Love In Barcelona

For my mid semester trip a few friends and I packed up our backpacks, almost didn't make our plane and somehow got to Barcelona, Spain.  It was late at night I have haven't been that scared or stressed out for a long time.  Very soon after we had arrived, an old man told us to wear our backpacks on the front so we wouldn't get pick pocketed.  To be safer and to save on costs, we fir 6 people into a 2 man room.  I have no idea why they called it a two man room because we could have easily fit more- not comfortably.  

After wandering around the city the first day we were there we climbed up a hill and had the best views of the city.  It was perfect, and so was the weather.  

I am going to completely omit the second day because it rained so hard and long I about cried, and the only pictures I have from that day are showing just HOW wet we were.  

And I will take up any opportunity to get a picture of old men.  I LOVE them, and I do not know why but they are just drawn to me.  I couldn't tell you how many random conversations I have because I always wave or smile at old men.  Plus these guys were just super cute. Although I wish they were playing chess or something.

Yes, I swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Booya.  I will not post the pictures of the old men that I took at the beach.  yikes. 

The Arc de Triomphe.  

PALM TREES! I had not seen palm trees in months.  

1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  

At the Columbus statue there were lions, just like at Trafalgar Sqaure.  This one I named Azlan. For Narnia!!!

We rented bikes for a few hours and rode around the city.  The weather was wonderful and we were the only people out in t-shirts and shorts.  My favorite part was the bell on the bikes.  And I got to use it a lot!

I loved the Barcelona was so small because I feel like I saw everything and I totally knew my way around the city.  When we were on our bikes it was neat to ride everywhere and see all the places we had been.  And it was just fun to be with 5 other people on bikes.  We should have named our gang.  

Yes. I have mad skills.  

Stourhead

Also located in Wiltshire is Stourhead.  Not really a big tourist site.  That day there were 40 girls from BYU and about a thousand geriatrics.

This old couple almost ran us over.  They were going about .5 miles an hour and she stopped every 4 feet so he could take another picture.  I wonder how long it took them to make it around the lake, and how many people were injured. 

It was also another place where the most recent Pride and Prejudice was filmed.  The wonderful rainy scene where Darcy confesses his love to Elizabeth in the Temple of Apollo on the hill, and just our luck the temple was under refurbishment.  What are the odds, I’m sure that temple has been there for hundreds of years and it is not going anywhere.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but these definitely are not.  But they are beautiful. 

Stonehenge

While here in London a bishop told me the difference between America and England.  In America everything is big! Houses are big, monuments and tourist attractions are big, i.e. The GRAND Canyon.  He said in England it is much different.  England itself is about the size of Utah, but instead of 3 million inhabitants England has 62 million.  He said rather than attractions and historical sites being BIG, they are old.  It does not matter how big the tree is, it is how old.  Many British people always joke and ask how old our country is.  It is quite bothersome. 

So in going to Stonehenge, of course being American I was imagining in my head HUGE stones spread out so one would have to be a quarter of a mile back to even get them all in one picture.  I was mistaken.  Stonehenge was small but beautiful, mindboggling even.  It may have been small but the stones themselves were huge and they would have had to been carried from a long ways away.  It’s crazy.  

Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire, it is a circular set of stones that are believed to have put there around 2500 BC.  It is not known who put the stones here, so that is where the fun was, making up our own crazy stories- but it could have happened. 

And of course- no trip is complete with out the matching sweatshirts.  

Call me William Wordsworth

For my English Literature class the overlying theme is landscape through literature.  We have been reading poems on nature and my professor had us compose poems of our own.  I think the last poem I wrote was in 8th grade.  Don't hate.  

A View From the Coach

Out the window is seen beauty more than flowers and trees

Grass is changed only by the color of the seasons

Long and flowing in the wind

Sheep live long and clip the grass

 

Trees off in the distance still have their leaves

They are of’t drowned out by other elements

Just waiting to be seen and slept under

Trees that grow so high the clouds seem low

 

The brook is calm not moved by any rock

Slithers through the scene as a snake           

The water brings life to all the earth

Nature around it springs up with life

 

Beautiful white clouds fill all the air

Draped across the pale blue sky

No sign of rain can be seen for miles

Clouds so low they can be caught with a net

 

The scene seems so untouched by man

Back in time air it being identical

Just off the road for all to view

Only one could create this vision

Northern England

Monday morning we had to wake up WAY too early to get on the coach and travel to the Lake District.  I think because the bus ride was so bad I decided to torture my mother and dread my hair.  She gave me prior consent but took it back right after she saw a picture.   

Monday we went to York and took a tour through York Minster.  It was beautiful, but once you’ve seen one cathedral, you’ve seen them all.  We were able to- okay we paid to walk up 5000+ stairs to the top of the tower.  Big mistake.  Like the 66 stairs to my bedroom aren’t enough.  Once we got to the top we decided to take pictures of ourselves because it was cooler than the rooftops. 

Tuesday we traveled to Fountains Abby the ruins of a burned monastery.  One thing that was neat was that the ruins weren’t in a city.  The Abby is surrounded by tall trees and a beautiful stream that ends in a pond.  After running around the ruins and running through crazy weird tunnels for an hour I decided to take a nature walk because there is not really much to see in an empty church.  

One thing that I loved about the trip was the long bus rides.  Northern England is so pretty that I took hundreds of pictures out the bus window.  And I took pictures of everyone sleeping.  I can blackmail almost anyone in my program.  My favorite part of the scenery was the dry stone walls.  Where did all the stones come from? It boggles my mind how they could stack all those stones and they have survived for hundreds of years.  And where else in the world do you have to stop your car to let sheep cross the road. 

The Tower of London

Friday morning we were forced to wake up an hour early so we could eat breakfast and head over to the Tower of London.  I was expecting one tower and for it to not be cool.  We had a tour with this Yeoman who loved to hear himself talk, but he was funny, so it was okay. 

The tour was a mix of fun facts and a history lesson.  I saw the Bloody tower where Richard III was in charge of his two kid nephews and he had them killed so he could be king.  Almost the entire tour was about Henry VIII because the Tower of London is where he had 2 of his 6 wives put to death at the private scaffold inside the tower walls.  Because of this everything there was plastered with Henry VIII’s ugly face.  Who wants granny panties with Henrys face on the butt? 

The first place we went to was the room with the Crown jewels.  When I grow up I want to be a princess.  I saw a scepter that had a 530 carat diamond with perfect clarity.  My expectations for my husband just went up. 

We went to the torture chamber and I was surely disappointed when there were only 3 forms of torture displayed. I was sure that they were more barbaric back then. 

Caitlin and I walked around and for about a half an hour with this group of 15 year old Swedish boys following us.  The only thing they knew in English was “hello girls.” So lame.  I was not impressed. 

In the top of the White tower Caitlin and I played arcade type games to see how good of an archer or swordsman you are.  Lets just say she would be Legolas and I would be Aragorn. 

Shakespeare's As You Like It

I am enrolled in an English Literature and a Shakespeare class.  Very fitting for my time in London.  For both of these classes I read As You Like It one of Shakespeare’s most famous Romantic Comedies.  After studying this play we were able to go and see it performed in the Globe Theatre.  I have heard of this theatre since the beginning of time and in every English class since high school.  It was an amazing experience to actually be there.

The seats were hard and there was a pole obstructing my view.  The first half was really hard to get into.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about the play and the actors.  Luckily a bunch of people in the front row left at intermission (Thanks Soper) and then I had an awesome seat.  Since all of the characters fall in love in the second half the play was awesome.  I giggled and ran holding Caitlin’s hand the whole way home.  Oh and we had to lay on the stage.

Personally I do not think British guys are attractive- only because I have been looking the whole time I have been here and have yet to find any that beat American boys.  But under the circumstances I had a massive crush on the actor who played Orlando.  The crush developed in the second half and I think it was because of his character.  Caitlin and I may or may not have stayed late and looked for him after the play.  And just in case you were wondering- he does not have a facebook.  I think this creepy stalker has come out of me because I have not talked to a boy in a long time- except for the 40 year old man who asked me to be his girlfriend last night to go to a club. 

In Humanities this week we created our own Shakespeare play.  I was Claudius in the fifth act of Hamlet and had a splendid performance.  I had 3 lines and then I died. But the mustache was totally worth it.   

I'm sure Jack Laskey- Orlando from As You Like It will love me even more because of my profound love and knowledge of Shakespeare.

National Gallery

Our first free day we were given assignments at the British Musuem and the National Gallery. We walked in a huge pack. So afraid that someone would get left behind, which ended up happening. Sorry Allie. 

The National Gallery is in the famous Trafalgar Square and from there one can see most of the famous sites in the city.  

 The National Gallery was so entertaining outside I would have been fine just going home.  You never see people walking around in the nude in America.

The art I enjoyed and appreciated the most was of course not the assignment. I stumbled upon a room with Van Gogh in it. I have always loved his work, who doesn’t have a poster of Starry Night.  I glanced at Sunflowers but there were a bazillion people around so I decided to give The Chair a chance.  I have never been so blown away by art.  Van Gogh can not be truly experienced in a photograph.  The texture he used made the chair look as if it was actually made of straw.  He just globbed the paint on and I almost died.  It was so absolutely beautiful.