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| Giant's Causeway! |
May 9th: I ended up going on the Giant's Causeway tour. After much contemplation that morning on whether I wanted to wake up or not, I finally coaxed myself out of bed, into the shower, and onto the rainy streets of Dublin. Yes, even at 6:00 AM it is raining in Dublin! I will never take Florida's weather for granted again. I had no clue where I was supposed to go, I asked the guy working the front desk of my hostel and he hadn't even heard of "the Tourist Information Station on Suffolk Street," and so for about 10 minutes I wondered around O'Connell Street looking completely lost. Finally, I asked a passer-by, and after giving me the worst directions in the world (go straight, then turn left, no, right at the ??? [couldn't understand his accent], and then straight again, you'll see a red ??? and then turn around... I think he saw the confusion on my face), he offered to walk me to the place. Wasn't far at all, but I probably would have never been able to find it on my own.
We lined up and loaded in. My name wasn't on the list, probably because I had just signed up for the tour the night before and had paid my 12 euro deposit then. I was supposed to pay the remaining €48 in person, but in the confusion he never asked for it. (Don't worry, I felt bad and ended up giving it to him anyway).
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| Irish scenery |
The tour guide's name was Bud, and he looked like a typical Irish guy, leprechaun features if you will - he was short with pointy ears and beady eyes. Funnist guy ever, though. Like Cormac on the walking tour, Bud made the 12+ hour trip very fun. The ride to N. Ireland is about 2 hours from Dublin. I slept most of the time after I got over the amazing scenery that is Ireland. Green as far as the eyes can see. The border between the Republic of Ireland and North Ireland isn't marked by a crossing or anything, but the difference is noticed almost immediately. For example: the signs changed from being posted in kilometers per hour to miles per hour (familiarity!), the lights changed from going red to green to red/yellow to green (hard to explain, but in the UK the yellow is never on by itself, if that makes sense), the license plates switched from being the EU's signature white with the EU flag on the side to the UK's all yellow, and lastly, the money switched from Euros to the dreaded Sterling Pound.
There was an Irish giant by the name of Finn McCool who one day and one way or another got into an argument with another giant named Fingal who lived across the sea in Scotland. They began throwing dirt and rocks at each other, but could not reach each other to settle the matter because neither of them were strong swimmers. So instead, they built this causeway of stepping stones to bridge the gap between the two lands. However, Finn McCool's wife (or mother, I forget which) was worried about him and did not want him to battle Fingal, so she devised a crafty plan. She dressed Finn up to look like a baby. When Fingal crossed the causeway, he found the 'baby'. The wife (or mother) then told Fingal that Finn was away, but that baby was his son. Fingal became frightened because of the baby was so large, than Finn must be HUGE. He feverishly crossed back to Scotland, and out of fright ripped the crossing part of the causeway up so that Finn could not reach him. And there it is, haha. Rumor has it, though, that the causeway was really caused by volcanic eruptions sinking into the water, blah blah blah. My theory: aliens!
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| Guinness! |
May 10th: Laura arrived! Nothing exciting, as it was their first day in Dublin, so they wanted to visit all the sites I had already gone to. I went along for the ride. However, we did go to the Guinness Brewery and Jameson Distillery. Guinness was nice, and massive. I indulged in 2.5 pints, one was free as a lady who did the tour (if you do the tour you get a voucher for a free pint) asked me to take a picture of her and then gave me her voucher. Saved me €5. Everybody was tired and jet lagged, so Laura, Alex, and myself were the only ones to experience Dublin's Temple Bar area that night. A mixture of alcohol and dancing made the rest of the night a complete blur...
May 11th: More Dublin. By this time I was ready to leave. Dublin, in my opinion, is a mixture of New York City and Charleston. It has that 'big city' feel with a historic city approach. It, in itself, is pretty neat, but the weather is atrocious. 40-45 degrees mixed with rain and wind isn't something this Florida girl is accustomed to, nor was I prepared for. So, later that day, when we were headed to the airport to make our way to Bristol, England, I wasn't the least bit sad to say goodbye to my first international city.
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| They have kegs everywhere on the streets. |
Okay, so this is where I complain. Laura and her family planned their trip to Ireland about 3-4 weeks prior to their departure. It just so happens that my plans as well as my destinations before Germany semi-coincided with theirs. So we reorganized my travel plans to align exactly with theirs. However, Laura has to be the HARDEST person to get in contact with, so it took her forever and a day to send me their travel itinerary so that I could book the same flights/trains as theirs. By the time she sent it to me, I was already in Dublin. And, just my luck, my credit and debit cards were not working (even though I notified them ahead of time about my travel plans, ugh!). So everywhere we went, I had to pay double, sometimes triple, the price that they paid (it's cheaper to book in advance, of course, and to also book online). Not to mention Ryanair (the airline we flew with from Dublin to Bristol) charged me €60 (approx. $77) to print out my boarding pass! - Ridiculous. I will try to avoid flying with them in the future, although that seems unlikely.
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| Stonehenge! |
May 12th: Bristol was better, weather-wise. Still cold, but no rain, which was a godsend. Apparently the day we arrived was the first day in quite some time that it hadn't rained. Lucky us. Also, the next day, when we went to Stonehenge and Bath, it didn't rain either. That alone, made Bristol one of my favorite places, haha. Stonehenge was nice, we rented a car to get there from Bristol, which is about a 1.5 hour drive. Scariest drive of my life! The car was a manual, and Laura's dad was driving. As the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car, the gears were on his left, that combined with driving on the other side of the road made for an interesting trip. Every so often we'd end up in the wrong lane, facing traffic. But more often than not we'd end up on the curb! Anywho, Stonehenge was nice, once again smaller than I'd imagined. And it's roped off now, so you can't actually touch the stones like you could years before. They said it would have taken 1,000 men to drag the stones 750 miles, and how they were able to place them on top of each other?... no clue. My theory: Aliens!
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| The main Roman bathing quarters |
After we left Stonehenge, we went to Bath, which is actually a little hidden gem. So pretty and so old! It houses the ancient Roman Baths, which are ridiculous in size and structure. We had the choice of taking the tour or bathing in the spa (which uses water from the hot spring which feeds the baths); everyone opted for the spa except myself. I don't know, to me, why would you go to a foreign country for a spa that you could receive in the States? It's not like you can actually bathe in the Roman Baths, no. It's a new, state-of-the-art-type facility that only uses the hot spring water. 2 hours for something like £50 ($90ish). Luckily, the wait for the spa was some 2+ hours, so we had no choice but to do the tour (Ha!). I think the tour was worth it, if not for the information than at least for the pictures. The whole town, though, was just amazing and picturesque. I will definitely be dragging my mother here one day.
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| Chelsea FC vs Blackburn, 5/13/2012 |
Once in London, we decided to walk the however many miles to the hotel instead of taking a taxi. I had my backpack, which weighs at least 30 pounds, plus my carry-on backpack (with my computer, iPad, and other important items that I would die without... which weights about 7 pounds), and of course my umbrella (because, yes, it was raining again). I literally thought I was going to die the whole time. My back was aching, my hands freezing, my umbrella kept reversing on account of the wind, and I kept falling behind the pack. Once we made it to the hotel, our rooms weren't even ready and there was no where to store our luggage. Miserable.
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| Laura and I in front of the London Eye and Parliament |
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| Ben! And a double decker bus. |
Alex and Laura got into their typical fights, which kind of set a damper on the mood for the night. However, I did eventually coerce them into utilizing our Tube day pass to go see Big Ben and The London Eye. It was nighttime, and they were illuminated, which was nice. However, it was a Sunday, so the Tube stops running earlier and their are several disruptions, as they call it, so we didn't have time to make it to King's Cross Station. If the name doesn't ring a bell, than obviously you haven't seen Harry Potter. So, I'll give a brief summary. In Harry Potter, in order to get to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry you have to take a train entitled The Hogwarts Express. This particular train departs from King's Cross Station via Platform 9 3/4 (nine and three quarters). After the fame of the books, King's Cross Station actually built a Platform 9 3/4 complete with a cart sticking halfway out of the wall and everything. Being a Harry Potter nerd, it was a must-go-to for me. Sadly, nobody else shared my enthusiasm, and out of fear of not being able to reconnect with them, I had to forfeit my KCS dream. So, I'm hoping to somehow make my way back to London before heading home. Just to see Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
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| Buckingham Palace! |
Anyways, after the tour we gathered all our luggage and headed off to London Gatwick Airport. Once again I had to purchase my ticket at the airport. I was three pounds short, and because no-one wanted to wait with me, had to resort to asking stranger for £3. The ticket lady was very nice however and pulled £3 from her purse. EasyJet: 1, Ryanair: 0. By the time I got my ticket, checked my bag, made it through security (I got searched, what a joy), I had barely any time to get to my gate and board. So that means I wasn't able to pick up a shot glass from London, and now my collection is incomplete. Yet another reason why I must return there before I head back to the States. After all that, I was tired, and a bit annoyed, and slept the whole flight to Edinburgh, Scotland.
May 15th: SCOTLAND! A prayer answered. No rain. Still cold, but no rain! NO RAIN! Okay, a little rain, but it was extremely bi-polar. For instance, we went into a gift shop. I came outside early, because there was nothing I wanted in there and it was a bit crowded. During the 10 minutes that I stood outside waiting, I took my umbrella out twice. It rained - opened my umbrella, then it stopped - closed my umbrella, then the sun came, then it rained again, etc. I was literally confused.
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| (Sir Walter) Scott Monument |
Edinburgh is pretty sweet. The architecture is unlike anything I've ever seen. A mix between Gothic and Victorian. The city has a good feel about it, also, which made it really enjoyable.
The first day we made our way to the castle - Edinburgh Castle. Apparently it's supposed to be a big deal, not sure why. Then we took our bus tour all the way around the city. We drove by the cafe where J.K Rowling sat and wrote the first Harry Potter novel (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone). Nobody wanted to go, so I wasn't able to go in - another heartbreaker. Afterwards we headed back to the apartment, everyone decided to buy groceries and cook as opposed to going out. Sounded like a good idea to me, as eating out was starting to hurt my pockets. Sadly, my credit and debit cards still weren't working and I wasn't able to buy anything. This is where my breakdown occurred. I was literally STARVING and without any type of currency that meant anything (I had about 300 US dollars on me, which was about as good as Monopoly money). Not to mention I had gotten sick from, what I assume, was the freezing, wet London weather. I wanted nothing more than some soup, perhaps a salad, and Abby and Magic. I went to bed, anticipating Germany, and cursing the United Kingdom.
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| Tight squeeze! |
May 16th: Final day in the UK (thank God), and final day with Laura and her peeps (not so sad about that either... but I won't say more). We just went around Edinburgh some more, bought a few things, checked out H&M, and Laura and I decided to climb 287 steps to the top of the Scott Monument - made for some pretty awesome pictures, although my legs were aching and a bit of claustrophobia set in as the stairwell began to get narrower and narrower.
After we made it up and back down again we couldn't think of anything else better to do after a killer workout except chow down on some KFC fried chicken..
I left everyone at the KFC to catch my bus to the airport and my flight to Amsterdam. I was excited about this. My first few days in Dublin, alone, weren't all too bad looking back on it. However, I was extremely excited to meet up with Laura and her clan so that I wouldn't have to experience all of Europe on my own. Retrospectively, probably not the best idea... It's somewhat strange how being with a group of people can make you feel more alone than when you actually are solo, if that makes sense. Enough about that, however. At this point, I felt like crap. My head was killing me, my throat extremely sore, and coughing was non-stop. It was miserable. The only good thing about that was that I had no problem falling asleep on the flight, which is good when you absolutely hate flying. When I woke up, however, my ears were popped, and I couldn't hear a single thing. It took 5-6 hours for my right ear to un-pop, and my left one still hasn't popped completely now.. a week later (yikes!). Which probably made me look crazy to the immigration people because I could barely hear a word they were saying, and since I couldn't hear my own self talk, I probably was shouting. Whatever, I got my stamp and passed on through.
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| The lovely Edinburgh, Scotland |
Amsterdam is what I consider my first real experience abroad, because it was actually the first place where English wasn't the primary language. Not to mention I know absolutely no Dutch. Of course, since it is an airport, *most* of the signs were in English, and everyone I encountered spoke English once they realized that I couldn't understand anything they were saying.
Since I had told my German family that I would be there at 1 PM the following morning, I needed to stay on schedule with the trains. But, once again I faced a dilemma - the international ticket office was closed (international because I was buying tickets that would ultimately take me into Germany). So I could only buy tickets as far as the Netherlands and buy the rest at my last Netherland stop. The worst part, however, was that I had to catch a train at 23:15 to Hengelo and wait 5 hours for my connecting train. When I was originally choosing my trains, 5 hours didn't seem like a big deal. I'll such pull out my iPad, watch a few episodes of Breaking Bad, and five hours will pass by in no time. I didn't take into account, or didn't know, that I would be extremely sick, it would be extremely cold, and I would be extremely tired. So, once I got to Hengelo I scratched that plan, asked the first policeman I saw where the nearest hotel was, and crashed. I mean, my train of though at that time was: I don't care how much a room costs, I have to lay down and rest. The room cost €60, I think, but was well worth the money. It was a nice room, too! Big, king sized bed, closet, kitchen, and a decent sized shower (showers over here barely allow for turning).
May 17th: I slept soundly for those few hours, than rushed up, cleaned up, checked out, and dragged myself back to the train station.
My amazing luck coming into play once more, the train that I was to catch to Bremen (I think) was two hours late! I think the guy said it was some sort of Dutch holiday or something, but then they shouldn't have allowed me to book the ticket! I was livid, sick, and had to stand in the freezing cold for two hours waiting for my train. Not a happy memory. Additionally, this faux pa would make me miss all my remaining connections and put me at my destination two hours behind schedule. Which isn't all too bad, but like I've said before, there is virtually no such thing as free WiFi on this continent, and without WiFi I would not be able to contact my German family to inform them about the change of time. I was FREAKING out. There's nothing worse than thinking you are going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, Germany, unable to effectively speak the language, and with only €10 to your name and a debit card that is 'iffy' to say the least.
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| Germany's definition of an 'American' hotdog |
Whatever, I sucked it up, somehow manage to find my way to Hamburg, bought 10 minutes of WiFi on my cell for €4 and sent an email. I also tried calling them from the pay phone, but ended up losing €3 to it because I couldn't figure out how to dial German numbers. Slight learning curve.
Eventually, as you already know, I made my way to Heide (which I kept pronouncing as HI-DEE, and no one knew what I was saying. Its pronounced HI-DUH, whatever). The train ride was great, which says a lot in comparison to my train ride to Hamburg. I guess they don't stop selling tickets, even after all the seats are taken, because I walked up and down the 10 or so train carts and couldn't find an empty seat to save my life. I ended up standing for the 2.5 ride, which was killer, especially with a 30 pound pack on my bag. However, the train to Heide was virtually empty, and both myself and my bag had our own seat. The ride was picturesque, painted by green pastures, dozens of windmills, and hundreds of cows. I guess this is like the Wyoming of Germany. When the train arrived in Heide, I stumbled out of the cart and onto the platform. And there was sun. No rain, no cold, just sun. I was so happy and relieved that I wouldn't have to be spending the next month combatting with the same weather conditions I had tolerated for the past ten days. Anyways, I wondered around aimlessly waiting for someone to shout my name - nothing. I started to panic, thinking that maybe that hadn't gotten my e-mail and that my fears of being stranded might actually become a reality. However, that didn't happen, I found them, and the rest is history!
Oh my, that was a long post. Actually, I had written something very similar to this once before, and lost it all when the internet here failed. Hopefully this time it works.
I'm going to stop here for now, as I have tons of homework to do for my two summer classes, and can't afford to get anything below an 'A' in either of them. I'll finish 'catching up' tomorrow, and then will be able to post daily once I'm up-to-date - yay!
Tschüss, Bianca.
