Edinburgh: the land of cashmere sweaters

Okay writing my blog entry on the plane back to Dublin so hopefully I will be able to finish it in time with not too many typos.This may be a bit of a long post probably so hopefully you can make it through (mom). Okay I just read over and this may be a little painful to read so again, I hope you can make it through.

So me and my friend Angie planned our trip to Edinburgh for Sunday -Tuesday. Our flight on Sunday was at 7 am and we  were supposed to arrive in the city by 9 since it is just a jump over the pond to get there. Unfortunately there was a bit of a mishap on the way and we didn't arrive in Edinburgh until 2 pm because of the windy weather conditions!!! When we got to the airport and were supposed to land but it was too windy so after coming down to the run way and thinking that we arrived, the plane jetted back up. This happened another time and we had another unsuccessful landing. We ended up having to land in Newcastle, England and take a 2.5 hour bus ride to get to Edinburgh! The turbulence on the plane was crazy and the flight attendants were running up and down the aisle handing people garbage bags since a lot of people were getting sick. Not exactly my best first flying experience with Ryan Air but it was defiantly interesting, For a brief moment I thought that maybe we wouldn't make it out alive. Some direct quotes from our pilot and flight attendant: 

"So we are just going to chill up here for a bit" - pilot after attempted first landing 

"We will get you to Edinburgh, we don't know how and we don't know when" 

"So as you can see, we didn't land"

Overall really encouraging to be on a flight with such confidence staff LOL. But I am just going to pretend that our 2.5 hour bus ride was a countryside tour since I did get to see a lot of the countryside. 

Sights on our "countryside tour"

Well anywho we finally made it to Edinburgh and we were really hungry so we went to a delish Mexican restaurant for lunch dinner. After that we checked into our hostel which was the absolute best. It was called the castle rock and it boosted views of the castle which it had, but from our room we also had a great view of the city! The hostel had a kitchen and allowed us all lockers for free!

Castle Theme

View from our Window

 The city is so awesome since it is very hilly. It is like no place I have ever been before (I haven't been a lot of places). The building were all so old and medieval looking an the streets that the cars drove on were all cobblestone. The castle was kind of in the center of the city on a tall rock so basically anywhere you looked you could see this magnificent castle. The streets also have so many closes (pronounced closay) that are hidden alley ways that connect streets or bring you into different areas. They were really fun. The only problem was the roatarys. They had them all over and I would always forget that it was a rotary and not just a regular road--VERY dangerous!

Anyway later we went on a tour called the potter trail which gave us a look at all the Harry potter inspired places in the area. I didn't know that JK lived in Edinburgh while she was writing the books so the tour was nice to learn more about her. After being in the city it is really easy to tell how much of Harry Potter seems to be inspired from Edinburgh. Some of the cool things on the tour were seeing the real Tom Riddles grave. We saw the coffee shops where she went to when writing the books along with the inspiration for the real diagon alley! The real street is called Victoria Street and we tried to walk down the it as much as we could even if it was out of our way. We also saw the school were JK's kids go and where the real Hogwarts was modeled after. 

The tour guide also told us that we should check out the hotel where JK wrote the final chapter of the books and see the room where she finished the last chapter. In the room there is a vase that she supposdly drunkenly wrote JK finished Harry Potter here. People pay 1000 pounds a night just to stay there! Today me and Angie happened to walk by the hotel and remembered that this was the place our tour guide told us about so we decided to go in and check it out. We were extremely out of place in this very ritzy hotel. I thought I remembered that the room was on the 5th floor so we wandered down the hallway until we saw the door with an owl on it. While we were looking at it a staff walked by so we asked her if they could show us the room and she did! While we were in there and she asked what room we were staying in and we said we were not staying at this hotel... It got a little awkward so we thanked her and retreated, realizing that our tour guide probably does not expect that people actually follow his advice and go into the room. There are probably some other things we heard about on the tour but I can't remember them at this time.

Tom Riddle Grave

The JK Suite

The real Diagon Alley aka Victoria Street aka my favorite place

We woke up early on Monday because see had a walking tour at 11 and wanted to explore the city a bit before. We went to see the castle and were able to walk around the outside a little but we didn't pay to go in and see it since it was pretty pricey. Our walking tour was really great because our tour guide Billy was animated and seemed really passionate

After our tour we hiked up Arthur's seat which has great views of the city. After that we explored some more to kill time until we could go to a pub that our hostel recommended for 1 pound pizza! It was delish especially after a tiring day.  Even though we were super tired we still decided to do a pub crawl at night with the same company as the tour guide. We had an absolute blast and met some people from Germany, Brazil, Scotland and Spain. Our tour guide from earlier (Billy) even met up with us on the crawl which all us ladies definitely enjoyed (lol). We all taught each other phrases about what we like to say for getting drunk in our country so me and Angie contributed "turn up", the Germans like to say "bessofen" (sp?) And the girls from Brazil had a different phrase which I forgot. 

Me on the seat

The Castle

New Friends

Phenomenal 1 pound pizza!

Today we woke up at 8 so we could squeeze in our last hours in the city. We explored some more, went to some free museums and ate lunch at the elephant house which was were JK wrote some of the books. Before we bused to the airport we sat out and looked at the city listening to bagpipes and enjoying the view. It was so sad to leave this awesome city but hopefully I will be back someday (probs not) .

Graffiti in the bathroom of the elephant room cafe

Like I said I haven't really been to many places but I still think Edinburgh will be one of my favorite places. Part of what made it so awesome was also the people . Most of the stores that we went to we had great conversations with the people and at one candy shop (lol we went to more than one) the lady recognized our Midwest accents since the owners husband happens to be from Naperville like Angie is! Then she gave us a discount on our candy, I wasn't complaining. All together just a fab trip! I defiantly didn't have extremely high expectations when coming to Scotland (and bonus trip to England) but this trip was just so terrific!

 Well it looks like our plane is landing so hopefully it will be a success on the first try! 

I am going to have a pretty busy week trying to finish (actually start) up some papers before my mom and nancy arrive this weekend but I will be very excited to see them! 

Belfast and such

So I am just writing a quick update on my trip to Belfast and some other quick things because I want to save my trip to Edinburg for it's own post. I am pretty disoriented so I will try and remember what I did before I left for Scotland. Also you may have noticed I changed my blog name, a name I stole from Kaity (thanks gurl).

Well my week was pretty busy due to me trying to finish papers which I obviously did not finish so I am pretty stressed out about that but oh well it will get finished. On Thursday we booked our hostels and most of our train tickets for our trip to Italy for the first week of spring break and so far it is seeming pretty exciting!! This week I also went to the Dublin bay which was super awesome and had so many shells. I was just walking along and finding shell after shell, I decided I will need to go back with a bag so I can bring back more shells. 

Awesome shells I found

On Friday I was really excited because my friend Allison was visiting even though I only got to see her for Friday night. I met up with her in the city and did a quick walking tour and then later we were going on a mystery tour with ESN the club I am in. The tour ended up taking us to a cool club but it was 45 minutes away and we stayed at the club until 3 am so we were extremely tired when we had to wake up at 7 am the next morning for our  trip to Belfast. The tour also had a Zoo theme which was a little weird when we got to a club people were pretty curious about why we were wearing bunny ears. 

Now onto Belfast, the business school took us on a field trip there since it is a significant place in Irish history although I do not Completely understand everything that happened. It took us about 2 hours to get there and when we got there our tour guide took us to see the peace wall and the murals. It was pretty interesting to see because Belfast was way different from Dublin, it seemed like being there you could still sense the tensions that happened in the past and parts of the city seemed more run down than anything I had seen in Dublin. We got a free lunch of soup and sandwiches and I was a little disappointed since most of them had mayo on them but the people at the cafe were really nice and made me my own sandwich which was pretty cool. After that we went to the titanic museum because the titanic was built in Belfast. On the outside of the museum it said "the pride of Belfast" which was interesting since the titanic sunk. But the museum was cool because it gave  information about how the titanic was built and what kind of an impact it had on the town. It even had an interactive ride through a fake ship yard! Overall a cool museum. After that we got some free time in the city but not a ton so we mostly just walked down the main streets looking around. After a pretty tiring day we headed back to Dub city. I was glad that I got to see Belfast but it also made me really grateful to be living in Dublin.

Peace Wall

The Titanic Museum

Day Trips and Days

Another two weeks have passed by! It is so crazy (and scary) how fast time is flying. Since I have no class today and the weather is not to inviting I will update my blog again even though I really wanted to bike to the Dublin Bay! Frankly I am pretty impressed with myself for keeping up with it so far even though I think all of my readers have dropped off. I will try and sum up a few highlights in this blog post.

During these past two weeks I haven't had any school work that I had to do besides a group project. Having a project due in the third week of class was pretty surprising to me. I would describe the project as murderous due to the lack of participation from my group members I ended up doing basically the whole thing. Luckily we got it completed in time and it is over with (until our next project at the end of the semester). Anyway clearly people from other countries (China and Canada) do not have the same idea of what a GROUP presentation is (okay sorry about that rant). We are now approaching the 5th week of classes though (AHHH) which means that I am going to have some essays due so I think I better get started on that.

Throughout the weeks I went into the city a few times, did my weekly grocery shopping (which is actually pretty annoying having to do this weekly) and planned some trips. My most recently booked trip is to Munich and Prague during our reading week before finals. I decided to skip my last days of class to go on this trip with everyone because YOLIDO. I also hope to squeeze in a day or two in Austria while I will be in the area.

Anyway so last weekend came along and on Saturday I took a trip to Newgrange and Causey Farm that was put on by the international office. This was an awesome trip because Newgrange is a place I had never heard of but it is older than the pyramids AND Stonehenge. It is an ancient tomb that was built from rocks and is held together only by small rocks with big ones! It was a little scary being inside since I was afraid the rocks would collapse on me but I had to remind myself that this thing has been standing for 3200 years so it was most likely safe. It was really awesome to see something so historic. We also got to go to Causey farm where we got to bake Irish Bread, learn to Irish dance, play the Badrum (?), an Irish drum and hold lambs! It was great to participate in these Irish activities and see more about the Irish culture. I love going on day trips and seeing new places and I even like the car rides and getting to see the countryside. Ireland is so beautiful and green and it is so cool how there is so much of it that is untouched. There are many small towns with a few stores and pubs but they are all so authentic.

NewGrange Tomb

The Front of the tomb

Adorable Lamb

Sunday was also a beautiful day so me and my roommate decided to hit up the Dublin Zoo. It was a pretty classic zoo I would say. I think I am spoiled since Brookfield Zoo is pretty amazing but seeing the zoo was interesting. There were so many monkeys and it was fun to see how excited my roommate (from Korea) was at seeing all these things. That night there was a comedy show at a pub near Temple bar that we hit up and they gave out free ice cream at intermission which was pretty sweet (a pun). I love the atmosphere in Dublin on Sunday nights. It is much more relaxed than on the weekends and just has a calming feeling.

This weekend I took a paddywagon tour to Wicklow and Kilkenny. I really liked the tour because our bus driver was really interactive and sang us songs which was really entertaining. Going to the Wicklow mountains was my favorite part of the tour. The weather was great while we were there and the mountains were so beautiful! I liked driving through them because it was a small scenic road which is what exactly what I picture when I think of Ireland. One of the towns we passed through was called Hollywood and they had a sign that mimicked the real one. I couldn't get a good picture since we were on the bus but I will find one on Google because I thought it was pretty hilarious. I would have liked more time to hike around in the mountains but we had to depart for Kilkenny which is a small city. It was really adorable but unfortunately it was Sunday so a lot of things were closed and it was also raining. But it was still fun to look around and we got to eat lunch in a cute little pub. Overall a good tour I would definitely recommend. I will hopefully be able to make it back to Wicklow for a real hike before I leave.

The Wicklow Mountains

Kilkenny Castle

Overall I am liking Ireland and Dublin more and more everyday. I love all the cute pubs and how most of the stores are so unique. I love that lights that are hung in random streets in the city and I love how all the people have been so friendly and helpful. Someone even told me that they love my accent (LOL). I think I am leaving probably a lot out but my brain is pretty scrambly right now. The worst thing though is the rain. I didn't think the rain would be so horrible but it really is that bad. One day I was making a short walk back from class and I felt like I was dying because it was haling and so windy I thought my face was going to fall off. Apparently February is the worst month though so I am hoping it will come around.

Scenic Photo of Ireland

Okay until Later!
-A

Post #3- I hate thinking of titles and other randomness

Sorry about the lame name of the post but I am so not creative when it comes to these things and I didn't have an overly eventful week to name my blog after. I am just going to write a light blog entry while I have the free time and partiality so I can remember things so this will probably be boring, even though I have been writing pretty regularly in my journal given to me by the awesome Schneider's!

I have been here for 3 full weeks tomorrow and that is so crazy to think about! This week I definitely got more into the flow of classes and realized how much free time I am going to have this semester. Before this week I never really realized how busy I was back home between my job, my clubs, my classes and my sorority I rarely ever had any free time. However this week I have found myself swimming in so much free time I don't know what to do with myself. We had an activities fair at the college and I really wanted to be involved in something so I went to check it out but I was a little disappointed in the prospective clubs. I signed up for the volleyball team but due to my appointment at the GNIB (I will mention later) I was late and missed the tryouts, also I was looking for something a little more of a relaxed team then super competitiveness since I am not very good. My roommate, Jiah, joined the Irish society (or something like this) so I may have to tag along with her to that so I can be involved in something! Anywho I am sure I will become more busy when my classes pick up (which I hope they don't) and I start to travel.

Speaking of traveling I have 3 trips booked so far and I am probably going to book another tomorrow! I am really excited about all of it and wish I didn't have to wait so long for them to come but I am lucky that I will have time to get used to Ireland before I jet off. For my spring break as I mentioned I am traveling to Italy and Paris. Then in April I am going to Madrid to visit my friend Allison and in February I am going to Scotland! There are a few more places that I hope to travel to but besides that I feel like I am going to be seeing most of the places that I wanted too and still have enough time to see Ireland! It is nice that Ireland is small so that a lot of places can be seen in just one day.

So as I said this week wasn't super eventful and sometimes I felt like I needed to be doing more but I just need to remind myself that I am here for a full semester and that I don't need to be doing something every minute. I had my appointment with the Garda, which is the police, where I register to stay in the country and get and GNIB card which I think is like a licence. The GNIB is just like the DMV at home and moves even slower as we had to wait for over 3 hours and bring a bunch of documents which they barley even looked at. On the bright side I am allowed to work in Ireland now, even though I probably wont be getting a job.

On Saturday I finally got to tour inside the Dublin Castle which I have seen from the outside but I have been wanting to check out inside. It was really cool to see how it was furnished and so hard to believe that people actually lived such lavish lives. I also saw Trinity College which is home to the famous Library and The Book of Kells. We decided to skip going into see it since it was a fee of 8 euro which I think is pretty redic considering I just want to look in there for a second! Maybe if I have any money at the end of my stay I can pay to see it. I think I have gotten to know my way around the city pretty well for not even living in the city center and I am glad that there is a bus that takes us downtown so easily.

Today it was the first time all week that the sun came out for more than an hour and it was a beautiful day so I decided that I would finally go and find the sea. It was a really easy ride and then I found a path by the water which was so nice and relaxing! It was good to be outside without being pelted with rain or wind. The water was blocked a fence and train tracks and I really wanted to be a little closer so when I saw a sketchy looking bridge I definitely had to cross it. I couldn't find anywhere to lock up my bike so I totted it up the skinny stairs with me and on the other side of the bridge I was finally at the sea! I was a little disappointed though because there were people there who I thought was a father and daughter until they started kissing! It was pretty uncomfortable for me so I had to retreat, but I am definitely going to go back. Anyway I came to a really cute little town with really adorable cafes which I am going to try and eat at sometime soon.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am living in Ireland because some days when exploring the city it all feels so normal and natural and its so weird to me how it can feel so normal when just a month ago I couldn't even imagine what being in a foreign city was like. Its important to remember how lucky I am to have these experiences. These feelings that I am having are pretty hard to put to words so sorry for the confusion.

Anyway one Irish girl I met asked what the biggest difference was here and what was most surprising which made me reflect on some of the differences that I have experienced since I have been here, I will list some of the things I can think of:

• Irish people are very environmentally aware, at the grocery store you have to pay if you want plastic bags and everyone brings their own bags. You also have to bag everything yourself and the cashier usually just stares at you to hurry up which puts on a lot of pressure.
• Time- It seems like the Irish people have hardly any regard for time, sometimes my professors show up late and most of the time they continue teaching even after class was supposed to end--this makes me very anxious when I have back to back classes. If a professor at Marquette kept going way later people would get angry and probably some would walk out but everyone just sits here calmly. 
• Most of the Irish students go home every weekend. On Friday I saw tons of people leaving with rolly suitcases. Its so weird that campus is so quiet on Fridays and Saturdays and rowdy during the week. People like to go out basically any day of the week especially Wednesdays. Pretty different from Marquette. Its also weird to me that even though students live close enough to go home every weekend they still live on campus during the week. 

Well there are plenty of other differences but this is getting long and boring so I will wrap it up! I added some photos from the Castle and a bonus photo at the end!

A room in the Castle 

                     

The Kings Throne

Trinity College

LOL that photo of Kaity on the left cracked me up so much I had to make a comparison (sorry Kaity)

Cheers for now!

-A