This past weekend was the Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge trip. In case I haven't mentioned this before, England is the land of roundabouts! Where we have our complicated over and under interchanges, helping to keep traffic from slowing down, they have millions of roundabouts, which causes traffic to move slower. The smaller roundabouts work just like Troy's, with a quarter-turn lane and another lane for going farther than that. The bigger ones remind me of Troy before the circle change, with 2 (plus) lanes going around a massive greenspace. These roundabouts will occur if a road intersects the A1 or if the M1 (or some other such highway) intersects it. In addition, most cars here are manual. In fact, if you don't get a manual drivers license (in other words, you take it in an automatic and don't learn how to drive manual), you have a limited license and can't legally drive a manual, even if you learn later! (thanks go to Chloe for this information.) So these coaches that we go on these trips in are manual and, despite the hours upon hours that I've spent on them, no driver has managed to stall the coach. Until this weekend when the driver stalled it 3 times! I thought it was pretty comical, though I didn't appreciate the jerkiness of his driving and the millions of roundabouts and windy roads he was taking us on. Anyways. Enough about that. Onto my trip!
We left Harlaxton at 8 in the morning in order to get to Oxford by 10:30. We only got 4 hours in Oxford, so priorities were made. This meant that I didn't end up having enough time to go through the Oxford Castle, but I got to see it and the trade-off was definitely worth it! Alayna and I headed to Christ Church College, Oxford University straight off the coach. Not only did we get to walk around the campus of one of the most prestigious universities in the world, but we also got mistaken for students! Christ Church College is important to us for a number of reasons. 1) Alayna would kill me if I didn't mention that J.R.R. Tolkien was there. 2) Lewis Carroll (which is a pen name) taught there and was influence by it for the Alice stories. 3) Parts of the college were used in the filming of Harry Potter! I already knew about the Harry Potter filming locations, so I was prepared when we walked into the entryway, but Alayna either didn't know or had forgotten and it was great watching the realization dawn on her face! Because in this entryway is the staircase from Harry Potter! The two scenes that I always remember from it are: 1) when the First Years are waiting to go into the Great Hall and Neville finds Trevor the toad and Malfoy introduces himself to Harry; 2) at the end of Sorcerer's Stone when Ron and Hermione are standing at the top looking down from the banister at Harry, who had just left the hospital wing to join them for the End-of-Term Feast. Many pictures were taken of me and this staircase. But wait! The Harry Potterness doesn't end there! At the top of the stairs is the Great Hall! We got to go into the room that was used as the Great Hall as well! (it doesn't look exactly the same, but it's still awesome!) We also found Professor Trelawney's ancestor in a portrait on the wall there! (Also, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, which I thought was interesting.) We also got to visit the church in the College and walk by the massive library and around the grounds, which is where we sat and ate our sack lunches. After that we headed over to Alice's Shop, where the real Alice (inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) bought her sweets, which is now an Alice souvenir shop, and the Oxford Shop next door. I of course picked up a few Alice-related things, and a something for Ellen as well! After the shops, we walked back towards Oxford Castle, stopping to watch some street preformers (I went to go to the bathroom and when I came back out, Alayna had bought their cd!). We found Oxford Castle but I didn't feel I had enough time to really go through it, so we just looked around the shop, where I found some Sour Plooms! (hard sour apple candies that are amazing but really hard to find), and played in the stocks. We had about half an hour or so left before we needed to get back on the coach, so we went into the museum across the street from the coach pick-up point and looked at the special exhibit on one of the printing presses from the 19th century, which I found really cool. (except most of the books were in French, so I couldn't read them.) Then it was back on the coach and on to Bath!
We got to Bath around 4, a bit late to do any museums or anything that day. Alayna tried to go to the spa baths that night, but it was too long a line, so she decided to do it the next day instead and we met for dinner. We went to Pultney Bridge (a bridge over the river that's lined with shops, so you don't realize you're on the bridge) and found this absolutely amazing Indian restaurant. Seriously the best Indian food I've had here! We also saw some fellow Harlaxton students (though not from the group). I wish I could've had another plate of that chicken tikka masala and nan. It was soooo good! After dinner we walked around Bath a bit, just seeing what's there for tomorrow. Then we hiked back up the 2 mile steep hill to the hostel (why pay for a cab or bus when we're perfectly capable of walking?). We were planning on doing a little bit of homework, but Gretchen and Lyndsey were in the room, so we ended up talking with them instead!
The next morning we were back on the bus at 9 and at Wells Cathedral by 10. We only had 45 minutes to look at the cathedral and try to get some lunch. We kind of walked quickly through the cathedral (since by this time I, for one, am pretty tired of seeing cathedrals) and went to the cafe for some food (which we had to scarf down. try doing that with a hot drink!). Then we were back on the bus for another 15 minutes or so for the reason I went on the day trip (other than the fact that we had already paid for it), Glastonbury Abbey. The ruins are absolutely gorgeous! And flowers were coming up, so it really was perfect. This is the Abbey where King Arthur and Guinevere are supposed to be buried. And Arthur's grave is marked. Thanks to Mr. Davis Senior year (and the King Arthur movie a bunch of us watched a few weeks ago) I was pretty excited to see this. There was plenty to look at there, but I was ready to get back to Bath by the time we had to get on the coach to leave. We got back to Bath around 1 and were dropped off down towards the center of town, so we didn't have to walk down the hill from our hostel and that saved some time! Alayna and I (and a lot of other Harlaxton people, it turned out) headed straight for the Jane Austen Centre. She spent time in Bath, both as a visitor and living there, and two novels are set and influenced by Bath. Northanger Abbey shows Bath in a good light, influenced by her visits there, while Persuasion shows Bath's faults, influenced by the time she lived in Bath. The Jane Austen Centre showed her Bath and her life there and how it influenced her and such. It was pretty interesting, especially because those are two of my favorite novels of hers. I bought a couple of little souvenirs there as well (some one's getting a surprise when I get home!). After Jane Austen, Alayna sped off to the baths, where she ended up waiting almost 2 hours for her hour and a half spa time. According to her it was totally worth it though! Left on my own, I happily meandered around Bath. My first stop was the Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum. The Assembly Rooms were absolutely gorgeous! And the Fashion Museum had so much to look at! When you first went in there, there was an exhibit on wedding dresses throughout the centuries, which was perfect since I had gone to see a similar exhibit in Charleston over the summer. Then there were the changing fashions from the 1600s to 1900. Some absolutely gorgeous dresses, along with some styles that were just plain interesting. The last part in the museum was fashion from 1900 to the present. I loved seeing the changing styles there too. One of the guy mannequins even had a tattoo on his arm! One of the 2009 outfits was totally something I could see people wearing. And there was a white dress with black lace on the front that was I absolutely loved! After getting my fill of fashion and talking myself out of a 15 pound reusable bag (I can make my own) I walked through the Circus, which was a roundabout with curved terraced buildings surrounding it, to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is a set of terrace houses that were (and are) for the well-to-do and have a great view of the city. By the way, the city buildings all look exactly the same! They are all basically the same design and are made out of the same yellowish tan stone. Not exactly my type of town. I next walked through a park on my way back to the city center. There I went into Waterstone's (like a Boarders) and bought a copy of Philosopher's Stone. I splurged a bit and bought the hardcover, because it still had the original cover on it, unlike the paperback ones which have the crappy new cover on them. They had a Costa in Waterstone's, so, since I was hungry, I went in there and bought myself some hot chocolate and a muffin and proceeded to relax and read some Philosopher's Stone. After a bit I left and roamed the city center, doing some shopping. I met Alayna around 6 and we went to KFC for dinner (we needed to save a bit of money). I cannot get over the fact that they have fries at KFC and shakes (which were quite good-the shakes, not the fries) but no mac-n-cheese, mashed potatoes, or biscuits! I think Alayna got a bit tired with my exclamations over the fries after a bit to be quite honest. But seriously, fries at KFC?! I needed to do some reading that evening, so I headed back up to the hostel while Alayna went to go look at the Royal Crescent. Some reading was accomplished, so that was a plus.
Sunday we left went as a group to the Roman Baths, which were quite interesting to look at, but I personally didn't need the entire almost 2 hours there. Luckily there was a pasty shop with absolutely amazing hot chocolate right next door, so I passed my time drinking that and talking to Josh while we waited for the rest of the group to get done. Some of the baths still had water in them, which was pretty cool. Some parts were kind of dark and creepy to go look at, but I went in anyways because I wanted to see everything! They also had a little exhibit on the Romans there, and there was a skeleton! I love looking at skeletons and wishing I knew forensic anthropology. After we finished at the Roman Baths, it was on the coach an on to Stonehenge. We had 45 minutes at Stonehenge, which was plenty of time. It was quite windy there, which made it cold and not incredibly cold. For me, Stonehenge was just a stop on the trip that I wanted (Oxford and Bath). It was a lot less impressive in person. Plus I had kind of gotten my fill of it Senior year with Mr. Davis! Unfortunately, no aliens were sighted, but I did see a girl with a Dr. Who Sonic Screwdriver, which i think should count! A little over an hour stop in Salisbury for lunch followed (yummy Pizza Hut, and more Costa) then it was back on the bus for the long ride back to Harlaxton. Actually, there was one more stop. Alayna had the bus stop for an emergency bathroom break (which elicited a few cheers from others with full bladders).
I've got a super busy week this week, but I'm going to be rewarding myself with Barcelona! Tune in next week for my Spanish stories! (probably not written in Spanish)
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
North Wales: I Could See Hogwarts Being Located Here Too!
This last weekend I took a trip to Wales, which consisted of many place names that I can't for the life of me pronounce (because they're Welsh) and lots of beautiful scenery. The one thing I did figure out with Welsh is that 'll' is pronounced 'cl', like in 'clap'. Other than that, I'm still totally lost on the language, though all the signs are in both Welsh and English, which I think is pretty cool. And Welsh is an interesting language to hear spoken. Very different from what I'm used to hearing.
So we left on Friday morning on the coach, stopping in Chester, England, which is on the Welsh-English boarder, for a couple of hours. The first thing we did when we got there was go see the Roman Amphitheater that was just excavated in 2007 or something really recent like that. Only half of it is currently excavated because the people who own the building that's sitting on top of the other half won't sell. But even seeing half of it is pretty cool. I was walking around with an Archaeology double major, so it was really funny to see how excited Rachel got over seeing this and walking around in it! While we were waiting for the bus later on, Alayna decided to jump into the pit instead of taking the stairs and get a picture taken of her getting attacked by stuffed animals. It's quite an interesting picture! After the Amphitheater, we went and walked along part of the medieval wall surrounding Chester. It's the most complete medieval wall in Britain! And it was really neat to be able to walk along it. We then ate our sack lunches that we picked up from the Refectory in the morning and did a bit of shopping with the time we had left. We went into this really awesome paper store and I bought a great gift for Mindy and a thank you card for someone else. Then we saw the Disney store, so of course we had to go in. I love looking at all the Disney stuff and it was really hard not to buy everything! We went into a couple of other stores as well, and I also got my friend Ellen a present.
After Chester, it was back on the coach and into Wales, to a seaside town called Llandudo, which was where our hotel was located this weekend. Alayna and I got really excited when we got to our room because we had a view of the sea! Our hotel was located on the road right in front of the beach. The first thing that we did when we went out was to go walking on the beach, which was kind of difficult because it was low tide and there were a lot of rocks and water was left over! But I managed to get everywhere we were walking without getting my feet wet. Down by the sea, Alayna put on her swimsuit and sunglasses over her jeans and sweater to take a picture (she was also wearing a hat and gloves). It made for quite an interesting picture! After getting our fill of the sea, we walked back to the street behind our hotel, which is where all the major shops and restaurants are located. We went wandering in and out of the stores. I bought my customary key-chain and a shirt and dress. So a successful day for me shopping-wise! Then we went to eat at an Indian restaurant. We got there pretty soon after it opened and we were the only ones there for half an hour! It was kind of awkward, because there were at least 4 waiters, and three of us. But the food was amazing! Chicken Tikka Masala is my new favorite Indian dish. Plus nan. You can never forget that. There are literally no bars or pubs open (other than old man pubs), so when we went out later that night looking for something to do, we ended up back at the beach, which was now high tide. It was fun to listen and watch it there in the dark.
The next day it was back on the coach and off to two other destinations, before returning to Llandudo for the night. Our first stop was Caernarfon. Caernarfon Castle was built by (English) King Edward I after he defeated the Welsh princes in order to subdue and intimidate the Welsh and to build strongholds in Wales. And this castle definitely would've accomplished those things! It is huge! A legitimate castle, not just one tower. We spend almost 2 hours there, just exploring, and I could've spent more time than that there, because I didn't even get to climb up all of the towers and everything. There are lots of random rooms that you think lead somewhere but really don't. And I climbed to the highest point in the castle, which is one of two twin towers at the top of another tower. The view of the town and surrounding countryside was amazing from there! I loved just being able to explore everywhere, and not have to listen to a tour guide or anything. There was an exhibit there about the Princes of Wales, and it included Prince Charles' throne from his investure, which occurred at Caernarfon Castle. I would gladly go back to the castle again. At the castle gift shop, I bought sheep poo air freshener (daffodil scent). We wandered in and out of a few shops before getting back on the coach and heading to our next destination.
We had a 2 hour or so stop at Llanberis for lunch and such. Since it was noon when we got there, our first stop was Pete's Cafe, reputedly the best cafe in the world. I had a cheese toastie and chips, which was good, but I've had better grilled cheeses (Night Sky in particular!). After that, the four of us split up, Alayna and Betsy going off in search of waterfalls, and Rachel and I heading up to the castle that's located on a hill/mountain. Llanberis is in a valley next to a lake, with mountains surrounding it. It is a slate mining town, though they don't do as much mining as they used to, but you can still see where mining took place on the face of the mountains. Dolbadarn Castle is just a big circular tower, located at the top of a steep hill, but it was still really fun to hike up to it and look at it! You could go about halfway up the tower and look out, which I thought was pretty cool. And the castle is made out of slate, so they definitely took advantage of the resources that they had there when they built it. And the view from the castle and the land surrounding it was amazing! So many good pictures!
We got back to Llandudo around 4, and the four of us went out shopping for a bit and then out to the pier to look around. There weren't really any of the shops or anything open on the pier, but it was fun to go out on it and see the town from the sea. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant, and the pizza was pretty good! We didn't even try to go out again that night, we just stayed in our rooms and talked and watched TV, finding some interesting shows to watch and/or introduce Alayna too (like Friends!).
Sunday morning we left, with two stops on the way back to Harlaxton. Our first stop was actually wrong. Heather thought that this was where Swallow Falls was (our first stop) but it definitely wasn't. So she took about 50 students on a little hike in the woods before calling Dr. Taylor, who usually does the Wales trip, to ask him for directions. She got it all figured out and we trekked back to the coach for another 5 minute ride to the real Swallow Falls. You had to pay a pound to go down to the falls, but it was totally worth it. The falls were absolutely beautiful. They're falling on all these rocks and there's trees and lots of green stuff growing on the shore beside it. Definitely worth the stop! We spent about half an hour there before going another 10-15 minutes down the road to the town of Betws y Coed, which was our 2+ hour lunch stop. We walked around in and out of souvenir stores and such before getting lunch at a cafe. Then we did some more walking and shopping and I found a good gift for my mom/parents. There were a ton of dogs out and I actually got to pet one! Well, the dog stuck it's head in my hand, so I guess it made me pet it, but I wasn't complaining! That was probably the highlight of my day! I miss being able to be with dogs so much! Betws y Coed seemed to be a hiking/mountain climbing town, since it's located in the middle of the mountain range there. Still very pretty. I could totally see Hogwarts being here too, instead of in Scotland! After getting our fill there, it was back on the coach for another 4 hours, with Chinese awaiting me in my room, courtesy of my friend/roommate. So much better than the roast that we have in the Refectory every Sunday!
I'm going to try to write just a general post about daily life here at Harlaxton sometime soon, but if I don't get around to that this week, the next thing you'll be reading about is Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge!
So we left on Friday morning on the coach, stopping in Chester, England, which is on the Welsh-English boarder, for a couple of hours. The first thing we did when we got there was go see the Roman Amphitheater that was just excavated in 2007 or something really recent like that. Only half of it is currently excavated because the people who own the building that's sitting on top of the other half won't sell. But even seeing half of it is pretty cool. I was walking around with an Archaeology double major, so it was really funny to see how excited Rachel got over seeing this and walking around in it! While we were waiting for the bus later on, Alayna decided to jump into the pit instead of taking the stairs and get a picture taken of her getting attacked by stuffed animals. It's quite an interesting picture! After the Amphitheater, we went and walked along part of the medieval wall surrounding Chester. It's the most complete medieval wall in Britain! And it was really neat to be able to walk along it. We then ate our sack lunches that we picked up from the Refectory in the morning and did a bit of shopping with the time we had left. We went into this really awesome paper store and I bought a great gift for Mindy and a thank you card for someone else. Then we saw the Disney store, so of course we had to go in. I love looking at all the Disney stuff and it was really hard not to buy everything! We went into a couple of other stores as well, and I also got my friend Ellen a present.
After Chester, it was back on the coach and into Wales, to a seaside town called Llandudo, which was where our hotel was located this weekend. Alayna and I got really excited when we got to our room because we had a view of the sea! Our hotel was located on the road right in front of the beach. The first thing that we did when we went out was to go walking on the beach, which was kind of difficult because it was low tide and there were a lot of rocks and water was left over! But I managed to get everywhere we were walking without getting my feet wet. Down by the sea, Alayna put on her swimsuit and sunglasses over her jeans and sweater to take a picture (she was also wearing a hat and gloves). It made for quite an interesting picture! After getting our fill of the sea, we walked back to the street behind our hotel, which is where all the major shops and restaurants are located. We went wandering in and out of the stores. I bought my customary key-chain and a shirt and dress. So a successful day for me shopping-wise! Then we went to eat at an Indian restaurant. We got there pretty soon after it opened and we were the only ones there for half an hour! It was kind of awkward, because there were at least 4 waiters, and three of us. But the food was amazing! Chicken Tikka Masala is my new favorite Indian dish. Plus nan. You can never forget that. There are literally no bars or pubs open (other than old man pubs), so when we went out later that night looking for something to do, we ended up back at the beach, which was now high tide. It was fun to listen and watch it there in the dark.
The next day it was back on the coach and off to two other destinations, before returning to Llandudo for the night. Our first stop was Caernarfon. Caernarfon Castle was built by (English) King Edward I after he defeated the Welsh princes in order to subdue and intimidate the Welsh and to build strongholds in Wales. And this castle definitely would've accomplished those things! It is huge! A legitimate castle, not just one tower. We spend almost 2 hours there, just exploring, and I could've spent more time than that there, because I didn't even get to climb up all of the towers and everything. There are lots of random rooms that you think lead somewhere but really don't. And I climbed to the highest point in the castle, which is one of two twin towers at the top of another tower. The view of the town and surrounding countryside was amazing from there! I loved just being able to explore everywhere, and not have to listen to a tour guide or anything. There was an exhibit there about the Princes of Wales, and it included Prince Charles' throne from his investure, which occurred at Caernarfon Castle. I would gladly go back to the castle again. At the castle gift shop, I bought sheep poo air freshener (daffodil scent). We wandered in and out of a few shops before getting back on the coach and heading to our next destination.
We had a 2 hour or so stop at Llanberis for lunch and such. Since it was noon when we got there, our first stop was Pete's Cafe, reputedly the best cafe in the world. I had a cheese toastie and chips, which was good, but I've had better grilled cheeses (Night Sky in particular!). After that, the four of us split up, Alayna and Betsy going off in search of waterfalls, and Rachel and I heading up to the castle that's located on a hill/mountain. Llanberis is in a valley next to a lake, with mountains surrounding it. It is a slate mining town, though they don't do as much mining as they used to, but you can still see where mining took place on the face of the mountains. Dolbadarn Castle is just a big circular tower, located at the top of a steep hill, but it was still really fun to hike up to it and look at it! You could go about halfway up the tower and look out, which I thought was pretty cool. And the castle is made out of slate, so they definitely took advantage of the resources that they had there when they built it. And the view from the castle and the land surrounding it was amazing! So many good pictures!
We got back to Llandudo around 4, and the four of us went out shopping for a bit and then out to the pier to look around. There weren't really any of the shops or anything open on the pier, but it was fun to go out on it and see the town from the sea. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant, and the pizza was pretty good! We didn't even try to go out again that night, we just stayed in our rooms and talked and watched TV, finding some interesting shows to watch and/or introduce Alayna too (like Friends!).
Sunday morning we left, with two stops on the way back to Harlaxton. Our first stop was actually wrong. Heather thought that this was where Swallow Falls was (our first stop) but it definitely wasn't. So she took about 50 students on a little hike in the woods before calling Dr. Taylor, who usually does the Wales trip, to ask him for directions. She got it all figured out and we trekked back to the coach for another 5 minute ride to the real Swallow Falls. You had to pay a pound to go down to the falls, but it was totally worth it. The falls were absolutely beautiful. They're falling on all these rocks and there's trees and lots of green stuff growing on the shore beside it. Definitely worth the stop! We spent about half an hour there before going another 10-15 minutes down the road to the town of Betws y Coed, which was our 2+ hour lunch stop. We walked around in and out of souvenir stores and such before getting lunch at a cafe. Then we did some more walking and shopping and I found a good gift for my mom/parents. There were a ton of dogs out and I actually got to pet one! Well, the dog stuck it's head in my hand, so I guess it made me pet it, but I wasn't complaining! That was probably the highlight of my day! I miss being able to be with dogs so much! Betws y Coed seemed to be a hiking/mountain climbing town, since it's located in the middle of the mountain range there. Still very pretty. I could totally see Hogwarts being here too, instead of in Scotland! After getting our fill there, it was back on the coach for another 4 hours, with Chinese awaiting me in my room, courtesy of my friend/roommate. So much better than the roast that we have in the Refectory every Sunday!
I'm going to try to write just a general post about daily life here at Harlaxton sometime soon, but if I don't get around to that this week, the next thing you'll be reading about is Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ireland: Seamus and The Cave
This past weekend (well, long weekend) I got to head off to Ireland, Galway and Dublin to be exact (the cities, not the counties). We finished with our first British Studies exam on Wednesday afternoon and left that night at 8 for one of the longest travels of my life. First was the 5 hour bus ride to Holyhead, Wales, where we were getting our ferry. We waited probably close to an hour to get onto the ferry and then camped out in some reclining chairs for the next 4 while we crossed the Irish Sea to Dublin's port. Once in Dublin we went to the hotel where we would eventually stay the night for breakfast around 6:30 a.m. before getting back on the bus and sleeping away the time to Clonmacnoise, which is an ancient monastery in the middle of the country on the River Shannon. It was alright, but it was definitely ruins and, seeing as we were all operating on practically no sleep and the travel that never ended, the history and interestingness of it was lost on the majority of us. Back on the coach after that and (after sleeping some more) arrived in Galway on the West Coast of Ireland around 1. If you find Dublin on a map, draw a line pretty much straight across the island and you'll hit Galway.
Since we had gotten a packed lunch from the school before we left and had eaten a lot at breakfast, Christine and I chose not to get lunch and go straight out to see stuff. The Latin Quarter is really the main part of town, where shops and pubs and bars and restaurants are. So we headed down that way and found the Claddagh Ring Museum, which is located in the back of the original shop, which is the only place where you can buy the ones that the government says are official and they have the official 'original' stamp on the inside of them. In case you don't know what these are, they are rings with two hands holding a heart with a crown on top of it. They originated in this area and were used as wedding bands for a time. There are two ways to wear the ring: if the crown is pointing towards your fingernail, you are in love and taken; if the heart is towards your fingernail, you are single and in search of love.
After the ring museum, Christine and I walked further down to the River Corrib, which was really high and fast at the time. It looked so cool! Right next to the river is the Spanish Arch, which eventually got its name from the fact that the Spaniards used to dock their boats there. We stopped to take pictures, then it was across the river to find the Salthill Promenade. We got lost a bit (because we followed the wrong signs) and ended up in a residential neighborhood, but we eventually found it. The Salthill Promenade is basically just a walkway above the bay beaches. It was really pretty to walk around and look out onto the bay (and the sun was actually shining too, so that made it even better!). There was also an island in the middle of the bay that had a causeway connecting it, so we went out about halfway on that before having to turn around because they restrict access to the island.
On our way to dinner, we ran into our friends Alana, Anna, Keely, and Betsy and all of us went to get dinner together. We ended up buying crepes and milkshakes and some of us got sandwiches. It was fun. Later, we all went out and ended up at the same bar that some of the boys from Harlaxton were at and we started talking to them and ended up hanging out with them all night too.
The next day we were on the coach early to head out to the Cliffs of Moher, about an hour and a half away from our hostel. The first thing we did there was walk into the visitors center, which was built into the landscape, and walk around the exhibition there. Our favorite part was the huge touchscreen things that showed how the continents changed over the millions of years! Then we went outside and walked up to the edge of the cliffs. They were absolutely amazing! It's basically a sheer drop and the waves are crashing up on them and everything. And it was a bit foggy out on the water, but I think that added to the beauty of it. Oh, and yes. This is totally where the scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where Harry and Dumbledore are out on that rock in the middle of the sea with the cliffs in front of them! I saw that rock and was like 'That's totally the rock from HBP!' It just looked exactly like it! I don't think everyone else was as excited as I was though. And I double-checked when I got back to Harlaxton and I was totally right! In case you don't remember this scene, the Cliffs of Moher are also included in The Princess Bride (which is where they all recognized it from) and Leap Year. Though it sounds insane, apparently people will surf at the bottom of the cliffs! After taking our sweet time looking at the cliffs from both sides and taking loads of pictures we went back into the visitors center to look around the gift shop. I ended up buying many postcards, necessary for the next day's adventures (someone was giving out free ones on the coach later, which made it even better), and a nice Christmas ornament.
Once done with the cliffs, it was back on the coach for about 20 minutes to a seaside town called Doolin, where we stopped for lunch at a pub and then the vast majority of us followed Heather (the courier from Harlaxton) down to the beach. Now this walk turned out to be 2 km, a lot longer than we expected! But it was pretty cool to see the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is all rocky and I loved seeing the waves splash up on them. If it was just a bit clearer maybe I could've seen North America from there!
Once back in Galway (which was later than planned, leaving us only 1 hour until most things closed), Christine and I went back to the Latin Quarter and ended up buying some (not original) Claddagh rings from a very nice lady in a jewelry store. Hers is just plain silver and mine is silver with and emerald for the heart and some diamonds on the arms (really, I think they have to be fake, but it gets the colors and looks across better and it's still really pretty. and a lot cheaper than a plain silver original one would be!). We walked around a bit more and then it was dinner time. We found a fish and chip shop (we're on the sea, how could we resist?!) and had really good fried fish on a stick and chips. I would've eaten another fish on a stick if I was still hungry it was so good! That night we eventually found everyone else again (from last night, plus a few more guys) and went out. It was a lot of fun! Oh, and I bought a gift for my lovely friend Allison in Galway. =)
The next morning it was a coach ride back across the country to Dublin. It was supposed to take 2 hours, so we were there by 10, but it was after 11 when we got there. Not good for a history major who just took an Irish history course last semester and only has one day to see everything they talked about! I split off from my friends to go around to see the sites with fellow history major and course taker Rachel. We got terribly lost trying to find Dublin Castle (it seriously took us almost an hour and it was supposed to be a couple blocks away from our hotel. the map was that bad.) so we had to stop and ask directions at a Viking museum. We eventually found it and stopped to eat lunch at an awesome diner called Eddie Rocket's, which was like a real American diner with chips and the booths and the songs and everything. It was really good, but we had to scarf our food down because we were supposed to be meeting up with one of her Irish friends at the Castle. He ended up running late, so we looked around the outside of the Castle (in the courtyards and such) but didn't go in because it cost money and we wanted to be able to see everything and didn't have a ton of time.
We were going to go to the General Post Office (GPO) next, so we just told her friend (James; aka a ginger, dark freckly Seamus (HP, Gryffindor) ) to meet us there. On the way we got lost again! So we stopped at an information kiosk and asked him how to get there. When he asked why we wanted to go to the GPO (I mean, we were Americans, so was there any particular reason?) and found out that we had studied Irish history, especially the 1916 Easter Rising and after (to their official independence from Great Britain. Yes, the Republic of Ireland is it's own country and part of the EU. However, Northern Ireland has chosen to stay part of Great Britain, though the offer still stands from both countries that if they ever want to join the Republic of Ireland instead they are allowed/welcome to.) he got really excited and started asking us if we knew this or that and we did and was telling us about bullet holes and such. And they also are wanting to put the Abby Theatre inside the GPO building instead of having it as a post office! Neither he nor us were happy about that. It has so much history and is so central to their independence story! The GPO, by the way, was the headquarters for the rebels during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin (it was supposed to happen all over the country but didn't) and it was there that the Proclamation of Irish Independence/the Republic of Ireland was read. The British suppressed the rebellion after 5 days. Interesting fact, they didn't really take over strategic positions around the city and one of the buildings that they took over was a biscuit factory! Anyways, we got to the GPO on O'Connell St. and met James (who's nice. And his great grandfather fought at the GPO during the Easter Rising! How cool is that?!) and went inside. From there I sent off my postcards, because I thought that would be the coolest thing ever, and because that one girl was passing out free ones on the coach yesterday I even got to mail one to myself here! Then we went into the museum in the GPO and got to see the ACTUAL Proclamation!!!!! Rachel and I were so excited I think James might've thought we were a little off. But we explained that we took a class to him and he understood. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos and there were CCTV cameras, so we didn't want to risk it. There was some other stuff in the little museum, but that was the best part. Once back outside the GPO we took pictures and I found the most bullet-ridden chunk of building and took a close up of that.
We then turned down O'Connell St. and went to the huge statue of Daniel O'Connell (an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century who succeeded in getting Catholic Emancipation, so they were on the same level (theoretically) as the Protestants (descendants of the English)). Pictures were of course taken, and you could see bullet holes on his arm and chest from the Easter Rising there too! The British advanced up O'Connell St. from the river and had to shoot past the statue, resulting inevitably in hitting it. We continued walking and James took us to Trinity College, which was cool to look around, and then to a nice park, where there was a famine statue, and then to Leicester House. We had a bit of time before having to go back to the hotel to meet our roommates and check in, so we stopped at a cafe for some drinks. On the way back to the hotel, we walked through the Temple Bar District, which is where most of the nightlife is in Dublin, and he pointed out some good, cheaper, places for us.
Once everyone showed up and we got all checked in, Rachel and I went back out, this time down to take pictures of the Four Courts (which has been rebuilt since being destroyed during the Civil War. many of the Irish records were destroyed too, so they lost a lot of their history at the time too. but it is the judicial center, with three types of courts being located there). Once again, we didn't go in, but it would've been closed by that time. We did go into a couple souvenir shops that day, Rachel bought more than I did, but I bought my customary keychain and we both bought a Proclamation (which I have happily been accepting grief for from my friends). We went to the same diner for dinner because it was so good and we wanted to enjoy the atmosphere. Plus it wasn't expensive, which was good for us. The milkshakes were good, the fries (not chips) were perfectly seasoned, and they gave us garlic mayo to dip our chicken strips in and it was really good! We ended up sitting and talking for a long time after we finished. It was nice.
After we went back to the hotel, she went to go find her friends and go out for a bit and I was settling in to not spend any money that night in my room when some of my friends came in, so I went with them to one of the guys room and we sat and talked awhile. Eventually Christine and I went back to our room while everyone else went out for a bit and watched TV and talked.
The next morning we got up bright and early to catch an 8 a.m. ferry back to Holyhead port in Wales. Then we went to the Welsh town with the longest name in Europe: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (in English: The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave). If that's only the longest name in Europe I'd hate to see what the longest one in the world is! This was just a lunch stop, so after stamping our passports we went and found a pub (the 6 of us girls) and got some food. I had some really good Indian. That stuff's growing on me! Then it was back on the bus for another 4 hours to get back to Harlaxton.
Ok, that was massive, but stay with me, because next week you'll be reading about North Wales!
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