Ok, it's here again, the time when I have to pack up again and go for nearly a month without my computer (such hard times!). It's 12:40AM right now and I leave my flat at 6:20AM tomorrow. Guess what, I still need to pack everything! =P
It was hard for everyone to realize that tonight was our last night together. Chelsea and I leave in the morning for London and our flat mate Rachel leaves to do some traveling with her mother and friend. Our good-byes were many and prolonged. It's hard when you've lived with someone for this long and are forced to say good-bye, knowing there's a chance you'll never see them again. By the time my trip is done and I get back on June 17th, it'll only be Chelsea, Vanessa, and I for 3 days before they both take off and I am left here alone. I'll still have friends here, but all my flat mates will have gone.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! And since I won't be able to post while I'm deep into Eastern Europe, here's an early happy birthday to Matt who'll be 18 and Kelsey who'll be 15. Also, Matt, sorry I can't be there for your high school graduation that's coming up in a few short weeks. I would have loved to have gone. Good night and good luck, erm, I mean good-bye! =]
I've been finding myself staying up till all hours of the night lately. It's 1:15AM right now and I'm not even tired. I ate dinner at 11:30 (not by choice, I might add--the kitchen was in use since about 6:00PM) and now I sit at my computer awake, busying myself with online reading. I'm pretty sure I will be able to make an easy adjustment when I go back home in July. Jet lag won't be an issue! =)
It's weird that, back at home, the Brat Fest is going on right now and I'm missing it. Every year I volunteer, usually working between 20-30 hours in one weekend. All earnings go to charities, which is wonderful. I really like the atmosphere, though. I love big crowds (as I'm sure you can tell by how excited I was over going to the Royal Wedding) and the Brat Fest has grown to be more than just food. Now there are many music stages, kayaking, a rock wall, rides, and of course, the mustard museum tent! I also always enjoy watching the boards at the park entry to see if we'll beat the standing record for brats sold. Good luck this year guys!
We came together for one last group dinner tonight. Though not all of us will be leaving Leeds just yet, this marks the last day for us to be together as flat mates. Tomorrow, some of us will leave and go our own way, soon after, others will follow. Our dinner was great. Roxanne and I cleaned the kitchen, then made a lovely cherry pie. Some friends joined us for dinner, making the group a total of 9 people. Dinner was delicious, dessert superb, and the company memorable.
My cherry pie.
Vanessa's fun drink! =)
Vanessa, Chelsea, Roxanne, Ashley, Chelsea.
Roxanne, Ashley, Leah, Chelsea, Vanessa, and Chelsea.
Tomorrow marks the last day of finals for my flat mates. This means that we will soon separate, no longer to be flat mates ever again. It's a sad time, but we are going to celebrate our time spent together with a dinner tomorrow night. It'll be the "Spaghetti Dinner" that we've been meaning to have for weeks, with salad, wine, and cherry pie (homemade by myself and Roxanne).
After tomorrow's dinner, we all sort of break off. Chelsea and I leave on Sunday morning for London. Leah and Roxanne leave soon after for London as well to see David Tennant perform Much Ado About Nothing on the 6th before going back to the U.S., Vanessa goes traveling with her cousin, and Rachel goes traveling with her mom. And that's it. Leeds life disappears; no more rushing off to class and passing friends on the way, chatting in the kitchen, hanging out with people from St Mark's. It'll be...weird. It'll be...different.
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Here begins my April tale, part 2. Same as last time, I haven't proof-read it. Hopefully there won't be too many mistakes! =)
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April 14th
Ever had a day
when it feels like the entire
world is against you?
Early in the morning, we left Florence via train and headed to Venice. What a beautiful island. I love the narrow streets, the gondolas, the mirky water, and the beautiful architecture and color of the buildings.
Eliza and I had a hostel located a ways away into the center of Venice, while Roxanne, Leah, Chelsea, Melissa, and Stephanie had a hostel on the train station side of the island. We split up, deciding to come back to have lunch together in about an hour and a half. Turns out that wasn't enough time. Eliza and I ended up getting lost pretty quickly and walking in a large circle, only to find ourselves back at the train station. We asked for directions 3 times and on the third time, I realized my camera was missing. I quickly went back to the last person we had talked to, asking if I had left it with them, they said no. We traced our steps back through the circular path we had taken. It was no where to be seen. One thousand four hundred. At least. That is the number of pictures my camera had on it when it was stolen. I have a pretty good idea of when, where, and by whom it was stolen, but this person has long since disappeared. Words can't express how terrible I felt at that moment or that entire day.
Eliza and I finally reached our hostel at the exact time we were supposed to have been back at the train station to meet the others. We texted, asking for another half hour while we worked things out with the hostel. There was one guy working. He looked gross, like he hadn't showered in days. He was unprofessional and rather shady. We paid him as close we could to the exact amount owed, but all the two of us had were 50 euro notes as the ATMs wouldn't give out anything smaller. So, this guy said he'd have to give us an IOU, as Eliza had paid more than she should have and he didn't have any change for her.
We weren't allowed to check into our hostel yet. It was noon, but we weren't technically allowed in until 1:00PM due to "cleaning." I have that in quotes because I stayed there for 3 days...they don't actually clean. It's still gross. I've got a lot to say about that hostel, but I won't go much more into detail here. Let's just say I am not pleased with the Venice Museum Hostel, it was not clean, not easy to find, not friendly, and shifty in the sense that I paid to be in an 8 person room for both nights, but the second night, they overbooked and turned my room into a 10-11 person room, adding beds to an already crammed location. Not cool. Oh, and both nights I FROZE because the blankets that they MAKE you PAY for are suuuuper thin. Not a good experience. As much as I like Venice, I would never stay in that hostel again.
After Eliza and I put our bags in a "secure" area (in Venice you can never tell...), we headed back out to find the train station. On doing so, we discovered a short cut that we used ever since. If only the maps had showed this to us. Our lives would be been so much easier. Anywho, all together, we ate lunch, and explored the Basilica. Quite a gorgeous cathedral. It's quite dark, but huge. We also just walked around and saw places where Heath Ledger had been in the movie Casanova.
Everyday we ate gelato at least twice; same goes for pizza. You can't avoid pizza and gelato in Venice. They are key elements. We took it pretty easy for the rest of the day. And in case you're wondering, no, we didn't go on a gondola ride. They cost 80 euro. Too much!
April 15th
A maze of small streets,
getting lost in Venice is
actually hard.
The girls who had stayed at a different hostel the night before joined me in the morning at mine as they moved their stuff over. This night we would all be staying at the same place. The day was spent doing more eating and tons of shopping. Well, more like a lot of browsing for me, but shopping for some of the other girls. It was souvenir day and nearly everyone was out to buy a mask. This pretty much sums up the whole day. Food, shopping, wandering. Like I said, we took it really easy in Venice.
April 16th
We carry our bags
guarding them as with our lives
across a blue world.
We left Venice today. We grabbed our stuff, leisurely wandered around the city some more until it was time to go and pick up our ferry tickets. By about 2 we had gotten our tickets and had plenty of time to wait until we could board our 3000-passenger ferry. It was similar to a cruise ship, but without the real luxury of it and without the activities. When we boarded at 4 (it was to take off at 5), we immediately claimed spots in a hallway on the 7th deck (9 decks in all, deck 1 was the furthest below). We only had deck passage (cheapest) and would be spending two whole nights sleeping on the floor. We had no clue whatsoever for how this would turn out, but we figured we were ready. Turns out, not quite. But we'll get to that later.
After we had chosen our little half circle of a home, a few people stayed back to guard the baggage, while myself and a guy we picked up on the way, Spencer, wandered around the ship. (That sounds shady. He was actually friends with one of the girls I was traveling with and we happened to run into him in Florence AND Venice, so he tagged along.) We found the casino, the gift store, the restaurants, the empty pool, the disco, and the small food store (candy bars, pringles, nut, etc.). I'm quite amazed at how many people do deck passage. There were tons of cabins, but it was too expensive for us. Another option, if you don't want to do cabin or deck, is airline-style seating. One of the rooms on deck 8 was filled with airline-style seating where people would pay ~18 euro per night to sit and sleep in a chair. It beats being on the floor, they have a TV in the front of the room, places to store your luggage, and at night, they turn off the lights, so you don't have to sleep with them on. For us, on the other hand, we slept with our luggage as our pillows, our towels as our blankets (for those of us who had brought a towel with us, and the lights remained on the whole night. Not only that, but whenever someone walked out onto the deck on the 6 floor, the cold wind from outside would float straight up to us and cause us to freeze even more. It was also noisy. People walked passed us the entire night and the messages over the PA were eternally annoying.
We occupied ourselves by reading mostly. I'm sure we looked the picture of hilarity. People would stop and stare at us when they saw a group of 6 of us (Roxanne and Eliza had split off from us and gone home) sitting on the floor looking like homeless kids, guarding our luggage with our heads in books. When we finished with the book we were reading, we'd swap with someone else. It was a good system. I read the Eyre Affair, Dancing at Midnight, and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (and started Girl Who Played With Fire).
We would each take turns watching everyone's stuff while others went off to explore or to just go onto the 8th deck to watch the waves. I watched the boat take off the first day and the sun set the next. We had bought small snacks in Venice to be our breakfast and lunch, and took turns eating at the ferry's restaurant for dinner.
At night, we would put on our coats, lay our towels over our legs, and rest our heads either on our bags or simply on the floor and try our best to block out the sound of passersby. And thus ended the first day on the ferry.
April 17th
I remember when
life was simpler, when “worries”
was only a word.
Today was pretty similar to the day before, only I woke up very early in the morning on the floor with a sore back and the PA announcements threatening to drive me crazy by only 7:30AM. We breakfasted and spent the rest of the day talking, reading, napping, listening to our iPods, etc. in our little cubby hole on the 7th deck. Every once in a while I would get up and go outside, watch as we pass islands by.
Midday the boat docked for the first time. I'd say a pretty good number of passengers got off the ferry. The group of about 10 adults who had a cubby hole like ours but more blocked off from the passersby left, so we moved our stuff into their area. This helped protect us from the annoying gusts of wind that continually crept in from the 6th deck. A little later in the evening the ferry docked for its second time. In only about 6 hours we would dock at Patras, Greece on our way to Athens, docking at 5:00AM.
The night was pretty much the same, I kept waking up at all hours and the air conditioning was torturing me. It was a relief when my phone alarm went off at 4:30AM signaling that I could get up and get ready to deboard.
April 18th
Tired of traveling
and ready for my own bed.
I just need to breathe.
(My dad's birthday!) After we left the ship, we were standing on Grecian ground. Patras. Not our final destination, however. This leg of the journey was unplanned. We knew the ferry would drop us off at this location, but we didn't have any form of transportation booked for getting from Patras to Athens. It was dark outside and there were police officers rounding up rowdy drunks nearby, so we decided whatever we did, it would be best to stick together and find a bus or train station fast.
We did find a bus station right near the port, however, it was closed. We waited for nearly an hour for it to open and by then, we realized something wasn't right. The sign inside that said when the buses leave had a bus going form Patras to Athens at 5:50AM, however, with the building still closed, no one could buy tickets. We decided this place was unreliable and followed a group of backpackers who thought they knew of another bus station a little ways up the street. We followed and it paid off. We hurriedly bought bus tickets for a coach that was leaving about 5 minutes after we got there. It was a little expensive, but this was our only chance. We were on a time limit. We had to get to a certain area in Athens by noon and had no map, no way of getting there once in Athens, so we would need any extra time to figure it out.
The bus ride was 3 hours long. The Grecian countryside is beautiful, so I'm glad I was awake to watch the sunrise over the gorgeous land. We arrived in Athens, grabbed something to eat quickly (warm chocolate croissant, so good!), and took a city metro bus down to the city center. From there we walked until we found an underground metro station and took the metro to the stop closest to where we were supposed to stay. The plan was to meet Steph's friend Cate (a UW study abroad student as well) and stay with Cate and her roommates for two nights. Cate found us at noon and we walked back to her apartment. Such a nice apartment. Fully decorated, large space, high balcony, couch, table, desks, etc. So nice. I feel totally gypped here in Leeds. One person could have the couch and the other four of us would sleep on the floor. Her floor was much more comfortable than the ferry's (and the apartment was warm!) so I was OK with that. One of Cate's teachers was nice enough to bring over blankets and pillows for us. She was so sweet!
After not having taken a shower in 3 days, we made use of Cate shower, all 5 of us getting it over with while Cate and her 5 roommates were in class. The water system there is weird, so it took such a long time. You have to flip a switch in the breaker and let the water warm up for a half hour. Once it's warm, you have enough hot water for about 3 people--if they take quick showers. After the first 3, it was freezing, so we waited another half hour. 2 more people done, freezing again, so switch back on for another half hour. It was quite the ordeal.
By the time Cate came back, we were all clean and ready to go out for dinner. Cate and one roommate took us to a restaurant nearby that had the best tzatziki I've ever had. It was sooo good. All we ordered were appetizers for the table, but that was enough to tide us over. It was a good night.
April 19th
There are times when you
just need to be by yourself
for a little while.
Calimera! We went with Cate and her class on a field trip. It was their very last day of class. We first went to the Olympian Temple. Cate's professors gave everyone a tour of the ruins. I am so grateful we got to go along with this because otherwise I wouldn't have understood what the ruins meant or how they functioned. He explained how certain formations showed how one house belonged to a peasant and another belonged to a rich man -- the rich man owned a bath in his own house and that was quite the luxury.
The temple itself is gorgeous. I love Athens. The city part of it is only OK, but as for its historical value...priceless. After the temple, Cate had a bit of time before her next class field trip, so we headed out for lunch near the Acropolis. We ate at this adorable restaurant that had some of the best crepes I've ever had. Oh my goodness they were good.
We walked up the steep hills all the way up to the Acropolis after lunch and took our time as we took in the sights from so high above the city. Gorgeous. Stunning. If you haven't gone to Greece, you must. It's definitely one of my favorite countries ever. The Acropolis and the Parthenon are so pretty and old. Standing on top of history is an amazing feeling. While Cate's class was wandering around up there, we wandered around by ourselves. You weren't allowed to touch the Parthenon nor to take a single stone on the ground. Signs everywhere stated this and any disobeyers would be strictly punished. I thought that was a bit funny. I could receive a hefty fine for taking a pebble off the ground.
We walked around the Acropolis Museum (got in for free because we are UK students!), did a bit of shopping, got a few snacks, and headed back to Cate's apartment. The decision was made that we would eat dinner at the restaurant from the night before. It was so good we couldn't resist. This time, they gave us dessert for free! Greek yogurt with what we thought might have been candied red peppers on top. Whatever it was, it was to die for. I love Greek yogurt.
And that was our first and last full day in Athens.
April 20th
Reality and
imagination combined
is Greece in real life.
We got up at 5:00AM, left Cate's apartment, metro-ed to the port, and took a 10-hour ferry ride from Athens to Santorini. The ride was not very good. The boat was much smaller than the first one we were on and again we only had deck passage. The problem with this was that the common area inside for deck passengers filled up immediately. The only place for us to go was to the outside decks. It was soooo cold. It was pretty miserable for the first 5 hours or so. When we got to the first stop on the way to Santorini, a load of passengers got off, so we all rushed inside and claimed seats. It was much more endurable inside. The boat docked at Santorini quite late. It was about 45 minutes passed when it was supposed to get in and we were worried that our ride to the hostel would not be there. To our great surprise, it was still there waiting! John, from the Katerina and John Hostel, was still waiting for us at the dock.
The drive from the port to Perissa, where we stayed, was amazing. We zigzagged up a large hill, drove through small towns, passed donkeys and fields. I think Santorini was my favorite place out of everything. I would love to go back. Our hostel was very nice. It was like a mini resort. There was a common pool and lounge chairs. We had a two-room hostel. The first room had 3 beds, a dresser, a small table, a T.V., and 2 miniature night stands. The second room had a bunk bed, table and chairs, entrance to the balcony, kitchenette, and bathroom.
We didn't do much with this day as far as I can remember. We went to the 24-hour bakery across the street and got our dinner there. YUM. We went back to that bakery at least once every single day. We were there for 6 days.
April 21st
The black sand beeches
of Santorini grow warm
basking in the sun.
This day was Leah's 21st birthday. The previous day we had asked her what she wanted to do: sleep in! So we did! We slept in until 11AM and, after getting breakfast at the bakery, went to the beach (black sand beach!) that was about a 5 minute walk from us. The weather was nice, but the wind was terribly cold. Nonetheless, we were out on the beach for hours. We ate lunch at a place nearby called "Grandma's Recipes," where I had a very good chicken wrap. We wanted this to be a very relaxing day, so afterwards, we went back to the hostel, showered, read, and got dinner at the bakery. It was quite nice to just relax, have nothing pressing to do.
April 22nd
Lights turn out and fires
burn brightly in the skyline
as Grecians parade.
Today we caught a bus going from Perissa to Thira, the more touristy side of Santorini. We did a little shopping and a lot of exploring. We wandered around the area where the houses/shops/restaurants sit tucked away in the sides of cliffs. It was picturesque. The plan was to go down to the port there and catch a ferry tour of the volcano on another island. In order to get there, we had to climb down the cliffs by means of about 600 large steps. It took us a half hour to climb all the way down. And guess what, later on we climbed all the way back up... Anyway, we got to climb up the volcano and learn about its history, about the geography around the caldera, and then go swimming in a hot springs. I chose not to swim because the water was freezing (you had to swim out to the hot springs as the boat couldn't get too near) as was the wind, which made everything worse. I was definitely not the only one to stay on the boat. Less than half of the people chose to go. From my friends who did dive in, they said the hot springs wasn't actually even that hot, it was more of a warm springs.
After the tour, we hiked back up the 600 steps, ate at restaurant overlooking the caldera, and did a bit more shopping. When we were back in Perissa, we ate dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hostel, called Apollo. Excellent food, by the way. During dinner, the lights suddenly went out and a parade of people with palm branches and candles walked by. Apparently this is what they do for Easter. It was very neat to witness. When the parade passed, they turned the lights back on.
April 23rd
Across the island
from tip to tip sits tiny,
colorful houses.
We ATVed today across the whole island. We did Perissa, Thira, Old Thira, Firostefani, Pyrgos, the Red Beach, and Oia (pronounced ee-ya). Around 8pm, the sun set, and a few of us ATVed out near Pyrgos to watch it set over the water. It was pretty. There's not much I can say about this day. This day can only really be explained through photos. When/if I get some, I'll post them so you can see. Dinner at Apollo's again because we liked it so much.
April 24th
A chill arises.
The calm, warm beach cools as the
wind sweeps the black sand.
Back to the beach. It was another relaxing day. We read on the beach, then went back to the hostel and read some more and napped. If I remember correctly, The Prince of Egypt was on T.V. in Greek, but the music was still in English. I caught the end of it. Because it was Easter, our 24-hour bakery closed from 1PM until 10PM. They had told us they'd stay open until 2. This was a lie. When I got there at 1:30, it was already closed and I didn't have any lunch this day. For dinner, we scoured Perissa. Every place was closed except for another 24-hour bakery that was hidden away. Thank goodness I found it because I was super hungry.
April 25th
A rather calm day
in Paradise though the wind
chooses to be cruel.
I had my first gyro on this day. We left Santorini for Mykonos in the morning via speed ferry. It was expensive (~$84), but it was the only way. At least we had seats on this one.
Mykonos is not nearly as pretty as Santorini and there's really not that much to do there. Our hostel had a van to pick us up and take us to "Paradise." Yes, that was the name of the place where we stayed. Our rooms were "cabins." Basically tiny boxes with two beds in each. The floor was uneven stone and it was freezing. Overall, the weather in Mykonos was the worst. It was cold and it rained. We ate lunch and dinner at our hostel. This is where I had my first gyro. It even had fries in it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't like how the melted tzatziki ran down my hands. It's messy stuff.
April 26th
Question what is said
suspect what may change and do
not trust your own mind.
Another cold day. We slept in, bought breakfast at our hostel (again like a resort, but crappy--and the food was expensive. My breakfast was a small bowl of greek yogurt for 4 euro), and bussed in to the main city area to explore. It didn't offer much. We stopped at a smoothie place and wandered around buying small souvenirs. We found the great wind mills, which were pretty cool. We took the first bus back to our hostel because there really wasn't much to do. The rest of the day was spent hanging out, reading on the beach (not in suits, it was too cold for that). We packed that night and were prepared to leave for London in the morning. I was sad to leave Santorini, but rather glad to leave Mykonos.
April 27th
Music floats through the
floor boards of the pub. The smell
of smoke soon follows.
Our hostel had vans that bussed us to the airport. Mykonos has a really, really small airport. It's the smallest I've ever seen. The flight to London didn't feel very long, but it was 4 hours. We arrived in London Gatwick where we split up after saying our good-byes. Melissa and Steph went back to Leeds; Chelsea did as well, but it was only a stop-over for her as she was to go to Scotland the next day. Leah and I were to stay in London, but we had different hostels and ways of getting to those hostels, so we split off at the airport. I took a bus into London. It took forever. I kid you not, it took an hour and a half. I found my hostel, the White Ferry House, pretty easily. I'll be there again coming this Sunday. It's over a pub, but it was clean and they provided dinner for pretty cheap; breakfast is free. I didn't feel like walking around London alone just to find food, so I bought a pizza there and ate it while watch the BBC news and a football match (notice I said "football" and "match," meaning soccer in America!). When I stepped into my room, I got a huge surprise. I knew that I had booked a cheap 21-person room, but I certainly wasn't expecting seven 3-layered bunk beds! I got to be on the very top of one of those 3-layered bunks. It was neat, but a little nerve racking when you're trying to climb up (or down) without disturbing the two people underneath you by making any noise or wiggling the bed.
April 28th
The sound of millions
of people celebrating
one purpose is great.
In the morning, I met up with Leah and Roxanne, who had come from Leeds to join us for the Royal Wedding. We had an entire day to spend as the wedding was not till the next day. We wandered around London, buying food for the next day and wedding souvenirs. We all bought mini British flags to wave around. We passed by Buckingham to see how crowded it was. People had been sleeping out there for days already. Quite intense. Media stands had already been erected and reporters were doing interviews. We found the American media stands and saw with our own eyes Matt Lauer, Anne Curry, and Meredith Vieira. They turned away from the cameras and waved at us! London was soooooooo crowded. I quite liked it though. I like seeing tons of people coming together to celebrate one purpose. It's fun to see the excitement. Oh, also, Roxanne's hotel was a block away from where Kate Middleton's hotel was (The Goring)!!! We walked passed it several times. I love being back in the UK. We ended the day just watching the BBC news and movies in Roxanne's hotel room. We even watched a cheesy made-for-T.V. movie about Wills and Kate. It was pretty hilarious. Here's the trailer.
April 29th
A lace dress drives down
the mall. Millions of eyes watch
a girl turn princess.
What a day! I got up at 3AM, got ready, packed my bags, and checked out of my hostel by 3:30AM. By 3:45 I was at Roxanne's hotel and by 4, Roxanne, Leah, and I left for Buckingham Palace. It was super crowded already. People were lined up everywhere. Tents and sleeping bags line the sidewalks and police busied themselves keeping people in check and putting up blockades. It was dark outside, but bright enough to see well. The weather felt wonderful. We got to Buckingham around 4:30 and discovered that at 5, the police would order that all the tents come down so as to allow for more space. There were certain areas closer to the palace along the mall where police firmly blocked people from passing unless they had sleeping arrangements. I'm not fully aware why it was blocked off, but we got in line to get closer. They said around 5ish they would let people through. That wasn't quite the case, but the three of us snuck through eventually anyway. We got very good "seats," fairly close to the Palace and right across the street from the American media stand. I know for a FACT that I was on T.V. several times. My facebook has a freeze-frame picture of me on the BBC.
By 6AM, the weather had changed drastically. At 3, it was perfect, but now that the sun was coming out, it was like winter. From where we stood, there was a British family all sitting on lounge chairs right in front of us. I love that they were seated because it meant that from behind them, we could see the street perfectly. They were nice enough to allow Roxanne to borrow a sweatshirt because of how cold she was. By 8AM, the police informed everyone that they had to stand to let more people in. Folding chairs were to be folded up. This was not good. I'm not tall. As soon as they stood up, I knew I was going to be in trouble. It was quite a fight to see people later as they went by.
Throughout the morning cars with guests being escorted to Westminster Abbey would drive down the mall. Everyone would cheer and wave for them. Well, technically everyone would waved and cheered for even the street cleaners! =) The crowd was excited, flags waved, and the mall started doing the wave! I was quite happy to participate. One man in the crowd across the street from us would taunt our side for being so quiet, so the two sides had challenges to see who could be louder. It was funny.
Here's the schedule: Official guests (1,900) must arrive at the Abbey between 8:15 and 9:45. At 10:10 Princes William and Harry leave Clarence House for the Abbey. At 10:20, members of foreign royal families leave Buckingham, as do Kate's mother and brother from the Goring Hotel. At 10:25, members of the British Royal family leave Buckingham. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh leave at 10:40. 10:48, bridesmaids leave Goring. 10:51, Kate and her father leave Goring.
Ok, so. Some of these people I did get to see! On their way there, I did see tons of vans of foreign princes and princesses/kings and queens. Bridesmaids. The Queen and husband Duke of Edinburgh. AND Kate and her father!!! The wedding began as soon as Kate arrive, at 11:00. From certain places in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square, they had large screen set up to broadcast the service. From where we were at Buckingham, they didn't have screens, but they did have speakers, so I got to hear the entire thing live! At 12:15, there came the processional back to Buckingham. I got to see the Queen and husband again(!!!), Kate and Wills(!!!!), Harry, bridesmaids, and other people who I didn't really know. It was very exciting. At 1:25, the Royal family came out on the balcony, Wills and Kate kissed, and five minutes later, there was a "Fly-past" by the Royal Air Force. After the processional, there was a large chunk of time before they would appear at the balcony. During this time, everyone FLOODED towards Buckingham. Waves upon waves upon waves upon waves of people passed us by. I didn't want to get closer because I figured if everyone got closer, we'd be in the back with plenty of space between us and the crowd, meaning I would be able to see the newlyweds clearly. Nope. Didn't happen. Other people had the same idea and the lines became congested, so I was blocked anyway. It's neat to know I was standing in a crowd of about a million people. It was a huge pain to leave after everything was over, but I didn't care. I feel bad for the people who have to clean up after it. There was trash everywhere. It was absolutely disgusting. I can't believe people can be so rude and trash the Palace lawn and sidewalks. The flower gardens were completely crushed, like someone had rolled around in them. Anyway, we grabbed pizza and headed back to Roxanne's hotel room for the rest of the day until it was time for me to head over to Victoria Coach Station to bus home to Leeds. (I got back after midnight and cabbed home--totally got ripped off! But that's what I get for being safe instead of walking home by myself!).
April 30th
Friends reunited
the apartment begins to
take on life again.
I was soo happy to be back home! I immediately did my laundry (which totally stunk after wearing only a few things for an entire month...) and went out and bought groceries. It felt so good to be home and sleep in my own bed. And there you have it, my entire April trip. Maybe later I'll dig up pictures (aka, stealing from friends' albums!).
I am done. Repeat: I am free from the restraints of school and can now claim the title of senior!!! I studied a lot yesterday and ALL day today leading up to my final exam. I went over every single past test that they had posted for us, and looked over all the lecture notes, etc. I was nervous, but it was amazing. We had to choose 2 questions to answer out of 4 in one hour. I could easily have done them all. The flow chart from my last entry, what I studied today wipes that flow chart away. I know so much more now than what I've got listed there. I now have memorized the stages of making beer (all the way from drying and crushing the grain to bottling the final product), white wine, red wine, and country wine (and growing conditions) and every process associated with each, such as: in country wine-making, you would need to extract the flavor compounds; three ways of doing this would be: boiling, cold water extraction, and fermentation on the pulp. The first is efficient but ineffectual as it kills volatile compounds and enzymes. The second is not efficient, but it does not inactivate volatile compounds and enzymes. Fermentation produces alcohol adding flavor, however, it releases too many tannins spoiling the flavor. The best method is a compromise between the first two: warm water extraction. I jotted all this down from memory! =) The final is 60% of my final grade, so I'm pretty sure I'll get very good marks in total.
The conditions of the exam were very similar to the first one I took here. I was in a different building and the room was even bigger. It was in The Edge, which is our sports center. The exam room itself was a basketball court with around 400 chairs set up. We had assigned seats; I found my desk, #63, at the very back of the room. It was so weird to see so many people lined up the way we were. As before, it was quite intimidating, however, I was prepared for this, so no intimidation would get to me. Six invigilators stalked the aisles and the room sat in dead silence. When the exam was finished the the head invigilator called time, there was a monumental rush of excitement. Or maybe that was just me. Maybe there was just a monumental rush for the door? =)
I celebrated by going to a friend's grad party. She had an exam at the same time as I did, but she took her last exam ever--ah to be a senior graduating abroad!
Here are pictures of the exam room. If you're a Harry Potter fan, think 5th year O.W.L.s.
The first crowd at Sara's grad dessert party. L-R: Sara, Vanessa, Leah, Roxanne, me.
Oh England! It was what some people would call a "typical" day here today. I woke up with pouring rain; by the time I was ready and eating breakfast, it was sunny; when I started studying a bit this morning it was raining again; around noon when I decided to go to the grocery store, it was sunny. Can you guess how the weather was on my walk back home? Ultra windy and rainy. Still cold for sure. It makes me wonder how warm it gets during the summer here.
I have my last final on tuesday. I'm getting slightly nervous. It'll be 2 essays questions out of a choice of 24; given 30 minutes for each. Topic: brewing. As of right now I can tell you the history of making beer and wine from 10,000BC. Yup. However, there's much more that I need to study in order to be prepared for this final. Basic ingredients: Barley, hops, water, yeast. Different types of alcohol: ale -- beer without hops. Lagger -- brewed at a lower temperature than normal beer (cloudier). Red wine -- 2 ways of getting the juice out of the grapes: leaving them on the branches or taking them off. White wine -- must add many more ingredients to this wine to stabilize the flavor; red is the better choice (esp. for health reasons). Just a taste for you there.
Today marks an increase in spider activity: 2 spiders found within 5 minutes of each other in my room.
Also, I have fixed my computer issues so you can view some of my photos from yesterday's trip.
P.S., yet ANOTHER friend got engaged today. When I said "'tis the season," I wasn't kidding! =P On top of that, I discovered that an old friend (my age) got married about two weeks ago...
A field along the long driveway up to Harewood House.
This amazing kite got caught in a tree. They released in within a half an hour.
Kites!
"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the CAT jumped over the MAN..."
Harewood House.
Statue in one of the gardens.
Garden in the backyard.
"Family Intervention." And yes, they do have penguins as pets!
Cheesy haiku. A lot of the kites actually were physically connected to each other by their strings! =) 'Tis true. I went with Sara, Vanessa, and some new friends today to Harrogate, England (not very far from Leeds) to visit Harewood House for their annual kite festival. Harewood House is the old house of Princess Mary, daughter of King George V. (Side note: do any of you actually read the links I post on here? Please do, they are very informative!) Harewood House is amazing. It is a huge mansion built in the 1700s possessing expansive grounds, flower gardens, a lake, a bird garden, a children's play ground, 2 cafes/restaurants (obviously privately owned by the current owners of Harewood House), and an art gallery. Visitors are allowed to tour the first floor and basement of the mansion, which is gorgeously decorated and possesses multiple means of learning about the history of its rooms and objections through the options of audio guides (for £2), plaques on the walls, and pamphlets individualized per room. Beyond that, the staff is extremely informative and kind.
Pictures of the inside of the house are off limits, but I made sure to take a myriad of photos of the grounds, kites, flower garden, and bird garden. I might have just found myself a new best friend in the bird garden! The little birdie apparently loves cameras and kept coming right up next to me, letting me pet him several times through the cage.
We were all amazed at the kites that flew over the mansion. They were mostly large kites, probably extremely expensive. Not just anyone could fly their kites either. You had to have a certain pass; everything was roped off. That was fine. They were beautiful to watch.
I'll post pictures tomorrow hopefully (temporary camera/space issues right now), so check back later for updates.
I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 today! It's the first movie I've seen in a theater in about 4 months. I quite enjoyed it. It seems like those movies will never end, but I (not so secretly) don't want them to.
The theater we went to was just down town in Leeds City Center. None of us (Chelsea, Roxanne, Leah, and I) thought the theater would be what it was: giant and really comfortable. As soon as we walked in, I was amazed. The screen was nearly Ultra-screen sized. The theater was wide, leg room was spacious, and the seats themselves were very comfortable. Leeds does tickets a bit strange though. They have assigned seating. I asked for us to be seated in the middle center, but the woman said those were reserved seats. I'm not exactly sure how their system works, but when the movie started, there were DEFINITELY plenty of open seats. It was not crowded by any means. We could have moved into the center middle where I wanted and no one would have been the wiser, but we didn't. I think perhaps the point of this is so that people buy the tickets a. online and/or b. ahead of time (in person, online, gift card, etc.). By doing it this way, they make a larger profit because they can charge a fee for buying the tickets ahead of time.
I've started putting together the second half of my April break post, so that should be posted within the next couple of days.
Tonight I saw this man, Howard Marks, speak at his restaurant, Azucar, in Leeds. Howard is a convicted drug smuggler who served 7 years in an American prison. Please click on the wiki link and watch the video I have posted about him. You'll get an idea of who this man is.
The question still arises. Is he a changed man? Has he learned a lesson after spending 7 years of his life in prison? The answer I discovered tonight, no. Howard is a hardcore advocate for repealing the smoking ban as well as legalizing drugs. Todays talk at his restaurant, part of a series hosted by Diesel School of Island Life, featured a semi-intoxicated 65-year-old who gave a speech to about 100 of us about his life and his feelings towards tobacco. He encouraged people to rise up and fight for the "right" to smoke cigarettes indoors and smoke weed as much as they want. He said that when he gives talks, he usually likes to light up while on stage, but seeing as the government prohibits that in restaurants, he could not afford the risk.
I do not support his views on smoking. I find it sad that the man who lost 7 years of his life continues to promote his illegal trade. I am all for freedom of speech, and he did have several comedic moments during the hour-long talk, but I don't think it's a good idea to rally people to rise against the government's wise decision against tobacco and drugs. Marks claims that they do not kill, that it is only the drug companies who add ingredients to cigarettes that create carcinogens; it's not the tobacco itself. Facts speak for themselves, Mr Marks. People do die and the damage done to the smoker reaches farther than that individual. It reaches their family, their children, their friends. There are legitimate reasons for bans being enacted in the first place. It's good to stand for something, Mr Marks, but stand for something that counts, something that will help not hurt future generations.
On a lighter note, earlier today Sara and I finally went to the Leeds City Museum. Out of all the places I thought my Museum Studies class would go, this had been my number one guess. I was wrong. So I made sure to take advantage of it today. Until July 3rd they are featuring the Spice World Exhibit. I was never a fan of the Spice Girls, but the exhibit was pretty cool. My favorite part was dressing up! We had a blast with that.
Sara and I in our Spice World garb.
Goofing off.
What's different between this and the last photo? Can you guess?!
Leeds architecture. Right outside the Leeds City Museum.
Today was an attempt at cleaning my room. I got it partially organized. I wonder how it can become so messy SO easily?! I'm sure many people can relate to that last question.
Hey world, what's going on? Anyone doing anything interesting now that school is over (for most of us)? Talk to me!
Shout out to my older sister Kaila, happy birthday!! I hope the party went well!
As I don't have another final for a whole week, I'm giving myself some leisure time. Today I reached the 3rd season of Gossip Girl. Not the best show, not even the most addicting one I've seen, but it entertains enough. It may sound like I'm just wasting my time, but I look at it this way: I'm a creative writing major, so anytime I read a book, watch a movie, watch a TV show, or listen to music, I'm actually doing research. I'm looking at other people's creative outlets and learning from them.
The more I watch, the more I can see writing techniques, both cliche and unique. I can learn about how shows/movies/books twist character expectation, for instance, like when in Gossip Girl, they made the deplorable Chuck Bass lovable by showing us that his father hated him. Cliche, but it creates sympathy for an unsympathetic character (well, I find him generally unsympathetic when he's not actually expressing his true thoughts, but I know others who still like him).
It is quite important for me now to spend all this time on research as I will have a lot of creative writing classes next semester (Playwriting, Intermediate Fiction Writing, and Intermediate Poetry Writing). I'll need ideas; I'll need to know how characters should communicate with each other, what they should/shouldn't say (what is cliche). The list could go on. All in all, my spending all this time watching TV shows on my computer is not actually me goofing off, but rather me getting a head start on next semester. =)
So my haikus are lacking, yes. But I've got 18 pages of haikus, so I'm getting a little tired of them. I think I can let it slide.
Today I took my Museum Studies final exam!!! I am one class away from becoming a senior in college. How weird is that?! But I won't be escaping to the "real" world just yet, oh no, I've decided I like to be tortured, so I'll be applying to grad school next year. Where exactly? My first hope is Madison. Money-wise it makes sense (in-state tuition). I haven't really looked into too many other places besides Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.
Back to the present, the British do finals in the most intimidating way I've ever seen! And I thought finals at Madison could be intimidating?! Wow. So, firstly, we're given directions ahead of time for how to prepare, what to bring, etc. No pencils and absolutely no phones. Either leave them at home or turn them off. When Sara, Rachel, and I left St. Marks to head to campus, we saw neat lines of people in front of the E.C. Stoner building (gym/conference auditorium). They were all in line to get into their finals. I list this as an odd sight because back at Madison, you'd see students in the halls or hanging out in the classroom itself. Not the case here. It was about 20 minutes until the final began and they were all nicely waiting outside.
When we got to the building where our final was, we found our class sitting in the lounge area. Soon after, a woman came down and told us to head into the room. Everything was very organized. We had to look at a seating chart posted on the door, drop off our bags and coats at the front of the room and take our pens and student IDs to our assigned desks.
Here's what the room looked like. Four rows of chairs, 25 in each row, so it was quite a long room. My class is on the smaller side (as are most here in Leeds), so we only took up the first 2 rows of 25. Because they sat us in the first two rows, a lot of us were in the very back. I don't see why they didn't just make it so that everyone was in the front. Anywho, the "invigilator" (proctor back at Madison) gave us instructions in a very demanding tone. There was silence as soon as everyone had entered the room. With instructions over and pens at the ready, the invigilator said we could start our essays. About 4 people besides the chief invigilator walked back and forth among the two rows the entire hour, making sure that no one cheated (though if you think about it, it's kind of hard to cheat on an essay exam where people have a choice of 4 topics, so you don't know the topic those around you chose...). I found it distracting to have the invigilators walking past me so often.
Silence reigned the whole sixty minutes and no one was allowed to leave until they called time. I'm used to being able to get up and turn in your exam whenever you finish, no matter the time. I know I did well. The question I wanted was one of the choices and I felt completely prepared and remembered perfectly names, dates, important events, authors, etc. I still think that it was intimidating simply because of the circumstances. It was truly Harry Potter style. =)
On a side note, another friend of mine from this class told me today before we went into the exam that she too had May 10th written in her notebook as the date for when our essay was due. She told me that it was my freak-out post on facebook that saved her from turning in her essay late! Yay me for freaking out!! I helped saved several people's grades!!! Thank you God!
My penultimate final is tomorrow! I have to write an essay in one hour on 1 of 4 given topics on Museum Studies. Seems pretty easy, I'm not too worried. Just trying to enjoy the time I have left here.
Here are some extras. I was listening to the Goo Goo Dolls on YouTube while trying to write today's haiku, so all of them are inspired by their songs. Good or bad, I just posted everything.
Lowering the Blinds
What we know is what
we allow ourselves to feel.
We throw back pain meds.
Transform
Live like you mean it.
Hold on before it’s too late.
Just be who you are.
And just because today was pretty uneventful, I will leave you with some of the songs that make me happy.
P.S., another friend got engaged. I'm telling you, 'tis the season.
A few things. First of all, happy Friday the 13th! Second, Blogger has been extremely annoying for the past two days. Something went wrong with the system (not just mine) where I couldn't post anything. It was in Read-Only mode while they were fixing the problems, so don't think I was neglecting you all and not posting just for the heck of it! I have made some progress on the tales of my April vacation, so here is the first half of the month! Yay, tons of reading for you! =)
But before I dive in, I'll sum up what's been going on here lately. On the 12th, Leeds was cold! Plain and simple. Madison, why do you get to be warm?! I am quite jealous. To all my friends in Madison taking finals right now, good luck! I'll be joining you and adding a "I'm a Senior Now" status to my facebook in two weeks!
Today I bought a new camera!!! I bought the same exact kind I had before (Panasonic Lumix) just because I know it's a good camera and I still have the charger for it so don't have to use an adaptor for it when I go home to the U.S. It all works out. It still kind of sucks, though, that I had to pay for the exact same camera twice! I am going to be sooo careful with this one! No thieves are going to touch it! And just because I'm super excited about my new camera, here are the first pictures taken with it!
My room! A little messy!
My dinner tonight!
Now, time to catch you up! Beware, since this post is sooo long, I haven't re-read it to proof-read it, so if there are spelling errors or sentence fragments, just bare with me and pretend I wrote everything perfectly!
Please listen to this while reading. I found it inspirational and it set the mood perfectly when I was talking about exploring Paris. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4huZYzOD8Q&feature=related)
April 2nd
City of high walls,
small dogs, and beautiful art.
I’m in Paris, France.
We left Leeds around 9:20AM via bus to travel to London. The bus ride was as usual, a bit cold and uncomfortable, but it's a pretty good way of traveling if you want to show someone a country. The sights aren't as good this route as they are for going to Lake Windermere for example, but it still shows a glimpse of what England is like.
Everything was pretty easy up until we got to London. We had to quickly go from Victoria coach station to the Victoria Underground. Our train was going to leave from St Pancras Rail Station, so that meant that we had to take the Tube from Victoria to King's Cross. With a bit of running and map checking we got there in plenty of time, made our way to St Pancras, retrieved our rail tickets, and got something to eat.
The next leg of our journey was spent on the Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel" going from England to France. The train was very smooth, but the pressure that builds up when in tunnels was a bit much at times -- we had to do a lot of yawning!
The French countryside is stunning. Mom and I are both decided on that. As tired as I was, it was worth not napping just to see the land. When we pulled into the station, we were in Paris at Gare du Nord, wondering what to do next. This was the first time since I moved to England that I was in a country where people didn't speak English. Our first guess was to find an info booth and see how far away we were from our hostel. Guess what? All closed! We ended up buying a map and hiring a taxi. Our hostel was a ways away, over in the Montmartre area. It was a hostel/hotel and the man at the front desk was fairly rude. We came to realize that a lot of people in France were rude...a subject for another time. After settling into our 2-bed room (which had a shower but no toilet and a TV that didn't work) we headed out for dinner and to have a look see at the Montmartre area. We ate near Sacre Coeur at a Piano Bar. Specialty: crepes! I got a nutella-banana crepe with red wine and mom got a jam filled crepe with kir. Everything was delicious, the place was very cool (every inch of wall and ceiling filled with all types of money/pictures/notes/etc.), and live piano music! The only thing was that when I took a picture of the cook (whose station was a few feet away from out table), he came over to us and told us no more pictures. I thought he was joking, turns out I was wrong.
After dinner, we walked around more, then discovered Sacre Coeur! What a beautiful place! But before we went in, we noticed tons of people staring away from the church. We were curious and confused as to why people were not paying attention to the beautiful building behind them. We soon figured out why. It was 10:00PM. From atop the high hill where Sacre Coeur sits you can view the vast city of Paris, miles upon miles. From this high point, we saw the wonder that drew every person's attention: a lit up and sparkling Eiffel Tower! Gorgeous, stunning, shining out as a beacon in the dark, alighting a city. It only lasted another minute when we finally saw it. In total, it only sparkled as it did for five minutes on the hour. When it stopped, it still shown out as the brightest point in the skyline. I was so happy to have seen it then. What a highlight for the night.
We quietly toured Sacre Coeur as a service was being held, then looked around the area a bit more. We ran into four young men who could speak French and English. After a short chat ending in two of the kissing me on the cheeks and getting pictures with both mom and I, we headed back to the hostel. Quite a long day. Eleven hours of traveling!
April 3rd
The sun sets, night comes
in the distance shines a light
the Eiffel Tower.
We bought metro passes and headed out to the Louvre on this bright Sunday -- Mother's Day in England. Apparently not in France though. However, this being the first Sunday of the month, the Louvre was free! We got there at a terrible time though. We arrived at about 9 or 10 and the lines were beyond unbelievable. Thousands and thousands of people stood around the courtyards of the Louvre waiting to get in. We learned that the wait would be about 2+ hours to get in, so we decided to save it for another day. Now with free time, we decided to walk down the Champs Elysees, climb up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, visit Norte Dame, St. Germain, and St Severin. One of our goals for France was to EAT, a lot! We stopped at many creperies, ate gelato, delicious hot cocoa, etc.! We achieved our goal, I would say.
April 4th
Mama bird’s song stops.
She flies from the nest to sit
alone in the hall.
We woke up early today, took the metro to the Louvre and as we were approaching it, we asked a woman jogging by if the entrance was near or if we had to keep walking. She informed us, incorrectly, that it was closed. The Louvre is only closed one day a week -- Tuesdays -- and it was a Monday. We were confused, but we took her word for it and headed towards the Eiffel Tower instead. We got to the Eiffel Tower in great time. We didn't have to wait in line very long. The view from the top is extraordinary. I'm quite happy we went, even though it was really cold up there. We didn't take the stairs up, but we did on the way down. Soooo many steps! Also, we had beignets in the E.T.'s cafe. Yummy! =) We were still confused about the Louvre situation, so we asked a couple other people who confirmed our first belief that the Louvre was open on this day, so when we were done at the E.T., we went back there. We ate lunch at the Louvre (a bit expensive but good, too much food!) and then spent the next 4 hours there. It was cool to see the Monna Lisa and Venus de Milo with my own eyes.
April 5th
Up to Monmartre,
The people swarm to find the
Art fair on the square.
This was one of my favorite days in Paris. After the previous day's extensive walking, we slept in until 10AM and went out for breakfast at Angelina's. They've got the best hot cocoa we've ever tasted. It was REALLY expensive, so everything we ordered we split, but that's ok. We were pretty full when we left. After breakfast, we headed back to the Montmartre area where we hung out for the rest of the day. We spent tons of time at the art square watching people paint, looking at all the handmade art, and looking in every souvenir shop we came across (and there are many!). We stopped several times just to eat because we could! We stopped at a restaurant because they had creme brulee and chocolate mousse. We stopped at a couple creperies, a gelato place, and a shop where they sold beignets. Definitely too much food, but this was Paris, how could we resist?!
If you thought that my food stories for this day were done, that would be a big nope. After we were done looking at the art square, Sacre Coeur (again), and the souvenir shops, we headed back to the hoste, changed, and caught the metro to the docks near Notre Dame where we had tickets for a night boat cruise, dinner included. It wasn't dark enough for it to qualify for a night boat cruise, even if it was about 8:30PM. We had hoped to see more of the Parisian lights at night, but that didn't really happen. The best part of the night was what we did after the boat cruise: we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower! We got there just in time to see it sparkle up at 10:00PM. It was gorgeous and a great way to end our last night in France.
April 6th
False expectations
can be detrimental to
even the best day.
An early start to the day today. Our shuttle to the airport picked us up at 6:00AM. We flew from Paris to Vienna, Austria. Our flight was good; they gave us free drinks and sandwiches. I've never been on a shorter flight that gave you food like that! They also showed Mr. Bean cartoons and other funny shows. When we landed, we had a bit of difficulty getting from the airport to the hostel. We had to take a bus to a certain part of the city and from there we had to take the metro to a stop close to our hostel. When we emerged from the metro, we found we didn't have any directions to where the hostel actually was. We asked around several times and everyone led us in wrong directions. After finally finding the A&O hostel in Vienna, we decided that even though it was a huge pain to find it, it was a good hostel, so it was worth it. Our private room was awesome. It was just like a hotel. We had our own large bathroom, two very comfortable beds, and a TV. The common room downstairs was very cool too. It was spacious, had comfortable couches, a "library," a computer area, and a pool table. It was slightly noisy, but that didn't bother me too much.
While on the computers, we found a deal for seeing a concert at the Palace with dinner and admission to tour the Palace. It was a bit pricy, but this was why we came to Vienna, it was the city of music, so we had to do it. We bought the tickets and rushed over to the metro to go to the Palace. The first thing on our new itinerary, after picking up the tickets, was to tour the Schönbrunn Palace. They gave us free audio sets, so as we walked around, we listened to a history of each room and the objects within. It was very cool.
After the tour, we walked around the gardens and then stumbled upon the Marionette Theatre House. It was very neat to see all the little dolls strung up. Next, dinner time! Dinner at the palace! The service was ok. Our head waiter was a little stiff, but the waiter who delivered the dinner was nice and asked us questions and told a joke. We discovered early on that people in Vienna are not the nicest. Most of the time we found them to be plain rude. Back to dinner at the palace: mom loved her meal and mine was pretty good. We had apple strudel for dessert, now that was good.
The main event of the night was soon approaching, so we headed over to the concert hall. It was an orchestra playing songs by Mozart and Strauss in the very theatre were Mozart actually played when he was in Vienna. We had been told by the woman I bought my tickets from that they hadn't sold that many tickets, so even though we had "C" class tickets, we could sit in "A" and "B" class rows. We were quite excited about this. However, when we got into the concert hall and they started allowing people in, we were forced to sit in the "C" section (about 11 rows back). We appealed to the woman seating us and told her what her boss had told us, but she refused to allow us to sit further up. When everyone was seated, there was PLENTY of room for everyone to move up quite a bit. It was ridiculous. We were disappointed and our expectations for that night had been dashed. The woman, as is common in Vienna, was quite rude about it. Very impatient and uncaring. Best part of the night was going back to the hostel's comfortable bed.
April 7th
How did a man like
Mozart find inspiration
in a place like this?
We did more city exploration today. I decided that I didn't like Vienna very much. It's not the prettiest city, the people are rude, and everything is very expensive. We did do a few fun things though. First we went to Stephansplatz cathedral. It was ok. It was a bit too dark and overly decorated. After the church, we walked to the Haus der Musik, a music museum. We spent several hours there. It was very interesting and interactive. I actually learned a lot. Next, we proceeded to tour one of the last standing houses that Mozart used to live in. We took an audio tour of it. I liked the house. It was hidden away behind a maze of streets, though, so it was hard to find.
We had to be back at the hostel by about 6PM so I could register for my senior classes on the hostel's computers, so we left after finishing up at Mozart's. I got into 2 of the 4 that I wanted, but no worries, as of right now I got into everything I wanted that had previously closed. Some of those classes are competitive to get into!
We wandered around for dinner, finally found a place, but the people were rude, so it wasn't the best night.
April 8th
Communication
is key to maintaining a
good relationship.
Ahh, the day we left Vienna! This was a marvelous day. Both mom and I were happy to get out of Vienna. Perhaps other parts of the country are better (prettier, nicer), but not this city. Ireland was such a change! The first night we were booked in a hotel! We had originally booked a hostel through STA Travel, but it fell through, so they put us in a hotel for the same price! The hotel was out in the middle of nowhere in Dublin (quite literally, there were fields and horses surrounding the hotel!). It was absolutely gorgeous though. The huge lobby had two restaurants (where we ate dinner as no other restaurants were near -- my bangers and mash were delicious and mom's stew was wonderful) and our room was perfect. We had a large flat screen TV and two very comfortable beds (one king size and one twin).
There's not much to report on this day as most of it was spent traveling between Austria and Ireland and the hotel was surrounded by nothing but fields, so we stayed in and watched TV -- a brilliant night!
April 9th
Authentic Irish
music and dancing filled the
small but still packed pub.
Quite an interesting day! Breakfast in our hotel was good. A little pricy, but filling. We packed up, took the shuttle back to the airport where the rest of our tour group was to meet. Would you believe it, we met about 5 more Wisconsinites! Who would have thought?! Out of everyone in the world in all the places people could travel to and all the tours they could book, we met about 5 more on our tour! It gets better though! Later this same day we met two more people who live in Verona (right next to Madison) and who went to the UW!! I think they said they work at the UW as well. How funny! We kept in touch with them throughout the whole tour. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The day's funny events continued when everyone boarded a large coach to be dropped off at our hotels. The bus we were on was picking up people from 2 tours, so it had 2 hotels to go to. The driver was the guide for the other tour. He pulled up at this GORGEOUS hotel and told those of us on my tour to get off there, so 6 of us unloaded and walked in. It was jaw-dropping amazing. It was a 5-star hotel. The chandeliers were elaborate, the floors shiny, it even had mini displays everywhere, like a mini museum. Everything got funny when we tried to check in though. They knew nothing of the guide that was supposed to meet us and in fact, didn't have reservations for us! Well, the other driver had dropped us off at the wrong hotel! This hotel was one of the most famous in all of Dublin, so it's odd that the other driver hadn't realized this.
One of the women negotiated everything for us -- she got us a taxi, had the other hotel notified, talked to the CIE tour people about the mistake that had been made and how frustrated she was. Mom and I got to know her and her granddaughter very well during this tour. Her name is Barb and her granddaughter is Sarah. The 5 of us were very glad that we had Grandma Barb to negotiate everything.
We made it tour our real hotel after taking a taxi. (Barb was reimbursed by the company, so don't worry!) Ours was not nearly as grand as the first, but it was still nice. We had dinner with Barb and Sarah and then the tour was to begin. We all signed in, received name tags and loaded a bus to take a tour of the city. The bus assigned everybody a different seat everyday, so you got to know the people you sat around. By the end, I could name half the people on the tour bus (there were 44). You were moved in a counter clockwise way and so on the last day, mom and I made it to the VERY front (seats everybody wanted!), but we had to give them up to the Verona couple because the guy was carsick and it was less bumpy in the front. So we never actually got to sit in the front beside on the morning we were dropped off at the airport in Shannon at 6:00AM, but that hardly counts!)
Anywho, I'm diverging. The bus tour was neat. We saw the major stuff: the spire, Trinity College (didn't get to go in and see the Book of Kells though *sad*), statues of "Famine," etc. We did make a stop at the Dublin Castle though. We took a tour of the castle and church. Quite neat. At this point, I was the only person selected to sit on a Royal Throne!! That's right, I sat on the very same throne that true kings and queens sat on! It was surprisingly comfortable, beany almost! Also, that same throne was used in the show "The Tudors" and Peter O'Toole was the last person to sit on it! I sat on the same throne as royalty AND Peter O'Toole! Double win.
When the tour was over, we had an hour or so to rest at the hotel before being bussed outside of Dublin to go to a very cute pub for dinner, The Merry Ploughboy. There, we all gathered in a back room where 2 tours converged. We got to choose one free drink, so I had my very first Guinness in Ireland. After dinner and dessert (which was all delicious), three men performed traditional Irish music for us. They are three out of the 5 members of the band of the same name as the restaurant. They were phenomenal! After they were done, dancers came in and performed for us. They were also amazing. Mom was selected to go up and dance with them! Hilarious! I had it all on video, so if my camera had not been stolen, you would have been able to watch all of it. The band came back after the dancers were done. They did a few more famous songs ("Danny Boy" and "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling") and we were served Irish coffee! A wonderful night. Irish beats Austria hands down. The people are soooooooo much nicer and the land is amazing. So pretty.
Click the link above to listen to some of their music. Also, here are some YouTube videos of them performing. I LOVE them! They're so good! And they do a terrific version of "Danny Boy." Now I wish we had bought one of their CDs when they were offering them to us!
April 10th
I kissed an old stone
from atop a tall castle
May wishes come true.
Breakfast at the hotel was amazing. A wonderful selection of fruit, pastries, meats, and cheese, eggs, beans, etc. Our seats on the bus had moved to the VERY back of the bus (we hit both extremes!). Our friends Barb and Sarah were towards the front. Today's trip was to Cork to see Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone, a piece of rock attached to the top of the castle for which you would have to lie down on your back and kiss it upside down while being held by someone to make sure you didn't fall). The grounds of the castle were beautiful. Flowers were in bloom, the grass was green, and everything was in order. The castle was a little worse for wear, but at least it still looked like a castle. Dublin castle, for instance, didn't actually look like a castle.
When the day's touring events were done, we headed to Killarney where our new hotel was. We had plenty of time before dinner, so mom and I, Barb and Sarah, and two others from our tour group decided to take a horse-drawn carriage ride. The ride was wonderful. We rode through streets, through woods, along lakes. We saw a little bit of everything. We passed a beautiful little house with a thatched roof. Our horse, Jack, is a star. He was in the movie Pride and Prejudice! How awesome is that?!
We walked through the small city after that and visited two of its churches (both named St. Mary's). I bought my usual souvenirs (magnets). Then came dinner. The hotel's dinner is wonderful. There were two CIE tours staying at this particular hotel, so it was set up that we ate breakfaster earlier than them, but at ate dinner earlier than us (not the best deal, I might add). But dinner was tasty and company plentiful. We ate with Sarah and Barb and had a wonderful night. Oh, and along with the buffet style dinner was the buffet style dessert table...you can only image how much we ate! =)
April 11th
A drive through the ring
of Kerry turns all eyes to
the beautiful cliffs.
On this day we toured the Ring of Kerry. We got to see how truly beautiful Ireland is. Not that I didn't appreciate it before, but after this day, I wanted to stay! The first stop was to a farmer's field where we got to see a demonstration of sheep herding. It was wonderful. The dogs were soo attentive and obedient. The farmer made them perform ticks -- having the dogs separate two of the sheep from the rest or directing the sheep to one side of the field, then the other. It was a lot of fun to watch.
Next we did the Skellig Experience. You can read more about it by clicking on the link provided. We toured the small museum, watched a movie about how monks wanted to live on an island, away from the world, so they found one that was nearly pure rock (as in no vegetation) and spent generations carving into the rock. In the end, they were still invaded by the Vikings.
For lunch we were bussed from the island where the Skellig Experience is to the mainland. The small restaurant was cute, but expensive. I was really disappointed with my food. I ordered roast. We were the last 4 served (mom, me, and two sisters traveling together) and my meal was like this: two pieces of thin-cut roast where there was more fat than meat and TWO sides of potatoes.... I was not a happy camper. However, after an hours drive, we took a bathroom stop in a small town where they had delicious ice cream cones, so that helped make up for my nasty lunch.
On the way back to Killarney, we drove through Moll's Gap. Apparently it's called this because the woman named Moll wanted to charge people to drive through it. It's on the Ring of Kerry route and in it you can view the mountains of Macgillycuddy's Reeks. Very beautiful and very windy!
Back at the hotel, I took a bath in the jacuzzi. So nice! Clean and dressed up, mom and I headed downstairs for dinner with Sarah, Barb, and the rest of the tour group. It was slightly different from the day before but had the same basic sides and desserts. After dinner mom and I used the free computer at the hotel. This is when I found out I had been selected as a finalist for the short story competition. I was ecstatic. At a hotel in Ireland is a good place to receive good news! I felt on top of the world that night.
April 12th
It is amazing
How close you come to others
In such a short time.
Our last full day in Ireland. Today's destination: the Cliffs of Moher. They were pretty. It was cold and a bit windy. It's amazing how one hour and go by so fast. That's all the time we had at the cliffs, but we used it all up fast. We didn't even go that far on the cliffs which extend 6 miles. We walked up to the first look-out point on the western side and then went back to the eastern side where a small castle-like look-out was. We paid 2 euro to go up and it wasn't worth it at all. That was disappointing. When we climbed down, we got ice cream, then headed back to the bus to go to our new hotel, the Bunratty Castle Hotel near Shannon. It was a neat hotel, very pretty, but a little hard to navigate. Dinner time: we all gathered in the lobby, boarded the bus, drove across the street, and got off the bus. Yes, our dinner was in the Bunratty castle across the street, literally. Our bus driver/guide Dermot had told us stories of previous years where it became dangerous for that many people to cross the street together, so nowadays he just loads everyone in. However, he doesn't stay for dinner and doesn't pick you up afterwards, so...
Dinner in the castle was a Medieval Banquet! We were ushered upstairs into a beautiful room with large tapestries and old cabinets. People in costume played music and handed out honeymead wine. After some music, an introduction, and explanation for how the night would unfold, we were ushered back downstairs to where the banquet would take place.
One man had been crowned king, so he and his family sat at the "head" table. As it turned out, mom, Barb, Sarah, and I were seated next to them. The dinner was composed of several courses and the rules were that you had to eat with your hands! It was quite fun, though my ribs were a bit too hot to touch for a little while. They served us: soup, plenty of white and red wine, chicken with tons of vegetables on the side, and a small dessert in a cup. When everyone was more or less finished, people in costume sang for us for about a half hour. Everyone was escorted downstairs and served coffee and tea.
The night was not quite over for us yet though. Our wonderful foursome decided to have a drink at the bar connected to the hotel. Other people from our tour joined us. It was a nice little event. When mom and I were ready for bed (we had to get up early the next day and we still had to pack, so we didn't want to be up too late) we said goodbye to everyone, exchanged emails, etc., and went back upstairs.
It was a good day. Ireland was amazing. Our driver Dermot was amazing as well. Extraordinarily funny with tons and tons of stories to tell.
April 13th
Three countries and four
cities in only one day.
No more planes please.
Bad haiku, yes; am I going to fix it, nope. Mom and I got up at 5:00AM. The two of us and the two sisters we had lunch with a few days back were the only people on the tour leaving at 6:00AM. Dermot drove the 4 of us in the tour bus to the airport. This is when we got to sit in the front seats finally, not that we could see much as it was still dark outside.
Mom and I said our goodbyes at the airport and I headed out to my Aer Lingus flight from Shannon to London Heathrow. This was the first time I've EVER travel completely by myself! I've flown either with friends or family in the past. This time, 100% solo. My first flight was slightly delayed, but not by too much. On arrival in London, we got off the plane and took a shuttle bus to where we could catch our connecting flights. I thought everything would go smoothly, but I was wrong. At the security checkpoint, they flagged my carry-on and I waited 45 minutes for them to take out everything I had in my bag, unroll all of my clothes, and dump out all of my toiletries. Of course they didn't find anything, however, they did choose to throw away my face wash, a nearly empty bottle of face lotion, and my expensive $18 brand new bottle of "It's a Ten" heat protection spray (for when I straighten my hair). Now that didn't take the whole 45 minutes. I waited for 40 minutes while they checked other people's flagged luggage before they got to mine. It was such a pain. Thank goodness I had tons of time left before my next flight.
After I was able to recollect and repackage my belongings, I had to wait another 20 minutes to get my boarding pass because the woman at the check-in desk was being extraordinarily rude. Although she wasn't doing a single thing but sitting in her chair and occasionally talking on her personal cell phone, she refused to check me in. I HATE Heathrow. I never want to fly in or out of there again.
When I could finally head upstairs to the main gates, I had tons of time, so I found a restaurant and ordered a pot of tea. It took the waiter forever to bring me the tea and when he did, he only brought the pot, no cup. After waiting another 5 minutes for him to return, I finally was able to flag him down and ask for a cup. He looked embarrassed (as he should be), but then it was my turn as I accidentally attempted to pay in euros instead of pounds. What a day so far!
Next my flight was delayed. Again. Joy. We didn't board until the time we were supposed to take off. Not sure what the problem was...
When that flight landed in Rome, I had a very short amount of time to get to my connecting flight since we got in late. By this point, I was starving, so I stopped in at a restaurant, ordered a slice of pizza (it was a BIG slice!) and scarfed most of it down in less than five minutes before I took off again to catch my 3rd and final flight of the day.
As was the pattern of the day, this third flight too was delayed, you want to know why? It broke down! It was before we had even taken off. We waited inside the plane for over an hour and a half with no food, no drinks, no TV. They wouldn't even tell us what was going on or when the problem would be fixed. So, instead of arriving in Florence at 6:30PM, I got arrive at 7:45PM, then had to grab a cab to drive across the city to the hostel where I was supposed to meet up with the gang (Roxanne, Leah, Liza, Melissa, Stephanie, and Chelsea). That was the scariest cab ride I've ever been in. Not because of the guy's driving, but because the fare went up 10 cents EVERY 10 seconds. I kid you not. I counted. I sat there clutching the arm rests, watching the amount rise, praying we'd get to the hostel soon. He started the cab fare automatically at about 3.50 euro (I forgot to check when I first got in to make sure I wasn't already getting ripped off...) and by the time we ended at the hostel, I owed him 21 euros. Argh.
When I checked in, I paid nearly every cent I had on me (my last 4 euros spent on dinner), and went to drop my bags off in my room. To my surprise, I ran into my friends on the way! They were waiting for dinner (and for me to arrive). So I stayed downstairs, spent the rest of my cash, and joined them for dinner. It was one crazy day. But I made it. In a single day, I had been to 3 countries and 4 cities! Shannon, Ireland. London, England. Rome and Florence, Italy. Three flights and tons of dashing between terminals. It was nice to be in Florence with my friends and catch up with them.
To end my funky day, one of the girls staying in my room that night saw me in my PJs, a UW-Madison shirt with Bucky on the front, and she asked me if I was from Wisconsin! Turns out she goes to UW-Milwaukee!! Again, what are the odds? Even better, some of my friends encountered people they knew from the home in Florence in this particular hostel. It was a night of crazy, impossible encounters, teaching us that the world is a smaller place than we realize.
And thus ends the first half of my one month adventure to the continent. More to come later! In the meantime as you wait for me to hurry up and finish these long (hopefully not boring) tales, I discovered yet another British band that I LOVE!!!!!!!! They're from Manchester, where I just visited. They're called Take That. I was listening to the Leeds radio station the other day and heard this song. I fell in love with it immediately, looked it up on Google and YouTube and have had it on repeat on my computer ever since. Please enjoy! =)
