£ondon

February 26
We met Elaine early this morning and I had to miss Friday classes for our weekend trip w/ AIFS to London. That's a shame. We took a bus to the airport only to find that our flight was delayed. While getting breakfast, we noticed a bunch of crazy Irish people drinking Guinness and wearing leprechaun hats and outfits. We find out that they're all on our flight- headed to England for the Ireland v. England Rugby Match- part of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament. I wish we could have gone! The flight was extremely bumpy and felt like a roller coaster, people were screaming, and the Ireland fans were doing what they do best-cursing the pilot. haha. When we arrived in London Gatwick, we met Adrian, who would be our resource for the weekend. We boarded a bus and headed towards the Regency Hotel in South Kensington- Queen's Gate area. It was an hour bus ride. I slept for a good bit of the bus ride but we went through Wimbledon and saw the Chelsea FC stadium. I'd like to go back to both of those places. When we arrived, we were all hungry and decided to freshen up and head out to find food. We all met and then realized that it was getting late and if we wanted to go a Thames River Cruise, we needed to get ready for that and just grab something quick on the way to Westminister. So we went back to our rooms and dressed up, fed the ATM our cards, bought tube (underground) passes, and went to Westminister Station- right next to the River Thames. We looked up and down for a river cruise- nothing. There were alot of floating restaurants and bars and it became pretty evident that we should have booked this beforehand. Regardless, we walked across the big bridge and checked for cruises on the other side of the river. Again, nothing. 

We snapped good pictures of the London Eye and Parliament- all lit up at night... and then just decided to give up and find food. After walking a while and FREEZING, we ended up in Trafalgar Square and ate at the Red Lion. It wasn't great, but it was food. 

After dinner, we were tired but decided to go to Piccadilly Circus since we had day passes for the tube anyway. We found a ticket booth and a few girls got tickets to see Wicked the next day, and Stephanie and I got tickets to see the Lion King. We went in a few souvenier shops and just walked around for a little while before heading back to the hotel... but not before getting gelato! The beds in the hotel were so comfy and 7 am came way too early the next morning.


February 27
Kara and I woke up at 7:30 because 7 am is just ridiculous. We had breakfast included with our hotel rooms and that was nice. They actually had bananas and peanut butter. We met Adrian shortly after for our bus tour of the city. It was a NASTY day. Rainy and cold.. and we were all dressed up for our matinee plays. I was really sleepy and couldn't take good pictures during the tour so I just kind of checked out and daydreamed the whole time. 

We saw all of the museums and touristy buildings, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Drury Lane (where the Muffin Man lived), Royal Prince Albert Hall and learned about the Prince Albert piercing. Ew. We saw the Knightsbridge shopping district, where Harrods is. Harrods is just like a Nordstrom x100 and I didn't think it was all that great but it is owned by an Egyptian millionaire whose son was killed with Princess Diana in Paris. There's a monument for both of them in the basement of the department store. We saw the London Dungeon (where I went with UCA in 2005) and a big Britain at War Museum. I wish we had time to do that, it's right up my alley. Continuing. We saw a monument for the animals killed in wars. That's nice. Kensington Gardens and a statue of Peter Pan. 

A Twin Towers Memorial with pieces of the towers buried out in front of it. Buckingham Palace, the Arch that Princess Diana's funeral parade drove through, Pariliament, Big Ben, a ton of statues, Westminister Abbey, London Eye, ect.  think I fell asleep around this time and woke up when we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral for a break and coffee. London weather kills me! It was just a gross day and I got no good pictures. 

The tour was finally over and it dropped us off at Covent Garden. Stephanie and I split and walked through the market, got Italian for lunch and headed to the Lyceum to see the Lion King. I was so sleepy. My eyes were watering, hair was wet and I just wanted to go back to the hotel... but the Lion King turned out to be a zillion times better than I expected. It was an amazing show. Good thing too, because paying $75 for a ticket makes me wanna vomit. When the show was over, we got our first good taste of the tube mayhem (it's going through reconstruction and NINE lines were closed and some of the others were just partially running). The stairs were out of use (how does that happen?) so we had to wait forever to take the elevator down to the platforms. The last time I was in London was right after the subway bombings and during a worker's strike. This time, reconstruction. I have terrible luck. Anyway, we made it back to the hotel and I got to lay down for a minute... only for Megan to come knockin' wanting to know if I wanted to go get dinner. Why not. 

We went to Byron's, a burger place that Crystal swore up and down that her friend said had the very best burgers in London. They were decent. Anyway, afterwards.. the 1 guy in our AIFS group- Sean- gets it in his head that we're all going out with him. Needless to say, he's pretty convincing. At least to Megan, Marissa, Molly, Crystal and I. Crystal and Marissa derailed and headed to the hookah bar while Megan, Molly, Sean and I went to Leicester Square. We ended up at Zoo Bar- a place that Sean had evidently done extensive research on. The que (line) was a mile long out the door and we were like uhhh let's just go home.. when Sean goes to talk to the bouncers. 

One of the bouncers looks at Molly and was like hey, you're an activist. I like Molly. She reminds me of Boone. Anyway, and she's like uhh I guess. He asks her Israel or Palestine, she says Palestine and I guess that was the right answer because we get to jump the que and head inside. I'm glad we did.. we had a blast! We were there until about 3 am and decided we should go.  It was pouring rain outside and we got soaked. My feet were killing me so I was walking around Piccadilly Circus barefoot trying to flag down a cab. All of the cabs were on call and going to pick other people up so we were just standing there. The tube doesn't run that late but we remembered that we could use the buses. 

We couldn't find the bus stop for the longest time but we finally did. Cold, wet, and barefoot- we pile onto the bus and the bus driver is yelling to see our tickets but we were a little too tired to care. Oops. I immediately passed out on the bus and had to be woken up when we got to the hotel. I came in and threw my wet clothes in the floor and crashed. I find out later that Megan had found somebody's room service so she had a good snack. Jealous! Unethical, but nothing compared to the next day. haha.


February 28
I had all intentions of getting up early and going back to all of the places we saw on the bus to take pictures since the weather was bad and I hate taking pictures through the bus window. 

I slept until about 11, checkout was at 1. I was really tired but decided I should just go take a bath and get ready. I turned the bath water on and dozed off in the floor (?) and woke up when I flooded the bathroom. :-/ I threw all the towels in the floor to clean up my mess and consequently, had no dry towels to shower with. I didn't really care. My hair was still wet from the night before and my feet were killlllling me. The shower was amazing in the hotel. Again, I was just being lazy when Megan summons me for lunch. I went with her, Crystal and Marissa. Crystal and Marissa derailed again, this time for Harrod's and Megan and I walked for a long time in Knightsbridge (shopping district) until we found a good place for lunch. 

We relaxed and chatted, finished our lunch and ordered dessert. Why not?! We had no idea where to go next but I had a map so we started walking. We went back to Buckingham Palace and strolled down the Princess Diana Memorial Walk. I kind of felt like we were on a wildlife tour because I was definitely more entralled with the ducks and birds than the architecture. Anyway, we saw the horse guards and kept walking until we got to Big Ben, Parliament, a million more statues. After running into Carly and Jen and getting directions to a few more places we wanted to go... we got a day pass for the tube and went in search of Abbey Road. Abbey Road was pretty cool.

It wasn't commercialized at all. There was 1 Beatles Coffee Shop a little ways from the road so I stopped and got Mark a t-shirt. There's a big white wall outside of the recording studio that people write messages on, so we did too. After that, we were on our way to Platform 9 3/4 (from Harry Potter) when we saw Sherlock Holmes tiles in the underground and decided to go exploring. We found his 'house', his statue, Madame Tussaud's famous wax museum, and some street vendors. Megan and I decided to do a little shopping and get rid of our GBPounds - she bought some scarves and I bought an Oxford Univ. hoodie! Love it. We were then on our way to Kings Cross Station (where 9 3/4 is). We get there and there was mad construction. We were kind of in a hurry now since we were supposed to meet the group at 6 for the bus to the airport. We ran around trying to find it. I'd been there before but it was hard to get to because of construction and the construction signs weren't labeled very well. Regardless, we kept running around trying to find it. Eventually, we decided it wasn't really worth it and we should get back. 

Of course, there were more issues with the underground reconstruction. The train we needed was stopped and packed full, but some middle-aged Ireland fans started hollering at us and we jumped on the train with them and basically got molested- but hey, we were on the train. They kept telling us 'HEY AT THE NEXT STATION WE'RE GONNA JUMP OFF AND FLIP OVER A GARDA CAR. YEAHHHHH!' We had a good time with them. They left and we finally went- very very slowly- back to South Kensington. We came out of the tube and it was raining. Did I mention I hate London weather? and we rannnn. We had been trying to call the group to tell them we were running late but there was absolutely no signal in the underground. We finally got Lindsey on the phone and she told us that they'd left us. We were like haha, we'll be there in a minute. 

At that point she's like no guys, really. Since when does AIFS leave on time? The bus left 3h45 before our flight left... ridiculous! Adrian, our *lovely* tour guide (not), told us how funny the situation was.. and it wasn't really funny at the time. He told us how to get to the airport so we went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and headed back to the underground. Soaking wet, yet again. We needed to get on the Victoria line, but of course, it wasn't running. We finally ended up at Victoria station and found a sign that said Gatwick Express. That's the train we needed! It's an express train that doesn't stop and only takes 30 minutes. The lady at the ticket counter tells us that the train's services have been cancelled. What?! We decided to wait for the next train, about 40 minutes, when a guy comes up to us and tells us an alternative train to take. He said it made 2 stops but we'd still get there faster than waiting. Fine by us. We had to go find the conductor since we didn't have tickets and he didn't seem too pleased to let us on but we weren't really giving him much of an option. At that point, we decided that this was crap and we weren't paying for the train. More on that in a few. About that time, they come over the speakers and say that cars 1-3 go to one place, 4-6 another, and 7-9 to another. What car were we in? None of the destinations were Gatwick, so which should we go to? Ahhh! Some people in our car were going to Gatwick too we just decided to follow them. We get that figured out and the train stops. Surprise! The tracks were flooded. I couldn't help but laugh. It takes us forever to get to the airport but we finally do and we booked it, totally avoiding paying the train fare. Unethical, I know.. but I spent my train fare on an Oxford hoodie. We ran around in the airport, found the check-in counter, went through security and we see our group just sitting there. Our flight had been delayed. At that point, I ordered the largest Diet Coke that McDonald's would give me and a freakin' cheeseburger. Megan and I didn't feel like talking to anybody. I was exhausted from running all over London, hauling our luggage, and my feet were still hurting from the night before. Next big blow- no free wireless in Gatwick. I miss America! We boarded the plane and took our seats. Finally. I studied the whole way back for my test Monday morning- since I thought I'd have a nice relaxing day on Sunday to study. Didn't really turn out that way. Elaine met us at the airport for our transfer back to UL... and Megan and I will forever be known as the ''troublemakers''. 

but hey, it could be worse....

My two favorite pictures from the weekend: (near the palace, security in front of Gordon Brown's house)

Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains

February 19

So this blog is a little bit behind... things have been pretty busy here. I can't believe I'm almost half way through the semester! Anyway, Jen, Lindsey, Ashley and I met this morning and went to the bus station. I thought we could just take Bus Eireann to Wicklow (since we were going to the Wicklow Mountains)... I decided to ask to double check and the lady told me no, that's wrong.. that we needed to go to Dublin and then get a bus to Glendalough. Trains to Dublin are about 2h30 but are really expensive, so we decided to make the 4h bus trip (during rush hour)... Awesome. We're so bad at planning. We had no idea where to go to get the bus and Jen quickly made friends w/ a guy that works at the station- Dave. I kind of feel like he was a creepy old man, but hey, there wasn't alot going on while we were waiting for the bus. He even asked for our names to look us up on Facebook, but thankfully he hasn't yet. The bus finally came and I got smashed in the back corner next to 2 adolescents w/ raging hormones. Their molesting of each other made me really mad.... 

and reminded me of going to church and watching people rub each other and getting so incredibly irritated. I think I have a problem... and it's bad that it's a pretty prominent memory of my church-going childhood. I digress. 4 hours of that made for a really uncomfortable bus ride... but at least the scenery was good. We saw snow on the way, the gorgeous towns of Nenagh, Killarney, Tipperary... and a ton of others that I just don't remember.

We finally got to Dublin and it was already dark. We decided that finding a bus to Glendalough should be an adventure for the morning so we got a hostel in Temple Bar. Temple Bar is a district, not actually a bar.. because there are alot of bars called Temple Bar. It's a pretty snazzy place- younger crowd, lots of drinking. We got Italian for dinner- who knew that Alfredo had tomato sauce in it. :-/ Damnit, Dublin. We went to the most famous Temple Bar, snapped a few pictures, took a few coasters for our collection and headed back to the hostel.. not before using the restroom, filled w/ girls throwing up. 
As far as I'm concerned, if you have enough money to get sick off of alcohol at Temple Bar- you're doing pretty good for yourself. :)

February 20
We woke up, not knowing what to expect for the day. We didn't know if we'd just do a tour to the mountains or if we'd get a bus and stay overnight. Since we were all really sick (flu-ish), we decided just to do a day tour and get back to Limerick later that night. We found a tour and went looking for it, couldn't find it, so we went shopping. I needed a weekend bag anyway because who knew that a 7 euro weekend bag didn't have durable zippers.

Go figure. We kept walking and found a different tour... hopped on and soon found out that our driver/guide, Joey, really liked to sing. Not very well, either. I think normally I would think it was entertaining, but at 9 am, I wasn't too pleased. We drove through Dublin on our way out and saw the huge spike that's on O'Connell Street. Joey explained to us that it's a monument for the new millenium to inspire(?) Dublin to reach new heights... hilarity ensues when he tell us that Viagara (who has a headquarters in Dublin) decided to use the gigantic spike as their logo. Appropriate. We saw Dublin Bay, Liffey River, Shrewsbury, Leopardstown (famous for the horses- no taxes on the bloodstock industry here!)... and alot of cute villages. 

Dublin and surrounding places are really pretty- granite is quarried in the Dublin and Wicklow Hills so alot of stuff is made from it. We saw the place that inspired Johnny Cash to write the 40 Shades of Green on his 1962 tour of Ireland... and Joey sang it to us. We ran red lights and dodged bicyclists and pedestrians all the way to Enniskerry in County Wicklow... where we had a bathroom break and got snacks. Powerscourt was on our way... they're big in the golf and tennis industry. 

We saw Great Sugar Loaf in the distance and drove through Glencree (Valley of the Heart). Joey breaks into song again around this time. Glencree is a cool place.. alot of foreign children were raised there - ones whose parents were killed or dispersed in the wars. It was called Operation Shamrock- and the locals tried to locate the kids' parents.. but most ended up just growing up there. The 1st sunday in November they have a big commemorative service for them. There's also a big creepy graveyard filled w/ German soldiers. I like weird stuff. 

Further on our journey, we saw the valley where Braveheart was filmed, the lake that King Arthur threw the sword into in the movie Excalibur, the Guinness Estate (also where Sir Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics for 'Yesterday'), Daniel Day Lewis's house (in Roundwood- the highest town in Ireland), Sally Gap, and where P.S. I Love You was filmed. I had to rewatch the movie. Love it! The Guinness Estate is gorgeous- it's not where Arthur Guinness lived though. The lake on it looks really dark and they imported sand to make it look like a pint of Guinness with foam a while back. It doesn't really look like a pint but you can still see the sand. 

Anyway, on the way to Annabow (not sure how to spell that?), we saw Paul McGuinness's Estate (manager of Bono and U2 collectively). Passing Laragh, we finally arrived in Glendalough where there are very extensive monastic ruins. There are 7 churches of St. Kevin, all identical and facing East. There's a house for embalming the bodies (they used liquor) and a building called St. Kevin's Kitchen. I'm not sure what exactly it was but I know that alot of artists record songs there b/c the stone walls have amazing acoustics. It's design has been replicated all over the world to create acoustic recording studios, but none have 

compared to St. Kevin's.... or so they say. I wouldn't know a good building from a bad building. Oh, and there's a huge tower that was used for safekeeping the valuables. Under attack, the monks would run valuables up to the top of the tower. I'm not exactly sure how this works but, honestly, I don't care. The locals believe that St. Kevin is buried there since there's a large grave with his cross on top, but they're unable to do an archaeological dig until 50 years after the last person is buried there. There are 2 more people with rights to burial in that area... wouldn't you hate to be those people? Anyway. After that, we walked around two huge lakes. It's just a gorgeous area in general. Back on the bus and headed to Avoca where we saw the meeting of the two rivers (I forgot which 2 - oops) in a mining valley. It looked pretty dirty. Avoca is the home of the TV series Ballykissangel (and is sometimes called Ballykiss). 

We ate lunch at the main pub in the series- Fitzgerald's, then visited the home of the Avoca Handweavers. We were all very tired and sick, so this stop was kind of meaningless. The things they make are very pretty though. Back in Dublin, we caught the next bus to Limerick. I read Angela's Ashes the entire way home... and there was no PDA in my personal space. Score.

Valentine's Weekend in Adare

February 12


I woke up this morning w/ a Valentine's Day card from Mark slid under my door... that got me out of bed for my 10 o'clock! We originally planned to leave for the bus station around noon but Jen's boyfriend kept telling her to stick around the house until 2ish (Carly & I thought she was getting her V-day present) but no, he just wanted her to wait until he got up so they could Skype before she left. Boys...... haha! The 3 of us met around 2:30 and caught a bus to the city center... but not before I got my rose and chocolates from Mark!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at McDonald's and wandered around for a while, then decided we needed to get to the bus station. We didn't know exactly where it was but we knew it was a pretty long walk so we got a taxi. Traffic was horrible and it took us FOREVER to get there.. but we finally did, bought our tickets to Adare and headed outside to wait on the bus. The bus station is pretty difficult. I don't know if it's just because I'm not familiar w/ bus stations in general or what, but we can never figure out which place to stand to wait on the right bus.. so we ask, and people make fun of us - but we get there eventually. (Then we find out that it's printed on our ticket) Oops. We arrived in Adare about 20 minutes after the bus came. I didn't realize it was so close! On the way we saw the entrance to Adare Manor, and the friary and castle (lit up at night). 

The castle is really pretty. It's right on the bank of the River Maigue and the lights make it reflect upside down in the water. Anyway, we saved our exploring for the next day since it was already dark. It gets dark SO early here! When we first got here, it was dark around 4 pm. Now, it's a little after 5. At orientation, I learned that by the time Mark gets here it'll be light until 11 pm. Awesome! Back on track. I had a contact name and number for our Bed and Breakfast so Jen called to get directions, couldn't understand the lady, and shoved the phone at me. We were only about 2 blocks from it so we went to check in and drop our bags off before dinner. The B-and-B was ADORABLE. We had 3 separate beds with fluffy pillows and fluffy comforters- it's been a while.

Carly and Jen made hot tea and we all just relaxed on the beds. We stayed at Adare Country Manor - it's a great place to stay if you're ever in Adare! Shortly after, we headed out to get dinner and ended up at Collins' Bar. It's a cute little corner bar and there were alot of locals there. For the first time since I've been here, I got water with ICE and LEMON... and refills! Simple pleasures. I got a bacon (more like ham) and brie panini with coleslaw and a salad. It was sooo good. Our entertainment? Watching the locals watch the Ireland/France rugby match. When we finished, they actually split our checks for us (another first), we paid, and headed back to the beds. haha. We were flipping through the TV channels and found the security camera channel. 

It was a creepy blue color and you could see the front door and the lobby area. It looked like something off of a horror movie and we just knew that somebody was about to come through there with a machete or something... Jen went out into the lobby b/c she wanted to be on TV (she's special) and she took a stack of postcards, speaking of which, she never gave me one. *cough* Anyway, right about the time that she got out there, Eileen's husband came out to chat and scared her to death. We giggled. When she came back, we found American Idol on TV... it was the latest episode too! I miss watching it. After it went off, I read more of Angela's Ashes. Great book! I didn't read long before I passed out. I've been sick for like the past week and really needed a good night's sleep. I did sleep well- but I coughed and sneezed and sick-snored all night long. I bet Carly and Jen slept well. Hah!


February 13


We had traditional Irish breakfasts waiting for us at 9:30 a.m. 

I did NOT want to get out of bed. We got ready and headed to the dining room.

I'm not a huge breakfast fan but this was amazing! We had orange, cranberry, apple juice, hot tea, coffee, a runny egg (ehhh..), sausage, another kind of sausage, bacon (again, more like ham), sauteed tomatoes and mushrooms, cereal, yogurt, an endless supply of toast with butter and jelly, and about 10 different kinds of fresh fruit. Ahh. We stuffed ourselves and headed out for the day. We got a map that had 14 sights labeled on them and a walking trail on the river that went to all of them. We saw-


Trinitarian Abbey

Adare Washing Pool and Public Park

Augustinian Priory

Desmond Castle

Church of St. Nicholas and Chantry Chapel

Adare Manor and Golf Course

Franciscan Friary

we couldn't really get close to the Friary because you have to take a tour and it wasn't in season- but we could see it from Adare Manor.
We walked through the gate (that you're most definitely supposed to drive through) to get to Adare Manor. 

We had been walking for a while and we all had to use the bathroom pretty bad. We finally found the Club House for the golf course, used the bathrooms, and asked directions to the Manor. It probably became obvious at that point that we were idiots and we weren't staying there. On our way, we made reservations at the spa! Adare Manor was beautiful. We kind of stumbled upon it because we weren't sure where it was but then again, we pretty much stumble upon everything here. There was a huge American flag flying beside the Irish flag out front and we later found out that an American owns the manor. He must be a suck-up too b/c there was a big Veterans' Memorial out front for Irish fighting in the US Military. Hm. 

Anyway, we walked all around the Manor and found a walking trail. Carly said we'd found Tarabithia. haha. There was a big seat made out of a tree trunk and we rested before we attempted to act classy and get in the Manor haha. We walked through a huge door, trying not to draw attention to ourselves and of course, I screw up and slam the door. Nobody said anything to us though. We walked through the lobby- gorgeous. High ceilings, animals heads, old weapons, tapestries, ect. and went into a lounge area. We were hungry and decided to splurge and get lunch there. It'd probably be worth it. Carly and Jen got soup d'jour and bread, and I got a goat cheese salad w/ warm balsamic. I miss vinegar. It was SO yummy. 

We relaxed in the big chairs and watched all the cute couples having their ''afternoon tea'' (around 30 euros a person) for Valentine's Day weekend. Must be nice. We finished eating around 3 and had 2 hours to kill before our spa appointments.. so we went back to the clubhouse and got dessert! haha. We watched another rugby match and then headed to the spa. Now, I don't know if this is blog-appropriate.. but I'm going to write about it anyway. After dessert, I started feeling pretty bad. I don't know if it was the breakfast or the lunch or the dessert... but I wasn't alone in this! Carly and Jen went back to get their massages and I went to get my pedicure and foot massage. I hopped up on the table and immediately thought how nasty my feet must be. I had stuff all over them from the river walk and I had on a pair of cheap fake leather flats from Penney's (like a huge Forever21) that had gotten wet a few days ago.. so I'm sure my feet smelled nice. I apologized and just laid down haha. The lady had a really hard time getting my gold glitter nail "varnish" off of my toes and I had to help. Ugh - embarrassing! I love my gold glitter, though. I laid back down again and my stomach started making some funky noises. I couldn't help but laugh.. It had to have been the breakfast. A little while later, I dozed off (remember, I'm sick) and I snot-snored really loud and jumped and almost kicked the poor lady in the face. I just wanted to leave at this point. It was just not a good spa day for me! Anyway, it was over soon. We all, uh, fought over the bathroom for a little while and then left. :/ I still wasn't feeling so great. haha. We walked back to the Castle on the Maigue and took a picture of it at night. It was beautiful.. then we headed back through the main street of Adare to our Bed and Breakfast. 

We had about 50 minutes until our bus came so we sat in the lobby there and watched Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. I'm not proud! :) We finally boarded the bus, headed back to the city center, got a taxi to Plassey- and that was it!


I can't believe I wrote this whole blog and didn't even talk about the cottages w/ the thatched roofs. It's what Adare is known for! There weren't as many as I thought there would be, but they were adorable!