Market Wednesday !

nothing much happend again except for jo and i sleeping till one again...but we went to camden market which was pretty cool! lots of vendors and food from ALL over the world ! we walked all the way though { and it was a bit longer than we expected } so we took the tube back.

then we got dinner at the hostel and went to see the eye at night. because she hadn't seen it and it is just too beautiful to miss! { however i think i make that picture of big ben a lot less beautiful. boy do i look awkward. oops? }

Beautiful Blues

as you might think. i was EXHAUSTED after monday's adventures -- and well...waking up proved to be a bit of a funny event.

jo { the american girl in my hostel room who said she'd go site seeing with me } woke me up by hitting the railing of my bunk lightly and going, "liz, liz we are such lazy american's get up. liz we're so lazy it's 1:00 PM let's go do something"

of course i laughed and rolled out of bed and within the hour we were out and about walking. jo navigated because i still don't have a phone and she'd gone walking the day before and knew the area better.

we walked alllll through the west end and down and around the river again. the weather was SO nice! blue sky's with a few clouds and just cool enough to be warm in a light sweater.

{ left: one of the streets in the west end, right: big ben }

from there we went more towards the mall { which is more of an area/street than an actual 'mall' } to get there we passed through a nice park area where a woman was feeding a squirrel. so naturally, i asked if she had any more peanuts. which she did. she gave me two -- one for now and one for later. and what did i do with those peanuts? i fed a squirrel. two actually and they both jumped up on my leg crawled up to my hand and took it right from me. jo got videos and a picture but i haven't been able to get them from her yet.

but when i do i'll be sure to share ! it was so awesome !

when we exited the park we were right by buckingham palace, and jo taught me that the queen actually doesn't live there. she lives in windsor palace. so i did not get to see the corgi's and i am sad about it. 

after that we walked back to the hostel, and relaxed until cara came to meet up with us so we could go get drinks and talk to some new people upstairs. it was a good first 'real' day in the city.

Monday Madness

okay. so. a lot has happened this week and just. this is an overview of what happened on monday. i got here to london and they almost lost my luggage. it was terrifying. and i didn't get much sleep on the plane so i was exhausted.

i took heathrow express and then the train to follow the directions to my hostel. except. i couldn't find my hostel. and it turned out { despite all the wonderful reviews } to be in a sketchy part of town and i was not going to stay there. it was terrifying. i didn't have wifi, i didn't have 3g all i had was the directions back to the airport and my luggage { which was so heavy by that point } it was horrible.

so i lugged it all back trying to keep cool. allllll the way back to paddington station where i took a cab to the nearest hostel.

called the generator { 10/10 would definitely recommend and stay here again }.

except they didn't have any rooms.

that was until the front desk guy realized i didn't have a place to stay and told me he'd make it work. and he did !

he got me a room and i met two friends there { cara and jo } jo is from america too and we did a lot of sightseeing together, which i'll tell you about later.

after that i passed out for a few hours { because i hadn't slept in almost two days } and when i woke up i was able to meet up with an internet friend of mine alyssa who is also studying abroad here in london!

she took me out to a local pub called king charles I. it was quaint and adorable in the mix and match table and chair/cut and paste random things on the walls sort of way. this is where she bought me my first pint across the pond! then we went to another little pub, skinners arms, i think? and we had fish and chips.

after that we took the tube down to the river and walked around. the eye and big ben at night are so pretty! i also got to see westminster abby.

 then we said our goodbye's and i navigated the underground back to the hostel all by myself!!! it was a really great feeling after a day of totally messing everything up.

i learned a lot about traveling on my first day abroad. and i mean a l o t. i think this year i'm going to learn a whole lot about myself....but i'm proud of myself for the way i handled everything and that's a great feeling.

Liz Vs. The Layover: Round 2

okay ! so i've made it to canada ! and let me tell you guys something. the canada airport is crazy. like i've never been so confused by an airport in my life. i thought i'd just have to go through to my next gate like you do in the states but you actually have to go alllll the way through customs. AND THEN when i treid to check in at one gate they said i hae to go to gate 5 so i did. BUT THEN gate 5 was like " no this is for china and taiwan rn. " and i was kinda confused by that but they told me i could check in at 2 pm. so i'm sitting in the swiss chalet dining area charging my electronics for the big pond hop. also i'm eating cheese pierogies.

pierogies are my life.

if you don't know what a pierogi is, it's kind of like ravioli { they're usually stuffed with cheese and sometimes bacon } but then instead of a flour/pasta based casing it's a potatoe casing. sooooo imagine cheese stuffed french fries in ravioli shapes.



side note: the best thing about airports is getting streetpasses from around the world ! it's pretty cool.

United Airlines needs to get it together. This is the second time we've had an hour delay and we haven't even boarded! Come on now. 

Please schedule your flight attendants better so they don't run out of fly hours RIGHT before another flight. Then you wouldn't have to track down another attendant and cause a delay. 

It's not rocket science. Jeez. 

adventure is out there !!!

so here i am ! my first post on this blog. getting there is half the battle right? after all i had to unload a bunch of clothes right there in the airport. if you think you're not going to over pack. you probably are. but they let me on with my checked luggage weighing in at 50.5 lbs. { a little over but they let it slide. i'm not sure my three year old nephew quite understands that i won't be home for a VERY long time. but he said goodbye to me just as much as my own parents, my grandmother, and my best friends parents as well { i had my own little going away party before the security gate }. there were not as many tears as i thought there were going to be but. all and all i was still sad to say goodbye.

it wasn't long before i was able to board the plane after security, and i even made friends with some of the fellow travelers ! who were all really surprised that i was studying at oxford for a year at such a prestigious university ! one of them even asked for the url to this blog to keep up with my travels ! she gave me some pretty great advice too. talking to strangers from different places is definitely one of my favorite parts of traveling.

HOWEVER, my least favorite part of traveling is the waiting. we literally sat on the runway waiting for the people to refuel for 45 minutes. it was ridiculous. they couldn't locate the fueling people ! no one could ! where did they go ? where were they ? why aren't you doing your job ? but you know what they say: there's always a silver lining.

my silver lining?

it is one hour less time i have to spend in the dulles airport. now i only have about N I N E hours to wait until my next flight.

i really hecked up with this booking thing. i literally don't know what i was thinking.

so here i am ! sitting in the dulles airport { my terminal is completely empty except for me. } next stop ? toronto, canada....estimated flight departure time ?

7: 40 AM

amazing.