I wrote this e-mail to my mom and was told it would make a good blog entry... so here it is! Sorry for the language, and the lateness of this update!!!!!! Hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all terribly!!!
Hello!!! Yes, I’ve been thinking recently that I haven’t been in touch lately and was actually going to e-mail you today as well! You beat me to it.
Everything here is fine – I’ve pretty much just been completely immersed in this book I’m reading, The Time Traveler’s Wife. It’s fantastic and I can’t put it down – I highly recommend it!!! Yesterday I had it sitting on my desk and people kept coming by saying ‘Oh, that’s such an amazing book, one of my favourites!!!’ This came from 45 year old men and 30 year old women – all sorts! Get it now!! It’s by Audrey Niffenegger.
I’ve just been laying low really the past couple of weeks so there isn’t much news to report. I’m trying to save my time and energy for the insanity that will ensue in December – we’ve got lunches/dinners/drinks galore, birthdays, Christmas parties, a skating event, etc etc. I’m getting incredibly excited about our company Christmas party on the 18th – there are going to be over 1000 people there on the grounds of the Tower of London and it’s all fancy schmancy black tie and gowns and everything. I bought a dress at Debenham’s last weekend – it’s black and strapless and has a gorgeous skirt with taffeta underneath – it’s not too puffy but just right! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.
I had a rather interesting run in with a crazy old man at Caffe Nero on Sunday!!! I was sitting in a comfy chair, about to eat and start reading my book, when this crazy old bat comes up and asks if the seat next to me is free. I said yes, and he comes right up into my face and yells ‘Don’t F*CKING talk to me like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ I was completely taken aback and said ‘Excuse me?!’ He yells ‘Shut UP!!!! SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!’ At that point I stood up and the Londoner in me came out and I said harshly ‘Do NOT speak to me like that, you are incredibly rude!!!!’ And he kept yelling at me to shut up so I said ‘I’m moving, I don’t need to take this. You have absolutely no right to speak to me that way.’ Meanwhile everyone is watching and I picked up my food and things and moved to another table, where I sat down to read quietly. He then starts spewing profanities across the restaurant at me and yells to the manager, ‘Get this little bitch out of here!!!!!!!!! She’s disrupting me!!!! If she’s still here by the time I get my coffee I’m going to call the cop!!!!!!!!’ At this point I was on the verge of tears and the manager comes over and says to me, ‘Sorry, he’s crazy.’ Then goes over to him and yells ‘GET OUT OF MY RESTAURANT, STOP HARASSING MY CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE OF THIS!!! GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ It was absolutely mad!!!!!!!!! He ended up quieting down, but not before he sauntered up to two old ladies and asked them ‘what the f*ck they’re doing there’. He then came up behind me, leaned over to look at my book and muttered ‘You’re a lot less of a bitch when you’re reading that book.’ Unbelievable!!!!!!! The old Irish ladies got up and went over to him and yelled ‘You are the most IGNORANT man I have EVER encountered in my life!!! You need help!!!!!’ and other such things. It was absolutely bizarre!!!! When I finally left he said to everyone, ‘THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
Anyway, after that I spent a very lovely Sunday with myself. I went to the British Museum where I saw the mummies and some spectacular ancient Egyptian art/architecture. I wandered around for a couple of hours then went to the café in the museum and read for another couple of hours. It was lovely!!! Monday night I went to a concert in King’s Cross with Nicola. It was an artist I’d never heard of before, an English singer-songwriter, very indie, and she was fabulous!!!! Other than that I’ve just been laying low. We’re all going out on Friday night for drinks so I’m saving up my energy for that!!! Work is all good, I’m still enjoying working here immensely.
What else… Not a whole going on at home. I’m hoping to move in the new year but need to save up for the massive deposit. I’ve also been looking into flights to come home in March for Kristine’s wedding, and I’m afraid that I might have to sacrifice one for the other – it’s moving flat vs. coming home for the wedding. I’d really love to be at the wedding but I simply don’t have enough money for both. I’ll sort it out over Christmas I think.
I suppose I should get back to work – I was a bit late coming in this morning because the current was shut off on one of the tracks on the District line (where I was on the train), so we were stuck at a platform for about 15 minutes before they announced that the other train across the platform would be leaving soon, so there was a mad elephant stampede for that train and I actually thought that I was going to kill someone.
That’s about it for me!!! I hope everything is going well at home!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy your trip out west – are you going to see Nana et. al.?
Talk to you soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Emily
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Adventures in Oslo and More
Me again!! I have lots to report today, in no small part due to the fact that Katie and I took a trip to Oslo, Norway last weekend! I had a relatively quiet week apart from a horrendous date that I went on with a guy from New Zealand. I had met him at a bar the weekend before and he seemed like a nice person, apart from the fact that he seemed to enjoy staring at me creepily, so I agreed to go out with him on Tuesday night, thinking 'What could I possibly lose?' As it turns out, I lost a minor portion of my sanity that night.
The evening started off well enough when we met up in Covent Garden and tried to figure out where to go for dinner. We finally settled on a nice Italian place. This is where the fun part of the night ended. The conversation followed a set pattern which went something like this:
Me: So, why did you decide to move here?
Bad Date Guy: *Stares* ..... *Snickers for some unexplained reason*
Me: What's wrong?
BDG: *Stares* .... Nothing's wrong, why?
Me: Ummm... no reason...?
BDG: Yeah ummm... yeah, just wanted a change. *Stares*
Me: *Twitch*
Repeat for approximately 1.5 hours, during which time I
1. Considered running out of the restaurant as fast as I possibly could.
2. Considered slapping BDG and telling him to stop being creepy.
3. Considered faking an emergency phone call, i.e. the classic getaway excuse.
4. Excused myself to go to the bathroom only so I could kill some time while trying to think of things to say to him and how to end the date.
In the end, I ended up promptly requesting the bill upon completion of my apple pie and told the lovely chap that I had to go do my food shopping... at 9pm on a Tuesday night. It seemed to work though, as he didn't question my motives and even texted me later that night to say that he had a great time and would like to see me again. I would much rather walk on burning hot coals than see him again. In my defense, I would just like to say that I insisted on paying half the bill for the meal so I didn't just get a free meal then take off!!
Anyway, onto Oslo - what a gorgeous place!!!! We landed at an airport that was a 1.5 hour drive from Oslo, so we took an express bus into the city and the drive was gorgeous!! The landscape looks exactly like Ontario on the way to the Kawarthas where Katie's cottage is. It was so stunning and was hard to believe that we were in Norway and not back at home in Canada. We arrived in Oslo and quickly found our hotel, which was actually a ship 5 minutes from the central train station in the harbour!!! The ship had been transformed into a hostel and even had a pirate flag on it!!!!!! Our little cabin room was tiny but had a very comfortable bunk bed and our own bathroom!! The included breakfast was excellent as well. It was definitely a different experience and we had a good laugh over it. We basically spent the weekend walking around Oslo and taking in the city, but didn't get a chance to visit any museums. Oslo is a very leafy city with big wide sidewalks that people love to stroll down.
Skip ahead to 2 weeks later - it's now 8th Nov... oops!
Anyway, where was I? Oslo - yes, gorgeous city and lots of gorgeous blonde people there as well! There seemed to be tons of children everywhere as well, but very well behaved, which was a nice change! It was a really lovely break from the madness of London but we were still happy to get back 'home.' When you live in London, other cities are great to visit but you find that you run out of things to do very quickly in comparison. Here in London, there is literally never a shortage of things to do - even people that have lived here for years say that they haven't managed to do even a fraction of the things they'd like to because there just isn't enough time! It's fabulous!!!
I'm trying to think of what else I've been up to! I've mainly been working and going out really! Work is going great - my coworkers are absolutely fantastic and I'm being given a lot more respect and responsibility within my team. I work for the sales team and they've been inviting me to their meetings, and even invited me to the big sales offsite day at the Four Seasons Hotel in Canary Wharf. It consisted of presentations on the various aspects of the BNY Mellon sales world in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I was really excited to have been invited to that and it was a great networking experience.
That was just this past Tuesday, and that night I went into the West End to meet about 11 of of my coworkers and a few friends to see Spamalot, the Monty Python musical, and have some dinner. It was a fabulous night and Spamalot was unbelievably hilarious!!!!!!!! I almost died laughing. If you're into that kind of humour, I highly recommend going to see it!!!!
I don't have any travelling weekends planned at the moment as I'm completely broke! I'm hoping to do a couple of trips in the new year, hopefully to Krakow and back to Scotland, because I fell in love with it last time I was there. Right now I'm just really looking forward to heading back home for the holidays. It'll be weird to come back here after flying home just for a visit, but that's all part of the experience of living abroad for a while! Katie and Andrea are heading home in December for good, so I won't be living with them anymore. I'm hoping that being without them won't make me incredibly homesick - we'll see!! I suppose that'll be a good test as to whether I'm really settled here. I have my friends at work and my flatmates, but don't know many other people otherwise!
I should probably get going as I'm at work - today is quite quiet - but I hope this update made at least a little bit of sense! Apologies for the massive delay in posting - I haven't been able to concentrate very well on anything for the last couple of weeks - not sure why!
I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to see many of you in a month and a bit when I come home!!!!!!!!!
Lots of love,
Emily
The evening started off well enough when we met up in Covent Garden and tried to figure out where to go for dinner. We finally settled on a nice Italian place. This is where the fun part of the night ended. The conversation followed a set pattern which went something like this:
Me: So, why did you decide to move here?
Bad Date Guy: *Stares* ..... *Snickers for some unexplained reason*
Me: What's wrong?
BDG: *Stares* .... Nothing's wrong, why?
Me: Ummm... no reason...?
BDG: Yeah ummm... yeah, just wanted a change. *Stares*
Me: *Twitch*
Repeat for approximately 1.5 hours, during which time I
1. Considered running out of the restaurant as fast as I possibly could.
2. Considered slapping BDG and telling him to stop being creepy.
3. Considered faking an emergency phone call, i.e. the classic getaway excuse.
4. Excused myself to go to the bathroom only so I could kill some time while trying to think of things to say to him and how to end the date.
In the end, I ended up promptly requesting the bill upon completion of my apple pie and told the lovely chap that I had to go do my food shopping... at 9pm on a Tuesday night. It seemed to work though, as he didn't question my motives and even texted me later that night to say that he had a great time and would like to see me again. I would much rather walk on burning hot coals than see him again. In my defense, I would just like to say that I insisted on paying half the bill for the meal so I didn't just get a free meal then take off!!
Anyway, onto Oslo - what a gorgeous place!!!! We landed at an airport that was a 1.5 hour drive from Oslo, so we took an express bus into the city and the drive was gorgeous!! The landscape looks exactly like Ontario on the way to the Kawarthas where Katie's cottage is. It was so stunning and was hard to believe that we were in Norway and not back at home in Canada. We arrived in Oslo and quickly found our hotel, which was actually a ship 5 minutes from the central train station in the harbour!!! The ship had been transformed into a hostel and even had a pirate flag on it!!!!!! Our little cabin room was tiny but had a very comfortable bunk bed and our own bathroom!! The included breakfast was excellent as well. It was definitely a different experience and we had a good laugh over it. We basically spent the weekend walking around Oslo and taking in the city, but didn't get a chance to visit any museums. Oslo is a very leafy city with big wide sidewalks that people love to stroll down.
Skip ahead to 2 weeks later - it's now 8th Nov... oops!
Anyway, where was I? Oslo - yes, gorgeous city and lots of gorgeous blonde people there as well! There seemed to be tons of children everywhere as well, but very well behaved, which was a nice change! It was a really lovely break from the madness of London but we were still happy to get back 'home.' When you live in London, other cities are great to visit but you find that you run out of things to do very quickly in comparison. Here in London, there is literally never a shortage of things to do - even people that have lived here for years say that they haven't managed to do even a fraction of the things they'd like to because there just isn't enough time! It's fabulous!!!
I'm trying to think of what else I've been up to! I've mainly been working and going out really! Work is going great - my coworkers are absolutely fantastic and I'm being given a lot more respect and responsibility within my team. I work for the sales team and they've been inviting me to their meetings, and even invited me to the big sales offsite day at the Four Seasons Hotel in Canary Wharf. It consisted of presentations on the various aspects of the BNY Mellon sales world in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I was really excited to have been invited to that and it was a great networking experience.
That was just this past Tuesday, and that night I went into the West End to meet about 11 of of my coworkers and a few friends to see Spamalot, the Monty Python musical, and have some dinner. It was a fabulous night and Spamalot was unbelievably hilarious!!!!!!!! I almost died laughing. If you're into that kind of humour, I highly recommend going to see it!!!!
I don't have any travelling weekends planned at the moment as I'm completely broke! I'm hoping to do a couple of trips in the new year, hopefully to Krakow and back to Scotland, because I fell in love with it last time I was there. Right now I'm just really looking forward to heading back home for the holidays. It'll be weird to come back here after flying home just for a visit, but that's all part of the experience of living abroad for a while! Katie and Andrea are heading home in December for good, so I won't be living with them anymore. I'm hoping that being without them won't make me incredibly homesick - we'll see!! I suppose that'll be a good test as to whether I'm really settled here. I have my friends at work and my flatmates, but don't know many other people otherwise!
I should probably get going as I'm at work - today is quite quiet - but I hope this update made at least a little bit of sense! Apologies for the massive delay in posting - I haven't been able to concentrate very well on anything for the last couple of weeks - not sure why!
I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to see many of you in a month and a bit when I come home!!!!!!!!!
Lots of love,
Emily
Sunday, October 14, 2007
The last couple of weeks have been fantastic and filled with culture!! Last weekend I headed out to Walthamstow, which is the centre of the borough in which Leyton is situated, to check out old census records from my area to get an idea of who once lived in my house. I found out that the house has existed from around the 1880s, as before that decade, this entire area was purely made up of fields and a couple of streets of sparse houses! There was a massive building boom in the early 1880s, which is when this entire neighbourhood went up. There were no records of anyone living here in 1891, but the next census that was taken in 1901 showed that there were 6 people living in this house - two families of three people each. The first family was made up of a 23-year-old couple, James and Charlotte Holloway, and their 1 year old son, James. The elder James was a wood polisher, indicating that this area was probably a relatively low income area, as other occupations on the street included locomotive drivers and confectionary shop employees etc. The other family was made up of a 22 year old woman and her 29 year old husband, and the woman's younger brother, who was 11 - I can't remember their names! The house must have been split into two flats, but they still would have had to share the bathroom and kitchen just like we do. Next door there lived 12 people!!!!!!! I find that astounding as these houses really aren't that big!!! There was a family of 9 and then three other people in that house. Amazing!!!!
Anyway, after I left the archives library, I met up with Katie and we headed down to the Imperial War Museum to check out the renowned Holocaust memorial exhibit. It was quite disturbing but very well done, and I'm really glad we went. They have a lot of displays telling the stories of individual people who suffered or died in concentration camps, which I thought was extremely important in getting people to understand just what a devastating impact the Nazis had on the lives of Jews and many others. They also had some wonderful pictures of Jewish families and friends taken before the war, when they were enjoying themselves on the beach or having picnics - it's so difficult to imagine that these normal, happy people were put through such terror and torture. Well, this is depressing so moving on...!!!!!
I didn't have a whole lot going on this week before Thursday, which was quite nice as I wasn't really in the mood for going out. Just one of those weeks!!! Thursday night was fabulous thought - Katie and I went to go see the London Festive Orchestra play at this beautiful church in Trafalgar Square called St. Martin-in-the-Field, so named because it once used to reside in the middle of grassy fields!!! Can you imagine?! Anyway, the orchestra was this lovely, tiny little chamber orchestra that played concertos by Vivaldi, Bach and Pachelbel, some of my favourite composers of all time. We were sitting just a few rows from the front and had a great view of the orchestra. The show was spectacular, and Katie fell in love with classical music!!!!!!!! I made a convert out of her!!
Friday night was quite quiet as well - I went out for a couple of drinks after work but had to get home early seeing as how Katie and I had to get up early in the morning to head out to the Great Portland St. tube station to catch our tour bus to see Stonehenge and Bath!!! We had a great day, and I'll try to put up some pictures soon. Stonehenge was a fair bit smaller than I thought it would be but it was beautiful and really fascinating. It's so strange that no one knows exactly why it's there or what purpose it serves!!!! It was quite amazing to literally be out in the middle of the English countryside surrounded by fields and to be standing next to a mysterious historical site that's been around for about 5000 years. It's really difficult to wrap one's mind around!!! We then headed off to Bath, which took me completely be surprise as it's absolutely beautiful and situated once again in the middle of these beautiful rolling hills. I did not expect it to be built the way it is, but apparently in the 18th century architects were hired to design the city in such a way that it would be ideal for wandering around and enjoying, and so that it would attract the best of the best and be the fashionable place to be in England. It was extremely English and quite beautiful and I can't wait to go back. The actual Roman baths themselves were gorgeous as well, and you can imagine that they must have been just spectacular back in their hey day. We felt the natural spring water that flows into them, and it was so hot!!! I was very surprised as I didn't realize that water coming from hot springs was quite literally HOT! We had a great day there, and I was so tired when we finally got back that I passed out at 9.30 and didn't wake up until 12 hours later!
Today I met up with my friend Nicola and we went into the west end to attend a Jewish festival in Trafalgar Square and to go see a film. Nicola isn't Jewish but she's hugely fascinated with Jewish culture and history, so she thought it would be fun to check out the festival. We heard some Jewish music and wandered around the booths for a bit, then went off to have lunch at my favourite little Japanese place in Leicester Square. We had a fabulous meal and then went to the Curzon Soho theatre to see a French film called The Singer. It definitely wasn't the best French film I've seen but it was interesting nonetheless!!!!!!! I've developed a passion for French films, and I highly recommend checking them out if you get a chance - they're so much more passionate and realistic than your typical American film. I know it's a little racy, but Lady Chatterley was an absolutely stunning film (French) and I recommend renting it or seeing it in the theatre if it's available. Another great one that we saw was Tell No One, a murder mystery.
This week I'm hoping to catch up with a few friends that I haven't had a chance to see recently, and then on the weekend Katie and I are randomly heading off to Oslo, Norway for a night!!!!!!!! We wanted to go somewhere, just anywhere really, so decided to look up the cheapest flight offered by Ryan Air and it happened to be Oslo - so we're going!!! I've always wanted to go to that part of the world, and even though we'll only be there for a short amount of time, it'll hopefully give us a sense of what the area has to offer. I hear it's quite beautiful so I'm really looking forward to it.
I must now go relax and read my book before starting another week at work!!! I hope everyone is doing great and keeping safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all like crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will write again soon,
Lots of love,
Emily
Anyway, after I left the archives library, I met up with Katie and we headed down to the Imperial War Museum to check out the renowned Holocaust memorial exhibit. It was quite disturbing but very well done, and I'm really glad we went. They have a lot of displays telling the stories of individual people who suffered or died in concentration camps, which I thought was extremely important in getting people to understand just what a devastating impact the Nazis had on the lives of Jews and many others. They also had some wonderful pictures of Jewish families and friends taken before the war, when they were enjoying themselves on the beach or having picnics - it's so difficult to imagine that these normal, happy people were put through such terror and torture. Well, this is depressing so moving on...!!!!!
I didn't have a whole lot going on this week before Thursday, which was quite nice as I wasn't really in the mood for going out. Just one of those weeks!!! Thursday night was fabulous thought - Katie and I went to go see the London Festive Orchestra play at this beautiful church in Trafalgar Square called St. Martin-in-the-Field, so named because it once used to reside in the middle of grassy fields!!! Can you imagine?! Anyway, the orchestra was this lovely, tiny little chamber orchestra that played concertos by Vivaldi, Bach and Pachelbel, some of my favourite composers of all time. We were sitting just a few rows from the front and had a great view of the orchestra. The show was spectacular, and Katie fell in love with classical music!!!!!!!! I made a convert out of her!!
Friday night was quite quiet as well - I went out for a couple of drinks after work but had to get home early seeing as how Katie and I had to get up early in the morning to head out to the Great Portland St. tube station to catch our tour bus to see Stonehenge and Bath!!! We had a great day, and I'll try to put up some pictures soon. Stonehenge was a fair bit smaller than I thought it would be but it was beautiful and really fascinating. It's so strange that no one knows exactly why it's there or what purpose it serves!!!! It was quite amazing to literally be out in the middle of the English countryside surrounded by fields and to be standing next to a mysterious historical site that's been around for about 5000 years. It's really difficult to wrap one's mind around!!! We then headed off to Bath, which took me completely be surprise as it's absolutely beautiful and situated once again in the middle of these beautiful rolling hills. I did not expect it to be built the way it is, but apparently in the 18th century architects were hired to design the city in such a way that it would be ideal for wandering around and enjoying, and so that it would attract the best of the best and be the fashionable place to be in England. It was extremely English and quite beautiful and I can't wait to go back. The actual Roman baths themselves were gorgeous as well, and you can imagine that they must have been just spectacular back in their hey day. We felt the natural spring water that flows into them, and it was so hot!!! I was very surprised as I didn't realize that water coming from hot springs was quite literally HOT! We had a great day there, and I was so tired when we finally got back that I passed out at 9.30 and didn't wake up until 12 hours later!
Today I met up with my friend Nicola and we went into the west end to attend a Jewish festival in Trafalgar Square and to go see a film. Nicola isn't Jewish but she's hugely fascinated with Jewish culture and history, so she thought it would be fun to check out the festival. We heard some Jewish music and wandered around the booths for a bit, then went off to have lunch at my favourite little Japanese place in Leicester Square. We had a fabulous meal and then went to the Curzon Soho theatre to see a French film called The Singer. It definitely wasn't the best French film I've seen but it was interesting nonetheless!!!!!!! I've developed a passion for French films, and I highly recommend checking them out if you get a chance - they're so much more passionate and realistic than your typical American film. I know it's a little racy, but Lady Chatterley was an absolutely stunning film (French) and I recommend renting it or seeing it in the theatre if it's available. Another great one that we saw was Tell No One, a murder mystery.
This week I'm hoping to catch up with a few friends that I haven't had a chance to see recently, and then on the weekend Katie and I are randomly heading off to Oslo, Norway for a night!!!!!!!! We wanted to go somewhere, just anywhere really, so decided to look up the cheapest flight offered by Ryan Air and it happened to be Oslo - so we're going!!! I've always wanted to go to that part of the world, and even though we'll only be there for a short amount of time, it'll hopefully give us a sense of what the area has to offer. I hear it's quite beautiful so I'm really looking forward to it.
I must now go relax and read my book before starting another week at work!!! I hope everyone is doing great and keeping safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all like crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will write again soon,
Lots of love,
Emily
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Hello all,
Another busy week has come to an end and there is much to report!! I didn't actually have a whole lot going on at the beginning of the week, but on Wednesday I went to my first yoga class at the Fitness First down the road from my work. I'm going to start doing yoga twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays - I just had my second session today and I must admit that my back is in a bit of pain!!!
Thursday night Katie and I went to go see Avenue Q, a musical that was written for people who hate musicals and which involves puppets who are quite rude and vulgar! It was absolutely hilarious and slightly outrageous - we loved it! It's been playing every night for over a year now, and will continue for another year. It's actually an American musical but appeals greatly to the British sense of humour and irony. On Friday it was my co-worker Anthony's 40th birthday, so we all went out for a 2.5 hour lunch and made fun of him for getting old. In the UK, the tradition is for the person whose birthday it is to buy drinks and food for everyone, so I didn't pay a single penny!! Everyone agreed with me that this tradition doesn't make much sense, but none of us were complaining! I then went out for drinks after work with some younger coworkers of mine - the pub next to my work is packed every single next, but especially so on Fridays. It's quite funny to see crowds of people in their business clothes getting all rowdy in the pub.
Yesterday Katie, Andrea, Catia, Daniel and I headed over to Camden Town in the afternoon. I'd always heard about Camden Town and the markets there, but I had ABSOLUTELY no idea how amazing it really is!!! If you think of Kensington Market in Toronto, it's basically like that but 30 times bigger and with a much vaster range of products, clothes, jewellery, food, basically anything you can possibly imagine. It's such a unique place too because the punk culture is still very much alive there, with giant mohawks and anarchy signs all over the place, and yet the place is full of different people from all walks of life. You can find trendy, alternative, punk, pop, anything there really. We spent a few hours roaming just a small fraction of the markets, and then Katie and I headed off to St. Paul's tube station to join a walking tour at 7.30. The walking tour was a ghost walk that went around the central city area of London, or the oldest part of the city, for an hour and 45 minutes. Funnily enough, part of the tour stopped right next to my office building. The pubs attached to my building are hundreds of years old and have many stories to tell, and the alley ways behind the building used to be used by the black friars who used to live there (hence the reason why the area is called Blackfriars). One friar was actually murdered at a spot right behind my building by having an iron stake driven through his forehead. Creepy!! I also found out that the Cock Pit, an old pub attached to the building, used to be the site of many a cock fight and gin-induced crime back in the day. It boggles my mind to imagine what the areas I walk through everyday were once like. We loved the walk and are going to try to do one a week from now on!! They have walks taking place all over London through this same company every day, and for only 5 pounds!
....It's now Monday as I had to put this aside for a bit! Anyway, on Sunday I had a veryyy busy day. I had found out the afternoon before that Ann (my good friend and old housemate at Mac) would be flying into London on Saturday night and flying out the next afternoon... not because she's insane but because she's a flight attendant with Air Canada! We didn't have enough time before the tubes closed on Saturday night to get together, so I met her on Sunday morning at 9.30am in Piccadilly Circus. We chatted over coffee and then I took her to see Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square - all the tourist favourites of the West End! We only had a few hours to spend together but it was amazing to see her!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe that Ann and I have been in London together! The same goes for when Mark was over - it's crazy! I'm very, very lucky to have been able to see some of my closest friends while over here (not to mention living with one of them) and to have gone travelling with my sister. It makes the transition a lot easier!!!!!!!! Anyway, after seeing Ann I went back to Leyton and attended a yoga class. It was quite intense and my back still hurts from it! I then went to meet my friend Nicola down the road as she just moved a 20 minute walk away from me!! We met up and found an extremely old cemetary with some absolutely fascinating headstones in it, mostly covered in ivy or worn away. The graveyard was part of a very old church, and we spent about 45 minutes just wandering through the property and looking at the dates and names on the headstones. Many of them dated back to the 18th century, and there were others that were even older but we couldn't read them as the wording was completely worn away. There was also a board giving a short history of Leyton there, and it turns out that it used to be a retirement area inhabited by wealthy merchants and businessmen of London who would use Leyton as a getaway. At that time it was outside of London in a rural area. Hard to imagine now!!!!!!!! I've always been fascinated with who lived in my old Victorian house in the past, but that got me even more interested, so I've contacted the old archives library in Walthamstowe Forest, the borough of London where Leyton is located, and I'm going to make an appointment to go in and view the property records. I've already purchased a brief report on who has owned the house, but it doesn't seem to be complete. A man named Henry Cresswell Foulkes purchased the house in 1886 and I believe rented it out. I'm not sure if it would be possible to find out who he rented it out to though! A brief google search of that name shows that he owned a number of properties in the area, obviously a fat cat landlord type!! Anyway, after walking through the graveyard we went back to Nicola's new flat, which is owned by a BBC journalist who is currently on a 6 month contract in Washington and is absolutely lovely. She and her husband made an absolutely fabulous dinner of mushroom/onion/garlic tomato sauce with cheese and spinach tortellini. It was an amazing change from my usual store-bought sandwiches and paninis!!
I'm now at work and am not really that busy today! Katie and I are hoping to do another walk tomorrow evening, Wednesday I have yoga after work and Thursday I'm attending an office event, Rock n' Roll for Kidz, which is for charity and is supposed to be quite fun!!!
Another busy week has come to an end and there is much to report!! I didn't actually have a whole lot going on at the beginning of the week, but on Wednesday I went to my first yoga class at the Fitness First down the road from my work. I'm going to start doing yoga twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays - I just had my second session today and I must admit that my back is in a bit of pain!!!
Thursday night Katie and I went to go see Avenue Q, a musical that was written for people who hate musicals and which involves puppets who are quite rude and vulgar! It was absolutely hilarious and slightly outrageous - we loved it! It's been playing every night for over a year now, and will continue for another year. It's actually an American musical but appeals greatly to the British sense of humour and irony. On Friday it was my co-worker Anthony's 40th birthday, so we all went out for a 2.5 hour lunch and made fun of him for getting old. In the UK, the tradition is for the person whose birthday it is to buy drinks and food for everyone, so I didn't pay a single penny!! Everyone agreed with me that this tradition doesn't make much sense, but none of us were complaining! I then went out for drinks after work with some younger coworkers of mine - the pub next to my work is packed every single next, but especially so on Fridays. It's quite funny to see crowds of people in their business clothes getting all rowdy in the pub.
Yesterday Katie, Andrea, Catia, Daniel and I headed over to Camden Town in the afternoon. I'd always heard about Camden Town and the markets there, but I had ABSOLUTELY no idea how amazing it really is!!! If you think of Kensington Market in Toronto, it's basically like that but 30 times bigger and with a much vaster range of products, clothes, jewellery, food, basically anything you can possibly imagine. It's such a unique place too because the punk culture is still very much alive there, with giant mohawks and anarchy signs all over the place, and yet the place is full of different people from all walks of life. You can find trendy, alternative, punk, pop, anything there really. We spent a few hours roaming just a small fraction of the markets, and then Katie and I headed off to St. Paul's tube station to join a walking tour at 7.30. The walking tour was a ghost walk that went around the central city area of London, or the oldest part of the city, for an hour and 45 minutes. Funnily enough, part of the tour stopped right next to my office building. The pubs attached to my building are hundreds of years old and have many stories to tell, and the alley ways behind the building used to be used by the black friars who used to live there (hence the reason why the area is called Blackfriars). One friar was actually murdered at a spot right behind my building by having an iron stake driven through his forehead. Creepy!! I also found out that the Cock Pit, an old pub attached to the building, used to be the site of many a cock fight and gin-induced crime back in the day. It boggles my mind to imagine what the areas I walk through everyday were once like. We loved the walk and are going to try to do one a week from now on!! They have walks taking place all over London through this same company every day, and for only 5 pounds!
....It's now Monday as I had to put this aside for a bit! Anyway, on Sunday I had a veryyy busy day. I had found out the afternoon before that Ann (my good friend and old housemate at Mac) would be flying into London on Saturday night and flying out the next afternoon... not because she's insane but because she's a flight attendant with Air Canada! We didn't have enough time before the tubes closed on Saturday night to get together, so I met her on Sunday morning at 9.30am in Piccadilly Circus. We chatted over coffee and then I took her to see Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square - all the tourist favourites of the West End! We only had a few hours to spend together but it was amazing to see her!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe that Ann and I have been in London together! The same goes for when Mark was over - it's crazy! I'm very, very lucky to have been able to see some of my closest friends while over here (not to mention living with one of them) and to have gone travelling with my sister. It makes the transition a lot easier!!!!!!!! Anyway, after seeing Ann I went back to Leyton and attended a yoga class. It was quite intense and my back still hurts from it! I then went to meet my friend Nicola down the road as she just moved a 20 minute walk away from me!! We met up and found an extremely old cemetary with some absolutely fascinating headstones in it, mostly covered in ivy or worn away. The graveyard was part of a very old church, and we spent about 45 minutes just wandering through the property and looking at the dates and names on the headstones. Many of them dated back to the 18th century, and there were others that were even older but we couldn't read them as the wording was completely worn away. There was also a board giving a short history of Leyton there, and it turns out that it used to be a retirement area inhabited by wealthy merchants and businessmen of London who would use Leyton as a getaway. At that time it was outside of London in a rural area. Hard to imagine now!!!!!!!! I've always been fascinated with who lived in my old Victorian house in the past, but that got me even more interested, so I've contacted the old archives library in Walthamstowe Forest, the borough of London where Leyton is located, and I'm going to make an appointment to go in and view the property records. I've already purchased a brief report on who has owned the house, but it doesn't seem to be complete. A man named Henry Cresswell Foulkes purchased the house in 1886 and I believe rented it out. I'm not sure if it would be possible to find out who he rented it out to though! A brief google search of that name shows that he owned a number of properties in the area, obviously a fat cat landlord type!! Anyway, after walking through the graveyard we went back to Nicola's new flat, which is owned by a BBC journalist who is currently on a 6 month contract in Washington and is absolutely lovely. She and her husband made an absolutely fabulous dinner of mushroom/onion/garlic tomato sauce with cheese and spinach tortellini. It was an amazing change from my usual store-bought sandwiches and paninis!!
I'm now at work and am not really that busy today! Katie and I are hoping to do another walk tomorrow evening, Wednesday I have yoga after work and Thursday I'm attending an office event, Rock n' Roll for Kidz, which is for charity and is supposed to be quite fun!!!
I hope everyone is doing well!!!!!!!!! Nana, I got your e-mail and was going to write back but I figured it would get repetitive if I were just going to post in here anyway!!! It was so good to hear from you and I will write to you soon, there is definitely a lot going on here that I haven't mentioned!!!!
Lots and lots of love,
Emily
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I'm alive!!!
Hi everyone!! I'm so sorry for the MASSIVE delay in posting... I don't have that much motivation to write in here because I'm never sure if people are actually reading this and there's always so much going on that I don't know where to start!!!!! I really miss you all so much and I thought I'd update you all on what's been going on in my life since I've been living in London.
I got a job on the 17th August with the Bank of New York Mellon, which is made up of two American investment banks that just merged in July. My job titles is "Sales Support", which basically means that I help out the entire sales team with anything they need to be done. Since everything's so crazy right now with the merger, though, there's just so much going on that I've not only been helping out the sales team but also marketing, client relations, etc - basically everyone!!! I'm not sure if anyone's interested, but I'll run through a typical day for me so that you all know what goes on in the life of Emily!!
I wake up at 6am to shower and get ready for work. I usually leave around 7.15 - 7.30 to get to work for around 8. I've been working from 8 - 5 so that I can work 40 hour weeks and make more money!! I get into work and immediately go and get breakfast from the cafe in our building, where we can buy food by putting money on our security passes and swiping the card. Amazing!!! Then I go up to my desk on the third floor and start my day. I do so many different tasks throughout the day that I wouldn't know where to begin! I sit in on meetings and take notes, do people's expenses for them, distribute the post, answer the phones, book meetings, etc etc. It's obviously not very mentally challenging which can get me down a bit, but it can get very busy and fast paced which I like. The people I work with are absolutely fantastic, and that makes the job so worth it! I've made great friends with a bunch of people in the office, including Anna, Mel, James and Cristina, among others, and we all go out for drinks quite often after work. My boss, Fiona, is quite possibly the nicest woman I've ever met (except for you of course, mom!!!!!!!) and she's so lovely to work with. I never feel like anyone is looking over my shoulder and she's always there to help me with anything I need help with, whether it's finding a flat, figuring out how to pronounce someone's name, transferring money to Canada, etc!
Every week is different - last week I was out every single night except for Friday, when I finally burnt out from exhaustion. I spent most of the weekend lazing around the house, except for Saturday night when my flatmates and I went out clubbing in central London - where we met Jude Law!!!!!!!!! We were walking down Shaftesbury Avenue when Katie suddenly said, "Isn't that some actor guy....?" I looked over and it took a second to register... Jude Law was standing right there on the side of the road about to get into a van with his kids!!!!!!! Of course, I couldn't pass up this opportunity so I walked over to him and said "Hi!!" (reminds me of someone I know, i.e. Nana!!) He said hi back but was too preoccupied with arranging his kids for conversation, so I walked away and waved to him from the sidewalk - and he waved back! He's just as gorgeous in person as he is in the movies! I was so excited that I called my mom right away and yelled into the phone about my fabulous conversation with Jude Law.
As for my living arrangements, I'm living in an old Victorian townhouse in East London, just a 5 minute walk from the Leyton tube stop. It takes about 15 minutes to get into the city area of London, where all the big businesses have their offices. I live with 7 other people (!!!) - a French guy, Ben, a Portuguese couple, Catia and Daniel, two British guys, Ian and Chris, and then myself, Katie and Andrea, the Canadian girls!!!!!!!!!!!! We're all around the same age and get along really well, which is a relief. I was worried that we'd end up living with some sketchy people but everyone's turned out to be great. On Sunday night we had a 'family' BBQ where we lay two cardboard boxes on the floor and covered them with a bath towel for a table, and BBQ'd up a storm with chicken, sausages, etc... it was amazing!!!!! We only have one bathroom between the 8 of us, but surprisingly we haven't had any issues with shower times. We think it's because half the people living here are guys and they take short showers!
That's pretty much the update for all the major stuff... one other thing to report is that Andrea and I took a bus to Bristol, on the southwest coast of England, last weekend just for the day and really loved it. We were on the bus for a total of 5 hours that day and only spent 4 hours in Bristol, but it was worth it! We did a 1.5 hour bus tour of the city and it's so much more beautiful and historical than I thought. It has a huge gorge with a suspension bridge going over it right in the middle of the city - kinda like Vancouver but literally in the middle of the city!
Katie and I are hoping to get to Paris in October for a weekend, and possibly Amsterdam. Next spring I'm hoping to do a driving tour of the west coast of Scotland, so hopefully that pans out. I am coming home at Christmas, which I'm VERY excited about!!! I'll be home for 2 weeks from the 22nd of December to the 4th of January. Then I'll be coming home again in March for my old roommate Kristine's wedding - you guys will be sick of seeing me by then!!! I'm just hoping that I don't end up coming home and getting so homesick that I don't want to leave again!!! We'll see what happens!
That's about it for me - I'm going to spend tonight reading and hanging out with the flatmates, then tomorrow I'm hoping to go to a yoga class at the gym down the road from my work that I joined. Thursday Katie and I are going to Avenue Q, a musical comedy involving puppets, and Friday night I'm going out with some of work mates as they say.
I hope everyone is doing well - please keep me updated on what's going on in your lives - I hate feeling like I'm missing out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you and miss you all so much,
Love,
Emily
I got a job on the 17th August with the Bank of New York Mellon, which is made up of two American investment banks that just merged in July. My job titles is "Sales Support", which basically means that I help out the entire sales team with anything they need to be done. Since everything's so crazy right now with the merger, though, there's just so much going on that I've not only been helping out the sales team but also marketing, client relations, etc - basically everyone!!! I'm not sure if anyone's interested, but I'll run through a typical day for me so that you all know what goes on in the life of Emily!!
I wake up at 6am to shower and get ready for work. I usually leave around 7.15 - 7.30 to get to work for around 8. I've been working from 8 - 5 so that I can work 40 hour weeks and make more money!! I get into work and immediately go and get breakfast from the cafe in our building, where we can buy food by putting money on our security passes and swiping the card. Amazing!!! Then I go up to my desk on the third floor and start my day. I do so many different tasks throughout the day that I wouldn't know where to begin! I sit in on meetings and take notes, do people's expenses for them, distribute the post, answer the phones, book meetings, etc etc. It's obviously not very mentally challenging which can get me down a bit, but it can get very busy and fast paced which I like. The people I work with are absolutely fantastic, and that makes the job so worth it! I've made great friends with a bunch of people in the office, including Anna, Mel, James and Cristina, among others, and we all go out for drinks quite often after work. My boss, Fiona, is quite possibly the nicest woman I've ever met (except for you of course, mom!!!!!!!) and she's so lovely to work with. I never feel like anyone is looking over my shoulder and she's always there to help me with anything I need help with, whether it's finding a flat, figuring out how to pronounce someone's name, transferring money to Canada, etc!
Every week is different - last week I was out every single night except for Friday, when I finally burnt out from exhaustion. I spent most of the weekend lazing around the house, except for Saturday night when my flatmates and I went out clubbing in central London - where we met Jude Law!!!!!!!!! We were walking down Shaftesbury Avenue when Katie suddenly said, "Isn't that some actor guy....?" I looked over and it took a second to register... Jude Law was standing right there on the side of the road about to get into a van with his kids!!!!!!! Of course, I couldn't pass up this opportunity so I walked over to him and said "Hi!!" (reminds me of someone I know, i.e. Nana!!) He said hi back but was too preoccupied with arranging his kids for conversation, so I walked away and waved to him from the sidewalk - and he waved back! He's just as gorgeous in person as he is in the movies! I was so excited that I called my mom right away and yelled into the phone about my fabulous conversation with Jude Law.
As for my living arrangements, I'm living in an old Victorian townhouse in East London, just a 5 minute walk from the Leyton tube stop. It takes about 15 minutes to get into the city area of London, where all the big businesses have their offices. I live with 7 other people (!!!) - a French guy, Ben, a Portuguese couple, Catia and Daniel, two British guys, Ian and Chris, and then myself, Katie and Andrea, the Canadian girls!!!!!!!!!!!! We're all around the same age and get along really well, which is a relief. I was worried that we'd end up living with some sketchy people but everyone's turned out to be great. On Sunday night we had a 'family' BBQ where we lay two cardboard boxes on the floor and covered them with a bath towel for a table, and BBQ'd up a storm with chicken, sausages, etc... it was amazing!!!!! We only have one bathroom between the 8 of us, but surprisingly we haven't had any issues with shower times. We think it's because half the people living here are guys and they take short showers!
That's pretty much the update for all the major stuff... one other thing to report is that Andrea and I took a bus to Bristol, on the southwest coast of England, last weekend just for the day and really loved it. We were on the bus for a total of 5 hours that day and only spent 4 hours in Bristol, but it was worth it! We did a 1.5 hour bus tour of the city and it's so much more beautiful and historical than I thought. It has a huge gorge with a suspension bridge going over it right in the middle of the city - kinda like Vancouver but literally in the middle of the city!
Katie and I are hoping to get to Paris in October for a weekend, and possibly Amsterdam. Next spring I'm hoping to do a driving tour of the west coast of Scotland, so hopefully that pans out. I am coming home at Christmas, which I'm VERY excited about!!! I'll be home for 2 weeks from the 22nd of December to the 4th of January. Then I'll be coming home again in March for my old roommate Kristine's wedding - you guys will be sick of seeing me by then!!! I'm just hoping that I don't end up coming home and getting so homesick that I don't want to leave again!!! We'll see what happens!
That's about it for me - I'm going to spend tonight reading and hanging out with the flatmates, then tomorrow I'm hoping to go to a yoga class at the gym down the road from my work that I joined. Thursday Katie and I are going to Avenue Q, a musical comedy involving puppets, and Friday night I'm going out with some of work mates as they say.
I hope everyone is doing well - please keep me updated on what's going on in your lives - I hate feeling like I'm missing out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you and miss you all so much,
Love,
Emily
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Ola!
Hey all! Thought I´d write a quick update on the difficulties we encountered trying to get to Barcelona... where do I begin?! Well, our initial plan was to catch the train from Nice to Barcelona. We got up early and were at the train station 40 min before our train left, nice and early. We discovered, to our dismay, that a reservation was required in order to get on this train, and all we had were our Eurail passes. The lineup to get a reservation for the train was long but didn´t seem TOO bad, so we figured we could make it. Train was at 10:30.... 10 am rolls around... line hasn´t moved... 10:15... nope, still hasn´t moved. 10:30... okay, we´re screwed. There was no other train to Barcelona that day from Nice. We decided to head out to the airport to see if we could catch a cheap flight out to Barcelona. Hmmmm, guess again. It would have cost Katie 700 euros at least to fly to Barcelona on the cheapest airline!!!! We started panicking, calling the Nice hotel we´d been staying in to see if we could stay another night, but no, they were full. The train to Barcelona stops in Montpellier, France, so we decided to just head to Montpellier instead and catch the train from there the next day. Booked what looked like a decent hotel from the internet and headed to Montpellier. We got there and it was as close to Harlem as you can get in Europe. Scary, scary, scary, and we didn´t want to be outside anymore than was necessary!!!! We arrived at our ´hotel´, found that they hadn´t received our reservation. Had to find an internet cafe to print off our reservation and proof of payment through Expedia. Finally convinced them to give us a room, which turned out to contain a bunk bed with stains everywhere, a floor that make strange cracking noises, and a suspicious looking washroom. We spent as little time in there as possible - only to sleep!- and got up at 6 am and promptly left (although we´d been up since 5 because dad called after hearing where we were and told us to immediately get up, shower, and get out of town!!). Went to the train station to catch our 7:30 am train only to find out it was full. Next train was at 11:40, so we walked around for a bit, ate, then went to sleep on the floor of the train station for a while. We then laughed hysterically for about an hour over our predicament. We finally got on the train, which was to stop in Port Bou, Spain, before heading off to Barcelona. We arrive in Port Bou, thinking, okay, now we´re safe. We´re almost in Barcelona, finally.... or so we thought. The train was supposed to get in at 4:12, and when a train pulled up at 4:05 accompanied by an announcement in Spanish which included the word ¨barcelona¨, we got on. WELL, GUESS WHAT?!?! We got on the wrong train. This one was going back the way we came!!! We arrived back across the French border, realized we were in the middle of nowhere, and started panicking. I managed to ask a train station worker in French to call us a cab, and this actually ended up being an incredible experience. The taxi driver spoke only Spanish and was playing lovely Spanish music in the cab, and it turns out that the 20 minute drive across the French-Spanish border is just... breathtaking. We wound our way up through the mountains and had spectacular views of the ocean and small towns along the way... we actually ended up feelign very lucky that we missed our train as we never would have seen such an incredible sight had we not! Anyway, finally arrived back in Port Bou to find that our train was an hour and a half wait away. Finally, finally, we got on that train and were on our way to Barcelona. I have never felt such relief at finally arriving in a place!!! We had booked in at an apartment for several nights in the centre of the city, and when we finally arrived, we were absolutely blown away. The apartment is beautiful and looks as though it´s a real, modern apartment that someone lives in, complete with great modern art and a waterfall shower. 50 euro a night each.... we have no idea how we got so lucky!!!!! The owners are probably drug dealers, but we don´t care!!!
Anyway, having a great time in Barcelona now. We´re here for 2 more nights and then off to Madrid, then Lisbon, then Lagos and then ´home´to London!!!! The weather here is beautiful and hot and we now look a little less Canadian due to our deepening tans!
Hope everyone is well and that you enjoyed that little story about our crazy adventures trying to get to Barcelona! Will write again soon!
Love,
Emily
Anyway, having a great time in Barcelona now. We´re here for 2 more nights and then off to Madrid, then Lisbon, then Lagos and then ´home´to London!!!! The weather here is beautiful and hot and we now look a little less Canadian due to our deepening tans!
Hope everyone is well and that you enjoyed that little story about our crazy adventures trying to get to Barcelona! Will write again soon!
Love,
Emily
Friday, July 27, 2007
I'm back!!!!
Hello everyone!!! Sorry for the massive gap between posts - the last couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy and none of our hostels have had internet access. It's such a pain to track down internet cafes so I just kinda gave up on the whole internet thing except for odd e-mail check here and there.
Where to begin.... well, right now Katie and I are in Nice, France, right by the Italian/French border. We're supposed to be in Florence right now but after a whirlwind week and a half of sightseeing which included stops in Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Geneva, and Venice, we decided that we needed a break, so we skipped Florence and we're now spending three nights in beautiful Nice before heading off to Barcelona for four nights, then Madrid for three, Lisbon for three, Lagos for three and then back to London!! Just two weeks left - I can't believe it!!
Last week my good friend Tom (from London) joined us in Amsterdam, and Fiona's friend Anjelica from home joined us as well. We went to visit Anne Frank's house which was quite an eerie experience - it was actually much smaller than I had envisioned and it's so hard to believe that two entire families lived in that space for two years without ever seeing the outside world. In Berlin we saw the Berlin wall, which was actually much thinner than I had expected. It was an incredible sight to see. We noticed that there were very few references to Hitler in the city, which was interesting. They seem to be trying to focus as much on the Cold War as possible and as little on WWII as possible. We saw all the major sites in Berlin with Captain Tom as our leader, and had a grand time and many great meals! Munich was an absolute blast, and of course we went to Haufbrau house (sp?) to drink litre glasses of beer and eat German sausage and sauerkraut. Before I forget, I have to mention that when we were in the Munich train station waiting for our train to Geneva (through Zurich), we were standing around in the newspaper shop buying... a newspaper, obviously... when I heard "No way... no way..." I looked over, and there was my old highschool friend Charles Skelton!!!!!!! Who knew?!?! To meet up with an old friend in a tiny newspaper shop in the middle of Munich... what a small world! I was in shock!
What else... Geneva was beautiful but unfortunately it rained almost the entire time we were there!!! We got stuck in the rain on our way to the UN building, which meant that we were as far away from our hostel as we could possibly have been. We made the most of the situation by dancing in the rain and having bubblegum blowing contests. Katie and I also took off our shoes and ran barefoot in the rain for a while. What can ya do?!
Venice, as usual, was stunning. Katie and I spent a large portion of our time there feeding the pigeons, and we now have many insane pictures of us with pigeons on our arms, heads and backpacks. I can just hear Dad saying "DO YOU KNOW HOW UNSANITARY THAT IS?!?!?!"
Anyway, we arrived in Nice last night after a 9 hour train ride and are staying in a lovely little hotel literally a 1 minute walk from the gorgeous beach. Nice is just beautiful, palm trees everywhere, old European buildings, good food... we're in love!!!!! Katie is actually lying on the beach right now - I got bored after lying there for a few hours! The Meditteranean is a perfect blue and so warm. We're extremely glad we came here rather than spending more time sightseeing in Florence!
I hope this was a sufficient update - I promise to write again when we're in Barcelona as we won't be so rushed and I'll have more time to relax and find a computer!!!!!!
I hope everyone is doing well - I miss you all sooooooooooo much despite the lack of updates and e-mails!!!!!!!!!!! Thinking of you all constantly,
Love,
Emily
Where to begin.... well, right now Katie and I are in Nice, France, right by the Italian/French border. We're supposed to be in Florence right now but after a whirlwind week and a half of sightseeing which included stops in Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Geneva, and Venice, we decided that we needed a break, so we skipped Florence and we're now spending three nights in beautiful Nice before heading off to Barcelona for four nights, then Madrid for three, Lisbon for three, Lagos for three and then back to London!! Just two weeks left - I can't believe it!!
Last week my good friend Tom (from London) joined us in Amsterdam, and Fiona's friend Anjelica from home joined us as well. We went to visit Anne Frank's house which was quite an eerie experience - it was actually much smaller than I had envisioned and it's so hard to believe that two entire families lived in that space for two years without ever seeing the outside world. In Berlin we saw the Berlin wall, which was actually much thinner than I had expected. It was an incredible sight to see. We noticed that there were very few references to Hitler in the city, which was interesting. They seem to be trying to focus as much on the Cold War as possible and as little on WWII as possible. We saw all the major sites in Berlin with Captain Tom as our leader, and had a grand time and many great meals! Munich was an absolute blast, and of course we went to Haufbrau house (sp?) to drink litre glasses of beer and eat German sausage and sauerkraut. Before I forget, I have to mention that when we were in the Munich train station waiting for our train to Geneva (through Zurich), we were standing around in the newspaper shop buying... a newspaper, obviously... when I heard "No way... no way..." I looked over, and there was my old highschool friend Charles Skelton!!!!!!! Who knew?!?! To meet up with an old friend in a tiny newspaper shop in the middle of Munich... what a small world! I was in shock!
What else... Geneva was beautiful but unfortunately it rained almost the entire time we were there!!! We got stuck in the rain on our way to the UN building, which meant that we were as far away from our hostel as we could possibly have been. We made the most of the situation by dancing in the rain and having bubblegum blowing contests. Katie and I also took off our shoes and ran barefoot in the rain for a while. What can ya do?!
Venice, as usual, was stunning. Katie and I spent a large portion of our time there feeding the pigeons, and we now have many insane pictures of us with pigeons on our arms, heads and backpacks. I can just hear Dad saying "DO YOU KNOW HOW UNSANITARY THAT IS?!?!?!"
Anyway, we arrived in Nice last night after a 9 hour train ride and are staying in a lovely little hotel literally a 1 minute walk from the gorgeous beach. Nice is just beautiful, palm trees everywhere, old European buildings, good food... we're in love!!!!! Katie is actually lying on the beach right now - I got bored after lying there for a few hours! The Meditteranean is a perfect blue and so warm. We're extremely glad we came here rather than spending more time sightseeing in Florence!
I hope this was a sufficient update - I promise to write again when we're in Barcelona as we won't be so rushed and I'll have more time to relax and find a computer!!!!!!
I hope everyone is doing well - I miss you all sooooooooooo much despite the lack of updates and e-mails!!!!!!!!!!! Thinking of you all constantly,
Love,
Emily
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