Part 2: London, Cambridge, and Nottingham

After Karneval ended it was time to hit the road. First on the agenda was England where I would meet up with Josh again in London before making my way to Nottingham to visit Samson on his stomping ground. As opposed to flying to London from Cologne, which I did in November, I instead took a bus. It ended up being about 10.5 hours (including London traffic), but was a great alternative to flying for several reasons: I went under the English Channel for the first time, got some reading done and listened to new music, and also saw  Europe. We took a route from Cologne to Brussels, passing through the Netherlands, before entering the top corner of France and then making our way to London. It was really interesting to see so much during that ride, although by the 9th and 10th hour I was definitely ready to arrive.

My first weekend in London was great. I met up with Josh and his friend Marta for some art gallery touring and sightseeing. Josh showed me around the Bangladesh-corner of the city, which had great food to sample and an alternative art scene. Window shopping was the name of the game. We also ducked into a coffeeshop because I wanted to read a local newspaper and Josh wanted to work on some homework, so all in all a rather normal day but still I had a bunch of fun. Late that night, as expected, we rented out the Boris bikes and zipped through town at breakneck speeds. It's always a highlight of being in London for me, especially with a local tour guide to ride behind.

Parliament by night

The next day we went out and celebrated the Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square. It was packed with people and there was hardly any room to stand, so we went through some back streets to get to London's China Town which was unsurprisingly crazier. I think Josh and I stood for 20 minutes in a sea of people just trying to maneuver around to an adjacent street. We were pretty content with the festivities so we headed out to the nearest Boris bike station, rented a pair of bikes, and rode over to the coach station, where I'd be hopping on a bus to Cambridge. That ride was memorable for two reasons. First, I was carrying a huge hiking backpack on my back with all of my possessions which made turning and accelerating extremely difficult. So while Josh was zipping away in front of me I was huffing and puffing just to keep up. Secondly, here we were enjoying a nice ride with blue skies and white clouds when all of a sudden the temperature drops, the wind picks up, and it starts raining. My glasses get all dewy and it starts getting so chilly that I lost feeling in my fingers. We were shouting directions back and forth through the rain and eventually got to the coach station, but it seemed like one of those bike rides which seemed to stretch on an on and on. I boarded my bus to Cambridge and set off for the next adventure.

I arrived into Cambridge around 8 pm but it was cold and desolate all around town. It was like a scene in a movie with the dark streets with standing water in the potholes, the dim-orange light of the occasional street lamp, and the one other person on the other side of the street walking briskly in the other direction. It was kind of surreal. I bumbled around the neighborhood looking for my hostel and eventually came across it. What a place! That night they happened to be hosting a local music concert with folk artists. There was a fair share of acoustic guitars, symbolic tattoos, and neck beards. I didn't actually get to attend because I was late to the party and had to eat dinner in the reception area, but later after dinner I went and walked around town for about an hour, getting to know the sleepy town by night.

English humour, so jokes

Local ale with dinner

I only spent 18 hours in Cambridge as a pit stop between London and Nottingham but had a blast just walking around the town and seeing all of the historic colleges, canals, churches, and libraries. Sometimes I played 'dumb tourist' by wandering into the campus facilities, ignoring the admission fee, but sometimes I also got kicked out. I don't have any picture from the colleges because I left my phone in the hostel to charge, but the whole town was extremely well-kept and attended to. I saw a few groups doing punting tours in the canals of Cambridge (kind of like gondola tours in Venice), which I've been told is a uniquely Cambridge tradition. I also wandered into a library which was having a free exhibition on the printing press, which was pretty fascinating. All in all, Cambridge was great, and I highly recommend it to other travelers. One full day would have been better, but I think I did the town justice. Afterwards it was on to Nottingham to see Samson!

I met up with Samson outside of the Nottingham train station and we boarded a city bus back to the university. Just like when we met up in Cologne in January, we were talking back and forth and catching each other up since the last time we saw each other a week prior. We hit the ground running once we made it back to the dorm and went to the cafeteria for dinner where I met a lot of his friends. Afterwards we went down the hall to the dorm's billiards room and bar, where we shot around for an hour or two, betting with beer. Samson and I make a dream team with pool, so if you're reading this and think you might have a chance, just know that we'll take you down! Samson's friends didn't know any better but we all had lots of fun. I crashed on the floor and slept like a baby that night.

The rest of my time in Nottingham went by quickly. By day I was exploring the campus and surrounding neighborhood or sitting in a cafe trying English tea and reading the newspaper. Samson was still in class so during the day I was on my own, but by night we were always out and about in the town. Samson actually got a job from his friends he met the first weekend in England, so every Tuesday night he checks coats at a bar during one of their dance nights. We went out and he showed me around that night which was really cool. My regular 11 pm-7 am sleep schedule was drawn into direct opposition to Samson's nocturnal nature in the funniest ways possible. He stays out much later than I am used to, so it became a common theme that I always headed home around midnight while Samson partied the night away during my week in Nottingham. I'd wake up the next morning and without fail he'd be in the room sleeping like a log. One night I stayed out til 2 am (do I get an award?) and everyone cheered me on, but I still ended up leaving earlier than everyone else!

My last day in Nottingham was wrapping up some to-dos for the sightseeing which included Wollaton Hall, the set for the Dark Knight Rises. It was only a 15 minute walk away from the dormitory and provided some great photo-ops. The weather happened to be exceptionally "un-English" that day with blue skies and rays of sunshine.

Wollaton Hall

At the end of the week Samson and I headed to London with a few of his friends to cheer on his friend Damien in England's national ping pong tournament. It was the real deal type of ping pong games and we saw some crazy moves, the kind you see in Youtube videos but are never lucky enough to see in person. We only spent a weekend in London before Samson and his crew headed back to Nottingham and I headed out to Paris to visit Miranda but it was a great 7 days with Samson meeting new friends and seeing new places. This marked my third trip to London but first to Cambridge and Nottingham, where I felt I actually got to experience English culture. I had a conversation with a stranger about rugby and american football, tried the whole English tea time thing (a little overrated), had an English breakfast at my hostel in Cambridge (so really, just an American breakfast with baked beans), read the local newspapers and political sections for the upcoming elections, learned some of the lingo ("So jokes mate, so jokes," or "All over the gaff") and really just tried to blend in during my time there. By the end I was telling myself that England would be my #2 choice for studying abroad because of the culture, but Germany would still be #1. I was glad to be able to spend a week getting to know the culture to some degree but more time would be appreciated! Unfortunately I don't have any extra free time before coming back to the US to give England another road trip opportunity, so I'll just have to save it for the future. I'll end this post with a nice little find in the local newspaper.

"Was said to resemble a giant chocolate cake......" -___-

Part 1: Karneval! Alaaf! Alaaf! Alaaf!

Karneval season kicked off in Cologne on 11/11 at 11:11 am and ran up to Ash Wednesday, but the real fun began the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, called Weiberfastnacht.  A description of the kickoff festivities in the city can be read here. I was really excited for the 5 days of Karneval for several reasons. First, it was finally semester break for me so I could enjoy not having a term paper to write, or exams to study for. Second, every German I talked to said it was crazy fun and tons of excitement. Even my host parents were telling me about it and preparing for it back in August and September. Third, and most important, I was reuniting with friends from back home and would be getting to spend a few days with them!

I had already seen Samson about a month prior when he came to visit me in January, but Samson's a guy you're happy to see as often as you can. Full of energy and optimism, Samson wanted to go FULL THROTTLE for 4 straight days, from Friday through Monday, until he had to go back to Nottingham. Miranda was also coming to visit. She studies in Paris this semester and was planning on making the 4 hour train ride over to Cologne with her friend Justine. Then there was Samir, also part of the crew from LSU. Samir was the last to arrive in Europe and had 6 weeks to kill before settling down in his Uni town of Torino, Italy. In the meantime he was trekking across the continent, starting off in London and Nottingham with Samson, then going to Amsterdam, then to Paris where he stayed with Miranda for a while, and then on to Cologne and Bonn to be with everybody at once. The fact that Samson, Samir, Miranda, and I were able to meet up was exciting and a dream come true. Since the day we were all accepted into out study abroad programs, we promised each other we'd have to meet up and visit one another. Unfortunately the last member of the crew, Laine, wouldn't be able to attend because she was meeting up with her brother.We're still hoping to get all of us together at least once before the semester ends!

The arrival situation was, initially, really planned out. It ended up being super crazy with missed trains, a bomb threat, and miscommunication....BUT in the end we all met up!

Reunited! The Frenchies got 'welcome beers' and I got a 'welcome baguette'! Cultural exchange at its finest

Reunited with Samir! I think he's just happy to finally leave McDonald's after 2 hours of waiting....

Samson arrived the next morning and we were off to party. We traveled to Cologne on Friday to show the newbies the city and the Koelner Dom, the famous cathedral which draws thousands of visitors each year to the city. We stopped off there for a while and took a bunch of pictures before heading back home to Bonn to attend a German fraternity party where costumes were mandatory.

The LSU Crew in front of the Dom. Geaux Tigers

Costumes are a huge part of Karneval, much in the same way that they used to be and to some extent still are with a New Orleans Mardi Gras. Because we had several days to celebrate, we all had a few costumes. The above picture is our day as "LSU football fans;" we painted our faces with purple and gold face paint, wore hats and t-shirts, and Samson even had some Mardi Gras beads to wear. Another group costume we had was simply "a bunch of bananas," which ended up being a huge crowd-pleaser and invitation for Samson to randomly shout out Gwen Stefani's song in the subways, trains, streets....really anywhere. Sometimes we would pass other bunches of bananas and so we'd run up to them and just start dancing together without music. We wore the banana costumes to the fraternity party and kind of stole the show with them.....

Banana Crew

We had a great few days together. With such a large group it was impossible for me to host in my dorm room, but I was lucky that Cat was able to let all of us crash in her living room. We got introduced to friends from all over: my LSU friends got to meet my friends in Germany, Cat's friend Jack from NYU who was in town from Madrid got to meet us, and we all got (re) acquainted with our German friends Lena and Julia (who actually spent a year abroad at LSU in 2013-2014) and knew exactly where to go during Karneval.

Karneval was a lot of fun and I had a blast getting to see my friends again even if only for a short couple of days. When Karneval ended and everyone was on their way back home I took refuge in my dorm room for 2 days trying to recover from the fever I got on the last day of Karneval. But once I recovered I was out on the road to England, where I'd be spending about 10 days before catching a bus to Paris.

Hiatus Update

Yes yes I know it's been a quite a while since my last post in late February. You'll be happy to know that I've just wrapped up an 8 week break jam packed with fun and travelling, hence the lack of activity. I was on the road for the majority of February and March visiting friends and seeing new places; a 2 month break in between semesters wasn't so bad! This post isn't going to be a fleshed out story from one of my travels, but instead will be a little update on where I'm going from here and what I'm up to.

I'm going to break up each travel destination into its own blog post. Hence, I plan on writing 5 separate posts to paint the picture of how I spent the 8 week break.

Part 1: Karneval

For readers who know about Mardi Gras, Karneval is no new concept. It is the same holiday, just celebrated with the German twist. Karneval was the first thing that kicked off my break, and I was able to host my friends Samson, Miranda, Samir, and Justine for it.

Dressing up as LSU fans during a day at Karneval

 Part 2: Nottingham, London, and Cambridge

My first stop while travelling during the break was over to England to visit Samson, who studies at the University of Nottingham. On the way I made detours to London and Cambridge and for the first time got to experience English culture.

Wollaton Hall, Nottingham

Part 3: Paris, France

I went straight from London to Paris to visit Miranda, who studies in Paris this semester. I stayed for a week in her tiny little apartment right around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe and experienced Paris culture. My first time in France was a blast!

A real French dinner with Miranda, Justine, and Justine's family

Part 4: Cape Town, South Africa

I flew down to Africa to meet up with my old roommate Martin, who is studying abroad in Cape Town for the Spring semester. I stayed there for a week, did a bunch of hiking, swam with penguins at the beach, a handful of touristy things, and had an absolute blast.

View from Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Part 5: Road Trip through Namibia

After my week in Cape Town wrapped up, Martin, two friends and I flew to Namibia and started a 10 day road trip through the country. We hit some of the most photogenic parts of the country, did a safari tour through the National Park, saw the sunrises and sunsets over the deserts and plains, and much more. I had the time of my life.

View of Deadvlei

So I hope to have these posts out soon. My second semester at the University of Bonn began the second week of April so things are just now rolling again. The semester will run through the end of July, but the (unfortunate) realization that my year abroad is ending sooner rather than later is hitting hard. The time is flying by, and I honestly can't believe it. I know the coming semester will be packed with fun activities, a few trips, interesting classes, and much more. Let the 4 month countdown begin!