Movies in the UK

For Just a quick update... We went to the movies to see Captian Phillips today with Paul's mum. I realized how similar the experience is to our movie experience, except they have......

For anyone who has not tried British chocolate, please find your nearest Publix or other store with an "ethnic food" aisle, go pick up a crunchie bar or a curly wurly, or a twirl bar, lion bar, milky buttons, etc. Your mouth will love you forever. I'm not a huge milky chocolate fan, I prefer the super dark bars, but omg if you eat slowly and savor their chocolate, it's an experience. Not waxy and so creamy.... And they get to snack on it at the movies! I didn't get the popcorn here, but, Paul says it is sweet and salty.. I think they have a good thing going here. Too bad, like our cinemas, it costs an arm and a leg to see a movie   get snacks, and the whole 9 yards. We were lucky it was "Super Tuesday" and we got 1/3 off the ticket price. And like we do back home, we smuggled snacks in purses. Oh yeah they had a Ben and Jerry's ice cream bar too. Craziness.

We are going to the Jaguars game this Sunday before we head to Chester..... If anyone knows anyone that's going, we would be happy to meet up and tailgate (yes you can tailgate here, but you have to have a ticket to get into the grounds) before the game! So lucky to have gotten to do  all this cool stuff here.. We have some great friends and family. :) it will be strange to be a traveler in a foreign land with language barriers soon... Strange but exciting..

Until next time.... Hopefully we will see a WIN for the Jags. Poor guys, it's pathetic.

MC

****if you can't find British chocolate at your grocery store world market is another gem that sells all the goods.

Late nights

The Local Natives concert was great, they sound just the same as they do on my iPod and they put on a killer show. The concert was in Brixton, a part of London that is having a pretty big rejuvenation. Paul and I were warned about this part of London because it's supposed to be scary, i.e. One of Paul's friends was stabbed at a KFC because he stuck out as a visitor. It was a cool place though with cool bars and restaurants. We got out of there before the tubes shut at midnight, though. We didn't end up getting back to Stephens apartment until 3 am.... It was interesting being on the late bus through London on a Thursday.. It was so busy!

The next morning I dragged myself to a yoga studio about a mile from Stephens house. It was a 90 minute class and totally reinvigorated my body and was much needed. A much better class than the gym yoga class I took at the gym we got a free month to ( it pays to know people :) ) in Portsmouth. Needless to say we have kept very fit between using the free gym and walking wayyyy over 10,000 steps daily. This pedometer watch I bought was a great investment.

My good feeling was shattered the next night we had yet another late night out after traveling back to Portsmouth  to go out to dinner with Paul's friends and their wives/girlfriends. I learned that doing 2 3am nights in a row is now longer a feat I can do and feel like a human being for days to come. I am still recovering from the combo of Thursday/Friday. I guess I am now "old" and a detox is currently underway. Hooray for fresh veggies, ginger/lemon tea, yoga, sauna at the free gym, and lukewarm lemon water. You can take the health nut away from home but you can't make her stop being a health nut... Being a yogi has given me a feeling of knowing when my body feels right, and between Thursday and Sunday, I definitely felt out of whack. Despite of all this, I still had a blast and have no regrets. Just thankful I know how to get back to equilibrium! Or at least on my way there..... :) 

We are going hiking tomorrow! Hopefully the rain holds out.. Last few days in Paul's hometown before we head up to Chester to see my auntie and uncle, and then cousins in Scotland... Looking forward for the future. :)

What a weekend.

So I finally got my yellow fever shot last Thursday and I am finally feeling normal again. The day after we went to a model village called Butser where they had lots of goats and straw huts.. It shows what life was like back in roman times. Unfortunately due to the side effects of my shot I felt awful while we were there. I decided life in those times was probably hard, cold, and terrible. That may have been the yellow fever talking...

I still haven't gotten my wish to hike yet, but that's the issue you face when you don't have a car. It's nice to walk everywhere and not spend money on gas and whatnot, but for when you want to go to a random trail off the motorway it's tough. Especially when there is only one bus that goes there daily... Maybe we can hitch a ride with one of Paul's friends and get dropped there.. One has actually offered and I think we should take him up on it. :) 

Saturday Paul and I did a pretty intense workout and got our photo snapped by the trainer, Bic. Here is the pic from Bic of Xstream Fitness.... Definitely a doozie of a workout, and whatever yellow fever was still left from my vaccine was surely sweated out!

We had a fun weekend that included a surprise trip to Brighton to see Suzi, Paul's little brilliant sister. She is getting her PhD in breast cancer research, and she knows how to have a good time...what a girl!! We only stayed the night, but, we had a lot of fun. While I somewhat feel like I am back in college again due to the total lack of responsibility (minus budgeting and paying bills at home) and current employment status, I definitely cannot live like I did back then. I am so used to taking care of my body ...being careful of  what I put in and getting a little sweat in everyday, that when I deviate from that routine I cannot be a productive part of society the next day. Or I am just getting old... Regardless, we had a great time in Brighton and I wished we could have spent more time there. Here are some highlights from that night... 

As you can see the night progressed to me doing some sort of weird pose and Paul making faces into the kebab shop. I ate a entire falafel kebab and was glad it was a rainy day the next day..........

If you want to see more photos than what I post on here, friend me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram.. @mchophop

Since our return to Portsmouth, we have recouped from our quick trip and have been enjoying the sunshine.. Paul gets his dose of yellow fever tomorrow and I hope he doesn't have the reaction I did.. The we head to London  to see one of our fave bands, the Local Natives, and head back for a big dinner with all of Paul's friends and their wives... All I know is I will not put myself through the ringer as I did this past weekend. Wish me luck!

Local natives....

http://youtu.be/NmefFcRJbXE

A feeling I haven't felt in a while..

I was thinking today of how clear my mind has been lately, and I think it is down to the lack of stress and anxiety I usually have moving around my head like the ball in a pinball machine. For the first time in probably 6 years, I feel calm and at ease. No worries of students lives, data, planning, observations, coworker drama, working multiple jobs, etc etc. I feel normal again.. Funny now detaching yourself from everything that you are familiar with will make you closer to your true self and feel free... It will be hard to go back to a grind when these magical months are over, but I will remember this feeling I have currently and know how to get back to it.. Maybe in India I will finally get better at meditation and can make this feeling my happy place...haha.

Speaking of India, the great outsourcing company VFS was brilliant in processing our visas and we are officially allowed to enter and stay for 6 months if we wanted to... So quick. It took 3 days, unlike the company they use in the US that would have taken anywhere between 3-25 days to process, if we were lucky.The office we went to in Atlanta before leaving in hopes to get the visas then was the most unorganized and unprofessional mess I have ever experienced in terms of travel documents. Be wary of this should anyone want to get a visa for India in the US. It can be a confusing process!

We have been back in Portsmouth since our last commute to London, but as we are professional commuters now and should probably buy stock in National Express, we are heading back up to London for the Local Natives concert next week. It will be awesome! During our week so far we have ventured out into other parts of Hampshire and seen small villages and pretty vistas. I am getting antsy to go hiking in the South Downs hills and talk to some of the sheep I've seen on top of the hill... I think that maybe we will venture out that way later this week. I'll be sure to post photos. :)

I ran my first international race on Sunday, and thinking my poor quality of sleep the night before would have make it an awful experience, I surprised myself and got my fastest 10K time to date... 47:15. I also came in 4th in the overall women's division.. I killed it! It was awesome! It didn't dawn on me that I was doing so well until the turnaround mark, where I noticed that there weren't hardly any women heading back toward the finish line and I was surrounded by dudes except for a couple other girls... It felt amazing, and the weather was unbelievable.. Sunny, around 63, and hardly any wind. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Coming in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd would have been sweet though.. ;) I've set a new pr to beat!

Stephen has come down to visit for a few days this week.. We played trivia at a local pub last night, or "pub quiz" as they call it here. I love trivia, especially when it involves fun people and a few drinks. We had a great time and while we didn't win, we did better than the last time we played trivia... It's hard being foreign for these questions though because half the people I didn't know, and I'm not up to date on all current events! That's another good thing about travel... You see places through a visitors eyes and don't have to get wrapped up in all the political and social issues that would affect you if you lived there.... I must say its nice not being wrapped up in the mess at home either... Out of sight, out of mind. I will never miss seeing all our problems plastered over the news every time I turn on tv or happen to be at the gym and be subjected to Fox News as I sweat on the cardio machine. I will continue to live in the moment and not worry about things I have no control over... Travel is awesome to promote a healthy mind.. I suggest everyone at least set goals to visit somewhere unknown and work toward it.. It definitely makes life more interesting! 

Until next time...

MC

London Commuters

At this rate, we might as well get a job in London and start commuting on the regular. We turned our India visa paperwork and surprisingly they were processed and ready for pickup as of Monday. So, we are heading back to London tomorrow to pick them up. The visa processing service is outsourced so they were unable to tell me whether the applications are actually approved.... I was worried because of the such quick turnaround that something went wrong... I guess that is a half glass empty mindset I need to get rid of! So we will see tomorrow when we open up the sealed envelope from the High Comission of India at the outsourced processing center. India is the king of outsourcing so it only makes sense...haha.

While in London we did have a great time with Steve, walking around the high streets, seeing the architecture and enjoying the food. We had some awesome pho, which, we can only compare to our mom n pop Vietnamese restaurant in Atlantic Beach. We thought that place was the bomb too, and it lacks ambiance in all definitions of the word. This place we went to had a full drink menu, was candlelit, and had the freshest ingredients and stocks that simmer for 12 hours before serving.. So good. That's one thing I've noticed here.. People may slag off the Brits for having the rep for "dull food", but in reality it goes way above ours... Everything is fresh, and you can even see the farmers name on some of the produce you buy and the supermarket. And their ingredients lists on packaged stuff is decipherable and not 3 paragraphs long. Delish. Europeans have it right when it comes to good quality produce, too. It smells and tastes better than our organics. But then again, it doesn't have to travel as far as ours does. So I guess it's all relative.

Now I'm sounding like a foodie. Here are some pictures of what I saw in the Borough Market, a wonderland of fresh breads and cakes, meats, cheeses, produce, seafood, spices, jams, etc. Paul and I were in sampling heaven and had lunch there as well. I'm forever grateful to Steve for taking us to this gem. O.m.g.

Mmmmm meringues.

Oh and the fresh stuff is so cheap......way cheaper to buy tons of fresh food and cook it rather than eating out. We have been very lucky to have some nice home cooked meals and meals with Paul's friends in Portsmouth, which has saved us a lot of money. The hard thing about traveling is finding where the decently priced food is if you cannot cook your own. 

In Iceland it was super expensive to eat out, so we would go to the supermarkets and buy the soup they sold there from the salad bar or other ready made meals. At the hostels and with our host Inga we cooked some yummy stuff in her kitchen. I'm interested to see where our other destinations will take us on our food journey.... Ya gotta eat to live! In Peru 2 years ago I lived on canned tuna, bread, and fruits when we didn't order the " Meal of the Day" where the locals eat... It will be cool to compare different cultures "meals of the day" as we venture on.. I just hope I can stomach it.

Next I will write about all the family fun we have had the past couple days..... We have been busy seeing family and friends, as well as seeing sights around Portsmouth that I haven't really been able to sit down and write. I will try to get better at this blogging thing... It actually takes some time to write, as I have foolishly forgotten. Cheers!

Weekend fun in Portsmouth!

I am sitting on a bus heading to London currently and figured it would be a good time to write about what we did over the weekend. To my surprise, the weather here has been very sunny and mild, actually seeming hot sometimes while we are walking around. I had figured by this time of year all remnants of summer were long gone, but I definitely welcome the nice weather.

This past weekend we stayed pretty busy going around Hampshire and checking out places I've never seen before. Saturday we made a trip down to the historic dockyards in Portsmouth and did some shopping. The dockyards house old naval ships such as the Warrior and the Victory that saw action in the Battle of Trafalgar. A few years back when I was visiting there was the 200th anniversary of this battle and there were renactments and fireworks commemorating the anniversary. It's pretty cool to walk around the dockyards and see all these old ships still moored up; you can take a tour on them, but we opted to just walk around. Here's the HMS Warrior with the Spinnaker Tower in the background.. I'll post some more pictures of the boats when I can get them off Paul's phone. Apparently all the music and apps I have on my phone have eaten up my memory, I have to do some housekeeping with that so it's easier for me to take and post pictures

 On Sunday we enjoyed a nice breakfast at a cafe located in the Royal Marines museum. To my delight, there is a obstacle course with a zipline outside the cafe. After we had breakfast, we walked around all the old guns and boats on display in the courtyard. We took some pictures of Amelia posing in the guns, and I went on the zipline. There was  boy souts troop there for a meet-up and as this is an obstacle course geared toward children, they probably thought I was crazy. It was fun, though! Gotta love a zipline!

I should probably give you some background on this elephant you may happen to see often throughout this journey. We have named her Amelia, and she is a gift from our dear cousins, Meghan and Mitch. They were given a snake named Gordon that traveled with them and appeared in various photos, and has been with them for a few years. We now have our own traveling friend, an elephant. She tends to be adventurous so be on the lookout for Amelia as you check out our pictures.

After our breakfast and obstacle-coursing, we drove to an old manor home and gardens called the Stansted House. I've never watched Downton Abbey, but if I could imagine the home and area they live in, this would place would be on par. I do intend on catching up from the first season, I just have to have some time when I'm not moving all over the place. What's funny though is that Downton abbey is actually a fictional place and while there is a place in England called Downton, you will not find what you're looking for. Apparently people have gone there to try and see where the show is filmed only to find they were poorly mistaken and find it doesn't actually exist. Ha!

Anyways, at Stansted House there was a child sized steam engine that drove around the gardens..

And yes we rode on it. 

After our train ride we went through a maze, and luckily we managed to find our way to the center to ring the bell and then made our way out alive. Phew!

The house and gardens also had a working farm, and they sold ice cream made from the dairy cows that live there, as well as cheeses, meats, and other assorted local foods and brews. Paul was in heaven and picked up some venison sausages. Needless to say he enjoyed Bambi but I didn't. 😜 My finicky eating habits may keep me from trying things, but I just love animals too much to chow down on them. I used to think my veggie ways were mostly health based but now when I see cows or horses or puffins or any other animals that some cultures cook up, I think I'd rather have them for a pet than a meal. I think that goes back to my childhood when I was seriously wanting a Scottish highland coo or a real cow as a pet in our yard. (True story)..Of course, if we are somewhere and I am given food from a local, I am not going to turn it down or make them upset... As long as I have a choice I'm going to keep the furry friends out of my diet.. Paul can try all the exotic things he wants ☺️

So here is the house on the grounds.... Not too shabby...

We also made a friend who happened to be sitting on a bench in the yard surrounding the house.

Shocker!!

This cat was huge and could probably eat our little indoor kitties back home. He was friendly though.

I think it's safe to say we have enjoyed our time in Portsmouth so far.. I am looking forward to doing some more outdoorsy things and hike around the South Downs, which is home to some beautiful countryside in Hampshire. We have a flying visit ahead of us in London, we are getting there around 3:30 and are heading to the Indian Consulate for an appointment to get our visas tomorrow at 8:45 am sharp. Should be interesting navigating the tube during rush hour.. Fingers crossed we make it in good time and have no problems getting the visas! 🙏I'm already checking out yoga ashrams....👌

More photos to come when I can get some decent wifi!!!

MC

The "Relaxing" Part of the Trip

Paul and I have decided the next few weeks here in the UK are our "relaxing" or "quiet" part of our trip, mostly because many of the places we are visiting are familiar, as well are the customs, food, and how to get around. I will say, though, that there is no way I will be proficient at the London Underground system during these next few weeks. That system just confuses me.

Our first night in England was spent with Paul's brother Stephen who lives in London. He was kind enough to come meet us at the airport so we didn't have to navigate our way to his home from Heathrow airport. By the way, it was so cool to walk into England for the first time and flash my British passport to the super kind and soft spoken Immigration Officer.. I had to give a "ha-ha" to the people waiting in the other line. It will definitely be nice to use this passport all around the EU.

Within a few hours of touching down, Paul, Stephen and I ate at his local Indian restaurant and I had probably one of the best curries I've ever had. I guess I will have to wait a few months to compare English Indian food to the real deal... Nevertheless, it was hot, spicy, and soo tasty. By the time we finished our dinner it was already Midnight, so we walked back to his shoebox sized London flat and called it a night.. We had planned on getting up the next morning and heading to the Vietnam Embassy  to apply for our visas.... until we realized the were 105 pounds each, which came out to way more than what we would have paid in the US. So after doing some research, we found you can get a different visa that you get upon arrival.. We figured that would be the most economical.. If anyone has experience with the Vietnamese Visa upon arrival, I'd love some insight.

Once we ruled out a trip to the embassy, we had time to explore the area around where Steve lives.. I began in the morning by going on a run around his area, where i discovered it was a very diverse place. There were lots of families from different ethnic backgrounds all around his neighborhood; I don't know what I was expecting coming from the "melting pot" of America, but England is probably just as much as a "melting pot" as we are, especially now they are part of the EU. I saw kids skipping off to school in their uniforms with their parents and people heading to work...it was definitely alive with traffic and pedestrians. I had to be careful when crossing the road because after all, they drive on the other side of the street. I enjoy running around places I visit because it helps you get the "feel" of the place and see things you may not otherwise see.

Next we took a nice long walk down to Notting Hill, which is pretty close to Steve's shoebox apartment. I could have taken a picture of Hugh Grant's door from the movie, but instead I took this one because this street had lots of cool shops and some of the best produce I've ever seen. This street was really fun to walk down, and I even made a kitty friend that was laying out in the sun. (Now that we have no animal friends to greet us or be around, Paul and I tend to get really excited when we see cats and try to talk to them..... People probably think we are weirdos... We even tried to face time with our cats at my mom's house, but they were just trying to find where our voices were coming from)

We walked around Notting Hill and stopped off for some gourmet pizza, then we had to head back and get our gigantic bags and prepare to make our way down to Paul's hometown on the south coast, Portsmouth. We have both already decided that we have too much stuff, and are planning to send back a box of things that we don't feel are absolutely essential at this time.. It's one thing to walk your bag from plane-car-destination, but when you have to lug it from plane-bus-subway-walking down the street-destination, you realize how heavy your bag is.... and that mayyyybe you don't need everything after all. This trip may turn me into a minimalist by the time we're done.

Bye-bye, beautiful Iceland!

September 15th in Iceland must be a pretty pivotal time... It's the official date of the end of the tourist season and beginning of the winter winds. We left Vik on the 15th, with the intention of stopping off in Skogarfoss to see the waterfall for a night and stay in a guesthouse. Needless to say, after sitting in a gas station for 3 hours due to the bus schedule change (because it was September 15th) and being chilled to the bone by the ever-increasing winds, we decided to just head on back to Reykjavik. Another factor was that the mini-bus we boarded was almost blown off the road by the wind. I'm talking hurricane force winds here... Iceland is a place of extremes and there are no trees to muffle the winds, so they blow and whip all across the flat plains. We were driving along the "golden circle" road near the ocean and we could see mini-typhoons coming in close to shore, meanwhile our bus is getting shoved to and fro by the wind... At one point a guy who was among a group of German backpackers said the only English I head him speak during the ride, which contained an explicative in reaction to the bus being pushed into the other lane by the wind.. It was an interesting ride indeed.

One great thing about Icelandic buses is that they all have Wifi.. So, while we had no place to stay booked in Reykjavik for the remaining nights, we were not to worry because I could hop on airbnb.com and find a kind local to take us in. I searched for a place with the dates we had remaining and found a bright, clean apartment that belongs to a girl named Inga. If anyone makes it out to this part of the world, I would definitely get in contact with either of the hosts we have stayed with because it made our trip so much better.

Inga came to pick us up from the bus terminal and I immediately knew it was going to be a good ending to our visit to Iceland. You know when you meet someone and you feel like you've known them for a while? That's how I felt about Inga. She is very genuine and kind, and likes to have a good time. We enjoyed talking with her and playing with her dog, Cohen. We have a lot in common and I hope she comes to visit us when we get back to Jacksonville!! :) I was sad to leave our newfound friend today, but our itinerary calls us back to the airport and onward to London.

Tonight we get to sleep in Paul's brother's flat in London. We joked that it will be 3 of us staying in a place the size of Inga's bathroom.. Tomorrow we get to go on an adventure to the Vietnamese consulate in London to see about getting our visas, and have made plans to return to London to get Indian visas, see the Local Natives play a show, and maybe even reunite with fellow Jacksonvllians as the Jaguars take over Wembley stadium for a NFL game.. Sad to leave this country of the kindest people I've met, most dramatic scenery, and best wool sweaters, but excited to see friends and family in the UK!

Until next time,

MC

The land of puffins, fermented shark, and so much more..

I cannot express how thankful I am to Bon Iver for posting his music video for "holocene" on apple itv and the fact that I randomly stumbled upon it one day when we didn't have cable. Iceland is so frikkin cool... So far we have gone sightseeing in Reykjavik, met some really nice locals (I've found every person I've met here to be SUPER nice and happy...which is awesome), stayed in one of their homes (courtesy of airbnb.com), traveled to Vik, and hiked up a mountain. Most of these things I did in the same outfit that I left the states in on Thursday.

When I said the anticipation was building, well, it built up until we were 2 hours delayed in Chicago, which in turn led us to sprint from the terminal "B" at Boston Logan Int'l Airport to the "E" terminal, only to be met by a grouchy TSA lady and then a nice one who allowed us to scoot through security as our names were being called over the intercom, which then allowed me to run shoeless to the gate and met by a very kind IcelandicAir flight attendant with a bottle of Icelandic water in hand for me. Phew! Talk about an adrenaline rush! Paul and I were so worried that we would miss our flight. We made it by the skin of our teeth. Needless to say, our sprinting efforts allowed us to board the flight...our bags, not so much. Didn't get them until 9 this morning.

Now we are enjoying the beautiful scenery. It's hard to describe in words just how gorgeous this place is... The soaring black mountains covered in bright green moss and grass are all around you, some of them look alive as geothermal steam squeaks out the top.. It is so cool. My only regret so far is that we didn't rent a car.. There is public transport here buuut the stops are often far from the really neat places to visit, which makes it impossible to visit (unless I wanted to walk with my huge backpack...nah.) I'm not sure where we are headed to next... We may stop in Skogar to see this awesome waterfall that you can stand behind.. The Icelandic story  is that this is the only place in the world where a woman can propose marriage to a man...not that I have that to worry about! ;)

More to come.... 

MC

Tree Pose on top of a cliff and Wheel in front of the arch formation... I had to do it :)