Getting into the Holiday Spirit!

Yesterday my friend Alexandra and I decided to take a complete break of our stressful, homework-filled lives, and do fun things in London instead. Plus, the holidays are coming up and Christmas lights are going up everywhere, and there's no better time to be in a huge bustling city. We began our day at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland carnival which was SO much fun!! We were truly walking through a winter wonderland, just like in the Christmas song! Little huts with Christmas lights were set up and filled with all sorts of carnival sweets. And there were lots of fun rides (we went on the carousel - the cheapest, most traditional option and the one that most reminded us of our childhoods!). We went ice skating, and I've got to say, there's nothing like ice skating in Hyde Park to Christmas carols while being surrounded by a blissful holiday carnival. They wouldn't let us bring cameras on the ice rink so we missed a lot of cute photo opportunities, but believe me, it was awesome!

Welcome to heaven!

The closest I'll ever get to Christmas... :]

On the carousel!

Alice in Wonderland themed candy shop

Cotton candy...yum

Afterwards we spent some time getting lost in Harrods...and, repeating what I said in my blog post from when we went for the first time, it's very much like a really fabulous fashion museum. This may sound silly but it's a really fun place to aimlessly wander in.

Pretty street near Harrods 

Then we walked through Green Park and made our way to Buckingham Palace! Remember in September I blogged about how we came during the changing of the guards and it was so crowded we couldn't even see the castle? Well, now we finally got to see what it looked like without using the zoom on our cameras! And the weather was perfect for strolling through the park. I can't believe I came so close to the Queen of England! :)

Me and Alexandra in Green Park 

So close to the Queen!

Sitting on the fountain near the palace

Next - Afternoon tea of course! My favorite British thing! The whole world should do afternoon tea, it's such a nice way to relax. And we went to our favorite place on Oxford Street, which was cool because never in my life did I think that someday I would have a favorite place for afternoon tea in the heart of London which a friend and I could go to whenever we pleased. What will I do in Sharon without the center of London being 20 minutes away from me? After tea we did some shopping, this time partly for souvenirs for friends which was fun. I love walking down Oxford Street, and then turning on to Regent Street (which is apparently where the Queen does her shopping!), and going straight until you end up at Piccadilly Circus. The walk is so beautiful, especially with all the Christmas lights up! On Regent Street we went into Hamely's, London's really famous toy store - like F.A.O Schwartz or that huge Toys'r'Us in Times Square, but with much cooler Harry Potter toys. Also, we found barbie/ken dolls made to look like Princess Kate and Prince William...believe it or not that costs 100 pounds.

Afternoon tea :) 

Oxford Street!

Prince William and Princess Kate!

Regent Street!

From Piccadilly we started heading home but on our way stopped at Covent Garden (like Boston's Faneuil Hall) and walked around some more. Then we finally got home, exhausted, and went to bed. Sure, it was kind of a childish/girly day, but it was fun, relaxing, and definitely made us appreciate London despite not being home for Thanksgiving break!

Christmas tree at Covent Garden!

Today I started working on my final essays - almost done with Art History, then British History, Media, and Creative Writing left to go! So much work. And there's still so much to see in London!! I don't understand how people can ever come here for just a weeklong vacation.
xoxo,
Sarah

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Yeah, Thanksgiving does not exist here. So I had class yesterday, but it was a field trip anyways so it wasn't too terrible. It was sad not being home, especially after seeing dozens of facebook posts about how everyone's back home in Sharon. Still, my friends and I had a really lovely Thanksgiving dinner at the dorm in Notting Hill. My friend Barbara's mom and grandma are visiting, and they cooked us a bunch of yummy Thanksgiving food which was so nice of them! Definitely felt like we had a little London family Thanksgiving in the cozy lounge of Palace Court.

Our Thanksgiving table! (After dinner, though, so most of the food is all gone:) )

My friends Malina, Alexandra, Barbara, Sophie, and I 

So many homemade desserts!

Today was one of those British-Libarary-all-day-for-homework days but tomorrow a friend and I are spending the day at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland carnival and then wandering around the bustling area of Oxford Circus. EVERYONE on the third floor except for me is away this weekend, so it's pretty much just me and my friend Alexandra all weekend, and with only three weeks left we decided that it was time to really start soaking up the energetic and bustling vibe of London!
xoxo,
Sarah

Stonehenge and Bath!

So now that all the travels outside the UK are over, it's time to explore more of England and make the most of these last few weeks. Yesterday we had a trip to Stonehenge and Bath which was super fun! Stonehenge was interesting...it's the middle of absolutely nowhere and the area is abundant with sheep. I wish I could give you more information, but the audio guide was awfully boring so I turned it off. But basically, a very long time ago some very innovative people took some very heavy stones and placed them at what is now Stonehenge, and no one knows why they put the stones there/what they used them for, or how they could possibly have moved such heavy rocks.

Next stop: Bath, a quaint little town three hours away from London. Of course we got to see the Roman baths which have been there for sooooo long, which was really cool. But, even more important in my opinion, Bath is where JANE AUSTEN used to live at one point!!! I walked by the house she lived in, and right down the street from there is the Jane Austen Center, which is like a Jane Austen museum and therefore amazing. :) My friend and I had afternoon tea at the Jane Austen Center tea room where all the waitresses were dressed in Victorian costumes, so fun!! We were in such a Jane Austen mood after that visit that when we got back to the dorm last night we watched Sense and Sensibility. Love that movie! And I'm currently reading Emma, since now that Anna Karenina's over I can actually just read for pleasure.

Little town of Bath :)

The main Roman bath 

Piece of one of the main parts of a Roman temple...I remember the description saying something about how this was really unique because it combined Celtic and Classical designs. 

The only natural hot spring in the UK 

Me and Jane Austen :)

The white door...that's Jane Austen's house!!!!

Alexandra at the Jane Austen tea room :)

Sounds like a great motto!

I can't believe there's only four weeks left...time is flying by!! 

xoxo,

Sarah

The rest of our awesome Switzerland trip

On Saturday we took a train to the small city of Luzern (technically spelled Lucerne the Swiss way). The city lies on a river with a lot of cute bridges and pretty much only winding cobblestone streets. Normally I tend to plan out days like this with exact directions to get to particular destinations, but Luzern was perfect for aimlessly wandering and discover all sorts of tiny narrow alleyways, really old buildings, and plenty of places to enjoy some fondue. Swiss chocolate is in fact incredible, and all the baked goods (especially the pretzels!) are quite yummy as well. I don’t mean to only blog about food, but I guess that’s what happens when you travel to France and Switzerland! So on that note, we ended our day trip to Luzern with traditional Swiss chocolate fondue at a really cozy fondue restaurant right on the river. 

Definitely enough Swiss chocolate to get us through a train ride

Lucerne!

A lot of cheese in Switzerland...almost as much as cheese as there is chocolate

Another pretty church....for a group of Brandeis kids we really did visit quite a lot of pretty churches...

Luzern at night

Fondue restaurant

We spent more time on Sunday wandering around Zurich. Turns out that on Sunday EVERYTHING in the city is completely closed. Even Bahnhofstrasse, the main street of the city, was totally dead and we felt like we had the entire city to ourselves! It was freezing but while walking along the river we managed to find an open cafe where we warmed up with Swiss hot chocolate. Also, we happened to come upon the Occupy Zurich protesters (a LOT smaller than the protest camp at St. Paul’s in London!), and a few of the protesters overheard us talking and got really excited that we were form the States. The two kids talking to us were the kindest protesters I had ever met! (The ones in London were kind of creepy..). I love everything about this city. I love that even though the streets and cafes can be crowded it’s still so peaceful and quiet (kind of like in Paris but more down to earth). And Swiss people really are SO nice. From all my recent travels, Swiss people seem to be the friendliest towards foreigners. Every local we met was so genuinely outgoing towards us. 

Our hotel

Empty Bahnhofstrasse on Sunday 

Protesters...although I don't know what anyone could possibly complain about in Switzerland!

I want to live right where this picture was taken
so I can wake up to this view every morning :)

yummy rich Swiss hot chocolate :)

Bare streets of Zurich

Three days is definitely not enough for Switzerland and I am definitely coming back to this amazingly great country. 

xoxo,

Sarah