Christmas back home!

So most of my posts are about my travels and the name of my blog is "Emily's Travels" I figured going home for Christmas is a bit of a trip too. 

I was actually very fortunate to get home in time. I flew out of Gatwick on December 17th and the next day most airports were shut down because of a little bit of snow. My brother's fiance flew out of Heathrow and we were to leave around the same time, but her flight got delayed a few hours because she had to get her plane de-iced twice before taking off. And some of my friends flights got delayed almost a week. So I am very fortunate that I got home as planned!

While I was home there was lots of family activities! And my entire immediate family was home for Christmas which was nice to see everyone even if it was just here or there. The first family thing was my brothers engagement lunch was on the first Sunday that I got back. It was really nice to meet all of Melisa's family and to hear the whole engagement story (whether they wanted to share or not haha).

Kyle & Melisa's Engagement Cake!

Then the next day we had all of the cell group (including kids) over for a games night! It was more socializing than games, but we did have a big group game of Cranium.... Boys vs Girls vs Parents. The boys won even though we didn't finish the whole game. Was good to see everyone and catch up a bit!

The Parents playing some Cranium!

Had lots more family and friend activities during the break. Kikkert Christmas, Christmas Eve with the siblings. New Years Eve etc! It was really good to be home to see everyone and just to relax for a few weeks.

The kids on Christmas!

I am back in England now and have to get used to the time change again...I know its only 5 hours, but it was really hard last night to go to bed and hard this morning to get up at a decent time. We will see how I do tomorrow morning getting up to be ready to teach!  Well here goes another few months in the UK...

It's Starting To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Well the past month there has been a lot of different Christmas things going on in London. The first Christmas activity that I have had the opportunity to experience was seeing the Christmas lights turn on, on the main streets downtown. We missed the ones on Oxford Street but we caught the Bond Street lights one Thursday night. I headed to the street with my friend Dash to find a few free giveaways of hair products and hot chocolate! We also had our first London snow fall that night....although once it hit the ground it turned into some good soap suds! We were not sure what to expect of the lights, we were informed that they would turn on at 6pm at 6:15 we saw the lights turn on and we said that's it? Just as we were disappointed in our night a ton of fireworks were set off at a nearby building. Once the lights were turned on we walked further down the street to see some choirs, ice sculptures, people on stilts and even some reindeer!

Me in the "snow"

Bond Street Fireworks

Reindeer!

We continued to walk down Oxford Street that night and those lights are quite more impressive than the Bond street ones, but was still really cool to see all the festivities.

The next big Christmas thing in London are the markets. Germany is well known for having amazing Christmas markets so London tries there best to have German inspired markets. In Hyde Park there is a Christmas Wonderland which is like a mini amusement park. There are tons of rides for you to go on including a mini ferris wheel. Since it is German inspired there is a Bavarian Village where you can get some beer, hot chocolate with shots and some mulled wine (which I yet have to try...although heard it is NOT good!) There is even an outdoor ice rink! My friends coming from warmer climates got excited at the thought of it,and no matter how expensive it was, wanted to go skating. I figured it would be fun to go as well, so we each paid 13 pounds for a skate rental and an hour on the ice. Well when I was handed the skates I said your kidding right? They were bright blue and reminded me of roller blades (aka no laces!) and even had some good rust on them. Once I was on the ice it was fun to watch people falling all over the place and either having the death grip on the boards or a fellow friend. I was quite impressed with my friends skating abilities considering that they have not had the opportunities to learn to skate like in Canada.

Me looking like a giant with Anne & Dash

The last Christmas activity that we have attended is the tree lighting ceremony at Trafalgar Square. The Christmas tree is huge and is a gift to the people of London from the people of Norway in gratitude for Britain's support for Norway during World War II. Again we were not sure what to expect of this event, if there would be fireworks, singing or a ton of lights everywhere. When I got there all I could see was the massive lights, but no lights on yet as they were again weren't supposed to turn on until 6pm. There was a lot of people close to the tree so was hard to get in real close. Pretty well right on time the lights turned on the big Christmas tree and shortly after the lights went on, so did the fountains. It was pretty cool to see but to be honest I was quite disappointed by these lights too as it was just a few strings of lights. You would think if this ceremony happens every year that they would have a ton of lights for the tree just as they have for the streets of London.

Trafalgar Square

It has been quite cold lately so that night we basically saw the lights turn on and ran to go grab a drink at a pub near by. I was getting a bit depressed on how cold it was here (I thought I was getting away from the bitter cold of Canada...well at least a bit of it) but last week it finally snowed! It was so nice to see some snow on the ground, but once it snows people do not know what to do here! In London most things stayed open although quite a few of my friends did not get any work during the "snowy days" and cities further north even had 2 snow days! It got a bit warmer this weekend and all of the snow melted away, I think that is the way I like snow. To come for a bit and then go away! Well London really loves the Christmas time and does as many things to put people in the Christmas spirit.

London's 1st snow fall and the Londoners have their brellys out to brave the snow!

While I like being here and experiencing all the Christmas cheer, I can't help but be excited to come home for the holidays. My entire family will be home for Christmas so it will be nice to have us all in the same country for more than a few days this time! I even have a count down going....only 11 more days until I fly home! (Excited much?) Can't wait to be home to see everyone for a little while and enjoy some more Christmas cheer at home! Remember only another 11 more days!!!

Roma, Italy

So this weekends adventure was Rome, Italy! And by far this trip has been my favorite so far. It is much more a tourist attraction then Frankfurt and Oslo and I think my future travels will be to the more tourist attraction sites (although still cool to check out the smaller places too).

I spent this weekends trip with my friend Melissa (we both went to Nipissing in concurrent ed! ) whom I  also went to Frankfurt with. I met her in Victoria station as she is teaching in Nottingham and then headed to Gatwick airport! Our flight was only 2 hours and then a 45 min bus ride that basically brought us right to our hostel!

Our hostel was amazing! When we arrived the man at the front desk told us that we arrived too late and our reservation was canceled. We both got upset saying that we said we wouldn't check in until this time, he calmly started to process our room for us in the meantime. We still aren't sure if he was joking with us or what. But we still got a room for the weekend, he brought us to our room where we were to share with two other people. He says don't tell anyone but I got you a private room with an ensuite but you are paying for the 4 mix dorm room. Again I am not sure if he was being nice to us or if they only had these rooms left. But in any case we lucked out with our room for the weekend and didn't have to share with any girls like beluga (crazy girls in our Norway dorm room that tried to burn our room down!)

Melissa and I were very excited to be in Rome and decided to even check out something that night even though it was late! We checked out the piazza della repubblica which was basically a roundabout with a beautiful fountain in the middle of it! My camera sucks with night pictures so we decided to call it a night and wake up early to cover as much of the city as possible on saturday!

The Piazza (taken the next day!)

Well we didn't wake up as early as we thought we would but still managed to leave at a decent time. We head directly to the Colosseum where we are approached by a Canadian girl to buy tickets. You could buy a ticket to go into the Colosseum for 8 euro (wait in a massive line to get in), pay for the Colosseum & the surrounding ruins for 12 euro or pay 20 euro for both and then get a guided tour of both AND skip the massive lines! We opt for this one and it was really cool to hear the history of the Colosseum and see it at the same time too!

Me & the Colosseum!!

Melissa and I with our gladiator!

After the Colosseum we head towards the pantheon to first grab some lunch and then to check out a few more sites. Rome is such a beautiful city and there are SO many beautiful buildings and fountains around that it was great to just wander around the city for the day. Major sites that we saw included the Piazza Navona, Trevi fountain and the Quirinale Palace (where we randomly saw the changing of the guard ceremony). It was a lot of walking that we did but we saw a lot of the major sites, we even got a bit of shopping done too! There are tons of street vendors all over Italy and if you are good with your bartering skills you can get some tourist gifts for pretty cheap here!

Pantheon

Melissa & I in front of Trevi Fountain

After heading back to the hostel for a bit we walk down the street to a local restaurant that our hostel recommended for pasta dinner (we even got a discount because of our hostel!) Melissa and I attempted at reading the menu but the first half has English translations but it seems to be more breakfast things and when it gets into the pasta dishes it is all in Italian (sorry not fluent in that language yet!) We opted for the 15 euro dinner which included a appetizer, main and dessert. Our waitor was very cute and although not the best with his English still tried to help us with the few choices there was with this option. When we weren't sure exactly what it was we just said surprise us! For our appetizer we had a bread/mini pizza thing and a olive oil/mushroom "salad" which was delicious together! Melissa and I had soo much food from our appetizer that when our main pasta dish came we were pretty much full! But we were in Italy so we had to have this homemade pasta. It was delicious...a little too much cheese for me, but was still sooo good. After eating what we could of the pasta we then had to shove in our dessert which ended up being a very rich and chocolatey dessert. This I wasn't the biggest fan of but still forced myself to eat it (hey if I am paying for it, I better not waste it!)

Our dessert

On Sunday our last day in Rome we decided to search for the Spanish steps (we tried yesterday but apparently just pissed them!) They are really gorgeous huge steps! We had a few hours before we had to catch our bus near our hostel so we decided to check out the Trevi fountain again as well as wander around the tourist shops. We headed back to our hostel to grab some lunch before catching our bus, but Melissa quickly realizes that we do not have time for lunch but have to RUN to our bus as we had 7 minutes to grab our bags and get on the bus. The bus is packed and there is only standing room left, the next bus isn't for another hour so we suck it up and stand for 45 minutes (This surprisingly did not seem that long!) We board the plane no problem and are back in London within a few hours! It was an awesome trip and I can't wait to see other parts of Italy!!

The Spanish Steps!!

Some people have asked me where my next trip is, I think I will hold off on weekend getaways until after Christmas as my bank account is pretty dry right now since I have gone away for the last three weeks. Before I left for the weekend I called my agency and told them I was unavailable to work on Friday again and my consultant joked that she was paying me too much if I could go away every weekend! I wish I could afford to go away every weekend, but I think I will take a break for a bit, save up some cash and then do a few more after Christmas! I might do a day trip to see the stonehedge, oxford etc. But the next plane I board will be to Canada as I am heading home in a month on Dec 17 until Jan 7! I hope everyone is enjoying my updates as much as I am enjoying the traveling and sharing with you. I like to see comments etc so if you are reading my blog let me know! Miss everyone and can't wait to see a lot of you at home during Christmas!!

Here is the link to see all of my Rome pictures!! ------> Click me!

British Terminology

So before I started this blog, I decided I would write an email update to a few friends and family. A few people replied and said that I am already doing well in England as I am starting to sound like them.

 But it is not that I am starting to sound like the British but it is that I use their terminology in order to mask any confusion.

One day I was in a school and asked a fellow teacher where the bathroom is, and she kind of looked at me funny and continued to say oh you mean like the toilet? I am so used to referring to it as a bathroom (but know that people call it other things) that I forgot to use the British lingo of toilet or loo.  Here are a few other words that I picked up so far

Canadian - British: 

Roommate- Flatmate

Apartment- Flat 

Cell phone- Mobile

Line- Queue

Mail- Post

Subway- Tube

Bathroom - Toilet/loo

Garbage- Rubbish

Sweater- Jumper

Pants - Trousers

Rubber Boots- Wellies 

Underwear- Knickers

Chips - Crisps

French Fries- Chips 

Smart - Clever

Sketchy- Dodgy 

Well that is all that I can think of at the moment, there are tons more! But I can't think of them all right now!

Oslo, Norway!

So this past weekend I went to Oslo, Norway with my friend Dash (whom I met in the hostel I stayed at when I first got here) and my flatmate Anne. Dash and I left Friday around lunch and it only took around an hour to get to Gatwick airport which is much better than the two hours that it took to get to Stansted airport when I went to Frankfurt. Again we flew with ryanair because our flights cost only 20 pounds (35 dollars?) round trip (our bus/train fairs probably cost more than our flight!), which means that we don't fly directly into the city.

We took an hour bus ride into the city. We met a few American's on the bus whom were staying at the same hostel, so we found our way to the hostel together. Once at the hostel we decided to hunt down some food. We quickly realized that what we were told about Oslo was true that it is an expensive place! After trying to get some "cheap food", we decide we want to buy a drink from the store. But they stop selling alcohol by 8pm and on Saturday's by 6pm. So we venture to a bar to get a drink which ends up costing us around 5 pounds (8 dollars).

After our drink we head back to the hostel to try and check a few emails before bed. We are in the common area and a fire alarm goes off. Everyone has to go outside in the freezing cold (we do not have our coats so we are extra cold). Dash and I joked around saying that watch our room be the one on fire and we have nothing left. After having the fire fighters check the building we are allowed into the warmth again! We decide that we should go chill in our room for a bit (bad idea!) we get in our room and there are some firefighters in the room along with 4 girls that are sharing the room with us. One of the fire fighters tells Dash and I that if it happens again we will get fined 4000 KR (about 400 pounds). But we had nothing to do with this "fire", once they all leave we talk to the girls in our room. Apparently these girls decided to do some cooking (there are burners in our room, instead of having a separate kitchen- weird I know!) but there was no pots (supposed to rent them from the front desk), so they cooked some bacon directly on the burner. This resulted in a lot of smoke thus having the fire alarm going off! These girls are clearly VERY smart (later I found out that they are nannies...I don't know if I would trust them with my kids!)


On Saturday morning we decide to wake up nice and early in order to get a full day in! We walked the streets in search of breakfast, but realize that nothing is open! Things do not begin to open until 10AM! Dash and I saw the beautiful Oslo Cathedral (but do not go inside it!) We head our way towards the Parliament buildings where we get a free 45 min tour (if it is free it is for me!). This tour was very interesting to learn a bit about the history of Norway. After the Parliament buildings we decide city hall would be best, but with a bit of bad navigation thanks to me we end up checking out a old castle and fortress. It was really cool but unfortunately the castle was closed for a private function. We then head to city hall and then the royal palace as there is a changing of the guard at 1:30. We quickly verify with one of the guards that they are in fact doing it today and yes it is at 1:30. We walk around a bit and come back to the main entrance where we figure the ceremony will take place, its 1:30 but nothing is happening. The guards march here and there but no big ceremony. We are confused but tell each other to just wait! Ten minutes later still nothing! So we are hungry so we go and get some food. Later we realize we screwed up the time difference and we were an hour early for the ceremony and ended up missing it completely! The last thing we check out is the Opera house, this building is pretty cool as you can climb on the roof, although you have to use at your own risk! We found out that it was very slippery from the frost on the ground and yes you should be careful! But it was really beautiful and there was some cool views of the fjord. We were tired so decided to grab some drinks for the night (before we can't buy them anymore before 6) and go back to the hostel and wait until Anne arrives where we will all go out for dinner with her friend Christian.

As soon as we arrive to our hostel for the night, a fire alarm goes off, we don't have to go outside for this one (false alarm) and then in the middle of the night the same thing happens...another fire alarm! 3 fire alarms in one weekend, you think this hostel has issues! Apparently people were pulling the fire alarm as a prank, and had been done about a handful of times that day. Man people are immature!

Once she arrives the 4 of us go out for dinner at one of Christian's friends newly opened restaurant. Wow was this place amazing! We all decide that this was our best meal in Europe so far! We had lamb shank with veggies and mashed potatoes. We got some dessert of crepes with specialty berries! Such an amazing dinner! I guess the locals really do know best.

On our last day in Oslo, we met up with Anne's friend Christian again where he took us to the famous ski jumping area. There are a few beautiful views of the fjord and of the city. He also takes us to a Norwegian beach which is beautiful! And there are tons of kids and dogs running around since it was a beautiful day. We stop at a small cafe near our hostel for lunch which again had amazing food (but I guess most things are better than what Dash and I were eating...711 food and McDonald's...we thought we were saving money eating this!)

After a short weekend away we gotta head to the bus terminal to grab a bus (which ends up being packed and needing an extra bus!) and then onto our airplane and then two trains and a bus back to the flat! It is nice to be home to sleep in my own bed, to not experience fire alarms and some loud girls in the same room as me! But on the whole it was a fun weekend away! I am heading to Rome next weekend and then I think that will be my last weekend trip away before I go home for Christmas in December.

Here are a few pictures from my weekend Oslo Pictures! I hope you all enjoy them! (Click on Oslo Pictures)

Frankfurt, Germany Pics

 Here are some pictures from my trip!


Frankfurt, Germany

I am leaving for Oslo, Norway tomorrow. So will be posting on that trip soon! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

-Emily

My First Post!

So I decided that instead of writing emails every once in awhile about how my time in the UK is going I thought I would jump on the blog train!!

Well many of you know that I have been in London for about a month now. It has been fun getting settled and begin working and getting things set up. When I arrived in London I thought it would be very easy to find a flat, since it was such a huge city, thought there would be plenty of places available. NOT the case! My first week here was spent searching online for places, calling and emailing potential places and then even viewing a few. The first place I saw was really tiny and way to expensive for me. After seeing a few places I just knew it wasn't going to be easy finding somewhere to live. After about a week I found a place that was kind of small as it did not have a living room but the room was a good size and the price I could not beat! So my search was over and could move into a place that I could call my own. Just in time as the hostel that I was staying in was getting on my nerves. Can only stay in a room with 8 other people, living out of a suitcase and dealing with obnoxious snorers in the room for so long until you get fed up.

My room when I first moved in! A double bed (was just happy to be out of the triple bunkbed!) and a closet!!!

So I have been teaching a bit so far, just waiting for a lot of forms to really go through still so hopefully after all of my paperwork goes through I will be teaching ever day (and may even have notice). I have been enjoying teaching its just sometimes it is a pain waking up in the morning and waiting for a call to go somewhere in London (and normally the commute is an hour to get to the school) and not knowing where you are going. So keep our fingers crossed that in the next month that I will have lots of pre-bookings!

This week schools have been off for what is called "half term", which means I get to travel somewhere! My friend Melissa and I headed to Frankfurt, Germany for a few days. Kind of a pointless trip as there aren't too much tourist things to do well at least most of the ones you can do are only offered in the summer months. But it was an experience for both of us and was nice to get out of the city for a few days at least.

My new backpack for the rest of my travels! You think it is big enough? (Found in Frankfurt, Germany)

Although after coming back I have began to appreciate London a lot more, there are soo many different things to do here. You can go see the tourist sites, go to a market, a museum, a park...there is just so much to do that it is awesome living in this city!

Being a tourist in London! Me with Big Ben and Parliament buildings!

                                          
Well I hopefully will be having many adventures the next few months while I am living in London and will be doing many different trips. I have two more booked already! I am going to Oslo, Norway on Nov 5 and then the following weekend Nov 12 I am going to Rome, Italy. I think after those two trips I need to keep things low key, but maybe one more trip before I go home for Christmas so we will see where else I will go before heading back to Canada for a little bit.

I am enjoying my time here, but am missing a few things from back home! Will make sure to post some pictures and more rants later as I am just beginning to understand this blog thing!

Pictures from Frankfurt