Helena's Super Secret Ninja Missions

So I really miss 24-hour places. London, as cosmopolitan as it may be, does not seem to have many things that stay open throughout the day. In fact, the only place I can really think of is the Tesco Metro across the street from the Russell Square station. The other night my roommate, J, was hungry but lacked snack food and since it was well past midnight, she wasn't able to find a place that was still open to deliver food to her. It was terribly tragic. A lot of my friends on this program tend to talk about this a lot--places in New York that are open all the time. However, I suppose I have this problem when I'm on campus as well. It was just never so...salient, in my opinion. I'm not quite sure why.

Another thing is that pubs have a tendency to close down at midnight or so. The bartenders will literally kick you out. Well, not literally. I have yet to see someone tossed out of a pub, like they are in movies and such. I just find this phenomenon really bizarre.

I hate that the tube closes at midnight. Although I know that I am centrally located, I find it quite constraining. Just because I don't necessarily need the tube doesn't mean I don't want the option, right? I realize that the Barcelona metro closed at midnight on most nights, but at least it stayed open until 2 AM on Fridays and all night on Saturdays. Yes, I miss Barcelona immensely.

I know this will make me sound like a nerd, but I seriously miss the library, especially during times like this, when I have tons of papers to write before a deadline that is rapidly approaching. I know, I really should get off my blog right now and continue writing/reading for my classes, but there's only so much research a girl can do before all the words start blurring together and losing all meaning. Like the word 'laborer.' I really feel like I've typed that so many times that it doesn't mean anything anymore. Of course that could also be due to the fact that it's currently...quite late. Or, you could look at it another way--I'm awake at an abnormally early time. It's almost miraculous that I'm still (for the most part) going strong. Clearly, my level of productivity peaked a few hours ago, but for the most part, I'm still typing coherent thoughts. My sentences might be a bit choppy but at the very least, everything is spelled correctly and is grammatically correct.

So if you're wondering why I've been blogging more often in the past week than I did in the whole month of January, you have your answer. I'm procrastinating. Which shouldn't be a surprise to most people who know me.

Here's to libraries that are open 24 hours a day! London really should get on that. The Senate House Library isn't even open on Sundays. I find that absolutely mind-boggling. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to spend my Sundays either sleeping or doing homework for Monday (considering I have seven hours of class on Mondays, it's necessary). So where do British college students study on Sundays?!

Last weekend, I went on a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was a bit underwhelming (honestly, I probably would have enjoyed it more had it been sunny when I'd gone) but I absolutely loved Bath. By the time we arrived in our second destination, it was lovely and sunny, allowing us to fully enjoy the beauty and architecture of the small town.

We started off with a walking tour through the area, in which the tour guide pointed out several notable sights, including the Royal Crescent, the Bath Abbey, and the Pulteney Bridge, which is one of the world's most beautiful bridges, as well as one of the few bridges with shops built into it. The guide actually mentioned another bridge that fits this criteria--the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, which makes me all the more excited to see it during spring break with K!

Outside the Bath Abbey, there's two statues and apparently one of them lost their heads a while back. Note the space between the head and the...top bit. Anyway, they sculpted a new face out of the beard.

After the tour, we had lunch at Sally Lunn's, which is located in the oldest house in Bath. Incidentally, it sells buns, and I can't recommend it enough! I finally had scones with jam and clotted cream. I know I've had that before, but this time, it was in the U.K. Therefore, it's completely different, I promise. Also, apparently Charles Dickens was a fan of Sally Lunn's buns as well. 

Here's a picture of half of a Sally Lunn bun (I actually really love saying that, in case you didn't realize). It was delicious.

Here's an image of the Roman Baths.

Although I did not manage to get inside the Jane Austen Centre (our time was limited), I did manage a picture with the mannequin outside. I also read reviews saying that the museum is a bit of a tourist trap, which I can believe, especially given the fact that the aforementioned mannequin exists. So I suppose I didn't miss much.

Here's to sunshine! Now that I'm living in London, I get abnormally excited when I see a glimpse of sun. And I tend to keep track of how many times I see sunshine in a week.

So I was recently inspired by M, who has blogged twelve times since the start of the semester, to try to get back on track with this blog. I've done a lot of exploring since I last updated. For one thing, the program put us all on a bus and gave us a three hour tour around London, which was a good way for us to get our bearings. The tour guide informed us that we basically live within walking distance of all the places that we passed by on the tour, including tourist attractions such as the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament.

They also showed us Australia House, which was apparently where they filmed the Gringotts scenes of the Harry Potter movies. However, I still have not been to Platform 9 3/4.

Although we were not on one of those red double deckers, I did seize the chance to ride one of those when F and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was great to see her, especially considering that we hadn't seen each other since high school (!). Although we didn't get to all the exhibits, I felt quite fatigued by the end of the adventure. If you go, I recommend that you check out the Glass and Greek sculpture exhibits; they were my favorites. Also, I enjoy that basically all the main museums in London are free, including the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. Quite recently, J and I went to the British Museum because she needed to see a specific exhibit for one of her classes. To be honest, we only saw about four rooms out of...dozens, reasoning that we'll have plenty of time to return. I definitely need to return at least one more time to see the Rosetta Stone and more Greek exhibits! K, you in?

Some of you from last semester may remember my love of markets. Given that London has tons of them, I've made a point of seeing them. A few days after a walking tour of Camden, a group of us returned to explore Camden Market, which is one of the largest markets I've ever seen, full alternative fashion and antiques, along with the usual--clothing and food. There were so many different branches and it seemed to stretch on forever. I'm sure we didn't get to all of it, despite having spent about three (!!) hours there. However I'm sure I'll return before I depart, especially since I did not see the London Zoo or visit Primrose Hill, both of which are nearby. I'll probably actually end up doing both of those things next weekend.

Some of the flatmates and I also went to the Portobello Road market, which is apparently the world's largest antiques market, in addition to selling produce and secondhand clothes.

I saw this sign on the side of the market and thought it was very cute. I think Barcelona prepared me for pickpockets though.

G and J had the misfortune of getting seafood paella from this particular stall. It was disgusting. I can't really fault them on their presentation though.

Here's one of the performers at the Covent Garden market. He was hilarious! Also, apparently the word 'busking' means street performance. You learn something new every day.

Aside from markets in London, I also managed to visit one in Greenwich on a day trip. Standing at the Prime Meridian was slightly anticlimactic, but nevertheless worth the trek to the Royal Observatory.

Here's to lovely markets! I have plans to see Borough market and Brick Lane market this weekend, and I have high expectations.

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Towards the end of my semester in Barcelona, I spent a great deal of time trying to fit in as many must-see sites as possible, but I definitely did not have enough time to do everything I wanted to do. It seemed that all those days of sleeping-in had finally caught up to me. I remember that R and I went to the Christmas market (Santa Llucia), which had tons of different caganers and caga tíos. The stalls had both traditional caganers and ones of celebrities, which were especially amusing.

Later that day, we also went to see the Montjuic fountain show, which was unfortunately under construction when I tried to go with K. It was rather impressive, though I must note that if one wants to sit on the steps at night in the winter, one should probably opt for pants instead of tights (even in Barcelona). If you wish to see a picture of this show, I would suggest either going there in person or using Google, because at that point, I (more or less) decided that it would be a better idea to enjoy the show than to waste time snapping pictures. Besides, I'm sure that I could not have captured the full majesty of the fountain anyway.

On another occasion, A and I went to Fundació Joan Miró, which I really enjoyed. All of his works seem to have the same elements: stars, women, men, ladders, birds... As time went on, we became progressively more skilled at identifying each of these elements (they're fairly abstract). Anyway I recommend this as well.

Later, A, her host mom, L, and I (finally!) went inside Sagrada Familia. I've seen the outside of it countless times, and in my opinion, the outside is nothing compared to the inside. It was absolutely gorgeous, and A was able to tell us several interesting facts about the church, due to the fact that she opted to use the audio guide the last time she went. 

It's as if you're in a forest!

So my departure from Barcelona was actually more bitter than sweet, given the fact that I decided not to go directly home like my fellow students. Therefore, I did not return home for the holidays; instead, I proceeded to travel to Sevilla (where I spent Christmas), Cordoba, and Madrid (for New Year's), all of which were lovely in their own way. I wish I could say that it was significantly warmer further south, but this was not the case. Despite this, the extended time in Spain was definitely worth it, but I'm not going to go into that right now, since it is fairly late and I have my first classes tomorrow.

I spent about two and a half weeks in New York (not nearly enough time, if you ask me) before flying across the pond (yes, I'm going to start trying to use English terminology as much as humanly possible). Being on the group flight was great because I was able to meet D on the plane, and I didn't know anyone in the program before. In fact, they wouldn't even tell us who our roommates were before we arrived! We had to wait and be surprised.

Anyway, the plane arrived in London on Wednesday, and I proceeded to my flat, which I am sharing with four other women in my program. We have a kitchen, two (abnormally small?) bathrooms, and two refrigerators. There isn't much else to say...My flatmates have been great so far. I got a great little cell phone with the Orange network, and hopefully this time, the back won't fall off. I still do not know how to cook, so if you would like to send me any (simple!) tips, they would be much appreciated.

Fun fact: the beds are on wheels. It is quite inconveniencing when one wishes to get on or off their bed. One of these days, I will simply fall on my bum (okay, now I feel slightly ridiculous).

Here's to the end of an era. And the start of a new one. (Also, is it weird that as I wrote this post, I was narrating in my head with a British accent?)

During Thanksgiving weekend, I met up with my cousin, S, again--this time in Paris! The previous weekend, when K visited, she taught me a bit of French so I felt fairly prepared for France. Or at least more prepared than I felt when I went to Germany and the Netherlands. She taught me several key phrases, as shown below:

Parlez vous anglais? - Do you speak English?
Oú sont les toilettes? - Where are the restrooms?
Je suis de New York. - I am from New York.

Of course, food vocabulary is clearly more important. Obviously I should have asked her more about that, but I suppose I was able to manage well enough.

One of the first things I did upon arrival on Friday (aside from spending two hours getting to the city center and then getting completely lost) was get a three cheese crêpe, which was followed up by a crêpe aux sucré (i.e. one with sugar). They were delicious, course! G and I got them from this lovely place nearby Notre Dame, which S and I saw on Sunday morning during mass.

We actually picked the perfect time to go--there was no line to get in, and the service really contributed to the environment. Later on that day, we saw a huuuge line of people waiting to get into the church and we were very grateful that we'd already gone.

For dinner on Friday, I had a cream of broccoli soup with smoked salmon, followed by some sort of white fish (that's how the waitress translated it, at least) from the formule, which is their fixed menu. I really enjoyed it.

On Saturday, for breakfast, I had two croissants and a meringue (my first one!).

S and I went out for (more!) crêpes! She had a smoked salmon one, which I really enjoyed.

This was my crêpe confiture/(orange) jam crepe. Hooray for new food vocabulary!

Speaking of orange things, S was abnormally excited to try a new flavor of Orangina, which I don't understand. Why are there different flavors? Shouldn't it just be...orange-flavored? Anyway, we bought a giant bottle of some random flavor and drank about 10%. On Sunday night, we realized that we barely drank any of and that neither of us could bring it back with us, so I gave it away.

We also went on a walking tour of Paris, in which we spent more time snapping photos than we did paying attention to the guide, who I'm sure was very interesting. To be fair, I did pay attention to some parts. For example, I did not know that Hitler tried to have Paris burned to the ground, but I know now. I really feel like I got a lot accomplished on that tour; we saw so many sites. After three and a half hours, we walked down the Champs-Elysées Christmas market...

At the market, we shared a chocolate waffle and a sugary pretzel-shaped donut. I believe we were too ravenous to get pictures of the latter. This only reminds me that I still have yet to get such a waffle in Barcelona. I've had a square or two of someone else's but that hardly counts.

We walked down Champ Elysees, which was gorgeous, especially with all the lights, but we didn't do any shopping during the whole trip (aside from souvenir shopping, that is--I bought about a billion postcards).

Our service at dinner was sub-par, but the goat cheese salad, codfish dish, and crème brûlée were excellent! I don't know if I already mentioned this in one of my blog posts, but I actuallly went to a cooking class recently, in which I seized the opportunity to use a butane torch to finish off the crema catalana. It was so much fun! I may have missed my calling.

On Sunday, I woke up super early to shower and eat a lovely breakfast of croissants, rolls, and tea before planning the day. We started off with a trip to the catacombs, which I could have done without.

The bones of six million Parisians freaked me out, even with the (sometimes) whimsical designs. If I could have exited immediately, I would have.

We stopped for a coffee break at a McDonalds nearby the catacombs.

I was astonished to see that one can order on a computer. There was also a self-service coffee maker. It reminded me a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when Charlie's father is out of a job because he'd been replaced by a machine.

So most people who know me also know that I absolutely love books. In fact, I just finished Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal a few days ago--it was great! I mean, obviously I've already read it in English, but doing it in Spanish was a completely different experience. Anyway, in Paris, there's this great bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.

If I lived in Paris, I would literally go all the time.

After an extensive photo shoot in Shakespeare and Company, we had a leisurely two-hour lunch at La Fourmi Ailée, a restaurant that used to be a bookstore.

The cashier at Shakespeare and Company recommended it to us. It had a lovely environment and we had such a sincere, friendly waiter.

S and I shared another goat cheese salad! I am such a fan of those.

This was followed by a salmon (and spinach) quiche. When I saw the size of the dishes, I understood why the waiter was shocked when I wanted to order both the salad and the quiche. I definitely could have done without the salad, given that I seem to eat those types of salads all the time.
After the sunset, we climbed the 700-something steps to the second level of the Eiffel Tower! It was well worth the effort. We had an amazing view and took tons of pictures, none of which will be shown here.

I do think that the manically flashing lights are a bit much. The Eiffel Tower looks great in this picture because you can't see that the lights are flashing.

In my opinion, it looks significantly more majestic and sophisticated without the flashing lights.

I was actually quite devastated when I thought that I wouldn't have the chance to buy macarons (who knows when I'll be in Paris again? Although I would definitely love to return with S in five years!), but at around 9, I found a restaurant that had them and I bought a box of eight. Hopefully they're delicious!

My flight back to Barcelona was at 7:40 AM, so I woke up super early to get all my stuff ready and hop on the train to the airport. It was slightly ridiculous; the flight landed about an hour after it was supposed to. I suppose it worked out okay though; I was able to sleep for an extra hour, bringing it to a grand total of eight, albeit not continuous.

Here's to more adventures with my cousin! I'm sorry that the Spanish air traffic controllers are striking, but I can't wait to see her in New York!

This past weekend, I went to Berlin with my cousin, S, who wanted to go because she met someone who told her how amazing it was. We were totally fine without knowledge of the German language, by the way. When I arrived, I spent about two hours on a mission to find Deutsche Bank. In my defense, I had basically just arrived, so I didn't know the area at all and I was distracted by monuments and random novelties, such as this vendor.

He was just selling some sort of sausage...S got a picture of one of them with an umbrella attached. So prepared.

When S arrived, we went on a tour with Asoka (from Boston/Columbia University!) who showed us all these sites and told us so much about them, in a way that was really quite interesting. Among other things, we saw Museum Island, the Berlin Wall (of course), the Brandenburger Tor, and Potsdamer Platz. We also saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, which was much larger than we anticipated. From the outskirts of the memorial, you wouldn't think that the walls would be so tall on the inside...

One of the best parts was the Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers am Gendarmenmarkt. It was rather remniscient of the Chocolate Museum in Barcelona, with the elaborate chocolate sculptures. Needless to say, I bought a bunch of chocolate.

This is a chocolate version of the Brandenburger Tor.

K sent me several recommendations for what to do/eat in Germany, since he was actually there for a while. Thus, I had currywurst, pretzels, Fanta...I really wanted to get spaghettieis--it seems so cool! It's an ice cream dish that looks like spaghetti. Completely up my alley. Anyway S and I shared a great pretzel outside of the Reichstay, which was pretty amazing in and of itself. It was well worth the wait. Here's one of many pictures I took of the Reichstag.

This is a picture of the top...it was awesome, especially because of the weather!

On Saturday we were pleasantly surprised by the great weather--the sun was shining and it was relatively warm. I don't think it was warm enough to go to the beach, like B (and presumably C) did in Barcelona, but I'll take what I can get!

Sometimes getting lost is really one of the best things that can happen to you. S and I were on the 200 bus, which is a bus that basically goes by all of the sites in Berlin. Unfortunately, we were both tired and neglected to pay much attention to where we were actually going. We didn't realize that it was going away from the city center for quite a while...When we finally did figure it out, we got off at a random stop in a residential area, and spotted this bowling alley! It was tons of fun, and apparently the cheapest game she's ever paid for. While we were there, we had delicious bread and peare wiener (?).

None of the people there seemed to speak much English, such as the waitress. We got along okay by pointing and such though.

Basically glorified hot dogs. Of course, it was a bowling alley. Not exactly Michelin quality.

On Monday morning, we woke up super early to (theoretically) shower and then catch our flights. However if you've ever set your alarm for 3:45 AM, you know how hard it is to actually get out of bed that early. So we didn't end up showering, but we made it the airport early enough and we were able to get breakfast from the bakery across the street. Yes, it's open 24 hours. I actually went every night I was there... Anyway I really love airberlin, but I hate easyjet. They wouldn't let me check in when I arrived, so I had to wait for about an hour.

I took this opportunity to organize my luggage and have a coffee and a croissant.

On top of that, the seats on the plane were the most uncomfortable airplane seats I've ever had the misfortune to sit in. Finally, unlike airberlin and KLM, they do not feed you. Not for free, at least. I mean I wasn't actually hungry at the time, but it would have been nice to have something for lunch, considering the fact that I didn't have time for lunch until 4 PM. At least now I know why it's cheaper than other airlines, I suppose.

Overall, the experience was great! Although I could never imagine myself living in Berlin, I had an excellent time with my cousin and I'm very excited to see her again in Paris! This time, I'll make more of an effort to learn some useful phrases.

Here's to seeing my cousin more often in Europe than I do at home! I actually find that rather hilarious.

On the weekend of the 6th of November, I flew to the lovely Amsterdam for Museum Night, or Museumnacht, as the Dutch call it. During this event, 45 museums throughout the city have special events from 7 PM-2 AM. Tickets included entrance to any of the 45, public transportation from 6 PM-6 AM, entrance to any of the museums on the list during the day as well as discounted entry to afterparties. Unfortunately, due to exhaustion, E and I were unable to make it to that last bit. I thoroughly enjoyed it--we ended up going to the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, and Rijksmuseum.

This is a picture of the giant Chupa Chups display they had outside the Rijksmuseum. I was really excited to get free lollipops.

Aside from museums, we also strolled through several outdoor markets, including Waterlooplein, Albert Cuypmarkt, Bloemenmarkt (the flower market), and Dappermarkt. They're all worth checking out. Speaking of shopping, I did quite a bit down Kalverstraat on my first night, in addition to some shopping in De Negen Straatjes, or the nine streets, on Sunday afternoon. I actually got a new trench coat, which should hopefully come in handy in London next semester! All in all, my first day in Amsterdam was entertaining, albeit exhausting due to the fact that I got little to no sleep in the days preceding the trip due to midterms. It mostly paid off--I did quite well on the paper that was due that Saturday!

We went on a very informative (and fun) walking tour in which we discovered why all the buildings lean and all the staircases are so tiny.

We also saw the coffeeshop in which they pulled the lost in translation thing on Matt Damon in Ocean's Twelve. Our tour guide was excellent!

I was unsurprised to see these urinals in the street--I'd read about them earlier. However, I still needed to get a picture.

If you go to Amsterdam, you have to get stroopwafels! They're everywhere but I recommend the ones at the Albert Cuyp Market. I actually stocked up on stroopwafels at one of the Albert Heijn supermarkets (they’re everywhere!). I’m really excited to have another one later on. I'm sure the packaged ones won't be as delicious as the one I had at the market (as seen below), but I'm sure I'll still be grateful that I have them.

This man made them right in front of us and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

This lovely city is also known for its delicious pancakes! We spent a significant amount of time searching for the famous Pancake Bakery, and I must say that it was completely worth it.

I got little poffertjes and I loved them.

Another typical Dutch dish is the Vlaamse frites, or Flemish fries, with mayonnaise. I'd heard somewhere that the best fries in Amsterdam are at Vleminckx Sausmeesters Vlaamse Friteshaus, so I had it on my itinerary for Thursday, and randomly stumbled upon it while turning into a side street during my first Dutch shopping adventure. That moment in which I realized that I'd accidentally found the place was quite exciting.

The fries were delicious, despite the fact that I normally despise the mere sight of mayonnaise.

We also had some random falafel and amazing food from this Turkish restaurant, which came highly recommended by P. It was great to see the area surrounding the Turkish restaurant; it wasn't near the center so I'm sure that most tourists miss out completely. Also, while wandering around in the rain one night, we stumbled upon this great restaurant where we had dinner...it was called Witteveen.

I took this picture at night after taking the wrong tram about ten stops in the wrong direction. In case you can't tell, it's the Iamsterdam sign.

Overall, my experience in Amsterdam was excellent while it lasted. I don't know if I'll ever return, but I must say that if I knew how to ride a bicycle or… speak Dutch, I would probably actually try to move there.

The canals were absolutely gorgeous, especially at night.

I could have sworn I got a picture of a windmill. but I can't seem to find it...we definitely saw it though--V, who was studying there last semester, recommended it to us.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to writing a post about my trips to Madrid or Montserrat or anything, but I promise to at least try!

Anyway, here's to sampling delicious food in random cities! Amsterdam wasn't on my list of places to travel to in Europe, but I'm so glad I did.