After about a month of hostel hopping and couch surfing I have finally found a place to call home.  The suburb of Wembley, although not the most beautiful place in and around London, is my new city of residence - It almost reminds me of downtown Hamilton.  I have been hired as a "bar maid" in a pub called the Green Man (http://www.thegreenmanhotelatwembley.co.uk/).

Wembley is home to Wembley Stadium where all the big Football games are held, as well as Wembley Arena which hosts music and comedy events.  This means that on match days the pub is PACKED.  That is not an exaggeration, our covers are in the thousands when there is a football game on!

The stadium - not actually sure what the big arch is for.. decoration?

So the job is pretty decent.  I get free accomodation (FREE!), and it's not too shabby either.  I also get free food when I'm working which is a bonus.  Looks like I could save some decent money here, as long as I don't spend all my money on beer.. It is a pub after all!

Here are some photos from London, I don't think I've posted them yet.

Welcome to Harrods.  

Harrods (for those of you who don't know) is a very well known, and very posh, department store

This is the best part about Harrods - they have entire rooms dedicated to certain foods.  This one is the confectioneries and tea room. Amazing. 

Caviar section

So much ice cream! 

The Victoria Museum - lots of stuff in here, mostly old art, sculptures and architecture 

Hyde Park on a beautiful day 

This is my room

A little small but it'll do :) 

The hotel/bar from the back 

My apartment - it's in the parking lot of the hotel, a little weird but can't really complain. 

Lessons learned + 1 month!

Apologies for the lateness and lengthiness of this post.  For those of you who don't know, I've been in Germany and the Netherlands for the past week visiting with some excellent people.  In one week I got to see all the people that I know who are overseas from Canada - Breanna, Ziyaad and Kate.  It was a very... eventful week. Also, as of yesterday I have been in Europe for exactly one month, the longest I've ever been away from home and outside of Canada.


Important things that I have learned so far: 


1. Always always always make a plan and make it early.  Learned this the hard way. I thought it would be nice to visit Kate and since the Netherlands is so small I'd be able to just drop in no problem... turns out that wasnt the case. I had to purchase an 80 euro train ticket to get back to Bremen to catch my flight (the one way train ticket is actually more expensive than my return flight). Not happy, but it's no ones fault but my own - always check return prices.

2. Use the bathrooms on trains because you have to pay in public washrooms and even Mcdonalds sometimes! (stupid).

3. COMMUNICATION - lots of miscommunication this week.  Breanna and I were supposed to meet in Bremen when I landed, but somehow we both thought things would just work themselves out.  We managed to miss each other at the train station, she went to the airport and I was at the station, we both ended up waiting for at least 3 hours until we finally managed to meet up!

4. Dutch people know how to make delicious cookies.  And vending machines!

5. It's really strange to be in a country and not know the language at all. This was my first time alone in a country where not many people speak English, it was definitely a new experience. Should probably invest in a little language book before I go to another country.  I always like to know what please and thank you are!

So moving on to the eventufulness of the week.  

My first day in Germany I ended up waiting for Breanna in the train station for hours and getting super anxious, followed by an eventful trip to the police station.  The story: Bre and I decided to get a coffee before going back to where she lives (Steinhude).  As we were catching up in a cafe the guy sitting beside us leaned over and stole Breanna's wallet right out of her purse.  She accused him, searched his bag but didn't find anything and he just snuck away.  We ended up walking to the police station and reported everything.  The good news - Bre got a letter from the train station saying they found her waller, unfortunately she had already cancelled all her cards, but at least she got it back (minus 50 euro).

Bremen - my first day in Germany! 

Cute little street I stumbled upon in 

While in Germany we went to Hannover and Hamburg.  Hannover is just like a big city with lots of shopping, but we had a nice time.  Went out for delicious Italian food and then met up with some of Bre's friends. Hamburg is really nice, it's a harbour city (apparently one of the biggest).  BUT the best part about Hamburg - they have something called a "tunnel".  You go into this round building and it's just this huge well in the ground, with elevators and stairs going down.  We had no idea what it was, so we took the elevator down and it was a tunnel to the islands off the harbour! So cool! It even has lifts for cars.

My walk from Steinhude into the city, saw ponies! 

7km walk to the city! 

City Hall in Hamburg - it might be parliament but I'm not sure 

Inside city hall - Bre! 

Beautiful wrought iron doors

Hamburg is one of the biggest port cities

Cute old street we found

The tunnel from above

Scary!

The lift for cars - so cool

The actual tunnel

Gorilla Knitting!

Can't remember if this is Leiden (in Holland) or Hamburg.. either way it's pretty 

From Germany we went to Veendam, Netherlands where Ziyaad lives.  We did Leiden and Amsterdam which turned into an interesting time.  Zi has this car that his dad bought him for 200 euro (cheap!) so we decided to drive - Leiden is about a 2.5 hour drive. When we get to Leiden the car was steaming from being overheated.  Fine, Zi just put cooling fluid in it.  It was fine to Amsterdam but when we went to leave it wouldn't start.  Finally got it started and made it just outside of the city before it started overheating again.  Pulled over in a gas station, called road side assistance, waited an hour, road side assistance sayed the car wouldn't make it to Veendam, waited another hour for the tow truck, got to ride in the tow truck which was HUGE, got a sweet rental car for free, drove home. It was brutal but the replacement car was really nice - Zi had a fun time driving it! However, the excitement was not over for the day.  We got home around 11:30pm and I went to plug in my computer and half the house lost electricity (including where the hot water heater was plugged in - learned later when it was freezing in the middle of the night)! It was just one of those days where everything went wrong - but I think we still had a good time.

Zi and his car on the tow truck :( 

Ended the trip by heading to Den Haag where Kate is living, very pretty city and Kate's new friends are all super nice - it would have been nice to stay a little longer, but I have to catch my plane!

At least it was an interesting week.

Early morning parting picture on the train <3

Den Haag - Parliament building

Bath

Bath from the hill where the hostel was

My future home in Bath

Bath is the best place I've been so far. It's almost like being in Italy.  All the buildings are made out of Bath stone and are built in a roman style - pillars and triangles and symmetry and what not. Yesterday was a very busy day.  I was the first one into the Roman Baths at 9am - good thing too because when I came back in the afternoon there was a huge line.  It was actually really cool, I got to see everything without the crowds, at one point I was the only one there.  The baths are incredible.  At the end you get to drink the water from the spring, which is not very good because it has so many minerals in it, but apparently its supposed to make you live longer - so drink up.

Roman Baths museum from the outside

The baths from the balcony

Beautiful view - that's Bath Abbey

Baths from the ground floor - this would have been the main swimming pool , there are  hot rooms for other treatments that come off this room

This duck had laid her egg in the water!

A cold pool for healing

This one is a religious site - for the Goddess of Bath only - no swimming allowed 

After the baths I did a free walking tour which was a good way to see the city.  The tour guide was a local Bathian and showed us things that I would probably not have gone to see otherwise.  Bath actually has a new spa that's been built around two of the other hot springs.  Next time I'm here I'll have to check it out :P

Bath Abbey 

The Royal Crescent where all the rich people lived (and still do) - there is a hotel there and it costs something like 300 pounds for one night.  A couple of the houses are privately own, needless to say they go for a couple of billion. 

Then Bath Abbey - which was nice, it's very bright unlike most other cathedrals.