Wanderlust | San Francisco Day 3

NATURE. TREES. AL CAPONE.

Wanderlust | San Francisco Day Two

Rise and shine, people! It's time to delve into Day Two! This day was filled with copious amounts of walking, pretty scenery, and forward thinking. Castro, I'm talking about you!

Wanderlust | San Francisco Day One

Ahhh, traveling. How I've missed it. Since I came home in December, the only other "travel" that I've done was a day in Manhattan and a weekend in Milwaukee, and every single step in the process brings back nostalgic memories. This was my first extended traveling since I've been back, and my love for it has not been lost. Last week, Mom and I returned home from a week in San Francisco, and we had an amazing time! I totally recommend visiting if you're looking for a change in scenery (that is, if you're not on the Cali coast already...) I kept track of our trip via a journal, so I'm going to break down these posts into daily reviews, so I hope you enjoy and check back in for day two!

Line break because the pictures are numerous.

Wanderlust | Kat's Visit

One of my best friends came to visit me this past week! I am so blessed to have had her here, and to be able to go back to all of the touristy sites of London and really culminate my experience abroad. Her stay was jam-packed with adventures, so I'll just get started!


Wednesday

I got up early to pick Kat up at the airport and after making the long trek to my dorm, we began her London adventure with a lunch of fish and chips at The Volunteer. After that, I took her to Covent Garden, which is absolutely my favorite market in London besides Borough. We meandered throughout the market  and stopped inside LUSH, which resulted in a less-than fun incident for me. I went to smell a nice-looking hair treatment lotion and let's just say it resembled water more than lotion and I ended up looking like this. At least I smelled nice.

After I cleaned my jacket and purse off, we walked over to Trafalgar Square and then Buckingham Palace just so Kat could see the star attractions. We finished her mini tour at St. Martin-in-the-Field's Cafe in the Crypt, which is one of my favorite places to get afternoon cream tea. She loved it, of course! To finish off the night, we grabbed delicious pork sandwiches and yummy crepes at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland, which is just so incredibly festive and magical and ugh I just want to live there. Just a recommendation: if you want to see it (which you should!!!), go during the week! The crowds are absolutely ridiculous on the weekends.

Just the best view in London.

Look at this cute little muffin.

Thursday

Thursday brought some sleeping time for Kat, but I had to get up and take a tour of medieval London for my class. We saw the old Roman wall, St. Bartholemew's Church (and hospital for any Sherlock fans), and other historical sites. After I came back and woke the sleeper up, we headed over to Leicester Square to grab Phantom of the Opera tickets. While they were the most expensive tickets that I've had to pay for theatre so far, seeing Phantom in it's original theatre was spectacular. The music was phenomenal and Kat and I both found ourselves crying or with goosebumps through most of the performance. After that, we came back home to Regent's Thanksgiving Dinner, which was an absolute treat for the American students studying here. While the food wasn't exactly my Grammy's cooking, I enjoyed it all the same.

Remains of the old Roman wall

St. Bartholomew's Hospital..sniff

Lot 665...

Who doesn't wear a turkey on their head for Thanksgiving??....

Friday

Friday was the day Kat was waiting for....shopping!! I took her down Marylebone High Street, which is my favorite street in London, and onto the famous Oxford Street. We stopped in The Body Shop, Selfridges, and Boots, and picked up some necessary (and admittedly some unnecessary) products. Then we hopped on the Tube over to Harrod's, which is spectacular as always, but also incredibly packed as always. After a few short minutes of pushing through crowds, we left to meet up at the Tower of London with Pam and Anna. The Tower of London is probably my favorite site in London other than Westminster Abbey. I just absolutely love it.

THEN Kat graciously sacrificed a British meal for an American one, and we grabbed DELICIOUS burgers and peanut butter milkshakes at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Let me just say if you want heavenly burgers in England GO THERE.

The ravens are looking a bit sluggish...tell Malcom they need new batteries

Pam being a bamf as always.

Saturday

On our final real day of touring London, we started in Westminster Abbey. I had never toured Westminster, but had attended Christmas Eve service with my parents about six years ago (and sat on Lord Byron....sorry, buddy). Holy. Crap. I knew that I had to actually tour it and I'm so glad I did. Westminster Abbey is a brilliant, fantastic place and such a culmination of British history. From Sir Isaac Newton to Elizabeth I to Jane Austen to Winston Churchill, so many important figures are buried here. For a British geek like me, it was so incredibly beautiful to see and pay respects to so many of my heroes....especially in the Poet's Corner. Please, if you're visiting London, you have to go.

Then we hopped over to Borough Market, had some delicious prawn pad thai and honey roasted cashews. We walked along the Thames by Southwark, and across the Milennium Bridge, which is one of my favorite views of London. St. Pauls on one side, The Globe on the other....perfect. The night ended with a summary of London: the See London by Night tour, which was absolutely freezing but beautiful, especially with all of the Christmas lights up.

Unfortunately I was a total jerk and had to work all day Sunday, but it was a good opportunity to just hang out and blow off the dust from the ol' Dutch Blitz cards.


I had SUCH a great time hanging with my girl and seeing some of the best sites of London again. Thank you so much Kat for coming to see me...I had so much fun! See you soon!!

xo

Musings | Nerd Weekend

Stars: nature, traveling, wanderlust

Books: writing, reading, knowledge

Bowties: Freakin' Doctor Who.

--

Wanderlust | Dublin, Ireland

Two weekends ago, the lovely Selina and I took a fun adventure to the heart of Ireland, the beautiful city of Dublin. While we had very limited time to spend there, we had fun all the same--though let's be real, I still don't like Guinness.

The stunningly beautiful Trinity College, where a Harry Potter lookalike showed us around.

The Long Room at Trinity, right after seeing The Book of Kells, which is WONDERFUL.

Gasp inhale stare gawk hyperventilate contemplate stealing

Dublin Castle, where we awkwardly walked around because we didn't want to pay the fee to go in oops

Christ Church, which was beautiful inside and also was a filming site for The Tudors so I mean obvz that's the most important part.

Dublin's first tea shop right in the middle of Temple Bar! We had a delicious breakfast.

Where the fun began.

I thought pouring my own pint would make it better.....

nope.



Best drink ever. Warm apple cider with apple brandy? Sounds good to me.



So while the pictures are limited, I had a great time catching up with Selina and exploring Dublin. We felt it was still very much a city haunted by it's industrial and dim past, but all the same, beauty lies within a culture's history, so I very much didn't mind. However, I definitely want to visit the countryside next time I find myself in Ireland and see some of the hidden treasures of the country. I think the most successful part of the trip was fitting all of my belongings and souvenirs into my teeny tiny backpack! There were some things I had to wear on the plane back, but what matters is that they came back!


This past weekend was, of course, Geek Weekend, so keep checking back for posts on that!


xo

Musings | Homesickness

I have yet to post anything really "deep" or "thought-provoking" on here, which on a normal basis is totally cool because I'd rather write about fun, Scottish buildings than admit to some of the negative emotions I've been going through here. However, considering today marks three weeks until my return to the States, I have a lot of mixed emotions...and it seems to me the best time to write about it.

So please, feel free to keep reading (I am uploading it for a reason), but if you don't want the image of me leaping through the parks of London erased, then you best wait until the next post. 

Musings/Beauty/Wanderlust | October Favorites

Wow. October was good to me.

While I know I'm more than a week late, I've been a slow worker in compiling this list. One of the blogging/vlogging-world trends is to post about your favorite things in the past month, which can range from beauty to books to fashion, etc. I thought I'd join in on the fun and discuss some of my favorite October things/events that I've been blessed enough to have been exposed to. I kind of arranged it so I get deeper as the post goes on, so my more shallow, tangible "things" are first...but as a girl who loves makeup they're still fun and exciting!


Makeup

• Face

 Bourjous Blush Pot Shade 54- Frosted Rose

I bought this in a 3-for-2 deal with the bronzer at Boots, and I'm loving this. What a beautiful little blush pot. The fragrance is absolutely fantastic, and even if I didn't like the color I would have bought it for that reason alone. However, the shade is such a shimmery, light pink, and is such a refreshing contrast to my darker MAC blush. I absolutely love it. The only problem is the blush is difficult to transfer onto the brush, so it takes some effort to apply.

Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer Sample

I had actually walked into Boots to grab the full version of this, but the woman who assisted me suggested that I buy the Smashbox Trial Kit, which cost me 20 quid for samples of their bestsellers, which include mascara, lipgloss, black pencil eyeliner, and lid primer. So far, I am really pleased with every product, and I'm glad I picked it up so I know which product I want to buy in the future. And, can I just say, this primer is fantastic.

• Lips

 Nars Pure Matte Lipstick Terre De Feu

I bought this in a moment of weakness at Selfridge's (though now I can say that I bought something from there so that makes it okay, right?!) and I absolutely LOVE it. It is such a gorgeous cranberry color and is exactly what I didn't realize I was missing.

 LUSH Santa's Lip Scrub

Okay fun fact: since Britain doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, once Halloween is over, they go all-out Christmas. Just yesterday they had the official ceremony to turn on the Christmas lights on Regent's Street, and the display cases at Harrod's and Selfridge's already have Christmas themes. In addition to that, a few weeks ago LUSH introduced their holiday products for the season. In an effort to restrain myself from buying everything, I settled with a Christmas-themed lip scrub, which tastes oh-so good.

Nuxe Paris Reve de Miel

I went to Paris! And I bought  lip balm! It smells deliciously like lemon! If you're in Paris you need to get this! ! !

• Remover

Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes

So I didn't know that such a thing existed until I visited Kate and watched her with open-mouthed wonder as she completely removed all of her makeup (yes including eyes) with one wipe. So of course the next day when she press-ganged me into going to Boots I had to pick up a pack of these, and let me tell you: They. Are. Perfect. I still use separate eye makeup remover but in regards to removing foundation and bronzer, this works like a charm....and are PERFECT for traveling because if need be this can be a 2-in-1 deal.

Bioderma Crealine Eye and Face Cleansing Water

This little bottle of what looks like fancy water is the holy grail of face makeup removers, and I looked long and hard to find it. I dragged Andy and Pam through many pharmacies and makeup stores throughout London only to realize that this is pretty much exclusive to Paris. I, however, beat the system for I found this beauty in El Cortes Ingles in Spain. Ho, ho--I got you, Paris! Anyways, as is to be expected, this works wonders and successfully removes any traces of makeup on my face and eyes and I just love it ugh moving on

Drinks

• Tea

Teapigs Sweet Treat Liquorice and Peppermint

PEOPLE I HAVE FOUND MY FAVORITE TEA. EVER. Yet another recommendation from Estée, I decided to go ahead and try the tea that she has been raving about, because it is from the UK and would be wayyy less expensive to have it shipped to my dorm here than my house in the States. Holy. Crap. I was so wary because I'm not the biggest liquorice fan but I can't even taste it. The initial taste is peppermint, but then it somehow becomes sweet as you swallow it. I don't know the science of it,  but holy cow this is good tea. Plus, the company itself is absolutely adorable and they email you telling you which employee is packaging your tea and they send you little samples of their other tea and I just love them. Teapigs can you open a store in the States? Okay good thanks.

• Coffee

Sadly I do not have photo evidence of this but I have been absolutely LOVING the brasserie's iced caramel macchiato. I have been on the lookout for my favorite place to get coffee in London since August and while Starbucks and Costa have come pretty darn close, this takes the cake. And--gasp--they're not using Starbucks coffee. I know, this is groundbreaking people. I have this drink pretty much every morning and after watching them make it day after day I know exactly how to mimic it when I go home--winning.

Food

• Spain

I wrote a whole post on my favorite foods in Spain here, so I don't think we need to delve into that.

• France

 Apparently this is who I am in Paris. Sigh.

Delicious-looking seafood shop and if I had a means to cook up some seafood I would have been all over that.

The greatest you'll ever learn is just to love banana and nutella crepes and be loved in return.

• England

While I have many gripes with how my school handles food and the cafeteria, the quality has never been short of wonderful (though really...who likes lamb enough that you need to serve it four times a week? NO ONE. I repeat: NO ONE). The brasserie especially always has the cutest treats to sell--of course they're ridiculously overpriced but that's not the point-- and I loved their Halloween-themed desserts. I mean LOOK at them.

Can you get more adorable? No.

Fashion

In Spain I bought Christmas-themed pajamas. It's ironic because then it was 70 degrees outside, but I have not worn anything since except when I wash them, obviously. Basically they're perfect. They are snuggly and have snowflakes and deer and Christmasy colors on them and they match so everyone gives me a weird look in the bathroom but WHO CARES. I would have a picture for you but I'm wearing them now so....

Places

In some capacity I have talked about many of these places before, but I've done a lot of traveling this past month and have specific favorites. Also Paris is a bit of a stretch because that was the beginning of November but I'm already late enough so let's look past that shall we?

 Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England

 Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales

 Toledo, Spain

 Host mother's house, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain

 Versailles, France

 The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

It's safe to say I've been blessed with wonderful travel opportunities.


People

Credit to the lovely Courtney

 Do I need to explain why they are all incredibly important and special to me? I don't think so. They consist of family, long-lasting friendships, and sisterhood, and I am grateful for them in every single way. I am so blessed. So, so blessed.


I think anyone who knows me really well is wondering why, at the end of this post, I didn't discuss books, TV shows, or movies, and all I can say is patience, my children. I've read two books during my travel periods, and I really don't think they're worth talking about. Sadly I just didn't like them. I'm currently reading The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber and Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman and already I'm loving them way more than any book I've read this semester. And the only TV show I really have to talk about is Doctor Who/Torchwood and if you're a Whovian you probably already know why I would want to wait until the end of November before I talk about it, amirite?! (psst go watch the trailer if you haven't you'll scream I promise).


Wowww  but we were really heavy on the makeup and travel, weren't we? I can assure you that the favorites categories will shift this month, but I had the best of times strolling through Paris, eating tapas in Madrid, and buying lipsticks with Kate. And that's what it's all about, right? Not the color of the lips or what city you're in, though I think they're fun and they enhance the experience, but the people that you're surrounded with. And October was really a fantastic month filled with all of those things.


Okay, let's cut the violins and move on with our lives, shall we? I know I have some homework to get started on so I shall see you next post!

xo

Any fun things happen to you in October? Let me know!!