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Final Thoughts......

ENGLAND could be called a modern retreat. To start our journey with Italy and end with London was symbolic of how design grows overtime. The city is one of kind and has qualities that makes one feel at ease no matter what their culture might be. You feel secure while walking down the cutting edge streets, and being surrounded by the fresh atmosphere it portrays. There are endless possibilities and opportunities in London which spread throughout the entire country of England. Expect to broaden your design capabilities while visiting the many museums and state-of-art architecture there. Don’t be alarmed when you leave this country feeling inspired and renewed with your design knowledge.

FRANCE could be called a bittersweet oasis. The iconic pieces of architecture and design found here are what make individuals gather here. You could spend a lifetime here and feel as if you haven’t seen all France has to offer. Hearing the beautiful French language, and taking in all the small things is what one can do to appreciate the great city of Paris. Walking down the crowded, charming streets filled with rich and tasteful design is a treat all in itself. Considering that the lifestyle can be overwhelming and exhausting. Expect to be on the lookout while walking the picturesque streets and to excuse the enmity that can be portrayed while there. The good supersedes the bad and a girl could get use to having the Eiffel tower as a landmark in her own city.

ITALY could be called a five star country. Its combined chaotic city lifestyle and Tuscan valley landscapes are what make the country what it is. When thinking of such a place you feel as if you are in a fantasy world and let me tell you, I did. The impressive amounts of ageless architecture connects you with the past but lets you live in the present while being surrounded with the hip modern living conditions. The anticipated visions of flowers, stone pathways, colorful skyline, and mouthwatering cuisine come to life while making everyone feel welcomed into this frenzied country.

London 08.04.09

Last day in LondonL We saved Buckingham Palace for tonight and sadly we didn’t see the Queen. She must have been busy!! The interior was beautiful, this is one of the castles that I liked the interior a lot better than the exterior. The inside was over-the-top and made you feel like royalty when walking through it. The materials used in this palace was mostly all the real fancy stuff, unlike some of the other palaces. The chandeliers, and silk cover walls makes you feel so special when in the room. We stopped at the café to get cocoa and pastries once again. There will be no more pastries for me the second I get home and I am excited for that. They are so addicting and delicious. I had a really easy and enjoyable day. We wanted to do some last minute shopping and then I wanted to go to the Shakespearean Globe to see a show. So we split up for a while. I went by myself to find tickets for the show. This theater is an original Shakespeare Theater. I got tickets for Helen, not a real popular play I don’t think but it was only 5 pounds for it. We later met up as a group at Portabello Road to do a little more window shopping. By the time we went down the streets a ways it was time for me to go back to the apartment and get ready for the theater. Some of the other girls went to Wicked but I have seen it and I didn’t have the money to go to it. Therefore I chose to go to Helen at the Globe by myself and meet with them afterwards. It was really fun to walk through London alone and take it all in for the last night here. It is so beautiful and I really paid attention to my surroundings. While waiting to get in the theater I met this a guy named Dimitri. He is traveling through Europe too so we exchanged stories. It was a lot of fun. We watched the show together and hung out for a while after. He lives in New York and is Russian so it was fun to hear his stories. The show was good, a little weird, but good. There were parts of it that were so random, and really funny. It is set during the Trojan War but has modern people doing stuff in it every so often. The theater was fun to be in, the atmosphere feels like you were back in the actual time period of the play. There isn’t a roof and the actors interact with audience. I walked around with Dimitri for a while and then I went back to the apartment to start packing and cleaning to go home. I am going to stay up all night, since it is already 1 am and I leave in 4 hours to the airport! I still need to pack and do everything, I have procrastinated a little. I won’t get to Salt lake unitl 6:30 pm. So that is a long day since I am leaving at 5am!!!!

Scotland 08.03.09

Ok, today was probably on my top ten days list in my whole life….that might sound dramatic but it was such a great day! It was full of spontaneous decisions and it turned out great. We started off getting the last minute gifts we needed from the crafty gift shops. Then we took a train to North Berwick, Scotland. We took a real trip to a real coast this time…not another dock! This was the start of a unforgettable day. The train dropped us off right at the beach. Little note-the sand was amazing! We put our feet in the ocean, played around and then sat on the beach to take it all in. This was the first time I have touched the ocean. This beached looked exactly like Prince Edward islands, I am a big fan of Anne of Green Gables so I compared a lot of it to that movie. There were sailboats everywhere, and children making sandcastles all along the beach. Becca and I took a taxi to a castle on the coast just a couple miles from where we were. This castle is the number two most haunted castles, and it is just the ruins of it. It sits on a cliff where the ocean water splashes up on. Then out in the distance of the ocean is a huge rock island with a lighthouse on it. The island is white on top, I thought it was snow but that doesn’t make sense for the month of August So I read the nifty sign with info of it and it said that 21000 birds live on this rock!!! That is crazy, considering the size of the island. This was such a great experience, I can’t wait to show my family pictures of it. The cold sea breeze and smell was refreshing. After the time at the coast we went back to Edinburgh to catch a train back to London. We arrived in London five hours later at midnight. We rushed to the underground tube because it closes at night, and now I am in the apt sitting here doing homework at 4 am!!! Yeah for not sleeping!

Scotland 08.02.09

Today we got up extremely early, which I am a little confused about why now, because nothing was opened that early. We wanted to go to the coast so we took a bus ride to the nearest coast. We were so pumped and once we got there we were disappointed in what we saw. The bus took us to the loading dock of Edinburgh! Haha we saw some crumby boats and really dirty water. We tried to pick out the pretty parts of it but ended up going back into the city. We look back on it and laugh now. Some of the girls headed back to London, but the rest of us found the LDS church branch and went there. The people were extremely nice and it was relaxing being in church. After church we went to the Edinburgh castle. After the climb up the hill to it we found the entrance and paid some pretty serious poundage to get in! It was very interesting and pretty. The crowned jewels were there, and a lot of soldier memorabilia. It was pretty fancy and definitely was what I expected. There were good shops that are on the Royal Mile that leads to the castle. We spent a lot of time in the tacky souvenir shops, they are kind of addicting! I didn’t buy a lot because there isn’t a lot I can do with a kilt once I get back to the U.S. One of the best things I did today though was eat at the Last Drop Pub. It is a pub where a lot of people spent their last days so it was a little creepy. The food was some of the best I have had on my whole trip, they were a little confused why we didn’t order some whiskey instead of our water though. We shopped around some more and then took some night pictures of the castle. Then we went back to the hotel to our dreamy hotel! This town has been so surreal and I don’t want to leave so soon, we go back to London tomorrow. Edinburgh has been warmer than London and it really surprises me. It is very sunny and it has been a nice change from the rainy weather in London. The people here have a very strong accent, it sounds like a different language! I have a hard time hearing anyways and then add a Scottish accent I feel like a retard when trying to communicate with them.

Scotland 08.01.09

Everything went as planned today. I was a little nervous, because I planned this trip to Scotland very last minute. Just like I do with everything else. Becca and I decided that we like to be late .especially in train stations because its is such a thrill to run through a train station! Yeah we get excited about the stupidest things. We made a stop in Alnwick to see the castle that Harry Potter was filmed. So we get there and I had to save Becca first thing. We saw this tree that looked just like the Whomping Willow, and of course she wanted to climb it. Well she got stuck and was falling down, I got there in a matter of seconds to save her life. Becca got whomped by the Whomping Willow! It was suppose to be just her and me going on this expedition this weekend but we recruited four more people to go with us the first day. We then pet some owls, in honor of hegwig, and then toured the castle. We saw the exact spot they filmed Harry Potter learning how to fly. The castle was pretty but wasn’t my most favorite one. They had done a lot of restoration work to it and It took a little bit of the old feel to it. It was very beautiful though. We spent a couple hours there and then headed to Edinburgh by train. We had a packed night so we got started on what we wanted to do once we got there. We took a bus tour…on the double decker bus, it was pretty exciting. Then we went to a ghost tour in the underground vaults of Edinburgh. They are abandoned and creepy dark. I have to admit that I got scared during a lot of it I made a fool out of myself and basically hugged a stranger for the reason that I got scared and decided to jump into my neighbors arms! She didn’t stand by me the rest of the tour!
We had a goal to go to all of the Hard Rock Cafés in the all the cities we go to. So we all went to the one in Edinburgh. Becca and I had to check into hour hostel so we paid for a pricey taxi. Once we got there we found out that they had to put us into a private room instead of the dorm with like 10 bunk beds! We were so excited and it was nicer than the other hotels we have stayed in this whole trip. It was modern and really fun. On the way back to our hotel a car passed us with james blunt blaring out of the window…he is one of my most favorite UK singers. That was really a good moment. Then in Oxford a couple days ago I was on a bus chatting with a guy on the bus and we started talking about music. I told him how much I like James Blunt and he started laughing. He said that a lot of people like him in the Uk but know one ever admits it!
So Scotland was a breath of fresh air. Green everywhere, huge cliff with a #1 castle on top of it, Scottish accents, men in kilts, and I can’t forget about the bagpipes!