Holiday Time Adventures Part 2: Cornwall!

Right. After spending the night in Bristol, I caught the train back to London to meet up with Joy. We then got a train to Reading (why I didn't meet her in Reading I dunno since the train back went through there anyway. My planning skills...just I don't know) where we picked up the car. I was mega scared to be driving and had my fair share of mini heart attacks the first day. This country has way too many roundabouts, by the way. And roads that are far too narrow.

Anyway, we started off by going to Jane Austen's house in Chawton. It was a nice house.

After that, we went to Stonehenge. I was way excited about it. As excited as I could be while simultaneously trying not to drive us into a ditch or something. We spent an hour or so wandering around Stonehenge, listening to the audioguides, and taking pictures.

Once we left Stonehenge, we stopped on our way through Salisbury to see the cathedral there. Then we made our way to our Exeter hostel for the night.

Day 2: We drove for quite a while then stopped in a little fishing village called Looe to have lunch and take a little break. 

Making friends with Nelson the Seal...

Lunch: Smoked salmon and prawn salad

And sticky toffee pudding for dessert! I think they
put Pop Rocks in it cause it was crackling.

After lunch in Looe, we drove on to St. Michael's Mount, our first castle of the journey! It was on a little island a bit away from the shore. In high tide, you have to get a boat over (as we had to on the way over). On the way back it was low tide though, and there was a pathway that you can walk between the island and the shore in low tide. Pretty cool.

I'm so strong!

Sweet dining room, yo

Replica of the castle made entirely of corks

We walked back on the path!

We drove to Land's End next so we could watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean, which is pretty cool!

We stayed the night in Penzance (Pirates of Penzance, woot!).

Day 3: We went to Tintagel Castle, the "legendary birthplace of King Arthur". I was excited like whoa about some King Arthur. It was situated on two hills. It used to be connected between the two but the bit in the middle fell ages upon ages ago. There were some ruins that date back even before the castle ruins on one of the hills. So it's a pretty old place.

Steep stairs! This is the part where it would have been connected but fell in the middle.

Hanging out on cliffs. As you do.

This was the part where we were meant to go to Dunster Castle next, but they decided they were too good to be open at normal times so we just went to Boscastle instead. We walked on some paths and hung out on more cliffs. Then it was adventures in finding the Minehead hostel. It was hidden and up a mountain with a ridiculously unsafely small parking area. I don't even want to go into all my issues with that place. Anyway, the next day we just headed back to Reading and then it was back to London.

Bonus! Here's some pictures of how small the roads were:

Crazy, right? And these are supposed to function as 2-way roads. Um...how?

Stay tuned for posts about the Diamond Jubilee and my birthday.

Until next time,

Duchess

Holiday Time Adventures Part 1: Manchester and Bristol

So much has been going on lately I'm gonna have to make 3 or 4 different posts so it doesn't turn into one massively long ramble. Let's go in chronological order. Starting with Manchester and Bristol then. Stayed at June's place in Manchester for a couple of days at the end of last month. Mostly, I just lazed around in the back yard cause it was warm and sunny for a change (please come back, nice weather!). So that was nice. Got back on a Sunday afternoon and I set out the next morning for Bristol.

I spent a few hours wandering around Bristol seeing a few of the sights and parks and things.

Went to a nice old cemetery to start off with then headed to the cathedral and ended up happening upon a film shoot they were doing right by the cathedral. I didn't see much but someone said Keira Knightley was in the movie and I could tell they were all in like Victorian era dress. After that, I wandered over to Cabot Tower to get a bird's eye view of Bristol and its surroundings. That was quite nice.

 

 I was mega tired from climbing all those steps so I went back to my hotel room and took a nap before the Passenger concert. It was one of the best concerts. I videoed the whole thing basically. Here's him doing "The Sound of Silence" which was absolutely hauntingly beautiful (I nearly cried):

Here's one about rain that basically sums up England (he drops the F-bomb in this one just to let you know):

This is my favorite that the opening act, Stu Larsen, did. (Look, ma! He's Australian):

So that was Bristol. Tomorrow I'll write about Cornwall and the Jubilee. And sometime I'll have to write about tomorrow and everything we're doing for my birthday. Yay! I'm 25!

Until next time,

Duchess

Here, have some updates!

The most exciting things lately...

1) Seeing the Queen. Twice! Once when Joy was here for a day and we happened to show up around Westminster when she was arriving for the opening of Parliament. And once today when I was leaving my shift at the Chelsea Flower Show and she was arriving in her car. I was too far away to get a good picture the first time and she was moving to fast today for me to have time to fumble around with my phone and get it ready in time.

2) Work today was quite nice at the Chelsea Flower Show. Our team was serving the VIP tables so we had Alan Titchmarsh. I know his name and know he's famous but never seen anything he's in, I don't think. At least I know he's famous so it's not completely lost on me like that shift with all the famous artists I had no clue who they were. Some people worked an event with Kanye and Kim Kardashian last week. I know them but still don't care. I would've totally interrupted Kanye though if I was there. "I'm happy for you and I'ma let you finish eating and junk but...Duchess is the best waitress-type of ALL TIME." *drops microphone and walks away* Oh! I did see a British dance group called Diversity perform on one of my Battersea Evolution shifts last week (that 11 hour one, yeah). I didn't know them of course, but they were still super cool.

3) I joined a hiking group and had an amazing time with them in Dover a couple of weekends ago:

I spent all day having conversations with strangers. Whaaaat. Yeah, I don't believe it either. Hahaha. Anyway, I've signed up to go on a hike to Canterbury with them in 2 1/2 weeks. Real life Canterbury Tales up in here, what what. I am excite.

4) Super busy for a couple of weeks...Chelsea Flower Show shifts again Wednesday and Thursday (7am starts for both. Why did I sign up for that again?). Manchester for the weekend. Bristol on Monday to see Passenger perform:

Then traversing Cornwall and the countryside in Part II of my Adventures with Joy for a few days. Come back to London, have a few days to recover from non-stop awesome, and then it's the Diamond Jubileeee. I'll take pics of the Queen then. I'll be ready for it.

Wooo! I gotta go not sleep now. Maybe consider working more on this dissertation proposal. I have all day tomorrow to finish it up (and a bit of Wednesday as well).

Promise more updates after my big adventures!

Until next time,
Duchess

Paris

Last week, June and I went to Paris for two days. It was fabulous (super cold, but still fun times). My first thoughts on arriving...being in a country where you don't speak the language is entirely disconcerting at first. I had no idea what was going on and it was just so strange. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without June and her fluent French. Before we left, we discovered that my top two attraction choices were closed: the catacombs and the bookstore Shakespeare & Company. Here's me being sad about the bookstore (we just happened to be walking along across the street from it at one point and my librarian-sense must've started tingling or something cause I just knew):

Apparently all the museums are closed on Tuesday, so the first day we went to Notre Dame. Absolutely stunning. It was huge and it had massive stained glass windows and old religious arts and relics. The outside was so detailed. We even found a lobster. I'm not real sure why there's a lobster...so don't ask.                      

The Holy Lobster of Antioch!

After Notre Dame, we did a bit of walking around, found our hostel and got checked in, and then went for dinner at a cafe opposite the Sacre Coeur (it's another church). I had a ham sandwich with cheese and egg on top of it. I guess the French don't know that the bits of a sandwich go on the inside. Once we had finished dinner, we went up to the Sacre Coeur. It's on a hill and you get a great view of the city from there. We saw the Eiffel Tower way off in the distance and I insisted on going to see it straight away, which was great because it was all lit up and beautiful. It is so much taller than I thought it'd be, by the way. Very impressive indeed. It started sparkling! I was so excited about that! And I got video of it!

Sparkly Eiffel Tower from Jessica Smith on Vimeo.
We were entranced by the lights for a while but once we came back to reality, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. Took a quick photo of it, then walked down the main shopping street which was mainly composed of snazzy stores like Louis Vuitton. There was even a Mercedes Benz showroom. I, of course, was lured in by the pretty cars and had to take pictures of all of them.

That was basically it for Tuesday. We spent all of Wednesday in the Louvre...and still probably didn't even see half of it. So. Much. Art. All the little descriptions were in French so I had no idea what anything was about most of the time. There were a few things that were on the audio guide so I got to hear about them in English at least. My favorite part was Napoleon's rooms which were on display. Dude had huge chandeliers.

Fancysauce

We saw some beautiful works of art, and of course the famous pieces too like Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa.

Venus de Milo

Random statue in the sunset (or "I'm so artsy")

Mona Lisa

That's about it really. We had dinner Wednesday night in a nice little restaurant called L'Arsenal. The waiter guy was so, so nice. We tried to tip him a lot but he wouldn't take it because you're not supposed to tip in France. If you guys go to Paris, you should go there. But don't eat the horse burger because they had horse burgers on the menu (thank God that June knows French!). I had a skillet of potatoes with cheese and ham that was pretty delish. Yay Paris!

Until next time,

Duchess

Dragons and Sheep Parts....

Seems I haven't updated in ages. I have time for a quick entry though. Been quite busy lately with classes starting back and things getting back into swing. I have started taking all kinds of dance classes too: ballet, salsa, street, popping, anything else that happens to be going on. Won't be getting any dance classes in this week though (or football). June and I are going to Paris in the morning for 2 days. Then I have some catching up to do on Thursday and another packed day on Friday.

Yesterday I went to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year parade. I guess if you're short, you should get to these things hours before anyone else because I couldn't see a thing. I thought I'd catch the parade on its way back down to Trafalgar Square so I asked some people working the event where it would come by and they had no idea what was going on. I'm fairly certain these people were just grabbed off the street and given Yellow Vests of Authority for the sheer hell of it. Ended up missing the parade in all this mess. So went to find a spot to watch the performances in Trafalgar Square. It was over-crowded and I still couldn't see so I gave up and went to this bookstore I'd passed earlier and bought a book. Went to grab some Chinese takeaway and finally saw something interesting just before leaving for home. I got a video of it...


Chinese Dragon from Jessica Smith on Vimeo.

The cultural immersion continued when I got back home. Last night, we had a Burns Night dinner (a Scottish holiday). Katie made haggis with neeps and tatties for us and then Emma brought a sticky toffee pudding with custard. Good stuff.

I should go to bed now. Getting up early for the train tomorrow.

Until next time,
Duchess

Trip to Bath

View from the main street looking East

I took a trip to Bath this past Tuesday-Wednesday. It was so beautiful, guys. Seeing the city for the first time out of the train window took my breath away. I loved it there. The buildings and landscape were amazing. I wish I could put all of my pictures on here because everywhere I turned, it was just so pretty.

I arrived in Bath around noon on Tuesday, made my way to the YMCA where I was staying and got settled in then set out to find the Jane Austen Centre (of course that's stop numero uno). This was when I learned my first life lesson of the journey: don't trust Google maps. My map app told me the Jane Austen Centre was up the steepest hill of all time, so I walked, oh, four blocks up this hill that, if it had been any steeper, would have required climbing gear. It was all residential and I was kind of thinking, "Oh, what's up with this then?" but of course my unwavering (ill-placed) trust in my handy-dandy map caused me to push on. Finally I gave up and asked for directions only to find it was in the opposite direction.

Once at the Jane Austen Centre, I went to the tea room for lunch. I had the Jane Austen blend tea and smoked salmon sandwich. Deliciousness. I loved the tea, so I bought some to take home, although I haven't the slightest idea how to brew it (June will teach me I'm sure...or I'll find a youtube video - ironing part deux! - haha). The exhibit at the Centre was great too. I was able to refresh my memory and also learn a few new things about Austen and the time, like the different things you can be saying by holding a fan in certain ways (my favorite was the "My love for you is breaking my heart" one because what the hell is that?).

Next stop was the Roman Baths. It was really a magnificent experience to finally see this. I felt like I was stepping back in time, there was such a wondrous ancientness about the place. I spent a while wandering around the Baths, listening to the audio guide, and just enjoying the sights. Made a wish in the wishing well so fingers crossed on that one I guess? There was a shit-ton of money in that pool, too. I went back to the Pump Room for breakfast the next morning to try the water. It was weird tasting, yeah, but drinkable. I also had a Bath Bun and hot chocolate.

Next stop was the spa. I spent Monday polishing wine glasses to the point of perfection for rich people (OMG just get over yourselves) so I felt I deserved something nice...to feel a little posh myself, ya know. It was a little awkward being alone and I forgot to think about that, but it was still relaxing. They had different flavored steam rooms I guess you could say. Lotus, sandalwood, something-or-other, and mint. Mint was my favorite. I parked it in there for a while. I'm totally getting my own mint steam room when I grow up. That's now my life plan. Had a feta and grape tart for my included dinner. Once again, delicious food. After my three hours at the spa, I called it a night since everything was closed anyway.

The next morning I had breakfast at the Pump Room, as I've already mentioned. Then I went next door to Bath Abbey, which was the first big church type place I've been in over here since I have yet to go in the London ones. I walked in and my jaw literally dropped. The place was huge. This picture does it no justice really. It was just such a massive space...beautiful stained glass windows and such too.

After I left the abbey, I bought some lunch at the High Street market nearby and walked across the river to one of the parks and ate my lunch there. I spent the rest of my stay walking around the city and some of the parks.

This is the bridge I walked over to get over the river. It's apparently one of the only bridges in the world to be built like this with shops along it. I feel like this pigeon is posing for my picture. Random. I love it! I saw the Circus and the Royal Crescent which are both pretty impressive architecturally.

The Royal Crescent

I went to the train station to catch my train back to Paddington station only to find out it was canceled and I was put on the one 30 minutes later. So getting back to London and then to my place (and then to football practice) was utterly exhausting. I hate people on the tube when it's busy. They all become bigger assholes and do a lot more pushing and shoving. NOT OKAY! Anyway. Bath. Bath was amazing. I can go back now?

Until next time,
Duchess :)

Adventure Update

I've been neglecting my blog. So sad. I've been busy and I tend to procrastinate like whoa. What have I been doing in my free time, you ask?

A few weeks ago, I went to a boat party along the Thames at night. There were some great views of the city at night, as you can see. A couple of weekends ago, I went out to Portobello Road Market and bought some antique trinkets to send back home. A lot of that stuff they try to sell is EXPENSIVE. Luckily I found a dude with random old shiny things more in my price range. After wandering around the market - and having a little ham sandwich and a cupcake for lunch - I passed by a book store and got two more books. I really need to stop buying so many books. I just...we don't have bookstores in Waycross and naturally I have to go in any I see...and of course I see something I just have to have in every one. I might need a support group for this.

After the bookstore, I walked to Hyde Park and spent a couple of hours wandering around. I'm not really sure what the statue thing in the picture here is all about but it was huge (and pretty) so I'm just gonna leave it here. I took a little reading break in the park because my feet were starting to hurt. Unfortunately, the tube system was partially down and I couldn't find a functional bus stop either so once I got from the Marble Arch station to Bank, I had to walk all the way home. That's like 30 more minutes of walking. Uphill. In the snow.

The weekend after that, June and I went to Brick Lane. It was nice. Lots of "vintage" clothes and such and lots of Indian food (which we didn't partake of since we were once again on a quest for pizza - which my phone helped us finally locate...we have a history of not being able to find pizza). Bought another book that day! It was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You can't pass that up.

This past Saturday, we had lunch at a French restaurant with June's mum and Barry. Then we had some amazing adventures traveling on the over-crowded Victoria and District lines, and also great fun trying to find work clothes for me (I gave up). At one point we had to cross the road but there was a fence/barrier and the light turned green for oncoming traffic. What did I do? The most logical thing, of course: ran screaming across the road and jumped over the barrier. June did the safe thing and waited for traffic to pass, then walked around said barrier. On our way back, we stopped in King's Cross station and found Platform 9 3/4. I look like a dork here, but that's okay. I own it. We rode Boris's bikes home. Oh my heartattacks. I obviously don't do well with a heavy bicycle in heavy traffic. Uphill. I survived though. Maybe I'll forgive all the cyclists for nearly killing me all those times. It's harder to be a cyclist than a pedestrian. Definitely an adventure, that one.

Later Saturday night, we went to Ministry of Sound for Basement Jaxx. It was fun. Not so fun getting there. The tube was out and so were half the bus stops. We had no problem getting back home though, thank God. Maybe you just need to do all your traveling at 4am. Good to know.

Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Changing of the Guard

Last weekend, I went to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It was really crowded and I had trouble seeing past the tall people but it was an interesting ceremony. There was a man on top of on one of the columns beside the gate the whole time. He was protesting about something but I'm not sure what. They still went on with the ceremony as usual though. Afterward, I spent a few hours just walking around that part of London and taking in the sights. I stumbled upon Westminster Abbey. I didn't go in as the line was too long but I got some great pictures of the outside, which is absolutely beautiful.

Westminster Abbey

I took a close up of the front because the detail is just stunning:

From the above picture, I made some alterations in Photoshop and I'm really pleased with the result. I think it looks even more beautiful, if that's possible. I'm thinking about taking some more of the pictures I take and fixing them up like this. What do you guys think?

Until next time,

Duchess