The UK!! (Part 2 – London)

Like I had mentioned in the Scotland post, Rachel’s cousin let us stay with her in her London home. THANK YOU, BRENDA!!! She is an amazing wife and mother! Her children, oh my god, seriously, they’re so smart and HILARIOUS.. not to mention gorgeous! More on that later.

Anyway, it was really nice of Brenda to let us stay with her because the hostel was really wearing on me and Rachel. Granted, our hostel WAS nice and clean, but one can only wear flip flops in the shower for so long. Plus, it was kind of a pain having to fit all your belongings into a little locker. Whatever. It added to the whole experience and I don’t regret staying in the hostel. It definitely made us a lot more appreciative of Brenda’s house. We were like, “WOW, we can walk around barefoot????” Hahaha. Also, it was nice to leave our things open and trust that no one would steal our belongings.

Our first stop was to check out the City, where we’d see City Hall, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, etc. Check, check and check!

City Hall

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

More Tower of London

The great thing about London is that it’s a bit like New York in that it’s densely packed. So although it is a big city, it’s actually not as big as one may think. You can easily walk from one neighborhood to the next, and like NYC, sometimes it’s a bit tough to tell when one neighborhood ends and the other begins.

Monument to the Great Fire

St. Paul's Cathedral

Oh, hello

We went to the Covent Garden Market and man, it totally reminded me of NYC’s Soho except with street performers. Somehow, both Rachel and I managed to be part of this magician’s show. I’m pretty sure this man pulled me into his show because I was wearing a dress.

HAHA the street performer berating me

He needed audience participation to demonstrate what he wanted the little kid to do.

"And at this point, Francois, the important thing to remember is to NOT look up."

Click on this link (it will open in a new window) to watch the video of the street performance. It was recorded sideways and I’m not sure how to rotate the video, so you’ll have to tilt your head.

Rachel had been recording the performance from across the way so after it was done, she had to run back to me. Haha, unfortunately, it interrupted the guy’s show. So, he took her and some random people from the audience to take a “family photo.” So funny!

Happy family!

We went to Picadilly Circus just to use the Barclay’s ATM. Seriously. OOO, electronic ads.. we don’t have any of those in Manhattan at all.

Picadilly Circus

We found out that admission to the British Museum is FREE, so we rushed over just to see one thing, the Rosetta Stone.

The British Museum

The Rosetta Stone

We also hopped on the London Eye to get a view of central London.

Westminster Abbey

The London Eye

Waiting for the London Eye to move

Believe it or not, we did a TON of our activities in 1 day. We were exhausted that night but dragged ourselves out to meet with a friend near Picadilly Circle. Now, I don’t know if Americans know this, but holidays in general are serious business in Europe. Basically everything is closed down! I learned that the hard way when I went to Spain. Anywho, the night we went out, it was a Bank Holiday AND a Sunday, so I was pretty doubtful of open clubs and/or bars. We managed to find a sub-par lounge; the crowd was interesting but the company was good, so it was still a decent night.

Some lounge near Picadilly Circle

Also, I don’t know if anyone knows this, but the tube is closed from approximately 1 am until 5 or 5:30 am. I had convinced Rachel that if we were out past 3:30 am, we should just stay up and wait for the tube. Rachel agreed. Unfortunately, somehow we managed to take a cab back home instead. And even more unfortunate was that our cab driver took us to the wrong stop. We figured it wouldn’t be a bad walk since he dropped us off at the train station before our own.. but you know how those things always go.. we ended up walking more than an hour back home. At least we got to see the English countryside at sunrise, right? Right???

What a beautiful morning..

We were scheduled for a bike tour around the Royal Parks later that day but missed it since we only managed to sleep for 2 hours. We spent the day shopping instead. The next day, however, we were well-rested and ready for our bike tour with Fat Tire.

Fat Tire bike tour

Fat Tire is the only bike tour allowed to bike through the Royal Parks. Rachel and I HIGHLY recommend it. Our first stop was Kensington Garden & the Palace, where Princess Diana once lived.

Kensington Palace

Royal Albert Hall

Wellington Arch

Biking!

We biked past Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guards and managed to catch them during the procession! Guards were yelling at people to clear the path but, as was our new tradition in London, we needed to take a quick jumping pic.

Quickly, before the guards make us move!

I like their qtip/fro/helmet thingies

We stopped in Tralfalgar Square to have a quick bite to eat and a tipple (that’s British for a drink). We could’ve gone to the National Gallery (free admission!) but we decided to eat, drink and relax instead.

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

I got a flat tire in my bike so our tour guide needed some time to replace it. In the meantime, Rachel and I messed with the guards.

They hated us

Because we kept taking pictures like these

More biking!

We managed to have a pretty rocky tour (2 flat tires and 1 fall) but overall, I thought it was the highlight of the trip.

On my last day, Rachel and I went to Harrods to grab some food, buy some tea and see the Diana & Dodi memorial. First of all, WOW @ Harrods. It is BEAUTIFUL. It’s a HUUUUUGE department store. And their food hall is AMAZING. I grabbed a salad to eat on the way and also some tea. Man, they have a huge selection of tea.. of everything, actually. Coffees, teas, chocolates, etc. Anyway, second of all, the memorial was somewhat of a let-down. I was expecting something beautiful and magnificent, not something small and cheesy on the basement floor of this beautiful department store. Oh well. I took a photo anyway.

@ Harrods

I had to take the tube to the airport and I swear I thought I was going to miss my flight (I hate airports) because the trains were taking FOREVER. Well, obviously, I made my flight and had about 30 minutes to spare. Woohoo!

Brenda’s kids are so cute and precocious and they’re also a big thing I’ll miss in London. Fortunately, Brenda and her family will be moving to Baltimore this summer. Anyway, the funny thing is I think that Rachel and I had more fun staying in & playing with them than experiencing the London nightlife.. it’s those English accents, I swear!

From right to left, Allen, Emily and Alyssa

Alyssa's so fearless! Seriously! Brenda would just exclaim, "Alyssa! You're so crazy!!" Hahahhaa

Aw, cousins!

That about wraps it up. Anyway, the UK is amazing! The next time I go, I want to see more of Scotland, particularly the Highlands (where my momma lived for a wee bit) and outside of London.. or maybe even more of central London, I don’t know. I don’t have any major trips planned (yet) but I do want to go to Prague and Berlin this winter.. we’ll see. Sorry again for the super delayed updates! Hope it was worth waiting for

<3

E

1 year anniversary! And THE UK!!! (Part 1 – Scotland)

On May 4, 2009, I passed my one year mark of living in New York City!!!!! Happy anniversary to me! 1 down, many more to go.

Anyway, I just got back from the lovely United Kingdom. Rachel and I took a quick trip out to Edinburgh & London. Again, it was sort of a last minute trip. Rachel’s cousin, Brenda, lives in South London with her husband and 3 ADORABLE children and offered to let us stay with her during our visit. And I figured — if we’re going to go THIS far, might as well check out Scotland, too!

So Rachel and I met at Newark Airport. DUDE, we were on the SAME flight (she flew in from San Francisco). Talk about luck! We managed to sit with each other AND score an empty seat between us!!! It would’ve been a decent red-eye flight but the kid next to me across the aisle stayed awake and TALKED the entire frickin time. It was cute at first because he had such a heavy Scottish accent but you know what? That brogue can definitely wear on you after, oh, I don’t know, the first hour. Regardless, it was an easy flight and I’m really thankful.

We got to Edinburgh, Scotland around 8 am and didn’t really have an idea of what to do. Our hostel room wasn’t available until noon so we had a few hours to kill. It’s in Old Town, next to the Grassmarket (pretty great location, if you ask me), by the way. So Rachel and I wandered the streets a little, walked down Royal Mile and when it started sprinkling (Scots don’t believe in umbrellas, BY THE WAY!!), we headed down Princes Street to go shopping. Edinburgh is pretty. It’s REALLY old and my mind could not wrap around that fact. The streets in Old Town are all cobbledstoned and the buildings are all gray and.. I don’t know, it’s gorgeous. Edinburgh is also very hilly. They have these little shortcut alleys called closes. They’re kiiiiiiiiind of creepy. They’re just stairs from one street to another.

The Royal Mile

One of the creepy closes! This is NOT a black & white picture, by the way!

Scottish Parliament

Of COURSE we had to go see Edinburgh Castle. I’ve never seen a castle ever! The views are amazing.

A view of the castle from the gardens below

What an odd sight -- a parking lot in front of the castle.

The Royal Apartments

What a view!

I got stuck

Rachel and I

In our downtime, and because our hostel didn’t have wireless internet AND I brought my laptop (due to work responsibilities–what can I say, I’m addicted to my work), Rachel and I used the free internet at one of the nearby pubs. Um, how amazing is that? DRINKING AND FREE INTERNET???

Rachel was happy!

After a few drinks and getting our internet fix, we were both pretty happy!

Anyway, our first night in Edinburgh, we went to the Beltane Fire Festival in Calton Hill. It’s a Pagan fire festival that celebrates the start of summer with a HUGE FIRE. And lots of naked dancing. Seriously. That was an interesting night, to say the least. We met some great people and that’s always a plus.

Don’t let the summer festivities fool you–it was COLD! We were lucky that it wasn’t raining that night (miraculously) but it was still ridiculously cold!

The view from Calton Hill

The Beltane Fire Festival.. before they got nakie

Haha look at that woman's face!

Naked pagans!

Fire!

There was one thing I REALLY wanted to do in Scotland–eat shortbread. I am not even joking.

YUMMY

You can't fake that kind of joy.

And I really wanted Rachel to try some haggis (I couldn’t because I don’t eat red meat.. or anything gamey).

It's just sausage, really

She liked it!

We also hiked up Arthur’s Seat.. well, actually we hiked up one of its crags. So here’s the thing. There’s this massive cliff that’s about a 45 minute hike up to the peak and we wanted to see it. There are a few ways to get there and even though we were told how to do it, we kind of just winged it. Okay, I lie, I winged it and Rachel just followed me blindly. Hahaha.

This is not Arthur's seat. It's just one of the crags

THIS is Arthur's Seat. About an additional 30-45 minutes of hiking through a valley and up that massively steep incline.

Haha who else is going to pose like this while hiking? Oh Erika.

Check out the background!

Edinburgh's so green

Finally reached the peak of the CRAG.

I look dangerously close to the edge, don't I?

We spent our last day just wandering around some more. We didn’t explore as much of Edinburgh as we could have.. the public transportation is KIND OF expensive. It was either 3 pounds per bus ride (ridiculous!) or a stroll in the rain.

At the gardens below the castle. Rachel's happy w/ her cotton candy!

Another view from the gardens

Some plaza

On our way to see a waterfall

It was somewhat of a let-down.

Princes Street

I’ll detail the London portion of my trip in Part 2, which will come soon, promise!

<3

E

Still catching up..

Sorry for the much delayed blog posts! I’ve been SO busy since I got back from the UK. It’s been a month since I got back and I still haven’t gotten around to blogging about it NOR have I washed my clothes from the trip (ew, gross).

I promise I’ll write a lengthy post soon. For now, here are two teasers from the trip.

You can see Edinburgh Castle in the distance!

Walking towards the London Eye.

More soon, promise!

<3

E

Viva Espana!!

Spain was AMAZING. Barcelona, Zaragoza and Madrid are beautiful cities and I enjoyed every second of it, despite any mishaps that occurred along the way.

First stop: Barcelona (December 25 – 29, 2008)

I arrived before Justin so I was able to explore the city on my own for a couple hours. I’m lucky that I got the last bit of sun before the rain set in!

After settling in (and to ease my travel woes), I decided to lose myself in the city and go barhopping–probably not the best idea for someone who doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish.

Then Justin arrived and we tried to go around the city but everything was starting to close. It was Christmas Day after all and Spaniards also celebrate Boxing Day (which is the 26th).

The morning after, we went to La Sagrada Familia. It’s amazing! The nativity facade is rather intense. The entire temple is scheduled for completion around 2026 & construction started in 1882.

The rain hadn’t stopped so after lunch (tapas, of course!), we siesta’d through the afternoon. We visited the Magic Fountain of Montjuic later that evening before heading out to a couple bars.

Gaudi’s work is all over Barca; Casa Batllo was closeby to our hostel.

We went to La Boqueria for brunch. It’s huge (TWSS!!) and it’s so vibrant! I fell in love with their setup and arrangements.

Next stop was Gaudi’s other beauty–Parc Guell. God, trekking up was such hard work. The street leading to the park’s entrance is incredibly steep and they even have sets of esclators towards the top of the street. This park was BREATHTAKING. I didn’t know anything about it except for the view and the Gaudi houses so I was thrilled when we came across the Roadway in the Park (aka where Melrose & Caridee had their ANTM final competition!!!). And of course we had a quick photoshoot.

We had incredible seafood paella for dinner (thanks J) but um, there was a bit of a misunderstanding on the menu.. I’m afraid something was lost in translation. Kids, please behave while you’re in Spain or you’ll be roasted in your own juices.

And then after manymanymanymany drinks, we made it out to a club. Oh, discotecas. It was PACKED. And Justin, really, thanks for putting up with me and making sure I didn’t run away with some Spanish man. HAHA. What a good friend.

I slept in the next morning but we finally made it out to the Gothic Quarter. It is stunning. UGH, Barcelona is so BEAUTIFUL–even the graffiti is romantic!

We got lost (which I seriously think is the best way to get to know a city) and stumbled upon a few interesting plazas before heading out to the port.

I think we pretty much did everything we could in Barca (excluding the Picasso Museum) so we decided to leave a day early and take a day trip out to Zaragoza. It was the best possible city to visit since it’s between Barcelona & Madrid. We hopped on a bus and approximately 3 hours later, we were left on our own to navigate another Spanish city. This time with less English speakers! It was a real testament to Justin’s HS Spanish (I, of course, was a complete dead-weight but my terrible French came in handy a few times.. kinda, not really).

Second stop: Zaragoza (December 29 – 30, 2008)

Zaragoza was beautiful also. It’s a small city so there weren’t many sights to see but we did see the Basilica de Nuestra Senora and the Mercado Central (which was not as big or vibrant as La Boqueria but it did have suckling pigs).

Best part of Zaragoza was our hotel! It had a bidet!!!!! And amazing views from the window.

Last stop: Madrid (December 30, 2008 – January 1, 2009)

After an unfortunate misstep, we got to Madrid late. We were hosted by the wonderful Peter & Claire, who are studying abroad. Thanks again, guys! Oh and I LOVE MADRID. It has that city feel that I crave; it reminds me of NYC!

The next day was basically MY only full day in Madrid so we did the few touristy things we could–walked through Parc Retiro, visited the Prado Museum and went shopping in Salamanca.

After returning to the apartment (where the 4 of us were stuck in a 3.5 by 3.5 elevator for 30 minutes between the 1st and 2nd floor!!!!), we joined Peter and Claire’s friends to celebrate NYE in Puerta del Sol, which is kind of like Madrid’s version of Times Square. OH MY GOD, it was amazing. The tradition is to eat grapes at midnight, by the way, one for each bell chime (12 total). What an interesting way to bring in the new year. And yes.. we all wore wigs (which we bought in nearby Plaza Mayor).

The wigs were a HIT!

Midnight! Time to eat grapes!

OMG what a great vacation. I think I may have to go back to Madrid because I didn’t get enough time to immerse myself into the city but besides that, it really was FRICKIN AMAZING. I love Spain! It was a great experience. And Justin!!!! Sorry for my work-hard-play-as-hard-as-humanly-possible attitude and thank you for everything!!! Seriously, when you come to NYC, I’ll take care of it all so you can be as crazy as you want. And I owe you some amazing home cooking, right?

Happy 2009 everybody!

<3

E

Jamaica Jamaica!

Sorry for the delay of pictures from my trip to Jamaica. I brought my camera but it is old and janky and it pooped out on me before I could even take a photo. I was waiting for all my friends to upload their pictures

So first off, about the trip: there were 7 of us total. 6 girls and 1 guy. My friends took a red-eye flight from LAX to Montego Bay on Halloween and I flew from JFK the morning after. I hadn’t seen some of them since  the last time I was in San Diego (March of 2007 maybe?) so I was really, really excited to be reunited with everybody!

The plan was to spend 2 days in Montego Bay and then the rest of the week in Negril. We booked 2 rooms at Doctor’s Cave Hotel in Montego Bay and stayed in a beautiful Rondel Village 3 bedroom villa in Negril.

Because of our ratio of women to, uh, man, we claimed that we were polygamists and that I was the new bride and we were on our honeymoon. Poor Demian was constantly asked why and how he had so many women. Actually, being “married” was a funny thing because I think it was easier to bargain for things. We even got a cigar, hahaha.

Another thing about Jamaica: all the taxi drivers are tour guides as well. Everyone wears multiple hats! We met such a man at Doctor’s Cave Beach on our first day who was an unfortunate victim in our “Oh, we’re married.. it’s our honeymoon.. actually we’re polygamists” scheme. But hey, we got a pretty good deal to get to Ochos Rios to climb Dunn’s River Waterfalls.

That’s what we did our second day. We drove ~2 hours to Ochos Rios to Dunn’s River Waterfalls. You basically hold hands and climb up a waterfall. It was beautiful!! I don’t know if the holding-of-the-hands thing is the best way to hike up a RUNNING waterfall, but it was fun nonetheless. We didn’t hold hands the entire time either. That whole excursion was pretty dangerous with all the slippery rocks and such; don’t expect to be able to do anything like that in the US.

When we got to Negril, we were situated in the middle of Seven Mile Beach. When we were in Montego Bay, we only went to one beach, Doctor’s Cave. It’s a private beach so we didn’t have to deal w/ any hustlers. But man!! Seven Mile Beach is  a public beach and was FULL of hustlers!! Every frickin day was a new opportunity for the locals to sell you things. ANYTHING. Our first day there, a man approached me and asked if I needed a “date” for the week. Really though?!?? I said quickly, “UHHHH my husband wouldn’t like that.” Speaking of the husband, he was propositioned by 2 prostitutes as well.. hahahha.

Every day was spent on the beach. It was FANTASTIC. Oh! And we went parasailing!! That was a lot of fun.  I was all about the beach, though. In fact, I spent an entire day on the beach.. most of which I spent alone. I was literally the first tourist on the beach in the morning and I was there until they took away the beach chairs. Some of my friends went to Rick’s Cafe and others went to the craft market while I read (“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz), drank Red Stripes (bar opened at 9 am and only cost $1.35 USD!!!!), and napped. Our area was relatively safe because we had a hotel-provisioned security guard manning the area (and he handed out towels and propped up the beach chairs). We usually took a spot right in front of the security guard anyway.

Also, since I was usually the first person up and on the beach (out of our group @ least), the hustlers started to recognize me. And my friends are friendly (and we’re all talkative) so the locals eventually got to know us. In fact, they all knew our names, where we’re from, where we’re staying, and they were so obesrvant that they knew when one of us wasn’t present!! We made friends with other tourists as well.

All in all, it was an incredibly relaxing vacation, even though we were on the cusp of the oncoming hurricane. We didn’t get a lot of direct sunlight and it rained sometimes but it was fine. We still tanned. And we ate really well. Jamaican food is soo soooo SOOOO good. Their spices are no joke, man. MMMMM so spicy, I LOVED IT.

Enough words! Here are the pictures! Just a note: some of the photos have a black ring around them; that’s because of the EXCELLENT waterproof camera case that I bought. I highly recommend it if you’ll be vacationing anywhere there’s a body of water and you want to take underwater photos.

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Most of the girls @ Doctor’s Cave Beach, Montego Bay

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Walking to the cafe

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Our first (and only) wedding gift: a discounted cigar from a shopkeeper

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It was cloudy !

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At our hotel’s bar

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Margaritaville!

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We had brunch @ Dolly’s & she actually served us!

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Dunn’s River Waterfalls

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King Demian & the Sisterwives. We look so happy!

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Climbing

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It started to get cold!

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An excellent massage

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After we finished climbing, we went down about halfway & hiked back up so we could take more photos

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Villas @ Rondel Village in Negril, Jamaica. I highly recommend this place!

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The pool

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Mary, Christina and I

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Celebrating Obama’s victory at a local spot (ignore my facial expression; I was happy!)

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The sisterwives

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Traci & I taking off!

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Kristen found a starfish (it’s covering part of my face)!

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We ate @ the Jerk Joint a couple times; excellent chicken!

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Demian & Christina jumped off of this cliff @ Rick’s Cafe

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Most of the group @ dinner on our last night

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Thanks to Anna, Christina, Demian, Kristen, Mary & Traci for your pictures and an AMAZING vacation!!! <3

<3,

E

Quick Update

First off, I’m alive! My blog is not dead! I just don’t have time (or pictures) to post anything!

Secondly, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! Mine was easy; we ordered from a Thanksgiving to go menu. Easiest Thanksgiving meal ever!

Just a glimpse of the Jamaican pictures to come (hopefully before I come back with pictures from Spain!)–

<3

E