Happy fathers day to THE BEST DAD IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Bloggin' Foo' Strikes Again
Here I am, as promised, writing my heart out for YOU. Fasten your seatbelts, you're in for a long, bumpy ride. Shall we begin?
The plane landed in Londres (this is London for the non-frenchies). My phone got lost on the plane, or someone stole it (due to this unfortunate event i have no pictures) and I almost got sent back to America because I didn't know the address of the hotel I was staying at. I was late to meet Evelyn at Paddington station because I had to make a detour to the claims dept. to tell them about my lost/stolen phone. This actually cheered me up a little; the man in line ahead of me was reporting his lost baggage, which had mistakenly been shipped to Normandy.. Whoops.
Luckily I made it to Evelyn, only 30 minutes late, and from the beginning of the trip we proceeded to walk EVERYWHERE. We saw just about everything there is to see, from the London Bridge to¨Parliment to the Gherkin.(pssst this is a link) You name it, we saw it. We also had a "real english breakfast" which for those of you who don't know... is a little bit different from brunch à la Succotash. We had to find a pub. An English pub that was open at 10 in the morning. We found a shady building and walked inside. Before our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we practically ran into the mysterious man drinking white wine at the bar, which apparently is totally natural because there was an elderly couple drinking whiskey in the booth across from us(???)... Then we paid at the bar for our breakfast, which included: baked beans, basted eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. Top it off with some jam and the London equivelent of ketchup and Bam!(it's Emeril approved..) The complete London breakfast.
HARPER'S TOP 10 OF LONDON
next stop: Pologne
Krakow. What an interesting place. As you have read, no one speaks English. Thus, you have to read body language/expressions, and imitate everyone around you... without them knowing (Nobody wants to be pegged as a tourist, it's like saying you have the black plague). It was pretty amusing. We went on a free walking tour with Chris, who had the greatest polish accent and wore a t-shirt that said, "born to be guide". He took us to the Jewish community, which is a misnomer because there are only 97 practicing Jews in the entire place, which was pretty astounding. They never returned after WW2... Schindler's List was filmed in the Jewish community. It's a movie the locals know very well... and they protest that some parts aren't 100% correct. For example, Schindler had 3 lists, not one, and lots of people had to pay to get on it. The American movie is based on an American novel that this guy wrote after interviewing ONE local. Go figure. Good movie though.
salt... everywhere. even the chandalier
I also went to the salt caves; these caves deep(we're talking 400 km) underground where miners carved figures out of salt. The walls, the floor, the ceiling... Everything was made of salt. I licked the walls. They were salty. On one of our many walks Evelyn taught me how to eat a strawberry, green leafy top and everything. I dare you to try it. She also influenced me to eat a kiwi with the peel . This girl is freaky (she's from Canada). You should try it though, really. It's not bad. She grew up on a farm, and claims that lots of people eat the entire fruit... like bananas, apples, pears, kiwi, and strawberries etc. I asked her if she ate the whole banana, and she replied, "No, that would be weird!" I like this girl.
Our 20+ mile trek is already documented, so refer to facebook for more info. I will add; the Monestary had awesome sausages.
Are We There Yet?
paris! We stayed at the Holiday Inn (this link is especially for my father) in Paris thanks to Evelyn's Dad and his hotel points. It was so awesome. The beds had ironed sheets and a real bathtub with a shower(which honestly impressed us the most). Showers in Europe... are tiny. In fact, tiny is an understatement. I had so many bruises on my elbows from taking showers in London and Krakow... showering became dangerous. You cant reach your toes, you can barely reach your hair, and god forbid you drop something.... We were super clean in Paris. Which is ironic, because Paris is extremely dirty. The streets are lined with cigarette butts. Luckily they added lights to the Eiffel Tower that light up every hour on the hour to distract the tourists from the filth.
Gosh. This is going to take awhile. More on Paris later. SO much to say...
a couple sidenotes:
and lastly, im going to end my blog with a small insert from my personal journal; something to tie you over until I have the strength to finish what I started in Paris and move to Lyon, where I'm currently staying with a suuuuuuuuper cool host family(stay tuned)
...and I thought my luck was bad. It's not. I'm extremely blessed to have everything I could need. No matter what happens to my camera or my car or my bike, I will always have myself and those around me who love and support me. There is no telling what will happen, but I know that if I keep this in mind, everything will be just fine.
----
so to those of you reading this, know that im thinking of you, and that you're that one of a kind, cant-live-without sort of person. and you mean a lot to me :)
lots of hugs and kisses
harper
The plane landed in Londres (this is London for the non-frenchies). My phone got lost on the plane, or someone stole it (due to this unfortunate event i have no pictures) and I almost got sent back to America because I didn't know the address of the hotel I was staying at. I was late to meet Evelyn at Paddington station because I had to make a detour to the claims dept. to tell them about my lost/stolen phone. This actually cheered me up a little; the man in line ahead of me was reporting his lost baggage, which had mistakenly been shipped to Normandy.. Whoops.
Luckily I made it to Evelyn, only 30 minutes late, and from the beginning of the trip we proceeded to walk EVERYWHERE. We saw just about everything there is to see, from the London Bridge to¨Parliment to the Gherkin.(pssst this is a link) You name it, we saw it. We also had a "real english breakfast" which for those of you who don't know... is a little bit different from brunch à la Succotash. We had to find a pub. An English pub that was open at 10 in the morning. We found a shady building and walked inside. Before our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we practically ran into the mysterious man drinking white wine at the bar, which apparently is totally natural because there was an elderly couple drinking whiskey in the booth across from us(???)... Then we paid at the bar for our breakfast, which included: baked beans, basted eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. Top it off with some jam and the London equivelent of ketchup and Bam!(it's Emeril approved..) The complete London breakfast.
HARPER'S TOP 10 OF LONDON
- London Fashion
- Day Trips to Windsor
- River Thames and all the places surrounding it (eg: the London Eye, Parlaiment, cute shops, city hall, fish et chips, etc)
- Oyster Card. Basically a pre-paid metro card. Right now they have a special edition Will and Kate card. It's adorable.
- Downtown London
- Camedon Market (think swap and shop, only way more expensive... and full of souvenier booths)
- Hyde Park(the real deal!)
- Buckingham Palace (sans queen)
- Squirrel Man. This man was a regular of "the enchanted palace" and fed the chubby squirrels almonds everyday. It was super cute.
- London Tube. So easy. Slightly jealous
next stop: Pologne
Krakow. What an interesting place. As you have read, no one speaks English. Thus, you have to read body language/expressions, and imitate everyone around you... without them knowing (Nobody wants to be pegged as a tourist, it's like saying you have the black plague). It was pretty amusing. We went on a free walking tour with Chris, who had the greatest polish accent and wore a t-shirt that said, "born to be guide". He took us to the Jewish community, which is a misnomer because there are only 97 practicing Jews in the entire place, which was pretty astounding. They never returned after WW2... Schindler's List was filmed in the Jewish community. It's a movie the locals know very well... and they protest that some parts aren't 100% correct. For example, Schindler had 3 lists, not one, and lots of people had to pay to get on it. The American movie is based on an American novel that this guy wrote after interviewing ONE local. Go figure. Good movie though.
salt... everywhere. even the chandalier
I also went to the salt caves; these caves deep(we're talking 400 km) underground where miners carved figures out of salt. The walls, the floor, the ceiling... Everything was made of salt. I licked the walls. They were salty. On one of our many walks Evelyn taught me how to eat a strawberry, green leafy top and everything. I dare you to try it. She also influenced me to eat a kiwi with the peel . This girl is freaky (she's from Canada). You should try it though, really. It's not bad. She grew up on a farm, and claims that lots of people eat the entire fruit... like bananas, apples, pears, kiwi, and strawberries etc. I asked her if she ate the whole banana, and she replied, "No, that would be weird!" I like this girl.
Our 20+ mile trek is already documented, so refer to facebook for more info. I will add; the Monestary had awesome sausages.
Are We There Yet?
paris! We stayed at the Holiday Inn (this link is especially for my father) in Paris thanks to Evelyn's Dad and his hotel points. It was so awesome. The beds had ironed sheets and a real bathtub with a shower(which honestly impressed us the most). Showers in Europe... are tiny. In fact, tiny is an understatement. I had so many bruises on my elbows from taking showers in London and Krakow... showering became dangerous. You cant reach your toes, you can barely reach your hair, and god forbid you drop something.... We were super clean in Paris. Which is ironic, because Paris is extremely dirty. The streets are lined with cigarette butts. Luckily they added lights to the Eiffel Tower that light up every hour on the hour to distract the tourists from the filth.
Gosh. This is going to take awhile. More on Paris later. SO much to say...
a couple sidenotes:
- parisian couples. they kiss in parks. everyone knows that. literally on top of each other, less than 10 feet away from the other people in the park(usually another kissing couple, or a child staring). they also kiss on the metro, they kiss on the busses, the kiss in cafes, they kiss in the cathedrals(they have no shame), they kiss on the trains, they kiss in the streets. im pretty sure they kiss everywhere except their bedrooms.... and thats why french people have chapped lips all the time. just kidding. they're perfect. they should though (its not fair).
- Alright, so let's talk about this. I finished watching the Bachelorette season finale, the one with the guard and protect your heart guy, and she ended up with Roberto, the guy I liked from day one(and she did too) and she has to pick between him and this other guy who her family likes and is consistant and an all around good guy blah blah blah. This is the hardest decision of her life etc. She has to pick one that she wants to spend the rest of her life with so she can't fuck up and she's having so many issues and decides to go with the one that she has a stronger attraction to. He ends up proposing to her and she says yes, and while they're showing this romantic beach proposal with the sun setting and the lion king's "can you feel the love tonight" playing in the background she says something like: "ever since i met Roberto two months ago-". Wait, What? Rewind. "ever since I met Roberto two months ago-".. Two months ago?? You've known this guy for 2 months and you're ready to tie the knot? you havent even spent every single day of those two months with him. you've been off with other guys... you haven't even had time to learn about his faults or introduce him to your friends... this is when I realized that this show is a load of crap, and that if anyone is going to play lion king music for their season finale, they need to grow up. life is not a disney movie. (good luck to the happy couple...)
and lastly, im going to end my blog with a small insert from my personal journal; something to tie you over until I have the strength to finish what I started in Paris and move to Lyon, where I'm currently staying with a suuuuuuuuper cool host family(stay tuned)
...and I thought my luck was bad. It's not. I'm extremely blessed to have everything I could need. No matter what happens to my camera or my car or my bike, I will always have myself and those around me who love and support me. There is no telling what will happen, but I know that if I keep this in mind, everything will be just fine.
----
so to those of you reading this, know that im thinking of you, and that you're that one of a kind, cant-live-without sort of person. and you mean a lot to me :)
lots of hugs and kisses
harper
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Bloggity Bloggity Blog
Monmartre
So I've been getting some negative feedback about my blog. The word "neglectful" has been thrown around, along with "update" followed by "soon".... Apparently I've been causing distress to my lovely friends; they can't sleep at night/life has no meaning/etc. Let's set the record straight here. I have been sans internet in Paris(feel bad for me), but thankfully tomorrow is a new day, and I will be word-vomiting all over my blog in the weeks to come because i'll be in Lyon, with endless access to the world wide web. I'll be writing so much, you'll want to de-friend me so my posts will stop filling up your mini-feed. Seriously. I have a lot to say. Starting with epiphanies I had while watching the Bachelorette (you think I'm kidding), pausing on my thoughts of PDA across the world, and ending with a small anecdote about foreigners from Ohio. With that being said, here is a small summary of my travels so far, something to soothe the masses until I have time/internet to write my heart out. Enjoy.
1) Krakow: polish. everyone speaks polish. did evelyn and I know a lick of polish? no. thankfully we had the word pierogi down (it's like a dumpling. only fancier, because they fill it with yummy things like meat and potatoes and spinach). I think we came out of poland learning two words of Polish (we're champs)
2) Near-disastrous plane trip. Evelyn accidentally booked our trip for July 8th instead of June 8th. The airline peeps then told us there were 2 seats left on the next plane and that we had 10 minutes left to try to get on the flight to Paris. Luckily, we made it, and luckily Evelyn had travel insurance...
and now! we're in Paris, the city of all cities, picnic-ing in front of l'arc de triomph and watching the eiffel tower light up at night (pictures to come!). We leave tomorrow for Lyon where i'll be meeting my replacement family of 6 weeks and I promise promise promise I will write another blog painfully explaining every excruciating detail of our adventures... so be patient :) ----and to add a quote (because all blogs have quotes, right???) "if you book them, they will come".
til next time!
the bloggin' foo'
2) Near-disastrous plane trip. Evelyn accidentally booked our trip for July 8th instead of June 8th. The airline peeps then told us there were 2 seats left on the next plane and that we had 10 minutes left to try to get on the flight to Paris. Luckily, we made it, and luckily Evelyn had travel insurance...
and now! we're in Paris, the city of all cities, picnic-ing in front of l'arc de triomph and watching the eiffel tower light up at night (pictures to come!). We leave tomorrow for Lyon where i'll be meeting my replacement family of 6 weeks and I promise promise promise I will write another blog painfully explaining every excruciating detail of our adventures... so be patient :) ----and to add a quote (because all blogs have quotes, right???) "if you book them, they will come".
til next time!
the bloggin' foo'
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Handbags and Gladrags
I'm moving to the UK immediately. Seriously. I'm not joking. Windsor in specific. I'm staying with the Queen in her castle (it's her favorite weekend home) and then I'll study at Eton College (despite the fact it's an all-boys college and highly famous people like George Orwell/Prince Harry & Edward/Ian Flemming went there) and plus it's only thirty minutes away from London. I think I'm in love. The air is clean, it's extremely beautiful because the town was build in the 1400s or something crazy like that, and there is thai everywhere! and it's delicious!!!!
Did I mention that Slough is the only stop between Windsor and London? As in the Slough from the Office BBC? 'Nuff said.
Did I mention that Slough is the only stop between Windsor and London? As in the Slough from the Office BBC? 'Nuff said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)