for the folks watching at home, here's the not-so-instant replay
friday 7 aug
-planned to wake up at 6. finally hear my alarm at 7:30.
-rush out the door to make my flight to amsterdam. miraculously get there with time to spare
-meet with up noor
-head to the anne frank house, which was really moving
-then head to the rijksmuseum for some dutch history + art. fun fact: rembrandt was actually his first name. i still don't know his last name.
-walk through the tulip market, where they sell not just flowers, but also bulbs:
-meet up with charlie, moira, joe, and kira (just meeting the last three for the first time)
-get dinner
-cannot figure out where nick is (apparently his texts weren't coming through) and hang out in a bar near the hotel, where we said we'd meet him
-noor and i head to bed while the others go back out and actually randomly run into nick wandering around the neighborhood but i guess refusing to admit that he was lost
saturday 8 aug
-wake up and have breakfast at the hotel then head out for the day
-go to the i amsterdam sign and proceed to take approximately 102830182 unnecessary pictures
-van gogh museum--super cool. we really liked the van gogh stuff obviously but were pleasantly surprised by some of the other stuff they had there. noor and i especially liked this one by Redon
-lunch with noor charlie and nick was followed by an awesome tour of the old heineken brewery-we all hung out in the park playing cards for a little bit
-noor, charlie, nick, and i headed to the train station to go to brussels
-after a hilarious train ride we arrive in brussels and go to charlie's apartment where charlie made us dinner!
-then we had a slumber party!sunday 9 aug
-woke up in time to catch the train back to amsterdam in time to catch my plane back to london
-met up with my parents who had just arrived that morning and katie who had gotten in on friday
-checked into my new room at the dorms
-dinner with the family
-settle in
monday 10 aug
-woke up and ran with katie
-showered, repacked, met up with our parents at westminster abbey
-headed to kings cross where we just barely made the last off-peak train to edinburgh
-got to edinburgh around 8, checked into our hotel there, arriving just in time to catch the sunset
-picked a place from the guidebook which had apparently closed but ended up have a great meal anyway
-katie and i went out for a drink then headed back to the hotel for bed
tuesday 11 aug
-morning run to arthur's seat with katie
-saw my dad off to glasgow where he had a meeting
-katie, mom, and i headed to the edinburgh castle, which was really cool. saw the one o'clock gun go off and saw the crown jewels of scotland which were pretty cool
-navigated through the crowds there for the fringe festival to eat lunch at the elephant house, where jk rowling started harry potter. castle views included.
-emergency stop at ye olde scottish christmas shop
-met dad back at the station
-dinner
-back to the train station again to catch the last train to london
-head home to bed
wednesday 12 aug
-wake up, run, bathe
-meet up with everyone at st. paul's. see the crypt, eat lunch down there, head to the dome with katie.
-i left them to head to the wellcome to wrap up a few things and took about a million pictures of pages in books to be read later-dinner in notting hill gate with the family, connie, and rusty who was in town at the start of his own eurotrip adventure with noor--a good time was had by all. especially when the waiters brought the 2nd round of limoncello.
-connie took rusty, katie, and i to a club that she knew about and it was super fun
thursday 13 aug
-this morning (ah! all that was only yesterday??) woke up and got ready and headed to paddington
-took to the train to oxford to meet up with katie's friend james and his family. james finished his PhD at harvard last year and is dating a friend of hers.
-we get off the train and head to a pub for lunch where we run into a professor that i had last semester who was running the summer school program in oxford. strangely enough, he also knew james and couldn't figure out how we knew each other. i had also been in amsterdam with some of his students. and molly's roommate sonia had done the program two years ago. he was about to sit down at the table next to us and we ended up just joining the tables. it was a great lunch
-walked around oxford which is BEAUTIFUL. saw the museum of the history of science and walked around trinity college
-then we were whisked off by train back to reading where jenny's grandfather picked us up and took us back to their house
-had dinner with her grandparents at their club which was delicious. the club is in henley right by where the henley regatta finishes
-train back to london after a day that miraculously worked out.
-home!
tomorrow: long run, national gallery, proms?
saturday: ireland!
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