Here's what I hadn't bargained for this summer: school. I tend to gloss over the "study" part of "study abroad." That being said, the last week of classes was a rude awakening when I had to write my first two papers of college (sic em business major), both 10 pages and on subjects about which I have 0 prior knowledge. So that went well. BUT on Friday morning we set out for 10 days in the UK and the worst papers I've ever written were forgotten.
We flew out from Maastricht into Dublin in a group of (count em) 14. I can't even describe how happy I was to walk through the airport to see signs in English. We made it through customs without any issues and found our bus to our hostel.
I fell in love with Dublin pretty quickly. The feel of the city is more similar to home than anywhere else we've been, and it might be a tourist-crowded city, but everyone we met was so friendly.
On Friday afternoon we settled into our hostel and set out for some lunch. Our hostel referred us to O'Neill's. Sweet Lord almighty. Y'all. Stew and potatoes like none other. Not to mention the first free tap water I've had on this continent- an added perk.
We all just enjoyed sitting and being full from human portions rather than the European portions we've become accustomed to. It was pouring down rain by that point, so we got drenched as we shopped a little then headed back for a nap.
We woke up and a few of us ran to the grocery store to grab something for dinner. On the way we found a Milkshake Bar, solidifying my decision to return to Dublin someday. We returned to the hostel with enough pasta, bread, and wine to feed our small army and took over the hostel kitchen. We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the table and talking, then turned in early after so many late nights spent doing homework the week before.
Saturday we woke up to take advantage of the abundant free breakfast consisting of bread, jelly, and Nutella. We were picked up at our hostel at 10:30 for the free walking tour of the city. Our guide, Joe, was a die-hard Dubliner himself and had all sorts of interesting information about all the places we saw on our tour.
The front of Trinity College
The Bell Tower at Trinity College
Dublin Castle
Christ Church
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The wall in front of which U2 started and played before making it big. Apparently they drove the hotel owner across the street crazy, and Bono told him someday they would be famous and he would buy the hotel himself. Low and behold, Bono now owns the hotel.
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We grabbed lunch at a restaurant near the wall of fame- burgers with YELLOW CHEESE. Heaven. More milkshakes then home for nap #2 of the trip.
That night we split up and half of the group went to a pub crawl with our friend Joe from the tour while Nick, Brandon, Taylor, Jacob, and I went to a Gaelic football game. This gives a pretty good idea of what that looks like:
Brandon went all out and bought a flag to support Meath, whose colors happen to be green and gold. Sic em bears. They lost, but it was a fun Irish experience nonetheless. We found dinner at a pub with live Irish musicians, then wandered back to the Temple Bar district where we found a really cool 4-story bar and hung out before heading back to the hostel for the night.
After a late night, we all slept in on Sunday morning and those with papers left to write got a little homework out of the way. Late that afternoon we ran-walked through a traditional Irish downpour (note: packing a straightener to go to the UK/Ireland is a complete waste of space) to go to the Guinness Storehouse- a bit of a waste on us non-beer drinkers, but the boys loved it. We each enjoyed a free pint in the 7th floor observatory with a 360 view of the city before heading to O'Neill's again for dinner.
That night was full of more paper writing for most. We went to bed early to get up at the crack of dawn on Monday to go to the Cliffs of Moher. We joined a tour that took us to Galway and a farm in Burren as well as the cliffs, but the cliffs were definitely the highlight.
The ride back to Dublin was 3 hours, during which we watched P.S. I Love You and I became obsessed with this song (which mixes naturally with my other current favorites- Love on Top, Drop It Low, and I Want Crazy):
We got back to the hostel around 8:30 to find we had 2 new roommates, both of whom were Australian. Oh my. People, I cannot even describe to you the BO of which our room reeked. I promise you've never smelled anything like it, and God-willing you'll never have to. They had apparently been traveling for 35 hours straight, including sleeping on a ferry. Yum.
Anyway, we made dinner in the hostel kitchen (the ever original noodles, once again) and freshened up to enjoy our last night in Dublin. We went back to Porterhouse where we had gone after the football game, then ended up at a bar down the street with an amazing live musician. He was playing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" (clap clap clap clap) as we walked in, and followed up with "Wagon Wheel," so it was a great folksy fix.
We went back to our stinky room to pack up to leave the next morning. Luckily our flight wasn't until 11:45, so we didn't have to get up at 4 or 5 like Brandon and Nick did for their flights. The ever faithful Ryan Air got us safely to London where we landed in more rain, then took a bus to the underground station to have our first tube experience. We found our hostel without any problems, but checking in quickly turned into a shambly mess. To make a very long story short, we had to wait on our friend to contact the hostel with permission to charge his card, which didn't happen for about 3.5 hours. BUT our hostel was very nice. We settled in then sat in the wifi zone for a while before a gourmet dinner at McDonald's.
On Wednesday I made plans to meet my uncle and cousins in the city. They lived in England for 9 months last year, so they made for a great travel book substitute. I met them at the Natural History Museum (which is free, along with all of London's museums- so cool!) and spent the better part of the afternoon seeing Camden & Aaron's favorite parts of the museum.
(Camden imitating the Charles Darwin statue)
The Main Hall of the Natural History Museum
I returned back to the hostel to pick up my sleepy traveling buddies and we headed back into the city. We had planned on doing a river cruise from Parliament to Tower Bridge, but instead decided to see Westminster and walk around a little.
Westminster Abbey
My parents had recommended an Asian restaurant called Wagamama, found all over the UK, so we found one (on our handy app, CityMaps2Go- seriously genius) and made our way there for dinner. It was delicious, and in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, which was a lively area to see. We enjoyed the evening in one of London's many parks then went back to the hostel for wifi and bed.
Thursday was supposed to be spent at Brighton Beach, but good grief, they want you to spend your life savings getting there. So instead we had another day in the city, which was good since we hadn't seen many of the major sites. We started the day at Buckingham Palace with some obligatory pictures sans the palace guards (not sure where they were...?).
We sat down in Green Park across the street to enjoy the beautiful sunshine then walked through St. James Park back to the River Thames for the river cruise, which hit all the major London highlights.
Big Ben
The London Eye
Tower Bridge
We ate lunch at a place I had seen recommended online, Pizza Express. It sounds crappy, I know, but it was delicious and I had this for dessert so...far from crappy.
We were all stuffed after copious amounts of pizza and chocolate, but we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was already closed, but even the outside of it is enormously impressive. We sat outside for almost an hour.
We "did" London different than any city before this. I threw planning out the window and just went with the flow. As I've mentioned, there was a lot of sitting and just enjoying the city. I didn't pay any ridiculous amount of money to go inside a lot of places, but I thoroughly enjoyed just being in the city more than I had anywhere else up to that point.
We left St. Paul's and took the tube to Abbey Road. Here's the photo gallery from Amateur Hour, hosted by the imbeciles we handed the camera to:
You get the idea.
Thirsty and tired of walking, we found our second Pizza Express of the day for a glass of wine before setting back out to Piccadilly Circus. We wanted a bar with live music, but instead we found O'Neill's (NOT the same as the Dublin heaven by the same name) with Beyonce and Black-eyed Peas throwbacks. A live band did come on eventually, but I think all 5 members were older than my father and we were way over the drunk American embarrassments in the middle of the dance floor by that point, so we left for home.
Friday got off to a bit of a late start, but we finally made it to Oxford by 2. I wish we'd had hours to walk around this precious town. There were graduations going on at most of the colleges, so the streets were very much alive. We only had a couple hours, so we hit the highlights, including the pub where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, along with the rest of the "Inklings", would meet on a weekly basis.
Radcliffe Camera
St. Mary's Cathedral
Eagle and Child Pub, meeting place of the "Inklings"
We rushed back into the city and to our hostel for a quick-change then quite literally sprinted (in wedges, thank you very much) to Piccadilly Circus to see "Once." Jacob and Taylor graciously and patiently accompanied me so I could cross "West End show" off my bucket list. The show was unlike any I'd seen before- the staging was incredible, the talent was phenomenal, the music was beautiful.
As proof of how much He loves us weary travelers, God was so kind as to put a Chipotle (the only one in Europe, to my knowledge) right next to the theatre. Heaven will look a little something like this:
After refueling on Texan-approved tortilla chips, we took the tube down to Hyde Park. When I marry a millionaire I'll live in a flat above Hyde Park. Good grief. Everything was closed in this high end part of town, but we walked past the shops and saw Harrod's all lit up.
Saturday we had a late flight out of London, so we were able to squeeze in a few more sites in the morning. We started at Spitalfields Market. It's a good thing I was down to roughly £2 at this point or I would've bought it all- such a cool place.
From there we tubed to the London Eye, only to discover a 50-minute wait + a 30-minute ride which we didn't have time for. A kind stranger handed Taylor 2 fast pass tickets, and Jacob was so sweet as to give up going so that T and I could ride quickly.
My grandma and mom had been in London in June and gone to Fortnam & Mason tea room. They thought I would like it, so they sent me a giftcard to use while in London. I dragged my travel buddies there with the promise of ice cream- worth it because we enjoyed these:
Fortnam & Mason Tea Room
Thanks, Gammy!
We gathered our packs and set off for the airport. We flew EasyJet this time instead of the always efficient RyanAir and it was SO much easier. You get what you pay for.
Then we spent 2 days in Edinburgh and I have almost no pictures. I know you're all dying to hear about it, but right now it's 2:15am and I am leaving this building in 3 hours for Italy- none of my stuff is in a suitcase and I haven't showered. So that's my life. More to come...
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