Adventures in London 2009

The Month in Review.

2009-11-26T08:44:00.005Z

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Goodness this past month has been a whirlwind…

I have desperately wanted to post blogs about all my trips but have not had ANY time, so heres a little rundown for you….

Since I last blogged I have traveled to some awesome places and had some amazing visitors!

October 23-31: My fall break in Spain! I traveled to Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Granada, and Sevilla! My favorite was Granada!

In front of the breath-taking Alhambra.

November 6-8: “Adventure Weekend” at Preseli Ventures in Wales! This was one of my all time favorite weekends! We hiked, jumped off cliffs, swam in the ocean, and went sea kayaking, I think everyone can infer how hard it was for me to leave…

Jumping off a cliff, thank you waterproof cameras.

November 13-16: Mom and Dad in London! I had the best weekend with my parents! From lunch at their favorite pub to La Cage Aux Falles to high tea to Mom’s pictures… I have so so many amazing memories! I only wish that Heath, Kir and DB could have been with us!

The Dicken’s Inn- the perfect way to start a trip :)

November 20-24: LINDSAY & Taylor! This past weekend was amazing! Lindsay flew from Dublin to visit me and more importantly to go to the Taylor Swift concert! We had the best weekend in London! We did everything; fish and chips, Harrods, changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Notting Hill (where we met Taylor Swift), Billy Elliot, gelato, embankment at night, National Gallery, and an amazing concert at Wembley Arena, just to name a few! It was so hard to see her go!

Lindsay, Taylor Swift and I

I hope you all have wonderful Thanksgivings! Mine won’t be the same without the Bracken/ Barrett/ Gearity clan...

Love,

Kelli

One Month Left :(

2009-11-16T15:20:00.000Z

I have been absolutely terrible about writing recently, its quite amazing how time can slip away, I can’t believe I only have a month left in this amazing city.

I pinky swear to post about Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Granada and Sevilla), Wales, and my parent’s visit very VERY soon!

Hope all is well at home!

Cheers,

Kelli

Ps. Congrats on the win Minds- I really wish ‘dem Stillers would get their act together!

A Week in Londontown!

2009-11-01T12:30:00.007Z

Life has been quite hectic and I have not been able to update! Though a bit delayed here’s a brief summary of my week in London between Istanbul and Spain, I’m leading quite a rough life...

The week started off great! Em and I had lunch in the park and recapped our weekends! After a bit of grocery shopping, I met my friend Alex to head over to the University of London student center where we signed up for ULU (The University of London Union). We are lucky that our student coordinator worked out a deal that we are able to join the union and participate in their clubs! Even better is that SU picked up the registration fee!

We didn’t waste any time getting involved! We headed to our first ULMC (University of London Mountaineering Club) meeting on Tuesday night. We took the tube all the way to the Miles End station and met the group at an indoor climbing wall. Though we were not at all dressed for climbing (oops) we signed up, got a belaying refresher course and climbed away! After climbing we followed the pack to the local pub. This pub is very much a “climbers pub” the back room being packed to capacity after the wall closed! I was very much in my element and loved talking with and getting to know all the British students! I am sooo glad we joined and are finally able to be fully immersed in London society!

Wednesday started with babysitting Emma, something I have started looking forward to! It’s a great break from school and she is such a good baby! Afterwards I started on a few of my midterms and then geared up to meet my new friend Ryan for a run. Ryan, I found out as I was panting to keep up with him, is a VERY accomplished runner… Though his less than 5-minute mile pace had to be greatly adjusted to mine, it was a great run! He took me on a pretty cool tour of London, even managing to run by Big Ben as it was ringing!

Thursday I went to a performance for my Performance Live class. It was called Circus Cirkor, and was quite crazy but an overall really cool performance! Afterwards I came home and was able to skype with both my sisters, a very rare occasion! I never realize how much I miss them until I see their faces…

Friday started early as we met at Faraday House (my school) to go on a field trip to Hampton Court Palace, a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London.

We were lucky enough to get a private tour of many of the rooms and then had a few hours to explore the extensive grounds on our own. My favorite part was the extensive English gardens that surround the estate!

It was so interesting to see this palace a week after Istanbul, it was as different as night and day from the palaces we had seen in Turkey. This is a shot of one the main staircases in the Kings Apartments, the mosaics I had fallen in love with in Turkey are replaced by floor to ceiling murals.

I loved these ribbons that were flying from the trees lining the entrance.

Saturday was another early morning. I met Alex at the Marylebone tube stop and we made our way to the train station to meet ULMC and go for a day climb. It was very nice to get out of London and explore the countryside which was only an hour or so away!

The rock was very similar to the sandstone rocks I have climbed in West Virginia and all the students in ULMC were a lot of fun to climb with. Though the rock was quite difficult I was able to climb a bunch of the routes (even if it did take me quite a bit longer than some of the human spiders I was surrounded by). I was quite sore the next day but I am so motivated to improve my climbing, especially if my dream comes true and I am interning in Colorado this summer!

On Sunday I did, or attempted to do, work all morning until my 5 o'clock run with Ryan. What we had planned on being a 45-minute run turned into a two-hour marathon of London. We ran through Holborn, Primrose Hill (thought of you the whole time Kelly!), Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath (where Coldplay goes for inspiration, no big deal), Camden town and my neighborhood of Marble Arch. It was a perfect night for a run and we watched the sunset from some of the highest points of the city! We covered about 11 miles of London, never ever thought I would be able to run that far!

Monday and Tuesday were filled with yet more work and lots of ankle icing, unfortunately my ankles don't enjoy my marathon runs as much as I do!

I started Wednesday off with a great run around Camden Town in the London rain, thankfully it later cleared and was a beautiful night!

Thursday started too early with some last minute studying before my history midterm, I also started getting quite excited for my quickly approaching trip to Spain!

After my midterm I worked more on my paper and created a master itinerary for our trip! After a long night of writing and packing I finally headed to bed and set an alarm to begin our adventure to Spain! I was sooo excited to begin our holiday!

Hope all is well at home! I will update with lots and lots of pictures of my weeklong exploration of Spain in the next few days!

Cheers-

Kel

Two Continents, One Weekend

2009-10-18T22:56:00.026+01:00

Last Thursday began my adventure to Istanbul, Turkey! Once again I flew out of Heathrow airport, which is very easily accessible by tube. Adding to the ease was that I was traveling with the school therefore they had organized all of our tickets and accommodations and we simply had to show up.

The flight to Turkey was about 4 hours, my longest since I have been here, but the free meal and wine on our British Airways flight made it anything but strenuous. I was lucky enough to sit next to another kid from Syracuse on the flight, he is a skier and a photographer, and needless to say we had more than 4 hours worth of conversation material.

When we landed in Istanbul it really didn’t look too different from London. This may be because I live in quite an ethnic neighborhood of London therefore seeing signs in multiple languages doesn’t look strange to me, but it is also because the initial areas we were in were very “westernized”.

From the airport we took a bus to our hotel, after a bit of mayhem, Kelsey, Suzanne and I went to our flat for the weekend. At first we were upset that we would have to stay in a room that was not actually in the hotel. We quickly got over it after venturing from our private flat to the beautiful terrace above seeing the view. It was even better the next morning…

We woke up early Friday to prepare for what would be a long day of sightseeing. After a hearty breakfast (with apricots of course, my new staple food) we followed Forbes, a professor from SU London who was our guide for the weekend, to Topkapi Palace. This beautiful palace was the primary residence for the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853. It was quite extensive to say the least. From the first and most public courtyard all the way to the Sultan’s private marble bathroom, we saw it all. The architecture was beautiful and the details in the tiles (that were EVERYWHERE) were so impressive.

I also really liked this shot, it looks out onto the last courtyard from one of the Sultan’s personal living rooms. There were decorative screens like this on so many of the windows; I took about a million pictures of stars, per usual.

We went for tea and coffee for a quick break while sightseeing in the palace, like I said before its huge, you could easily spend 5 hours there and not see it all. From our coffee spot we got our first glimpses of the Asian continent. It was a beautiful day, the sun on our faces felt so nice after quite a cloudy week in Londontown.

After lunch along Divan Yolu we met back up with the group. Forbes was ever so kind and had baklava waiting for us while he gave us some historical background of the Byzantine’s. Ms. Robins (a teacher from my high school) would be so proud to know that I was able to answer almost all of the questions he raised. I knew I told AP World for a reason… We then made our way to the Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofya in Turkish). Ayasofya was used as three different churches, converted into a mosque and is now strictly used as museum.

There are remains from all of its different uses and they are still renovating to try and find some old mosaics that were covered up as a result of its transformation into a mosque. They were ordered to be plastered over after Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, also before the age of preservation tourists would come to visit the Ayasofya and chip off a piece of the mosaic to prove they were there, explaining the lack of tiles remaining in the picture below…

After the Ayasofya Forbes told us to follow him for a “surprise”. We queued outside a fairly standard building but then entered into something far from standard. The surprise was the Basilica Cistern. The cistern is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie under Istanbul. It is amazing that something built solely to hold water, not really to be seen is still so gorgeous. The arches are so intricate and it is truly mind blowing to picture it being completely filled with water. And of course the dramatic red lighting they have added makes it look like a Harry Potter haven.

We were utterly exhausted by this point but still had one more Forbes speech before heading back to the hotel. We stopped along the Hippodrome when he explained the three structures that are still remaining, he also talked about how it was once a circus as well as the sporting and social center of Constantinople.

From there we very happily made our way back to the hotel and crashed into our beds. After a comatose half an hour we made our way up to the terrace of the hotel. While we watched the sun set we heard from a British woman who recently moved to Istanbul and a Turkish teenager.

Though it evolved into a political debate between the two of them, which was not Forbes intention, it was very interesting to hear about the beautiful city we had spent all day exploring from people who actually lived there. From there we got a cab (well more of a party bus for the 17 of us) down to the Galata Bridge for dinner. Eating dinner underneath the bridge was quite interesting but it did give us a really cool view.

We decided on a seafood restaurant after the host told us he would give us a special “student” price. Though we waited about an hour for our food and he asked me to marry him about 8 times during the course of the meal, it was actually a really good dinner. I ate a whole fish. Literally my meal was just a cooked fish on a plate, bones and all. But after a moment of hesitation, I did it and actually enjoyed it!

From there we stopped briefly at a hookah bar and then made our way home. Once again we were exhausted and did not have any trouble falling right asleep. The next morning we woke up feeling like we had already been in Istanbul for a week, not just two nights.

We headed to breakfast early and again prepared ourselves for a long day of sightseeing. We followed our trusty Forbes to the local mosque to start off the day. This was the mosque where we had been hearing the mega phoned Islamic “calls to worship” five times a day, everyday since we arrived.

It was so beautiful and intricately decorated. It seemed crazy to me that this was just a small local mosque. These two local boys were running around outside while Forbes was talking to us and loved showing off for their audience.

From there we walked to the Grand Bazaar. Though we did have a brief history lesson before we were let loose, the Bazaar was a much needed break from strictly sightseeing. The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. It has about 60 covered streets and over a thousand shops. As a result it is wicked crowded and quite stuffy, but amazing none the less. This picture is down one of the “side streets”.

There were so many different goods everywhere. A whole leather section, a ton of places to get pottery, amazing jewelry and of course scarves everywhere! Though things were not as cheap as we were led to believe we did all walk away with some bargains!

After we thoroughly explored the bazaar and were quite satisfied with our purchases we made our way to a café for lunch. I had the most amazing tomato and lentil soup, and have been trying to recreate it ever since. From there Kelsey, Suzanne and I headed back to the hotel. After an unplanned tour of the city we finally arrived to the hotel with enough time to just sit down before having to leave again…

We headed back down towards the river to meet the rest of the group for our ferry ride to Asia. It was a perfect night and the sun was about to set. Forbes in his infinite wisdom had planned the timing of the ferry perfectly so the sun set while we were crossing the Bosphorus to Asia. It was beautiful…

Not only did he plan around the sunset but he also brought snacks! We munched on goodies from the spice Bazaar ranging from dried figs and apricots to almonds and a Turkish taffy like treat.

Once we set foot in Asia we had the option to stay and explore the area or just head back on the ferry with Forbes. Three of my friends and I decided to stay and explore a bit. It wasn’t terribly different from the other side of the city, just a bit less developed. The most interesting thing we saw was this guy on a motorcycle who trained his dog to ride on the back of it, while wearing sunglasses of course, we were quite amused…

Once we docked in Europe we hopped in a cab to meet Kelsey and Suzanne in “Narnia” our joke of the weekend. After an interesting cab ride, we made our way through the very busy streets…

To the even more crowded street of Nevizade. This was a wicked cool spot packed with restaurants and pubs. After a good meal we hailed a cab and made our way home along the very crowded and very windy streets of Istanbul. As our cab driver pumped the bass on his surround sound we came within inches of hitting many many pedestrians as well as a pack of wild dogs. By the way the one downfall of Istanbul, in my opinion of course, is the abundance of cats, they are like rats in the city, that is rats that are absolutely everywhere, roaming free and fed by the locals.

Finally after having to stop and talk to other cab drivers (who thankfully spoke English) we made it home. We were once again exhausted but couldn’t resist spending the last hours of our last night on our beautiful terrace. It was so beautiful and peaceful up there!

Sunday morning we packed up and checked out of the hotel, thankful that we packed lightly so we had more than enough room for all of our purchases! After checking out we left for the Great Palace Mosaic Museum. I was once again so impressed; the mosaics were so beautiful and so detailed. Below is an extreme close up of one of my favorites. The eye is so detailed, I love it.

From there we went to the Sultan Ahmet (Blue) Mosque. This Mosque is open to the public and is free, therefore quite crowded with cruise ships and lots and lots of Americans, not my favorite scene.

But it was a beautiful mosque and worth dealing with the crowds. This is my friend Alex and I with our headscarves on out of respect for the Islamic religion as well as their culture.

We then had the option of shopping some more or going to the Museum of Turkish & Islamic Art. Since I had (very proudly) managed to spend the exact amount of Liras I had left the night before, I opted for the museum visit and am very happy I did. It was a very cool museum with lots of cool artifacts and Turkish rugs of course. This was one of my favorites…

Upon exiting the museum we had a perfect view of the mosque...

We all met at the Hotel Ayasofya, boarded the bus and waved goodbye to our home for the weekend. We couldn’t stop talking about how it felt as though we had been there for a week, not just a weekend. Forbes filled us in on a bit more history as we passed the Theodosian Walls on our way to the Church of St. Saviour in Chora.

This picture is a bit blurry but gives you a good feel for how beautiful and extensive the mosaics in this church were. It was breathtaking. We then headed to the restaurant next door called Asitane for our group lunch. There we dined on traditional Ottoman cuisine. It was very interesting but I really enjoyed it, the adventurous eater in me had quite a field day! It was also nice to not worry about trying to order the least expensive dish on the menu as Syracuse was picking up the bill!

After we were uncomfortably full of Turkish cuisine, we snapped a quick group photo and reluctantly boarded the bus to the airport.

Everyone loaded up on their last purchases of Turkish delight and we then made our way onto our plane. I was very much looking forward to a four-hour nap on the way home but couldn’t sleep a wink. We were all harnessing our inner child and couldn’t sit still, none the less sleep on the plane. The flight attendants were quite annoyed as Alex conferenced with Brian and I from the aisle. Once we landed in Heathrow all we wanted to do was get home and shout Merhaba (hello in Turkish) to our roommates.

I couldn’t (and still cant) believe we were only there for a weekend. It was such an amazing trip and I couldn’t be happier that I decided to go. I was actually talking to one of my new friends from University of London yesterday about his travels to Turkey and it made me want to go back already! I would love to really explore and learn more about their culture!

Hope all is well with everyone and I will report on my fun filled week in London very soon!

İyi Geceler (good night in Turkish)

Kelli

Cairdeas

2009-10-12T18:09:00.012+01:00

Cairdeas means friendship in Gaelic and could not be a more perfect description of my time in the (supposed) Gaelic speaking country of Ireland!

My trip to Ireland was the smoothest thus far. Conveniently I was able to take the tube all the way to and from Heathrow airport and easily found my friend Lindsay at the Dublin airport. It was so amazing to see her and as soon as we were laughing and catching up in the cab I knew it was going to be a great weekend. Once back at her flat we talked to the wee hours of the morning over digestive cookies (a biscuit covered with chocolate) and milk! Quite perfect.

Friday morning started off with a bus ride into city center. We passed the striking cab drivers and made our way to Trinity College. It was one of those days that makes everyone, even a winter loving girl like me, love fall!

From Trinity we wandered passed Molly Malone, the subject of the unofficial anthem of Dublin, and made our way to Grafton Street!

Lindsay was a great tour guide and didn’t miss a beat as we flawlessly went from window-shopping on Grafton Street to Saint Stephen’s Green. Once again it was such a perfect fall day and we didn’t stop talking the whole time. You would have thought that we have been friends for years not weeks…

We then met up with two of Lindsay’s roommates for delicious vegetable soup at the VAT house before continuing on to the Guinness Factory.

Prior to our self-guided tour of the factory I was not a huge fan of Guinness (sorry Uncle Doug). But after reading about every step of the brewing process and getting to the “tasting zone” I stomached it and was actually pleasantly surprised! It was obviously the freshest Guinness I will ever have (right from the source) but I am also much more open to ordering it in the future. We continued through the rest of the tour, watched some old Guinness commercials and made our way to the Gravity Bar at the very top of the building. There we received our complimentary pint and enjoyed the view (that's the Dublin Spire in the distance).

We were quite tired at this point and a bit annoyed that there was no where to sit, but we were happily chatting together and of course still all smiles…

From there we found a perfect coffee shop in which to satisfy our chocolate cravings and headed home with time for dinner and getting ready. We then went to a club called The Academy that was hosting Indie Rock bands.

The next day we decided to take a train to local Dun Loaghaire. Almost immediately after we arrived it started pouring. Not letting it get us down we sat it out at a coffee shop, it thankfully let up and we were able to enjoy the beautiful landscape and really really cool old boats. (Thank you Lindsay for the picture below, I guess I only took boat pictures on my 35mm).

We had a great lunch at a little panini shop, walked around a bit more and then made our way back to DCU (Dublin City University, where Lindsay is studying for the semester). Saturday afternoon was filled with Skyping with Brian, watching PS I Love You and another great dinner! On Saturday night we went to Whelan’s bar, many may recognize it from PS I Love you.

Sunday came too quickly. After a traditional Irish breakfast with Lindsay’s Aunt and Uncle who had just arrived in Dublin; we caught the bus to the airport. I really did not want to say goodbye, but knew that I would be seeing Lindsay soon (November for Taylor Swift!!), and would probably be talking to her in just a few hours. Overall the weekend was amazing, Lindsay was a perfect host and I had such a great time exploring the beautiful city of Dublin!

Monday started out with a class field trip to BBC. It was a cool tour, we got to go in the gallery of a few studios, see the newsroom, and learned a bit about the behind the scenes operations. Seeing all this once again makes me appreciate FC TV so much. I am so fortunate that I had the opportunity to learn so much about the production world before even coming to college.

From there it seemed like it would be just another rainy day in Londontown, that is until I heard about the Joshua Radin concert that was happening in Camden Town later that evening. I rushed to get ready and met my new friends Gerard and Stephanie at Tottenham Court Road to make our way to the venue. Our anticipation rose on the tube and while queuing for tickets. Throughout the hour or so we had to wait I got to know them quite well. I was very happy with my decision to put myself out there and meet new people!

The Koko Theatre on Camden High Street was gorgeous. Joshua Radin even commented on it saying “we don’t have places like this in the states, our oldest theatre is about 50 years old”. He’s right and named one of the reasons why I love London so much. The history behind everything is so cool! This theatre for example used to show Charlie Chaplin movies back in the day!

Joshua Radin was such a good performer! My favorite part was how personable he was and how he took the time to explain his thoughts behind every song. Makes me appreciate his music so much more!

He and his band also did a few songs in an old school radio style, acoustically all around one microphone. It sounded amazing and was also a true testament to his voice as he was able to project throughout the whole venue without being next to the microphone.

He even played some new songs from his yet to be recorded album, my new favorite is called “I Think I’ll Go Inside”; it’s about the London rain!

Tuesday was filled with the stress of collecting rent, our landlord looked at me like I was crazy when I showed up with thousands of pounds in 20-pound notes. That’s what you get with 8 college students I guess. The high point of Tuesday was definitely the yoga class I took between my classes. It was a faster class than I am used to but I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to taking it every Tuesday!

Wednesday was quite an eventful day! Emily joined Kelsey and I on our excursion to the British Museum. This awesome museum is literally a 3-minute walk from school and, like most museums/ art galleries in London, is free! We first saw the Rosetta Stone,

Wandered through the Egyptians and the Greeks,

And paid a visit to Alexander the Great.

From there Kelsey and I went to STA Travel where Suzanne met us and we booked our fall break plans! We are flying into Barcelona on the 23^rd then going to Madrid on the 25^th and are hoping to make our way to Toledo, Granada and Seville from Madrid before we head home to London on the 31^st…

After packing all Wednesday night Kelsey, Suzanne and I were so excited and ready to leave for Istanbul right from school on Thursday. It was an amazing experience and I am going to post ALL the details very very soon!

Slainte (Cheers in Gaelic)

Kelli

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-10-08T08:57:00.000+01:00

This week definitely got away from me! I will update on last weekend in Ireland, the Joshua Radin concert and this weekend in Istanbul, Turkey when I return on Sunday!

Hope all is well!

Serefe! (cheers in Turkish)

Kelli

Ein Prosit!

2009-10-01T15:20:00.007+01:00

2:30am last Friday began my first international travel experience since arriving in London. And what an experience it was. I left my flat at the same time as a few of my roommates were coming home from the pubs, ran after (and caught) a bus to Liverpool Street Station, boarded the Stansted express and caught my breath. It was in this moment that it finally set in that the one trip I had been planning for months was actually happening, and I realized how incredibly excited I was to see Tania! RyanAir was not as sketchy as I was led to believe and I was actually able to sleep on my flight, which is quite a rarity for me. After a few unfortunate events I found Tania and we started our journey towards Munich. Once in Munich we met up with Kelsey and the three of us made our way to Marienplatz, the main city center of Munich. It was so beautiful. You literally get off of the U-Bahn in the middle of the square surrounded by gorgeous architecture.

From there we went to Hofbrauhaus, one of the original German beer halls. We all enjoyed our first German beers, I don’t know what it is about it, but German beer is by far my new favorite.

From Marienplatz Kelsey and I hopped on the U-Bahn towards Goetheplatz where the Oktoberfest tents are. I don’t know if anything could prepare me for what we witnessed next. First off we were in the minority wearing “normal” clothes, it seemed everyone (except us and the other foreign tourists) were wearing lederhosen (men) or dirndl (women). Also the sheer number of people there was simply astonishing. I think the easiest thing to compare it to is Kennywood on a school picnic day. Kelsey and I made our way to the merry-go-round to see the whole of Oktoberfest.

It was crazy to see it from the air, but I would have never been able to visualize it if we hadn’t. This was also around the time when I really started to feel the language barrier. Munich was the first city I had ever been to where English was not the main language. Since I had very little knowledge of the language (danka and prosit were two of the few words I knew) ordering food and communicating involved a lot of pointing and hand motions. Needless to say we somehow managed to get by.

After our dessert of apple strudel and a funnel cake-like thing we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before the craziness of Saturday.

Early Saturday morning we met Tania and her friend Maggie outside the Paulanerbrau Winzerer Fahndl tent. They chose this tent because it is special to the Ukrainians (which they both are) because of the blue and yellow streamers inside. After a few pleadings the security guards let us in the back door without a reservation and we made our way to their friends table. I loved meeting Tania’s friends and was so happy to be experiencing Oktoberfest with native Germans. But that’s not where the internationality stopped, sitting at our table were kids from Paris, Americans studying abroad in Florence, Budapest, London, Munich, and Milan, as well as the native Germans. At any one time there was a chance that someone was speaking French, Ukrainian, German or of course English. It was quite an awesome experience and they were all so welcoming.

After lots of singing, beer guzzling and pretzel eating we left the hot stuffy tent and made our way to Giselastr where the beer gardens are. Think central park with lots of little restaurants and pubs.

We ate underneath this tower and listened to the band play above us. We sat there for hours laughing and talking, much of it in Ukrainian, which led to a lot of just smiling and nodding from Kelsey and I. Once again it was so nice to sit and get to know Tania’s friends, I now have such a better understanding of her life pre-Syracuse. From there we went to a Munich club, had an interesting cab ride home and finally ended at Maggie’s house.

As I left Maggie’s quite early on Sunday I felt immersed in the culture. I walked from Sumpfmesisenweg to Vestastrabe to Henschelstr to the S-Bahn realizing that I really wasn’t in London anymore.

I had a few hours before I had to catch the train back to the airport so I spent them exploring Marienplatz. It was a perfect morning and I can’t wait to see my developed pictures.

I ran to my train (seemed to be a common theme of this trip) and relaxed while traveling through the gorgeous German countryside. It was quite picturesque with the farms and small cottages; the fields seemed to go on forever. Once in the Memmingen airport I was suddenly overcome with Americans. It is crazy how small the world starts to feel as you get older. From the five other Americans in the airport one other girl was from Pittsburgh and it was quite insane how many mutual friends we had. I have also started to really enjoy conversations I have with people on buses or trains. I am very happy that there is not a language barrier for me in London so that I can actually communicate. I was so frustrated on the bus to Memmingen when the little old lady next to me tried to start a conversation and I couldn’t even say, “Sorry I don’t speak German”.

I was exhausted but very happy with the outcome of the weekend when I finally arrived home at my flat. It is also so nice to come home to my London family, I really did miss my roommates over the weekend and it was so good to see them all!

The week started with news of Zac and Jess’s baby girl Eliza (pictures please!). Tuesday was a beautiful day which I spent reading in Hyde Park and then went to Shawshank Redemption (the play adaptation of the movie). I didn’t really know what to expect as I made my way into the Windham theatre, for I am much more used to musicals than straight plays, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was an intense and moving performance than made me miss Kirsten very much; you would love it Kir!

Yesterday I took the baby I baby-sit to the Tate Britain art museum. It is literally a 10-minute walk from their flat and was a perfect way to split up a very long day of babysitting. My two favorite pieces were this sea landscape- which made me want to surf of course.

And this bear that was in the modern art section of the museum.

I feel so lucky that I have the opportunity to make a few extra pounds and even more lucky that I am able to explore areas of London that I otherwise would probably not venture to.

Now as I write this I am busy preparing to leave for Dublin. I am leaving after class today and am visiting my friend Lindsay who is studying there. I am so excited to see Dublin and it will be so nice to have a personal tour guide (Lindsay) as well, takes a lot of the stress out of it.

I am also excited that I am visiting a city that my Dad has never been to. It is quite a weird feeling actually, for when I was growing up I felt like my Dad had been everywhere in the world, quite strange that I am traveling to a place he has never been. But I guess that’s what growing up is all about…

Hope all is well and I will be posting pictures of Ireland soon!

Cheers-

Kelli

There Is Nothing More Expense Than Regret...

2009-09-22T14:09:00.009+01:00

The quote that is the title of this entry (thank you Ari Cohen) seems to have become my new motto. I’m beginning to learn that I am addicted to experience. I knew 10 minutes into my road trip out west this summer that my free time would begin to revolve around traveling and new experiences. I love going to new places, meeting new people, and even more sharing experiences with the people I love the most. This weekend was easily one of the best weekends of my life, but let’s start with the build up to it…

Monday started off with a good GRA 345 class then off to the farmers market with one of my roommates, we made a yummy eggplant dish for all of our roommates and even had a surprise visit from our good friend Andy! I have gotten very into cooking since being here, it’s relaxing and much cheaper than trying to find food in our neighborhood. Feel free to email any recipes (Kelli.Bracken@gmail.com), I would love to try anything. Tuesday started off with a run in Hyde Park with my roommate James, booking a trip to Wales in the middle, and ended with a great night at the Sports Café. Wednesday was filled with a trip to Notting Hill, getting lost on Tottenham Court Road and ending with a screening of Billy Elliot at school.

As one of my friends put it, homesickness comes in waves. Everything can be perfectly fine but then one thing will set off a feeling and, in my case, its all downhill from there. I don’t even know what it was on Thursday morning that set me off but I got my first big wave of homesickness. It’s weird the things that you start to miss while far away from your loved ones and I am finding that I miss the little things the most. I hate not knowing the stupid little details of Mindy and Kelly’s days and am missing my beloved ski team rituals. To make it all that much worse when I got to the club where my Fine Arts class was attending a performance that night, this sign was overhead.

But what can cure a case of homesickness better than a visit from your very best friend?! Needless to say Kelsey and I’s meeting with Ari and Kristen was epic. And then just a few hours later I met Rachel. I honestly didn’t realize how much I had missed her until we were sprinting towards each other on Edgware road. After we “collected” our friends we all headed out to O’Neil’s. After introducing the now Spaniards to Strongbow we danced the night away. Kelsey and I kept pinching each other, not being able to believe that our best friends were actually with us.

Friday started off as a lazy morning. After waking up the kids with pancakes in bed (you taught me well Dad), we headed out to see the sights. We walked from our flat in Marble Arch through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace. It was one of the most gorgeous days we have had since we have been here.

From there we ventured to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and all the way to Harrods. My parents had told me that Harrods was an experience but I was not expecting what was in store for us. Literally you can book a vacation, buy a hamster, get a pedicure, redecorate your entire house, get a haircut, have high tea AND spend every penny you have ever earned in this one monstrosity of a store. Thankfully we were too exhausted to even think about buying anything.

We left Harrods with the highest intentions of finding an authentic British pub for fish and chips. We absolutely found what we were looking for. We had a great meal and even better conversation. The five of us get along phenomenally and the best part is that a mere 24 hours before I had never met Kristen and Kelsey and Rachel had never met.

From there we headed home and got ready for our night out. A few memorable moments of the evening would be Ari & I’s ski team-ness, family portrait, the lovely woman on the tube, getting refused a cab ride because we were literally too close to our destination yet couldn’t find it, taking 45 minutes to find Waxy O’Connor’s just to be told it was closing, taking another 20 to try and find our friend Andy, ZOO BAR, Congo lining, going to the golden arches, and the late night Piccadilly Circus people watching. All and all a very memorable night.

Saturday morning I woke up and realized that if they left that morning the “Madrid Invasion” weekend would have already been one of the best weekends in London. But we still had more than a day left with them!

After our “Christmas morning” breakfast from Chef Ari we made our way towards the Absolute Icebar. Icebar is a bar where the walls, bar, tables and even the glasses are made from ice. Obviously the skiers in all of us were in heaven. The bar is kept at -5 degrees Celsius (so 23 F for all you Americans) and they give you a “thermal cape” with gloves to keep you warm, though we still got quite chilly by the end. It was definitely one of those “I went there” experiences.

But poor Icebar was quite overshadowed by what we did next…

We then ventured to a few stores on Regent and Oxford streets, picked up lunch from Pret and made our way towards Wembley arena. Now at this point Kristen and I did not have tickets to the Jay-Z and Coldplay concert, we were just going for the ride with them and hoping (well really really hoping) that we could find cheap tickets. On the tube we made a plan of action saying that we wouldn’t go over 55 pounds for tickets. Oops. We ended up buying standing room tickets (right by James, Ari & Kels) for 60 pounds.

Best 60 pounds I have spent.

The concert was one of the best concert I had ever been to before we even stepped foot in the door. The experience of scalping tickets (ps it is much more accepted in London, no shady dealings like in the states) was exciting and quite a bonding moment for Kristen and I. Once we were inside we headed down to our standing room seats to prepare for Jay-Z. I have never been a Jay-Z fan but absolutely am one now. Not only was he an awesome rapper but also an amazing performer. I felt like I was experiencing the concert through my whole body. The vibrations in my feet seemed to explode all the way through the top of my head.

And then came Coldplay. I cant even put into words how amazing of an experience their performance was. Sorry Rusted Root and The Clarks, Coldplay just knocked you out of the best concert ever spot.

To set the scene as soon as they started their set it started raining. Let me rephrase that, as soon as they started playing it started raining in the only way London knows how, torrential downpour. We were soaked through and through but yet couldn’t stop smiling. I really don’t know how I can put the concert into words other than to say that we have already started talking about how we will literally be talking about it for years to come.

Sunday morning started with teary goodbyes to Ari and Kristen, a perfect trip to Notting Hill with Rae and ended with more teary goodbyes as I put Rae on her train to Gatwick.

It is probably unnecessary to repeat but this weekend was fantastic, though it will probably end up being the most expensive weekend I spend in London, I don’t regret a single pence.

Now as I sit in my beautiful flat writing this I realize how much I am starting to fall in love with this city. I love getting lost in Hyde Park on my daily runs, commuting to school on the tube, and coming home for a cup of tea with my roommates. I am excited for what tomorrow, my day free of classes, will bring. Possibly the Charles Dickens or Princes Diana walks, an exploration of the paths along the Thames, or a number of the other “must see” areas of this magical city.

I will end with wishing my sister Heather a very very Happy Birthday!! I miss you very much and hope that you have some time in your hectic grad school life to celebrate!

Cheers,

Kelli

The Week in Review:

2009-09-13T16:56:00.008+01:00

Sunday:

We went on a sightseeing bus tour of London and ended in Greenwich. Greenwich is such a cool spot. We saw the painted halls, the queen’s house and wandered up to the prime meridian.

I thought of Kristy when we were walking towards the open market and passed the coolest color me mine like place. This one served ice cream as well, what could be better?!

Monday:

Monday was our first day of classes. As nerdy as it sounds I was so excited to finally have a set schedule. I only had one class in the morning then went for a run from school to Buckingham Palace. Though it was awesome once we got there we learned the hard way that “running” during rush hour is actually just trying to push your way through crowds commuting on Oxford street. After our run we started plotting lots and lots of trips. I want to go everywhere and anywhere!

Tuesday:

Moving day! We FINALLY moved into our permanent flat! It is amazing! I am in a triple with my roommates Suzanne and Annie. We spent all night trying to get our stuff organized and amazingly mine all fit!

Wednesday:

Wednesday was quite an early morning, I woke up at 6 to catch the tube to go babysit in Victoria for the morning. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to babysit, and Emma (my neighbor on Timber Ridge’s sisters daughter…) is the cutest 8-month baby! It is nice to be able to get completely away from school and the few extra pounds I earn are pretty clutch! Victoria is such a cool and beautiful area, I will for sure be exploring it much more! It is also nice that I don’t have any classes on Wednesday so I have all day to do some exploring!

Thursday:

Thursday was the first day I finally felt settled in our flat! We had our first “family dinner”! I am really excited about all my new roommates, we are all getting along really well! We also played host for the first time, it is so exciting to show all our friends our flat.

Friday:

Stonehenge & Salisbury: We woke up early to catch the bus to Stonehenge from Faraday House (Syracuse’s building in London). On the ride out of the city we were all silently hoping for the tour guide to stop talking and just let us sleep during the 2-hour drive out. Though most of his talk wasn’t the most interesting one story was quite memorable.

Post-war London, like most places, needed lots of housing quickly. As a result lots of housing developments popped up right outside of the city. Some were attractive some, not so much. One particularly interesting building was designed by Erno Goldfinger.

Name sound familiar? Ian Fleming would commute pass this building and hated it so much that he used the name of the architect as a villain in his James Bond series. Talk about revenge.

Stonehenge was really cool! Sure it may just be a circle of rocks in a field but learning about how it took 1,500 years to complete and how much went into the process was pretty awesome. And apparently it was the first time in a few years that it didn’t rain on the SU trip there, we have had perfect weather pretty much the whole time we have been here! Knock on wood that it lasts!

From Stonehenge we went on a roller coaster of a bus ride to the beautiful town of Salisbury! Our first stop was the cathedral, it is huge and gorgeous. Can’t wait to develop my pictures from this one, the way the light was streaming in through the stained glass windows was pretty spectacular.

We then wandered through the French market, had lunch outside a local pub, and had some amazing ice cream. Then knowing we still had a few more hours till our train to Bath, we started wandering pretty much aimlessly. We found a park where we sat for a while watching the sheep gaze just across the river, and enjoying the show the ducks were putting on for us. From there we wandered up the windy road to the train station. The short hour or so train to Bath was filled with picturesque images of the English countryside. Ignorantly I didn’t think you could get views like that in England, always thought they were only found in places like Ireland and Scotland.

We got off the train in Bath and easily found our hostel, Bath Backpackers.

We could not have asked for a better first hostel experience. The 6 of us were the only ones in a 10 bed girls only dorms, called Divas of course. We dropped our bags and went out to explore the town. We watched the sun set while we got lost in the center of town. My favorite thing about Europe is the architecture. I just keep saying how we don’t have anything like this back home. Even the oldest town in America doesn’t have close to as much history as these towns. We got take-away (take-out in America) and ate in a park before exploring more and attempting to socialize with the Bathians at a local watering hole.

Saturday:

The next morning we woke up, enjoyed the breakfast that was provided, loving the fact that it was better than the breakfast at the hotel we stayed at for the first week even though it cost a fraction of the cost. We then went on a free walking tour of Bath. We saw all of the sights, the Roman baths, the Abbey (pictured below) the circus (a perfect circle of houses, one of which is Nicholas Cage’s 6.8 million pound residence), the crescent (a half football shape of houses), and all the historical architecture that our guide was quite enthusiastic to tell us about. After the walking tour we had an amazing lunch at a café called The Walrus and the Carpenter, named after characters in Alice in Wonderland.

After lunch we wandered back to the center of town where we took a bus up the hill to Prior Park, where we lucked out that the National Trust was having a special event and it was free admission! It was a beautiful park where you could look out and see all of Bath. It honestly looked fake it was so beautiful! This picture doesn’t do it justice, but is better than nothing…

From there we took the bus back down and explored more of the city until our 7:41 train back to London. After we got back into the city it seemed like we went straight from Paddington station (named after Paddington Bear right Dad?!) to Leicester Square to meet up with a bunch of other ‘cusers. It was a really fun night and perfect end to our whirlwind of a trip.

Sunday:

So now it’s Sunday and the first day we don’t have a million things to do. It was nice to be able to skype with my parents for a while this morning and now it is time to stock our fridge and get ready for school tomorrow. That of course will be interrupted in a bit when we venture to Piccadilly Circus to see if they are playing the Eagles game (I am obviously going simply to please my Philadelphian roommate) and visit the Thames River festival where there are rumored to be fireworks tonight!

Sorry this is a long one again, but hopefully now that we are settled I will be able to blog more often ergo have them not be novels every time!

Cheerio for now (p.s. we learned in Bath that cheerio came from people calling for their chairs at the end of the night, Chair Ho, morphed into cheerio!)

Keep Calm and Carry On...

2009-09-05T23:33:00.005+01:00

Well it has been an interesting couple of days….

Thursday started off great! My roommates and I started the day off with a meeting with our landlord followed by our first “family meal”. As the eight of us sat down to lunch I realized how excited I was to move in with these people who had been total strangers only a day before. The eight of us get along really well and because of how it worked out (4 groups of 2 combining) everyone seems to have a place and feel comfortable!

After our meeting Kelsey and I met up with Sam, Julie, Jen and Emily and went to the zoo for the day! Though we got there only two hours before it closed we managed to see it all!! A high point was the tigers. Julie kept saying that all the animals were just as polite as the English, always greeting their visitors and giving us a show!

After the zoo we wandered into nearby Regents park. It was straight out of a movie, the weather was perfect and there was a light breeze blowing through the trees.

After our adventure we got back on the tube…During rush hour… I knew there was a reason I avoided the subway at 5ish all summer. Needless to say, it was quite tight.

The night ended with a causal gathering at our local pub, Shakespeare’s Head. Before we left I was trying to downsize the items in my purse but got frustrated when I couldn’t find my smaller wallet and decided to just go and deal with it tomorrow. Big mistake, after literally only a ¼ of my first pint my purse was stolen.

Though this was quite a horrendous experience, I have learned so much from it and met a lot of amazing people through the ordeal. Also if I had to get my purse stolen any night Thursday was the night for it to happen as a group of our student guides, and even one of our professors, were at the table next to us. Our one professor, Brian, was unbelievable, I don’t think I could have gotten through the night without him, he called the police for me, talked to the pub owner, found how to get a hold of American Express, and more importantly gave me a hug when that was all I really needed.

I wont go through all the steps that were post-purse stealing but lets just say there were a lot. I am so grateful to my parents for being so helpful and supportive. Everyone kept saying that I was handling the situation well and I slowly realized that it was because my parents were supporting me so much every step of the way.

Friday started off with a call from the Holburn Police Station getting more details about “the incident”, it was then followed by our registration seminar and fun filled trip to the US embassy for me. As I got off the tube it finally sunk in that the night before was not a dream and had actually happened.

As I walked down North Audley Road towards the embassy (which I conveniently discovered is in my neighbor of Marble Arch) I passed a coffee shop with a huge sign in the window that simply said “Keep Calm and Carry On”.

It instantly became my new motto. I realized that in a few years the pounds that I lost would not be soo important to me and that through this experience I had learned that you definitely cannot trust everyone but that some people care so much and will literally do anything to help. It amazes me that people I have only known for a few days can already feel like family.

Now on to the fun stuff…

Friday afternoon Emily and I went on a run in my (soon to be) new neighborhood of Hyde Park. We didn’t really know where we were going but just figured we would start at Marble Arch and go from there. We ended up going on the most amazing run, we passed the beautiful fountain gardens, the Peter Pan statue (which I was ecstatic about), and crossed over the river. We couldn’t get over how beautiful it was and how picturesque the picnickers were. We vowed to return frequently and to fully explore the park.

After the park we went home to prepare for our club night, we (along with a few dozen of our other SU Abroad classmates) went to the club Sway free of cover thanks to our savvy student guides. It was soo fun! It was my first true experience with British nightlife and it was awesome!

This morning we had another touristy day. It was perfect weather and we decided to go see the Queen’s Gardens in Regents Park. I had seen pictures of the gardens from when my parents were here a few years ago but still didn’t really know what to expect. They were gorgeous! The roses were so beautiful and vibrant and the landscaping was fantastic (I’m running out of adjectives). We walked through all of the gardens but then had some time to kill before the festival that we had planned to go to. We then decided to make like the locals and just lounge in the grass, that turned into a quick power nap for all of us.

It was so quiet and calm you would never know that you were in the middle of a major metropolitan area, it was honestly just as quiet as our back deck at Hidden Valley in the summer. Truly a perfect sunny day and my face is a little tanner as a result!

From the gardens we hopped back on the tube to go to a festival in Trafalgar Square. The festival was to raise money and awareness for all disabilities. We walked around then got sandwiches from a local coffee shop and sat on the steps of the National Gallery.

This is when one of us looked up and realized Big Ben was right in front of us. For all of you that know how much I enjoy puzzles know how hard this is for me to say, but it was honestly straight out of a puzzle it looked so fake!

We then went to meet our landlord who informed us that even though when we were originally looking at our flat we were told we could move in on Sunday we now cant move in until Tuesday. Which means we will have to continue our “gyspy lifestyle”, as Kelsey so perfectly coined it, for a few more days.

Sorry this post is quite long but a lot has happened! One thing I am very happy about is that through the whole purse fiasco I never once just wished I was home (though I did wish that my parents could be teleported across the pond to work through it with me). This has been an amazing experience already and we are only a few days in, I love London and can’t wait for tomorrow to explore even more!

Cheers and good wishes,

Kelli

Mission Accomplished

2009-09-02T19:07:00.002+01:00

Great Success! Today was more than a little stressful but it all worked out in the end.

After an a few interesting encounters with landlords, we were able to secure an amazing flat in the Marble Arch area of the city. It is only a 10 minute tube ride to our school and in a very lively part of town. We somehow managed to find a flat that is below our per diem (allotted amount per week from SU), but yet has marble floors, chandeliers, two full and one half baths, 4 double rooms, a dishwasher, washer/dryer and huge living room with a flat screen TV!

It is nothing I ever expected or even wished for, I can't wait to move in Sunday morning!

Just Touched Down...

2009-09-01T20:22:00.003+01:00

I'm in London!

Landed at Gatwick around 7 (2 east coast time) this morning, lugged my rather heavy (you were right Dad) bags to the Victoria station express. From there I had an awesome cab ride to our hotel. My cab driver was nice enough to show me some sites along the way.

I waved to the Queen in her palace (I learned that the flag at full mast meant she was actually currently in the residence), saw Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, and even the Jersey Boys theatre (thought of Matt of course!). I can't get over how beautiful all of the buildings are, I love the architecture!

I was then the first to arrive at the hotel, the SU staff had not even finished setting up! I was even able to take a power nap before I went to greet the buses of the group flight.

Still haven't secured a phone or a flat, but that's the mission for tomorrow! We are about to go explore the neighborhood pub for a relaxed first night!

Hasn't set in that this beautiful and old world city will be my home for the next 3 or so months, but I so excited to explore it and make it my own!

Welcome to My Blog!

2009-08-29T17:07:00.003+01:00

I was inspired to start this blog after two of my friends (Lindsay in Dublin and Tania in Florence) started similar ones to record their experiences abroad. It seemed like the best way for me to track my travels and an easy way to keep my parents in the loop (also much cheaper than trying to call the states).

As many of you already know I am about to travel to London to spend the fall semester of my junior year studying abroad. I am very lucky that Syracuse has awesome abroad programs so I am actually studying at a Syracuse University center in London.

I chose to opt out of the pre-arranged housing that Syracuse provides so my roommates and I will find a flat when we arrive Tuesday morning, it will be the first adventure of my time abroad…

I am very excited for this amazing experience I am about to embark on but also a little anxious. It has yet to set in that I will not be going back to the school I love so much in a few days. Though I will miss my friends that are still on campus very very much, I know this experience will be well worth it.

I am most looking forward to discovering this new city that is soon to become my own! After living in New York City (well Dumont, NJ) this summer I am excited to master a new and different city and travel on very different buses… The lovely NJ Transit buses I came to know very well will be replaced with the iconic red double-deckers!

After I get to know and fall in love, as my Dad assures me I will, with London, I also look forward to traveling throughout Europe. I am lucky enough to have good friends who are studying all over; Beans, Rachel and Ari in Madrid, Tania in Florence, Lindsay in Dublin, Abby in Paris… Needless to say, I think I can find some pretty good tour guides in a few cities.

As of now I only have one trip planned, Oktoberfest weekend with my ski teamers, but I know that is just the start of what will be lots of travel. As my friends like to remind me I can't be in one place for very long, so I assume that will translate to lots and lots of traveling while abroad. I would love suggestions on where to travel!

As aforementioned I am so excited for all the adventures I am about to experience, I'm even packing my climbing shoes- praying that there is some bouldering in London somewhere- if I could find it in NYC I hope to be able to find it in London!

I hope you will join me on this journey and please please leave comments- I know I will miss a lot about the states but most of all I will miss all of you so please keep in touch! Also feel free to email me at Kelli.Bracken@gmail.com

And as I'm sure I will get used to saying...

Cheers-

Kelli