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Viva La Vida: Zurich & London

We’re continuing our journey along with our guest blogger Ivory, a 3rd year, Computational Media major from Georgia Tech, as she takes a 10 day trip throughout Europe. Even though Barcelona is growing on her, we’re excited to see just how much she enjoyed her latest excursion!

- Jessica Ebony

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Barcelona…so we meet again! After 10 days of frolicking across Europe, I can honestly say I just had one of the best weeks of my life. With a backpack and an open mind, we set out on a mission to see the best that Zurich, London, Amsterdam, and Rome had to offer.

First stop: Zurich, Switzerland

When we got to Switzerland, the first thing I noticed was how different Zurich was from anything I’ve ever seen. I’m from the Natural State – Arkansas – so I’m used to nice scenery and a more laid back lifestyle, but Switzerland takes this to the extreme.

Breathtaking Cathedrals

We stayed right outside of Zurich in Regensdorf. A place where there seemed to be no sign of life, except for us. We would spend our days in Zurich looking around at all the buildings and cathedrals towering above us. Zurich hasn’t attracted much fame, but we managed to scope out a couple of its hidden treasures: The Grossmunster Church and the Fraumunster Church.

Next Stop: London, England (better known as “The Land of Fish and Chips”)

After a relaxing start to our vacation, we headed to London for a mere day. While most of the group decided to leave their backpacks in airport lockers, myself and two other boys ran around London for the day with our backpacks. I got off the plane hollering about going to see the Queen, while the rest of the group kept yapping about their fish and chips. Well I didn’t get to the see the queen, but they got their fish and chips and loved every bite of it. As luck would have it, we even stumbled upon a place that had “vegetarian fish and chips” – also known as fried and breaded cheese with French fries! It was delicious though and my inner tourist was satisfied.

True Brit

At the time, I wasn’t sure what Westminster Abbey was (I now know its a famous cathedral), but I had read something about William and Kate getting married there. It was the first attraction we ran into and we literally walked down the street and started running into all of the popular London attractions. I was just strolling along the sidewalk and looked up to see the most oddly ornamented building in the middle of the busy city. It was the British House of Parliament and it was not what I was expecting – it was so much better! It was one of the grandest looking buildings I had ever seen and if this was just where the laws were made, I couldn’t imagine how the queen was living! Needless to say, we made our way towards Buckingham Palace and on the way, stopped to admire The London Eye, Big Ben, and the beautiful sight from Westminster Bridge. For a while, we thought we were on the London Bridge (a common mistake for tourists), but eventually realized that that was all the way on the other side of town.

Teasing of the Guards

Once we got to Buckingham Palace, we sat. What a journey! Once we stood up, we taunted the Queen’s Guards like typical Americans to see if they would move and of course they didn’t. Little known fact: they actually do move every once and a while. One of the guards almost slipped and fell as he returned to his spot and it was just my luck that I had stopped recording him as soon as it happened.

From what I saw of London, it wasn’t too different from the States. The architecture was different of course, but all in all, it reminded me of a major city that you’d find in the United States. We felt pretty comfortable there.

At the end of the day, we walked back into the airport and napped for a few hours before catching our 6 AM flight to Amsterdam…

I hope you check my next post as I recall the rest of my trip throughout Amsterdam and Rome!

Until next time,

Ivory