So I realize that i am the absolute worst blogger ever and that it has been two months since my last post! My only excuse is that it has been a pretty crazy last few months! March and the beginning of April was a whirlwind between my family coming for a visit, classes ending, my big choir concert, Trinity Ball, my friends from the IES General Studies Program leaving, and finally my big two week trip across Europe! My trip (which we lovingly dubbed Euro-Trip 2011) was honestly the most exhausting, but also, the best two weeks of my life. When our departure date, April 16, rolled around I could hardly believe that the time had come for us to go on this huge adventure. Sam, Allie, Mitchell and I had been planning this trip for a month and I could hardly believe it when the time came for us to leave!
Our first stop was a three day trip to London. We left incredibly early on the 16th, but despite that we were all excited when we landed in London. Luckily we were there a week before the Royal Wedding so we didn't have to deal with a madhouse of tourists. The first day we toured both Westminster Abbey and Parliament. Both buildings are were so impressive and it was so neat to learn more about British history! Something out of the ordinary that happened the first day that as we were walking to Parliament we ran into a protest. I have never seen a protest before so I was very intimidating. We couldn't quite figure out what the protest was about but there were hundreds of people marching down the street with signs that said "No Justice, No Peace" There were also people driving in cars and people playing music...it was quite the event! British police officers were there however they did not seem particularly worried about the situation. One officer was even smoking a pipe while walking along the protest!
Day two of our trip we spent the morning walking in the beautiful Hyde Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the park was enormous! After our walk through the park we went by Buckinham Palace in hopes of seeing the changing of the guard, but of course with our luck it just so happened on that day they weren't doing the changing of the guard. So even though we didn't get to see the changing of the guard, it is always impressive to see the the building. In the afternoon, Allie and I managed to talk to the boys into going shopping at my favorite shopping spot in London, Covent Gardens. We ended our day with the beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral. That night we decided to wander around Soho, an area of London known for its nightlife!
Our last day in London we spent at the Tower of London. This was the third time I had been to the Tower, but I did not mind at all because the tower is always amazing! Also since my favorite part of history is 16th century European history there isn't a better place to go in London to learn about life during that time period. That night we went out for Indian food and a show (going to the theater was the part of London that I was most excited for!) Allie and Sam went to see Over the Rainbow, a play about Judy Garland (or Julie Garland as Sam thought it was :) And Mitchell and I went to see Billy Elliot! The play was absolutely amazing! I didn't know a whole lot about the play going into it, but I was blown away. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the play it is about a little boy who wants to be a dancer and his father is not supportive of that dream at all. I was amazed by how talented the actor was who played Billy, it is amazing to think that someone so young can already be so talented!
We had another obnoxiously early flight from London to Amsterdam the next morning, but again it didn't really phase me a whole lot because I was so excited to go to Amsterdam. Obviously, my Dutch heritage made me extremely excited to go to the country that my ancestors came from! I absolutely loved Amsterdam! It was such a quaint city, although walking was a little dangerous. There is no differentiation between street, sidewalk, tram tracks...you would be walking along and all of the sudden a stream of bikers would be behind you all sounding their bells trying to get you to move out of the way! The first day in Amsterdam we went to the Anne Frank House and walked through the flower market! The flower market was absolutely amazing! Tulips are my favorite flower so to see a whole block of flowers along the canal was a dream! During our second day in Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh Museum.. the line was so long that Allie and I went to get a baguette, cheese, and bologna and we had a picnic while standing in line! The museum itself was amazing and all of the paintings there were just beautiful! After the Museum Allie, Sam, and I went and found a cute little restaurant that served poffertjes!! I was sooo excited because poffertjes are my favorite Dutch food so to get to introduce them to it was wonderful! (btw...later that night we also went to mcdonald's because they had stroopwaffle mcfluries....best thing ever!!!) And in the early evening we took a canal tour!
So yes those are the major highlights of the first five days of our Euro-trip! Seeing as how the trip was so long I figured I would break it up into different blog posts! No worries, I will not wait an obnoxious amount of time to write about the next part of the trip!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment