Leaving Edmond kind of snuck up on us. After scrambling for a couple days to get everything packed, we are back in London. It's great to be here because my dad is here with us and I think we're going to have a great time, but it's been a long day.
We had our first semi-negative immigration experience today. It feels surprisingly awful for someone to be getting upset with you for trying to come into their country for a limited amount of time. We probably would have been able to take it better if we had a few more hours of sleep behind us, but things ended up working out ok. Unless an immigration officer shows up at our door later. I'm sure it will be fine. :)
My dad is with us for a week, visiting London for the first time and we are super excited to show him around all our favorite places. We took a ride on my favorite bus route today and tomorrow we're going to some of the weekend markets.
We are all exhausted right now so more updates will have to come later, but we wanted everyone to know that we already miss you. Thanks for always making us feel wanted Oklahoma. :)
Friday, March 29, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Istanbul
tl;dr; OMG THERE'S A SLIDESHOW!!!
As most of you already know, B and I went to Istanbul a few weeks back. It was a lot of fun. Istanbul is a beautiful place, and it has a lot of fun history to explore.
We posted a few pictures, but took many many more. At the request of one of my favorite aunts, I've tried filter out the useless ones and post the rest.
For those unfamiliar with the area, I'll highlight a few so you have some idea of what you're looking at.
The Hagia Sophia is in Istanbul. One of the many things I learned about on the trip. It was originally built as a Christian church, then later converted to a mosque, and is now a museum. There is a space marked off towards the front that you can't walk on because it's where most of the Byzantine Emperors were crowned.
Sultan Ahmed Mosque or the Blue Mosque is another one of those Things I Learned About™. But mostly all I learned is that it is incredibly huge and incredibly beautiful. It sits across a long garden area from the Hagia Sophia.
There are islands of the coast that you can take a ferry to. I'm told that they're supposed to be a lot of fun, and I bet in the summer they are, but in February the main inhabitants seem to be stray dogs and cats. I think for the main point of us going there though was the boat ride, in which we were not disappointed. Also, since the city of Istanbul is on both sides of the Bosphorous, we got off the ferry on the other side and now we can say we've been to the continent of Asia. #winning
Topkapı Palace is probably the coolest palace I've toured so far, and I've been to my fair share of palaces. Maybe it's because this is the one I've been to most recently, maybe it's because it's a different style than almost all the others and that makes it stands out. I'm not really sure, but it was a lot of fun to explore, and I'm so incredibly glad that we got to put around inside it for a few hours.
As most of you already know, B and I went to Istanbul a few weeks back. It was a lot of fun. Istanbul is a beautiful place, and it has a lot of fun history to explore.
We posted a few pictures, but took many many more. At the request of one of my favorite aunts, I've tried filter out the useless ones and post the rest.
For those unfamiliar with the area, I'll highlight a few so you have some idea of what you're looking at.
The Grand Bazaar is in Istanbul. Pretty much think 'worlds first mall', and part of the fun is they haven't yet discovered those maps with "You are here" on them. It's gigantic, it's completely unorganized, and tons of fun. Becca was telling me on the plane over that people are concerned about the Grand Bazaar's stability in an earthquake because the shop owners keep removing parts of the walls to make more space in their shops. I believe it. Every available inch of store front space is crowded. The Grand Bazaar was one of the many places we went where I was glad we were visiting during an off season for tourists.
The Hagia Sophia is in Istanbul. One of the many things I learned about on the trip. It was originally built as a Christian church, then later converted to a mosque, and is now a museum. There is a space marked off towards the front that you can't walk on because it's where most of the Byzantine Emperors were crowned.
Sultan Ahmed Mosque or the Blue Mosque is another one of those Things I Learned About™. But mostly all I learned is that it is incredibly huge and incredibly beautiful. It sits across a long garden area from the Hagia Sophia.
There are islands of the coast that you can take a ferry to. I'm told that they're supposed to be a lot of fun, and I bet in the summer they are, but in February the main inhabitants seem to be stray dogs and cats. I think for the main point of us going there though was the boat ride, in which we were not disappointed. Also, since the city of Istanbul is on both sides of the Bosphorous, we got off the ferry on the other side and now we can say we've been to the continent of Asia. #winning
Topkapı Palace is probably the coolest palace I've toured so far, and I've been to my fair share of palaces. Maybe it's because this is the one I've been to most recently, maybe it's because it's a different style than almost all the others and that makes it stands out. I'm not really sure, but it was a lot of fun to explore, and I'm so incredibly glad that we got to put around inside it for a few hours.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Berlin
We were just getting used to Vienna when all of a sudden it was time to move on again.
So far we really love it in Berlin, besides the fact that it's freezing here. We loved Vienna, but we feel like it's a better place to visit and be amazed rather than spend a long period of time at least in the winter when it gets dark so early.
Our Berlin apartment is the smallest yet. We've run into each other a lot, but we really like it. It feels a lot more "us" than other places we've stayed. But I'll admit, we had to watch a YouTube video to figure out how to light our gas oven.
So, here are our thoughts after 2ish days:
Berlin is bustling. It has the beautiful parks and unusual sights that we missed from London. We are getting a little better at our German and we've pretty much figured out the public transportation. Right now, we are sitting in a workspace that Jake will work at almost every day and I will come to sometimes.
It seems like we've gotten a little faster about settling into a place, so hopefully Berlin will start to feel just like home before we take off again.
More to come soon, with pictures!
So far we really love it in Berlin, besides the fact that it's freezing here. We loved Vienna, but we feel like it's a better place to visit and be amazed rather than spend a long period of time
Our Berlin apartment is the smallest yet. We've run into each other a lot, but we really like it. It feels a lot more "us" than other places we've stayed. But I'll admit, we had to watch a YouTube video to figure out how to light our gas oven.
So, here are our thoughts after 2ish days:
Berlin is bustling. It has the beautiful parks and unusual sights that we missed from London. We are getting a little better at our German and we've pretty much figured out the public transportation. Right now, we are sitting in a workspace that Jake will work at almost every day and I will come to sometimes.
It seems like we've gotten a little faster about settling into a place, so hopefully Berlin will start to feel just like home before we take off again.
More to come soon, with pictures!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Post: Christmas Edition
Just in time for Christmas, we've decided to put together a post about all of our Christmastime adventures. We have been able to see some places, big and small, all decorated for Christmas and we wanted to share our favorite photos:
We went to a Christmas museum and saw Liberty of London all decorated inside:
We walked through Christmas markets all the way down Champs-Elysees to find this at the end:
We thought that no place could do Christmas better then Paris, but we arrived in Vienna and discovered we were wrong:
It's our first Christmas as Husband and Wife. It's hard to be away from our family, but we are grateful to have seen such beautiful Christmas festivities all over Europe.
And last, but not least, we have a little Christmas tree:
Here's a throwback from when we went to Rome last year:
In London,
We went to a Christmas museum and saw Liberty of London all decorated inside:
Then we visited the small English town of Frome and joined in on their Christmas festivities. At the end of the evening, the mayor lit the lights in the town:
Next it was off to Paris:
We walked through Christmas markets all the way down Champs-Elysees to find this at the end:
We thought that no place could do Christmas better then Paris, but we arrived in Vienna and discovered we were wrong:
It's our first Christmas as Husband and Wife. It's hard to be away from our family, but we are grateful to have seen such beautiful Christmas festivities all over Europe.
And last, but not least, we have a little Christmas tree:
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Aktualisieren!
Updates!
So much stuff has happened since our last update, I'm not really sure where to start. I could do Tarantino style and jump around. Let's do that.
We're currently nicely settled into our new Vienna home. It's a sunday night, Bob Dylan is on the radio and we're hanging out in our living room for the pure novelty of having a living room again. Becca is putting some finishing touches on some Christmas decorations while I sit typing this and researching Quentin Tarantino.
Paris in December
We took the channel tunnel from the UK to Paris last weekend. It was fun, but mostly just dark and lots of ear popping. The train leaving London goes through a whole bunch of tunnels to get out of the city, so we didn't actually know we were going under the channel until we exited the tunnel and realized that all the signs were now in French. Oops.
We spent Saturday in Paris seeing some sights, mostly visiting spots we remember. We went to Notre Dame, ate at a pizza place that we're pretty sure we've eaten at every time we visit Paris (not 100% sure, there are a bunch of pizza places there).
We visited the spot in front of the Louvre where I proposed to Becca almost two years ago. Turns out I did good and picked a spot famous enough to probably not change for a while. From there we went to Montmartre, which always has great views of the city. This time of year there is a Christmas market there, and some pretty talented street performers.
After that we hit the main event. Becca had done her research and learned that, not surprisingly, they claim to do a pretty good job decorating up Champs-Elysees, so we headed there as the sun was setting. Turns out they weren't lying. Most of the bottom half of the street, probably the better part of a mile, was taken up with crazy Christmas decorations and stalls selling everything Christmas. They make sure to end with a bang. At the end of the street, there was a ginormous Ferris wheel and a giant (we could see it from the Louvre) Christmas tree with spotlights.
Becca and I spent our first husband and wifey Thanksgiving abroad in a quirky restaurant called The Breakfast Club that had a Thanksgiving dinner celebration. They did a surprisingly good job getting a traditional Thanksgiving meal, there was turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and corn and other usuals.
The weekend after Thanksgiving we had tickets to see Crystal Castles in concert. Even though we initially went to the wrong venue, we ended up getting a spot really close to the stage, which we promptly deserted as the show started (muttering things about crazy kids and the music being too loud) and found a much more comfortable place to the side. As far as shows go, it ranked pretty high up on my list of favorite shows I've been to.
On Wednesday of the next week, we took the train out of London to Slough to meet up with our friend Shep, who was there with wheels. We had an amazing day, probably hitting up more places than Shep had originally intended. We hit up the real Stonehenge, which was a really cool experience, then went to an even better 'henge at Avebury. From there we continued our journey to Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, which is a really cool little town. We both had a really great time.
November 27th happened, which marked six whole months of married life. We're both still pretty sure it was a good decision. At this point, we've spent more time married abroad than we have at home.
We woke up one morning and both of us had a kind of realization that we were leaving London in two weeks. Kind of a startling realization. London was our first stop, and we both really ended up loving it.
We left London on December 1st, setting out in search of adventure in the south of England in a town called Frome (think broom) near Bath. It was a nice little English town. By chance, we arrived the day that they lit their Christmas lights, and so the whole town was out in the town square. There was singing and general merriment, and then a countdown to a mechanical glitch. Eventually, they got the lights on. It was a lot of fun. The next day was market day, which was also a good time. The tiny main street was absolutely packed with stalls and customers.
We stayed there for a week in a house that was built in the 1600's that had chickens and two cats. We visited Bath by bus a couple of times. The bus took the long route through a couple other small towns, and it was fun to see more of the countryside.
We arrived in Vienna on a train from Paris. It was a beautiful (long) train ride that took us north to Cologne, Germany, then across Germany and a fair chunk of Austria. It snowed the whole way. We arrived about 15 minutes late and missed the person we were supposed to be meeting to get the keys to our apartment. We both still had our UK phones, which were running out of credit, and knowing we would probably have to use our phones to meet Levi and Emily in a few days we were trying not to use them. Incredibly, we paused outside in the snow in front of a cafe on our street (looking confused and trying to figure out where we might find some WiFi or a hotel to stay in) when the cafe owner poked her head out and asked if we needed help. Turns out the apartment owner sometimes leaves the keys in this cafe, and the owner knew where we could find them. Crazy, amiright?
Levi and Emily arrived on Tuesday. It was really great to see them. Becca and I got to hang out and pretend to be tourists in Vienna for a few days with two of our favorite people. I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted with them because I had to try and work, but we had a great time visiting some of the Christmas markets around here and having Levi show us around and teach us some German. Becca and Emily got to do some shopping on the main street here while Levi enjoyed some time in a few of his old coffee shop haunts. We were going to try and start hating each other before they had to leave so their visit wouldn't seem so short, but it didn't work, and Friday morning came too soon for all of us.
The last two days Becca and I have been taking it easy. I know our life is a vacation and all, but the last couple of weeks have been very very busy. Friday, I tried out what I hope turns out to be an insanely cool co-working situation, Sektor 5, which will hopefully give me a desk to work at since our apartment appears to have frustratingly bad WiFi. Yesterday, we did a little Christmas shopping before turning in early to watch "The Cabin in the Woods", which turned out to be not what I thought it was.
So, Becca and I are feeling pretty settled in to our new digs. We're feeling slightly more optimistic about being able to make it in a country where we're really bad (trying to improve) at the language. Here's to a good holiday season.
So much stuff has happened since our last update, I'm not really sure where to start. I could do Tarantino style and jump around. Let's do that.
We're currently nicely settled into our new Vienna home. It's a sunday night, Bob Dylan is on the radio and we're hanging out in our living room for the pure novelty of having a living room again. Becca is putting some finishing touches on some Christmas decorations while I sit typing this and researching Quentin Tarantino.
Paris in December
We spent Saturday in Paris seeing some sights, mostly visiting spots we remember. We went to Notre Dame, ate at a pizza place that we're pretty sure we've eaten at every time we visit Paris (not 100% sure, there are a bunch of pizza places there).
After that we hit the main event. Becca had done her research and learned that, not surprisingly, they claim to do a pretty good job decorating up Champs-Elysees, so we headed there as the sun was setting. Turns out they weren't lying. Most of the bottom half of the street, probably the better part of a mile, was taken up with crazy Christmas decorations and stalls selling everything Christmas. They make sure to end with a bang. At the end of the street, there was a ginormous Ferris wheel and a giant (we could see it from the Louvre) Christmas tree with spotlights.
Thanksgiving, Concerts, and Car Rides
Becca and I spent our first husband and wifey Thanksgiving abroad in a quirky restaurant called The Breakfast Club that had a Thanksgiving dinner celebration. They did a surprisingly good job getting a traditional Thanksgiving meal, there was turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and corn and other usuals.
The weekend after Thanksgiving we had tickets to see Crystal Castles in concert. Even though we initially went to the wrong venue, we ended up getting a spot really close to the stage, which we promptly deserted as the show started (muttering things about crazy kids and the music being too loud) and found a much more comfortable place to the side. As far as shows go, it ranked pretty high up on my list of favorite shows I've been to.
On Wednesday of the next week, we took the train out of London to Slough to meet up with our friend Shep, who was there with wheels. We had an amazing day, probably hitting up more places than Shep had originally intended. We hit up the real Stonehenge, which was a really cool experience, then went to an even better 'henge at Avebury. From there we continued our journey to Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, which is a really cool little town. We both had a really great time.
Letting Go of London
November 27th happened, which marked six whole months of married life. We're both still pretty sure it was a good decision. At this point, we've spent more time married abroad than we have at home.
We woke up one morning and both of us had a kind of realization that we were leaving London in two weeks. Kind of a startling realization. London was our first stop, and we both really ended up loving it.
We left London on December 1st, setting out in search of adventure in the south of England in a town called Frome (think broom) near Bath. It was a nice little English town. By chance, we arrived the day that they lit their Christmas lights, and so the whole town was out in the town square. There was singing and general merriment, and then a countdown to a mechanical glitch. Eventually, they got the lights on. It was a lot of fun. The next day was market day, which was also a good time. The tiny main street was absolutely packed with stalls and customers.
The Brother and Sister Visitation Situation
We arrived in Vienna on a train from Paris. It was a beautiful (long) train ride that took us north to Cologne, Germany, then across Germany and a fair chunk of Austria. It snowed the whole way. We arrived about 15 minutes late and missed the person we were supposed to be meeting to get the keys to our apartment. We both still had our UK phones, which were running out of credit, and knowing we would probably have to use our phones to meet Levi and Emily in a few days we were trying not to use them. Incredibly, we paused outside in the snow in front of a cafe on our street (looking confused and trying to figure out where we might find some WiFi or a hotel to stay in) when the cafe owner poked her head out and asked if we needed help. Turns out the apartment owner sometimes leaves the keys in this cafe, and the owner knew where we could find them. Crazy, amiright?
Levi and Emily arrived on Tuesday. It was really great to see them. Becca and I got to hang out and pretend to be tourists in Vienna for a few days with two of our favorite people. I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted with them because I had to try and work, but we had a great time visiting some of the Christmas markets around here and having Levi show us around and teach us some German. Becca and Emily got to do some shopping on the main street here while Levi enjoyed some time in a few of his old coffee shop haunts. We were going to try and start hating each other before they had to leave so their visit wouldn't seem so short, but it didn't work, and Friday morning came too soon for all of us.
Epilogue (kind of)
The last two days Becca and I have been taking it easy. I know our life is a vacation and all, but the last couple of weeks have been very very busy. Friday, I tried out what I hope turns out to be an insanely cool co-working situation, Sektor 5, which will hopefully give me a desk to work at since our apartment appears to have frustratingly bad WiFi. Yesterday, we did a little Christmas shopping before turning in early to watch "The Cabin in the Woods", which turned out to be not what I thought it was.
So, Becca and I are feeling pretty settled in to our new digs. We're feeling slightly more optimistic about being able to make it in a country where we're really bad (trying to improve) at the language. Here's to a good holiday season.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Our Second Month in London
Here are the (belated) highlights from this month:
We both feel that this month has gone by much faster. We are still having a great time and we are looking forward to our next adventure. In less than a month we will leave London! We will stay in a smaller English town called Frome for a week and then we will take a train from London to Paris, and then Paris to Vienna. We still can't believe we're living this crazy life!
- We found out that we're going to be an Aunt and Uncle! (actually we found out last month, but we were waiting for Levi and Em to share the good news first)
- We discovered the Columbia Road Flower Market!
- We took a trip by train to Sherborne.
- Halloween!
- We celebrated Guy Fawkes Day with the Brits.
- Jake's dad came for a visit!
We both feel that this month has gone by much faster. We are still having a great time and we are looking forward to our next adventure. In less than a month we will leave London! We will stay in a smaller English town called Frome for a week and then we will take a train from London to Paris, and then Paris to Vienna. We still can't believe we're living this crazy life!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
We made it a month!
In honor of us making it abroad for one month today, here's 30 pictures for 30 days:
On this side of things, living abroad for as long as we can seems a lot less scary. We are learning some things, but so far, not as much as we thought we would. I guess you could say we learned that we know ourselves and each other about as well as we thought we did, and the world isn't too surprising of a place (which we think is a good thing!).
Of course, we miss our family and friends. Jake misses his work friends and Becca misses working with kids (she can't get a job here or volunteer to work with kids because we didn't get visas). We knew these things would come up --and it doesn't necessarily make them any easier-- but we know we want to be open to where our lives are taking us. Right now, we are grateful to be where we are!
Here's to another month!
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| We found some coffee shops. |
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| We went to Hogwarts! (Just kidding, but we did go to King's Cross Station) |
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| We went to a neat bookstore in Marylebone. |
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| Broadway Market on Sundays just around the corner from our place. It's like a farmers' market/ arts festival every week! |
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| We found this pretty Mosque. The picture really doesn't do it justice. |
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| We took a train to Oxford. |
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| We explored Oxford... |
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| ... and went to the History of Science Museum. |
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| This is the Ashmolean Museum. |
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| We saw Einstein's Blackboard! |
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| We found out that Oxford is OU too. |
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| We've spent time in the rain... |
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| ...and the sunshine. |
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| We took Flat Stanley to Westminster Abbey. |
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| We also saw Big Ben. Jake tried to convince Becca to go on the London eye, but she's not going. |
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| We went to the Hard Rock Cafe after a 45 minute wait to get in. It was worth it for the free refills. |
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| Becca broke two of the glasses in our apartment, which is kind of a bummer because we didn't have very many to begin with :( |
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| We went to Olympic Park in Stratford. |
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| We've been on lots of pubic transportation. |
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| We had a picnic in Hyde Park and saw this horse! |
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| Hyde Park was pretty. |
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| We went to the Natural History Museum in London. |
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| Jake occasionally goes to work at the Google building. |
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| It's hard to tell, but this is a picture of Becca jogging in the park. |
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| Jake finally let Becca cut his hair, and she did a great job! |
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| Sharie (Jake's mom) came to visit! |
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| We had a fun day going to a play at the Globe Theater and seeing the Tower of London. |
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| We climbed the (very narrow) stairs in this clock tower... |
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| ...out of the tiny door... |
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| ...to the top! We saw our whole section of the city from there |
On this side of things, living abroad for as long as we can seems a lot less scary. We are learning some things, but so far, not as much as we thought we would. I guess you could say we learned that we know ourselves and each other about as well as we thought we did, and the world isn't too surprising of a place (which we think is a good thing!).
Of course, we miss our family and friends. Jake misses his work friends and Becca misses working with kids (she can't get a job here or volunteer to work with kids because we didn't get visas). We knew these things would come up --and it doesn't necessarily make them any easier-- but we know we want to be open to where our lives are taking us. Right now, we are grateful to be where we are!
Here's to another month!
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