Concerning Wi-Fi

Hello to all. No doubt the lack of updates has troubled some, so I shall explain my predicament. It's not a lack of Wi-Fi, it's a lack of open networks. I have literally found at least 5 signals everywhere we have gone. However, most of them are locked. Now to the real problem. When I do find an open network, or have one provided by the hotel, it either doesn't work or is incredibly slow which happens to be the case here in Austria. Therefore, it's taking, quite literally, 10 to 15 minutes to upload 3 incredibly small photos. Now you know. I can only hope the speed picks up in Germany, otherwise, we may not get anymore "real" updates until Wednesday/Thursday... Sorry 'bout that...

London: day 2

UPDATE! Yay! Time to jump to the past!

July 8

Hey, ho! New blog time! Ok, so. Breakfast. Delish. Cereal with toast (with a few things on top). 

Doesn’t that look delicious? That’s because it was. Toast, ham, procutto, cheese, and honey. Yum. So, after that, we went on a tour of the London Tower. Our tour guide was uuber cool too. I have a pic of her, however, she made us swear, with God as out witness, that we would not post pics of her anywhere on the net, lest we give her permission to find us and give us a stare that would turn us to stone. Not gonna take that risk.

So! The London Tower!  That would be the exterior of the fort. And before I get too ahead of myself, the London Bridge?

Yeah…that ain’t it…sad but true. It’s the lift bridge. London Bridge is a rather plain and boring bridge positioned in the opposite direction the camera is pointing… something of a letdown, if I must say so myself. Any way, back to the tower.

Incredibly white. Didn’t see the interior, though. Didn’t really have any time for it. The crown jewels were on display elsewhere in the fort and I spent all my time looking at those. And again, no photography was allowed in there. 

Yes, there was one of these fellows posted outside the door. There was a quaint little village surrounding the tower as well, with another of these guards posted about.

There it is, and there he is. Lower left. After the tower came Buckingham Palace. Quite the place, though I only saw it from a distance. We were really only there for the changing of the guard and the parade that followed. Apparently, the queen only visits Buckingham once a week for political matters. Otherwise, she’s at Windsor.  

After the palace, we went prancing about London and ended up at the Natural Museum (no pics) and the marvelous square in front of it. I got marvelous shots of the museum’s surroundings, but I failed to remember to take some of the actual museum… I feel slightly ashamed… 

We then ate dinner in the Crypt. We were, quite literally, eating above dead people. The Crypt was located under one of the local churches and the floor was covered with marker stones where each person was buried. Quite interesting, really. And the food was really good too. 

Yes. I do like taking pictures of food. It’s my thing… great lighting though. Looks really good. Oh! Almost forgot to mention. During out prancing about, I took some lovely floral pictures in another park as well. 

Mmm. So pretty. Well, that’s all for today! Cherio chaps!

Day 1: Windsor/London, England

Sorry about the delay. There has been a serious lack of free wi-fi in the surrounding area. So! I’ll post updates here to make up for the lack of previous updates.

Hello and good day (and good night. It’s been an incredibly long day. I woke up at 6.00 am on July 6 and didn‘t go to bed until 11.30 pm July 7...). After an incredibly long and boring flight, I have arrived in Heathrow, England! It really doesn’t feel like I’m in another country quite yet. It was incredibly cloudy on the descent and there was a lack of a window seat on my part. But I will say this, restrooms aren’t called restrooms. They’re toilets. That and a few other things are what really set us and them apart. The moment I set foot out of the airport, I saw at least 3 stereotypical English cars. It saw amazing and the coaches we ride in are definitely more comfortable than the planes… after getting on the busses, there wasn’t anything of interest until we got off at Windsor. This is the England I imagined seeing.

 The castle in the background is Windsor Castle. This is where the current queen takes residence. Yes, we did get to go on a tour of the interior, and no, there are no pictures of said interior. Photography and video recording were prohibited inside the castle along with any other place of significance. So there won’t be any pics of anything incredibly expensive, such as the crown jewels, which were simply amazing, by the way.

This is the side of one of the many churches in England. You may see pictures of them and know that they’re large, but you can only get a feeling of how large these things truly are if you visit one. This is another place where we couldn’t take photos inside. It’s an incredibly awe inspiring thing, being in one of these things. Afterward, we got to see the changing of the guard. =P

The changing really wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be, but it was still rather interesting. The fellow with the sword in the black was barking orders, but he was nothing compared to his oddly hatted counterpart. The fellow in red was so damn serious about it, he almost sounded funny at times. But this is no laughing matter. These men take what they do completely seriously. Most of you should have heard that touching one of the red suited is a bad idea…well, it’s true. I’ve heard quite a few stories from locals. Completely true. If you ever visit England, you don’t want to cross any lines…literally. Most of those fellows have had barriers set up in front of them a couple of years ago. The only one I’ve seen that doesn’t have a barrier is in Windsor. So, after Windsor castle, we went for lunch in Windsor.

There were a whole bunch of little family owned café/diner shops everywhere. This location is just down the street from where I had lunch. I had the best club sandwich in my life at that little shop. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pics of the place, nor do I remember the name. But I swear to you, this place looked like it used to be a pub. By this time I was completely dead and ready to go to sleep. Alas! We could not sleep for many more hours later. After Windsor, we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. This church was simply massive. I was waiting for the humbling experience of the Swiss Alps, but this really took the cake so far. In front of the cathedral was a statue of one of the queens. My brain isn’t working at the moment…I think it was elizabeth…don’t rightly remember. It was a long day, and most things didn’t stay in my brain.



After visiting St. Paul’s we crossed a bridge that we only went halfway across. As we returned, more marvelous shots of the cathedral.

 This is my favourite shot…at least one of them. After that, nothing much happened. We came back to the hotel and now we sleep. Farewell until the next time!

...

hey all. i am currently in paris with wifi that doesnt work and a strange keyboard in front of me. once i find a working hotspot, i will get everything up to date. sorry guys...

Whoa...

OK. It's finally here. Pictures will begin to adorn this page beginning late tomorrow! The anticipation is building up and is almost too much to bear. Oh, this is gunna be sooo freaking crazy! Soon the charted unknown will be explored, along with the satisfaction of treating the peoples of Europe to some exquisite musical experiences. Yup, that's right. This isn't just a vacation to get away from it all. It's going to be a performance for Europe. I, along with a good 125 other high school students (yes, you read right) will be traveling Europe as a choir with another 125 students performing as a fully orchestrated band. And believe me when I say, these kids would blow your mind. I'm not even joking. We practiced together for the first time July 1, 2, and 3. By the end of day 2, we sounded like professionals who have been doing this their whole life. It helps though that days 1 and 2 were twelve hours long (again, you read right). From 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening we practiced. If any of you sing in a choir, you should know how much energy can be drained even from just 4 hours of singing. Yet, we managed to pull it off. Then after those two days of practicing, we practiced a few hours more and put on a concert for friends and family. Again, incredibly professional sound coming from high school students. I truly feel blessed to be able to perform with this group of wonderfully talented people. It'll be an experience forever etched into the design of my brain. Well, that'll be all for now. Gotta go finish packing for the uber long plane ride tomorrow. Farewell for now, and enjoy the day!