oxford beginnings

(where j.r.r. tolkein did a lot of his writing!)

merton college and the oldest library in england

oriel college

oxford is tiny.

but it's so old and rich with history (and there are so many libraries!) that i'm beginning to love it.

almost berlin

even though i almost spent an entire week in potsdam and berlin with david, i hardly took any photos. i think my excuse was that i'd be coming back two more times before heading back home, so i guess i'll try to take more photos then. these two photos are one of the rare occasions where i did bring my camera. we went to a big flea market-esque place in berlin to find david a bike (success). i didn't get anything, but a nice man gave me a sample of scented lavender.

now, onto photos of the uk...

21

11:00pm the night before

9:00am

10:00am

11:00am

12:00pm

1:00pm

2:00pm

4:00pm

5:00pm

6:00pm

7:00pm

8:00pm

9:00pm

10:00pm

11:00pm

12:00am

my birthday (yesterday), by hour (minus 3pm), as inspired by rebecca.

the night before i opened the birthday package (with my family watching on skype)

i woke up to morning yoga, creative writing class, and spent time working on my paper before going to afternoon tea with hiyabel, chelsey and sarah (pictures to come)

then i came back and tried to write more (unsuccessfully)

this time last year, i was

sea kayaking with david

getting ready to go to greece

playing softball.. before tearing my ACL

working at my favorite coffee shop ever

loving santa cruz.

so much has happened in one year! i'm excited to see what the new one brings.

the overnight train

this is what all of the 6-person cabins looked like on our overnight train from vienna to berlin. there was no room to put your luggage except on the floor. yes, that is my gigantic blue luggage. and yes, i slept with it there all night. the next time david and i travel, i think we're going to rethink the overnight train. but still, it was an interesting (possibly fun?....) experience.

our last day

vienna was our last stop before heading to berlin

to begin david's semester abroad in potsdam

we decided to go to the natural history museum

it's enormous- i'm pretty sure that we spent at least 4 hours there.

not really sure why darwin is riding the tortoise

dory and some axolotls

a lion is about to attack him and he doesn't even care

one of my favorites

photography by david

a little break after our many hours of wandering

mozart

stephansdom

the gasthaus that we ate at every night.

it's delicious- soup and schnitzel for 5.80 euro

and then we headed to the westbahnhof for our overnight train

ork posters!

slightly travel-related, but not really:

how cool are these posters?

they seem to only have really big american cities

but hopefully their project will expand further.

i was tempted to get the san francisco one

to help decorate my bare oxford room walls,

but by the time it got here i'd already be leaving.

i have so much catching up to do

(school-wise and blog-wise)!

schloß schönbrunn

for our second day in vienna,

we took the metro to schloß schönbrunn,

the habsburg palace

what you see when you first walk through the gates

in the gardens

maze

the back of the palace

each of the squares made a noise when you stepped on it,

so of course i danced all over it

only.. the coolest playground on the face of the planet

you could CLIMB INTO the bird

and there were trick mirrors (:

we went to an apple streusel demonstration

then took our final turn around these gardens before heading back

sometimes i don't know how it's possible

to love being with someone this much