Get Ready...

Chances are, this blog post is going to be a novel seeing as how I haven't posted in two weeks. So if you're not feeling that ambitious/don't have much time/don't really care, I'll give a little table of contents for you to glance at. For everyone else, get comfy!!

What I've Done:
1. Nina Nesbitt concert at KOKO on October 10
2. Weekend including seeing Marshall and Drew, Camden Pub Crawl, and the London Film Festival
3. Bastille concert at O2 Academy on October 15
4. Dublin, Ireland

1. Nina Nesbitt

Taylor, Rachel, Hailey and I went to KOKO to see Nina Nesbitt perform. To say we stood out is a bit of an understatement. Considering Nina is only eighteen, the entire crowd was filled with fourteen-year-old girls and their bored parents. Waiting for the show to start was a little awkward since we felt ancient, but once the music started, all the weirdness melted away. She had two opening acts, Daniel James and Olivia Sebastianelli. None of us had ever heard of either of these bands, but they were excellent.

First up was Daniel James. His sound was somewhere between Ed Sheeran and Mumford and Sons. It was just him on the stage with his guitar and he was incredible. I would definitely see him again if he played somewhere close to me.

Following Daniel was Olivia Sebastianelli. Weird name, weird girl. But her music was really, really good. I wouldn't say she was as good as Daniel, but definitely enjoyed her performance. Plus, her drummer's facial expressions could entertain me for the next ten years.

Then was the main event. I only knew a few songs going into the concert and since then I've basically listened to her CD on repeat. Nina is just literally the coolest girl I have ever seen. She's so young and cute, but she's also super tough. She really got the crowd into the show and absolutely smashed it. Plus, seeing a concert at a venue like KOKO is unbelievable. It originally showed theater performances, so the acoustics and smaller feel to the venue makes the concert all the more awesome.

2. The weekend I did A LOT of things..

I got a Facebook message early in the week from my friend Drew Cowan, who I went to middle school with, saying that she was visiting London for the weekend (she's studying in Barcelona). So, Saturday morning, I hopped on the tube and met Drew and Marshall at the Borough Market! We walked around tasting everything we could get our hands onto, and then settled for a grilled cheese to share between the three of us and a hot dog. No, not a hot dog, the biggest hot dog I've ever seen in my life. A GIANT hot dog. After we sat and ate our dogs, we got goat milk ice cream (so beyond delicious) and made our way to Tower Bridge, where we took the obligatory tourist shots.

Covent Garden was next, where we walked down Portobello Road looking at everything they were selling. I stopped in to get a tea at my favorite cafe, Charlie's, and drank it as went moved on to Harrod's. I've never been to Harrod's, so I figured this was the perfect time. I've never been to a bigger store in my whole life. I'm literally trying to find a word to describe it and I just cant. It's a maze? It's over the top? It's overwhelming? I don't know, but it's awesome. They will literally have anything you could ever want. I also got my first macaroon there. I wish I had never tried it because I literally want them all the time now.

Saturday night, Catherine, Ailee, Hailey and I did the Camden Pub Crawl! We've all heard from tons of people that it's really fun, and they weren't lying. The people doing it were kind of weird but they made for great people watching. I ran into a friend from high school and she introduced me to a bunch of her friends from Notre Dame, and they were really nice! One of them even congratulated Hailey and I on our big win over OU (Hook 'em!!!!). The first bar we went to was Barfly, and it had a really cool mural on the wall.

The second place we went was AWESOME!! It's called Soundtracks and they are only open on Saturday nights. It is exactly what it sounds like- they play the best songs from the best movies ever made. That means Grease, Ferris Bueller, Dirty Dancing, all the classics. I didn't stop dancing the entire time I was there and it was so much fun. After Soundtracks was Proud, the old horse hospital. That was really fun too, but since we had been there before, it was nothing new. Still, it was super fun and it was a great way to end the night.

Sunday, I did homework (swear Mom & Dad, I haven't forgotten about school over here) and then went to the London Film Festival with Marshall. He's a lot cooler than me and has a lot of tickets to showings during the festival and was nice enough to invite me to the premiere of The Zero Theorem. Before the movie, Marshall, Hailey and I had a nice Mexican dinner at Benito's Hat, and then Marshall and I went to Leicester Square (pronounced Lester. I've made that mistake before.... clearly a tourist) for the movie. There was a red carpet because the director was attending, so it made the movie feel very important. The movie was great, but if you asked me to tell you what it was about, I don't know if I could. It was so weird, but in a good way. There's just no way to explain it. But, I will say, after seeing the movie, the trailer makes so much more sense. It's kind of hard to follow if you haven't seen the movie.

3. Bastille concert

I think it's safe to say that I was so incredibly excited for the Bastille concert, nothing could ruin my mood. I looked this concert up back when I was in the states, so I've been looking forward to it for a L O N G time. But then, disaster struck. Apparently, there are two O2's in London. Who knew? Not Hailey or I. After the hottest 30 minute tube ride ever, we stepped into the iconic O2 arena ready for the show. We walked around the arena for about fifteen minutes, noticing that not many people were there. Okay, Bastille isn't that big yet. Totally understandable that it's not packed. But after passing closed entrance after closed entrance, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. We weren't in the right place. As Hailey and I were both in heels, we shuffled as quickly as we possibly could back to the tube station and took another 30 minute ride to the other O2. However, after relaxing for a minute at the venue and buying awesome t-shirts, we were feeling good. Once again, there were two opening bands, and neither let us down.

First was Bipolar Sunshine. They easily out dressed both Hailey and I and were the coolest guys ever. They had kind of a reggae-ish feel to them and they were the bomb. After them was To Kill A King and they were equally as great. They were banging on drums all over the place and their music was incredible. I was really, really happy we didn't miss either of the openers (what a miracle).

And then, BASTILLE!!!! Oh my goodness I love them so much!! When I listen to their CD, they're great. Incredible artists. Then you hear them live, and they kill their CD. A million times better live, which is so hard to find. Literally just a band that is SO AWESOME. Everyone was jumping around and singing at the top of their lungs. Everyone was so alive and having the best time ever. Easily one of the best concerts my life. The venue was also really cool (although I'm still bitter about the whole two O2's thing..) because it was built to look like you were outside. The ceiling and the top of the walls were painted black, so it looked like the night sky, and the walls were painted like stone walls with palm trees. Basically, I'm praying they go on tour in the US next year so I can see them again.

4. Dublin

Once again, we made a pretty spontaneous decision to make a trip to Dublin. None of us (Ailee, Rachel, Hailey and I) were particularly excited to go to Dublin, but we all knew we wanted to go while we were in the UK. Turns out, it's one of my favorite cities ever. First off, when we were going through Irish customs, the officer made a dirty joke while stamping our passports. We knew from then on it was going to be an interesting weekend. Then, we hopped in a cab with potentially the most friendly cab driver ever. His accent was excellent (yer hostel's about turdy minute from ere) and he told us a million fun things for us to do. We got to the hostel at 10:45, so we ditched our bags and went straight to dinner. Time Out Dublin told us to go to a place called Bobo's, which did not disappoint. Then, after the friendly waitress told us all the fun places to go (I'm telling you, everyone was so friendly), we decided to go to the Village, a club right around the corner. The rest of the night consisted of all of us just dancing like crazy people together and it was so, so much fun.

The next day, we took the advice from our cab driver and took a train out to Howth, Ireland. It was about a "turdy" minute train ride from Dublin and we ended up in the cutest little fishing village. All the buildings were painted cute colors and everything had a sea theme to it, as it was right on the Irish Sea. Rachel hadn't made it to Ireland yet because she had to take a later flight, but Ailee, Hailey and I ate at Aqua, where we had a glass of wine as we looked out onto the Irish Sea. It was really beautiful. We even saw two seals swimming!!! Then we walked around the village until we decided to go back to Dublin. Sorry for the overload of pictures, but I think they're cool.

 Really cool chess set at a restaurant outside the train station

 So serious

Back in Dublin, we went to a traditional Irish pub and had a pint of Guinness and then met Rachel at the hostel. We then went to a really fun Thai restaurant and then hit the town, dancing the night away once again. The next morning, we missed breakfast because we slept in too long, but we went to The Merchant's Arch for lunch, a pub right on the River Liffey (so fun to say with an Irish accent). There was a guy playing his guitar there and we immediately became best friends. We were sitting at a table on the second floor, so we could look over a railing down to where he was playing. Every time we looked at him, he'd look up at us and laugh. He mostly played Irish songs that none of us knew, but towards the end he covered Rihanna, Passenger, Ed Sheeran, and Van Morrison. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed every one of these covers better than the real songs.

After lunch, we went to the Guinness Storehouse and learned all about how Guinness is made. It turned out to be more of a museum than I thought it would be, but it was really interesting and nicely done. On the first floor, there were a lot of metal tank things that were used in brewing the beer, and they all had plaques on them that said "Spence Dublin." Obviously, I thought it was super cool and made Rachel take pictures of me by them. Only when I got back to London did I learn that my Uncle Robby took the exact same picture sixteen years ago.

So weird, right? But anyway, we got to learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness in six steps (did you know it takes 119.5 seconds to pour a pint of Guinness?) and take our glasses up to the seventh floor, which was a giant circular room that let you look over the entire city of Dublin. It was breathtaking and I really felt like I was IN Dublin at that moment. Funnily enough, I ran into one of Kathleen Ashcraft's friends from Notre Dame there!!

 View from one side of the top of the Guinness Storehouse

After the Guinness Storehouse, we caught a horse drawn carriage to the oldest pub in Ireland- the Brazen Head! It dates back to 1198... unreal. We spent hours there talking over dinner and then spent our last night in Dublin dancing once again. However, we lost track of time and ended up at home at 4 am... when we had to wake up for our flight at 5 am... it was a rough morning of traveling, but I think all of us would agree that Dublin was worth it.

 

My best attempt at taking a picture with the horse...

 Our brief visit to Temple Bar, a more touristy but awesome area of Dublin

 Snagged a pic of Christ Church Cathedral on one of our walks through the city

Hopefully y'all enjoyed this! I promise I'll try to post more often so they're not all a million pages long.

x
lizzie

Borough Market

Yesterday I went to the Borough Market with five of my friends! I've been told by a countless number of friends that this was a place I HAD to go, so I went!!

It was a lot bigger than I thought it was. I had only seen pictures of the main walkway, so I thought the set up was pretty straightforward. Turns out, that place is a maze. Catherine, Hailey and I tried to meet up with Rachel, Alexa and Taylor for about thirty minutes, continuously failing to adequately describe where we were in the market. I think one of the sections I liked the most was what I called "cheeseland." Underneath every tent were beautiful cheeses stacked on top of each other. All of the vendors had delicious tasters, and I probably tried twenty different cheeses, each better than the one before. It was heaven.

The prepared foods section was really cool. I saw the weirdest foods being served and Hailey got the most delicious "cheese sandwich" I've ever tasted. I forgot what the stand was called but they had these weird fire machines that were long metal strips with fire coming out of the bottom of them. Massive cheese blocks were placed under the fires and the cheese would melt off onto bread to make sandwiches. So weird, so cool, so delicious.

One thing I noticed is that everywhere you turned, you could see at least one stand selling fresh juices. We probably passed ten juicing stands, all spread out throughout the entire market. Each vendor was making different combinations of juices and they were beautiful. I wanted to get one but didn't. Catherine did though, and hers tasted great!

I got two drinks with Hailey- a glass of cider and a cup of Prosecco wine spritzer (recommended by Marshall). Both were great, but if I had to get one of them when I go back next time, I would probably get the Prosecco. Next to the Prosecco stand was a sangria stand, which looked equally as yummy, but I passed on that one. Additionally, I had some great spinach ravioli.

Hailey with her prosecco!

 It was a really fun day and afterwards we all went back to my flat and booked tickets to Berlin!! We're going for a week next month and I can't wait! I can assure that there will be a great blog post dedicated to it, maybe even more than one!

With that, I'll leave you with some random pictures I took that didn't necessarily have anything to do with what I talked about in this post. Later!

x

lizzie

 

"Normal" life

I haven't done anything great in the past couple days, but don't let that discourage you from reading the rest of this post!! I just wanted to comment on a couple of the things I have done recently.

1. I walked two blocks down from my flat and met my friend, Rachel, for breakfast at Speedy's Cafe! For those of you that don't know, Speedy's is the cafe in the BBC series Sherlock. In the show, they reside at 221B Baker St, which just happens to actually be filmed at a flat down the street from me and next to Speedy's! I mentioned this in my very first post but that was a while ago. Anyway, Rachel is the only other person here that also watches Sherlock, so we went together and it was completely obvious that 75% of the people eating there were only there because of the show. So we tried to act as cool as possible and only took one picture after we had eaten. I had a cup of Earl Grey and delicious scrambled eggs on toast. Great morning!!

Okay so maybe I took two pictures. But I thought it was cool how the address on the door is on a piece of wood that has been screwed in- easy removal for filming!

2. I went on a run through Regent's Park with Hailey and we stopped to take a picture with the camels!

 They're hard to see, but they're behind us, I swear.

3. Also on this run, I found what I think might be my favorite part of the park: this beautiful elephant! I want one.

 

4. The Fresher's Fayre was this past Thursday and Friday, which is a line of booths promoting each of UCL's clubs and societies that snakes through all of the buildings on the campus. Hailey and I perused the booths (which took about 30 minutes, you wouldn't believe how many there were) and I ended up joining three societies- Book Club, Lacrosse Society, and Women's Football Society (soccer). After careful deliberation, I decided to stick it out with lacrosse (no pun intended). Football was way too intense- they had their trophies on their table- and lacrosse seemed more fun and relaxed overall. I'm hoping to do Book Club as well, but that hasn't really picked up yet. Lacrosse, however, had their first practice on Sunday. I thought we would meet on campus, walk to a nearby field and throw the ball around a little. No. We got onto buses that took us an hour outside of London to a sports complex owned by UCL. There were probably 100 new people there and only 20 or so had ever played before. I broke off with the more experienced players and it was so fun! We just covered the basics, passing, catching, shooting, because none of us had played in a while. All of the girls are so nice and fun! Also, you have the choice of playing on the Ladies Team (I haven't heard the word ladies used so many times in my life before) or the Mixed Team, which is both boys and girls, but the boys play with women's sticks and play by the women's rules. It's hilarious watching the guys run up and down with the wrong sticks. After practice, we took the bus back to the city and some of us went over to The Rocket, a pub a couple blocks from campus. It was about 30 people- 15 returning players and 15 new players. The returning players taught us the "Lacrosse Pub Rules," and things got crazy after that. Mostly with the returning players, though. All of us newbies were still a little shy. But the night ended up being so fun.

5. This is piggybacking off of number 4, but I thought it needed an explanation. In Europe, it's the "cool thing" to join clubs. It doesn't really have that negative connotation that can sometimes come with joining campus clubs in America. Joining clubs is a way to be social, especially sports clubs. Every Wednesday night, a bar on campus called Phineas throws Sportsnite, which is when all of the sport teams go to the bar dressed to different themes. This week for instance, the Committee Members of the team (president, VP, social, etc) are dressing as cops, and the rest of the players, returning and new, are dressing as robbers. The teams hang out at the pub for a couple of hours, and then the team has buses that drive everyone to Loop, a club near campus. The entire club is reserved for UCL sports teams!

6. The least fun fact in this post. Classes started yesterday. My schedule ended up being pretty good, Tuesday's are just crazy for me. I'm taking Social Anthropology, Material and Visual Culture (another Anthropology class), Economic Analysis, and Holocaust Writing. I've only gotten lost once trying to get to a class- the doors weren't numbered in the building! So I ended up sitting down in a Law class, then walking into a Chemistry class during lecture, then finally finding my class after thirteen minutes had gone by. It was rough.

I think that's all! Miss everyone!!!!

x

lizzie

ps Hailey has a blog too!!

Regent's Park

After indulging in anything I could get my hands on this week (the food's a lot better in London than people say), I decided it was time I go for a run. I knew there was a park pretty close to my flat, so I followed my map to Regent's Park. Turns out, this is my favorite place on earth.

At the beginning of my run, I found myself in some weird flower/fountain garden. It was really long and narrow, but running by it and the people sitting on benches was beautiful. Continuing on, I ran through the middle of a giant, open field, with two football pitches on either side of my path. Only one field was being used though, and it looked like a rugby team doing practice drills. The path continued, and I was running next to the London Zoo. I saw multiple school field trips, camels, giraffes, and zebras! Not a typical run! I went around a bend and came across another field, but this one was much, much bigger than the last. Tiny British boys were practicing football everywhere and I was immediately brought back to my own soccer practices as a little girl. They were adorable and they all were wearing football jerseys of professional teams.

Later, I walked through Queen Mary's Gardens. I could tell the plants were already starting to die a little since fall is setting in, but it was still beautiful. There were different colored roses everywhere, hundreds of other flowers I didn't know the names of, multiple ponds, waterfalls, basically anything beautiful you can think of was in this garden. I spent probably twenty minutes just walking around and looking at everything. It was incredible.

After that, I ran to the park exit and down Euston street, right back to my flat! Easily the best run I have ever been on. I think it's safe to say that will not be the last time I go to Regent's Park. Here are some pictures I took on my run/walk!!

x
lizzie