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.

Ye Auld Dub

On the same day that my mom left, me and Sami went on our own little trip to our neighbor next door, Ireland. After talking with our friends that already went, we heard that Dublin didn't seem too special, but we were still determined to make it great trip. Once we got to our hostel, we decided to go explore the city centre and see what the town truly had to offer. Here is Sami near the river Liffey:
After checking out the O'Connell Bridge and O'Connell Street, we headed to our first Irish pub, where I tried some famous Irish Whiskey:

After a drink or two, we left and we went down to Trinity College (1592) via the Ha'Penny Bridge. Although it was dark by this point, the campus was still pretty. Here are a few that I took on the last day during the daytime:
Another shot:Later that night, we headed down to the Temple Bar area, the nightlife area of Dublin. It was pretty fun, nothing special though. Actually, the only thing special was the price. It turns out that Dublin is a VERY expensive city, the same as London pretty much, maybe even more.

The next day we went down to the shopping district around O'Connell Bridge and made a few purchases; Sami got boots and I got a nice sweater. After our shopping, we did a little sight seeing on our way to the Guinness Store House.

Here is Dublin Castle (1204).

The Spire (2003).

Christ's Church (1171).

After a lot of walking we made it to the Guinness Store House:

Once inside, we learned about how to make beer and why Guinness is so special. And at the end we both enjoyed a complimentary pint that we pulled from the tap ourselves:

Here is Sami with her's.

Also, at the end of the "tour" we saw the 9000 (nine thousand!!) year lease that Arthur Guinness has at St. James' Gate in Dublin. Only 8751 years to go!

The next day, we didn't have too much time before we had to go back to the airport for our flight so we decided to check out Trinity College in the daytime, get lunch near Grafton Street and check out St. Stephen's Green (1663). The park was very pretty. Here are some pictures:

After picking up our luggage from the Hostel, we caught the bus back to the airport. Luckily we got the front row seats on the top of the double decker. This is the last image that I have of Dub:
Well, I think I got you guys all caught up now with three blogs in the last three hours. Anyway, the next few weeks I have a lot of school to catch up on so I don't know how many more blogs I will be doing, since I will not be traveling that much. Although, now that I think about it, I am going an Arsenal Game Tuesday, so I will try to do one on that at some point during the week. Hope you enjoyed!

The City of (Brotherly) Love

So on one of my days during my Reading Week, my mother and I went on a day trip (escorted) to Paris. And oh what a day it was. First, it started early. I woke up at 5:00 to get to my moms hotel where we would be picked up to go to the train station to catch the train to Gard du Nord through the chunnel. After a little delay we finally arrived.

Along with 9 other tourist of our tour we met up with Sami our tour guide at the front of "Gare du Nord." And while taking us to our tour bus we walked by the famous metro sign:

Once we got on the bus, we headed through the opera district and "la place de Louis XIV," which was recently renamed. Next, we headed down the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triumph.

Another picture:

Staying on the bus, we continued with our tour and made our first official stop at the Eiffel Tower.

Continuing, we went on to the second-level.


Here is a view of Sacre-Coeur from the Tower:
And the Invades:
After having the best-most-boring lunch ever (Jambon et fromage [Ham and Cheese]), we went on a boat tour down the river Seine. Here is the Musee d'Orsay:
And Notre Dame:
A shot from behind, note the flying buttresses:
Once we finished withe boat tour, we had the opportunity to tour the Cathedral up close:
Although, it doesn't look overwhelming large from the outside, once you step in Notre Dame, you just feel so insignificant. Taking over 250 years to build, the cathedral is truly a work of art and structural engineering. A shot from inside:
Me and my mom thought that this was weird:
Here is a beheaded St. Denis:
After finishing the tour of Notre Dame and getting a true crepe (avec sucre), we headed over to the Louvre, which unfortunately closed on Tuesdays. Although I did get a few good shots, including this one:
After wishing we could be inside, Sami took us to the Opera District (A pied) for dinner. Here is what it looked like on the way to the area:
Eating metres away from the Opera House, a bunch of us enjoyed a classic french meal. My mom even got escargot. Here is proof:
After dinner and before Sami took us back to the bus to go back to the train station, he took us to a department store which was already for Noel. Here is the outside:
And the inside:
I would say that this pretty much out does Wanamaker's. After that, our trip to Paris was pretty much over. It was a great, long day.

The [Queen] Mum Comes to Visit

Sorry for the lack of blogging, but I have been busy for the last two weekends and have not done anything too exciting. But this past week, I had the whole week off because of reading week (basically a fall break) and my mom came to visit. And since I had not done some of the very touristy things in London. We decided to do some of them. Here is a little photo journal of our time together in London:

The first stop of our first full day was a trip to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. Although it was a rainy day, it was packed and we were in the second row behind the gates.
Here is a picture of the guards in action.
The next stop was the Natural History Museum. This is the outside of the building.

One of the exhibits was on dinosaurs. Here is an animatronic T-Rex.
A stuffed Dodo.
Here is the grand lobby of the Museum.
The next day we had a walking tour of around the River Thames. We started at the Tower of London, walked across the Tower Bridge, through Borough Market, stopped at the Tate Modern and did the London Eye. It was a long walk to say the least. Above is a picture of me and mum in front of Tower Bridge.
Tower of London.
Tate Modern.
View of Green Park and Hyde Park from the Eye.
View of Parliament and Big Ben.
The Eye.
Also, one of the stops was at the British Museum. Here is a cool mosaic mask from somewhere in Central America.
We also saw Mousetrap, the longest running play in London.
On the last day that she was there we stopped at the most famous department store in London, Harrods. It is full of upscale designer labels and great food halls.

Obama!
The other play that we also saw was Rain Man; both Josh Harnett and Adam Godley were in it.

Well that's the abridged version of my week off with my mom. It was a great time!