Can You Say Tourist?

So classes are officially over, and finals time has come upon us. Good thing about Ireland is that they give us a revision week where we are supposed to be preparing for finals. So, what do all the international students do? Of course they go traveling. Pretty much everyone one I knew was traveling around in this week. I saved my trip to England for this time. This was my longest trip, starting with flying into Birmingham and spending the morning/afternoon. Then move on to visit some family in Nottingham for the weekend and end my time in London with one of my roommates. 

Day 1

Yay, back to early morning flights. I was flying out by myself, but it turned out that one of my roommates had the same departure time for her trip to Brussels. We decided we might as well miserably drag ourselves to the airport together. 

By the time I made it to the center of Birmingham it was 8 am. I was among all the commuters who were determined to make it to their destination, so I kind of just got swallowed up by the crowd. I ended up circling around for a while when I realized I had an assignment due at midnight that day. It was just a lecture response kind of thing, so I found the closest Starbucks. I ordered some coffee and went to town on the assignment. By the time I finished the assignment it was around 11. I thought I might as well walk around the city a bit before I catch my train to Nottingham. I knew they had a pretty famous Christmas market and I passed it on my walk around in the morning, but it wasn't open at that time. By 11 it was full of people looking around. This market was huge. It was one of the biggest ones I had been to. At one point I thought it had to end, but nope, it kept on going. 

Then I saw signs for a thing called the Bull Ring. No idea what that was, but might as well check it out. Not quite what I thought it would be. It was just a huge shopping area. There was tons of people in this area. Then I quickly remembered that it was Black Friday. Not thinking that England would participate in Black Friday, but there were signs outside of shops for Black Friday deals. Then in the Bull Ring, I saw this World Famous Rag Market. World Famous, well then I made my way in that direction. It was one giant thrift shop pretty much. All their stuff was really cheap and they had everything from clothes to electronics.

I had a train at 2 to head to Nottingham to meet up and stay with my cousin Stevie and his family for the weekend. It was about an hour train ride. I was still wicked tired for awaking up early, I almost completely walked past my cousin when getting off the train. 

When we got to his house, he did the classic English thing and offered my some tea and biscuits which I happily accepted. We got to catch up a bit because I hadn't seen him since last summer for my great grand mother's 100th birthday. For me that was the one and only time I remember meeting him, but apparently we had meet before. I got a bit of down time before we went to pick up his kids from their after school program. He has a boy who is 9 years old and a set of twins. And man from my last encounter with them I knew my weekend was going to hectic. These three are so full of energy. I real question was were they going to remember who I was. My thought was they weren't going to because I remember being at their age and not remembering anyone's name on my Mom's side of the family because it is just too large. Turns out with some reminding the oldest one remembered who I was. The twins who are 5 had no idea who I was. 

Immediately when we got back to the house, it was straight to paying games. They showed me all their favorite games. We were in the middle of a kids version on Monopoly that was Cars themed when we had to head out to dinner. We went to a place really close to their house and met up with their friends there. When we were waiting around for our table, I started teaching some of the kids games I used to play when I was a kid to keep myself entertained. These day kids need electronics to keep themselves entertained, so I thought I would show them that they could still have fun without them. We started off with some riddles I knew and the Johnny-whoops riddle, which they loved. All weekend they were doing it. Then when they got bored with that I taught them the finger game. The one when you tap each other's fingers and then when it got to 5 that hand is out. They absolutely loved that game. I don't think I played that game so many times in my life then I did in that weekend. They would just keep coming up to me and say the finger game. 

Since the day before was Thanksgiving and I didn't get any turkey, I saw on the menu they had an English turkey meal. I just had to have it. Also through out the night, my cousin kept on feeding my drinkings. There friends were a lot of fun and they had two daughters both around my age. We went back to their place to hang out and mostly to get the kids to sleep. We all sat around talking. My cousin Stevie, showed my the family history booklet thing that was made for my great grand mother's 91st birthday. I red through it and there was a lot I didn't know about some of my relatives. So reminder to myself ask my Mom to see if she has it. 

Day 2
The boys wake up around 5ish in the morning, if I red the clock right. I fell back to sleep, but around I think 8ish the oldest comes in to my room to see if I was awake. Of course I was awake after that. I went downstairs to get some breakfast and hang out with my boys. They had gymnastics that morning, so I got to get some down time. I got to continue reading my book. I had started Gone Girl and it was starting to get interesting.

When the boys came home, we headed out into town to go do some site seeing stuff and you know be a tourist for the day. Again the whole car ride was finger game, finger game. I was getting a bit tired of the same game, so I thought I would teach them something new. I taught them all slide. And boy did they love that one too.

The first place we stopped was Wayne's Manor. It was in this giant park, but we just walked up to the steps. I raced all the boys up the hill. And man I realized how out of shape I am.

Once we got into town we went to go eat at a place called Pitchers and Pianos. This was a place Stevie had brought one of my other cousins. It was a very... uh... unique place. Ready... wait for this... it was an old church that was converted into a pub. Like what? It was the strangest place I have eaten in. The entire structure was kept in tack with still having all the stain glass windows. they just filled it with seats, table, and a bar. 

We next headed to the Christmas market. This was another Christmas market to take note of. It was super cute. There was tons of log cabin booths with fake snow sprinkled on top of them. There was also an ice skating rink in the middle with a giant Christmas tree. The boys all get something sweet at the stalls. The twins got those giant lollipops. They were adorable as they proceeded to eat it. The oldest got a churro that I was lucky enough to get a piece of.

We then made our way to the Nottingham castle and right outside of the walls was a statue of Robin Hood. I think I could be the next Robin Hood. What do you think?

Then a little bit further down the street was the oldest inn in England. It was built into the side of the castle wall. It had a really unique interior. There was also this model of a sunken ship that has a legend to it. Legend says that if anyone touches it or tries to clean it will die an untimely death.

We went back to the house to have a nice kip, which I learned meant like a rest. After an afternoon of walking around and waking up early, I passed out on the couch reading my book. But not for long as the oldest woke me up to play games with me. He wanted to show me the oldest Game Boy. I played with them for a bit before Stevie and his wife took me out to dinner.

We went to a place called the Pelican Club. It was a place known for their live jazz music. Though when we got there, no one was playing. They also had some pretty interesting cocktails. I got a cocktail if I can remember correctly was a How Frenchman. Something along those lines. It was really good and came in this funky glass.

Dinner was delicious. It has been a while since I have had a good meal. We try to save money by not eating out and that means I am cooking all my meals. This place was an Italian place where they made fresh pasta. We got a bottle of red wine and enjoyed each other's company and our meals.

When we were at the bar, we saw these drinks that was in the same glass as my cocktail, but a darker color. We asked what it was and it turned out to be a dessert cocktail. So guess what we got for dessert. Yup, we got dessert in liquid form. It was a shot of espresso with Kahlua and vodka. It was one of the best cocktails I have had. I love the taste of coffee, so it was a match made in heaven.  

Day 3

My cousin had promised to make me a full English breakfast. Again, I was woken up at 7ish to the sound of the twins talking to each other. It was too cute that I couldn't even be too upset. I sat in bed for a bit before I decided to get up though. I could hear my cousin making breakfast, so I thought it would be a good time to make my way downstairs. Before I got out of the room, one of the twins appeared at my doorway asking if I was awake.

Breakfast was amazing. Not having to cook and having a well cooked meal was just what I wanted. There was a giant spread of fried eggs, poached eggs, many different types of sausage, bacon (which I haven't had since the summer, uh yum), mushrooms, toast, and it wouldn't be an English breakfast without baked beans. I ate so much. But I had to catch my train at 11 to meet my roommate Gilly in London. The boys got their last finger game and slide in with me. They were sad that I had to go. They kept asking why I had to leave and when I would be back. One of the twins wouldn't let me go when I was saying good bye. I had a great weekend with Stevie and his family. They were tons of fun and hopefully the boys will remember who I am next time I see them (but most likely not).

My train was late picking me up at the train station in Beeston, so I missed my connection train at the Nottingham station. I had to wait another hour before the next train would arrive. I messaged Gilly on Facebook letting her know.

The train ride was 3 hours long, mostly me sleeping or trying to sleep. It went by pretty fast. Once I got to the London train station, I completely forgot we really didn't set up a meeting spot. We said we would meet at the train station. But, I guess we really didn't think about how big the station would be. I tried to get Wifi to message her, but I could get any. So I just started walking around. I walked up and down every corner. I walked around the outside. Then I walked into the main entrance and I saw her standing in the corner. Relief rushed over me, don't know what I would have done if we couldn't find each other. The minute she saw me, she yelled, "Oh my god, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." We caught up on all the things that happened since we last say. I told her about my weekend with my family and she told me about her birthday night.

We were staying with my other cousin Alan that night, who lived a bit outside of London. But, I told him we would get to his house around 7:30, so we had a bit of time to walk around the city. Side note: Alan is actually Stevie's brother. But, we decided we would just make our way to the river because that is where most of the touristy stuff was. It was like a 45 minute walk plus we got a bit lost at one point. We looked so touristy with me with my huge backpack and Gilly with her rolling suitcase. To add to that, us pulling out our map every couple of blocks. We eventually made it to the Waterloo Bridge. We got a nice view of the London skyline at night with everything lit up. The most prominent thing being the London Eye. We realized we were hungry and went on a search for food around the Waterloo station because that was the train station we were leaving out of. We went to this little diner type place that was playing old school music. We sat down and had a nice 3 hour meal. We were just talking and didn't realize what time it was. It was all of a sudden 6 and we had to head to the station to catch our train.

It was fairly easy to find my cousin Alan's place. He lived like a 7 minute walk from the train station. When we got there of course he offered us tea. We sat down and caught up. The last time I had seen Alan was I think last summer when he was in Boston for a bit and we went out for lunch. I actually had never met his kids or his wife, but she was putting them to bed when we got there. Their family goes to bed around 9. Alan showed us on our map things we might want to do. He told us that we could get half price ticket for shows at this kiosk in Leicester Square. He also said that they sometimes do movie premiers there. Well Gilly looked it up and turns out the World Premiere of the Hobbit was going to be there tomorrow night. She freaked out because she loves that franchise.

Day 4
Since it was Monday and Alan and his family all had work/school, we woke up early to make sure we were out of the house before they all left. It was a good thing we got an early start anyways, so we got to explore more of the city.

We got to the city at around 8ish and we headed to our hostel to drop off our stuff off. This was one of the two times we took the metro. I will say now, we walked everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. We got mostly everything touristy done and we walked it all. And people said we couldn't walk this entire city.

Our hostel was right near the London Bridge. So from the London Bridge, we walked along the river walk toward Leicester Square to see if we could get cheap show tickets. Plus, I think Gilly wanted to see if we could run into anyone famous who was going to the Hobbit Premiere. On our way there we of course got a bit lost. We ended up in Covent Garden. There they had a Santa sled with his reindeer made all of legos. It took them 30 days to complete.

We finally found Leicester Square and we got to see them setting up for the Hobbit World Premiere. We saw the line of people lined up to go to the premiere. It is a crazy fandom because people were all dressed up and sitting out all day for this premiere. We went looking for the ticket kiosk my cousin told us about, but there were so many different booths. We say signs for half off tickets, but we decided it was still a little bit out of our budget to buy.

From there we were close to Buckingham Palace, so we made our way that way. When there of course we had fun watching the palace guards. These ones were not very good. I saw one of them almost drop his gun. And with my camera, I could zoom in on their faces and one of them kept looking up.

Then we had to do the most touristy thing ever and go take pictures with the red telephone booths. And you know also maybe go visit Big Ben. I could have spent hours in this one area coming up with fun pictures to take with our new props.

After we had our fun with playing the classic tourist role, we were starting to get really tired and wanted to get something to eat. We started walking back towards Leicester Sqaure. We walked through the London Horse Guard. We got to see them do the changing of the horses. It was funny to watch these grown men in these ridiculous outfits. 

We walked around for a bit looking for something to eat and decided on some random pub for some pub food. It was the first time all day that we got to sit down, and man was it such a relief. We had walked everywhere and my feet were starting to hurt. It was nice to be able to sit and relax for a bit

Since we got dinner close to Leicester Square, of course Gilly wanted to go check out the premiere. It was in full swing when we got back to the square. You really couldn't see anything with all the barriers up, but we tried as much as we could to get some pictures. You could hear all the interviews that were going on. Just thinking that celebrities were within 100 feet of you is pretty cool. We stood there for a while and Gilly went through some massive fangirling. I honestly thought it was cool, but I was ready to leave after about 10 minutes. There were some rides set up in the square for Christmas and swings that went up pretty high. Gilly seriously considered buying a ticket to get on the ride to maybe get a better view of what was happening.

On our way out we saw this group of guys dressed up the British flag suits and we were like we should get a picture with them because we loved the outfits. Not knowing, but they were actually the current winners of the British X-factor. When we figured that out, we were so mad that we didn't just go and get a picture with them when we could have.

After all that, I was thoroughly spent, but we decided to take the scenic walk home and wanted to take some pictures of London at night.

I was trying to get a picture with a red bus going by, so I had Gilly let me know when a bus was coming. Turned out this young couple wanted to photo bomb my photo. I was too busy focusing on the bus and everything else, but apparently they literally stopped when I was talking the picture.

Day 5
We walked to go see the changing of the guard which was going to be at 11:30 (if I recall correctly). If we were going to walk there we had to get an early start. We ate our ever so lovely free breakfast at the hostel with our roommates. One was from Canada, one was from Australia, and the other was from Germany.

Since our hostel was close to the Tower of London, we decided it was a good idea to get it out of the way. We headed that direction and boom! All of a sudden, men in suits. Our roommates had told us they loved London because there were so many men in suits. And up until then we had seen a few, but not tons. Since us being both close to Boston, we kept on comparing London to Boston. It had a similar kind of feel.

We originally thought we were going to just walk by the Tower of London, but we thought there was too much information that could be learned from doing a tour. We decided that it was worth paying to do to a tour and not see the changing of the guards. It was an incredible tour with lots of information. Every corner you turned around there was another exhibit. We even got to see the crown jewels which were beautiful. After spending 3 hours at the Tower of London, my feet were starting to hurt again. All I wanted to do was sit down, but the sightseeing must go on.

View from the Tower of London

Gilly is a huge Shakespeare fan seeing how she is an English major, so we ventured toward the Globe. We wanted to see the inside of it, so we did a tour of it. Before going in we got to walk around the exhibit which had a lot of interesting information about that time period.

After all that walking, we weren't really up to going out seeing how we both wanted to pass out. It had been an exhausting last couple of days. We headed back to the hostel to get a little bit of rest, but not too long. We heard about the Winter Carnival in Hyde Park which was supposed to be a must do thing. This was the second time and last time that we took the metro. Winter Carnival was like a giant state fair except with a lot of other added additions like there were some bars and most importantly an ice skating rink. Both of us growing up staking, we really wanted to do it, but it was kind of expensive. We walked to see the skating area and after seeing it we just had to do it. It was one of the most beautiful skating area with tons of lights strung up. They also had a live singer perform in the middle singing Christmas songs.

London was an incredible city and when I get the chance I would absolutely in a heart beat go back. There was so many things I didn't get to see and the atmosphere is something I enjoyed. Unfortunately and sadly this was my last trip for studying abroad. It was time to get into study mode and start studying from my finals. There was only 2 weeks left and the adventure was coming to an end.