Study Break – London, UK

Hello, friends and fellow travelers! I am happy to announce that I am officially done with end of term exams and can finally do a quick recap on my amazing day trip to London last Monday! It had been five or so years since I last went, and I was as charmed as I was the first time, because London never loses its charm. To quote Samuel Johnson, “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

Eye spy with my little eye a magical London Eye! If you’ve only been on the London Eye during the daytime (like myself), then I insist you give it a try at night! It’s infinitely more magical. My friends and I were speechless and generally appreciative of all the opportunities we’ve been given this year.

We started the day off at Harrods (typical) and walked along Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace. Our lunch break was spent at Honest Burger in Soho, where I ate the most mouth-watering, delicious burger! Definitely give it a try if you’re a burger fan. That’s about all they serve, so you know it’s going to be good.

  

By the time lunch was over, it was getting rather cold so we headed off towards the London Eye (with a stop by the m&m store!) and ended up exploring the Southbank Centre Christmas market for the rest of the night. The Rekorderlig cider is amazing!

That’s all the time I have, time to pack for Spain, Amsterdam, and Germany! Woooo.

-AW

A Master abroad – Oxford, UK

Oxford is too beautiful for words and I cannot adequately describe how lucky I feel to be here with words, so I’ll keep the blabber short and let you look at pretty pictures of the University of Oxford and surrounding areas.

To start, here’s the gorgeous view from the newly constructed Maths Institute shot on one of my first days in town and posted on the insta (@geewilki – check it out). Although I am not a math major myself, I must say that the building is a calculated masterpiece from the acoustics to the decor.

Shortly after our arrival and before the start of the semester, some good friends and I took a trip out to Blenheim Palace where the Duke of Marlborough resides and where I had the pleasure of receiving a private tour from his brother! I have photographic evidence if you don’t believe me, but his face is not as pretty as the scenery so I’m not including it in this post. Anyway, if you’re ever around Oxford, definitely worth a visit – the gardens are breathtaking and make for a wonderful walk around the grounds. The museum inside the castle features a well-curated exhibition of the life and times of Winston Churchill and friends.

A small example of the overwhelming charm of the city. Every corner has little local shops, old-fashioned buildings, and scary speeding cyclists. I consider myself a part of the slow, harmless cyclists.

And last, but by no means least, my favorite sight of all! The beautiful Christ Church Meadow. I think I take at least five pictures every time I walk down this path to rowing practice in the wee hours of the morning. Now that the leaves have started turning colors, it has become increasingly gorgeous and it always brightens my mood no matter the circumstances.

Some fun facts about the English language:
-pants = underwear.. don’t tell anyone you like their pants.
-marmite is this weird thing that tastes like chicken stock and is oddly amazing on a heavily buttered crumpet, but again what isn’t good on a heavily buttered anything
-good things are “brilliant!”
-no one says cheerio or pip pip
-Q-tips are cotton buds
-Band-Aids are plasters… clearly America is a brand whore
-a “bap” is a breakfast sandwich
-if something is “quite” good, it’s only mediocre
-apparently a lot of English folk don’t like Earl Grey tea (I do!)

There are probably several more that I’m forgetting, but I’ll throw them into another post.
Oh.. another thing before I go! Try a London Fog (Early Grey, steamed milk, pump of vanilla)! But not in England, because no one will know what it is and you’ll get weird looks. I’m speaking from experience.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far, and stay tuned for more sweet photos of my study abroad adventures! My tickets for Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany are all booked (Dec 16th – Jan 11th)… PUMPED! In the meantime, back to that 500 page textbook I’m supposed to have finished reading in three weeks.

Cheers!
AW

Four Days to Lose Your Blues – Chicago, IL

Chicago, Chicago – that toddlin’ town. I just got back from my amazing trip to Chicago, where I was fortunate enough to catch perfect weather – no rain or wind in the windy city! I heard it was 40 degrees the weekend prior, so I’m feeling especially lucky. Here’s a little run-down of how I spent my days,  because I definitely couldn’t narrow this post down to just one place.

Day 1: Tiiiiiireeeeeddd. Our flight was at 6:15am, so, yeah. We stayed at the beautiful Palmer House near Millennium Park, and I spent most of the first day exploring the area around the hotel. I strolled through the beautiful park, which is a slice of heaven trapped in the middle of concrete, and planned my trip. If you want to visit some typical tourist spots in Chicago, definitely purchase a CityPass ($94). It saved me a lot of money, but BE SURE to keep the booklet on you, because I tore out the tickets so I could easily stick them in my wallet and had a fun time running across downtown Chicago to retrieve it when I was told the tickets aren’t valid without it. You can order the booklet online and pick it up at your first destination, which I found quite convenient.

For dinner, I met up with an old friend of mine that lives in the city and we had dinner at the delicious Acanto, an Italian restaurant with a bit of a twist. The menu is adorable and reminds me of the Shel Silverstein books I read as a kid. If you ever stop by, I highly recommend the almondine green tea, which has an amaretto aftertaste.

Day 2: “OK, today I’m really doing stuff.” My first stop was the Art Institute of Chicago, which is an amazing museum that was recently rated number one in the world by Trip Advisor. I’d argue that the Louvre still has an amazing collection and is a one-of-a-kind art institution, but I still insist that anyone who visits Chicago stops by the art institute. My next stop was 360Chicago, formerly known as the John Hancock observatory. I went at a pretty cloudy time, unfortunately, but the views were still breathtaking. I spent the rest of my day shamelessly shopping at the Water Tower and surrounding area.

Day 3: The Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium! This was the day that I left my CityPass booklet at home and took off running across downtown Chicago like a maniac to retrieve it. Thankfully Uber is around Chicago, so I was able to take one back to the museum to save some time. As far as transportation in the city, I most highly recommend walking. If something is too far, Uber or bus. The bus is obviously cheaper, but I didn’t want to potentially complicate myself so I mostly walked everywhere and took Uber twice. Anyway, the Field Museum had some great exhibits, but I was told several times that the Museum of Science and Industry is even better, so I definitely regret not going and recommend it to anyone traveling there.

All the architecture in Chicago is so stunning. Definitely visit Museum Walk (the area nearby that houses several museums and the planeterium) even if you’re not stopping anywhere. On my minibreak between the museum and the aquarium I grabbed a hot dog – so good! Note: no ketchup is the Chicago way to do it. I kicked off my shoes and walked in the grass along the shore of Lake Michigan on my way home. It was such a gorgeous day!

At night, we stopped by Potter’s at the hotel for a drink, a delicious cheese plate, and some amazing live jazz. Tried dragonfly IPA for the first time, which has a surprising and delicious bacon aftertaste. Definitely a sweet spot to chill, albeit pricey. We finished the night with a necessary trip to the Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, although no one really respects the name change. The view of an illuminated Chicago sprawling before your eyes for miles was breathtaking, but looking down made me want to pee my pants a little.

Day 4: We only had a half-day, but we made good use of it! Our first stop was the Navy Pier, where we took an architecture river tour with Shoreline Sightseeing, a company I highly recommend because of their excellent guides. Our guide knew EVERYTHING about Chicago and was an amazing and highly entertaining speaker. The tour lasts 75 minutes and visits all three branches of the river.

Fun fact: I was reading the WSJ that day on the plane ride back and saw that the city of Chicago recently passed an ordinance that only allows buildings to advertise a company’s name if it is one-fifth the size of the current Trump sign. I’m glad they did, because the riverside would start looking like a trashy mall if all the buildings erected their names in giant shining letters. Mr. Trump also supports the ordinance since his sign will now be the “last great sign.” Surprising.

We spent the last few hours walking around the Navy Pier and stuffing our faces with Garrett’s popcorn (a Chicago must, get the cheese and caramel mix). On our way back, we also stopped by the famous Chicago bean, because you gotttttaaaaa!

It started raining for the first time literally as we got in the taxi to go to the airport, how lucky can you get? Both airports are highly congested, so allot 2 1/2 – 3 hours for travel. It was such a fun trip and I’ve fallen in love with Chicago. Some things I wish I did: the Museum of Science and Industry, eating deep-dish pizza at Giordano’s, more walking and museums. Other places I recommend: Caffe Baci, for your afternoon snack or coffee (the warm chai latte is the best I’ve ever had); Freshii for a fresh breakfast or snack and to grab some healthy smoothies and juices; Roti for a giant heap of delicious Mediterranean food.

Stop by my insta for a couple of trip pictures that weren’t posed on the blog and pictures of my past adventures. Happy and safe travels to all!  -AW

Mercier Orchards – Blue Ridge, GA

Let me preface this first post by saying that I am a student traveler that can’t sit still. I use Instagram to document my past and current travels, and it has been an amazing experience so far and I am very thankful to the 400+ followers that have decided to follow along on my travels while sharing their own. Unfortunately, instagram doesn’t allow me to share in-depth experiences and specific locations that really made a trip special, so… cue a sweet spots around the globe blog. Thanks for stopping by!

If you ever find yourself near scenic Blue Ridge, be sure to stop by Mercier Orchards. Founded in 1943, the 300-odd acre orchard boasts over 53 varieties of apples, from Gala to Pink Ladies. During appropriate seasons, Mercier offers blueberry, cherry, peach, and apple picking. Since we’re in the midst of apple season, we took a tractor to the middle of the orchard and picked half of a bushel for $18. It was great walking around looking at all the types of apples (I had no idea 90% of the varieties existed) and picking the perfect ones. Of course, every good apple picker knows you have to try the apples before you pick ’em.

After stuffing our faces with apples, we headed to the Mercier Orchards store, with an unnerving amount of delicious sauces, sweets, breads… you name it, they probably have the most delicious version you’ve ever had of it. The store comes equipped with a bakery that makes the world’s most delicious apple pies, a fudge shop, and a cider store. Today was my second time at this top-notch store and I walked away with some sweet novely bear socks, a Mercier Orchards shirt (tip: wearing a Mercier shirt or cap gives you 10% off, have someone in your family buy one, put it on, then finish the rest of your shopping), chili verde infused sea salt, peanut brittle, and two ciders (blueberry and Old #1 are both delicious).

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have included the website and trip advisor rating below, and will continue to do so when available for the remainder of my posts. PLEASE feel free to post questions or comments. I would love to hear about your experiences at Mercier Orchards or other cool places to visit in Blue Ridge, GA.

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