So I decided to head to the local church on Sunday to attend a service. I thought it would be nice to see how the Church of England differs and doesn’t from the Episcopalian Church and also it’s a very cool old building that I wanted to see the inside of. It did not occur to me, though, until I got there that the Sunday I had chosen was November 11, which is Remembrance Day in England. On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour the Armistice was signed to end World War I. So now every Nov 11 is a sort of Veterans Day for England. So the service was not a normal service, it was centered on remembering and honoring British soldiers.

It was so cool to be there. The church was packed – people had to stand because there were not enough chairs. The readings and hymns all were about fighting for causes and fighting for God. The sermon was very interesting. The priest gave it by basically addressing the children, starting with “today I will speak on two things, both starting with the letter “r”. Do you know what one of them is? That’s right, remembrance. Do you know what we are remembering today?” etc. The main focus of his sermon, though, was about how World War I and World War II had caused such pain to soldiers, families of soldier, friends of soldiers, and so forth because of all of the death and suffering. And if we recognized that war can only cause grief, why are we continuing to engage in wars? And he ended by saying that Christ is Prince of Peace.

After the sermon and the Lord’s Prayer, they sang the National Anthem “God Save the Queen” and apparently we stole the tune from them and changed it to “My Country Tis of Thee” which is interesting. Then everyone went outside to the War Memorial and one by one, representatives of various groups laid down Poppy Wreaths. There was a moment of silence and a bugler played. It was all very moving. It seemed as though this entire tiny town I was in had gathered to remember all the people from their community, past and present, who had served.

After this, a sort of parade followed. The veterans marched along side the Royal British Kidlington Legion, Cadets from Kidlington, St. John Ambulance (which is basically like the Red Cross, I think – they give and teach first aid), and then all of the Boy and Girl Scout troops from Kidlington. And there was a marching band. It was like something out of a movie – the main street of the town from the Church to the Tesco (a supermarket) was lined with people watching the parade.

Oh Kidlington. I wish I had taken pictures. It was very moving.

These are what the paper poppies look like. Everyone wears them pinned to their shirts and the wreaths layed are made of them.

visitors from across the pond

This weekend was the weekend when Adam (my boyfriend) and Tomas (my friend) came to visit! They flew in from LAX to Heathrow nonstop on a redeye and got in Friday morning. I went up from Oxford with Julie and Bryn and the 5 of us had a grand time in London.

On Friday we checked into the hotel (we stayed in Chiswick – quite lovely) and then went to Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square. Then Adam and I went to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant for our anniversary. The decorations were really lovely – all sorts of reds and oranges and candles everywhere. The food was very good but there was so much of it! My couscous alone could have fed a family of 4.

On Saturday we went to Parliament, Westminster Abbey (the line was outrageous so we decided that us 3 girls would go back the last weekend we are in London), the London Eye, and the Globe. We ate lunch before all of these locations at a pub while the Manchester United v Arsenal game was on. I enjoyed listening to the reactions of the pub attendees to the game. It was pretty funny how into it they were. Adam had Bangers and Mash – good job for being traditional. Tomas had a hamburger. Tsk tsk.

Then we continued on to our destinations. Being in the London Eye was very cool. The view was amazing and I was pretty fascinated with just looking at how the giant ferris wheel was working – our little pod was slowly turning 360 degrees so that the top was the bottom and the bottom was the top, if that makes any sense. The Globe was very neat to tour, but it made me wish I had gotten to see a show. To be a “groundling” – watching a show from the floor –was only 5 pounds! Oh well, can’t have everything. For the nightlife we went to Covent Garden which was a lot busier than I thought it would be, actually.

Sunday we went to the British Museum. We saw mummies, statues from the Pathanon, samurai swords and the Rosetta Stone. I think I could probably spend an entire day at the British Museum, there was just so much to see!! For lunch we had…..wait for it….MEXICAN FOOD!!! I had missed it oh so so much. My enchiladas were, truth be told, not incredibly outstanding, but they tasted so good because I hadn’t had any Mexican food in so long. Julie, Bryn and I devoured our chips and salsa within minutes. It was so wonderful.

Then we took the boys up to Oxford and got there just in time for basically everything to close. So we went to our pub that is across the street from our house (the Six Bells!) and Tomas paid Bryn 3 pounds to eat a pickled egg. Gross. But hey, that’s 6 US dollars and the way things are going it could be 7 next week. Hahaha

It was an amazing weekend. I realized that not only am I lucky to be able to go to London for a not too large sum of money whenever I want, but I’m also lucky to have such amazing people in my life who are willing to fly across a continent and ocean to see me. Awwwww, what a mushy ending to this blog post.

the undergound - metro systems seem to be a constant in my life these days

Bryn, Tomas, and Julie in front of Buckingham. You can't see the flag in this picture, but the Queen was home. Probably knitting, knowing her.

Picadilly Circus

Picadilly Circus WITH a doubledecker bus - what a classic tourist momentAdam and I at the Moroccon restaurant
Being gangsta in front of the London Eye
Adam and I in front of Parliament
The other happy couple in front of Parliament
looking out of the London Eye

A less candid photo in the London Eye
view from the Eye - Parliament and the river Thames
another view from the Eye - it was raining in the distance, which is really rare for England
hahaha, funny me.
The roof of the stage in the Globe. It's supposed to represent the night sky.
The stage itself. The Globe had a lovely wooden smell. I wish I could have seen a play before the season closed.
look how happy they are to have Guacamole!

Italia!!

We left on Friday (Oct 19) for our week long adventure in Italy. We had it planned out so that we would have about a day in a half of each city we visited, and those cities were: Rome, Florence, Venice, and Cinque Terre.

Our flight left for Parma (home of Parmesan and Parma Ham) at 11am from Stanstead, an airport outside of London and, joyously for us, 3 hours away from Oxford. Ew. We landed in Parma and the airport is so small that it literally is only big enough for one plane at a time. So we were the only plane there, which was quant. From the airport we took a bus to the train station and then embarked on a 4 hour train ride to Rome. I, being so wonderful at directions as we all know, thought Rome and Parma were about 2 hours away. Ha. But on the bright side we saw an Italian hobo and I practiced speaking my Italian to the other Italians in our compartment.

Rome was amazing. I did not really care too much to go there at first, but I am so glad we went in the end. We saw the coliseum, the forum, and we went to St Peter’s Square. I had my first real Italian gelato and I am in love. Then at night we went on a night tour and saw some fountains sculpted by Bernini and the Trevi Fountain at night. They told us a pretty cool ghost story about it, but I’ve been trying to find it again online and no such luck, so I think it might be – shocking, I know – not real. My favorite part of Rome was that all of the fountains were connected to the old aqueduct system, so you could drink out of all of the fountains!

After Rome we went to Florence. Florence was cold but gorgeous. Our hostel was incredible. It was a private room for the three of us with a bathroom and the window was stained glass and our room came with a computer with free internet access, cable tv, and we could call the states for free. Wow, talk about luxery! In Florence we went to the Duomo (the main cathedral), the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and up to the Piazza di Michelangelo where we had an incredible view of Florence. Also, we met up with and had dinner with my friend Aimee from High School, which was really fun! Florence was odd, though, because the museums were closed on Mondays and that was the day we had the full day. Also, we wanted to go to a club at night, but the clubs were also closed on Mondays. I will have to do some research on that. So we had to go to the museums very quickly on Tuesday before we caught our train to Venice and the Acedemia, where the David is, had a very long line. However, the Uffizi, another museum of more importance, had an even longer line so we stuck with the Uffizi because it had more to offer. Lucky us, though, because the section of the Ufizzi with all of the famous artworks like the Birth of Venus was closed. What luck.

So we left Florence for Venice and I was playing around with my camera while we were on the train and I erased all of the pictures I had taken thus far. Oh the sadness. Luckily, Julie and Alex comforted me by saying I could save their pictures on to my computer. So the tragedy was lessened. Venice was….well, I do not really know what I was supposed to see there. We went to St. Marks and saw all of the pigeons. We walked along many canals. We tried on all sorts of fun masks. We got ripped off on a Gondola Ride (the guy said 8 euros and then when it was over we gave him a 10 thinking we’d tip him and then he went, no no no, I said 8 euros, 8 euros, to which we simply looked confused, and then he went EIGHTY euros – bummer). But overall I was kind of unimpressed with Venice. I think I would have enjoyed it more in the 18th and 19th centuries when I could wear a large fancy dress with a matching mask.

Our last destination was Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 towns on the Mediterranean Sea. Our hostel was in the first town, Riomaggiore, but the towns are all within walking distance (you’re supposed to hike along these trials overlooking the ocean) or within very short train rides. We arrived at our hostel where we had booked beds in an 8 person dorm and the hostel owner shook his head sadly at us and said “I am so sorry, but the dorms are not available – I will have to put you in a private apartment with your own kitchen for the same price.” Oh what terrible news.

Cinque Terre was amazing!! The sad part was that it was raining on and off the whole day so we could not hike the trails, but the water was still a gorgeous shade of blue and the towns themselves were so beautiful. They are kind of like tiny Italian fishing villages. Cinque Terre apparently is known for its fresh pesto so I ate very many delicious pesto dishes and even bought some pesto to take home with me. Also, I had the most delicious tiramisu of my life in one of the towns.

We left on Saturday from Turin, which I really would have liked to see more of. I definitely need to go back, the architecture alone was gorgeous! However, it was one of those types of travel days when we went form a train to a bus to a bus to a plane to a bus to a taxi and after at least 12 hours of traveling got back to our flat at 3am. But it was all so worth it!!

Italy was amazing. I cannot say enough good things about it or the people. All the Italians were so very friendly and helpful, and the Italian food was molto bene. I had many pizzas and pastas and some incredible lasagna. I definitely need to go back.

Julie and Alex in the colosseum
the "basement" of the colosseum - sometimes they would flood this with water and have mock naval battles! fun!
oh the colosseum
drinking the Roman water - it was quite delicious, actually
the Forum - oh democracy
st peter's square
I wanted to sit in one of the chairs, but they were barricaded off

Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano

(St. Peter's Basilica - I just wanted to look cool by using its Italian name)

throwing a coin in the trevi fountain

this was Julie's 2nd coin so she had to wish to return Rome and find love

Alex's first coin so she was supposed to just wish to return to Rome

she decided she wanted a different wish instead

that's fine, just break traditions, jeez

I wished to return to Rome like you were supposed to

ha

this fountain is incredible, might I add

it's HUGE!

The Duomo in Florencethe inside of the Dome of the Duomo

I tried to make it a little bigger, but it's still kind of impossible to see all the details

but trust me, it was incredible

google it

Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence where they sell all of the GOLD!

Ponte Vecchio from a distance
Florence from a distance

the big church is the Duomo

this is how sad I was when I accidently deleted all of my pictures from Rome and Florence

thank goodness Julie let me share hers

masks in Venice!

wouldn't a mask ball be so much fun? I'm going to bring them back into fashion

the Duomo in Venice

in St Mark's Square - you can tell because of all of the pigeons!

they wouldn't let us take pictures inside, which is sad because it was incredible

Islamic Influence for sure

Alex running through the pigeons in St. Mark's Square

notice how the pigeons aren't flying away

they just kind of casually walked away, if a pigeon can be casual

Canal Canal

on our Gondola ride

Riomaggiore - this is the town in Cinque Terre we stayed in

Vernazza

Vernazza boats

look how cute that town is, sitting on the edge of a mountain overlooking the sea

Corniglia

Manarola
someday I shall vacation here for one month every summer
and fulfill my dream of swimming in the mediterranean

us in front of Manarola

look how beautiful the water was on the day we left! no fair!!

a church in the mountains

the train station in Torino

look how cool the architecture and monuments are in Torino!

ALPS!!!!!

when I visit Italy again, I must see: more of Torino, Sienna, and Cinque Terre on a warm spring day (summer might be too hot)