Chillin’ in London

On the train back from Paris, I made a calendar of my last few days in the ancient city. With things ranging from things that I have done multiple times to things that I have never seen, the last few days were a time of reflection of my time in London and on the city itself.

I went back to my my favourite eateries (Double Js) and pubs (Fitzroy Tavern) and the best market of them all (Borough Market). I even finished up my Xmas shopping there getting things for my cousins and other family members. Although I thought I was going to be there by myself for three or so days, I was wrong. Dale got back from his ski trip in the Italian Alps and a few other people got back from their trips through Europe.

On our last Saturday in London, we all went out one more time, first to a proper Indian restaurant then the local pub hangout (the court). Event though I ate too much ate the restaurant to only have two pints, I enjoyed the last few hours of socializing in a pub. It was a fun day and night.

The last two days consisted of packing, walking and going to museums one more time. It was a time of reflection for me taking in everything I could before I went home.

Paris, Round 2

Ed. Note: Sorry for the lack of pictures. I am busy moving in to my new place and did not have time to add them in. If you have any requests, just let me know.

With more than a week between my flight home and the end of my classes, I decided to go back to Paris. Why Paris you may ask. You went there already; there is the rest of Europe to go see! Well, going to a city as lively and as famous as Paris again I figured was worth it. I mean I didn’t even go see the Louvre. So I said what the hell, why not, I speak French, or at least try to. Unlike my last few trips to the continent, I would be traveling and staying by myself. It would be a little rough, but I thought I could manage and I did. Although I said I was not traveling with anyone or staying with anyone I knew, I did know of two people who would be in the City of Love for the two days I would be there: Laura (Rachel’s friend from home) and Phillipe (my friend from Penn who was visiting his family while he was there).

Day One

Unfortunately, the first day wasn’t too fun as I was not feeling to well and could not enjoy my first meal in the greatness of French food. When I arrived at Gare du Nord I met up with Laura at her program’s centre/center a few stops away on the metro. I made it there safely and without any difficulty while successfully using my French to navigate around. After meeting her we went to the Champs Elysee were we go grab some lunch. However, I did not each too much as I said previously, I was not feeling too well. After “eating,” Laura went back to her centre/center to study while she left me to explore. I would end up climbing the 150+ stairs of the Arc de Triumph then walk down the Champs d’Elysee to Musee d’Orsay. It was quite a long walk but I made it.

Once I finished with the Musee d’Orsay, it was time to check into my hostel up in Montmartre. I took the metro up there and eventually found the place after about 20 minutes of searching. Also, Phillipe ended up calling me at the museum and we decided to meet up near me once I checked in. We ended up getting dinner at Painter’s Square and then walking down to the Moulin Rouge to see what all the hub-bub was about. Nothing special, just a wind mill. I don’t see the big deal, atleast from the outside it didn’t look too exciting.

Once checking out the neighbourhood and observing all the other shops, I went to go meet up with Laura at some bar near the Bastille while Phillipe went to go meet up with his cousins with which he was staying with. At this point, I was feeling much better, but rather tired as I had to wake up at 5:30 to catch my 6:50 flight. Around midnight I decided to call it a night and head back.

Day 2

The next day I was off to the check out the Sacre Coeur, which was just a few minutes walk from my hostel. Once I was done checking out the pretty famous church I made my way down the hill and into the heart of the city. Unfortunately, the days that I choose to be in Paris were not the best; it was a miserable 45 degrees and slight, but annoying drizzle. Besides that fact, I pushed through and walked. And when I say walk, I mean I walked. I probably ended up walking 4 or 5 miles that day in total, but back towards day 2.

After the hill, I made my way back towards the Moulin Rouge to see it during the day. On my way, I saw the Chat Noir, a pretty famous café where the bohemians, e.g. Henri de Toulouse Lautrec during the 19^th Century made popular. Since I hadn’t eaten yet that day, I decided to have breakfast at the famous café. This is where my French was truly tested. I ordered a cappuccino (easy) and a croissant (not so easy). Apparently, its cr-wa-sont, not cr-ois-ant. Anyway, I got what I wanted and walked some more, now towards the opera district and Seine. I should also point out that my phone was not working that day, since I was unable to receive calls and/or dial out. This put a little damper on me meeting up with Phillippe at the Louvre as we did not make any pre-arranged plans before I left him the day before. I decided to just to make the best of it and walk around the city while avoiding the gypses and homeless. I made a little loop around the Musee d’Orsay and Notre Dame, while ending up at the Louvre.

I spent the rest of my time there (4 hours) seeing all the things that I would not have seen if I did not make the trip.

After the Louvre, I decided to just go to go to Laura’s centre/center to see if she was there and if not use there phone to call her. Luckily, she was there and we ended up having dinner out at this bistro where I got steak frites. Then, I was off to Gard du Nord and back to London for the last few days of my study abroad.

Times Higher Education

Not this summer but the last I worked at Van Pelt Library and every morning I was charge of collecting the periodicals that needed to be cataloged for the library. One of these magazines was Times Higher Education. Anyway, one day, I decided to look up the magazine since we got often and wanted to see what they are all about. So I looked them up online and noticed that they ranked the best universities in the world. Currently, the University of Pennsylvania is #11, but the school that I am at as I type this (University College of London) is #7. However, the school that I visited Monday (Cambridge) is #3, right behind Harvard then Yale.

Getting to the main topic of the post, Cambridge was pretty cool. I enjoyed it a lot. The previous week and up to that point (and even a little now) I was coming over a cold and pretty nasty cough. I decided to go anyway, especially since I had nothing better to do and I just finished up with classes the week before. Here are some of the pictures from the trip:

All the bikes at the train station, it definitely rivals Amsterdam for bike capital of the world.

I went Vincent, better known as Tiger. Another Penn person. Here he is here holding the nose of a bear that we found.

King's College.

The inside.

Trinity College.

Trinity College's chapel. It should be noted that every college there had its own chapel. Trinity College is where Newton did his thing.

Cambridge was a pretty quant town.

Well those were the pictures from my Cambridge trip. I hoped you enjoyed. Coming up next: Paris, Round 2.

An American Thanksgiving in London & Winter Wonderland

Luckily there was good food and no werewolves.

For the most holiest of holy food days, a bunch of us from UCL went over to Goldsmith's College to eat a lovely meal. Although no turkey, the day was still a blast, especially because of the corn. The day was not the same without the family and the fact that I had class earlier in the day was quite odd.

--

Another large ferris wheel in London, man try a new idea....

That weekend, a bunch of us went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It was reminscint of Oktoberfest (German Beer & Sausage, roller coasters and cheap souvenirs, less drunk people though), but it had its own twist; in the fact there was a ice rink! We went skating (11 pounds! for the hour) in the great weather of London (on-n-off showers/drizzle).

Here is the rink (with blue lights, obviously).

The group who went from left to right: Rachel, Me, Laura (Rachel's friend from home who is studying in Paris), Sami, and Dale.

Its harder than it looks to take a picture when you are skating.

Sami and I were the expert skaters of the group (we both play hockey). Here is us showing off our "skills."

The Haunted House of Christmas.

Sami posing in front of the Haunted House of Christmas with Scrooge.

Rachel with Frosty.

So this will be my last post until I do something really exciting. Unfortunately, I am not really traveling after classes are done (December 12), except for a few day trips and two days in Paris. So expect a post within the coming weeks.

Edinburgh, etc.

Although my dad was here for only a few days, we still "had time" to travel. And since all of my friends told me great things about Edinburgh, I thought this was the place to go. With less than a week before he came, I booked train tickets and a hotel and the day after he arrived we were off to the land of the Scots (aka Scotland).

NOTE: the day before we went, we went to Maze Grill (a Gordon Ramsey restaurant) and it was a great dinner. I just thought I should make some sort of mention of such a great dinner.

After a little runaround about passports and train stations, we made it on to the train on time and found two seats next to each other. I was reading for one of my classes while my father was working on a Christmas present. I would say it was a pretty productive train ride. Once we got to the hotel, which was a stone throws away from the train station, and checked in, we decided to get some food. We decided to walk to Old Town which was across the valley for lunch.

Here is the Scottish memorial, which was right across the street from our hotel. There was also a Ferris wheel right next to it since they were setting up for their Winter wonder Land, a carnival thing for Christmas. London's is in Hyde Park.

Castle of Edinburgh, which ended up visiting the next day.

Here is the street we ate lunch at.

After eating a good meal at the Arcade Bar we decided to take a Bus tour of the town to see which things we should visit the next day. Little did we know that the temperature would get very cold and uncomfortable.

Me enjoying the bus ride. Also, my dad took his very Nikon so most of the really good pictures are on there.

Here is a picture of the Castle from our Bus tour.

Once we got off the terribly cold bus tour and defrosted in our room, we made a pit stop at H&M so my dad who did not compensate for the cold weather could make some much necessary purchases to make up for his lack of layers. After the pit stop, we walked across to the Old Town again for dinner. We ended up getting dinner at this really good Italian restaurant. Afterwards we back to the pub where we went for lunch for some drinks (some aged Scottish whiskey and pints). Sticking to tradition, we played Rummy 500 where he beat me multiple times. Once I got tired of losing we went back to the hotel for some rest.

After waking up at 10am the next morning and getting breakfast at this chocolate shop, we headed off to the castle.

Here is the castle from the end of the Royal Mile.

My dad in front of the Castle.

View from the base of the Castle.

After waiting for about a half an hour for tickets, we made our journey to the top. Here a some of the pictures that we took:

View from one side of the Castle.

View from the steep climb up.

Me trying to pick up a huge cannon ball (unsuccessful).

War Memorial (I think).

View from outside one of the canons near the top.

A lion in front of the memorial.

After making our way down from the Castle and getting some souvenirs, we ate at this place called Deacon Brodie's, which is named after the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll. Here is the wiki link: Deacon Brodie. Lunch was done and so was our short trip.

Once getting our luggage and getting to our train, I finished my reading and we had a little rematch of Rummy 500 (I won both games). Although short, Edinburgh was a great and beautiful.

The next day we went to the Tower of London and then ended up doing a bus tour of London since it was raining. I didn't take any pictures with my camera so it will not be too exciting, therefore I will keep it short and sweet.

Lunch @ Harrods: Great!
Dinner @ the Sports bar: Great!
Watching the Eagles at the sports bar with my dad while having a drink: Great!
Watching the Eagles suck: Terrible!
Spending time with my dad for a few short days in London & Edinburgh: Priceless...

Straphangers and Tubes

Two days before my Dad came, Rachel and I decided to do something that we always wanted to do, go to the London Transport Museum. Being Urban Studies majors, with an interest in city planning, a museum like this was a great experience. Here are some photos from our trip:

The first public transport systems in London were these carriages pulled by horses. This is one of the earliest "double deckers."

At the start of "our trip through time," they gave us a "ticket" which we "had" to get it stamped at these "stations."

Me hanging onto a straphanger (the offical name of those things that hang down from buses, trains, etc.) in a old tube car.

Some cool map showing the Piccadilly line, northern and Bakerloo (I think).

A sweet tube advertisement that I will probably get a poster of.

Attempting to drive a underground train (its harder than it looks!).

Well, that was a quick summary of our URBS museum trip. Next, Edinburgh!

Arsenal

Last Tuesday, me and two other Penn people (Dale and Tiger) went to our first official football game, Arsenal vs. Wigen Athletic. It was really cool and fun, even though our seats were the third from last row of the stadium. The stadium was beautiful and only a few years old. Here are some of the pictures from the night:

Here is the outside of the new stadium where Arsenal plays (obvi).

Here is Dale with his Arsenal scarf. BTW, we all ended up getting different ones as souvenirs.

The two teams lining up before they shook hands.

Right after the second goal.

A sweet picture of the roof/rest of the stadium.

Another.

The three of us.

So Arsenal ended up winning the game 3-nil. On the tube ride back everyone was singing. Good times.

This weekend my father is coming to visit and we are going to Edinburgh, look out for a post sometime next week.