England-Part I

My England post will be in two parts, the first about the trip itself and the second about missing my flight back to Germany. On Thursday at 6:45am, my colleage, Stephi, picked me up at my dorm and drove me to the Weeze airport, a small, local airport located twenty minutes away from Straelen. Since Stephi was generous enough to drive me before school, I was farely early for my flight, so I enjoyed a hot chocolate and blueberry muffin in the cafe. On my one hour flight to London, I met Audrey. Her father is French, her mother is German, and she learned English in school, making her fluent in three languages! We had great conversation and shared the excitement and anticipation of our first trip to England. From Stansted airport in London, I took another one hour flight up to Newcastle Upon Tyne. Catherine met me there, and we rode a train to her house. We settled in and then ate at a pub, where I ordered a chicken caesar wrap and chips (french fries). Then we walked around Newcastle for a little while. That night, we met Catherine's Scottish boyfriend, Peter, and his friend, Ed, at the cinema to watch Music and Lyrics. On Friday morning, we ate a traditional breakfast at Willy's, the cafe where Catherine works. Our meal included fried eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, toast and beans, which are oddly enough quite common at breakfast. I devoured this delicious meal along with a cappuccino. Afterwards, we walked around Newcastle for hours and even toured an art exhibit at The Baltic. We bought groceries for the weekend and made plans for a night out on the town. We met Peter and his friends at a pub called The Lonsdale. Then we met up with a group of girls and took a taxi to a club called Venue. We danced all night and had a blast. On Saturday, we watched rugby with the boys at their apartment and did a little window shopping in town. That night, we watched a movie and relaxed at Catherine's flat. We headed to London on Sunday morning. Upon arrival, we found a hostel called The Generator and stayed in a room with six other people. It was really fun to meet other travellers and hear their stories. We walked around London that afternoon, ate, watched a St. Patrick's Day concert, and took some photos. When we got back to the hostel, we remembered that we had received an invitation to a mixer at the bar. This provided a way to meet other people, so we gladly accepted. The bar was a decently sized room with tables, chairs, couches, TVs and a pool table. We met a group of guys from America who just got back from Iraq and are living in Germany! They were from Florida, Texas and Kentucky, and we really enjoyed their company. They are finishing their time in the army and making plans for life thereafter. It was great to hear about their experiences and what they plan to do in the future. So we stayed at the bar all night and then rested up for a day of sight-seeing. We ate breakfast at the hostel on Monday morning and then took a tour bus around London. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Little Ben, Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Eye and more. In perfect English style, we ended our day with traditional fish and chips at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. Then we headed back to the hostel and said goodbye to all our new friends. You can see pictures of our adventures on facebook. We had so many moments of awe. One time, I looked at Catherine and said, "We are drinking hot chocolate outside of Westminster Abbey right now!" We have known each other our entire lives, so sharing such a trip was quite special. We have always wanted more than the every day and familiar, so being in London together and seeing famous sights was an amazing experience! I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to travel to England, and I will cherish that time and those memories forever.