Two Continents, One Weekend

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

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

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!

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...

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