Playing tourist: Day trip

Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath...in one day.

Windsor Castle is the Queen's residence. It's gigantic, old, and lovely. And it has some of the most crazy beautiful interior decorating I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it also has a strict no photo policy inside the castle, so you don't get to see any of that. But the exterior is nice too.

As our tour guide said, "When we get to Stonehenge, some of you will be having deep and profound thoughts, while others of you shiver and drink coffee. It means different things to different people."

Bath is such a pretty little town. And we were lucky enough to see it in the sunshine. It's famous for its hot springs (and the Roman baths that made use of them), but I was probably most enamored with the impressive stone architecture.

Simply having a wonderful Christmastime.

 

I spent Christmas up north in Manchester, with my sweet friend Hannah. It was lovely and festive and full of warmth and cheer (despite the grim weather). 

The cherry on top was tuning into Christmas with my family in New Mexico.

 Skype is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

There's no place like home[coming].

I'm sitting at work, smiling maniacally and buzzing like I just drank a lot of coffee. But I haven't had any coffee at all. This, my friends, is what you call a natural high.

 

I'm just so excited to be heading to Texas tomorrow! Why am I going, you ask? Because of this:

 

That's right. I get to go to Baylor Homecoming this year! 

Here's what I'm most excited about:

 

Driving -- I say this all the time, but I can't tell you how much I miss it. A car gives you so much freedom. Plus, where else am I supposed to sing loudly without fear of embarrassment?

 

Christmas -- But it's barely Halloween, you say? Well when you're not going home for the holidays, Christmas comes early for the ones you love. I've been planning, and I'm really excited to make people feel loved and special with an assortment of British goodies.

 

Football -- (American style.) When I was at Baylor, I never missed a home game. I've watched online, but it's been two years since I've actually been to a game. I can't wait.

 

Campus -- Apparently, a lot has changed around my alma mater. Still, I'm sure it will still feel like home. I'm excited to grab a cowboy coffee and walk the Bear Trail like old times.

 

Sunshine -- I've checked the forecast, and it's supposed to get into the mid 80s (that's 30 degrees for all you silly Celsius users). I haven't been that warm since my visit to Italy last June. To give you some perspective, our highs for London are expected to be 50 and below this week. God bless Texas and it's complete lack of regard for fall...even in November.

 

Food -- I've already made a list of all the restaurants that I absolutely must visit. Judging by what I've got down so far, it's possible that I could spend my entire trip eating. But that's a risk I'm willing to take.

 

Target -- I don't even need to buy anything. I just need to go. Don't judge.

 

And of course, friends and family -- To me, that's what Baylor Homecoming is all about. In fact, when my friends and I were interviewed at Baylor a few years ago by some local news crew, that's the answer I gave. That's also the answer Alexis gave, immediately following mine (I think she panicked). So the camera panned across our group as we listed off our favorite things about Homecoming, and it ended up sounding like this: "Football. Pigskin. Friends and family. Friends and...family." It was hilariously awful. I'm pretty sure we never ended up on TV.

 

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The point is, I can't wait to get on that plane tomorrow. I absolutely love living in London. It's such a fun city, and I've met some incredible people who mean the world to me.

See what I mean? Lovely, wonderful people.

But there's just something about going home that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So all you lovely Texas people, get ready. I'm headed your way.
 
And I can't wait to hug you.

  

Wednesday randoms.

Some Italian lessons:

Kira and I are culinary wizards...and resourceful too. But despite being able to whip up dinner for under 2 euros, we never did figure out what to do with this little guy:

An octopus! Cool...but how are you supposed to cook it?

Feeling down? Don't worry, just walk past a random Italian guy, and you're almost sure to get a creative compliment. Shameless, hilarious, and always entertaining.  

The cherries. Oh my gosh, the cherries. We ended up buying a huge bag of them in the mornings and then just devouring them all day.

Lemons can grow to the size of my face. 

And this was one of the smaller ones.

The perfect combination of gelato? That would be dark dark chocolate and coffee. Without a doubt.

Boardshorts over Speedos...always. Seriously, guys.

I was certain popped collars died in the 90s, but [unfortunately] they live on here.

Street bands are exponentially cooler when there's an accordion involved. 

Best ever.

I could eat Brie with breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Open air cafes are the best place to watch the Euro Cup. Especially when Italy's playing.

And finally, you don't need to speak Italian, you just need to know how to gesture animatedly. (Thanks to Francesco for that one. It proved to be so very true.)

  

I don't understand accordions, but I love them.

We stumbled across this wonderful band of street musicians, and promptly fell in love.

And, just when we thought it couldn't get any better, this guy jumped into the middle and did a little dance. So fun. We were so enamored that we missed kickoff for the Euro Cup game we were on our way to watch. That's how you know it was good.

 

Friday photo frenzy.

A look at Italy, so far.

Yes. I've taken a ton of pictures. And this is only like half of them. But I can't help it.

This place is just so photogenic.

 

Pompeii.

It's beautiful, but it's also kind of morbid.

Pompeii is an ancient Roman city that was buried under 20 feet of volcanic ash in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted. It wasn't discovered until 1748. Now, it's a popular tourist attraction. Not only do you get to see the ruins of the city, but there are also plaster casts of the victims. Apparently, the bodies were buried and decomposed, leaving a space in the ash. So they filled them with plaster, and bam -- we get to see what these people looked like at the moment they died. Creepy.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day to be outside, and after trekking through Pompeii all afternoon, we rounded out our evening with coffee and some more gelato (this time tiramisu flavored) and watched Spain beat up on Ireland in a little outdoor cafe.
  

Wednesday randoms.

Thoughts on getting to Italy:

Airports are great. There's a never ending stream of people to watch, which is probably one of my favorite pastimes.

My plane didn't have a row 13. Guess they were superstitious. But just because you don't label it doesn't mean it's not there. So even though I was seated in row 14, I know what row it really was...

The Linate airport at Milan is more of a shopping mall than an airport. I know that all airports have little shops things, but this takes that to the extreme. You legitimately have to walk through stores to get to the gates.

The flight attendants would make two sets of announcements, first in Italian, then in English. But sometimes their accent was so thick that I wasn't sure which language they were speaking. Italian English just sounds like Italian.

Gnocchi is delicious.

We met up with my friend's classmates, and all they wanted to do was go to an English pub. On my first night in Italy. Seriously?

It's got little English flags and a sign for fish and chips.
So you know it's legit.

When you think you're too full for gelato, you're wrong. There's always room for gelato.

 

Irrational insomnia.

I'm going to Italy tomorrow.

I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight, due to a mixture of excitement about the trip and sheer terror that I might somehow oversleep and miss my flight. I never ever oversleep. But whenever I've got something important, I still manage to convince myself that this time it will happen. So I set like 3 different alarms and wake up every hour or so, panicked that I'm late.

I realize this kind of worry-induced-insomnia is irrational. But I can't help it.

Anyway, I'm super excited. One, because it's Italy and it'll be sunny. And two, because I'll be staying with a friend I haven't seen since May of 2010. I can't even wait. I'm smiling as I write this.

(This Sorrento forecast also makes me smile.)

So long, rainy London. I'll see you in a week.

 

Jet lag.

It's just past noon here, but it's 5 in the morning body time. I've been awake almost 24 hours. I really want to sleep, but I can't. If I do, I won't be able to sleep tonight, and I'll be even more jet lagged in the morning.

The flight back was nice. Not only was there an empty seat next to me, but the only other person in my row was a really sweet American girl about my age who was visiting London for the first time. I was actually able to answer quite a few of her questions, which always makes me feel good. I like to be helpful.

It was dark as we were coming into London, but the city was glowing. It was beautiful. Like twinkle lights. And since the Eye was lit up in blue, it was really easy to spot, helping me figure out where all the other major landmarks were.

The Tower Bridge looks really neat from up high.

I tried to take a picture of the lights, but it didn't really work, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Or you could just click here.

Anyway, it was a lovely welcome back treat.

Thanks, London.
  

Many the miles.

In the last five days, I've covered almost 7,000 miles. From London to DC to Albuquerque. From Albuquerque to home. From home to Waco, and back. And (weather permitting) we'll be headed north this afternoon.

My flight home was exhausting. I left London around noon on Sunday, and after almost 18 hours of travel, I arrived in Albuquerque at around 11pm the same day. Time zones are crazy.

By the time I landed, I'd been awake for 24 hours. I'm no good at sleeping on planes, and screaming children don't really help. And I absolutely love kids, but having six within three rows of me on my transatlantic flight made me really grateful for headphones. On the way to Albuquerque, I sat by the most complainy (is that a word?) lady ever. And she wiped everything down with an antiseptic wipe before take-off.

 
We got up early the next morning, and after a really good breakfast burrito (my first in ages...hallelujah!), we braved the blizzard and drove the 270ish miles home.

Then it was on to Texas, where I got to spend a couple of days with some of my favorite people in the world. I haven't cried that much in months...and it was all because I was laughing so hard pretty much the entire time. My poor abs. Worth it.

And now, here I am at home, waiting to see if the interstate is going to be open or if we're gonna have to wait till tomorrow to go to grandpa's. But as difficult as it makes traveling, the snow sure is pretty.

So I'm not complaining.

Wales for the weekend.

I didn't take any pictures until we got to Caerphilly Castle. Then I took like a million. Here are just a few:

 

Welsh is a crazy language. It uses the same alphabet as English, so you'd think you'd be able to sound the words out. But you could be wrong. Here's a sample. It's from Google translate, so if you speak Welsh (but let's be honest...you probably don't), and it's wrong, I'm sorry:

Rhowch gynnig ar geisio ynganu'r geiriau hyn. Rwy'n eithaf cadarnhaol y byddwch byth yn ei gael yn iawn. Oni bai, wrth gwrs, eich bod yn dod o Gymru.

Which, in English, means: Try sounding out these words. I'm pretty positive you will never get it right. Unless, of course, you are from Wales.

Yeah.

Anywho, Wales was lovely. We had absolutely gorgeous weather. What we didn't have was a plan, but everything (from the hostel, to transportation, to figuring out what to do) worked out amazingly well.

And now I've been to Wales. Check.