Days with Megan (Purple bike!)

Sunday- Tuesday was filled with catching up on school work, group projects, going to the gym, and trying to get back on a regular eating schedule. After traveling for 10 days there can be a lot to catch up on including, TV shows, relaxing, and hanging out with my amazing roommate.

Wednesday I finally had a day off so Megan and I decided to hang out. First we did laundry, but when we went to hang dry our cloths on the balcony, unfortunately it was so windy outside that our cloths KEPT falling over onto the ground. So we moved them inside, and hung them all around the apartment.

Laundry everywhere

Haha

After we tried to be productive but it was a fail so we decided to go biking and get some sunshine :)

We figured out how to use the city bikes and biked to the Prater, a large amusement park here in Vienna. Megan has lots of pictures on her camera and I will upload those once she puts them on her camera. There we found the bike rack to drop our bikes off and continued to walk around the park and eventually found a nice spot in the sun to work on our tan.

Purple Bike!

Lying under a tree catching some rays

Prater park

After we walked down the large shopping street here in vienna, yes in our workout cloths, and windowed shopped. We admired cute purses, and cool postcards, until we got hungry. We walked into an ice cream parlor, but we both kind of looked at each other and said, I don't want ice cream (we are tying to make healthier choices). So we decided to try a smoothie place one of my friends had suggested to me. It was a little bit of a walk from where we were but SO worth it. I got a berry extravaganza, made with organic yogurt, and fresh berries! So delicious.

Cute Smoothie Shop

Different kinds of juices they sell

Delicious and satisfying 

Later Megan and I went to the gym, then home. 

Megan left today for a trip to Latvia for 10 days. The apartment isn't the same without her, it is very quite, it is just me and Charlotte, (her roommate left in April and we haven't gotten anyone new yet).

Tomorrow I am going on a short hiking trip with the schools Buddy Network. We are hiking to the top of a national park about 2 hours west of vienna, and will stay at a cabin at the top for the night. Should be really fun, I am looking forward to it and I have my fingers crossed that the weather stays nice.

Follow the mob of tourists in London

Friday I headed back into the city for the day to check off the rest of my sightseeing. I walked to the train station from Kylie's and this time it was actually nice out and decided not to rain on me. I grabbed a yogurt and a tea at the cafe before hopping on the train and was off. When I arrived in London I had already missed the changing of the guards ceremony sadly, and I had planned on taking a free walking tour but didn't make it to that intone either. So o was on my own. Lucky just about everyone else on the streets were tourists as well going to see the same things as me.

On the walk to the train station (before it started raining)

I headed to the London eye first, then crossed the bridge to see Big Ben up close and personal. I never bought a map I just followed the streets signs and listened in to other tourists plans. Again it's great to understand almost everyone here, language wise.

London Eye

Gardens 

Beautiful flowers

Thank you stranger for a great picture 

Big ben!

After being completely overwhelmed with people and busy side walks already I continued to Westminster Abby, it was beautiful from the outside but sadly I didn't feel like spending 18 pounds to wait over an hour to go inside, so I just imagined it. After I headed to buckingham palace! Unfortunately I missed the changing of the guards but it was still cool to see the palace.

Beautiful church, not worth 18 pounds and the wait to go inside though

Guards!

Palace gates

Park enterence

Beautiful Flowers!

Then I headed towards Tarfell square, and hay market street. Tarfalgar square had an event going on so it was hard to appreciate all of its beauty but the wheelchair basketball game that was going on was pretty cool to watch. So I grabbed a falafel sandwich from a street vendor and enjoyed the game, and people watching. After I went into the national art gallery but only to quickly walk through it, and use the bathroom.

Passed the ritz on the way

Tarfalgar square

Cute church

Later I walked down haymarket street, and ended up running into the guard house, I went inside and discover st. James park. The sun decided to come out and I strolled though the park, step by step getting more tired but not wanted to head back yet, just too much to see. After taking some pictures and looking back up at the sky, they had turned grey so I decided it would be a good time to start heading back.

Cutest girl feeding the birds in the park

LONDON!

I mean I had to.. I was in London :)

I walked back towards Big Ben and the London eye, I thought about going on the London eye but the line was just ridiculous. And so I watched the street performers got one honey coated nuts, and called it a day.

Big Ben

Once on the train I tried very hard to keep my eyes open. Knowing I didn't want to miss my stop. I walked back to Kylie's from the station one final time and was spent by the time I made it home. Most of her roommates were home and we just lounged on the couch for a while. We had planned to go to a fancy dinner at an Italian place, but had to wait for Kylie's brother to get off the train.

We all took the bus to town and went to zizzi's Italian resteraunt where we ordered wine, pasta, pizza's and had a great time.

We took a taxi back home because it started to rain and some of the roommates decided to have a fun night drinking, I decided to head to bed, and I thought it was hilarious when I got up this morning at about 6:30 a.m. To use the bathroom and they were still up! Wish I had that much eagerly but it just seems to disappear after a day of sightseeing.

London day one

So after finally arriving about 1 am I was exhausted to say the least. I decided to sleep in a little bit in the morning but not much I was up and out by 11 am. When I left Kyle's it was sunny warm and I thought I had worn too many layers but as I walked to the train station I released that wasn't the case. It started absolutly pouring, by the time I made it to the train station it had socked through all my cloths. Wet and cold, and off to the big city. I was planning on doing a walking tour of the city but it was absolutely miserable weather so I decided to buy a tube pass for the day and go to the outskirts of the city, by public transit.
First I had to figure out the tube, but since I have been in so many different cities now it didn't take long for me to get the hang of it.

 I went to kings crossing first to get my picture on the famous platform 9 3/4 from Harry potter.

Living in harry potter's world

Thank you random stranger for a great picture!

Typical London

After I walked to the British museum and did some exploring but it was just so big and had so many people I wasn't really into it that much, although it was a good escape from the cold and windy.

British museum 

Rosetta Stone

Lots of greek statues

Museum from the inside

After I headed to the tower bridge and was able to get some great photos of it and of me from strangers. This is my first city touring along so at least it is easy to ask someone to take your picture because 99% of them for sure know English.

The castle attached to the tower

TOWER BRIDGE!

Thank you random stranger for a great picture! 

After checking out the bridge and the clouds started to turn I decided to head for the underground again. This time off to Harrods store. The largest most expensive high class store I have ever seen. Probably has over 300 employees and 50 of them being police / security. I walked around the handbag, shoes, and dress section and couldn't stop drooling. 

Who actually wears these cloths?

The store from the outside, it was huge!

 After being completely overwhelmed and exhausted from sight seeing I decided to head back to the train station I started at, I got a tea and some food, nothing fancy while traveling along, McDonald's kids menu is the way to go. I hoped on the train and was off back to Kylie's. now she is studying and i am planning what I will see tomorrow again, looks like in the rain.

Megabus is mega cheap

So instead of taking the train I decided to try and saw some money and take the bus to London, from Newcastle. Usually about a 7 hour bus ride which is long yes but if I am prepared for it I don't mind. So I waisted about 2 hours in Newcastle while Erin worked on her papers and I waited for my bus. I went to the department/ grocery store called Marc's and Spencer's and fell in love a little bit. Finally a grocery store I can understand what I am buying and just a great selection of a lot of different things.
After buying enough snacks and food to feed the entire bus I found a cute coffee shop and ordered some tea just around the corner from the bus stop. Finally it was time to board and everyone warmed me to be pushy while picking a seat and I definitely wanted a window seat. So I was and found a seat I was happy with next to a nice looking older women. At 2 pm we were off. 3 hours later at one of the stops the buzzer for the door wouldn't turn off. So this created a safety issue meaning we couldn't go any further on that bus, and we had to wait for an engineer. While the engineer could do anything so at this point we've been at this station for over an hour and people are getting ansi. 2 women had so many connections to catch the engineer actually ended up driving hem to London because they couldn't wait. And they actually postponed a bus from London to Paris for there arrival. They were pretty cool looking women, once they arrive in Paris they take two trains and then walk for 3 days to get to there friends house. Wow!

Waiting on a bus..

Well after all said and done we finally got another bus, this bus was heading to London but only had 24 spots so I kid you not, the bus driver said, priority goes to women, children, and elders. Everyone had a feeling we would start sinking like titanic soon. But within another half hour an empty bus came to get the rest of us.

At this point I was unsure if the tube (public transportation or trains) in London would be running when we got it. It was a little scary to think about because we're I am staying is a 40 min. Train ride. Lucky there were lots of very friendly people on the bus one girl told me I could stay at her flat while another looked up train times and let me text my friends who I am staying with from her phone. It was refreshing to have such company in this time of uncertainty.

We arrived at 11 o'clock and I was able to catch the train at 1130 out to guildford, once I landed in guildford there was a line of taxes just waiting to the me home :)

One long bus ride for sure!

College in a castle (Durham university)

Tuesday we woke up and erin made me a famous "toastie" also known as grilled cheese, but her specialty is that she uses brie cheese, and wow that was delicious! Erin had class from 12-2 so I walked around Northumberland street (similar to church street) and did some shopping. I ended up purchasing a pair of shorts and a summer shirt because it was just so sunny and warm outside! Everyone warned me about how cold the UK is in June and I came prepared for that so my pants and sweaters were not cutting it.


At 2 I met Erin outside in a park and we headed to the church, to view the inside that we were not able to see the day before. It was beautiful, and the antique flags really add something to the church. I love being in a place that speaks English! After we went to the train station and headed to Durham, a small town only 15 minutes away. In the Durham church part of the fist Harry potter was filmed, so that was really cool to check out! We decided to take a tour of the Durham castle and that was wicked cool! The castle is actually a university we bought our tour tickets in the library then took a tour of this beautiful antique castle that was built in 1066. I don't know if I have ever been in something that old. We were not able to take pictures inside but just imagine the inside of Hogwarts... That was basically it. They use the kitchen to cook food for the college students and the large dinning area is where they get to eat, the students have dorms inside the castle walls and there is also a historic bar/pub on campus. Erin and I went to check it out but the students were using it as a study area, since finals are coming up. It was really cool to see though. I am seriously considering applying to grad school there. But it seems extremely competitive as they only accept about 700 undergrads and 200 masters students.

Durham cathedral

Durham cathedral

Durham University

You can live in castle if you go here for school!
Want to go to grad school here now

Afterwards we walked around the quant town of Durham and bought ice cream from the cutest old man ever!

ICE CREAM!

English Breakfast
I didn't eat the black pudding..

We took the train back to Newcastle and headed back to Erin's dorm for pizza and chilling with the girls on her floor. Erin was suppose to start a paper but that didn't happen. So today we went to breakfast and she left me to go do work at the library. Right now I am sitting in a cute coffee shop waiting for my mega bus to London, and still trying to get over my cold. Today I am finally feeling a little better, no more head cold just a cough, so still lots of water, tea, and orange juice!

Sick in Newcastle

After arriving in Edinburgh and discovering that tickets for the train are way more expensive if you don't order 24 hours ahead, I hoped on my 40 pound train to Newcastle. But not before grabbing myself a bagel and a chi latte. I have had a scratchy throat for the past few days so tea and lattes help.

The train was absolutely beautiful, it went right up next to the coast and only took an hour and a half vs. the 2 and a half hour bus ride. So all in all really no complaints, and I got to shut my eyes for a bit even though the coast was beautiful.

Train ride view!

Beautiful little town on the coast

I got off at Newcastle and Erin (one of my close friends from uvm studying here in newcastle) was waiting and we walked a good 40 min. Back to her dorm, through town, a street similar to church street, then through the cow fields to her dorm... Must say that was very strange.

Cows on campus

We hung out for a while before headed to a pub on campus to meet up with some of Erin's friends. There we ordered dinner and some drinks. After we headed back to the dorms for some chill girl time. While we girls were hanging out in Louise's room across the hall from Erin's the boys from downstairs decided to interrupt our party and be hilariously drink. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

Today we got up and went to the shoreside "the beach". It was a 30 min metro out of town to this quant little beach town. We ate some lunch near a castle on the grass before heading to the sandy beach. We were with a group of Erin's friends and I think I fell asleep for awhile. My cold is not going away...

Beach!

Erin and I

Beach!

Beautiful shore side!

After the beach we decided to meet up with some other friends at a bar but Erin and I weren't quite feeling it as we are both kind of sick and we decided to head back into town for a quick walking tour of Newcastle and to find some food. And that we did.