GOOD-BYE!!!

I have relocated my blog to Fairchild Life!

Go ch-ch-checkitout!

i was out of your league and you were 20,000 beneath the sea

got back from an exhausting weekend in Dublin late last night.  still too tired to write about it all, but that post will come soon.  slept in very late today, then had a presentation for my internship tutorial after class.  the amount of work i do here for 4 credits per class is laughable.  it blows my mind that i manage to do LESS work than a normal semester, because i'm pretty sure i already mastered my 'least amount of effort for maximum returns' approach to school.  

i have exactly one month left in london and i'm very sad to realize that means i have exactly 1/3 of my time here left to go.  although i do have a very jam packed few weeks left and i can't wait to do everything we have planned!!!! i even have my ical all set to go with a big list of to dos (i have a little ocd in me)

new favorite quote

for some reason this just makes me feel better about everything.

tomorrow i go to dublin for the weekend! i'm staying at trinity college and i'm excited to go to the Guinness factory.  i can't believe this is my last trip. means time is winding down...sadsies. 

tiny trenches and wee wellies

yesterday was the ss10 childrenswear shoot. a special day since it was my very first burberry photo shoot and i. was. pumped.  i practically skipped to the tube station.  but of course i got lost for two whole hours on a horrible journey to burberry shoot-land.  it started raining and i had walked for an hour in the cold before i finally found a cab. i now completely appreciate clearly marked road signs and metrocab's dependability.

i finally arrived and all the trouble getting there was worth it.  i walk in to a large table with the set to the right and the BUFFET to the left. unlimited breakfast foods=heaven.  i met the photographer, looked over the shots i had missed, and saw them making the accompanying video of a baby girl. heartbreakingly cute. then it was lunch time and another buffet of food was brought out and served to us.  i think i had about 5 meals in 2 hours and loved iiit.  craft services got blown out of the water. the next round of kid models came in and i got to watch their photoshoots.  i was mistaken as the little girl's mother...still not sure if i should be flattered or not.  either way, i think my 'oh my god no!' scared the photo assistant.  he later apologized. haha. 

the best part of it all was that the entire time the kids were there, two young british guys entertained them.  i started talking to them and turns out they had both just finished college and were working part time as entertainers for kid parties and other events.  they had been hired for the shoot to keep the kids happy when they weren't working, and literally colored and played games with them all day.  it was hilarious to watch these two 20something boys playing hide and seek while wearing decorated pink crowns. i fell a little in love. at the end i even joined in with the coloring and played with the rocket balloons too!

overall i definitely enjoyed being able to see what ad campaign shoots are actually like. I wish i could explain more about the set but it's all super duper secret :) all the SS10 ads will break in february! 

no pain, no gain

November 10

About a 10 minute walk away from the crofton is the Natural History Museum. starting this week there is ice skating there every night, so we decided to go to the student night. i was looking forward to it allll day and even dressed the part of an ice princess in my big gray fur vest.

cut to me stepping on the ice and i am immediately regretting this idea. i don't know how people find it easy to balance on two thin pieces of metal while on a slippery wet surface but i sure don't. i lack all sorts of coordination and balance...ice skating is near the top of the "things caitlin is most likely to fail at" list (#1? tight rope walking). it was a test of my physical abilities and i FAILED. major major fail. i managed to only fall twice but that's because every other moment i was either clinging to the side or was escorted around the rink. my epic fall included my legs sprawled out split-style and the rink cop dude bee lining it over to me. he asked if i was ok and i said yes. then he just stood there and held out his hands because, obviously, i was not okay. he found it pretty funny that the rest of the time i was glued to the side as the group photographer.

melanie and i bailed out early to get our free drinks and watch everyone else from the balcony. then we all took our xmas card pic by the huge tree next to the rink because we are adorable. then we got cookies and hot chocolate!

i may have bruised my ego and wrist (badly) but nothing turns a night around like chocolate goods.

puedo ir al bano?

I’m feeling too lazy to even form a sentence (besides this one) so this post is going to be in all bullet points.

Madrid: A Weekend

Friday night:

• Arrive really late to Cat’s Hostel
• Cool decorations but kind of gross
• Drunk couple tries to break in during the night – fail

Saturday:

• Wake up at the crack of dawn for free breakfast
• Walk around everyyywhere
• Plaza Major-deserted because we are the only ones awake that early
• Park
• Really beautiful and really big-lots of paths, fountains, and funny trees
• Huge lake with boats and humongous goldfish
• Crystal Palace
• Actually it’s glass
• Waterfall in front
• Black swan! What
• Palace and Church
• Big, white, looks like Vienna
• Prado Museum
• Goya, Rubens, etc…
• My favorite: “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Bosch
• The left panel is dedicated to Paradise, with the creation of Eve and the fountain of life, while the right panel shows hell. The middle panel shows the world in lustful abandon. 
• "lustful abandon" hahahaha

• Authentic lunch
• Sangria!!!
• First encounter with paella
• Horrifying
• 60 cent wine at El Corte Ingles
• .60 liter of wine + .25 jug of water = best purchase of my entire life
• Weird street performers
• Mickey and Minnie (got a pic)
• Guy with no head
• People that look like stones
• One guy I actually thought was a statue-freaaaaky
• Siesta time
• When in Rome

Saturday night:

• Tapas restaurant
• On the 6^th floor of a rando building
• More sangriaaa
• Free shots because everyone loves us
• Flamenco dancing
• Like Irish dancing but with less leg whipping
• Duet and then solos by the guy and girl dancer
• Even MORE sangria
• Too much sangria=early bedtime for all

Sunday:

• Market
• Winds up and down one main street and all the little side streets
• Bought a truck load of scarves
• Leopard scarf=new obsession (wearing right now)
• Lunch in a little square
• Second encounter with paella
• Still horrifying
• DUNKING DONUTS
• Iced coffee has never tasted so good
• Perfect ending to the trip

i was your anger and you were my fear now that it's over of course it's so clear

In my recent quest to keep my afterwork hours busy I had a succesfully full week.

Tuesday we went to Imperial to celebrate Hillary's return to Londontown. I'm so grateful that Imperial is so close, it has saved me a many boring night in Crofton. We exchanged traveling stories and Lee told me the best stuff about Octoberfest. I want to go sooo bad but will learn from their experience and not stay in tents (or hallucinate hahaha). Wednesday some of us met up after work at Porterhouse. There was supposed to be a live band but there wasn't sooo I guess that just means we have to go again. Darn. Porterhouse has a huge menu of beers from around the world so I tried the one and only Swedish beer there-Crocodile!

Thursday was Guy Fawkes Night, which is a holiday celebrating the foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605 that was supposed to blow up Parliament. All over England they celebrate by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes in a huge bonfire and then a fireworks display. We went to a Guy Fawkes Night nearby in Notting Hill and they do not kid around with this holiday. The bonfire was in fact enormous and the fireworks display was suprisingly good-a tough review to recieve from a bunch of 4th of July loving Americans. It as a really fun cultural event to take part in, and we walked down the road for a drink afterwards at The Elgin-an old Victorian style pub where the Clash used to play!!

Lately at work I've been lacking in things to do. I was given an assignment to do competitive research for the licensing division...I have succesfully stretched this project into a 3-day long extensive research bonanza and am now working on a powerpoint complete with screenshots of competitors websites and a synopsis of all the SS10 campaigns. I know TOO MUCH about luxury sunglasses and timepieces now. I've also been passing the time by listening to a few new favorite bands on YouTube-Spoon and The Sounds.

After work today I leave for Madrid for the weekend with 6 other girls. Wish me luck because 4 years of Spanish class in Wisconsin left me with "puedo ir al bano?" and that's about it...

Cultural Activities

Sunday after Halloween we decided to do something London-ish and went on a walking tour along the Thames.  We started at Westminster Abbey and also saw Parliament and Big Ben.  Then we moved onto Trafalgar Squar where Becky and I climbed up on the lions (with Justin's help haha) and saw Somerset House and other random things along the way.  It was nice to actually get out and about in the city for once.  I felt extremely accomplished for a Sunday.

Monday morning I was feeling highly motivated to do something with my day instead of sleeping until my 2pm class, so I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum that is just a 10 minute walk away from my dorms.  I was pleasantly surprised to figure out it is actually a design museum and I thoroughly enjoyed the fashion and jewelry exhibits.  I spent the whole morning wandering around the museum and sat in the middle courtyard for a while to enjoy the semi nice London weather (there was sun!).  As my tradition goes, I bought postcards of my favorite pieces and got myself really cool earrings that are made of zipper pulls.  From now on I'm going to use my empty Monday mornings to go to museums to avoid the crowds and to feel somewhat cultural here.  We'll see how I do with that. 

Leopards, Grizzly Bears, and Zombies, Oh my!

The Halloween festivities started out Thursday night at the BU Halloween Party in Notting Hill.  Can't complain about drink vouchers, free food, and seeing a BU employee in a full on cow costume. 

Actual Halloween night started out with a concert at the music venue the Barbican.  Ian and I went to a unique concert that was a performance by the band Grizzly Bear and the London Symphony Orchestra.  It was a really good concert because they made the orchestra blend into their songs.  I was impressed and happy because I got to hear an orchestra, which is a rare event lately.  Here’s the band’s site, definitely check them out:http://grizzly-bear.net/

Afterwards we morphed into Shaun of the Dead and a leopard. Met a Shaun of the Dead wannabe who gave us drinks on the tube, got a little lost, and then I went to meet up with the 4^th floor crew at a club that was throwing a Halloween party.  I was told I sound Scandanavian (??), got a bruise from running away from a fight, and somehow didn’t take a single picture in my costume.  It was an odd night.  The weirdest part though was that people in London actually dress up SCARY. Not just kind of scary with a witch hat. No, full on scary with blood and fangs and everything.  I severely missed Halloween in Boston/normal places.

closest thing to me on halloween :)

Kate and Fur

October 31st

There are many markets in London, and the one I was the most excited to go to was Camden Market. It is GINORMOUS. It’s made up of many smaller markets that intertwine all over the place and sells anything you could ever want. There’s food, clothes, vintage stuff, jewelry, everything. You get lost every 5 minutes as all the paths twist and turn and go underground then over bridges. I loved it.

I had been on a search for a Kate Moss shirt ever since meeting a bartender who was wearing one at the Sun Inn Splendor. And to my delight I found an amazing one at Camden. It is my new favorite article of clothing, but probably not my most versatile because it is of her giving the finger... Not appropriate many places I guess, but I just couldn’t not walk away with it.  I also found a big gray fur vest at a vintage shop. I can’t wait to wear it in Wisconsin and get many many stares.

After being completely overwhelmed by stimulus we started heading home, but not before buying fried bananas and blowing our taste buds away.

The Royal Treatment

October 29th

I came into work to a briefing about how the Prince of Wales was coming to visit the Burberry headquarters at Horseferry House.  Lacking royal knowledge I had no idea if that meant Charles, William, or Harry. Obviously I was crossing fingers and toes it was William but, alas, it was just his dad.

Burberry’s first floor is set up with a big VIP waiting room on one side next to the “branding room” set up with displays of the different sub-brands, with the reception and elevators to the right.  The middle of the entire building is an open atrium with glass on all sides.  When it was time for the Prince to arrive all the Burberry employees lined the balconies and glass stairs to look down at everything.  I stood in the stairs with some girls I work next to and got to see him walk in and meet with Christopher Bailey (Creative Director) and Angela Ahrendts (CEO).  I mostly saw the top of his head until he turned to go to the elevators and waved at us!!!

After he had gone into the 7^th floor design room with all the higher-ups I asked one of my co-workers what I could compare my Prince sighting to in the States and she said it’s like seeing the President. AWESOME!

Here’s a link to an article about his visit:

http://www.elleuk.com/news/Fashion-News/prince-charles-visits-burberry-hq-in-london

everything is better down under

October 22-24

Thursday: Heaps of fun with my favorite Aussie

My Australian friend, Theon, came to visit London for a few days before heading back home down under.  I met up with him by his hotel in King’s Cross and then we went out to Crazy Larry’s, a place some Imperial boys had recommended to us. Unfortunately Crazy Larry’s wasn’t very crazzzy so we went to McD’s and (surprise!) Arch Angel.  Luckily he liked Arch Angel, I mean who doesn’t, and I even got him to try out my go to Arch Angel drink-pear cider ;)

Friday: Now THIS is my song!

I took the day off from work and rested a bit until meeting up with the crew for drinks byOxford Circus.  People say Picadilly Circus is like Times Square in NYC but I have to say that Oxford Circus is much more akin to the painfully busy streets and overcrowded sidewalks of my old workplace.  I am avoiding that tube stop at all costs in the future. After a drink we had dinner at a little gem of a sandwich shop with probably 100 menu items, cheap prices, and a super friendly sandwich guy.  Credit goes to Lee for the find.

That night we switched it up and went to Covent Garden to go out.  I led the way toPorterhouse, a massive pub I had been to on a previous outrageous night (see Los Locos reference in September…).  You walk in and are immediately surrounded by wood and copper piping.  The building is huge with multiple floors in staggered levels and mazes of stairs.  One part is kind of like a balcony over the main floor bar, and the basement houses the live bands. The Friday night band there is phenomenal; we debated if it was a real band or just the radio until we actually saw that there was indeed a band below us. 

After Porterhouse we crossed Covent Garden and went to Los Locos, where things mustmustmust get crazy.  We danced like mad and escaped with only a few bruises (hahaha).  Luckily we had a sweetheart of a protector with us to get us all home safely and make sure we didn't stay on the dance floor ground too long...thanks Theon for being the absolute best. 

sorry, we're kind of sweaty from the los locos dance floor

Saturday: No, I am from Boston

After Theon left for his day long journey home and sleeping off our Los Locos night, Hillary and I went to Topshop to check out the huge sale we had been eyeing the day before.  We got some great deals and I finally can say I shopped in Topshop without buying the entire store. Success.

That night we went back to Notting Hill to the Prince Albert and then went to The Gate, a club right nearby.  You go downstairs and it’s pretty small, with a few rooms off to the side.  They played our requests and we met some BC/NYC guys so all in all, a nice night in London.

By Sunday morning my entire body was aching from the dancefest that was the weekend.  I’m so glad I didn’t waste money on a gym membership here.

party crashing

October 21

After work Hillary, Becky, and I went on a mini-pub crawl.  We were supposed to meet up with a club from Imperial College but couldn’t find them so just did our own little crawl.  We went to two places in Notting Hill, the Sun Inn Splendor and the Prince Albert.  At Sun Inn Splendor we discovered great bar food and the tastiest beer ever-Fruli! It’s a Belgium white ale that is strawberry flavored. New fave.  The Prince Albert is another nice little pub in the area that was full of legit British people (you can tell because they are all wondrously fashionable) and had a small beer garden in the back.

We moved on to the Imperial pub to meet up with a group of our friends.  Little did we know that we were crashing a graduation celebration.  Imperial College is mostly guys and often compared to London’s version of MIT.  A lot of smart British boys, all in full suits for their graduation.  It was a sight to see.  Weird that they graduate in October though.  They explained to us that they are done with classes in May, go start working, then come back to actually graduate.  

As one dapper young man explains his experience, “The real world is rubbish!”  Words of wisdom, I say. 

a new world religion

October 19, Sunday:

How does one describe THE CHURCH correctly???  A quick preview: it’s a club that rents out a concert venue every Sunday from 12-4pm and throws a rager with strippers and music. Oh, and everyone dresses up in ridiculous outfits.  Try to wrap your head around that and then keep reading..

We got up at 9:30 am to eat breakfast and start the day drinking early.  We get to THE CHURCH around 12:15 pm to find a huge line has already formed.  People are dressed up as anything and everything.  There are pirates, guys in football uniforms, cheerleaders, lots of neon, and even a very daring guy in a Borat swimsuit.  We walk in and it’s a GIGANTIC theater-type space with a huge stage in front.  To the side is the bar where you buy your drinks three at a time and are given a big plastic bag to carry around with you. 

We each bought a bag of drinks and started to get into THE CHURCH mood.  They were already playing amazing music.  This isn’t club music or dance music, this is straight forward sing along lose your voice rock music.  Lots of oldies but goodies.  On either side of the stage are huge tv screens that zoom in on random people in the crowd and then display hilarious captions about the camera man’s victims.  I want to be the guy who makes fun of people through captions every Sunday.  

The “show” began and things got out of control at that point.  There is a comedian at first, but that was pretty pointless to us because the combination of a thick accent and yelling into a mic=confusion not amusement.  The ground by now is full of empty cans and plastic bags and people are getting rowdy-we even saw a guy chug a beer out a shoe.  I am in awe of everything.  Then a stripper came out and we were mesmerized by her for a while. After she was done doing her thing it basically turns into a massive dance party.  We pouted our way onto stage and danced like mad for the rest of the time. 

The weirdest part is leaving THE CHURCH and realizing it’s sunny outside and only 4:30 pm….the sight of a bunch of weirdly dressed drunk people leaving that place every afternoon must be a sight to behold to normal citizens passing by.

I want to spend every Sunday at THE CHURCH. But I don’t think my body can handle it.  That, and my sparkly dress lost a lot of sparkles last time.  I might need a new outfit. 

taking it easy like the eagles told me to

i've been a very lazy blogger.  so i will be attacking my blog with entries over the next few days trying to catch up so i don't have to always write in extreme past tense.

here starts the attacking...

October 16-18

Friday night: I love Irish pubs

Went to Picadilly to go out and ended up at O’Neills.  O’Neills is a bar that everyone I know has gone to and loved so I wassoo excited to finally get to go myself.  Hillary and I got ourselves in for free for being Americans! (something that was quite opposite of what I expected when telling the bouncer we love the USA) The bar itself is 3 floors with the top floor having live music.  A lot of people from the Crofton came so I had a great time and it’s always a perk when the live band is good.

Saturday: Gluttony

A bunch of us got up and went to Borough Market, a huge food market by the London Bridge.  You walk through the entrance to a big outside open area full of food stands ranging from Mexican food to bakeries to sandwiches to cheese booths.  Must go here ravenous.  You just walk around and sample everything you can and then decide what you like best to buy.  I bought myself a baggie full of Turkish delights (yumm) and we had the best veggie burgers in the entire world, complete with hummus and wheat bread buns.  Sometime I pretend to be healthy.  Then we sat down and enjoyed a big glass of homemade sangria before heading back home.

Saturday night: London lacks watered down beer

For so long we knew about the Ale Trail through South Kensington and since a lot of us were going to The Church in the morning and others were tired it was the perfect night to take it easy at some pubs.  The way the Ale Trail works is that you go to four different pubs around the neighborhood and buy an ale at each, collecting stamps on your map along the way.  After you get all four stamps you get a free t-shirt!  The only downside of it all is ale is a tad bit too warm and thick for my taste.  I still would give up an arm for a Miller Light here. 

 

Let's make a list of who we need and it's not much, if anything

I got locked into a showroom by myself for 20 minutes today. kind of scary until i realized it was 20 minutes of personal time with the recent ss2010 collection. not the worst situation in the world i guess.  luckily i mcgyvered my way out through a little hallway that opened up into the editing area....not awkward at all. nope. 

tomorrow is already friday. time is going by so fast and it is NOT OKAY. 

ps- where the wild things are comes out tomorrow OMGidhgfaoghagfoihaoh

someday my prince will come

...and his name will be christopher bailey.

he walked past my desk today. my heart actually stopped.

sigh.

the highest concentration of trench coats in the whole wide world

I survived my very first day at Burberry! Granted, it was an over 9 hour long first day but I still looved it.  My boss is very nice and I got to do some legitimate work as well as sit in on a creative meeting in the morning.  I also had a major Glamour flashback when I had to wheel some garment racks to the showroom. Oh, to be an intern. 

And yes, the stereotype is true-everyone wears a trench coat. EVERYONE. It's like a Burberry army in the middle of London.

My Burberry "Induction"

This morning I had to go to my "induction" at Burberry, which in more familiar terms means orientation.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was an orientation for new hires (poetic foreshadowing??) and got the low down on Burberry's history, a tour of the building and showrooms, and watched the recent ss2010 Prorsom show.  We also found out that the CEO Angela Ahrendts and Creative Director Christopher Bailey work on the 7th floor and we'll probably see them in the lift.  We were told that they are very friendly and will most likely say hi and talk to us on the ride! AMAZING. 

Tomorrow is my first day ahhh

Vienna Day 2: "When in Vienna"

We woke up extremely late and caught a tram into the city center to meet Kerstin, an old friend from high school who lives in Vienna.  She showed us around the major sights, including the Hofburg and many large museums.  In fact, a lot of Vienna is very large, very pretty buildings.  The Hofburg itself is an imposing palace that takes up the equivalent of about two city blocks.  Kerstin then walked us through a big outdoor food market before having to leave us for a while to work on a project. 

We continued wandering and saw their Parliament and Town Hall.  Their Town Hall is an enormous place with an intricate church-like façade.  In front of their Town Hall was a circus/food fair going on so we stopped and tried out some fried dough and jam.  Then we went into the Treasury to see some interesting artifacts-the Roman Empire’s crown jewels, a unicorn horn, the Holy Lance, and the supposed Holy Grail! My favorite was definitely the 8 foot tall unicorn horn :) 

After freshening up at the “hostel”and clearing up some language barrier problems, we went back to the food festival outside the Town Hall for dinner.  Next we hopped onto a tram to the “Bermuda Triangle”, an area by the Danube channel full of small bars and a popular place to bar hop.  The first bar we went to was tiny but had a ton of cheap drinks to be drunk. There we met a bachelorette party that was selling small trinkets to help raise money for the wedding (or drinks? same difference).  I bought a cola flavored sucker for 1 Euro.  The next place we sat and relaxed for a while as the boys drank liters of beer, Viennafest style.

At that point we met up with Kerstin and her friends at a bar/club place nearby.  To be more specific, it was a big boat docked in the Danube channel. Oh yeah.  The main floor was a bar and the level below was a dance floor. The music in Vienna was incredible-they love their 80’s and early 90’s hits! We tried over and over again to request anything new and failed and failed and failed.  The scene was totally different than what we were used to in London but we had a blast partying with a bunch of Austrian kids. When in Vienna!

After miraculously finding out way back to the “hostel”, we caught a couple of hours of sleep and then took a train to Bratislava to catch our flight back to Londontown.

EUROTRIP=SUCCESS

Vienna Day 1: "Nein! Nein! Nein!"

We took a train into Vienna and arrived at our Hostel mid afternoon.  Well, hostel might not be the most appropriate word for our living accommodations.  It was more like a smelly sauna of an apartment run by a small Asian woman who also lived there….I wish I was joking. The upside was that we were the only people there (since uh it was an apartment) and within walking distance to the city center. 

All sufficiently starving we walked a few blocks away to grab dinner.  We were greeted by an old Austrian man who sat us with menus completely in German. We ended up ordering some dishes of meat after some major deliberation and lucked out with a very satisfying and filling dinner. 

We pulled ourselves together and wandered toward the city center, aka the 1^st district.  We settled into our first place that was part café, part bar and had huge paintings on each wall.  Some of the boys wanted to play pool so we went to the back room. Ian immediately spilled beer onto the pool table.  The very large Austrian owner comes running over, sees the beer on the table, and EXPLODES. He was yelling “Nein! Nein! Nein!” and flailing his arms everywhere.  We all just stood around awkwardly as he spewed (probably profane) German at us.  Ian apologized and the big owner calmed down, but we still took it as our sign to leave.  We stopped at another bar before getting to the main road in the city center and decided to be really cultural and finish our night at McDonald’s for a mouthwatering McFlurry. (side note-Potato Strips are Austrian McDonald’s fries on steroids and have changed my view of versions of potatoes forever…)

Budapest Day 2: "Cinnamon and Oranges"

After sleeping in late to recover from the previous night’s activities, we set out on our quest to experience a traditional Budapest bath.  After buying some European style (read: small) swimsuits we walked across the bridge to the Buda side to go to the Gellert baths, a huge complex with outdoor and indoor Roman style baths.  The lobby area was a huge marble room with high ceilings and a dome center. Here are some pictures from the Gellert website of the two big pools:

After our bath we hiked up the nearby mountain to get a good view of the city.  At the top we could see 360 degrees of the area, it was so beautiful. We ended the sightseeing by walking through the palace and across the cable bridge at sunset. 

Budapest Nightlife: Part 2

That night we planned our own pub crawl using a Time Out magazine and marked up another map with dots.  Finding the bars this night proved just as difficult…

Bar 1:

Accidently ended up at the cave bar again! We sat back in our little cement corner to start off our night. 

Bar 2:

This bar seemed non-existent.  We asked locals that spoke English where it was and they said they had never even heard of it.  One block further and we walk past some guys standing outside of a big door covered with thick, dark fabric and of course it turns out it was the place we were looking for.  This place was also partly outdoors with totally random seating arrangements and interesting art stuck in every corner of each room and all around the ceilings.  We sat at a table next to plywood walls with a big red couch recessed into the back wall.  The bathroom was next to a weird empty room and the stalls were covered with old broken computer keyboards.  We decide to get the party started with some tequila shots and made one of the best discoveries ever.  In Hungary, they take tequila shots with cinnamon and oranges.  Yes, seriously.  You sprinkle cinnamon on each side of an orange wedge and shove it in your mouth after the shot.  It sounds insane but is so far superior to our salt/lime method.  Needless to say we took many tequila shots this night.

Bar 3:

We ended our time in Budapest by going back to the very first bar we went to with the pommel horse seating.  We were brave and took a traditional Hungarian shot, which is not for the faint of heart. 

Budapest Day 1: "Just follow the dots!"

We arrived in Budapest Wednesday around noon, after a little..delay departing from Luton airport. After quickly dropping off our stuff at the hostel we started walking along the Danube river since it was a beautiful 80 degrees outside.  On the west side of the river was hilly Buda and on the east side of the river was flat Pest.  We walked a big circle around Pest and down Andrassy Avenue to see the main sights including the Chain Bridge, St. Stephen’s Basilica, Parliament, The House of Terror, the Opera House, and Heroes’ Square.  Budapest architecture is an interesting mix of styles and influences, we passed everything from Roman to Gothic. 

We stopped at the House of Terror, a museum made in the honor of those affected by the rule of fascist and communist regimes in Hungary in the actual building that both parties headquartered.  It was extremely well done and pretty depressing.  But I did learn a lot about the history of Hungary, a country I admit I know very little about, and it made everything we saw have much more context. 

Our first night, after dinner at a restaurant that had traditional Hungarian food, we made friends with some Australians while pre-gaming at our hostel.  Our new bestie Carl led the way on a pub crawl to bars nearby with a map marked up with dot destinations.  We followed the dots to the most unique, incredible bars I have ever been to.

Budapest Nightlife, Part 1

First of all, there is no street full of bars or even area of bars in Budapest.  We quickly discovered that from the outside the best places look like the worst, or not even a bar at all.

Bar 1:

The first stop was a bar made from what looked like an abandoned warehouse.  Once through a few rooms the place opened up to the outside with a bar on one side and large tables and other seating to the right.  The seating included benches, a pommel horse, old bathtubs turned into couches, and a Red Bull car converted into a loveseat.  Throughout the place there were also big torches of fire on the ground.  A huge canopy hung over part of the roof.  Needless to say we were not expecting this from the dingy black opening guarded by large men in leather jackets.  We sat and talked for a while with the Aussies, a Brazilian, and a Swedish girl (bringing the Swedish population of the bar to 1.5! haha).

Bar 2: 

This bar looked like the sketchiest place I had ever seen from the outside.  The entrance was cement steps leading down into a small room with graffiti covered walls.  The group went to the back room to sit, which was a huge cement room with low walls-totally batman's cave. 

Bar/club 3: 

We had given up on finding the last dot on our map and were about to buy a kebab when someone realized that the large, unmarked metal doors were actually our destination.  Once inside we walked up five flights of metal stairs that opened up to a dark bar with red lights.  Up another flight of stairs we find ourselves on a huge rooftop with tons of chairs and a big bar in the corner. We heard that the very dedicated partyers stay on the roof to watch the sunrise. After some time on the rooftop we went downstairs and cut through the coat check to the dance floor.  We ended the night with a kebab (a special vegetarian one for me) and found our way all the way back to our hostel around 5 am. 

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu!

Just finished my last final! It's dreary and gray and rainy and blah here in London so the weather forecast for Eastern Europe is a pleasant surprise-80 and sunny the whole time. AMAZING. 

I'm off for my European adventure in just a matter of hours! 

ahhhhh

You feel it when the dance gets hot

Lately, I feel like my life has revolved around Arch Angel.  

This past week I have been celebrating my last chances of irresponsibility before starting my internship.  I'm starting to feel a little better about exploring London; went to Covent Garden on Wednesday and Picadilly on Saturday.  But the highlight of my recent debauchery was this past Friday night.

Alexis and I decided it would be a good idea to do a pub crawl around South Kensington.  I took advantage of my free texting and announced through mass messages that the pub crawl would be commencing at 8 pm.  Apparently everyone thought this idea was good because within an hour we had over 25 people on our "crawl".  The reason it was only a "crawl" was because we spent too much time playing games at Imperial to finish anything more than two other pubs down the street.  I had an amazing time and we of course ended up at Arch Angel to finish off the night.  We also found out that there really is a legitimate pub crawl around our area and at the end you get a free t-shirt so that is obviously happening in the near future. (shout out to Hillary and her unfortunate but hilarious head injury-please watch out for walls hahaha)

Tomorrow I have one last final and then I leave for break, true Eurotrip style.  Me and four guys from my program are spending two days in Budapest, Hungary, one day in Bratislava, Slovakia, and two days in Vienna, Austria.  I can't wait to experience Eastern Europe, especially because I feel like these places are somewhere I may not get a chance to go to again.  I'll leave you with this little morsel of where I may be going to (try watching from 2:00) Eurotrip: Bratislava

English-isms

A list of things that have left me in wonder....

Butter-It's on everything.

Skinny jeans-British males somehow make them look hot without looking an ounce of emo.

Traffic direction disparity-They drive on the left side of the road yet on sidewalks/escalators they walk on the right...

Coin confusion-The two pence is as large as the fifty pence and a pound is small but thick. Dive your hand into a coin purse and there is no way you can guess what you're getting. 

Dislike of turkey-Ham is the meat of choice. Ham?! Not cool.

Cider- Some venture capitalist please please please bring this to the States.  There is a large untapped market of girls who do not like beer (which I will never understand) who would absolutely adore this stuff!!!! I honestly don't know why such a tasty drink doesn't exist everywhere. 

Garbage- Garbage bins are rare on the streets and non existent in Tube stations...so how is London so clean? Anomaly.

Free art museums- !!!!! (I may be the only one so excited for this)

But the absolute kicker is....

NO ICED COFFEE- An employee at Starbucks actually told me he thought black coffee on ice would "taste bad" and gave me an Americano instead. I was left in shock and disbelief. I miss you Dunkin'. 

Primark and its life altering capabilities

Last week I went on a journey to Primark and what I found there was truly life altering.  

I walk in and didn't make it more than two steps before I froze.  It is HUGE.  I didn't know what to do.  As far as the eye could see there were endless amounts of clothing racks and people and the sight of an escalator only meant more clothes were upstairs. 

Everything at Primark is unbelievably cheap.  The whole tshirt section had nothing more than 3 pounds.  The skirts had a whole rack for just 5 pounds.  I literally hyperventilated when I found the dresses and started mentally budgeting out food for a month so I could just buy them all.  (I reluctantly chose survival)

What makes Primark different is that it really does current trends for cheeeeap.  I got two slim cut blazers a la The Row for a steal and a half.  This company is a mixture of mega Forever 21 and H&M on crack! 

The best part of the trip was when I checked out and the cashier sees my things..

"Oh, you got it in both colors, good choice."

"I know, I just had to."

"I loove this jacket.  Best thing we have here.  You're such a good shopper!"

"Oh my god...thank you!" 

I learned to party from the Welsh

Just got back from my trip to Wales, and am dehydrated, tired, and incredibly sore.  Here is the explanation for that:

Friday: Arrive in Wales and check into the countryside manor called Parc-le-Breos.  A little old English woman served us a homemade dinner and it was off to bed.

Saturday: Get up wayy too early for breakfast and then riding lessons before our day long ride.  I got paired up with a huge gray horse named Smith.  I took it as a sign that I really am Samantha from Sex and the City.  The ride was GORGEOUS, along the top of a ridge that let you see the ocean to the left and the countryside to the right.  There were horses, cows, and lambs all over the rolling hills.  We tied up our horses while we stopped and got lunch at a local pub.  This food was amazing and cheap, which meant that my budget allowed for not only one but two ciders.  The ride back was much more enjoyable.  We got to canter a little bit and I think I managed to get the rhythm right by the end of the ride.  I would love to someday be able to ride with the horse full out running (my need for speed).  

That night a minibus picked us up to take us to the closest city of Swansea.  Mind you, we were expecting to go into town and have a few beers and go to a couple pubs to get a sense of the normal country life in Wales.  We had NO IDEA what was actually in store for us there.  First of all, the bars we went to were no joke.  The first had chandeliers, two huge bars, and a dancefloor equipped with a pole.  Large Welsh men, young and old, were already dancing like crazy by the time we got there at eight oclock.  We quickly tried to catch up.  Then we started to notice the Welsh women.  Even the older ones wore sequins dresses, but the weirdest part was that many girls had full out costumes on.  I saw a bumblebee and many sailor girls.  It was truly bizarre. We left that place to find the street full of people-it was like a festival! But after some asking around apparently this all was a very normal Saturday night in Swansea. The second bar we went to was crammed to the brim and we found out why-one pound shots of basically anything.  Hillary and I had a field day with the silver tequila and had a great time finding out that the Welsh love American accents (or so they say).  The night ended with chants of "USA! USA!" and making friends with random costumed people. 

Sunday: Woke up excruciatingly early for breakfast again and then started our hike to the beach.  This beach legit looked like it was from Planet of the Apes.  There also were ruins of a castle that we hiked to.  Well, more like climbed to.  We literally went up a sand wall.  It was basically a stairstepper on steroids.  We dragged ourselves back, saw some cows in a forest on the way, and departed our little country getaway.