St. Patrick's Day

Just a late note on St. Patrick’s Day. Because St. Patrick’s Day is now celebrated everywhere, becoming more of an occasion for those with Irish blood now living outside Ireland. Before coming to London, I assumed that the English would probably avoid this holiday, and most things Irish in general, simply because of the fraught history between the two countries.

This is an absolutely untrue and pretty unfair assessment. Turns out there are a lot of people in England with Celtic ancestry, who want to do justice to the small holiday.

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day a little closer to its homeland, a pub chain in London (we can ignore for now the fact that there are actually a few of these bars in the States as well) called O’Neills (fittingly) was pulling out all the stops to go Irish. Bartenders were wearing full out green, white and orange. Pints of Guinness were buy one, get one free. And they were even giving out these cool top-hats to anyone who asked for them. (Side note: these can cause a surprising amount of controversy. Who wants what hat? Where did my hat go? Stop stealing hats!)

Needless to say, St. Patrick’s Day is just as big here as it is in the States. Unfortunately, I don’t think they dye the Thames River green like they do in Chicago, but the feeling is still here.

Besides that, who wouldn’t want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? An excuse to have some fun in the middle of otherwise boring March? Yes, please.

Olympics 2012

Tickets for the London 2012 Summer Olympic games officially went on sale yesterday, March 15th. Since then, I think I've noticed a lot of energy buzzing around the London Olympics.

First, I tweeted about the official Countdown Clock being set up in Trafalgar Square yesterday, marking 500 days until July 27, 2012. (This date also happens to represent my 22nd birthday!) The BT Tower also had a nice little fireworks display to celebrate the 500 day mark.

This morning, I read on the BBC that the Countdown Clock had also broken down yesterday. Which is just depressing. Honestly, it seems like a bad omen, doesn't it?

Then I read how Iran dislikes the London 2012 Olympics symbol, because it apparently spells "Zion."

Uh, ok?

They are also having problems in the ticket sales, as only Visa cardholders are able to buy them online at the moment.

Ok, minor glitches. Still, what is going on with the Olympics? Or is it the '2012' part? Eek.

Either way, these are all problems that I hope London gets sorted out before the Opening Ceremony begins. Not only because I think they're going to be fantastic in London, but because I will probably be going crazy with happiness watching them on my birthday.

In other news, there was a Chelsea football fan march down my block in London just before 6 p.m. tonight. I was just hanging out in my room, when I suddenly hear people chanting down the street. And when I open my window, there are hundred of men, dressed in Chelsea blue and white, walking down the street on their way to the Chelsea match.

Uh, awesome?

There were also some policemen on horses to the left of this shot, and police cars followed behind them. All the fans were singing (what I'm guessing are) Chelsea songs and I was reminded of the whole college football pre-party. (Badgers!)

So I hope Chelsea wins tonight.

That's all for now! Cheers!

Of Sun and Disasters

For the past few days, it has been obvious around London-town that Spring is on the way. In a city that spends the majority of the year overcast, people definitely celebrate when the sun is shining. Everyone you meet seems more cheerful and even tourists bouncing around the Tube seem more excited by historic London.

Which is why, when the sun came out (finally) for a Saturday afternoon, I decided not to waste the opportunity and visit Hyde Park. It's a short journey from my house and the views of the park are absolutely amazing. People were going out on the lake on paddle-boats, roller blading, walking with their dogs, biking and just out enjoying the sunshine. I even saw two people on horses.

It's absolutely beautiful, and some flowers were already in bloom. It's been a balmy 50 degrees Fahrenheit in London lately, which I think many Londoners may consider still fairly cold but I consider spring. (One London lesson I've realized, though, is that the English seem to have a huge appreciation for the green space in their country and cities. I suspect this is because the English people haven't always had open space to enjoy, whereas Americans have had thousands of acres of land to do where they can do whatever the want.)

I would love to see this in the summer, although it may also be completely swamped with people through June, July and August.

Still. Beautiful.


So that was my outing for the weekend. Schoolwork has been taking over my life as of late, but I will try to share as much as I can when I can.

In other news, there was obviously a huge earthquake in Japan on Friday. And there's nothing like this headline at the end of the day to put your life in perspective:

This has shocked me. At first because of the best friend I have studying in Japan and the family of another best friend who lives in Japan. Luckily, they were both fine. Then, I was shocked because of the extent of the damage Japan has seen over the last few days. So best of luck to everyone still in Japan! Stay safe and best wishes!

Edinburgh, Scotland

I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend! It was my first weekend excursion outside of London, and it was an amazing city to have my first solo travel experience. Outside coming to London, of course.

So here are some of the highlights of Scotland's capital city, all of which I visited!

Edinburgh Castle
This castle is breathtaking. It sits above Princes Street Gardens, giving you amazing views of the city once you reach the top of the hill.

The castle reminded me slightly of Tower of London, except with a reputation more associated with Mary Queen of Scots and less associated with the beheading of Henry VIII's wives [correction because I haven't memorized all of the Kings and Queens of England. Apologies.]

Inside the castle, we saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, also known as the Honours of Scotland. This includes the Stone of Destiny, on which apparently the monarchs of Scotland were crowned and every monarch of the United Kingdom continues to be crowned. The Honours were put in a chest and locked up for slightly more than 100 years after the Acts of Union (unifying the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England into the Parliament of Great Britain). These were also hidden during World War II, and only four people in the world knew where they were.

And now they're on display for tourists.

The Castle also includes an interesting Prisoners of War exhibit, where they even kept a few American revolutionaries. They even pointed out an American flag carved into the original prison doors and an etching denouncing King George III.

We learned a lot about the history of Scotland throughout the castle, so I would definitely recommend it. However much of a Tourist Trap it may be.


Whisky Experience
So the Scottish have a thing about their whisky, which is why we decided to invest in a trip to the Scotch Whisky Experience. We learned all about how whisky is made and then stored and how some of it is "lost to the angels." Aka: evaporates.

Most importantly, we were able to try each of the four main Scottish whiskys, each from a different region of Scotland: Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside and Isla.

The organization also had the largest collection of unopened bottles of Scotch Whisky. The oldest of these was a bottle from the 1890s.

The Whisky experience was also totally worth it. If not just to learn that Scotch whisky is indeed spelled without an 'e.'


Holyrood Park
Another one of the amazingly beautiful parks in Edinburgh was Holyrood Park.

It's also amazingly tall.

Nonetheless, we decided to climb this hill for the infamous panoramic views of the city.

We were told the climb itself would take a half hour at the longest. However, since it was cold, we decided to stop along the way and we weren't the most athletic people on the planet, it took us about 45 minutes.

Still, the views were completely worth it:



In short, I would love to see this city in the summer.

Also, I feel decidedly more in shape than I did before I left London. Pretty sure it was the combination of climbing this hill and the sudden fresh air.





I must also add that the hostel experience was not bad at all. It's a lot like a college dormitory, except not everyone speaks English and it's ridiculously temporary. The staff there also recommended some great restaurants and sights for us to check out, 90% of which were worth the mapping out it took to find them.

Edinburgh also has a rich history associated with Harry Potter. We stopped to have lunch at Spoon, a cafe and the site where J.K. Rowling originally penned the series. The Balmoral Hotel also happens to be where she finished the series. I couldn't help but love the city.

Overall, Edinburgh easily became one of my favorite places I've ever visited. The people were nice and welcoming, the food was delicious (although I got scared and didn't try haggis), and the city itself - even in the cold - was beautiful.