Pants, Pincurls, and Travel

A quick photo update of my travels this semester: I've managed to make it to Bath, Stonehenge, Isle of Man (for archery club!), and Belgium! A combination of planning ahead (so as to minimize paper-writing conflict, though there is always some), student rates, and overly optimistic organization forecasts are mostly responsible for this.

Of course, for the vintage side of this blog, these won't offer much, except for my comment (below) on the experience of trying to maintain pincurls whilst hostel hopping - my travel clothing is pretty unexciting. On my trip to Belgium, I actually got pants for the first time since high school!! It was freezing cold there, windy, and it hailed multiple times - tights simply were not doing it for me, so I somewhat reluctantly gave in and got some cheap pants on sale at H&M. To my surprise, I actually really enjoyed/am enjoying them! It was liberating to be able to move about without constant shivering, not to mention not having to worry about big gusts of wind revealing my underwear (knickers if I want to make myself chuckle) to the world. I've worn them a few times since getting back two weeks ago - the weather here has been atrocious, raining constantly and really high winds, and on late-night trips to coffee shops for studying or mid-day runs to the grocery, since I ride a bicycle it is so much easier! I've been getting really tired of the one-hand-keeping-skirt-out-of-gears-the-other-one-steering move.

One more thing about pants: this whole "pants" vs "trousers" thing is really throwing me off here. As my fellow New World-ers know, trousers are fancy-style-pants in American English, whereas here trousers simply means pants. And pants are knickers, underwear, "panties" (uuuurghhh what a horrendous word, but I've included it for the sake of clarity) over in Brit-land. Completely forgetting this, I was talking to a guy I had just met the other day (actually the night before leaving for Belgium), and it came up in conversation that I didn't own any pants and hadn't worn them in ages. He got this really weird look on his face, and I thought maybe he just really hated skirts, but then he was like "Oh, I had to translate that - you mean trousers." Oops. It was a bit awkward but it did give me a laugh, the idea of unintentionally telling strangers that I don't own any underwear.

Anyway, on to the pictures:

My wonderful friend Victoria in Bath.

So Happy Togetherrr

... that was meant to be said to the tune of The Turtles' 1967 hit.
Though to be honest, the soundtrack of Gee and my travels together in the UK was more of our usual 30's and 40's genres, with a healthy dose of hideously out-of-tune bellowing to Connie Francis tunes thrown in - but never fear, we are not so lacking in social awareness that we did this in public - only on our walks through empty (we hoped) countryside.

Traveling with Gracie was (almost) the perfect end to a wonderful semester in England. I say almost, because for nearly the entirety of our time together, one or the other of us was sick. There were two blissful days where we were both in good health, but even when we were loaded up with LemSip we still had a grand time together. Gracie is a wonderful travel companion, the best I've ever had. Besides the fact that we've been best friends for nine years, we have the same taste and the same interests, so we both wanted to do the same things at the same time. Except for train travel. I loved the UK's rail system, but Gee kept getting motion sick. Poor dear.
Anyway, I hope to go on many, many, many more trips with Gracie before we're both through with this place! (erm.. that would be, life)

So, although I know personal travel pictures are potentially the most boring topic I could choose as my first blog post in.... sheesh, exactly three months!... this is after all our personal blog so I'll just go ahead and share what I like. And I sure loved this trip, with this wonderful friend, through a beautiful region.

In our room at a B&B at Wells.

The Littlest (and Last) Bit of London (as well as Oxford and Blenheim Palace)

Ill talk to y'all soon, I swear it.

For now:

Meet Me in the U.kayyyU.kayy

Yes, I was trying to get you to sing "the U.K." like "St. Louis" in a Meet Me in St. Louis -esque way. Congrats to you if you did this with out my helpful hint. 


Anyway, tomorrow I am to ship off for England. I will be in and around London, Oxford and Bath for my first week or so, so if any of you who are in those areas would like to meet up with me and possibly Emily (depending on her school work) please feel free to contact us! I would love to meet other vintage bloggers and get tips from any of you about the location, shopping, museums and all that good stuff. Oh and food, of course. Always food. And maybe drinks, too. We'll see.


In the meantime, I'm still panicking a little bit about my passport, which my mother found TODAY (not however many weeks ago I asked her to) and when I looked at it this morning I saw that it expired last June. Apparently adults get 10 years of use and minors (I was 14 at the time) get half that, but she had did not know this and thought mine would be good another five years. Excellent, right? So, I am going to try to get one tomorrow for a big, stupid fee. I am mad and even more stressed out now. But at least you can see passport photo...

Exciting, isn't it?


I'll let you know if I actually make it across the world, but let us pretend I will.


So long farewell,  auf wiedersehen, good night,
xx Geezer.

Auld Reekie, a Weekend Excursion.

I shouldn't be writing this right now... but I need to write something non-academic just to remind myself of the sensation of writing for fun!
A couple of weekends ago, a few friends and I took a train to Scotland for the weekend. We stayed in Edinburgh (apparently nicknamed "Auld Reekie"), in a hostel right smack in the middle of the city - New Town, that is. Old Town, the side that Edinburgh Castle is on, was so lovely and old-looking (shocker, I know) and was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

A scenic park/valley separating Old Town (to the right) and New Town (to the left). 

Point is, I really love the aesthetics of old European cities (more than "old" American cities... is that un-patriotic of me?), and am loving how easy and relatively cheap the public transportation system is here. Once Gracie joins me over here our shenanigans will be unstoppable! Granted, they involve rather tame plans like a day-visit to John Keats' house (drool/fangasm/faint - I am really looking forward to this, if you can't tell), perhaps a jaunt to the Emerald Isle, and who knows what else!
Anyway, I won't ramble on about it. Here are some pictures from Scotland, including me in my sartorial attempts to blend my vintage aesthetic with the functionality and practicality necessary for hostel-hopping with only a backpack in tow.

On the approximately 6 hour train ride over there. European trains are super nice. After hearing Gracie's (horror) stories of Amtrak, this was much appreciated. Me, to the left, and my friend/roommate Carolyn to the right. 

The End is Nigh!

I'm not talking about the end of the world, by the way.

My semester is almost over.

Eek/ick/crap. I have a month of classes left and sooooo much work to do, so if I go missing, as Emily has, don't be too worried. More likely than not, though,  I will be using the blog as a means of procrastination. Yep, I'm still doing that.

Anyway, because the quarter is coming to a close I am getting antsy about getting my trip to the UK worked out. I'll be there for three weeks and as excited as I am, I am also scared beyond belief. It's not like I'm going to be alone, Emily and I are rejoining to run a muck in a new country (or two!) but still, travel is nerve-racking.

Mostly I'm just worried about not being able to travel lightly enough... I am not know for my ability to simplify my wardrobe. I like options. Leave me alone.

So far my plan is to pack 4 (warm) skirts, two pairs of trousers, several blouses/unders/stockings (because they can be packed very tightly), rain boots, walking shoes (which I do not own...), maybe a dress, and MAYBE a pair of heels (because I desperately want to go to fancy things and I love heels more than the world).

An outfit I will most likely end up packing. Bad idea? The only reason I think it might be is because I could wear this fairly comfortably in Savannah's "fall" (aka warm) weather... Maybe with wool stockings/tights I'll be better suited.
Top & skirt: Goodwill (Atlanta)
Shoes: antique store (Madison)
Clip: Walmart (Charleston)

LIFE and Times in the Semi-Wilderness

I'm writing this quick little post from a cafe in a small town in West Massachusetts. My family has come up north to visit me over the week, and we'll be traveling around the state, so my internet access will be pretty unpredictable. Of course I had to pop in to read up on y'all's (I've become defensive of the word, being surrounded by northern "you guys"-ers) posts and to do one myself!

The other day I was flipping through the online LIFE archives, and I found these images in a couple of magazines from around 1936-39. They caught my eye, so I thought I'd share them with you...

A picture of Ginger Rogers that accompanied an article about Vivacious Lady. 

I just thought this swimsuit was interesting! It seems like it could be a bit complex to put on. 

And now, an article about the way the modern American girl travels (from June 27, 1938). How I wish I could claim to be able to pack so lightly and with such wonderful clothes! Click on the photos to enlarge if you'd like to read the text!

- Emily

P.S -Yesterday as we drove through the one main street in this small town, I happened to look up from my nap and saw a decent-looking vintage shop with Victorian ladies in the window. I exclaimed and begged my family to stop for just a moment, and thankfully they obliged. I dashed in there like a madwoman and found that I had stumbled upon the best vintage shop I've ever seen. Very well kept, clean clothes, good condition, sizes marked - and almost all from the 50s and back! Even to the 1800s! It was pure bliss, marred by the fact that my mom was getting peevish and kept harassing me to hurry up. Twenty minutes later, after running through there and feeling stressed knowing I was missing so much, I left with a new petticoat (50s), full-length girdle/garters (50s), blazer/jacket (mid 40s), black rayon dress (early/mid 40s), and tie-waist sporty style floral top (30s/40s)! Of course, the more recent the clothing, the less expensive, so my wallet couldn't get me much of the 30s and back, but I'm sure if I had had more time I would've found some great deals in the 30s section! I'm pleased with my finds but regretful of how quickly I had to go through there. I'll do a post later with shop details and pictures of my finds.