Flowers really do make me smile :)

I had a wonderful surprise for me at work today....flowers!!

I came down to the office from the ward, after a very busy morning, to find an enormous box sitting on my desk. When I opened it up, what did my eyes behold?? The most beautiful bouquet of flowers I've ever seen!!! Sent from no other than my wonderful boyfriend!! It made me smile & I honestly haven't stopped all day. I love them and I love you Bruce! Thank-you! I can't wait to come home!

The beautiful bouquet I was sent today! Me & my flowers in the kitchen They make a beautiful center-piece for my desk!

Thank you again Bruce, for brightening my day...I've never been sent flowers from half-way around the world before! I'm sure this smile will stay with me all weekend & into next week as well.

The white cliffs of Dover....ah, what a day

On Sunday, LB & I headed in almost the completely opposite direction as Wales and crossed dover off of our to-do list. We were mainly interested in seeing another part of England and of course in taking a few pictures of the famous White Cliffs. (Both of which we accomplished)

Along the way to Dover, we passed through several pretty historic towns, including Canterbury and Rochester. Once in Dover, we headed straight for the coast line and were amazed at how beautiful those cliffs really are.

Yup, there they are folks!

And there they are again (but from a different angle this time!)

So there you are....that's pretty much the highlight of our trip to Dover....cliffs. Gorgeous for sure. The train ride was great, the cliffs were everything we expected them to be and as always, LB & I had a good time traveling around this crazy country.

The last country on our little adventure...Wales!

Ok, so I apologize for taking my sweet time in updating this...this week actually required me to focus on my placement a bit (you know, the whole reason I am supposedly in England?) Anyway, last weekend, LB & I decided to use up the last few days on our rail pass & travel around the country for a few final hurrahs.

On Saturday we headed to Wales (Cardiff to be exact). It was a great train-ride there....all 3.5 hours of it. Once in Cardiff, we headed for the castle in the center of the town. It was absolutley gorgeous - perhaps one of my favorite castles that we've seen over here, then down to the waterfront for a bite to eat, a little look-see and a ride on a carousel.

The Keep of Cardiff Castle (& no, I didn't take the picture crooked, the building itself is crooked)

Me & one of the many peacocks that roamed the grounds at Cardiff Castle...as you can imagine, I was in heaven




Me, taking a little rest whilst climbing the tower of the Keep....they just kept going & going!


Down on the waterfront, where we found a really cool carousel to ride!! Good times!

On to Nottingham....on the search for outlaws

Ok, so on Saturday, LB & I decided to try a day-trip somewhere, relatively close to Northampton. Although there were many ideas thrown around, in the end we chose Nottingham. Yup, the Nottingham from Robin Hood. Pretty cool.

The train ride up was pretty uneventful & took about 3 hours. Once there, we instantly headed for Nottingham Castle. On the way there we walked up "Maid Marian Way", passed a statue of the famous outlaw himself & saw Britain's oldest Inn. There was also a pretty little canal through the center of the town.

There were people everywhere due to the opening game of the World Cup. CRAZY!!!! Pubs were overflowing and there was cheering in the street. (not to mention on the trains!)

LB at the Northampton train station, ready to head out on the next installment of our adventure in England (armed with tea to help cope with the early Saturday morning!)

The Man himself outside Nottingham Castle

View of the Castle

Walking along Maid Marian Way

Oldest Inn on Britain, called "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem", built into the bottom of the hill of the Castle

So that was our trip to Nottingham. We had a great time, although it did take us considerably longer to get home than it did to get there. I think we set a new record for ourselves in terms of the amount of train transfers we took in one day. On the way home we went: Nottingham to Leicester, to Conventry, to nuneaton, to Rugby, to Milton Keynes, to Northampton. Phew!

Forget Paris...we'll always have Budapest!

Ok, so our trip to Hunagry was amazing, truly amazing. The city is beautiful, the people are friendly and LB & I had so much fun! Despite a little rain here & there (ok, who am I kidding, it down-pored on Friday!), we had a blast and didn't let anythign get in our way have seeing everything we could. Here are some pictures of the highlights of our 70 hours in Hungary:

LB & I all dressed up, headed for the Opera

The Opera stage, taken from our seats

Another view of the Opera House...absolutely gorgeous eh??

Proof that we did indeed go topless at the bath (not to worry mom, it was all female. Everyone was either going topless or naked, so we opted for the more conservative of the two). Mine's the blue one & LB's is the pink! Definitely a "you had to be there" moment.

LB with a subway car....the subway had the cutest little song when it stopped & started...almost like a Nintendo game! Too cool.

So that's our trip in a nutshell. Like I said, we had a blast!

My Splenius Capitis hurts!...But Budapest was well worth it

(Ok, so note to self : do not lug a 15 pound duffle bag, slung over one shoulder, while climbing up and down mountains in Budapest. Ouch!)

Despite the fact that my right shoulder/neck is killing me due to an unfortunate oversight in where we were going to leave our lugage between checking out of our hostel and heading to the airport, I had an amazing time in Budapest!!!

We left Northampton on Thursday afternoon, spent the night in the Luton Airport Hotel, and then caught a ridiculously early flight to Hungary on Friday morning. Highlights of the trip include seeing an Opera, seeing all the sights, getting caught in a torrential downpour, trying Hungarian food (& trying to order it as well!), and oh yes, going topless in a Hungarian thermal bath! Like I said, we had a great time!

Parliament buildings on the Danube

Me in Buda, overlooking Pest and the Danube River

View from Buda's citadel (ie what you're seeing in the background is Pest)

Church built into the mountain in Buda

Me with an honest-to-goodness Soviet Gun thingy, used to defend the city during WWII

Ok, so that's Budapest in a nutshell. As I said earlier, we had an amazing time and it was well worth every last Forint spent.

Pictures of the English Riviera

Ok, so here finally are some pics from Torquay. All in all, it was agreat weekend, as you can see:

The beach that strectches along the entire town (too bad it was too cold to swim...it IS still England after all)

Me standing in the English Channel


Torquay at dusk, on the way to a pub (sorry, but for the sake of my dignity, there will be no pics from the walk home from the pub!)

The cute little beach huts that line the coast

So there you have it - Torquay in a nutshell...beaches, pubs, shopping..what else can I say? We had a fabulous time doing nothing but taking everything in and most of all RELAXING!

Hold your horses!

Ok, so I've been receiveing a few comments about not being up to anything exciting lately. Well, first let me say that I'm flattered that you all seem to think that I have enough energy to go somewhere new and crazy every weekend! Secondly, let me say that unfortunately, I am expected to be at placement Monday-Friday every week, which has a serious impact on when I can actually go to these crazy places......that being said however, let me assure you all that LB & I have many excting outings planned for our time left in Europe!

We had an extra-long weekend recently (Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues) & so headed along the southern coast of England to a town called Torquay. This place is called "The English Riviera" and is where all the English folks go when they're in serious need of some R & R. Beaches, palm trees, cafes, pubs, tacky touristy shops....the works! It was just what we needed.

We splurged and stayed in a REAL hotel with TV & everything! (it's the little things you miss when you've been traveling for over a month straight!)....absolute heaven. We slept in everyday, ate out, visited a local pub once or twice and shopped. Truly, it was a real vacation...England style!

Sorry, but there will be a noticeably lack of pictures to prove that we did indeed go to this tourist haven. This is b/c I seem to have forgotten my little camera/USB converter thingy needed to upload the pictures in my room. sorry. You'll have to check out LB's blog for the pictures until I post some tomorrow.

On a completely unrelated topic......Congratulations to Auntie Jo!!!!!!!! He's gorgeous!

I'm missing everyone back home......my time here is starting to run short....only 1 month left! Can't wait to see everyone when I get back,

PS- not to worry, there will be plenty more exciting updates to come......Budapest is up next on the agenda!

The adventure continues with a BRIEF tour through London....

As a few of you may know, I have not exactly been bowled over by London during our past travels through the city. Well, this weekend LB & I decided to give it a fair chance at showing us how great it really is, & so we booked a room at a little hotel for the weekend & hit the streets in a double-decker tour bus (yes I know, so cliche).

Our little adventure had a horrible start involving a dying bird, me in tears and LB coming to my rescue (for a full description of the event, check out LB's blog...I don't want to even write about it b/c I am a huge baby and it'll most likely upset me again). Anyways, with my woes behind us, we headed out for the big city.

What can I say? The highlights of this weekend included:
1. Feeding the birds in Trafalgar Square!!!!!!!!
2. Meeting Patrick Stewart
3. Watching Thelma & Louise in our scarey hotel room (wait...I can explain!)........I know that watching a movie while in London is extremely pathetic, but you have to understand that we have not seen a television since leaving Halifax over 1 month ago! It was heaven, absolute heaven, to curl up, chill out & relax, even if just for a moment or two.


Now, about feeding the birds...it should be no surprise that that has always been a dream of mine, ever since watching Mary Poppins, & actually getting to do it was amazing! (pictures to follow soon)....

As for meeting Patrick Stewart, well.....I have the pictures to prove it! Check them out:

Oh Jean Luc!

A typical London sight....so many red double deckers!

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament...very surreal let me tell ya LB & I snuggled up together in our cozy little room, watching Thelma & Louise..cute eh?
A dream come true for me! My brief stint as a Bond GirlSo that about sums it up for my adventures in London during our whirl-wind 36 hour tour. Pretty cool & very surreal at times. There were a ton of really amazing landmarks, lots of people, it rained constantly, I almost got run over like 4 times...all in all it was exactly as I imagined London to be!