Canterbury, White Cliffs of Dover, & Leeds Castle

This past Sunday I went on a another trip through my school, this time a day trip to Canterbury, the White Cliffs of Dover, and Leeds Castle.

First stop was the Canterbury Cathedral. It was massively huge and gorgeous. It is amazing at how much detailed work there was.

The inside. So pretty.

Me on a street in Canterbury. It was a cute little town with lots of small lanes lined with shops and what not.
And of course, Canterbury is home to the Canterbury Tales. They had this interactive museum type thing. We walked through an animated display and while we did that you held a cell phone like device up to your ear that would tell a few of the tales. The displays were really low lit and looked kind of creepy.
Next we went to the White Cliffs of Dover, which were of course, gorgeous.

It's located right on the English Channel. In the distance you can see FRANCE :)
Then we headed over to Leeds Castle, one of Britain's greatest castles. Lots of important people and kings lived there up until Lady Baillie, who left it to the Leeds Castle Foundation after her death so it could be open to the public.
The landscaping around the castle was beautiful. There are lots more pictures up on Facebook.

View from the inside out.

Here are some photos of a couple of different rooms.

There were peacocks everywhere on the grounds!!!!!!!!Random fact: The castle is situated on a man-made lake, which gets drained each year for cleaning.

Phantom of the Opera.

My ticket to Phantom of the Opera!Natasha, myself, and Noel outside Her Majesty's Royal Theater.

I couldn't take any pictures during the performance or inside the theater, but it was definitely amazing. I actually ended up walking by HMRT the next day, so I snapped a pic of it in daylight. Phantom premiered here in 1986 and has been playing ever since!

Adventure weekend in Wales.

WOW - what a weekend. We (me and about 14 other AIU students) went to the southwest coast of Wales for some intense outdoor activities including coasteering, hiking, and surfing.
This is where we stayed at - Preseli Venture. On the left was the lodge area and the right area is the cafeteria/bar/lounge area.

We spent Friday night relaxing in the lounge.

Saturday morning we split up into different groups for activities. My first activity was coasteering, which was hands down my favorite of all the activities I tried. Putting on a wetsuit for the first time was definitely an adventure in itself. Haha. After we loaded up with gear (wetsuit, special wetsuit socks, life jackets, and a helmet) we headed to the coast. Yes, the water was extremely chilly, but it was totally fine with the wetsuits on. Coasteering involved some swimming, exploring the coast and sea caves, climbing rocky cliff sides, and of course, cliff jumping. It was soooo much fun! I brought a waterproof disposable camera with me so I'm waiting for that to get developed before I can put any pictures up from that activity.

That afternoon my group went on a 7 mile hike long the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. It was absolutely gorgeous. I wish I would have brought my slr camera, but I still got some pics on my point and shoot.

The girls in my hiking group.

A small Welsch village.Lots and lots of sheep! And cows! Kind of had a taste from back home....

Saturday evening was pretty low-key since our day was go go go. Sunday morning we headed back out to the sea, this time for surfing lessons! Even though I wasn't the most successful at surfing, it was still a lot of fun. Can't wait to try it again some time.

After our morning surf and grabbing lunch, we took the train back to London, which meant back to school early Monday morning :(

A few random things about Wales:
-The Welsch language is weird, just really weird.
-The roads are NARROW. And they are surrounded by these tall bushy-like things so all you see is road. And if there is an oncoming car, they usually have to back up and find an approach for you to pss.
-Everyone speaks English and about 1/4 also speak Welsch.
-Wales is only about 160 miles x 50 miles.

So that was my weekend! I could go on forever about how much fun, awesome, and amazing it was, but I think you get the picture.

Make sure to check back to see the pictures from coasteering!!!

England v Montenegro Football Game.

What better way to experience a little UK culture than go to a football game? On Tuesday night England took on Montenegro as part of the campaign to qualify for the Euro 2012 Finals.
An extremely blurry photo of Wembley Stadium - attendance for Tuesday night was 73, 451 (can you tell football is kind of a big deal here?)Sami, Emmalee, and I sporting our scarves and jerseys :)


It was really cool to go - I've never seen a football/soccer game before. Go big or go home on your first soccer game, right? Haha. The score was 0-0, so between no one scoring a goal and our mile-away seats it wasn't the most exciting game, but it was still really cool.

A few fun facts on the opposing team, Montenegro: Until this game, I never heard of Montenegro. To mine and a few other people's surprise, Montenegro is a country. But it wasn't its own country till 2006. It's sandwiched between Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, and Kosovo. It's pretty much a super tiny country that's east of Italy. Their population is only 620,000 - which is pretty impressive for having a FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) ranking of 40 out of 200-ish teams.

Vintage Market & Fashion Walk

Friday morning me and a couple girls headed to Portobella Vintage Market. There were TONS of vintage clothing, jewelry, arts, and knick knacks galore!
Vintage Christian Dior boots. If they would have been a size bigger they would've been all mine.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with Tony for another walk around London. This time a "fashion walk." I didn't really pay attention to what he was saying most of the time, so I mainly just have pictures.
Back in the day, instead of window displays, you could look down into the basement and see them actually making the garments.This designer, Vivianne Westwood, has some crazy outfits (above and below).Located on one of the main high-end fashion streets (Savile Row) is this building - former home of Apple Records, which was founded by the Beatles. The roof of 3 Savile Row is also where the Beatles gave their last live performance on January 30th, 1969.The sides of the doors were covered in written messages from their fans.

Hidden Pubs of London.

On Wednesday, Tony took us on a tour of the "Hidden Pubs of London." Our first stop was Cittie of Yorkie. It dates back to the 1400's where it began as a coffee house. Back in that day, London was notorious for its coffee houses - it was here where businessmen would meet to conduct their, well, business.
This lady was kind of enough to pose while I took a picture of the outside :)

Starting at the girl in the back left and going clockwise: Kelsey from South Carolina, Elizabeth from South Dakota, Emmalee, Pat, and Sami from New York. The second pub we went to, Knight's Templar, had really cool ceilings, as pictured above. I don't remember any random facts about this place, but it was hands down our favorite, mainly because it wasn't small and crowded, had good food/drinks, and the atmosphere. Plus it had a really cool bathrooms. Haha.

Remember the story of Sweeney Todd? Well if you don't, I'll run it by you. Sweeney Todd was a barber on Fleet Street in London. Rumor has it, while he was giving his wealthy clients a haircut or shave, he would slit their throats with the clippers and send them through the trapdoor under the chair. His next door neighbor as well as lover, Mrs. Lovett, had a pie shop. There happens to a tunnel connecting to the two stores in the basement - can you imagine what Mrs. Lovett put in her pies?

Well anyways, our third pub was located in the former building of where this all took place. Here is a pic:
The final pub we went to was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. It's known for its lack of poor lighting, short doorways, and its regulars back in the day: Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to name a few.

Now comes the question - what does everyone drink here? Beer. And more beer. Yes, they serve "mixies" and "alcopops" but a majority of the folks drink beer. You order it in either a pint or a half pint and order either stout, blonde, bitter, ale, or cider. A "girly" version of cider is called Cider & Black. Its cider mixed with black currant syrup - very sweet and very delicious.