The things I do to avoid studying

GAH... just a few days left here and all I want to do is NOT STUDY.  Welcome to the life of a college kid.  But my argument is that studying for finals here is even worse than in the States.  Here's why:

I'm in another country.  And there are adventures to be had.

Independent learning = not my style.  That is a legitimate equation. 

...If I knew how to do it all, WHY would I be paying you to teach me????

Exams worth 100% of your grade.  Enough said.

Reading lists of "optional books".  Ok, if it's optional, I'm not going to read it. 

They have a real deal Reading Week, which means you have an entire WEEK to READ. 

...Nobody can do that.  Hence, distractions become numerous*. 

*See: my blog about going to Edinburgh.

So, I've watched some really great movies with the roomies (cue: Volcano, Elf), headed out to Dolan's for some late night trad music, spent too much money at the Milk Market, facebook-stalked every single one of my friends (Yes, you too.  Trust me.), and lost my wallet.  Oh yeah, I lost my wallet. 

Things in my wallet... oooooo a game!

1. Credit Card (for buying things),

2. Driver's License (for driving my wonderful little Honda Accord as soon as I get back to Washington),

3. My University of Limerick ID (necessary to sit any exam here),

and 4. My calling card (to call friends back home who are getting MARRIED). 

Are we freaking out? We're freaking out.  Just ask my mom.  I think that was the most inaudible skype conversation in the history of skype conversations.

And then of course there's the packing side of things.  How am I supposed to find time for that?  How am I supposed to find room for all my stuff??  You know those little Russian dolls, where one fits inside another fits inside another?  I'm playing that game... with my luggage.  It's fun.

And guess what's happening on Friday?  Well, my second-to-last exam is what happens.  But guess what also happens?  The fam is coming to Ireland!!! Woot!  So excited to see them all!  But of course that means this adventure really is coming to an end.  Friends are leaving, things are being packed up, family is coming for the holidays... I feel like all of my chapters are closing too fast!!  STOP IT WORLD! 

Scotland: land of kilts and harry potter

Oh hey!  I missed you!  I'm sorry I haven't been more in touch lately, I've been busy galavanting around Edinburgh, snacking on chocolate covered marshmallows, running around graveyards late at night looking for Tom Riddle's gravemarker (yes, it's real!), and having epic snowball fights.  Definitely a better way to spend study/reading week, eh?  Final exams are overrated anyways....

So there I was, on a bus at 1 am early Sunday morning, driving to Dublin with three of the greatest girls ever, to catch a flight over to Edinburgh, Scotland.  This was the ONE place that had been on my places-to-see list ever since I decided I wanted to travel abroad to Ireland, and the ONE place I almost didn't get to see.  You see, the northern half of the UK can't seem to handle snow very well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cF7jCmqpaQ&feature=related
And Dublin wasn't much better.  Airport delays, longer bus rides... it was all very chaotic.  The brain said "no, stay here, study for finals, and don't risk missing exams that are worth 75% of your grade" and the heart said "ooooooh, but it's Edinburgh!!"  So of course, I went to Edinburgh.

Fast forward to Sunday early afternoon.  We'd made it to Edinburgh!  And even had some time to spare in the Dublin Airport for a gingerbread latte!  Holla!  Our hostel in Edinburgh was one of the best I've stayed in.  Right on the main shopping road, one block from the Christmas Markets, and full of awesome guests.  Mostly Australian... weird.  So of course we had long conversations about Sydney, and Bondi Beach, and Hunter Street.  The four of us had a whole dorm to ourselves, and there was even a free meal that evening.  Talk about lucking out!

That afternoon and evening, we checked out the Christmas Markets down the street.  So adorable!  Nucrackers, Nativity Scenes, and candles galore!  And the food - OH the food!  Mead, and bratwursts, and sweets!  I even found myself a potato latke-ish snack, so my hannukah was complete!  (oh my goodness, note to self: you need another blog about hannukah in ireland.  ironic, right?)

At one point in the markets, we stopped to check out a street performer.  Well, I don't know if he's at "performing" status quite yet... dropping juggling pins, spilling kerosene, and taking ages to start his act in the freezing cold were not some of his best moments.  And of course we couldn't leave because guess who was grabbed to be a volunteer?  Yep.

The rest of Sunday was mostly just a jumble of crazy conversations with crazy Australians... we ended up meeting a guy who was on his way to London in the morning to spend Christmas with his brother, so we hung out with him for the night... late night Tesco runs to pick up junk food and cider, stopping to buy a homeless man a warm dinner to go (I can't even begin to tell you how cold that night was!), and swapping American, Scottish, and Australian lingo until we could barely keep our eyes open.  Woof.

The next morning, bright and early, we rolled ourselves out of bed, put on as many layers as we could find, and headed out for a traditional Scottish breakfast.  Turns out it was not much different than a traditional Irish breakfast, which is not much different than a traditional American breakfast: eggs, toast, sausage, bacon...  add in some Haggis and you've got yourself a Scottish breakfast!  What is Haggis you ask?  ... google it.

And then we took off to Royal Mile: the mile-long (um, duh!) stretch of road from the castle gates to Carlton Hill, which supposedly has the best views of the city.  There, we stopped in Starbucks (eggnog latte, anyone?), engaged in a full-out snowball fight (gosh, how I missed those!), checked out some wicked stained glass (still, my favorite kind of art), saw a 3D movie on the Loch Ness monster (in no less than 4 languages, thanks to Andrea, who kept changing my dial), and got right up to the castle gates! ... before they closed them right in our faces.  No more tours that day.  Pooey.  But still, the castle from the outside was just fantastic.  No wonder they say JK Rowling got her inspiration for Hogwarts here!  So incredible.  Meanwhile, the airport had been shut down completely because of the snow, and roads in Ireland were only getting more icy. Go us.  This is when we started to cross our fingers REAL hard...

One grande eggnog latte to go, if you please

SNOW!!!

St. Gile's Cathedral

Coming up on Edinburgh Castle

AHHHH!

After the castle, it was back down the Royal Mile to the Elephant Cafe.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Made famous by JK Rowling herself, who wrote most of the series sitting at a table in the back room.  So of course that's what we did ourselves.

With an amazing view of the castle through the window

Directly behind the cafe is a small little graveyard fill with ancient gravestones.  They say this is where Rowling found names like McGonagall, Moody, Granger, and Tom Riddle himself!  And that's when we decided to go.... hunting.  Here's the scene: it's dark (and by dark, I mean it's 4:30pm and you need a flashlight to find the gates into the cemetery) there is knee deep snow wherever you turn, and my mesh runners are soaked through to the core.  I'd say we had pretty good conditions.

This would about sum up our graveyard adentures...

Sadly, we never found the markers.  Later on that night, we would find out that, actually, we were only steps away from some of them.  Maybe if we had had more daylight.... I guess this just means another trip to Edinburgh is in the future!

And we just had to cap off our last night in Edinburgh with something epic.  After a slight defrost back at the hostel, an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet, and a quick swap of gloves (they weren't kidding, the red Olympic mittens really ARE warmer!), three of the four of us headed to a night ghost tour.  We arrive at the meeting place and everyone there is speaking spanish!  Are you kidding me right now??  The english tour was actually cancelled becuase only three of us showed up who spoke that language.  Go figure.  But the guy was really awesome (of course he was: he was a tall, dark, and handsome Scottish guy named Andy who wa studying law at the University of Edinburgh.  Marry me now?).  He ended up just taking the three of us on our own tour seperate from the company, but not before Kasey got in a few witty Spanish remarks. "¿Qué?"

The tour was great!  Every bit as cynical and cheesy as one might expect.  But glorious all the same.  Plus, we finally made it up Carlton Hill, which really did have spectacular views of the city, as well as a half-finished Parthanon.  Go Scotland!  Had my camera been of superior quality, I could have captured all of this, but sadly, you'll just have to resort to google images for those!  Ah well...  By the end of the tour we were frozen solid, so Andy led us to an underground pub where we could defrost and enjoy a very American table quiz.  Turns out our music knowledge earned us a few free drinks from a competing team sitting next to us.  WIN.

Tuesday morning:  the airport has re-opened!!! Not only that, but buses were running - somewhat - on time by Ireland's standards!  Safe and sound back in Limerick by dark!  Now for studying... ew ew ew ew ewwwwwww.  But all worth it for the incredible trip we had had.  I say it about every place I've gotten to see, but Edinburgh really was my favorite.  There's something about that city that is so... me.  Take me back, please.  If you ever have a chance to venture to Edinburgh yourselves, here are a few things I learned that might help you out:

1) A kilt is NOT a skirt.  It's only a skirt if you're wearing underwear. Fact.

2) Andrea and I make great passengers in the exit row of an airplane.  We're attentive, knowledgable, and even refrained from ordering drinks offered to us by RyanAir so that we could be at our best for an emergency.  Solid heroes.

3) Contrary to Kasey's beliefs, the last two numbers of your Social Security Number do NOT represent your birth rank.

4) Only a ginger can call another ginger "ginger".  Just like only a ninja can sneak up on another ninja.  Youtube that.

5) Cashmere rocks.

6) Dunnes Ugg Boots have ridiculously amazing traction.

7) If you're shoes are soaked through because of the snow, and your feet hurt from the cold, don't worry.  Soon, a nice warm tingling feeling will overcome you and you'll be grand :) A little bit of hypothermia/frostbite never hurt anybody.

8) Sometimes RyanAir's baggage restrictions force you to hide your purse in very non-conspicuous places.

Ah! Such a great trip.  Next time you best be coming with me!

Until next time, Scotland. <3

These are a few of my favorite things

I'm no Julie Andrews, but lately I've found I have a ridiculous amount of favorite things.  And since it happens to be that time of year to be extra-thankful (because, heaven forbid, we're thankful ALL of the time)....
So here's my little diddy - don't even try to sing it Sound-Of-Music-Style.  Trust me, I tried.

* Friends. Abroad and at home.  You make it all worth it.
** Family.  For sending me pumpkin pie mix when Ireland grocery stores fail me, and for teaching me about slack-lining.
*** My Vancouver Olympics gloves.  Because I have come to the conclusion that it really is cold in Ireland.
** Tea.  My love for tea has quadruple-tripled since being here.  Yes, quadruple-tripled is a real number.  I'm a math major, so I know.
* Trad Music Sessions in the dorm common rooms.  Oh yes, that really DOES happen.  I was thoroughly impressed.
** Christmas Markets.  In Galway last weekend, I had the most amazing macaroon at the local Christmas Market.  I almost died.  Ask Sarah.

*** Harry Potter.  He really has taken over my life the past few weeks.  I may not have found a midnight showing in all of Ireland, but waking up at 6 am to walk to the movie theatre, hitting up McDonalds, grabbing a extra large cappucino, and catching a 9:30 am showing of the Deathly Hallows was one for the books :)

** Making cool patterns with *'s on my blog.  I'm having fun with this.
* Writing Letters of Rec for RYLA. Makes me fall in love with RYLA all over again.
** Saying "Thanks a Million!" when somebody gives me my change.  I love that that's a totally normal response here. 
*** Going to Catholic Mass in Ireland. 
** That awkward moment when you have to ask Europe to lend you 8 billion Euro.  Ok, so I don't love it necessarily, but I saw someone "liked" it on Facebook and I kinda had to giggle.  But then I realized, wow, that is actually really serious.  For all of those who are reading this and have no idea what is going on, please step out of your USA bubble and read up on your world news.  Ireland is having sort of a bad day. 
* Christmas Music.  Yep.  It's already started.
** Gort, Ireland.  Where the cafe owner of 25 years will sit and talk to you for 20 minutes about absolutely everything, and where the old church at the end of the block is actually a library.
*** Europe's idea of a "fashionable" winter hat.  This deserves a picture.

Really?  This is what's going to be fashionable?

** Buying milk that has more than a three day gap before its expiration date.  VERY hard to find here.  Milk and I have a love/hate relationship because of it.
* Kasey's Brita water filter.  Because without that, I would have shriveled up like a prune this semester.  Dromroe Village has the worst tasting tap water in the world!  And that's saying something, for any of you who have been to MY house in Lander.

So, these are just a few :)
I hope your holidays are wonderful, and that you all get to spend some time with your family... you sure don't know what you've got till it's gone!  I'm definitely missing my little family and my Denver family this Thanksgiving.  Next year better be EXTRA turkey-fied to make up for it!

Taking out the Bucket List and checking things off!

They say the Ring of Kerry is one of those "places you have to see before you die"... well, I'm not saying I plan on getting destroyed by a meteor thats crashing into Earth anytime soon, but I had to check it out for myself.

See what I'm talking about?

The Skelligs.  The largest was home to a Monestary centuries ago.  Really livin' on the edge, eh?

Um, wow.

That weekend, a small group of five of us from Limerick (+ our honorary Galway guy) set off for a tour of the Ring of Kerry and the surrounding area of the peninsula.  PB&J's were packed, classes on Friday were "taken care of" (don't tell the 'rents I didn't go...), and my camera battery was charged.  I'm such a good little tourist.

Fast forward to us meeting up with 40 Cork students in Killarney and Allie getting the VERY back seat of the bus.  Next to the toilet.  Yep.  Did I piss someone off in a past life or something?  Ugh...  But we did stop to check out some Irish wolfhounds and bog ponies and peat, plus, we were guaranteed a ginormous dinner at the end of it all.  So, I put on my big girl panties and I dealt with it ;)

Dinner was delish, but the evening wasn't over yet.  A wonderful local woman (gosh, I can't for the life of me remember her name, only that her last name was Coffee.  Go figure.  THAT'S what I retain) came to speak to us about life in the bog growing up in the 60's.  Oh jeez.  She was just presh.  Cutting bog all day harvesting peat, milking the cows, sewing her own clothes, getting electricity installed at home, dating boys with cars, getting packages from America... talk about knowing what "a hard day's work" is!  It was amazing to listen to her and watch her relive all of those memories.  Now I'm not saying we milk cows in Wyoming every day, but listening to her really reminded me of home.  It must have been the reminder of rural living... gosh I miss it!

After the presentation, the party really started: can anyone say Irish Dancing???  Check #1 off of the bucket list!  Weeeeee!  To Martin, my partner, you were fab.  To the Irish man who dragged me out to center of the floor as an example, if you spin a girl any faster I swear her head will pop off.  Regardless, it was a blast.  And after just watching Leap Year a few days ago, I realized that one of the dances we learned was the one they perfomed at the wedding scene.  Cool huh??

Then it was more chillin' in the hotel pub with our new Cork friends, two of which were from Boston and wasted no time in giving us the full run-down on Whitey Bulger.  Very good stuff.  Between Sarah and my secret new handshake and Irish Mob stories, it was a swell night!

Early wake up call - rise and shine to a wonderful breakfast (COFFEE) and then we were on the tour bus again, heading up the Skellig Coast and over to Valencia Island.  Having a local as a tour guide turned out to be a great advantage because we were able to travel "beyond" just the typical Ring of Kerry experience.  Valencia Island was just gorgeous.  We were climbing around abandoned castles one minute and hiking in the pouring rain the next. 

The afternoon was free for us to explore Cahersiveen, the village we'd been staying in.  Small, but very inviting and fun to explore.  Between the old British Barracks, whose building plans were mixed up with building plans meant for India (your bad, England) and the Daniel O'Connell Cathedral, which is the only one in existence NOT to be named after a recognized Catholic Saint (it even had to be "ok'ed" by the Pope), there was plenty to see and explore in Cahersiveen.

I'm no architect, but this def out of place in Ireland

Downtown Cahersiveen

That evening, after another amazing dinner (can anybody roll me outta here?), we were given a crash course in Gaelic Football.  Okay, you thought Rugby was rough?  This is just ridiculous.  I don't know what's in the water here, but Irish guys are out of their freaking minds!  Morris Fitzgerald came to speak to us about the sport, and I guess that's a pretty big deal here.  He's kinda famous apparently.  Very cool.  Meeting a celeb? Check #2 off of the bucket list.

Then it was time for the Table Quiz!  Basically, Ireland's version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.  Only, it's more like Are You Smarter Than an Irish Man Who's Already Had A Few Pints.  Limerick vs. teams from Cork.  Oh, we dominated.  Yes, the Sun is the closest star to Earth.  Yes, the Flanders do live next door to the Simpsons. And yes, Panama is the name of a straw hat and also the name of a canal.  And when it came time for party tricks, reciting the 50 states in alphabetical order in one breath earned me some Skellig's chocolate (which is now considered very rare seeing as the tiny little factory had tragically burned down the night before... )

Another early morning wake up call, COFFEE, and we were off!  This time, exploring forts built thousands of years ago, touring Daniel O'Connell's home (the man who brought religious freedom to Ireland), driving past golf courses only Tiger Woods can afford to play on, and a gorgeous bus ride home through Lord of the Rings territory.  Very, very epic. 

And what's an amazing trip without a few great quotes to remember it by???

...."Harry Potter is on TV! Harry Potter is on TV! "
           "Did you just SPIT on me?!"
...."I can vibrate my uvula" (really...?)
...."Allie, GET ON MY BACK."

So all in all, a very successful weekend.  Traveling to the Ring of Kerry?  Check #3 off of the bucket list.  I would say 3 checkmarks in one weekend isn't half bad :)

What have you checked off your bucket list lately?

Rediscovering the Emerald Isle

Hello All!!

It has come to my attention of late that apparently I'm not posting as often as I should be (erm, Bridger, among others).  I'm sorry! I've been out frolicking in Ireland!  Who has time to sit down at a computer and blog when there are thousands upon thousands of fall leaves to run through?  Yes, Fall is in full swing here in Ireland, and I have never seen anything quite like it.  Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty fantastic Falls in Washington, on the East Coast, and even in Wyoming when the wind doesn't blow everything away.  But Ireland is something else.  I didn't even know some of these colors existed!!!  Truly a gorgeous place to be....

Now that "International October" is over and done with, "National November" is in full swing.  Don't ask me how the scheduling worked out, but I'm spending all of my November travelling Ireland and "rediscovering" this beautiful country.  Ok Allie, enough with the " "'s....

Even though my travels had me falling in love with Italy, and Belgium, and England, my heart belongs to Ireland.  In these past ten days, I have had the most amazing Irish moments.  Let me take you back...

Extra-ordinary Moment #1: Visiting Guerin's Pub in Castleconnell.
   Can I just say, that in all my time here in Ireland, there was always a part of me who felt like I was still waiting for my real Irish moment?  This was it.  No tourists, no bells and whistles... just rich, genuine Ireland.  My Canadian friend (yes, I have one) invited me to join her one evening, since she was headed out to a pub with a local she'd met on a plane to Paris.  Ok, side-note: who meets a local Limerick guy in Paris?!  Anyways, of course I wanted to go, because it meant putting off my folklore essay even more.  So off we went to a little town just outside of Limerick City.  Cian (pronounced Key-In for all you Americans out there), led us in the back door of this tiny little pub, where a group of his friends had gotten together for a pint.  My jaw literally dropped.  I had walked into what I would compare to the Lander Bar in the middle of January: the locals' spot.  There was trad music in one corner, and the rest of the pub was packed with people laughing and storytelling and having a grand ol' time... and of course all with a pint of Guinness in their hands.  At one point, the little old lady behind the bar shouted over to Cian to grab her something in the back, like it was no big deal to be ordering around her customers.  I turned to him and asked if he knew everyone in the pub.  He laughed and told me "yeah, pretty much.  I mean, Mary owns this place, and that's my dad over there."  I couldn't believe what I had walked into.  This was the true rural Ireland that I had been searching for.  It was one of those moments where you go "I am going to remember this forever". 

Extra-ordinary Moment #2: Limerick Milk Market.
   I just love this place.  It is bubbling with activity... even on a cold Saturday morning.  I've been to some pretty amazing farmer's markets back in the States, but nothing quite like this.  It feels soooooooo local. Like those people woke up that morning, dug up some potatoes, and brought them in fresh for me to snatch up!  Contents of Allie's bag after the market?  Farm fresh eggs (the most ginormous ones you will EVER see... poor chicken), broccoli, eggplant (that's right, eggplant.  See: extra-ordinary moment #3), Italian flatbread, goat cheese, and scones.  Success?  I think so.

courtesy: Google Images. Note to self: take my own stinkin' pictures next time!

Extra-ordinary Moment #3: Allie learns to broaden her cooking repitoire.
  Cooking in Ireland is very tricky.  Especially in a kitchen shared by five other individuals, one mini fridge to store everything, one frying pan that's slightly dented (ok, really dented... drunk roommates destroy the most random things), on a stove that only knows "off" and "burnt".  Let's just say it's been an adventure.  I'm definitely not cooking any pizza casserole or baking any crock pot cake these days... so you don't even have to worry about missing out, Matthew.  BUT!  I did tackle eggplant parmesan and egg fried rice!  Gordon Ramsay would be proud :)

Extra-ordinary Moment #4: Kissing the Blarney Stone.
  Ok, maybe the actual kissing of the stone wasn't extraordinary... actually, it was kinda tacky and not very exciting at all.  And as for "the gift of gab" it's supposed to bestow?  If you've read ANY of my lengthy blogs before this, you'd know I've never needed some stone to give me that.  But I kissed it anyways, paid an arm and a leg for a picture, and moved on.  The Blarney Gardens surrounding the Castle were the really amazing part of this trip.  I know, you're probably thinking "enough with the Irish Fall already!"  But I'm not kidding when I say it's different from any other Fall.  Come, and you'll see.

Blarney Castle in the distance

Well this is special...

Extra-EXTRA-ordinary Moment #5: Making a Wish
   Legend has it that if you walk up and down the wishing stairs in the Blarney Gardens with your eyes closed, thinking of nothing else but your most sacred wish, that wish will come true.  This is serious stuff, guys.  So myself being the one who wishes on every birthday candle ever blown out, on every shooting star, and on every eyelash on the cheek, of course I had to wish on the wishing stairs.  I don't think my wish would be ruined if I shared it here (trust me, I've had plenty of wishes ruined by telling them to other people, so consider yourselves lucky to hear this one!).

 As I was fumbling up those stairs, all I could think about was how badly I wished and hoped that I could come back home in January, and find happiness in Bellingham.  Don't get me wrong, I am very happy and very lucky to be going to school where I do, but sometimes I find myself feeling lost and alone and insecure both in Washington and in Wyoming.  And to be truthfully honest, I often let those feelings get the best of me.  So, as you can imagine, I was concentrating sooooooooo hard on my wish.  Guess what happened?  No, I didn't fall... thanks for your concern.  No, I was distracted by my group of friends at the bottom of the stairs cracking jokes as I was trying to focus.  At first I was mad that they were butting in to my wish, but then I caught myself laughing at their jokes.  It became virtually impossible to focus on my thoughts because I was so caught up in what my friends were talking about.  And then it hit me like a freight train: I was happier in that moment than I have felt in years.  I was surrounded by some of the most amazing individuals I have ever met in my life, in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life, having ten times the adventure I thought I would be having.  Why should I be wishing for something in the future when what I have in the present is so perfect?  Yes, the time will come for me to close this chapter in my life and return to the States, but not right now.  Right now I am living in the moment, and it is amazing.  So no more wishing in Ireland for me.  I am happy. Just. Like. This.




London Town!!!

Here we go again!! London-bound!! 

Basically by now I'm so far past exhaustion it's become ridiculous.  But who cares?  I was on a flight to London with the American crew and we were ready for Londontown!

At this point I have just become a PRO at packing my backpack... half the time I don't even bother UNpacking it because I have to turn around and do it all over again!  So with the backpack ready to go, the PB&J's in one hand (a staple in Allie's travels), and homework in the other (I had to at least look like I was taking school seriously, right?), we headed out late Friday night.  Fast forward 7 hours, and you'll find us checking into our uh-mazing hotel at 2 am.
           Okay, 1) I would just like to reiterate the fact that it was 2.  AM.  That's 2 hours after midnight.  Cinderella's carriage turned back into a pumpkin hours ago. Exhausted Allie doesn't find that very appealing.  And,
                     2) Hotels are ridiculously cool.  Trust me.  After spending more nights in hostel beds rather than my own bed during the month of October, suddenly hotels seem like the cat's pajamas.  Yeah, I just put "cat" and "pajamas" in the same sentence.

Anyways, by the next morning I had had my rest and was itching to go.  As by our Irish Mammy's instructions, we had a huge breakfast (she said it was free... why not take advantage?) and practically had to roll ourselves out to the hop-on-hop-off buses: aka your real life London double-decker buses.  Holla! 



Big Ben and the London Eye

 Off we went to the Tower of London:  home of the crown jewels, site of multiple be-headings (think of King Henry VIII), and teeming with thousands of tourists... which made it hard to spot MS KENDAL SWANSON!!!!  Can you believe it?  Thousands of miles around the world and I still manage to run into my old suitemate!

Castle, anyone?


After the Tower of London came the Tower Bridge: one of the more famous bridges in London.  I know, I know, you're thinking, "what about London Bridge?"  I mean, there is a nursery rhyme and pop song written about it.  I hate to break your heart, but

Tower Bridge

London Bridge.  Yeah, that cement thing.

By now it's already late afternoon in London, and we had to get to Abbey Road before the sun set.  So off we went again!!  Maybe if we'd gotten on the right bus, hadn't stopped at KFC to pee, didn't get lost down the streets of London in the rain, and hadn't walked straight past the recording studio without realizing it, we would have made it while there was still light out.  But hey!  It was an adventure and I wouldn't have had it any other way :)  Besides, we still made it to Abbey Road.  That's one more for Around-the-World Bingo!

I'm basically a Honorary Beatle

Then race back to the London Eye, navigating the Tube and running between stations.  I'm telling you, this was a whole different experience at night.  Definitely amazing.

Instead of staying in London like everyone else, Kendal and I headed to her campus in Reading.  Too bad it was dark.  I couldn't tell you what Reading was like to be honest.  Guess a second trip is in order hahaha.... but it was so great to see a familiar face.  I miss you guys at home!!!

Day 2 in London: wake up an hour late for the train, rush back to London to pig out on another breakfast, sneak through the Tube because my day pass went MIA... and that'd be my morning.  Then it was
   > the Globe Theatre,

        > the Tate Modern (queue Picasso, Warhol, Dali),
             > across the Millenium Bridge (don't worry, I wasn't freaking out or anything.... it's not like the Millenium Bridge wasn't in Harry Potter or anything....),

                  > St. Paul's Cathedral ("oooooooooooooo, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" ... really wishing I was as legit as Princess Di so I could get married there)

St. Paul's

                       > KING'S CROSS STATION (everybody FREAK OUT)

I guess Hogwarts will have to wait another year... my magical powers couldn't get me thru the barrier

                            > ordering a London Fog in London.  Yes, it can be done.  But don't call it a London Fog.  They get all confused and flustered.  Calmly explain that you would like an Earl Grey latte with vanilla flavoring and then they can handle it,

                                 > and then heading over to the Camden Market, where we conveniently lost track of time and MISSED the bus to the AIRPORT.  Shit.  Well, I can honestly say that I am now fully competent at navigating London transportation.  Learning experience?  Most definitely.  Talk about cutting it close.  Weee!  Again, not an adventure until something goes wrong, eh? 

The trip just whizzed by, and now, sitting at my computer back in Limerick, I can't help but feel a little bummed that my month of crazy travels has come to a close.  What a month it has been!  Not even people who live in this part of the world travel as much as we did!  Across two time zones, three languages, four countries, and six new stamps in my passport, we managed to do it all. 

Now what?  Now I guess school gets a little bit of attention.  And I might have to rediscover Ireland.  It is where I've chosen to study after all.  And especially after all of this travel, it feels more and more like home.  And I love being home.

Belgium: chocolate, waffles, french fries, and Vincent Van Gogh

Friday night conversation with the flatmates:

Allie: "Hey! How's it going?"
The girls: "It's good. You look exhausted! How was Italy?"
Allie: "Amazing! But I'll have to tell you more about it later... I'm leaving in a sec for Belgium."

No big deal right?

Who does that?!  I still feel like I'm living in some alter-universe... nobody gets to just hop a plane to Belgium for the weekend.  So you can imagine how unreal this has all been for me.  I still can't believe this is my life right now. 

Belgium was unbelievable.  The minute we got off the plane, it was like we had stepped into Waffle Land.  And I'm not talking about your ordinary waffle.  I'm not even talking about the supreme Belgian Waffles you can get at Ihop (you know, with the fluffiness, and the strawberries, and the cream, and the drizzled syrup, and the nuts, and the powdered sugar...).  I'm talkin' REAL Belgian waffles: made on a street corner and served piping hot drenched in - what else - REAL Belgian chocolate.  I know, you're all drooling a little bit right now.  Me too.  Go get a napkin or something and clean that up.

The six of us traveling together ended up being the sies-amigos-who-are-really-good-at-getting-lost.  Wrong bus here, wrong train there... it was a rough start to the trip.  But it's really not an adventure until something goes wrong anyways, right?  So there we were, in a bar that doesn't serve food, talking to a bartender who only spoke french, trying to find our way back into Brussels.  Thankfully taxis in Belgium are cheap.

Once we got on our feet, it was time to do some real exploring.  Our hostel was right in the middle of everything.  Every other shop sold either chocolate, waffles, french fries (yes, french fries were invented in Belgium), or beer.  You couldn't stop eating even if you tried.  And, as an expert truffle-taster from my days at Special Arrangements, I felt it was my duty to make sure Belgian chocolate was really all that it was cracked up to be.  And it was, I promise.  Y'all need to stop eating that Hershey's junk and get some REAL chocolate.


Drinking chocolate!!!



Legit fondue



How did they know?!?!



Chocolate truffles, chocolate fountains, chocolate wine, chocolate cookies, chocolate figurines, drinking chocolate, chocolate covered fruit, chocolate bars weighing in at over 1 kg - they had it all!!  Then came your french fries: traditionally super-fried and served piping hot with a big doll-up of some sort of magical fry sauce.  Yep, I'm going into cardiac arrest just thinking about it.  And the waffles... Oh! the waffles!!!  They use dough rather than batter to make these things... and ordering a "plain" waffle just can't be done.  Chocolate, whipped cream, fruit, nutella... you name it.  To. Die. For.  I'm telling you, a plane ticket all the way over to Belgium if only to try a real Belgian waffle would be worth it one hundred times over. 

Needless to say, Allie will be hitting the gym after this trip.

That night, after taking lots of pictures, trying Belgian chinese food (yep, that's right), and watching some weird war movie starring Matthew Broderick, we put on our heels and hit the town.  Delirium is a famous bar in the heart of Brussels known for its wide selection of beer.  Are you ready for this?  Over 2,500 beers available to order - over 400 are Belgian beers alone!!!  Cheap beer, expensive beer, homemade beer, beer that's not even real (Duff, anyone?)... they had it all.  Wow.  That's really all I can say.

This is for you, Ethan.

And of course, being thousands of miles away from home, in a bar in the middle of Brussels, with hundreds of Belgians all around us, we managed to meet a group of guys from the USA Air Force.  Go us.  All in all, a very successful night in Belgium. 

The next day, we moved hostels before heading out on the second half of this grand adventure.  And guess what?  We were booked at a hostel in the same building that Van Gogh used to stop for coffee and work on his art!!!  Surreal.  Just sitting there was inspiration enough to pick up a paintbrush and make the next art masterpiece.  Gah, I could've stayed there forever.

By late morning we were boarding a train to check out Brussel's next door neighbor, Brugges.  Um, hello Utopia.  Cheaper prices, better chocolate, gorgeous city... I might just have to live here some day.  There really are no words to express how awesome Brugges was. 


Brugges




Yep, that's a horse drawn carriage.



In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have come on a Sunday, because things like to close really early on Sundays... and in the end, we had a rough time trying to get back to Brussels with food in our stomaches and any feeling left in our toes.  Nothing was open and it was soooooooooooooo unbelievably cold!! Yes, even for a Wyoming girl.  Fastforward to Allie eating peanut butter and jelly in the hostel room at 11 at night wearing every article of clothing she brought with her for the whole trip.  Rough.  But I had an entire backpack full of chocolate, so really, the situation wasn't all that bad :)

Then it was race, Race, RACE back to Limerick Monday morning to catch a 12 pm class.  Phew!  Made it with two minutes to spare!  I'm not kidding... we cut it that close.  Back and forth to Belgium in one weekend?  Check.

Only one more international trip left in October!  Can you believe it?



Fall in Belgium!

 Loving this adventure!!! Wish you were here~
xoxoxo