friday was another trip to london with the art class. we went to the tate modern and the tate britain, which are two separate galleries of the same museum. once again, we were hustled past the interesting exhibits (specifically a huge section of pop art a la andy warhol) and instead had to spend an inordinate amount of time reciting what we learned in class about those paintings. however, at the tate britain we were play with the art trolley and make tissue paper flowers. it was also interesting to see some images that i really liked from class, mainly Samuel Palmer and the sublime paintings by Turner, despite the fact that we really hate him and do not like the majority of his work.
saturday we went to cardiff, which is in wales. it was a long bus ride to get there, which meant more time to nap for me! my group wandered around for a while, and saw some really interesting buildings and shops. the castle cost too much money to go in, so instead we just walked down the street and found this really beautiful park. we took a million pictures near the lake, and near the mini stonehenge that we found. after that the film kids did some work for beowulf, so jason, jess and i just pretended to be homeless people sitting on the side of the street eating pasties.
today just a few of us went on the trip, which was a tour of cotswold villages. that basically meant we stopped at 5 different town centers for varying amounts of time. most of the towns had secondhand stores, bookshops, various restaurants and tea rooms, etc etc. in one of the villages there was a craft fair that we spent a lot of time in, and also had a lot of ducks and ducklings along the river. our second stop was at a really beautiful river with really scenic bridges and a cute little gift shop attached to a fish hatchery. it was just a really nice day, despite being long and all of us being exhausted.
06 April 2008
all you need is love...
and in the end
the love you take
is equal to the love you make
we went to abbey road! it was amazing. we took a bunch of pictures of the street, the signs, and the graffiti. i added my own signature, and someone had spray painted a rose really similar to my tattoo on the wall, which was incredible! this afternoon we saw a production of blood brothers by willy russell. it was basically a play with music, as opposed to a musical. the characters were very well portrayed, and their voices were lovely. however, sara gelpke got really sick about a third of the way through, so i went outside with her where a really nice supervisor sat and helped us out. they ended up moving us up to the balcony level as opposed to front and center on the floor.
the love you take
is equal to the love you make
we went to abbey road! it was amazing. we took a bunch of pictures of the street, the signs, and the graffiti. i added my own signature, and someone had spray painted a rose really similar to my tattoo on the wall, which was incredible! this afternoon we saw a production of blood brothers by willy russell. it was basically a play with music, as opposed to a musical. the characters were very well portrayed, and their voices were lovely. however, sara gelpke got really sick about a third of the way through, so i went outside with her where a really nice supervisor sat and helped us out. they ended up moving us up to the balcony level as opposed to front and center on the floor.
02 April 2008
TRAVEL BREAK 2008
alright, so sara gelpke and i went together on travel break. we flew out from gatwick airport to barcelona on the 21st, and back on the 25th. then we flew out to dublin for the 26th-29th. this is our story:
our travel break started off pretty crappy. our flight ended being delayed almost two hours because of problems, and then when we finally started moving we had to stop because of a passenger who was too nervous to fly and had to get off. so, we ended up leaving gatwick at 9, which is when we were supposed to land, and we didn't land in barcelona til midnight. the buses had stopped running, so we had to take a cab to our hotel, which was expensive. however, the hotel was absolutely beautiful. we were at the catalonia aragon, and our metro station was named clot. we went to pretty much every site imaginable: placa catalunya, the museu de la xocolata (chocolate museum), las ramblas (the main walkway, with tons of shops, restaurants, statue-people, street vendors, etc), parc de la cuitadella (beautiful place with palm trees, perfect for napping), la mercat boqueria (the biggest market of fresh produce, fish, nuts, wines, etc), the arc de triomf (again with the palm trees), barceloneta beach (where we met american boys from new jersey who are doing a semester abroad in liverpool!!), la ribera (another main walkway), and so much more! we ate some incredible local foods like paella and tapas, and drank some really incredibles wines and sangrias, and i actually got a little bit of sunburn from the beach!
the interval between the trips is worth mentioning. we spent fourteen hours in the airport. i really don't recommend this to anyone. it was worse for sara, because i was at least able to sleep for a bit. we ended up storing our suitcase with all our summery gear, but we still had backpacks and purses with us. we spend a few hours sitting on the floor near the check-in stations where i managed probably an hour of sleep. then we moved upstairs and found some semi-comfortable chairs in a coffee shop, where i got a few more. around this time, sara realized that her camera wasn't in her purse. we checked all of our bags, and the suitcase, and finally decided that it had been stolen in barcelona. we think it was in the metro when we were heading to the airport. so that's why i have pretty much no pictures of myself in barcelona :(. we were able to check in for the flight really early, so we got into security and just hung out til the flight for dublin was called around 10am.
we landed in dublin and took a bus straight to the hotel because we were so exhausted. we stayed at the mespil hotel, which was about 15 minutes outside of the city center. once again, an absolutely beautiful hotel. i absolutely recommend going to a travel agent, especially when they don't charge commission for customizing a package deal. in dublin we went to: st stephen's green (this beautiful park right near our hotel), the guiness brewery (INCREDIBLE!), grafton street (local and well-known shops, as well as gift stores), the gardens of remembrance (for the war), the james joyce statues and museum (because he's one of my favorite authors), fleet street and the market area (tons of vendors, amazing nightlife), the castle, various examples of really amazing architecture, and so many things that i can't even remember! we flew back to gatwick and were able to catch an earlier bus back to banbury so we didn't have to spend another night in the airport. got back at around 3am, and i slept for 16 hours.
our travel break started off pretty crappy. our flight ended being delayed almost two hours because of problems, and then when we finally started moving we had to stop because of a passenger who was too nervous to fly and had to get off. so, we ended up leaving gatwick at 9, which is when we were supposed to land, and we didn't land in barcelona til midnight. the buses had stopped running, so we had to take a cab to our hotel, which was expensive. however, the hotel was absolutely beautiful. we were at the catalonia aragon, and our metro station was named clot. we went to pretty much every site imaginable: placa catalunya, the museu de la xocolata (chocolate museum), las ramblas (the main walkway, with tons of shops, restaurants, statue-people, street vendors, etc), parc de la cuitadella (beautiful place with palm trees, perfect for napping), la mercat boqueria (the biggest market of fresh produce, fish, nuts, wines, etc), the arc de triomf (again with the palm trees), barceloneta beach (where we met american boys from new jersey who are doing a semester abroad in liverpool!!), la ribera (another main walkway), and so much more! we ate some incredible local foods like paella and tapas, and drank some really incredibles wines and sangrias, and i actually got a little bit of sunburn from the beach!
the interval between the trips is worth mentioning. we spent fourteen hours in the airport. i really don't recommend this to anyone. it was worse for sara, because i was at least able to sleep for a bit. we ended up storing our suitcase with all our summery gear, but we still had backpacks and purses with us. we spend a few hours sitting on the floor near the check-in stations where i managed probably an hour of sleep. then we moved upstairs and found some semi-comfortable chairs in a coffee shop, where i got a few more. around this time, sara realized that her camera wasn't in her purse. we checked all of our bags, and the suitcase, and finally decided that it had been stolen in barcelona. we think it was in the metro when we were heading to the airport. so that's why i have pretty much no pictures of myself in barcelona :(. we were able to check in for the flight really early, so we got into security and just hung out til the flight for dublin was called around 10am.
we landed in dublin and took a bus straight to the hotel because we were so exhausted. we stayed at the mespil hotel, which was about 15 minutes outside of the city center. once again, an absolutely beautiful hotel. i absolutely recommend going to a travel agent, especially when they don't charge commission for customizing a package deal. in dublin we went to: st stephen's green (this beautiful park right near our hotel), the guiness brewery (INCREDIBLE!), grafton street (local and well-known shops, as well as gift stores), the gardens of remembrance (for the war), the james joyce statues and museum (because he's one of my favorite authors), fleet street and the market area (tons of vendors, amazing nightlife), the castle, various examples of really amazing architecture, and so many things that i can't even remember! we flew back to gatwick and were able to catch an earlier bus back to banbury so we didn't have to spend another night in the airport. got back at around 3am, and i slept for 16 hours.
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