Updating twice in a day. Whoa!

So I am updating twice in a day because I have important news for everyone! A very good friend of mine just started his own blog here on blogspot (http://thefloridarider.blogspot.com/). He is awesome, former Navy, a motorcycle aficionado. He is pretty much going to post about these topics and other topics that would come to mind. All that would help in daily life, tips and such. I actually can't wait until he posts pictures or videos of his rides!

I plan on having him as a guest poster, so you will be seeing him everyone once in a while.

Anyways,
Love y'all

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London- Part 3 - Madame Tussaud's, Eateries, Shopping

On my last day in London I had a little bit of time left on my 'Original Bus Tour' pass, since I bought it late in the day before so it would end 1 pm; 24 hours after I had originally purchased the pass. I decided to go see Madame Tussaud's, with the pass I was able to buy it at a discounted rate. I paid 28 pounds for the ticket at  the bus stop near Marble Arch. Madame Tussaud's took a large chunk out of my day and since my pass expired I took the tube 'metro or subway' back to Edgeware Rd where I was meeting my friend for lunch.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Charlie Chaplin

Picasso (we share the same birthday)

Madame Tussaud

MLK Jr.

A portion of the tube line

Baker Street- Quite a pivotal street in the Sherlock series.

Edgeware Rd

This amazing Arab restaurant - Maroush, located on Edgeware Rd. I found it to be quite affordable. I would love to eat here again!

The famous Portobello Rd, as seen in the movie 'Bed nobs and Broomsticks'.

They have these adorable shops and also carts of people selling things. Very affordable. They sold in my opinion good souvenirs if you're looking to bring home items that aren't too touristy looking. I bought a dress for 5 pounds. Which I couldn't believe. Primark is another store in England that sells items cheaply, I bought shorts (the heat wave was nearly unbearable) and a strapless top, for 8 pounds total.

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Trim, Co. Meath, Ireland churches

They are both named St. Patrick's and the only word that differs is the name; whether it is a 'church' or 'cathedral'.

 St. Patrick's church-

(As seen from Trim Castle)

                                It was built in the 19th century and is Roman Catholic. 

I attended a mass here and it was fastest mass I have ever attended. Instead of being an hour is was between 30-45 minutes, there was no singing and no homily. Also instead of walking up in single file to the priest for the Eucharist, everyone just walked up in any manner they chose and up to the fence in front of the altar while the priest walked left to right.

 Commemorating St. Bernadette and the Virgin at the grotto.

St Patrick's Cathedral-

  

It is Anglican and is the Church of England, unlike in England where it is the Church of England. I did not attend mass here but I imagine it is similar to the Anglican churches I have attended.

The tower was built in the medieval ages and is a remnant of the Church of Trim

Ceremonies to become bishops have been here since the early 1500's

On this land supposedly St. Patrick originally founded his church. It did not survive most likely because it would have been wooden and if it was stone it was rebuilt during the medieval ages. There are several stories about this, some say it was his nephew but others say it was the famous saint.

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Let the games begin!

Now on my study abroad we were all obviously college students and the majority were American. In Europe all of us are of age but only a couple were of age in the U.S *cough**cough* me. Earlier that day my roommates and I decided we wanted to play beer pong, and I was in charge of ping pong balls. The seemingly easiest assignment was not the easiest. I could not find them anywhere in town, I had gone to every single toy store, supermarket, knick-knack store there was. So I settled for these squishy stress balls, I did not know that the roommate in charge of the solo cups couldn't find any appropriate ones either. So what did we do? We made up our own game.

Each team has a chair and the point of the game is to make it through the holes. The middle hole is worth 1 drink while the 4 surrounding it is worth 1/2 drink. Whenever the opposite team scored on your chair you had to drink that amount. It was actually difficult because the balls would just bounce off the chairs.

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Terms I learned in UK/ Ireland

This is a list of terms that will help you during your travels in the U.K and Ireland

Half (30 mins)- Like Americans say quarter after/ till the hour. In the U.K and Ireland  they use half, for example: 'half 3' means 3:30.

Just down the road - If someone tells you this ask for specific mileage because this could mean any amount of kilometers. My SD card broke and I needed a new one, but it was Sunday and it seems Europe shuts down on Sunday. The girl at the hotel desk told me that it wasn't a far walk to the nearest open shop. I then asked how far of a walk it was, her answer was 18 km. Now I am not being a lazy American here but 18km is a far walk.

Chemist / Pharmacy - Drugstore. I learned the hard way because my first day I arrived I had a cough and wanted cough drops. I asked this employee at the hostel who I realize barely spoke English (she was Russian). So when I asked for the nearest drugstore the horrified look on her face told me that she thought I was looking for a fix.

Lozenges-  cough drops

Toilet - Restroom: I asked for this and then this dude tried to argue with me about how it is stupid how Americans call it the restroom when you don't go rest there. I was not amused.

Concessions - Student, if you see a sign at a tourist location and it says this word, it is a student ticket. Oh which reminds me BRING YOUR STUDENT ID if you have one. I saved a bunch of money on attractions because I brought it with me. Some of my friends didn't and had to pay adult fees which sometimes was 5 euros more.

The floors in multiple storied buildings- Floor 0 is equivalent to the 1st Floor in the U.S. So when I was told my room was on the first floor. I went on my way to what I thought was the first floor and tried unlocking the door of some poor and most likely frightened occupants. The European 1st floor is the American 2nd floor.

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Updates

Hey y'all,

So I am only going to be updating the blog every Tuesday and Thursday because the semester is about to start. But I am going to try and put videos up every Friday!

Keep following and subscribing!

<3

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London - City of London

Within London there is a small city called the City of London aka the Square Mile which is now the financial and business centre of London but it has been a city since the Romans occupied the area in the first century. This area was mostly destroyed (80%) in the Great Fire of 1666 which was rebuilt by a hired architect named Sir Christopher Wren.

St. Paul's Cathedral- Wren's greatest monument

St. Paul's Cathedral with a statue of Queen Anne facing away from the landmark. She has 4 figures sitting below her representing the American colonies, Ireland, France, England; all of the areas she was sovereign.

The original St. Paul's was consecrated in 1240 but was destroyed in during the Great Fire of London. The building of this cathedral was built between 1675-1720. Mostly it took so long to rebuild because they originally tried to rebuild from the original structure but scrapped it to rebuild a more modern cathedral. Luckily the cathedral was not damaged during WWII but it did have a lot of close calls. It was targeted during the Blitz and throughout the war there were attempts to place time-bombs within the walls.

These blue trees were near St. Paul's Cathedral and is part of a global project by an artist named Konstantin Dimopoulos. Which is meant to bring awareness to the deforestation that is happening in many parts of the world. He has been all over the world painting trees blue. When I saw them I realized how small this world is because he also came to my university and painted a portion of the trees on campus blue.

Palace of Whitehall seen in the background along the River Thames. This was the main residence for English monarchs during the 16th and 17th centuries, mainly the Tudor family. King Henry VIII married 2 of his wives in this palace, he also died in this palace. William Shakespeare's play the Tempest was performed in the palace.

 The Monument - also built my Sir Wren in memory of all that was lost in the Great Fire. This was built near where the fire started on Pudding Lane by a baker after midnight on Sunday 2 Sept and the city burned for 3 days after. There is 311 steps leading up to the top of the monument which allows a panoramic view of the city for a small price of 3 pounds, 2 pounds for students.

A view down the spiral staircase within the monument

View of Tower Bridge (mistakenly thought of as London Bridge) from the top of the Monument. London Bridge was used as a datum or pinpoint of direction for the Nazi bombers during the Blitz. They were ordered to not destroy it.

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British Scones

Now I have been craving these delicious treats and since American scones are not the same I decided to use my baking skills to make them. They turned out fantastic. I used this recipe but I did deviate from it a little bit because I like to spice things up or call it my own.
http://britishfood.about.com/od/eorecipes/r/fruitscones.htm

The only changes I made was I used golden raisins, added vanilla extract and almond extract. This is the recipe that was used and then I also made changes that I added into the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 cups plain all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 cup  fine sugar
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg beaten with a little milk
• 3 drops each of vanilla extract and almond extract
  
  
  

Preparation:

• Heat the oven to 400F
• Generously grease a baking sheet with butter then sprinkle with flour.

• Sieve the flour into a roomy baking bowl, add the cubed butter, the baking powder and salt. Quickly rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

• Add the sugar, the dried fruits, vanilla and almond -  mix well. 
• Make a well in the center and using a dinner knife, stir in enough milk to make a soft, pliable dough.If the dough is too sticky sprinkle with a little flour.

• Turn the mixture on to a floured board and knead very lightly until just smooth then lightly roll out to 3/4" thick.

• Cut rounds with a 2" cutter or cut into triangles with a sharp knife or use cookie cutter of your own choosing.

• Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake near the top of the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and well risen.

• Cool on a wire rack before eating.

Serve with butter, or lashings of jam and cream. Delicious.

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London, England - Parliament Square

For this post is going to be separating this city into several parts considering how large it is. I had stayed with a family friend so I had saved a bit of money doing that. I loved how easy it was to travel around the city by using the metro and bus system. My friend let me borrow her 'Oyster' Card which allowed me to put money on the card and use it for the metro and buses without having to take out the cash. It is cheaper to either buy a pass or get an Oyster card.

Although my first day in London I wanted to be a tourist so I opted to use one of the tour buses. The one I used was the 'Original Tour' company, the reason I chose this company was because I found the other buses employees to be extremely rude. Most of the companies were around the same price, I paid 25 pounds to use this service and it was for a 24 hour ticket. I bought my ticket pretty late ( around 1pm), so that meant I could use it for a good amount of the next day. Yippee!

The Marble Arch, a location where the tour bus drops and picks up at.  The arch is based off the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and was meant to be used as the ceremonial entrance into Buckingham Palace but was dismantled in 1851 and put in it's current location in front of Hyde Park.

Parliament Square

Around a square of greenery and statues of notable figures are Westminster Abbey to the South, Houses of Parliament to the East, Whitehall to the North and The Supreme Court to the West. I only visited the first 2 mentioned because of the massive heatwave passing through Europe and the large amount of tourists who were in the area.

Houses of Parliament

A statue commemorating King Richard I aka The Lion heart.

Big Ben! - The tower is named Elizabeth's Tower after Queen Elizabeth but the bell that is housed inside the tower is called Big Ben.

Westminster Abbey - built in the 10th century.

•  It is the final resting place for most of England's monarchy
•  has been used for the coronations of  English and British monarchs since 1066
• Also is used for weddings. The most recent wedding being between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.

St. Margaret's Church - consecrated in 1523, it is still used as a parish church today and is gorgeous. To preserve the sanctity there are no pictures inside.

The Jewel Tower - One of the only two surviving portions to the medieval royal palace. Originally built in 1365-66 to house the treasures of King Edward III. It was detached from the main palace which is why it survived the fire in 1834 that destroyed much of the palace.

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Trim, Co. Meath, Ireland cont

To continue on this town.
 In 1202 Simon de Rochefort, Bishop of Meath, attempted to build a town near Trim, Ireland called Newtown Trim. He wanted this town to rival Hugh de Lacey's up and coming town that was becoming one of the most powerful medieval cities in Ireland. Simon de Rochefort failed but in the outskirts of Trim are 3 ruins that showcase his failed attempt.

Priory of St. John the Baptists
First built as an monastery to house the Augustinian order but also had a portion that was built to house the sick and was used as a hospital. In 1539 the order was dissolved and was used as a private residence before falling into ruin.

The tower house which was used as a house for the Prior.

The chimney of the tower house.

The nave and chancel -

Nave - where the congregation would have stood for mass (Western end)

Chancel - Eastern end of the church - where the high altar would have been.

This was a defensive enclosure that protected the priory. On the North side of the priory was the banks of the River Boyne which acted as a natural defense.

A portion of the prior as seen from the top of tower.

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