SNOW!

I promise promise promise to do a post on Netherlands and Italy...right after I finish all of these papers that the teachers just assigned. "Don't wait until the last minute to do your papers!" Then don't assign them at the last minute! blah anyway

Just wanted to post and say I'm in the library sitting next to a window and it just now started to snow! :D It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Only 1 week and 6 days until I'm home. Very excited for that to happen.

This weekend's trip

This weekend I am going somewhere where I have always wanted to go: Italy! It's pretty much my last big trip by myself (since I have another weekend trip, but it's a tour). It's very expensive over there, so I've been trying to budget money like crazy. I already have where I'm staying (made sure they serve breakfast), and a day tour on saturday. I still need train tickets, but I read everywhere that it's much easier to just buy them when you get there. I may just get a rail pass so I can just use it...but I may end up spending more money for it. :[ I think I'll just wait since I'm only going somewhere on a train one time.

I have yet another layover on this trip. This time to Switzerland! So I will have *technically* been in Switzerland too! :]

I plan on taking lots of pictures because it's all about art over there! :D

However, before I take this trip, I am going to see in Opera in London. Me and two of my friends are leaving on a 3:30 train to London to see La Boheme. I am very excited! I'm just going to stay around and hang out at the airport until my flight at 9 in the morning. I hope they'll be okay with me bringing my back pack to the opera since I have no where else to put it. =/ I guess we'll find out!

Scotland! with pictures!

So! I should probably add pictures before it's too late and I get too lazy to do it *cough*Netherlands*cough*. So! I have about 10 of them.


This is the night train I took. You could pay for a bed, but it's so much more...plus these seats were really comfy anyway! I decided to take the night train because then I wouldn't have to worry about a place to stay. My train was at 11:50 at night, but there was an earlier one at 9:15...which I should've taken so I wouldn't have missed my freaking tour! BLAH! I can't do anything about it now, but I am still mad about wasting the money. I'm going to be very poor after this, so donations would be nice! :D So, I went to sleep pretty fast and then...


woke up to this! It's so pretty and it seems to just go on forever! Plus, there's sheep everywhere! :] The sheep were very cute. It was nice to see big fields of green grass because I don't see that much in England. Even in some parks in London don't have it because they just have other plants and sidewalks in them. I took a lot of pictures from the train and I'm sure people were annoyed by it, but it was just so nice to see.


This is from the train station. It almost looked like a little town inside. Kind of Harry Potter ish. :] I had time to take pictures since I missed my tour and all. >:[ The station was still cool. I had to walk to a different one to go to Inverness, but it was less than 5 minutes to walk there. It wasn't as cool or impressive, so I won't put a picture up. But, a train and bus ride later (totaling a little over 4 hours) I was in Inverness! It just so happened that that weekend, the train going all the way to Inverness was out, so you only went an hour and then took a bus the rest of the way, BUT the bus had to drive to EVERY train stop on the way! BLAAH. I obviously slept...even though it was freezing on the coach!


This is in Inverness. It's right by the train station and it's called Falcon Square. I first saw it and was just confused. It's a unicorn...I still don't get it. Plus, there's birds below the unicorn and one has some other small animal in it's beak. Scotland has some pretty crazy stuff. Unless the unicorn actually means something and I just don't know.


This is Inverness! This is on a bridge over the Ness river. It's from the Loch Ness. I was about 13 miles north east of Loch Ness, so unfortunately, I didn't get to see it. Next time, I will for sure not miss a tour! >.< It was still very pretty to see. There's a lot of older buildings and lots of mountains in the background...something I never see at home


SO CLOSE! :[ I have to go see it again. Not on this trip, but next time I'm around, it will be at the top of my list. It's probably not even that impressive to see since it's just a giant lake, but it's the meaning behind it. Also, quick story. My zoom stopped working so I went out, got a small screwdriver set and fixed it myself. Then, the next day we were in London for a school trip and it STOPPED WORKING! blah. So I figured it would just have to be okay in Scotland to not have zoom. But then while in Inverness, it just started working again! It's a early christmas miracle. :]


I almost bought kilts for people back home, but they were not cheap! The funny thing is, guys actually wear them around. I saw a couple of men in brown boots, kilts, and sweatshirts. I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to creep them out, but it was so weird! It was very cold up there, so I don't know how they could go around wearing a skirt. It's weird how you can think of stereotypes, but they end up coming true.





This is a small market I found on my way back to the train station. There were a lot of places with food and lots of random clothing. It was pretty much just like the market out in Canterbury, but with different accents. I still love Scottish accents! After staying the night with three other women, we talked in the morning. they were all from Scotland and were down for a weekend nurse training thing. During one of their stories, one of them said "lass". It was awesome.


The next morning I went to the train station and headed back to Canterbury (which took a total 10 hours O.O ). This is what it looked like outside. It had snowed soooo much over night. As I headed back down south it there was less, but still! I can't believe that happened! It made me excited for Christmas though!


This is a picture from more south when all the snow had melted. You can see some sheep. Just thought it was a pretty picture to share. :]

Scotland!

It's official. Scottish accents are my favourite. They kind of sound like English ones, but a bit of a twist. Australia is still pretty high on the list too. As I said before, I don't have my cord, so there are no pictures yet, but I will have them up tomorrow.

Since I was only here for a day and a half, I don't have many to show, but I'll still let you see them. :]

Today I was suppose to take a day tour, but somehow, my train got in way too late and I missed it. So that was 33 pounds down the drain. >:[ I was very upset about this and just decided to take a train up to Inverness anyway and walk around. Well, I guess this one weekend, they weren't having trains after a certain point so I had to take a train for an hour and then a bus for 3 more hours. By the time I got there, I didn't have much time to go around because it takes forever to get back to where I was staying. Overall, it has been a pretty bad trip, but I still got postcards and a couple of other gifts for people. I also got some really nice pictures because despite me having difficulties, it was beautiful here. Note to self, next time book a weekend tour from London and then relax.

I guess I'm glad I came up because it was really nice to see. It is however, VERY cold. It even started snowing today. It's just that I only have so much money left that I want to spend. Good thing I just have one big trip next weekend and then I'm hanging out in London a couple of times. Then, HOME! THEN, CHRISTMAS! :D

Look out for pictures tomorrow!

This weekend!

So, I just had my day trip to London to see St. Paul cathedral which was very pretty. Pictures were not allowed in it, which was annoying. I wouldn't mind if it was boring or ugly, but it was so pretty inside! But yeah. Everyone else headed back to Canterbury now and I asked to stay because I have a train to catch!

This weekend I'm going to Scotland. I decided to take a small break and go somewhere actually on this island. I'm taking a night train there so I don't have to worry about where to stay tonight. It's not for another 7 hours, so I'm here in a Starbucks typing this out. I didn't bring my camera cord this time, so you all will have to wait to see pictures until I get back late Sunday. It's only two days so you'll be okay! :]

Saturday I'm taking a day tour to Inverness and Loch Ness! I will find Nessie and become rich. And then I can have a place in London to come to. I seriously love London. Once you understand how things work, it's very easy to get around and amazing. I just love it. Not sure what I'm doing Sunday. I have something in mind, but we'll see how it works out. Then I come back to London and then Canterbury to go to school once again. I have a short paper due Wed, so I'll work on that on the loooooong train ride to Scotland.

I just love traveling! So glad I went on that trip to France 3 years ago, because it definitely kicked me into gear to see and explore. I'm only going to 2-3 other countries after this trip, so I'm going to make the most of it. I only have 4 more weeks here, which sounds so short. I'm hoping it doesn't go by too fast!

I wish everyone at home best wishes! <3

I "fixed" my camera!

After an hour of googling and trying all sorts of things, I finally got my camera to start working. There's still something wrong with it, but it at least does it's job. I just have to be careful not to get anything in it. :] So! Since that happened, I decided to make a quick post and put up some pictures so far (meaning more than 10 because it's hard to not show some of these). I promise to finish my long one about the Netherlands this week!


This is from my 6 hour layover in Athens, Greece. I went off the plane and looked to see where I should be, and this is what I saw. I was like O.O But it was okay, because I just looked at the flight time and then saw it there. Also, I really wanted to get a stamp in Greece while I was there, but the woman wasn't very nice so I decided it was best to just leave it.


Whaaat?! They have these in GREECE?! This is pretty much where I sat the whole time and typed up the Paris blog and tried SO hard not to fall asleep. It probably didn't help that I decided to sit in the comfiest couch in the whole room. I was so tired, that on the plane from Greece to Egypt, I slept the whole time. Yes, that even means through the breakfast that was included in the ticket price. >:[


I don't know why I love these pictures so much. It's just kind of like "it's official! I'm in this country now!" It's weird to think about flying over oceans when I normally just fly over land at home. It is slightly scarier, but I don't notice most of the time because I'm sleeping. There's really nothing better to do when you travel by yourself. haha


This is outside of the Egyptian museum. I went the first day when I arrived. It was really cool to see some stuff that I had learned about in my art history classes. Plus, there's this hallway with just mummies. Very creepy. I've seen my share of dead bodies for awhile. They also had King Tut's golden mask, which I would've taken a picture of, but no one else was, so I thought it wasn't allowed.





This is a picture of the belly dancer that performed at this dinner boat cruise on the Nile River. Also a little tid bit, Egyptian food has lemon in it. Like, everything has lemon...even the potatoes. Anyway, she would grab people and make them dance with her. She probably got 6 or so people to come up...that includes me. Yes, I stood in front of everyone and made a fool of myself trying to belly dance, but I didn't care too much. When else is that going to happen, probably never. Plus, you only live once. :] She took pictures with people and she actually performed twice with another act in between her costume change.


This is what was between the belly dancer. This guy with a huge skirt on would spin around for like 5 minutes straight and just do random things. It must be something around here. It was really cool though. At one point in time he had a tray angled toward him with a glass on it. Since he was moving, it didn't fall. Then he put a bottle of water on the tray, opened it, and POUR IT INTO THE GLASS! O.O I have it on video, but I STILL don't believe how that happened. I understand physics, but that was seriously some Harry Potter stuff.

So, that was day 1, and this is day 2.


This is at the oldest pyramid in Egypt. It's 7000 years old. It's made of lots of little stones, and then the Egyptians realized that that was a bad design. So then they started building them out of larger, stronger stones. Every time I got my picture taken at a pyramid, the person taking it would always have me do this pose. I don't know why...but it got old fast. There was another pyramid in the area and you could go inside of. It wasn't anything amazing, but still cool to say I've done it. The opening was very short so I had to bend down to get through. And then there's just two rooms off of the hallway.


Today I also rode a camel! This is the camel I rode. He was very cute, but it made me sad because they lead them with the green rope and one end is attached to a ring in his nose. :[ Plus EVERYONE had whips and were hitting their horses and such. It just made me a little sad to see it happening. I was very nice to the camel to make up for it. He had such LONG eyelashes and was very tall. Getting on the camel was fine, but then when it stands up, it's terrifying. I was shaking because I swear I was going to fall off. I wish I had gotten a video, but I'm sure there's one on youtube somewhere. :]


So, this is me on the camel at the pyramids. :] The people doing the tour made me wear the scarf (which I got to keep), but it really wasn't that bad and ended up taking it off pretty soon since it was really windy. Camel was SO CUTE!


Of course I had to get a jumping picture! My face looks a little odd, but it's the only good once since my tour guide wasn't very good at speaking english and I had to explain how to do this like 20 times. But hooray! I got one! I'm really trying to get one with my ISU Roam'n Redbird shirt at every famous place I'm at. The people back in the study abroad office will love me! Maybe even offer me a job there...eh? ;]



Okay, this is the last picture. This is kushari! I had this for late lunch/early dinner tonight. My driver told me this is something that people in Egypt eat all the time. It has rice, macaroni, another type of noodle, lentils, chickpeas, tomatos, and fried onions. It sounds random, but it's very good. Of course, there's lemon juice on the side, but I was sick of lemon, so I ate it plain. It was very good. :] It's nice to be somewhere that has vegetarian food because I am sick of cheese sandwiches. I think tomorrow I'm having falafel since my driver showed me the best place. So that's exciting.

No pictures today

So! I can't put pictures on here because I can't transfer them off my camera. I had a tour guide today DROP MY CAMERA IN THE SAND WHILE THE LEN WAS OUT! So it now will not shut and sometimes not open because now there's crap in it. First thing I'm going to do when I get into Canterbury is go to this camera place and try and get it cleaned out. ugggh So annoying. Plus he was annoying about it..he could tell I was upset but didn't offer to help pay for the cleaning or anything. He just kept telling me and trying to take pictures when I told him I didn't want to.

At least the memory card is alright. buuuut stiiiiill. >:[

I will write a longer post soon. The sun here makes me sleepy all the time and I want to nap.

Highlights so far:

- Belly dancing
- Riding a camel
- Getting Christmas gifts
- Eating kushari
- Seeing the pyramids
- Egyptian museum
- Getting tan, but not really since I don't think I look very different, but I could be and just not know it!

I wrote this 12 hours ago!

So, I already said that I wasn’t going to tell people where I was going, until I left! Well, I’m currently in the longest layover I’ve ever had (6 hours) in Athens, Greece. Where do you think I’m flying to after this?! That’s right, Cairo, Egypt. :] This time, I’m going to try and post a blog every day so I don’t have to write out a huge one for the whole trip like I’ve been doing.

I’m also currently writing the Netherlands one, so that should be up shortly too. Hope you all are enjoying my blog so far!

WARNING! This post is huge….make sure you’re comfy. :]

The first sight of France! This is from the ferry going to Calais. We drove to Paris from that point. This was the third time being in France. :] That’s probably the most impressive thing I can share at this point in my life. Haha But yes! After we drove to Paris, we dropped off our stuff at the hotel we were staying in Bercy. They said it was going to be centrally located, but it was on the very end of Paris….soooo that was odd. But it was still nice.


This is my three-year reunion! It was good to be back and see familiar things. I went on an organized tour though, so I didn’t get as much time in certain places, which was kind of annoying. But I know I’ll be back again sometime. Even if it is longer than three years just as long as it’s before April of 2017, because that’s when my passport expires! France is hard to describe to people. Paris is great, but I LOVE the countryside. I’d love to go back to the places I went to three years ago.

On the first day we just took a boat tour and had dinner somewhere. So it wasn’t too busy, which was a good idea since the next day ended up being a 14 hour day! >.<


Our first stop was Sacre Coeur. This is a famous cathedral in Montmartre that Amelie (one of my favourite movies) was filmed at. :] You had to climb stairs to get to the main level, but once you were up there, the view was crazy beautiful. You could see everything like Notre Dame (half of it is on the far left). It just seemed to go on forever.



After that we walked down to the Moulin Rouge!


This is Lauren and I being scandalous in from of the Moulin Rouge. I didn’t go there last time because it was a school trip and we weren’t allowed I’m pretty sure. We were only there for like 3 minutes to take pictures and such, but it was still neat to see it. I love windmills, so that was cool to see too.


We headed over to Notre Dame after eating lunch, but we didn’t get much time since we were heading off somewhere else again. But that didn’t stop us from taking multiple jumping pictures! I’m trying to get one everywhere I go so I can make an album called “Jumping around the World”. I think it’s clever. It’s hard to do jumping pictures with a self-timer and that’s what I have to use when I travel by myself, or else I’m not going to have any pictures of me in places!

***** This the Halfway point. Congratulations for making it this far *****


Just another jumping picture! We went to Versailles after Notre Dame. I loved that place when I went the last time so it was cool being back. Only things were different because furniture had been moved out in some rooms and replaced with really strange anime looking sculptures.





I guess they are trying to show that they get along with other cultures, but it was still weird. ALSO! We had to pay to get into the gardens because some event was going on. That was really annoying but the gardens really aren’t a place to miss when you go there since they are huge and amazing.


They just seem to go forever. Plus, there are fountains and other such things in between sculptures. We didn’t go through all of it, but we did cover more than I had before. That’s probably because last time we walked through a bit, then got ice cream until we left. :] But it was seriously the best ice cream I’ve ever had.


To make the day even better, we headed to the Eiffel Tower! It was raining when we got there so they had closed off the top, but later opened it when we were on the second level so we went up. That’s exactly what happened to me last time, so that was weird. It was SO WINDY up there. I was scared I was going to die….seriously. Plus, I forgot how high it is. You go up in the elevator and it doesn’t seem to stop going up for the longest time. I liked being up there at night because it was daytime 3 years ago, so now I’ve seen both.


To top it all off, we went on top of the Arc de Triomphe. I did not get a chance to do this last time (I couldn’t even think of the reason why, but I want to say it was because we didn’t want to pay, which is stupid). This is the Champs Elysees from the top. It was significantly busier than all the other streets.



The last day we went to the Louvre. They only gave us 2 hours! >.< You seriously need a full day there so that was annoying. I should be planning these trips, seriously. But anyway, I learned about these in my Art History class last year at ISU and it’s so weird to just see a picture of these by themselves because they seriously look 3 feet tall, but then you put a person next to them, and they are GIANT! I wish I had my notes with me so I could actually write more about them, but it’s okay because I’ll see them soon. :]

SO! That’s Paris in a nutshell! Thanks for reading it!