London, England

"the TUBE"

Change of the Mounted Guard

AWFUL Outfits

Changing of the Guard

Sunday Roast

M&M Factory

Westminster Abbey

Relaxing in Kew Gardens

Asian section of Kew Gardens

Out for pints!

British Museum

Mexican exhibit

London Eye

London Bridge

My good friend Marine (another friend of mine from France) wanted to see me one last time before I left Europe so we decided to meet up in London.  She is living in Germany right now and I am in Spain, so London was a good meeting place for us.  So on May 5, I went to meet her at the London Gatwick airport. Unfortunately, this airport was an hour and a half outside of town, but it was worth it for the price to fly in to it.  When we got in to London, we took the metro, or "the tube" or "the underground", to our hostel that we had reserved previously.  Marine hadn't told me before, but she had a friend that lived in the center of London that had couches we could sleep on but she didn't know she was going to be in town.  After we arrived at the sketchy hostel very far outside from the center, we took one look at the room and decided to spend the time going back in to the center to stay with her friend Laurence.  When we got to her apartment, Laurence wanted to go to her friend's party, so we did.  It was all French people so I didn't understand anybody and I was exhausted, but it was ok.   The next day we went to the Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the Guard (both Mounted -horses- and regular).  The regular changing of the guard was really surprising because the band was playing songs like "Cry Me a River" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".  Very strange for an official royal ceremony, right?  The hats and the shuffling of feet were funny and so I'm really glad we went to that.  After that, we went to a pub and I had something very typical which was a "Sunday Roast".  It had potatoes, roast beef, broccoli, carrots, and a bread type something called "pudding".  It was delicious! After lunch we went to the M&M Factory which was childlike fun and very similar to the one in NYC.  We then went to the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, which I loved!  All the flowers and trees were relaxing and beautiful, although London hadn't quite gotten the memo yet that it was Spring.  That evening Laurence wanted to go out to the bar so she had some friends over and we went to a bar where we danced a little and had some drinks.  The next day Marine and I got Starbucks Chai Teas and then went to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone and a really cool Mexican exhibit with turquoise masks that I thought were really cool.  There was also an exhibit on how much medication an average person takes in their lifetime which was pretty interesting.  We then walked along the river and saw the London Eye, but didn't go up in it.  It was on and off raining.  We grabbed some lunch at a pub called "The Hole in the Wall" and I had some fish in chips.  We went to the Tate Modern Museum, but a lot of the exhibits you had to pay, but the part that was free was fun.  It is the largest collection of Modern Art in the world.  We were running out of time so we rushed to the Tower of London.  Honestly it was a bit of a disappointment because it is known as a place of torture, but that part of it was closed.  However, we did wee the crown jewels which were pretty.  Afterwards, we went to the area of London where all the Indian restaurants are and we ate at a place called Aladin.  Marine ordered the spiciest thing on the menu... and survived! What a champion! I enjoyed my much milder food and then we went back to Laurence's apartment to hand out with her and her boyfriend and roommate for a bit.  The next day we went to Notting Hill area to have brunch with another one of Marine's friends.  We had a typical English breakfast of toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and baked beans.  It was AWESOME!  That was the end of my London adventure!!! Honestly it wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be and I really enjoyed it!  

France: Basque Country

Bayonne street market: mushrooms!

Bayonne street market: meat!

Bayonne

On the cathedral grounds listening to the Basque singers

Typical architecture of the Basque region

Streets of Bayonne

Biarritz

 

Thomas & Fanny in the rain in Biarritz

Mass all in Basque

The church's cemetery (notice the Basque cross!)

Appetizers & Apparitifs 

 

Fanny singing in Basque

Fanny & Me!!

Fanny's grandparents

Basque countryside

St. Jean de Luz

St. Jean de Luz

Basque flag

Ainoa

Espelette

Anglet

...it was a bit windy

From April 27-May 1, I went to visit my French friends, Thomas & Fanny.  I left on a Friday morning and flew into Toulouse, France.  Thomas and Fanny still had work, so I took a bus in to town and went for a walk in the center while I waited for them to finish.  Toulouse is a really cool town, and it also seems like a "good quality of life" city... if you speak French that is.  It seems very accessible and has everything you need and a lot of life in the streets, which is nice.  That is something I love about Europe is living life in the streets... that is something the US is missing.  I bought a crepe with red fruit inside in my horrible French with a Spanish accent (haha) and then went to meet up with Thomas and Fanny.  We drove to Anglet, France, which is along the coast and near the border of Spain.  We were staying with Fanny's dad and I had my own room at the house.  Her sister and her sister's boyfriend were also there for the weekend, and her mom also dropped in from time to time.  When we arrived, we had a traditional French meal with apparatifs (sweet appetizer drinks) and then some bread with a duck spread on top.  We had a carrot and mashed potato mixture and some sausages, and then some French cheese (always my favorite part!) and some dessert and tea.  How French! The next day we got up and had croissants and fruit for breakfast and then went in to the town of Bayonne with Fanny's dad.  It was rainy, but I could still see how quaint and beautiful the town was.  We went to the local market where I bought some cheese and then we went in to the cathedral grounds where we watched a group of Basque singers (which is the video that I have above).  We were lucky since that only happens once a month!  We walked around the beautiful streets and then went back to the house for some lunch of meat and veggies, and of course, cheese!  After lunch, Thomas, Fanny, and I went to Biarritz, another town nearby although it was still raining.  We looked out to the coast and saw people surfing.  I'm sure it would have been even more beautiful in the sunshine!  In the evening we had dinner and then watched a kind of French American Idol.  The next day we left early after more croissants (yay!) to go to mass in a very little town called Mendionde.  This was a little village where Fanny's grandmother had grown up where a lot of people spoke Basque.  The church was really small and wooden and the service was in Basque, so nobody really understood, but we all sang (or tried to) Basque songs.  After the service we went to this bar where they had rented it out for Fanny's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary party and we had appetizers and aperitifs (sweet liquor or wine appetizer drinks).  After a little drink, food, and dancing, we went across the street to a restaurant where we had the big back room.  There, we just had a feast!  For the first course, we had a soup that had invisible spherical pearl shaped/sized pasta in it and it was delicious.  The next course was the seafood dish, which was fish in a hollondaise sauce, a shrimp, an unidentified seafood, and some white wine.  The next course, which was the main course, consisted of sauteed mushrooms and green beans, seasoned new potatoes, a piece of toast with marmalade and foie gra, and a very rare cut of very good beef.  DELISH!!! Although I was stuffed and had had plenty of red wine, the next course was cheese! And oh how I love the French cheese!  It is traditional in the Basque area to eat your cheese with cherry marmalade, and I actually really enjoyed it with my sheep, goat, and cow cheese.  And finally, there was the dessert.  It was ice cream, creme brulee, and a fruit angel food cake type pie.  I was stuffed to the brim, and was quite impressed with the people that managed to get up and dance after all that food!  I was content enough watching everything going on while people conversed and sang and dance to Basque songs.  It was a very fascinating yet exhausting experience with all of that food and foreign language that I didn't understand! I went to bed early that night and got up bright and early to go check out the ocean, although at this point, the weather still wasn't that great.  We went to St. Jean de Luz which was a very pretty town where we walked along the beach.  Now the Basque region of France is on the border of Spain, so me being with a bunch of French people, they wanted to cross the border for lunch and also to buy goods that were cheaper, like booze and cigarettes haha.  We had some fresh fish for lunch in Spain, and then drove back to France where the weather was now wonderful and we went to the small town of Ainoa, which was my favorite.  It was just so small and quaint, and like everything in the Basque region, very picturesque.  We then went to Espelette which is a town famous for peppers that hang off all the buildings.  I bought some spice for me and some mustard with the peppers in it for my dad (which we have now tried and is very delicious).  I bought some more French cheese from the area and then we headed back to Fanny's parents house for some beef, salad, more cheese, and a typical Basque cake with a cherry filling for dessert. The next day we went to the beach in Anglet, which is actually the town where we were staying before heading back to Toulouse to the airport.  Fantastic trip as usual... I love my Frenchie friends!!!