Stockholm

I can now check Sweden off my list of countries to visit. :-)

It was a random trip to begin with; about a month ago I happened upon £68 round-trip airfare to Stockholm, so my co-worker Meryl and I decided to go. I wish we had been able to spend more time there. The city is absolutely gorgeous. I definitely would like to go back- preferably in the summer next time!

Saturday

It rained lightly all day and it was pretty cold (high of 39F), but the weather was bearable for most of our activities.

First, we headed over to Gamla Stan (the old town). We wandered around for a good hour or so taking pictures. We saw:

• Mårten Trotzig´s Alley (the narrowest lane in Gamla Stan- only 35 inches wide)

• We discovered the spot where the picture on the cover of my guidebook was taken (Meryl recognized it when we ducked into a random little tunnel to look at a map) .
  

• We then had lunch in a cute little cafe in a really old building (the red one on the left)

• After lunch, we headed over to Storkyrkan, the oldest church in Gamla Stan. It was refreshing to see an old church that looked nothing like all the other ones I've seen in Europe so far. I really like the Swedish style.

• We then ducked our heads into Tyska Kyrkan (German church), which was more interesting on the outside than on the inside.

• We managed to make it over to the Royal Palace just in time to see the changing of the guard. We watched it for 10 minutes in the rain before we got bored and left. The best part was when one of the regiments marched off to a building just to hide behind the pillars. Maybe we would have known what was going on if we understood what they were yelling in Swedish.
  
• The only thing the weather really affected was our boat tour- we didn't go out on the deck (we lacked waterproof clothing), and since the windows were foggy we didn't take any pictures. But the tour guide was very good and we learned a lot about Stockholm.

• Seeking an indoor activity, we headed over to Östermalms Saluhall (a famous indoor market). I wanted to buy every food in sight. We ended up buying a couple slices of fancy cakes before leaving.

We hung out in our hostel that evening and got dinner at a pizza and kebab shop nearby. Our hostel was really nice- very clean and newly remodeled. The staff were very friendly and helpful as well. It had a cute no-shoes rule, which you could get around by wearing blue plastic shoe covers like surgeons wear.

Sunday

Due to our flight leaving at 4pm, we really only had time to see one sight in Stockholm before heading to the airport. The day felt warmer than Saturday but was actually colder (high of 36F). I think it felt warmer because there was no wind, and what I thought was mist turned out to be a light snow! It was very exciting.

We walked through downtown and along the waterfront to the Djurgården area, which had two attractions we were interested in seeing: Skansen (the world's first open-air museum that has traditional Swedish houses and native wildlife) and Vasamuseet (museum of the salvaged 17th-century warship Vasa). By the time we walked all the way to Djurgården we decided that due to lack of time we would go to the Vasa Museum.

The museum was really interesting. The ship was completed in 1628 and capsized (fully loaded) on its maiden voyage after travelling less than a nautical mile. It is the largest single object that has ever been preserved.

While walking back to our hostel (to then head to to the airport) it really snowed for a few minutes! You'll have to take my word for it though, since the snow didn't come out in the picture.

All in all, it ended up being a pretty cool trip. Next time I will definitely go back in the summer, however. :-)

Here's the link to my photo album for the trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237212&l=e96df&id=3200197

Movie Premiere

A few days ago we saw in a newspaper that "The Accidental Husband" would be holding its premiere in Leicester Square. We decided to go (just for the hell of it), so we showed up a few minutes before it was set to start. The stars of the movie didn't show up for another 45 minutes, and we were thisclose to leaving, but we ended up being glad we stayed. I actually squealed when Colin Firth got out of the car! I am so ashamed of myself- I never thought I would be starstruck! He went around signing autographs (so did Uma Thurman, the other star of the movie) and I was totally 3 feet away from him (and her). Our friend Meryl stuck out her hand and he shook it!! I should have tried that but I was too busy trying to get a good picture in the dark. I think we might actually try to go to another one sometime- they're all held on Wednesday nights, and it's not like we usually have something better to do!

Waitangi Day

Last Saturday was Waitangi Day, the national day of New Zealand. In London, that means all the young New Zealanders and their friends dress up in black (the color of NZ's sports teams) and ride the Circle Line around central London, drinking at each stop. I went to meet my friends for brunch, and we observed big groups of drunk youths wandering around. We didn't know how crazy things were getting until we reached our neighborhood Tube station (Gloucester Road) and saw literally a thousand people crowding the sidewalks (see picture above). We made the mistake of stopping in a convenient store for snacks before trying to get out of London to visit a park, and while we were in the store the station closed due to the huge drunk crowd. Waitangi Day would have ruined our Saturday, but we ended up going to the British Museum instead, which is a pretty cool place!

Photos!

Here are links to all the pictures I've taken over the past month:

Canterbury:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229567&l=76a86&id=3200197

Battle of Hastings:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229568&l=547ea&id=3200197

Stratford-upon-Avon (home of Shakespeare):
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229571&l=205c9&id=3200197

Paris:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229572&l=f63be&id=3200197 (Part One)

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229576&l=f4428&id=3200197 (Part Two)

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229578&l=1575f&id=3200197 (Part Three)

Paris!

On Saturday morning I took the Eurostar to Paris. It's such a pleasant way to travel. :-)

I arrived in Paris and walked to the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up my Paris Pass. I had arranged to meet my friend there (she had bought the same pass), but after waiting outside the restaurant for half an hour, I decided to head out on my own. I was never able to get in contact with her, and I have no idea what happened. She's travelling around Europe for the next month, so maybe I'll find out what happened after she returns to the States!

I checked in at my hostel ("Young and Happy Hostel"), dropped off my bag, and then went to see the sights. On my first day I went to the Pantheon, Notre Dame, Sainte Chappelle, Conciergie, did part of the Open Top Bus Tour, and went to the Louvre. I met Basil that night for dinner, and I ended up staying on his futon for the two nights I was there (instead of at my hostel, which unfortunately I had already paid for, but Basil's flat was a more comfortable option). The next day I woke up late and went to the Musee d'Orsay, did more of the Open Top Bus Tour, went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, took pictures of the Eiffel Tower, did a boat tour of the Seine, and went back to the Louvre again. I think I filled up my two days pretty well. :-)

My favorite things I saw:

- The Pantheon: WOW. Never seen anything like it.




















- Sainte Chappelle: A tiny little church near Notre Dame. Its main room is completely surrounded by stained glass windows. Very pretty.




















- Musee d'Orsay: What an amazing building! I loooved the big main room (it's a converted train station) with all the statues.




















- Louvre: LOVED it. I wish I had more than two days to see it all.




















I left Paris early Monday morning and arrived back in London in time for work. I was really tired, but it was a great trip. I don't know what I had expected, but know I didn't think I would love Paris as much as I did. It definitely lives up the hype. I made a fool of myself constantly due to the language barrier, but I ended up being glad I toured Paris by myself. I got to do everything at my own speed, and I think I fit in more sights than I would have if I had met up with my friend. I can't wait to go back with my family.

Updates...

Work is going great. We're completely settled in our new offices and the new setup for reception has meant that I have a lot more interaction with my coworkers. We've also all gone out for drinks a few times lately too. Free drinks = awesomeness.

My coworker Catriona (who I worked closely with and was probably the closest in age to) has left for better prospects, which had me worried at first about her replacement. But the Australian girl they replaced her with (Meryl) is really cool, and it turns out that she literally lives right around the corner from me! Jen and I have been hanging out with her and her roommate pretty often. It's nice having friends living nearby. :-)

I'm going to Paris this weekend since my friend Connie will be starting her post-London tour of Europe there. I'll be scoping things out in preparation for taking my family there in March. I'm really excited to take the Eurostar. I love the trains here! And it will be so much faster than flying.

I'm currently trying to plan trips to Amsterdam in February and Edinburgh in March. I need to do a lot more research to figure out what this will cost me...

... in a new place

Our lease at our old room ends on the 12th (tomorrow), and we had told our landlord before we left to go home for Christmas that we might want a few extra weeks so we could find a new place. Our landlord told us we would work out everything when we got back. Well, his idea of working everything out turned out to be texting us 9 days before the lease's end telling us he signed a lease with someone else starting on the 12th. I panicked for a while and then called the long-term hostel I had looked at before we left to go home. Fortunately, they had one room available that Sunday. I moved in that day, and Jen moved in the next.

So now I live near Gloucester Road station, all the way on the other side of town in South Kensington. It's a REALLY cool area- it has the classic huge white row-houses (which are really mansions), and there's a bunch of hotels and restaurants surrounding the Tube station which is only a two minute's walk from the hostel. And our room is huge- it has 12-foot ceilings with crown mouldings and this cool medallion in the middle of the ceiling. Very London. I'm pretty happy with the move. Even though it's much further from my job, it only lengthened my commute by about 5 minutes and now I actually feel like I'm living in London. Our old neighborhood was alright, but it's just not the same. South Kensington is actually an area I want to hang out in. The Natural History Museum, Harrods, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Royal Albert Hall, and Hyde Park are only a short walk from here. Yay :-)