Well, sorry it has been so long since updating. I thought I might be able to get one up last week, but it didn't end up happening. I'm going to keep this fairly brief as a lot of stuff has happened in the last two weeks. On the 13th Sara got to Poole. We hung out here and I took her to Bournemouth to look at a place that I will be living in September when my lease is up at the place I am currently living. She didn't make it too long into the night because of the jetlag, but she got to experience "authentic" British weather as it was dreary and rainy on the day she got here.
On the 14th we set off for Italy. We took a cab to the airport in Bournemouth for our flight at 12. We were then in Italy by 3pm (it's a 2 hour flight, but there is an hour time difference). The flight was hilarious because we flew a really cheap airline and they tried to sell you anything and everything. They were selling lottery tickets, smokeless cigarettes, food, drinks, there were even commercials over the pa system. It was bizarre, but we made it into Pisa. While we waited for our train to Florence we had our first Italian food. We also admired the mountain view. I guess I didn't really realize that there were mountains in Italy....Finally we caught our train and headed for Florence. When we got there we had a long sweaty walk to our hotel. We didn't realize quite how far it was or how hot it was outside. We were drenched in sweat from our backpacks and the walk. It was in the 90s the entire time that we were in Italy and none of the hostels except the very last had air conditioning. It was a bit much ;)
After checking in and sitting for a bit we headed up the the Michaelangelo Plaza, which is way up on a hill to see the view. It was pretty nice and we experienced our first gelatos. It was also a bit cooler at night, so that was a welcome change.
Thursday we spent exploring Florence. We started out early and went to a piazza filled with statues to take photos. Then we headed to the train station to make reservations for the rest of our train journeys. Next we walked across the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge with a bunch of expensive jewelry shops on it. Then we went to the Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace). There was art there, but mostly I just wanted to look at the palace. It was weird though because the ceilings were just painted on rather than being sculptural like the ones in England and France that I've seen. They almost looked 3D, but not quite. Like a poor man's version of a castle or something. It was weird.
We ate a quick lunch and then headed to the museum that has Michaelangelo's David. It was pretty cool to see it, but the rest of the museum was really small, leaving you wondering why you paid so much just to see basically one sculpture. From there we headed toward the church where we climbed the bell tower to get cool views of the city. There wasn't even a line for that, which was amazing. We then decided to go back to our hotel to try to escape the heat a bit and then head back to go inside the church later.
After a rest we headed back out to go in the church and then go to dinner. We didn't realize that you have to cover your shoulders for all churches in Italy, so we ended up having to wear these silly blue smock things that the people at the church gave us to cover up. It was a very big church, but it wasn't very exciting inside. We then got gelatos and sat in a piazza for awhile to people watch. There were people there on big group tours from America. After awhile we went to get dinner. We ended up with a really nice place. We each got pasta and wine and then shared a tiramasu for dessert. Yum! After dinner we went back to the Michaelangelo plaza again because we weren't ready to call it a night yet. This time while we were up there we heard a band that came and played for awhile. It was pretty nice.
Friday we left for Venice. We had to be out of our hostel by 10, so we slept in and left around then. We went straight to the train station and had some time to kill so we ate lunch. We caught our train and it wasn't long before we were in Venice. our hotel was really close to the station, which was awesome. We got a bit cleaned up and then headed straight out for a gondola ride. It was amazing! The driver was really nice and was telling us all about the buildings and how Venice was built. He also let us pretend to steer the gondola and take photos.
After the gondola we got tickets for the water bus and headed down to the San Marco square where the big fancy Venice church is. It was already closed when we got there, but we got to see the outside. We wandered around in the square, got gelato (the theme of the trip :), and then went up a tower to see the city from above. That was a pretty fantastic view. Look at the pictures and you'll get an idea. I also fell in love with the masks in Venice. They sold them everywhere and i decided I had to have one. You'll know it when you see it. Giant hat and big feathers :) The only problem was having to lug it around for the rest of the trip, but it was worth it :)
The next morning we were leaving Venice already, so we got up a bit early and wandered around the town near where we were staying for awhile. We say some more cool buildings and a nice park. Eventually we had to go back to the train station though and head off for Rome! When we got to Rome we found the hostel without too much trouble, but we'd gotten there earlier than we said we would so we had to call to get someone to come and let us in. But they did and then we headed off for the Colosseum! We paid a bit extra to jump the queue and have a guided tour. It was so cool! I loved being down in the area of Rome with all the Roman ruins. It was really neat. The other cool thing about Rome was that they had water fountains all over the place where you could fill up your water bottle for free. So that was really cool because it was so hot that we went through a lot of water in a day. After the Colosseum we headed back to the hotel so that we could get an early start the next morning.
We headed to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill right away the next day. Our ticket from the Colosseum got us into both of those as well, which was nice. We spent about 3 or so hours wandering through the ruins before heading off to other sites. Our first stop was the Trevi fountain where we threw in coins to make a wish. Then we ate crepes for lunch and headed off to the Pantheon. We saw another columned wall on the way that tricked me, but eventually we found it. It was quite cool and Raphael is buried inside. After that we headed to the Castle next to the Vatican. It was nice and when we got to the top we had another nice city view (another theme of the trip :) We got some nice pictures and then headed down to walk along the river front. We thought we were going to get robbed at one point down there, but all was well, thankfully. It was pretty scary though. Then we got some fruity drinks and continued on our way to the Circus Maximus where the chariot races would have been held. It was pretty unimpressive as nothing is really left. Then we headed home. After cleaning up we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and I ate like a starving person ;) I guess it was a longer day than I thought.
I think that will be it for this entry. Here is the link to the first set of photos and I'll try to get more stuff up in the next couple of days. Enjoy!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Drinking Brains
Well, this week was a fun one. On Monday morning Danielle, her friend Caitlin from Canada and I left for Cardiff, Wales. We caught the train from Poole around 9. Then we had to change trains in Southampton and got to Cardiff about 12:45. It was a really nice train ride. The area around here isn't that exciting, but further north toward Wales the scenery was really pretty. We couldn't check into our hotel right away when we got there, so we went to find lunch. We ran across a gourmet burger restaurant so we stopped there. I got a pork burger with apple chutney. It was really tasty. After lunch we still had a bit of time to kill so we headed for the tourist information center to get a map and some brochures of things to do. It was then that we realized that Cardiff pretty much only has a castle and a museum. And a giant mall. So we headed back to the hotel to check in and drop off our stuff.
After dropping things off we decided to head down to the quay. It was about a 20 minute walk and we followed the signs and were soon walking through the ghetto. It was a bit sketchy. Nothing bad happened, but it didn't feel like the safest neighborhood. But eventually we got to the quay and me and Danielle geeked out because The Doctor Who Experience was down there. It is basically a small museum of costumes of the villains and some of the doctors and companions from Doctor Who. So we went through it but Caitlin didn't want to. We also went and saw the area where they filmed Torchwood and saw all the silly signs that people had left about bringing Ianto back (a character that was killed off in the last episode of Torchwood). It was pretty geeky and awesome! We also went on a ferris wheel ride near the quay to get a view of the area. It wasn't actually a super high wheel so you could see things, but not all of Cardiff or anything. Oh well. We grabbed dinner at an American diner themed restaurant. We got hotdogs and milkshakes. They were pretty good, but not as good as Sam's. After that we headed back to the hotel. We took a different road and it was amazingly different. There was a railroad track separating where we had walked and where we were then walking, so we had literally been on the wrong side of the tracks. We got home and were pretty tired so we just watched tv (a luxury as we don't have tvs in our dorms) and went to bed.
The next day we headed out to the castle. It was pretty neat, but not the best castle I've been to. Apparently it has been redone quite a few times in the past by different owners who thought different periods of history were cool. I do have to give one of them credit though because when they found the original roman walls during one construction phase they left them and then built replica walls on top, leaving the roman wall as the base and marking what part was Roman so you can still tell the Roman part from the rest. And that was in the late 1800s I believe. Awesome. The apartments where the family lived were quite nice and had some really fairy tale like painting going on in them. The keep was quite imposing, but only the stone part was left. There would have been a lot of wooden structures inside, but those are gone.
From the top of the keep I had seen a stone circle so I wanted to go over there. While looking for the entrance to the park it was in we found a Baskin Robins. Eventually we found the park entrance and Danielle made friends with a lady handing out fliers who used to live in Canada. Apparently they are going to be pen pals now...The stone circle was neat, but not very large. I must admit that until I got here I didn't realize how many of these circles are all over the country. I thought Stonehenge was more unique than it is. It is much bigger than the others, but the idea isn't original by any means. Something to consider. After the park we stopped at the Baskin Robins for ice cream. We then wandered around and went souvenir shopping. I got a Wales shirt with a Dragon on it and a present for my friend's baby that she is having in September. Then we headed back to the tourist center to find out if the brewery where they brew the local Welsh beer gave tours. They said no, but that there was a microbrewery near the stadium, so we headed there. I got a peach beer. It was pretty good. After that we ordered some starters and another beer, the pale ale. It was the darkest pale ale I'd ever seen and was a bit bitter. We were not really fans. After this we wandered around for awhile and then stopped for dinner.
After dinner we stopped back at the hotel to drop off our shopping and then headed out. We ended up at an Irish pub that was showing the Holland v Uruguay? football game. I've never watched a football game, but it was kind of fun. I didn't know exactly what was happening at all times, but it was cool. We wanted to try the local beer, Brains, so we ordered that while we watched. The beer wasn't that good, but Holland won, so I texted my Dutch friends to congratulate them :) One of them has been following it and is pretty excited. I guess Holland has never won a World Cup. After the game we headed to another bar and Caitlin and I switched to better drinks but Danielle was determined to like Brains. At this bar they served Brains in a glass with the company logo on it, which is a dragon. Since the brewery wasn't open we figured they didn't sell the glasses anywhere, so I had to order another Brains to that I could swipe the glass. So I'm now the proud owner of a Brains glass :)
The next day we had to take our bags to the tourist center to lock them up because the hotel wouldn't keep them for us after we checked out. So we dropped them off and then headed to the Cardiff museum. The top floor was art and the bottom floor was natural history. That was kind of odd, but they had a neat exhibit set up of Cardiff through time. It started with the earth forming and then moved on to dinosaurs and mammoths and then current animals. There was also a big room of archaeology of Wales. That was pretty neat. I didn't find any bone tools though. After the museum we tried to go to a small art gallery, but they were installing a new exhibit so we couldn't see anything. So we headed back to Poole.
When we got back I had an email from one of the museums that I'd been email asking to set up dates to come and do my research, so that was exciting. Then I had to head next door to my friend's going away party. She is going home to finish up her dissertation and then going to Belgium in August to work on an excavation there. She's the first person to leave and it was very sad :(
Thursday I went to school and got some stuff done. I also talked to my advisor about the museums and how to go about doing things and whatnot. So hopefully that goes well when it actually comes to doing it. Then I came home and bought my ticket back to America :( I had frequent flier miles so I had to book early because when I tired to use them for Christmas I waited too long and there were no flights left. So I am officially coming home on Sept 26th...I didn't realize how sad I would be to make it official, but pressing the buy button was really hard.
Friday I was going to go to school again, but instead I ran errands. I had to change my small change into bills, get small shampoos and stuff for my Italy trip, get Euros and return a library book to the local library. I got all of that done and then decided to pack a suitcase for my parents to take when they come to visit. They are going to bring an empty suitcase and I'm going to swap that for the one I've packed. I figured it would be good to do it early because I'm going to Italy and then my parents are coming and I don't want to have to be packing while people are visiting. So it isn't completely packed, but its pretty full and I still have a lot of stuff. Hopefully I can fit it all in two more suitcases. I've even started a bag to bring to a charity shop, but it isn't as full as I'd like it to be... In the evening I went to Sarah's again to have a movie night before she left. We watched Men Who Stare at Goats and it was actually pretty good.
Saturday I headed to the local library for a few hours and wrote the guide to my database for my dissertation. I also worked a bit on the intro of the dissertation. I figured it would be good to get the guide out of the way though because it is pretty thoughtless to do, but takes a bit of time. I'm not completely finished with it, but should finish it today. One less thing to do when it gets to crunch time in September. Then I met Melissa for lunch at the Chinese buffet. I had really been craving Chinese food, so despite being broke when she suggested it I agreed. It is only 3.95 for the lunch buffet though, so that isn't too bad. After lunch I had to go home and get ready to go out. A friend of a friend is getting married next month so we were having a hen night (bachelorette party) for her. We took a pink fire engine into Bournemouth and then went to a drag/strip show. It was a pretty fun evening for me. We ended up with 3 people crying though. How, I don't know. It was kind of ridiculous. Oh well.
Today I must get the guide finished and clean my room. Tomorrow I have to go to school and do laundry and then Tuesday Sara gets here! Then Wednesday we leave for Italy for a week! So there will be no blog next Sunday as I will be in Rome. I'll try to get at least a mini thing up sometime in the next two weeks, but I can't promise anything as if I don't have the pics up it may not really be worth it. My parents get here on the 23rd and I switch Sara for them at the airport and then come back to Poole. So if I don't get one up during this stuff I'll have a big one for the 1st of August. Well, I suppose that's all I've got. Here are the Wales pictures. Enjoy!
After dropping things off we decided to head down to the quay. It was about a 20 minute walk and we followed the signs and were soon walking through the ghetto. It was a bit sketchy. Nothing bad happened, but it didn't feel like the safest neighborhood. But eventually we got to the quay and me and Danielle geeked out because The Doctor Who Experience was down there. It is basically a small museum of costumes of the villains and some of the doctors and companions from Doctor Who. So we went through it but Caitlin didn't want to. We also went and saw the area where they filmed Torchwood and saw all the silly signs that people had left about bringing Ianto back (a character that was killed off in the last episode of Torchwood). It was pretty geeky and awesome! We also went on a ferris wheel ride near the quay to get a view of the area. It wasn't actually a super high wheel so you could see things, but not all of Cardiff or anything. Oh well. We grabbed dinner at an American diner themed restaurant. We got hotdogs and milkshakes. They were pretty good, but not as good as Sam's. After that we headed back to the hotel. We took a different road and it was amazingly different. There was a railroad track separating where we had walked and where we were then walking, so we had literally been on the wrong side of the tracks. We got home and were pretty tired so we just watched tv (a luxury as we don't have tvs in our dorms) and went to bed.
The next day we headed out to the castle. It was pretty neat, but not the best castle I've been to. Apparently it has been redone quite a few times in the past by different owners who thought different periods of history were cool. I do have to give one of them credit though because when they found the original roman walls during one construction phase they left them and then built replica walls on top, leaving the roman wall as the base and marking what part was Roman so you can still tell the Roman part from the rest. And that was in the late 1800s I believe. Awesome. The apartments where the family lived were quite nice and had some really fairy tale like painting going on in them. The keep was quite imposing, but only the stone part was left. There would have been a lot of wooden structures inside, but those are gone.
From the top of the keep I had seen a stone circle so I wanted to go over there. While looking for the entrance to the park it was in we found a Baskin Robins. Eventually we found the park entrance and Danielle made friends with a lady handing out fliers who used to live in Canada. Apparently they are going to be pen pals now...The stone circle was neat, but not very large. I must admit that until I got here I didn't realize how many of these circles are all over the country. I thought Stonehenge was more unique than it is. It is much bigger than the others, but the idea isn't original by any means. Something to consider. After the park we stopped at the Baskin Robins for ice cream. We then wandered around and went souvenir shopping. I got a Wales shirt with a Dragon on it and a present for my friend's baby that she is having in September. Then we headed back to the tourist center to find out if the brewery where they brew the local Welsh beer gave tours. They said no, but that there was a microbrewery near the stadium, so we headed there. I got a peach beer. It was pretty good. After that we ordered some starters and another beer, the pale ale. It was the darkest pale ale I'd ever seen and was a bit bitter. We were not really fans. After this we wandered around for awhile and then stopped for dinner.
After dinner we stopped back at the hotel to drop off our shopping and then headed out. We ended up at an Irish pub that was showing the Holland v Uruguay? football game. I've never watched a football game, but it was kind of fun. I didn't know exactly what was happening at all times, but it was cool. We wanted to try the local beer, Brains, so we ordered that while we watched. The beer wasn't that good, but Holland won, so I texted my Dutch friends to congratulate them :) One of them has been following it and is pretty excited. I guess Holland has never won a World Cup. After the game we headed to another bar and Caitlin and I switched to better drinks but Danielle was determined to like Brains. At this bar they served Brains in a glass with the company logo on it, which is a dragon. Since the brewery wasn't open we figured they didn't sell the glasses anywhere, so I had to order another Brains to that I could swipe the glass. So I'm now the proud owner of a Brains glass :)
The next day we had to take our bags to the tourist center to lock them up because the hotel wouldn't keep them for us after we checked out. So we dropped them off and then headed to the Cardiff museum. The top floor was art and the bottom floor was natural history. That was kind of odd, but they had a neat exhibit set up of Cardiff through time. It started with the earth forming and then moved on to dinosaurs and mammoths and then current animals. There was also a big room of archaeology of Wales. That was pretty neat. I didn't find any bone tools though. After the museum we tried to go to a small art gallery, but they were installing a new exhibit so we couldn't see anything. So we headed back to Poole.
When we got back I had an email from one of the museums that I'd been email asking to set up dates to come and do my research, so that was exciting. Then I had to head next door to my friend's going away party. She is going home to finish up her dissertation and then going to Belgium in August to work on an excavation there. She's the first person to leave and it was very sad :(
Thursday I went to school and got some stuff done. I also talked to my advisor about the museums and how to go about doing things and whatnot. So hopefully that goes well when it actually comes to doing it. Then I came home and bought my ticket back to America :( I had frequent flier miles so I had to book early because when I tired to use them for Christmas I waited too long and there were no flights left. So I am officially coming home on Sept 26th...I didn't realize how sad I would be to make it official, but pressing the buy button was really hard.
Friday I was going to go to school again, but instead I ran errands. I had to change my small change into bills, get small shampoos and stuff for my Italy trip, get Euros and return a library book to the local library. I got all of that done and then decided to pack a suitcase for my parents to take when they come to visit. They are going to bring an empty suitcase and I'm going to swap that for the one I've packed. I figured it would be good to do it early because I'm going to Italy and then my parents are coming and I don't want to have to be packing while people are visiting. So it isn't completely packed, but its pretty full and I still have a lot of stuff. Hopefully I can fit it all in two more suitcases. I've even started a bag to bring to a charity shop, but it isn't as full as I'd like it to be... In the evening I went to Sarah's again to have a movie night before she left. We watched Men Who Stare at Goats and it was actually pretty good.
Saturday I headed to the local library for a few hours and wrote the guide to my database for my dissertation. I also worked a bit on the intro of the dissertation. I figured it would be good to get the guide out of the way though because it is pretty thoughtless to do, but takes a bit of time. I'm not completely finished with it, but should finish it today. One less thing to do when it gets to crunch time in September. Then I met Melissa for lunch at the Chinese buffet. I had really been craving Chinese food, so despite being broke when she suggested it I agreed. It is only 3.95 for the lunch buffet though, so that isn't too bad. After lunch I had to go home and get ready to go out. A friend of a friend is getting married next month so we were having a hen night (bachelorette party) for her. We took a pink fire engine into Bournemouth and then went to a drag/strip show. It was a pretty fun evening for me. We ended up with 3 people crying though. How, I don't know. It was kind of ridiculous. Oh well.
Today I must get the guide finished and clean my room. Tomorrow I have to go to school and do laundry and then Tuesday Sara gets here! Then Wednesday we leave for Italy for a week! So there will be no blog next Sunday as I will be in Rome. I'll try to get at least a mini thing up sometime in the next two weeks, but I can't promise anything as if I don't have the pics up it may not really be worth it. My parents get here on the 23rd and I switch Sara for them at the airport and then come back to Poole. So if I don't get one up during this stuff I'll have a big one for the 1st of August. Well, I suppose that's all I've got. Here are the Wales pictures. Enjoy!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy 4th of July!
Well, this has been yet another boring week. Sorry :( Monday and Tuesday I worked on my dissertation and then Wednesday I returned to the Southampton library to finish up everything there. That about completes my data collection. I need to request one more book that Southampton had, but I didn't have time to get the data out of it as it had over 60 of the tools I'm looking at. So after I get that and finish the book that I have I'll be pretty much done. There are always more sites that I could look at, but I have over 500 tools catalogued so I should be able to do something statistical with the analysis. I also got a response from one of the museums that I emailed and the woman there will be meeting with the archaeology volunteers on Tuesday to talk to them about it and will get back to me then. So hopefully I can at least get to that museum to see some actual tools and look for cut marks and such.
Other than that I haven't been up to much. I decided that I wanted to listen to the Harry Potter books on tape. I looked them up online and they were like 70 pounds each! That was crazy, but then I thought of the local library. I'm a member but I never think to go there. So I looked at their catalogue and they had them! So I've gotten The Goblet of Fire and The Prisoner of Azkaban so far. So that's exciting. While I was there I also A Thousand Splendid Suns. I had enjoyed The Kite Runner so I decided to get that. It was a really good one. I would recommend it. The weird thing is that you have to pay for things at the library here. Books are free, but adult audio books are 1.50 and DVDs are 2.00. So that's strange. Children's audio books are free apparently though as I haven't had to pay for the Harry Potters.
Yesterday I went to Wetherspoons, the local pub, to study with a friend. It was morning so it was pretty dead and they have wifi there, so it was actually a really good place to study.
Friday I learned how to make Chinese BBQ ribs. Another friend left for her placement for 5 weeks on Saturday so we had her going away dinner on Friday. A few weeks ago Le made us ribs and they were delicious and we've been wanting to learn how to make them. So we decided this was the perfect opportunity. They were really good and pretty easy to make except that I burned some of them.....oops. They weren't too bad though. Then Le suggested that you can make chicken that way too, so I may try that sometime.
Well, I suppose that's about all for this week. Next week will be better as I leave for Cardiff, Wales tomorrow morning and will be back on Wednesday. Then on the 13th Sara gets here and we go to Italy for a week. When we get back my parents get here and stay for a week. So next week may be the last update for a couple weeks. I'll try to get something up here between went Sara and I get back on the 21 and when my parents get here on the 23rd, but no promises. I probably won't have Italy pics up until after the parents leave as there will be no time. But next week I'll have Wales pictures, so look forward to that :) Later!
Other than that I haven't been up to much. I decided that I wanted to listen to the Harry Potter books on tape. I looked them up online and they were like 70 pounds each! That was crazy, but then I thought of the local library. I'm a member but I never think to go there. So I looked at their catalogue and they had them! So I've gotten The Goblet of Fire and The Prisoner of Azkaban so far. So that's exciting. While I was there I also A Thousand Splendid Suns. I had enjoyed The Kite Runner so I decided to get that. It was a really good one. I would recommend it. The weird thing is that you have to pay for things at the library here. Books are free, but adult audio books are 1.50 and DVDs are 2.00. So that's strange. Children's audio books are free apparently though as I haven't had to pay for the Harry Potters.
Yesterday I went to Wetherspoons, the local pub, to study with a friend. It was morning so it was pretty dead and they have wifi there, so it was actually a really good place to study.
Friday I learned how to make Chinese BBQ ribs. Another friend left for her placement for 5 weeks on Saturday so we had her going away dinner on Friday. A few weeks ago Le made us ribs and they were delicious and we've been wanting to learn how to make them. So we decided this was the perfect opportunity. They were really good and pretty easy to make except that I burned some of them.....oops. They weren't too bad though. Then Le suggested that you can make chicken that way too, so I may try that sometime.
Well, I suppose that's about all for this week. Next week will be better as I leave for Cardiff, Wales tomorrow morning and will be back on Wednesday. Then on the 13th Sara gets here and we go to Italy for a week. When we get back my parents get here and stay for a week. So next week may be the last update for a couple weeks. I'll try to get something up here between went Sara and I get back on the 21 and when my parents get here on the 23rd, but no promises. I probably won't have Italy pics up until after the parents leave as there will be no time. But next week I'll have Wales pictures, so look forward to that :) Later!
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