IRELAND!! Maybe a little late.

Yeah well once again I am late on blogging. Finding time to jot down all my thoughts in one place is becoming nearly impossible. Between the notes in my phone, text messages to my friends, the occasional FaceTime session with my family and my agenda, my thoughts are scattered everywhere. I have been overwhelmed with my school obligations here lately. Taking 12 hours is nothing compared to what I tackle at home with work, school and KD, but adding in traveling makes this journey a different one.

So the best thing that I know to do is to fill in the missing weeks that I have forgotten to keep updated. Here it goes...

I got back to the manor after Scotland and left again 3 days later on Wednesday night. Jenny, Olivia (two of my KD sisters) and Haley started our adventures to Ireland with trying to figure out our train tickets to London Stansted Airport. After 4 trains and some complete confusion we made it to the airport at 11ish and scouted a place out to sleep that night. Our flight left at 6:50 the next morning so we settled into an area of benches in the open. At 3 a.m. we were awoken by the voices of about 30 Spanish speaking teenagers. I am not sure why they felt the need to have full blown conversations at that time but it was rather annoying. We woke (well I had fallen asleep and the others did not seem to get as much as I did) and boarded our plane to Dublin. We arrived in Dublin to a dreary, dreary day. Some exploration occurred, by ourselves because we missed the New Europe Tour (very bummed about that). Dublin was not what I imagined it to be. The phrase concrete jungle could be used to describe it and I was eager to see the green grass that I imagined for Ireland. That night though was a lot of fun. We ended up going to a pub called O'Shea's and we danced to traditional Irish music with the group of the cutest older people!
                                              
                       Everything I took fit in that bad boy!            Irish Dancing with this man!

On Friday morning we, along with a lot of other Harlaxton students, boarded the Paddy Wagon bus and headed west across the country. It is kind of weird to think, driving four hours from Dublin can get you across the ENTIRE country. Four hours from home is Gatlinburg, not another coast. This day was my favorite of the trip. The green grass was definitely in Ireland. From the very back of the bus I was able to look out the absolute beauty of the country. We traveled on the highway for a while but then took a turn and ended up going on little two lane roads for the rest of the day.

Our first stop was in a town called Cong. It is going to be very hard to capture the beauty of this town in words. Think of the smallest town you can think of. Comparable to where my Momma works, Adairville, and then divide that in half. There was a river that cut through Cong and the ruins of an Abbey from so long ago. Us girls took this opportunity to have a photo shoot in the ruins and along the river. We were only there for an hour but it was magnificent.

 

 

 

We loaded the bus once again and headed for Connemara. Here we stopped for lunch at this breathtaking place. Built within the mountain side was Killmore Abbey, a castle like building that overlooked a lake.

Words really do not do justice to this BEAUTIFUL day.

We traveled to Galway that night and were surprised with a stay in Aaron's Bed and Breakfast instead of a hostel. You should have seen me and Haley's faces when we entered our room. A full and twin bed, our own bathroom with hot water AND towels provided. You would have thought we were in heaven. Sleep that night was wonderful and I was even able to go back early and have nice conversation with Jenny.

The next day was a bit dreary but not rainy like I thought it would eventually get. As we were driving to see the Cliffs of Moher (along the coast line) we had to stop a few times for the sheep and cows that roamed freely to get out of the road so we could pass. I loved seeing the farm life, that's for sure. As we were closing in on the Mini Cliffs, a rainbow came out of no where out in the ocean. You could imagine my excitement: I was able to see a REAL rainbow IN Ireland! I'm surprised the bus didn't flip with everyone moving to one side to catch a glimpse.

The Mini Cliffs were another favorite of this trip. We all got off the bus and ran straight for them. Unlike the Cliffs of Moher with railings everywhere, these cliffs literally ended with a drop off to the ocean. We climbed, explored and beat near death experiences trying to capture the most perfect shots. It was so much fun and of course we were the last ones to board the bus.

We finally made it to the Cliffs of Moher about mid afternoon. I was in awe of the grandness of these cliffs. They seemed to go on forever and were an amazing sight to see. We hiked to the left (see Scotland post...when it doubt GO LEFT) and took so many pictures. However, pictures really do not capture the feelings that I had there!

We stayed in Killarney that night..in a hostel but after the stay in Galway I was pretty happy. Our bus driver on Saturday got sick so we had our bus driver from Friday, Barry, again on Sunday and he reused the history lecture as he drove. I thoroughly enjoyed the mini lectures throughout the day. The snippet of information that I learned in those three days will forever be in my mind. We made our way towards Blarney and the Blarney Castle. Legend says that if you kiss the Blarney Stone (blue stone set in the castle walls, very high up) that you will be given eloquence. I of course kissed the Blarney Stone, so we shall see.

Kissing the stone!

 

Poison Garden...what what!

 

 

We visited Ireland's largest gift shop...I definitely should have stayed away from that place! On the way back to the airport that day we were able to see the sunset. It was an awesome feeling flying into Ireland with the sunrise and leaving with the sunset. The beauty of this world is blowing me out of the water every single day, and I find myself in absolute ah.

Traveling that night was definitely one of the worst experiences I have ever had, however it was something that I am glad happened. We left Dublin and arrived in London before midnight. However, Grantham train station closes at some point in the night so we were supposed to take a night train to London's King Cross...well apparently the underground closes too. We were hurried out of one train station into the street of London, while it was snowing. I had never felt so helpless. I was freezing cold in such a strange place. Luckily a taxi was there and we took it to King's Cross Station. We ended up staying in a glass sided Starbucks for 3 hours...completely frozen until the station opened up at 5 a.m. We finally made it back to the manor at 7:30 and class was at 8:30. I'm not one to function on no sleep so I used one of my skip days that morning.

Sorry to throw so much at my readers. It has just been so hard to find time to blog between the adventures and school work. Hopefully I will get better at this going into the second part of this semester. That's right, the SECOND PART OF THIS SEMESTER!! It's already half way over with :(

Two roads diverged into one... and we took the one less traveled.

"Where the stone doth lie, the Scots will rule."

Warning: This WILL be a long post. (If you don't want to read it all then at least read the part about Saturday - my FAVORITE day!) This past weekend was one of the best in my entire life. A couple weeks ago I thought "Abby, why not go to all the countries in the UK? I mean you have plans to go to Ireland and Wales so why not book one to Scotland too?" Haley, Bri, Jenny, Erin, Erica, Carly and I took off for this new place. Little did I know booking a trip to a place that I knew very little about would so incredible! I am going to write this post as if I were writing in a journal, just to keep things straight for you and to keep events straight for me when I look back on this in the future. Here goes trying to put this experience into words...

Friday - February 1, 2013
What a wonderful way to start a new month than to jump on my first ever train ride and head 4 hours (well via train) north to another country. (From Bowling Green, I can jump into my car and drive four hours to Cincinnati, or to Knoxville and maybe even to St. Louis, but I am no where near 4 hours to another country. That in itself was amazing!) If you know me at all, then you know that if I am in moving transportation for an extended period of time I will knocked out. Well, nothings new. I fell fast asleep and unfortunately missed the countryside until about an hour outside of Edinburgh when a gentleman came and sat beside me. Talk about one nervous man...he stood up a few dozen times and fiddled with what looked like to be presentation notes. Poor guy - hope he had some luck on his side that day!

Sign on the door in our hostel.

We were met in Edinburgh with grey skies but our adventurous minds were far from dreary. We checked into this hip looking hostel called, St. Christopher's Inn. Our room was a female dorm of 10 and the most interesting room mate we had was a young woman from Australia who has backpacking through England. She has already been to the States before and drove a car from California to New York...she's seen more of the U.S. than I have and I am from there!

We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed to find a vegetarian restaurant called Henderson's. In the group of 7 girls, 3 were vegetarians. Again if you know me then you know I am a meat and potatoes kind of gal. I grew up hating pretty much every vegetable but corn and potatoes...healthy right? But hey, I am experiencing new things so why not add vegetarian list to this also. I ordered some kind of lasagna packed full of veggies and two salads that were nothing like I am used to. Surprisingly I loved this restaurant and all my friends were amazed that I even tried it...yum!

We walked out of the restaurant and spotted the COAST down the street. I begged and begged to walk there but was talked out of it. It was probably a good idea because by this point we were all exhausted from the trip and week prior. We wandered around that side of Edinburgh and eventually made our back to the hostel to plan our next two days and collect our thoughts. The hostel had an awesome pub downstairs and we ate for dinner some of the best burgers that I ever had. Although we all crashed before 9 p.m. our first day in the city was pretty great!

Saturday - February 2, 2013
This was the GREATEST day! We woke up at the "butt crack of dawn" (a phrase that my family jokingly says at home and that I taught Erin - who completely laughs at the "country" things that I do and say). We layered up our clothing and wandered down to Royal Mile towards what is known of as Arthur's Seat. Basically a "hill" that is 822 feet tall and overlooks the city. Our goal was to CLIMB that sucker! We couldn't find the foot of the hill for the longest time (kind of crazy to think we couldn't find the looming mass in the darkness!). We made it to the bottom of Royal Mile and ran into a gentleman who we asked. He simply said "Look that way!" We did, and there appeared a great MASS of land. It was here, at 5:45 A.M. that we realized we didn't have a flashlight and none of us had eaten breakfast...oops!

We made our way to the mass of land and had our first challenge...take the left or right path? We choose right (this is an important fact for the day) and made our way up what I now refer to as mini mountain. We all thought that we were making our way up Arthur's Seat...that was until we reached the top and started our way down. We FINALLY found a path at the bottom of mini mountain that started the climb up to the top Arthur's Seat. About half way up I told the group, "Hey guys, I am afraid of heights." Probably should have mentioned that before the climb, but oh well!! After walking in darkness, up a mountain, without a flashlight, in a foreign country, and me being afraid of heights we made it to the top as the sun was rising. I have never experienced such a beautiful sight! The view was breathtaking. I looked out and saw the city of Edinburgh and to the coast that borders it! I had about 30 minutes to myself at the top and was able to think about the absolutely beautiful the world is. I really am just one tiny weeny small part of this great big world!

 

After we ventured down the mountain (of course we found a MUCH easier way to climb down and if we went left, as previously stated, we would have been at the top in no time - oh well, I will forever cherish those hilarious memories) we stopped at a Starbucks to warm our freezing bodies. That hour or so in Starbucks was another one of my favorite moments. I was with the people I am closest to at Harlaxton laughing, retelling childhood memories and basking in the beauty of the day. It was an amazing feeling!

That afternoon we joined a New Europe free walking tour with our tour guide Eoin (pronounced Owen). To sum this walking tour up in a sentence: IT WAS AMAZING!!! We did not have to pay for this tour (hence free walking tour) because the guides solely work off of tips, therefore their tours have to be good or they have wasted an afternoon walking around showing tourists random buildings. We ventured all over the city in 3.5 hours. From the  St. Giles Cathedral where Jenny Geddes threw a stool in protest of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to Greyfriar Cemetery where the most loyal dog, Bobby is buried. Wandering around a city filled with so much history seemed like heaven to me. It was freezing cold that day but no one in our group complained (well too much) because viewing the city from a local's perspective gave us a  greater understanding of Edinburgh.

 

 

 

Bobby the Dog (statue form of course)

 

Sunday - February 3, 2013

Our main goal for this day was to experience Edinburgh Castle. We checked out of the hostel and walked up Royal Mile for the last time and ended at the gates of the magnificent castle. The castle is built on top of Castle Hill (duh) and overlooks the city. We made it just in time for a free tour (we tend to like anything "free" in the title) and was pointed in the direction of the many structures that lie within the fortified walls.

There are two different war museums, an old firehouse (taking water up the Castle Hill was no an option during those times in case of a fire, so they just built their own firehouse up top), barracks of the British Army who currently live there today, a church and my favorite - a memorial to all of the Scottish war veterans who have died in combat. I walked into the memorial and opened up a book to read off the names of a few veterans who gave their lives fighting in the Iraq War, a war that has defined much of my childhood in the states. I had never even thought that about the individuals from other countries were also loosing their life to protect my freedom at home. Definitely a humbling experience.

View looking at Arthur's Seat from Castle Hill

Another amazing thing about the castle was that the crown jewels of Scotland are held there AND the famous STONE OF DESTINY. Carly had talked about the Stone of Destiny since we got to Scotland but honestly I had never even heard about the stone before this. We started up a conversation with the security guard in the heavily vaulted room and he told us the background history of the stone. Apparently Edward I took the Stone of Destiny from Scotland during his reign and placed it under the coronation throne in England. (Hence the beginning line) It laid there until 1950 when a group of college students broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the stone on Christmas Eve and brought it back to Scotland. It stayed there for four months and then returned to England. In 1996 Elizabeth I presented Scotland with the stone once more with the promise that it would only be returned to England when a new king would be crowned. Pretty neat that I was able to see this in real life huh?

Another favorite memory of the trip happened that afternoon. We went to a cafe called the White Elephant. Ring a bell? Well, this is the cafe that J.K. Rowling sat in and created Harry Potter. WHOA!! (insert fan girl scream!!) We ate some delicious food and was even lucky enough to sit in the window which overlooked Edinburgh Castle and gave the inspiration for Hogwarts! After lunch we ventured into Greyfriar Cemetery and found the graves of Thomas Riddle, Moodie and McGonagall!!

The infamous seat!!

 

 

I was not ready to leave this beautiful place and getting on the train was a bittersweet moment. I was ready to go back home (yes the manor has become my "home") but I did not want to leave such an amazing place. Scotland has been my favorite country I have ever visited. I ventured around a breathtaking city, walked in a castle filled with history, climbed a mountain to watch the sunrise, ate at a strictly vegetarian restaurant and made some incredible memories that I will cherish for a lifetime. Let's just say, I have left a piece of my heart in Scotland and I will be back someday.