The end... and more.

So I'm finally getting around to blogging about our last couple of days on vacation.
When we got back from Paris we crashed. The next day was Sunday and we didn't do much- just the usually Sunday meetings, nap, phone calls, etc. I was glad, because we were exhausted.
On the 15th we went back into London for some final sightseeing. We took some photos at Big Ben and walked around the outside of Westminster Abbey. My favorite part of the Abbey is the royal crests they have over the main enterance. The Windsor crest is front and center. It is hilarious because it has both a lion AND a unicorn... you know... for extra majesty.
We went from there to Southwark, which is a kind of low class side of town. Luis got a hot tip from a client at the bank where he works that Manze's Pie and Mash was worth going out of your way for. We searched all 2 weeks we were there trying to track down the locale and finally found it out on Tower Bridge Road on the wrong side of town. It took us about an hour on the tube and on foot to get there.
Manze's is real, authentic, English food. It has 4 things on the menu- Pie, Mash, Eels (boiled or pickled), and Sarsparilla. The pie is traditional Mutton in a pastry crust and the Mash is a mixture of turnips and mashed potatoes (we think). The whole plate is drowned in green Parsley gravy. The portions are generous, the beverages cold, and everything super cheap. Luis LOVED it. The only complaint we had about the place is that the food is pretty bland. English food typically tastes kind of like cardboard until you load it down with salt, pepper, and vinegar- which most places have out on the table. This was kind of disappointing for us until we realized it is essentially the same as eating at a Mexican restaurant- you have to add the condiments before eating. Once we drizzled on some malt vinegar the whole thing was delectible.
From there we went to do some shopping. We wanted to get some goodies to take back to the states since we had purchased literally NO souvenirs the entire trip aside from umbrellas (it really is *that* rainy in England), some cooking wine for Ana, and some Eiffel Tower keychains for the fam and friends back in the states. We went to *Tesco*, which is the most magical place in all of Britain. It's like Albertsons only everything is SUPER delicious. We bought candy, cookies, cheese, olive oil (which tastes TOTALLY different in England), and a few other things. We also went to Marks and Spencer (which is a chain store that is kind of like if Super Target married J.C. Penny and had a baby) to help Emily shop for the Royal Ascot races which she was attending that weekend.
We went back to Em's house and dropped off the goods, napped a bit, then met Brent for dinner at Nando's- a yummy Portugese restaurant. After dinner we packed, burned photo CD's, and tried to avoid thinking about having to go home the next day.
We woke up early and left around 9 to go to the airport. When we got there we found out our plane had been delayed because of a problem with the long-range radio. We waited for about 2 hours before boarding the plane, and once on the plane we had to wait about an hour more while they filed new flight plans that would allow us to fly over Greenland and close to North Pole to keep us in short-range radio distance. It was SUPER annoying. The flight was long and boring and I slept a lot of the way b/c there weren't many good movies on.
We were supposed to land in Chicago at 3 and make a connecting flight at 5:40, but due to the delay we didn't land until quarter after 6. We rushed through customs b/c there was a flight leaving at 6:40, but we missed it by about 10 minutes. This was bad because the only other flight going to Salt Lake that night was already overbooked so they couldn't guarantee us a flight until 6 the next morning. We would have liked to take advantage of a free hotel and dinner (courtesy of the airline) and do some sightseeing in Chicago, but Luis had a work meeting at 8:30 the next morning and we really *needed* to get on that 8:40 flight. They put us on standby and we waited nervously until 9:45 when they finally started boarding. Yes. The flight was also delayed by about an hour due to a terrible rainstorm that was pelting Chicago with brute force. We were the last 2 on the plane and only made it because a flight from Buffalo was delayed and 2 or 3 passengers didn't make their connection. We boarded and then waited in line on the runway for- wait for it- literally 2 hours. There were 30 planes in line for take off in front of us due to the storm delay. The flight was uncomfortable, bumpy, and nauseating, but we made it to Salt Lake around 12:50. We got home a little after 2 a.m. We did the math. With the seven hour time difference, we arrived in Provo at 9 a.m. London time- literally 24 hours after we left Emily's house.
IT WAS A TWENTY FOUR HOUR TRIP!!!!! Probably one of the most frustrating and uncomfortable days of my life, but it sure made me appreciate being home all the more.
It was a great trip and I'm really grateful that we got to go... and that we got to spend so much time there.

I See London, I See France- Part 3

This is going to be a long post, so I'm posting the pictures up front in order in case you want to skip the excessive writing. I promise I won't get my feelings hurt, but Paris is a little touchy and might be a somewhat offended.

On the 11th we woke up pretty early, which was tough b/c we got in kinda late from the airport. We booked it over to St. Pancras/King's Cross station and hopped aboard the Eurostar train to Paris. The journey was smooth and quite comfortable, and I must be honest- I prefer traveling by rail to traveling by plane. I get airsick and I have terrible anxiety when flying, plus the trains have so much more space and fresh air circulated in. We got to Paris around noon and upon disembarking from the train realized that we were in fact in a VERY foreign country with no guide, no idea where we were, and no ability to speak the language. Our hotel that day was located about 6 blocks from the train station, but it took us an hour of wandering around- maybe 2- to find it, because in France there are no road signs, just tiny placards about 2 floors up on the walls of buildings that are often faded or obscured by branches... and roads change names every 3 to 4 blocks. I will never forget that when we got of the train we wandered around the station for 20 minutes trying to find a map (no such luck. The French don't believe in maps!), and then just wandered outside. We must have looked lost b/c some old guy on a bicycle came up to us and asked us if we were lost in French. We asked him if he spoke Spanish (also in French) to which he excitedly said "yes!" He then spent about 6 minutes yelling at us in French with some broken Spanish mixed in, pointing and waving emphatically and then instructing us to go get on a train. Yikes. We finally made it, though, and found to our delight that we were in a part of town I've always wanted to see but that is located a ways off from the major touristy part of the city- Montemarte. Our hotel was literally a block and a half from the Sacre Couer! We dropped off our stuff, took a little nap, and then went out to explore. We ate lunch at a sidewalk café across from the basilica- I had a croque monsieur and Luis had the French version of a hot dog, which I must say is much tastier than the American kind. We ate as we were climbing the mountain, which I found ironic since it was another totally unplanned climbing/meat eating experience. We took some photos and wandered around inside the cathedral. The sun was setting and the brilliant light perfectly illuminated the beautiful stained glass. I must say- I do not agree with a lot of Catholic doctrine, but those folks sure know how to make a chapel! It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, but sadly since the chapel observes perpetual adoration visitors are asked not to photograph the inside out of respect for their religion's holy place, which I understand and respect.

We also went to visit the famous Abessess, where we stopped for crêpes (Nutella and Créme Marron) at a small park with a rather infected looking carousel. We saw some dude wandering around eating this HUGE baguette like it was a banana, wrapped up in foil, just munching away at it plain. It was hilarious.

We went back towards our hotel and stopped at a grocery store where we bought a large assortment of delicious edibles for dinner, which we ate in our hotel room. Afterward we went out again and wandered around Montemarte, which is kind of a skeezy part of town, but very colorful and exciting. It is where the famous Moulin Rouge is located, which I was pumped to be able to see.

We climbed the mountain again to get a better view of the city of lights at night, which I must say did not disappoint. I got some cool photos of the city all lit up. We went to bed around 1 a.m., I think.

June 12th: On Friday we woke up super late- around 10:30 when the maid walked in on us, which kind of freaked everyone involved out. I guess we slept through her knocking b/c we were so tired. When we finally got our stuff together we went directly (with a short stop at a boulangerie for breakfast) to the complete opposite side of town to our 2nd hotel. We dropped off our stuff, walked through a street market, and then headed into town. We went to the Museé de Orsey first, but didn't have time to really go in. We caught our tour bus outside the Museum and spent about 3 hours driving around the main part of Paris. We got to see pretty much everything of interest with only a few exceptions. We saw the Arc de Triomph, the Champs Elyseé, the Opera House, the Champs du Mars, The Eiffel Tower, the Trocador, and Notre Dame (and everything else in between!). We got off of the tour at the last stop- the Louvre, which we were very happily surprised with. Unlike most of the city, the Louvre is relatively well organized, mapped, air conditioned, and clean. It was Luis's very most favorite thing that we did during our entire 2 weeks in Europe. We got to see the sculpture of "Winged Victory", a ton of ancient awesome stuff like the stella with Hamurabi's Code scrawled on it and a bunch of mummies, we got to tour Napoleon's apartments. Most importantly, we got to see the Venus de Milo (the real one- not the gummy one!) and the Mona Lisa.

By the time we were done with that we were super tired, had walked literally about 11 miles, and hadn't eaten since the morning. With critically low blood pressure, we stumbled back to our hotel to find that sadly the restaurants in the non-touristy parts of Paris all close at like 8:30. The only thing we could find open was a Greek sandwich shop, which luckily had the most delicious kabob pitas of all time. We showered (a MUST after wandering around Paris all day long) and went to bed around 11 or 12.

On the 13th we woke up late again and had breakfast at a boulangerie and then wound up at the Champs du Mars metro station wondering how in the heck to get to the Palace of Versailles. Paris's metro system is one of the only organized and well marked things in the city, but to get to Versailles you have to take a good ol' fashioned diesel engine train out of the city, which was poorly marked and difficult to figure out. After 2 wrong trains we wound up in Versailles around 1 p.m. The palace was packed and we waited in line almost 2 hours to discover that there was no line at all and the regulars just wander up to the ticket machines cutting in front of the unwitting tourists that assume that the place is an orderly and well maintained establishment. In a very French fashion, the police just ignore the chaos and line butters.

I almost have no words that can accurately describe the Versailles. It was filthy (had not been dusted probably since they filmed Marie Antoinette there in 2006), HOT (about 85-90 degrees inside), smelled of urine and BO, and was literally jam packed with tourists walking as rapidly as possible to rush through and get out as fast as possible. It was like being on acid or something- so much visual stimulation, noise, and confusion! It was hard to take it all in, but I did get some cool photos to remember it by. It cost 13.50 Euro to get in, and we were out in 40 minutes. In contrast, the Louvre costs like 7 Euro and we were there for like 4 hours almost. Needless to say, Luis was disappointed, and I was jazzed, but highly disoriented and distracted by all of the shiny things. We snapped some photos in the small part of the gardens you can see without having to pay an additional 8 Euro then went to lunch at a Crêperie.

Lunch was kinda pricey, but delicious. Luis was so jaded by his Versailles experience he was pissed off at spending so much money on pancakes. I was mostly just sweaty. It was so hot that day that I literally did not cool off until after we got back on the Eurostar around 9:30 p.m.

After the Versailles we went back to Paris to buy some souvenirs and take some close up shots with the Eiffel Tower, then back to Gard du Nor to get on the train. As we were passing through British customs the customs agent asked where we were from. We said "Utah" and he asked how that was. We explained that it was pretty quiet and not nearly as exciting as Paris. As we explained this, screaming, sirens, whistles, drums, shouting, and singing were drowning us out- so loud we had to shout. In typical British fashion he pretty much summed up our experiences by dryly commenting that "Sometimes Paris is a little too exciting." We got back on the fastest train in the world and booked it out of there, happy to be in one piece. Luis was mostly just excited to be returning to a place where they have cold beverages. Apparently in addition to maps, France also has a staunch anti-refrigeration policy and he was seriously non-plussed at all the room temperature beverages. I was just glad to be alive.

I love Paris to the bottom of my soul. It is like no other place on earth. If Las Vegas got married to L.A. but then had a love child with New York, that city would be Paris. The three days we spent there were the wildest, craziest, goldenest, most exciting days of my life to date. I may never return. I am not sure if I could handle it again.

I'd like to close with a letter to the city of lights.

Dear Paris, You exceeded my expectations in every way. Not only are you the most beautiful city I have ever been to, you are also the nosiest, most crowded, and dirtiest... and I spent 10 days in pre-Guliani New York! Your pastries really are the most delicious, and your restaurants the most expensive. You glitter when the sun shines and sparkle when the sun sets. I have never seen so much gold in my life and after seeing the Versailles am seriously considering redecorating my house to include more crystal, velvet, mirrors, and naked gilded babies. You could use some more ice, but I will always love you and my life will never be quite the same again. Never, EVER change.

Love, Camille

The Road Trip of Destiny- Part 2

This is part 2 of my insanely long account of my vacation. The thumbnails are links to larger photo collages that I made in lieu of uploading a million and a half photos using blogger's stupid photo uploader (Dear Blogger, I love you but I hate your photo uploader. I wish you would fix it so I could share more photos with my family and friends. Until then, I will always be just a little bit pissed off at you. Sincerely, Camille.)
So on the 8th we woke up early. The boys went to go pick up the rental car while Emily and I took care of shopping for food for the road. We took off around 9:30 or 10:00 and began what will forever after be known as The Roadtrip of Destiny. We drove about an hour outside of London for our first stop- Stonehenge. The first thing that impressed me about Stonehenge is how totally massive it is. You see the pictures, but until you are standing in front of the stones it's hard to gauge how gargantuan they are. I cannot believe ancient man hauled these babies hundreds of miles and then propped them on top of each other. The other thing that impressed me about Stonehenge is how many people there are milling about. Now, I know that this is peak tourism season around the world but this was my first true taste at an overcrowded tourist site. Needless to say we didn't really feel like we were going to get any better look shelling out the £6 to get in so we just took pictures through the fence. This would be a good time to explain that between Emily, Brent, Luis, and myself you probably have the 4 cheapest people on the planet, so why would we pay perfectly good money for an entrance fee that would allow us to stand literally 4 feet closer to the rocks than we could standing outside the fence. We joked about this for the rest of the trip. I don't have many pictures of Stonehenge b/c my camera battery died so I defer to Emily's blog/facebook page for the full visual.
After Stonehenge we drove out to Glastonbury, which is a silly little town that is based around an ancient Abbey which is the purported burial site of the real King Arthur. About 700 years ago they were digging around in the 1800 year old cemetary there to excavate the foundation of an expansion and came across two stone tombs engraved with the names Arthur and Guenivere. By this point the Arthurian legend was well established in Britain and roundabouts so needless to say they were pretty psyched. All of this is recorded in local parish records. They moved the bodies to a black marble vault inside their main chapel where they remained until Henry VIII and his bullies knocked the whole Abbey down in his campaign against the Catholics. No one knows for sure where the black marble vault is now, but the site where it was is marked. It's pretty cool. There's also a tor there ("tor" being Ye Olde English for hill) with the remnants of an even ancienter chapel which is the purported site where St. Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail from Jerusalem. At the Abbey there's even an old thorn tree which is supposedly the leftovers of St. Josephs staff which he is said to have plunged into the ground to mark the spot. It's wicked awesome. The tower at the top of the Tor is also where the Rose Line crosses the St. Michael Line. It is also the legendary gate to the Underworld in Celtic mythology. Some people believe that if you drink from the well on the Tor you will be cured (b/c of Grail or Pagan nutrients or something like that). I wasn't magically cured of all that ails me, but I *was* privy to some truly inspiring wind, a spiritual experience with a meat pie that I was eating while climbing the hill, and some really poopy cows at the bottom. The whole experience was totally boss.
After Glastonbury we went to Bath, which was NOT what I was expecting. Apparently Jane Austen and her cronies trashed the place years back and now it's just like a crappy British version of Atlantic City, only with older buildings and tons of disgusting grime leftover from the Industrial Revolution. I pretty much just wanted to take soapy water to everything I saw. The Roman baths we were hoping to see there were closed, but we got a pretty good feel of the place from the grounds outside. Kitschy, dirty, and pretty much the same sort of thing we'd already seen several times that day. Needless to say, we weren't heartbroken. It WAS, however, the site of a truly hilarious statue of a bosomed rabbit and the home of the famous Sally Lunn buns- Bread buns as big as my head. We had fun making fun of the place and stuffing ourselves full of rich, bunly goodness.
From there we had to book it to Kendall, but found time to stop by the Preston temple. It was cool, and we got there just as the sun was setting which was neat. It was a great view.

June 9th: We woke up kind of late, most likely b/c the boys were up really late watching Cinderella Man on Cable, which provided the basis for several hilarious incidents throughout the day. We ate breakfast in Carlisle, a little town with a huge random castle which we discovered is basically what most small towns in the UK are- tiny villages that surround some sort of random ancient monument. I freakin' love it! Anyway, we were driving around looking for a place to eat breakfast when I eyed a sign that said "Full English Breakfast- £4.99!". I announced this and Luis actually started to bail out of the moving vehicle to get to the food, which was hilarious and awesome. "Full English Breakfast" consists of 2 eggs, 2 slices of fried ham, 2 pork/leek sausages, 2 toast, beans, and grilled tomato and mushroom. I had to dig deep to find the strength and courage to finish my plate, but thankfully I'd been really spiritually recharged by the amazing sights the day before and when things got their darkest, I was able to pull through and eat through the pain. It was DELICIOUS!
From Carlisle we took the scenic route through the Lake District to get to Edinburgh, which I slept most of the way through, but am told is beautiful. In Edignburgh we went to the castle, which we took pictures of outside but didn't feel like paying the entrance fee to see inside (do you notice some themes developing here!?). We DID however, find that the free Tartan museum down the road was quite interesting if you are in fact as big of nerds as we are. We tasted Haggis at a store that advertised "Free Samples" (about the 4th or 5th such place we'd frequented in our journies so far). It was so-so, but we bought some souvenirs for parents and then wandered around until we found the Rabbie Burns Tavern on the Royal Mile. I ordered the Haggis, Tatties, and Neeps and Luis got the Bangers and Mash. Both were delicious beyond reason and will live on in my memory as one of the best meals of my life. This would be a good time to note that Edinburgh is like the Berkley of the UK- tons of freaks, hippies, and doobies to go around. It was hilarious. If you like sheep, ghosts, plaid, accents, doobies, or hippies, I recommend you take time to visit.
After eating we found our hotel which was flippin' sweet! It had a loft bed, a remote controlled skylight, and a really badass shower head. We cleaned up then headed out for our "Ghosthunters of Edinburgh" tour. It was cool. Apparently Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities on the planet, probably because after every disaster instead of tearing down the condemned buildings and starting over- they just fill them in and build on top. There are like 2 or three full layers of Edinburgh, which is one of the reasons it's so hilly. In the 80's they started rooting around and discovered these really ancient buildings underneath the current ones, filled with rubbish and such. They cleaned them out so they could turn them into trendy nightclubs and stuff, but they're apparently too full of ghosts for that to work. We got to wander around in one of them, and I think they're probably right. Those vaults just don't feel right. I took a picture with a weird floating sparkly thing hovering over a ladie's head, too, which was kind of creepy.
We walked back to the hotel afterward and got in around midnight or so.

June 10: We woke up pretty early and headed out to Rosslyn chapel- which was built by the Sinclare family like 800 years ago. The Sinclare family were Templars, which is like my most favoritest thing in the world. If I ever get a Doctorate Degree in English I think I'd want it to be in Templar Legend. The chapel is unbelievably gorgeous, although sadly currently surrounded by a large aluminum roof and scaffolding. They're trying to restore the building before it crumbles into pieces due to water damage, so the roof is up to protect it until they can finish restorations in 2010 or 2011. It was cool, though, because we could climb up on the scaffolding and see the top of the roof. Honestly, I have never seen anything quite as beautiful as that stonework. It was beyond my ability to describe. I have tons of photos of the outside, but we couldn't take pictures inside, and sadly enough that's where the best stuff was.
After Rosslyn we drove to the coast. We ended up at St. Abbs and took a hike out on the heaths. The views were breathtaking, as was the wind. I had to tie up my hair with my scarf, which makes me kind of look like Eurotrash in some of the photos, but it was cool. The water there was SO blue and the grass SO green. It was also inspiringly beautiful and I will never forget it.
We drove from St. Abbs to Glasgow Scotland after eating lunch at a quaint seaside cafe restaurant. I had smoked salmon and a traditional Scotish scone with jam. Delish. I'd like to take this moment to mention that the British people seem to put jam on or in pretty much everything- a practice which I HIGHLY support.
The plane ride from Glasgow back to London's Gatwick airport was uneventful, and we took a cab back from the airport to Em's place b/c it was too late to ride any trains or tubes. We got home around 10 or 11, exhausted and happy.

It was fun and weird driving on the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness the rental car came with GPS, which we affectionately named "Donk" in honor of our neice Megan. England rocks, and it was cool to see the "real" UK in between all the touristy stuff. It was the bestest and most hilarious road trip of all history.

Detailed Commentary about England- Part 1

This is a day by day trip account for my own personal journaling records. If you are brave enough to read through to the end, props to you!
June 4: We were up super late the night before our trip b/c we had Andrei that night. His mom was supposed to take him the day before so we could pack, but in classic form she punked out on us. We dropped him off around 11 a.m. in Lehi (30 min from our house or so) and then booked it back home. We threw together our suitcases and ran some errands then rushed off to the airport around 2. We got there around 3, got through SLC"s PSYCHO security check, and then ate some lunch/dinner in the food court. Our plane started boarding around 4:30 and left around 5:00. We flew to San Francisco (that's right- I went 1/6 of the way across the country in the WRONG direction!), where we changed planes and flew to London. It was the longest, noisiest, most uncomfortable flight of my life. Good thing they had tons of good movies to watch, 2 meals provided (although they were gross) and unlimted drinks. We got off the plane at Heathrow around 1 on the 5th. That's right. I spent almost an entire day on the plane or in airports. SICK!
That first day we just kind of wandered around in a jet-lag induced haze, and crashed around 9 London time.

June 6: We woke up pretty early. Actually I woke up around 4:30 a.m. b/c of the time difference so I washed Emily's dishes and wandered around outside like an idiot until around 7:00 (jet lag makes me loopy and sometimes weird). Around 7:30 I crashed for a half hour before getting up for the day. Emily lives in a suburb called Twickenham about 30 minutes outside of London so we took public transportation to the city. I am now in love with public transportation, btw, and hate the idea of having to drive myself places. Sick. That day we wandered around the center of town and ate lunch at a pub in the financial district with Brent (Luis had fish and chips, I had Yorkshire pudding, and we all ate DELICIOUS puddings and cakes for dessert). We also toured the Tower of London, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, caught a glimpse of Westminster and Big Ben, and walked around the Tower Bridge for a while. We clocked in on my pedometer at around 7 or 8 miles walked. My back was killing me and my feet were hurting, and I was jet-lagged and a little sick to my stomach. It was drizzling rain and kind of chilly, but all in all it was an incredible day. Highlights inluded trying real English cuisine (which is WAY better than people make it out to be), seeing the crown jewels of England at the Tower of London as well as a really cool exhibit about Henry VIII, who is hands down my favorite European monarch. Everything in London looks like a movie set.

June 7th: We all woke up pretty early and took a train out to Windor. We spent the day at Windsor castle, which was the bomb dot com. It was POURING rain and my pants got so soaking wet I just rolled them up and walked around like a doofus. Good thing I was in England where no one notices or cares what you're wearing most of the time anyway. The castle was super cool and I LOVED seeing the St. George Chapel, which is the HQ of the Order of the Garter and the burial place of several memorably famous people including but not limited to Henry VIII! Afterward we ate Indian food, which was one of Luis's requirements for our visit to England since we've heard it's better there. Aftward I dried my shoes off in a hand dryer at a train station because they were sloshing wet from all the rain. That sounds gross and weird, but it was truly hilarious at the time and saved me from being blistery and miserable for the rest of the day. We went back to London and visited a war museum then climbed the Tower Bridge, which was INSANELY tall (I'm guessing 300 + steps to the top). It has the best views of the city, though, and I recommend you try it if you ever go. Aftward we went and saw Romeo and Juliet at the Globe, which has literally been a dream of mine since I was like 9 years old. We were groundlings, which was also hilarious and awesome and fun. It did not disappoint, and I swear during the 3rd curtain call at the end I could feel the great Bard smiling down upon us. We probably walked close to 9 or 10 miles that day, and by the time we got home I literally could barely stand up. It was AWESOME!
June 7th we went to Emily and Brent's ward for Stake Conference. Elder Uchtdorf gave the address which was pretty cool. The rest of the day we just napped and chilled, which was a nice break. It was also good to rest up for the insanity of the following 6 days.

Photos

It'll be a couple of weeks until I can get everything sorted out, cleaned up, and ready to upload. Until then, here are a few photos to tide you over.
June 5th: L & C outside of Buckingham Palace

June 6th: B & E at the Globe, globing it up
June 8th: Stonehenge looking all stony n stuff
June 9th: Me plus Haggis equals love
June 10th: The "gang" chillin' literally at the North Sea- it was FREEZING and super windy
June 11th: I see London, I see France...
June 12th: SO MUCH PARIS!!!
June 13th: It was the sweatiest Palace I have ever been to.
June 15th: Manze's Pie and Mash... a truly London experience

There are more photos and stories to come, but I have to like get on a plane or something. You know. Whatever. :P

Blërg.

So I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth- I've just been in the UK visiting my sister Emily for the past 10 or so days. It's been a wild, crazy, confusing, awesome, amazing trip. I'll have to set up a picasa account when I get back to post all of my pictures, and there's no way I could write a travel account of the trip because we've been here so long and b/c almost every day we've gone somewhere new and seen something awesome, so I'll just have to do this in list form. I'm starting with the 5th b/c even though we left on the 3rd at 3 p.m. SLC time, we didn't arrive in the UK until the 4th at like 1 p.m. their time. Maybe 2. It took the rest of the day to deal with jet lag.
5th- Tour of London. Saw Big Ben, toured the Tower of London, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
6th- More London- Climbed the Tower Bridge, Saw Windsor Castle, saw Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre
7th- DAY OF REST
8th- Road Trip of Destiny began- went to Stonehenge, Glastonbury Abbey and Tor (if you don't know what those are, PLEASE look them up and be amazed at the awesomeness), Bath, and passed by the Preston Temple.
9th- Kendall England (which has tap water that tastes like Evian or Fiji or something like that!) to Edinburgh. Toured Edinburgh castle, ate Haggis (delish!), and took a tour of the underground Edinburgh crypts. May or may not have taken a picture of a ghost.
10th- More Scotland road trip awesomeness. Ate lunch on the North Sea, climbed the heaths, ended up on a plane from Glasgow to Gatwick.
11th- Took the Eurostar to Paris. Toured Montemarte district of Paris. Climbed the hill to the Sacre Cour Cathedral and saw some really great views. Photos OUTSIDE of the Moulin Rouge (which I love for the art connections to Toulousse, not for the girlie show inside)- ate the world's single greatest crêpes in a park next to an old abbey and a really skeezy looking Carousel.
12th- Met and fell in love with the complete INSANITY that is the city of lights. Saw the outside of the Museé d'Orsay, the Arc d' Triomphe, the Champs Elyseé, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs du Mars, the Ecole Militaire, the outside of the Gran Palais and the Petit Palais, toured the Louvre and took pictures with some really pretty ladies (the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo), and ended up at the Notre Dame Cathedral with critically low blood sugar, dehydration, and a camera full of incredible pictures. I also memorized like 3 metro routes, walked through a street farmer's market, and had some really great Greek food.
13th- Versaille mania, more crêpes, and back to London.
It is now almost 3 am and I have to wake up in like 5 hours to go to church. I will post the corresponding pictures tomorrow after I take a hefty after church nap.
I really miss ice, free refills, King-sized beds, my garden, my dogs, Andrei, and generic brands. I am completely addicted to English yogurt, the metro system, buildings with histories, and charming accents. Everyone here is so friendly and nice and despite what you hear, are really very kind to Americans. Monday we will be returning to London for more pictures with Big Ben and friends, perhaps a tour of Westminster, and a traditional English dinner. We will be leaving pretty early in the morning on Tuesday and will be back late Tuesday night.