This is a little compilation video I put together from my semester in Europe:
Featuring:
Places:
Netherlands (Amsterdam, Giethoorn)
Sweden (Stockholm)
Switzerland (Lugano)
England (London)
France (Normandie)
Bands:
MGMT
Vampire Weekend
Modest Mouse
Stars
People:
…from all over the world!
This was my first time ever being in England, so naturally, the cars bugged me out a little. Sitting in the “passengers seat” on the left side of the car felt completely wrong. As the car started moving, I kept feeling like we were driving on the wrong side of the road and a car would surely hit us head on at any moment. While crossing the street, I would instinctively look in the wrong direction. Luckily, on the streets of London there are words and arrows painted on to the street saying “Look Left” or “Look Right.” Apparently it’s a problem for others as well.
It was so nice to see a friend from Vermont for the week. Lora is studying at Richmond University for a semester and was my roommate freshman year at Champlain College. While staying with her, I felt like I was home again. Her dorm was so cozy and it was so refreshing to be with a familiar person from home who I’m quite comfortable with. This week made me really excited for Christmas break and for the Spring semester at Champlain.
London is absolutely beautiful. I love the architecture all around the city and the people are lovely. I felt more at home in London than I have anywhere yet since I’ve been abroad. This is partially because of Lora and her cozy living quarters, but also because everyone speaks English! It’s so nice to walk into a grocery or convenience store and know exactly what you’re buying. I was able to get food in England that I can’t find anywhere in Holland. It’s a small detail, but a great reminder of home and being comfortable.
One sight I was really anxious to see while in London was Big Ben. This is the obvious tourist sight when visiting London, but it had to be done. One day while Lora was in class, I decided to go on a little solo excursion. This is when I saw the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. After that, I wandered over to the river where Big Ben and Parliament are located. While wandering around, I ran into a tour group. I decided to tag along for a bit and listen since I had nothing better to do. I recorded a blip of this tour group before they headed off to the direction I had just come from:
While I was in London, I felt like the sunlight and the air were generally better than that of Amsterdam. The lighting was that of a brisk, early morning, but it continued on all day. I had the best blue skies for the photos I took on the river. The air and lighting around me just set the mood for my entire week and kept me smiling.
I’m so glad I got to hear Big Ben chime while I was on the bridge over the river. It’s such a bold, triumphant chime. In fact, I tried to record a video of the chiming, but I only managed to catch the end. I then proceeded to trip over myself while turning, jostling the camera all over the place:
I always love roaming around a city by myself, but not in the middle of the night when I need to catch a flight. My flight left at 6AM on Thursday morning. I had to catch a bus at 3AM in order to get to the airport 2 hours early for check-in and all that. I got quite lost on the way to the bus. I wasn’t sure of its exact location, I just figured I’d find it somehow. I felt like I had been wandering around for ages and creepy drunk men were lurking on the streets. I decided to ask a taxi driver if he knew where the bus stop was. These taxi cabs are very old school; they don’t have GPS like the ones in Amsterdam but only a printed map. The driver tried to help me out, but really had no idea. He pointed me in one direction, completely guessing, and I followed it. I ended up missing my 3AM bus, but found the station around 3:30AM where another bus was heading to airport. I showed the driver my ticket, hoping that he wouldn’t see the “3:00 AM” printed at the top. He didn’t seem to notice, so I found a seat. Luckily, I got through check-in and security with no problems and made my flight. I even had time to spare.
I would go back to England in a second. I hope that someday I get to visit again and have a chance to see more of England and not just London.
Hamley’s Toy Store is by far the coolest toy store I have ever been to. It’s about 6 floors high and is comparable to FAO Schwarz in New York City. The employees clearly love their lives. They are all so outgoing, playing with kids all day and showing demonstrations of the toys. As I was walking past some employees playing with a Frisbee toy, one of them came up behind me with a fuzzy, purple puppet next to my head. It startled me, but I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I would absolutely love to work in a place like that.
In this video, the employers actually caught me video taping them, but didn’t seem to care:
Of course, the employees are required to sell toys and not just play all day. This doesn’t matter, they sell with much enthusiasm:
Visiting Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards was something I knew I needed to do in my lifetime. I had always wanted to visit London, and this seemed like the proper, touristy thing to do while I was there. I found out that the guards were out at 11:30 AM every other day in the fall. I was told to go 15 minutes early to find a good spot before flocks of tourists showed up. Unfortunately, I had some issues with the tube on my way over there and got quite lost so the “15 minutes early” didn’t exactly happen. I was actually 15 minutes late, and I absolutely could not find a spot to see anything. The photos and videos I took were on account of me struggling to lift my arms above all the other heads to get a decent shot. I don’t think I was terribly successful, especially for the videos.
Buckingham Palace was very beautiful and it was so nice to see such a traditional piece of England. The Royal Coat of Arms on the Palace gate is the English Lion and the Unicorn of Scotland. I find it funny that there is a unicorn on the coat of arms. Supposedly the Unicorn is chained up on the Coat of Arms as opposed to being free because unicorns were seen as viscous beasts.
It’s great that most of the museums in London are free! I was able to wander around from museum to museum and stay as long as I wanted without paying a cent. I visited the Victoria & Albert museum (this is where the V&A Library is located), the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum. I really enjoyed the Natural History Museum; the architecture was both inside and out was marvelous. It was also very cool to see some older English cars in the Science Museum. I would recommend visiting any of these three museums, as they are all right next to each other and it doesn’t cost anything.
The V&A Library in London is amazing. First of all, it’s absolutely beautiful. Second, it is so quiet and has a very prestigious, academic feel to it. Though I came to London on my week off to visit a friend, she is not quite in the same “laissez-faire” mindset as I am; she is actually in the midst of her midterms. However, this is great motivation for me to get some work done as well, not allowing myself to laze around for two weeks, totally forgetting about my courses. When I finish up here, I hope to check out the museums surrounding the library since they are all free. I have no specific plans while I’m here, so I suppose I’ll just see what this city has to offer and simply go with the flow. If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations regarding London, please feel free to leave a comment.
I’ve always wanted to go to England, and it’s finally happening! I’ll be flying out with my friend Kazzy (who happens to be from England). We will be spending some time in London doing whatever sounds appealing. I’ll be staying there for a week, most likely hopping around from place to place. My friend (and former roommate), Lora is studying abroad in London as well, so it will be very nice to visit and see a familiar face.
This time I used EasyJet instead of RyanAir to book the flights. It cost about $61 to fly to London and about $52 to fly back. For this price I was happy to use EasyJet, as they fly out of the airport in Amsterdam rather than Eindhoven, which is an hour train ride away. With RyanAir, though it is very cheap, does not fly out of Amsterdam. I’ll be flying out of Eindhoven when I go to Switzerland, but I have a feeling it will be a complete hassle.
