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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

U.S vs. Ireland/U.K

Things that would be awesome to fix:

U.S

1. Bus/ Train systems - we need to up our game, it is so easy to travel within Europe while in the U.S it is hell if you don't have a car.
2. Tone it down - Don't be so obnoxious, we don't own the world.
3. Up our beer game - Our beer sucks, especially compared to Irish beer.
4. Cost of Tuition - seriously, it shouldn't cost so much to get a college education.
5. The stigma around the idea of drinking - I should not be labeled as an alcoholic if I want to have a pint and socialize.#publife
6. Scones- that is all

U.K/ Ireland

1. Picking up after your dog after it poops on the sidewalk - Enough said
2. A.C - Now I understand that you only have a heatwave every few years, but you should be prepared! Global crisis and whatnot. Be PREPARED! (I got those two lines from 2 different movies, if you can guess you get a cookie/biscuit)
3. Chips/Crisps - Why can't I find just a good old bag of salted potato chips? They are all these different flavours like 'Haggis' or 'Prawn and cocktail sauce', I couldn't even find Barbecue. Hmmph
4. Iced Coffee- please do some proper homework on how to make this. Not Iced Americano. It is hot Coffee with Ice, literally that is it. But then again sometimes when I ordered a cup of coffee I got Americano just hot. Seriously you need to work on it.
5. Your roads- Please widen them, 2 cars should be able to fit comfortably without almost hitting one another or backing up because only 1 car can fit through. When people were driving I kept my eyes closed half the time.
6. Your Iced Tea is Lemonade - what is the deal with that. I thought it was going to be Green tea iced or something not Lemonade.

Read More

Fowey, Cornwall, UK

The day after Tintagel I made my way over to Fowey which is on the southern portion of the county. It is a seaside town that is mountainous and was gorgeous. It is pronounced 'Foy', the family I stayed with had to correct all of my pronunciations. Fowey is a town that survives on tourism which as apparent to me because I grew up in a tourist location.

The reason for my visitation was the Tristan stone, which stands 3 miles outside of town. Luckily I had my hiking boots.

The Tristan stone, according to legend this is where he is buried and this is his tombstone. The second photo has the inscription written in 6thc letters but when translated says "Tristan here lies of Cunomorus the son". Cunomorus is King Mark.

Fowey the seaside town

Stopped into a local eatery and had an English delicacy with a Cornish flair. Tea, fruit scone, jam and clotted cream. Clotted cream is much like butter.

Cornish pastry:  YUM, it was shredded beef with veggies.

Walking around the town

View to the bay from a higher point in town, there is hardly any vehicle access around town so one must walk everywhere. My thighs were burning after this trip because of how steep it was.

Read More

Irish last names

Now when I was on my tour in Dublin I learned that the 'O' that begins in certain Irish names like O'Brian means literally 'grandson of', much like in English last names we have Jackson which translates to son of Jack.

Since it isn't originally is not supposed to be like that in Irish but has become that way because of what I assume is the clashing of cultures. I have here a list I found that denotes all of how the names in the household differed based on their perceived rank in a patriarchal society. But it seems that the name would have been used of a well-known family member. If a grandmother was better known within the society than the grandfather then her name would have been used.




Mac- son of

Ó - grandson of

Ní- daughter of

Uí- wife of


These would have been placed after the given name and before the family name, and would be used. One of my friends whom I met in Ireland uses the 'daughter of' in her formal name but she uses her Anglicized name for the most part.

Read More