I actually live here…
Yes, that’s what I feel like after this past week and weekend. I actually did normal things and it was wonderful!
I spent nearly all week on campus. Monday I had class all day and then spent the evening in my apartment uploading pictures and working on my blog. Tuesday I had to meet with my group before class to finalize our 5-minute presentation. Then we had class at 1:15. We got our group paper back and scored a 70% on it, which is a first on the UK grading scale! Our presentation went well – how hard could it be when each person is only allowed one minute to speak? Tuesday night was our final small group Bible study, and I think it was one of the best discussion-wise. Of course there were lots of fits of laughter from Nicky and Jo, but once we got past that we worked through each other’s tough questions. After discussion, we had a food fight with the sweets Paul had brought. It was brilliant! Great banter so it was. Wednesday morning I went to the library intending to start writing my 3600 word paper that was due on Friday, but I spent a couple hours socializing and checking out Facebook instead. Oops! I went to Modern Irish Society at 11:15 and afterward went back to my apartment to nap. That night I stayed in and started working through my management of change notes so that I could write my paper. Thursday I spent almost the entire day in the library working on my paper. At 3pm I went back to my room to calm my nerves before my phone interview with Covenant Harbor Bible Camp, a Christian camp in Lake Geneva. The interview lasted about an hour and I think went pretty well, although the fact that I’m not getting home until June 5 could potentially be a problem. It’s all in God’s hands though and I trust that He will provide! Following my interview, I walked to the side entrance of campus where Elsie picked me up for dinner at her house. This time we actually had something other than spaghetti Bolognese – Irish stew! It was delicious and the perfect meal for a cold, dreary Northern Ireland day. Elsie brought me back to campus at about 7pm and I went to my last CU at around 8. The topic this week was spiritual warfare and how to encourage both yourself and others in the faith. I learned some valuable lessons from that “sermon.” With over half of my paper left to write, I left CU as soon as it was done, but I was feeling pretty homesick that night, so I called home first. Then I stayed up until 2am working on my paper. Friday I got up at 7 and worked on my paper all morning until I finished and handed it in at 2:15. Last assignment for the semester finished, it was time for the weekend!
As soon as I got back to the apartment, Amanda, Kara and I called a taxi and went to the cinema to see 17 Again. I’m a sucker for cheesy movies. This one was so cute. It may or may not have helped that Zac Efron’s super attractive little self is in it. Following the movie, we took the train back to campus, changed out of our rain-soaked clothes, and then Amanda and I went with Gav to his house for a chippy night. Basically, chippy night is when we drive to the Frying Squad close to Gav’s house, buy some delicious fried food like fish and chips, and take it back to Gav’s house to eat it and hang out. The hang out part consisted of playing some Guitar Hero and Articulate and watching plenty of YouTube videos. Hanging out with Gav, Leanna, Charlie, Johnny, Emma and Amanda felt like a normal Friday night at the Grove, which is exactly what I needed after feeling homesick during the week.
Saturday was another pretty normal day too. I was originally supposed to go to Scotland for the weekend, but after driving all over Ireland, I wasn’t too thrilled to see more of some very similar scenery, plus I wanted to save myself some money. When Amanda and I decided not to go, we had to figure out something else to do for the weekend, so our friend Stu suggested that we all go to the Dublin Zoo together. It was so much fun! We all got a work out from either laughing so much or being scared to death, one of the two. I would tell you the funny stories, but they are the type of stories that you had to be there for in order for them to be funny. On the drive back from the zoo we had a great time singing along with some of our favourite Disney tunes. Also on our way back we stopped in Belfast to pick up some pizzas. We brought the pizzas, garlic bread and chips back to our apartment and ate together while watching Wedding Crashers. It was such a chill day, but so much fun! Sunday was a really lazy day spent working on my Italy blog, cleaning my room and doing laundry. Nothing too exciting, although I did go to church last night and afterward we went to Gav’s house and made our own Ulster fry. Delicious!
Just a normal week in the life of a Jordanstown resident…
Monday, 27 April 2009
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Easter Break: Week 2...
I spent the second week of my Easter break fulfilling my dream of travelling to Italy! After a really rough first night the week was fabulous, and I’m already planning my return trip sometime in the next few years. Anyone care to join me?
Here’s how the week went:
Monday, April 13:
Our flight arrived in Pisa, Italy at about 11:40pm on Sunday, April 12, which gave us more than enough time to get our checked bags and make our way to the bus stop to catch the 12:20am bus to Florence. To my very unpleasant surprise, I had a text from Amanda waiting for me when I got off the plane. It read, “Call me AS SOON AS you get off the plane. Emergency with our reservations.” That was the start of my travelling nightmare. When I called her, I found out that the Eurostudent Home hostel in Florence had screwed up our reservations and didn’t hold five beds for us. Instead they only had one left, which thankfully Amanda had arrived early enough to claim. To make matters worse, the owner was a complete jerk and had been arguing with and yelling at Amanda and was threatening to bar us from staying there the rest of the week. That part wasn’t my biggest concern, though. If he didn’t let us crash on the floor in the hostel, we were going to be sleeping on the streets that first night! Thankfully, Stephanie Carroll, a friend from Grove City, was studying abroad in Florence. I gave her a call once we got on the bus (which I’ll remind you was supposed to leave at 12:20am, but didn’t actually leave until 1am) and luckily her roommates had stayed in Florence for the weekend and would let us sleep there if we didn’t have any other options (even though it was against her program’s rules).
The hour long bus ride to Florence was filled with lots of nervous tension. Each of us tried to sleep as we weren’t sure what we were going to do when we arrived. There was this super annoying girl on the bus who was from Boston but studying abroad in Galway. She was having a conversation with the guy sitting next to her, but she might as well have been telling stories to the entire bus she was talking so loud. Apparently Galway is the best city in Ireland. And, everything is so awesome, like seriously. Ugh.
We finally arrived in Florence at 2am. Amanda met us at the bus station and, super nervous, the five of us walked to the hostel together. It took so much effort for us to keep our tempers under control, especially because we had an email from an employee of Eurostudent Home saying they would keep five beds for us. Fearful that arguing would get us kicked out, we kept our mouths shut and let the owner (who was a complete nut) think he was in the right. The hostel could have been decent, but all I could see was everything wrong with it. It was dirty and hot. All the guests we encountered that night were drunk and really into publicly displaying affection for the complete strangers they had met at the clubs. Gradually all five of us made it into Amanda’s three bed bedroom to try an sleep. Amanda and Baz shared an army cot sized bed, Kari and I slept in two chairs in the room, and Kara slept on the floor. I didn’t get much sleep that night, partly because the chair was really uncomfortable, partly because it was so hot in that room, but primarily because there was a drunken girl in one of the other beds who kept coming in and out of the room. The final time she came in she brought a guy with her…I’ll spare you the details. I have never felt so disgusting in my life. All I could think was I wish I had stayed in Dublin with my parents.
I could not get out of that hostel fast enough the next morning. That whole night I had been sending up prayers asking God to please provide somewhere else for us to stay because there was no way I was going to stay there ever again. Steph was a lifesaver that morning! She recommended Hotel Orchidea Locanda, a budget hotel, and at 9am Kari and I set out to find it. We hadn’t showered, we’d been sweating all night, and we were dead tired. Any other country and I would have just felt gross, but since we were in Italy, probably the most fashionable country in the world, I felt like scum. We wandered around for about a half hour looking for the hotel because I figured it would be better to speak to someone face to face rather than going to an internet café, looking up a phone number and then trying to explain our situation over the phone.
We had nearly given up finding the hotel when we spotted a small sign and doorbell on a building. We anxiously rang the doorbell, entered and building and walked up the stairs. I think Kari and I were both praying as earnestly as ever that there would be five beds open at this place. God answered those prayers! We walked into the cutest, cleanest, Italian decorated lobby and were greeted by this lovely Italian woman. We explained our situation and asked if she had five beds open for Monday and Tuesday night and possibly Thursday and Friday night. Like I said, there was no way we were going to spend another night in the Eurostudent Home. Praise the Lord she had five beds open for each of those nights! The first two nights she had two single rooms and a triple available for us. The second two nights she had a quad and a single open for us. We were ecstatic! Even more exciting was the fact that she let us check in early and use the showers that morning. This place was 1000 times better than the hostel and it was only going to cost us 4 euro more per night.
Things looking up, Kari and I quickly walked back to the hostel to tell the other girls and grab our suitcases and get out of there as quickly as possible. I wasn’t able to get my deposit back from the hostel, but I was more than willing to eat that cost. All of us agreed that the nightmare of that first night was actually a blessing in disguise because it led us to our fabulous hotel.
Even though we were all exhausted from that very long first night, we quickly showered and set out for a day of adventures and sight-seeing in Florence. It was a beautiful day for it – sun shining and about 70 degrees. Our first stop was an Italian café called Cucciolo for lunch. I had a delicious pizza Mediterranea with fresh olives, peppers and tomatoes and lots of mozzarella cheese. Italians definitely know how to do their pizza. After lunch we decided to head to a market Kari and I had passed while searching for the hotel, but along the way we stumbled upon Festival del Gelato. I had been emailing Stephanie about my trip to Florence and she told me not to hold back when it came to gelato, so I just obeyed her orders and got my first cup of gelato. My first three flavours were banana, cappuccino and Nutella. So creamy and delectable!
Gelato in hand we headed to the market so Kari could find a designer bag. From there we walked to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral in Florence in Piazza del Duomo with the signature dome designed by Brunelleschi. Across from the cathedral is the baptistery with its golden doors designed by Ghiberti. The exterior of both the cathedral and baptistery is very ornate – Gothic style of architecture and built out of a variety of colours of marble. The interior of the cathedral was a lot less impressive than what the exterior had led me to believe, but it was still beautiful. We spent only a few minutes inside the cathedral and then joined the line to climb hundreds of steps to the top of the dome. That’s right mom, I conquered my fear of heights…well maybe not conquered, but I did it. That’s not to say that my palms weren’t sweating and I wasn’t shaking, especially when we had to walk around the inside of the dome on a super narrow walkway. It was a long hike up to the top, but one well worth it. The views of Florence and the surrounding hills of Tuscany were breathtaking! After a long climb down, our next stop was the baptistery. The interior was stunning with its mosaic ceiling depicting numerous stories from the Bible. Amanda, Kari and I sat on the benches with our heads tilted back trying to take it all in.
In need of a break, we walked back to the hotel for a bit and then down the street to an Irish pub to use their Wi-Fi. We sat outside people watching for about a half-hour before picking ourselves back up and walking to another Piazza in the city. In this Piazza there was a huge clock tower, a fountain with a huge Neptune sculpture and lots of replicas of other famous sculptures, including The David. We spent some time here taking pictures of each other imitating various sculptures. From the piazza we walked to the River Arno and across Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence, and then up another hundred stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo. Piazzale Michelangelo is a lookout point that looks over the city of Florence. This was probably my favourite place in Florence, especially since we watched the sun set from there. As I sat there taking in the view, I was so thankful that God had blessed me with this amazing opportunity to spend spring break in Italy and that He had brought us there safely and had provided a comfortable place to stay. Oh Italy, how I love thee!
After watching the sun set we walked back across the river to our hotel. Earlier in the day we had gone to a market down the street and bought bread, salami, lettuce, strawberries, Prosecco and other treats for dinner. We just hung out in the triple room for a couple hours, and, exhausted, we went to bed early, excited for everything our next day in Italy held!
Tuesday, April 14:
We awoke to another perfectly blue, sun-lit sky on Tuesday with temperatures in the 70s again. A perfect day for a bike tour of Tuscany! Unfortunately, the bike tour would have to wait until Friday because of a slight mix-up. We were told to go to the wrong meeting place for the tour. When we discovered the error, Baz and I sprinted along the River Arno to the right location, but we were too late. I’ll be honest, I was pretty upset about the mix-up, but knowing that I only had this one week in Italy, I wasn’t going to let it ruin my day. So instead of doing the bike tour, we spent the day going through the Uffizi museum and the Galleria Academia, seeing some of the most famous paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance, including the Birth of Venus and my favourite, Michelangelo’s David. I think most people say this, but it was way bigger than I realized. The sculpture towers over everything in the gallery. The detail in this gigantic sculpture was astonishing; Michelangelo thought of everything, like the veins in David’s hands and arms.
Having had our fill of history and art, we went back to the hotel to get spruced up for dinner. I finally got to see Steph that night and thank her for saving us that first day in Florence. It was so good to catch up with her, to hear all about her experience in Italy, and to see where she’s been living and studying, as well as meet her roommates. For dinner, Steph took us to a quaint, reasonably priced Italian restaurant called Anita’s. I had a special kind of spaghetti with a couple glasses of the vino bianco de la casa and some tiramisu for dessert. As if that wasn’t enough, we decided to go to Festival del Gelato again for our daily dose of gelato. On our way there we stopped in a church where the organist was giving a “concert.” We walked to Piazza del Republica to eat our gelato and listen to this Italian street band. We also rode the carousel in the piazza after finishing our gelato. I felt like such a kid, but it was so much fun! What a great day!
Wednesday, April 15:
Another warm and sunny day in Italy…perfect for walking around Rome! We got up early enough to catch a 7:49am train to Rome for a night (a roundtrip ticket was 84 euro!!). We arrived in Rome at about 9:30 after a picturesque train ride through the Italian countryside. I would love to live in a villa there! It was so beautiful!
From the train station in Rome, we took a bus to Piazza Fiume and then walked to our awesome B&B, L’Incanto di Roma. I had been praying over and over on the train ride that the B&B would be nothing like that first night in the hostel, and God blessed us again! The B&B was perfect. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by the owner, Laura. She thought of everything for us – maps, bus numbers, metro instructions, and guide books. The house itself was super clean and very organized. When Laura was showing us the kitchen, she discovered that none of us had experienced Italian coffee yet, so she sat us down and made us each a cup. It was really strong, but I think I actually like it better than American coffee. Another huge plus was the free internet access. I will definitely be staying at this B&B the next time I’m in Rome.
Knowing we only had a little more than twenty-four hours in Rome, we didn’t waste anytime getting settled in and then embarking on our tour. We hadn’t really eaten breakfast though, so our first stop was lunch at a small restaurant down the street that Laura had recommended. I had four-cheese pasta here.
From the restaurant, we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to the Pantheon. Kari’s aunt happened to be in Rome the same day as us, so we had to walk past the Pantheon and head straight for Piazza Navona. I loved this piazza. It was buzzing with tourists, school groups and Italians. There were a number of restaurants with outdoor tables scattered around the perimeter of the piazza. The piazza itself contains a couple of fountains. Art dealers also set up various stands in the middle of the piazza. Kari met her aunt here for a few minutes while the rest of us ate gelato and enjoyed the music from an Italian accordion player. This is when it hit me that I was actually in Italy fulfilling my dream of travelling there some day!
The rest of the day was spent walking around Rome to the major sites and attractions, such as the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, and Palatine Hill. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to, I think I would say Palatine Hill. The most exciting part of the day though, was walking around the corner to Piazza Venezia and seeing the Coliseum just down the road. We all stopped in our tracks and stood there with our jaws down to the ground. We paid for a guided tour of both the Coliseum and Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is where the ruins of all the emperors’ palaces are. It was so cool walking on that hill knowing I was walking where the likes of Julius Caesar had walked, I was taking in the same view (give or take a few buildings) that the emperors took in. Awesome!
With sore and dirty feet, we walked to the bus stop and took the bus back to our B&B. We washed up a bit and then went out for dinner. I think we ate at an Italian mafia restaurant or something. It was so sketchy and we were the only people eating there until this other guy wandered in by himself. The owner/waiter practically threw our food down on the table. It was just really weird, and the food wasn’t all that great, but it was cheap so I couldn’t complain too much. After dinner, we of course made another gelato stop before going back to the hotel. We watched a Christina Aguilera concert on TV before calling it a night. It felt like such a long day in Rome with all the walking we did, but when you only have two days in such a huge and historic city, that’s the way it has to be!
Thursday, April 16:
We were up really early on Thursday because we had to pack up, check out of our B&B, go to the train station to store our luggage and then take the metro to the Vatican City to see the Pope (except we didn’t actually see him, just the place where he lives). We paid 35 euro for a guided tour of the Vatican museum. I’m pretty sure it was a rip off, but I guess it was worth it not to have to stand in line for hours. Before the tour, we grabbed a light breakfast at a café. I ordered hot chocolate and got hot chocolate pudding. It was delicious, especially dipping my crème-filled croissant in it. Not exactly a healthy breakfast, but oh well!
The Vatican Museum is humongous! We barely even scratched the surface on our tour, but we did get to see some of the highlights: various works by Raphael and Da Vinci, a purple marble royal bathtub, the Pinecone Courtyard, the Hall of Maps, and the Sistine Chapel. The chapel wasn’t exactly how I had imagined it, but it was still spectacular. I got kind of frustrated going through the chapel because people were being so loud and disrespectful, and they were taking pictures, which was strictly prohibited. I think that the Sistine Chapel is something you should have to make a journey to see for yourself.
When we finished our tour of the museum, we exited into St. Peter’s Square and then went into St. Peter’s Basilica. This, too, is humongous! I didn’t know where to look half the time there was just so much to take in. Pictures were allowed here, so I took as many as I could because I know Grandma and Grandpa would love to see this place. St. Peter’s Square was still set up for Easter. It would have been awesome to be there on Easter Sunday, but I’ll have to save that for the next time I visit I guess.
From the Basilica we took the metro to the Spanish Steps where we also ate our lunch (although not while sitting on the steps because that is no longer allowed). I ate the messiest pizza ever. Seriously, I felt like a child on her first birthday with cake all over her face and hands and arms and everywhere, except this time it was pizza cheese, sauce and grease. I had to take a few minutes to get cleaned up before walking to Trevi Fountain. We made sure to take out our coins before getting to the fountain because there are a lot of pick-pockets there. I threw in three coins at the fountain – one for me, one for my parents and one for my Italian roommate Laura.
All of our site-seeing done, we walked to the nearest metro station, stopping for gelato on the way. We caught the 5:30 train back to Florence (another beautiful ride, which I spent listening to some Chris Tomlin songs while being super thankful that I got to go to Italy) and walked back to our hotel in the pouring rain. Feeling cold and tired, I stayed in for the rest of the night. A couple of the girls walked to a café to grab some dinner. When they got back, we started to watch Wedding Crashers, but I fell asleep almost instantly.
Friday, April 17:
We successfully found the meeting point for the Tuscany Bike Tour at 10am on Friday. The guides – Mary from San Diego, Keith from Dublin and Erin from Texas – were awesome and the day was definitely worth the 60 euro we paid for the tour. The tour started across the River Arno where we were picked up in vans and driven to a castle in Tuscany. The castle is also a winery, which we got to take a tour of. The tour included samples of the winery’s signature chianti wine and their award-winning olive oil. Delicious!
We then got our bikes (mine was named Lance Armstrong) and began our ride through the Tuscan hills. It had been a little bit rainy during our tour of the winery, but thankfully it cleared up and we were cleared to ride. Tuscany is just as beautiful as everyone claims it to be. I wish I could put its beauty into words for you. Our first stop on the bike ride was this small, roadside Italian restaurant. We had the most amazing Italian feast there. For appetizers we had bread with olive oil and fried pizza crust. Then we had salad with the reddest, freshest tomatoes I’ve ever seen or tasted. Following that was my entrée of Tuscan soup and then fresh fruit with whipped cream for dessert. Of course there was plenty of red wine throughout the meal and a cappuccino to top off the meal. Good thing I didn’t drink too much because we still had over half the bike ride to go! The rest of the ride was either flat or steep (14% and 17% 1km hill). Baz and I were the only two from our group to attempt the ride up the hill. I was doing alright until this girl stopped dead in front of me. After stopping it was nearly impossible to get going again! I walked for a bit and then eventually got back on the bike to finish the hill. At the top of the hill we stopped for refreshments and then finished our ride back at the castle. At times it was hard to take in the scenery when you’re so focused on staying on your bike and the road, but this was a great way to see Tuscany!
Since it was our last night in Italy, we decided to go somewhere a little nicer and more expensive for dinner. Stephanie recommended Gusta Panino, a small, family-run restaurant. The service was great and the food was amazing. I had the best gnocchi I’ve ever eaten. And my pork, mixed salad and wine were delicious too! We also had complimentary Prosecco to start our meal, which is one of my favourite drinks. At the end of the meal, Amanda and Kara tried Grappa, a drink we had learned about on our wine tour. Basically, it’s 45% alcohol. They both finished their small glasses, but with disgusted facial expressions. Kudos to them for trying and finishing it!
After dinner we made our last stop for gelato. It might be my imagination, but I’m pretty sure that gelato was the best of the whole trip. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at Stephanie’s apartment to hang out for a bit, to thank her for showing us around and all the travel tips, and to say goodbye. I couldn’t believe that she only had six days left in Florence before going back to the States! I’m going to be freaking out when it comes down to that for me!
Saturday, April 18:
Saturday morning we slept in as we were all tired out from such a full week. We then packed up, did some quick souvenir shopping and then went to the bus station to catch our bus back to the Pisa airport. The rest of the day was spent in some form of public transportation. Our trip ended almost the same way it started in that the 12:20 bus from Dublin to Belfast didn’t show up until 1:20. By that time so many people had gotten in line that we were afraid we weren’t going to get on the bus. We did and finally got back to campus at 4am. Such a long day!
I LOVE ITALY!
Here’s how the week went:
Monday, April 13:
Our flight arrived in Pisa, Italy at about 11:40pm on Sunday, April 12, which gave us more than enough time to get our checked bags and make our way to the bus stop to catch the 12:20am bus to Florence. To my very unpleasant surprise, I had a text from Amanda waiting for me when I got off the plane. It read, “Call me AS SOON AS you get off the plane. Emergency with our reservations.” That was the start of my travelling nightmare. When I called her, I found out that the Eurostudent Home hostel in Florence had screwed up our reservations and didn’t hold five beds for us. Instead they only had one left, which thankfully Amanda had arrived early enough to claim. To make matters worse, the owner was a complete jerk and had been arguing with and yelling at Amanda and was threatening to bar us from staying there the rest of the week. That part wasn’t my biggest concern, though. If he didn’t let us crash on the floor in the hostel, we were going to be sleeping on the streets that first night! Thankfully, Stephanie Carroll, a friend from Grove City, was studying abroad in Florence. I gave her a call once we got on the bus (which I’ll remind you was supposed to leave at 12:20am, but didn’t actually leave until 1am) and luckily her roommates had stayed in Florence for the weekend and would let us sleep there if we didn’t have any other options (even though it was against her program’s rules).
The hour long bus ride to Florence was filled with lots of nervous tension. Each of us tried to sleep as we weren’t sure what we were going to do when we arrived. There was this super annoying girl on the bus who was from Boston but studying abroad in Galway. She was having a conversation with the guy sitting next to her, but she might as well have been telling stories to the entire bus she was talking so loud. Apparently Galway is the best city in Ireland. And, everything is so awesome, like seriously. Ugh.
We finally arrived in Florence at 2am. Amanda met us at the bus station and, super nervous, the five of us walked to the hostel together. It took so much effort for us to keep our tempers under control, especially because we had an email from an employee of Eurostudent Home saying they would keep five beds for us. Fearful that arguing would get us kicked out, we kept our mouths shut and let the owner (who was a complete nut) think he was in the right. The hostel could have been decent, but all I could see was everything wrong with it. It was dirty and hot. All the guests we encountered that night were drunk and really into publicly displaying affection for the complete strangers they had met at the clubs. Gradually all five of us made it into Amanda’s three bed bedroom to try an sleep. Amanda and Baz shared an army cot sized bed, Kari and I slept in two chairs in the room, and Kara slept on the floor. I didn’t get much sleep that night, partly because the chair was really uncomfortable, partly because it was so hot in that room, but primarily because there was a drunken girl in one of the other beds who kept coming in and out of the room. The final time she came in she brought a guy with her…I’ll spare you the details. I have never felt so disgusting in my life. All I could think was I wish I had stayed in Dublin with my parents.
I could not get out of that hostel fast enough the next morning. That whole night I had been sending up prayers asking God to please provide somewhere else for us to stay because there was no way I was going to stay there ever again. Steph was a lifesaver that morning! She recommended Hotel Orchidea Locanda, a budget hotel, and at 9am Kari and I set out to find it. We hadn’t showered, we’d been sweating all night, and we were dead tired. Any other country and I would have just felt gross, but since we were in Italy, probably the most fashionable country in the world, I felt like scum. We wandered around for about a half hour looking for the hotel because I figured it would be better to speak to someone face to face rather than going to an internet café, looking up a phone number and then trying to explain our situation over the phone.
We had nearly given up finding the hotel when we spotted a small sign and doorbell on a building. We anxiously rang the doorbell, entered and building and walked up the stairs. I think Kari and I were both praying as earnestly as ever that there would be five beds open at this place. God answered those prayers! We walked into the cutest, cleanest, Italian decorated lobby and were greeted by this lovely Italian woman. We explained our situation and asked if she had five beds open for Monday and Tuesday night and possibly Thursday and Friday night. Like I said, there was no way we were going to spend another night in the Eurostudent Home. Praise the Lord she had five beds open for each of those nights! The first two nights she had two single rooms and a triple available for us. The second two nights she had a quad and a single open for us. We were ecstatic! Even more exciting was the fact that she let us check in early and use the showers that morning. This place was 1000 times better than the hostel and it was only going to cost us 4 euro more per night.
Things looking up, Kari and I quickly walked back to the hostel to tell the other girls and grab our suitcases and get out of there as quickly as possible. I wasn’t able to get my deposit back from the hostel, but I was more than willing to eat that cost. All of us agreed that the nightmare of that first night was actually a blessing in disguise because it led us to our fabulous hotel.
Even though we were all exhausted from that very long first night, we quickly showered and set out for a day of adventures and sight-seeing in Florence. It was a beautiful day for it – sun shining and about 70 degrees. Our first stop was an Italian café called Cucciolo for lunch. I had a delicious pizza Mediterranea with fresh olives, peppers and tomatoes and lots of mozzarella cheese. Italians definitely know how to do their pizza. After lunch we decided to head to a market Kari and I had passed while searching for the hotel, but along the way we stumbled upon Festival del Gelato. I had been emailing Stephanie about my trip to Florence and she told me not to hold back when it came to gelato, so I just obeyed her orders and got my first cup of gelato. My first three flavours were banana, cappuccino and Nutella. So creamy and delectable!
Gelato in hand we headed to the market so Kari could find a designer bag. From there we walked to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral in Florence in Piazza del Duomo with the signature dome designed by Brunelleschi. Across from the cathedral is the baptistery with its golden doors designed by Ghiberti. The exterior of both the cathedral and baptistery is very ornate – Gothic style of architecture and built out of a variety of colours of marble. The interior of the cathedral was a lot less impressive than what the exterior had led me to believe, but it was still beautiful. We spent only a few minutes inside the cathedral and then joined the line to climb hundreds of steps to the top of the dome. That’s right mom, I conquered my fear of heights…well maybe not conquered, but I did it. That’s not to say that my palms weren’t sweating and I wasn’t shaking, especially when we had to walk around the inside of the dome on a super narrow walkway. It was a long hike up to the top, but one well worth it. The views of Florence and the surrounding hills of Tuscany were breathtaking! After a long climb down, our next stop was the baptistery. The interior was stunning with its mosaic ceiling depicting numerous stories from the Bible. Amanda, Kari and I sat on the benches with our heads tilted back trying to take it all in.
In need of a break, we walked back to the hotel for a bit and then down the street to an Irish pub to use their Wi-Fi. We sat outside people watching for about a half-hour before picking ourselves back up and walking to another Piazza in the city. In this Piazza there was a huge clock tower, a fountain with a huge Neptune sculpture and lots of replicas of other famous sculptures, including The David. We spent some time here taking pictures of each other imitating various sculptures. From the piazza we walked to the River Arno and across Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence, and then up another hundred stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo. Piazzale Michelangelo is a lookout point that looks over the city of Florence. This was probably my favourite place in Florence, especially since we watched the sun set from there. As I sat there taking in the view, I was so thankful that God had blessed me with this amazing opportunity to spend spring break in Italy and that He had brought us there safely and had provided a comfortable place to stay. Oh Italy, how I love thee!
After watching the sun set we walked back across the river to our hotel. Earlier in the day we had gone to a market down the street and bought bread, salami, lettuce, strawberries, Prosecco and other treats for dinner. We just hung out in the triple room for a couple hours, and, exhausted, we went to bed early, excited for everything our next day in Italy held!
Tuesday, April 14:
We awoke to another perfectly blue, sun-lit sky on Tuesday with temperatures in the 70s again. A perfect day for a bike tour of Tuscany! Unfortunately, the bike tour would have to wait until Friday because of a slight mix-up. We were told to go to the wrong meeting place for the tour. When we discovered the error, Baz and I sprinted along the River Arno to the right location, but we were too late. I’ll be honest, I was pretty upset about the mix-up, but knowing that I only had this one week in Italy, I wasn’t going to let it ruin my day. So instead of doing the bike tour, we spent the day going through the Uffizi museum and the Galleria Academia, seeing some of the most famous paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance, including the Birth of Venus and my favourite, Michelangelo’s David. I think most people say this, but it was way bigger than I realized. The sculpture towers over everything in the gallery. The detail in this gigantic sculpture was astonishing; Michelangelo thought of everything, like the veins in David’s hands and arms.
Having had our fill of history and art, we went back to the hotel to get spruced up for dinner. I finally got to see Steph that night and thank her for saving us that first day in Florence. It was so good to catch up with her, to hear all about her experience in Italy, and to see where she’s been living and studying, as well as meet her roommates. For dinner, Steph took us to a quaint, reasonably priced Italian restaurant called Anita’s. I had a special kind of spaghetti with a couple glasses of the vino bianco de la casa and some tiramisu for dessert. As if that wasn’t enough, we decided to go to Festival del Gelato again for our daily dose of gelato. On our way there we stopped in a church where the organist was giving a “concert.” We walked to Piazza del Republica to eat our gelato and listen to this Italian street band. We also rode the carousel in the piazza after finishing our gelato. I felt like such a kid, but it was so much fun! What a great day!
Wednesday, April 15:
Another warm and sunny day in Italy…perfect for walking around Rome! We got up early enough to catch a 7:49am train to Rome for a night (a roundtrip ticket was 84 euro!!). We arrived in Rome at about 9:30 after a picturesque train ride through the Italian countryside. I would love to live in a villa there! It was so beautiful!
From the train station in Rome, we took a bus to Piazza Fiume and then walked to our awesome B&B, L’Incanto di Roma. I had been praying over and over on the train ride that the B&B would be nothing like that first night in the hostel, and God blessed us again! The B&B was perfect. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by the owner, Laura. She thought of everything for us – maps, bus numbers, metro instructions, and guide books. The house itself was super clean and very organized. When Laura was showing us the kitchen, she discovered that none of us had experienced Italian coffee yet, so she sat us down and made us each a cup. It was really strong, but I think I actually like it better than American coffee. Another huge plus was the free internet access. I will definitely be staying at this B&B the next time I’m in Rome.
Knowing we only had a little more than twenty-four hours in Rome, we didn’t waste anytime getting settled in and then embarking on our tour. We hadn’t really eaten breakfast though, so our first stop was lunch at a small restaurant down the street that Laura had recommended. I had four-cheese pasta here.
From the restaurant, we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to the Pantheon. Kari’s aunt happened to be in Rome the same day as us, so we had to walk past the Pantheon and head straight for Piazza Navona. I loved this piazza. It was buzzing with tourists, school groups and Italians. There were a number of restaurants with outdoor tables scattered around the perimeter of the piazza. The piazza itself contains a couple of fountains. Art dealers also set up various stands in the middle of the piazza. Kari met her aunt here for a few minutes while the rest of us ate gelato and enjoyed the music from an Italian accordion player. This is when it hit me that I was actually in Italy fulfilling my dream of travelling there some day!
The rest of the day was spent walking around Rome to the major sites and attractions, such as the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, and Palatine Hill. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to, I think I would say Palatine Hill. The most exciting part of the day though, was walking around the corner to Piazza Venezia and seeing the Coliseum just down the road. We all stopped in our tracks and stood there with our jaws down to the ground. We paid for a guided tour of both the Coliseum and Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is where the ruins of all the emperors’ palaces are. It was so cool walking on that hill knowing I was walking where the likes of Julius Caesar had walked, I was taking in the same view (give or take a few buildings) that the emperors took in. Awesome!
With sore and dirty feet, we walked to the bus stop and took the bus back to our B&B. We washed up a bit and then went out for dinner. I think we ate at an Italian mafia restaurant or something. It was so sketchy and we were the only people eating there until this other guy wandered in by himself. The owner/waiter practically threw our food down on the table. It was just really weird, and the food wasn’t all that great, but it was cheap so I couldn’t complain too much. After dinner, we of course made another gelato stop before going back to the hotel. We watched a Christina Aguilera concert on TV before calling it a night. It felt like such a long day in Rome with all the walking we did, but when you only have two days in such a huge and historic city, that’s the way it has to be!
Thursday, April 16:
We were up really early on Thursday because we had to pack up, check out of our B&B, go to the train station to store our luggage and then take the metro to the Vatican City to see the Pope (except we didn’t actually see him, just the place where he lives). We paid 35 euro for a guided tour of the Vatican museum. I’m pretty sure it was a rip off, but I guess it was worth it not to have to stand in line for hours. Before the tour, we grabbed a light breakfast at a café. I ordered hot chocolate and got hot chocolate pudding. It was delicious, especially dipping my crème-filled croissant in it. Not exactly a healthy breakfast, but oh well!
The Vatican Museum is humongous! We barely even scratched the surface on our tour, but we did get to see some of the highlights: various works by Raphael and Da Vinci, a purple marble royal bathtub, the Pinecone Courtyard, the Hall of Maps, and the Sistine Chapel. The chapel wasn’t exactly how I had imagined it, but it was still spectacular. I got kind of frustrated going through the chapel because people were being so loud and disrespectful, and they were taking pictures, which was strictly prohibited. I think that the Sistine Chapel is something you should have to make a journey to see for yourself.
When we finished our tour of the museum, we exited into St. Peter’s Square and then went into St. Peter’s Basilica. This, too, is humongous! I didn’t know where to look half the time there was just so much to take in. Pictures were allowed here, so I took as many as I could because I know Grandma and Grandpa would love to see this place. St. Peter’s Square was still set up for Easter. It would have been awesome to be there on Easter Sunday, but I’ll have to save that for the next time I visit I guess.
From the Basilica we took the metro to the Spanish Steps where we also ate our lunch (although not while sitting on the steps because that is no longer allowed). I ate the messiest pizza ever. Seriously, I felt like a child on her first birthday with cake all over her face and hands and arms and everywhere, except this time it was pizza cheese, sauce and grease. I had to take a few minutes to get cleaned up before walking to Trevi Fountain. We made sure to take out our coins before getting to the fountain because there are a lot of pick-pockets there. I threw in three coins at the fountain – one for me, one for my parents and one for my Italian roommate Laura.
All of our site-seeing done, we walked to the nearest metro station, stopping for gelato on the way. We caught the 5:30 train back to Florence (another beautiful ride, which I spent listening to some Chris Tomlin songs while being super thankful that I got to go to Italy) and walked back to our hotel in the pouring rain. Feeling cold and tired, I stayed in for the rest of the night. A couple of the girls walked to a café to grab some dinner. When they got back, we started to watch Wedding Crashers, but I fell asleep almost instantly.
Friday, April 17:
We successfully found the meeting point for the Tuscany Bike Tour at 10am on Friday. The guides – Mary from San Diego, Keith from Dublin and Erin from Texas – were awesome and the day was definitely worth the 60 euro we paid for the tour. The tour started across the River Arno where we were picked up in vans and driven to a castle in Tuscany. The castle is also a winery, which we got to take a tour of. The tour included samples of the winery’s signature chianti wine and their award-winning olive oil. Delicious!
We then got our bikes (mine was named Lance Armstrong) and began our ride through the Tuscan hills. It had been a little bit rainy during our tour of the winery, but thankfully it cleared up and we were cleared to ride. Tuscany is just as beautiful as everyone claims it to be. I wish I could put its beauty into words for you. Our first stop on the bike ride was this small, roadside Italian restaurant. We had the most amazing Italian feast there. For appetizers we had bread with olive oil and fried pizza crust. Then we had salad with the reddest, freshest tomatoes I’ve ever seen or tasted. Following that was my entrée of Tuscan soup and then fresh fruit with whipped cream for dessert. Of course there was plenty of red wine throughout the meal and a cappuccino to top off the meal. Good thing I didn’t drink too much because we still had over half the bike ride to go! The rest of the ride was either flat or steep (14% and 17% 1km hill). Baz and I were the only two from our group to attempt the ride up the hill. I was doing alright until this girl stopped dead in front of me. After stopping it was nearly impossible to get going again! I walked for a bit and then eventually got back on the bike to finish the hill. At the top of the hill we stopped for refreshments and then finished our ride back at the castle. At times it was hard to take in the scenery when you’re so focused on staying on your bike and the road, but this was a great way to see Tuscany!
Since it was our last night in Italy, we decided to go somewhere a little nicer and more expensive for dinner. Stephanie recommended Gusta Panino, a small, family-run restaurant. The service was great and the food was amazing. I had the best gnocchi I’ve ever eaten. And my pork, mixed salad and wine were delicious too! We also had complimentary Prosecco to start our meal, which is one of my favourite drinks. At the end of the meal, Amanda and Kara tried Grappa, a drink we had learned about on our wine tour. Basically, it’s 45% alcohol. They both finished their small glasses, but with disgusted facial expressions. Kudos to them for trying and finishing it!
After dinner we made our last stop for gelato. It might be my imagination, but I’m pretty sure that gelato was the best of the whole trip. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at Stephanie’s apartment to hang out for a bit, to thank her for showing us around and all the travel tips, and to say goodbye. I couldn’t believe that she only had six days left in Florence before going back to the States! I’m going to be freaking out when it comes down to that for me!
Saturday, April 18:
Saturday morning we slept in as we were all tired out from such a full week. We then packed up, did some quick souvenir shopping and then went to the bus station to catch our bus back to the Pisa airport. The rest of the day was spent in some form of public transportation. Our trip ended almost the same way it started in that the 12:20 bus from Dublin to Belfast didn’t show up until 1:20. By that time so many people had gotten in line that we were afraid we weren’t going to get on the bus. We did and finally got back to campus at 4am. Such a long day!
I LOVE ITALY!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Easter Break: Week 1...
My Easter break started at 6:30AM on Sunday, April 5 when a taxi picked me up and drove me to the Europa Bus Centre in Belfast. From there, I caught a bus to the Dublin Airport where I met up with my dear GCC roommate and best friend Laura! It was so good to finally see a familiar face from home! The whole bus ride to Dublin I kept thinking to myself how I couldn’t believe Easter break was already here. I had been looking forward to this break for so long!
As soon as Laura got off the plane, we immediately walked to the buses to catch a bus into Dublin City Centre because we had a free walking tour of the city to catch. After a quick walk across the River Liffey to Abigail’s hostel, our accommodation for the night, we walked to City Hall to catch the tour. There were hundreds of people waiting for the tour, undoubtedly because it was a beautiful spring day in Ireland. Our tour group consisted of about thirty people and our wonderful guide, Daniel, or as Laura and I like to call him, Dahnny Boy. The tour was great! We saw all the major site in Dublin, including Dublin Castle, Dubh Linn, the medieval walls, Viking remains, Norman and Georgian Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, Adam and Eve Church, the National Library, Temple Bar, U2’s restaurant and hotel, as well as the site of their first performance in Dublin, Ha’Penny and O’Connell Bridges, Spire of Dublin, City Hall, Trinity College, Leinster House, St. Stephen’s Green, and the site of the 1916 Easter Rising. Whew! The best part, other than Dahnny Boy’s stories, was that all of it was free. Of all the sites, St. Stephen’s Green and Trinity College were my favourites, perhaps because they were the only green parts in this thriving city of pavement and concrete.
Laura made it through this three hour tour having not slept a wink on her flight across the Atlantic, so we decided to head back to our hostel to get settled in and take a short nap. After our nap, we headed back outside to browse some souvenir shops and grab some dinner. We quickly discovered that everything in Dublin is ridiculously expensive! For example, because Laura was craving a burger and fries, we decided to check out TGI Fridays; the entrees were all over 20 Euro! We finally found this 1950s American diner and had some cheap, but delicious, burgers there. After dinner, we wandered through Temple Bar hoping to find some live traditional Irish music. Unable to find any, we stopped at a Spar to buy a couple drinks to enjoy at the hostel later. When we got back to the hostel, we took some time to check emails and watch TV. Some of the other guests at the hostel decided to put in the Simpsons Movie. That movie, or at least the part of it I watched, is so random. We decided to go up to our room to enjoy our drinks before bed, but that plan was foiled as neither of us had a bottle opener. Instead, we threw on our pajamas and climbed into bed. Both of us had some trouble sleeping as a couple of the girls had the light on for a while so that they could read before bed. Another girl from Spain snored all night long. At one point, Laura tried to nudge her to get her to stop and the girl woke up! She immediately asked Laura what was going on so Laura had to try and explain to her that she was snoring. The language barrier was a bit of an issue and the only way Laura could explain what snoring was was to make the snoring noise – honk-sh, honk-sh. It was comical to say the least!
Monday morning was really exciting. We ate breakfast at the hostel and then dashed to the bus to get back to the Dublin airport where we met mom and dad! It was so good to see them. Mom cried just like I knew she would. Dad’s hug felt so good.
We had a lot of ground to cover that first day, so our reunion was pretty brief. We spent about an hour and a half dealing with the car rental. First, we waited in line for a long time. Then we had to wait some more while dad got his bearings sitting in the driver’s seat on the right side of the car instead of the left. I can’t tell you how many times he walked to the wrong side of the car to get in the driver seat. One time, he had to parallel park. That was quite the production. Apparently he got really used to driving on the left side of the road, however, because mom told me he drove on the wrong side of the road just the other day when they were back in the States…oops! We also had to wait a bit while we programmed the GPS. We named her Gaelica. She was worth every penny and saved us from getting completely lost and wasting tons of time. Oh Gaelica!
Anyhow, the first day we drove from Dublin to Kilkenny. We stopped in Kilkenny for a few hours to see the castle there, as well as the Dominican Black Abbey and another very old church there. We had lunch when we first arrived at this Irish sandwich café. It was there that Laura fell in love with sweet chilli chicken. After touring the castle and before checking out the churches, I made sure Laura, mom and dad all had their first taste of tea and scones. We ended up having tea and scones for lunch the rest of the week they liked it so much!
From Kilkenny we drove on the first of many windy, narrow Irish roads farther south through Waterford to Tramore. Originally, we had planned to tour the Waterford Crystal Factory, but it has closed its doors forever, so those plans fell through. We stayed at a decent hostel in Tramore on Monday. Laura, mom and dad were all really tired from their flights and jet-lag, so we ordered a couple pizzas for delivery and called it a night early.
Tuesday we drove along the southern coast of Ireland from Tramore to Cobh to Kinsale. We took some time to explore the beach in Tramore in the morning. It was a sunny but very windy morning. A little while into our drive we pulled off the road at a look-out point right on the coast. It was so beautiful! The grass was so green we all thought we were on a golf course. The wind was absolutely crazy, though, nearly blowing us off the cliff and into the crashing waters of the ocean below. In Cobh, we had tea and scones for lunch, explored a huge cathedral, and toured the dock museum. Cobh was the last port of call for the Titanic and the Lusitania. Thousands of Irish immigrants left from Cobh as well. It was an interesting exhibit, but I don’t think I can handle reading about any more boats for a while. Our short trip to Kinsale was slightly disappointing. I’m sure it is a very nice town, but it was pouring rain the entire time we were there, making it pretty miserable. The main reason for going there was to buy myself a Celtic cross made by a company in Kinsale. Having bought that, we loaded back in the car and followed Gaelica’s directions to Killarney.
We made it to Killarney just fine, but had quite the adventure finding Dan Linehan’s B&B and Pub. Someone (ehem…dad) didn’t think to look up the address of the B&B before coming to Ireland and then proceeded to get all mad when we couldn’t find it. At least we were all able to laugh about it after the fact. While we were driving in circles and trying to navigate the one-way streets, however, no one was laughing. Tension was at its highest.
Once we finally found it, we quickly unloaded the car and made ourselves at home in our very nice, very clean bedrooms (Laura and I had a room all to ourselves…fun to be had later) and then walked down the street to Squire’s Pub for some pub grub for dinner. Laura and I both had shepherd’s pie. Mom and dad had equally Irish meals and some wine and a Guinness. After dinner, we walked back to the B&B and Pub, enjoyed some Jameson and Cranberry and then went to our rooms to veg in front of the TV – we found an episode of the European version of Law and Order!
The next morning we were up fairly early for our full Irish breakfast at 8:30am. It was so good! We had bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, toast with jam, tea, and white and black pudding. We were all a bit leery of the black pudding, and for good reason – they put blood in it to give it its black colour. As soon as we discovered that, we suddenly didn’t like the black pudding anymore.
Having had our fill for breakfast, we piled into the car and drove to Killarney National Park for what was to be my favourite day of the week. We spent about 7-8 hours hiking through the park. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it was! We were surrounded by fields, mountains, all kinds of vegetation, and a beautiful and calm lake. The weather was perfect – sunny and even kind of warm. We also took a hike to a waterfall and up the trail to the top of it. Laura had a little spill at the waterfall when she tried to bend over to test the temperature of the water and ended up soaking the bottom of her right leg in the water. That was quite comical! We also took a tour of the Muckross House (or Muckruck House as mom likes to call it), which is a huge mansion located on the grounds. For lunch we enjoyed some tea and scones while soaking up the sunlight outside the cafeteria. There were also artistically groomed gardens surrounding the Muckross House, which Laura and I had some fun exploring. When we’d had our fill of hiking, we decided to try to drive further into the park to a lookout point called Lady’s View. We didn’t make it there, however, as the roads got ridiculously narrow and curvy and Laura and I started to feel carsick in the backseat. I think dad was kind of irritated that we told him to turn around, but I’d rather get back in one piece than be crushed by a tour bus hogging the whole road! I really can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that day. To make it complete, we went out for dinner at a crappy restaurant for some mediocre burgers and then Laura and I had a great time hanging out in the hotel room, laughing the night away.
Thursday morning we were up fairly early as well since we had a long drive ahead of us. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and dreary day, which made the day seem very long and somewhat disappointing. The hours upon hours of driving on narrow, windy, curvy, hilly, bumpy Irish roads didn’t help the mood in the car either. We again had our full Irish breakfast before hitting the road to do a driving tour of the Dingle Peninsula – (sing the following, our theme song for the day) dingle, dingle, dingle, hear the sleigh bells ring… The scenery was really beautiful, despite the rain. We got to see plenty of vividly green fields spotted with sheep. We drove through mountains as well and right along the Atlantic Ocean coast. We also stopped at an ancient church built thousands of years ago that, to this day, is a stable building that keeps almost all the rain out. From the Dingle Peninsula, we drove up to the Cliffs of Moher. In order to get there, we had to take a ferry across a bay, which, of course, we missed by just two minutes, leaving us to wait an hour for the next one. The only positive to our delay was that we met a cute guy on the later ferry who was touring Ireland over his Easter break as well. As our discussion continued, we found out he is from northern Minnesota and has been studying for the past three years in Rome to be, yes, you guessed it, a priest. He was way too cute to be a priest! Darn!
Finally across the water, it was another hour’s drive to the Cliffs of Moher. Thank God for Gaelica (the GPS)! She had the most random, middle-of-nowhere roads programmed into her that we never would have found without her directions. The Cliffs of Moher were indeed a beautiful sight, although a bit less majestic than each of us had imagined. We only spent about forty-five minutes taking in the scenery before we had to hit the road again to finish our drive to Galway. Our drive took us on yet some more windy, hilly, narrow roads through The Burren and other parts of the Irish countryside. Laura and I were both feeling pretty nauseous by the time we made it to Galway. Thankfully, we didn’t spend an hour searching for our hotel once we arrived in Galway. Perhaps the luck of the Irish was finally on our side!
We had the best dinner of the entire trip in Galway. We went to the restaurant part of a lively Irish pub. Mom had the biggest plate of fresh battered cod and chips I have ever seen! And her mushy peas were abnormally green. I had a huge bowl of chicken curry. Laura had roast chicken and ham and dad had carbonara. We all had food-babies by the end of that meal; but just to top it off, we decided to get dessert and a couple drinks in the pub while listening to the live music. What a wonderful evening!
The last thing I wanted to do the next morning was eat. I was so incredibly full the night before that I didn’t think my stomach could hold another bite. But, lo and behold, I managed to eat breakfast. After breakfast we spent about an hour walking around Galway before getting back in the car to drive to Derry. Thankfully the driving was much better that day, as we made sure to stick to the main roads, rather than following Gaelica’s directions to take the back roads. We had so much fun on this day’s drive as opposed to the day before. It certainly helps that it was a beautiful day outside. It also helps that we had Laura in the car. When she and I are together you never quite know what to expect! For example, every time we’d drive through a town, our windows would get rolled down and we’d start yelling in made up languages to people on the sidewalks. At one point, Laura was sounding so funny that mom and dad were in tears from laughing! Our only stop on the way to Derry was at the Belleek China and Pottery Factory in Belleek, Northern Ireland. We spent a good three hours there, browsing the gift shop, making plenty of fabulous purchases, watching a documentary on the making of the china, and fulfilling our daily quota of tea and scones.
Upon our arrival in Derry, we checked into our B&B and then embarked on a walk to the inner city and to dinner. After dinner, we did some shopping for souvenirs and then decided to take a stroll on the top of the city walls to get back to our B&B. We were nearly to the gate we had to exit the walls from when we discovered the gate was locked. Suddenly, we were walking at a very brisk pace to get back through the open gates we had already passed. We were all very relieved to find we hadn’t been locked inside! That night we watched The Patriot on television before going to bed.
Saturday was our last day together, as Laura had to fly out on Sunday. I tried not to dwell on that fact though! Since this is a really long post, I’m just going to quickly list the places we went: city walls of Derry, Mussenden Temple, ice cream and tea stop in Portstewart, Dunluce Castle, and the Giant’s Causeway. Fortunately, the nice weather lasted right until we got in the car to leave the Causeway. From the Causeway, we drove to Jordanstown where we stopped at Elsie’s house. Mom and dad stayed at her house for the night, so we had to drop off their suitcases before getting back into the car to drive to Carrickfergus. Elsie took us to dinner at the Wind Rose, which is a casual restaurant right next to the marina in Carrick. It was so nice to introduce Elsie to my parents and for them to be able to thank her for her kindness to me. It was also really nice to be able to show Laura, mom and dad where I’ve been spending my time these last four months. Saturday night Laura and I stayed in my apartment and went to bed pretty early (after I did laundry and finished packing for my trip to Italy the next day!).
At 6:30am on Easter Sunday, Laura had to say goodbye. We had such a great time together, but I think we both miss each other now more than after having had a short reunion. I can’t wait to live with her again next year! After she left, I slept for a couple more hours before mom, dad and Elsie picked me up for a speed-tour of Belfast. Elsie directed us to the Belfast Dry Dock where the Titanic was built. Then she took us into the heart of Belfast so mom and dad could see the Botanic Gardens, Queen’s University and City Hall. Then we drove out to Stormont where the Good Friday Agreement was signed. And finally we drove up to what I call monument hill, a hill that overlooks Belfast Lough, Belfast and its surrounding cities and the university. We had the best weather of the week on Sunday, so the view from the top of the hill was spectacular. There’s a great place for a picnic up there, which I plan to make it back to at some point before the semester is over.
After our speed-tour, we said goodbye to Elsie and then drove to Carrickfergus for Easter service. I’m so glad mom and dad got to be part of my Northern Ireland church family for a day. They got to meet all my friends following the service, which I think they both really enjoyed. They were also really impressed by the full worship band at church – trumpets, piano, flute, violin, drums, bongos and more. I guess it really is impressive!
The only things left to do after church were go back to my apartment to finish packing for Italy, grab lunch at a café in Whiteabbey Village, and then drive down to Dublin Airport to catch my flight to Italy. I have to start writing a paper that is due on Friday, so the details of that trip will have to wait until this weekend.
As soon as Laura got off the plane, we immediately walked to the buses to catch a bus into Dublin City Centre because we had a free walking tour of the city to catch. After a quick walk across the River Liffey to Abigail’s hostel, our accommodation for the night, we walked to City Hall to catch the tour. There were hundreds of people waiting for the tour, undoubtedly because it was a beautiful spring day in Ireland. Our tour group consisted of about thirty people and our wonderful guide, Daniel, or as Laura and I like to call him, Dahnny Boy. The tour was great! We saw all the major site in Dublin, including Dublin Castle, Dubh Linn, the medieval walls, Viking remains, Norman and Georgian Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, Adam and Eve Church, the National Library, Temple Bar, U2’s restaurant and hotel, as well as the site of their first performance in Dublin, Ha’Penny and O’Connell Bridges, Spire of Dublin, City Hall, Trinity College, Leinster House, St. Stephen’s Green, and the site of the 1916 Easter Rising. Whew! The best part, other than Dahnny Boy’s stories, was that all of it was free. Of all the sites, St. Stephen’s Green and Trinity College were my favourites, perhaps because they were the only green parts in this thriving city of pavement and concrete.
Laura made it through this three hour tour having not slept a wink on her flight across the Atlantic, so we decided to head back to our hostel to get settled in and take a short nap. After our nap, we headed back outside to browse some souvenir shops and grab some dinner. We quickly discovered that everything in Dublin is ridiculously expensive! For example, because Laura was craving a burger and fries, we decided to check out TGI Fridays; the entrees were all over 20 Euro! We finally found this 1950s American diner and had some cheap, but delicious, burgers there. After dinner, we wandered through Temple Bar hoping to find some live traditional Irish music. Unable to find any, we stopped at a Spar to buy a couple drinks to enjoy at the hostel later. When we got back to the hostel, we took some time to check emails and watch TV. Some of the other guests at the hostel decided to put in the Simpsons Movie. That movie, or at least the part of it I watched, is so random. We decided to go up to our room to enjoy our drinks before bed, but that plan was foiled as neither of us had a bottle opener. Instead, we threw on our pajamas and climbed into bed. Both of us had some trouble sleeping as a couple of the girls had the light on for a while so that they could read before bed. Another girl from Spain snored all night long. At one point, Laura tried to nudge her to get her to stop and the girl woke up! She immediately asked Laura what was going on so Laura had to try and explain to her that she was snoring. The language barrier was a bit of an issue and the only way Laura could explain what snoring was was to make the snoring noise – honk-sh, honk-sh. It was comical to say the least!
Monday morning was really exciting. We ate breakfast at the hostel and then dashed to the bus to get back to the Dublin airport where we met mom and dad! It was so good to see them. Mom cried just like I knew she would. Dad’s hug felt so good.
We had a lot of ground to cover that first day, so our reunion was pretty brief. We spent about an hour and a half dealing with the car rental. First, we waited in line for a long time. Then we had to wait some more while dad got his bearings sitting in the driver’s seat on the right side of the car instead of the left. I can’t tell you how many times he walked to the wrong side of the car to get in the driver seat. One time, he had to parallel park. That was quite the production. Apparently he got really used to driving on the left side of the road, however, because mom told me he drove on the wrong side of the road just the other day when they were back in the States…oops! We also had to wait a bit while we programmed the GPS. We named her Gaelica. She was worth every penny and saved us from getting completely lost and wasting tons of time. Oh Gaelica!
Anyhow, the first day we drove from Dublin to Kilkenny. We stopped in Kilkenny for a few hours to see the castle there, as well as the Dominican Black Abbey and another very old church there. We had lunch when we first arrived at this Irish sandwich café. It was there that Laura fell in love with sweet chilli chicken. After touring the castle and before checking out the churches, I made sure Laura, mom and dad all had their first taste of tea and scones. We ended up having tea and scones for lunch the rest of the week they liked it so much!
From Kilkenny we drove on the first of many windy, narrow Irish roads farther south through Waterford to Tramore. Originally, we had planned to tour the Waterford Crystal Factory, but it has closed its doors forever, so those plans fell through. We stayed at a decent hostel in Tramore on Monday. Laura, mom and dad were all really tired from their flights and jet-lag, so we ordered a couple pizzas for delivery and called it a night early.
Tuesday we drove along the southern coast of Ireland from Tramore to Cobh to Kinsale. We took some time to explore the beach in Tramore in the morning. It was a sunny but very windy morning. A little while into our drive we pulled off the road at a look-out point right on the coast. It was so beautiful! The grass was so green we all thought we were on a golf course. The wind was absolutely crazy, though, nearly blowing us off the cliff and into the crashing waters of the ocean below. In Cobh, we had tea and scones for lunch, explored a huge cathedral, and toured the dock museum. Cobh was the last port of call for the Titanic and the Lusitania. Thousands of Irish immigrants left from Cobh as well. It was an interesting exhibit, but I don’t think I can handle reading about any more boats for a while. Our short trip to Kinsale was slightly disappointing. I’m sure it is a very nice town, but it was pouring rain the entire time we were there, making it pretty miserable. The main reason for going there was to buy myself a Celtic cross made by a company in Kinsale. Having bought that, we loaded back in the car and followed Gaelica’s directions to Killarney.
We made it to Killarney just fine, but had quite the adventure finding Dan Linehan’s B&B and Pub. Someone (ehem…dad) didn’t think to look up the address of the B&B before coming to Ireland and then proceeded to get all mad when we couldn’t find it. At least we were all able to laugh about it after the fact. While we were driving in circles and trying to navigate the one-way streets, however, no one was laughing. Tension was at its highest.
Once we finally found it, we quickly unloaded the car and made ourselves at home in our very nice, very clean bedrooms (Laura and I had a room all to ourselves…fun to be had later) and then walked down the street to Squire’s Pub for some pub grub for dinner. Laura and I both had shepherd’s pie. Mom and dad had equally Irish meals and some wine and a Guinness. After dinner, we walked back to the B&B and Pub, enjoyed some Jameson and Cranberry and then went to our rooms to veg in front of the TV – we found an episode of the European version of Law and Order!
The next morning we were up fairly early for our full Irish breakfast at 8:30am. It was so good! We had bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, toast with jam, tea, and white and black pudding. We were all a bit leery of the black pudding, and for good reason – they put blood in it to give it its black colour. As soon as we discovered that, we suddenly didn’t like the black pudding anymore.
Having had our fill for breakfast, we piled into the car and drove to Killarney National Park for what was to be my favourite day of the week. We spent about 7-8 hours hiking through the park. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it was! We were surrounded by fields, mountains, all kinds of vegetation, and a beautiful and calm lake. The weather was perfect – sunny and even kind of warm. We also took a hike to a waterfall and up the trail to the top of it. Laura had a little spill at the waterfall when she tried to bend over to test the temperature of the water and ended up soaking the bottom of her right leg in the water. That was quite comical! We also took a tour of the Muckross House (or Muckruck House as mom likes to call it), which is a huge mansion located on the grounds. For lunch we enjoyed some tea and scones while soaking up the sunlight outside the cafeteria. There were also artistically groomed gardens surrounding the Muckross House, which Laura and I had some fun exploring. When we’d had our fill of hiking, we decided to try to drive further into the park to a lookout point called Lady’s View. We didn’t make it there, however, as the roads got ridiculously narrow and curvy and Laura and I started to feel carsick in the backseat. I think dad was kind of irritated that we told him to turn around, but I’d rather get back in one piece than be crushed by a tour bus hogging the whole road! I really can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that day. To make it complete, we went out for dinner at a crappy restaurant for some mediocre burgers and then Laura and I had a great time hanging out in the hotel room, laughing the night away.
Thursday morning we were up fairly early as well since we had a long drive ahead of us. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and dreary day, which made the day seem very long and somewhat disappointing. The hours upon hours of driving on narrow, windy, curvy, hilly, bumpy Irish roads didn’t help the mood in the car either. We again had our full Irish breakfast before hitting the road to do a driving tour of the Dingle Peninsula – (sing the following, our theme song for the day) dingle, dingle, dingle, hear the sleigh bells ring… The scenery was really beautiful, despite the rain. We got to see plenty of vividly green fields spotted with sheep. We drove through mountains as well and right along the Atlantic Ocean coast. We also stopped at an ancient church built thousands of years ago that, to this day, is a stable building that keeps almost all the rain out. From the Dingle Peninsula, we drove up to the Cliffs of Moher. In order to get there, we had to take a ferry across a bay, which, of course, we missed by just two minutes, leaving us to wait an hour for the next one. The only positive to our delay was that we met a cute guy on the later ferry who was touring Ireland over his Easter break as well. As our discussion continued, we found out he is from northern Minnesota and has been studying for the past three years in Rome to be, yes, you guessed it, a priest. He was way too cute to be a priest! Darn!
Finally across the water, it was another hour’s drive to the Cliffs of Moher. Thank God for Gaelica (the GPS)! She had the most random, middle-of-nowhere roads programmed into her that we never would have found without her directions. The Cliffs of Moher were indeed a beautiful sight, although a bit less majestic than each of us had imagined. We only spent about forty-five minutes taking in the scenery before we had to hit the road again to finish our drive to Galway. Our drive took us on yet some more windy, hilly, narrow roads through The Burren and other parts of the Irish countryside. Laura and I were both feeling pretty nauseous by the time we made it to Galway. Thankfully, we didn’t spend an hour searching for our hotel once we arrived in Galway. Perhaps the luck of the Irish was finally on our side!
We had the best dinner of the entire trip in Galway. We went to the restaurant part of a lively Irish pub. Mom had the biggest plate of fresh battered cod and chips I have ever seen! And her mushy peas were abnormally green. I had a huge bowl of chicken curry. Laura had roast chicken and ham and dad had carbonara. We all had food-babies by the end of that meal; but just to top it off, we decided to get dessert and a couple drinks in the pub while listening to the live music. What a wonderful evening!
The last thing I wanted to do the next morning was eat. I was so incredibly full the night before that I didn’t think my stomach could hold another bite. But, lo and behold, I managed to eat breakfast. After breakfast we spent about an hour walking around Galway before getting back in the car to drive to Derry. Thankfully the driving was much better that day, as we made sure to stick to the main roads, rather than following Gaelica’s directions to take the back roads. We had so much fun on this day’s drive as opposed to the day before. It certainly helps that it was a beautiful day outside. It also helps that we had Laura in the car. When she and I are together you never quite know what to expect! For example, every time we’d drive through a town, our windows would get rolled down and we’d start yelling in made up languages to people on the sidewalks. At one point, Laura was sounding so funny that mom and dad were in tears from laughing! Our only stop on the way to Derry was at the Belleek China and Pottery Factory in Belleek, Northern Ireland. We spent a good three hours there, browsing the gift shop, making plenty of fabulous purchases, watching a documentary on the making of the china, and fulfilling our daily quota of tea and scones.
Upon our arrival in Derry, we checked into our B&B and then embarked on a walk to the inner city and to dinner. After dinner, we did some shopping for souvenirs and then decided to take a stroll on the top of the city walls to get back to our B&B. We were nearly to the gate we had to exit the walls from when we discovered the gate was locked. Suddenly, we were walking at a very brisk pace to get back through the open gates we had already passed. We were all very relieved to find we hadn’t been locked inside! That night we watched The Patriot on television before going to bed.
Saturday was our last day together, as Laura had to fly out on Sunday. I tried not to dwell on that fact though! Since this is a really long post, I’m just going to quickly list the places we went: city walls of Derry, Mussenden Temple, ice cream and tea stop in Portstewart, Dunluce Castle, and the Giant’s Causeway. Fortunately, the nice weather lasted right until we got in the car to leave the Causeway. From the Causeway, we drove to Jordanstown where we stopped at Elsie’s house. Mom and dad stayed at her house for the night, so we had to drop off their suitcases before getting back into the car to drive to Carrickfergus. Elsie took us to dinner at the Wind Rose, which is a casual restaurant right next to the marina in Carrick. It was so nice to introduce Elsie to my parents and for them to be able to thank her for her kindness to me. It was also really nice to be able to show Laura, mom and dad where I’ve been spending my time these last four months. Saturday night Laura and I stayed in my apartment and went to bed pretty early (after I did laundry and finished packing for my trip to Italy the next day!).
At 6:30am on Easter Sunday, Laura had to say goodbye. We had such a great time together, but I think we both miss each other now more than after having had a short reunion. I can’t wait to live with her again next year! After she left, I slept for a couple more hours before mom, dad and Elsie picked me up for a speed-tour of Belfast. Elsie directed us to the Belfast Dry Dock where the Titanic was built. Then she took us into the heart of Belfast so mom and dad could see the Botanic Gardens, Queen’s University and City Hall. Then we drove out to Stormont where the Good Friday Agreement was signed. And finally we drove up to what I call monument hill, a hill that overlooks Belfast Lough, Belfast and its surrounding cities and the university. We had the best weather of the week on Sunday, so the view from the top of the hill was spectacular. There’s a great place for a picnic up there, which I plan to make it back to at some point before the semester is over.
After our speed-tour, we said goodbye to Elsie and then drove to Carrickfergus for Easter service. I’m so glad mom and dad got to be part of my Northern Ireland church family for a day. They got to meet all my friends following the service, which I think they both really enjoyed. They were also really impressed by the full worship band at church – trumpets, piano, flute, violin, drums, bongos and more. I guess it really is impressive!
The only things left to do after church were go back to my apartment to finish packing for Italy, grab lunch at a café in Whiteabbey Village, and then drive down to Dublin Airport to catch my flight to Italy. I have to start writing a paper that is due on Friday, so the details of that trip will have to wait until this weekend.
Friday, 3 April 2009
It's April already???
Monday, March 30:
It was a pretty uneventful day. I went to class in the morning and then skipped my afternoon class to go shopping for a formal dress. After hitting five different stores, I finally found the one at H&M. To celebrate our success, Amanda, Kari and I went to Starbucks. I had my first Frappucino since arriving here. It was delicious! We didn’t get back to campus until around 7PM, but because we finally sprung our clocks ahead on Sunday, there was still daylight until 8PM! We had a little bit of a scare that night when we found out that a bunch of the roads in Belfast had been shut down due to car hijackings and bomb threats. There have been several incidents of violence since the two soldiers were shot by the Real IRA. Hopefully nothing worse will happen in the next month and a half.
Tuesday, March 31:
Tuesday was another beautiful day in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, I had to go to class in the afternoon and it was cloudy by the time I got out. I had small group Bible study that night. It was a thoroughly good time with Jo, Nicky, Paul, Johnny, Rebecca and Kari. After Bible study, Kari and I went back to the apartment to work on our Italy itinerary!!!
Wednesday, April 1:
I spent most of the morning in the library, went to Modern Irish Society for a couple hours and then walked to Whiteabbey Village for lunch at Randolph’s with Bethany and Amanda. The rest of the afternoon was spent slowly getting ready for the CU Formal later that night. Bethany, Amanda, Kari and I all went. Nicky, Jo, Rachel and Frew were nice enough to give us a lift to the Dunadry Hotel where the formal was being held. Although we thought we were 45 minutes late, turns out we arrived just in time. All those who arrived on time had been standing around for 45 minutes waiting for dinner to be served. Dinner was delicious! Definitely worth the 30 pounds we paid for tickets. After dinner, the band set up and we danced the rest of the night away. I had so much fun with all of our CU friends!
Thursday, April 2:
It was the PERFECT SPRING DAY in Northern Ireland. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky!!! That is just simply amazing considering it’s Northern Ireland. I had planned to spend the day getting coursework done in the library. Instead, I went to the library in the morning, but quickly gave up and instead went with Stu and Kari into Belfast to go to the park. We met up with Sharon, Kathryn and Paul and Jen’s Café and then walked to Botanic Gardens. I could relive that afternoon every day and be perfectly content. Much to Stu’s excitement, we found an ice cream truck in the park (he basically screamed for joy at the sight of it, causing everyone standing in line to look in our direction). With sundaes in hand, we plopped ourselves down on the grass and soaked up the sun. We also strolled around the gardens and went in the tropical greenhouse. Then we walked back to Sharon’s apartment for dinner. After dinner, Kathryn drove us back to campus. I decided to skip CU and spend some time in the word on my own. And I talked excitedly to mom about her arrival on Monday!!!!!!! Around 10:30, Stu, Sharon and others came over to the apartment for a few hours to play card games and hang out. We will most definitely have another day like this before I leave, just as long as the sun shines again.
Today, Friday, April 3:
Can you believe it? The sun is shining yet again. I really hope this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be miserable next week when mom, dad and Laura are here. As soon as I finish this blog, I’ll be heading outside to do some reading. Later this afternoon I’m going to meet up with Kari, Amanda and Big-A in Belfast…possibly to return to Botanic Gardens! We’re also going to go out for dinner to celebrate Amanda’s upcoming birthday. Then I’ll be coming back to campus to get coursework done and pack for the first week of Easter break. Expect an update Easter weekend. Until then…
It was a pretty uneventful day. I went to class in the morning and then skipped my afternoon class to go shopping for a formal dress. After hitting five different stores, I finally found the one at H&M. To celebrate our success, Amanda, Kari and I went to Starbucks. I had my first Frappucino since arriving here. It was delicious! We didn’t get back to campus until around 7PM, but because we finally sprung our clocks ahead on Sunday, there was still daylight until 8PM! We had a little bit of a scare that night when we found out that a bunch of the roads in Belfast had been shut down due to car hijackings and bomb threats. There have been several incidents of violence since the two soldiers were shot by the Real IRA. Hopefully nothing worse will happen in the next month and a half.
Tuesday, March 31:
Tuesday was another beautiful day in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, I had to go to class in the afternoon and it was cloudy by the time I got out. I had small group Bible study that night. It was a thoroughly good time with Jo, Nicky, Paul, Johnny, Rebecca and Kari. After Bible study, Kari and I went back to the apartment to work on our Italy itinerary!!!
Wednesday, April 1:
I spent most of the morning in the library, went to Modern Irish Society for a couple hours and then walked to Whiteabbey Village for lunch at Randolph’s with Bethany and Amanda. The rest of the afternoon was spent slowly getting ready for the CU Formal later that night. Bethany, Amanda, Kari and I all went. Nicky, Jo, Rachel and Frew were nice enough to give us a lift to the Dunadry Hotel where the formal was being held. Although we thought we were 45 minutes late, turns out we arrived just in time. All those who arrived on time had been standing around for 45 minutes waiting for dinner to be served. Dinner was delicious! Definitely worth the 30 pounds we paid for tickets. After dinner, the band set up and we danced the rest of the night away. I had so much fun with all of our CU friends!
Thursday, April 2:
It was the PERFECT SPRING DAY in Northern Ireland. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky!!! That is just simply amazing considering it’s Northern Ireland. I had planned to spend the day getting coursework done in the library. Instead, I went to the library in the morning, but quickly gave up and instead went with Stu and Kari into Belfast to go to the park. We met up with Sharon, Kathryn and Paul and Jen’s Café and then walked to Botanic Gardens. I could relive that afternoon every day and be perfectly content. Much to Stu’s excitement, we found an ice cream truck in the park (he basically screamed for joy at the sight of it, causing everyone standing in line to look in our direction). With sundaes in hand, we plopped ourselves down on the grass and soaked up the sun. We also strolled around the gardens and went in the tropical greenhouse. Then we walked back to Sharon’s apartment for dinner. After dinner, Kathryn drove us back to campus. I decided to skip CU and spend some time in the word on my own. And I talked excitedly to mom about her arrival on Monday!!!!!!! Around 10:30, Stu, Sharon and others came over to the apartment for a few hours to play card games and hang out. We will most definitely have another day like this before I leave, just as long as the sun shines again.
Today, Friday, April 3:
Can you believe it? The sun is shining yet again. I really hope this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be miserable next week when mom, dad and Laura are here. As soon as I finish this blog, I’ll be heading outside to do some reading. Later this afternoon I’m going to meet up with Kari, Amanda and Big-A in Belfast…possibly to return to Botanic Gardens! We’re also going to go out for dinner to celebrate Amanda’s upcoming birthday. Then I’ll be coming back to campus to get coursework done and pack for the first week of Easter break. Expect an update Easter weekend. Until then…
Now I ain't sayin she's a gold digger...
That, and many others, was the theme song to our weekend in London. I can’t believe this awesome weekend has already come and gone! I spent so many weeks looking forward to it, and now it’s over. I knew it was going to be a brilliant weekend, and I was most definitely not disappointed.
Our dear friend, Johnny Stewart, picked us (Kari and me) up at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and drove us to the Belfast City Airport. Since we had some time to kill, he dropped us off to let us check-in and then went and parked his car so that he could come inside and grab a cup of tea with us. Such a gentleman! Our flight was due to leave at 6:30, so we sat sipping tea and chatting until around 5:30 when we figured we should probably jump in the insanely long line through security. We made it through no problem and were on the plane a little after 6:30 on our way to London!
From London Stansted airport we caught a bus to Victoria Station in the heart of London. I was exhausted after only getting three hours of sleep the night before, so I slept most of the way. Luckily I was awake for our drive along the Thames and past Westminster Abbey and Parliament. The glow of the city lights was reflecting off the water. There’s just something about the city at night that captivates me.
We met up with Kari’s friend, Mike, at Victoria Station and then took our first ride on the Tube to Earl’s Court. From the station, we walked to McDonald’s so that I could use Mike’s laptop and McDonald’s free wireless to register for classes at Grove City. I was kind of worried because registration opened at 10PM my time, but we didn’t get to McDonald’s until around 10:30PM. In the past, I’ve had the most terrible experiences registering. Usually the server is so backed up that I can’t get logged in until at least an hour after registration is open, and by that point many of the classes and professors I wanted are already filled up. Not the case this time! I logged in no problem, entered all my fall semester reference codes, clicked submit and my schedule was set within two minutes. Could I be so lucky to have that happen in the spring as well? You bet! Miraculously, I was done with registering in about five minutes! I guess I should’ve flown to London every time I had to register. Too bad that was the last time.
We walked to Mike’s apartment after eating at McDonald’s. The rest of the night was interesting to say the least. Originally, Mike and his three roommates had planned to go to either a sport’s café or a hotel to watch a March Madness basketball game at 1:30 in the morning. Kari and I were just going to stay in their one-bedroom apartment and sleep. Instead, Mike and his roommates ended up watching the game in their apartment. Kari and I shared a bed and tried to sleep through their hoots and hollers. The game was finally over at 4AM. I woke up again at 8AM to Mike and Jake getting ready for work. Needless to say, I did not get a good night’s rest. But, it was a free place to stay for the night, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Friday was our chill day in London. We got up at 10:30, showered, packed up, and walked to the tube station. We took the tube to Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square. Kari and I just wandered around, stopping in various tourist shops and other stores. We decided to grab lunch at Bella Italia, a cute little Italian restaurant. Kari and I split Marguerite and Giardiniera pizzas. After lunch, we took the tube to Knightsridge to do some real shopping at The Gap, H&M, Monsoon and others. We also stumbled upon a French pastry shop and couldn’t pass up the double chocolate and chocolate mocha cake in the window. After eating there, I can’t wait to go to Paris! Then, we took the tube back to Leicester Square. We sat in the park for a while and then went to the Prince of Whales Theatre for the 5 o’clock showing of MAMMA MIA!! It was an awesome show and we had great seats…completely worth the 36 pounds I paid for the ticket. We left the show in a great mood, but feeling hungry. So, we wandered around seeking out the best, but most reasonably priced, restaurant. Our wandering brought us into Trafalgar Square. We snapped some pictures and then back-tracked to Garfunkle’s Restaurant in Leicester Square. We then took the tube back to Mike’s apartment to pick up our stuff and then hopped back on the tube to King’s Cross Station! Why am I excited about that, you may ask? Platform 9 ¾ is in the station. What can I say? I love Harry Potter.
Kari and I met up with Bethany and our friends from Carrick – Ackey, Gavin, Preece, Leanna, and Ruth – at King’s Cross and then walked about fifteen minutes to Paget City Mission. Ackey had visited the mission several times through his church youth group and had kept in touch with the owner, Dada, so we got to stay there for free. The building is really cool. From the outside, it just looks like a typical brick building. Even when you walk inside it just looks like a lot of other youth centres. But, when you step into the next room, you step back into time and enter a sanctuary. The church that originally occupied this piece of land still stands due to a city ordinance prohibiting its destruction. So, they decided to build the youth centre around the church and they put couches and recliners in the sanctuary rather than pews.
When we arrived at the city mission, we literally just dropped our bags and then hopped in the van to drive back toward King’s Cross so that the others could grab dinner at KFC. The server tried asking Bethany what kind of soda she wanted with her meal, and Bethany’s response was, “Whatever you want because I didn’t understand what you just said.” As soon as she said that, all of us burst into laughter. So class! We also got a good laugh out of Ackey’s order – “I’ll take the Big Daddy meal.” Not only did his Northern Irish accent make Big Daddy sound funny, but just the fact that he’s in his 30s and was playing the role of Dad the whole weekend made the whole thing quite ironic. We took our food back to the city mission, ate up, and then got all cozy in our sleeping bags (since the heat wasn’t working in the sanctuary). We spent a couple hours just hanging out, talking, and listening to Gav play the guitar and serenade us, and then we went to bed, excited for the big day Saturday!
After a warm and comfy night’s sleep on the couch, the girls got up at 8AM to walk through the rain and wind to King’s Cross Station to take a shower. That’s right, I paid 3 pounds to shower in King’s Cross Station. I don’t think I’ve ever worked that hard to get a shower before. First, we had to walk fifteen minutes to the station. Then we had to find where to buy our tickets to use the shower. Then we walked down to the shower, but there was no one there to unlock the showers for us, so we stood around for another 15-20 minutes while Leanna and Ruth went and searched. After all that, we finally got to take a shower. Thankfully they were relatively clean, despite the huge bug Bethany found.
Feeling clean and refreshed, we walked back to the city mission to pick up the boys and then we walked to Dallas Burger for a delicious English breakfast before embarking on our walking tour of London. Funny story, Ruth took one step outside to go to breakfast and a bird crapped on her head. She wasn’t laughing, but the rest of us were. Now hold on, because it was a long and crazy day…
At King’s Cross Station we caught the Picadilly Line tube to Picadilly Circus. From there we walked to Leicester Square and then to Trafalgar Square, where we stopped to climb onto the lions and snap some pictures. Our next stop was Buckingham Palace. The sun actually came out as we were walking past St. James’ Park to the Palace. It was so beautiful with the green grass, the fully blossomed daffodils, and the buds on the trees beginning to blossom. I kept thinking to myself that if I lived in London, this would probably be my favourite place to come and unwind. We were too late for the changing of the guard at the palace, but we did get to see the two guards pace back and forth and do some stretching. Highly amusing. We next walked through St. James’ Park to this huge, gravel courtyard where each year on her birthday, the Queen watches a procession of the royal military. After that, we headed over to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, stumbling upon a protest along the way. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go in Westminster Abbey as we were too late for the last tour, but at least we got to see it and we saved ourselves the 11 pound admission price. I loved seeing Big Ben! The clock is huge, and seeing it made me think of Peter Pan and flying past it to Neverland. From there we walked across a bridge for a stroll along the Thames, past the London Eye and several museums. This walk got pretty long as the clouds rolled in again and it was really windy; not to mention we had already been walking for a few hours. All I wanted to do was stop at a café for about ten minutes for a cup of tea and a biscuit. No such luck…oh well! We crossed the Thames again via Millennium Bridge and walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We stepped inside to get a glimpse of the place where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married, but stopped short of the ticket booth because none of us wanted to spend 12 pounds to get the full effect. When we exited the cathedral, we were greeted by a wedding party taking pictures on the steps of the cathedral. I’m pretty sure the bride was rich, because all the women guests had these extravagant hats and dresses on. Around the back of the cathedral there was an ivory Rolls Royce waiting to drive the bride and groom to the reception. The rain clouds rolled in again as we were leaving the cathedral, so we dashed into a couple restaurants in hopes of grabbing some lunch, but all the places were pretty expensive, so we got on the tube instead and headed over to Tower of London and London Tower Bridge. The bridge was my favourite site in London. It is gigantic and so stately looking. We all broke into London bridge is falling down as we approached it. Before we crossed the bridge, we finally stopped at a café to rest our tired feet and to grab a snack that would hold us over till dinner. It was so nice to sit and warm up a bit. Feeling refreshed, we wandered back outside and crossed the bridge. As we got to the other side, the sun again broke through the clouds. But, there were really dark clouds off in the distance. I got some really great pictures of the bridge, all lit up by the sun with the contrasting dark clouds behind it. There was even a rainbow! We kept strolling along the Thames and eventually had to duck inside a shopping centre since the dark clouds brought hail with them. What a crazy day weather-wise! We walked some more to get the tube to Covent Garden. Covent Garden is one of the many markets in London. I bought a scarf from one of the stands (and could have bought more if I had any extra room in my suitcase!). The rest of the night was a bit frustrating. We walked forever trying to find a place that had room for nine people for dinner. Finally, we decided to go to Chinatown, despite the fact that most of us had a proper English meal in mind. Let’s just say the service was less than stellar. Our waitress, who spoke a minimal amount of English, brought Gavin duck instead of chicken (and when he complained, she tried to tell him that what he originally had was chicken, even though the second dish looked completely different than the first) and served our table three orders of veggie spring rolls instead of two. Once we got over the frustration, all we could do was laugh about it, especially Gav’s duck. In fact, Gavin is now known as Duck Norris because of the whole incident. Kari had found out that Ackey’s birthday is March 30, so we decided to get ice cream after dinner in order to celebrate. And, we sang happy birthday to him in the middle of Leicester Square. I think he was pretty embarrassed! After a very long day of walking, we finally went back to the city mission and crashed.
With sore feet, we woke up Sunday morning and took the tube to All Souls church in the heart of London. There is a really diverse congregation at this church, from English, to Indian, to Chinese. It was great to worship with them. The pastor gave a great sermon about serving God in the midst of our stressful lives. After the service, we crossed the street to grab lunch at Pizza Express. Pretty funny that we ate more ethnic food than English food in London. Our last stop before heading back to the city mission to pack was Hyde Park and Speaker’s Corner. I really did not enjoy Speaker’s Corner with all the crazy people yelling. One guy claimed to be the prophet of the guy standing next to him who was supposedly God. I suddenly realized while standing there how much the world needs God. The fact that some people actually believe the claims of this so called prophet is so sad.
The rest of Sunday was spent in some form of public transportation – tube to Victoria Station, bus to London Stansted Airport, airplane to Belfast. Kari and I both slept on the bus, exhausted from the day before. We had a good time hanging out for a couple hours in the airport. The plane ride home was pretty smooth, despite the rough landing that scared the crap out of the lady sleeping next to Kari. Another of our dear friends, Sharon, picked us up from the airport and brought us back to uni. I didn’t know we could see so much in one weekend! I really loved London and all of its diversity. I absolutely want to go back some day…who wants to be my travel buddy?
Our dear friend, Johnny Stewart, picked us (Kari and me) up at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and drove us to the Belfast City Airport. Since we had some time to kill, he dropped us off to let us check-in and then went and parked his car so that he could come inside and grab a cup of tea with us. Such a gentleman! Our flight was due to leave at 6:30, so we sat sipping tea and chatting until around 5:30 when we figured we should probably jump in the insanely long line through security. We made it through no problem and were on the plane a little after 6:30 on our way to London!
From London Stansted airport we caught a bus to Victoria Station in the heart of London. I was exhausted after only getting three hours of sleep the night before, so I slept most of the way. Luckily I was awake for our drive along the Thames and past Westminster Abbey and Parliament. The glow of the city lights was reflecting off the water. There’s just something about the city at night that captivates me.
We met up with Kari’s friend, Mike, at Victoria Station and then took our first ride on the Tube to Earl’s Court. From the station, we walked to McDonald’s so that I could use Mike’s laptop and McDonald’s free wireless to register for classes at Grove City. I was kind of worried because registration opened at 10PM my time, but we didn’t get to McDonald’s until around 10:30PM. In the past, I’ve had the most terrible experiences registering. Usually the server is so backed up that I can’t get logged in until at least an hour after registration is open, and by that point many of the classes and professors I wanted are already filled up. Not the case this time! I logged in no problem, entered all my fall semester reference codes, clicked submit and my schedule was set within two minutes. Could I be so lucky to have that happen in the spring as well? You bet! Miraculously, I was done with registering in about five minutes! I guess I should’ve flown to London every time I had to register. Too bad that was the last time.
We walked to Mike’s apartment after eating at McDonald’s. The rest of the night was interesting to say the least. Originally, Mike and his three roommates had planned to go to either a sport’s café or a hotel to watch a March Madness basketball game at 1:30 in the morning. Kari and I were just going to stay in their one-bedroom apartment and sleep. Instead, Mike and his roommates ended up watching the game in their apartment. Kari and I shared a bed and tried to sleep through their hoots and hollers. The game was finally over at 4AM. I woke up again at 8AM to Mike and Jake getting ready for work. Needless to say, I did not get a good night’s rest. But, it was a free place to stay for the night, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Friday was our chill day in London. We got up at 10:30, showered, packed up, and walked to the tube station. We took the tube to Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square. Kari and I just wandered around, stopping in various tourist shops and other stores. We decided to grab lunch at Bella Italia, a cute little Italian restaurant. Kari and I split Marguerite and Giardiniera pizzas. After lunch, we took the tube to Knightsridge to do some real shopping at The Gap, H&M, Monsoon and others. We also stumbled upon a French pastry shop and couldn’t pass up the double chocolate and chocolate mocha cake in the window. After eating there, I can’t wait to go to Paris! Then, we took the tube back to Leicester Square. We sat in the park for a while and then went to the Prince of Whales Theatre for the 5 o’clock showing of MAMMA MIA!! It was an awesome show and we had great seats…completely worth the 36 pounds I paid for the ticket. We left the show in a great mood, but feeling hungry. So, we wandered around seeking out the best, but most reasonably priced, restaurant. Our wandering brought us into Trafalgar Square. We snapped some pictures and then back-tracked to Garfunkle’s Restaurant in Leicester Square. We then took the tube back to Mike’s apartment to pick up our stuff and then hopped back on the tube to King’s Cross Station! Why am I excited about that, you may ask? Platform 9 ¾ is in the station. What can I say? I love Harry Potter.
Kari and I met up with Bethany and our friends from Carrick – Ackey, Gavin, Preece, Leanna, and Ruth – at King’s Cross and then walked about fifteen minutes to Paget City Mission. Ackey had visited the mission several times through his church youth group and had kept in touch with the owner, Dada, so we got to stay there for free. The building is really cool. From the outside, it just looks like a typical brick building. Even when you walk inside it just looks like a lot of other youth centres. But, when you step into the next room, you step back into time and enter a sanctuary. The church that originally occupied this piece of land still stands due to a city ordinance prohibiting its destruction. So, they decided to build the youth centre around the church and they put couches and recliners in the sanctuary rather than pews.
When we arrived at the city mission, we literally just dropped our bags and then hopped in the van to drive back toward King’s Cross so that the others could grab dinner at KFC. The server tried asking Bethany what kind of soda she wanted with her meal, and Bethany’s response was, “Whatever you want because I didn’t understand what you just said.” As soon as she said that, all of us burst into laughter. So class! We also got a good laugh out of Ackey’s order – “I’ll take the Big Daddy meal.” Not only did his Northern Irish accent make Big Daddy sound funny, but just the fact that he’s in his 30s and was playing the role of Dad the whole weekend made the whole thing quite ironic. We took our food back to the city mission, ate up, and then got all cozy in our sleeping bags (since the heat wasn’t working in the sanctuary). We spent a couple hours just hanging out, talking, and listening to Gav play the guitar and serenade us, and then we went to bed, excited for the big day Saturday!
After a warm and comfy night’s sleep on the couch, the girls got up at 8AM to walk through the rain and wind to King’s Cross Station to take a shower. That’s right, I paid 3 pounds to shower in King’s Cross Station. I don’t think I’ve ever worked that hard to get a shower before. First, we had to walk fifteen minutes to the station. Then we had to find where to buy our tickets to use the shower. Then we walked down to the shower, but there was no one there to unlock the showers for us, so we stood around for another 15-20 minutes while Leanna and Ruth went and searched. After all that, we finally got to take a shower. Thankfully they were relatively clean, despite the huge bug Bethany found.
Feeling clean and refreshed, we walked back to the city mission to pick up the boys and then we walked to Dallas Burger for a delicious English breakfast before embarking on our walking tour of London. Funny story, Ruth took one step outside to go to breakfast and a bird crapped on her head. She wasn’t laughing, but the rest of us were. Now hold on, because it was a long and crazy day…
At King’s Cross Station we caught the Picadilly Line tube to Picadilly Circus. From there we walked to Leicester Square and then to Trafalgar Square, where we stopped to climb onto the lions and snap some pictures. Our next stop was Buckingham Palace. The sun actually came out as we were walking past St. James’ Park to the Palace. It was so beautiful with the green grass, the fully blossomed daffodils, and the buds on the trees beginning to blossom. I kept thinking to myself that if I lived in London, this would probably be my favourite place to come and unwind. We were too late for the changing of the guard at the palace, but we did get to see the two guards pace back and forth and do some stretching. Highly amusing. We next walked through St. James’ Park to this huge, gravel courtyard where each year on her birthday, the Queen watches a procession of the royal military. After that, we headed over to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, stumbling upon a protest along the way. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go in Westminster Abbey as we were too late for the last tour, but at least we got to see it and we saved ourselves the 11 pound admission price. I loved seeing Big Ben! The clock is huge, and seeing it made me think of Peter Pan and flying past it to Neverland. From there we walked across a bridge for a stroll along the Thames, past the London Eye and several museums. This walk got pretty long as the clouds rolled in again and it was really windy; not to mention we had already been walking for a few hours. All I wanted to do was stop at a café for about ten minutes for a cup of tea and a biscuit. No such luck…oh well! We crossed the Thames again via Millennium Bridge and walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We stepped inside to get a glimpse of the place where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married, but stopped short of the ticket booth because none of us wanted to spend 12 pounds to get the full effect. When we exited the cathedral, we were greeted by a wedding party taking pictures on the steps of the cathedral. I’m pretty sure the bride was rich, because all the women guests had these extravagant hats and dresses on. Around the back of the cathedral there was an ivory Rolls Royce waiting to drive the bride and groom to the reception. The rain clouds rolled in again as we were leaving the cathedral, so we dashed into a couple restaurants in hopes of grabbing some lunch, but all the places were pretty expensive, so we got on the tube instead and headed over to Tower of London and London Tower Bridge. The bridge was my favourite site in London. It is gigantic and so stately looking. We all broke into London bridge is falling down as we approached it. Before we crossed the bridge, we finally stopped at a café to rest our tired feet and to grab a snack that would hold us over till dinner. It was so nice to sit and warm up a bit. Feeling refreshed, we wandered back outside and crossed the bridge. As we got to the other side, the sun again broke through the clouds. But, there were really dark clouds off in the distance. I got some really great pictures of the bridge, all lit up by the sun with the contrasting dark clouds behind it. There was even a rainbow! We kept strolling along the Thames and eventually had to duck inside a shopping centre since the dark clouds brought hail with them. What a crazy day weather-wise! We walked some more to get the tube to Covent Garden. Covent Garden is one of the many markets in London. I bought a scarf from one of the stands (and could have bought more if I had any extra room in my suitcase!). The rest of the night was a bit frustrating. We walked forever trying to find a place that had room for nine people for dinner. Finally, we decided to go to Chinatown, despite the fact that most of us had a proper English meal in mind. Let’s just say the service was less than stellar. Our waitress, who spoke a minimal amount of English, brought Gavin duck instead of chicken (and when he complained, she tried to tell him that what he originally had was chicken, even though the second dish looked completely different than the first) and served our table three orders of veggie spring rolls instead of two. Once we got over the frustration, all we could do was laugh about it, especially Gav’s duck. In fact, Gavin is now known as Duck Norris because of the whole incident. Kari had found out that Ackey’s birthday is March 30, so we decided to get ice cream after dinner in order to celebrate. And, we sang happy birthday to him in the middle of Leicester Square. I think he was pretty embarrassed! After a very long day of walking, we finally went back to the city mission and crashed.
With sore feet, we woke up Sunday morning and took the tube to All Souls church in the heart of London. There is a really diverse congregation at this church, from English, to Indian, to Chinese. It was great to worship with them. The pastor gave a great sermon about serving God in the midst of our stressful lives. After the service, we crossed the street to grab lunch at Pizza Express. Pretty funny that we ate more ethnic food than English food in London. Our last stop before heading back to the city mission to pack was Hyde Park and Speaker’s Corner. I really did not enjoy Speaker’s Corner with all the crazy people yelling. One guy claimed to be the prophet of the guy standing next to him who was supposedly God. I suddenly realized while standing there how much the world needs God. The fact that some people actually believe the claims of this so called prophet is so sad.
The rest of Sunday was spent in some form of public transportation – tube to Victoria Station, bus to London Stansted Airport, airplane to Belfast. Kari and I both slept on the bus, exhausted from the day before. We had a good time hanging out for a couple hours in the airport. The plane ride home was pretty smooth, despite the rough landing that scared the crap out of the lady sleeping next to Kari. Another of our dear friends, Sharon, picked us up from the airport and brought us back to uni. I didn’t know we could see so much in one weekend! I really loved London and all of its diversity. I absolutely want to go back some day…who wants to be my travel buddy?
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