Eurotrip 2013 Checklist

Friday, 12 July 2013Wednesday, 12 March 2014 Starr4 Comments

I will be leaving a post-graduation family vacation to Europe shortly and I couldn’t be more excited! We visited Southern Europe exactly 10 years ago, and now we’re going on a little cruise around the Baltic Sea, so it’s a whole new set of cities that I have been really excited to visit. Although we’re no longer visiting Amsterdam as our original itinerary included, the freed up space means I finally have the chance to visit Paris!

I don’t know if I will get to see all these sights while I’m abroad, and I’ll probably want to see more than I’ve listed here, but I hope that I get to check off a good number of these items by the time I return. 🙂

London, England

Buckingham Palace
London Eye
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
Big Ben
Westminster Alley
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Piccadilly Circus
British Museum
National Gallery
The City of London (Click for a great video on the difference between London, the city, and the “secret” City of London, courtesy of C.G.P. Grey.)
Trafalgar Square
Brick Lane
King’s Cross Station
Hyde Park (thanks Katie!)

Copenhagen, Denmark

The Little Mermaid statue
Round Tower
Rosenborg Castle
Christiansborg Palace
Kronborg Castle
Frederiksborg Palace (basically, if I don’t see at least one castle or palace whilst in Copenhagen, I will be sorely disappointed)
Tycho Brahe Planetarium
Viking Ship Museum
Tivoli Gardens (time permitting)
Gefion Fountain
Christianshavn

Warnemünde/Berlin, Germany

Bit confused here because Berlin is quite a bit inland, so… we shall see. Mostly listing Berlin attractions.

Westmole Lighthouse
Berlin Wall
Tiergarten
Gendarmenmarkt (Deutsch is a real challenge for me…)
Olympic Stadium
Brandenburg Gate
KaDeWe
Neue Synagogue
Berlin Cathedral
Victory Column
Reichstag
Checkpoint Charlie

Tallinn, Estonia

Old Town
Kadriorg Park
Town Wall
Open Air Museum (Rocca Al Mare)
Tower Kiek in de Kök
Viru Square
Russalka

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Russian ballet at the Mikhailovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre OR
Russian ballet at the Alexandrinsky Theatre
Peter and Paul Cathedral
St. Isaac’s Cathedral (I am listing many cathedrals on this list. While I’m not religious, I would be a fool to not look forward to visiting these amazing buildings that are a testament to the long history of these nations and to the long history of Christendom.)
Palace Square
Yusupov Palace
Anichov Bridge
Bronze Horseman
Peter and Paul Fortress
Gatchina Palace and Park
Cottage Palace
Nevsky Prospekt
Hermitage Museum
Peterhof Palace (thanks for reminding me of these 2 important ones, Barry!)

Helsinki, Finland

Church in the Rock
Esplanade Park
Upenski Cathedral
Seurasaari Island
Kamppi Chapel of Silence
Design District

Stockholm, Sweden

Millesgarden
Old Town
Canals
Drottningholm Palace
Skeppsholmen
Royal Palace
ABBA Museum 😀
Ericsson Globe
Nobel Museum

Paris, France

Eiffel Tower
Notre Dame
Île de la Cité
L’Arc de Triomphe
Sacré Cœur
Champs-Elysées
Place de la Concorde
Pont Neuf
Tuileries
Panthéon
Louvre
Musée d’Orsay
Les Invalides
Luxembourg Gardens
Trocadéro (thanks Alex!)
(Can we get to Versailles?)
(Maybe Monet’s garden at Giverny?)

So in short, I want to see beautiful parks and squares, castles and palaces, and cathedrals wherever I can, in addition to the places that make each city unique.
I didn’t list many specific museums that I am interested in visiting because I don’t want to worry too much about admission costs and also I don’t know how much time we’ll have to go visit and browse at our leisure. I’m the kind of girl who likes to read all the signs… but I’m usually alone on that. ^^;

I pride myself on being relatively good at articulating how I feel, but I don’t know if I can accurately communicate how excited I am for this trip. Europe is a continent with such a vast and massive history, and so much of it is accessible to the public by just walking around. There is no denying the magnitude of events that happened where I will soon get to walk, taking in the same sights as names I first learned in textbooks did centuries ago.

It’s going to be amazing, no matter which sights I get to see.

What should I see while I’m abroad? What should I pass on? Please leave any and all suggestions in comments! 🙂

Winner Winner, Seafood Dinner

Thursday, 4 July 2013Thursday, 4 July 2013 StarrLeave a comment

Last weekend was my dad’s birthday, so to celebrate we went to the Longwood Gardens on Saturday and then to Atlantic City on Sunday. We used to visit these places more frequently when we lived in New Jersey, and I don’t think I’ve been to the Gardens since we moved, so it was a real treat getting to go.

Photos cannot do this place justice, and I will not overwhelm you with photos here. I have hundreds and I’ll put up a Flickr album when I get a chance.

I absolutely loved the Gardens. First of all, they are stunning to the max. If you like flowers, plants, biology, this place is just great. Also, the fountains are spectacular. One thing that was different about this particular visit is I really learned more about Pierre du Pont, who owned the property before it was opened to the public. He put so much of his time and effort into the gardens and was enamored with the magic of water. Also, it’s great listening to John Philips Sousa during the fountain show, as he was a personal friend of Monsieur du Pont. His house was beautiful and there was an adorable kitty napping 0utside of it, aw.

Maybe I’ll write a separate post about the beauty of the Longwood Gardens, but this post is going to be about that vice known as gambling.

Now, I am not a gambler. As a person, I shy away from risks and hate the idea of gambling. It was my first time in Atlantic City since turning 21, however, and I knew my dad would like to see my try my hand in the casino. I thought of it kind of the way you approach an arcade or something – this is money I am spending to have fun, I am not expecting to get it back, and if I do, hurray.

For example, earlier that day, we were at our favorite arcade – the Central Pier Arcade. We were trying to get those quarters to fall from where they were hanging so precariously…

… when I was approached by one of the arcade’s staffers. “Would you like to win 300 tickets with just 50 cents?” “Oh, that sounds too easy to be true.” “No really! Come look! Just hit the jellyfish.” It was a game where you had to avoid hitting a bunch of other sea critters swimming about and harpoon a mystical jellyfish guarding a treasure chest. I saw another lady try and fail, but my dad ambled over and told me to go for it, so I humored him. I missed the first shot, but lo and behold, I HIT THE JELLYFISH. I was so pleasantly surprised and I couldn’t handle all the tickets. My brother was only a little peeved because I had reset the jackpot and the jellyfish disappeared, so he didn’t have his own shot at glory for this game. (Sorry!) I almost never win these arcade games by any substantial amount, so this was a refreshing feeling and set the mood for my day at high.

Later, at the casino, my dad had convinced me to try my hand at slots. I didn’t have to feel so personally responsible if I lost, because I didn’t have to make too many decisions, and so if I did lose, I wouldn’t feel so bad. It would feel more like an arcade game, I reasoned. So I put $20 on the card and sat myself down at a penny slot. I made about $3, but that was after just a few pushes of the button, and I think my dad and brother would’ve been disappointed if I cashed out there, although they said I could. I was here to make sure we all had a good time, and I committed to either cashing out at more than that $3 mark or just spending it all.

I was about to spend it all, yes. I was down to maybe $4 left on the machine, and I had no idea how these slots really worked as far as how much money they did end up giving back to you.

But then I WON OVER $50 and so I actually profited $31.35 that day. From the penny slots. I am never ever that lucky, and I did not expect to win any kind of double digits from a slot machine for sure. I was super pleased and more than happy to foot the bill for my dad’s birthday dinner. Red Lobster was so good for my mouth, which craved real food. OMNOMNOM.

A week later, my boyfriend’s friends and I were playing poker. They dragged me into it by buying me in, giving me chips and cards, and waiting on me to place my bets. I don’t really know all the rules of poker, and I especially am not sure which hands are better than others, but they paid for me, so okay. They started getting worried realizing they did not know my strategy and they had a difficult time reading what my strategy was.

Now, I’ve played poker a few times before, and always poorly. However, this time, I played quite well because there was a pretty aggressive player at the table. I am pretty bad at getting people to raise their bets when I have decent hands, but this guy was always raising my bets when I had pretty guaranteed wins. So at one point in the game, I HAD NEARLY $20. (Buy-in was $10.) My hands weren’t as great towards the end, and I don’t know how to play poor hands off as well, so I only walked away with about a $2 profit (in addition to the $10 buy-in) .

I’m really nervous now… because I don’t think I’m going to stay very lucky for very much longer. It’s as though much of my life’s game luck has been saved for these past 2 weeks and now I am back at zero.

I bet I don’t win anything again for a while.

Baby’s First Surgery

Tuesday, 18 June 2013Wednesday, 19 June 2013 StarrLeave a comment

I underwent my very first surgery today! Wisdom tooth extraction, all 4 out at once.

I didn’t eat or drink anything after midnight, so I woke up this morning for my 8:15 appointment veeeery thirsty and pretty hungry already. We went grocery shopping Sunday evening, as I posted here then, so I was ready to eat if I had the appetite.

We got to the center and I signed my consent form stating that I behaved before the operation and would behave afterwards, too. Then they sent my daddy away and led me to another room. I got my general anesthesia intravenously through my left arm and they placed a small mask over my nose for oxygen.

… and that’s all I remember until I woke up about an hour later. I was in a different room, which was slightly disorienting, and they had taped a cotton pad over my IV wound. My dad escorted me out of this different room, out the back door, into some back parking lot. (We were previously parked in front of the front door.)

“How did I end up in a different room?”
“They carried you.”
“…. whaaaaaat.” Not sure why this was so unbelievable to me, but it was, at the time. I’m still slightly disoriented by the location change.

I don’t really remember walking to the car, but I remember my dad stopping at Rite Aid to pick up my painkiller, antibiotic, and a heating pad. I was going to offer to go with him, but soon enough, we were at my house. My dad helped me get to the recliner in our living room and I took my painkiller and then my antibiotic, dribbling water all over my front because the local anesthesia at my mouth hadn’t yet worn off.

Considering I went drug-free for 12 years – no painkillers, no cold meds, no nothing – I don’t know how much of my prescription painkiller I’ll be taking. I have never had a prescription, so they had to enter me in the system for the first time. But I will take my antibiotics diligently, I don’t want an infection.

It’s been over 12 hours since I arrived home. I felt really hungry and ate some Jello, but I got nauseous immediately afterwards. (No vomiting though, yay!) I tried some soup for dinner, but again, nausea immediately afterwards.

Moderate swelling and minimal pain. No vomiting so far. I hope my recovery is nice and smooth and I can eat my beloved food again very soon. 🙂

Grocery Haul

Sunday, 16 June 2013 StarrLeave a comment

10 points if you can tell me the occasion for which I went grocery shopping today:

Yogurt
Applesauce
Vegetable soup
Mashed potatoes
Sports drink

Starstruck

Sunday, 16 June 2013Sunday, 16 June 2013 StarrLeave a comment

Last night, I had the unique opportunity to attend Astronomy Night on the National Mall.

There were astronomists and astrophysicists all around with impressive telescopes pointed at the sky. I just missed viewing the sun through a special filter, but I was able to view the moon several times last night. I could see all the craters of the lit parts of the moon and it was beautiful, and this was at dusk. Its brilliance only grew as the sky darkened.

I wish I was able to photograph what I could see through the telescope’s lens, but I wasn’t able to maneuver my camera properly.

It was incredibly humbling to walk past the Washington Monument, which is undergoing some large-scale renovations to repair the damage done by the 2011 Earthquake.

As it grew darker, we started to see a few stars emerge. I was able to see Venus and Mercury peeking at us through the still-red sky as the sun was setting. Another star would start twinkling at us and then my friend alerted me to the fact that people were focusing their telescopes on Saturn.

Saturn, the 6th planet from the sun and the second largest planet behind Jupiter. It has been my favorite planet for over a decade now; I used to doodle its astronomical symbol in the margins of my classwork. () According to some of my friends, it’s strange to have a favorite planet. Um, my name is Starr, it would be strange if I didn’t have a favorite planet. Or favorite nebula. Or favorite constellation. But I digress.

I love Saturn because of its extraordinary rings and its moons: Saturn has over 60 moons, losing the moon game narrowly to Jupiter. (Although its difficult to accurately count all of either planet’s moons.) I have been fascinated by Saturn since I was first able to name all the planets of the solar system (including Pluto, way back then…).

I stood in the growing line to see Saturn and found myself getting anxious. Would it be just a shining speck like Venus appeared? Would I even be able to see it with my lifelong struggle to look into scopes correctly?

I wasn’t at all disappointed. I looked into the eyepiece, and even though Saturn was moving rapidly out of the field of vision, I could see it. I could see Saturn’s rings, and I could see the shadow that the rings cast against the planet. I could see the Cassini division (the large gap between the rings), and I could see moons. Titan, shining brightly to the left and a few smaller moons behind it.

My view of the heavens from Earth — This is what I could see… but my view was even more spectacular.

It was more spectacular that I really could have hoped and I stepped away from the telescope in complete awe. I felt my eyes welling up with tears, and I struggled for a while to understand why I was getting embarrassingly emotional about being able to see Saturn. One of my friends started teasing me: “Is STARR getting STARSTRUCK by the STARS?”

But I was. I was so awestruck by the beauty of Saturn. Was this how Galileo felt when he first saw the rings of Saturn? What was greater, I wonder: the feeling of seeing a planet for the first time and discovering that this celestial body had rings? Or admiring said planet through other people’s eyes for years before being able to look directly at it for the first time?

Even after a minute, I was still stunned speechless. I laid down on the grass, staring up at the gleaming dot that I now knew to be Saturn. The word “mortal” kept entering my mind, as in “How can a mere mortal such as myself behold such beauty in my eyes?” I was still tearing up as I gazed at Saturn, knowing that I was able to see its rings. I eventually got back in line twice for two more looks, and its magnificence wasn’t lost on me a single time.

As I walked away from the event, my thoughts shifted from the magnificence of the heavens to the marvel of mankind. We, as humans, were able to construct a tool that allowed us to look at the multitude of sparkling somethings in the sky and see. I was able to see Saturn, 887 million miles away from Earth, because of the amazing telescopes that were forged by humans, some of which weren’t even automated. Trying to track Saturn as it blazed through space was fascinating in and of itself, but there were telescopes that were programmed to track Saturn as it sped across the sky.

Not only was mankind capable of creating instruments as wondrous as the telescope, but the people at this event were so kind. They traveled from far and wide, many of them citing jetlag from long flights or cramps from hauling their telescopes in their vans. The larger telescopes each cost over $10,000, not including the modifications and maintenance and any repairs. And these scientists allowed the general public to look at the heavens for free. They answered my friends’ questions about why stars twinkle and how did they even get so much cheese on the moon anyway?

I sat on the subway leaving DC thinking about the magnificence of the heavens and the marvel that is mankind.