Mincemeat Pie

I really only have two beefs (beeves?) with England right now, but they are very Large steers.

1: Weetabix: It's a cereal, same format as those big blocks of Shreaded Wheat we all used to eat but didn't really know how. Except this is gross, it tastes like hay and falls half way apart from the box to the bowl. But it's everywhere! It's like their Corn Flakes. To this product of England I say: Someone wishes they hadn't spent money on their Weetabix.
2: Jean Leggings. These may not necessarily just be an epidemic forming in England, but it's where I first noticed the outbreak. Gross to the max! Girls: emphasis on the legging part WAY more than the jean, pleeease don't substitute pants for only this item. And never forget: the only jeans worth wearing have butt pockets. Hence, jean leggings are a no-go.

Where my nieces at?

Since I've been 4,500 miles away from home, all I can do is get some Skypes and blog updates about the babies.

This is Netter at 35 weeks (can you believe a person named NETTER is about to have a baby?):
And this is the inside shot of Nicole at their baby:

And now they are both less than 2 weeks away from their due dates. Whaaaaaaaat?? It seems like just yesterday I was crying in my living room or crying in a hotel hallway when I first found out! Those are going to be some messy Skype-calls.

The sister I used to play Barbie with for days, and the sister in law I first met when she had blue hair...My brother who I got yelled at for playing bloody knuckles with (....a few years ago...) and my brother in law I used to fight over being a cop with. They just grow up so darn fast :)

And all I can do is sit around in crazy England waiting for the call. These babies are going to rock! I can't wait to teach them so many things. We're singing, like, all the time.

Cryin

So much awesome going on in this video. Recognize the guy who steals her bag Nette or Chris?


I remember watching this waaay back when it first came out on tv with Jenette. Crazyy

France, in the buff

I got back from France yesterday at 10 am. Have I mentioned lately I love my life? If I could tell you all the stories, I would. Probably will in person. For now I'll give the shortest summary I can.

I met up with the girls Wednesday morning in Nice. We went to Antibes, took naps on the beach.

Next day got busted for not buying tram tickets, the rent-a-cops were SUCH jerks, way more than necessary. Shook it off and went to Monaco which is beautiful. Kaitlin, Ellena and I went to the Damien Hirst exhibit. Then Alex and I took a 1.5 hour bus ride to Juan les Pins to see where her sister used to live. 45 minutes later we had to leave to catch the last train back. Worth it? Umm...

That night we found out our flight the following morning had been cancelled due to the Volcano erupting in Iceland, so we rescheduled it for the next day.

Friday I was really grateful I actually got to see Nice. Tried to do Rick Steve's walking tour, couldn't really figure it out so I explored around the city's center. Made it up to the mountain though, great views.

That night we found out our flight had been cancelled yet again, so we booked a train for the next morning instead. At 1 am apparently all of us but Kaitlin slept through 2 men coming into the room to drop off one of their's luggage. We kind of freaked out for a while about that when she woke us up...but then it just turned into a giggly slumber party and until he came back into the room and turned out to be the HOTTEST guy travelling Europe. :) So things worked out.

Saturday we took a 5 hour train ride to Paris. It was packed, sooo many people didn't have tickets--cheaters. We learned our lesson in the dept.

On our first day in Paris we ate dinner right down the street from the Eiffel Tower and afterwards went up into it.

Next day was the Arch De Triumph, Champs Elysses, the Louvre, and dinner on a boat outside Notre Dame.

Monday Megan went back to Hatfield, and Alex and I went to Versailles. We found out upon arrival it's closed on Mondays, but the gardens were open so we saw those. Massive. Also rented a boat to row on the canal in. A canal in your backyard? Fly.

Pizza across the street from our hostel, made friends with the guys working there, and we traded art. One of them drew my portrait and I drew him a picture as well.

Tuesday we did the Catacombs: it was bananas. 2 km, half of that the walls were lined with bones neatly stacked into patterns. Buhhhh.

Our flight back to Hatfield for Tuesday night got cancelled, so Kaitlin found a coach for that night to get back. Before she left we took a walking tour of Montmarte and saw such things as where Von Gogh lived, where Picasso traded paintings for meals, and a few spots where the movie Amelie was filmed.

Wednesday it was just Alex and I left. We split up, she went back to the Louvre and I to the Dali exhibit in Montmarte--very cool. Then I sat on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and watched street performers. Got asked on a date by a 45 year old, but to make up for it on the metro ride back I met a much younger guy named Will who is an actor. He was nice--and not creepy.

Thursday we kept it pretty simple sally with a picnic in Luxembourg park and then a night in the Latin quarter. Piano lounge, then a Latin club where we made a bunch of friends and sang "Stand By Me" to the whole joint--oh my gosh so fun. I did notice, however, that once it gets dark, Paris turns into roaming grounds for the weirdest, creepiest guys. So we made our way back once the club closed.

Friday morning we ate breakfast in Amelie's cafe, walked around Montmarte a bit, and watched an awesome band (Felix Fables) perform on the Scare Coeur steps. I loved them! People even danced, they played Johnny B. Good as their last song, it was fun. Best way to spend the last afternoon in Paris.

Got some baked goods, went back to the Louvre where I got in for free since Alex had become a "Friend of the Louvre", and they get a friend in for free on Wednesday and Fridays (keep that in mind--good thing to know). Glad we got to make it back.

We made a quick trip back outside to see Paris one last time in the sunset before we headed back to grab our luggage and get to the coach station. On the metro ride there we ran into 2 guys studying at UofH as well from Connecticut which was fun, we ended up spending the rest of the trip home with them.

8 hour coach ride back to England, nasty breakfast in the only open at 6 am restaurant until our coach to Hatfield came. Nap like a mofo on that, and we were back!

Best trip to France I think I could have ever asked for! Voi la!

All photos are on Facebook.
Nice
Paris Sat-Tues
Paris Wed-Sat

Ouch

We had to delay our flight tomorrow morning to Paris at 6:45 am to Saturday morning. Because of this:
The volcano that erupted in Iceland
But I don't mind because since I flew into Nice, France yesterday morning, we've been to Antibes, Monaco, and Juan le Pins. And this gives me a chance to actually see Nice! It's not so bad :) Except our friend Ellena with us was planning to go back to Hatfield tomorrow and can't find flights until the 21st :S That's a mess.

I took a stroll down the old long walk

I got back from Ireland last night. I leave for France in 9 hours, SO. I'll leave a link to all my pictures on Facebook. I think you can get the basic idea. We stayed mostly in Southern Ireland, and thank goodness because it seemed to be lovlier, and more calm than Nothern.


Piczz

Top O' the mornin

Have to be quick, communal computers. But I'm currently in Ennis, Ireland right now. Played on a beach in the OCEAN today. I think I like this country best :) Be back in Hatfield for a day next Tuesday. Have a good week!

Can't sleep...

We're leaving on a coach for the Stansted airport at this coming 3:20 am. Then at 9 am Nicole, Sarah, Hanna, and I will fly to Ireland! We have a tour of the south Monday-Friday and will spend the surrounding days (we come back next Monday) in Dublin and Belfast. Ever heard of the Blarney Stone? I hadn't, until booking of course. Eww!

Amstel Dammel

Alrighty, well from March 25-29 Alex and I were in Amsterdam. I always thought it was in Germany, turns out it's in the Netherlands. Luckily, we still made it to our destination :)

Our first night we met up with some of Harry Picken's (Alex's friend who we were staying with) friends for dinner. Afterward they wanted to go to a coffee shop. You know what happens there, and Alex and I sat by while we watched a professional hockey player from Prague do it. Really, it was probably just as entertaining as getting high would have been anyway. And this was free.

The next, our first, morning we ate at a coffee place for breakfast her friend Tessa recommended: Bagels and Beans (it was so good we ate there again our last morning)

We walked around that day just seeing the sights and all the shops down by the canals in the central part of town.


Went to Anne Frank's house that evening. I've never read her diary, but being in there was insane enough just knowing the basics. It is really well preserved and has alot of information on Anne Frank and the others that hid there. Now I shall go by the book. (The building is the one in the middle not lit up. Craziest part is people live RIGHT next door! Like, other side of the wall--I'd freak out).
Then met some of Harry's other friends and went dancing, where I got a bright red drink spilt on my white scarf :S
We slept 4.5 hours and then got up to go to the Amsterdam Dungeons. If I would have known what it was (1 hour of things jumping out and scaring you) I may have passed, alas, I didn't. So I had a steady heart attack for the length we were there. Then we ate at a ballin restaurant called La Place, that's like fancy cafeteria style with super good food. By the way, all the things we ate on our trip were beyond good.

Boat tour, where all of us nodded off at one point.
Then to a marketing firm called Sid Lee to watch a drawing battle between their office and the Cardiff branch. (Alex is a marketing major, and apparently the company Sid Lee is big in the biz. That's how we found out about it, and she was unbelievably stoked to go). It was probably one of the coolest things I've done here yet, just because it was so unique. Cool party too, lots of music and chatting, and these guys taggin it up the whole time. (The home team ended up winning, more photos in the FB album)
After that we took a trip down to the Red Light District. It's about what you would imagine, lots of barely dressed ladies in windows and large groups of men gawking at them. A quick walk up and down the main road and we got the idea.

We walked about 45 miles that day because we missed the night bus home, I was a little grouchy. But we made it home and slept til 1 the next afternoon. Thank goodness.

Rented bikes when we first got out and about and went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum that afternoon. I suppose it was kind of neat, though I wouldn't recommend paying for it as being worth it. Oh well, we still met alot of celebs.

Since everything closes really early on Sundays, we decided to go see a movie. That movie turned out to be Avatar in 3D. I enjoyed it, definitely cool to watch, and glad I got to see it in 3D before it left theaters. That night we biked around town a bit to see the area, then went home.

Monday morning we said our goodbyes to Harry Picken and went off to do a Mike's Bikes tour of the country side.


On the tour we stopped off at a cheese farm and clog making factory (in the same building, so Dutch). The cheese was delicious!

We then quickly made our way to the Van Gogh museum, where I learned a lot more that I had known about him. For instance, I didn't even know he had shot himself? And he did some Japanese art for a while. I saw some pieces I'd never seen before that made me like him more, and some I'd never seen before that made me much less impressed by him. But in the end, it was really cool to see a bunch of his originals.

After that we made our way to the airport, where there were a lot of delayed flights. Once we got past security there were a ton of people standing around the one screen displaying departures and gates, some looked like they'd been there awhile. Plus, once we got through security, there was no food (so our plan to eat lunch after we got checked through was out) and also no bathrooms?? We went into slight panic mode and ate this huge candy bar she had with her. It turned out our flight was basically on time, just didn't get posted right away. But atleast we were full for the short flight home. When we got to the airport our coach back to Hatfield had broken down (as had a few others) so we got a taxi back compliments of the Luton airport.

We had probably the worst taxi driver this side of the Atlantic, he didn't know where we were going at all, had ME type in the directions on his GPS, had to stop to get gas,and missed the turn when we told him where it was. But Footloose did play on the radio station he had on, so he redeemed himself pretty quick. Nice enough fella, anyway.

And that, friends, was AmsterdamT It was was nicer that I ever thought it'd be, and beautiful in general. A contender to Switzerland for sure.

All the pictures.