I think I'm totally museum saturated, guys.

Day 12

Today is full of sketch. We got a little flier from the AIFS office a few days ago with a list of all the cool markets in London. We decode to explore one of them today and pick the Queensway market. It was described as having “antiques, retro clothing, punk gear, jewelry, and a little bit of everything” so it sounds promising. We ride the tube to the Queensway station, get a little bit lost in a questionable part of town, and finally ask someone for directions. He exasperatedly points to the door next to his shop…you know, the door with the huge sign that says QUEENSWAY MARKET. Oops.

So we walk in and find that this place doesn’t quite live up to our expectations. Had we been looking for hookahs and drug paraphernalia then perhaps this would have been the place for us. We bolt and decide we are hungry, so we stop into a Chinese place down the street. Apparently they think we are ugly Americans because they remove the chopsticks from the table and replace them with silverware! What if I had wanted to use chopsticks? My inability to maneuver those wooden sticks aside, they don’t know. The food was…decent. After the Chinese man in the restaurant chases us because we counted our pounds wrong, we stop in at a souvenir shop. I get some postcards, and Ashley gets a flask. Classy. We split from that part of town, never to return.

Nicole, Ashley, and I part ways with Erin and head to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I’ve only heard good things about this museum and I’m really excited. It is much more art and design oriented than the other museums. We did not anticipate, however, getting tired after only one floor and decide to come back later. We did get to see a fascinating exhibit on the development of Fashion over the years and there was even a piece there designed by Emilio Pucci, a UGA grad and a Demosthenian Alum. After the sculpture exhibit and some historical exhibits, we go out to a very peaceful area with a wading pool and grassy areas and just sit for awhile. It is very nice and we just watch people and take some pictures.

London, WHAT? Dear London. The last thing I want is to see someone snog as I eat my frozen yogurt. WHAT?

Elephants on Parade

Day 11

Today George hosts class in his lovely and adorable flat near Highbury and Islington. Apparently it is a 2 million pound flat. Geez minetti. He has tea and biscuits ready for us…could we be more British? During the class, we present our reports on the background info of the shows we are going to see while we are here. I guess I didn’t realize how wide of a range of shows we had tickets for. I’m really excited now.

After class, Nick, Katie, Erin, and I head to Covent Garden with the intent of procuring tickets to Avenue Q. Since Erin is with us, we stop at every elephant in covent garden, and let me tell you, there are quite a few. Oh, London is currently doing a city wide exhibit to promote awareness and to raise money for the endangered Asian elephant. Various artists were asked to paint an elephant, and 250 distinctly different ones were placed all over the city. Many of us have made it a goal to see how many we can photograph while exploring London. They’ll have their own album on facebook. No worries!

Covent Garden is bustling and busy with street performers and markets and an arcade full of cute boutiques. After much wandering, we finaly stumble upon the Wyndham Theatre where Avenue Q is playing. This is the first show we’ve seen on our own and we are excited to find that as students, we can get 20 pound tickets in the orchestra. I love this city.

We go our own separate ways and decide to meet back for the show. It is hilariously funny (and I’m glad I saw it before Gary Coleman died. They cut 21 lines out of the show, and I would feel bad…)

After the show, we stage door it up like we always do, meet some of the actors, and head back to Bloomsbury. And what do we do once back in Bloomsbury? The Rocket of course! Today there is a replacement DJ, and he is no good. Dancing opportunities are minimal.

Lugano

Day 4 Switzerland

There is so much going on in these five days on Bank holiday that I can hardly handle it. I told Felipe that I wanted him to take me wherever he thought I needed to go, making for an extremely stress free trip, a nice break from the constant decisions I make in London.

Today he takes the four of us down to Lugano, Switzerland, about a 3 hour drive.

Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland (did you know there was an Italian part of Switzerland? I did not. It does make sense however.) It is like an alternate universe. I’m still in Switzerland, home of the Alps and snow and Heidi, yet suddenly I’m surrounded by palm trees, gelato shops, and fashionable Italian speaking people. The colors are bright! (a first for the parts of Europe I’ve seen) and the atmosphere is that of a beach resort area.

But before we explore Lugano, we go to an amusement park of sorts called Swiss Miniatur.
Basically, it is all of Switzerland’s landmarks…in miniature. Everything works and moves and there are sassy little people in all of the models.

I'm a GIANT.

She's so sassy! Look at her!

It is pretty amusing to say the least.

After we finish there we head over to Lugano to feel very Italian and eat at a great restaurant named Tango. Classiest meal I’ve had in months. I ate a real Italian pizza with mozzarella, gorgonzola, and prosciutto. So delicious.

Check out how epic this picture is. I feel like I'm in an action movie with the car and the motorcycle gang...

Switzerland is sort of strange. It definitely has a national identity, but it seems to lack a cultural identity of its own. The culture near the German border is distinctly German, marked not only by language but also customs, architecture, lifestyle, etc. The same goes for the Italian border and the French border. How does a country simply become a spillover of other countries?

This is what happened when I found out Heidi's village was featured in Swiss Miniatur. I loved that book.

Switzerland, WHAT?

Dear Switzerland. You make smoking sound like a dating service. WHAT?

Germany

Day 3 GERMANY!

Surprise surprise everyone! You (and I) thought I was going on bank holiday to Switzerland, but guess what?! My cousin had other plans for me, and I got to cross the border!

So, apparently the Switzerland/Germany border is about half an hour from Zurich. It is a natural border created by Bodinsee (a lake). On the German side of the lake is an island called Insel Mainau. It is basically a large park and botanical garden. Felipe, Beatriz, Ashley, and I spend the majority of the day there, looking at flowers and trees and butterlies!





Temperaturewise, it is a huge climate change from Pilatus. I even got a sunburn. And an awkward sandal tan.

After leaving the island, we head over to the closest town which is Konstanz. It is unbearably adorable, so we walk around a bit. It is close to a University so there are tons of young folk hanging out on the banks of the Rhine, which I of course cross (and touch! Gosh I'm such a tourist.)


I am struck by the extreme cleanliness of the major bodies of water here. All of the lakes and rivers we have passed in Switzerland and Germany have been this incredible blue/green color and completely devoid of litter. America, you could learn a thing or two.

After realizing how hungry we are, we go in search of a typical German restaurant. I had schnitzel and pommes frites. I'm pretty sure you can't get much more German than that. We grab dessert at McDonalds. Ok. the McDonalds in Europe are SO FANCY. I don't even understand it. One I was in the other day had chandeliers in it. And couches. And they have gourmet food options! European McDonalds don't mess around.

While we are walking around a bit more in Konstanz, and taking more ridiculous photos, we come across a strange tradition. It looks like halloween, but apparently it is a sort of bachelorette party? Though later we came across a group of guys having a bachelor party. The bride (or groom) dresses up in a costume and all of their friends dress up maching in a different costume. And they walk around downtown in the city they are from selling things and asking people to do silly things for them while they take pictures. At one point, two different groups of girls ran into each other and got all excited. But then the group of guys came up and one of the groups of girls ran off yelling, so I assume that she was marrying the guy.

GERMANY, WHAT?

Dear Germany. Are you training your children to become pirates and rogues?!?! No? This lifesize pirate raft in a moat on a playground begs to differ. WHAT? (note: this rage stems solely from my extreme jealousy at not having my own pirate raft as a child)

Luzern

Day 2 SWITZERLAND +


Today we drive to a neighboring county to scale a very famous Swiss mountain called Mount Pilatus. I think it is technically part of the Alps, but isn't realy one of THE alps. But regardless, it is very tall. After getting a little bit lost, we find Pilatus and board the world's steepst cog-wheel railway to take us to the top. There is still snow on the mountain in some places!

It is really beautiful, and at the top we take some great pictures.

Unfortunately, it gets really foggy, really fast so the view of the Alps turns out something like this:

BUT!!!! Redeeming factor. Pilatus is a DRAGON mountain! With caves!

All of the lore of the region is about dragons. There is a particularly fun story involving Pontius Pilate and supernatural counter-offensives. You should take a moment to read it:

We have a snack at the cafe: Bratwurst and pommes frites (so swiss) and head back down the mountain.

SWITZERLAND, WHAT?

Dear Switzerland. This is the craziest person I have seen since I left Athens. Congratulations. WHAT?

Zurich, Winterthur

So here's what we're gonna do. I'm currently in Switzerland.

Note the cow.

So even though I am behind on my London posts, I'm gonna skip ahead and do my Switzerland posts in real(ish) time and then go back and fill in the missing London posts.

Day 1 SWITZERLAND!

Didn't sleep. Stayed up packing and figuring out how to bathe with a broken shower. At 4:00am, Ashley and I head out on the first leg of our journey, which involves walking down the road to the bus stop. We catch the night bus to another stop where our shuttle to Luton airport is supposed to pick us up. Luckily, we are able to catch an earlier shuttle than the one we booked, because we probably would have missed our flight otherwise. After pretty much passing out for the hour ride, we go through security which is frustrating because a) I forgot to put my liquids in the little baggy thingy and have to figure that out while in line and b) because apparently peanut butter counts as a liquid. You may ask why I have a large jar of crunchy JIF peanut butter in my carry-on luggage. No, I am not crayz.

Ok. PAUSE. I am on a Swiss kezboard. Thez speak German in this part of Swityerland. Notice that the "z" and "y" kezs are switched. Also, a bunch of other random symbols and things are on here making it extremely difficult to type.

So back to the peanut butter. My cousin, with whom I am staying in Zurich asked me to bring him one thing from the U.S: peanut butter. But they threw it away. What a waste of delicious peanut butter.

The flight is rather uneventful, other than an attractive flight attendant named James and a zillion yelling babies. But we get there on time and Felipe is at the airport waiting for us. We head to downtown Zurich to do some sightseeing.

We see the river and the lake (which I learn is "see"in German. So we see the see.)We walk through some cute alleys and plazas and then we meet Beatriz, my cousin's wife, for lunch at an Australian restaurant. We order kangaroo and ostrich to be adenturous. It isn't bad at all.


We ride a tram back to where we had parked the car. Ok. Transportation sidenote. The tram is like a trolley in San Fransisco. Sort of. But, they weave through traffic in their own lanes without warning, so it is really easy to hit them. Like we almost do. Also, the streets and the sidewalks are the same colors here with no curb, so I keep thinking cars are driving up onto sidewalks like it is no big deal.
There are barely any places to make U-turns here, and the roads are not neatly laid out. They sort of make no sense whatsoever and split in weird ways. I would have serious issues here. I can barely drive in America, let's be honest.

We are supposed to go to a technological museum, but Ashley and I pass out in the car so we head home to take a nap instead. Upon waking, we travel into Winterthur, the small town outside of Zurich where my cousin lives. Their apartment is so beautiful, with a gorgeous view of the mountains. I keep expecting goat herds to run out of nowhere. Winterthur is nice; we walk around take ridiculous photos (see below), get some groceries, and head home. According to Felipe, we have seen all there is to see of both cities in a day.

So apparently, for the rest of the days...we'll travel!

SWITZERLAND, WHAT? (Yeah, you thought it would stop. Nope.These people crazy too.)

Dear Switzerland. Zero gravity clubbing? WHAT?