I have more care to stay than will to go

Seeing a play, we thought, ah, finally something that will be more relaxing. No more trying to catch trains and planes and such.

Wrong.

Not that this was exceedingly difficult, but at least on spring break our planes were later in the day and we never had to get up earlier than 8. But noooooooooo. Ithaca College London Centre trips always start out rather early. We had to get to the Centre by 7:15, which meant a lovely 6 o’clock wake up call for me the day after a St. Patty’s Day hangout/birthday party for me. Yeah, it was marvelous. (Don’t fret mother, I wasn’t drinking that night, we were just up late hanging out).

I kind of wish they had pushed it back a week or something, because I have barely recovered from spring break (read: our flat is still chaos from unpacking), but turns out it was a pretty great weekend.

Except for the rain. Yes, England in its exceedingly excellent geographic location seems forever destined to rain on perfectly lovely school trips. So when we stopped in Oxford, none of us wanted to get off the bus because it was pouring.  It was just as bad as in Barcelona. Silly me didn’t pack my rainboots (I’ve been told that people don’t actually wear them much for walking around, unless you’re going to be in the countryside. Who knew?)  so my first pair of shoes got absolutely soaked. Which made my feet numb because it was cold. Which made walking around Oxford pretty miserable, if not for the awesomeness that it was. Seriously. It was really lovely and nice, and I can only imagine that increase with the amount of sunlight that may happen to come through patches in clouds most days. Cause that’s really all you get in London, sunshine through cloud patches.

Anyway, we visited Christ Church but couldn’t go inside cause of a special service, so we wandered around the hall and outside instead. Supposedly some Harry Potter scenes were filmed here, and the inspiration for Alice and Wonderland was here as well. Pretty cool stuff.

Heading up to be sorted. you know.

Apparently they filmed some quidditch scene here. And by that I mean the learning to fly scene

Sarah and I decided to then explore Oxford on our own, so we found some old bookshops (she’s looking for a Lord of the Rings book with character, hence all the bookshop stuff we do). We even looked in Blackwell’s, which was pretty cool. 

Found the UK editions of The Hunger Games. I am such a dork

All in all, despite the rain, Oxford was a great place to visit for a couple hours. We got back on the coach and headed to Stratford.

Or so we thought. Bill had found another place to make a short stop: Winston Churchill’s grave. Now, I don’t know about you, but I never thought I would see something like that in my life, so that was a cool 5 minute stop (literally, the coaches had no place to park so we had 5 minutes to see it and get back). It was a fun time.

There it is

Now we headed to Stratford. We were staying in Bed and Breakfasts this time, not a hostel, which was a great change of pace. Sarah, Liz and I got to share an adorable room, so we hung out there for a bit, changed clothes (as my pants were still soaked from Oxford) and got ready for the night ahead. We decided to wander around Stratford for a while, and it was fun seeing all the modern buildings next to the Tudor style and uh, other earlier styled buildings (I’m not taking British Art and Architecture, so sue me, I don’t know the names). Lots of them were named after characters in Shakespeare’s works or other literary characters, like the Chaucer’s Head bookshop where Sarah found a nice copy of LOTR for 3.50. Not a bad find, my friend!

We then wandered down to the river where we admired the swans and geese, plus a strange looking one that was getting too close for comfort (keep in mind that in Ithaca, the geese are rather vicious. I think Liz and Casey have been chased at least twice by them) so we maintained our distance. Deciding we were hungry, we headed back up to a pub called the Rose and Crown for a delicious, yet again HUGE, helping of fish & chips. Seriously, that’s my go-to going-out meal. We then decided it was time to head over to the theatre to check out the production of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet.

So cute!

I needed a break

WHY ARE THEY ALWAYS GIANT FISH???

So many Shakespearean characters have shops here...

This one thought he was the boss. He got really close to us. Kind of adorable, right?

To my surprise, Sarah, Liz and I ended up in the front row, albeit to the right side of the stage. I was worried that this would be an issue, but the stage is a thrust stage, meaning it comes out into the audience and is surrounded by them on 3 sides. I thought the actors might only look forward, but they did a great job of giving all 3 sides attention.

Literally this close. No zoom or anything. I could have reached out and touched the stage

Speaking of attention, I didn’t know the front row would be so interesting, or so dangerous! The fight scenes were intense. Guys were getting set on fire, chains and swords were whipping around, there was fog and smoke and I couldn’t see. Liz and I clutch each other for fear of an actor falling on us or a sword finding its way into our area. Thankfully, none of this happened, but it didn’t stop us from fearing for our lives. Other than that, they interacted with the audience a lot.

There’s a point in the show where Benvolio tells Romeo to look at other maidens. Be Romeo was in modern dress and had a camera (probably to separate him and his more modern ideals from the others who cling to age old ideas of the feud, as well as to represent the timelessness of the story) and Benvolio grabbed it and turned to snap a picture. Of us. I think he was pointing it at Liz and I, because we were in the middle of a section of girls from our school. More Liz, but I think I was in the picture too because Romeo was talking about it and gestured to us. He pointed at me and we made eye contact. My heart stopped. Mostly because Sam Troughton, the actor, played Much in the BBC version of Robin Hood, which Sarah and I love (if you haven’t seen it, it’s great!). So I was super stoked. Then, later, Friar Lawrence was talking about flowers and their deceptiveness, and how some smell sweet but have poison inside. He walked over and held the flower out, right to Liz! He asked her to smell it, she was like ‘uuuuuuhhhhh’ and did, then he asked her “how about a taste” and she shook her head no and he laughed. It was so awesome and she was blushing so furiously. She didn’t expect attention twice in one show!

Later, during Act 3 Scene 1, the scene where it all starts going downhill for Romeo and Juliet, there was a huge sword fight. I have no idea how this happened, but a chain from one of the actor’s costumes or weapons or something was broken during the scene and slid across the stage quite rapidly, hitting Sarah and I and landing on my arm. We are keeping it as a souvenir. Sure, it’s a chain, but it’s a chain from the RSC’s Romeo and Juliet. SO COOL.

The show was excellent and heartbreaking, as intended. Romeo was my favourite of the pair, partially cause I loved the actor and partially because I think he was just better. He had this awkward, light-hearted dorkiness in his Romeo that I haven’t seen before, as it is so often presented as rather serious. It made his despair in the end so much more sad and real, because in the beginning he was so joyous and free. Juliet played very well, but had some moments where I wasn’t impressed. No matter, I wish you all could come to Stratford one day and see the Royal Shakespeare Company, it truly was a treat.

This is the theatre

Afterwards, we headed over to a pub called the Black Swan, more commonly known in Stratford as the Dirty Duck. Again mother, don’t be alarmed. We didn’t go to drink. It is a common hang out place for the actors after the show. We successfully met Mercutio (his name is Jonjo. So cool) and Sam Troughton, who we did get to tell we loved his work as Romeo and in Robin Hood. It was a great night and we were all on top of the world.

No idea how I ended up NOT looking at the camera. Oh well. I met him. That's what counts (this is Sam Troughton- Much from Robin Hood)

Till we got back to our B&B. All was well until Liz was in the middle of a sentence and stopped suddenly. There, above the closet, rested a giant spider. Now, I usually have no problem with spiders. I kill them for Cesca all the time. But this one was in my “too big to kill because it is now in my range of fear” size. We spent a good 20 minutes shrieking, cowering, watching and waiting for the spider to finally get to the floor, where our teamwork combined vanquished the spider (Liz) made sure it was dead (Me), got it into toilet paper and into the bathroom (Sarah) and flushed it (Me). Terror, thy name is B&B Spider.

please note: If I had my camera, there would be photographic proof of the spider. However, mere minutes before I had put my coat (with my camera in the pocket) into the closet. Therefore, it exists only in our memories.

Luckily the B&B redeemed itself the next morning with a shower that wasn’t sketchy like some hostel showers, a lovely hot breakfast and a nice host. First, he put hash browns on our plates because, as he said “Americans. Hash Browns. See, I know!” because apparently all Americans love hash browns. I do. I’m happy! Then as we were leaving he was talking to some of the boys and something he said was really funny so I was laughing, and he looked at me and said “You have a beautiful smile! You are really beautiful. I mean, you are all beautiful. But you should be a model. You have a great smile, it is so cheeky!” I was so flattered!

The next day was also Shakespeare filled, as we visited Holy Trinity Church, were he is buried. It was really kind of amazing to be standing only a few feet away from the poet of England. We then ventured up farther in Stratford to his birthplace, which was cool to see, especially juxtaposed with the touristy area that sprung up around it.

Blessed be the man that spares these stones

And curst be he that moves my bones

Shakespeare= Bad. Ass.

Shakespeare's birthplace

I was craving a milkshake so we stopped by Moo Moo’s, which has like 100 choices for a milkshake. I got Cadbury Dairy Milk cause I am in love with the stuff, and Sarah got chocolate brownie and peanut butter, but wasn’t thrilled with it. Being the selfless, valiant friend I am, I volunteered to drink it as well. The ensuing sugar rush was most entertaining, especially for my friends who know of my eating habits (that I don’t eat much in one sitting) and how my stomach doesn’t like when I overdo it on dairy. I actually didn’t suffer as much as I was expecting. I guess Stratford milkshakes are magic.

These are all the choices. The fact that I got only two is a miracle.

My two milkshakes. Delicious.

Me: Hey let's go get ice cream from that boat!

Liz/Sarah: Christina, you're holding two milkshakes!

What a beautiful day!

To take advantage of the beautiful, gloriously sunny day, we took a boat ride on the river. Liz was a pro and paddled/rowed the whole time while I helped her out by yelling Port and Starboard at mostly appropriate times. We then just basked around a bit before we had to get on the buses and head back to London. Liz, Sarah and I won 5 pounds for answering a bunch of Shakespeare quiz questions right, and Bill gave a bunch of us buttons that had Shakespeare phrases on them. Mine said “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” Bill knows me well.

The boats were all famous females from Shakespeare!

Our boat, Helena from Midsummer Night's Dream- thought Cesca would enjoy that!

Our pro rower, Liz. Isn't she cute!

I loved Stratford. It is one of the first places here that I could actually see myself living in, rather than just visiting. It just had a great atmosphere and was so lovely and peaceful. Plus, I could then catch all of the RSC productions, which would be amazing. I hope Cesca and I can come back together sometime.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at home and attempting to still catch up on life and get back to normal. I counted today, and I only have 50 something days left here. My how the time flies. Casey and Andrea return from Greece today, and I am really excited to hear about their trip!

More later, probably next weekend because we are seeing Les Miserables! Can’t wait!

Paris!

Finally, the last post of my Spring Break shenanigans commences!

We arrived at Paris Beauvais in good time, but our flight from Barcelona was into the evening and there was an hour long bus trip we needed to take (after waiting for like 20 minutes to get tickets). Then we had to figure out the metro to get to our hostel and lug all our stuff there. We succeeded like champs and got to our hostel, though they screwed up our reservation so we had to split up into different rooms. Meh, not too bad. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the beds, but there were always people in the room that were awake and I didn't want to seem like a creeper. But anyway, the beds were like in little cupboards in the wall with a curtain, so it was like having your own private little room to sleep in. So cool.

Some of the Metro signs were a bit, er, Halloweentown-esque? 

We had a limited amount of time in Paris. I mean, less than 24 hours (Paris is expensive so we only did one night there) so we set out right away to see something cool. We chose the Eiffel Tower, because it is outside so it can't be closed. It is lit up for a good part of the night, and it was beautiful. Another lovely surprise was that it sparkles like every half our or something. SO COOL. It was amazing to be standing there under this amazing thing that I've only seen in movies. Loved it. Except the magic was ruined by the stupid salespeople trying to sell me miniature light up towers. GO AWAY.

All lit up!

Sparkles!!!

Across from the Tower there was a crepe vendor. Being in France, we had to have one at least! So I got a nutella one. So. Delicious. I will be making these things at home. Poorly, but I will do so anyway.

Delicious!

We headed back since it was now like 1 in the morning and we needed our rest. We had a packed day ahead of us, what with having about 6 hours to see the stuff we wanted to.

We woke up bright and early and headed to our first destination, Notre Dame. We were allowed to go inside for free and take pictures, which is rare for monuments like that, at least in Britain. I felt bad though, because a mass was starting soon. I also felt weird walking by the gift shop inside the main cathedral. It was sooooo bizarre. We didn't see Quasimodo. I was a bit disappointed haha.

Next we headed attempted to head over to the Louvre, but misread the map and ended up on the wrong side of the river going in the wrong direction. I got cool souvenirs out of it, so I'm not complaining. We begrudgingly took the metro up the river and got off at what Liz thought was the station. It wasn't, but we ended up being right down the street from our other key destination and my personal pick, the Palais Garnier. I really hope you know what that is, but if you don't, it is the Paris Opera House. And by this I mean the Paris Opera House. You know, the one WHERE THE PHANTOM LIVED... Yeah. Super stoked. Unfortunately as my luck would have it, it was closed to visitors that day. Huge bummer, but it gives me incentive to come back next year and see it for real inside. I was still thrilled I just got to be there.

this is where Phantom takes place!

I bought the novel in French. It came in 2 parts! Yes. I do have a problem.  Why do you ask?

Next we headed down to the Louvre just to see the pyramids and stuff outside, but we weren't in the mood to go pushing through people to see the Mona Lisa. I think next year I would like to devote time to it, but I was all museumed and tourist locationed out. We were all exhausted and running out of clean clothes and energy, so we called it a day, having seen all we intended to, and headed to the hostel to get our stuff.

I shall return, Louvre!

Baguette. So authentic.

The hostel people made a mistake. They told us getting to the airport was 'pretty quick.' Now, maybe to the French 55 minutes is pretty quick, but that didn't really fly with us. Meaning once we got to Charles de Gaulle, we were cutting it close. Which would have been fine if our terminal wasn't on the other side of the freaking airport. We raced through the airport, got to baggage check just in time and made it to our gate with a few minutes to spare. After lots of stress, we were finally on the plane and home free.

Or so we thought. Unfortunately, due to a random mistake, Casey's visa had the wrong expiration date so they weren't going to let her in the country. After a while of waiting, Sarah and I took some of the luggage home on another hour long bus ride, as the officer said it could take hours. Lo and behold, they were home like 20 minutes after us. So it was stressful but it all worked out in the end. Especially cause now Casey doesn't have to work until they get it sorted. She really isn't in a hurry haha.

Well, that's my Spring Break for ya! Hope you enjoyed the mass of updates. I will try to update when I can, but this half of the semester seems to promise a lot more of a hectic vibe than the last half. Halfway through already :(

Barcelona

In an attempt to finish my spring break updates before I leave for Startford-upon-Avon tomorrow to see Romeo and Juliet (for which, there will be a post and I want to catch up on the last two cities. I can assure you that this whole blogging about 7 cities thing is a difficult task to accomplish, between catching up with laundry and London life, but it is a labour of love for you all, my dear readers. And thus, we continue on with Barcelona.

It was a bit gloomy when we got to Barcelona but we made the most of it. Casey, Liz and Andrea headed to the beach anyway, determined to have more beach time on our break. Sarah and I asked for advice from the guy at our hostel, and he told us about a great area. After figuring out the metro and map, we ended up on the 5^th Avenue of Barcelona. It is so much fun to walk down a street past such stores like Prada, Gucci, Hugo Boss and more.

we also saw some cool Gaudi architecture

We then got to the market/shopping area for normal people where I found an awesome bag from a store called Desigual. We tried to find some Barcelona t shirts, but the vendors were very pushy and intense and made me really annoyed and uncomfortable, plus the shirts were really campy and kind of tacky. I decided my bag was a good enough souvenir and we headed to get some food. Our food of the day included Dulce de Leche waffles, more gelato (not as good as Italy’s of course) and finally some paella! I was dying to try some, and it was pretty good. Not my favourite dish ever, but it was pretty delicious. Like London, apparently the main dish of a country must be served in huge portions, so I couldn’t finish. It was great though. 

How will I ever eat a normal waffle again?

Paella de pollo. Yum!

Then Sarah and I, being dorks, headed to a bookstore we had seen earlier. We had great fun looking for books in Spanish, comparing their titles and covers and just finding things we knew about. I even found a Phantom related book… It is only in Spanish though. Hmmm. Might be time to start practicing Spanish again…

The Hunger Games, one of my favourite books, in Catalan! 

Comparing the Catalan and Spanish versions of Mockingjay, the 3rd book of The Hunger Games trilogy

I might have to just try and read this in Spanish. 

It was a fun but long day so we headed back early to the hostel and hung out in the cool lounge that was downstairs. We decided that the next day was going to be easy so we weren’t going to do anything major before our flight to Paris. This turned out to be a great decision since it was POURING the next day. Literally like rivers of water and sideways rain kind of pouring. So we got food, what else, kebabs, and then chilled around the hostel till it was time to go. I even taught Liz how to play chess, but I don’t know if she remembers how the pieces move. Maybe I’ll quiz her later.

It was literally like a river.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, because Barcelona only has one airport. It was a pretty big airport and we thought it would be busy because it was a Friday afternoon. Nope. Empty. We sat around a bit, bought some chocolate from the duty free and then boarded our next plane to the lovely city of Paris.

What we left in Barcelona

Then we flew above it. So pretty!

Birthday Update

Quick note also, this may be the best birthday I've had. Though I didn't get to share it with Cesca, we did spend lots of time together last week and did get to chat today, so it was not like we were deprived of each other. Though I do wish she could be here... Anyway...

Sofia Escobar from Phantom stopped by my work and wished me a happy birthday and was so nice! I was downstairs and a coworker came down and said "Christina, there's a Sofia here for you?" I was like 'what!?!?', and I walked upstairs, opened the door and there she was. She's got the most brilliant smile and overall sweet demeanor, and she was so friendly. She was like "How's your day!? I didn't know you worked here!" She even gave me a card. I'm so beyond amazed. Sarah had tweeted her and asked her to come. What a great friend!

The card Sofia gave me. Please note my 'Birthday Princess' crown. I did not wear it all day. Maybe I should have?

She's like the nicest person ever

Then my coworkers took me out for a drink at this really classy bar. We got some wine and ordered a British cheese plate, which was totally great and a good experience. I really loved hanging out with them, actually. I'm going to be so sad to leave.

I arrived home to a home cooked meal of chicken parm and garlic bread, made by my lovely flatmate Liz. Delicious. She made me an ice cream cake too!

I feel so lucky today :)

Valencia!!!!!

Valencia is the city I like to refer to as “The City in Which We Reverted to Seven Year Olds.” But we will get to that in a moment.

When we first arrived, we were exhausted. We had been significantly delayed at Rome Ciampino Airport (after almost going to Baden Baden, our gate changed then we had to wait for another 45 minutes. Standing up. With a 20 pound backpack. In a huge crowd) and we really wanted to just get to our hostel and relax. Thankfully, Liz asked for directions in Spanish and we were on our way to the Purple Nest Hostel. We easily found it and were pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was. It had a funky fresh, cool design. Plus the best showers I have ever seen. It was like showering in rain. So cool We got in pretty late so we didn’t really do anything the first night but admire the hostel and the view from our balcony.

The next day, however, we had a blast. Casey had spied an ad for the Valencia Aquarium on a map we had. Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘You didn’t go all the way to Spain to see an Aquarium!’ buuuuuuuuuut Valencia is well known for its City of Arts and Sciences, which is a strip of lie 5 buildings that are all unique and have cool stuff. One of them is the aquarium. I haven’t been in years, so I thought, why not? It wasn’t out of my price range and it would be loads of fun. We asked for directions and were told to walk through a lovely park for a while. The day was warm and sunny, so we were super stoked.

We happened upon some low trees and spent some time climbing them, then we came across a rope playground. We all looked at each other and immediately decided that of course we should play on it! We continued on to find some orange trees (with oranges that were not good to eat, according to some guy who saw us) then continued on, where we happened across another playground. This one was in the shape of Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels, which was so cool because things like his belt and hat became slides and sandboxes. So much fun. The half hour walk to the Aquarium took us about 2 hours because of these distractions, but it was totally worth it. Andrea decided not to go to the Aquarium, so she hobbled to the beach on her bad foot while we went inside and enjoyed the wonders. Best aquarium I’ve seen. Ever.

I imitate strange drawings on walls. 

tree climbing pros

cool fountain

rope playground!

Gulliver Playground!

so cute!!

Jellyfish!!!

 "Go stand next to that pelican, it is almost as big as you!"

Afterwards, we decided that we were on Spring Break so we should head to the beach. None of us had our swimsuits with us, so we just rolled up our jeans and dipped our toes in. It would have been too cold to swim in anyway, but we had a blast running around in the surf. We met some dutch boys who made some interesting sounds at the mention of ‘Spring Break..."

Churros- our on the way to the beach snack

This is the result of Liz being dumb

So awesome!!!

Later, after much fun, we headed off to a grocery store to get a cheap dinner. I made authentic Spanish pasta.

 We then thought a board game would be fun so we played Trivial Pursuit. However, this version happened to be the British version, making it quite challenging. 

Casey was tired of pictures

We made it through then went for a walk in a nearby park for a bit to enjoy the still warm weather. Then we packed up our stuff so we could get a move on bright and early to the train station to catch a train to our next destination, Barcelona!

The train station!