Safari! (yes, in london!)

I know, I know, the words "London" and "Safari" don't sound like they'd be in the same sentence, but indeed this place exists!

My roommates and I signed up for the Woburn Abbey + Safari Park and weren't quite sure what to expect, but it was awesome!

Woburn Abbey is the home of the Duke of Bedford and it was beautiful. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside (boo!) but it was full of antique china, silver, gold, etc etc. The best part was, the family descendants still live there!

On the property (which was massive) was the Woburn Safari. Apparently 40 or 50 years ago, the Duke's family decided to open it & it's now become a really successful place for species to thrive & some have avoided extinction after being brought there. I'm not sure how many acres it was, but basically the animals are just allowed to roam free everywhere! Of course the lions & deer (etc) were separated by gates , but as you drove through, the animals would just come up to the car.

The best part was the area where you could actually walk in the animal enclosures! We were able to walk through the squirrel monkeys, wallabies and emu areas!

I love london weekend - part 2!

This morning, two of my roommates and I set out on another walking tour of London and we were able to see the more tourist-y side of things! Our tour guide is a history major and one of the local colleges so she was able to tell us really interesting things about the city, including stories about people breaking into Buckingham Palace in the 80's!

The Queen wasn't actually in the Palace this weekend so we weren't able to get a picture with the guards, but seeing the palace itself was amazing. The gates are so ornate!

Next, we went to Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church (above). We weren't able to go inside because of the Pope's visit this weekend (press and security everywhere!) but it was amazing just to see the architecture of it. It's overwhelming to think to myself: someone was standing right here, looking at this church 500 years ago!

Seeing Big Ben was probably my favorite part of the day. The picture doesn't really do it justice - the actual clock portion of the tower is bright gold & it chimes every 15 minutes! It really is an iconic part of London that can't be missed by any visitor!


In other news, I'm finally starting to feel better after a week of coughing & congestion! As much as I love the Tube transportation system here, I really think it's a breeding ground for germs & I blame it for my cold!

This weekend, my school arranged something called "I love london" where students could choose between 30 free events happening all around the city.

Earlier this morning, one of my roommates and I traveled to Hampstead Heath for a hiking tour in 'traditional English countryside'. It was BEAUTIFUL. So much history had happened in the woodsy area that we were walking in & our tour guide did a great job describing different battles and things like that. In the middle of the heath was a gorgeous old mansion that is now the home of donated paintings - including some Rembrandt's! (although, we weren't allowed to take pictures of them).



And for kicks, here's a ~myspace style shot of me going out last night. We found a pub that was holding a benefit dance party, but only played pop punk, nu metal, etc etc. Aka I was the happiest girl ever last night. My friends and I spent the night dancing to new found glory and taking back sunday, and I couldn't have been happier.


edit -
I almost forgot the highlight (lowlight?) of the weekend so far.
One of my roommate's (who had just booked some travel arrangements) was checking her bank account online & discovered that over $1000 was missing! After she called the bank and sorted everything out, I thought I better check my bank account as well, and guess what? $1000 of mine was missing.

Whoever stole the money had my card number and my debit card pin number so my bank thinks that the person put a device in the atm that reads all the info from the magnetic strip on bank/atm cards.

Long story short, after 45mins on the phone with the bank, my money will be refunded & I'm getting a new debit/credit card mailed to me here. However, now I'm extremely nervous and scared to use any kind of bank atm.

a bit under the weather

Surprisingly, today was the first day here that I actually experienced what London is known for - rain. I was happy that I could test out my new rainboots!

However, I'm not sure if it's the weather or if I'm still sick from traveling, but I woke up this morning feeling so sick. Sore throat, headache, the works. I'm a bit worried that it's strep, especially because I have no idea how or where I would find a doctor here (I'm sure my school would help but such a pain!).

Anywho, can anyone suggest some good tea remedies? I know London is also known for their teas! But I rarely drank it before coming here & now I need suggestions!

Motivational Monday!

I realized I want to update this with more than just things I'm doing in London; mainly because my field trips are only once a week!

So I got some ideas/inspiration from some other blogs I follow (cough Kaelah!) and I'm going to try to post some cute things everyday.

So I have dubbed today: Motivational Monday! Because really, who doesn't need a little bit of motivation to start off their week?

out & about

Last night my flatmates and I decided to go out into our town and find some places to dance! The area we live in, Camden, is sort of known for being the town in London with a huge amount of venues (discos as London-ers call them haha) so we set out to find a place called The Flower Pot.

The place was pretty small & kind of felt like we were in a college frat house, but it was so fun to just let loose! I'm not a party animal in any way, shape or form (I would much rather hangout at someone's place and have it be laid back) but it was a good time all around.



Oh! I almost forgot the other amazing part of yesterday. After being here for almost 2 weeks and not doing nay real shopping, I NEEDED to go yesterday & convinced my friends to find a store called Primark. I hadn't heard of it before coming here but plenty of people told me it was like "target or forever 21 but 100000000000x better"... and they were so right!

However, shopping at Primark on a Saturday afternoon was like shopping on black friday in new york city 10000x worse haha So we decided we're going back early Wednesday afternoon!
Before giving up, I managed to pick up some teal knockoff Keds for 1pound!

Stonehenge!

I am SO exhausted from another long day of sightseeing! This morning my roommates and I got up at what felt like the crack of dawn (ie 6:45am haha) to get ready to see Stonehenge & a cute little town called Salisbury.

Salisbury dates back more than 500 years! It was the most adorable town I think I have ever seen. Everything was winding little streets, cobblestone, you name it. Then we took a tour through the Salisbury Cathedral which was breathtaking! It's the home of 1 of the 4 copies of the magna carta.


And of course I had to take one of these pictures for kicks.

Stonehenge was just as amazing as Salisbury! I was a little surprised that it's was really, really close to a main highway, yet still in the countryside. It's really amazing to think just how and who built this and how they brought the stones here from across England (our tour guide said that some of the rocks came from almost 50 miles away). I was amazed at just how the top rock was put on top of the other ones!

Fight for your right!

Well today was the first day of my internship and also happened to be the first day of a massive tube strike in London (tube = subway here). I'm not 100% sure why everyone went on strike, but basically the entire subway system was down from last night and will be until tomorrow morning.


I ended up walking 45 mins to my internship (yuck!) and got lost for 45mins leaving (yuck!).

I'm interning at another publicity firm, similar to the one I was at this summer. Although I'm a marketing minor, I love, love, love publicity! (and they are somewhat similar anyways). I spent most of today contacting British magazines and blogs about interviewing some of the firm's artists. There are only 5 other people working in the office so it's really nice to be able to really get to know everyone.

It's kind of funny seeing how much stress and craziness something like the tube strike could cause. When you really think about it, so many societies rely 100% on these structures. It makes you wonder how on earth people traveled anywhere before buses and subways.

mind the gap

Although I've been here for almost a week, today was the first day that we were able to really see London! Most of this past week involved finding our flat, moving in, and orientation for classes. Today we were able to take a bus tour around the city & walk around Greenwich!
Greenwich is the home to the prime meridian which means I was able to have one foot in the western hemisphere and one in the eastern!

There was a huge bike race thing today so we weren't able to get off the bus when it was by Parliament and Big Ben, but I managed to snag some pictures from the window.

More soon!

london calling!

okay this is a pretty boring post - but I am officially in London! Our hotel didn't have wifi for the past week so I havent been able to post pictures or anything but I will asap!