Aww yeah, I get to do this again

07 Jan
Can I be honest as I start this post? Paris was great today, but I liked it better yesterday, I think. Guess I'm a sucker for Christmas lights.
Absolutely delicious breakfast at the hostel of cereal, fresh baguettes with ham and cheese, applesauce, and yogurt. Yumm!! Then we hopped on a free NewEurope tour right from the hostel. It was awesome. Highly, highly suggested. We're definitely doing them again in other countries. Our guide was hilarious and we learned a ton about Paris. Really important stuff, like all these faces are Henry IV's friends drunk out of their minds after drinking literally all of the wine in his palace place and then all of his secret stash floor-to-ceiling of the finest champagne in the country.We got to walk along the Seine again, see Notre Dame cathedral from the other side, learn about the Louvre (even though we're not going to go inside this trip), and learn about all of the places we saw last night in our wanderings.

Apparently writing names on locks, locking them to this bridge, and then throwing the key into the river is a big thing here. There were so many locks, the sides of the bridge looked golden. 

 And how to tell how the person in an "equestrian statue" died. Fun fact: if all 4 horse's legs are on the ground, they died a natural death; if both are up in front, they died in battle; if one is up in the front and one in back they died an unnatural death. And, like, best part of all of Paris - we saw the fountain in The Devil Wears Prada that Anne Hathaway throws her phone into at the end.

Then we kind of died, I think, and crashed in McDonald's for like 2 hours. Zombie mode. With free wifi.  Then another awesome tour of Montmarte, and le Basilique de Sacre Couer, which is SO SO SO PRETTY. Oh my gosh, stunning. Maybe because it was French, maybe because it was on a mountain, maybe I've already forgotten how gorgeous the cathedrals were in London, or maybe because it was the first one I've seen in a few days, but I was blown off my feet even more than I was in London. Sorry Mark. Maybe that's a lie, though. I dunno! There was an AWESOME-LOOKING organ in the cathedral, though!
The whole area of Montmarte is cool, and different from the areas of Paris we saw last night. It's up on a mountain, and that's the "artistic" section of the city -- i.e., where pretty much every famous artist in Paris lived. Saw the Moulin Rouge, (which doesn't look quite like the movie), a bit of Paris's version of the red light district, and a stunning view over Paris.

Paris has so many museums, buildings, and other places that I would love to check out if we had more time. I could probably spend another week here. Good thing that Kirstyn will be able to come back often over the summer, and then tell me all about it :)

That was today! We're back at the hostel now. Yay!!!

Long overdue...

03Jan -- continuation of the day in which Bridget broke her sleep record
I don't have my notes in front of me and as some of you have so kindly noted, this was like 3 days ago, so I don't actually remember that much. Today we spent ALL DAY (which, after sleeping late, and before an early dinner at Mark's house, ALL DAY really means 3 hours) at Nero's Cafe, which was THE BEST. When Bridget and I were talking to God that evening she thanked Him for designing us to need a Sabbath, because they're awesome.
Then we went over to Mark's and got to see a children's choir/band concert/thing of awesomeness. He was helping out with it. It was adorable and wonderful. Pictures of all these things coming later.

It was fun to explore the city center of Cambridge a bit on our own :)

04Jan
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TODAY (We're are Rapunzel, btw)
Official formal "let's see Cambridge!" day!! It rained the whole day, but that didn't really matter. Cambridge is beautiful. We saw the oldest buildings in Cambridge, which are churches, which is super cool. And organs. And we had fudge. And we saw a gazillion of the colleges of the University of Cambridge. And we saw organs. And King's College Chapel, which is stunning. It has an organ. In fact, there are on the order of 50 organs in Cambridge (not counting the organs people have in their basement, or the multiple organs people have in their basement). We saw many of them. Organ history is fascinating.
No, but actually, it was wonderful. And then Mark took us to Christ's college, where he went, and played the organ for us!!! And then I think we went back to his house again. Of course, it was dark by 4pm, because for some ridiculous reason the sun sets before then. Sunlight, people!

I loved seeing all the colleges. They are so different from what we are used to at MIT -- much smaller feeling (though all are part of Cambridge University), and much prettier. I think the people who live here are so desensitized awesome old buildings that they don't appreciate how beautiful the city is.  Mark took us to MakeSpace, which is a place with cool things like a laser cutter and 3-D printer. It was super cool, and reminded us of good old MIT *sniff*. I tried a traditional English breakfast. It was quite good. Had some great conversations with Mark and Kirstyn about God and stuff.

Mark has been introducing us to different boardgames since we've been here. However, this night, we played Pandemic, which apparently is his favorite ;). It was actually really, really fun! I approve of your board game choices in general, Mark :)

05 Jan
Today was wonderful. Just wonderful. So much God, friends, and general awesomeness. Kirstyn and I met up with Becca in the morning, and went to breakfast and church with her. (Becca was an exchange student at MIT at the same time as Mark -- our freshman year). Becca introduced us to bacon butties, which are basically baguettes filled with bacon. Yummyyyy. Her church was so nice -- great sermon on Psalm 110, and very welcoming people. After church, Becca showed us around her college, and we met up with Mark, and another of their friends for lunch. Did lots of walking around Cambridge again in the afternoon -- no rain this time though! Then we all went to Mark's church in the afternoon. His church was fantastic. I loved it. The people were so welcoming and genuine. Both church services today were a wonderful reminder of how no matter where in the world they may be, the body of Christ is still a huge family.  Dinner at the Roberts house was so much fun --  we made crepes! Mark and Kirstyn introduced me to having sugar and lemon juice rolled up in a crepe, which apparently is both a UK and KIRSTYN HEIN classic. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT. So good. I'm a fan.

Ahhh this last day in England was so good. Our whole time there was really great. Huge shout out to Mark and Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, Becca, and Mia!

St. John's College

King's College

a sign in MakeSpace :)

Ye olde and dangerous Christ's College chapel stairs

Kirstyn in Cambridge

more Cambridge

More Cambridge

Bridget somewhere in some college in Cambridge

Bridget in Cambridge 

In front of King's College chapel

Artsy photography by Kirstyn

Mark in his natural habitat

The MIT-CME crowd :)

06 Jan
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TODAY
Because Paris is A WHOLE NEWWWW WORRRLLLDDD. And also because we were singing it for a long time walking up and down Champs Elysees.
WE SAW THE EIFFEL TOWER!! UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL!! UNDERNEATH THE THING!!
Woke up at like 4 or something. Even the sun was sleeping, but that's hardly a surprise. Navigated the UK for the last time in awhile (tear, tear) and LEFT THE UK!! Totally slept a lot on the 4.5-hour train to PARISSSSSSS. Saw so many WORKS OF BEAUTY AND WONDER AND AWESOME.  I kept saying it over and over and Bridget was like "girl, it's not actually that cool, get over yourself". But we had SO MUCH FUN. Walked A LOT. Ambulances in Paris make really obnoxious noises.  Had a great conversation with Bridget about translating coordinate systems while observing the Arc du Triomphe. Now a delicious dinner!! I love the hostel we're staying in, super excited for the rest of the night!
WOOHOO KIRSTYN'S FIRST EVER OFFICIAL BLOG POST!! More to come!! :-)

Apparently the Americans are the best at playing beer pong? There is a game going in the hostel bar that we're sitting in right now. It's kind of entertaining to listen to... :)
Anyway, to clarify, I think Paris is gorgeous too. I just have less of a fixation with Christmas tree lights. That is all. We wandered for a while after checking into our hostel, getting lost on Paris streets. Figured out the metro (subway) system. The Arc du Triomphe was beautiful, as were all the buildings. I was blown away by seeing the Eiffel Tower at night, though. It's all light up, and you can see every little piece in the structure. It's awesome. We went on a long romantic walk along the river, which we thought was appropriate for the city of love :).

A few preliminary conclusions about Paris: Parisians are even worse than Bostonian when it comes to pedestrians obeying traffic signals. The metro system is very like the T. Kirstyn is a champ at making friends by talking to them in French.
Highlight of the day: Backstory -- Kirstyn kept trying to pay for things with euros when we were in the UK. Now that we're actually on the euro system, she has got everything under control. When paying for dinner at the bar, she turned to me, and commented on how nice it was that now she has the currency right, and is not trying to pay for things using pounds. And then promptly proceeded to hand 15 pounds to the bartender. It was wonderful.

England in the sun!

Yesterday (02Jan) was sunny!! It was completely gorgeous, and things look so much different in the sun! Kirstyn and I went into London again on our own, and totally champed the public transportation system. The tube is a lot more complicated that the T in Boston, just because there are so many more lines, stations, and routes to get places. We felt pretty accomplished and independent by the end of the day :). We didn't go on another double-decker bus, because we couldn't find one to get to where we wanted to go. Haha, we did actually consider getting on a random bus to a random place just so we could ride one, and then taking the tube back. But we didn't.
BRIDGET USED THE WORD "CHAMPED". ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!! <3

So we continued doing the London tourist thing, and went to a few museums -- the V&A, and the Natural History Museum.  The Natural History Museum reminded me of the Field Museum in Chicago -- right down to the dinosaur skeleton in the main lobby. The building was BEAUTIFUL though. We learned lots of stuff (or some small amount of stuff...), and had fun watching all the families with little kids. The V&A had a lot of art pieces and historical artifacts from around the world, which were cool to see.  After getting our fill of museums, we made our way back to some of the places we went earlier in the rain. It was so much more crowded this time. Lol. Probably because all the smart people just waited until it wasn't pouring rain to go... Anyway, we walked around a bit, and saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey again in a drier frame of mind. They were just as gorgeous the second time around, and I'm really glad we went back. This time, we decided to go to Evensong in Westminster Abbey.  Mark would be so proud of us :).  Afterwards, we had a few more hours to wander around and make our way to King's Cross before our train back. We saw a giant blue rooster statue and some giant lion statues in Trafalgar square. 'Twas cool.
Ohmygosh the V&A was awesome. SO MUCH FUN!!!! I felt so grown up and sophisticated wandering around a museum!!!

garden at the V&A

Kirstyn trying on a glove from a suit of armor at the V&A

sculpture of crushed brass instruments at the V&A

Outside the Natural History Museum

Inside the Natural History Museum

On a bridge over the Thames, London Eye in the background

Westminster Abbey

Downing Street -- where the Prime Minister lives!

There are red phone booths literally all over the city. Mark says that they aren't really used, but that the tourists love them :)

Lion statue in Trafalgar Square

We couldn't figure out the purpose for a blue rooster statue. So we decided that it's because Prince William likes roosters, and Kate Middleton likes the color blue.  IT'S LITERALLY JUST A PIECE OF ART. SO BORING.

The sign for the Euston tube station

Cambridge!

Walking around Cambridge

Apparently, I was exhausted. And not completely over jet-lag. Because last night, I slept for around 11.5 hours straight, which for those of you who are aware of my sleep habbits, is A LOT of sleep for me. I think that's the longest I've ever slept in my life. (Michael, you should be proud of me. Told you I would sleep :P)
We woke up sometime between 11 and noon. It rocked. Wandered around Cambridge and made our way to a lovely little coffee shop, Nero's. Tea all around!
P.S. mentioned this already but WOW MSU WON THE ROSE BOWL!! BEST THING EVER!!!!

New Years Eve & Day

Quick update here:

us on the plane

England is awesome. And raining. But not cold. And awesome.
(that was Bridget using MY adjectives. Note that? AWESOME)

Yesterday, we arrived in London, and made our way to Cambridge. This involved taking the tube, and a train from King's Cross station. Yes, we saw Platform "9 3/4", for all you Harry Potter fans. Mark picked us up at the train station, and we spent the evening (New Years Eve!) at his house with his family and friends. For those of you who don't know Mark, he was an exchange student at MIT a few years ago from the University of Cambridge. Mark is a very cool person, and he and his parents have been SO GOOD to us since we've been here. They have fed us, driven us places, looked up buses and trains, given us maps, and generally been so welcoming.

Today Kirstyn, Mark, and I went into London for the day to do some sightseeing. It was pouring rain the entire day, and we got soaked, but it was still a lot of fun. We walked all over the city, and saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, St. Paul's Church, the Tower of London, and much more. We rode on a double-decker bus (!!), and had fun checking out different tube stops.
Got to catch up with Mark a bit, which was so nice :)

double-decker bus

Us in front of the fancy gate to the houses of Parliament

Big Ben!

Buckingham Palace

Tower of London at night

Tower Bridge

More later :) Tomorrow, Mark has to work, but Kirstyn and I are going to go back to London, and see more. I'm excited. And it's not supposed to rain. Keep your fingers crossed!

Randoms stuffs:
GO MSU!!!!! The Rosebowl starts in 10 minutes.
Knowledge of British history goes like this: Mark >> Bridget >= Kirstyn

BRIDGET JUST TYPED EVERYTHING AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SHE SAID.
^^I wrote GO MSU and I'm not even an MSU fan. Have some faith. ~Bridget