Traveling England: Bath and Oxford

The past few weekends my friends and I have been traveling around England. Thus far we've been to Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford and Dover, but let's just start with the adventures in Bath and Oxford!

BATH: I'll start by saying that Bath was definitely my favorite place I've visited outside of London. The architecture is absolutely beautiful, and the town sits in the middle of a beautiful valley. The weather was perfect while we were there, so my friends and I had a leisurely weekend going to the Jane Austen museum, drinking tea, and having a picnic. We also went to the Assembly Rooms, which is where back in the Georgian era, the aristocracy went to dance and socialize after dinner. Jane Austen went there herself! (For those who don't know, Jane Austen lived in Bath for part of her life, and many of her books reference or take place in the town of Bath). During the Georgian era Bath was the "posh" place to be seen.

 As I mentioned, in the afternoon we went to tea, and had the English breakfast blend and a "Bath Bun", which is like a sweet dinner roll with a little bit of sugar and black currants on top. After that we went into Bath Abbey and saw part of a wonderful organ concert, and then just wondered around the town looking in the shops and taking in the scenery.

The next day was my favorite because we had a picnic in front of the Royal Crescent (shown below), and just generally enjoyed the lovely day! We also went in to the No. 1 Royal Crescent museum, which is basically just a replica of a Georgian town house of the day. If you look at the picture of the crescent below, it is actually 30 town houses all put together where the aristocracy lived. The outside facade was designed by Wood, but as people purchased the rights to the houses they built the house behind the outside facade according to their wishes. One of the ladies working in the museum told us she had been inside 7 of the 30 houses, and that each one had a completely different layout.

We also learned that the last time one of these townhouses changed hands (because most of the time they're just passed down within a family), the house sold for 4 million pounds! After our tour we were able to walk around a bit longer, and then had to catch the bus back home.

OXFORD: The home of Oxford University, and to some of the film locations of the much loved Harry Potter movies! The town of Oxford is a nice place to visit. It's a very quaint, picturesque, college town, but filled with tourists on the weekends! While we were there we toured the Divinity School in Oxford University. It was fun to go in because it's essentially the heart of the school where people used to have to stand in front of a panel of teachers to take their oral exams. It's also one of the Harry Potter film locations! You may recognize the picture below as being the Hospital Wing from the Harry Potter movies, and the room where Professor McGonagall teaches the Gryffindor's to dance for the Yule Ball in the 4th movie. I know. SO much excitement!

We also just generally wondered around Oxford's campus, and took in the scenery. The best part of the trip by far was when Will Wooten, Ellison Craft and I went "punting" on the river. Yes, punting. This is basically where you are in a flat boat and instead of using oars to move your boat, you get a heavy, long metal pole and you have to push yourself along the river. This sounds easy, and in theory it should be...my friends that is the wrong assumption. I can tell you from first hand experience. It is incredibly hard to make that boat go where you want it to! We spent a lot of time stranded horizontally in the river while I was captain of the boat. I also somehow managed to hit pretty much every other boat out there on the river as well (don't be too worried, pretty much everyone on the river was hitting each other because we were all newbies!) However, I can at least say I did not fall in, which is more than I can say about the poor ***bloke*** (there's your British word of the day!) in the picture below!

 I was also viciously attacked by trees while I was punting as well.

Hopefully everyone learned a lot from this post. Take away points:
1. Bath is beautiful, and is a great place for picnics!
2. Punting is REALLY HARD...as evidenced by my facial expression above.
3. British word for the day "Bloke"...as in "Did you see the poor bloke that fell in the river?"

More soon!

"Brussels is ugly and we love it, and if we don't love it, we live with it" -Quote from the Brussels tourist map

Today I'd like to start by saying thanks to everyone who's sent me emails and letters in the mail! I love hearing from you all and getting updates from home! And to those who don't know, my mailing address is:

Allison Bonner 94B
165 Great Dover Street
London Se1 4xa
United Kingdom

So if any one feels so inclined...drop me a line in the mail!

Alright on to the adventure of Bruxelles, Belgium! This past Friday night I literally stayed up all night because I went out with friends, and then had to catch my train at 5:30am (the earlier the train, the cheaper the ticket!) I love traveling by train because check in is fast and the train is faster! I arrived in Brussels at 10am local time, and the wonderful Will Wooten, who's from my program but arrived a day earlier, met me at the station. We went to our hostel to check in...my very first hostel! It was in a great location just behind the Grand Place which is in the picture you see here. To the left is the Hotel de Ville (or the Town Hall), and to the left is the Maison du Roi.

The first day Will and I toured around it poured down rain. I'm slightly surprised I didn't catch pneumonia. I was literally soaked all the way through...even through my raincoat! Most of the buildings we saw the first day were "look don't touch", meaning we could see the outside of places like the Royal Palace, the Royal Courts of Justice, and the European Union, but we couldn't go inside. It was still totally worth seeing all of these places though...even if I was a human rain puddle for a day.



European Union



Triumphal Arch of Parc du Cinquantenaire



For those who don't know, Brussels is the capital of Europe. They are a bilingual country speaking Dutch and French. And as my map explained, "Be yourself in Brussels especially if you're weird. Acting cool may work in Paris, but not here. The word 'branche' (trendy) is often used as a criticism, but 'a l'aise' (easy-going) is something that everybody wants to be and that real Brusseleirs truly are".

I didn't really get a feel for the city until the second day when I started interacting with the "Brusseleirs". Honestly, my map could not have told me anything more important. I've never been to a city so chill and laid back in my life. People from literally all over the world come to Brussels to visit or work, and then just never end up leaving because they love the atmosphere.

I probably learned the most about Brussels from the tour I took of the Hotel de Ville. Our tour guide told us the Hotel de Ville was first built in an L shape, but then another city built a better town hall. So of course Brussels needed an EVEN better town hall, and they added another L to the right of the tower. However our tour guide said, "Now if you all would do me the honor of looking at the outside of the building when you leave, you'll see the style of the building is the same on both sides, BUT the two sides are not symmetrical. And that is Brussels." He's right too. If you look at the picture below...the two sides are definitely not the same! The ratio of statues on each side is different, the door isn't even in the center of the tower, and that's not just my camera cutting off the edges on the right side of the building...it really has less windows than the left side (you can see this even better if you Google a picture of this place).

Another reason the Belgian people may be so easy going is because over the course of their history they've been Spanish, Habsburg, French, German, Austrian...and instead of having a serious identity crisis, they just decided to go with the flow. They also have a joke with people from The Netherlands because during the Catholic reformation many Belgians fled to The Netherlands while the very Catholic people from The Netherlands came to Belgium. So, if anyone from these two countries banters with one another, the "fight" normally ends with something along the lines of, "Well you may be from Belgium, but you're really probably a descendant from The Netherlands!" and visa versa. You can't help wanting to chuckle at the good natured attitude of the people in this city. Basically everything that happens in Brussels is all in good fun, and how could it not be when the mascot of your city is the Manneken Pis...

That's right. You'll all recognize this little guy. Probably the most replicated garden fountain statue anywhere in the world. The little peeing boy... There are multiple legends about him, but I think my favorite one is the one that goes like this: Once Brussels was under a siege. The enemy thought they would trick the people by pretending to lift the siege only to blow it up when the Brusseleirs' guard was down. Only one little boy saw the fuse that was lit leading to the explosives, and the only way he could save the city was by peeing to put out the fuse. The people were so happy the erected a statue in his honor. Again, the people of Brussels love to laugh at themselves. Really, what other city has a good enough sense of humor to have their city mascot be a peeing boy?

Finally, to wrap up I'll leave you with a few thoughts. Belgian waffles are DELICIOUS, and it is totally worth going to Belgium just to eat a waffle. I personally preferred the Leige waffle to the Brussels waffle, and you could get them for just 1 EURO! They're literally on the level of a hot Krispy Kreme doughnut (actually better if that's possible)! I also ate Belgian chocolate...again very tasty. Also, for all you beer lovers, I went to Moeder Lambic which was dubbed the 10th best bar in the world 2011. They always have 46 beers on draft and specialize in Belgian beer. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but even I enjoyed the Val-Dieu they poured to meet my specifications of less alcoholic, blond, and less bitter beer.

And that friends pretty much wraps up my 2 days in Brussels! I know that was a lot to take in, but the city had too many good anecdotes not to share! Look forward to hearing from you all!

Until next time....

The Luckiest Girl in the Whole World

There was once a girl who wanted so badly to go see the 25th Anniversary concert of The Phantom of the Opera. She called all week to the box office at the Royal Albert Hall hoping there might be a way to get a ticket; however they were almost sold out and were selling for 85 to 225 pounds, which equals too much American money for a poor girl on a student budget!

She had almost given up all hope, but at the last minute decided to go to the Royal Albert Hall the night of the show to see if by some miracle she could get a ticket. Well, right as she walked up to get in line at the box office to ask about a ticket, a lovely couple walked up to her and said, "You wouldn't by any chance want to buy a single ticket for 45 pounds?" And the girl practically threw her money at them and semi-burst into tears. (She may have actually scared the poor nice people a little bit.) But they said, "We're glad the ticket is going to a good home!"

Well she got up to her seat in the nosebleeds, and quickly realized that from where she was sitting she would not actually be able to see the show. She was OK with this though because she made it in, and would at least be able to hear the glorious concert! She decided in the interim time before the start of the show to stand by the rail her balcony and admire the stage below, taking it all in. While she was doing so, another lovely British couple took their seats next to where she was standing. She struck up a conversation with them about how she was a student, and couldn't believe her luck that she was here to see the show. Before she knew it...the show was starting and it was time for her to make her way to her seat.

However, as luck would have it, no one was sitting on the other side of this couple the girl had been talking too. The empty seat was at the rail of the balcony over looking directly on to the stage! Well as the usher walked by to ask the girl if she was in her correct seat, the lovely British couple said, "Oh no, she's with us!" And they let the overjoyed student sneak right past them and sit in a seat with a full view of the stage! From where the girl was sitting not only could she see the performance below, but she could see the orchestra, who for the concert, were playing from an elevated pit above the stage. She was also very glad that at the start of the show, the wonderful people who had sold her her ticket were able to sneak down and sit next to her at the railing. She was very glad they could see the show too!

Oh! And the music that filled the hall was the most glorious thing! The orchestra was flawless; filled with the best musicians from the UK. The music just swept over you and made you want to cry that's how beautiful it sounded! And Ramin Karimloo gave the most heart wrenching performance of the Phantom...it was like the audience was holding their breath every moment he opened his mouth to sing. People were just waiting to hear what notes would come next (even though everyone there knew the score backwards and forwards).

As if a full length production of The Phantom of the Opera with a cast of about 150 people wasn't enough, an hour long concert followed. Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber gave a speech, followed by a performance by Sarah Brightman (the original Christine), and the original cast from 25 years ago with Michael Crawford appeared on stage as well!

The girl was just beside herself with happiness, and couldn't believe she was lucky enough to witness such a spectacular event!

And this friends and family, is the story of the Luckiest Girl in the Whole World!!!!

The End.

**Below is the view of the stage from my seat!**(Also coming soon are tales from my day trips around the UK! So stay tuned for more amazing adventures!)