Dreaming...

I always seem to be dreaming up when and where my next vacation will be, the things that I'll do there, and how long I'll be there. I just can't really imagine a future stuck all in one place....But how to get the money to make that a reality is the question...

The Aftermath

With all of the stress from the trip (mostly from transportation/hotel issues) we probably didn't speak to each other for a few weeks, at least I didn't. I needed time to completely break away from everyone. And since I had comprehensive exams to study for as well as work and other class tests due immediately after I got back, I hit the ground running, with my next goal in sight. Graduation. That was the most stressful 1.5-2 months I've had in a long time. Between preparing to move, finishing up classes, working, and the ever present spring fever in the air, it was a struggle to get through it all. But I did. Kudos to me ;) . Mid May, Jaz came to my graduation (8hrs away driving) and helped me move my stuff to Little Rock. I couldn't describe my graduation other than being ridiculously long. Seriously. Of the Masters students, I was number 462. I'm not sure if that counted the 20 or so Ph.D. graduates. And after the Masters students there were at least 1500 to 2000 undergrads. Long. So long that people started leaving. And I mean grad students who had just cross the stage, not audience members. Then more. And eventually it looked like there were only half of the Masters students and still a third of the undergrads to go (most of them weren't leaving). Eventually I had to leave early too because my people were falling asleep/ had to work the next day, seeing as it was a Monday night. So, yeah, I totally left my own graduation early. Very sad. But then Jaz helped me move my stuff back to Little Rock. Each of us in separate car full of my stuff. Then a few days later we hopped back on the road to go to Lauren's graduation in Athens. (I told you these girls like to travel) We picked up Kenyetta in Memphis and made it into Athens just in time for me to get to the mall before it closed. Thanks to Jaz good driving skills in spite of the rain that tried to hold us back.

We went to Applebees that night for half priced appetizers. It reminded me of our college days when we'd go there like once or even twice a week sometimes, met some of Lauren's law school friends. Had a horrible server, who loudly, and I mean LOUDLY asked how we wanted to split the checks talking to two tables worth of people. We were so confused because first of all we hadn't even ordered yet and secondly, we didn't know the other table of people at all so I wasn't sure why she was addressing us as a solitary group. After a few minutes we got her to understand that we were indeed separate groups and that the only thing we had in common was that we were all black. Finally she started taking our orders (separately). They took sooo long to come out and we were starving after a long day of sitting in the car munching on junk food. Eventually, things started to come out although we only saw our actual server like one more time over the course of the evening. Idk if she was embarrassed or just didn't want to deal with us..either way, her service sucked. But, we ate, went back to the hotel and crashed. Lauren's graduation was quick. Well compared to mine at least lol. And very, VERY, eerily quiet. Then we ate and immediately started our trek back to Little Rock.

Lots and lots of traveling. But if there is some way for me to be able to get away to Canada this summer I will definitely do so.....I'll have to make something happen...Be on the look out.

And remember, don't blink ;)

I see London, I see France

So clearly I should've blogged all this right away seeing as how I keep forgetting that I haven't finished yet.

My memories of London are kind of in disarray. I keep forgetting which order we did things in. But I nearly forgot one of the most fun things that we did. After shopping a second day on Bond St and thereabout, we made our way back to Regeant St for the only thing that we made plans to do before even entering the country. A trip to the IceBar.
 Jaz wanted to experience this arctic bar that only lets people in for 45 minutes at a time so that no one begins to lose fingers and toes from frost bite. It was really cool. Well freezing is more like it. Great concept. Obviously the IceBar would have been cold on a warm day, but on a day where it was near freezing, the IceBar was practically torture for a cold hating person but a fun experience for sure.

The last full day in London was slow paced. We were chilling at Costas after we had to check out of the hotel and were essentially wasting the day waiting for nightfall in order to go catch our Megabus. I just couldn't fathom sitting in a coffee shop all day while in London so I convinced Jaz to go with me into the city and do more site seeing before we left. I ended up taking one of Lauren's bags, since she'd packed her whole life, and we struggled on buses, up stairs, down stairs, in and out of the tube, but we finally made it to the coach station. Thankfully they had a spot where we could just leave our luggage so we could roam freely. We ended up not having to go far as shops lined Victoria Coach Station. It was fun window shopping. There were so many people packed into the station it was crazy. When we were preparing to go back to the Megabus stop, we went into Sansbury (sp?) a local grocery store where we could buy snacks for the trip. It was waaay more affordable than most of the other food that we had during our time there. What I also found was......wait for it.....HOT CROSS BUNS!

Yeah I learned the song when I played the recorder in fourth grade. I never knew it was a real thing. I just thought it was a silly kids song. But alas, they are real. And really delicious. Its essentially just a raisin bread just in the signature shape of the cross at the top of the bread. And for 50 pence for two, it was sold! I bought 4. Then after Paris I came back and bought some more lol. Yum!

We got back to the station and I ordered fish and chips, just so I could say that I did. Um...yeah...it was flavorless and definitely overrated. But who knows when I'll be back to London so I had to try it, no regrets. Also, I'll just allow myself to believe that it was because it was bus station food that it wasn't so great.

Anywho, we got on the bus and again, that trip took so long and I was freezing. But, I'm grateful that I didn't get sick or anything. I loved the ferry ride so much it was so beautiful the sun finally coming out. Unfortunately, I got a headache from motion sickness so I just laid down and fell into a deep sleep. Best sleep of that trip over since I could stretch out unlike how it was in the bus. I won't rehash the bus trip too much, though. Once the bus drivers decided to put us up in a hotel in Boulogne, France, we were going to go roam that little seaside city. But the hotel staff said that dinner would be in an hour so we just rested, updated our people, and tried to find our lost person. (He was on a different bus.) We couldn't get in touch but Lauren asked her mom to keep checking for him since we would be in and out of WiFi range.

The dinner was phenomenal. Not even taking into account that this was a small bed and breakfast type of hotel whose staff spoke minimal English and with no notice had to serve nearly 50 people a three course meal. Just all around hands down the food was perfect. I had a salad with goat cheese for the appetizer and the chocolate mousse for dessert. I just blanked on what I had as a main course but I still know it was delicious. Everything that I ate in France was. Makes me wonder how French people aren't morbidly obese...Oh wait, they can't be because the shower stalls are so small, if you gain too much weight you won't be able to cleanse yourself properly. I suppose that is incentive enough. Lol anyway back to the food. Jaz and Yetta had Leek soup, carbonara, and a lime pie I believe. I tasted bits of theirs so I know it was amazing as well. Some young ladies our age from the bus sat at our table and we had really good conversation with them. Thinking of it now, we should've exchanged Facebook information or something.

They were nice but really cheeky and sarcastic which was great. We sat at the table until we had to leave so the hotel staff could clear the table and clean up. The best part was that since they were sitting by us on the bus we laughed and joked the rest of the trip into Paris with the bus driver so that made the trip significantly less excruciating. Probably even enjoyable. Lol.

We got to Paris around 10:30 a.m. By the time we got a taxi, got to our hotel. Checked in to find our missing person, and got back into the city it was like 12:30-1 p.m. Paris was incredible. We got the taxi driver to take us to the Eiffel tower which was the farthest site out. We couldn't go up since it was snowing and late in the day but the snow made for gorgeous pictures. I will go ahead and add that I took some Bomb.com pics of Lauren and Marcel with my fantastic phone camera. One of these days I'll need to buy a real camera and start selling my gorgeous artworks. Then we went to a vendor across the street and I bought a Nutella crepe.

Which was really good of course. And on the way we saw a couple standing in the center of the intersection taking wedding pics. Strange but beautiful. I could just see the amazing shots they must've gotten. Poor bride must have really really been in love because her gown was a sleeveless sweetheart style that had no kind of warmth to it. Remind you it is snowing. And the bottom of her gown was getting dirty from the brown slush that comes from the snow starting to thaw. Well I guess most people don't wear the gown twice so I guess that's not too bad. As we left, we walked along the sidewalk nearest to the river. The whole trip really was picturesque. I could see making post cards with nearly everything. I must've taken hundreds of pictures. My battery was running low since I didn't have time to give it a full charge. Thanks Megabus. But we came to this park thing and I photographed our group transform into gigantic kids having a major snow fight. Luckily, I didn't get hit since I was holding the camera. I don't think I could take much more cold, lol.

From there we walked to Notre Dame cathedral. I actually learned two things that day. 1) I didn't realize that we could go inside. I thought it was something we were supposed to admire the architecture and history from the outside. But it was open and we went in. It was beautiful. The architecture, the statues, the paintings, the lighting, the overall grandness of this place was breathtaking. 2) I didn't realize that it wasn't just a historical cathedral but a currently operating church. While we were there, there were people preparing for mass. I wonder how they can focus with the literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of people circling around them talking and taking pictures, oooh-ing and ahhh-ing, but I suppose if they've been going there for years then they are used to tuning that extra noise out.

There is this bridge where people write their initials on locks and lock it to the links in the bridge before throwing the key into the water. It symbolizes that their love can never be unlocked/unhinged/separated and all that jazz. It is for lovers, families, or friends. It's such a beautiful concept. Although we all forgot to bring locks, we admired the locks and took pics on the bridge.

(The Love Locks bridge was taken down due to the wear that the excess weight of the locks caused to the structure of the bridge edit 2015)

Afterwards we went into a few different souvenir shops. If I'd had more money and/or luggage space I would've bought everything. I did get a few things for my family. But I don't think I actually bought myself anything there, well except food. LOL. I figure I will have the actual pictures and memories. After about six we went to the Louvre. We'd heard that "youths" age 18-25 got in free after six so we wanted to try our luck. Although for only 11 bucks it would've been worth it anyways.  We were mistaken, it was for university students with IDs only on Fridays. But due to the language barrier, and probably the fact that we are just so darn cute. The French man let us all in. Score! I won't even attempt to describe le Louvre. It's just something you have to see for yourself. All of the sculptures and paintings and just everything.

View as we were leaving

We easily spent 3 hours there and didn't get through the whole thing. We probably weren't even close to being done. However, it was 9 pm and we hadn't really eaten all day so we decided to hunt for food. I thought Kenyetta was gonna try to push us all in front of cars because we were slowing down her quest for food. Although I'll add that she wouldn't have been so hungry if she hadn't made the guy from the food stand cancel her order because he didn't have proper glove etiquette. LOL. She really did though. I don't know what restaurant we actually went to but when we got there we ordered like everything on the menu lol. And once again everything was fantastic, escargo, lamb, duck, salmon, veggies, drinks...just. Everything.

















Perfection on a plate.

The good thing about only having a half a day in Paris instead of 2 full days is that we could splurge since we knew we would be leaving the next day. After hunting down two taxis nearing the end of their service and having Jaz interpret directions in French, we safely made it back to the hotel around one and crashed before having to get up and do the Megabus thing all over again. Two things will be needed if I ever go back to Paris: 1) a boo thang, because the whole city just screamed romance. Hence the "City of Love." 2) More time, I'd like to do some less touristy things as well including finding a good pastry spot. That would be awesome.

When we arrived back in London we did a little more souvenir shopping and went back to the hotel to just relax. Thank God we did because the return trip home was brutal. When I finally got home I was so happy. I didn't want to be on any mode of transportation for days...but since I had work and school to get to...I proceeded. I really enjoyed myself on the trip. And even though there was tension and differences of opinions about many different things throughout the trip, I chose to leave them out because honestly, I was determined to enjoy myself, even if no one else did. And what I shared was what made the trip for me. I learned a lot about my friends and myself on this trip...

...and I can't wait for my next one. :)

And then there were six

On day 2 one of the girl's bf flew into London to meet us. So of course she went to get him at the airport and the rest of us went in to town to get started on all the touristy must-do things. We get off of the tube in Victoria park and of course not knowing British history all that well I didn't know who they were or their relevance but I took on the typical American tourist duty and snapped a picture of everything because I wanted to be able to say I saw it and have proof...even if I had no idea what it was, I was there. Lol pretty ridiculous. The weather was cold and a little wet but I still was enjoying taking in the scenery.

Some of the group members wanted to rent bikes to ride through town but I didn't want to get on wet bikes and ride through crowds of people and across traffic that I still couldn't predict. So yeah...I'm sure I was the wet blanket..but I digress.

We walked forever. I'd bought these new boots for the rainy weather. Turns out they aren't the best walking shoes, but I still ended up wearing them every day because I just couldn't have my raggedy tennis shoes on in all my London/Paris trip pics. I'm not sure distance wise but we definitely saw all the iconic buildings in London.

Parliament is gold.

I was kinda mesmerized by it. I've never seen a full on gold building before. The Thames was...well a river. But its always nice to be on the river front looking across at the view. So that was pretty cool. About the time that we got to the Thames is when we realized that we hadn't seen the palace....or so we thought. Turns out we passed the palace and even took pictures near it not realizing where we were.











That was actually pretty sad. But I'm almost positive that I have a corner of it in the background of a few of my pics. We then went on a search to reconnect with our fellow cg and her bf which was a bit of a hassle because we had to find WiFi to send them messages but we didn't know if they received it because they'd have to be near WiFi too. So it turned into a lot of sitting in one place waiting for responses which of course is draining. When you're in another country and just want to explore sitting around for hours trying to catch up with each other isn't the most fun way to pass the time. Idk how civilizations existed before smart phones WiFi and data packages. I don't. After awhile we just continued shopping near Bond St i believe and had a good time. There was a shoe carnival with tons of designers  and free snacks on the various levels. And eventually we did meet up with the others in a gigantic clothing/everything store called Primark. We all got lost in there and found each other. It must have been God because it was so jam packed it was hard to find anything in there.

After that we wandered around looking for good food. Six people with different six opinions about what they had a taste for wasn't easy but we eventually went with tapas and everything was very tasty. Or we were just starving idk but it was a good night. Then it was back to the tube and we ended our night at Costas. Another good day.

Day 1

So my first interaction with a Brit obviously was the customs officer. He asked the standard questions about the purpose of the trip and then he goes to stamp my passport and I let out a delighted high pitched squeaky "yaaay!!" And laughed because I knew I was being a complete dork. The guy laughed at me and said to his coworker "Americans are always so jolly when they get stamped," the other customs officer agreed that it is indeed only Americans that get excited. Jaz, Kenyetta and I were all laughing because its true. I told him the world would be a happier place if we all got stickers and stamps all the time. Which is 100% true. Lol.

When we finally get out of the airport we were SOOO ready to experience London and all its dreary drizzly weather goodness. This chic (me) left her coat in the very warm San Antonio house but thankfully Gerald had multiple coats and let me borrow one for the whole trip. So we leave our stuff at the Travelodge and ask the lady at the hotel desk how to get to the bus so we can get to the tube. I swear she says something along the lines of "You're gonna go right then left then at the petr' zebra crossing take a right through the street and the bus is there" Lol or at least that is what I heard. Lauren asked for her to repeat herself and..um...I still didn't get it but I assumed someone did. The lady did realize that we didn't understand Petr' and clarified  gas station (petrol) and on our way out we asked for an extra comforter to be put in the room for us. The pure shock and confusion on her face was funny and we said blanket to clarify. Apparently comforter in England literally means a person to comfort you and she was confused as to why we needed that in our room and why we'd expect the hotel to provide it. Lmbo. It was crazy the language barrier when we all were speaking English.

So when we got outside we realized that no one understood her directions but no one wanted to ask her to clarify a third time. Politeness will be our downfall it seems Lol. So we tried to piece bits of info together and we did get to our bus rather quickly without getting lost. Btw we were basically right next door to the gas station and the "zebra crossing" was the cross walk that led us to an alley that we walked up to get to the main street. The bus was this short red double decker bus. I couldn't look out the window for the first few rides because between the extremely narrow roads and everyone driving on the left side of the road instead of the right I would always misjudge vehicle travel direction and felt like I was gonna get hit.

Then we get to the tube station and it was similar to the metro or subway which I usually enjoy. The best part as I mentioned before was the "please mind the gap" phrase on repeat. By the end of the trip Jaz and I both wanted random souvenirs that had the phrase...however due to our chronic frugality we ended up deciding we didn't need to buy something to remind us of that hilarious phrase in that delightful accent.

So when we go off the tube we were on the extremely beautiful Regeant St. I mean gorgeous. I love architecture. Everything was so much different than anything I see in the states and I had to take pictures of everything everywhere. I mean simple shops looked that much more fancy and special because the building it was in was superb. We stopped at this lounge called Strawberry Moon. I think. It was nice and small and cheap but good quality food and drinks. Great mix of music. We sat in a reserved seating area because there were no tables and "Tanya" who had reserved the tables wasn't there. I know that's terrible. Bad Americans! But to our defense, a British party of 4 or 5 had the same idea and they were in the reserved area with us. Good times.

And. They. Had. WiFi. Praise Jesus.

Seriously. It is so difficult to be without the convenience of the data plan. Since it is incredibly expensive to use it in other countries if you don't have an international plan we all were without and only could use our phones where WiFi was available. I won't lie there were moments during the trip when we weren't talking to each other because we had to update social media. But we had to take advantage of WiFi when we had it. Sad but true. I'll admit it.

Afterwards, we continued walking up and down Regeant St. 

It was still drizzling but well worth every second soaking up the London experience. The red superman telephone booths and our overall tomfoolery made the day end in a positive.

And we managed to make it back to the hotel without getting lost. I'd definitely call it a good day.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

I'm actually not sure where to begin. London was beautiful. I love the architecture I love the busyness of it. I felt like I fit right in, almost like I'd been there before. I think I could live there honestly. The few hours we spent in Paris was so much fun, but we needed more days to do it the right way. The Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre was all crammed into twelve hours of good times. We detoured unexpectedly through Boulogne, France which was amazing. And overall the trip was great.
How. Ever.

The transportation issues were so ridiculous! On the way to London. Yetta Jaz and I nearly missed the plane because our layover wasn't really long enough for the size of O'Hare airport. We have to wait for our plane side checked luggage, the shuttle that's late, and literally run through the airport. When we arrive to the gate they are doing their last calls and are at the end of the list. Luckily, Yetta and I are at the end of the alphabet so we caught our names. I know the stand by people were so mad that we got there at the 11th hour. But indeed we made it.

On the plane one of the flight attendants (FA) was so rude. Every time Jaz asked for anything this lady would take forever or have an attitude. And that flight is waaay too long to have to deal with rude staff. Luckily, the FA on my side was extremely nice and helpful. Of course the guy seated in front of me had his seat all the way in my lap. And the person on the right of Jaz was a grumpy old guy who obviously had no love in his life. Very cramped and very, VERY long. But what's a few (many) hours of sleep in an upright seated uncomfortable position in order to experience a new city with old friends? Small sacrifice. Another small sacrifice that I will have to do next time is upgrade to first class or business class. Mama likes her personal space more than holding onto a few pennies.

So we get to London. Yay London! But all the novelty starts to wear off as we wait to go through customs. I'm starting to understand the brilliance of customs. People are excited to be somewhere new where no one knows them and they can do anything they want. This leads to tomfoolery of the highest order. In order to check it, make them wait in an hour and a half long line with their luggage. In the heat. And throw a sign up that says £200 fine for misuse (whatever that means). The sentiment quickly changes to please God let me get to fresh air outside of this airport. And one is transformed from highly excited fool to surviver.

After, making it out of customs we wait for Lauren to meet us and Gerald plane to arrive. Which of course is late. But eventually we make it out of the airport and into the city. Yes! After of course many random pics to document the CG reunion. But I digress.

Note: never ever skimp on hotels or transportation when traveling. The hotel wasn't bad. Just basic. One bed. One couch. 3 pillows, 2 towels. Mind you, 4 people. But we all went to college. We can make it work. Sneak extra towels pillows comforters etc. And we were right by Costas which is similar to Starbucks and therefore awesome. And they had WiFi so we were able to talk to friends and loved ones online so that worked out well. The only bad thing is that the hotel was so far away from city centre that it costs a minimum £6 each way just to get to where all the action was. Next time, I'll just spend the money to stay in the city and spend more time enjoying it instead of traveling to and from.

One mode of transportation that I didn't mind though was the tube. "Please mind the gap." This was the phrase we heard countless times as the gap between the train and the platform varied from 1-6 inches at different stops. But not only was it a horizontal distance gap but some times a vertical one as well. 667 gap related injuries per year. I was very amused. But I like trains/metros/subways anyways so I didn't mind riding it at all. (Although I always minded the gap! Can't be a casualty in a foreign country!) 

Next major mode of transportation was the Megabus ride into Paris. *Sigh* I'm exhausted even thinking about writing about it. I will have to give you the cliff notes because I. Just. Can't. So we started driving about 15-20 min late because of a printer? Issue. Anyways we go about 1.5 hours when we hit traffic. And by hit traffic I mean literally sit in traffic for 9 hours without moving more than 10 yards. If that. Then we have to go through customs. The ferry. Back on the bus. Wait for a new driver. Drive to Boulogne. Get dropped off at the train station. Trains not running. Get put in a hotel. Drive to Paris the next day. So a 9 hour trip to Paris took a day and a half leaving us with a half a day in Paris before going back on the bus back to London through French and British customs and finally back to London.

Then a 2 hour delay caused me and Jaz to miss our connected flights and stay the night in Chicago. Then we finally home the next day after more plane delays for Jaz. I had to super cliff notes it because this post was entirely too long. I will go back and fill in the details. And add in all the fun. I promise. And it won't take me another three weeks to do so Lol.

Tonight...we are young...

A Facebook friend of mine recently posted this article about why people should travel young. Basically the article speaks of a guy's experience with travel and despite every intention to remain a constant traveler, life just sets in eventually. People get married, start careers and families. Life just happens. Of course that doesn't mean that you will never travel again once these things occur, but typically the resources, money and time, aren't as readily available anymore. 

This young adult stage is the time to invent the lives that you really want. Unfortunately, too many people, myself included, are convinced to spend this time being "practical" saving for the future and spending all free time trying to climb the various figurative ladders in our careers. Which isn't completely unreasonable, parents, teachers, friends, want you to be practical in order to potentially have a better life down the road. But how many people turn forty and wish that they had done more before they settled down, before they got so involved with their career that they scarcely use their sick days. But, I don't think anyone says, "Man, I wish I hadn't taken that vacation to ____. Those memories were so not worth the money that I could have been saving." The experience is worth so much more than money. Much more than a job that is not paying you what you're really worth. And maybe through these experiences, we will find our passions and who we really want to be. If we settle for the mundane predictable lives now, when will we get to really live?

Not to mention, most young adults still aren't saving if they aren't traveling. They just spend the money, shopping, going to clubs, eating out, etc.

That's just another reason why I'm grateful for friends who want to experience the world around us, different languages, different foods, different cultures. But of course as broke college kids we just started out with different cities :).

Our (Labor Day I think) day trip to Memphis, TN...to the mall of course. Yetta got a cop to take this pic (he didn't know how to use her phone, this took a few takes).

Our first weekend trip :) Dallas, Texas. I think this was at Joe's Crab Shack. I know, I know fancy ;) lol jk.

This one was an adventure all of its own. We had a snow day from school so we didn't get mail and Lauren's people had sent her a German chocolate cake in the mail (which is strange but it was by her request lol). Lauren just couldn't wait another day so she and Yetta CONNED poor me and Jaz to walk in the snow/ice covered grounds downtown to the main post office to get her cake.....which wasn't even there. Smh. But, a really great story with lots of embarrassing pics that I'll spare them...hehehe :)

If you are interested in reading the article that inspired this post, click below:

Why you should travel young