This past weekend I spent in Denmark!
Flew over Friday night and took the train into Copenhagen. Stayed in a decent hostel right in the heart of town. Kathryn was my travel companion and we had a fantastic time!! The city felt like a real mix of the Netherlands, and Switzerland. It was very quiet - not many tourists, not many locals - but I suspect that was because of the extreme cold going on... we were being tourists in -2 to - 6 degree weather, plus wind. Very VERY cold stuff - the harbour was frozen!
We walked all around the city, did a harbour tour (they crushed the ice as they went!), went into a few museums (Danish Form & Design Museum, Ameliabourg Royal Palace, Rosenburg Palace) and saw some of the huge Copenhagen sites. Loved the Nyhavn area - so pretty!
On Sunday afternoon we decided to be super adventerous and took a train from Copenhagen over a HUGE bridge connecting Denmark with Sweden! Ended up in the Swedish town of Malmo, which we explored for a few hours. Found a bunch of stores which I would have LOVED to spend lots of money in - competition for Ikea actually!
Scandinavia is super expensive. Like, crazy. Hard to describe. I was in shell shock most of the time over how much things were. A pastry and orange juice for breakfast cost the equivelant of $15/20!!! So I didn't spend that much on stuff for me LOL!
Photos are up on Flickr, but at this second in time I haven't been able to re-name them giving details of where everything is. Click Here.
This week I have been fairly busy at work, which is good! On Monday night, after work, I went for drinks with a co-worker and ate delicious truffle fries. Last night my supervisor/good friend and I went swing dancing! So much fun!
Tonight is another night out, and tomorrow I'm hoping to be in my flat, chilling out. Plans for the weekend are forming up, but wont say much yet. The following weekend is going to be EPIC, but I'll save that and keep you in suspense.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Chilterns and Baker Street
This past weekend involved dancers forests and murder mysteries.
I went down to my Aunt and Uncles place on Friday night - they live in Maidenhead, just outside London, right where it becomes the countryside. Lovely area. On Saturday we went on a long country drive to a number of little towns like High Wycombe, Amersham, Chesham etc, and drove through the Chilterns... I've always wanted to go for a drive in the Chilterns (a forest) because when I was small my favourite heroine from the ballet books I loved often went into the Chilterns and it sounded like a magical place. It was very nice and I can see how the author would have fallen in love back in the 1940's.
Saturday night I met up with Tamsin, my boss and friend who lives fairly close to me in London. We went for dinner and then had some drinks at a couple pubs along Northcott Road in Clapham. Apparently it is a 'thing to do', but honestly it wasn't that different than any other areas of the city... LOL!
Sunday I used for tourism. First I went to The Monument, which was built in the 1670's as tribute to the Great Fire of London 1666. Basically it's a giant column which you climb for views of the city. Pretty nice views actually, so worth it.
Then I went to the Charles Dickens Museum, onsite at his London home on Doughty Street in Holborn. This is apparently where he wrote his first big hit (something about Pickwick), and then Nicolas Nickleby. Very cool to go, but as with most places in London, enough other people went through the house that nothing is left from Dicken's day.
After that I did some browsing on Oxford Street, and then went up to 211b Baker Street. Anyone know what that is? It's the address and office of Sherlock Holmes!! It is actually really cool, they've totally 'run' with the stories and ideas, and have really loaded up the Victorian home full of artifacts from the era. So cool! Definitely worth a visit.
This week will see me spending a lot of time working late, but not on work.. have to do a bunch of applications to Canadian law schools for my conversion. yup. University of Orkney will be back up and running in an academic capacity in the next few months. wooooo.
Anyway. To distract myself from that impending doom (oooh melodrama!!), Kathryn and I are off on a rather massive adventure this weekend - going to Denmark!!! We've bought tickets to Copenhagen and are planning all sorts of trouble! Well, actually, Kat is the one planning the trouble, I'm just along for the ride. She knows quite a bit about the city from others in her life, and is setting up what feels to be an hour by hour itinerary for the trip! quite fun actually! We fly Friday night and return Sunday night. I'll report in next week about what we got up too!! :)
I went down to my Aunt and Uncles place on Friday night - they live in Maidenhead, just outside London, right where it becomes the countryside. Lovely area. On Saturday we went on a long country drive to a number of little towns like High Wycombe, Amersham, Chesham etc, and drove through the Chilterns... I've always wanted to go for a drive in the Chilterns (a forest) because when I was small my favourite heroine from the ballet books I loved often went into the Chilterns and it sounded like a magical place. It was very nice and I can see how the author would have fallen in love back in the 1940's.
Saturday night I met up with Tamsin, my boss and friend who lives fairly close to me in London. We went for dinner and then had some drinks at a couple pubs along Northcott Road in Clapham. Apparently it is a 'thing to do', but honestly it wasn't that different than any other areas of the city... LOL!
Sunday I used for tourism. First I went to The Monument, which was built in the 1670's as tribute to the Great Fire of London 1666. Basically it's a giant column which you climb for views of the city. Pretty nice views actually, so worth it.
Then I went to the Charles Dickens Museum, onsite at his London home on Doughty Street in Holborn. This is apparently where he wrote his first big hit (something about Pickwick), and then Nicolas Nickleby. Very cool to go, but as with most places in London, enough other people went through the house that nothing is left from Dicken's day.
After that I did some browsing on Oxford Street, and then went up to 211b Baker Street. Anyone know what that is? It's the address and office of Sherlock Holmes!! It is actually really cool, they've totally 'run' with the stories and ideas, and have really loaded up the Victorian home full of artifacts from the era. So cool! Definitely worth a visit.
This week will see me spending a lot of time working late, but not on work.. have to do a bunch of applications to Canadian law schools for my conversion. yup. University of Orkney will be back up and running in an academic capacity in the next few months. wooooo.
Anyway. To distract myself from that impending doom (oooh melodrama!!), Kathryn and I are off on a rather massive adventure this weekend - going to Denmark!!! We've bought tickets to Copenhagen and are planning all sorts of trouble! Well, actually, Kat is the one planning the trouble, I'm just along for the ride. She knows quite a bit about the city from others in her life, and is setting up what feels to be an hour by hour itinerary for the trip! quite fun actually! We fly Friday night and return Sunday night. I'll report in next week about what we got up too!! :)
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Londontown
Well I've been in London for 1.5 weeks, so it is probably time to update my blog! (whoops!).
I arrived on Sat, Jan 28th at 7am.. got to my flat bright and early and unpacked and bascially tried to settle in. Then I met up with my good friend Kathryn - she had the fun job of keeping me awake for the entire day!! We walked around Little Venice (near Paddington) and relaxed at a pub, then watched some TV at her flat and ate take-out Thai food... by the time I crashed into my flat I'd been awake 33 hours.. not too shabby!
Sunday Jan 29th - slept in, then slowly got ready, then met up with my friends Marta and Ben at Covent Garden for some fun catch-up time. We wandered around the market and local area before having some snacks at the Maple Leaf pub (the Canadian one!).
Monday - Friday of my first week back at work was a difficult one. Not that I was overly tasked, but that I was dealing with jet-lag, school issues and some of those classic 'what do i want to do with my life' questions. I've got such a fun life set up here in London, part of me is rather tempted to set up shop here for a few years...but on the other hand I'm fully aware of how much work is ahead of me to work properly in Canada, and I may as well get going on all that.. so I've been torn considering it all.
Socially my first week was farily quiet, which was good as jet lag was being mean to me!
This past weekend I did quite a mix of tourism, shopping and hanging out. Explored the 'City', which historically was the Roman town, and is now the big financial area of town. Did some shopping in their newest shopping center, and bascially walked a LOT. Sunday also involved tourism - saw the Chinese New Year festivites in Trafalgar Square, and wandered around Notting Hill a bit - Portobello Market. Went to a movie at the Electric Cinema, which apparently is famous. Oh, and Sat night went out dancing with Marta & co for a friends birthday.
This week I'm feeling more on top of my life, which is nice. The bad news is that, as usual, I've caught a cold.. London seems determined to gift me with colds every time I come here. So I've been taking it fairly easy in the evenings, and surviving the work days.
Have some fun adventures coming up - Kathryn and I have been scheming! I'll post as things happen, so check back! Will also upload to Flickr when I get a chance - can't do that from my flat, so have to do it 'sneakily' from work... (shhh!!).
Hope all is well with all!
L :)
I arrived on Sat, Jan 28th at 7am.. got to my flat bright and early and unpacked and bascially tried to settle in. Then I met up with my good friend Kathryn - she had the fun job of keeping me awake for the entire day!! We walked around Little Venice (near Paddington) and relaxed at a pub, then watched some TV at her flat and ate take-out Thai food... by the time I crashed into my flat I'd been awake 33 hours.. not too shabby!
Sunday Jan 29th - slept in, then slowly got ready, then met up with my friends Marta and Ben at Covent Garden for some fun catch-up time. We wandered around the market and local area before having some snacks at the Maple Leaf pub (the Canadian one!).
Monday - Friday of my first week back at work was a difficult one. Not that I was overly tasked, but that I was dealing with jet-lag, school issues and some of those classic 'what do i want to do with my life' questions. I've got such a fun life set up here in London, part of me is rather tempted to set up shop here for a few years...but on the other hand I'm fully aware of how much work is ahead of me to work properly in Canada, and I may as well get going on all that.. so I've been torn considering it all.
Socially my first week was farily quiet, which was good as jet lag was being mean to me!
This past weekend I did quite a mix of tourism, shopping and hanging out. Explored the 'City', which historically was the Roman town, and is now the big financial area of town. Did some shopping in their newest shopping center, and bascially walked a LOT. Sunday also involved tourism - saw the Chinese New Year festivites in Trafalgar Square, and wandered around Notting Hill a bit - Portobello Market. Went to a movie at the Electric Cinema, which apparently is famous. Oh, and Sat night went out dancing with Marta & co for a friends birthday.
This week I'm feeling more on top of my life, which is nice. The bad news is that, as usual, I've caught a cold.. London seems determined to gift me with colds every time I come here. So I've been taking it fairly easy in the evenings, and surviving the work days.
Have some fun adventures coming up - Kathryn and I have been scheming! I'll post as things happen, so check back! Will also upload to Flickr when I get a chance - can't do that from my flat, so have to do it 'sneakily' from work... (shhh!!).
Hope all is well with all!
L :)
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