London

So on May 20th, Michelle and I *finally* took a train down to London. 'Have you been to London yet?' and 'How's London?' have been two questions I've received with some frequency from people back home. It was really about time we explored England's capital.

Michelle had a high school friend, Almas, studying in London and she generously volunteered her room to us. (She was out of town for most of our time there.) First order of business in London:

Conveniently Almas lives super close to King's Cross. The day after we returned to Lancaster, they were filming a scene from the new Harry Potter movie in King's Cross. Such bad luck. :(

Our first night in London we mostly hung about, but the next day we properly began weaving our way through the sights of London.

Big Ben!


Buckingham Palace!


Soldiers in funny hats!


Elephant statues!


We also saw two shows while in London: Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre and Henry VII at the Globe. Neither Michelle and I had ever seen/read Henry VII before, so it was a test of our English major might to see if we could follow it. I missed some of the finer points, but for the most part followed it quite well, though I'm sure that had something to do with how brilliantly it was put on. If I lived in London, I would see as many Shakespeare plays as I could. (And you can't beat the ticket price: just 5 quid for a "groundling" or standing ticket.)

Outside view of the Globe:


Inside the Globe:


Michelle and I also went to the British Museum, the Tate Modern, and the London museum. One of the nice things about the UK is that all of their museums are FREE. All three museums were very awesome. I could have easily spent all day in the British Museum. It just went on forever and ever. (I had to hit up the Japanese Gallery before we left, of course.)

It was incredibly hot in London the entire time we were there, but thankfully London has quite large and beautiful parks to rest in. Doesn't this look like heaven?



After a lovely time in London it was back to Lancaster for (gulp) finals.

Wales

Almost as soon as we returned to Lancaster, Michelle and I went on a trip organized through Lancaster Uni to go to Wales for a day trip (May 1st). We didn't know when next we'd get a chance to see anything of Wales, so even though we were still recovering from our 5 weeks roaming the European continent, we jumped at the chance to go.

In the first town we went to, we explored a castle and walked around the town a smidgen.

Inside the castle


Michelle in a tower


The king's toilet


The other town we went to was having a fair, so the streets were packed full of carnival rides, games and events. We didn't partake in any, but it was nice to just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.







The little bit of Wales we were able to see was fantastic and all the people we bumped into were incredibly friendly. (One old man chased me down the street because I'd forgotten my water bottle inside his store and he didn't want me to be without it.)
It was a tad rainy, but that's only to be expected over on this side of the pond. Overall, it was a nice little trip (and one where we didn't have to search for a hostel, so it was already fantastic just for that reason alone!).

Barcelona

We were back in Barcelona (where we had previously been stuck a week or so prior for 4 hours) and it was the final leg in our European tour.
Our first full day in Barcelona (April 18th), Michelle and I went to the Picasso Museum, which was quite nice, and saw a church and some random old people dancing in the square outside it.



We spent much of the rest of our day exploring Barcelona. It was good we were becoming familiar with the city, because this happened:



So... we knew we were going to be seeing a lot more of Barcelona than we had originally intended as our flight would most likely be canceled (though we held out hope that we just might make it back to Lancaster on time).

April 19th was Michelle's 21st birthday, so we went to her favorite place on Earth...
the beach!







Lori, a Beloiter we met in Sevilla, was also staying in Barcelona so we met up with her for dinner and went out for Chinese food... again. It was really good and I was my usual gluttonous self. :)



I also got an email from my host family, so that cheered me up a quite a bit and did I ever need cheering up, because the next day our flight back to the United Kingdom was canceled because of all the volcanic ash in the air.

The Icelandic volcano mishap did cause us to bond a little bit with some of our fellow travelers in our hostel who were also stuck. You know you're having a real study abroad experience when you're in Barcelona playing spoons with two Brits (one of whom is an English lord), an Australian, and a college student studying in the Czech Republic.

Michelle and I had quite a bit of extra time in Barcelona, (I was leaving on the 27th, and she the 26th.) so we didn't have to worry about trying to pack our days full of activities. Just by leisurely exploring Barcelona over the next week, we saw a whole heck of a lot.

The Olympic stadium


On top of Castle Montjuic


Tibidabo theme park (for my 21st birthday)


Park Guell


And much, much more. Suffice it to say, we really became familiar with getting around Barcelona and by the end of it, were no longer newbies at navigating the Barcelona metro system.

While it was nice to see pretty much everything there is to see (for a tourist) in Barcelona, I was happy to get back to Lancaster and relax. (Well, I didn't do much relaxing because I had my portfolio and dissertation due almost as soon as I returned to Lancaster!)

Although traveling was tiresome at times and wore me out, it was a fantastic experience getting to see places I never thought I would step foot in (and places I never knew existed!). But seeing all the cities and places I did only made me realize how little I've actually seen of Europe and has really made me want to come back here one day and see a little more.