the lake district + edinburgh + york.

This week we were able to travel to the Lake District, Edinburgh and York. These places are all so beautiful and great. We first went to Preston where the Preston Temple and MTC were, we were only there for a little break so I couldn't much pictures when I was worried about my bladder exploding (I have a great story about that when I went to a football match last week on Saturday...we'll save that for another post). We also had a tour of Preston and got to see where all the first missionaries can when they were called to the British Isles Mission. President Hinckley served there, so we were able to see where he lived and stayed while serving the Lord.

{no.15}

After Preston we made our way to Ambleside where William Wordsworth was inspired for most of his life's work he did at the Dove Cottage in Grasmere which was only a tenth of his life. We stayed in wonderful Bed & Breakfasts, they were so cute and the owners were lovely. We went on a gorgeous hike around the area, had a workshop about letters Wordsworth wrote and ate dinner at the Dove Cottage. I really did love Ambleside and hope to go back soon, the town was quaint with its tiny roads and alleyways. 

On the way to Edinburgh we saw some more rocks. Some rock circle and Hadrian's wall. Yet again when we visit rocks it seems to be raining a lot.

{mini Stone Henge}

Next up was Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a great place, we were in the city by the Edinburgh Castle in sketchy hostel in a seriously creepy street called Cow Gate. When we got there we had to navigate the city which being in a new city it's hard, but on top of that it was night time (5.30ish) so that just added more difficulty to journey for food. We found this delicious italian place that just opened, so we got the food for super cheap. The next day we had a tour by a past study abroad student who is living in Edinburgh working on his masters degree. We saw THE Elephant House where JK Rowling first started writing Harry Potter. Right next to it was the school that inspired Hogwarts. Also there was a church/graveyard down the street that sparked an idea for a main character in the book...Thomas Riddle. Oh and Greyfriars Bobby was buried there too. It was a good start to the day when filled with Harry Potter.

We finished by the Edinburgh Castle, which was our next destination. We spend a good two hours there. It's great to hear the people's scottish accents, in the words of an 8 year old girl, "it's sew cute, I loove it." (spelled how they would say it.) I saw a preview of some crown jewels, nothing compares to the crown jewels like at the Tower of London. 

{View of Edinburgh}

We saw William Wallace, of course it was a photo op, with swords.

{William Wallace}

After that it was a blur because we walked that city FOEVER. Around and around walking the same streets just going in circles, still not sure how that worked out.  I made my way back to the Elephant House to have some cake and leave my mark. 

Next was York. We went to York Minster to Evensong, which was fun to experience a change of scenery. There was a neat street called The Shambles, it reminded me of Diagon Alley. 

On our last day we went to the Bronte's Parsonage, where Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, which I had the lovely opportunity to read...it was not my favorite. 

After we went to a old cotton mill, which was really neat because I studied the process of making cotton into fabric so it was great to understand it.

It was an overall great week in the Lake District.

More adventures to come.

cheers,

Lauren

stonehenge + stourhead.

{stonehenge}

{Briana and I}

It was freezing and windy at Stonehenge. 

{Briana and the crazy wind at Stonehenge}

Yeah it was really small, you would have missed it if you weren't watching for it. 

After Stonehenge we went to Stourhead which is a huge lot of 2,500 acres of beautiful grounds. 

There was a little tree in the cottage above that had all the memories or thoughts people wrote about Stourhead and tied it to the tree. I left my mark there.

{Colin and I}

For all my Pride and Prejudice fans (2005 version) this is were they filmed the first proposal by Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth. Yeah there was a lot of reenactment of that one scene.

More to come about my adventures in the Lake District and Scotland. Sorry for the delay but the internet is not up to par. 

cheers.

xx

currently.

Hello from the UK.

sorry for the delay...classes started and I can't get enough of this amazing city.

I FINALLY made it to London after 3-4 weeks of traveling the continent, and it is good to be in one place now to call home. 

{27}

We left from Brussels Train Station to ride the chunnel over to London. You will never guess who I saw...Elder Karratti. We were all waiting with our bags to find our train when we saw two Elders walk by, and naturally as members of the Church we had to say hello. But I recognized one of them and it was a total surprise to me and him. It was fun to see someone I knew other than the people in my program, I had a nice little chat with him. 

Then it was off to the chunnel. It is a super fast train. We had to go through like 3 passport checks! The chunnel was fun, I didn't really notice where we were because there were high mounds of grass and tunnels that I had no idea where we were, but I was underwater for part of, which was neat. Once we got to the station we were off to our new home the BYU London Centre for the next two months or so. The tube is not as difficult as some people have said, it is very similar to the metro system in Paris if you remember which way you want to go. So far I have loved being a the Centre, it is great! We have great food made by an amazing cook, she is the best...we have a new dish every night, so I am excited to try new things.

Friday I was able to explore London with a few of my roommates. We went to Piccadilly Circus and walked to Trafalgar Square to see the big lion statues.

{Meritt, Paesha, Samantha, Me and Amy}

After that we went to see Big Ben, the House of Parliaments, walked across the River Thames, saw the London Eye and stumbled across this little cheese market that had delicious Moroccan Food. It was fun/daunting to explore the city because there are MILLIONS of people + tourists + cars all over the place. Might I add that here they drive on the other side of the road than in the US, so that was a little difficult to get use to but I like it!

We went back to Trafalgar Square to go to a piano concert from an Asian prodigy that has played since he was 3; he played some Beethoven and Liszt. I really enjoyed Liszt No.11. 

Later that night we went to a Symphony which was great. I thought the concert was over when the orchestra finished playing, but was I wrong. I even put my coat on and stood up ready to leave to only find out it was the intermission. Let's just say it got interesting after the intermission. There was a for real opera about clocks and a cheating wife. I will never look at clocks the same now because of that opera. 

Saturday we had the morning to do as we please, so like a good student I started to work on my homework, but only to be interrupted by a group that was heading out to do something fun. Of course I went because when is the next time I will be in such a great place?  So a couple of us went to Portobello Road to check out what it was. It was a HUGE market filled with street venders for miles selling foods, vintage clothing/accessories/items, music and more food. It was brilliant. I loved just walking around taking in the atmosphere there, even though it was filled with every tourist known to man. We didn't get to stay long because we were going to the Globe Theater to see Richard III.

{THE globe theatre}

The Globe Theater was a great place and had an amazing atmosphere that made me feel as if I were back in the Middle Ages minus disgusting smells. Our group was in the standing area at the bottom by the stage. Think about 100-150 people crammed in space standing for 3 hours. Yep that's right 3 hours of standing in the cold + we had little trickles of rain throughout the play. Overall it was wonderful experience to see a play on the last day the theater was open. Richard III was an interesting play once past trying to understand the language. It was an all male cast, giving it a very Shakespearean feel. For all my HP fans, I saw the man who played Barty Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Yeah I was like 10 feet away from him, but I couldn't take a picture in there to document this. I even waited after for about 45 minutes in the cold and rain to see if he would come out the stage door entrance, but he didn't.

{Roger Lloyd Pack}

{Barty Crouch}

Sunday I went to church that is about 40 minutes away by bus. (The tube line we want is always closed on the weekends for construction.) Our bus ride takes us from Notting Hill past Marble arch, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben/House of Parliament, and the London Eye, it is a pretty scenic route and I get to see them almost everyday! I also just walked around our neighborhood to get a feel for where I will be living for the next two months.

Monday...FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF CLASSES. It is finally great to have some structure to my days than just walking around a little city. I get the best of both worlds, I have a schedule from about 9-11 Monday through Thursday for my classes and then the rest of the time is to do as I please. I love it! I also went to the ballet! I saw Swan Lake. It was interesting to see this type of dance because I never really get to see it. I was just amazed at how much effort and skill it takes to do what they were doing and make it look like they aren't even trying at all. But it was a tad long, 3 intermissions! I didn't get back to the centre until 11:15pm and it started at 7:30pm. I can't wait until December because we are going to see another ballet, The Nutcracker, it's going to be so fun!

Tuesday I had some classes, but after those I headed to Westminster to do a walking tour of it. I was great to see all the sights and places where so much history has happened. I love our walks because we can do them whenever and we get to learn more about the city we will/are living in. Later that night after dinner I went on another walk to South Kensington which includes the Museums such as Victoria & Albert, the Science museum and the Hyde Park Chapel. I went in because I haven't been to yet and guess what? I saw another missionary I knew. It was Sister Belnap, a girl I knew from my work. It was so crazy that I have seen 2 missionaries in 1 week. The Lord's work is moving, and I love it!

Wednesday I just hung around the centre because we had a bunch for reading to do for our classes that I wanted to catch up and get ahead on so I can enjoy my free time, so nothing too exciting happened.

Thursday I went on another walk, but it was so long and I was so tired that I had to stop halfway through because I had get home for our religion class that is at 2pm. Can I just say what a random time that is, it is right in the middle of the day so I can't plan anything to do in between my previous class and this one. But later I went to institute at Hyde Park Chapel and it was packed, but it was great! Our teacher is going to be the teacher for our religion class every Thursday, so I was excited that have more lessons from him later on.

Friday I walked from Notting Hill through Kensington Gardens next to Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace then to Trafalgar Square. It was a fun walk because I got to enjoy the fall in the park with leaves allover the ground, dogs running around and the crisp fall air. At Buckingham Palace, the Queen was Home! (the flag was waving high to say she was home)They were having some party there that loads of people were coming in their tea outfits, I wanted to go in and see the Queen. Later that night I made my way to Bond Street to go Primark (really cheap clothing store that is crammed with people). I found a shirt and a sweater for a pretty good price. Also I went to Ben's Cookies...they are divine. I got milk chocolate with pralines (hazelnut). SO GOOD! The chocolate is not chocolate chips, but it is spread throughout the cookie, or should I say biscuit.

Saturday was Briana's Birthday, so we all headed to Nando's, a delicious Portuguese chicken restaurant, and then we saw Wicked! I had fourth row seats, it doesn't get better than that! And for 27.50 pounds! It was amazing!

{Kaylin, Paesha, Me, Meritt, Briana, Hillary}

Sunday we went to church and finally got our calling...primary. There are only 6 total kids, that was how big my Valiant 8 class was, so this is going to be a new and exciting experience!

Monday had one class for Music and then just walked around London. It was a pretty good day.

Tuesday after classes I went to finish one many of my London walks. After dinner I went on a whim to see Singin' in the Rain! It was AMAZING! I loved it. We seriously ran to the theater on Shaftesbury to to get good seats and we did! Third row! I was just so happy and smiley during the whole play and not to mention soaked. It literally rained in the theater, Don Lockwood splashed around kicking the water EVERYWHERE! I loved every second of it. After we walked around Piccadilly Square, the Time Square of London.

{Piccadilly Square}

Wednesday I finished another London walk by Piccadilly Square and Trafalgar Square and later that night we went to an opera in that area too, it was Julius Cesar by Handel. Let's just say it was bazaar. Men singing in falsetto, alligators and giraffe tongues. Did I mention it was 4 hours long? Yeah I left after the first intermission.

Thursday we had the Fall Ball! A fun tradition one of our directors has with their family and they wanted to keep it up. We all dressed up in silly outfits, had finger foods, danced the night away (the dance lasted 30 minutes) and had loads of fun with all my friends.

{Paesha, Samantha, Me, Briana, Amy}

{Jessica and Me with our  matching 50 pence hats}

Friday we went to Stonehenge and Stourhead which is a huge estate of 2,500 acres of beautiful gardens. That will be a post on its own, but here are a few pictures.

On Saturday I went to my favorite market filled with a bazillion tourist to get to a school to do a service project with the Hyde Park Stake. It was manual labor. Moving desks, scraping walls and taping baseboards/doorknobs for the rooms to be painted. Sadly no documentation of this event but it was fun serving others and getting to know more members in the area.

Sorry for the long winded post of catching up on the my adventures in London. I hope to be better now that I am in one place now, but we'll see.

Cheers!

xx

brussels.

We are back in Belgium!

As mentioned before we are here in Antwerp and today we visited Brussels. Brussels is a large city that we had LITTLE time to explore. Belgium is underrated and has been one of my favorite places we have visited. 

First we headed to the Atomium, which is a huge replica of an Atom that was made for the World Fair in 1958. We didn't spend much time there, really only to get a picture and head to Brussels. 

{with the tall girls sam and briana...me on my tiptoes to be as tall as them}

oh and they had letters welcoming you to Belgium, and naturally we had to get a picture with them because we love letters. (amsterdam anyone?) ps. I always think of she's the man when the principle welcomes viola to Illyria.

{Briana and I on belgium}

We got to the big city of Brussels and went to yet again another museum. This one was way weird to me, it was Rene Magritte the surrealist...not digging his style. After we just explored the city a bit more. 

{shot of the main square}

Plus I found a hidden gem in the square...JAIME OLIVER. He must have been filming a tv show or something like that. Don't worry I captured him in a few pictures. Oh and when I found out who it was I shouted "It's Jaime Oliver!" then a lady totally turned around and just stared me and put her finger to her lips...yep I'm that dumb American who spoke louder than a whisper...oh well.

{he's in the orange/brown jacket}

Tomorrow we are going to London. I am SO EXCITED! So there will be more adventures and  great fun to come. Ps. I figured out what I'm doing to Thanksgiving break, drumroll please...

Italy and Spain.

Rome and Madrid to be exact. 

So stick with me for some exciting adventures. 

xoxo

lauren.