in the past 100 years she's like a newborn trying to stretch her legs for the first time. Today the German lawmakers do their work inside the building directly below the glass dome (you can see a little in the picture). Visitors to Berlin are actually permitted to walk around in that dome and to look down into the legislative sessions. It's said the dome was constructed so that if the lawmakers forgot who they were working for all they had to do was look up
(millions of tourists!).

The Reichstag holds another important key to German government (I didn't say this "important" was a good one). In 1933, a few months after Adolf Hitler was selected Chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag, the German symbol of democracy was set on fire. The Nazi's arrested Marinus van der Lubbe, Van der Lubbe was a Dutchman and, more importantly, Communist. In a country already unstable from the transition from imperial to democratic rule, and having already seen the mess of Russian politics, many Germans were terrified by the Communist party. This, Hitler manipulated to his advantage. Claiming Van der Lubbe was part of a conspiracy by the Communists to attack the German government and eventually gain control, Hitler convinced the then President Hindenburg to award him total power. This decree, granted by Hindenburg, was what allowed Hitler arrest Communist members of government a replace them with members of the Nazi party, ban certain publication, and ultimately pass the "Enabling Acts." Thus the "legal" dictatorship began.

Then, of course there are some less hefty stories that can be told of Berlin's buildings. Recognize this hotel?

(Forgive the fact that that man's head is in the way, I was going for angle here.)

No? How about now?

Why yes, yes it is...

One of my favorite stories goes with the TV tower. It
was built in East Berlin under Russian control. The man who was in charge of Berlin at the time (forgive me I don't remember his name) was apparently hardcore atheist. "Why do I need God? I have Marx and Lenin," he said. It was built between 1965-1969. Why did it take so long? I'm glad you asked. So, the construction of this massive tower, was supposed to be the symbol of Berlin and the largest structure in Germany. Aside from this it was suppose to be the big Russian, "look what we can do." Great. Go Communism. Whatever. Even then, though the Russian's had problems with it and had to call in a team of engineers from Sweden to finish the project. But that is not the best part of the story, the best part of the story comes after the tower is built and the sun hits the structure for the first time. Low and behold what appears?

A CROSS! (can you see it on the center of the ball?)

Needless to say the atheist dude was horrified. Not only could he not get the tower built himself but now it has a religious symbol painted across it every time the sun shines. He tried everything to get the glare to go away, he took bits off the tower, adjusted the angle, added things to it (he wound up announcing that it was not a cross but a plus for "Communism is awesome!"). Still the cross appears when the sun hits it. Today this little phenomina is called "The Pope's Revenge." I like to call it, "God's Sense of Humor."


Of all the things I saw in Berlin, one thing stuck with me the most, and, as usual, it had nothing to do with what I thought I would take away.

The Berlin Wall was constructed when my father was one year old. It was torn down six days after my first birthday. When I hear Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech, I think of the Wall. When I think of Communism, I think of the Wall. When I think of the inability to go from place to place, to travel, to see things, to read books, to tell stories, I think of the Wall. The thing is, I didn't realize this is what I thought of until I got there and actually saw the Wall. This wall, is the greatest symbol of weakness to mankind, it's concrete, steel rods, and piping are far inferior to paper, ink, and ideas that strengthens my country. I took no greater pleasure in my entire 8 hours in the city than to take this picture:Be as cynical as you like about politics, but I promise you. We all get to the same place eventually.
That is Berlin!

¿Habla inglés?

This weekend was summed up rather nicely by Christin on Friday when she mumbled, giggling to herself, "It's fun listening to Lindsay try and pronounce the street names." How is this possible? We were are 5 college students from Texas and non of us speak Spanish! Ah, the fail of the education system... However, while it made communicating things like "hi, I think I lost my checked luggage somewhere in the airport" difficult, I have to admit that it is good to know that there is at least one other country out there that doesn't encourage their citizens to learn a language other than their primary tongue. Everyone should experience trying to explain where your going to a non English speaking cabby in a strange country at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Language barrier aside, however, Spain is a fascinating place. Before leaving Maastricht I was beginning to get excited about this new country. All of the place places I'd been to so far, Germany, Austria, England, seem normal in my mind, but Spain, Spain was exotic. Why this is I do not know. I do know, however, that if your going for exotic, Madrid is not the place to be because it looks like any other capital city: big streets, metro, tall buildings,botanical gardens, and of course, trash, graffiti (only this time you can't read it), and little run down stores.

We actually arrived in Madrid a little too late to see anything. By the time we got the keys to our apartment It was 4:30 and most of the museum's closed at 6:00 or so we thought. When we arrived at one of the Museum's however, we realized that it actually shut down at 2:00. So we strolled along Calle de Prado, taking pictures of the fountains and trees and looking at what the artisans had to sell. We found this one man sitting on the edge of a fountain painting the most beautiful fans! What says Spain more than that? We ultimately ended up wandering through a botanical garden and looking at all the bizarre plants and their names.


Now, I must tell you, if you wish to see that other Spain that I was referring to, the exotic Spain with the clay houses and terracotta roofs you need to go to a place like Segovia.
We were fortunate to happen to fall into knowing about Segovia. On Thursday morning we were discussing out trip over breakfast and telling Dr. Rust about how we weren't super excited to go to Madrid because we didn't know what was there. His suggestion was to use Madrid as a launching pad to take day trips into smaller Spanish towns, and he suggested Segovia. What? You say you've never heard of it? I'm not sure how many people do know about this little gem (except for my dad because he knows most places). It's about a two hour train ride from Madrid, and it is simply beautiful. It has the Spanish architecture, the alleys, cobblestone streets, landscape, and best of all, history.

The first thing that greeted us was the Roman Aquaduct that splits the city in half. It was absolutely breath taking to drive up on the bus and suddenly see it looming ahead of you nestled among all the Spanish style houses!

Then, there is the Cathedral, a church that I think puts even Notre-Dame to shame. A simple photograph cannot even begin to translate how massive and gorgeous this thing was. It was started in 1528 and not finished until 1768, almost two hundred years later. Inside there are beautiful paintings and beautiful tall, arched ceilings.

May favorite however, was the castle Alcazar. It was built by Alfonzo III and had a rather extensive history in the early years of its life, but I was most interested by the monarchs that ruled here in the later 1400s. This was the castle where Isabella was crowned Queen in 1474. She along with her husband Ferdinand happened to fund a little expedition with an Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus in 1492 (!). If I'm not mistaken, she is also the mother of Catherine of Argon, Henry VIII's first wife and mother of "Bloody" Mary, Elizabeth I's older sister. (Yes, they were all inbred into a tangled web of marriage and children!) I'm afraid to admit however, that this is nearly all I know of Isabella.

I very much enjoyed my stay Spain this weekend and would loved to have looked around a little longer. I've never really had a fascination with the Spanish culture the way I have others (namely French and English) and I'm not sure that that has changed any, but I think that I have a bit more of an appreciation for it, and I'm happy to know that the exotic Spain of my imagination does exist, somewhere.

As always, pictures.

"Nothing Important Happened Today"

If your historically minded, you recognize this as the entry Louis XVI logged into his journal on July 14, 1789, the day the Bastille was stormed in Paris just 25 miles away. (Ok, so the actual entry read simply, Rien!, which translated into "nothing" and it was in reference to his hunting trip earlier that day, but it still makes a good story.) For the first time since I've arrived in the Netherlands I can write, Rien!, with a little bit of enthusiasm. Today was a mundane day which means it had shape and routine to it- the mark of assimilation into any culture, I think. Instead of pulling from the store of topics I want to write to you guys about I just wanted to stop for the day and bask in Rien! Here's the highlights of such a boring day.

1. I woke this morning pleased to find the other occupants on our hallway had moved out. There, perhaps it'll be a bit quieter and I'll not have to sleep with earplugs anymore. More importantly though, our oh so generous neighbors were shoving their trove of European items off on us. I am now the proud owner of a hairdryer and straightener, two things that I've been far to frugal to buy considering I only straighten my hair once in a blue moon and dry it even less than that, but it's nice to have the option.

2. I had a rather lengthy discussion with Dr. Rust today on the first book for my Independent Study on the Holocaust , The Meaning of Hitler. We talked for a little over an hour and he really helped me muddle through all my confusion on the political time line.

3. I printed out my boarding pass for Spain this weekend and received an confirmation email from my hostel in Munich in two weeks, and another email from the plane ticked from Pisa to London during my last week of travel. What a little globe trotter I'm turning out to be!

4. I think I finally solidified plans to get to Amsterdam in a few weeks, which I'm particularly excited about!

5. Lastly, but most excitedly, I received and email this morning asking me to be the official blogger for the Baylor in Maastricht Summer 2010 program!

So there you have it, my plain old boring Rien! type of day.

Rock me Amadeus...

Once upon a time, Salzburg Austrian was invaded by nine girls. They arrived early Friday morning after traveling all night in crowded train compartments struggling to find a comfortable sleeping position on- or under- the mound of limbs and other extraneous body parts. Half of them that morning had changed clothes in the bathroom of the intercity train without benefit of running water. Without showers or brushed teeth (mentos, please) they descended on the city, lead by their fearless navigators, Amy and Lindsay, with one purpose: to find the Sound of Music tour.



It was the top destination for many of the girls that I traveled with this past week to see this tour. I on the other hand hadn't thought much about it. Yes, I've seen (and enjoyed) the movie, and adore the music, but I don't have the fanatical love for the Sound of Music the way the others did (though I may now...). Perhaps I'll blame this on the fact that my introduction to the musical came from when the Vicksburg Theater Guild did "SoM" as a main stage several years ago and not the movie itself. But of course, it's one of those things you can only see in Austria--- and it just happened to be in the same city that Mozart was born in--- so I was certainly game to go. My only regret is that I didn't get to see the movie right before I went, so I' was struggling to remember everything.

We saw the back and front (2 different places) of the Von Trapp Villa, the gazebo, the church where they married, the path with all the trees lining it, and much more. The highlight of the tour perhaps was up in the mountains at the town of Mounsee (where the church is located). Appel Strudel, anyone? The vanilla ice cream is legit homemade and the hot vanilla cream is utterly amazing (and unique to Mounsee, so I'm told). The best meal of the weekend, however was at Brauerei Gaststatte in Vienna. There were the boiled parsley potatoes (absolutely drenched in butter) and Viennese Schnitzel (veal) with a cranberry sauce. The sauce is by far what made the Schnitzel to fabulous. It wasn't sweet at all, but very tart and made the breading of the veal fantastic. So I went to Austria and had "crisp apple strudel" and "schnitzel with(out) noodles."

After the Sound of Music tour, and our walk through the gardens where we recreated nearly dance imaginable from the Do Re Mi song, we had lunch (ok side note here, I had a seafood salad that had octopus in it. Fulfilled that need, no need to do it again) I finally got to see my attraction, Mozart's birthplace! How utterly amazing is it to stand in the house where Mozart grew up and to see so much of his things including, get this, his concert Violin, the clavichord that he composed The Magic Flute on, and his fortepiano. I still can't get over this. I saw Mozart's fortepiano.

As sometimes happens, though my favorite part of the trip wasn't something I ever intended on seeing. It just happened to be mentioned by Meredith
the night we arrived in Vienna. Hofburg Palace was home of the Hapsburg family for quite a time, until the deconstruction of the Austrian Empire after WWI, and is still used for governmental things today. I've never really payed attention to the Hapsburgs, though I knew vaguely that Marie Antoinette was one, but at the palace I was introduced to a fascinating individual, Empress Elisabeth. Have you ever heard of her? The first time I heard her mentioned (though I didn't realize it at the time) was at the hotel desk where we asked for directions, "you mean where Sissi lived?" the concierge asked. "um, I guess." Elizabeth was married to Franz Joseph and was Empress from 1856 until her assassination in Geneva in 1898. She's a bit of a tragic figure, a shy girl who married an emperor at 15 and inherited a role which she struggled to fill. She was frequented by bouts of depression and dealt with life by writing poetry (mostly about death and loneliness and lack of freedom) and obsessing over her beauty and physical health. After he son's suicide, she apparently dove into a depression that she never emerged from. She traveled constantly, often neglecting her children from the impression I got and estranging herself from her husband. Yet her daughter spoke lovingly of her many times and her husband did everything he could to make her happy. His only words upon hearing her assassination in Switzerland were, "you have no idea how much I loved this woman." It's breathtaking, or at least I, the romantic and historian, think so. One of these days I must get a biography on her. Museums have a tough job trying to tell you all about a person in an hour or less, sometimes I think they skip characteristics that can soften the harsh edges of a person's personality, and this may be one of those cases.

On another note, I finished another book this weekend, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, which now makes Amsterdam available to me as a travel destination. I'm 2 for 2 on reading during the weekends and am kind of curious to know if I can keep reading one book per weekend. Maybe I'll try it and find out. In any case, I'm off to study for now. As always my pictures are here, I'm having difficulties and will continue to work on them for the rest of the day.

Tot Ziens!

"There's no place like London"

Good morning one and all! Well, good morning to you, good afternoon to me. I am back in Maastricht now, bathed, shaved, and smelling all together rather nicely after my jaunt into the English land of hostels and fuzzy showers. (All right that is an exaggeration, but those of you who travel know that showering anywhere other than home is difficult and not much of a pleasurable experience.) Now that I'm well rested I'm ready to write about my week.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to tell you of London without writing a thesis on the week. I by no means want to bore you so I'll tell you of the highlights.

Living in London

Quite honestly our hostel on the first night was a flop. It was new, in a residential part of town, and while it was safe, the over crowding of sleeping 15 people in a room coupled with the wonderful European sense that clothing can be optional lead to extreme cases of culture shock. We moved the next day.

St. Christopher's is a wonderful hostel in London. They're motto is "Party hard, sleep easy," yea. Well the first part of that aside, the hostel is surrounded by little cafes and restaurants and only three doors down from the London Bridge Tube station (I now consider myself an expert on the London Tube as I have been on nearly every line and in every borrough of the city). It's also within walking distance of many tourist areas including the Globe and Tower of London.


Of course there are some things you need to know of England/ Europe in general. There seems to be some sort of strike against top sheets here. Every bed I've slept in since I've left America has a fitted sheet and a covered duvet. Also, if it is not advertised, there is no air conditioning. You, my friend will have to sleep with the window open like everyone else. Therefore you must not be concerned of bugs flying in while you are asleep as this worry makes you a germophobic (or instectaphobic?) American.

Eating in London

I love food. That is no secret, and the quickest way to get me to eat something odd it to tell me its a cultural thing. Our first night in London, we found a little restaurant that serves Fish and Chips under the gaze of the London eye. Of course, you've got to eat it like a true Brit, swear off ketchup, it's malt vinegar all the way. There was a chain restaurant just across the street from our hostel that we ate at a couple of times called "The Slug and Lettuce." It seemed to be the gathering place for many a business person or dating couple. Here I got to try Steak and Mushroom pie ( never could find the steak and kidney) with my friends and we sat for four hours just eating and talking. (This is around the time we noticed that no one sat around with their cell phones out but chose to communicate with other humans). On my last morning in town Erin and I walked to a little cafe to have a "Full English Breakfast," but I backed out when I realized that they served Bubble and Squeak on the menu. Bubble and Squeak is one of those things that you've spent your entire life hearing about- perhaps in that Dickens book you had to read as a freshman or in some random movie- but never knew what it was. Apparently it's some sort of a potato/cabbage/ anything else you have laying around the house thing (like hash I suppose). Anyway, I had that instead, but the Bubble and Squeak took a back seat to the fact that the dish came with, among other things, something very similar to baked beans- for breakfast.





Our most interesting finds, however came from the grocery story just down the street from the hostel where we bought lunch on most days. Tuna and Sweet corn seemed to be a recurring theme, was proved tasty as well. The crunchiness of the corn added a unique texture. Also, prawns (tiny shrimp like things) were everywhere as well. Including the potato chips. I found a bag of potato chips that was prawn cocktail flavored- it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Also I found a German Bratwurst flavor, but didn't get the chance to try it.

My very favorite thing, however is a piece of candy called "Flake." It's a thick ribbon of folded chocolate and I believe is made by the Cadbury company, so think Cadbury eggs, but more amazing then that. The popular thing is to stick it down into the side of soft serve ice cream. I first discovered this tasty little treat at a food stand just outside of Westminster. We'd just walked down from the Art Gallery for Evening Song (which we were too late for) and drowned our sorrows in an ice cream cone (complete with Flake) in the shade of the sanctuary.

Sightseeing in London

On to what this post should actually be about, I suppose.


I won't lie. I'd been to London once before and met the idea of going back with a little disappointment. I wanted to see something new... Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, Canterbury, something. When I realized all we would have time for was London I was somewhat afraid that I would regret not going somewhere else. I had no idea how little I had seen in London the first time.

We spent the entire first day at the British Museum mingling with Ancient Egyptian kings, and staring at the original Rosetta Stone (no, it isn't just a computer program). At the tower of London we saw the Crown Jewels (except for the current crown because the Queen happened to be wearing it at the time. Also, they were running a new exhibit on the armor of the Kings and had the full metal armor of Henry VIII (big dude). We saw original Monet and Van Gogh (who is Dutch by the way) at the National Gallery. I was able to search out the Broad Street water pump (one of those "worlds' biggest ball of twine" moments, my mother would say) and the Evelyn Tables at the Hunterian museum in the Royal College of Surgeons.

We even searched out Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station (and found about ten other people [ read: college students] doing the same!)

I do have a confession however, I've never read Harry Potter. I've seen the movies when someone wants to go with me, but I've never been that big of a fan. I couldn't resist the picture though!




Out of everything we saw I had two favorites. One was a 19th century operating theater that had been attached to St. Thomas Hospital between 1820-1860. The theater was for female patients only and is the only operating theater left in England, perhaps Europe as the others have been converted or torn down. It was an amazing room, like the ones I've seen in pictures many times over. It was fascinating to stand on the floor and look up at the seats where medical students would have sat watching such and such procedure and to think of the surgeries that occured in the room, as the theater predates the use of Anesthesia.

My other favorite wasn't even a selection of mine, but Erin's. It was the Cabinet War rooms where Winston Churchill ran the British government during the bombing raids of London. They were deep underground, underneath White Hall and when peace was declared everyone working in the rooms straightened their papers but them in the desk drawers and cut out the lights (apparently it was the firs time the lights had been cut out in years!). They simply left and everything stayed as it was until a few years ago. The rooms themselves are in immaculate condition and the Churchill museum that is attached inside is the most state of the art museum that I've been in. Part of me would say it even surpassed the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. It's an excellent piece of Interprative History.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Of course there are many things I haven't mentioned here, perhaps they'll appear sometime in the future. In all it was a wonderful trip full of learning experiences, and beautiful scenery.

Cheers!

I've posted the rest of my pictures at this link. Feel free to look around!

We plan, God laughs...

This is one of mom's favorite sayings. She always uses it when I go into control freak mode. It's suppose to remind us that no matter how hard we try the plan can always go astray. God has His own plans in mind, particularly when your trying to get to Amsterdam on a one way flight from Houston.

We left Houston yesterday at 3:40 without problems. We got into the air. It was a pretty smooth fight. I ate dinner and got to watch When in Rome and even got about an hour of sleep (which is all I usually get on a plan). I was marveling at how we'd just reached the halfway mark 4.5 hours when I heard a disturbing word come from someone's mouth, "Newark, New Jersey."

We were halfway there, floating over the Atlantic Ocean when most of the major European airports were shut down due to the ash cloud from the Elkjoiudoaidufoaiudfapoifu (name is paraphrased here) volcano in Iceland. Before I knew what was happening we were in New Jersey at 1:30 in the morning refueling before heading back to Houston. Now we're all camping out in the lobby of a hotel that has given us rooms but don't quite have then cleaned yet.

Needless to say I haven't slept in 24 hours. I'm tired and hungry and somehow have managed to travel for 14 hours and not actually have been anywhere yet. Ah well, we plan...