Travel Week Part 2: The Lake District and Ambleside

After our time in Scotland, we left to the Lake District. This was where a lot of famous british writers and artists lived (Like John Ruskin, and William Wordsworth). I really enjoyed the coach ride there because everything I saw out of the windows was absolutely gorgeous! As if things could get any prettier here, but they totally did. It was crazy! When we got to our hostel (which was right by the lake and town...awesome!) we immediately dropped off our stuff and headed on a hike. A big group of us hiked a trail up to this beautiful viewpoint that overlooked the lake and all the green below. It looked like this:



Insanely beautiful right?! This place was like a dream. The hike was sooo fun! At one point three of us split from the group and hiked up a trail called Selwick's Scar. We though it sounded promising because it had and awesome name, haha. It was pretty awesome! We found these old ruins on top of a hill, and this awesome bench by a stream that overlooked green fields, the lake, and gorgeous scenery below. We sat there for an hour just talking. Loved it!



The rest of the day was pretty relaxing: dinner at the hostel cafe, magnum bars, sketching by the lake, and writing in my journal before bed. Funny story, I was in my hostel room writing in my journal when I heard someone in the hallway that sounded worried. They kept repeating the same thing over and over. I asked one of the girls in my room what it was and she responded, "crazy people...", haha. I decided to go check it out and it ended up being this cute old lady that must have had dementia. She was all alone in the hall yelling for her son Barry, over and over again. She was so confused as to where she was and what was going on. She was soo sweet. I tried to calm her down while some random guy went to go get her son. So happy I could help her out, she was seriously so adorable! I have decided the Lake District is one of my new FAVORITE places. It is like the ultimate hiking, camping, boating dream destination. :)

The next day we went to the cemetery where William Wordsworth was buried. We then visited his first home Dove Cottage. It was really cute and quaint. I loved the gardens there. It was here that he wrote his best poetry. After that we took a long hike through the country to his next home Rydal Mount (the one he bought when he became more wealthy). This home was much larger, and had larger grounds! I loved it here as well. After that we loaded on the coach to head to John Ruskin's home. We were dropped off pretty far from the house, and had to walk through tons of rain (AWESOME), pastures with cows (tons of the girls thought the cows were angry and would charge at us...ha), hills with rolling grasses, over streams, in lots of mud, through many gates, through peoples land, and on streets. Seriously one of the most epic hikes/walks ever. We sang Barbara Streisand songs as we walked...why? I don't know, but it was so fun! When we got there the rain stopped a bit and we were able to wander. The grounds were huge! We hiked some different paths, saw a cave in the mountain that they used as a fridge, toured the home, and hung out on the pier by the gardens. Totally wish my sister Cami could have been there, cause he had some pretty flowers there that I am sure she would have LOVED to take pictures of! ;) Fun stuff! Of course when it came time to leave it started pouring rain and we got to go back just the way we came. This is what I wrote in my journal about it, "We started our hike back! It was raining soo hard! The ground was super muddy, and some people didn't even have umbrellas. My shoes, backpack, pant legs, and left arm were soaked! We got muddy and dirty but I loved it all. I was so exciting to just have a mass group of us all walking with umbrellas through green pastures, cows, and gates to get back to the bus." We all reached the coaches soaking wet. It was an experience I will never forget! What an adventure. :)







On the way back to the hostel we got stuck on the tiny winding roads in our huge coach. We had to let this moving truck get past. Our Polish driver Ray was so skilled though, he got us past them with like two inches between us, seriously. It was pretty crazy!

The next morning before we left we hung out on the pier, got blueberry scones from this little cafe by the lake where the owner teased me about being from Vegas...he swore he knew Tony Bennett...right! He was soo funny though. Then we walked into town and explored the shops! After that it was back in the coach to go home. I was super sad to go. I really I LOVED Ambleside! I really hope I can go back someday! It was just so beautiful and quiet which was a nice break from busy London life. I now know why all these famous writers and artists lived there!

Travel Week Part 1: York and Scotland!

The Saturday before we all left for Scotland, we woke up early that morning to try to get Les Mis tickets. They didn't have any, so we decided to get Pygmalion tickets instead. After visiting the National Portrait Gallery which I absolutely LOVED- I love seeing what famous people in history looked like, so fun- we walked around all over the place, so by the time we got to the play, we were all kind of tired. We ended up getting front row seats to the play, because they were super cheap. Right when the play started I could see my friend Natalie falling asleep besides me. I felt like she wanted to sleep, so I didn't nudge her awake or anything. It was so funny though cause Rupert Everett was totally staring her down, haha! Even after she woke up, he was staring her down. Me and this kid Ramsey totally noticed and so after the play we brought it up. She said he was totally giving her a "you jerk" look the rest of the play after she woke up. I don't think it helped his ego to see someone asleep during his performance. It was a really good play though! I liked it's ending way more than the ending of My Fair Lady, which was based off of Pygmalion. Later that day I went to this Belgian Patisserie and got a waffle with white chocolate and caramel bits on top. Seriously, waffles are my new favorite dessert. They are so good here!

On the 4th of July we all packed up in a coach and headed to Scotland. One of the first things we did on the bus was sing the Star Spangled Banner. It was so fun! Our first stop on the way was a little town called York. We went to see a huge cathedral called the York Minster. They happened to be having a funeral that day, so we got in for free. I really liked this cathedral because it was a lot less gaudy than Westminster. At one point I just sat in a chair and took it all in. A bit after I sat down the funeral procession started to leave the church and the organ started to play. And man, that organ was AMAZING! The music was so powerful and loud! It was pretty great. I think the organ music was one of my favorite parts of York Minster. After that we went on a walk to a place called the Bromley House. It was a home that was turned into a little museum because it had survived since Medieval times. It was made up to look like it did back then. It was fun to see how the home was run, and what life was like for people of that time period. One of my favorite sections of the house, was an area that contained wardrobe items of characters from famous British history films. They had costumes that Colin Firth (Darcy) and Jennifer Ehle (Lizzy) wore in Pride and Prejudice, as well as costumes that Colin Firth (Bertie) and Helena Bonham Carter (his wife) wore in the King's Speech, plus many more.

After visiting Bromley House we walked around town and explored the Shambles (which used to be a really crummy part of York: that is why people say things like, "The economy is in shambles"). It was sooo neat! Walking around York was like being transported back to Medieval times. Unlike London, York had not been burned to the ground, so a lot of old stuff still exists there. The buildings were right next to each other and jutted out over your head. It was really fun to see buildings today that existed so long ago. We went into some cool candy shops, book shops, and pubs. It was really great!

After that we went back to the York Minster for "Evensong" which is a Catholic service where a choir sings. It was really really fun because I got to hear the organ again, and sit up near the choir. It was really neat to be sitting there listening to the beautiful choir, with lit candles all around me, in this really old and beautiful cathedral. It was pretty cool! They were a REALLY good choir too! And I got to experience a Catholic service, which is something I had never done before. After watching the "Evensong" performance we walked along an old Roman wall and then sketched (for our art class) in a park. York was sooo adorable! I absolutely loved it!

Tuesday morning we got back in the coach and headed off to Edinborough (when pronounced it kind of sounds like ed-in-bud-uh) in Scotland. After we got to our hostel and ditched our stuff, we headed off to hike Arthur's seat. Arthur's Seat is the tip of a mountain in Edinborough that is associated with the Arthurian legend, and gives you an awesome view of the city. As we were walking to the mountain we passed Hollyroodhouse which is the Queen's official residence in Scotland. She was actually having a garden party that night, so we got to see all these posh people walking in to the palace. The hike was really fun! It was so green! It is pretty amazing here, because there is grass everywhere, like everywhere. And it isn't crazy tall grass, but short trimmed grass, so everything looks so neat and pretty. It was really windy on top but it was so cool. We could see Hollyroodhouse and all the people at the garden party, Edinborough castle, and tons of other cool sites. After that we all met by this cool cathedral for a Ghost Tour. We had this awesome female Scottish tour guide that was really theatrical which made the tour a lot more fun. We went down into these catacombs under the city that used to be used by certain businesses, and were used for things like wine storage. It was awesome. After that we went to this little supermarket to get some snacks. We ended up striking up a conversation with the owner, a guy named Graham. After talking to him for a bit, we told him we were Mormon. He must have liked us, cause he pulled out a photo book and showed us tons of pictures of his family, and then he ended up giving us free sodas. He was a really cool dude.

On Wednesday we woke up early and headed off to Edinborough Castle. We got headsets, which had cool Scottish people narrating with bagpipe music going on in the background. That totally helped create the atmosphere. It was fun. The castle was pretty big, so I totally did not even see everything. I did really like seeing the huge canons that they used in war, the little dog cemetery (yes, British people love their dogs that much, St. Margaret's Chapel, the Royal jewels, the stone of destiny, the soldiers memorial, and the prisoner barracks. I especially loved seeing these old wooden prison doors that had graffiti on them. These prisoners would write their names, draw their ships, or write bad things about their captors. It was really neat. We even got pictures with this cool Scottish guardsman named Greg. He was super nice, and all the girls fell in love with him! They are silly. Right after the castle visit, we went to the National Gallery. I saw paintings by Raphael and Botticelli, and tons of other famous artists. I really enjoyed it! For lunch we randomly found this really cool cafe down this alley, and it had awesome cheap food. Everything comes small here portion wise, so we were all impressed with this place because it gave American sized portions, haha. I got a toastie (pretty much a grilled cheese) and chips (fries). After that we all walked down into these beautiful gardens and found a nice little table to sit and eat our lunches. We were sitting right under the cliffs that housed the castle on top, a cute little carousel, and an awesome children's play park (which was so much cooler than any playgrounds I have ever seen before).After that we got dessert at this place called "Chocolate Soup", and then visited the bathrooms at the Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling would go write Harry Potter! The bathroom was like a little shrine to Harry Potter. It had writing all over the walls and pictures of Harry Potter characters glued to the toilet seat. I loved it! Next on the agenda was a walk up to some Roman ruins, and an old cemetery. That was really fun! And last on our agenda for the night was to get some haggis! I actually tried haggis, I was so proud of myself. And it really wasn't bad at all. I ate it with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes). The flavor was pretty good, it was just the texture that wasn't too fun.

Overall I really liked Scotland, but not as much as York. It had a different feel and atmosphere than both London and York, but I never could put my finger to what that was. One thing I noticed was that it seemed a little darker and dirtier than both London and York. I also noticed that it did not have as much of a melting pot of people as in London. All the people there were just Scottish, which is totally great! I heard accents so much, I totally had my Scottish accent down by the time I left! That was fun. It was pretty great seeing kilts and plaid tartans all around too. I learned on this trip that argyle is a specific Scottish clan's tartan, which I did not even know before. Love argyle!

Wimbledon success!

Can I just say I LOVE London! It is just so fun, and I am with an amazing group of people which just makes it that much better. :) So....at the beginning of the week a group of us took a walk down the Thames around sunset. I love taking walks here because there is just so much to see. It was absolutely beautiful! There is a bridge that goes across the river that we just sat at forever, talking and taking pictures as we looked at the London Eye, and Big Ben all lit up. I absolutely LOVED it! We even talked to the locals a bit. There was this one guy that talked to us for like fifteen minutes all about American television shows haha. He mainly talked to us about shows that he likes to watch and how he thinks the CSI and Spiderman franchises have been kept going too long... funny guy.

I am learning sooo much here too, its great! I was able to go to the London Museum with our whole group, and learn all about the Romans in London, the Black Plague, the great fire, and London in WWII. It was really neat seeing all of the old artifacts, paintings, and relics that they have collected over the years. That night we all went to the Old Victoria theater and watched "Richard III" with Kevin Spacey. I liked it, but it seemed extremely LONG to me. I appreciated the wonderful Shakespearean script, but I had a hard time enjoying the story. It was funny in parts, mainly it was just really sad! At certain intervals of the play I found myself singing Phantom, Les Mis, and....Disney Pocahontas songs oddly enough, haha. I want to see a musical, bad! Things are always pretty exciting around us though....We had a little incident there where a British woman yelled at one of the girls in our group for sitting in her seat accidentally. This woman was MEAN....haha. Everything turned out to be alright though, after turning over the seat to the unhappy and mean British lady. One thing I really did like about the play was that it was a really great way to help me remember the history of the monarchy...which can be pretty confusing.

My favorite part of this trip so far was going to WIMBLEDON!!! I absolutely loved it. After going to the National Gallery- which was sooo neat- we took the tube to Southfields. As we waited in line we listened to British commentators on loudspeakers give us play by plays of the Murray vs. Fish (who I was of course rooting for), and Nadal vs. Lopez matches. Unfortunately the grounds were full of British people watching the Murray/Fish match (they worship Murray here, which is expected) so we had to wait until it was over until we could get in! But we totally got in, and it only cost us eight pounds which was just an added bonus! When we got our bags checked before we went into the grounds, one of the security people asked us about BYU, and asked if we were the Mormon University. I thought that was really cool that he recognized us and knew who we were!

Right when we got in we decided to try to get into center court for a men's doubles match, so we waited in the stairwell as people came down, and then asked them if we could have their tickets. Yeah, we were kind of mooching. It was super exciting as each of us got our tickets from all the really nice British people we asked. We all were jumping up and down and high fiving each other, haha. Once we all got our tickets, we went in and sat together. The doubles match that was going on was super chill. They were really great players and we all just loved soaking in the environment, oo-ing and aw-ing with the crowd, clapping, watching the ball hoppers run, the line judges make calls, taking pictures, and just watching some AWESOME tennis! Absolutely loved it! We saw that there was a women's doubles match going on with Hingis and Davenport so we decided to leave the center court doubles match after a set or two, to go see them, but right when we got there, they won match point. So, we decided to fill our empty stomachs and get some strawberries and creme. Man, were they good! I heard that they pick their strawberries fresh every day...haha, not sure if that is true, but they definitely tasted fresh and delicious. YUM!! Such a classic. :) After looking around in the Wimbledon store, we watched two smaller matches. One was a co-ed doubles match, and the other a boy's junior match- which was really cool to watch. It seriously was such an amazing day! I could not stop smiling while I was there. Ah, Wimbledon.

On Thursday I went with a group to this cool restaurant called Nando's, this place known for their spicy chicken. I got a chicken burger, and it was pretty good! After that we left to Royal Festival Hall to see the Philharmonic Orchestra Play. They were absolutely AMAZING! They played Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, and Rachmaninov. It was so relaxing, and beautiful! It made me wish I could come see them play some scores that I really love from movies like The Young Victoria, Cinderella Man, Snow Falling on Cedars, and The Painted Veil.

Yesterday we all went to the Tower of London. It was really really cool. One of the first things we did was take a tour of the royal jewels. It was insane. In the jewel chambers they had this scepter that holds the largest known diamond in the world- around 530 carats. The crowns and rings were so extravagant. All the diamonds on the jewelry were extremely brilliant! It was way fun to see. After that we decided to tag along with a huge group in order to get a Beef-eater tour (what they call the tour guides). Our guy was hilarious! He took us to see the private execution area in the Towers. It was really sad and chilling to hear him talk about the execution of the six different people that were killed there, like Anne Boleyn, and Protestant Lady Jane Grey and her husband. :( Pour Lady Jane Grey was only sixteen when she was killed, and because she lived in an apartment in the square near where they performed the private executions, she saw her husband killed, and her own scaffolds being prepared for her. All of the stories I heard made me thankful I live in the time I do.

After seeing the private execution area, we got to go inside a really really old church on the grounds (where those killed were buried), restored in the Tudor style by Queen Victoria. After that we toured the White Hall, which was built by the Norman (or French) William the conqueror around 1026. It was the oldest building in the complex and had this super cute chapel called St. John's chapel that was just really beautiful. We saw old weapons, cannons, royal outfits-haha, and armour. It was really neat. We also toured the different towers around the exterior of the complex, where they housed prisoners. These prisoners (a lot of Catholic and Jewish missionaries and offenders of the king etc) made inscriptions on the walls that included their names, scriptures, and other information. I thought it was really neat reading the plaques that described these inscriptions because they made me recognize the reality of the place I was in, what the prisoners that were there went through, and what life was like for them. I really wished we had more time to spend at the Tower of London, but we had to leave in order to head to our next destination, the Tate Modern.

On our way to the Tate, we went over the London Bridge, and towards Borough Market, this wonderful market that has tons of food stalls with all kinds of stuff: sausage, fresh pasta, Turkish delights, desserts, steak sandwiches, smoothies, meat pies, fish, and cheeses....they had sooo much food there! I got gnocchi with a pesto sauce and parmesan cheese from this awesome Italian vendor. It is really neat to order a specific type of food, like Indian, Italian, etc. and actually get it from a real Indian, Italian person. We have legit food here, haha. As we continued on from Borough Market, we came to the Tate Modern. At first all the art I saw just seemed really pointless to me, because I could not appreciate it. The galleries were filled with crazy pieces of art, that seemed either disturbing or weird to me (like a HUGE pile of thousands of hand made sunflower seeds, or a exhibit with piles of clay that looked like poo). I made fun of/ran away from most of what I saw until I was able to tag along with my art professor Peter, who explained the paintings and art to me, which made things a lot easier to understand and comprehend. I think my favorite piece of art there was a painting by Monet. :)

After the Tate we walked across the Millenium Bridge- Yay for Harry Potter- in order to get back home in time for a lecture from this Scottish professor. She had some stuff to tell us about Scotland, in order to prepare us for our journeys there next week! :) Fun stuff! Until next time!