Jolly Old London Town

Last weekend we took our biggest trip yet… to London! Even though this was my second time visiting London it did not make it any less exciting. Especially since this time I got to go to the Tower of London, the one place that I didn’t get to go to on my first trip. Thanks to Katrina and I and our spectacular planning, we were able to hit as many things in three days as was probably humanly possible.

DAY ONE.

We left campus at 6:30 am on Friday and flew out of Shannon airport around 9. We finally got settled into our hotel around 2 and then had some time to explore. We decided to use that time to go shopping at a huge Primark store. Primark is the UK version of Penney’s, which is a wonderful magical store with cheap, awesome clothing. On our way there we stumbled across a Starbucks and to my delight they had Pumpkin Spice Lattes!! For those of you who don’t know, I adore pumpkin flavored things, particularly ice cream, lattes and muffins. And this lovely green country does not HAVE pumpkin flavored things. But London does! Which means I had three pumpkin lattes last weekend. I would have had more, but money ran out. 

After Primark we headed back to the hotel, where we met up with a tour guide for a walking tour of London. In classic London fashion it soon started raining and being very, very cold. When we were all thoroughly soaked to the bone our tour guide delivered us to the Criterion Theater on the West End to see The 39 Steps. Funny story…I saw the same show when I went to London with Mom and Dad three years ago. It was just as funny the second time as it was the first. If any of you are jetting off to London any time soon I highly recommend seeing this show. Although, if you are a Phantom of the Opera fan, see Love Never Dies instead. My wonderful father took us to see it last time and it was magnificent. After the theater (and a yummy ice cream at intermission) we had a yummy dinner at a restaurant called Spaghetti House. Then we retired to our house, absolutely exhausted.

DAY TWO.

We started off day two with a delightful breakfast at our hotel (and stuffed our bags with stolen croissants). Then off to the Tower of London, by way of a boat ride on the River Thames! After wandering around for a bit, and being amazed by the ravens that live there, we got in line to see the Crown Jewels. They were breathtaking. So many riches in one place. The best part, in my opinion was the crowns themselves. I do wish I had a crown. It would add so much class to my usual attire of jeans and flannel. I also appreciated the GINORMOUS gold punch bowl. You would need liters of alcohol to even slightly spike that punch. 

The Crown Jewels took longer than expected, and we were left with very little time to see the exhibit I really wanted to see…The Wild Beasts! In the olden days, the Tower of London was home to the king’s menagerie of wild pets, including a polar bear that they would tie a rope to and allow to swim in the Thames. Those were the good ol’ days. Anyways, we were having a lot of trouble finding the Wild Beast exhibit. The route on the map was not making sense and we were running out of time. So we asked a friendly Beefeater how to get there and he told us to go up a staircase marked “No Entry.” So we did. REBELS. And we found it. And it was lovely.

After the Tower of London we headed to King’s Cross Station so that the Harry Potter fans among us could take our classic Platform 9 ¾ picture. I donned a Slytherin scarf, grabbed the handle of my trolley cart and sped through the wall and onto the Hogwarts Express. So just kidding. Missed the train. Too bad. The Slytherin Quidditch team will have to struggle on without me this semester. HA. Like I would be a Quidditch player.

But enough about my botched attempts at getting to Hogwarts. Next stop was The British Museum. On our way there we found a man on the street selling beautiful little prints of London scenery, which I happily spent 10 pounds sterling on. Then we found a phone booth and took classic phone booth shots. We didn’t stay at the museum long, but it was interesting. Lots of museum-y things. The Rosetta stone, which was cool. And the Code of Hammurabi, which is the origin of “an eye for an eye.”

After that we headed to the National Gallery, located on the famous Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery is full of paintings. Which were lovely and interesting but were not really capturing my attention. With the exception of the Van Goghs, which I loved. After about 45 minutes at the British Museum I decided to take a trip to Paddington Station in the hopes of finding a stuffed Paddington Bear, a flashback from my childhood. Stephanie and I then spent an hour rushing back and forth to Paddington Station where we found not only a statue of Paddington Bear, but an ENTIRE STORE devoted to him. Which it was practically heaven and I would have loved to stick around I only had the time to grab a classic Paddington, pay loads of money for it and head back to the National Gallery. 

After meeting up with our friends again we headed back to the hotel. Four of us decided to hit Yo! Sushi for dinner. For those of you who have seen Johnny English, it’s the same sushi place that was featured in that film, just a different location. For those of you who HAVENT seen Johnny English, go watch it. Right now. It’s hilarious and you will not regret it. 

After dinner we went to the one of the most popular tourist spots in London, the London Eye. It was a once in a life time experience, one that was definitely worth the money. It’s a half hour ride and you can see for miles. Mysteriously, there is ONE red car, when all the others are white. I wished and wished that we would get on the red car, but sadly we missed it by only TWO CARS. C’est la vie. 

Later that night, Katrina, Steph, Emmy, Conor and I went to a bar which resides on a boat floating in the Thames. It was very lovely. Then back to our hotel for another well earned night of sleep. Did I mention that I could see the London Eye from my window? What a way to fall asleep.

DAY THREE.

Last day in London, so we had lots to fit in. First stop was Buckingham Palace, where we waited for an hour and half in the rain only to have the changing of the guards be cancelled on us at the last minute. Luckily they still did a “wet change,” which thankfully is not as gross as it sounds. It just means that they change the guard without all of the fanfare of the parade and music and such. So it was still neat to see, but nothing compared to the real deal. And it made me nostalgic for my days in the Liberty Band.

Then we headed to Harrod’s. Shockingly, only Steph and myself had ever even HEARD of Harrod’s. Apparently, my life is a lot more interesting than I thought it was. I don’t really remember a time when I DIDN’T know what Harrod’s was. Weird. My family is just very travel-y I suppose.

After being rightly impressed by Harrod’s we visited yet another museum. London has many, many museums. This one was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was my personal favorite. Unlike the other museums we visited, which have mostly just your typical museum things, the V&A has rooms and rooms full of fascinating things. There is an entire hallway of ironwork. It was like fence heaven. I was in the zone. Of course, I spent a lot of time searching for The Frank Lloyd Wright study, which it turns out moved 8 years ago and is now in storage somewhere. So that was slightly disappointing. But I did also stumble upon the jewelry room, which was chock full of incredible jewels and other jewelry, all in beautiful glass display cases. The thing I love most about the V&A wasn’t just the contents, but the way they had it all set up and displayed. I could have wandered around there for hours, and never see it all. But alas, I did not have the time for such luxury. There was one more place we had to see before leaving that awesome city and that was…

The Globe Theatre! Though I wish we would have been able to see a show at the Globe (especially since they were showing MacBeth) we didn’t have an extra night in the city to do so. And since you can’t get in to the theater if you’re not seeing a show or on a tour (Which was expensive), we just got to see the outside and the gift shop, where I got an “Alas Poor Yorick” pin, repping my love for Hamlet.

Then it was back to the hotel to catch our bus to the airport! And so ended our wonderful trip to London.

It’s funny, because as much as I loved London I couldn’t wait to get home to my cozy little room in Limerick. It’s amazing how quickly a place can start to feel like home. 

Missing America.

Since I’ve been here, with the exception of the first day or so, I really haven’t been homesick. Until two days ago, when I couldn’t sleep until 4 am due to homesickness. It’s not that I miss Grove City… I miss HOME.  It’s funny though, because though I miss the people, it’s more the small things that I miss.

I miss the beautifully colored leaves of a Pennsylvania fall.

I miss New York City at Christmas, which I realize is a little premature, but that’s what’s in my head right now.

I miss driving.

I miss Henry, my big white pickup truck.

I miss Wawa and their delicious cheap Hazelnut coffee with Irish Cream creamer.  

I miss my library.

I miss little fluffy white mini marshmallows. I can only find pink ones here.

I miss Thanksgiving. Even though we’re having one here, it just won’t be the same.

I miss not having to grocery shop and just having what I need be there because my mother buys all that I need.

I miss chocolate chips in large bags for cookies, since they apparently only sell them in small, expensive packages here.

I miss my family.

I miss my friends. Especially the ones willing to watch movies with me all the time, and eat large amounts of horrible foods. Not that we don’t do that here. It’s just different.

I wish I could walk down the streets of Bethlehem with a pumpkin latte in my hand, kicking the orange leaves beneath my feet and jumping on the extra crunchy ones.

I wish I could stand in AJ’s (my aunt’s) kitchen talking while she gets the Thanksgiving turkey ready, and stare at her delicious pumpkin pies, surrounded by my loud family.

As much as I absolutely love it here, I wish I could be home. 

All Roads Lead to Kerry.

Last weekend we trekked out to the Ring of Kerry. Except this time was planned for us by API, our study abroad program, so we didn’t have to plan a thing! Yay!

Something I previously forgot to mention was that on our flight to Ireland we sat next to a very quiet and semi-sad looking man in his mid-thirties. We didn’t talk to him the whole flight, but when we landed we started up a conversation. Turns out he had been a member of the Coldstream Guard for 17 years! Which was pretty awesome for me since, as a Liberty Band member, I wore the uniform for 4 years.

Anyways, we asked him for recommendations of what to do in Ireland and he said the one place we had to visit was the Ring of Kerry. Apparently it’s one of the most beautiful places he’s ever seen. And I can now tell you that he was totally right.

The Ring of Kerry is absolutely gorgeous. It’s full of green hills, and ocean views, and old stone structures. If someone told you to conjure up a picture of Ireland in your head, you would most likely imagine something straight from the Ring of Kerry. We stayed in a small town called Carshiveen. There is pretty much nothing to do there. Which wasn’t a problem during the day, since we had plenty of trips planned with the group. But at night things got a little slow. The first night the group had organized a night for us to learn Ceili Dancing. We learned a few dances, including The Walls of Limerick and The Siege of Ennis. Google them and you should be able to find a YouTube video showing the type of dance. I have since decided I want to have a ceili dance at my wedding. After the dancing we were all pretty exhausted, so we just played Scrabble in the pub at our hotel. Because we’re cool like that.

The second night, after a full day of touring, we were taught some Irish songs by a young man who lives in Kerry. Galway Girl, The Fields of Athenry, Molly Malone, great songs that are to be sung with much passion. After that we headed out on the town to check out the one night club that Carshiveen has to offer, The Harp. It was dead. So we sort of took over a pub in town. There weren’t many people there so our group of ten Americans stood out. There was live music going on and the guitarist volunteered to let any of us sing who wanted to. We convinced a guy we had just met to sing and it turned out to be a really great night.

But enough about the night life. I’ll give you a brief idea of what we saw. Like I said, it was mostly stunning views. Ladies View, which is probably the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen. We saw two old stone forts, one of which was a thousand years old. We could climb on it and see for miles. But then I watched a girl take a stone out of the wall as a souvenir and it was so frustrating. WHO DOES THAT? If everyone treated historical things like that, we would have lost our history long ago.

But I digress. By far my favorite place we visited was Abbey Island. It was a little island with a very old church on it. The church has fallen apart, but the structure, the scenery and the cemetery are beautiful. It’s featured in our video blog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xyDSeRXXcU )if you want to see some of it for yourself.

Well this has been a jumpy and unorganized post, but oh well. It gets my point across. This weekend its off the kiss the Blarney Stone! Because I don’t have enough of the gift of gab…