Recipes for Friends

We’re almost home June 29, 2007

We made it back to London and are currently trying to get a few hours of sleep at Brendan’s before we have to head out at 6 am to catch our flight back to the states. We flew in from Ireland this evening, then got a bus to Victoria in London and then got another bus to Brendan’s apartment. Then we have our flight from Heathrow tomorrow morning to Chicago, with a four-hour layover before we finally fly back to Louisville to get there at 7:15 pm. It’s been crazy stuff, and I’m definitely ready to not be traveling for a bit, although it has made me appreciate England more. In a way, I felt like I was coming home by just getting to London. I’ve been gone so long from the US. I mean, I guess it’s not that long, but longer than I’ve ever done before. Okay, Christi and Melissa are already asleep so I guess I better get some too.

Bed Bugs and Brussels, where rain is typical June 26, 2007

Okay, so the bed bugs aren’t in Brussels, just in Paris. We’ve escaped those, but Melissa still managed to get some sort of bite last night. And it’s been raining off and on since we got into Brussels. I thought rain was typical in England, but apparently it is in northern Europe too. And the temperature is ridiculous, a stifling 55 degrees. We did find a “gay, wireless, happening” cafe to sit with my computer and look up stuff for Dublin, where it will get even better with a high of 57 degrees. But we’re going to make the best of it. Just tried to book a day tour, we’ll see if there is an opening. As soon as we get done here, we’ll be off to see a peeing boy. Yesterday we did get full of chocolate samples and ice cream. And we’ll be getting waffles today. We also found a shopping mall with a supermarket, where we felt at home. Got a baguette, cream cheese, chips, salsa, and sesame sticks. The guy who was cleaning tables in the food court kept walking by us and smiling. We looked like we were starving, shoving food in our mouths, and I’m sure our spread was quite an interesting combination. But it was so good. Glad we’re away from dirty Paris and under lock and key Munich, now we can eat what we want. The sun just came out so we’re going to try to catch it for the few seconds before it goes back behind the clouds.

The Wrong Hostage June 23, 2007

So I read this book that Dani, Rita’s roommate, had left in Oxford while they stayed with me, called The Wrong Hostage. It was a suspense novel, not completely my type of book, but it was fun to read. However, I never thought I’d be living it. Munich was interesting to say the least. By the end of our three-day stay, Melissa, Christi, and I were referring to ourselves as hostages. Christi’s “friend” who we stayed with wouldn’t let us out of his sight and had every minute of our day planned. But we have now made it to Paris, after getting very little sleep on an overnight train and spending the day in Versailles with chilly weather. We are at hotel now, and we are one, two, free peoples (as one of our Austrian friends said as he was counting how many of us were going to be coming canyoning). So we are very happy, but very tired and hungry. Need to rest up and get energy for tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find some time to write a proper entry in here soon, but it might not happen until I get home. Hopefully I’ll remember everything. But just have to say, yay! We are free peoples!

Fascist Ice Cream June 21, 2007

I’m in Europe, met up with my friends, done a lot of hiking, and Brendan is already back in London. I’ll write more details later but I’m getting ready to go to a dance party in Munich with veterinary students, probably with a lot of beer. And yes, I have tried beer. We knew we would like Munich when we got here because as soon as we got off the train they gave us free ice cream and water. The ice cream was melting, so I was eating it really quickly. So I turned to Melissa and said, “This is the fastest ice cream I’ve ever eaten,” except she heard, “This is the fascist ice cream I’ve ever eaten.” And she was wondering if I had just made a funny joke, though she told me I might not want to say that here. And then Christi the next day asks one of our friends, “Is there anyone else famous from Germany besides Heidi Klum and Hitler?” We’re making lots of friends in Germany, no really, we are.

Things work out for the best. June 13, 2007

Okay this entry is a little delayed. I started writing it and then got busy. I’m still busy now, but I’m taking a bit of a break. Well after we didn’t make it to Stratford, Jennifer and I decided to go to Blenheim. It was a perfect day outside. And I’m actually glad we went there instead of Stratford. It would have been a good day to walk around a town, but it was even better to walk around meadows and gardens. We walked a lot, saw a lot of the grounds that I hadn’t seen before on my visits, and talked and took pictures. I don’t know how to describe it. We met a man from Tennessee and kept running into him. And kept seeing American families. We had a guy ask us if we wanted our picture taken, and we said sure. But it was weird because while that’s something that would happen in the States, it doesn’t happen as much here, that a stranger would just talk to us. But the day made me really happy, and I’m really glad I made it to Blenheim in the spring. It was beautiful. And since I can’t describe it, I’ll just put up some pictures. There will be more on Flickr, but here are some highlights.

We found some cool trees with really big roots. Amazing! We decided after discussing our love for trees that we might be considered tree huggers. Haha!

Swans!

Sheep!

A nice guy took our picture in front of the gates into the palace.

It says this is where Winston Churchill proposed.

In the US to grow roses it seems like people take so much time on them. Here, they just seem to grow everywhere.

Another cool tree. It was huge!!

I love waterfalls.

The picture in front of the main fountains that I always get with whoever I go with, holding my hand out in front of me. A “Joe picture” as my mom would say.