Mum Visits England!

I haven't posted for two weeks now because my mom has been here the last two weekends and I thought that I would wait and post them together.  My mom and her friend Toni got into London on the morning of Thursday, October 7th.  Candace, Veronica, and I decided to go down that night after classes on the train.  It was a pretty easy train ride, there are lots of trains that go from Grantham to London King's Cross pretty quickly.  When we got there, my mom and Toni were waiting for us at a local pub, each with a glass of wine in their hands.  We brought our stuff up the five flights of stairs to the flat they were renting for the weekend and then joined them down the street at the pub.  Later that night we decided to explore a little bit.  We walked around our area and went to a local food store where we got some breakfast food and some more wine for the next day.  My mom and Toni were pretty tired from their travels so after that, we went back to the flat and went to bed.  

Friday morning we got up early enough to see the changing of the guard.  We went a couple hours early to guarantee a good spot, and we sat there until the changing had almost started, when a police officer told everyone to get down off of the wall we were sitting on.  We quickly made our way up to the front of the crowd and managed to get a decent view, but I still wish we could have stayed where we were sitting all morning.  After that we decided to go get some lunch at a local Italian restaurant, which was very good.  Then we went to the Apollo theater (where Wicked performs) to see if we could get tickets for that nights show.  Turns out they had 60 pound tickets, but we could get a student discount and only pay 25.  We of course bought those right away!  We then headed north to Camden Town to do some quick shopping before we had to go home to get ready for the show.  Wicked was absolutely amazing and I am so glad that I was able to go.  After Wicked we searched for a place that was still open for dinner.  Not many places were still serving food, but we finally found this Mexican restaurant that was still serving food for the next 10 minutes, so we quick grabbed a table and ordered food.

Saturday morning we got up and planned to have a nice big breakfast.  Turns out we were a little late and no places were still serving breakfast food, so we just had lunch.  We spent the afternoon at the National Gallery which was pretty cool to see.  Then we went home and got ready for dinner.  There was a little restaurant by our flat that we had been wanting to eat at since the first day, but it was always too busy.  They don't take reservations so we had to quick grab a table as people were leaving - which we did.  The service was terrible, but the food was very good.  We called it an early night so that we would be rested up for the next day.

Sunday morning we got up and went to a church service at the Westminster Abbey.  It was neat to see the inside of the church and to see how they perform their services every week.  After that we headed back to our flat to move out and go to the next flat that my mom would be staying at during the week I was in school.  It was a little difficult for five people with lots of luggage to go from one station to another on the London Underground, but we eventually made it to the new place and dropped off our stuff.  We headed out to go shopping and came back with food to cook the moms a meal.  We made noodles and vegetables in an olive oil sauce and it was delicious.  After dinner, Veronica, Candace, and I had to leave to get to our train in time.  We got on our train and back to the manor by 11:00 PM.

 I had school Monday-Thursday so my mom and Toni stayed in London to explore the area some more.  On Thursday, they came to the manor for another weekend together.  They rented a car so we were able to go into town; and Candace and I took them to the The Goose for dinner.  The Goose is normally where all the students go to when they go to Grantham.  They have cheap food and drinks that still taste really good.  After that we headed home for the night.  In the morning they picked us up and we began our trip to the Cotswolds.  The English roads are very different than we are used to, so we got lost and honked at a couple times, but we made it to our cottage safe and sound.  

Our cottage was adorable and very homey, it had a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and two baths.  We dropped our stuff off and headed to the closest town to get some wine and food.  Back at the cottage, we drank some wine, snacked on some food and went to bed.  The next morning we got up early to drive down to Stonehenge (about 2 hours).  We didn't get lost hardly at all on the way there and it was really neat to be able to walk around Stonehenge and hear the history.  We headed home after we were done and stopped at a small cafe on the way home for lunch.  Then we stopped in Stratford-Upon-Avon and toured Shakespeare's birth place and Anne Hathaway's Cottage.  For dinner, we bought some ravioli at the store and just made it back in our kitchen.  We are reading North and South for class, so we also decided to watch the 4 hour movie on Saturday night, and then we went to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and went back to Stratford-Upon-Avon to tour the rest of Shakespeare's houses included in the tour and of course, we got some shopping in.  At 1:00 PM we headed home to Grantham to have dinner with my meet-a-family.  We had an excellent meal and were in good company.  That night, we had to say goodbye as Toni and my mom were leaving early the next morning to head back to London.  It was a fun two weeks and I'm so lucky that my mom was able to come out and visit me. 

This weekend, we are just staying at the manor and catching up on some homework before we go to Amsterdam next weekend!  Until next time, Cheers!

Mi Amor Madrid

Well we just got back from Madrid on Sunday, so it's about time to update this blog.  Everyone at our school has to take the same British studies class and we had our first essay exam last Wednesday. I thought it went pretty well, but I guess we'll see when we get our scores back next week.  Due to the test, we did not have school on Thursday or Friday, so a lot of students took off to different places for the long weekend.

Candace, Veronica and I decided to go to Madrid, Spain to soak up some sun.  Overall, it was a fabulous weekend and we wish we could have stayed longer.  However, we did get off to somewhat of a rough start.  Earlier in the week we heard that there were strikes at the Spanish Airports that were scheduled to start on Wednesday, September 29th.  Some of our friends had their flights canceled so we were on edge all week hoping that we would get to go.  We were supposed to leave for the airport on Wednesday night after dinner and so far our plane was scheduled to take off.  As we were leaving the manor in the taxi, Candace realized that she had forgotten her passport so we had to turn around quick and get it (at least she realized then that she didn't have it and not at the airport..) We got to the train station with a couple minutes to spare and got on the next train towards London King's Cross.  We were supposed to get off in Peterburgh (the next stop) and get on another train straight to Stansted Airport.  Unfortunately, we got on the wrong train and it was not stopping in Peterburgh like we needed.  Oops.  So when the train conductor came and asked for our tickets, we obviously didn't have the right tickets.  We explained what happened and he printed us out a new itinerary so that we would be able to get to Stansted in time.  We had a lot of train changes, took the London tube for a short time, and eventually got to the airport only 10 minutes after we were originally scheduled to be there.

We spent the night at the airport and left for Spain in the morning.  Our plane was delayed a couple hours, but we ended up getting to Madrid around 3:00 PM.  We bought a weekend pass for the Metro and took that to our hostel.  Then we took off to explore the city.  The night life in Madrid is fascinating and we had a great time enjoying the nice weather and watching the sunset on the city.  We turned in early to our hostel since we were pretty tired from not getting much sleep the night before.

Friday we woke up at 9 and got our free breakfast from the Hostel.  Then it was shopping time.  We spent a couple hours shopping and found some really good deals on clothes.  At 2:00 PM some of the stores closed so we decided to go back to our hostel and tan for a little bit.  Our hostel had a rooftop patio so we were able to lay up there for a couple hours and soak up the sun.  Friday night we met up with a friend of a friend who lives in Madrid.  He took us to a park that overlooked all of Madrid and we watched the sun set on the city, it was gorgeous!  Then he took us back to his house and we made dinner and met his parents.  Later that night we went to a club called stardust.  We stayed out almost all night and managed to make it back to our beds by 6 AM (I guess that's why they need  a siesta in the afternoon).  

Saturday we woke up after four hours of sleep to get our breakfast and then we went back to sleep.  At 1 PM we moved up to the rooftop again and tanned for a couple more hours.  We finally left the hostel around 6 PM on Saturday and did some more sightseeing and shopping.  After a while we met up with our friend, Javier, again.  He brought us to a typical Spanish restaurant where we had Tapas.  We tried pigs ear and potatoes with a special sauce.  Needless to say, I mostly ate the potatoes.  We called it a night by midnight so we could get some sleep before our early flight home on Sunday.

Sunday morning we caught a shuttle to the airport at 3:25 AM.  We waited at the airport for a while and our flight left at 6:40 AM.  We got back to Stansted airport and took the train back to Grantham in time for lunch on Sunday afternoon.  Overall it was a fabulous trip and it was nice to be in 80 degree weather for a couple days.  This week is already flying by and my mom is leaving tomorrow to come visit me!!  Candace, Veronica and I are going to London on Thursday night to spend the weekend with my mom and her girlfriend, Toni.  They rented a flat close the London eye so I'm sure we'll do some more sightseeing and shopping and I can't wait!

Until next time.. Cheers!