Ready, Set, Go

I have exactly 80 days left before I come back to the States. I need more time! I feel like I have so much more I want to see and do in Europe that it's overwhelming to think about it sometimes. It's really difficult balancing a hectic work schedule and wanting to visit every European city but hopefully I'll be able to find a balance for the rest of the time that I'm here.

I'm flying to Southampton tomorrow to meet up with my cousin Nicole. We're doing a day trip to Bath (a city on my must see list for England) and we're just going to have some nice cousin time. I thought that when I moved to England we'd see each other all the time, but this is going to be the first time that we see each other since I arrived in March!

My friend Elyse is coming to visit next week and then it's a whirlwind between London, Jordan, back to the States for a week, back to England, maybe back to Dublin, then back to the States again. Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it and somewhere in there I have to actually do my job. Never a dull moment.

Time Out

Ok, I'm officially the worst travel blogger ever. Sorry about the long delay between my last post and this one. I've been so wrapped up in working and traveling lately that I can't seem to sit still long enough to write a post about what I've been up to.

Well, it's officially been 3 months since I started this journey and I'm now at the half way mark. Hard to believe that 3 months ago I landed in Dublin still in awe that I was actually moving to England. I've already learned so much about myself in the short time that I've been here, but I think that it's a good time to assess what I've been able to accomplish thus far and what more I want to do.

Since I last posted, I've taken a couple of great trips to Berlin and Paris. To keep it short and sweet, here are some of the highlights in each city.

Berlin
- Seeing historical buildings that I never thought I'd actually see in person (Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall)
- Food, food, and more food (dumplings, roulade, beer - need I say more?)
- Spending Sunday morning/afternoon at Mauerpark strolling through the flea market and listening to the karaoke in the park

Paris
- The Eiffel Tower at night
- Taking in the sights and sounds of Montmarte on a Saturday
- Brunch and strolling in the Jewish Quarter on Sunday morning

So with everything that has happened in the last 3 months I've realized a few things about myself, my career, my life. In some cases, it's been a harsh realization that there are things about my life that I'm not happy with. In other instances it's looking back at goals that I've set for myself 2, 3, 4 years ago and assessing how far I've come. There's nothing like being out of your comfort zone to do some real soul searching. I'm hoping the next 3 months will give me the perspective to actually make some serious changes for the better.

So, what's up next? Well, I'm in Dublin now for my team's quarterly meeting and I'm headed back to Leeds at the end of the week. I have a couple of weeks before going to visit my cousin Nicole in the South of England. My friend Elyse is visiting after that and then I'm off to Jordan for two and a half weeks to visit my Mom's family. Time is flying so I'm thankful for this brief time out. 

God Save the Queen

I hit the jackpot to be in England in 2012. Between the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, London has never looked so good. I spent the weekend in London celebrating like a true Brit. It was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the whole city was celebrating in what seemed like a large block party.

I took the train down on Thursday and met my friend Jackie who was in town for work. On Friday, we took a day trip with the senior crowd to Stratford and Oxford. We spent a lot of time on a bus where we were the youngest by at least 20 years, but got to see the Cotswolds (think lots of sheep and farmland) as well as Stratford (home of Shakespeare) and Oxford (home of Oxford University).

In front of Shakespeare's birthplace

On Saturday we decided to shop and wait for another friend Kate to come into town. Kate is taking a major leap of faith and is on her way to Kenya to work as the PR/Communications person for a company called Sanergy which builds sanitation systems in the slums of Nairobi. Amazing work and I'm so proud of what she about to do. Kate is also one of the funniest people I know, so if you choose to follow her blog you won't be disappointed.

Sunday was the day of the big flotilla on the Thames to honor the Queen so we made our way as close to the River as possible. Before reaching the river, we had a run in with Meredith Viera. When in London I guess.

Crowds by the river waiting to see the Queen's boat pass

Kate and Will

A Sunny Yorkshire Weekend

Summer has finally arrived in England! We've been having a few days of absolutely gorgeous weather, and it really makes me realize how much I need the sun after having so many dreary days in a row. I'm not sure how long this will last, but I enjoyed every minute of it this weekend.

Because I have a lot of travel planned for the next few weeks (that's another blog post in and of itself!), I decided to stick around Leeds this weekend. On Saturday, I went to the Leeds Food Festival, which took place in Millennium Square and is about a 5 minute walk from my apartment. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of Leeds restaurants had stations there and everyone was in a great mood with the sun being out. I grabbed a Pimm's cup and took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the delicious food. I bought myself some peanut brittle from a company that is based in Leeds but gets its recipes from the owner's mother-in-law who is from Alabama.

 Millennium Square in Leeds packed on a beautiful Saturday afternoon

After walking around the food festival, I decided to walk across the street to the Leeds City Museum to see an exhibit they have going on in honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. For those of you who have not heard, this is Queen Elizabeth's 60th anniversary of being Queen of England and the whole country is getting ready to celebrate next weekend with a four day weekend and festivities throughout the country. To be honest, I haven't seen anything like it before. Everywhere you go you see signs congratulating the Queen, and in stores there is everything from commemorative plates to British flag tea towels. The Leeds City Museum has an exhibit of portraits taken of Queen Elizabeth by her official photographer.  I spent about an hour and a half looking the photos of her as a child, her coronation, and her as a mom. 

On Sunday I decided to venture out and took the train to Harrogate, a town that is about 35 minutes away and is known as Britain's "spa town". The town became really popular throughout the country in the Georgian era because of the water that was discovered in the city, which has high concentrations of iron, sulphur, and salt. The wealthy of Britain congregated in Harrogate for respite, and to this day, it's known for its spas and Turkish Baths. 

I arrived in Harrogate around 11:30 am and walked around to get my bearings. It's not that big, so it was pretty easy to get the layout of the city. The train station is in the midst of the city centre, so I was just a short walk away from shops and Betty's Tea Room, which is where I knew I wanted to stop off for a light lunch. Betty's is a Yorkshire chain of tea rooms, and the location in Harrogate is the original location. 

After lunch, I had some time to kill before my spa appointment (um, I couldn't very well go to a spa town and not spa it up), so I walked to some of the beautiful parks in Harrogate.

I made an appointment at the Turkish Baths & Health Spa in Harrogate, the official spa in town. Amazing. That is all I have to say. I had a facial and massage, and while the massage was not the best I ever had, I was so relaxed that I fell asleep during my facial! 

Next weekend I'm going to London to spend the weekend with friends for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! Can't wait!

Hope all of you in the States enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

Another Guinness Please!

After two short work days, Laurel and I flew to Dublin for a few days. The plan was to have Friday to do some site-seeing on our own before meeting up with our friends Kristen and Phil who were flying in from Houston on Saturday.

The first day our first stop was the Google offices in Dublin. After being offsite for the last couple of months, I had to get my free food, free coffee, free snack fix. I'm an addict! We had lunch at the office and checked out the different buildings. We then decided to do the hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get a sense of how the city is laid out. After the bus tour we decided to see a movie because our bus dropped us off in front of a cinema and we both wanted to see Dark Shadows. If you a Johnny Depp or Tim Burton fan, you should see it. It was entertaining!

The next day we did what every good tourist to Dublin does - the Guinness and Jameson Whiskey tours. The Guinness tour was not that great to be honest. It's one of those things that you know you should do because you are in Dublin, but I found the Jameson tour to be way more interesting and substantial. It may have something to do with the fact that the Jameson factory gave us a full sized drink after the tour and Guinness gave us a small sip!

In front of the Guinness sign at the factory

Jameson Whiskey cocktails

The next day we met up with our friends Kristen and Phil and walked around the city a bit. We ended up in the Temple Bar area and had dinner at Gallagher's Boxty House for some traditional Irish cuisine. We made it a relatively early night because the next day we were meeting to take a drive into the Irish countryside and check the Powerscourt House & Gardens in County Wicklow.

We had a lunch reservation at the Tinakilly Country House on the way to the gardens. The house is situated amongst the Wicklow mountains and the house was built for a captain of the Great Eastern ship.

We drove a little further to get to Powerscourt Gardens. The gardens are considered to be one of the best in the world takes about an hour to get through the gardens.

Powescourt House

Japanese Garden

Dolphin Fountain

Laurel and I in front of a fountain at Powerscourt

Work has been good - keeping me busy and traveling quite a bit actually. I just got back from a few days in London for a conference where I presented to small to medium size businesses looking to start with online advertising. I love spending time in London but unfortunately, this time around was mostly all business. I did stay the weekend, but slept as much as could after getting four hours of sleep a night during the week.

Next up is London again next week for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! Excited that I'll be in London for that and that I'll be seeing my girls Jackie and Kate!

I promise it won't be another month before my next post. Hope all of you are doing well.

Chocolate & Scotch

Hi again everyone! So sorry that it's been a month since my last post. This past month has flown by and I really can't believe that I've been in England for two months now. Where does the time go?

I've been a very busy bee the past month since my last post. My very good friend Laurel came to visit the second week of May. We did quite a bit of traveling and we have the British national rail system down pat! Our first adventure was to York, England which is a short 25 minute train ride away from Leeds. York is one of the oldest cities in England and is a walled city that was founded by the Romans in 71 AD. In additions to the Romans, the city was also inhabited by Vikings and became a very important city for the Viking kingdom. When we got there, we walked around the city for a few hours and then checked into our hotel. During our walk, we stopped at the chocolate museum. York is home to many famous chocolate and candy brands like Kit Kat, Smarties, Rolo and the Chocolate Orange. It was very informative (and delicious)!

In front of the wall surrounding York

Selection of Kit Kats over the years

Laurel and I in front of the wall near York Minster

One of my colleagues from work lives in York and enjoys giving tours of the city. He met Laurel and I after our chocolate tour and gave us a 2 hour walking tour of the city. Our last stop was York Minster, one of the most renowned cathedrals in the world. It's the largest cathedral north of the Alps and the construction started in 1220. We stayed for the Evening Song mass where the boys and girls choir sing the Book of Common Prayer.

Sign for the shortest street in York

Outside of York Minster

Inside of York Minster

In our planning, we decided to spend the night in York and then the next day continue on to Edinburgh for a few days. The train ride from York to Edinburgh was about two and a half hours but the views on the way are breathtaking because the train route is on the eastern coast so we could see water for a good portion of the trip.

We didn't have much planned for Scotland other than our hotel. We found a hotel on Jetsetter called the Hotel Missoni. Yes, that Missoni. Who knew that the iconic Italian brand got into the hotel business? Apparently, there are only a few Hotel Missoni's in the world. It was one of the best decorated hotels that I've seen, and typical Missoni. One of the best things about the hotel is that everything in the mini bar and all of the movies on the TV are complimentary! Laurel and I enjoyed quite a few cans of free Diet Coke.

As soon as we checked in we freshened up and took a walk around the Royal Mile, which was literally right outside our hotel. The Royal Mile is a street with shops, restaurants, and tourist traps. At the top of the Royal Mile is Edinburgh Castle. We are suckers for castles! We spend a couple of hours stolling and took in some beautiful views.

View from Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Laurel and I love castles, but we may love hop-on, hop-off bus tours more. Whenever we travel together, we always do them because it's a great way to get oriented to a city and figure out what spots you want to explore some more. We randomly stubbled upon the Scottish Parliament building on the tour, and decided to get out to see some more of it. It was designed by the Catalonian architect Enric Miralles (for those of you who know about architecture, that probably isn't a surprise looking at the building!).

Scottish Parliament building

Inside Scottish Parliament building

Edinburgh was a great experience but I won't forget how cold it was. At one point, Laurel and I were walking back to our hotel when it started to hail! In May. Despite the weather, we had a great time and now I can cross another country off the list.

We couldn't leave Scotland without having some scotch! I won't get into the detailed conversation that Laurel and I had trying to figure out exactly what scotch IS, but we knew we had to have it. Our last night in Edinburgh we had dinner at Ondine, a restaurant next to our hotel. The waitress gave a good after dinner drink recommendation, so we went with it!

After Edinburgh, we took the train back to Leeds. I worked for the next couple of days before Laurel and I went to Dublin to meet up with some other friends. Check out the next blog post for Dublin details!

Shopping is the Best Medicine

I'm finally starting to feel normal again, after over 2 weeks of being sick. My cough is still lingering, but I'll take that over feeling like I've been run over by a truck and looking like a hot mess. Even though I'm feeling better, I still wanted to take it easy this weekend to prevent a relapse.

On Saturday, I decided to treat myself to a day of pampering and got my hair cut and colored. There is an Aveda salon a short 5 minute walk from my apartment, so it's just like I'm in Ann Arbor! Two doors down from the salon is a nail place so I also treated myself to a manicure/pedicure. As I was getting my toes done, I couldn't help but over hear the woman in the chair next to me speaking to her manicurist with an American accent. We struck up a conversation and found out that she's been here for 6 months working at the University of Leeds. She gave me a lot of great tips and it was wonderful to meet a fellow American.

After my manicure/pedicure I strolled over to Victoria Quarter, what I lovingly call the Somerset Mall of Leeds. Apparently, this is where all the footballer's wives hang out. Trust me, I had no intention of buying anything. I just wanted to window shop, maybe grab a coffee, and people watch. I got sucked into the Mulberry store though. For those of you Stateside, Mulberry is a brand of handbags and accessories from England that is slowly making it's way to the US. I was eying an adorable coin purse that my friend Marilyn has and because I'm carrying around 10 pounds of coins with me I figured that it was a practical purchase.

After that splurge I really had no intention of whipping out that Capital One Venture card again that day. But then, I walked into L.K. Bennett. Big mistake. L.K. Bennett is another one of those quintessential British brands and of course, I walked straight into the shoe section. I fell in love with these black patent leather wedges. Sigh.

Before walking home, I popped into a cute little Italian restaurant for some dinner and gave my friend Angel in Michigan a call in the hospital where she was in labor with her third daughter. Baby Evelyn was born yesterday and am so elated, but am also sad that I won't get to actually hold her or meet her for another few months.

On Sunday I decided that it was about time to experience some of the cultural activities in Leeds but I just couldn't get motivated. The art gallery is a 5-7 minute walk from my apartment, so I wanted to walk over and check it out. Instead, the most energy I could muster up was to go to the grocery store to pick up some groceries for the week. So, my attempt at educating myself on all Leeds has to offer will have to wait for another weekend.

I finally was able to plan some travel now that I've come out of my haze though. My friend Laurel is coming to visit in less than 2 weeks so we had a Google+ Hangout this afternoon to plan her visit. We're planning on spending one night in York, two nights in Edinburgh, and her last weekend here in Dublin. We're also going to be able to meet up with our friends Kristen and Phil in Dublin so needless to say, I'm extremely excited for the next few weekends.

Hope all of you are doing well and stay tuned for some pictures from my travels!