Top Three Moments

Top Three Moments
While I had a great time seeing the sights in Europe, the best moments weren't big monuments or tourist attractions, but simple moments with friends.  It was hard to narrow this list down to just three.

3)Shopping at Primark
Primark is a chain clothing store that we found in England. We stumbled into the one in Oxford after Stephanie said she heard they had good deals.  Man, did they ever.  Amie and I both went a little crazy, because everything was so beautiful and so cheap.  Of course, it was all priced in pounds, which means it is not as cheap as it looks (1 pound is approximately $1.60.)  We all split up, and Amie and I would pass each other with a crazy gleam in our eye and shout out where we had found the amazing things we were holding.  Stephanie and Daniel figured out rather quickly that it was best to just wait for us outside the dressing rooms, because we were both in and out of there quite a bit.  I ended up being restrained, though and only bought two scarves and my fabulous British-looking polka dot sunglasses (1 pound). (One of the scarves and the fabulous sunglasses can be seen in the picture at left).



2)The Eiffel Tower at Night
We had been to see the Eiffel Tower during the day, but Amie promised us that it was worth the Metro trip back to see it lit up and "twinkling" (it is lit up with yellowish lights and every hour on the hour it "twinkles.").  It was just a great adventure. We raced out of a restaurant to get there before the hour struck, only to realize it was four minutes to the hour, and we were on the other side of Paris.  We still made haste to the tower, though, and had a lot of laughs while we were waiting around for the twinkles.  I would have to say, they were worth the wait. (However, Amie wanted to wait another hour to see them twinkle again, and Daniel and I had to say no to that.)

1)Samuel Pepys Pub with Stephanie, Amie and Daniel
This was definitely the best evening of the whole trip.  The four of us headed over to the Samuel Pepys Pub, which is directly across the street from Stephanie's house.  It's hard to say what made it such a great time, except that it was a few hours spent in the company of wonderful friends with great, honest conversation. Each night thereafter the three of us travelers would recount our top event from the trip thus far, and this was always number one for me.

Top Three Stick Figure Signs

In both England and Paris, there was a proliferation of stick figure signs. They must have either a large volume of illiterates or foreigners to make it necessary to avoid written language in these messages. The only problem is the message they were trying to get across through the use of these signs was not always clear, which, in a way, defeated their very purpose.  In another way though, it gave us lots of amusement.

Anyway, each time we saw a new one, we would point it out and try to guess what it was saying.  Without further adieu, here are my Top Three Stick Figure Signs.

3) Real meaning: "Danger of Electrocution."

What we thought it meant: "Do the Electric Slide Here, Boogie Woogie Woogie!"

2) Real meaning: "Emergency Exit"
What we thought it meant: "Run Fast Through the Wall!"

This is mainly concerning the red square on the left.
1) Real meaning: "Press for Fire Alarm"
What we thought it meant: "Press button for instant flames!"

I don't know if you find this funny. I got a lot of laughs out of it, personally.

Top Three Harry Potter Sites

Top Three Harry Potter Sites

Stephanie knows nothing about Harry Potter. Daniel and I happen to like Harry Potter a whole lot, but Amie is almost over-the top in her HP love.  Being in England brought us into close proximity to all of the filming locations for the Harry Potter movies.  We visited a few and here are the best::

3) Christ Church College in Oxford provided interior locations for the castle corridors during the first two movies. Also, its still-used dining hall provided inspiration for Hogwarts' own Great Hall (and Winthrop's own McBryde Hall, coincidentally).  It definitely felt like we were in Hogwarts!

Here we climb the stairs to the great hall, just like the first years did in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

2) Divinity School at the Bodleian Library

If you take the tour at the Bodleian Library, your first stop is the former Divinity School lecture hall. It was here that students for hundreds of years defended themselves during exams.  It's also here that scenes were filmed for Hogwarts' infirmary and the dance class taught by McGonagall before the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The ceilings were magnificent. Stephanie got me gazing.

1) The Bodleian Library

Okay, so I already told most of what I know about the Bodleian Library in Monday's post, but it was also used as a backdrop for the Hogwarts library in several Harry Potter movies.  In the first movie, Harry enters the restricted section of the library and stood exactly where we were standing. Alas, no pictures were allowed for the protection of the 500-year-old books.

PS We also went to the millennium bridge, a walking bridge that is destroyed by Death Eaters in the sixth movie and to Platform 9 and 3/4 in King's Cross station, which is where Harry boards the Hogwarts Express each year.  While the bridge was cool, it doesn't really stand out as Harry landmark. Platform 9 and 3/4 would've been pretty exciting if it hadn't been a fake brick wall wedged somewhere off to the side of platform 8.  Here are pics of those.

Top Three Meals of Europe

Today's Top Three from the trip is my Top Three Meals.

3) Lamb Shank at the Eagle and Child. The Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford is where J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and some of their writer contemporaries would get together for a few pints and to discuss their work.  Daniel, Amie, Stefanie and I had dinner there last Monday night.  I planned to get Shepherd's Pie in an attempt to try authentic British foods, but something was wrong in the kitchen so they couldn't make pies that night. Instead, I had Lamb Shank, which was fall-off-the-bone tender.  We didn't take a picture of the meal, but here's one of D and A outside the pub.

2) Fancy french words that mean beef with sauce and chocolate mousse at French cafe.  We sort of walked forever before we found this cafe to eat at on Thursday night.  We were exhausted and had a bit of a language barrier with the waiter, but this meal made it all worth it. Again, tender meat and a fantastic sauce. The chocolate mousse capped it off perfectly.

1) Crepes on the street. Crepes are thin pancakes that they fill with deliciousness and then fold over so that it is extremely an extremely portable food. In fact, they don't sell them in most cafes, but only in these little kiosks or street carts.  Amie and I each had four crepes in two days.  Amie always goes with Nutella and banana for hers. I split mine between Nutella and banana,which is more of a desert crepe, and fromage (cheese) and jambon (ham), which is more of a lunch-y type crepe. Both are incredibly good.  Here's a pic of us enjoying some.

Side note: A lot of people have asked how I liked fish and chips.  I'm not a fish person, so I wasn't really gung ho about trying it, but we had sort of a lunch snafu on Wednesday that left me with no other options besides fish and chips (it's a long story that involves us dashing out of the same restaurant without eating multiple times.).  I hate to say it, but I was not a fan of the fish.  It's this giant fish that is completely fried and mine still had bones in it.  GROSS! (Everyone else seems to really like fish and chips, though, so don't let my opinion color yours.) Here's a pic of me trying to be game.

Top Three Sights to See

I have no idea if you care about the details of my trip, but I had a pretty fantastic time and it's all I really want to talk about this week. To that end, each day I'm going to share with you a different top three list from the trip.  The most-asked question I've gotten since I returned is: "What was your favorite sight to see?", so my first top three will be my Top Three Favorite Sights.

3) Musey d'Orsay

Everyone knows about the Musee Louvre. (Musee means museum in French, fyi), which we most definitely visited. Not everyone knows the awesomeness that is the Musee d'Orsay.  The Orsay is right across the Seine from the Lourve and is home to art from the late 19th century. This means it includes many Monets, Van Goghs, Manets and other beautiful pieces. In my opinion it blew the Lourve out of the water.  It's also in a renovated train station and is just beautiful inside.  They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, but this was my favorite painting that I saw. It's a Van Gogh that I had never seen before called The Church in Auvers-sur-Olise. This tiny version doesn't do it justice.

2)Notre Dame

Notre Dame was built in 1163. It is indescribably beautiful on the inside with many colorful and elaborate stained glass windows and breathtaking ceilings.  It is such a beautiful thing to stand there and realize that people have been worshiping God there for almost 1000 years.  You can climb over 400 stairs to the top for a breathtaking view of Paris, a close-up view of the famous gargoyles and  a chance to see the infamous bells of the cathedral.  

"All Paris was spread out at his feet, with her thousand turrets, her undulating horizon, her river winding under the bridges, her stream of people flowing to and fro in the streets; with the cloud of smoke rising from her many chimneys; with her chain of crested roofs pressing in ever tightening coils round about Notre Dame."- Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris

1) Bodleian Library

We went to Oxford University with the primary purpose of seeing some Harry Potter-related sites.  We were not disappointed with the Bodeian Library, which is the main university library and also the Hogwarts library in several of the Harry Potter films.  However, that's not at all what made it one of the best visits of the trip.  This is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, begun in the 15th century. Most of its original books were destroyed by Henry VIII, but beginning in 1598 Sir Thomas Bodley began restocking the library and the many, many books he purchased on behalf of the library were still there and sitting on the shelves that we were staring at. It's also a copyright library, so they automatically get a copy of every book published in England and can request any other copyright published pieces. They received thousands of new books each day. It blew my mind. No pictures were allowed inside, but I found this one online.

Have any of you been to any of these fabulous places? Let me know!

The Big Trip

I'm back!  The story of this epic trip is one of adventure, exploration, new experiences, old and beautiful buildings, delicious food and lots of jump pictures.  It's also a story that is really too long for a single blog. Today I'm going to hit some highlights and then each day this week I plan to share lists of my top three favorite aspects of the trip.

First, I think I did pretty good with the plan I came up with last week.  I ate normally.  I didn't restrict myself, but I didn't go crazy either. I had a few croissants in Paris and several crepes (though never more than one at a time.) I ordered dessert more than once. I had the occasional caffeinated soda, but it wasn't habit-forming.  Our friend Stephanie, who we stayed with the first half of the week, bought the cereal I prefer, plus lots of fruit and the makings for sandwiches, so we didn't have to eat out every single meal. This was a great gift.

I also walked so much.  SO much. So MUCH.  I don't know how to say it any other way.  Plus, in Paris, we lived on the 5th floor of our hostel and took the stairs every time.  It about killed us, but we did it.  We also climbed a bunch of towers in London and to the top of Notre Dame. There were a lot of stairs in Paris.  On Tuesday, the only day we had a semi-low key day without a lot of walking, I got up before the others and went to run along the river and the High Street (like a Main Street, here) of Stephanie's adorable little English town.  It was not easy to pull myself out of bed, but I'm glad I did it.

We got in last night. I spent today resting, doing laundry and catching up on television.  I'm in a really good place right now. I'm happy. I'm rested.  I'm at peace with eating and my outlook on life. I feel really normal when it comes to food. It's a feeling and a mood that I wish I could bottle up and store for times that will be more difficult. I know those times will come again when I am overwhelmed by feelings of fear and failure.  However, tonight at Bighouse (youth group I work with) we sang a song called "Counting on God" that I love.  The best two lines in it are:
Joy unspeakable that won't go away
Just enough strength to live for today

It reminds me that I need to continually look to God for both joy and strength but also that I really just need to take it all one day at a time.

I'll leave you with a picture from the trip. (There will be lots more later, I promise.)

P.S. I only gained one pound. Did I mention we did a lot of walking?

Bon Voyage

If you were near me right now, I would read this post to you aloud, in my fabulous British accent and you would love it (and you would make fun of how I'm speaking entirely too high of a pitch and scrunching up my nose weirdly).  I depart today for Jolly 'Ol England and (insert French words here) France.

It will be a week of firsts for me. My first trip abroad. My first time on a plane for more than four hours. My first time through customs, my first time meeting the Royal Family (er, or hanging around outside their royal residences taking pictures of the guards with the funny hats), my first time riding in a train that goes UNDER a river (is the English Channel a river?), my first time spending foreign monies, my first time eating authentic crepes, my first time staying in a hostel, etc. This list could go on forever, but I'll spare you.

Please know that in the next week I'll be busy having tea with the Queen discussing the wedding plans of Wills and Kate and letting the French peasants eat cake. It is highly unlikely I will be able to update my blog.

So have a great week and imagine me across the pond roaming the British countryside, eating fish n' chips and impressing (annoying) some real Brits with my fantabulously authentic accent! If I run into Mr. Darcy or Bridget Jones, I'll say 'ello from all of you.  Cheerio, Gov'ner!

*If you are reading this realizing I'm going to be gone for a week and are therefore thinking about robbing my home, please don't.  Know that I have nosy neighbors,, a ferocious guard dog and a roommate who would die to defend the homestead. Don't mess with the 1611.