in love with London town

I was able to spend this past weekend with Tiffany, a missionary in London who got connected to my family through some members at Shades Mountain Baptist. I rode the train from Stafford to London on Friday morning, which took about two and a half hours because of all the stops it makes. Tiffany met me at London Euston station and we rode the tube for about 30 minutes to get to her flat. After dropping off my things and relaxing for a little while, we headed into the heart of the city to see Evensong Choir at Westminster Abbey. I hadn’t heard of them until Tiffany asked if I’d be interested in going to see them, but thanks to Google, I learned that they are a choir that sings in the evening services at Westminster Abbey. The service is very structured, which was not something I was used to. The experience was interesting and I absolutely loved listening to the choir. The sound of delicate voices singing melodies and harmonies together for the Lord is extremely moving. After the service, which was over around 5:45, we went on a mission to find Chipotle. My parents had told Tiffany that I would love to have Mexican food if we could find any and some of Tiffany’s friends had told her that they had been to a Chipotle a month before, so we were bound and determined to find it. It was kind of hidden and tucked in to a corner, but thankfully we found it and we enjoyed some very delicious Mexican food. I think Tiffany enjoyed it even more than me, saying that she thought she could now continue living in London thanks to this discovery. :)

On Saturday morning, we ventured down to Portobello Market and Notting Hill. It was only a few blocks from Tiffany’s flat and the market itself went up and down several blocks after that. I honestly don’t think I had ever heard of Portobello Market but I know I definitely want to go back. Basically, over the weekend the roads are blocked off so these little street market stands can be set up. There’s everything from food to vintage clothes to antiques – books, stationary, and the like. If you’re ever looking for something unique and for sale at a reasonable price, that’s your place. Towards the end of the market is The Notting Hill Bookshop. I had never heard of this movie but Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant is based on this bookshop. I was in my happy place there. The inside of the shop is so quaint, cute and cozy. If too many people are there it can get a little crowded, but it’s still a really nice shop. We stayed for quite a while and I ended up buying Mary Poppins, which I didn’t realize was a children’s chapter book until I found it in the shop, and a book called A Reader’s Guide to a Writer’s London. As a child, I was absolutely obsessed with Mary Poppins so it only seemed right that I finally purchase and read the original book in London, where the story takes place. The Reader’s Guide to a Writer’s London caught my eye and after flipping through several pages of it, I was in love. My inner English nerd was so intrigued with all the stories inside of where classic authors have lived, written some of their stories, or what some of their stories are based on. The book is really more of a “coffee table” book than a regular reading book, but I’m really excited that I found it.

After leaving the bookshop, we went over to the Cath Kidston store, which is basically like a British version of Vera Bradley but they also sell things like baby clothes, aprons, teasets, postcards, mugs, and all other kinds of things. I got a really cute tea mug there with most of London’s famous landmarks on it (Big Ben, Tower Bridge, The London Eye, etc.). We stopped for lunch at a Gourmet Burger Kitchen and I actually had breakfast for lunch – hot chocolate and a toasted sandwich with fried eggs, bacon and cheese on a sesame bun. It was brilliant, as a true Brit would say :) We then headed back to Tiffany’s flat to drop off the things we had purchased that morning and got directions to go to the original Twinings Tea Shop. This was the one thing I absolutely wanted to do before leaving London and I was definitely not disappointed. We rode a double decker bus for about an hour to get there, and although it was super crowded with the weekend tourists, I enjoyed getting to see the new decorations for the Olympics on the way.

The tea shop is just lovely. Really. The store is just one narrow sort of hallway and in the back, there is a small kitchen type area where the workers will make you a fresh cup of any tea you want to try – for free! I really enjoyed looking at all the different kinds of teas you don’t usually find in the grocery store. I originally wanted to buy a tea cup there, but since there weren’t any for sale that I could find that actually said “Twinings,” I decided to buy a gift box instead. The gift boxes are wooden and come in all kinds of sizes but I got one that has two compartments inside to put tea in. When you buy the box, you can fill it with 20, 40, or 60 teabags depending on what size box you get. Since I got the smallest box, I got 20 teabags, which was honestly plenty for me. I got two of just about anything I could find that looked worth trying. White tea, green tea, some fruit teas, a special Winter edition tea that I’m looking forward to trying around Christmastime, and of course some of my favorite – English Breakfast :) After the trip to the tea shop, we were both pretty tired so we rode the tube back to Tiffany’s flat and we ate salads and sausage rolls for dinner. She then started baking some cookies and cupcakes for a bake sale her church was having the next day while I watched What A Girl Wants. It was fun to watch that movie after spending a day around London :) If you’ve never seen it, the movie an American teenager living in NYC who tries to go find her dad, who is a British politician. There are lots of scenes around London in the movie and it was cool to see some of the places in the film that I had been to.

On Sunday, I went with Tiffany to the church where she works with the children and youth. The style of the service was different than anything I had ever been to, sort of similar to the Evensong Choir service, but not quite as structured. It was definitely a neat experience to see a different style of worship. After the service, one of Tiffany’s friends, Polly, joined us for lunch at a local pub where I had a British Sunday lunch of roast, carrots, green beans, roasted potatoes, and Yorkshire Pudding. I wasn’t able to finish all of it but I at least tried a little of everything and really enjoyed all of it! I loved the cultural experience and was honestly pretty surprised that I liked the meal as much as I did. Maybe I really am British after all. :) haha

I rode the train back that afternoon and got back to Stafford around 6:15. I had a really great time and I fell in London even more. It’s funny, I’ve heard a saying that people who travel always hold the first place they go to in a really special place in their heart, and although I went to other countries before going to London in my 10^th grade, London was the first big city outside of the U.S. that I went to and I really do think I love it the most of all the places I’ve been to. Cape Town is a close second. Despite the crazy traffic, insane amount of people, dirty and unreliable public transportation, I still absolutely love it. I seriously think I could live there, but I guess I’ll have to just see what God’s got in mind :)

Currently Reading: I finished reading Kisses from Katie last week, which I highly recommend. It is a very humbling and inspiring read. I started Same Kind of Different as Me this week, so I’ll post about what I think about it once I get a little farther into it. I’m also reading through Mary Poppins, which is just adorable. A little different from the movie, but still just as magical :)

I apologize that I never finished my posts about our Rome trip. When I have time to sit down and remember all the things we did, I’ll be sure to put them up. :)

Grace and Peace.

Exploring & Learning Lessons

We got to sleep in on Monday, but when I say “sleep in,” I really mean it was sleeping in for my parents/grandparents and a brutal wake up call for me. Even though it was only 9 in the morning, I struggled waking up (probably because it was 8 in the morning in England and about 2 in the morning in America). We ate breakfast in the hotel, which was a nice buffet, just mainly of foods we were unsure of. Most of them are at least similar in some way to things we usually eat, so we had to keep an open mind. I was shocked at how many dessert foods they had out for breakfast. I was actually still full from the dinner we had the night before so I was happy to see that they had English Breakfast tea, which I had in addition to a small bowl of cereal that was very similar to the chocolate Special K cereal.

This day was originally supposed to be our first tour day with our tour guide, but the weather forecast showed storms so we got the tour moved to Wednesday, which was going to be our free day. So we basically just flipped our Monday and Wednesday schedules.

After breakfast, we finished getting ready for the day and then decided we would go see the Catacombs. It’s a really good thing we decided to ask the guy at the front desk what the best way to get there would be because we considered walking there, but thanks to his suggestion we ended up taking the subway and a bus to get there, and there’s no way we could’ve walked that far.

Figuring out the subway system was a little tricky because everything was in Italian, but thanks to maps and a few questions along the way, we managed to not get lost on the subway (thank you, Lord). The bus was another place that I feared for my life...they cut sharp corners, braked at the last minute, and nearly ran over a few pedestrians. The road that actually took us down to the Catacombs was cobblestone and the bus flew down that road, which was probably the scariest experience of my life. I was very glad to have my feet touch the ground again after getting off that bus.

There are about five different catacomb locations in Rome that you can go see but we went to the Saint Sebastian Catacombs because we’d heard that those were the best to see and since the catacombs are all pretty similar, it's kind of a “once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” type of thing. Peter and Paul may be buried in the Saint Sebastian Catacombs so that was pretty neat to learn about. I say "may be buried there" because there are several possible locations for their tombs, so they may or may not actually be buried there.

We had to wait for a tour that was given in English and then we were given the tour for a good 20-30 minutes in the underground tombs. It was kind of spooky to be down there because it was pretty cold and fairly dark. It was kind of hard to understand the tour guide (even though he spoke English, he had an Italian accent), but the things he told us about the tombs were very interesting. He told us about Saint Sebastian, who the tombs are named for, who was a Christian who was persecuted in Rome. He was captured by the Romans and shot with multiple arrows, which miraculously did not kill him. After escaping this death, he returned to the streets to preach the gospel. He was then arrested again and flogged to death. This story really touched me. Would I be bold enough to return to the streets to proclaim the gospel after such a cruel attempted murder? The fearlessness of the apostles and saints in Rome during that time are beyond what I can fathom. The overwhelming amount of belief in polytheism at the time put the Christians in a hard place and their example of faith & courage is definitely inspirational.

After leaving the catacombs, we rode the bus back toward the center of the city and stopped for lunch at a little pizza & pasta place. I had a ham and cheese calzone, which was really delicious. Most of us tried some dessert here and I had a chocolate soufflé, which seriously may be one of the most heavenly desserts I’ve ever tasted.

We then spent the rest of the evening up until dinner exploring the city. We rode the subway to the Opera House, took some pictures there, and then walked several blocks in hopes of finding the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately, we never found it, but the Trevi Fountain was included in our tour on Wednesday so we knew we’d get to see it anyway. My grandparents were able to find some souvenirs while we were out and my parents got me a nice, embroidered t-shirt that says “Rome, Italia” on it.* Thanks again, Mom and Dad :) Just getting to see all the modern buildings next to ones that had been there for centuries was really neat. We all had a really great time exploring.

*If you know me, you know I don’t need any more t-shirts in my closet. But I mean...when in Rome... :)

We were planning to eat dinner at a place called “da Paolo” or something like that near our hotel because it looked like a nice full-out Italian restaurant, but when we went there around 6 or 7, it was closed! Apparently most of the restaurants in the city are able to do well by just opening during lunch hours and will shut down at night, so we had to explore a little bit to even find a place that was open. I was so full from dinner that I only had a bowl of fruit for dinner, but from what my family told me about their food it wasn’t really the best. When we got back to the hotel, the lady that had checked us in the day before was there and we told her about what happened. We told her the name of the restaurant we ate at and she said, “ooo yes that not good.” Gee…good to know. She then continued, “Next time you go eat, you come check with me, I tell you good place to go.” Haha, again…wish we’d known that sooner. Lesson learned, though.

I’ll continue to post updates from our Rome trip. I’m sorry I didn’t post them while we were there, but as you can imagine I was busy enjoying Roma! :)

I hope you’re enjoying reading about our travels!

Grace and Peace.

En Route to Roma

On Sunday morning, we woke up relatively early to eat breakfast and finish packing before having a small Bible study with just the family at home. We weren’t going to have time to go to the church service at my family’s church in Stafford and make our flight to Rome so my dad read us some of Romans and we discussed how Rome was basically the center of the world in the era of Paul and Peter and was in great need of hearing the gospel. Putting this in perspective before coming to Rome was very neat for all of us. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the places where Paul and Peter preached, or at least prayed for, in hopes that people would receive Christ and hear the gospel.

We ate lunch at home around 11 and were picked up by a shuttle at 11:30 that took us to the airport in Birmingham. UK, not US. I know, confusing, right? :) We were already at the airport a little early but the flight ended up being delayed an hour so we went to Frankie & Benny’s* in the airport, which is a little sit-down restaurant that is sort of similar to O’Charley’s, but a little nicer in my opinion. They have very good burgers and calzones. Trey and I actually didn’t eat lunch at the house because we’d eaten a late breakfast, so we had lunch at Frankie & Benny’s and my parents & grandparents had dessert.

*There is a Frankie & Benny’s in Stafford and we went out to eat there the first night Justin and I came for spring break. While we were there, Justin asked the waiter where the “Loo” was and the guy was very impressed with his use of the term :)

Our flight to Rome left around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and lasted about two and a half hours. We were picked up by one of the guys that works at the hotel we’re staying at, which is about 45 minutes from the airport, and we discovered very quickly that traffic laws apparently do not apply here. The guy rolled through the first three stop signs we came to and I saw several others do the same thing, and people will straddle two lanes when passing so they can see which one will have less traffic. Cars everywhere. Insanity. Fearing for my life. I kid you not…

On a happier note, the hotel we’re staying at is right across the street from the Vatican Museum. We have a really nice view of it from the balcony in our room :) The people who work at the hotel are very helpful with advice on where to eat and how to get places, which has been really nice because even though most people speak English, it’s very hard for us to understand them and vice versa. Once we got to the hotel, the lady that was at the front desk recommended a pizza place for us to get dinner at and by this time it was around 8 or 9 so we were desperate for any food. The bread they brought out to us before we got our food was incredible. I’m pretty sure it was just the pizza dough cooked into little chunks. It was absolutely delicious. We had a little less luck with the pizza itself…they served individual pizzas and most of us ordered some form of pepperoni pizza, and pepperoni is actually considered peppers here. So, most of us got pizza with spicy peppers and were not expecting it. I was able to pick off mine pretty well and enjoy a nice cheese pizza, but they brought the pizzas straight out of the oven, meaning we had to cut it ourselves, which was pretty hard to do because they were so thin. In my opinion, it was very good, it just took some work to eat it. After dinner, we basically came back to the hotel and went straight to bed.

We have wifi in the hotel we’re staying in, but it’s been sort of spotty so I’ll try to keep my blog as updated as possible but I may have to wait until getting back to Stafford to finish some of my updates.

Grace and Peace.

passing the torch and more

Sorry I've postponed updating my blog for a few days. I was trying to wait until I had enough to write about to put up a decent-sized post.

A couple of nights ago, we had the privilege of watching the Olympic torch pass through Stafford! We walked down to the edge of the neighborhood to get a good spot and waited about 30 minutes for everything to start. I guess I thought there would be a few things to come before the torch to get everyone pumped up about it, but I wasn't expecting the dozens of policemen, buses, and other things to pass through for a good 10 minutes before the torch actually came. The funniest part to me was that after the torch came through, everyone went from cheering to "ok, I guess we can go home now." and everyone left. It's like they waited 45 minutes to see a flame then go home. It really was cool, though :) 

The past couple of days have mostly been spent at home relaxing, which has been very nice. My mom, grandparents and I went to Shugborough Estates yesterday while Trey was in school and my dad was at work. I went there over spring break and it's one of those places that just isn't quite as exciting the second time, but I did enjoy seeing the decorations they put up in honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which weren't up when I came. Shugborough is basically a huge plantation where the Bishop of Lichfield used to live and the estates are now set up as a museum for people to walk through. You can see the gardens, a farm, the servants' quarters, and the mansion itself. It really is breathtaking...the size of the estates, the history of it, and the beauty.

The weather the first week I was here was absolutely perfect. Sunny and 70's. Unfortunately, our house doesn't have air conditioning so that made it kind of hard to keep the house cool and sleep comfortably at night. Yesterday, the England weather came back. It was in the upper 50's, cloudy, and a little rainy. It's crazy to think it could change so drastically from one day to the next and that it could be that cold in June!

Currently reading: I'm still reading Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet, but I'm finally almost done with it (about 20 pages away from finishing). I'm also about to start reading Kisses from Katie, which I got as a Christmas present and started reading after spring break, but ended up getting too busy to finish it. I'm probably just going to start it over so I can refresh my memory. 

We're leaving for Rome on Sunday and I probably won't actually post while I'm there, but I'll be sure to share about our trip once we get back :)

Grace and Peace.