England - English Seaside

This is my last post recapping my holiday and I will admit that I am quite sad about it. I have loved reliving my trip through these posts. Well, I will admit that I need to now go through what gopro footage, so I may have more to share later...we shall see.

Anyway, let's get on with it. My last day on my vacation, Christie took me to the south coast of England. Our first stop was Beachy Head. It is rolling green hills, and white lime cliffs and picture perfect views. Apparently, when you go to the coast, it is required to get a Mr. Whippy ice cream cone. It isn't what you think...or it wasn't what I thought. I was expecting vanilla soft serve...nope, it's not that, and I can't even describe what it tasted like. Anyway, it was fine, I probably wouldn't get another...the cone was good... We walked along the steep cliffs enjoying the sunshine and breeze. It was the perfect day to be at the coast.  On our drive to lunch, we stopped at Birling Gap and to see the seven sisters. It was another pebble beach and the water was much colder than in France, Barcelona and Tanzania.  Then we headed onward to the Tiger Inn for lunch. There I checked a few more items off of the list (and we even added one more). I had a scotch egg, a ploughmans lunch and sticky toffee pudding (oh my freaking god. i think i can go as far to say as it was one of the most delicious things i have ever eaten...)

After lunch we headed to the beach town of Brighton. It reminded me a lot of Santa Cruz. There is a cute pier with arcade games and roller coasters. It is quaint and the downtown was fun to walk through and stop into a wine bar to people watch (oh and get hassled by the homeless). I got to eat the last item on my must have list: Fish & Chips. 

My last day in England was beautiful and relaxing, which was exactly what I needed after spending the previous 24 days rushing around the world. See you soon England! 

England - Indian Wedding

When Christie asked me if I wanted to go to England as part of my holiday I first talked to my boss about it and he basically told me that I would be fired if I didn't add it on..okay, not quite, but he was serious about me adding London to my itinerary. Amit is from London and he told me that he would be in the country while I was there at his cousins wedding and then invited my friend and I to the wedding. Ha! 

I asked him what one wears to such an event and he asked me if I had a saree, I told him I had one in every color, he told me I could borrow one from one of his cousins.

In the morning on Saturday, we went to the ceremony. The ceremony lasted for about three hours and midway through waiters came around and served ice cream. We were told that that isn't traditional, that was for Christie and I, the only two white people there (okay, thats not true, that it was just for us, it is true that we were the only white people there.) After the ceremony, the tradition is to eat a vegetarian lunch. After Amit finished with his million photos, he walked us through the buffet line to explain all of the dishes and how to eat them. We ate quickly and then headed out and to a local pub for some drinks, in our traditional garb.

We had some more drinks at the hotel and then got ready for the reception. The reception was huge and full of lots of music, dancing and fun! We had a blast. 

*why is my name only ever associated with beverages? 

England - London

On our first day, Christie booked us a sightseeing tour bus on a red double decker bus where we could enjoy afternoon tea. It was such a special day spent with Christie, her mom and her grandma. It was wonderful! They are so full of knowledge (not "the knowledge" thats saved for the black cab drivers.) And not to mentioned, the tea spread was amazing!  Before we got on the bus for our tour, we stopped at a nearby pub for drinks. I ordered a beer and was carded. Yes, I was carded in a country where you have to be 18 to drink. I was the only one. Christie is younger than me. After our bus tour and tea service, we found another cute bar to have some wine and olives and then head over to the Museum of London where we watched a Gladiator reenactment. It was hilarious and it rained on us so we had to buy ponchos.

After the games, Christie and I headed to the London Heathrow Airport to stay in our hotel for the wedding we attended. More on that next...

On Sunday, we spent the morning relaxing and then headed back into London to Brick Lane to visit with some other friends we made in Peru. Story time...Christie and I met while traveling in Peru on our trek to Machu Picchu. She was traveling with three other friends from University and there were a few more people on our trek from England: there was a group of four gals and a couple. Because of technology, I have been able to keep in touch with everyone over facebook and video chats, which has been so great. So, when I decided to add London onto my itinerary, I made sure to reach out and make plans with the group. Seven people came out, from all around England and one girl even took the day off of work. It was such a treat to visit with everyone and everyone got along so well, it was like we were all drinking beers in Peru again. I absolutely loved it and I felt so loved! I can't wait to go back and visit for longer and drink more caipirinhas!!!

While I was in London, everyone was telling me the things that I absolutely had to eat. While we were all together, I was able to check off two items on the list: a sausage roll and a roast dinner. The sausage roll from this pub we were at was so good. I could eat 5 more. The roast dinner, ehhh....I can compare it to a Thanksgiving dinner. It was okay, not my favorite, but I am glad I tried it. The rest of the items on the list I checked off the next day on our trip to the South Coast of England. 

Overall, England was wonderful. I had such a wonderful time spent with wonderful people. Next up..an Indian Wedding and the South Coast! 

France - Paris

We arrived in Paris in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday. It was hot, as per all of the other locations on our vacation. We were staying at a hotel that was very conveniently located between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. It was awesome. We had our first batch of French Onion Soup and it was delicious. We then decided to walk over to the Eiffel Tower to see if we could get tickets for Thursday. Unfortunately, you can't buy tickets in advance :-( We sat in a little park and people watched for a while then headed back to the hotel. On our walk back, we stumbled upon a group of street performers and sat and watched them for a while. We went back to the hotel for a quick stop and then we all walked over to the Arc de Triomphe.

On Wednesday, we woke up and decided to hop on (pun intended) a hop on/off bus and tour Paris. Oh my, Paris is huge. We ended up getting off the bus in the Moulin Rouge district, had lunch and then walked up to the Sacre Coeur for unbelievable views of the city. We got back on the bus and drove by the Louvre and got off at Norte Dame for a photo shoot and for a beer nearby. We hopped back on the bus and got off at the Invalides and decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower and to find dinner before getting in line to go to the top. It was so, super hot and we waited in line for a while to get into the elevator to go to the top. There were tons and tons of people and it was smelly and hot. It, honestly, wasn't ideal, but it when we got to the top, it was dark and the city was lit up and it was magical. After then getting down and it being a nightmare, we went back to the hotel to meet up with my friend Christie. It was so wonderful to see her. We got up to our room and went straight to sleep, since it was after midnight by this point.

On Thursday, we all got up and headed to Versailles. I had been before, but the rest of my family and Christie hadn't. It was so packed and hot, again. We breezed through the rooms and spent more time in the Hall of Mirrors and out in the back on the grounds admiring how much land there was. We headed to lunch and then decided to take the train back to the hotel. Before we got to the hotel, we stopped for drinks and then went back to our hotel to play games before Christie and I had to make our way to the train station to London.

Goof #3.

We arrived at the train station and we noticed that our train is about 10 minutes delayed. We had arrived in plenty of time so we went to the store and grabbed a bottle of wine for the train. We went back to the station and waited at the terminal. It is about 9:20pm and I take out my ticket and my ticket number doesn't match the number on the screen. I double check with Christie, hers matches mine, and then walked over to an agent. He pointed above us and told me that the train had already left. What? We were standing at the arrivals platform, not the departures, and we missed our train. #faaack

We get back on the metro and head back to the hotel. Thankfully, my parents were still there and leaving the next day so we had a place to stay. Christie and I hop on the computer to rebook our train and realize that it was going to cost us about $300 per person. Uh..no. So we look into flights and found the perfect flight. The catch? We had plans for Saturday in London at 12noon and our flight landed at 11, we didn't have enough time. We book the earliest flight, 7am. That means we had to be at the airport at 5am and that means that the metro didn't open in time to get us there, so we had to reserve a taxi. Oh my gosh. We get everything reserved, get up to our room and Christie realized that she booked our Saturday tour for 2:30, not noon, so we could have taken the original flight.

Ugh.

Whatever, we made it to London in one piece. All worked out, even if we were exhausted. Next up...London!!!