So I know its been awhile since the last entry but I've been busy running amok with my lovely friend Leigh-Anne who came out to visit from Boston. It was really nice having her here especially since she came bearing tootsie rolls, peanut butter M&M's and cheetos!!! We did loads of fun stuff and here are some of the highlights. My fav thing of the week was going to see Legally Blonde the Musical. It was such a fun clever show. Really really worth going to see if you get the chance. We did lots of shopping on Oxford street and at Westfield Mall....and as Leigh-anne said "She single handedly boosted the UK economy". :) We had fun nights out drinking at Reflex (80's bar), Walkabout (an australian pub) and the Firestation (a bar...not an actual firestation although a pole between floors would have been fun!).
We made it down to Guildford to visit our friend Gemma and had a great day. We went through a little town called Shere where the movie "The Holiday" was filmed. If anyone has seen the show Top Gear, we went to a pub in Shere that is owned by The Stig!!! And he was there so we chilled and had a drink in the same room as the him. How cool is that!!! We did a Harry Potter Walk throughout London and got to see places where the movies were filmed. Because of this we were in the magical spirit and managed to watch 4 Harry Potter movies while she was here! Wingardium Leviosa!! All in all it was a very fun week so thanks for coming out Leigh-Anne :)
The video I have for you today is from Borough Market. It has become one of my fav markets here. Any kind of fresh food that you could possibly want. It really is a fun place and I've taken you on a little trip through it. Hope you enjoy!!!
Sorry I haven't posted anything for awhile and I'm sorry to say but it will be a bit longer before I post anything else. I currently have my friend Leigh-Anne over here from Boston and we are doing our best to run amok through London. I promise I will record some of the adventures for you to follow along with. Today we're off to Borough and Greenwich markets and then tonight......THE NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND MOVIE!!! Very excited to see it. Hope you're all doing well and I'll be back soon!
So one part of Greenwich that I unfortunately haven't added to this video is the Market. There is one small market alongside the street that is all great antiques/kitsch stuff. You never know what you're going to find there and I comb the tables hoping to spot that prize find that will give me my moment of fame on Antiques Road Show...Probably not gonna happen though considering the last time I went there I wanted to buy a brightly colored kitschy vase and a black ceramic bulldog. Could have been owned by the queen...you never know :)
The main market in Greenwich is just fabulous. Its filled with crafts, vintage book/record stalls, jewelery, clothing, and a food section that's to die for. Some of the things that we've purchased at the market: 1. asian anime pictures for the hallway 2. a poster that is a version of the tube map where it shows haunted stations, spots effected by the plague, and bombed stations during the war 3. Baby clothes for my new faux nephew Kailen...and future baby clothes for my sister's little bundle of joy that I will spoil rotton. 4. A beaded giraffe. Thats just a taste of things that can be purchased and there are just so many more interesting things to find. I just feel so lucky to live a 15 min walk away. And since the weather is FINALLY getting nice I swear I'm going to be down there every single weekend.
Oh and apparently I was obsessed with saying stunning when I made this video...I think I said it like 10 times. So please stunningly enjoy this stunning video of stunning things.
So this week I thought I would take you on a walk through Greenwich where Joel and I have settled down. It's an amazing little town outside of London that is not connected to London by the tube. To get out to where we live you have to take the overground train or the DLR (Docklands Light Railway)
So here is a picture of the London tube map link. The DLR is listed on this map and it is in the lower right hand corner. Its the line represented by the two double teal lines. If you look down to the station that says Deptford Bridge...thats home sweet home.
Its a lovely little area with a market thats open every wednesday through sunday. They have all sorts of arts and crafts and AMAZING food stalls. Over this past weekend, Sarah and I had the most outstanding teriyaki salmon pretty much in the entire universe. I did a survey and two out of two people agreed :) There are a lot of pubs, restaurants (including pizza express), clothing shops and a ton of great little kitschy places. It really is such a lovely area and we have fallen in love with it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
So this is the first half of the Greenwich walk and I'll post the next video shortly.
Now I know you're supposed to have themes for your blog and for the most part mine has been traveling but I'm running out of travel crap to share...until I go on my next trip. So today you get a dose of nostalgia. :)
I was on facebook the other day and I saw that someone I’m friends with on there (who is much younger than me) had done one of those cheesy lists where you put up the guys you think are hot. This got me thinking about all the guys I thought “were like totally hot” when I was younger. I can remember buying Bop and Tiger Beat to see pictures of them and yes I did hang their pictures up all over my walls. I have thought long and hard about this one and I think I have a pretty comprehensive list of the stud muffins I had super crushes on :)
Hunks of my childhood
1.JTT (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) - Home Improvement and the voice of Simba in the Lion King. I mean come on…to an 8 year old girl he was a dreamboat.
2.Jonathan Brandis – Ladybugs, Seaquest and Neverending Story 2. I have to share this love with my sister because I think she may have liked him a slight bit more than me but let me tell ya…I never missed an episode of seaquest.
3.Brendan Frasier – Encino Man. Again I think my sister edged me a bit on that one but how can you resist the charms of a man who says “Check out Fresh Nugs, wheezin' the juice”
4.James Marsden – Second Noah. You may not remember this show because it was on for like 2 seasons but that was more than ample time for me to fall in love with those baby blues.
5.Devon Sawa – Casper and Now and Then. The blonde hair, the big lips, the freckles…who didn’t want to be Christina Ricci at the end of Casper?!?!
6.Joey Lawrence – Blossom. WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Open shirts…leather jacket…great hair. Need I say more.
7.Leonardo DiCaprio – Romeo and Juliet. This movie made me memorize Shakespeare in hopes that he would show up at my window. And yes…I had the picture of him through the fish tank hanging up on my wall just like the rest of you did. Oh and PS: this movie soundtrack was the best EVER!
8.John Stamos – FullHouse. Oh Uncle Jesse. I realize that I was very young and that our love would have been illegal in every state (perhaps not Kentucky) but that didn’t stop me from loving that perfect coif. Have Mercy!
9. Dean Cain – Lois and Clark. Its Superman. How can you not be in love with a man who prances around in spandex all day?!?!?! And hello that body…beefcake city.
10. John Travolta - Grease. Now I know this movie came out before I was even born but we used to watch it and sing along ALL the time. You know you've all wanted to go for the bad boy at some point, and this one could sing and dance!!!! "Tell me about it, Stud"
11. Andrew Keegan + Jonathan Jackson – Camp Nowhere. I think my sis and I may have rented this VHS from blockbuster like 20 times. You may not remember the movie but I thought the two main boys were just dreamy.
12. Dalton James - My Father the Hero. One of my favorite movies of all time. Don't know if I would go through the lengths Katherine Heigl went to win him, but I wanna go to an island and fall in love with Ben too!!! "The way you laugh makes me heart soar"
13. Jared Leto – My So-Called Life. Jordan Catalano. I have officially saved the best for last because I really did think I was in love with Jordan. I know this show was only on for one season but I wanted to be Angela and man did I want to go to the boiler room to make out with him too!!! “Your cuticles look like little half moons”
So in this entry I’m going to tell you a little bit about my past weekend in Vilnius Lithuania. I still remember when I received a call from Joel about 7 months ago and he said to me “So would you maybe want to go to Lithuania next February?” My response was “Sure. Where is it?” :) So for all of you geographically challenged people like me, it’s a Baltic state in Eastern Europe and is south of the Baltic Sea. Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and there are about 500,000 people living there. And now that we’re done with the boring details…lets get onto the good stuff.
The trip to the lovely cold city started out with 6 very tired people catching taxi’s to Gatwick airport at 3:45 in the morning on Friday. After a three hour flight, Joel, Sarah, Kelly, Chris, Allen and I arrived in Vilnius. We took the most adorable mini train ever to our apartment which turned out to be A-MA-ZING! Seriously one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed and we only payed 40 euros per person for the whole weekend. 3 different massive rooms, each with a kitchen and lounge space…could not have asked for more.
Then we headed out through Vilnius. Of course it was winter so there was snow on the ground and ice everywhere. Before we got there it had been between -15 and 15 degrees but by the time we had gotten there it was a heat wave of about 34 degrees. Now all you Wisconsinites know what that means…all the snow started to melt which meant a slushy snow mixture. This was aided by the fact that it rained all weekend and all the snow was melting off the roofs of buildings which meant snow and ice crashing on the ground. Whats the point of going on a trip if you don’t have that added danger eh?!?
Vilnius had such amazing architecture. Many things were designed in an art deco style which filled my heart with glee because I adore art deco. The buildings were all very colorful and ornately finished. And the churches were just stunning. I really haven’t been in a city that looks like this before and I loved it. One of the other amazing things about the look of this city is all of the art/graffiti. Every which way you looked there was art. Now some of it was your run of the mill stupid words and such but there was a lot of drawings and pictures. It really did make the city so much more beautiful.
I would have to say that my fav place was Uzupio. It was this amazing little island district where they have their own constitution, anthem, public holidays and flag. It is this amazing artsy district where statues are everywhere, you never know when you’re going to find a spot of art, and we came across the remnants of a free Tibet rally. One really cool thing is you have to obviously walk over a very short bridge to get there and the fence is made of wrought iron. All along the fence, there are padlocks. When couples marry here, It is tradition here for the couples to engrave their names onto the lock and once its on the bridge, throw the key into the river so that they are bonded forever. Quite sweet.
As for food, well I can only say that they LOVE their potatoes. I’m pretty sure we all had potatoes at every single meal. And then we come to the pigs ears. They actually didn’t taste half bad..just tasted like pork but the interesting little cartilage in there was another story. Mmmmmm…cartilagy. We did go to this outstanding pub that had flavored beers like caramel, almond, banana, strawberry and blackcurrent amongst others. And yes, I know this is pathetic but we ended up going to a supermarket there and we got Cheetos!!! They don’t have cheetos in London and I was in orange stained finger heaven chowing down on those. :)
So here is a link to all the photos on facebook so you can see all the places I've been talking about.
Overall it was loads of fun. Such a great weekend. I’d love to go back there in the summer and see some green but it still was a great city regardless of the weather. I mean I live in London, I’m used to gray rainy skies. :) But if you’re looking for a beautiful city that has not become over-touristy…I would deffo recommend going there.
So I thought I would give you all a taste of English music that is popular over here. Now some of these songs go back over the past six months while I’ve been here but I still love them to death. Not quite sure if these are also popular outside the UKSince I haven’t been back home but I hope you like them anyway.
La Roux – Bulletproof.Now I’m not quite sure how any person in their right mind can sing this high normally or how she gets her hair to stand up like that but she is pretty amazing. And believe me it’s a great song to belt out while you’re driving along....right Sarah and Gemma J
Alexandra Burke – Broken Heels. Alexandra won X Factor here. It’s a show similar to American Idol. This song is insanely addictive and gets stuck in your head for days but I LOVE it.
Cheryl Cole – Parachute.Cheryl is an uber famous celebrity over here. She was a member of the girl group ‘Girls Aloud’ and she’s a judge on X-factor. She’s going through a very public separation after her famous soccer player husband cheated on her Tiger Woods style. Poor thing..this song rocks though.
Sidney Samson feat. Wizard Sleeve - Riverside (Let's Go!). OMG…I am beyond obsessed with this song right now. I cannot listen to this song without bopping around in my chair. Just LOVE IT.
Jedward – Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby). Now you all are going to think I’m crazy on this one but its just so funny I can’t not include it. They were contestants on X-factor and are just so bad you tuned in to watch them every week. Guilty pleasure to the max. And yes…that is Vanilla Ice in the video.
Pixie Lott – Boys and Girls. This was the first song I heard when I came to London and I’ve loved it ever since. Yeah…I’m a bit obsessed with pop music. Deal with it.
Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers. Dizzee is one of the most famous English rappers here. I just love how you can totally hear his accent throughout the whole song. He’s got another great song called Holiday.
The xx – Crystalised. Really chill awesome british band and this is from their first album. Another great song of theirs is calledVCR. Oh and if you’re googling them make sure to include “the”. If you just search for xx you get some quite interesting responses :)
Ok….so I think that’s enough music for right now. It will probably take you forever to get through all of them but I hope you’ve enjoyed it! A couple months down the track I’ll write another list with more current music. And I sincerely hope all these songs aren’t popular elsewhere…but if they are...suck it up and listen again :)
So in the past for this blog, I've only been posting things when I have filmed and edited videos...which frankly doesn't happen that often so, I've decided I'm going to post more stuff sans videos. I just spent a lovely weekend in Lithuania which my next post will be dedicated too (after all the video stuff is done of course) but today I just wanted to talk about the amazingness of what just happened. I just looked at the weather forecast for this week in FOGGY old London town. The next week is supposed to be mid to upper 40's, sunny AND NO RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I realize that I am jinxing this by writing it on here but I cannot believe how nice its going to be. Looks like spring is finally here.
I woke up and walked out of bed this morning slightly confused because of these strange bright shapes on the ground. Oh wait. That's the sun actually shining in through the window. I had almost forgotten what that looked like :) So I am very excited to got for a long walk through Greenwich this afternoon. But before I do...
Just wanted to discuss something interesting about the airport yesterday. We landed in London at Gatwick airport yesterday afternoon. As we were walking through to get to customs there were 3 signs posted up as to where you should line up. 1)Flights coming from Ireland (they do customs before they get to the UK). 2) UK and EU (european union) citizens. 3) All other passports - including UK visa holders and US citizens. Now for me, I didn't really think anything of this but my friend Sarah who is Australian looked at me and said "Why in the world do they have to specify US citizens on there when it says ALL other passports?"
So let me tell you about the first time I came to the UK many years ago. Now mind you I was naive and it was the first time I had taken a flight and gone through customs on my own. I got to where you line up at Heathrow and had no idea where to go. I saw lines for UK and EU passports and one for ALL other passports. I had to go up to someone and ask where US citizens go because I thought we would have our own line. Pathetic I know but I've spoken to other americans who have done the same thing. And this exact scenario is why they have now written it on the signs. Americans are raised to have an 'us against the world' mentality where we think we are so important that we couldn't possibly be grouped in with the rest of the world.
This got me thinking about the fact that we are brought up saying a pledge of allegance to our flag every morning of school, our national anthem is sung at the beginning of every sporting event and almost every single business or public building has an american flag flying out the front. Yeah...no other countries have a mandatory school pledge to their flag. Every foreigner I've talked to thinks its quite cultish and that I'm insane when I can recite it at the drop of a hat. Haven't found another country where they sing the anthem at EVERY game...only major sporting events. And I didn't even realize the flag thing until Joel came to visit me in Wisconsin and the flags are everywhere...just take a look outside next time you're driving around. I haven't noticed the excessive flags anywhere else that I've traveled. Now you may argue that this is just patriotism which in a way it is and there is nothing wrong with loving your country...but its a little obsessive pushing on mild brainwashing as far as I'm concerned. I mean making little kids put their hands over their heart and swearing their allegiance to something. Kinda crazy when you think about it.
Now you may say I've become jaded when it comes to America but I tend to think of America as my "younger sister". I can say whatever bad things I want to about America but as soon a 'foreigner' says something I will defend the crap out of my country. I love her and she made me who I am today but that doesn't mean that she doesn't have her issues.
So because of all of this I just kinda want to urge you all to travel. Go see the world. See how different other cultures are. Experience more than what you've known. I guarantee it will be such an eye opener for you...it has been for me.
And I'm coming off my rant now...hope you have a good day :)
