A Nice Day for a White [Royal] Wedding

I can say it. I can boast that I was in London on the day that Prince William married Catherine Middleton. And the event was as fun, happy, amazing, and magical as you would think a fairy tale wedding like this would be. I didn't get a personal invitation from the Queen, as I had hoped I would, but I got to see everything and had tons of fun anyway. My friends and I woke up at the crack of dawn on Friday to head to Hyde Park to watch the ceremony.  We weren't even the craziest wedding-watchers, though. I know people who got up at 3 AM to get a spot in front of Buckingham Palace, and others who CAMPED OUT OVER NIGHT in front of Westminster Abbey. But you can't really blame them, because the ones you camped out had a pretty sweet spot right in front of the doors of the Abbey, so they could see everyone arrive. And you've probably even seen a picture of them! (They're the really excited Asian ones with the pillow). This image was used by BBC, CNN, and The Daily Beast. Pretty impressive.

Anyway. We went to Hyde Park. BBC set up three HUGE screens and tons of speaker towers in the center of the park for people to come and watch. It was amazing. So many people. I think I heard around 120,000 people were there watching with us. So everyone just brought blankets and picnics (and alcohol) to celebrate.

Everyone was excited and waving flags with Will and Kate's faces on them and cheering. It sounds pretty cliche, but it was exciting to be there and just be a part of that huge crowd, and of the even bigger audience of about 2.5 million people around the world who were watching the ceremony. It was also pretty cool to think about all of the people around the world who would be watching the BBC broadcast and be jealous of me because I was in London when this happened and they were not.

There were people dressed up fancy with their traditional English hats snacking on tea and crumpets.

There were girls in ugly bridesmaids dresses, men in dresses, and flags everywhere.

This group was probably my favorite, though!
So we watched all of the BBC live coverage of the event and got to see the whole thing. We watched David and Victoria Beckham arrive, we saw Elton John, we saw all of those crazy hats and outfits. As soon as Prince William came on screen driving to the Abbey with his brother, everyone began cheering.  And every time Prince Harry showed up, the crowd would burst into screams and cheers...he is the cuter brother, after all...plus, he still has hair. 

Even got to see the Queen (do you think Will and Harry call her "grandma"?)! The really big deal was when Kate--sorry, Catherine, now Duchess of Cambridge--appeared. Of course everyone wanted to see her dress and her hair and everything else.  Poor Will, no one cares about what he wore to his wedding.  But the wait to see Kate was worth it. She looked absolutely beautiful.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but I'm sure you've already seen her dress anyway.

It had been cold and windy in the park all morning, and there were reports of rain on the horizon. But just as Kate stepped out of her Aston Martin or Rolls Royce or whatever it was, the sun broke through the clouds over the park. It was a pretty great moment. Then, luckily, it stayed a little bit sunny for the rest of the day.

 After we watched Kate walk down the aisle and the couple say "I Will" (doesn't sound as epic or momentous as "I Do"), everyone zoned out of the ceremony for a while, because no one really cares about some special hymn composed just for them...sorry. But of course we perked up again when they all exited the Abbey and processed back to Buckingham Palace.

Of course we watched the balcony kiss and everything.

Best part: Can we just be done with this now?!

But the really cool part was the RAF fly-by. They flew a WWII plane over Buckingham Palace, which is only about a mile from Hyde Park.  After the planes passed the palace, they had to fly over the park and we all got great views of the plane.

After the ceremony, there was a live [cover] band and a huge dance party, which we didn't really stay for, but was fun for a while.
Over all, it was an amazing experience to be there with all of my friends and all of Britain celebrating these two beautifully happy people on their wedding day. So congratulations to the happy couple...and thanks for the day off!

Baloney and Bolognese in Bologna

So I just got back from a week-long spring break trip to Italy (cue: jealousy). And let me tell you, it was AMAZING. Everything everyone tells you about Italy is true. The food is delicious (if you're able to stay away from the tourist traps), the cities are beautiful, as is the countryside, there's so much history and art everywhere you look (if you're into that kind of thing), and the people are kind of assholes. But that's OK! Because it's freaking ITALY! And you are not really worthy to be in their fabulous country anyway!

First stop on our trip was Bologna. The people here were actually pretty nice. It's not really a tourist-y city, so no one speaks English. They were really patient and encouraging while I practiced my high school Italian on them (thank you, Mr. Marcheschi!).

Bologna is everything you'd expect a non-touristy city to be. It's tiny (perfect day-trip size) filled with ancient buildings (the oldest university in the world), old towers, and great little restaurants. Bologna is even called "la citta' grassa", the fat city, because every food you think of as being Italian originated in this region: bolognese sauce, lasagna, ravioli, tortellini, cured ham, prosciutto, bologna (baloney)...  Yep! Bologna is a real meat in Bologna. And it actually tastes good! It doesn't always have to be questionable lunch meat. And it's first name doesn't always have to be Oscar.

After our lunch of bologna and prosciutto sandwiches and avoiding a sudden rain storm, we walked all over the small city and saw all of the cool stuff. And by cool stuff I mean old buildings. Bologna's Chamber of Commerce was even kind enough to print a brochure of how to spend "a half-day in Bologna"...I guess they didn't have much faith in their tourist attractions either. We saw the old town square and a few churches, walked down some side streets and walked into some medieval buildings. By far the coolest thing we did in Bologna was climb the old tower. 100m high and way too many steps to count. It led to some great views of the city and surrounding area. Simply beautiful.

yummmmm

Then we got to my favorite part of the trip. GELATO! We walked out of the main square to find a gelateria we had heard about, and it was well worth the walk. La Sorbetteria Castiglione was my first Italian gelato, and will always hold a special place in my heart.  They had fancy flavors, so I can't even tell you what I got, but I can tell you that it tasted like heaven. I would travel to Bologna just to go back to this place.

Finally we got to try bolognese sauce for dinner. Just as good as we thought it would be!

Then we hopped on a train and headed for Florence...which is a story for next time...

The view of the old town square from atop the tower

London Wanderings

We take advantage of the few sunny days we have around here. We walked all the way from Bloomsbury to the Tate Britain along the river, past Parliament Square. It was wonderful.

The spring time weather didn't last long, though. It is once again cloudy and cold.

And I must content myself with pictures of sun and blue sky.

Seeing London's Architecture

Seeing London's Architecture--taught by the ridiculous, eccentric, passionate, and insipiring Benedict O'Looney (he has his own UrbanDictionary entry)--is a history/drawing/engineering/vocabulary/touring/life lessons (although it is labeled as an architecture class) class I'm taking this semester. For the first 8 weeks of class the touring was pretty miserable because London is a very gray, damn cold city. But yesterday, class was completely different. The sun has started to shine in London and it feels like spring.

 For class yesterday we walked to the magnificent Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral and enjoyed the surrounding buildings. It was the perfect day for it.  Everything looked so beautiful. And it was actually warm outside! At the end of class we visited the observation deck of a new high-tech, low-energy retail/office building in the area to sketch. It was amazing! Such a great view of the city. My favorite class we've had by far.

I sat there drawing St. Paul's until dusk. Because it was just that kind of day.

London is a much nicer, more beautiful city when the sun is out. I hope this spring weather continues!

Pivo in Praha

Sorry I haven't posted anything substantial lately, midterms have taken over my life recently.

I don't know how to read this...is it time to go yet?

But I got to escape school work a few weekends ago and traveled to Prague with all of my friends from BPE on Stern's dime (yep, the perks of being one of Stern's Chosen Ones)! It was an awesome weekend and a much needed get-away from dreary London. It was beautiful and sunny and just tons of fun!
Unfortunately, it wasn't a complete respite from school. Over our weekend in Prague we spent about 8 hours sitting in lectures, learning about economic transition in Eastern Europe. There was more than one instance when I felt as if I was being submitted to cruel and unusual punishment because it was so beautiful outside and there was a jazz band performing on the street outside the lecture hall, which just made me want to jump out the window and escape the incarceration and become a gypsy. But alas, there's no such thing as a free trip to a formerly-communist Eastern European country...so I patiently sat through the lectures.
When I wasn't sitting in class, I was exploring the city! I visited Prague with my parents about 9 years ago. Because I was so young, I definitely didn't appreciate the city the first time and now I don't even remember much about the trip (except for the two most important words in the Czech language that I learned on that trip: "zmrzlina"-ice cream, and "pivo"-beer). So it was really exciting to be able to return to that beautiful city and see if I could pull up some buried memories. And I did! I totally remembered walking across the Charles Bridge, watching the astronomical clock chime in the old town square, admiring the "Fred and Ginger" building (named after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers because it looks like a dancing couple...I tried to tell people this, but no one believed me) on the banks of the river, and eating lots and lots of delicious, heavy Eastern European food.

Yep, all mine!

And of course there was lots of beer...tasting. I guess I take after my dad in that Pilsner Urquell on tap is delicious! The best places to eat in Prague (besides street vendors) are by far the beer halls. I had so much fun sitting in those noisy halls with a big group of friends, drinking beer, eating pork knuckles and dumplings (essentially large dough balls covered in fat)...perfect!

Prague is easily one of my favorite European cities. The architecture is so beautiful, and it still has that great old-world feel that you can't really find anywhere else.

American food!

Oh how I miss sugary cereals.

...But these have probably been sitting there for at least 10 years

Happy belated Valentines Day!