Who Needs Sleep We've Got Switzerland

So I have officially been up for over 36 hours. A magnificent 36 hours though!! Sally and I left at 2 this morning to catch our flight to Zurich Switzerland. We got here nice an early and spent most of the day wandering around the city center. We went up some of the hills and got some great views of the mountains and Alps, though we could not get many good pictures due to the lighting. The area we walked around was not quite as we expected at first. Zurich is much more shopping focused then we realized and designer stores line the street. This might seem great but it took us 2 hours to find a grocery store let alone a restaurant for lunch! 

We did succeed however and had a nice picnic-esque lunch in a cute little park. I am sad to say that we had what we thought we sad lunches of cheese sandwiches, but we actually amazing!!! It is amazing that after 2 months in England we forgot how good food can taste! We then set out determined to find something Halloween themed because we remembered that it was today! We failed miserably though we did find quite a lot of Christmas stuff!!! There are even lights up already in the city center along the streets. 

After some more walking around the city and down along the river we went back to our hotel early to take naps before dinner.

Too tired to go find a restaurant outside we ate at the hotel, though we finally go some Swiss fondue! It was delicious though contained high amounts of alcohol. It is off to bed early tonight as we have big plans for tomorrow! We are off to the mountains! 

Happy Halloween!!

So it is officially Halloween here, and since it is 2am and I am on my way to the airport, I thought I would fill you guys in on the Halloween traditions in England. According to my British Professor in charge of us, people in England don't particularly celebrate Halloween because they think of it in the religious sense that it is All Hallows' eve. I have noticed however that store do try to make Halloween an event and among all the Christmas decorations (yes Christmas, they start very early here), there are a few Halloween costumes for younger children but no huge sales on bags of fun sized candy or anything like that. In a few hours I will be in Switzerland and I can't wait to see how they celebrate there, or if they too are ready for Christmas already!

Resting up from a Wonderful Week

It has been a while since my last post, but I have been recovering from a full week of excitement and fun with my friend Sasha who came to visit! We spent time in all my favorite places and got some things checked off my London Bucket List!! We visited Oxford City Center, London, and even had English tea!

In Oxford we had Tea at the Grand Cafe, the first coffee house in England. We wanted to get High Tea though we learned that high tea consists of fish and deli sandwiches so we changed our plan. Instead we ordered cream tea which consists of scones(biscuits) with butter and jam. Not only was it beautiful, but it was so tasty we got tea everyday after!! I think I am hooked! It is such a relaxing time and everyone is just sitting around in the cafe reading or talking, 

Drinking my yummy Peach tea

On Wednesday we went back into London to visit some more of the beautiful sites! We started by going to Parliament to see the Queen Elizabeth tower(Big Ben). We even ran into the occupy London protesters... it did not really seem much of a protest as the people were just sitting around in front of Parliament and only knew that it was a protest because we heard the police officers talking about it. Since we had to get back early for my class that night we quickly went to the millenium bridge before seeing the guards and Buckingham Palace and getting tea yet again! Not to mention I found my favorite Swedish candy finally!!

Marble Arch

Swedish Cars!!!

On Thursday we were back in Oxford since I had class that afternoon. We started the morning off right with pastries and hot chocolate! Let me just say that the hot coco here is soo much better than at home! They use real milk and everything! Much better than my usual swiss miss! Since it was such a beautiful morning, Sally, Sasha, and I took some beautiful pictures, and you know went souvenir shopping...

The locked me in the smelly phone booth, don't worry I was eventually sent free.

On Friday we were back to London to cross something off my Bucket List! First was Abbey Road, due to the fact that I did not want to get hit by a car, I did not recreate the Beetles' cover. WE then hopped on the underground and were off to Kings Cross Station where harry leaves for Hogwarts each year. It was awesome, though since it has been redone, it does not look like the movies anymore. We then went back on the underground and were off to the Tower of London and London Bridge area. We also went and showed Sasha all the wonderful Harry Potter sites that we learned from our Muggle walking tour. We then went over the quite boring London Bridge and thankfully it did not fall down! We then walked along the river side and got some beautiful pictures before doing a little shopping and got dinner before coming back to Oxford.

Tower of London with the Shard in the background!

Poopies!! 

Tower Bridge!!

Azkaban anyone??

Kings Cross Station

The Leaky Caldron 

Egyptian Obelisk

Diagon Alley

On Saturday we spent Sasha's last day in Oxford. We went to Christ Church, another Harry Potter filming location. It is a beautiful church and looks a lot like a mini Salisbury Cathedral. 

Look familiar?? This is the staircase where professor McGonagall welcomes the first years to Hogwarts before the feast.

Inspiration for the Great Hall

Stain glass window has a picture of the real Alice, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, in it.