Sorry.. just been traveling around Europe!

I apologize for this VERY delayed blog post. During the first week in April I set off on my 3 week Easter Break. I took this opportunity to spend 5 days at my British boyfriend Steven's house (don't ask), a week in London & a day in Paris with my two older sisters, 4 days in Barcelona, Spain and 4 days in Milan, Italy. I returned back from all this adventuring to the madness of the Royal wedding in London, but quickly got the next train out to Newcastle. It was all far too fun.. Now, it is time to finish out the semester. I have 3 essays totaling 2,000 , 2.500 and 3,000 words each all due next week. I'm halfway done with all of them! However, instead of procrastinating more by writing about all my adventures, I'm going to save this post for when they are all completed. It's insane to me that in 25 days I will be on my flight back to New York after nearly 5 months away. Here are a few images to tide you over until continue blogging...

XX

Krissy visits "New England" & Taylor Swift in Ireland!

Hiya.. The past week has been madness here in Newcastle. Last Saturday at 8am I picked Krissy up on the airport. Krissy and I have been friends since we were 5 so it was only fitting she came to England on a little vaca while I'm abroad. I felt bad that her first trip to the UK was going to be to Northern England and not London so I made sure to show her as much here as possible. Saturday we just spent the day relaxing, playing video games with the British boys and drinking wine. On Sunday, I took her to the markets by the Tyne river. We got the best burritos and just walked around. At night, we went to Brittany's for her pre birthday extravaganza and then went on a club crawl. Since Krissy can't legally go out and party in America, I was excited to show her Newcastle's nightlife. Since I had class during the week, Krissy got to spend her mornings sleeping in and of course, meeting my cleaner. Did I ever mention my room gets cleaned once a week? If I was ever going to go live in a college dorm England was the perfect place for it.. We spent the rest of the week walking around Newcastle (because the weather was gorgeous every single day she was here), getting meals and going shopping. On her last full day in Newcastle I took Krissy to the coast. It's a 30 minute metro ride away and I've never been so I was excited to go. We had such a nice day and ate fish and chips. It was good while we ate it, but since we hadn't eaten anything else all day we felt sick on the train ride home! Myself and two of the British boys walked Krissy to the metro early Thursday morning and sent her back on her way to New York. On Thursday, I only had one class because many of the lecturers were on strike because of pay and pension cuts.. so that was interesting.

On Friday, I woke up at 6am to leave for Belfast, Ireland! I met Brittany and two other American girls Sheila and Kate at the metro at 6:40. We got nervous because the first train wasn't until 20 minutes after we arrived, but we made it to the airport fine for our 8:40 flight. We then realized that our flight was delayed.. and kept being delayed until we departed at 10:30. The delay was fine since we had nothing planned for the day until 6:30pm .. the Taylor Swift concert! Plus we all got £5 vouchers to spend on food in the airport. I hate flying, but this flight was literally only 30 minutes in the air so all was well. We went to our hostel and walked around Belfast a little, going in a huge mall and getting dinner before the concert began. All our seats were separate, but we still all had a good time. The next day we slept in late and wandered more around Belfast. There isn't much to do there, but we did find out that the Titanic was built there. We went to a museum, laid in the sun for hours and went to a burrito place that was just like chipotle. We went to bed semi early because we had to move the clocks forward and check out of the hostel at 10:30. We spent the majority of Sunday at St. Georges Market where we got lunch on Saturday. The people at the burger stand recognized me and Britt from the day before and talked to us about Newcastle. We stuffed our faces and went on to the bus station to head to the airport. When boarding our plane I find out we are taking a tiny plane with propellers home to Newcastle. Almost cried walking up the steps to the plane (which were like a step-stool), but took my seat in the last row and held Britt's hand for the 20 minutes we were in the air. We had a fun weekend with a lot of girl bonding, a little Taylor Swift and a couple of nice Irish people. Sad to say this was my last weekend trip, but will be traveling in April to Spain and Italy and meeting up with my sisters in London!

XX

Belfast, Ireland

The Big Fish!
Taylor Swift.

At the coast w/ Krissy.

A weekend with the parents..

Hello! This week wasn't very exciting, but last weekend is a different story..

On Thursday, I went on my first travel adventure by myself. This was only because I was meeting my parents in London and no one saw any fun in that. (Brittany jetted off to Paris instead.. way less exciting..) I took the train on Thursday at 5 rather than having to wake up early and travel. I was nervous about meeting up with them since neither of them had a phone that would work in the UK and I didn't know where their hotel was. We decided to meet at the tube station that was sorta near their hotel.. right across the Westminster bridge. After a 3.5 hour train ride and two tube transfers I found my Dad inside the tube station. (I told him to meet me on the bridge) Things were all fine and dandy until I asked my Dad to carry my bag. He was unable to do so because he could barely walk. It was day one of their trip to the UK and my father had already fallen out of the bathtub. I will spare you poor souls the details, but let's just saw the sliding glass door that was the door to the bathroom was open 2 inches and he wanted to close it while standing FEET away.. enough said. We spent the evening just catching up. The following morning Dad's leg had gotten worse. Luckily, we had tickets to a Double Decker Hop on - Hop off bus or as some people in this family refer to it as.. The " Hip - Hop Bus". We spent our time at St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and other touristy attractions. We also went on a River Cruise and spent a lot of time on the bus because there were tour guides. We went out to dinner and went to see Thriller Live! After getting lost trying to find a tube station closer to the hotel we took a cab to the theater. My Mom disliked how there was a female singer singing Michael Jackson's songs and threatened to leave at one point.. she was fine after they sang Heal the World. The show was Okay.. I think London theater is much different than the shows we have on Broadway. On Saturday, We almost took my Dad to the hospital because he couldn't walk. However, we just left him in bed and went to Westminster Abbey. There was quite a long line to get in and it was expensive, but it was very pretty. I'm glad I got to see it before the Royal Wedding takes place there in April. On Sunday, the only not sunny day of the weekend we took a ride on the London Eye. It never stops and you have to wait behind these metal gates before getting on. Similar to a horse racing gate, once the gates go down you basically have to quickly jump on before they close the doors. We were quite worried that Tom may miss the jump, but we all safely made it on. After some souvenir shopping and trying to jam all the new clothing my parents brought me into two bags we went to one last dinner. We went to Slug and Lettuce which was quite good (Tom loved the ribs..) I rushed back to get my baggage and was off to the Westminster tube station to return back to Newcastle. The weekend went quite quickly, but I'm glad my parents got to experience the UK and some nice weather while they were here. It was so nice to see them, but scary because that means I'm at my halfway point here. See you in 10 weeks Joy & Tom!

XX

London Eye.
Forced to tie his shoes, because he couldn't bend down.
Tower Bridge.

Two weekends in Newcastle!

Hi! It's been some time since I've updated on here. The last two weekends were spent out and about Newcastle so I wasn't so anxious to write about one of my trips. Last weekend I spent time with Britt since it was the last time we will both be in Newcastle for a weekend together until May! We went to a museum, went to the Tyneside markets and of course, went to dinner. This weekend I spent time with my British friends from my building. We really just spent our time going out to eat and hanging around.. mainly because I got sick again! Everyone who knows me well enough knows I do get sick quite frequently, but twice in 4 weeks is a bit much. I did invest in some Airborne before coming here, but it doesn't seem to be working so well for me. I hate the taste of "Zesty Orange" and it just doesn't seem to cure me. I'm hoping the medicine "Lemsip Max" does the trick (They have no American medicine here.. not even Advil!) This week I will be spending time catching up on work and getting ready for three very exciting weekends. It's always fun to have plans, but it was nice to have a two weekend break in between my travels. On Thursday evening I will be traveling via train to meet up with my parents in London. It's their first time in London (My mothers first time leaving the country) so I'm excited to see them and show them around. It's insane that I left home two months ago already. It feels like I've been around this town so long, yet it feels like I left Long Island just yesterday. The following weekend my friend Krissy from home will be visiting! I'm extra excited because I get to show her around Newcastle. (no one in my family wanted to make the trek all the way up North!) This is her first time out of the country and she received her passport a mere few weeks ago. Then last, but not least Brittany, myself and two fellow American girls will be flying to Ireland to go to the Taylor Swift concert! Shall all be exciting. Until then I plan on getting better and doing some work.

XX ( I now have turned slightly British.. they don't hug XO.. only kiss X )

Before going out!

From the top floor of the museum.
Around Newcastle!

Germany!

Hello! This past weekend myself and 6 of my friends went to Cologne, Germany. It was my first trip flying somewhere and to a country where they don't speak English. On Friday morning we took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland. I was there just last weekend, but we found a really cheap flight out of their airport. I hate flying and the woman who held my hand during the turbulent flight from New York to London wasn't around, but I survived the hour and 20 minute flight. We got to Germany late so we just grabbed dinner and went to bed early. The next morning we galavanted around Cologne. We went to a gorgeous cathedral called the Dome. We were located right by this huge shopping street so we did a ton of shopping. Towards the end of the day we found out all the stores would be closed the following day because it was Sunday so by Saturday night we were rushing around trying to buy souvenirs. Sometime in the afternoon we took the train to a little town called Bonn. It was a short train ride away, but was still very different from Cologne. We visited Beethoven's house and I got my first crepe! We then spent the majority of the next two days eating.. We had a ton of pastries, gelato, german sausage. I wasn't expecting the food to be so good there! Saturday night we were so exhausted from running around that we just hung out at the hostel. We all played cards and tried some German beer. Although not knowing German wasn't a big deal.. we had a few issues. There were bowls of candy around the lounge in the hostel. Brittany grabbed a bowl and started passing some out to our group. Well a girl that barely spoke english jumped and told Britt that the candy was "not common". We still don't know what she meant, but we know we weren't allowed to have any. We went to bed semi-early after this very awkward moment. It was really cold and there wasn't a lot to do on Sunday so whenever we needed somewhere warm to sit we would go grab something to eat. We also made it our goal to find places where you don't have to pay to use the bathroom. A lot of places in Europe and England you have to pay to use the toilet.. even restaurants! It's quite odd. We flew back to Scotland Sunday at 9pm. I was nervous, but the flight was fine. We met a girl who is in the Army and is based in Germany. She approached us because she heard our American accents and she is from Florida. Since the trains stop running to and from Newcastle at 10pm we booked a hostel to stay the night. At this point we were all ready to get home, but had no choice. We got lost trying to find the hostel so we hopped in a cab. We went straight to bed, woke up at 8am and caught a 9am train back to Newcastle. Although we were all exhausted, we had such a good weekend! The next 2 weekends I will be spending my time around Newcastle. Then I will be meeting my parents in London and my friend Krissy from home will be visiting! It's scary that by that week I will be halfway done with my study abroad session..

XO

For the record.. I shared this with someone!

Inside the Dome.
The Dome.
On the Rhein River in Bonn.
Our group- 6 Americans, 1 Aussie!

Sick in Scotland :(

Hello all! Things have been quite crazy on this side of the pond. I spent all of last week being sick. Nonetheless we had train tickets and a hotel booked for Scotland for Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I planned on meeting Brittany and two of her friends at their place at 10am. Well.. I woke up at 9:56. Since I knew we probably wouldn't have time to shower in Scotland I decided to jump in the shower, attempt to make myself look human and be on my way. I met them in town and luckily beat them there. When we got to the train station we noticed our train was running late and knew we were going to miss our connecting train. Luckily we found out our ticket was good for any connecting train and not for a specific time. It was an hour and half train to Edinburgh.. in first class! We had no idea, but were very excited to find out we had first class tickets. Then another 50 minutes to Glasgow. Even though we were staying in Edinburgh we wanted to see some of Glasgow so spent all day Saturday there. We sat down on our connecting train.. found out it was canceled because of mechanical problems and had to run to another track. When we finally arrived in Glasgow we grabbed lunch, went to a few museums and went to the University of Glasgow. It was so pretty and looked like Hogwarts! We had to take a train from Glasgow to Edinburgh at night so we could get to our hotel. We did this straight after dinner because we were so exhausted from walking around all day. We got on a 7-something train that said the first two cars were to Edinburgh. Well... we didn't end up in Edinburgh. We ended up at a random station that looked like the Ronkonkoma LIRR station.. okay it wasn't even a station.. it was a platform. We traveled an hour and a half to the middle of no where! So we got back on the train (another hour and a half back), got on the correct train and took a taxi to the hotel. At this point we were far too aggravated to be searching for a hotel after 10pm in Scotland.. so much for getting there early and getting to bed! We spent the next day not wanting to get out of bed, enjoying a continental breakfast and galavanting around Edinburgh. I was forced to go hiking in leather over the knee boots and still wasn't feeling well! However, I must say it was worth it because when we got to the top the view was gorgeous. After some shopping, nachos, a cashmere scarf purchase and waiting in the freezing train station for an hour we were on our way back home! It's so odd to go on the weekend trips because I can't wait to get home.. when this isn't even my real home. Despite the occasional drama or two we had a very fun weekend! On Friday.. we leave for Germany! Good thing the only think I know how to say is I love you.. Shall be interesting...

XO

In Edinburgh.

In town in Glasgow.
At the top of our hike!

Climbed 134 steps for this view!

London!

Hiya! (a TON of British people say that instead of Hi.. I'll never say it, but I'm willing to type it) I feel like I've left you all hanging so long without posting! Have no fear.. I'm taking time away from my studies to update you on my life.

On Friday I went to London for the first time! It's a 6 hour coach ride away or a 3 hour train ride. Since we are poor University students Britt and I took the coach. It's only $32 round trip. We went to the coach stop 30 minutes early to be sure we would get a seat next to each other. We realized as the bus was boarding we were sitting on the wrong line! We waited in the wind and rain for nothing and got to the back of the line for the London bus. Our bus didn't leave on time because it was overbooked and no one was willing to get off and take the train ( I was.. but I decided I guess I HAD to stay with Brittany.) It took us 8 hours just to get to Victoria Station in London! We hit so much traffic and almost died because the bus was swaying in and out of lanes on the highway.. plus we were driving on the wrong side of the road! By the time we got off the coach, took the tube and got to the hostel it was 11pm. This was my first time staying in a hostel and it wasn't too bad. Well at first it was.. They give us the keys to the room and told us we were in beds 4 & 6 (out of 12 beds of all females) When we got into the room there were women in both of our beds! Got a little scared that we weren't going to have anywhere to sleep, but we found out the woman didn't want to climb up to the second and third bunk so they just took our beds.. nice. Britt and I got ready very quickly and went out with three girls we met up with that Britt is friends with from her college in Maryland. They are studying abroad in Spain and planned on meeting up with us and staying in the same hostel. We went out (and found out that the tube stops running at midnight.) We took a bus home and all was fine.. only got a few hours of sleep though because it's kinda odd sleeping in a room of strangers.

The next day - our only full day - we filled in as much touristy London activities as possible. We woke up at 9am ate breakfast and left the hostel right away. We got home around dinner time, ate and went out again.. this is where we almost died a second time. We went out.. all was fine - until we tried to get back to the hostel. We knew we would have to take the bus, but couldn't find a bus to take us back to our stop because it was after 3am and only select night buses were running. We decided we were going to get on a bus that was near our stop and walk the rest. We got to a stop that Britt's friend thought was closer to us.. but it wasn't. We ended up in a sketchy part of London with a used bus pass and no jackets. We looked for another bus, but none were coming and we would still have to walk a lot. After Britt was trying to hail a cab unsuccessfully I went into the street and stuck my hand in the air. Luckily, the cab driver drove past a group of people and came to me (still got it from my cab hailing days in NYC) We finally got home around 4am and went off to our bunks to get our daily 4 hours of sleep.

The final day was spent in London casually. We woke up at 9 and walked around to the last couple things we didn't see. Of course Britt and I had to bring our backpacks because we wouldn't have time to go back to the hostel. It wasn't too miserable and provided us with a fabulous workout. We caught the coach back to Newcastle at 5:30pm (FYI a lot of places in London included the coach station charge you to use the bathroom.. odd right?) We got home early because the driver had road rage and did about 90mph the whole way home. In the end it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I finally got to go on my first trip even if it was just to London. I'm looking forward to March and April when both my parents and my sisters are going to be meeting up with me there.

It's 1am, just discovered my bag of clementines has began to rot and my library books were due Friday so I owe a fine.. I guess on that note it's time for bed. Goodnight my loyal followers!

XO

Platform 9 3/4 from the first Harry Potter film.

Big Ben and Parliament.
On the Westminster Bridge.