Secret Santa Party!!

I love the holidays- how could you not?! Luckily, so do all my roommates and friends. We decided a few weeks ago to do a secret Santa gift exchange between six of us and last night was our party! We all made delicious food - brie and cranberry appetizers, taco mac and cheese, roasted veggies with a garlic lemon aioli, assorted pates and baguette, fish and chips in pastry dough, and brownies! We decided it was a celebration so we topped it all off with sangria and champagne- we had a great time!

Here are some pictures from the night...

Our "tree" and present pile!

Viveca and Ana 

Viveca and Katie

Part of Viveca's present was shoes for me!! How cute do I look? Thanks Emily!

The dancing begins... notice Emily's new Christmas socks

Mmmmm

Katie posing with our table

I can't believe I have less than a week left in London... I'm excited to go home and see everyone but I don't want to leave here!!! :(

Allie In London!

Last weekend Allie came to London to visit. We had a lot of fun and I got to do a lot of the things that I hadn't had a chance to do yet.

Allie's first day in we went shopping for a bit in Oxford Street (before all the shops were vandalized by the student protestors!) then took the tube down to The City to see St. Pauls, the Millennium Bridge, The Tate, Thames, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and London Bridge.

The London Skyline at night

Walking across tower bridge

The next day we got up early to walk through St. James Park and Green Park to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It was certainly an event! I can't believe they do all they did every other day.

The band of guards playing Beatles songs!

Afterwards Viveca and I walked Allie over to Westminster Abbey so she could take the tour. Since we had already been when Viveca's mom visited, we opted out and walked around by myself. We met back up afterwards and crossed the river to see Parliament, Big Ben, The Eye, and the Thames Christmas market! Then we met up with a friend of Allie's brother who walked us to Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery and to Leicester Square.

The next day we decided to go to Madame Tussaud's which was a hoot! Here are Allie and Viveca posing with some miscellaneous celebrities...

Allie and JT

Viveca and George, hamming it up

Whoopi being sassy

Forget Kate- Prince William has a new girl!

After the wax museum we walked to Abbey Road to take the obvious tourist photos and see Abbey Road Studios. Unfortunately, it was dark (even though it was only 4) and our pictures didn't turn out so well. At least we got to see a nice area of London (St. John's Wood). We then took the tube over to Notting Hill to get dinner and to see the area. After dinner we walked from Notting Hill through Kensington, South Kensington, and Knigtsbridge, and through Hyde Park so Allie could see Harrod's.

A fun weekend with a friend from home - who could ask for more!

Highgate Cemetery

A few weeks back we took a trip to Highgate Cemetery for Gothic Lit. It was really one of the coolest things I've done in London so far!

Highgate is a really nice area of London in Camden about a mile away from Kings Cross (right by me). The cemetery itself has a really strange history. It opened in the early-mid 1800s along with six other cemeteries in London meant to alleviate some of the crowding in inner-London church yards. Highgate was a very fashionable and expensive place to be buried, and there are a lot of old timey rich folks' graves there today.

However, Highgate went into disrepair and became abandoned for many years. Throughout the 60s and 70s it was often used in filming of horror films. Also during this time, many crazy occultists would break into the cemetery, steal bodies, perform rituals, and other creepy stuff. There is also the story about the modern Highgate Vampire, who supposedly hung around the cemetery during the 1970s.

There are two parts to Highgate, the west side and the east. The west side is only open to those on guided tours, which have to be arranged in advance. The east side is accessible by a small fee (which we didn't even have to pay, as it was sponsored by NYU!) We got a great tour guide who knew so much about  everything there. It was really neat!

The grave of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian dissident and journalist who was poisoned in 2006

The entrance to the Egyptian Avenue

George Wombwell: Menagerist, I thought this grave was so cute! His story is really interesting too

The Circle of Lebanon

View over Egyptian Avenue from the Circle of Lebanon

Rossetti family grave

So. Cool.

And for the big finale- Karl Marx! We got to see his original grave before, which is much smaller and barely noticeable.. 

After our tours we took a walk around the village of Highgate, which is adorable, and got some lunch. A very neat experience that I probably would not have done if not for class, but that I'm really glad I got to do!

Dublin, Cork, and Blarney!

Hey everyone! It's Viveca. Lyle had a lot of work to do back home, so he couldn't come on this trip with me, sadly, but read on to find out all about my trip to Ireland!

This past weekend I went to visit Allie in Dublin. I got in to Dublin in the evening on Wednesday. I made my way to Allie's apartment near Trinity College. Since it was later we didn't do much sightseeing but decided to start the next day.

Thursday morning we headed out to Malahide Castle which is about 40 minutes outside Dublin by train. The castle dates back to the 12th century and was owned by the Talbot family up until the mid 1970s when Rose Talbot sold the castle to Ireland. That was the end of the Talbots at Malahide. We also learned that Rose moved to Tanzania to start a sheep farm! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so all I've got is a pretty view of the street leading up to the castle.

After Malahide we went back into Dublin to walk around a bit. There are so many cute streets in Dublin with tons of shops, restaurants, and pubs! It was especially cute with all the Christmas decorations up.

The next day we decided to go see Leprechaun Museum (yes, it's real!). Allie told me that it was really fun, and it was! It's half children's museum, half museum of Irish legends. You start off in a room with leprechaun memorabilia like a little leprechaun suit!

The tour guide (who was basically a tall leprechaun himself, red hair and thick accent and all!) then came in to give an introduction to Irish folklore and myths. He showed us into the next room and we were off! We started going through a tunnel down into a wooden replica of Giant's Causeway. You then open a door and went into a giant's living room! Big chairs, table, storage boxes, and lamp. Very cute. Next room led to a map with information about Ireland leading into a room with umbrellas on the ceiling. Umbrellas on the ceiling, you ask? That's because in the next room was... A rainbow! You walk through the rainbow into the leprechaun's pot of gold! Here the guide met us to tell us some more stories. The last two rooms were more legends and we ended in a dark forest with a wishing well! Definitely worth a trip if you're ever in Dublin. 

Climbing around the Giant's Causeway

On the giant's chair!

Reaching for the umbrella!

The rainbow room

After the leprechaun museum we headed over to the Guinness factory. Definitely not as fun as the Heineken factory, but totally worth it! We even got to pour our own pints!

Outside St. James' Gate

Topping off the pint after letting the Guinness settle for exactly 109.5 seconds!

Allie with her pint and certificate!

Voila!

The next day we headed out to Cork after missing our early flight. Luckily, there was a train just as early that only took three hours. Plus, we got to see a bit of the Irish countryside! The first thing we did was get on a bus to Blarney. Yep- that Blarney! Of Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone! So far this was my favorite castle I've seen. It was so old and had such an air of magic all around. It helped that part of the grounds held a rock close- a mythical old Druid settlement. There were rock formations that are thought to have magical properties and house witches! We even saw an old Druid sacrificial rock. Creepy! The grounds also had endless trails and something called the Blarney House (which was closed, and we never learned what it was). Of course we both kissed the Blarney Stone! 

The Blarney Castle

View from the other side of Blarney

Walking down the Witches' Stairs - supposedly if you walk down and up with your eyes closed thinking only of a wish,  it will come true within the year! The Witch has to grant wishes because she takes wood from the castle for her kitchen!

Allie peeking around the Witches' Kitchen!

The Witch Rock! She hides in this rock during the daytime and comes out at night. Can you see her face?

Remnants of an ancient Druid temple

Allie at the top of the castle!

Overlooking the poison garden (only has poisonous plants!) and the castle wall

The Blarney House

Kissing the Blarney Stone! The picture is a photo of a souvenir photo  (yes, we got suckered into buying them!)

Blarney as a town was tiny (basically two streets) though, and there's not much to do there other than see the castle. So, we headed back to Cork! However, Cork wasn't much better, and we were tired so all we had energy for was a Chinese buffet and a movie.

Ireland was beautiful and it was good to see a friend! Phew- all caught up on posts now!

In the Homeland- Budapest, Hungary!

We got into Budapest later at night and took a taxi from the train station to our hotel. We got really lucky and picked a hotel right in the city center- it was close to everything! Our first night we spent some time on the computers then crashed.

Our first day in Budapest, we were so tired we didn't feel like figuring out a map so we paid for one of the hop on-hop off busses. We started the tour at Josef Nador square. The tour then took us to Erzebet Square and Andrassy St (the main boulevard in Budapest, with shops, the Opera House, high end designers, and old villas), leading into Heroes' Square. We got of at Heroes' Square to explore the area.

Heroes' Square- featuring statues of famous Hungarian leaders!

Vajdahunyad castle in the City Park behind Heroes' Square. Sadly it was under renovation!

The natural medicinal thermal baths in the park

We got back on the bus after exploring a bit and rode past Astoria, the Chain Bridge, and the Funicular to the Castle District. We got off there to explore all the sites around the Castle. Located here is Fisherman's bastion, Matthias Church, and the Buda Castle. The view from up there was amazing! We walked past Matthais Church to the bastion, but decided to save the Castle for another day. 

The view from Fisherman's Bastion. The white building across the river on the left is Parliament

The Szabo Marzipan Museum!!!!! So bizarre- just two rooms filled with marzipan sculptures of mostly Disney movies

Marzipan Harry Potter!

We rode the bus over to Citadel- the highest point in the city- and back around to Josef Nador square to our hotel. That night we met up with Anna- someone Viveca interned with at the Guggenheim this summer who lives in Budapest- who showed us around a bit and gave lots of helpful advice on what to see!

The next day we went to the Great Market Hall to do some browsing. If anyone's been to the West Side Market in Cleveland, it reminded me a lot of that! The ground floor was all fruits, vegetables, and meat while the basement had pickles, game, and fish. The first floor was devoted entirely to souvenirs! We had a good time walking through and picking out gifts for people back home.

Me outside the market!

After the market, we walked over to the St. Stephen's Basilica to look inside. It was really beautiful- especially inside. We then decided to walk down Andrassy for a bit to see some of the stores and houses. Afterwards, we headed over to Parliament for a quick peek. On our way over we saw Angelina Jolie filming her new movie! Very cool. We also noticed something neat on our map - Bihary street! Of course, we had to walk over to get a picture. Afterwards we passed by the Imre Nagy statue bridge, devoted to the revolutionary hero.

The Basilica

Inside the Basilica

Bihari/Bihary street! Spelled differently on the map.

Me outside Parliament 

Nagy Imre Bridge

Our third and final day we spent walking around the castle grounds. The castle is really beautiful and has both old and new parts. Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon to add- so keep an eye out!

We had a really great time in Budapest and were able to sample a LOT of Hungarian cuisine. I've found a newfound love of paprika paste and chicken paprikash, Kürtöskalács (Hungarian funnel cakes), and strudel! I'm very excited to be able to go back next spring. 


Well that's all for now, hopefully I'll have some more pictures soon to add to these posts! Fall break was exciting, long, and fun! I went to Dublin and Cork this past weekend... updates on that soon but for now- I'm out!