Romeo & Juliet, Abbey Road, and May flowers

The last couple weeks have flown by! Jordan finished his internship on Friday, and is officially done with his law program here in London. I'm not sure who is more excited about that, him or me. :) I managed to stay somewhat busy while he was working, but wandering around London is not nearly as fun by yourself! Here are a few highlights of what we've been doing the last couple weeks...

Something I have always wanted to do is to see a play in Shakespeare's Globe Theater. The play season for the Globe starts in May because it is an open air theater, so Jordan booked us tickets to go see Romeo & Juliet. The original Globe Theater burned to the ground in the great London fire in 1666, but they rebuilt it as exact as possible to the original theater, and they still perform all the authentic Shakespeare plays like they did during Shakespeare's time. 

I totally forgot to take a picture of the outside of the Globe Theater, so I kinda "borrowed" this one from the internet so you could see what it looks like. :)

Jordan surprised me and got us AMAZING seats right in the front row of the second level! We had the best view, and it was so incredible to watch Romeo & Juliet just how Shakespeare wrote it and intended it to be watched in his theater!

I was trying to give you an idea of how good our seats were -- you can see the back of Jordan's head in this picture. You'll also notice a ton of people standing on the ground. They sell standing tickets for really cheap, just like they did when Shakespeare was alive! We were both so impressed with how authentic the whole experience was, and how neat it was to watch a play in an open air theater under the stars.

We weren't able to take pictures during the play, but a few of the actors came out beforehand, so I was able to get this shot. 

The next thing to cross of our list was to check out Abbey Road, which probably means nothing to you if you're not a Beatles fan. :) I was raised on the Beatles, and they are one of my all-time favorites, so I was determined to head down there and get some pictures. Jordan wasn't quite as excited as I was, but he was a trooper, nonetheless... :)

I had seen an amazing print for sale in Notting Hill of a totally graffitied Abbey Road street sign, and I was determined to find it and take my own picture. So Jordan and I walked up and down the ENTIRE road, and were a little discouraged when we couldn't find it anywhere. There was an old man who asked us if we needed help, and we told him what we were looking for, and he told us that people steel the Abbey Road signs so often that it probably just wasn't there anymore. Oh well. The picture above wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it will do. :)

We still were able to get some pics of the famous crosswalk that the Beatles walked across for the cover of the Abbey Road album. :) Yep, that's me, walking across it! I'm such a tourist...

We have been spending a lot more time in London's beautiful parks now that the weather is pretty nice. And by "pretty nice" I mean "not raining." It has turned into a great way to spend an afternoon (and not to mention, a cheap thing to do in London) to grab some sandwiches, and head out to the park with our books and our camera.

One of our favorite parks is Regent's Park, which is absolutely gigantic! It has a ton of gorgeous flower gardens, and somehow I managed to get way too many pictures... I think I was just a little over-anxious for spring! :)

So there you have it! I am FINALLY all caught up on the blog!! I do realize I am the only one excited about this, don't worry.

Jordan and I leave for our last trip while we're here tomorrow morning, and we are SO EXCITED!! We will be in Italy until Friday -- we fly into Pisa and will spend a couple hours there, then we head to Cinque Terre for a couple days, and finally we spend a couple days in Florence before we fly back to London. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post when we get back! :)

Back in London

We made it back to London after our awesome spring break trips, and Jordan started his 3-week internship the very next morning! The firm he was placed at is called SJ Berwin, and is in downtown London right on the Thames River. He ended up liking the internship for the most part, although at the end of each day I mostly got to hear about the little perks involved, such as free lunches, a rooftop garden overlooking the city, an on-site masseuse... you know, the really important things. :) 

The sector he was working in dealt mostly with environmental issues. Quite honestly, I don't know a ton about it (I wish he was posting this instead of me!) So if you're interested, click here to go to SJ Berwin's main website.

Lindsay and I met Jordan down by his office for lunch one day, so I was able to snap a picture of him in his fancy work clothes. Doesn't he look HOT?! :) The building directly to his right across the river with all the windows is SJ Berwin's office building, where he worked.

Lindsay had a whole week left in London once we got back from Italy and Greece! Since she'd already been to London -- she visited me for a few days when I was here in college -- we didn't have to squeeze in many tourist sights, which left a lot of time for our main priority: SHOPPING. :) For those of you who know my sister, you know she can shop with the best of 'em, and she has an amazing wardrobe to prove it! And quite honestly, I had been limiting myself on the shopping end of things throughout my time in London, saving up for when she got here. As you may know, London is ranked with Paris and New York in the top three places to shop in the world, so we went ahead and took full advantage. :) I am not exaggerating when I say we hit every major shopping area (some of them twice or three times), which filled up most of our days.

Don't worry, we did manage to squeeze in a few other activities while Linds was here! We took her to all our favorite restaurants, watched THE MOST exciting soccer game amidst crazy British fans at our favorite pub, went to the theater twice to see two musicals -- Chicago and a new play called Spring Awakening -- both of which were fabulous, went downtown with millions of other people to watch the London Marathon, she treated me to a pedicure for my birthday present, and we did a TON of walking around the city to revisit some of the main sights... 

I know I've already posted a picture of this building, London's City Hall Building, but I liked this one better. Is this not the funkiest, most random building you've ever seen?! I love it.

One of the coolest things we got to do while Lindsay was here was go eat at a place called Dans Le Noir. You may have heard of it before; basically, it is where you eat in complete and total darkness. A dark dinner, for lack of better words. :) The first Dans Le Noir restaurant started in Paris, and they just recently opened one in London. We had a recommendation to do this from some friends back home, and we have been wanting to do it ever since we got here! 

Basically, what happens is they have you choose from a general menu before you go inside the dark room -- you get to choose from 1) meat, 2) seafood, 3) vegetarian, or 4) surprise! Jordan chose meat, I chose seafood, and Lindsay chose surprise. So other than knowing your general category, you have absolutely NO IDEA what your food is going to be! All the servers are blind, and they lead you back into the dark room to your table and get you seated. To be honest, I pictured it being dark but thought you'd still be able to see a little bit. I WAS WRONG. I am not exaggerating the least bit when I say I've never been in a room so completely dark in my entire life!!! I kept waving my hand an inch from my face, and I could not see it! It was absolutely CRAZY!

The whole point of the dining experience is to let your other senses take over. I will admit, it was a little scary for me to have no idea what I was eating! You honestly get the full experience of what it's like to be blind, and all along your waiter gives you tips on how to pour your wine, how to feel if there's any food left on your plate, etc. Needless to say, we had some absolute hysterical moments, and by the end of it our hands were covered in food. :) When you're finished with your three courses, they lead you back out into the lobby, which is lit, and you get to try and guess what your food was! They have a detailed picture and description they show you once you've guessed, so you end up getting to find out exactly what it was. 

We all ended up loving it and having so much fun, and concluded that it was BY FAR one of the most unique and interesting experiences we've ever had! To read more about it, click here to visit the Dans Le Noir website.

It was such a blast to have Lindsay come visit us! Although our tiny flat just kept getting fuller and fuller with all the shopping going on. :) Here's a glimpse into our living situation for the week...

Two hundred square feet, countless shopping bags, all of Lindsay's luggage, a blown-up air mattress... one big happy family! :)

I took Linds to the airport when it came time for her to leave, which was a complete circus... she was nice enough to take a huge bag home for us along with her luggage, and you can only imagine the two of us dragging two humungous, exploding-full, heavy bags down the streets of London to the tube. Oh, did I mention it was raining? And did I mention that I'm not strong? We only had one minor catastrophe where the bags toppled over on the wet sidewalk and I almost wet my pants because we were laughing so hard, but other than that, we made it safe and sound. :) I love my sis, and miss her already!

P.S. I am ALMOST caught up with the blog! Hurray!! One more post, and I'll be there. :)

Athens

The final stop for our spring break trip was Athens. We decided to splurge a little bit and get a hotel right on the beach rather than in the city, which turned out to be such a good decision! Athens was the first place we've traveled where I didn't really feel like we were in Europe anymore -- it had much more of a middle eastern flare, and certain parts of the city were definitely a little sketchy! And not to mention that not only do we not speak Greek, but unlike Italian or French, you can't even guess on certain words because most of their letters are symbols... it might as well have been in Japanese!

We arrived in the afternoon, and after checking into the hotel we decided to catch the tram into the city for dinner. On our way home, we walked by a church and there were hundreds of people standing outside of it while some type of chant was going on. We thought it was a little strange, but we figured it was probably just part of the culture or something. We finally made it back on the tram, and we weren't on it more than 5 minutes when we realized most of the main streets were closed, and all of a sudden the streets started to fill with thousands and thousands of people walking with candles. Okay, this is NOT normal! I'm not going to lie, I was a little creeped out at this point. Later we found out that it was their Easter weekend, and that the city pretty much closes down. We panicked at first, thinking nothing would be open, but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we ended up getting in free to most of the historical sights, and the city was so much easier to navigate without a ton of people!

We knocked out a ton of sightseeing the next day, with our first stop being the Acropolis. There are many different temples up on the hill of the Acropolis -- this one is the Temple of Athena Nike. Yes, that Nike. :)

Probably the most famous and most recognizable of all the temples is the Parthenon, which is by far the biggest temple on the Acropolis overlooking all of Athens.

Jordan and I with a glimpse of Athens in the background...

Lindsay and I with the same amazing view of the city. Look at that gorgeous, sunny day!

I love this picture of Jordan staring at the Parthenon. He had to buy these sunglasses in Rome because he forgot his, and they were like mirrors -- I was trying to be artsy and get the Parthenon in his sunglasses. :) You can actually click on the picture to make it bigger.

It was pretty amazing to be seeing these temples that were built hundreds of years before Christ was even born! Although, I'll be the first to admit, after a while all of the columns started to blend together, and I felt like all my pictures looked the exact same. Oh well.

The "jumping picture" routine continued! We actually made it a point to get a jumping picture at every major sight, although a lot of them were taken on Lindsay's camera. I'll try to post some more on here once she gets her pictures online. :) Here's one of Jordan and I in front of the Parthenon...

Another beautiful view of Athens...

FINALLY we were able to get someone to take a picture of all three of us! This is the only one from the entire trip.

When you're wandering around the Acropolis, it's hard not to picture yourself all tan and beautiful, walking around in a toga with leather sandals -- a Greek God, basically. :) 

Here is a shot of another cool temple in the Acropolis overlooking Athens...

From there we hiked down the hill to the Ancient Agora, which, for lack of better words, used to be the downtown of Athens in ancient times. I thought this church/temple was really neat. It was standing amidst all kinds of rocks and ruins.

Our next stop was the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. This temple is even older than the temples in the Acropolis; it was built in 6th century B.C.! It's hard to tell in pictures how big it really is, so I took this one of Jordan looking up at it to give you a better idea...

I liked this picture because it shows the Temple of Zeus, and then the view of the Acropolis up on the hill in the background...

The next thing we were all pretty pumped to see was the first Olympic Stadium. The original one was built in 4th century B.C., but they rebuilt it for the first modern Olympic Games in 1886. They actually did the opening ceremonies here for the 2004 Games!

My cute husband, so excited to see the Olympic Stadium! :)

We walked a lot while we were in Athens, which was a great way to see different parts of the city and take in the unique Greek "charm."

The last thing on our to-do list was to go see the Bodies Exhibit that just happened to be in Athens. Jordan and I were a little unsure about this since we're both pretty squeamish when it comes to anything related to blood or body parts, but Lindsay talked us into it, and it ended up being AWESOME! Basically, it's a traveling exhibit that goes to different major cities around the world, and (according to Wikipedia): 

"The exhibition is set up so visitors journey through the human body starting with the skeletal system, and moving through the muscular, nervous, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems; as well as fetal development. Containing about twenty whole bodies in total, each Exhibition uses real human bodies that have been preserved permanently by a process called "polymer preservation" that prevents the natural decay process. Some of the specimens are arranged so that they are performing activities such as playing basketball or conducting an orchestra. Along the way are other displays showing organs, healthy lungs next to smoker's lungs and all of the arteries and veins contained within the human body." 

It was absolutely incredible, and I'm not even much of a science person. :) They obviously don't let you take pictures inside, I was only able to get this one of the poster outside the exhibit. But, if you want to see some of the bodies or know more about it, click here to see the website, or just Google "Bodies Exhibit."

Our last day in Athens was fully dedicated to the beach! :) Our hotel was literally across the street from this beach, and it had been calling our names the whole time we were there...

The morning did not start out too promising; we thought it was going to be too cold. But we waited it out, and lo and behold, it got warmer and warmer, and became the perfect tanning weather! It was hot enough to where we all had to get in the water to cool off a few times. It was a perfect way to end our amazing trip! Here was my view of the brilliant blue water from my beach chair...

I am so glad we got a glimpse of Greece, although it has now become one of the top countries I want to return to and visit more of. Seeing Athens was great, but there are so many amazing cities along the coast and island towns that I simply must see before I die! :) Also, I truly cannot say enough about the Greek food -- gyros and Greek salad are my new favorites!

To see all of our pictures from Athens (and I'm apologizing in advance for all the old column pictures), click here.

When in Rome...

We arrived in Rome, and it didn't take us too long to realize that other than the amazing Italian food and warm weather, it was almost night and day compared to Venice. There is so much to see and do in Rome, and it is busy, busy, BUSY! There are so many people, and we were probably warned about a hundred times to watch out for pick-pockets. 

The first thing we did in Rome was head to the Colosseum, which was obviously at the top of all of our lists of things to see! Notice the crazy traffic...

The Colosseum is absolutely gigantic. I can't even really describe the experience of seeing it in person. It has always been something I've wanted to see, and it certainly did not disappoint!

We were able to go on an English-speaking tour once we got inside the walls of the Colosseum, which was so neat to learn exactly when and how it was used. And we got to hear a lot of gruesome Gladiator stories. :)

Lindsay and I inside the Colosseum...

I'm not sure if it was the vivid story-telling of our tour guide or my own imagination, but this is the one historical landmark I've seen where I felt like I could really picture what went on there when I was inside. Having seen the movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe probably helped a little too. :)

Speaking of, this is where the Emperor of Rome used to sit to watch the gladiators...

Jordan loved seeing the Colosseum! I loved it too, but I think he had a slight edge on me. Maybe it's a guy thing?!

After the Colosseum, we also got to take a tour of Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, which both make up the remains of the ancient city of Rome.

Here is the view of the Colosseum from Palatine Hill...

There weren't as many cool doors in Rome, but I did manage to find a few. :)

Linds and Jord leading the way through the Roman Forum...

The joke of this trip was to try and say "when in Rome" and "by the beard of Zeus" as many times as possible (if you've seen the movie Anchorman, you might understand.) We came across this statue of Zeus, and naturally, Lindsay had to get a picture by it. :)

Although it wasn't everywhere you turned like it was in Venice, there was some Italian charm in Rome...

Here we are in front of the Pantheon, first Lindsay and I, and then Jordan and I. There were so many people around that we decided to make ourselves "stand out from the crowd"...

The next day we went to see Vatican City. Again, we were able to do a really cool English-speaking tour of everything, which was so helpful. I had no idea how big and extensive the Vatican Museum was -- they say it's four miles long! It is definitely comparable to the Louvre in Paris as far as the amazing art and artifacts it contains. 

At the very end of the tour we got to walk through the Sistine Chapel, which has the famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo, including the well-known "Creation of Adam" image. I didn't really know what to expect from the Sistine Chapel, but when I looked up at the ceiling I was in complete and total awe. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen in my entire life. I think knowing that it took Michelangelo four years to complete it made it even more fascinating! We weren't able to take pictures inside (although a lot of people broke the rules!), but click here to see some images of the Sistine Chapel. 

St. Peter's Square is the next well-known place to see in Vatican City. It contains the famous St. Peter's Basilica, which is the highest building in Rome. In fact, to this day, by law no other building in Rome can be built higher than St. Peter's. 

This is my favorite picture from Vatican City; it is how I, personally, saw it... beautiful, but just a little off...

What I mean by that, and I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, is that everything just seemed overwhelmingly ornate and overdone... it just didn't give off a very "Christ-like" feeling, if you know what I mean. Lindsay hit it right on the head when we were walking through St. Peter's Basilica and she said, "Uh... I'm not quite sure that this is what Jesus had in mind. I mean, come on, WWJD?!"  :)

Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely beautiful, but seriously, necessary?? Here is a tiny glimpse of the inside of St. Peter's Basilica...

Here are all the chairs set up in St. Peter's Square probably for a service or a word from the Pope maybe...? 

Jordan and I in St. Peter's Square...

To see all of our pictures from Vatican City, click here.

Our last night in Rome, we decided to walk over to the Colosseum to see it all lit up. They do such an amazing job with the lighting -- it was more of a subtle glow, and it looked so enchanting.

We all loved Rome, and left with quite a few funny stories. Our biggest regret was not getting a picture with the guy who ran our little hotel -- his name was Santi, and he was Italian to the core! He took such great care of us, bringing us wine, folding our clothes, wanting to take us out to the disco every night (although we respectfully declined!) He was a riot, and I will never forget him coming to greet us in his baby blue velour pajamas. :)

To see all our pictures from Rome, click here.