Londontown!

So I made it my goal to make sure that I posted about one country before going to another one, and seeing as I'm leaving to head to Scotland in about an hour, it's probably time that I post about my adventures in England, even though it could be argued that England and Scotland are kind of part of the same country...I digress. 

So Sam and I went to england the weekend of the 27th of March and stayed with her friend Camilla in her flat near the university that she is studying abroad at. We arrived at London Stansted Airport (the same airport Obama flew out of a few days later after the G20 summit) on Friday afternoon after my first flying experience on RyanAir. RyanAir is a budget airlines that flies around Europe, and it truly is a budget airlines. You pay for everything, including having to check in at the airport if you're not an EU citizen. Regardless, it still works out to be really cheap. The flight to England was a little over an hour, so it was a quick trip. We took a bus into the city center and met Camilla there.

We got settled back at her flat (which was absolutely beautiful) and then she took us out exploring a little. We went to the West End (theater district) and Trafalgar Square before getting dinner and going out for some wine. The strange part about being in London is the lack of British people. Everyone working in all of the stores and restaurants is an immigrant, which was very surprising. By the time I left London I couldn't remember having spoken to someone with a true British accent.

The next day Sam and I went out exploring on our own. We used the Tube a lot while we were there (subway system) which is wonderfully efficient. It was so nice coming from Ireland, which lacks good public transportation. The only problem was that there seemed to be a lot of construction so some of the subway lines we wanted to take were closed and we had to reroute some of our journeys. It just helped us get used to the tube quicker. Our first stop was parliament, because my only goal in London was to see Big Ben. We took a bunch of photos over there, of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. We then headed down toward Buckingham Palace. On our way we passed through this beautiful park, I believe it was called Victoria Park, but don't quote me on it. There were flowers and cherry blossom trees everywhere and it was just beautiful. 

We then saw Buckingham Palace, which was absolutely beautiful. Lots of gold adorning the gates around it. One strange sight was the flags nearby the Palace, which alternated between British flags and what appeared to be Mexican flags? We couldn't figure that one out. We then walked through Green Park and then up to Hyde Park. There were lots of daffodils in bloom everywhere we went. It was lovely. In the afternoon we did some shopping near Oxford Circus. We went to the famous toy store in London, Hanley's and to TopShop and Burberry. It was a lovely afternoon, until it started hailing, but we survived.

On Sunday we went to the Camden Markets, which were soo cool. I think there is only one part that is specifically the Camden Market, but basically all of the Camden area closes down on the weekends and turns into a huge outdoor market. There were all kinds of vendors, from food, to clothing, to jewelry. It probably went on for a mile on both sides of the street. I purchased a poster of Trafalgar Square and the guys threw in some other London photos for free. We also purchased lunch there from some of the various cuisines they had to offer. If I ever go back to London, which I hope I do, these markets are definitely on my list.

Overall London was a great time. It's such a vibrant city in spite of its dreary weather. There's so much to do and see, and the public transportation makes it so easy to get everywhere quickly and efficiently. Two thumbs up for London! Off to Scotland for a few days! More when I get back!

Where to begin...

So it's definitely been way too long since I've written a real post. Things got very busy towards the end of the semester (which officially ended on friday). With a series of projects looming over my head it was hard to focus on much else...but I'm not complaining, it's still a lot less work than I would have had to deal with at Tufts. Next up is some traveling in the upcoming weeks followed by my finals...all six of them. Also, unlike at Tufts my finals are all worth more than half of my grade, with 4/6 being worth 70-100%. Scary stuff!

So, as evidenced by my last post of pictures, Pat came to visit for his spring break. It was good craic, as the locals would say. We managed to fit a whole lot into a week, and squeeze in some time to celebrate St. Patrick's day Irish style!

One of his first days here we went to the Cliffs of Moher (my second trip there) and the Burren using a tour service that I had used before. While the weather was supposed to cooperate, in true Irish fashion it did not. I always joke with my parents that I never know what the weather is going to be because even the weather service isn't quite sure. Usually on the news they just shop Ireland with a lot of misty cloudy-ness over it, which means very little. My computer is usually pretty uncertain too: 

(This is an example of a weather icon that can't make up its mind)

Anyway, the weather started out really nice but by the time we got to the Cliffs it was nearly raining. A really cool thing that we experienced while there was sea foam being blown up from the treacherous waters below. At first we thought it was seagulls flying through the air but once we caught some we realized it was just foam being blown up from about 700 ft. below. Pretty incredible!

After a couple of days of raininess we were blessed with about 5 days in a row of the most beautiful weather I have seen while in Ireland. This translated into the most perfect weather for St. Patrick's day. Galway is one of those cities that just absolutely comes alive at the first sign of sun. Even on a normal day all of the locals make their way into the city center to shop and eat and appreciate the scenery, but for St. Patrick's day the crowds were even larger. The pubs were open pretty much all day and all night long, with a lot of them having special traditional music performances for the holiday. Pubs are actually much more peaceful during the day because there's no struggle to find a seat or a table. Some of them even have outdoors seating when it's nice out. One of the pubs we went to pre-parade was one that I had never been to before and don't remember the name of (it's in Irish...I have trouble remembering what I can't pronounce). It's a really cute locals spot and it's cozy because they have little booths that you can go into to get a little privacy. I'll try and include a pic of this here:

After a pint or two we headed to the parade, which was very different from what I expected. I had been told that there would be a lot of local children and sports teams marching, which there were, but for some reason the Galway parade seemed to be a kind of celebration of multiethnicity? Strange in a town that is far from diverse. There was an Asian group marching, a group from Africa, and a group that held Obama masks over their face. Oh and of course the Jersey City police department! Wouldn't be an Irish parade without some Garden Staters. We actually saw them later on that night, at about 1 or 2 in the morning and it seemed that some Irish ladies had taken a liking to them, so I'm sure they enjoyed their Irish stay.

Other than the parade and some drinking, Galwegians pretty much spent all of St. Patrick's day sitting by the bay and just enjoying the amazing weather. At night town got a little crazy, we heard some locals complaining about it the next day. They should probably work on their open container laws.... Thankfully the nice weatehr lasted for the next few days. Pat and I had the opportunity to explore Galway a little bit. We headed to the Galway Cathedral, which is even bigger than I expected, and bought a frisbee to throw around one day by the bay. It seems mother nature wanted to hold out for his stay.

We then made our way to Dublin for a few days. I had received extra tickets to the Guiness factory on my first visit there so we returned and got to take advantage of getting in for free. We also saw St. Pat's Cathedral, Christ Church, St. Steven's Green, Trinity College and Grafton Street. We made a visit to Nude, for my second time, and got to sample some of their amaaaazing bangers and mash and their beef and Guinness stew. We also went to the National Gallery and the National Library, which was actually closed by the time we got there. Overall we made really good use out of time in Dublin.

Also while we were there the finals of the Six Nations Rugby competition were on. The six nations are: Ireland, France, England, Wales, Scotland, and Italy. This is the biggest deal in the world of rugby and Ireland hadn't won in many decades, that is up until this year! The final game was Ireland versus Wales and the whole time we were watching it on TV the commentators were talking about how Ireland wasn't the better team, so it would take a lot of heart to win it. The game came down to less than a minute, but by some miracle the field goal guy (that's the technical term) from Wales missed the goal posts by just a bit and it became an Irish victory. (My Irish roommates make fun of me for calling it  a field goal, it's actually a penalty kick I think). It was a great victory for Ireland and ended in a great moment where the captain from the Irish team traded jerseys with the captain from Wales. Touching, really.

After that it was time for Pat to head home. But as one Pat left, another arrived. I waited in the Dublin Airport for about an hour after saying goodbye to Pat to great my Aunt Pat and cousins Kelly and Karen. They were arriving on holiday and I got to meet up with them for a little while before they departed on their tour. I also got to meet up with them later in the week at their Galway  hotel which was right across the street from my accommodation. Aunt Pat bought us a round of drinks before dinner and we all got to chat and catch up. I also got to meet their tour guide, who was quite the character. They seemed to have a really good experience in Ireland and it sounds as though they're already planning their next European experience!

It was so nice to see so many people from home over that two-week period. The good news is only 5 weeks until I get to see everyone else!

Next post: My trip to London last weekend.