Ein Bier Bitte

Well we survived Oktoberfest and made it home safely and ahead of schedule.  It was a weekend to remember, and a weekend I am still trying to recover on sleep from.  We left the manor Thursday night after dinner to catch our train by 6:45.  The train ride was pretty smooth, we had to get off in Peterborough and change trains but the whole trip only took us about two hours.  We had to spend the night in the Stansted Airport because our flight left at 7:00 AM and there aren't trains to get there that early.  The airport was a lot bigger than we thought and it wasn't too miserable to sleep there.  We spent a majority of our night in the seating area for Burger King.  They had pretty comfy chairs and a TV on so we just camped out there.  At about midnight we decided we should get some sleep.  By this time, hundreds of people are already sleeping all around the airport and the only place left for us is the cold tile floor.  We had no blankets or pillows so it was pretty interesting.  A couple hours later we woke up freezing so we got up and moved to the back of the airport away from the doors.  Around 3:30 AM they open the security gates and we could go through to the other side.  We were one of the first ones through so we were able to grab some benches and get a couple more hours of sleep.  At 6:00 AM we decided we should try to find our gate, but it wasn't listed on the screens yet - it just said wait in lobby.  So we went to the bathroom and when we came out checked it again.  It said gate 43 - now boarding.  Needless to say we booked it to our gate, but we got there in time and we weren't the only ones that were out of breath.

From there we flew to Memmingen Airport in Germany.  We then had to get on a coach bus that took us to the Munich train station.  From there we had to get tram tickets and hop on a tram to get to our hostel which was a little bit outside of the city.  It took us a while to get around a city that speaks German, but we did it.  After we got to our hostel at about 3 in the afternoon, we were so tired.  Our hostel was cheap, but it literally was a huge tent.  There were hundreds of bunk beds in the same room - I guess you get what you pay for.  After we checked in, we decided to explore the city.  We walked around by our hostel and found a park that had some really neat buildings around it.  Eventually, we ended up going back to our hostel and getting some hot tea.  We spent the night at the hostel, they had kegs of beer and a bonfire.  We met a lot of cool people that were traveling Europe.

Saturday morning we got up and headed back to the Munich train station where I had planned to meet my German exchange student from high school, Franzi.  From there, her friends took us around Munich and then to the opening ceremonies of Oktoberfest.  The parade was pretty cool, and afterward we followed the end of the parade to the entrance of Oktoberfest.  The best way I can describe it is it was like a giant state fair.  There were thousands of people there I could hardly move at some points ( and the people aren't exactly "Minnesota nice" there). There were food and souvenir vendors everywhere.  The beer tents were enormous, and they had roller coasters and some other crazy rides (Not sure who came up with the idea of mixing large amounts of beer with roller coasters?)

Because it was the first day, we had no chance a getting a seat in a beer tent - which is okay because I probably saved myself a lot of money.  After we had had enough of Oktoberfest, Franzi and her friends brought us back to Ingolstadt - her home town.  It was about an hour train ride and a nice break for a short nap.  Back in Ingolstadt we went shopping and for a walk around the city.  We saw where Franzi goes to school, her church, and cute German side streets that we would have never gotten to see if we didn't have her.  After that, she took us to a fabulous German restaurant where we got to try some really good Bavarian food.  Candace, Veronica, and I each got something different and then we kept changing plates. 

After dinner we headed back to Franzi's house where we were very well taken care of.  We got to take nice warm showers - which were definitely needed.  They gave us some chocolate, and made sure we felt right at home.  We were so tired we went to bed at 10:00 PM.  We did have to get up at 3:45 AM for breakfast, then Franzi and her mom took us on the autobahn on the way back to the train station.  The coach bus left the train station at 6:15 AM to go back to Memmingen Airport.  Our flight left Memmingen at 9:40 AM and because of the time difference, we got back to Stansted at 10:00 AM.  From here we had to get back on a train to Grantham - not so simple.  Turns out there was construction on the train, so we had to go to the bus station, wait for a bus to go to Cambridge, get on a train to Peterborough, switch trains and finally get back to Grantham. 

Overall it was a fabulous weekend with a lot of traveling.  Now we know that we can conquer almost any form of transportation even in a country that speaks a different language.  Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Last night Candace and I got to go to our Meet-A-Family's house for a night.  Our family is a retired couple named Jen and John.  They are both from Grantham and two of their daughters live there too.  They have two grandchildren which we will get to meet later this semester.  We had tea, watched some TV and chatted about everything.  Then John made us a delicious Turkey dinner and one of the best desserts I've ever had.  Afterward, we played Mexican dominoes for a couple of hours and got home late last night.

After a crazy first three weeks here, we decided it would be best to spend this weekend at the Manor to catch up on sleep and homework.  John and Jen are taking full advantage of us being home for the weekend and are planning to take us to a flower festival in a nearby town on Sunday.  Other than that, there's not much going on this weekend.  Next weekend is our first long weekend, so Candace, Veronica and I are going to Madrid to soak up some warm weather.  Then my mom is coming to visit on October 6th!! Can't wait! :)

Kilts & Cashmere in Scotland

Well, I should probably get to updating this before I leave for my next weekend trip.  I meant to update it on Sunday night, but time just flies by here and it didn’t get done.  So, let me tell you about my trip to Scotland.

First of all, it was absolutely gorgeous!  A group of 12 of us left early Friday morning for the train station.  The train was interesting because some of us had assigned seats and some didn’t.  We weren’t quite sure what to do because some people were sitting in our assigned seats, so we just grabbed a group of empty seats.  After a few stops a bunch of us had been kicked out of our seats, so we ended up having to ask the people in our assigned seats to move.  The train ride there was about 3 hours long – not too bad, most of us just tried to sleep the whole way.  Once we got there, we set off to find our hostel.  About a ten minute walk and lots of stairs later, we made it to the Art Roch Hostel.  We were told that we couldn’t check in until 2:00 PM so we put our luggage in their storage room and took off for a couple hours to explore.  We got some food in a local pub and walked part of the Royal Mile.

When we were able to check into the hotel at 2 we headed up two flights of stairs to our 18 bunk bed room.  We put our stuff down and some people took naps while I went out with some friends to explore a little more.  We went to a small supermarket and got 3 bottles of wine for 10 pounds (hey we’re cheap college students).  For dinner, we headed to a local Mexican restaurant which had amazing food.  We ordered some margaritas and just relaxed after a long day of traveling.  The 12 of us racked up a pretty expensive bill and decided that we were going to make our own dinner in the hostel kitchen the next night.  Then we headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out for the night.  We went to the same pub that we had lunch in earlier.  There were a lot of men in kilts who attempted to teach us some Scottish dances to the music they were playing, it was pretty interesting.  Then we headed to a club down the street where they had karaoke, we put in a request but ended up leaving before they called our name. 

The next morning we got up and decided to climb a dormant volcano called Arthur’s Seat.  A couple of the girls were in flip flops, but all of us made it to the top in a little over an hour.  It was pretty windy but the views were amazing, the pictures hardly do it justice.  You could see for miles in every direction including the ocean.  We sat on the top of the hill for about 45 minutes just soaking it all in and holding on to the rock so we didn’t blow away.  On the way back down we took a different route and found a pond full of swans and ducks; which we were able to feed bread crumbs for a while. 

After making it down to the bottom of the mountain, we headed to the grocery store to buy spaghetti ingredients for our home made dinner.  We stayed in this amazing hostel that had a “chill” room with a large kitchen that we were able to use.  The six boys that we were with decided to make dinner for all the girls – which was a nice treat.  The food was amazing, and better yet only cost us 3 pounds per person.  We continued to hang out in the chill room after dinner and had a couple drinks before we went out for the night.  The workers of the hostel led a pub crawl to three different pubs around Edinburgh. 

The next morning we had to get up early and check out by 10:00 AM.  We put our luggage in the storage room again and set out to find some breakfast.  After breakfast we went to a whiskey distillery tour which was pretty interesting.  At the end we were able to try a dram of whiskey, which for some of us didn’t go down so well.  After the tour we decided to split up into smaller groups.  Candace, Veronica and I decided what better to do than to shop!  We walked all over and pretty much spent the whole day shopping and people watching (there are some interesting characters in Edinburgh).  With about an hour to go before our train left we all met back at the hostel and headed to the train station together.  The train ride home took about 4 hours because they were doing some maintenance on the tracks.  With about 30 minutes left to Grantham, a bunch of drunken 40 year old men came on and were pretty entertaining.  They were singing songs and talking to us about America.  We got so distracted we almost missed our stop at Grantham, but we all made it back to the manor by 11:00 PM.

We took a British Studies field trip yesterday to Lincoln.  It was neat to see the buildings and locations of everything we are currently learning about in our history class.  The best part about the field trip was that I was able to light a candle at the cathedral for my uncle who passed away earlier this week.  The funeral is today, so my family is definitely on my mind on such a tough day.  

We leave for Germany tonight for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich.  I'll try to update this again on Sunday, but we all know how that goes. Until next time, love you all.

London Bridge is Falling Down.

As I sit here in my dorm room finishing up some last minute Sunday night homework, it’s hard to remember that I am in England.  However, all I have to do is lok up at the gorgeous designs on the ceiling to remember that I am living in a ridiculously large castle.  Every time I walk from one place to another, I feel like I take a different route.  My friends and I have also found numerous “secret passages” in which the doors are decorated so much like the wall, you don’t even notice them.  Although the food is actually pretty terorible, I have no complaints.  All of my classes are in amazing rooms that I’m sure would have incredible stories to tell – If only walls could talk.  Basically, I am still in awe of the manor I live at, and I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet that when I come home from a weekend trip, my new “home” is something I could have only imagined in my dreams.

Speaking of weekend trips, we just got back from London.  This was one of the trips hosted by Harlaxton so about 120 students and a lot of the faculty packed onto three different buses and headed to London on Thursday night after dinner.  It took us about 2.5 hours to get there by bus (it’s only a 45 minute train ride) because they don’t really have freeways here.  There are two lanes going each way but people can come on from crossing roads and of course there’s the occasional roundabout.  

I have never seen a city like London.  I don’t know how else to describe it, but the word fascinating comes to mind.  I really can’t explain London because words don’t quite do it justice.  I don’t even think a picture would do this city justice – you just have to see it.  The hustle bustle city life consists of narrow lanes, small cars, people on bikes, people walking everywhere, tube stations, little shops below apartment buildings, old buildings next to new buildings, and of course all the tourist sites.  By the time we got off the bus we were pretty excited to hit the town and explore.  We dropped off our stuff and a group of about 8 of us left to go find a local pub.  We ended up walking a lot further than expected but finally we found a club called the verve that looked like we could just sit down and enjoy ourselves.  We found out as soon as we tried to get in that there was a three pound cover, so being the cheap college students that we are, we decided to leave.  Across the street was a pub so we headed over there, found a table and were about to sit down when a waiter told us that they were closing in 10 minutes.  As we were leaving the host at the front of the store mentioned that he could get us into the club across the street for free.  So we go back to the verve and he gets on his radio – and we walked in like VIP.  We found a big table in the back and just got to know each other and had a few drinks.  Getting home was interesting because we had walked so far to get there, but we made it no problem.

The next morning Candace and I got up for a tour of the Tower of London.  After a mishap of getting on the wrong train at the tube station we got to the tour 15 minutes late and our group was still standing outside – so thankfully we didn’t miss it.  Our tour guide gave us a lot of information about the tower that pertained to what we are currently studying in British Studies, so that was nice.  We then had an hour to walk around the buildings; we saw all of the crown jewels, the bloody tower where Prince Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, were murdered, and a lot of suits of armor that the royalty used to wear.  The plan was to meet up with some other friends at noon but we never found each other (I don’t know how people ever lived without cell phones) so we decided to take off and walk around other parts of London on our own.

 
We saw just about every tourist thing there is to see in London.  We took the tube to Westminster and saw the London Eye and Big Ben.  We walked along the river and saw the Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and St. Paul’s Cathedral.  We were pretty much dead tired from walking so far but regained a burst of energy when we got off the tube in the Soho District.  It was full of places to shop everywhere.  The first store we walked in had five levels, and that alone wore us out so we went back to the hotel.  Friday night a group of us did a pub crawl through London.  We got into 4 pubs/clubs for free and a drink at each – all for 10 pounds.  It was a pretty fun night.

Saturday morning we got up early to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  There were so many people there we really couldn’t see much of anything.  So we decided we’ll get there much earlier on our next trip to London.  We then took a walk by Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Tate Britain .  Later we took the tube up to Camden Town where they had a ton of street vendors and some really cute clothes.  The guys that were traveling with us were not thrilled about shopping, so we decided to save that for another trip as well.  Saturday night we took it easy and stayed close to the hotel because all of our legs ached from walking so much over the weekend.  We got some pizza and the best bruchetta I have ever had at a local pizza place, and then headed back to the hotel for an early night.

This morning our buses left at 10:00 AM and headed towards Hampton Court Palace.  We spent a good four hours there looking around, watching short videos, and live skits.  It is amazing to walk through a place that has so much history.  The ceilings were all painted with gorgeous murals and many gigantic tapestries were hung on the walls.  Again, there are no words to describe it – you just have to see it.

All in all, it was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had.  It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I am actually living in England, but I’m sure it will soon.  Next weekend we leave for Edinburgh, Scotland at 7:30 AM Friday morning for another weekend adventure.  Until then, I have to get through this week and actually do some homework.  Work hard, play hard.  Right?

Love and miss you all!