In August of this year I traveled to Bolivia with my university’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders. We have a clean water project there, and our mission was to go down and install a chlorinator. The project is at the University Academica Campesina (UAC) in Carmen Pampa, which is near Coroico, Bolivia. The UAC educates the local people in subjects like agronomy, nursing, tourism, and … Continue reading Bolivia with Engineers without Borders
Things have been crazy for me this year–I got married, bought a house, honeymooned in Puerto Rico, and traveled to Bolivia, all while going to school and working and that sort of stuff. As the year is drawing to a close, I’d like to share a little about my travels this year, starting with a little bit about our time in Puerto Rico. First Night … Continue reading Honeymoon in Puerto Rico
Today, our last day in London, was definitely a fun day! Sarah, Tawny, Emily, the other Laura, and Chase joined us for the first part of the day (we split up at lunch time). We started out by visiting one of the oldest and largest department stores in the world, Harrods. It’s known as a very fancy department store, but many of the items there … Continue reading London: Harrods, Abbey Road & British Museum
Today we got up early to finish packing and catch our train to London. As we were walking to our subway station and saying goodbye and good riddance to Paris, we were greeted by a scene of two men fighting fairly violently right in front of our subway station. It was pretty scary. One of them was whacking the other one with who knows what … Continue reading London: Westminster Abbey & Piccadilly Circus
I dislike Paris again. I think I must have a sort of love-hate, off-again on-again relationship with this city. Or maybe it gives a bad first impression, then you warm up to it, but then when you delve deeper you realize it really is a dirty, unfriendly city. But let’s start with something more pleasant. On our way to The Louvre this morning there were … Continue reading Paris: The Louvre & Montmartre
Well I have to say, after today my opinion of Paris has improved quite a bit, though I still think people tend to overrate it and overlook other fascinating destinations. Breakfast this morning was orange juice and two croissants. It was pretty good, though it turns out it cost about $10 from the hotel, so for tomorrow’s breakfast we just bought something from the grocery … Continue reading Paris: Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe & Notre Dame
Today we said goodbye to Edinburgh, and it was quite sad–I’d enjoyed Scotland even more than I’d expected to. We took a train back to what feels like our “home” base here in Europe, London. The countryside was just as beautiful as it was on the way there, and I’ve included a few pictures. We stayed in London for a few hours, waiting to get … Continue reading Paris: Chunnel & Eiffel Tower at Night
Today was our free day in Edinburgh, and we packed in a lot! We started out with a quest to find a tin whistle, something Mickey wanted to buy while she was here. We hadn’t found any in the last two days, but she’d found a place online last night which opened at 10am, so at 9:00 we set off and got off the bus … Continue reading Edinburgh: Calton Hill, Firth of Forth & Greyfriars Bobby
We ate breakfast at our hotel today (it was just yogurt, toast, and jam, and we missed our English breakfasts from London a little) and then set off for Edinburgh Castle. We took a bus ride up most of the hill to it, and then walked up part of the Royal Mile before arriving at the castle. Mickey and I started our Edinburgh Castle experience … Continue reading Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle & the Royal Mile
Today we traveled to Edinburgh! This involved a four-hour train ride from London to Edinburgh, which wasn’t bad at all, because we purchased things from the snack trolley going through (mainly to further emulate Harry Potter’s first trip to Hogwarts even more–we left from Kings Cross station and everything!) and looked at the beautiful scenery out the window. The English countryside is mainly very, very … Continue reading Edinburgh: Train from London & Princes Street Gardens