Insert witty title here

Belated Birthday shout out to my brother! In true Anastos style, expect a really belated birthday card.

Last week was glorious as my parents were visiting. This meant not only staving off the ever present homesickness for a few days and enjoying family time, but also eating REAL food and touring historical edifices for free! Thanks parental unit! Amongst the many places we visited were the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. Description time:

The Tower of London: As my mom stated, "I feel like I'm in a BBC film." So true, mumsie. Walking in a place that was entrenched in so much history, literally standing where famous figures such as Anne Boleyn had stood was unreal. Unlike most girls, my most exciting experience came not upon viewing the crown jewels, but on entering Lady Jane Gray's cell. After freaking out quite audibly (to the consternation of those around me), I was able to calm down enough to notice the etchings and carvings on the walls. Supporters of Lady Jane had pledged their allegiance to her even after she was executed. So there I was, standing where Lady Jane Gray had stood, looking at people's testimonials from 500 years ago, and imagining the fright she must have experienced in the dim, cold cell. Reader, it was unreal.

Westminster Abbey: Way cool place with way cool dead people buried there. Ok, I'll be more specific. So, I kinda, sorta saw the tomb of most of the Tudors, the Edwards, Richard the III (!!!!!) and, you know, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. The last two were hilarious really because enemies in life, they would not be pleased with their current burial arrangements. They are buried one on top of the other - that is Elizabeth on top of Mary (bite it, Mary!), all sisterly and whatnot. Oh, the irony! Poet's corner, a section dedicated solely to authors was also quite to my taste (Chaucer is buried there!), as was the music section where Handel's body now lies.
Oh, silly me! I haven't actually given you a description of the abbey, have I? Dear me. Well, look it up, google image it, check out a picture book because all I can say is that it's magnificent.

Friday I went to Bath where I fulfilled my Jane Austen inspired dream of going to the Roman Baths, the Pump and Assembly Rooms and walking along the Royal Crescent. These specific places are mentioned in two of her novels: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Interestingly enough, Northanger Abbey, her first novel, presents Bath in a very positive light, yet after living there herself, Austen depicts it in a negative tone in Persuasion. Huh. I myself have mixed feelings about Bath and need to further sort them out. In a fit of bravery I even "took the water" - a nasty, metallic water that bubbles up from the Earth's core. Although it contains 43 minerals including calcium and iron, I didn't fancy it much.

In other news I just finished two papers on which I procrastinated a ridiculous amount. In London everyone has the mentality of, "Papers? Homework? What's that? Library? Studying? Huh?" Clearly, this is not conducive to getting things done, let alone putting a lot of effort into work. Thus, I have speed-written some pretty mediocre bullshit this past week. C'est la vie.

Love you, Lovers!
Lauren

Saturday

I've been sick on and off, which is why I haven't blogged in a while - I've basically been a bump on a log. However, today I ventured outside the apartment for a considerable length of time.
First, I went to the Globe gift shop. It's a lovely place with many amazing things.
For future reference, I should never be allowed in there again - or at least not with a credit card.

I also went to St. Paul's Cathedral - you know, the big one - and walked around a bit. To be honest, I didn't have the greatest time.
Part of it was I didn't have a tour guide or anyone telling me about the amazing things I was looking at, so my experience boiled down to, "Gee, that's pretty".
Part of it was I was dumb enough to go on a Saturday, when all the tourists are out. It was busy, and everyone was noisy.
Part of it was that people were taking pictures (which they asked us not to do) and being loud, and there was some screaming, which seems disrespectful to me. So I was crabby.

But mainly, it was because I heard the guy in front of me talking about how there were so many Catholics (I didn't know Catholicism was that obvious), and that Catholics shouldn't be allowed in St. Paul's because it's an Anglican church. So that colored the entire experience.

Really, St. Paul's was beautiful, and if I had had a tour guide and a non-jerky guy in front of me, I would have had a fabulous time.

And the Globe gift shop was really incredible.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

So, are you sick of hearing about the plays I went to and the famous people I've been meeting? If you are....I'd skip this blog post because last night Maggie and I went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It was an all star cast (who I'll get to) and directed by Debbie Allen, who chose to make it an all black cast which I thought completely worked. I knew nothing about the play but it is about a family in the South who has come home to celebrate Big Daddy's birthday. However, everyone except Big Daddy and Big Mama know that Big Daddy is dying of cancer. Anyway, as it is Tennessee Williams, who I am convinced never believed that any sort of relationship could work or be healthy, the ending was unhappy and ambiguous. But the performances were fantastic. Adrian Lester played Brick, one of Big Daddy's sons. I know him from the TV show Hustle and two Kenneth Branaugh Shakespeare movies and I'm a huge fan of his, so it was really cool to see him. But the best performance of the night, no question, was Big Daddy who was played by James Earl Jones. Now, you think his voice is impressive as Darth Vader, but can you imagine how cool it is in a live theatre? Needless to say, it carries extremely well. He was fantastic and extremely funny (he even made Adrian Lester laugh when he wasn't supposed to, which just made the audience laugh even more). Of course, Maggie and I waited by the stage door after the show. Adrian Lester was really nice and talked with us for a little while and of course, we both got pictures with him. James Earl Jones only did autographs, no pictures. I was pretty disgusted with the people waiting with us because they had all brought pictures of Darth Vader for him to sign. However, it made him like me when I came up with my program. Okay, I know this is nerdy, but I had a really cool conversation with him and the best way to do it is this way:

Me: Hi. (Hand him program)

James Earl Jones (JEJ): Hello. Oh, you actually saw the show!

Me: Yes, of course. It was really good and I really enjoyed it.

JEJ: Good. Where are you from?

Me: The U.S.

JEJ: New York?

Me: No, Minnesota.

JEJ: Are you a student here?

Me: Yes.

JEJ: And are you studying theatre?

Me (Laughing a little): No, I wish. I'm actually studying English Literature.

JEJ: That's even better! It'll broaden your horizons. (Hands back program). Thank you for coming.

Me: Thank you!

So, as I said, sorry for being nerdy and doing the word by word conversation, but when James Earl Jones tells you that being an English Literature major is cool, you kinda have to brag a little. Now I have a fantastic response if anyone ever asks me why I would want to be an English major. I'll simply tell them that James Earl Jones told me it would broaden my horizons. :)

Tricky Linguistics

So we went to see Stonehenge. And, according to my British mates, I pronounce it incorrectly. Apparently Americans say STONEhenge, with the emphasis on "stone", whereas Brits say stoneHENGE. As Ziggy said, "It's a henge made up of stone, not a stone made up of henge."
Right. I'm stupid. I can't pronounce words correctly. Even my violin teacher with his markedly Romanian accent started laughing at my accent last week when I asked the ever-comical question, "what?" According to him American accents are funny. Apparently we say "totally" too much (which I totally don't think is true) and "like" (ok, that one is totally valid). Also, whenever people in drama club are representing a character that is supposed to be ditsy, phony or flaky, they give them an American accent. Similarly, I was told by my director for "Hitchhiker's" that my character Trillian, whom I hve been trying to give a sophisticated, brisk and no-nonsense personality (she IS a neuro-scientist after all) needs to "be more Barbie". Are all Americans viewed as stupid Paris Hilton types? Are we perceived to be imbeciles who bat our eyelashes and say the most mundane and obvious things? I wish that we wouldn't immediately be stereotyped into the Hollywood/media projected image. You know, not this attitude of, "oh she's American - 'Tis pity, she's a whore". Ok, maybe not that strong, but I was channeling John Ford there.

Enough of this. StoneHENGE was amazing! I mean, I didn't get the feeling, but I still like it. You know, that feeling. The one where you are so overcome that you feel if you were to touch the stones you would be transported to an alternate universe where Pagans rule and dancing naked under the full moon is a mandatory ritual. Despite this, the sprawling fields and smell of hay and horses brought me back to Wisconsin. Before going to Salisbury, we stopped at Old Serum where, in a fit of nostalgia for our past childhood, we were allowed to climb up and frolic over the ruins of an old castle. It is absolutely gorgeous there, remote and unreal. I mean, climbing over the ruins of a castle? Not something you do every day. Afterward we drove to Salisbury, which is a cute village-y town known for its Cathedral. While impressive, it wasn't my favorite place of worship that I have viewed thus far. We hit up the market where we were immediately drawn to the pastry and book stalls. Pretty predictable.

Yesterday a few of us went to the site for the 2012 Olympics. While we all know I'm not the biggest sports enthusiast, it was pretty awesome to see the stadium, as well as other unique architecture that will be used for the games. It was a lovely day, Spring is FINALLY here in London, and we took the train to Canary Wharf (an area of London) which reminded me a lot of Chicago. Actually, it was apparently inspired by Chicago architecturally-speaking, complete with huge shopping mall. After hitting up the docklands museum, which was pretty darn groovy we hit up the mall. Thirty minutes later I promptly felt sick (shopping does that to me) and took the tube back to go see some friends at Imperial College in their hilarious production of Noises Off.

And tomorrow my parents will be here! A little slice of home right in London. So excited!

Good-bye for now my dahlings!
Lauren

Private Lives

Here we go again. I'm hyperventilating....again. Another night, another play, and more famous people. Tonight Lauren and I went to see Private Lives, a play by Noel Coward and starring Kim Cattrall (you may know here from a little show called Sex and the City) and Matthew MacFadyen (the most beautiful and talented actor from Little Dorrit and the newest Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice). Despite being in the absolute last row in the absolute highest balcony, we were at least in the middle and so had a pretty good view...even if they were all a little far away. The play is about Amanda (Cattrall) and Elyot (MacFadyen) who have been divorced 5 years, but run into one another again on their respective honeymoons to their respective new spouses. Comedy and chaos ensue. The entire cast was very good and it didn't matter at all that we couldn't see them too well because we were the first to be by the stage door after the show. This show had a little bit more of a crowd. Kim Cattrall came out first and signed my program and took a picture with Lauren. She was very nice to all the people waiting and made sure everyone who wanted a photo or autograph got one before she left. Weirdly enough, when she left, almost all the fans did too. I didn't understand this at all because I was there to see Matthew MacFadyen. He soon stuck his head out the door and came to sign my program. He was also nice enough to take a picture with me too! Then Lauren and I freaked out because there aren't many more celebrities I would get more excited about than Matthew MacFadyen. Rupert Friend was cool, but he's no Matthew MacFadyen. So, Lauren and I went to celebrate with a fantastic crepe and freaked out some more. It was awesome. :D

So sorry, here's a lame recap

So sorry for my absence...I blame it on being sick. Yes, this week I got the full experience of the National Healthcare System after going in four times in the span of one week. But really, you don't want to hear about that unpleasantness, and I'd rather not talk about it, so onto nicer subjects, ay?

After Shannon's quite truthful and detailed report of our trip, I feel like any explanation I would give would be repetitive. Hmmmm....how about I just skip the details and give a highly subjective response to the third-grade essay question, "What did you enjoy most about your trip?"

1. THE GOTHIC QUARTER - holy freaking tark! I love the Gothic Quarter. Wandering around the narrow cobble-stoned streets between huge architectural monuments while listening to the seductive Aussie accent of Shawn, our hunky hunky tour guide was amazing! The tour itself was interesting as I learned a lot in a fun and enjoyable manner, but what I loved most about the Gothic Quarter was losing myself in the little alleyways. The only hope to find one's way was to listen for music and follow it. There were street musicians in almost every corner - a music lover's paradise - and there was one band that I'm still kicking myself over because I didn't get the courage to ask them their name. They sang the most beautiful song I have possibly ever heard. Yeah. That's right. It was powerful.

2. LA PLAYA - Due to rain we were unable to have a picnic and build sand castles the way we had planned. However, we were able to walk the beach one night under a New Moon (insert Twilight joke here). One can imagine that this setting was absolutely breathtaking. After walking around we stumbled upon some sand creatures, which turned out to be pirates, mermaids and monkeys (of the see/hear/speak no evil variety). Pure simple joy is what the beach was. (A horrible, grammatically incorrect sentence; I do apologize, but there it is.) Running around, darting from the ominous, cold waves before they could get me, playing in the sand....all good times. And quite therapeutic, really. I think everyone should have some beach time at least once a month to lower stress levels.

3. THE FOOD - Before my ulcer attack, I indulged a bit too much in the wonderful chocolate Spain has to offer. A popular breakfast (at least among tourists) is churros con chocolate, or churros with thick, pudding-like hot chocolate. Please, U.S.A. let's adopt this tradition, shall we?
It was AMAZING! But my body soon told me a bit forcefully that I needed to tone it down....so I switched to tortillas, an omelette-like egg dish with onions and potatoes. As I am a fan of omelettes, this was not too much of a sacrifice, and so I indulged in the traditional Spanish fare with gusto.

4. THE PARKS - after a long day of walking, it was nice to take a break and lay out in the sun, on a bench of the park closest to our hostel. This park had the most beautiful fountain (Shannon said it rivals Trevi Fountain), and this was the scene of many wandering, mundane, sleepy and shallow conversations, as well as copious catnaps. Can I just say that laying in the sun is a luxury that most Californians will never ever understand? Minnesotans, I know you've got me.

5. THE ARCHITECTURE AND ART - while I'm not as enamored of art as Shannon and Alex, I did enjoy going to the Prado and the National Art Institute. Seeing actual Piccasso paintings blew my mind, as did viewing Velazquez' Las Meninas. The Prado is ginormous....kind of like the Louvre I imagine. While it houses imagery of horrific and brutal murders, it is also home to some terrific and less gorey paintings by Goya, Reubens, etc. The great part was that the Prado was free between 18:00 - 20:00, so I went two nights in a row and came not even close to seeing everything. Also of note are the various cathedrals we went to including Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia. It's frickin' huge and full of so much symbolism that I would never be able to understand. What caught me about the cathedral (besides the magnificent facade, of course,) were the stained glass windows visible from the interior. They didn't show religious settings; they were, in fact, just pieces of glass. Because of this, Gaudi seemingly concentrated on brilliance of color instead of a religious depiction making them the most eye-dazzling windows I have ever seen.

Consensus: SPAIN ROCKS!

So ends my ramble, and I bid you good-day.

Good day,
Lauren

Starstruck

I'm still hyperventilating a bit so please excuse any fawning and adoring language that is about to occur. We went to see the play The Little Dog Laughed tonight. We got there early so we could get student priced tickets, which just meant that we got the best tickets that were left but for a discounted price. This ended up being the 6th row right in the middle. Score! Anyway, since we got there early, we walked around a bit and discovered that there was a movie premiere happening just around the corner. It was for the movie The Bounty Hunter starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. Kinda freaked out and joined the throng of people trying to shove their way to see them. I didn't get very far, but I did see them both and got some blurry pictures of them. The one here is kind of cheating as it was on the big screen above the red carpet, but it is the best one I have.

So then we saw the play. We had heard it was good, but I will be honest when I say that the main draw for me was that one of the four cast members is Rupert Friend, who plays Prince Albert in The Young Victoria, which is a movie we all know I am obsessed with. Anyway, it turned out to be a really good play. The main woman was Tamsin Greig, who Maggie had heard of, and she was absolutely hilarious and fantastic. The other guy was Harry Lloyd (who isn't famous but was very good) and Gemma Arterton, who you might know from Tess of the D'ubervilles, Lost in Austen, or a little movie called Quantum of Solace. After the play, we waited outside the stage door to get autographs. I was surprised because there were only about 10 people waiting, including us. Rupert Friend appeared first and after an awkward moment when everyone just stood there, I stepped up to him and said, "Hi!" He asked me if I wanted an autograph, I said yes (of course) and then told him how great I thought the play was. Then I also asked him if I could take a picture with him and he said sure and so that is the picture included here!! Then everyone else (Maggie and a few others) got his autograph and left. I was very proud of myself for stepping up, especially because I acted like a normal person and was very cool and as nonchalant as a person asking a hot actor for an autograph can be. Until he left. Then I freaked out a little. Anyway, Harry Lloyd also signed my program and was very friendly and Tamsin Greig signed, too, and although I could tell she was really tired, she told us that we had been a great audience. We waited awhile for Gemma, but she didn't show up so we left because it was cold. However, 3 out of 4 isn't bad, especially when one was Rupert Friend!!! So, lots of exciting stargazing tonight. :)

Spain Part 2: Madrid

Madrid was not as kind to us weather-wise. It was cold and rainy for both of the days we were there. Luckily, there are plenty of indoor activities one can do in Madrid. Number one: The Prado. We went there twice as it was free after 6pm until 7:30. It is definitely a great museum, although all the paintings I liked weren't the ones they had postcards of in the gift shop. However, they have one of my favorite paintings EVER and I didn't even know it until I saw it on a postcard in the gift shop. I then freaked out, found it on my map and ran off to find it. What is this painting you ask? It is a triptych by Bosch called "The Garden of Earthly Delights" and is the coolest thing you will ever see come out of the 1400s. The left side shows paradise, the middle shows what the Earth would be like if we all gave in to sin, and the right shows hell. I studied this in Art History freshman year, and it was mostly the colors and the weird figures in the painting that drew me to it, but I also kind of like the concept too. Of course, I doubt that Bosch was promoting the idea that Earthly Delights would be a good idea (it is a triptych after all) but who knows how ironic he was being. It is so impressive to see in person because it is giant and the colors are just as vibrant as they look in the picture. Plus it is fun to find all the weird creatures. I will admit that I got a shirt that featured a design from this painting and I'm very happy I did.

We visited the Royal Palace and the Cathedral the next day. The Palace was like any other one which is why I liked going through it so much; it was richly decorated with rooms of different themes, sometimes overdone to such an extent to make them almost gaudy. The porcelain room was one example of this as the walls were covered with porcelain figures and designs that made the room way too busy. The Cathedral was really cool and basically emphasized what I had noticed most about Spain: the art, and most everything for that matter, is more colorful and more angular. I think we tend to see more Italian and French styles and influences and seeing Spanish art and designs was so cool. The paintings in this Cathedral were so brilliantly and brightly colored. I don't know how else to describe it so check out the pictures. After the Cathedral we went to get some churros and chocolate. Churros are amazing because how could fried dough not be amazing? Then you get some hot chocolate with it and dip and eat away. That night we had some amazing Indian food as our hostel was located in a neighborhood full of Indian restaurants.

The next day was our last in Madrid. Our flight wasn't until 8:35 pm, so we had almost the entire day to do some more exploring. It was still rainy and cold, but we decided to go over to the huge park in the heart of the city called Parque del Buen Retiro. It was a bit muddy in some places, but still beautiful. We saw a monument to Alfonso VII, a pond with a waterfall and some black swans, and the Crystal Palace, which wasn't open because it was raining. After some lunch, we were planning on going to an art museum that was free after 2:30, but as we were killing time we were distracted by another museum that was having a giant exhibition on Monet. So we ended up at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza which ended up having one of the most amazing permanent collections I have ever seen. It was huge too and I have no idea how I got through the entire thing in one go. Once again, the gift shop sucked as far as having prints of the paintings I liked, but they did a Degas that I really liked. Plus they had the Chagall painting featured in the movie Notting Hill (with the violin-playing goat!!) which is just as cool as Anna Scott says it is. So that was pretty exciting. And then there was the Monet. The exhibition was so big that the second part of it was in a separate building that we had to hike over to. But it was so cool. I think most people think waterlillies, haystacks, and Japanese bridge when they think Monet, but he is so much more than that. There were flowers, willow trees, and his winter scenes are super cool too. We ended up being extremely happy we went to the Monet collection. The Reina Sofia will be a reason to come back.

Overall, most of us liked Barcelona better than Madrid, but to be fair we spent more time in Barcelona, took a walking tour there which made us more familiar with the layout and the history, and the weather and the hostel were a lot nicer. I'd definitely want to go back to both cities, especially Madrid as I didn't think I really got all that I could out of it.

So now, back to London which all of sudden feels like home. It is nice to be somewhere familiar again. Also, for those of you who don't know, I was accepted to do a summer internship program here so I will be in London until the end of July. Will I continue with the blog? We shall see. :)

Exeter Cathedral

On my second full day in Exmouth, I went to Exeter, the major city in the area. I didn't much care for most of the city, as it seemed to be full of department/couture stores, but they did have some cool landmarks. I went to Rougemont Castle and Gardens and apparently missed the castle. I made it to some Norman ruins and totally missed the giant Georgian structure behind it. Shows where my mind was. Anyway, the ruins I saw were the remnants of a guardhouse and some massive walls. Mainly I walked around and looked at the flowers, because it was sunny and probably at least 50 degrees. Yes, spring is here. There's a ton of crocuses, and some irises and roses. Our program lady, Mary, was lamenting the fact that there's no daffodils yet. Usually by now there's tons and they're exporting them already.

But I digress.

Exeter Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Exeter, is a massive building built mostly between 1200 and 1400. The earliest parts are definitely Norman, but that was pretty much the transept and some pillars. The nave has this massive vaulted ceiling, which is pretty gorgeous. It's the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England.
My favorite thing about the cathedral was the clock in the transept, which is a huge astronomical clock from the 1480s. The earth is the shiny gold ball in the middle (because this is the geocentric age). The next ring around shows how old the moon is, and the silver ball has a black cover that rotates to show what phase the moon is in. Beyond that the sun (as a fleur-de-lis) points to the hour, and also shows the position of the sun in the sky. The bottom reads "Pereunt Et Imputantur", which means "they perish and are reckoned to our account", referring to the minutes and hours we spend. This is a popular motto for sundials and such, and was written by the poet Martial. I think my favorite thing about the clock is the door beneath it. The mechanisms of the clock were greased with animal fat, which attracted mice, so the bishop had a hole carved in the door for his cat to go through and catch the mice. This is supposedly where Hickory Dickory Dock came from.
The cathedral is also home to the Exeter book, which is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon literature. According to my professor, it had been used as a cutting board by some monks who were apparently short of kitchen equipment and had to make do. I had to go around to the bishop's house, which doubled as the library, in order to go and see it, but no one answered the bell. I'm a little disappointed.
But the man who gave me directions there was very nice, and even recognized I was American and translated for me (aka, "pavement" became "sidewalk").
I felt a little sacrilegious taking pictures in there, but they didn't have a lot of postcards and I wanted to remember specific things. I think they didn't have a great shop because they wanted to emphasize the religious and spiritual nature of the cathedral. Makes sense. It's a fairly big departure from the Westminster Abbey shop, I'll tell you that.

Spain Part 1.5: Barcelona

I'm not sure how to write about our trip because any way I divide it up, the posts are going to be loooooonnngg. So, I'll just dive in and see what happens. Also, I usually mention what the pictures are of so look for the little (picture) note after the names of the buildings I mention.
We did finally make it to Spain despite our false start at the beginning. Alex and I were the only ones that got switched to another EasyJet flight (by the way, there is NOTHING easy about EasyJet) so we left Saturday morning. Which meant getting up at 4:30 am so we could catch the tube (which was a half hour late) so we could catch the train to the airport. Luckily, we already had printed our boarding passes and weren't checking any luggage so we got to skip the huge line and so straight to security and to the gate. The flight was delayed, but we made it to Madrid in time to catch our connecting flight to Barcelona. The other four flew straight to Barcelona and we all ended up arriving at the same time. We took the metro together to our hostel and checked in. We weren't all in the same room which made it fun to share stories about the crazy people who were in our rooms with us. But actually it was really nice and my first experience in a hostel wasn't all that bad. That night we wandered around our neighborhood, got some food, may or may not have gotten a little lost, and then went back to the hostel to play some cards. We played A LOT of cards on this trip which made we extremely happy as I had been going through card withdrawal. We also ate a lot of chocolate. :)

Our first full day in Barcelona was beautiful. It was 60 degrees and sunny and we so excited to be there. Our hostel was outside of where the main city center was, so it took about 30-45 minutes to walk there, but it was so nice out that none of us cared. That was also the day when I was somehow designated the "fearless leader" who took control of the map and led us everywhere. Needless to say, we got where we were going. However, the first day, we mostly just wandered around everywhere taking in the architecture, the people, the feel, and most importantly, the water! We were on the ocean in the sun. What more can you want from spring break? We had some really good sangria with our lunch and then wandered around some more. We went into the Barcelona Cathedral, walked Las Ramblas, and had a grand old time in the sun. We had dinner on Las Ramblas and then went back to the hostel. When we were playing cards in the common room, we met these three Germans who joined us in our card game. They joined us the next day when we went on a walking tour.

Our second day in Barcelona started with a walking tour. Our tour guide was named Shawn and he was from Australia and he was very knowledgeable about the area. He had travelled all over Europe before ending up in Barcelona and he's only 22! Anyway, it was a very long tour, but really cool and with a beer stop in the middle. A little bit about Barcelona. It is in part of the country known as Catalonia which has tried and failed many times to be separate from Spain. They do speak Spanish there but the main language is Catalan which made communicating that much more fun. However, Beka and Lauren were both spoke Spanish well and Mike spoke some too and they managed to get us through. Anyway, on the tour we went through George Orwell plaza where they had a funny looking statue dedicated to him. When the artist revealed it, no one understood what it was and the artist was very put out when he had to explain that is was what a tuberculosis cell looked like under a microscope and that he chose it because that is what George Orwell died of. Strange choice to design a statue to celebrate his death rather than his life. But the people of Catalonia really like him because he fought against the Spanish when they were trying to gain independence, although he only fought for a week before getting injured. However, the most amusing part about this plaza was that since it is a popular place for drug dealers, the plaza is full of cameras....so Big Brother is always watching you in Placa de George Orwell. That night we walked along the beach which was absolutely beautiful and there were some cool sand sculptures too.

The next was Gaudi day. Antoni Gaudi is a very famous architect that has tons of stuff all over Barcelona. We first went to La Sagrada Familia (left picture) which is a church he designed and is still not finished. They started it in the 1890s and after many failed deadlines, now believe it will be finished in 2050. We'll see. But despite its being under construction, it is incredible. His style is completely unique in how he incorporates themes of nature and ironic bits and pieces that you have to look closely to see. We then went to Park Guell which Gaudi designed and where he lived. It is way up on a hill which meant a fantastic view once we got up there. There is a cool terrace that he designed, plus some houses, a stairway (picture above), and a bunch of other things. Finally, we went to two more of Gaudi's buildings that were in the city. It was a lot of walking, but luckily it was really sunny and nice. That night we went to a flamenco show which was incredible. They move their feet so fast and we all came out dancing a little.

Our last day in Barcelona was a rainy one, but we had saved the museums for that day. We also had another new friend. Fernanda was one of my roommates and she was from Brazil. She was super nice so I invited her to come along on our day to the museums. We first went to the National Art Museum of Catalan which featured an amazing collection of art by mostly Catalonian and Spanish artists. We also saw the Olympic stadium as Barcelona was the site of the 1992 Olympic Games. A lot of the statues and cool buildings were built because they were hosting the Olympics. The funniest one is that they built an Arc de Triomf (picture). As I mentioned earlier, they have tried and failed many times to gain independence but have never actually been triumphant. They simply saw the French one and said "Hey, that looks cool" and built one for themselves. We also went to the Picasso museum. Both Picasso and Miro were from Barcelona and have museums dedicated to them. We only made it to the Picasso museum, and unfortunately it was a little disappointing. They had a lot of his early work, which was really cool, but not much after that. For a museum dedicated to Picasso, they really did not have a very good range of his works. That night, we were all pretty tired, so we picked up some bread and cheese at the store and had that for dinner at our hostel and played cards with our friends we had made in Barcelona.

Exmouth and Dawlish Warren

After having almost no internet for the duration of my vacation, I'm going to have to do this in bits and pieces so as not to overload everyone, most of all me.
I ended up staying in Exmouth in Devon, right on the Channel. It's a cute little resort town with a huge beach, something that is rare in Devon. I stayed at a B&B run by a little Italian lady who called me sweetheart and made me scrambled eggs on toast.
Side note - the full English breakfast apparently involves a fried egg (slimy), sausage, bacon which is more like ham, baked beans, and a stewed tomato, such as you would find in my mother's chili. I don't know about you all, but I believe that eggs should be bone-dry and bacon should be crisp. Hence, no more English breakfasts for me. They're just not my cup of tea. So when the Italian lady mentioned scrambled eggs, I jumped at it.
Also, she had a dog that ran around the house and was totally adorable.

Exmouth is best known for being part of the Jurassic Coast. There are these massive red cliffs a ways down the beach which were formed in the Triassic Period, about 250 million years ago. I walked that area twice, once on the beach and once from up top.There really wasn't much to do there other than that, so I went to a few cities in the area, but pretty much my schedule was:
7:50 - Wake up
8:00 - Breakfast
8:30 - Nap
10:00 - Go do something
3:00 - Come back, fiddle with pictures4:00 - Nap
6:30 - Go find dinner
7:00 - Eat/watch TV/read
12:00 - Go to bed

I ended up taking 600 pictures in the course of 4 days.
Another place I went was Dawlish Warren, across the estuary. This was Wednesday, really the only day I was there that it wasn't sunny. It was a little chilly in the Exmouth town center, but not too bad. And yet somehow living in a city between two lakes, in a state between two giant lakes, I did not realize that right on the water it could be massively different, as in windy and cold.So I froze my ass off in the Dawlish Warren nature reserve, which is probably beautiful when it's sunny and summery. Not so in March. It was cold and windy and pretty bleak. I didn't end up going to the moors, but I imagine this is what it would have been like - flat, with lots of scrub, but no real place to get away from the elements. The main difference I think is that moors probably don't have sand dunes. Sand dunes + wind = constantly taking pictures because the camera is protecting my eyes.
I'm making it sound awful. It really wasn't. I could have used some better planning and gone when it was sunny, and saved the indoor things for a crappy day, but oh well.

I also went to Exeter and saw the cathedral there, but I'm going to do that in a separate post because my dad asked about the clock. I'm currently without my touristy information guides, so that will have to wait.