80 Days Left

Well there are less than 80 days left until I leave for Australia. I’m getting really excited. I found out last Thursday that I received the fee reduction from SUNY New Paltz. I want to keep in mind when going abroad that I don’t want to spend time with Americans. I’m going to Australia to socialize with Australians. If I can find a job, I’ll be staying two semesters. That would be epic!

Tales from Italy ch.8: SPRING BREAK! Part 2- Chester, Liverpool, and Manchester, England

The day we were to leave Durham, England, where we were staying with my friend, Kirsty, we made a stop at Sainbury’s to do a bit of grocery shopping for lunch and had breakfast. Janelle and I had a 6 hour 20 minute bus ride ahead of us, and I couldn’t possibly imagine going for that long without food; I can barely make 30 minutes before my impatient stomach starts growling like a spoiled child.

On our way to the bus stop, we passed by New Castle’s proud Angel of the North. Basically it’s this giant statue that stands on its own in the middle of a field.

Our god-awful-long bus ride wasn’t as bad as one would think. We were a little worried at the beginning though when our bus driver got into a heated argument with one of the passengers who he was now refusing and had to be held back as we were boarding. It was very unprofessional and uncomfortable for all us other passengers to witness. Aside from our crazy driver though, I had my ipod going most of the time, slept, ate, and stared at the hundreds of sheep we must have passed on the way. Kirsty said the numbers of sheep herds I saw would grow as we went further south, but I disagree; at least from what I saw, the north is coated with far more numbers. I’ll never forget this one herd though- the farmer, for whatever reason, spray-painted all of his sheep hot pink. Keep in mind there were at least 100 sheep; that’s a lot of work. Nonetheless, I’ll carry with me that memory of my favorite hot pink herd of sheep bounding over the mountain for the rest of my days.

Around 8 that night, the bus pulled into the Chester bus station where we met up with my friend, Lauren. She and her mom cooked us a lovely meal, our second home-cooked meal since leaving the states in February. That night, I enjoyed a warm shower and internet access- with Skype- before heading to bed. Such a wonderful night after a long day of travel.

The next day, Janelle, Lauren, and I were off to Liverpool where we’d meet up with my friend, Emma, but not before seeing some of Chester. Prior to my trip, I hadn’t heard much of Chester, but it is quite a lovely town. Surrounding it is this wall that is hundreds of years old, and you can walk on it and see some stunning sights. We saw the Chester Cathedral and much of Chester’s inner streets. One thing I noticed was all the fine detail the town’s builders took into consideration when they built the town. For example, one of the Cathedral’s doors had gorgeous iron trees (I would LOVE to have iron trees on the doors of my own house someday), and one of the buildings had all these miniature designs carved into its grid-like pattern.


After we were done in Chester, the three of us drove to Liverpool. Aside from the birthplace of the Beatles, my favorite band, I didn’t know much about Liverpool and what it had to offer. Don’t get me wrong though, the town definitely throws the Beatles in your face all day, and it’s easy to see how natives like my friend, Emma, were tired of them. But me, the touristy-girl and Beatles-fan that I am, took advantage of this. I visited Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, the homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and the famous Cavern Club where it all began.

But Liverpool had a lot more to it. Did you know the Titanic was built here? The building still stands, cute as a candy cane, and I can hardly believe how such a place managed to build a ship as colossal as the Titanic.

Liverpool is also one of the origins of the African slave trade in the UK and Europe. It was here in this port, that ships carrying slaves entered for centuries.

Liverpool has a legend that if the Liverpool Bird falls (the one seen in the picture below), Liverpool will fall too. Notice all the extra suspension it’s given as a caution?

Like many cities in Europe, Liverpool has its fair share of cathedrals and churches. Yet the ones I saw stood out. The first picture below is of a modern-day church; it is unlike any of the other churches I have seen since coming to Europe, probably because it is the youngest.

Unlike the modern church above, other cathedrals that closer resemble the churches I’ve seen still make themselves known. The giant one you see below was never finished thanks to WWII.

This church below is the saddest of the three. Bombed in WWII, the remains are left standing as a memorial and reminder of what happened.

At the end of the day, Emma’s parents drove Janelle and I to Wilmslow, England where we were to stay with my friend, Nicola. It was about a 45-minute drive, during which I experienced the famous ‘scouse’ accent thanks to Emma’s parents. ‘Scouse’ is the unique Liverpool accent, and boy is it heavy. There were sometimes I barely understood what they were saying at all and Emma had to translate. I think accents are so cool.

When we got to Wilmslow, Nicola and her boyfriend, Darren, took us out to dinner at a popular English bar called Weatherspoons. After dinner, we took it easy since Janelle and I were pretty pooped from our touring that day throughout Chester and Liverpool. I had a shower and we watched the TV show, ‘Balls of Steel.’ I was really excited about this because I am a big fan of ‘Neg’s Urban Sports,’ a segment of this show, which my friends and I discovered on YouTube about a year ago. To my luck, Neg ended up winning that night, and it just made the show even better. One of my favorite Neg clips.

The next morning, Nicola made us “real English bacon.” She wanted to show me how good bacon could be after eating the dry, hard bacon we were served at the camp where we met. I’ll give her credit; “real English bacon” is delicious.

After breakfast, we went into town. The first thing we did was go to the post office to ship Janelle’s computer- she had been trying to do that since we arrived in Scotland almost a week earlier. Why didn’t she just send it from Italy where we live you ask? Because when she tried, they handed her a paper manila envelope to mail her laptop in and offered no insurance. And people think I’m full of it when I say not to trust the Italian postal service…

Once her computer was dropped off, we started touring Manchester. One of our first stops was Skytop- this oddly shaped building that we had actually passed on our way to Chester. It was funny because from the bus, Janelle and I took pictures of how strange this building was, and now we had the chance to go in it!

We also took some time to do a little shopping. Nicola took us to Primark, a store on par with Walmart or Target in the US minus the groceries. It was lots and lots of clothes at cheap prices. Nicola said it was great for this, but at the same time you end up seeing a lot of people wearing the same clothes as you. This didn’t stop me or Janelle though- since there are no Primarks at home or in Italy, we had no risk of seeing our purchases on other people, so we played out the stereotypical shopping girls and took full advantage of where we were. This of course was speaking too soon, for as we exited the store, bags in hand, I took a moment to think about how much I liked this shirt I saw a woman wearing; it was only about 2 seconds before I realized I had that same shirt in my bag of purchases.

For lunch I had pasties– another British meal I could cross off my list of things to try while in the UK. While good, I think I still enjoy my mother’s homemade Cornish pasties more, but this could just be my own Cornwall-ancestry pride coming out. Nah, hers are better, complete with potatoes and vegetables 🙂

The rest of the afternoon we spent at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was really cool- we saw lots of old planes and trains, and a bit of Manchester history which included its history of sewage systems:

On our way back to her apartment, we passed by Castlefield, a small group of the bases of ancient Roman houses. While barely there, they were there, after 1,000 years of who knows what. It’s interesting to think of all the things these ruins could have seen in that time.

That evening, we met up with Emma and her dad again and drove to the Liverpool airport where we were to fly to Dublin that evening. The flight was only 40 minutes; by the time we had finished ascending, we were already descending. It was the shortest flight I had ever been on, but thankfully it only cost me 8 euros. God, I love Ryanair.

Within an hour of taking off, we had our bags and were out the door of the airport and our Dublin adventure began. 

(More photos from Chester, Liverpool, and Manchester, England)

More Than I Bargained For

This Spring Break is not at all what I envisioned. The plan was to visit my cousins in Ireland from the 7th to the 16th, go to Rome to stay with my friend until the 20th, and fly back to London from Dublin on the 21st. Thanks to this epic Icelandic-volcano-eruption chaos, it is the morning of the 21st and I am still in London. In fact, never made it to Rome because it just so happens that the volcano erupted the day before I was due to fly. I guess it’s a miracle in disguise – it could have erupted while I was en route, or after I already arrived, OR I could’ve been like my other friends who were traveling all around Europe staying in hostels. Point is, I am quite lucky I am with my family, safe, in a bed that I don’t have to pay for, as opposed to stuck in an airport because I have no money to pay for another night in a hostel. Sure, I would’ve loved to see Rome, but this is a much better situation.

I know I must sound unusally calm for being “stuck” on my spring break, but trust me, this past week has been maddening. Aside from worrying about my safety, I also can’t help but worry about my upcoming exam and papers. I have an exam on 27 April, and of course I didn’t take any study material to Ireland with me (when/why would I have had the chance to study?) so I can’t even study. Same goes for my papers, which are all due on 5 May. When I first learned that my flight for today was cancelled, I was scrambling to find the quickest solution that will get me back to London ASAP because of my assessments – what if I have to reschedule my exam and I can only take it after I’m supposed to be leaving back to the states? What if I have little/no time to write my papers? All sorts of worst-case-scenarios were floating in my head until I eventually shook them all out of me. Even though the thought of me being thousands of feet in the atmosphere so soon after this volcanic eruption scares me to pieces, I realize that flying woukd probably be the best option, despite the issue of time.

As it turns out, I am (hopefully) getting back to London on Sunday afternoon (25 April), which will give me a little more than a day to study for my exam. I’ve pulled all-nighters and last minute study cramming before, so hopefully I can pull it off. But just in case, I e-mailed my professor explaining my situation. As for my papers, I have a little more than a week, which I hope will be enough time for three papers (one of which I started working on before I left). Don’t worry, during this time I’ll allow myself some time to update everyone on what I did here in Ireland, complete with many pictures! Hope everyone else is doing well, and I hope all of my friends around Europe can make it back to London safely. Hopefully, I’ll see everyone on Sunday!

xx

Out of breath….

These last few weeks have left my head spinning…yet still overwhelmed with happiness. I really hope that when I return home the best days of my life will not be over. But that’s too disheartening to discuss.
Only arriving back into town, here in Perth, a couple days ago, my time has been prioritized around getting back on track. After being away from school for the past three weeks (for the two week semester break, followed by a geology field trip during the third week), I have to return back to the return of school. And I am absolutely happy about that, as it is that I am a routine type person. I must admit that I have quite a bit of catching up to do on my work, but it doesn’t consist of anything that I can’t handle. I will also be sure to write extra blogs in order to make up for the blogs that I wasn’t able to post while I was away. And I must admit, it gives me a good feeling to know that I have such a full plate – so much to do! I love that!
My return also re-engages my job search activity, which I am on the brink of giving up on; however, considering most places that I have submitted resumes to / had interviews are not intereted in hiring me since I am only here for a couple months. But I haven’t given up yet.
Perth is a great city, with much to do, contrary to what the people that live here say. I always jokingly tell them it’s because they don’t have an imagination. I never give myself the chance to feel bored. After having met and made so many friends from all over the world, it’s always easy to find something going on. That’s after I get all of my done, of course, which takes up plenty of time as it.

Over the break I headed out all over the city, and tried to take in a much as possible, such as checking out the art gallery, Subiaco (a beautiful city of its own and a side section of Perth), the museum, London Court and much more. I also had a day trip down to Fremantle, the famous and beautiful port where are the prisoners were first kept. I took the train down, and spent the day there with lovely Aussie friend, Rebekah, and checked out all the markets(from funky shops to farmers markets), cafe’s (where I had my first authentic aussie virgin drink: lemon, lime bitter – a really tasty soda) and much, much more. I even got to see the ever-popular “Little Creature’s” brewery; however, I was not able to get in because I did not have my passport on me that day. Next time…except next time I won’t need my passport because I finally have my proof of age card! YAY! Many of the venues here are very strict about proof of age documents, only accepting AU driver’s licenses, proof of age cards, or passports…not NYS driver’s licences. My first experience going out on the town here, months ago now, was quite a drawn out process. First of all, after travelling on buses and trains into the city with a large group of new found friends…taking almost an hour in itself…we finally arrived. And after waiting in line for almost as long, I was told by the bouncer that my NYS Id was insufficient. And crazy to some, I decided to head all the way back and for the passport…luckily I had a great friend by my side the whole time…smart enough not to do it alone. Finally making it back to the club, I was permitted access. I had a blast, but it can make one very conscience and paranoid to carry a passport on them (however seeminly stupid it may be). But we all had to do, as most of my friends are international…I just happened to miss the memo before hand. The point here, is that now I have my proof of age card, and no longer need to carry my passport on me when I go out. Such a good feeling to keep my passport locked up where it should be.
The second week of the break, I took a roadtrip roughly two-three hours south of Perth, with two friends that are from down that way. I was able to meet their families and pets (which made me miss mine). I have at least fifty pics on facebook from this excursion, but I have included on of me posing on the Donneybrook (apple country) sign:

For now I have to get back to my work, but shortly I will discuss my third week away, which consisted of a week long geology field trip down to the regions of Albany and Margaret River! Cheers, Ashley

Oi!

It has been getting harder and harder to find time to come blog lately, so my posts become farther apart 🙁 . The longer the time I spend here, the more I end up doing and the less time I spend in my room. Which is not a problem for me at all! I actually could have got to this Saturday night or Sunday, but all of my vital objects were falling apart those days. It started off with my shower head breaking in my room, then the main waterline went so I couldn’t do my laundry or dishes, and it was topped off with the adapter for my computer being burnt out. But all that got fixed in one day, so it’s all better!

This past week was quite busy and I got a lot accomplished, in my activity section that is. Wednesday I finally got to the Prague zoo. It was full of childish fun, which had been lacking in my agenda lately. I was surprised to see how many animals were made of wood haha! I’m not sure why they had so many fake animals, but what they did have was good to see.

Thursday was… Aquapalace!!! Apparently there is an indoor water park just on the outskirts of the city. This I had to see. There were a good handful of water slides, each with varying degrees of aqua fun. There was one in particular that caught my radar, and it somewhat resembled a toilet bowl. Much of the rest of the park was large connections of pools and water ways, some being warmer than others. It was nice to get some water on my skin that wasn’t coming out of the wall.

Saturday me and a couple friends took a trip to Plzen, a town about an hours drive out of Prague. It is the birthplace of one of my more preferred beer styles, Pilsner! We spent most of the time at the Pilsner Urquell brewery because it was a rather large one. After the tour was done with, we ran off into town to explore as we heard there was a restaurant that served the delicious unfiltered, barrel aged brew that was served on the tour. After our long dinner discussions, we headed back for our train to have a night in Prague.

Sunday ended up being a perfect cap off to a good week. Friend of mine had organized a “barbie” as they liked to call it, and my tummy was prepared for a feast. Unfortunately, I was not prepared enough. I had only seen such masses of food at buffets. By the time we were done staring at the remains that couldn’t be forced down our gullets, there was still at least 3 kilos of meat and other sorts in the fridge unprepared!

Overall a darn good week I must say! I only hope that I can get some traveling done this coming weekend, because that volcano business is looking a bit gloomy.

Tales from Italy ch. 8: SPRING BREAK! Part 1: Scotland + New Castle, England

As I’ve said before, I really love how easy it is to travel while in Europe. Ridiculous fees and ticket prices that are all too common back in the states are unheard of here. And thank God too. So, with my friend, Janelle and tickets in hand, I boarded airplane #1 on it’s way to Edinburgh, Scotland 2 weeks ago and my spring break began.

The day before my trip, I had plans to do laundry, pack, and tie up any loose ends before leaving early the next morning for a bus that would take me to Pesaro. From there I would catch a train to Bologna and then fly across Europe to Scotland. It was an overwhelming start to my journey so I wanted to take it easy. Didn’t happen. Turns out that the flight was at 10:55am, not 10am like I had been planning on. I know what you’re thinking- big deal, right? It’s only 55 minutes. Well, those 55 minutes were enough to make 10:55am too early to get a bus to Pesaro in order to catch a train that would get me to Bologna on time. Janelle and I were going to have to leave that night and find some sort of accommodation in Pesaro so we could catch a really early train in the morning. Since this was almost impossible because it was last minute, we had planned on just sleeping in the train station that night- a very uncomfortable, yet desperate prospect.
Fortunately for us, Janelle had become friends with a girl in our Ceramics class named Sylvia who lived in Pesaro. She was able to get in touch with her in time for us to leave, and we were able to stay the night. She and her boyfriend live in this old manor that is absolutely stunning. But because it’s a manor, its also difficult to heat, so the two of them had set up a bed in the kitchen and were living out of this one room. It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. In this small space, they were happy and content; and it was contagious- just the thing we needed to bring our trip to a good start after all. So, after a delicious meal cooked by the two of them themselves and some music sung to us by her boyfriend with his guitar, we were off to bed.
The next morning we got a taxi back to the train station at 430am and took the first train, at 520am, to Bologna. I slept through most of it, as was expected. After our flight, we arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, got our passports stamped (YAY!), exchanged our Euros to Pounds, and set off for our hostel. It was then that I noticed that it was a bit chillier than I had expected and I had underpacked; for some stupid reason or another I had assumed Europe to be roughly the same temperature all around. Scotland is way too far north to be the same temperature as Italy. It was gonna be a chilly two weeks. Or at least until I got further south.
Our hostel, the Edinburgh Backpackers, was by far the coolest place I’d stayed in yet. Despite its 97-stair hike just to get to the reception desk, this is the most social, homey, and welcoming place we could have stayed for a low price (LOVE low prices :P). One of the things that really made it cool was the murals that coated every inch of every wall of the hostel. Because I liked it so much, I videotaped it from the entrance of the hostel, up the 97 stairs, and the hallway to our room. (At one point in the video, you can even hear Jai, our Aussie friend who worked at reception comment on my jacket- a simple means of recognition for me :P).
Views on the way to my room

Our room, Room “U” (each room was a letter of the alphabet), had 3 bunk-beds. Each bed was labeled with a word that began with the letter U: Ugly, Upside Down, Unsafe, Unbearable, Unsure, Unsatisfied. I slept in Ugly and Janelle in Upside Down. It was really amusing.

Outside the hostel was just as lovely. Our hostel was located on a road just behind Princes Street, one of the main streets in Edinburgh. There were tons of sights that we could see from here. The castle was across the river and the famous Balmoral Hostel was across the street.

Prior to visiting Scotland, I would have said that a stereotype of Scotland would be bagpipers around every corner dressed in kilts. However while in Scotland, it was hard to ignore how true this really is. Bagpipes can be heard around all of Edinburgh because there are indeed bagpipers, dressed in kilts, standing on various street corners for the majority of the day.

On our first day, Janelle and I took a tour around the city. In addition to the regular history that is to be expected, we learned a lot of funny stories too:
-this is King Alexander. He ran off a cliff on his horse and so his statue is him and his wild horse:

-King Charles the second, in hopes of gaining popularity, poured wine out of here for 24 hours. The people, ecstatic with wine, loved the King. Unfortunately this only lasted a day since 24 hour binge-drinking brings pretty severe hangovers the next day. Poor King Charles II’s plan backfired lol:

-Statue of King Charles II. This poor king. If his unpopularity wasn’t enough, he had the pleasure of this statue:
1- He’s dressed like Julius Caesar. This pretty much became a joke to the people who couldn’t comprehend why their king was dressed as if going to a costume party.
2- He was a short guy so he made his statue taller. Unfortunately it was out of proportion to his horse, which now looked small like a donkey. So now the people had a statue of their king dressed up going to a costume party on a donkey.
3- Every year on King Charles II’s birthday, Parliament sent 2 small boys to climb the statue and place a crown on the king’s head. This eventually wore away holes in the head of the statue that began to gather water and tilt the horse to the side. So now the people had a statue of their king, dressed as if going to a costume party, riding a drunken donkey.
4- In an attempt to relieve the statue of the water it was now gathering and fix the “drunken donkey” appearance due to the tilt, a hole was drilled in the bottom of the horse. So now the people had a statue of their king, dressed as if going to a costume party, riding a drunken donkey that was pissing all over the street. HAHAHAHAHA. Poor King Charles II:

-The heart was the symbol on the door of the tax collector and on the cell of people who were on death row. Weird, right? Well since people liked neither of these things, they would always spit on the doors and so the hearts were removed. Unfortunately now there was no target to spit on, so people were spitting all over the square. To solve this problem, the city put this heart in the coblestone. It is now the only patch of ground in Edinburgh that is legal to spit on and people still do:

-This is a picture of a trip step. While this one is old and therefore plastered into the wall, trip steps were actually part of staircases that were meant to act as a sort of security system. The trip step was a step that was double the height of the others; in the dark, you wouldn’t know that it was there unless you frequented the house often. So, burgalars and whatnot generally tripped on these trip-steps (go figure) and either made enough noise to alert the house inhabitants, or were knocked to the ground where they’d be found the next day:

-This is Maggie Dickenson’s Pub. This is her story:
Maggie Dickenson was happily married to her husband until he ran off with some random chick. Devastated, she was outcasted because she could not do anything since she was still legally married to her stupid husband. So, Maggie fled and started working at an inn. In time, she fell in love with the inn keeper’s son and ended up pregnant (some stories say she was raped, but I don’t know which is true). Because she was still married to her husband, she had to hide the pregnancy. Due to stress, Maggie miscarried. She took the body to the river where she buried it on the shore. Somehow however, the body was found and traced back to Maggie. Maggie was taken to trial for concealment of pregnancy, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging. The day of her hanging, Maggie was taken to the “Last Drop Pub” which is actually just a few doors down from her pub in the picture. All people sentenced to hanging were taken here on their death day (hence it’s name) since the gallows were actually right in front of this line of pubs in the picture. Anyway, Maggie was hanged, put in a coffin and taken away by carriage.
At one point in the journey, the carriage driver stopped for a drink. When he returned, he heard a knocking from the back of the carriage. The driver went to Maggies coffin and crowbarred it open. Maggie sat upright. Confused as what to do with her, the driver took Maggie back to the court where they decided to hang her again and finish the job. So, Maggie was taken back to “Last Drop Pub” where she again had her last whiskey, and went back to the gallows. With the noose around her neck, a priest in the crowd shouted to stop- he believed it to be a sign from God that Maggie had returned from the dead. There was a breif debate and they decided to hang her anyway. At this point a lawyer in the crowd shouted to stop- her sentence had already been carried out with the first hanging so she was legally free to go.
So, Maggie was freed. In addition to this good fortune, she also was freed of her legal marriage to her husband due to the vows “till death do us part,” and she had already once been legally pronounced dead. A happy ending indeed. Maggie went on to marry the inn keeper’s son, opened her own pub (in the picture below) and lived a long life. There are rumors though that on hanging days, she’d call out from her window above her pub to the poor victim and say tell them not to worry- maybe they’d come back:

-HARRY POTTER FANS: This is the window of J.K Rowling’s old apartment. She wrote the first few Harry Potter books from here where she was able to look out over Edinburgh. Ideas for her book came from things she saw like Edinburgh Castle- what she based the design of Hogwarts off of:

-Grave Safe/ Cage. Since grave-robbing brought in much $$, graves were frequently dug up and the bodies were sold. For Christians, this was an awful thing since they didn’t believe that the body could go to heaven if it was destroyed after death. So, families of the death had 2 options: 1- sit at the grave for 3 weeks until the body was known to have decomposed enough that it was no longer valuable to grave robbers (origin of the term “graveyard shift”)
2- rent one of these:

-George “Bloody” McKensie’s tomb. This little room is known to contain the most paranormal activity in the world.
In 2005, the tomb became permanently locked after a homeless man took shelter here for the night. Poor guy- the floor caved in and he woke up face to face with McKensie’s corpse. Screaming, he ran out of the tomb in the middle of the night all bloodied from his fall. The guard of the graveyard, as any normal person would, started screaming at the sight of this crazy, screaming, bloody man coming out of “Bloody” McKensie’s tomb in the middle of the night. The homeless guy, seeing the guard screaming in fear of him, thought the guard was screaming at something behind him and so he started screaming even more.
Thus, it is now locked:

-Greyfriar’s Bobby was the graveyard keeper’s, Greyfriar’s, loyal dog. Greyfriar died when Bobby was 2 but while he was alive the two were inseparable. When Greyfriar died Bobby spent every day of the next 14 years of his life at his owner’s grave.
Unfortunately, Bobby is not buried here because the cemetery is just for Christians. He has an unmarked grave outside of the cemetery. However, there is a statue of him just outside as well:

-North Lake (“Nor Loch”). It’s no longer a lake today; instead it is a beautiful garden. When it was a lake however, it was referred to as the “Lake of Poo” by our tour guide because it basically was the town’s sewage system. Notice the extra-special greenery?:

That night, Janelle and I met up with other friends of ours who were visiting Scotland and we took a ghost tour. Our guide was self-employed and wrote his own book. He was hilarious.
The next day, we took a trip to the Moorfoot Hills and did some hiking. The views were gorgeous but there was a ton of mud. Both Janelle and our friend, Ryan, slipped several times and ended up coated with mud. Lucky enough for me I didn’t meet the same fate.

The last day, Janelle and I decided we had seen enough of Edinburgh and headed to Glasgow. We had heard a lot about it, and of course the famous Gerard Butler is from there. So, we set the whole day to be for Glasgow. Unfortunately, we were let down. Glasgow was entertaining for about two hours and then we were out of things to do and still had the whole day. We had seen the old cathedral and medieval area of Glasgow, the oldest house, and had gone to the life/religious art museum before sitting down and trying some haggis, neeps, and tatties- after learning what it was. We were proud of that. After the haggis, to kill time, we went to the cinema to see Alice in Wonderland and then headed home.

Durham and New Castle, England were on the schedule for the next day and we took a bus down. On the way we passed loads and loads and sheep and sights of the North Sea. It was a beautiful trip. In Durham, I met up with my friend, “Cheese” who I’d met at camp. Just like the other girls I met up with around England, it was really nice to see her after camp had ended. She showed us around Durham. We saw the Durham Cathedral, Wear River, and Durham Castle. It was in the castle that some scenes from the first Harry Potter movie were filmed. The weather was lovely, especially for England, and it made for some really lovely pictures:

That night we went out dancing and it was nice to just get out and not be traveling and touring. It made for a splendid evening before our 6 hour 20 minute bus ride the next day to Chester.


Pictures from Scotland and New Castle

Why Wales? Entry #9: The Italian Adventure “Days 1-3”

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Day 1.  March 20, 2010

Day one was a day of travel.

We were all set to take the megabus from Cardiff to London and then another bus to the London-Stansted Airport, but we realized the night before that that the times we planned did not give us enough time to check in to the airport. So we had to replan. A big part of traveling, especially independently is not only planning, but replanning. We were not only ready to see and do everything, but we were ready for things to go wrong- and times to not match up properly. We were able to fix it by taking a train to London instead. We took the train from Cardiff to London, then the tube to abother train station- and finally another train to the London Stansted airport, which took us to Venice.

We arrived in Venice around 11pm, and got to our hotel by midnight. Venice was so quiet and beautiful at night. After checking into our room, we wandered around a bit and enjoyed some water. We didn’t spend too long out since we wanted to get up early and enjoy the day.

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Day 2 March 21st 2010

Venice and Piacenza

We started the day off realizing just how confusing it is to get around Venice. Since there are no roads, only waterways for boats, and small pathways for pedestrians; we seemed to be wandering aimlessly until we found a sign. The interesting thing is that even though there are official signs pointing to places of interest, there are apparently not enough. Some graffitti artists took it upon themselves to make sure that the tourists find their way.

We enjoyed some italian pastries and then went to the Rialto Bridge. The city is beautiful from all angles! We shopped in the stores and admired the multitude of Murano Glass. We then headed to St. Mark’s Square and enjoyed some pizza and gelato as the infamous pigeons flew about.

After a casual day in the city, we went to the train station to head to Piacenza. Piacenza is a small city where Marissa’s family lives. She has met these second cousins (Lorenzo and Miriam) several times, but this was the first time she visited them on her own. We arrived at their lovely home where a late dinner had been prepared for us. We met both of their mothers, who are stereotypical Italian grandmothers. They would make sure we were well fed, and taken care of. Even though I couldn’t communicate with them, I really enjoyed being around them. We also met Miriam and Lorenzo’s daughter who is 22 years old.

Dinner was delicious! Tortellini, and plenty of it! All the food was amazing. It was such an experience to be with a real Italian family and enjoy a real Italian meal.

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Day 3 March 22, 2010

Piacenza

We woke up around 9am, and enjoyed some breakfast as the grandmothers did their best with conversing. I was surprised how much I was able to understand without knowing any Italian. Since I used to major in French, the similarites, as well as the context and body language made it easier to understand.

After breakfast, Lorenzo and Miriam took us on a walking tour of Piacenza. It is a small city, but very beautiful. We saw many churches, and enjoyed some tea at the theater cafe. After a few hours out, we headed back to their home for lunch. This lunch had so much food I had to double check the clock and make sure it wasn’t dinner. I wasn’t expecting so much food for lunch!

We relaxed a bit more, and then headed back out to Castell’ Arquato which is outside of Piacenza. The views from Castell’ Arquato were amazing, and the castle was so grand. Then we headed to a mideval village called Grazano Visconti .

Upon returning home, Miriam provided us with cozy slippers and we relaxed until dinner. Dinner was pizza, with assorted meats, cheeses, and vegetables.

The time I spent in Piacenza with Marissa’s family was one of the best experiences. Not only did I get to have real Italian cuisine, but I met her wonderful family. Lorenzo and Miriam were so friendly and hospitable and really enjoyed having us there. It made me miss speaking a foreign language because I wanted to express how thankful I am for their generosity. I will be sending them a thank you card soon. Spending the time in Piacenza made the Italian adventure unique. 🙂

The view outside our window in Piacenza.

 

 

Why Wales? Entry #8: The Italian Adventure “Planning”

Why Wales?

Well the obvious reason is that we had 3 weeks off for Spring break!

Now, classes are important, but so is travel. Three weeks off allows us to choose places outside of the UK and truly taste that traveling bug that has been fluttering around us since we initially decided to study abroad.

PLANNING-

Planning 3 weeks of spring break is tough. There is so many places to go. Out of the 9 Americans here, only one knew where she was going.

 Meg had her trips planned early. Malta, Barcelona, and Ireland.  She had a friend in Malta and Barcelona, and her mom would be flying in for some quality time in Ireland. Everyone was welcomed to join her.

and most people did.

Christine, Maggie, Justine, and Meg spend their first week in Malta; a small island south of Sicily.

As for me, it took me a while to decide. It went from Italy to Greece, to Croatia, to Malta, to specifically Venice, and then back to the drawing board.

Nina was originally going to spend the week with Marissa and myself in Italy for the first week, but then decided to go the independent route. She ended up having a great time in Amsterdam with the psych club.

Garrett was planning on skiing the alps, and Elysse was set on Italy. She had a friend in Italy, which always helps travel. Having friends around the areas makes it easier to plan the days, since one city is more probable to match with the dates that the friend is available.

The problem was that there was so many places to go. How do we get there? How do we get around once we are there? Some of us were considering meeting others inbetween their travels. How could we assure we would meet up?

After a lot of planning, we finally set an itinerary. Everybody had a place to go, hostels/hotels were booked, and flights there and back had been arranged.

The first week was to start off like this:

  • From Cardiff- to London.
  • Fly from London, England to Venice, Italy via RyanAir.
  • One night in Venice.
  • Spend most of the next day in Venice, then
  • take the train to Piacenza where Marissa’s family lives.
  • 2 nights with her lovely italian family.
  • back to Venice via train for one more night.
  • head to San Marino via train.
  • 2 nights in San Marino
  • head to Rome via train to meet Maggie and Justine (who were in Malta with Meg and Christine for week 1)

Week 2:

  • Rome
  • Naples
  • Florence
  • Venice

Week three:

Originally I was determined to spend all 3 weeks out, but as expences greatened- and laundry dirtied…. being back on campus for the third week sounded better and better. Original plans included more of Italy, Romania, and random Welsh adventures. We ended up just relaxing and doing laundry, but more about that later.

I packed my favorite suitcase (15 days worth into a carryon!!) and was ready to go!

My suitcase fit 15 days of travel, and can be used as a backpack or with wheels! 🙂

We (Maggie, Justine, and myself) also purchased EURAIL passes from eurail.com. This way all our tickets for local trains were taken care of.  We only needed to purchase a seat reservation if it was a high speed train.

More on its way: from day 1 to day 15!

🙂

Why Wales? Entry #7: Ireland Adventure.

Ireland. was. amazing.

Reading Week. It is a week given to the students so that they have extra time to prepare for exams, and catch up on their reading, etc. Needless to say, ‘reading’ was not going to be a part of my Reading Week- except for maps, street signs and menus. My reading week was going to consist of an Irish adventure… with 3 of my best friends whom I only met less than 2 months ago. Go Figure! I received this message from Christine, which opened the invite up to everyone and further confirmed that this trip was happening.

 OKEY so for those who want to go to Ireland during reading week, we should start to book flights. I was thinking we should go Saturday February 27- Wednesday or thursday March 3rd or 4th! Sound good? I wanted to leave thursday or friday but they are expensive because they all have extra fees and taxes and they are at 6am which would be ridiculous to try n make. So Saturday has a 8:25pm flight for 35pounds total and then for leaving wed or thursday there are no fees and it is only 8pounds! Lemme know cuz we gotta start booking!!!

That was only the beginning. As it turned out, the only people able to come were the same people who went to London weeks earlier. As sad as we were that the others couldn’t adventure with us, we were happy that the four of us were traveling together again. 🙂

We decided to fly into Dublin. I bought a new suitcase that I can test out and see if it will work for the Italian adventure to come over Spring break. Anyway, we flew into Dublin via Ryan Air, and took the bus to our hostel. This was our first hostel where we didn’t have a private room. It was definately an experience being in the room with strangers and trying to avoid awkward situations. The Shining Hostel was actually really nice! The people were really friendly, and the rooms were clean.

top bunk! Our hostel.

We were delighted with a plentiful breakfast of bread and butter. 8 beds in the room, 4 of us. The first night we met 2 really nice girls who were studying in England I think. We actually saw them the next morning when we were leaving for our bus tour.

That's our roommates, riding bikes!

We  also met two girls traveling from outside the UK- it’s so cool to meet so many different people. So as I said, we started day one with some delisious bread and butter. But since bread and butter isn’t filling, we had to go elsewhere and get some real food.

This was the day we were set to discover Dublin. We bought a bus ticket that takes you around the city and provides you with an audio tour. These tickets were valid for 24 hours, so we could hop on and hop off the bus at any time and spend time at a museum or whatnot. We didn’t do too much the first day besides the bus tour. A lot of the things that are typical things to do didn’t seem worth the money once we got there. We ended up walking around the city taking a lot of pictures and enjoying eachother’s company.

We did some shopping (I bought some doughnuts, as usual) and went out for the night. We went to a club called Sin, where some Irish boys were telling us (over and over again) how amazing Ireland is. Ireland is amazing. 🙂

The second day was the most adventurous, and is tied with the third day for different reasons. We were set off to try to find the location where ‘P.S I Love You’ was filmed. It was in this park with a waterfall and whatnot. We never made it to that location, but where we did end up made the entire trip so worthwile.

We took the bus to Eniskerry, which is the small town that was supposed to lead us to the scenes of the movie. We got off the bus, and our good friend Christine led the way with her wanderings. We went down a small path to a beautiful church and cemetary alongside a field with ponies. We then headed back on the road up the random road. We knew we were headed in the right direction for the Wiklow Park where the movie was filmed- we just didn’t know the distance.

Ireland is beautiful.

The air was so crisp, and it was so nice to finally get out of the city for a while and see the green green grass of Ireland. We veered off the road and discovered a stream and collected unique rocks.

Pac-Man Rock!

As we were walking down the road, we came across our only sign of human interaction. Along the side of the road, a coach bus driver was stopped at a station of some sorts and was washing his bus. We chatted with him for a while and the asked him for some directions. Since we were wandering about for such a long time, we were sort of hungry. He told us that the closest place with food was a gas station that was pretty far, but not nearly as far as our original destination. So, we headed to the gas station, which the man also informed us is right by a bus station to take us back to Dublin.

Along the way, we kept the same leisurely pace, and took lots of photographs. We passesd a house where a little boy was in the front, and he was singing the “mama mia” song. It was adorable. Then as we’re walking, we here a car coming, and to our surprise it was our friend with his coach bus. He offered us a lift, not only to the gas station- but to a great city on the coast, Dun Laoghaire. We accepted. On the way there, he pointed out several points of interest including Bono’s house. He suggested a few things to see in Dun Laoghaire and also reccomended to take the train to the peninsula of Howth.

We decided to do that, and immidiately fell in love with it. Howth is a small fishing villiage on a penninsula of Ireland. We ended up spending a good part of the last day there hiking. We hiked up a tall mountain and saw incredible views.

At the top of the mountain in Howth.

Ireland was one of the greatest trips, because my experience was so unique. It was the first trip where we left the city and explored some of the country. It was nice to see some of the country, because it really made it special. The city attractions are nice too, but the balance of city and country on the Ireland trip made it extra special!

🙂

Frieeeend!

Oy, I missed another week of posts! I have a legitimate excuse this time I believe. I had friends visit from the states, for the whole week.

I got that off to a good start, as I missed my alarm to pick up one friend early Saturday morning (7am). I ended up being 3 hours late and finding him in the airport bar, paying for drinks that were as much as a whole meal in town. I showed him a good time the first night, then I had to get up early again to pick up a different friend from the airport.

Unfortunately, he had given me the wrong time to pick him up, which was about 10:30am. He forgot the time difference, so I was in the airport for about 3.5/4 hours trying to find him. Naturally, we had to reciprocate. So, we let him sweat it out in the airport for about an hour when 5:30 rolled around.

We started off the week with a couple strolls around town, and a little sight seeing. But mostly seeing the night life, as that was what they wanted to see. The rest of the week went about the same as I introduced them to all the Euros I had met so far, although I had a mid term on Tuesday so I had to take it easy one of the days. Luckily, both of them are fairly versatile people so I could leave them alone if I needed to. We had a blast for the whole week they were here, as far as I know anyway haha. They only trouble we ran into was one of them had some side effects from some medications, and had to get checked out in the hospital. Hopefully that did not put too much of a damper on his trip.

Now I just need to study for my last midterm, because this one is gonna be a tough one. I never knew how complicated “Middle Europa” was until I took this class. But, after this Wednesday I need to start looking into more weekend trips!