Adventure is Out There: England Style Part II.

June 1, 2014

We were planning on waking up for church. We really were. But then none of us heard the alarm go off and so we slept until 12:30. Gosh the time change murders us! We'll be better. Hopefully. 

We got up and headed off to Freddie's moms house. Her name was Claire and her boyfriends name was John. His dogs name was Bodhi. She fed us snacks and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was divine. While Ashlyn and Kinsey talked to Claire, John taught me all of Bodhi's tricks. And there were a lot of them. Bodhi immediately became my best friend. We played fetch, he caught the ball in midair, he hung on to that ball like his life depended on it. I could swing him any which way and he would still be hanging on. You can also play hide and seek with him and it's hilarious. You pretend to put the ball under a box and while he's tearing up the box looking for the ball you go and hide it somewhere. It's seriously the funniest thing fever. I was enjoying my time with him way too much. I played with him the whole time we were there. Then John tells me Bodhi is famous! He's from Brighton, England and he knows how to skateboard at a skate park. Look him up I dare you! Type in Brighton skateboarding dog and he'll come up! 

We were there for a while and then we left and went to meet Ram and Jamie at South Bends. We ate at a street taco truck that was freakin good, but very messy. Ha and then we just walked along the River Thames and walked across more of the London bridges. They have a lot of bridges. It was nice! I walked with Jamie and we just talked. We had to say goodbye to him last night and I hated it. He's seriously the greatest. I enjoy talking to him a lot. It's strange having a friend you think is so great but you have no idea when you'll see them again. 

We also said bye to Ram which sucked as well. I'm so glad I got to see both of them! 

We walked for a bit more and then headed back to Freddie's where we watched another weird British film and I passed out during it. But woke up for a little to FaceTime Jeff. Jeff watched Spirited Away last night and we had watched that the night before and it is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. It's anime and it's freakin weird. Wouldn't recommend it. Then I passed out again. 

June 2, 2014 

Kinsey and Ashlyn woke up to make Freddie breakfast and failed to wake me up so I slept through it all. I'm way good at mornings. Then we took baths and got ready. Every house we stayed at doesn't have a shower. I haven't taken a bath since I was an infant. It's pretty awkward to take one when your body is so long. Anyway. It's fine. I'm clean. So there's always that. 

Then we headed to Euston to meet up with Callum. When we got there we met Callum's friend Will from university. Freddie realllllllllly wanted to go to the science museum and rent bikes to get there so we went to go rent bikes and their cards wouldn't work. So then we were gonna walk. But it was a LOT further than Freddie thought so we eventually got a tube. It took us AGES to get to the science museum. At least it felt like it. We had to bring our backpacks everywhere. And boy are they heavy!! Freddie took mine for the last stretch to the museum. What a gem. 

We got to the science museum and Will dropped his bag off in the cloakroom and we headed off into the world of science. And let me tell you how boring it was. First we headed to the floor that was specifically designed for children. So it was full of science experiments for kids and even though it did distract us for a solid 20 minutes, we definitely got bored. Freddie was absolutely LOVING it though haha he was like a kid in a candy store. Except they have like no candy here. So it would be like a Brit at a pub of free drinks. Good from me for that reference :) we left Freddie there and wandering around the 7 levels of the museum. Yes I said it right. 7 levels of complete and utter boringness. We found the explore space room so we went in there and Kinsey straight up fell asleep in front of the floating Earth display. Finally we just sacked that off and called Freddie, said our goodbyes, and we left. 

We had to take the same route back the way we came and then take the train to Callum's. On the train the lady came through and checked our tickets. This was our first encounter with the ticket check. We had been sneaking onto trains and the tube the whole trip and we got off lucky until that moment! Luckily we had our Oyster cards so we got off but she said we had to get off the next stop and buy a ticket. Ashlyn tried to sneak out of the train station because she had snuck on but the man caught her haha he freaked. The reason you have to sneak out if you sneak in is because they make you check your Oyster card in so it can charge you for entering and then they make you check out when you leave because they keep track of your stops. If you check in without checking out or vice versa, they freeze your card or double charge you. We didn't know that haha our cards were frozen from all of our sneaking. Whoops! Got them unfrozen though. Got out of it by saying we're American. That got us out of a lot of things. 

Eventually we got to Callum's and we went to a chain pub called The Crown and ate. It was really good! Pulled pork. Mmmmmm. Then we trekked up the hill to Callum's. His mother, Fiona, is the kindest human. She's adorable. She took us in like we were her own :) that night we went to a place called TopGolf. It's a driving range but way better. They have giant holes out in the green and the holes have a flag in the middle and then it's divided into sections within the giant hole. The closer you hit the ball to the flag, the more points you get. One game is twenty balls. It was a blast!! Callum and Will beat me pretty good but I got 40 points and I beat Kinsey and Ashlyn! So I'll take it. Then Callum, Will, and I played a round of mini golf. It was a tight game the whole time until the 18th hole. Callum was in the lead and I was 4 behind him. I got it in the hole in 3 strokes. And he CHOKED. He got it in like 11 strokes. So I won. Bada bing. That was SUCH a fun night! We had so much fun. As we headed back to Callum's we jammed out to the CDs in the car and then when we got back we watched the last Harry Potter movie. 

June 3, 2014

We set an alarm so that we would be up at a decent time and work on the time change so we got up at 930. Killed it. Had breakfast together as a family at the table and then we got ready to go to the HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR. 

On the way there we jammed out to music again because we were stoked!!! When we got there, our hearts flew out of our bodies. Just seeing the Harry Potter Studio sign made me feel elated. We immediately got out of the car and took pictures in front of the building. I've never been so excited in my life. We got our tickets that we had reserved and mine had Fawkes on it! So it started off with a bang. Callum and Will had the tour that was 30 minutes after ours so they went to the gift shop while we stood in line. In the line, you can see Harry's cupboard under the stairs that they used in the film. I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that that was literally the one they used in the films. Not a replica. Not a spitting image. THE EXACT ONE. Incredible. 

After you stand in line, you enter a room with four screens on both of the side walls. While you're waiting the screens just rotate through the different movie covers from different countries! Then we watched a film about how Harry Potter became so famous and then you go into another room and sit down in a cinema room and watch as Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint talk about the making of the films for a bit. It ends with them walking through the Great Hall doors and then the screen lifts and the Great Hall door is right there! Magic!!! 

The Great Hall was amazing. They left the two outer tables there but had removed the two inner tables and they had displays of the different houses up and they had the actual costumes used there. Up at the front they had the actual costumes for each of the professors on display. When you're done looking at the Great Hall, the tour becomes self guided. We hung back for a bit while we waited for Callum and Will to come through. While we were waiting we saw that they give Harry Potter passports to kids and we wanted one way bad!! So we asked the workers and they secretly gave some to us. As you go through the tour there are six different places to stamp your passport. The next room you go in has the makeup tables, the different wigs, the Gryffindor common room, the front gates to Hogwarts, the Mirror of Erised, the Goblet of Fire, the chest that hides Moody in the fourth movie, the costumes worn by each character, the brooms used and how they fly in the movies, the Potions classroom, Dumbledore's office, the Ministry of Magic fireplaces, Umbridge's office, the statue of the Muggles in their rightful place, the Burrow, EVERYTHING!!!!!!!! I was overwhelmed. It was AMAZING!!!!! The originals of everything!! We could've gotten our picture on a broom in front of a green screen but the line was freakin long and the pictures were expensive. And that was just the first building! When we went to the next part, it was outside and there was the Knight Bus which you could get a picture on, there was Tom Riddle's gravestone with the Angel of Death, Privet Drive, the flying car, the Potter's house, the chess pieces, and the Hogwarts Bridge! We got butterbeer, which was divine, and got pictures of everything, and then we went to the next portion. The next room was how they made everything. They had the masks of the goblins and the puppets created to be Dobby and Kreacher. Apparently when Hagrid's whole body is in the shot, the actor who plays Hagrid wears a backpack that has a replica of his face on it that goes above his head (makes him look taller) and the replica blinks and moves it's mouth, and then he has stilts on and that is what makes Hagrid look so big. We saw Buckbeak and Aragog and the Horntail as well! When you walk around the corner, you're all of the sudden in Diagonal Alley! That part felt the most real because it was all together in one piece. It looked just like the movies. Gringotts, Ollivanders, Flourish and Blotts, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, all of it!! The next part is the architecture portion. So much effort went into the films, I can't even believe it. I wouldn't of had the patience for it. Then the next part has a mini landscape of Hogwarts and the Burrow, the Lovegood's home, the Prefect's bathroom, Dumbledore's office, etc. as you walk into the next room, your breathe gets taken away and you seriously have a HPSE (Harry Potter Spiritual Experience). It is Hogwarts in the flesh. It's the Hogwarts that they used to film aerial shots. They showed how the lights switched between day and night and how they filmed the castle and added Harry when he's being chased by the Hungarian Horntail. It was incredible. I was dying. And on top of it they were playing the Harry Potter music. It was literally the most magical experience ever. When you're done dying in that room, you walk into Ollivanders where there are thousands of wand boxes. Each box has the name of someone who helped in the film. So cool. Then the tour ends up in the gift shop. Where if Callum wouldn't have been monitoring me, I would've easily spent £3 million. I wanted a scarf, the House socks, Harry's Seeker shirt, a wand, a keychain to replace Tracie's broken one, all of it. (Sorry Tray, I didn't get it. It was majorly overpriced!!!) I ended up just getting a Gryffindor shirt and a patch for my travel backpack. But I kept the bag it all came in and my passport and it'll all be hung on my wall at home! 

When we left we took more pictures out front and then we went to store to get food for a BBQ. 

For our BBQ we had sausage avocado burgers (it's unheard of to put avocado in your burger ps) and mash. (You can probably guess that that's mashed potatoes). It was good!! We had a lovely time talking with Fiona during dinner :) 

After dinner we went to Callum's old school called Ashlyn's School (don't worry, she took a picture by the school sign) and we threw a disc around and played some football (soccer). Then we made up a game called frisbee-soccer, or as Kinsey's called it, Froccer. You have to be within the eighteen yard box and then you can throw the frisbee into the goal. All ultimate frisbee rules applied. We played boys vs girls. It was a tight game. We were only going to 5 and us girls were down 3-4. You had to win by 2. We came back so it was tied 4-4 and then they went ahead 5-4. We ended up scoring 3 in a row and WON. Champions even in England. 

I was a mess because I had slid around so much in the mud so we went back to Callum's and changed and then headed to a pub by the river called The Boat. Callum and Will got drinks while we got an awesome glass of tap water! Delish. We just chatted away the night and then it got pretty cold so we headed back and had ice cream and smartie cookies (essentially they are Sixlet cookies) and watched the second Harry Potter. We all passed out pretty hard. So they went to their rooms and fell asleep and I FaceTimed Jeffrey for a bit and then went as well. 

Amazing day to say the least. 

June 4, 2014

Set an alarm again. We're getting used to the time change finally! Had breakfast and then packed up and drove the 67 miles to the Gatwick airport, all the while singing our hearts out. 

We said goodbye and we could just tell that Will was gonna miss us so hard. 

After security we had to sit in this giant main area and wait for our gate to be announced. While we waited, we looked up stuff to do in Italy. This flight was awesome because it was the first time I didn't have a middle seat!! And I was even luckier and I got a window seat in the exit row! Then the snacks they hand out aren't peanuts or pretzels. They hand out full on chicken pesto wraps and chicken bacon rolls!!! British Airways sure knows how to treat us. Great flight :) 

When we were landing I was obviously looking out the window and Italy definitely wasn't what I expected. I expected red and tan old houses and old historic stuff but there was the ocean and then there was a lot of brown and green. Stepping off of the plane, we immediately felt the humidity. It got hot real fast. And we immediately felt lost. All of the signs were in Italian. Some had English as well and some didn't. We got on a train literally because that's what everyone else did. Luckily everyone knew what they were doing. We walked through the passport checkpoint like it was nothing. There wasn't a line or anything. England's was like 83 times worse. It took forever!! So it was nice to get through so quickly! We found a sign in English that said how to get to Rome and it gave us all of our options so we decided to follow the picture of the train because it seemed logical. Through all of the twists and turns and escalators we saw a tourist information desk so we stopped there. It was useless. All she said was to take a bus. So we followed the bus signs. We got our bus tickets outside from this way nice Italian man. And the bus had wifi! Winning! We sat at the very back and on our way back, I think I hit everyone I walked past with my backpack. On accident of course. 

The bus ride was the most terrifying ride ever. At first it wasn't bad because we were at the back and we were on a freeway-type road. But then we got into the city and it was utter chaos!! The roads are cobblestone and some have lines, some don't. Lanes don't matter to Italians! And neither does the distance between cars. Our bus driver would be hurling the bus towards stopped cars and then he would slam on his brakes and be probably 2 inches from the cars in front of him. So not only do they have maniacs for bus drivers but the people on Vespas are suicidal. They weave in and out of cars and buses, not paying attention to anything. It's carnage. For real. I was a stress bag the whole drive. We tried to ask our bus driver where we should get off that would be near the Trevi fountain but he didn't understand English so we had to ask this girl at the first bus stop and she said to go to the next stop. The next stop wasn't any closer to the Trevi fountain. According to google maps at least. 

We got off on the second stop and there were seriously 30 hotels just right there. Miracle. An Italian man tried talking to us. Didn't go well. We just said eyo no capisco (I don't understand). 

The only Italian phrases we know are (pardon my spelling): 

Eyo no capisco. I don't understand. 

Le capishe lingleza? Do you speak English? 

Bongiorno. Hello. 

Grazis. Thank you. 

Nailed it. 

Ashlyn went in to each hotel, one by one, and asked how much it was to stay. The plan was to pay for a single room and sneak two of us in because it would be cheaper. Ashlyn is a "hood rat" (her words) so she was gonna be the one sneaking us in. Finally down the road a ways we found the Hotel Floridia and it was only €90 so we decided to stick with that one. Ashlyn went in and paid and went up to the room to drop her stuff off. Her plan was to come down and grab our bags and take them to the room and then we would just sneak in later that night. We didn't know her plan so we casually walked in and thought we were being nonchalant and we started waking up the stairs. The receptionist came from behind her desk and immediately started questioning us. We were like our friend is staying here and we're meeting her down here." So she directed us to a couch that we had to sit on. When she went back to her desk, Ashlyn had come down the stairs and saw that we were in there so she turned around and mouthed that she was on the third floor. So we tried to be SO SNEAKY and walk up the stairs as quietly as we could. We got to her room with ease. We thought we had gotten away with it but then the crazy receptionist called her room to see where we were! So Ashlyn said we would come down so we left our stuff in her room and went down. The receptionist stopped Ashlyn but Kinsey and I continued to walk outside. Ashlyn came out a few minutes later and said that the receptionist wanted us to go get our bags. She was good at what she did. So we ran and grabbed our bags and when we got to the room we talked for seriously like 30 seconds and the receptionist called again to see if we were coming down. She was relentless! So we went down and she started yelling at us. "I don't know you! I don't have your passport information! You just go up the stairs and I don't know you!" We were like sorry in America it's very different! (Our usual excuse) and she was like we not in America! We in Italy and I don't know you! So we ended up apologizing to her and just upgrading our room to a 3-person. 

After that fiasco, we were very scared of Italians. It's scary being in a country that isn't predominantly English speaking! 

This was our splurge night so we went to a nice restaurant called Restaurante Barbablu. It seemed like a seafood restaurant so we tried to ask the doorman if they just had spaghetti with meatballs and it took us like ten minutes to ask. Finally Ashlyn said carne and they understood us. So we sat outside and it was seriously the most Italian experience ever. We sat outside on the cobblestone with a wooden fence and a fancy red overhang as a ceiling. We had water in wine glasses, spaghetti with meatballs, and we had a guitarist play for us and a man with an accordion. He loved us!! He complimented me on my "grazis" accent. At least I think he complimented me. He barely spoke English so it was fun trying to communicate with him. We also had a ton of Vespas drive past us which just added to the Italian experience. 

After we ate, he brought us our check and a complimentary glass of this yellowish liquid. He said it was lemon juice. Right as Ashlyn was tasting it, I was smelling it, and Kinsey was asking if it had alcohol in it. It smelled like the lemon wood cleaner my mom uses. Ashlyn was like yeah it has alcohol right as I was dipping my finger in it and tasting it. It was disgusting. It burnt my tongue and lips and I only had a drop!! They were complimentary so we wanted to be nice and look like we drank all of it so luckily Kinsey had ordered a Sprite and they had brought it in a can so we poured the nasty lemon crap into the Sprite can and took it with us when we left. And threw it away in the next dumpster. We walked around but we were way nervous because we are in the sketchiest part of Rome! It feels like the streets of Harlem in New York. Way sketch. 

We had our first gelato experience and it was rough. We happened upon a gelato shop and we tested a few of the flavors. Ashlyn tried one and said it tasted like coffee so her and Kinsey got that one and a cookies n cream one. I got two scoops of the cookies n cream one :) so Kinsey licks the coffee one and immediately stops and says does this one have peanuts? So I asked the man and sure enough it did. So her and I had to switch gelato cups. And we made sure she was ok, she said she felt fine, and while we were standing there deciding if she was ok or not, this man creepily started circling us. Ashlyn and I noticed him right away. I made eye contact with him and gave him my most threatening look and then we started just walking. Luckily he didn't follow us or anything. We went into a random hotel lobby to see if they had wifi and to get away from that man and waited for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped in to a few souvenir shops. In one of them we were debating on getting matching bracelets and the dude working followed us everywhere! He didn't speak English but he thought we were gonna steal stuff! So we stole stuff and left. Ok just kidding ha we just left. Got to the hotel safely! Locked ourselves in our room and the stupid tv wouldn't work so we just planned the next day and went to bed. 

Italy sure treated us right the first night.... Dinner was definitely perfect though. 

Ciao. 

June 5, 2014 

Bongiorno! 

First day in Italy. We decided to start the day off early so we woke up at 7 and went to the free breakfast provided by the hotel. It was for petite people I'm pretty sure. The cereal tasted like cardboard. They did have the fruit mix that we had back in junior high though! So that was good. We were delirious so we were laughing at everything. I spent like 10 minutes picking peaches out of the fruit bowl and draining the juice so I could put them in my yogurt and when I got to the table, I accidentally pulled the tablecloth and my yogurt fell onto the table and spilled all of the peaches out. Their maid definitely hated us. 

After breakfast, we gathered our belongings and headed to Baci Bici. Right when we stepped out of our hotel there was a farmers market on our street! We knew it would be a good day. We walked through the stands and then went on our way. Rome is HARD to navigate through and yours truly was the navigator. I had a map. That was it. I used the compass on my phone to point us in the right direction. So of course, we got lost right off the bat. But I got the hang of it! We eventually found the bike rental place and we decided to rent Vespas! It was a decision that took awhile though because in order to rent the Vespas they had to block off €400 on your credit card and they didn't accept mine because the numbers on my card don't stand out. So we felt sketched out about it. We ended up only being able to rent two Vespas because Kinsey's card was the only one that would work and it could only do two Vespas. Which was fine! They let us leave our bags at their store luckily. I was so glad. I did not wanna carry that thing around with me all day. 

And then we were off. Driving in Rome is the WORST. I was the leader/navigator and Ashlyn drove her and Kinsey on the other Vespa. In Rome, there are roads that are strictly for buses and taxis and if you go on them, you get fined €100. So not only did we have to be completely aware so we didn't get annihilated by the Italian drivers, we had to keep an eye out for the bus and taxi lanes AND Rome is made of one way roads. It was serious chaos. Our first destination was the Coliseum. Luckily we found it pretty easily. Finding a parking spot was another thing. There are no rules for driving in Italy. And that goes for parking as well. Or so it looks. Cars and Vespas will be parked anywhere and everywhere. The sidewalks, the middle of roads, anywhere. But when we tried to park, we got yelled at by multiple Italians saying we'd get fined. But we learned :) we found parking finally and walked the little ways to the Coliseum. 

They had men dressed as Roman soldiers all over the place. Of course it cost money to get a picture with them. We wandered around the Coliseum for a while. Tried to give ourselves a tour since we weren't a part of any. Tried to join a few tours but got bored. So we left. It was way cool though!!! It's crazy how old it is! Super cool to see. 

We headed back to the Vespas and just started driving. Our end goal was Vatican City but I just wanted to see things. So I just followed traffic and Ashlyn followed. Rome is so cool. Everywhere you go, you just make a turn and there's Roman ruins just in the middle of the city. And so many incredible buildings! We went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers and then we stopped at this adorable cafe and got gelato. We ran into about a million one way roads but I just kept driving so needless to say, I got us pretty lost. But luckily I knew which direction we were from the Vatican so eventually, after turning a lot and asking one lady who didn't speak any English, we made it! Turned the corner and St Peter's Basilica appeared. And let me tell you, it was a sight to behold. Vespas are awesome because you can get right up to the place you want to go and there's parking there. Just a side note. 

So we parked and walked to the Basilica and to get inside there was the longest line ever so we walked to the front and just joined the cue. And it worked! Brilliant. 

We had to go through security to get in and then we had to put on our dresses. That Basilica was INSANE. hard to even put into words how amazing it is! Everything is so intricate and the architecture was beautiful! It was just.... Ah. I'm speechless. Which is funny because look how long this post is. 

Anyway, we walked out and then we wanted to head to the Sestine Chapels but one guard said it closed at 4. It was 4:10 :( this couple overheard us talking about it so they came over and said they asked another guard and he had said it closed at 5 so we asked another guard and he said 7. So we decided to walk there ourselves and find out. This couple was the coolest!! She was from Ireland and she had moved to New Zealand and that's where the guy was from. Their accents were muy bueno. We had a good chat with them as we walked over but come to find out, it closed at 4. Fail. But we were there!! Hopefully we can make it there when we get back to Rome. 

After getting to our scooters, we headed to the Trevi fountain. I actually got us there! Only made a few wrong turns! The fountain was awesome! It will always remind me of the Lizzie McGuire movie. Super pretty!! We took pictures by it and then we decided to head back to the bike rental place before it closed. We got there in no time! I had finally figured out the map and Rome!! Too bad it was over. We dropped them off and we were super lucky because the train station was super close! The bus that first day dropped us off in the perfect location and we didn't even know it! 

So we walked to the train station and waited in line for five years and finally got our tickets. Italians have no sense of time. They take forever to do anything. And they awe quick to yell. We are now immune to them yelling at us. It's just funny because we have no idea what they're saying. 

After we got our ticket, we tried to get Euros in cash but the lady said in order to do that with our card, it would only be worth it if we got like €500 out. We went against that. So then we got food. And just about anything looked good at that point. We got these salads and they gave us salt and olive oil as dressing. It was disgusting. The sandwiches we got were way good though! And the Sprite never tasted so good. Our train platform was like two miles away so the trek there sucked because all we wanted to do was eat and sit. Finally we made it and just vegged. We all fell asleep simultaneously. And the train ride was a lot longer than we thought. We ended up doing yoga in the middle of it because we were so stiff. 

Finally we arrived in Florence!! We took a taxi to the house we were staying at. Ashlyn found this lady named Heather on an LDS couch surfing website and her and her husband are so nice! The second we walked in, he started talking about the Holy Ghost. So cool. He said, you're home now what do you want? Cereal? Protein? Water? Ha so funny. Their house is huge! And they do so much with their lives. They each have their own businesses and six children to take care of. And their location is beautiful! It's gonna be a good trip. 

Ciao until tomorrow!