The Best Week Ever! (Part 1)

After my LONG night of traveling and getting home I was quite ready to pass out and take a nap, but I had just enough time to get some food in my belly and shower before heading to Heathrow to pick up my mum!

Of course I was dumb enough not to take any pictures while we were at the airport, so you can imagine long lost hugs happening after the security gate. 

While I had the opportunity to have her visit London the previous month when she came with my dad and younger brother, this time I had her all to myself and we had planned the most wonderful vacation!

After picking her up from the airport we headed back to the flat to drop off her luggage and get some lunch! Our next stop was to Portobello market, since neither of us had fully walked along it's entire length before. My mum purchased some touristy items in some of the shops and I took her to Hummingbird Bakery Cafe, one of the finest bakeries in London! During each month, they display different types of cupcakes for each month. During April it was Blueberry Lemon and Salted Caramel. I think my favorite cupcake that I've had from there was their Pumpkin Spice Cupcake which was there during March. I think I had 4 of them over the course of the entire month!

Once we walked the entire of Portobello Market, we started to slow down, jet lag was hitting mum and I was exhausted from my all-nighter in the airport. But since it was only 5 o'clock or so, we knew that we couldn't sleep yet! So we headed out to get some dinner at the Notting Hill Fish House which have awesome Chips and Cod Bites (These are so much better than regular fish and chips because more of the surface area of the chip is fried!) By the end of the meal we could barely keep our eyes open and we headed home to get some well needed sleep.

The next morning was time for church, but neither of us woke up until 11:45, so there was a frantic rush to get ready because we needed to leave at 12:30 to make it on time! Church was a wonderful experience, we met up with a guy from my ward and History class on the bus and got to chat up with him. He had recently come home from traveling to Iceland and Denmark.

Once church was over, mum and I made our way back home to relax and spend the rest of the afternoon catching up and making dinner.

The next morning (April 12) was the beginning of our journey! Our first stop was to the Westminster tube station where we got off in Parliament Square and took a lovely tourist photo!

From there our journey took us down around the corner to the Churchill War Rooms Museum! This museum is a fantastic exhibit entirely underground! Many of the original pieces used during the London Blitz and second World War are still found down there! For those of you who don't know, behind 10 Downing Street is a large empty lot that used to be a car park. Well underneath this empty lot, they built secret war bunkers to house the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, during the time of war in the 20th century. 

This museum holds relics from Churchill's life and the original bunker furniture that has not been touched! 

One of my favorite pieces of clothing that was worn by Churchill, it's very recognizable! 

It was even a piece of Churchill's costume in an episode of Doctor Who!

Another one of my favorite items in the museum was the Enigma Machine

For those of you who have no idea what this is, this is the famous coding machine that the Nazis used during WWII. And if it hadn't been for the ingenious mind of Alan Turing and work of other brave men and women breaking this cypher, the Allies might have lost the war.   

There was a ton of information in the museum and I really suggest you go see it if you are in London!

We then walked to Trafalgar Square and stopped by Tortilla to pick up some lunch to eat at home. Once we ate, we packed up our belongings and headed to Watford Junction for our second round of Harry Potter! 

On March 16th or so, they opened rebuilt and set up Platform 9 3/4 to the public! So of course we needed to go see the original Hogwarts Express that two the students to school every year!

Let me tell you, I was not disappointed at the new set up that had been introduced!

We didn't stay very long because we had already seen the exhibit and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so we quickly jumped to the platform and got in line to walk along the train compartments!

While there were only 2 coaches behind the engine, we were still able to look into the compartments that we set up representing the school years for Harry, Ron and Hermione. Candy wrappers and a rat for the first year, Lupin's trunk and chocolate wrappers for third year and they even had Lavender Brown's breath heart that she fogs up the window for. 

Across from the train, they had false compartments that you could sit in and the window displayed a green screen until everyone was settled in. Once the video started, you were able to "take a ride" on the Hogwarts Express and watch the scenery fly past you. 

After the Platform, we had a quick stop in the Cafe between the studios and I got some Butterbeer! 

And once again my stomach was bothering me from the carbonation! But it was worth it! However, I did find out from some friends that the Butterbeer in Orlando is much better than the Butterbeer in London and I made it a point to compare the two in the near future!

We pretty much breezed through the second studio, stopping only to take a few pictures and stopping to buy some souvenirs in the shop and then we were back on the bus to head on the train to go to Sheffield. 

We had a two hour train ride to Sheffield, during which we met a cute older English couple who were on their way home from a business trip that had in London over the weekend. We finally arrived in the cute town of Sheffield around 11 or so at night and we were tuckered out! We had a small trip to the hotel where we checked in and then passed out. 

The next morning (April 14) we packed up our luggage and left them downstairs with the hotel staff to hold on to while we went to Chatsworth House! Or Pemberley #1 as mum and I called it! We had an hour long bus ride where we got to see some amazing countryside and mum kept repeating that she felt like she was in the movie and that "your dad would love to ride these hills". 

When we finally arrived at Chatsworth House, we had to walk the outside grounds for a bit until it opened at 11. We didn't have a problem exploring a bit. 

We were both SOOOO excited to be there! I wish I could have found that little clip from Pride and Prejudice (2005) when Elizabeth Bennet sees Pemberley for the first time and giggles, because that's how I felt! We spent all of our time outside exploring the grounds and we barely saw a fraction of it! Unfortunately because we were on such tight a schedule, we didn't have time to explore the inside of the house, but we were able to go into the gift shop where we found something as equally important! 

The sign underneath said "No Kissing!". It made me wonder how many people did just that before they needed to put the sign up.

Apparently the statue room is an actual room inside the house and after paying a fee, you are free to tour the gorgeous rooms!

I heard some older women commenting on the Pride and Prejudice souvenirs while we were in the gift shop and one of them said "Where's Darcy? I want a picture with him?" I pointed out the bust to her and she turned and told me that she "Much preferred Colin Firth's Darcy because he was a lot more rugged and good looking". Made me laugh to know that women of all ages have that one celebrity or fictional character they are obsessed about.

After our brief time at Chatsworth House, we had to take the bus back to our hotel, grab our bags and purchase train tickets to Disley, an hour and a half train journey North. We rode on some quite small trains between some of the smaller towns. 

While it wasn't that small, they typically had only 2 carriages and could only hold 100 people or so. 

Once we finally made it to the Disley train station (it was so small the attendant who sold us our tickets had never heard of the station before), it was a rush against time to check into our Bed and Breakfast before heading to Lyme Park before it closed. 

Surprisingly, we made the last shuttle up to the house and thank goodness we did because there was a 3/4 mile walk from the park entrance to the house or Pemberley #2! 

Let me tell you, it was soooooo pretty! I fell in love with the grounds very quickly even if they were much smaller than Chatsworth House, they were still breathtaking. 

And yes that is the pond that we see lovely Colin Firth emerge from behind the trees when he is in a very improper state of dress! 

The house and grounds closed at 6, so we were only able to browse for a half an hour or so. We then made our way back towards the park entrance, taking our time and enjoying the beautiful scenery and weather. 

On the way back to the B&B, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up snacks for dinner because there weren't many options in the town to choose from. The rest of the evening was spent watching telly and snacking on our dinner. (I unfortunately thought orange juice sounded like a wonderful drink to have, but we forgot we didn't have a refrigerator to keep things cold. So I ended up downing a good portion of the carton and made myself sick. I still can't look at OJ without shuddering a little inside.)

The next morning was a short train ride to Wales, more specifically, Prestatyn, where we were off to see the lighthouse my mum's great great great grandfather (something like that) was born in! May I point out that it is the most northern point of Wales, so it was quite chilly and rainy while we were there.

We stayed with a very cute Welsh couple who gave us directions on how to get to the lighthouse because it was a bit out of the way. Before heading out to the lighthouse, we stopped by a fish and chips place for lunch. It was probably the best FISH I've had while I've been in the UK! The lady took our orders and then pulled out two pieces of fish and dipped and fried them while we were watching!

We then hailed a taxi because it was a 4 mile hike to the beach where the lighthouse was! 

Because it was low tide, we could walk out to the lighthouse and take pictures up close. However, I'm sure you can imagine that once the tide is high, there's no walking out to the historical building, it's swimming time. 

After we had had our fill of beaches and cold water, we started the long trek back to the B&B we were staying. We had made it about 2 miles of the way back with no cab in sight, when suddenly a cab pull in front of us dropping two passengers off. I quickly waved him down because I was really tired of waking and we got a ride back to the train station. And then we walked back to the B&B where we relaxed until it was time to eat some dinner! 

Our hosts recommended an Indian food place where we were quickly seated next to a birthday celebration going on at the table next to us. I ordered my first dish of Chicken Tikki Masala (the fated dish that has supposedly beat out fish and chips as the most popular dish in England). While I did enjoy it, there was no way I could finish it all and there was no way that it would be fish and chips on my most popular list! 

We headed back to the B&B for showers and bed!

"In Florence you learn poise" Virgil Thomson

I'm not sure how much poise I learned while I was visiting Florence, but I certainly did enjoy it!

Wednesday April 8th, we woke up early and got on a train that would take us to Florence. We arrived around 10:30 and we able to walk to our hostel from the train station. I wasn't very impressed by what we saw to be honest. The city looked a bit run down and dirty, but that could have been because we were on the outskirts of the city to get to our hostel.

The place we stayed in was called the Dany Hostel and it was run by a lovely lady named Laura who had converted half of her apartment into a hostel where she worked during the day. She had two very cute kids who were 4 and 6 (I think) and were watching Peppa Pig when we arrived. Because check in wasn't until 1, we left our luggage and took off to explore Florence.

We walked along the busy streets admiring the different shops of souvenirs and clothing until we reached the Florence Cathedral.

Across from the entrance to the Cathedral was the Baptistery. The doors are beautiful sculptures of bronze made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and were dubbed by Michelangelo the Gate of Paradise. 

We continued down the street to find some lunch where we were recommended by Laura and some friends who had previously studied in Florence. The shop was a tasty panini place run by really cute Italian guys and because it was only 11ish, the line to get food wasn't very long! All you had to do was pick your meat, your spread, your vegetables (Which I got very few of), and your cheese! 

As you can see these paninis were quite large and they were only €5! 

Of course our next stop after lunch was to find some very tasty gelato in Florence! Thankfully, we were given another recommendation by Laura and more friends and headed along the river to get some sweets! 

Once we hit the gelato shop, tragedy struck. One of my flatmates placed her phone on the counter in the gelato shop and it was taken by a man who came in the shop. Needless to say, it ruined her Italy experience. But the rest of us still got gelato while we tried to locate her phone on the find my iPhone app.

Without any luck, we headed back to the hostel to check in and take a break. 

Eventually that break turned into nap time for most of us.

Except for yours truly once again. After nap time was over, we went in search of dinner! We decided to try another pizza that had been previously recommended to us, unfortunately it was clear across the  city. So we put on our walking shoes and headed out. 

The pizza was pretty good, it was oven baked and had all fresh ingredients. But I must admit, I have been spoiled by homemade pizza by my next door neighbors and more importantly my own mother. So no pizza was going to live up to those standards, overall, the pizza in Italy fell short while I was there. Hopefully if I go back when I'm older I'll be able to find better places to eat!  

But we took our pizzas to go and sat on one of the bridges over the river and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the Florence environment. After dinner it was time for dessert! 

We headed back to the hostel and settled in for the night! 

The next day (April 9th) we headed back to the Cathedral and got a ticket to see everything within the Cathedral: The Baptistery, the Clocktower, the crypts and the Dome. 

Our first trip was inside the Cathedral, which was very very large, but not decorated inside. It was clear that most of the money had been spent on the outside. Our next stop was the crypt underneath the Cathedral. My roommate's, who had lost her phone, hip was bothering her, so she just stayed in the Cathedral and read Harry Potter (not a bad alternative!). The crypts weren't all together exciting, they held some of the original tile mosaics that covered the floor, along with grave stones and support systems that held up the Cathedral. 

Our next venture was outside and around the building to the queue to get into the Dome. That was a very long line, we had to wait for about 40 minutes to make it into the building because they would only allow a certain number of people up the stairs and to the top. I found this out later, after we had climbed almost all the way to the top, the entrance and exit were the same staircase! So at times you had to wait squished against the wall to let people pass. Needless to say, I was very claustrophobic and almost had a panic attack. 

Thankfully we made it to the top and and I could breathe normally! And the view was breathtaking! 

The city was quite beautiful from such high a view! But after spending 10 minutes or so at the top, we decided we had left our friend reading Harry Potter long enough in the Cathedral. 

It was time for lunch after our long staircase journey (It was seriously long. My guess was it was at least 20 stories) and we headed back to the panini place and this time the line was quite long. 

You can see how busy the shop was from my picture! 

Afterwards we didn't go get gelato surprisingly! We headed back over by the Cathedral and went inside the Baptistery, it didn't take very long because it was only one room, but the decoration was beautiful.

We headed back to the hostel to wait out sunset! We wanted to go to the highest hill in Florence to get a beautiful view of the entire city at sunset (we barely made it!) We were not the only people who were there! There were quite a few Americans who had also decided to bring something to drink and watch the sunset over the city. In fact. I felt that most of the city was full of American student who were studying abroad. Most often than not the people that we passed in the street were college age girls speaking English. It was a very weird feeling. 

We hung out on the steps of the hill for about two hours until our bellies started rumbling to remind us that we had yet to eat dinner. So we left to search for dinner. It was not an easy feat! It was quite late at that time and not a lot of places were still open. We finally found a place which we didn't review on trip advisor (BAD MISTAKE) and sat down and ordered food. All 6 of us were very very disappointed with our meals. The food was lacking flavor, some of my food was still cold, they didn't have any tap water to give (?What the heck?) and on top of that we were charged a service fee when the guy barely did anything!!! We were all pretty pissed about that, but thought that the night should end on a good note since it was the last night I was going to be in Italy, so we went back to a gelato place we had passed earlier in the day. After getting our dessert, we headed back home.

Friday morning the 10th, was my last day in Italy. So before we left the hostel, I made sure that all of my belongings were packed up and I checked out of the hostel. Thankfully, Laura let me leave my luggage so I didn't have to lug it around the city while going to museums. 

Today was the day we had bought tickets to see the David and another museum (some other Gallery). From our hostel it was a quick walk to the museum were David was held!

He was definitely so much bigger than I was expecting! I can't believe that he's one piece of stone! In case any of you are wondering, the reason that he has a piece of wood behind his right foot is because it helps the statue balance out. Without it, he wouldn't be able to stand upright! 

Our next stop was the bell tower to finish our tour of the Cathedral! All of us prepared for our daring climb except for TP who once again returned to HP who she waited for us to go up and come down. Thankfully, it wasn't too crowded coming up and going down, so I didn't get claustrophobic! While it was a much shorter climb to the top than the Dome, it still stunk climbing all those steps (I'm just terribly out of shape!)

We then took off to find a market where we could get souvenirs for ourselves and for our family members/boyfriends. I really enjoyed at looking at all the cool items, however, I did not enjoy getting accosted by the men who were in charge of the stalls. 

The second you showed any slightest interest, they would approach you or grab something from their stall and shove it in your face! Um hello, if I wanted to buy your stuff I would stick around! 

Although, most of us ended up buying something from this super cute old man who was selling glassware painted with lemons and all sorts of flowers! I bought some stuff to take home with me! Afterwards, we went inside the market, where there was air conditioning and food and got some lunch! (And dessert for me!)

After stocking up on souvenirs we went to the next museum which had both paintings and lots of sculptures! To be honest, the only one I was really interested in was the Birth of Venus!

While there were a lot of paintings to see, I became bored quickly and tried to rush through to the end as quick as possible. Thankfully, I was not the only one who felt this way! With a quick stop by the Carabinieri station to file a report for a stolen phone, we then headed home so that I could make my way to the airport and the long trip home I had ahead of me. 

After saying my goodbyes, it was an easy two bus trip to the airport where I waited for an hour and a half to bored the tiny airplane to Barcelona. Thankfully, I was able to catch a small nap while I waited for my plane AND I got the entire row to myself on the plane!

I think Father in Heaven knew I wasn't going to be able to survive the trip home without the ability to layout and take a proper nap on the plane. After landing in Barcelona at 10:30 PM (the same airport I had been in previously) it was time to find an outlet (which are hard to come by in Europe, surprisingly) and take a nap! By the time I had found an outlet and someplace to lay out I was pretty awake, so I watched two episodes of Doctor Who until 2:30 where I then slept till I was rudely awoken by a airport employee who wanted to check my boarding pass. Thankfully, after they left me alone I slept again until the noises of the airport waking up woke me up! I made it through security without a problem and sat down to read at my gate after grabbing breakfast at Starbucks. 

At 6:25 I boarded by plan to get home to London, it was a short trip which I mostly slept through and we landed at 7:45. I had plenty of time to get home from the airport and shower before going to pick my mom up from the Heathrow airport at 1:30!

That'll be my next blog post! I would say I'm sorry for all the Office and Parks and Recs gifs, but I'm not really:)

It's Volcano Day!

So, Tuesday April 7th was probably one of my favorite trips that I took this semester. We took a day trip to Pompeii and Positano and I LOVED IT!!! I even took a bunch of notes on my phone's notes app to share some interesting facts about Pompeii with you because it had been quite a while since I've gone on a tour and shared some cool history facts with all you lovely readers!

We headed to the place where we were meeting our bus at 7:15 and the second we arrived I knew that we were going to have a problem. Instead of a luxurious charter bus I was expecting, there was a 15 passenger van waiting to take us to Pompeii and we were the last group of people to arrive, so I would be sitting in the back of this "bus". My first thought was that I was going to have to skip out on the very expensive day trip I paid for because I would not have survived in the back of the van.

However, thankfully our tour organizer allowed me to sit in the front between her and the driver. The drive was about 2 hours to Pompeii and I napped for a good portion of it. Once we arrived in Pompeii we met our tour guide who was a different person than our organizer and she got us set up with headphones so that she could talk in a microphone instead of trying to yell so all of us could hear her.

This was outside the gates of Pompeii. Which is the largest open aired museum in the world!

 

Pompeii was huge city of between 12,000-15,000 people who were all simultaneously killed on August 24 79AD. This was caused by large clouds of hot ash and poisonous smoke that swept over the city when Mount Vesuvius erupted. 

These people were absolutely brilliant! They built their streets lower than the rest of the city purposely so that when they were flooded with waste and rubbish it could be contained. They even built stepping stones to cross from one side of the street to the other. I like this picture particularly because you can see the indents the wagon wheels made in the stone between the stepping stones. 

This is an ancient bakery! How do they know that? Well in the oven in the back of the shop, they found 80 pieces of carbonized bread! If that doesn't scream bakery, I'm not sure what does!

Another cool fact that makes these people so brilliant was their indents for doors. These grooves would be made at the opening of shops so that when the sliding doors (like garage doors) would be pulled down over the entrance, it would make it harder for people to open the doors back up! 

There are over 40 fountains throughout Pompeii and some of them are even still functioning to provide cool water for tourists throughout the city. Lead pipes were used to connect the water system while Pompeii was still a functioning city, don't worry, they aren't still in use today. The emperor of Pompeii, Augustus, built the city's water structure through aqueducts and incorporated water pressure systems that the rich could use to bring water into their homes. 

These two images are take from the ancient spa that was discovered in Pompeii. The squares were storage facilities where the visitors could place their items before heading to the hot or cold bath. Because of the pipes that ran throughout the city, they were able to get enough hot water and steam to hold a sauna room. 

This was the large marketplace of town where you can get an awesome view of Mount Vesuvius. We were told that the marketplace was pedestrian only because there was no traces of wagon wheels or hoof prints in this area. 

In the corner of the marketplace, there was a large storage area that housed some of the relics that were uncovered in Pompeii. Some of these include casts of people and animals, such as the dog. 

Another cool fact that showed the brilliance of the people of Pompeii was their system of lighting for night time. Because they obviously didn't have streetlights, they placed pieces of marble in the ground between stones, so that when the moon shone on the marble pieces, the light would reflect and light the path. 

Unfortunately, if you go to Pompeii, you will also notice that many of the buildings are in rubble. Well, Titus, the emperor (not sure what he was the emperor of) thought that the destruction of Pompeii was a sign of anger from the Gods, so he ordered that all the large buildings be taken down. (not exactly sure what it was going to prove, but he was the emperor, so he could do what he wanted)

Pompeii was excavated in 1745, it had been covered for over 1,500 years! In fact, not everything is still uncovered today! They are still uncovering parts of the city slowly but surely! 

After our 2 hour tour in Pompeii, we piled back in the van and this time I was very grateful to be in the front seat because we hit traffic on our way to Positano. Not only did we hit traffic, but because we were driving on the coast, the road was very curvy. In fact, our journey into the city of Positano was filled with a ton of hairpin turns, our van was so large that our driver had to back up quite a few times to make the turn. 

Now I don't know much about the history of Positano, but I do know that it's beautiful and I want to go back. The Almalfi Coast is protected by UNESCO, which means that people cannot expand and build on anymore land! So people do a lot of renovating and the housing prices are expensive! As you can see from the picture, there isn't much of a downslope from the city to the beach, in fact there really isn't any beach either. The city is stacked on top of one another and there are a lot of stairs that one must hike when walking throughout the city. 

I'm determined to come back to the Positano, heck any part of the Almafi Coast because we only got an hour to enjoy the city due to the traffic from Easter Weekend. However, I'm not sure that I would want to drive in, so I'm thinking a nice cruise to the Almafi Coast is in order! 

One thing this cute town is known for is their lemons! I wish I could have shown you the comparison, but to give you a rough estimate, they are larger than a grapefruit! However, even with their large size, they still don't give out much juice. In fact, the skin of the lemons in Positano are just incredibly thick! Most of the tourist shops held some sort of lemon flavored candy, drinks or pictures with lemons painted on them. I ended up getting some beautiful lemon candy that I still haven't finished! 

Before we headed back to the van, we stopped and got a treat of frozen lemonade and it was delicious!!! But all too soon we had to pile back in the car for the long trip home. In fact it was a long trip, remember the traffic I mentioned earlier? Well it came back to bite us in the butt because instead of taking 2 1/2 hours to get home it took 6 hours to get back!!! But I did get to have a lovely conversation with our tour organizer while we waited in the car for that long. I learned some pretty interesting facts about Italy, and while it might be nice to visit, I don't think I would want to live there.

Lin (our tour organizer) told me that because health care is free in Italy, everyone is treated the same unless you can afford a private doctor. So if you go into the hospital with a heart attack or a stroke, you will be waiting in line behind everyone else who arrived before you, which could be DAYS! If you end up getting cancer, unless you are very well off, they usually give you pain medication and are told to say your goodbyes. The government in Rome is pretty corrupt. When an individual is elected into office, they raise a bunch of money for a certain project and then they leave the office and take the money with them. In fact, a tunnel we drove through to get to and from Positano took 20 years to build!!! (While it was a long tunnel, and when I say long, we were in there for 10 minutes driving at about 60 mph, I still couldn't believe it took that long!)

We finally arrived back in Rome at 10:45 and we were RAVENOUS!!! We headed to McDonalds (Yuck!) to get some dinner because it was the only thing open. After reading Fast Food Nation in high school, I refuse to eat any sort of real food there, so I just ordered an ice cream cone and some french fries. We finally made it back to our hostel at 11:30 and by that point we passed out very quickly because we had to get up early for our train to leave to Florence.