So my study abroad officially ended the night of June 4th, and the next day was my birthday! And guess what birthday present I got...
My very own, specially wrapped,
Cherise Burk!
Boy, did I feel special ;)
My very own, specially wrapped,
Cherise Burk!
Boy, did I feel special ;)
And here our adventures together begin!LONDON
We checked into our hostel and put our luggage in their "luggage room" as you can't officially check in until the afternoon. It was our very first experience with hostels, and it was quite interesting. And this was no luggage room. This was a luggage closet about the size of a pantry. Here I am, trying to stuff my backpack in with all the other bags. What an adventure...
We walked around Kensington Gardens (where Princess Diana's memorial is) in the light rain, and went to the National Gallery to see some art. And see some art, we did! Boy, that place is huge! Being the art fanatics that we both are (not!), we ended up walking around, picking fun paintings, and making up interesting stories of what was happening in the picture.
Next we went to Westminster Abbey for evensong.
Wow, was that amazing, or what?! You can get in for free (as it is a service), sit in the beautiful cathedral, and listen to the choir of men and young boys singing the most beautiful songs ever! The acoustics are fantastic! Cherise fell asleep on my lap, listening to the angelic sound - she was struggling to recover from jet lag. :) What a peaceful hour, compared to the stressful hustle and bustle of the streets of London...We went out to dinner for my birthday and then headed home and went to bed early, as we were both quite exhausted.
On Saturday morning we decided to head down and enjoy the atmosphere and fun shopping of the Portobello Market.
Then just explored the sites of London some more...here is Big Ben again. :)
We even went back to Westminster Abbey for evensong again, because we loved it so much! I really needed to feel that peace because I was a little stressed with the planning of our trip (as Cherise can attest ;) ).
That night we got to go see Les Mis...still my favorite show of all time. What a powerful show!
"To love another person is to see the face of God"
Then Sunday morning came! We had the most amazing opportunity of getting to sit in the 6th row of the Hyde Park Chapel to see President Uchtdorf (leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) speak to the members of the UK & Ireland (it was broadcast from there). And we didn't even have tickets like you were supposed to! (What a tender mercy for us that the ushers were sympathetic to our lack of transportation and prior knowledge).
After church, we finally had a bit of sunshine, and relaxed in Hyde Park for lunch.
We got to watch some very talented rollerbladers (zig-zagging backwards, on one foot, through cones), sat in cute old fashioned beach chairs that are set up all over the grass by the pond, and walked by Speakers' Corner - quite an interesting place with all the guys on boxes and groups of people around each one, usually in heated conversation - before we grabbed our bags from the "luggage room" of our hostel, walked back to the church for the Young Single Adult fireside with Pres. Uchtdorf, and ran to catch our train to Edinburgh! First-class baby!EDINBURGH
Monday was spent in Edinburgh...We walked down the Royal Mile, bought some Scotland sweatshirts, went inside St. Giles' Cathedral, and found our ancestry in the clan books of Scotland! :)
Then my favorite part of the day - we hiked Arthur's Seat (as pointed out in the picture below).
As a trash-picker-upper when I'm in the outdoors, I found us a great Pringles can to take on our adventure with us. They were even flavored "Texas BBQ Sauce" - it reminded us of home (well, at least close to home).
(don't worry; there weren't really any pringles in it)
Arthur's seat is a big mound of volcanic rock right near Edinburgh, so you can hike up it and look down on the whole city, and the Firth of Forth (the ocean coming into the river Forth). It was beautiful up there!
(my cookies (Digestives) were a little melted....but still just as tasty)
There were approximately 7.5 too many people up there, and if you know me at all, I like being in the middle of nowhere, so Cherise and I walked over to another little hill that was empty, and enjoyed our own personal view over Edinburgh and the ocean. ...where we proceeded to read a little together and take a nap in the squishy grass :) What bliss!
The next morning we went for a run around the city, and packed up to go. We met up with my aunt's Scottish neighbor's nephew (ha ha, ya got that?), Duncan, because he was going to hold on to my suitcase for me while we backpacked through the Highlands of Scotland. What a nice guy! ...and a life-saver, I'll tell you what! It was great to get rid of that bag for a week!
We went to the train station to catch our train, but we had just missed it, and the next one didn't come for another 2 hours. But Cherise was positive and met some cool people from Syria, and I was able to use the time to book some more of our hostels for the rest of the week. We finally got on our train, and were headed off for the best part of the trip!
To be continued... ;)
As a trash-picker-upper when I'm in the outdoors, I found us a great Pringles can to take on our adventure with us. They were even flavored "Texas BBQ Sauce" - it reminded us of home (well, at least close to home).
(don't worry; there weren't really any pringles in it)Arthur's seat is a big mound of volcanic rock right near Edinburgh, so you can hike up it and look down on the whole city, and the Firth of Forth (the ocean coming into the river Forth). It was beautiful up there!
(my cookies (Digestives) were a little melted....but still just as tasty)
There were approximately 7.5 too many people up there, and if you know me at all, I like being in the middle of nowhere, so Cherise and I walked over to another little hill that was empty, and enjoyed our own personal view over Edinburgh and the ocean. ...where we proceeded to read a little together and take a nap in the squishy grass :) What bliss!
The next morning we went for a run around the city, and packed up to go. We met up with my aunt's Scottish neighbor's nephew (ha ha, ya got that?), Duncan, because he was going to hold on to my suitcase for me while we backpacked through the Highlands of Scotland. What a nice guy! ...and a life-saver, I'll tell you what! It was great to get rid of that bag for a week!We went to the train station to catch our train, but we had just missed it, and the next one didn't come for another 2 hours. But Cherise was positive and met some cool people from Syria, and I was able to use the time to book some more of our hostels for the rest of the week. We finally got on our train, and were headed off for the best part of the trip!
To be continued... ;)
We super duper miss you!
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