Museums, Dover & Canterbury, and Norway

Greetings! I hope this finds everyone doing well! Its been so long since I've written in my blog, but I'll hopefully be able to catch everyone up! After Wales, everyone was pretty exhausted and took it easy for a while. Museums seemed to be the most popular item on the to do list the last couple weeks. I'll start with the Imperial War Museum.

On Monday the 9th, we were able to reschedule our field trip we were suppose to have on our snow day. Our class went to the Imperial War Museum, which was awesome. The class I'm in was focusing on the WWI portion of the museum, but the whole thing was huge and full of information. I stayed as long as I could, but had to make it to another field trip at the Serpentine Gallery for my art class. The gallery had an exhibit on Indian artists and the culture that surrounds India. It was very interesting because there were paintings, sculptures, and movies all being shown as art. I enjoyed the exhibit because I was able to learn more about the culture that India has now and the things that still need to be changed.

On Wednesday our BLC class went to the British Museum, which was enormous. There was so much to look at there. They had the Rosetta Stone as well as many parts of the Parthenon. We had a tour guide, who gave me a lot of information, but I can't wait to go back and explore more. There was so much to see that multiple visits will be in the works.

The weekend didn't hold much except homework, and I visited the Natural History Museum by myself. Its right around the corner, and I had been wanting to go visit. It definitely wasn't my favorite, but it was really nice and a lot of information. I will say that I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day! The girls and I celebrated by going to see the movie "He's Just Not That into You." I enjoyed my vday except not being around my loved one's, which made me sad, but the cards and care packages were great! Thanks again.

On Tuesday the 17th, our art class visited the Saatchi Gallery. It had an exhibit on artists from the Middle East. There were a lot more pieces of art at this gallery than the one we visited the week before, but I don't think I had a favorite. I just enjoyed learning a lot about both those cultures that I'm not very familiar with.

Wednesday we got to visit Dover and Canterbury. As we drove to Dover, we drove through the heart of London and through the East side. It was interesting to see the dramatic difference between that side and the side I live. It was night and day. Much more poverty and lower income situations. I didn't realize the difference would be that great. When we arrived at Dover, all you could see was this castle with the morning fog surrounding it. It almost looked eerie but definitely beautiful. We didn't get to spend much time there, but the time we did spend was fun. We walked the grounds of the castle and down to the coast line. The tour guide told us that on a clear day we would have been able to see France from where we were standing. There were also World War II tunnels that the army used at the castle. Dover was also the place the soldiers in Dunkirk were brought. We didn't get to explore the tunnels that were still there from WWII, which I was slightly disappointed about, but regardless, enjoyed our trip to Dover very much. What girl doesn't dream of going to a real castle?
Canterbury was next, and we spent the entire afternoon there. We toured the Canterbury Cathedral, and then explored the town. The Cathedral was the place were Thomas Beckett was martyred. I knew about the story, but not in detail. It was nice to hear about it and actually see where it all happened. We were actually allowed to take pictures in the Cathedral. Ellie is still acting as my photographer until I get my camera in the mail, hopefully this week! The inside was gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of Westminster because of the Gothic architecture. The stain glass windows were so impressive as well. Once we left the cathedral, we went and ate lunch, pronto. We then just explored the town. They had a really neat market full of random items. We walked up and down that and then made our way back to the bus to head back to London. When I got back, I had to begin packing for NORWAY!

Before I get to my Norway adventure... The morning of the 19th I once again attended the Imperial War Museum for another class. I was glad I got to go back because even though I still focused on WWI, I still didn't get to see everything the first time I went. As soon as Kendall and I were done at the museum, we headed to catch the bus that took up the airport.

Trying to find the bus stop for Easybus (our ride to the airport) was an adventure in itself. We were running up and down this one street because we couldn't find the stop. Then when she and I saw the bright orange bus coming up the street we felt relieved until it didn't stop and kept going. We started running after it because we thought it was going to leave us. Thank goodness it stopped a little further up and the bus driver got out and laughed at us. We made it to the bus and now off to the airport. We got there with nothing too dramatic happening. The security went through my bag I brought. He took out everything I managed to shove into my small bag, and then tell okay its fine. Other than that we made it on the plane and more importantly on time! Travel time in the air was about 2 hours and then once we landed we had to buy a bus ticket into Oslo. The airport was about an hour and a half out from the city. It was snowing pretty hard and there was already a ton of snow on the ground. It was so pretty. When we finally made it into the city, we didn't know what to do. Between the four of us, mainly Kendall, we found our hostel and settled in for the night. It was a successful trip there. Thank goodness!
The next day we slept in a little and got up and explored Oslo on foot. It was a lot of walking, but we got to see so much. We walked to different museums, some of which were not in English. We didn't stay in those very long. We walked to the palace that had a gorgeous view of the town. We walked to parliament, but couldn't go in b/c it wasn't open to the public that day. We did see someone get arrested outside of Parliament. We walked to a park that was had sculptors of a famous artist (can't remember his name) and just walked and walked and walked. Oslo was very different from London. The people were super nice as well as the city in general was just quieter. I thoroughly enjoyed walking around the city except for the wet feet from all the snow and slush. We bought a loaf of bread and some fruit to snack on for meals because everything in Oslo was terribly expensive. They use the currency Kroners. 10 Kroners equal 1 Pound and 1 Pound equals 1.5 USD. It was quite confusing trying to calculate what I was actually spending. It got easier b/c we just moved the decimal once to go to pounds. It was so weird because I would carry around 500 and 200 notes, which isn't really that big of a deal in Kroners, but it seemed like it.
The next day we slept in again and tried to make our way to the ferry that was going to take us on a water tour of Oslo, but since it was so cold, the water was frozen and the ferry was canceled. It seemed like a bad thing, but it turned out good. We saw a castle up on a hill next to the boat docks and decided to check it out. We made our way up the hill and noticed a statue of FDR!? Who would have thought? Of course I had to take a picture with him, and then we continued on to the castle. We walked around trying to make it to the castle and found this awesome view to take some pictures. Then we stumbled upon the Resistance Museum. It was by far my favorite museum we visited. The entire museum had information, facts, and artifacts from when the German's occupied Norway and the Norwegians resistance to the German's. It was so interesting to see a different side of WWII and what another country went through. We could have stayed in there all day, but needed to move along to the castle and most importantly dinner. We walked out to a 10 degree weather drop (not really, but it felt like it). We walked around the castle and made our way to go eat. We ate and then went back to the hostel for the night.
The next morning was Sunday and our last day in Oslo. Our flight wasn't until later that night so we were able to get up and do a lot of things before we left. We checked out of our hostel and went to the Edward Munch Museum. He is the artist who painted the Screamer and the Madonna. He was born in Oslo and when he passed away, he donated all his works to the city. This museum was really cool. It was close to beating the Resistance, but not quite. We spent a while there then headed to the Radison to meet a tour group to a winter walk around Oslo, but as our luck would have it, there wasn't a tour at the time the Internet said so we missed it. Once again we improvised and walked to the Operetta house and unsuccessfully tried to find a market. We were pretty worn out from walking around and proceeded to walk back to the hostel to get our bags and headed to the airport. Once again the bus situation made me very uneasy. We arrived at the bus station to catch our bus to the airport and it was full. So I'm freaking out! Thankfully, they got another bus ready for the extra twenty people who needed to get to the airport and loaded us up to head to the airport. The stress of traveling is quite high. Its a blessing, but definitely stressful. We got to the airport and said our farewell's to Oslo. Our plane got delayed by about 20 minutes, and we arrived in London at 11:45. The line to get through the border was FOREVER long and once we sat in that line for at least an hour, we got on our bus and came home. A long day of travel, but worth every second of it. The trip was a great one. I felt like we got to see so much and we did it all on our own, which helped us save some Kroners.

The next trip coming up is ITALY! Ellie and I leave on Thursday and get back the next Friday. I'm sooooo excited. I just have to get through this week of papers and midterms. Its my first time doing all this! Keep our travel in your prayers. There will be about 10 girls total traveling with us.

I will also be posting some assignments for class on my blog. You can just disregard those, but I will have 5 up before Thursday. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! You all are in mine as well! Miss everyone

More to come later......