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Finally, here is the fully detailed version of my blog detailing my travels around Scotland this past Wednesday. Some of it is copied from the brief one I made just to save time but as you can probably just look at the size there is a lot more in this one!
It started out when Anthony & Thomas (two french guys who were in my room and the guys I hung out with most of my time in Scotland) told me they were going on this trip on when we met on Tuesday morning. After booking my ticket at the Glasgow tourism center, everything was set for me to go along as well. So, we made plans to get up early in the morning to catch the bus for our tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness, which was scheduled to leave at 8:20 am. (I hate having to be up that early!) We got up around 6:30 because we figured by the time we got ready to go and if we left the hostel around 7:15 we would have plenty of time. We had to be there about 15 minutes early as well as Anthony had to exchange his money. We also decided it would be cheaper for us to buy sandwiches and pack a lunch, so we planned time to shop for this as well - not to mention the walk to get there. We got there around 8 am and waited for our bus. We started to get worried when it hit 8:20 and there was no sign of a bus. By 8:45 us and the others waiting for the bus outside the tourism office were getting worried. Since the tourism office opened at 9 am, we planned on asking them what was going on when the coach bus just then screeched to a stop. Apparently, there was a bad accident on one of the main roads into Glasgow which led to the delay. We got on board and then headed off!
We crossed the Clyde river and started our way out of Glasgow - by heading south to go north! After a bit we crossed the river again over the Erksine Bridge -a long bridge suspension bridge, and then followed the river Clyde for a while to the west. We then swung upwards along the A82 to Loch Lomond, the first of the many lochs we passed on our day's journey. Loch Lomond is the largest surface area of the freshwater lochs on the United Kingdom mainland but the second largest in terms of volume. (Loch Ness owns that title of largest volume!) It was rather hard to see from the road along the loch, especially as the day was very overcast and misty. But it was a sight to see! There's a couple islands on the loch, the largest actually has one of the oldest nudist colonies on it! Ben Lomond (3,195 ft and the most Southern of the Monroe peaks) is on the other side of the loch from the West Highland Way and was just as a sight to see as the loch itself.
*Ben (or Beinn) is Scottish for mountain. The Munro's are all mountains over 3,000 which were first compiled by Sir Hugh Monro - thus named after him.
We continued heading towards the north of the loch and stopped at the town of Inveruglas. This is at the mouth of the loch - in fact Inver as well as Aber are Gaelic names that mean"the mouth of." We stopped here for a restroom break as there is a visitor's center. I, however, didn't go inside right away but did some walking around on the paths around the visitor's center taking in the beauty of the loch. Since it was drizzling and cold out, I headed inside for a cup of tea. After about 20 minutes we all got back on the bus and then headed on our way.
From there, we followed the A82 through Glen Falloch which takes us up to the town of Crainlarich. This is a town at a crossroads through which the West Highland Way (a hiking path through Scotland), two major roads, and the West Highland Railway. It was a small town and we just drove on through it and continued along the A82 north towards Fort William. This took us past the Loch Tulla, a tiny loch but I was happy about it because it was on my side of the coach bus! Keeping on this road, we went along a ridge of mountains called the Black Mount. This mountain ridge runs between Glen Orchy and Glen Coe while traveling along the outer edge of Rannoch Moor. The Black Mount is very popular for skiing in Scotland with tall mountains covered in snow still - but Rannoch Moor on our right is a huge vast plain full of bogs and small lochs. It's a very barren land, almost a desert. There is a barren Rowan tree growing out a rock along the A82 - though we were going too fast for me to get a good picture of it. It was also while climbing the Black Mount that we stopped and saw the Red-Tailed Deer.
Then, our path took us into the famous Glencoe. The mountain at the entrance to Glen Coe is Buachaille-Etive-Mor, nicknamed the Shepard of Etive because its peak stands out so prominently and makes the entrance to the glen. Right behind the Buachaille-Etive-Mor is Buachaille-Etive Beag, known as the Little Shepard of Etive. Behind these two peaks is the more famous Bidean nam Bian, with the western peaks more commonly known as "The Three Sisters - Faith, Hope, and Charity" These peaks were gorgeous even in the blah weather that day! After stopping to get pictures of The Three Sisters, we got back on the bus and continued through Glencoe while our driver told us about the famous history of the glen.
Glencoe was the home of the clan MacDonald for many years. However, there were disputes between the neighboring Campbell clan, mostly over the cattle and herds. It got to the point that it became nasty during the great clan wars. It escalated till 1691 when King William III declared a pardon on all clans that fought against him, as long as they swore an oath by January 1. Reluctantly, the leader of the clan agreed and headed to the nearest magistrate - but went to the wrong city! The Campbell had a hand in the mess up. By the time he got to the right city, it was 6 days past the deadline and what resulted was that the Campbell clan recieved orders to kill the MacDonalds. So the famous massacre at Glencoe of the MacDonald happened the morning of February 13 when the Campbells betrayed the hospitality of the MacDonalds (it was common to shelter even your enemy from the weather) and murdered the clan.
The tiny village of Glencoe featured more recently in a nearly famous movie called Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban as Hagrid's hut as well as the view around it were filmed on site right up the hill from the village of Glencoe.
From Glencoe, we came upon Loch Leven and quickly crossed over the Ballachulish bridge between Loch Leven and Loch Linnhe. It was around this time in the morning that the sun decided to peak out from the clouds and the day turned into a rather nice day though still somewhat cloudy. Loch Linnhe is also the start of the Caledonian Canal. This canal, started in 1803 but finished in 1822 and later reworked in 1847, traverses the Great Glen of Scotland and connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. It makes use of the 5 lochs along the Great Glen and a total of 29 locks and canals to connect the two waters. It was along this that we spent the majority of our afternoon following.
Loch Linnhe was gorgeous and the road followed right along the shore - my side of the bus! We followed Loch Linnhe up the length till we came to Fort William with the gorgeous Ben Nevis on our right. Fort William is an old town naturally with a fort that was built to protect the eastern end of the Great Glen. Ben Nevis, the peak dominating over Fort William, is the tallest in the United Kingdom coming in at 4,400 feet! We stopped at the Ben Nevis visitor's center at the base of the mountain for lunch. This also marked the end of the West Highland Way hiking path and started the Great Glen Way.
After lunch, we started off into the Great Glen. The road we were on took us a little away from the River Lochy and into the town of Spean Bridge. It was at this little village that we stopped at the Commando Memorial as seen in my pictures. This was also where I got some great pictures of the Great Glen itself. Next, we then headed back towards the Caledonian Canal and came upon Loch Lochy which was gorgeous to see with the high mountains on the other side jutting up from the water. It also helped that the sun popped out a bit!
We then crossed over a bridge to the other side of the lochs where we saw Loch Oich - though it was tiny and hard to see through the trees. There was a monument along this road known as the Seven Heads - it's just a small column with seven heads on the top. The story goes that there were two sons of the MacDonnel clan were murdered upon their return because their seven uncles wanted the boy's fortune. In response, all seven of the uncles were beheaded at that sight and that is the reason for the Well of the Seven Heads. Again, my picture of this turned out really blurry.
After Loch Oich, and crossing the Bridge of Oich, we traveled a little ways until Fort Augustus where we not only saw some of the locks of the Caledonian Canal, but we got our first glance at Loch Ness!
The second to last of the 5 lochs of the Caledonian Canal is the famous Loch Ness which is the deepest (around 700 feet deep at it's deepest point!) and has the largest cubic volume of all the lochs in Scotland, beating out Loch Lomond. It's very dark and almost impossible to see deeper than 15 feet into the water because of the peat content of the soil around the loch. It's this that helps hide "Nessie!"- the famous Loch Ness Monster. We had two options to take at this point of the bus tour - to tour the Urquhart castle ruins on the banks of Loch Ness and take the boat back to catch the bus, or an hour boat ride on the Loch Ness. Me, being my love for ancient places and love to take photos, I picked the castle because after exploring the castle ruins, I still would be able to go out on Loch Ness in a boat. Anthony and Thomas, however, opted for just the boat on Loch Ness - so we split up for that hour or so.
The castle ruins were amazing! It was cool to be standing on such a historic place and incredibly ancient too! I naturally took so many pictures! The ruins were was cool because you could actually go up on some of the levels of parts of the castle - like the second floor of the Gatehouse and the two levels of Grant Tower. The oldest ruins on the site date back to 1230 but there are remains of Pictish settlements that could date back to 597! The Castle Urquhart was ruined to the present conditions in 1689 when a small garrison of William and Mary held abandoned the castle to the Jacobites - however, they blew up most of the castle before they left. Since then, it has remained in the same condition and left to the wear of the weather.
I only had about 45 minutes to walk around the ruins after I watched the short history clip in the newly built Visitor's Center and did some brief shopping in the gift shop. I loved this part of the day the most because I got so many great pictures of both the ruins, Loch Ness, and both of them together! However, I did run into a slight issue about halfway through my walk around the ruins - I ran out of batteries! I had known I was on my last new pair when I started at the castle and hoped to buy some more in the gift shop - but to my surprise they didn't even carry AAA or AA batteries! So I figured that my pair should last me till I'm back on the bus - nope! However, I was able to take a picture or two, then quickly turned off my camera to save the battery juice. By doing this I was able to extend the life of my two batteries till I got back to the bus and gift shop at the Clansman Inn - where I bought batteries! And I got great pictures as well!
I made sure I was at the pier in time to catch the boat back, which was a fun ride as well. It was cool to be on Loch Ness, with the Castle Urquhart ruins just a picture's distance away! It was a very smooth ride back, however I was unable to get any glimpse of Nessie! :-( But I did get a picture of the supposed "Nessie" at the Clansman hotel - it was a statue! But after getting batteries in the gift shop as well as a couple other souvenirs, we got back on the bus and headed on our way again.
From Loch Ness, we kept following the Caledonian canal and glimpsed the small loch of Loch Dochfour before we came upon the great town of Inverness and the Moray Firth which connects to the North Sea. This is the western as well as the most northern part of our journey. Inverness is known as the Capital of the Highlands and is where the annual Highland Games are played. However, being we didn't stop in the city there wasn't much to see. From here, we began our trek home along the A9, also known as the Spine of Scotland.
Most of this leg of the trip was boring as there were not much to see along the way except for the Grampian mountain chain and the former Forest of Atholl. It's former because most of the trees were cut down many years ago. It also was getting dark and stayed that way for most of the trip back as we were so far north in latitude - so by 5 pm it was dark out. One interesting thing we passed along the way back was Blair Castle, which is home to the Atholl Highlanders - the last private army of the Europe. The current Duke of Atholl actually spends most of his time in Africa and only inherited the title as the fortune and land went to various trusts and historical societies. But each year, the army fires it's only cannon and marches down the streets of the town.
Our only stop along the A9 was in Pitlochry, which is a small town which boasts one of Scotland's oldest whiskey distillary as well as Scotland's smallest distillary! We only stopped here for about 20 min for restrooms and a quick bite to eat - however there wasn't much places to eat so it wasn't that great of a stop. From there, we continued on our way back to Glasgow while most of us dozed off for a bit because it was pointless in looking out the windows!
We arrived back in Glasgow about 9 pm, and were dropped off in George Square. Since we hadn't eaten much since lunch (I had brought along two sandwiches and ate the second for dinner!) the three or us, Anthony, Thomas, and myself, stopped at Burger King in Queen Street station before heading back to the hostel. As it was still early, Thomas went down to the lounge area to write some postcards while Anthony and I stayed in the room and chatted while he did his postcards and I uploaded my pictures and added up my receipts. A little while later, Thomas came back with a girl who had just arrived from Germany and didn't know anyone. We all decided to head out for a night on the town since it was still early.
So we first went to the same bar the three of us had been to the night before. Over drinks, we all got into a rather interesting discussion on educational systems and the differences between them as Germany just switched over the main European system while America is still in it's own world. We talked about a lot of other things too and had a good time. However, we wanted to check out a club because we were in the mood to dance and have fun. So, I asked the bartender where a good club around the area was and he directed us to one of the most well known clubs in the area - The Buff. It was odd because he told us it will sound like the worst spot but is one of the best.
His directions? Head up Bath Street till you pass a bar with red awnings, make a right onto that street. Then, at the alleyway, make a right and walk about halfway down the alley and you'll come to the club! Sounds a little fishy - but we were up for an adventure so we followed his directions and got there! It cost 3 pounds to get in, however the bouncer told us we could get in for free as there was only one other person in there at that time - and it was already 11:30! But we went on in - it was free after all, might as well check it out! It looked like a really cool place if it had been busy - nice large dance floor, an upper deck for sitting and having drinks, two bars... and of course you couldn't go wrong with a huge screen showing Mary Poppins! They seriously were playing Mary Poppins! Since it was dead save for us, we sat down with the hopes that it would pick up - it didn't. To top it off, the DJ wasn't even doing a good job at mixing the songs together! So we ended up heading back to the hostel, slightly disappointed.
As it was still decently early, we all headed down to the lounge to watch some tv. Though it just didn't seem like a good night for us to do much as there was nothing on tv worth watching. So, we split our separate ways and headed back to our rooms to crash. I gathered my things together and started typing up stuff on my computer before finally crashing for the night. All in all, it was a great day!
Sorry, this took forever to get posted - but there was just so much to talk about in detail that I wanted to make sure I had right. Without having internet as well as not wanting to spend a long time on my computer in foreign cities, it had to be postponed. But now that it's done, I hope you all enjoy it!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
I'm Going Home... Sunday's Travels
Well, it's a little late but here is the last day's blog of my winter break...
I woke up around 8:30 and got ready to go. Packed up my stuff, most of which was packed the night before so it wasn't that bad. Then I checked out of my hostel and headed back to the underground where I bought a one way ticket and headed towards King's Cross - St. Pancras Station where I was to pick up the Eurostar back home. Naturally as I got to the tube platform I needed, the train I needed was just leaving so I had to wait another 8 minutes for the right train - which started to make me nervous as time was getting close! (I seem to always do that when traveling even when I plan time for things like that!)
So, I finally get my train and head to the station. When I arrive there, and after I get back up to the ground level (the Northern Line is not that far underground) I start walking to the St. Pancras Station to catch my 10 am train - note this is about 9:40 at the time! I first stop and pick up my ticket using the machines - naturally out of 3 machines only one is working! Then I make it over to the check-in point where I must go through security. Me, being in the rush to make my train as well as the absent minded guy I can be at times... I forget to take off my watch while going through the metal detectors so they end up having to pat search me down (I had to have this done back in the Brussels Airport because of the snaps on my sweater). But they gave me the go ahead and I gathered my things up and got in line for the passport check.
As I figured they would being that when I traveled from Dublin to Belfast (technically leaving the Republic of Ireland and entering the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland) no one stamped or checked my passport verifying I left Ireland. When I took the ferry over, they checked my passport at Stena Line in Belfast, but didn't stamp it either nor did it get stamped when I arrived as I walked right to the rail station there at Stranraer (It was across the road from the ferry dock!). So, as they did when I flew out of Brussels, they asked me why it wasn't stamped for the United Kindom. So I explained why, and they just asked when I came into the country and after I told them, they gave me the go ahead. I then went to the next desk and got the stamp. From there, they were making the last calls for my train so I hurried up to the platform deck and hopped on the train.
I was most certainly not in the car where my seat was booked (I hopped on in car 7 and my seat was in the last car - car 18) but I had figured it was much better to be on my train in the wrong car and seat and have to walk the length of the train to my seat than to run along the platform and risk missing the train completely. Thankfully when I asked one of the crew onboard how to get to car 18, they talked to one of the train managers and he said I could just take a seat in the car I was in as not many were getting on at the next stop and I was getting off in Lille, the stop after that. So I sat down and got settled in. Unlike with the other trains I traveled on this trip, the Eurostar has electrical plugs on the walls by the seats so I was able to plug in my laptop and do things on that during the trip.
The train ride was rather boring and just like any other. There wasn't much to see as there were walls alongside the tracks or it was just English country side. We went through a few small tunnels and stopped in the last station for Eurostar in England. Thankfully no one said I was in their seat! From there we headed to France via the Chunnel - which goes underneath the English Channel. However, as we had gone through a couple short tunnels, and I was working on sorting my pictures on my computer - I didn't realize we were in the Chunnel till we were in it! I thought at first that this was a really long tunnel, then realized it must be THE Chunnel! So when we came out of it, I paid attention but there was nothing much to see either and we were moving too fast for any pictures to come out decently. As my mom later asked about, I didn't notice the downward slope or even the upward slope of the tracks afterwards because trains can only climb a small grade climb.
But I was back in France and being there was just country side which gets boring very quickly, I went back to work on my photos on my laptop. When we got close to Lille and started to slow down, I gathered my things together and got ready to disembark the Eurostar. Once at the station, I took a few pictures after I got off since I didn't have the time to do so before I left London. From there, I headed up to the main level of the Lille-Europe Station where I realized I still had a £5 note in my pocket. I had thought since it was a station that connected directly with London the stores in there would take sterling but of course they didn't. I checked at the currency exchange booth and not only did it cost a fee to change the currency but it really wasn't worth it as I'd loose half the money in the fee. So, still aiming to get back over to London, I just kept it and headed down to the metro back to the Cormontagne stop on the Red Line which is just a block from my residence. Finally, I was back home (in France that is!)
I had expected to find the package my parents had sent me, and had hoped I'd get before I left for my trip, sitting in my room like the last package they had sent - but it wasn't and nothing came from it today (Monday) so I'll ask about it tomorrow. The rest of Sunday was spent unpacking and getting settled back in here. I went out and bought some food and drink so I had stuff in my room. Then I just sat down and while watching The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, started to work on getting my pictures sorted and captions put on them so I can upload them when I'm done. I have the first couple days sorted out and when I finish the Wednesday album (which is taking the longest by far because I have to recall everything and look things up online as this is the day I spent traveling around the Scotland Highlands), I will upload those and post a new blog with links to those albums. The rest will come as soon as I can sort them out, as well as the full version of Wednesday's blog.
I must say there are many things I have learned on this trip, and even a few corrections I need to make to my blogs so far. First off, the older guy in the Dublin hostel I spent a good time talking with, whose name was also Michael, is not Irish but Scottish. It wasn't till after I got to Scotland and heard the thick heavy accent that I realized this (though the kilt should've been decisive enough!)
Also, everyone there knows more about the US than I do, and they follow our current events closely too. There were signs for a debate between Clinton and Obama all over Dublin.
Also, I very quickly learned that the dollar is falling fast compared to Europe, especially the United Kingdom. I also learned that the small amounts of things can very quickly add up!
A British accent is incredibly easy to slip into once you are surrounded by it! The Slovian girls (From the country of Slavia - former Yugoslavia and not Slovakia) were thrown off because when I said I was from Pennsylvania they didn't hear an American accent!
There are a total of 530 steps from the floor of St. Paul's Cathedral in London to the Golden Gallery which is the highest you can get. It's 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery, inside the dome, and a total of 378 steps to the stone Gallery right above the dome but outside. Not only is it a huge climb but the doorways are tiny and sometimes even the passages are so small you barely fit through shoulder-width!
Just because a novel is amazing and there are incredible movies based on it, doesn't mean you should turn it into a musical! The spectacle in The Lord of the Rings the Musical is worth seeing but there should be a good storyline as well that doesn't cut out a ton of things.
If you want to see a popular show in the West End, like We Will Rock You, buy the tickets online before you travel!
Being friendly to fellow sightseers can sometimes entail a free taxi ride back or a free meal and drinks! It's always nice to be courteous and friendly and when you get the chance, pass the same generosity on to others.
A hostel can sound amazing online, but end up being only so-so when you get there - check out more before booking!
When you think you have everything packed for a trip - take all your clothes save socks and other undergarments, and cut those in half! You need the extra room and weight allowance for souvenirs anyways and things can be worn at least twice!
When it comes to digital cameras - First off, don't leave yours in your room! second, the extra money you spend buying namebrand batteries is much worth it in the end when cheap batteries last only 5 minutes and you end up loosing half the pictures you take for the day!
When you set your alarm, either actually wake up when it goes off or set it for a later time if you want to sleep in a bit longer!
Make sure there are things to do in the cities you are staying in! (Glasgow isn't a tourist city!)
And there are so many more things I could think of, or have thought of but forgot again... etc. But it's things like this that just make the trip either better, or the next trip you plan better! I certainly hope that I will be going on more trips, as I have a two week break coming up in April and many weekends I could do short trips to visit cities but for a little bit I'm planning to stay here and work on my school work as I have a lot of stuff coming up here in March.
I will do my best to have the complete and final version of Wednesday's trip around the Scottish Highlands done by tomorrow and will keep working on sorting my pictures, editing them and adding captions so I can upload them for you all to see. I'll post new blogs with links to the albums when I upload them so you guys know!
But now that I'm back in Lille, there's not much of a need for a daily blog, so once I get all the pictures uploaded and everything the blogs will probably become weekly again unless something major happens! Sorry that my trip has given you a ton of reading to do and I'm sure a great desire to be visiting and doing the same things I've done this past week and a half but that's what happens I guess! I know that there are many who enjoy knowing what I'm up too so hopefully everyone enjoys them - even if it means printing them off and reading them when they get the chance!
Well, I'm going to finish working on the pictures of the one album, get those uploaded tonight and then probably crash as I have one class tomorrow morning but the rest of the day to work on the rest of the pictures. Laterz! Hope things are going good back home also!
I woke up around 8:30 and got ready to go. Packed up my stuff, most of which was packed the night before so it wasn't that bad. Then I checked out of my hostel and headed back to the underground where I bought a one way ticket and headed towards King's Cross - St. Pancras Station where I was to pick up the Eurostar back home. Naturally as I got to the tube platform I needed, the train I needed was just leaving so I had to wait another 8 minutes for the right train - which started to make me nervous as time was getting close! (I seem to always do that when traveling even when I plan time for things like that!)
So, I finally get my train and head to the station. When I arrive there, and after I get back up to the ground level (the Northern Line is not that far underground) I start walking to the St. Pancras Station to catch my 10 am train - note this is about 9:40 at the time! I first stop and pick up my ticket using the machines - naturally out of 3 machines only one is working! Then I make it over to the check-in point where I must go through security. Me, being in the rush to make my train as well as the absent minded guy I can be at times... I forget to take off my watch while going through the metal detectors so they end up having to pat search me down (I had to have this done back in the Brussels Airport because of the snaps on my sweater). But they gave me the go ahead and I gathered my things up and got in line for the passport check.
As I figured they would being that when I traveled from Dublin to Belfast (technically leaving the Republic of Ireland and entering the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland) no one stamped or checked my passport verifying I left Ireland. When I took the ferry over, they checked my passport at Stena Line in Belfast, but didn't stamp it either nor did it get stamped when I arrived as I walked right to the rail station there at Stranraer (It was across the road from the ferry dock!). So, as they did when I flew out of Brussels, they asked me why it wasn't stamped for the United Kindom. So I explained why, and they just asked when I came into the country and after I told them, they gave me the go ahead. I then went to the next desk and got the stamp. From there, they were making the last calls for my train so I hurried up to the platform deck and hopped on the train.
I was most certainly not in the car where my seat was booked (I hopped on in car 7 and my seat was in the last car - car 18) but I had figured it was much better to be on my train in the wrong car and seat and have to walk the length of the train to my seat than to run along the platform and risk missing the train completely. Thankfully when I asked one of the crew onboard how to get to car 18, they talked to one of the train managers and he said I could just take a seat in the car I was in as not many were getting on at the next stop and I was getting off in Lille, the stop after that. So I sat down and got settled in. Unlike with the other trains I traveled on this trip, the Eurostar has electrical plugs on the walls by the seats so I was able to plug in my laptop and do things on that during the trip.
The train ride was rather boring and just like any other. There wasn't much to see as there were walls alongside the tracks or it was just English country side. We went through a few small tunnels and stopped in the last station for Eurostar in England. Thankfully no one said I was in their seat! From there we headed to France via the Chunnel - which goes underneath the English Channel. However, as we had gone through a couple short tunnels, and I was working on sorting my pictures on my computer - I didn't realize we were in the Chunnel till we were in it! I thought at first that this was a really long tunnel, then realized it must be THE Chunnel! So when we came out of it, I paid attention but there was nothing much to see either and we were moving too fast for any pictures to come out decently. As my mom later asked about, I didn't notice the downward slope or even the upward slope of the tracks afterwards because trains can only climb a small grade climb.
But I was back in France and being there was just country side which gets boring very quickly, I went back to work on my photos on my laptop. When we got close to Lille and started to slow down, I gathered my things together and got ready to disembark the Eurostar. Once at the station, I took a few pictures after I got off since I didn't have the time to do so before I left London. From there, I headed up to the main level of the Lille-Europe Station where I realized I still had a £5 note in my pocket. I had thought since it was a station that connected directly with London the stores in there would take sterling but of course they didn't. I checked at the currency exchange booth and not only did it cost a fee to change the currency but it really wasn't worth it as I'd loose half the money in the fee. So, still aiming to get back over to London, I just kept it and headed down to the metro back to the Cormontagne stop on the Red Line which is just a block from my residence. Finally, I was back home (in France that is!)
I had expected to find the package my parents had sent me, and had hoped I'd get before I left for my trip, sitting in my room like the last package they had sent - but it wasn't and nothing came from it today (Monday) so I'll ask about it tomorrow. The rest of Sunday was spent unpacking and getting settled back in here. I went out and bought some food and drink so I had stuff in my room. Then I just sat down and while watching The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, started to work on getting my pictures sorted and captions put on them so I can upload them when I'm done. I have the first couple days sorted out and when I finish the Wednesday album (which is taking the longest by far because I have to recall everything and look things up online as this is the day I spent traveling around the Scotland Highlands), I will upload those and post a new blog with links to those albums. The rest will come as soon as I can sort them out, as well as the full version of Wednesday's blog.
I must say there are many things I have learned on this trip, and even a few corrections I need to make to my blogs so far. First off, the older guy in the Dublin hostel I spent a good time talking with, whose name was also Michael, is not Irish but Scottish. It wasn't till after I got to Scotland and heard the thick heavy accent that I realized this (though the kilt should've been decisive enough!)
Also, everyone there knows more about the US than I do, and they follow our current events closely too. There were signs for a debate between Clinton and Obama all over Dublin.
Also, I very quickly learned that the dollar is falling fast compared to Europe, especially the United Kingdom. I also learned that the small amounts of things can very quickly add up!
A British accent is incredibly easy to slip into once you are surrounded by it! The Slovian girls (From the country of Slavia - former Yugoslavia and not Slovakia) were thrown off because when I said I was from Pennsylvania they didn't hear an American accent!
There are a total of 530 steps from the floor of St. Paul's Cathedral in London to the Golden Gallery which is the highest you can get. It's 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery, inside the dome, and a total of 378 steps to the stone Gallery right above the dome but outside. Not only is it a huge climb but the doorways are tiny and sometimes even the passages are so small you barely fit through shoulder-width!
Just because a novel is amazing and there are incredible movies based on it, doesn't mean you should turn it into a musical! The spectacle in The Lord of the Rings the Musical is worth seeing but there should be a good storyline as well that doesn't cut out a ton of things.
If you want to see a popular show in the West End, like We Will Rock You, buy the tickets online before you travel!
Being friendly to fellow sightseers can sometimes entail a free taxi ride back or a free meal and drinks! It's always nice to be courteous and friendly and when you get the chance, pass the same generosity on to others.
A hostel can sound amazing online, but end up being only so-so when you get there - check out more before booking!
When you think you have everything packed for a trip - take all your clothes save socks and other undergarments, and cut those in half! You need the extra room and weight allowance for souvenirs anyways and things can be worn at least twice!
When it comes to digital cameras - First off, don't leave yours in your room! second, the extra money you spend buying namebrand batteries is much worth it in the end when cheap batteries last only 5 minutes and you end up loosing half the pictures you take for the day!
When you set your alarm, either actually wake up when it goes off or set it for a later time if you want to sleep in a bit longer!
Make sure there are things to do in the cities you are staying in! (Glasgow isn't a tourist city!)
And there are so many more things I could think of, or have thought of but forgot again... etc. But it's things like this that just make the trip either better, or the next trip you plan better! I certainly hope that I will be going on more trips, as I have a two week break coming up in April and many weekends I could do short trips to visit cities but for a little bit I'm planning to stay here and work on my school work as I have a lot of stuff coming up here in March.
I will do my best to have the complete and final version of Wednesday's trip around the Scottish Highlands done by tomorrow and will keep working on sorting my pictures, editing them and adding captions so I can upload them for you all to see. I'll post new blogs with links to the albums when I upload them so you guys know!
But now that I'm back in Lille, there's not much of a need for a daily blog, so once I get all the pictures uploaded and everything the blogs will probably become weekly again unless something major happens! Sorry that my trip has given you a ton of reading to do and I'm sure a great desire to be visiting and doing the same things I've done this past week and a half but that's what happens I guess! I know that there are many who enjoy knowing what I'm up too so hopefully everyone enjoys them - even if it means printing them off and reading them when they get the chance!
Well, I'm going to finish working on the pictures of the one album, get those uploaded tonight and then probably crash as I have one class tomorrow morning but the rest of the day to work on the rest of the pictures. Laterz! Hope things are going good back home also!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Another day in cheery London
Well, as it is becoming a habit, I slept longer than intended. I just didn't feel like getting up when my alarms went off! But i was still up and going by 11:30. After grabbing some water and a sandwich for lunch, I headed back to the tube to go over to the theater area and the TKTS booth. I wanted to see if there were any cheap discounted tickets for either We Will Rock You or The Lord of the Rings as I can't see either back in the states (WWRY plays in Las Vegas but I doubt I'll be there in the next few years!) After waiting about an hour in different lines, I discovered that WWRY only had the full priced tickets and those were a good 60 pounds, so I went with the much cheaper ticket to Lord of the Rings for tonight's show.
After that, I hopped back on the tube and made my way over to the Globe theater. After paying for admission, I headed in the exhibition center to wait for my tour to start and took a peak at the cool stuff on display regarding the theater itself, the reconstruction, and things from recent productions made in authentic manner. At 2 pm my tour started. It was incredible to be standing in a reconstructed Globe theater and seeing the building. It's actually not built on the original site and slightly larger than the original but it was still amazing and built as close to the original as they could figure out and in the original manner as well. We saw it from the floor like a groundling would have, as well as from the middle level of seats. It was definitely worth the admission!
After that, I decided to walk up the river Thames to the Houses of Parliament and other places of interest in Westminster. It was a long walk but rather relaxing and being a Saturday afternoon it was busy with tourists and just being out for the day - though it was an overcast and windy day. Thankfully it didn't rain! When I got about halfway there though, my camera batteries died and the cheap ones I bought in Glasgow for one pound didn't even last long at all. So I had one new battery and I mixed it with almost dead ones and then just turned my camera off after every few pictures.
I looked at buying batteries but I had no notes on me and there wasn't an atm in sight, and naturally most places take a minimum to charge something. So I just made do as I knew the same process worked before on Loch Ness. So I kept walking along, making my way around the London Eye which would've been cool but the line was way too long! Walking across the Westminster bridge and seeing the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben were amazing and of course I took a bunch of pictures! Then I kept walking around the Houses of Parliament to Westminster Abbey. I had opted to go see another show tonight instead of seeing Westminster Abbey but when I got there I found out that it closed early in the afternoon so I couldn't have gone in if I had wanted - oh well! It was still a gorgeous building from the outside and I can only imagine the inside from the various cathedrals I've seen so far in Europe.
From there, there wasn't that much more I wanted to do and as it was getting late in the day as well, I walked over to St. James Park to see Buckingham Palace. I kinda got lost on the way over because apparently the road I chose to follow wasn't a popular route over there. But with the aide of my map of London, I got myself over there. It was a great place, and of course very busy with tourists. There weren't many guards at all out and of course I wouldn't see the changing of the guards as that's in the morning and during the winter months they only do it full out every other day - I didn't know if today was even the day for it! But after a bunch of pictures around there and of the fountain in front, I headed from there to Hyde park by walking up the one main road.
Before coming to Hyde park though, I had to go through the Duke of Wellington Place with the Wellington Arch which was cool to see. There were some war memorials around it but they really didn't interest me that much. So I kept going to Hyde Park. Now this is a big park! Granted the main park in Dublin is three times larger than Hyde Park - it's the largest I've been in and of course more famous! There was a bunch of people just walking around or having fun in the park. I ended up walking around the lake there - and I think there were more birds on that lake than people in the park! My main goal in there was to see the Peter Pan statue, but I quickly realized with the aide of the maps in the park that it was technically in the Kensington Gardens across the road.
So, I crossed the road! Once I came to the statue, I was a little disappointed because I thought it was much larger and more of a fountain. But it was getting dark out as the sun had set already, so I kept going up the Kensington Gardens to see Kensington Palace which has the Round Pond in front - which is full of white swans! Those were gorgeous to see and very used to people too. After taking some pictures of Kensington Palace, I proceeded to the nearest underground station to figure out my way to the theater for The Lord of the Rings as it was going on 6 pm.
Once I got that figured out, I arrived at my station and walked to the theater so I knew where it was. Once I got that situated, I set off to find an ATM to get some banknotes out for programs and stuff, as well as grab a bite to eat. However there was not an ATM to be found in those couple blocks, nor a fast food place for cheap either. What I did find was a bunch of cafe's and restaurants with full course meals, and at least 7 other different theaters including the one for Lion King, Buddy, Dirty Dancing, Importance of Being Ernest, Joseph, and a few others. Naturally I got pictures of those marquees! I ended up grabbing a sandwich and drink in the only supermarket/grocery store in the area and ate that while walking back to the theater.
I wanted to be in my seat early because I was told there was a pre-show when I bought my ticket. I went to buy my traditional poster, souvenir book, and program (apparently you have to buy those in London - I didn't get one for Billy Elliot) but the kiosk didn't sell programs or souvenir books and the only place to buy the program didn't take cards. I was told that I could try at intermission and they will sell any programs they have left then and I can use my card. So I headed up to my seat in the Grand Circle - which was very good seats!
The stage was very interesting as it was a curtain with the ring in the center and tree roots fanning out into the audience and on the walls - very elaborate. I was hesitant about the show as I've been told that it's not that great but I figured I might as well make that decision for myself! The pre-show ended up being a bunch of the hobits coming out on stage and having fun - trying to catch fireflies that were flying around the theater. Some even came up on our balcony for a bit! When the show started, it was by the one hobbit tossing the caught fireflies into the ring on the drop. The show itself was good in aspects but not so great in others. The costumes were amazing - especially for the fantastical creatures like the Ents, the Orcs, and even the hobbits themselves. I still haven't figured out how the hobbits were so short compared to the men unless they either were cast being short or the others were on some kind of platform boots. But another thing that was incredibly was the set and the lighting. Both seem incredibly complicated and interesting as the stage was a revolve that had three circular sections which were then divided up further into blocks - all of which could be raised or lowered separately thus being able to create a ton of different arrangements. The lights were very well planned out and really helped the effects. There was even some acrobatics in the show as the Ents were on stilts, they flew characters every now and then, and the orcs had spring limbs to help them tumble and move.
During intermission, I headed down to get my program and souvenir book, which they had! Then back to my seat to watch the rest of the show. There was a break between the second and third act but not one for us as there were two orcs in the grand circle scaring people and just being there and crawling around - was rather cool! The music was very theatrical and also movie like in that there was a lot of underscoring but not much actually singing. And the songs that were sung were more either chants or folk songs by the hobbits. The story was not the best as it was very basic and left a lot out. The acting was good for the most part, some were much better than others. A few times it felt as if there were dead spots, including the very end - oops! And aside from the end being a traditional happy ending and big climatic finish, it was a semi-happy ending with a rather dismal finish. But they made up for it during the curtain call!
After that, I headed back to my hostel just to relax and get ready to leave and go back home in the morning. The girls where back already like last night, and they were playing what ended up looking like charades! I found out that they're all dancers and here for a short time taking classes at a studio here in London. While they were doing their game, I sat down to do this blog and upload my pictures from today and yesterday as I forgot to do so yesterday with the pics.
That lead to problems and a huge disappointment... it took forever to get my computer to read the pictures enough to copy them all over. Plus, all of my pictures that I took from when my batteries died and I started using one good one and the whole turning it off right after one pic bit... not there at all! After a few tries I couldn't even find them on my camera... so I lost all my pictures of the Eye, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and St. Jame's Park, the Peter Pan statue, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Kensington Palace, plus all the theater marquee's I saw tonight.
If anyone knows me and my pictures I take... that's a lot that I lost - probably a good 400. I go by the idea that I'd rather have more to pick from in order to get the good pictures. Part of why none of my pictures have been uploaded. Unfortunately, I leave London tomorrow morning so I can't even go and retake them! But hopefully I shall be back in London and I can take all those pictures again when I come back plus but most of my souvenirs. I didn't get much because I figured I'd be back at least one more time to London as it's so close to me in Lille.
But anyways, my winter break is almost at an end as I head back to Lille tomorrow at 10 pm on the Eurostar going under the chunnel. But till tomorrow when I update and hopefully get all my pictures uploaded, Night!
After that, I hopped back on the tube and made my way over to the Globe theater. After paying for admission, I headed in the exhibition center to wait for my tour to start and took a peak at the cool stuff on display regarding the theater itself, the reconstruction, and things from recent productions made in authentic manner. At 2 pm my tour started. It was incredible to be standing in a reconstructed Globe theater and seeing the building. It's actually not built on the original site and slightly larger than the original but it was still amazing and built as close to the original as they could figure out and in the original manner as well. We saw it from the floor like a groundling would have, as well as from the middle level of seats. It was definitely worth the admission!
After that, I decided to walk up the river Thames to the Houses of Parliament and other places of interest in Westminster. It was a long walk but rather relaxing and being a Saturday afternoon it was busy with tourists and just being out for the day - though it was an overcast and windy day. Thankfully it didn't rain! When I got about halfway there though, my camera batteries died and the cheap ones I bought in Glasgow for one pound didn't even last long at all. So I had one new battery and I mixed it with almost dead ones and then just turned my camera off after every few pictures.
I looked at buying batteries but I had no notes on me and there wasn't an atm in sight, and naturally most places take a minimum to charge something. So I just made do as I knew the same process worked before on Loch Ness. So I kept walking along, making my way around the London Eye which would've been cool but the line was way too long! Walking across the Westminster bridge and seeing the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben were amazing and of course I took a bunch of pictures! Then I kept walking around the Houses of Parliament to Westminster Abbey. I had opted to go see another show tonight instead of seeing Westminster Abbey but when I got there I found out that it closed early in the afternoon so I couldn't have gone in if I had wanted - oh well! It was still a gorgeous building from the outside and I can only imagine the inside from the various cathedrals I've seen so far in Europe.
From there, there wasn't that much more I wanted to do and as it was getting late in the day as well, I walked over to St. James Park to see Buckingham Palace. I kinda got lost on the way over because apparently the road I chose to follow wasn't a popular route over there. But with the aide of my map of London, I got myself over there. It was a great place, and of course very busy with tourists. There weren't many guards at all out and of course I wouldn't see the changing of the guards as that's in the morning and during the winter months they only do it full out every other day - I didn't know if today was even the day for it! But after a bunch of pictures around there and of the fountain in front, I headed from there to Hyde park by walking up the one main road.
Before coming to Hyde park though, I had to go through the Duke of Wellington Place with the Wellington Arch which was cool to see. There were some war memorials around it but they really didn't interest me that much. So I kept going to Hyde Park. Now this is a big park! Granted the main park in Dublin is three times larger than Hyde Park - it's the largest I've been in and of course more famous! There was a bunch of people just walking around or having fun in the park. I ended up walking around the lake there - and I think there were more birds on that lake than people in the park! My main goal in there was to see the Peter Pan statue, but I quickly realized with the aide of the maps in the park that it was technically in the Kensington Gardens across the road.
So, I crossed the road! Once I came to the statue, I was a little disappointed because I thought it was much larger and more of a fountain. But it was getting dark out as the sun had set already, so I kept going up the Kensington Gardens to see Kensington Palace which has the Round Pond in front - which is full of white swans! Those were gorgeous to see and very used to people too. After taking some pictures of Kensington Palace, I proceeded to the nearest underground station to figure out my way to the theater for The Lord of the Rings as it was going on 6 pm.
Once I got that figured out, I arrived at my station and walked to the theater so I knew where it was. Once I got that situated, I set off to find an ATM to get some banknotes out for programs and stuff, as well as grab a bite to eat. However there was not an ATM to be found in those couple blocks, nor a fast food place for cheap either. What I did find was a bunch of cafe's and restaurants with full course meals, and at least 7 other different theaters including the one for Lion King, Buddy, Dirty Dancing, Importance of Being Ernest, Joseph, and a few others. Naturally I got pictures of those marquees! I ended up grabbing a sandwich and drink in the only supermarket/grocery store in the area and ate that while walking back to the theater.
I wanted to be in my seat early because I was told there was a pre-show when I bought my ticket. I went to buy my traditional poster, souvenir book, and program (apparently you have to buy those in London - I didn't get one for Billy Elliot) but the kiosk didn't sell programs or souvenir books and the only place to buy the program didn't take cards. I was told that I could try at intermission and they will sell any programs they have left then and I can use my card. So I headed up to my seat in the Grand Circle - which was very good seats!
The stage was very interesting as it was a curtain with the ring in the center and tree roots fanning out into the audience and on the walls - very elaborate. I was hesitant about the show as I've been told that it's not that great but I figured I might as well make that decision for myself! The pre-show ended up being a bunch of the hobits coming out on stage and having fun - trying to catch fireflies that were flying around the theater. Some even came up on our balcony for a bit! When the show started, it was by the one hobbit tossing the caught fireflies into the ring on the drop. The show itself was good in aspects but not so great in others. The costumes were amazing - especially for the fantastical creatures like the Ents, the Orcs, and even the hobbits themselves. I still haven't figured out how the hobbits were so short compared to the men unless they either were cast being short or the others were on some kind of platform boots. But another thing that was incredibly was the set and the lighting. Both seem incredibly complicated and interesting as the stage was a revolve that had three circular sections which were then divided up further into blocks - all of which could be raised or lowered separately thus being able to create a ton of different arrangements. The lights were very well planned out and really helped the effects. There was even some acrobatics in the show as the Ents were on stilts, they flew characters every now and then, and the orcs had spring limbs to help them tumble and move.
During intermission, I headed down to get my program and souvenir book, which they had! Then back to my seat to watch the rest of the show. There was a break between the second and third act but not one for us as there were two orcs in the grand circle scaring people and just being there and crawling around - was rather cool! The music was very theatrical and also movie like in that there was a lot of underscoring but not much actually singing. And the songs that were sung were more either chants or folk songs by the hobbits. The story was not the best as it was very basic and left a lot out. The acting was good for the most part, some were much better than others. A few times it felt as if there were dead spots, including the very end - oops! And aside from the end being a traditional happy ending and big climatic finish, it was a semi-happy ending with a rather dismal finish. But they made up for it during the curtain call!
After that, I headed back to my hostel just to relax and get ready to leave and go back home in the morning. The girls where back already like last night, and they were playing what ended up looking like charades! I found out that they're all dancers and here for a short time taking classes at a studio here in London. While they were doing their game, I sat down to do this blog and upload my pictures from today and yesterday as I forgot to do so yesterday with the pics.
That lead to problems and a huge disappointment... it took forever to get my computer to read the pictures enough to copy them all over. Plus, all of my pictures that I took from when my batteries died and I started using one good one and the whole turning it off right after one pic bit... not there at all! After a few tries I couldn't even find them on my camera... so I lost all my pictures of the Eye, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and St. Jame's Park, the Peter Pan statue, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Kensington Palace, plus all the theater marquee's I saw tonight.
If anyone knows me and my pictures I take... that's a lot that I lost - probably a good 400. I go by the idea that I'd rather have more to pick from in order to get the good pictures. Part of why none of my pictures have been uploaded. Unfortunately, I leave London tomorrow morning so I can't even go and retake them! But hopefully I shall be back in London and I can take all those pictures again when I come back plus but most of my souvenirs. I didn't get much because I figured I'd be back at least one more time to London as it's so close to me in Lille.
But anyways, my winter break is almost at an end as I head back to Lille tomorrow at 10 pm on the Eurostar going under the chunnel. But till tomorrow when I update and hopefully get all my pictures uploaded, Night!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Friday in London
Well, my intentions to wake up around 9 am and hit the city of London didn't quite work out so well! I got up and going by abour 11 am though which wasn't too bad. Today was overcast and windy but thankfully it didn't rain. After stopping for a cheap sandwich and a bottle of water, I hopped on the tube and headed out for the day.
First stop was St. Paul's Cathedral which is where many royal weddings and other events are held. I couldn't take pictures inside so I bought the souvenir book, but it was amazing inside! I did, however walk up the 500 and some steps up to the highest part on the dome, as well as the two levels before that - that was a workout! But was such a gorgeous view from there!
After St. Paul's, I planned to head over to the London Bridge area and hit up the famous Tower of London. Though my ideal walk along the Thames river was interrupted by businesses but eventually I got to the waterfront and enjoyed the nice peaceful walk over plus saw a lot of riverside of the Thames. I finally got to the Tower of London which was different from what I expected. I thought it was more a tower like Big Ben with dungeons and stuff inside but it's a full out castle with 20 towers! So after getting my ticket to get in, I happened to be just in time for the last guided tour of the Tower of London by one of the Yeomen. They are the guards who are dressed in uniform and actually live inside the Tower of London with their families and they get locked in every night at 10 pm - that would suck!
But our guide was really good, and of course told us all about the bloody history of the Tower of London. After that, I just did some walking around the grounds and various buildings myself. The Tower of London is where the Crown Jewels are kept under display so I got to see those which really were cool! But as I was going through the display of armory and weapons in the White tower in the middle of the grounds, they started closing up so i didn't get to see it all.
But from there, I headed just next door to the tower bridge, commonly mistaken for the London bridge. It was cool and we even got to go up on top and walk across the upper area of it, as well as see the machinery that raises and lowers the bridge.
After that, it still was early and light out, so I tried to head over to see the London Bridge Experience but I got there and they said it was closed... so I didn't bother. I started walking over to the Globe theater but realized that it was probably closed by then and if I wanted to see a show tonight then I should go get a ticket. So I hopped on the underground and headed over to Piccadilly Circus in the West End. Once there, I had to walk around a bit to find the TKTS booth where they sell theater ticktes for half price and sometimes cheaper! Thankfully, of the three shows I wanted to see I was able to get a ticket to one. I saw Billy Elliot which is the adaptation of the movie about a english boy in the mid-80's who lives in a mining town during the miner's strike but ends up learning ballet and gets accepted to the Royal Ballet Academy. It's the music of Elton John so that was amazing to hear and it was just incredible to see! I saw high in the balcony but aside from seeing behind the scenery (they were not very tall sets, as well as I could see the trapdoors open and stuff rise as well) and the one time when Billy flies to the fly area which I couldn't see - the view was amazing! I loved it and so wish I could see it again!
After that, I came back to the hostel as I was tired and not in the mood to go out, nor did I know where or have anyone to go out with and I figured London isn't the best place to go off at night alone! I aim to do more sightseeing tomorrow and if I can get a cheap enough ticket, then I might see another show but I just have to see. It would be awesome to see either We Will Rock You or Lord of the Rings as I can't see them on Broadway. But I'll just have to wait and see if there's tickets left and how cheap they are! Well I'm off to bed.. night!
First stop was St. Paul's Cathedral which is where many royal weddings and other events are held. I couldn't take pictures inside so I bought the souvenir book, but it was amazing inside! I did, however walk up the 500 and some steps up to the highest part on the dome, as well as the two levels before that - that was a workout! But was such a gorgeous view from there!
After St. Paul's, I planned to head over to the London Bridge area and hit up the famous Tower of London. Though my ideal walk along the Thames river was interrupted by businesses but eventually I got to the waterfront and enjoyed the nice peaceful walk over plus saw a lot of riverside of the Thames. I finally got to the Tower of London which was different from what I expected. I thought it was more a tower like Big Ben with dungeons and stuff inside but it's a full out castle with 20 towers! So after getting my ticket to get in, I happened to be just in time for the last guided tour of the Tower of London by one of the Yeomen. They are the guards who are dressed in uniform and actually live inside the Tower of London with their families and they get locked in every night at 10 pm - that would suck!
But our guide was really good, and of course told us all about the bloody history of the Tower of London. After that, I just did some walking around the grounds and various buildings myself. The Tower of London is where the Crown Jewels are kept under display so I got to see those which really were cool! But as I was going through the display of armory and weapons in the White tower in the middle of the grounds, they started closing up so i didn't get to see it all.
But from there, I headed just next door to the tower bridge, commonly mistaken for the London bridge. It was cool and we even got to go up on top and walk across the upper area of it, as well as see the machinery that raises and lowers the bridge.
After that, it still was early and light out, so I tried to head over to see the London Bridge Experience but I got there and they said it was closed... so I didn't bother. I started walking over to the Globe theater but realized that it was probably closed by then and if I wanted to see a show tonight then I should go get a ticket. So I hopped on the underground and headed over to Piccadilly Circus in the West End. Once there, I had to walk around a bit to find the TKTS booth where they sell theater ticktes for half price and sometimes cheaper! Thankfully, of the three shows I wanted to see I was able to get a ticket to one. I saw Billy Elliot which is the adaptation of the movie about a english boy in the mid-80's who lives in a mining town during the miner's strike but ends up learning ballet and gets accepted to the Royal Ballet Academy. It's the music of Elton John so that was amazing to hear and it was just incredible to see! I saw high in the balcony but aside from seeing behind the scenery (they were not very tall sets, as well as I could see the trapdoors open and stuff rise as well) and the one time when Billy flies to the fly area which I couldn't see - the view was amazing! I loved it and so wish I could see it again!
After that, I came back to the hostel as I was tired and not in the mood to go out, nor did I know where or have anyone to go out with and I figured London isn't the best place to go off at night alone! I aim to do more sightseeing tomorrow and if I can get a cheap enough ticket, then I might see another show but I just have to see. It would be awesome to see either We Will Rock You or Lord of the Rings as I can't see them on Broadway. But I'll just have to wait and see if there's tickets left and how cheap they are! Well I'm off to bed.. night!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Scotland to London ... Thursday!
Well, since I am on vacation from classes, in addition to Glasgow not being a tourist city at all - we all slept in till about 11 am today. Anthony and Thomas were in Scotland for the whole week, so they were going to head to Edinburgh today while I just planned to walk around the city and do some last minute shopping. My plane to London Stansted didn't leave till 8:10 pm so I had plenty of time in the afternoon. But before we split our separate ways we exchanged contact info as they're not that far from me in France and I had a blast hanging out with the two of them - really made Scotland great!
But I headed off... about lunchtime cause I got all my things packed and ready to go later on. I headed out walking towards the main square in the city right in front of the City Chambers, as well as the tourist office for Glasgow. There is a huge area for shopping and food - basically the city center like it's called! So I did some little shopping but more browsing because I couldn't spend all my money before I get to London. One thing I did in Dublin, and wanted to do in Scotland but hadn't yet is to have a traditional Scottish meal. So I asked at the tourist office where to go, and he directed me to the area over by Ingram street. Though naturally when I walked over that way there didnt seem to be a lot of traditional pubs and restaurants - just construction and buildings... I did find a bar/restaurant that looked cool and had what I was looking for - The Blackfrier's. I got in there, ordered a pint of Guinness and Haggis Neeps and Mash - which is traditional Scottish food. Haggis is a meat patty/roll of sheep and various herbs and stuff, Neeps is a yellow turnip mashed, and of course mashed potatoes. It was amazingly good!
After that, I had gotten a map my first day in Glasgow of a walking self-guided tour of medieval Glasgow which sounded cool. However, I read it all while we were coming back from Iverness on the tour yesterday and half the places talked about on this tour no longer exist at all. But being I was right at the start of that tour from the Blackfriar's, I followed it. The main point of this self guided tour was the Glasgow Cathedral, and the area around it. I first went to the oldest house in Glasgow and it wasn't too bad but kinda boring. Then, I went to the Cathedral itself. It was astounding to be inside it and see the old medieval architecture and everything. Compared to the Christ Church in Dublin, the Glasgow Cathedral seemed so much older!
I walked all through the cathedral and just took in it's beauty and history. It was really cool because under the front part of the church is a lower church which holds the grave of St. Mungo, who is well known to the Scot's and Glasgow area. It was just amazing to walk through it all. But what was just as cool as the Cathedral itself, was the Necropolis behind it! There are just so many tombstones, monuments, and more all over this huge hill behind the Cathedral - it just looked amazing! Unfortunately, it was drizzling almost the whole day and at this point was the worst, so I didn't really get to go through the Necropolis. It was also about 4 pm and I had to grab my things and get over to the airport.
By 5 pm I had my ticket via the rail to my airport, Glasgow Prestwick International Airport and got on the train to leave Central Station. However, a few stops later, I realized that I wasn't on the right train - the direction was right but the one I was on started going north instead of south! So I got off at once, and found out that in Central Station there were two trains lined up one behind the other. I got on the second one when I really wanted the first one which went directly towards the airport.
So I waited for the next train to come back to take me back one station so I could catch the right train. I finally figured out what I had to do but it was so slow because we stopped at each stop along the way. By now I had already wasted almost an hour due to the mess up and started worrying about missing my check-in. But thankfully, my dad looked the info up online and got back to me and I had plenty of time. So I finally get to the airport, and go to check my bag in - knowing it would be overweight... but it was 5 kg overweight! So that cost me quite a bit as it was £7.50 per kg overweight plus the cost of checking a bag in at the airport. But I got that settled and just sat down to wait for my flight.
We finally started boarding and as usual with RyanAir, you walk outside and up the ramp to the plane. This time I sat on the aisle as I was towards the back of the line to board and thus less seat selection. But this flight was much better than the other one with RyanAir - a lot smoother take-off though weather made landing a little rough. We ended up arriving in London Stansted 15 min early which was nice! I then got my bags, little worried that I didn't have to have my passport checked or stamped (I hope it doesn't become a problem when I go back to Lille...) and then headed to get my ticket for the Stansted Express which is a rather nice train that takes you into the actual city of London. I got off at the Tottenham Hale stop and from there hopped aboard the Tube - or the underground. After navigating that to the Camden Town stop, I walked to my hostel in London (when I finally found the road it was on!)
I then checked in, paid the fees and such and headed to my room - to find 5 girls in there! Well, I was the one guy in the room among the Slovakian girls but they were cool. This hostel really is not much better in my opinion. It's called Smart Camden Inn. We had to make our own beds at this one - which are not much more than an air mattress. The lockers to store our luggage in are odd and the only key that worked in my room is for one that is horizontal and stacked at top - oh well... The guys showers are right next door, but there are only a few bathrooms spread out through the hostel. The kitchen area seems clean but rather barren and the lounge area is almost nothing and tiny. To top it off, the guy at the desk was rather rude or at least not friendly at all. But, you live and learn when you book hostels online! I'll know better next time then!
Anways, now that I'm all caught up for the most part with everything - it's late and I have a busy day aimed for tomorrow including getting up early! So it's off to bed for me! Cheers!
But I headed off... about lunchtime cause I got all my things packed and ready to go later on. I headed out walking towards the main square in the city right in front of the City Chambers, as well as the tourist office for Glasgow. There is a huge area for shopping and food - basically the city center like it's called! So I did some little shopping but more browsing because I couldn't spend all my money before I get to London. One thing I did in Dublin, and wanted to do in Scotland but hadn't yet is to have a traditional Scottish meal. So I asked at the tourist office where to go, and he directed me to the area over by Ingram street. Though naturally when I walked over that way there didnt seem to be a lot of traditional pubs and restaurants - just construction and buildings... I did find a bar/restaurant that looked cool and had what I was looking for - The Blackfrier's. I got in there, ordered a pint of Guinness and Haggis Neeps and Mash - which is traditional Scottish food. Haggis is a meat patty/roll of sheep and various herbs and stuff, Neeps is a yellow turnip mashed, and of course mashed potatoes. It was amazingly good!
After that, I had gotten a map my first day in Glasgow of a walking self-guided tour of medieval Glasgow which sounded cool. However, I read it all while we were coming back from Iverness on the tour yesterday and half the places talked about on this tour no longer exist at all. But being I was right at the start of that tour from the Blackfriar's, I followed it. The main point of this self guided tour was the Glasgow Cathedral, and the area around it. I first went to the oldest house in Glasgow and it wasn't too bad but kinda boring. Then, I went to the Cathedral itself. It was astounding to be inside it and see the old medieval architecture and everything. Compared to the Christ Church in Dublin, the Glasgow Cathedral seemed so much older!
I walked all through the cathedral and just took in it's beauty and history. It was really cool because under the front part of the church is a lower church which holds the grave of St. Mungo, who is well known to the Scot's and Glasgow area. It was just amazing to walk through it all. But what was just as cool as the Cathedral itself, was the Necropolis behind it! There are just so many tombstones, monuments, and more all over this huge hill behind the Cathedral - it just looked amazing! Unfortunately, it was drizzling almost the whole day and at this point was the worst, so I didn't really get to go through the Necropolis. It was also about 4 pm and I had to grab my things and get over to the airport.
By 5 pm I had my ticket via the rail to my airport, Glasgow Prestwick International Airport and got on the train to leave Central Station. However, a few stops later, I realized that I wasn't on the right train - the direction was right but the one I was on started going north instead of south! So I got off at once, and found out that in Central Station there were two trains lined up one behind the other. I got on the second one when I really wanted the first one which went directly towards the airport.
So I waited for the next train to come back to take me back one station so I could catch the right train. I finally figured out what I had to do but it was so slow because we stopped at each stop along the way. By now I had already wasted almost an hour due to the mess up and started worrying about missing my check-in. But thankfully, my dad looked the info up online and got back to me and I had plenty of time. So I finally get to the airport, and go to check my bag in - knowing it would be overweight... but it was 5 kg overweight! So that cost me quite a bit as it was £7.50 per kg overweight plus the cost of checking a bag in at the airport. But I got that settled and just sat down to wait for my flight.
We finally started boarding and as usual with RyanAir, you walk outside and up the ramp to the plane. This time I sat on the aisle as I was towards the back of the line to board and thus less seat selection. But this flight was much better than the other one with RyanAir - a lot smoother take-off though weather made landing a little rough. We ended up arriving in London Stansted 15 min early which was nice! I then got my bags, little worried that I didn't have to have my passport checked or stamped (I hope it doesn't become a problem when I go back to Lille...) and then headed to get my ticket for the Stansted Express which is a rather nice train that takes you into the actual city of London. I got off at the Tottenham Hale stop and from there hopped aboard the Tube - or the underground. After navigating that to the Camden Town stop, I walked to my hostel in London (when I finally found the road it was on!)
I then checked in, paid the fees and such and headed to my room - to find 5 girls in there! Well, I was the one guy in the room among the Slovakian girls but they were cool. This hostel really is not much better in my opinion. It's called Smart Camden Inn. We had to make our own beds at this one - which are not much more than an air mattress. The lockers to store our luggage in are odd and the only key that worked in my room is for one that is horizontal and stacked at top - oh well... The guys showers are right next door, but there are only a few bathrooms spread out through the hostel. The kitchen area seems clean but rather barren and the lounge area is almost nothing and tiny. To top it off, the guy at the desk was rather rude or at least not friendly at all. But, you live and learn when you book hostels online! I'll know better next time then!
Anways, now that I'm all caught up for the most part with everything - it's late and I have a busy day aimed for tomorrow including getting up early! So it's off to bed for me! Cheers!
Wednesday in Scotland
Well, this is just going to be a temporary blog post because there is so much I have to say about this day... but because there are so many names and stories and other things, I couldn't recall them all when typing up the blog. So most likely on Sunday when I'm back in my room and have the time, I'll use the internet and help recreate as much as I can from the days trip.
But so you aren't out of the loop until then, here's a little of what happened.
Anthony & Thomas (two french guys who were in my room and the guys I hung out with most of my time in Scotland) and I got up early to catch the bus for our tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness which was scheduled to leave at 8:20 am. We got there around 8 am, but by 9 am, no sign of our bus - then right after 9, it pulled up. Apparently there was a bad accident on one of the main roads into Glasgow. But we loaded up and got on our way.
We headed north the whole day but the first point of interest was Loch Lomond, the largest freshwater loch in Scotland - it's one island has a nudist colony on it! We stopped at the mouth of the loch as it heads into a glen. It was an overcast day and raining on and off at this point.
After that, we kept heading north following the river and the glen, to a town at the middle of three glens and from there followed another glen northward. Along this glen is the railroad that they filmed the Harry Potter movies, including the huge viaduct in the second movie. We didn't get to see it in person but I got a postcard of it! This then took us into Glencoe. This was a really cool place because the entrance is a huge mountain guarding it. Then, later on in the glen are three huge mountains in a row which are known as Faith, Hope and Charity. This is also the spot where the McDonald clan was massacred with the betrayal of the Douglas clan (I think I got those names right!)
Anyways, from there we continued through the glen, and past another loch and stopped at a monument for the colonels lost in wars which had a great view of the glen. Then we headed up along a range of barren mountains and through a barren land beyond it - only one tree grows in that area. Unfortunatley my picture of it was too blurry...
After that, we started into the Great Glen of the Highlands and stopped in Fort Williams for lunch. Fort Williams is at the base of Ben Nevis (Ben is the Gaelic word for mountain) which is the tallest mountain in Scotland. From there, we followed the Caledonian Canal which uses 5 lochs across the Highlands and 29 locks to connect the Atlantic with the North Sea on the other side of Scotland. It was gorgeous and the sun came out for most of the rest of the day at this point.
The second to last of the 5 lochs of the Caledonian Canal is the famous Loch Ness which is the longest, deepest (around 700 feet deep at it's deepest point!), and has the largest cubic volume of all the lochs in Scotland. It's very dark and almost impossible to see deeper than 15 feet into the water which helps hide "Nessie!" We had two options at this point of the bus tour - to tour the Urquhart castle ruins on the banks of Loch Ness and take the boat back to catch the bus, or an hour boat ride on the Loch Ness. I picked the castle because I love castles and historical places and I still got to go out on Loch Ness in a boat. My friends went the other way.
The castle ruins were amazing! I took so many pictures and it was cool because you could actually go up on some of the levels of parts of the castle. I'll naturally talk more about this later, but I only had about 45 min to walk around the ruins. To top that off, I ran out of batteries for my digital camera so I had to take a picture or two, then turn it off to save the juice! But I got the pictures I wanted, so I was happy. The boat trip back was fun too... but unfortunately no sign of "Nessie"
Anyways, after that, we headed on to Iverness which is the northest we went on the bus tour. From there, we turned south and followed the A9, also known as the "Spine" of Scotland till Perth, then traveled back to Glasgow. Most of this part of the trip was boring as there was not much to see and aside from a short rest stop, it was nonstop. It was also night by that point so even taking pictures or seeing things would've been difficult. It actually made us kinda tired!
But when we got back to Glasgow around 9 pm, we first got dinner at Burger King and then headed back to the hostel for a bit to just relax and figure out what to do. We met a German girl there who had just arrived, and we ended up going out to the same bar as the night before for a few drinks. We then went to a club but we were about the only ones in there as it was midnight and a wednesday night as well. So we went back to the hostel to watch some TV, but there was nothing on there either so we all headed to bed.
Sorry it was very brief... well, brief compared to my long blogs! But there will be a more detailed one coming later!
But so you aren't out of the loop until then, here's a little of what happened.
Anthony & Thomas (two french guys who were in my room and the guys I hung out with most of my time in Scotland) and I got up early to catch the bus for our tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness which was scheduled to leave at 8:20 am. We got there around 8 am, but by 9 am, no sign of our bus - then right after 9, it pulled up. Apparently there was a bad accident on one of the main roads into Glasgow. But we loaded up and got on our way.
We headed north the whole day but the first point of interest was Loch Lomond, the largest freshwater loch in Scotland - it's one island has a nudist colony on it! We stopped at the mouth of the loch as it heads into a glen. It was an overcast day and raining on and off at this point.
After that, we kept heading north following the river and the glen, to a town at the middle of three glens and from there followed another glen northward. Along this glen is the railroad that they filmed the Harry Potter movies, including the huge viaduct in the second movie. We didn't get to see it in person but I got a postcard of it! This then took us into Glencoe. This was a really cool place because the entrance is a huge mountain guarding it. Then, later on in the glen are three huge mountains in a row which are known as Faith, Hope and Charity. This is also the spot where the McDonald clan was massacred with the betrayal of the Douglas clan (I think I got those names right!)
Anyways, from there we continued through the glen, and past another loch and stopped at a monument for the colonels lost in wars which had a great view of the glen. Then we headed up along a range of barren mountains and through a barren land beyond it - only one tree grows in that area. Unfortunatley my picture of it was too blurry...
After that, we started into the Great Glen of the Highlands and stopped in Fort Williams for lunch. Fort Williams is at the base of Ben Nevis (Ben is the Gaelic word for mountain) which is the tallest mountain in Scotland. From there, we followed the Caledonian Canal which uses 5 lochs across the Highlands and 29 locks to connect the Atlantic with the North Sea on the other side of Scotland. It was gorgeous and the sun came out for most of the rest of the day at this point.
The second to last of the 5 lochs of the Caledonian Canal is the famous Loch Ness which is the longest, deepest (around 700 feet deep at it's deepest point!), and has the largest cubic volume of all the lochs in Scotland. It's very dark and almost impossible to see deeper than 15 feet into the water which helps hide "Nessie!" We had two options at this point of the bus tour - to tour the Urquhart castle ruins on the banks of Loch Ness and take the boat back to catch the bus, or an hour boat ride on the Loch Ness. I picked the castle because I love castles and historical places and I still got to go out on Loch Ness in a boat. My friends went the other way.
The castle ruins were amazing! I took so many pictures and it was cool because you could actually go up on some of the levels of parts of the castle. I'll naturally talk more about this later, but I only had about 45 min to walk around the ruins. To top that off, I ran out of batteries for my digital camera so I had to take a picture or two, then turn it off to save the juice! But I got the pictures I wanted, so I was happy. The boat trip back was fun too... but unfortunately no sign of "Nessie"
Anyways, after that, we headed on to Iverness which is the northest we went on the bus tour. From there, we turned south and followed the A9, also known as the "Spine" of Scotland till Perth, then traveled back to Glasgow. Most of this part of the trip was boring as there was not much to see and aside from a short rest stop, it was nonstop. It was also night by that point so even taking pictures or seeing things would've been difficult. It actually made us kinda tired!
But when we got back to Glasgow around 9 pm, we first got dinner at Burger King and then headed back to the hostel for a bit to just relax and figure out what to do. We met a German girl there who had just arrived, and we ended up going out to the same bar as the night before for a few drinks. We then went to a club but we were about the only ones in there as it was midnight and a wednesday night as well. So we went back to the hostel to watch some TV, but there was nothing on there either so we all headed to bed.
Sorry it was very brief... well, brief compared to my long blogs! But there will be a more detailed one coming later!
Tuesday in Glasgow, Scotland
And here's the stuff for Tuesday in Glasgow...
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Today, I was very lackadaisical and slept in till about 11 am. Marc had told me last night that
When I got up and was getting ready, two other guys in my room were doing the same so naturally we started talking. They’re French as well but from the Eastern part near
We then walked down to the River Clyde and headed out towards the
But after a while, we left there and walked across an even tinier bridge to the other side of the river and kept walking towards the other museums and the
We got back to the hostel, and just hung out for a bit in the kitchen as it was only 5:30 and still early for dinner. (The French eat dinner around 7 usually and I’ve gotten into that habit as well.) So after a cup of tea and chatting, we headed into the lounge to watch some TV. I got out my laptop and started typing all this up while we watched The Simpson’s. After that we were hungry and it was about 7 pm so we heated up our dinner. At the same time, the other group of French students were there making dinner (they were from
After that, we headed into the lounge to watch more TV but there was some older guy in there that had a documentary thing on and was rather rude, so we left. We had walked upstairs to figure out what to do, when a new group of students went into the kitchen – so we headed back down there for more tea! They were mostly from
He started off by welcoming us to the
Monday, February 18, 2008
Well, here's what happened on Monday when I traveled from Dublin, Ireland to Glasgow, Scotland through Belfast, Northern Ireland (Part of the UK)
Monday, February 18, 2008
Today was an interesting day. I woke up early and was going by 9 am. I had needed to pick up a few more souvenirs for family at an Irish Souvenir chain and I did some walking around the city center a bit as well. I headed back to my hostel around 10 am to check out and head up the street to O’Connelly Rail Station. Once there, I picked up my ticket for my train from
Once I got to
Because I had to wait about an hour before I could check in at the port where they had comfy seats and a small café for food, as well as there was nothing within walking distance of the ferry port, I had to wait in the very basic waiting room for those arriving to
When the time came, I gathered my things up and headed to the check-in point and ran into a slight problem… the online ticket voucher was for the wrong date! Not February 18 but for the 10th… Thankfully they were able to work with me and easily went in and changed the date free of charge. I then checked my suitcase in and they scanned my carry on bags. I headed up to the lounge waiting area and got myself a cheap sandwich and a drink and sat down to continue charging my laptop battery and watched the rest of my movie. I also talked a bit with my mom who’d called me but then I had to go and board the ferry.
What a ferry! It felt like I was on a cruise ship! It was gorgeously decorated, there were a few coffee shops on board, two restaurants, a casino/gambling area, a bar, a gift shop, a video arcade, a kid’s area and a ton of seats. I took a seat by the port window and sat down to watch the disembarking. The sun was setting so it was rather gorgeous to see although it took forever to get out into the open water. By that point I had gotten up and walked around the ship more, and got a few pictures leaving
When the ferry docked, I made sure I was at the front of the foot passengers as I had my train to
I got in and the owner, Collin, checked me in for the night. Then the maintenance guy/assistant gave me a tour of the hostel and showed me to my room at the same time. It’s called the Globetrotters and ideal for backpackers and the hostel is very different from Jacob’s Inn in
Jacob's Inn in Dublin
Time for updates! Sorry there haven't been any for a few days - I didn't have wireless internet in the hostel I stayed in in Glasgow, Scotland. But I'm not in London and tapped into a wireless nearby and here are the blogs! (I'm not going to upload everything about what I did on wed because there was so much that I couldn't remember all the names and everything when I typed up my blog. Once I have time - I'll sit down with my maps and the help of the internet and fully talk about that day - again it won't be till sunday at the earliest!)
Well, I was talking about the hostel I stayed at in Glasgow in a blog I'm going to post after this... when I realized I didn't know how much I talked about the hostel in Dublin - and without the internet I couldn't even check... so here this is, though I think some I have already talked about.
Well, I was talking about the hostel I stayed at in Glasgow in a blog I'm going to post after this... when I realized I didn't know how much I talked about the hostel in Dublin - and without the internet I couldn't even check... so here this is, though I think some I have already talked about.
The hostel was called Jacob’s
The next morning I didn’t want to leave my stuff in the room as it was an 8 bed room with other guys, and especially didn’t want to leave my laptop out in the open or even risk it not being safe. I didn’t know what to do in a hostel, having never stayed in one before, but I asked the desk clerk what to do and they said I could rent a locker in the baggage room with a 10 Euro security deposit and 1.5 Euro per day. So I did that and headed over there and it took me past the kitchen. After putting my stuff in the large lockers, locking it up, I headed on out for the day.
Well, that's that... now the other day's blogs!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
sunday - dublin!
hello again!
Today was a fairly busy day. I had every intention of waking up early to be able to visit all the different places I wanted to see today - however being I was out late and having typed my day in a blog last night as well I opted to sleep in a little longer! So I ended up getting up around 9:30, and got ready for the day. By 10:30 I was out and about and stopped at a grocery store to buy some lunch for today. I then headed over to O'Connelly street and bought a ticket for the City Bus again. However I had to wait till the next one came, so I opted to take pictures of the monuments and the bridges over the Liffey River during the day (I had already gotten those pictures at night.) After I got the pictures I wanted, I waited for the next City Tour bus. When that finally came, I hopped on board and rode it until the Dublin Castle stop where I got off. I walked on in and took a bunch of pictures around the area before I realized that the museum itself didn't open until 2 pm on Sundays. So, I figured that since I was close to Christ Church Cathedral- which I hadn't been able to go in yesterday as it was closed for a service, I would hop over and get to see inside it.
However, when I arrived at the cathedral there was the Sunday mass service going on and it wouldn't open to the public until around 12:30 pm. As it was about noon, I figured I would walk around the area and see something since it wasn't that long I had to wait. I found another church just down the road called St. Audoan's. It's a medieval church from in the days of medieval Dublin. However, I couldn't get in to see it as the gate to the visitor center was closed and locked. I did take a bunch of pictures and was able to see a part of the original Dublin outskirts wall and one of the gates into the original city of Dublin. I then walked down by the river and over to Fishamble street. This street is known because about halfway up the street was the first place that Handel's "Messiah" was performed and each year on the anniversary, the choir of Christ Church and many other choirs join together on this road to perform the "Messiah."
By the time I got back up to Christ Church, it was now open so I went in. The inside was amazing and full of history. It is the oldest church in Dublin and I think Ireland as well. There was a whole bunch of things that the brochure talked about - mostly various things regarding the people involved with the church and everything. Was was interesting was the crypt under the church had been reworked and open to the public - that was cool to go in! One thing that is interesting about the cathedral is that the one wall of the cathedral is leaning out over 18 inches from when the side building collapsed years ago but the cathedral is still standing! This is the place where Lawrence O'Toole's heart is supposedly kept as well as the burial grounds of Strongbow, the viking leader who had a significant history with Dublin and it's formation.
After this, I had a half hour before the Dublin Castle opened up so I opted whether I should just hang out and check out some shops till it opened or come back later. I went with the first one, and did some browsing in shops and walked around the area for a bit. I would've gone in the Capital building however being Sunday it was closed. Thankfully though it was just about 2 pm so I headed to Dublin Castle and got a ticket for the first tour of the day. It was a really cool tour as the buildings on the grounds are still actively used today in politics. Our tour guide was a friendly woman who really knew what she was talking about. One thing that was interesting was how much Bill Clinton had in the history of Ireland and bringing peace between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Another really cool part of the tour was seeing part of the original fortress underneath part of the current buildings. Apparently in the 80's, the one corner of the building just collapsed and in the excavation to fix it they discovered the original foundations of the fortress. So they built the building back around them leaving the foundations open to the public. (Again I have a ton of pictures but will take a while to upload them - sorry!)
After the Dublin Castle, I hopped back on the City Tour bus with the aims of heading to Kilmainham Gaol - which was a prison until a couple decades ago when it closed and was then opened up as a museum. I wanted to go because it housed many famous prisoners from the many rebellions here in Ireland and was recommended as a good place to visit. However my time was running short and I also wanted to get over to the Old Jameson Distillery where the famous Jameson Whiskey was originally made until the 70's. While I was there taking the tour, I happened to have the same tour as a couple I had met while waiting last night at the Guinness Storehouse for the bus that never came, along with the woman's parents. The couple were slightly older than me and he at least went to Penn State so it was cool to chat with them last night and equally cool to run into them again today at the Jameson Distillery! They are living here in Dublin for 6 months and her parents came to visit for the week.
One cool thing that happened at the Distillery was that I was picked to be a taste tester at the end! It was cool because the 6 of us picked were given 5 different half-shots of whiskey. Three were Irish whiskey's including Jameson of course, a Scotch whiskey and an American Whiskey which ended up being Jack Danial's. Then, after that we got a certificate saying we were whiskey testers and another glass of Jameson's!
After that, I ended up hanging out with that family afterwards since we had already missed the last tour bus for the day. They were heading to the oldest pub in Dublin - The Brazen Head. We had a good time and there were incredibly friendly to spend time with. They only got drinks and an appetizer but I got Bangers and Mashers - a traditional Irish dish of sausage and mashed potatoes in a sauce. And of course I had a total of two pints of Guinness with dinner as well! The father paid with his card and when I asked how much I owed, he said to not worry about it... which I felt bad about because I don't feel great about people randomly paying for me but he insisted and said I had other means for money and they didn't mind. It was incredibly nice of them! After that they had wanted to go somewhere to hear Irish music so we headed over to Temple Bar. But it was too early for any bands to be playing and as I had to get packed and ready to travel tomorrow morning and they were traveling to western Ireland and needed to get packed too, we split our separate ways. I graciously thanked them for everything and wished them well in their travels and they did the same for me. It's the people like that that have made this trip amazing so far!
But anyways I came back here, and got online to type up this update. I'm probably going to close up shop here and gather my things together and get ready for bed as I'm tired and I need to head down the street to a shop to pick up a few more souvenirs tomorrow before I have to catch my train.
Tomorrow, I head to Glasgow, Scotland. My train from Dublin leaves at 11 am and takes me up to Belfast. I have some time in Belfast for some brief sightseeing and picture taking and then I catch a ferry across the water to Stranraer, Scotland around dinner time. Then I catch another train in Stranraer that will take me into Glasgow - the capital of Scotland. There I will walk the little bit to the hostel I'm booked into and check in and probably crash! I might update things tomorrow night but chances are there won't be an update till the night after.
As usual, hopefully things are going great with everyone back in the states! Laterz!
Today was a fairly busy day. I had every intention of waking up early to be able to visit all the different places I wanted to see today - however being I was out late and having typed my day in a blog last night as well I opted to sleep in a little longer! So I ended up getting up around 9:30, and got ready for the day. By 10:30 I was out and about and stopped at a grocery store to buy some lunch for today. I then headed over to O'Connelly street and bought a ticket for the City Bus again. However I had to wait till the next one came, so I opted to take pictures of the monuments and the bridges over the Liffey River during the day (I had already gotten those pictures at night.) After I got the pictures I wanted, I waited for the next City Tour bus. When that finally came, I hopped on board and rode it until the Dublin Castle stop where I got off. I walked on in and took a bunch of pictures around the area before I realized that the museum itself didn't open until 2 pm on Sundays. So, I figured that since I was close to Christ Church Cathedral- which I hadn't been able to go in yesterday as it was closed for a service, I would hop over and get to see inside it.
However, when I arrived at the cathedral there was the Sunday mass service going on and it wouldn't open to the public until around 12:30 pm. As it was about noon, I figured I would walk around the area and see something since it wasn't that long I had to wait. I found another church just down the road called St. Audoan's. It's a medieval church from in the days of medieval Dublin. However, I couldn't get in to see it as the gate to the visitor center was closed and locked. I did take a bunch of pictures and was able to see a part of the original Dublin outskirts wall and one of the gates into the original city of Dublin. I then walked down by the river and over to Fishamble street. This street is known because about halfway up the street was the first place that Handel's "Messiah" was performed and each year on the anniversary, the choir of Christ Church and many other choirs join together on this road to perform the "Messiah."
By the time I got back up to Christ Church, it was now open so I went in. The inside was amazing and full of history. It is the oldest church in Dublin and I think Ireland as well. There was a whole bunch of things that the brochure talked about - mostly various things regarding the people involved with the church and everything. Was was interesting was the crypt under the church had been reworked and open to the public - that was cool to go in! One thing that is interesting about the cathedral is that the one wall of the cathedral is leaning out over 18 inches from when the side building collapsed years ago but the cathedral is still standing! This is the place where Lawrence O'Toole's heart is supposedly kept as well as the burial grounds of Strongbow, the viking leader who had a significant history with Dublin and it's formation.
After this, I had a half hour before the Dublin Castle opened up so I opted whether I should just hang out and check out some shops till it opened or come back later. I went with the first one, and did some browsing in shops and walked around the area for a bit. I would've gone in the Capital building however being Sunday it was closed. Thankfully though it was just about 2 pm so I headed to Dublin Castle and got a ticket for the first tour of the day. It was a really cool tour as the buildings on the grounds are still actively used today in politics. Our tour guide was a friendly woman who really knew what she was talking about. One thing that was interesting was how much Bill Clinton had in the history of Ireland and bringing peace between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Another really cool part of the tour was seeing part of the original fortress underneath part of the current buildings. Apparently in the 80's, the one corner of the building just collapsed and in the excavation to fix it they discovered the original foundations of the fortress. So they built the building back around them leaving the foundations open to the public. (Again I have a ton of pictures but will take a while to upload them - sorry!)
After the Dublin Castle, I hopped back on the City Tour bus with the aims of heading to Kilmainham Gaol - which was a prison until a couple decades ago when it closed and was then opened up as a museum. I wanted to go because it housed many famous prisoners from the many rebellions here in Ireland and was recommended as a good place to visit. However my time was running short and I also wanted to get over to the Old Jameson Distillery where the famous Jameson Whiskey was originally made until the 70's. While I was there taking the tour, I happened to have the same tour as a couple I had met while waiting last night at the Guinness Storehouse for the bus that never came, along with the woman's parents. The couple were slightly older than me and he at least went to Penn State so it was cool to chat with them last night and equally cool to run into them again today at the Jameson Distillery! They are living here in Dublin for 6 months and her parents came to visit for the week.
One cool thing that happened at the Distillery was that I was picked to be a taste tester at the end! It was cool because the 6 of us picked were given 5 different half-shots of whiskey. Three were Irish whiskey's including Jameson of course, a Scotch whiskey and an American Whiskey which ended up being Jack Danial's. Then, after that we got a certificate saying we were whiskey testers and another glass of Jameson's!
After that, I ended up hanging out with that family afterwards since we had already missed the last tour bus for the day. They were heading to the oldest pub in Dublin - The Brazen Head. We had a good time and there were incredibly friendly to spend time with. They only got drinks and an appetizer but I got Bangers and Mashers - a traditional Irish dish of sausage and mashed potatoes in a sauce. And of course I had a total of two pints of Guinness with dinner as well! The father paid with his card and when I asked how much I owed, he said to not worry about it... which I felt bad about because I don't feel great about people randomly paying for me but he insisted and said I had other means for money and they didn't mind. It was incredibly nice of them! After that they had wanted to go somewhere to hear Irish music so we headed over to Temple Bar. But it was too early for any bands to be playing and as I had to get packed and ready to travel tomorrow morning and they were traveling to western Ireland and needed to get packed too, we split our separate ways. I graciously thanked them for everything and wished them well in their travels and they did the same for me. It's the people like that that have made this trip amazing so far!
But anyways I came back here, and got online to type up this update. I'm probably going to close up shop here and gather my things together and get ready for bed as I'm tired and I need to head down the street to a shop to pick up a few more souvenirs tomorrow before I have to catch my train.
Tomorrow, I head to Glasgow, Scotland. My train from Dublin leaves at 11 am and takes me up to Belfast. I have some time in Belfast for some brief sightseeing and picture taking and then I catch a ferry across the water to Stranraer, Scotland around dinner time. Then I catch another train in Stranraer that will take me into Glasgow - the capital of Scotland. There I will walk the little bit to the hostel I'm booked into and check in and probably crash! I might update things tomorrow night but chances are there won't be an update till the night after.
As usual, hopefully things are going great with everyone back in the states! Laterz!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Dublin - Sat
Well, it's my first real day here in Dublin. Sorry the last part of my blog from yesterday was kinda short and brief - my battery was dying and I didn't have the UK adapter on me in the lobby. But the hostel I'm staying at is called Jacob's Inn (http://www.isaacs.ie/jacobs_inn/index.html - that's the link to their website if you want to take a look at it.) It was cheap which is why I chose it as well as it is basically a few blocks from the main road in Dublin.
When I checked in last night, they assigned me my bed number - however when i got to my room someone else had put there stuff in that bed. The main desk clerk said that was common so just take an empty bed. So I finally got to sleep in the top of a bunk bed which was interesting! They provide a pillow and a heavy comforter and there's a thin sheet on the mattress - but it was surprisingly warm and comfy. I had to set my phone on vibrate and set that alarm and sleep kinda lying on/holding my phone but it did wake me up this morning! However I was still tired and since I am on vacation I hit snooze a few times!
I ended up getting up around 10:30 and getting ready for the day. I checked downstairs at the main desk to see what I can do with my stuff during the day as this is my first time ever staying in a hostel. They offered me a lock for a locker in the luggage room. Naturally I had to pay a security deposit but the daily fee was really cheap - 1.50 € per day. As with all security deposits, I'll get that back when I return the lock when I check out on monday.
So since it was getting to be lunch time, I first stopped at a semi grocery store/convenience store/deli/coffee shop and bought a tuna wrap and a drink for about 5 €. I then quickly realized that I should've brought my messanger back to just carry random stuff around during the day - when I noticed a camping store that had small day packs for 50% off. So I bought a rather nice one for 10 €. My next major goal was to find a dirt cheap, basic digital camera since I left mine in my room. I realized while trying to fall asleep last night that even if I bought one disposable camera a day and just used that - it would cost about 100 € for the whole trip and I figured i could find a digital camera for around that price and thus be able to take more pictures. I found one for 80€ which doubles as a webcam and had a leather carrying case and a waterproof case included - and since it was the last one the place had they gave it to me for only 70€. This was a great deal, and although it is very basic (only has a digital zoom) it was a rather good camera. I had packed my 1 GB SD card in my laptop bag so I thankfully didn't have to buy another one. I was really glad I got this camera because earlier today when I came back and got online for a bit I uploaded the pics to my computer - and I had taken 360 pictures! I probably won't upload them online till I have a chance to sort through them and everything and that might not be till my trip is over but don't worry - I'll get them up online just give me some time and you can see all that I saw!
Once that was all settled, I started to figure out what I was going to do for the day. I ended up on O'Connelly street which is the main street in Dublin and there was a stop for a City Tour bus which boasted a 24 hr ticket and 23 stops that you can hop-on/hop-off at any time with buses every 10-15 min. So I bought a ticket for that and hopped aboard. It was a double-decker bus but the upper part was packed full so I took a seat next to a woman on the first level. After awhile we started talked as I realized she and the woman in front of her were together and seemed to know a lot about Dublin. The one woman I sat next to ended up being from Wisconson and the other apparently has been living in Ireland for a while. They were incredibly friendly and helped make the tour a good time. We all agreed that since we got on at the 3rd stop of the 23, that it'd be best to take the whole hour and half bus tour and then decide where to get off. The bus driver we had was also great and really knew what he was talking about!
(I realize I'm going to be talking about a lot of places in Dublin and stops and when I get the chance I will upload a picture of the map showing the stops and the different things I visited.)
After that, I decided to get off at Trinity College which is the site of the Book of Kells - an ancient and one of the first recorded texts of the four gospels. However when I got there, I realized it was about 7€ for admission to see a library of old books and one important book... which I deamed wasn't worth the money so I walked down the street a little bit to the main upper priced shopping area. I didn't go into those shops but stopped at the statue of Molly Malone, who is rather famous in Dublin and all of Ireland and perhaps you have all heard the song about here. It was rather a sight to see!
After that, I walked down the street some more to another stop on the City Tour line, that of the house Oscar Wilde was born in and the park next to it which has a monument of him. I went inside the park and took some pictures. The park was amazing! There was the part throughout it but it was so dense and filled in with flaura that it didn't even seem like you were in the city! This whole area is in the Georgian part of Dublin which was interesting in itself. There are a lot of museums around that area but I didn't go to any as they either were closed (The one museum had to close as the staircase collapsed according to our driver!) but also becasue I had other places I wanted to see. When I upload the pics of this area, note that the buildings which nowadays sell for upwards of 6 million euros, have windows that get increasingly smaller as the building rises. This is because when they were built, the Georgian idea was to have the illusion that they were taller, thus the forced perspecitve but aslo there was a glass window tax in Dublin at the time. The more window glass you had, the more tax you paid - so the higher flats were for cheap people who couldn't afford to have large windows!
I hopped back onto another bus after the stop for Oscar Wilde, and this driver wasn't as informative as the other one but still I learned new thigns. I decided to head over to the Christ Church Cathedral which was built in the 1400's if I remember correctly. It's a gorgeous cathedral from the outside and the tour guide from before said it was even sinking in parts of the cathedral! I was unable to go inside it as there was a performance going on till 3pm and it was closed til after that was over. So, instead I walked across the street to another church building that was attached to the cathedral by a bridge built later on. This other building had an exhibit called Dublinia which showed life back in the begins of Dublin as well as an exhibit about the vikings who conquered the area. There was a tower in that buidling called St. Michael's tower which I walked up the couple flights of steps to. There was a great view of the city from up there and I took many pictures! Unfortunately by the time I was done going through that museum and exhibit, the cathedral hadn't opened back up. So I dedided I'll make it a stop tomorrow and I walked a few blocks down to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Outside St. Patrick's cathedral is a cute little park that I walked around and took great pictures of the cathedral itself. There was also special memorials to famous Dublin poets, writers and artists at the one end including George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Jonathan Swift among others (pics will be uploaded!) After this, I headed inside the Cathedral itself. It was gorgous inside! While it is still used for services, there are many plaques and monuments and statues for various people associated with the cathedral and it's history. I took a ton of pics and will upload them and explain them as best I can! What is interesting about St. Patrick's Cathedral is that Jonathan Swift, known for his writings including Guilliver's Travels as well as one of the most famous deans of the cathedral, is buried inside the cathedral with one of his two mistresses beside him!
After this, I hopped onto the bus again for my next stop of the day - the Guinness Storehouse Museum! Dublin is home to the original factory of Arthur Guinness' famous lager. This is one of the most vistied attractions in Dublin and I ended up having to wait in a long line oustide the building in the cold and then inside as well! (It was a gorgeous day but got colder as night came along) While it was an interesting museum and fairly new - it opened in 2000 - it did not compare to the Budweiser factory tours I have been on. While the building it is in used to be part of the brewery, it was renevated and you didn't see anything actually happeneing in the brewing process. It was still interesting to go through and of course I loved the complimentary pint of Guinness that everyone gets at the end! They have a great 360 degree Gravity Bar for the compimentary pints of Guinness and it was cool to see more of Dublin for high up! After that, I realized I had to make sure to catch the last bus on the tour route so I quickly made it through the gift shop.
What ended up happeneing, aside from it getting darker and colder... was the bus that was supposed to show up never came. I was there about 10 min before it was scheduled to arrive and the one couple had told me the bus driver said it normally makes it's last stop about quarter after 6 pm... but by 25 after there was still no bus. I did get the chance to talk to a woman and her daughter about the states and home. They were from Utah but the daughter and her husband had moved to Ireland about 6 months ago. Again, very friendly people that made the day more fun! But anyways, as the Guinness Storehouse was a good walk from the main city centre and the hostel I was staying at, I was trying to figure out how to get back as there was really only either walking or taking a taxi. Thankfully that same couple that told me the bus would come about quarter after was going in the same direction as me and suggested we share the cab fare. It ended up being only 10€ and when I went to pay the man my share of the fare he told me not to worry about it as I needed the money to get to Scotland! (We had talked about what we were doing and things like that before and during the taxi ride) So I graciously thanked him and we went our separate ways. The kindness of strangers is incredible and will really put a smile on your face - I just hope I can offer somethign similar to someone else at some point to pass the kindness on! It was also great to talk to friendly people as well - most people in Ireland have been amazing nice and friendly!
Anyways, I was getting hungry and as it was almost 7pm, I figured I should probably eat something - So I went to McDonalds. Don't get me wrong - I normally wouldn't opt for McDonald's however they had a cheap eurosaver menu and I got a coffee, sandwhich and curly fries for 5.50€. I also hadn't had McDonald's since before I left PA, as the ones in France are incredibly pricey! But after that I walked back to my hostel and got on my computer in my room. Someone else was still claiming the bunk I was assigned so I took another one wiht an outlet plug beside it. Of course, an older gentleman came in later and apparently I was in the bunk he was assigned. However, we resolved things and ended up spending a good hour and half to two hours talking about so many things from politics in the US, to governments, to healthcare, to history, school, music, etc... It was odd because he was wearing a kilt and had an incredibly thick accent and I believe he mentioned he was from another part of Ireland. I actually had trouble talking in English at times - as far as getting the wording correct. Apparently French is becoming more common for my mind to think in, which is a good thing!
But after a while, I ended up heading back out around 10 pm. Being a Saturday night I wanted to exprience the nightlife of Dublin, Ireland! I called my mom and just chatted for a while, as we hadn't talked in a few weeks over the phone, as I was walking around. I walked over to an area of Dublin across the river called Temple Bar which is packed full of pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants - not to mention the ton of people! After walking around just soaking in the ambiance and atmosphere, I finally entered a bar/club called The Capitol which was rather fun. I had another pint of Guinness and just chilled for a bit. I then headed back towards a club I saw while roaming around called The Dragon. I had another pint of Guinness and a shot of Bailey's there and ended up spending about an hour or so dancing on the dance floor. I really enjoyed both clubs a lot and they were so much nicer than any one's I have been in before in Pittsburg. Europe knows how to have amazing clubs with great atmospheres!
After that, I walked back to my hostel and am here typing up this blog. I promise I will upload all the pictures later after I have time to sort through them and everything - I just didn't want to forget anything from today!
Well, I'm off to bed now, as I have a busy day aimed for tomorrow! Hope things are going fine back wiht everyone!
When I checked in last night, they assigned me my bed number - however when i got to my room someone else had put there stuff in that bed. The main desk clerk said that was common so just take an empty bed. So I finally got to sleep in the top of a bunk bed which was interesting! They provide a pillow and a heavy comforter and there's a thin sheet on the mattress - but it was surprisingly warm and comfy. I had to set my phone on vibrate and set that alarm and sleep kinda lying on/holding my phone but it did wake me up this morning! However I was still tired and since I am on vacation I hit snooze a few times!
I ended up getting up around 10:30 and getting ready for the day. I checked downstairs at the main desk to see what I can do with my stuff during the day as this is my first time ever staying in a hostel. They offered me a lock for a locker in the luggage room. Naturally I had to pay a security deposit but the daily fee was really cheap - 1.50 € per day. As with all security deposits, I'll get that back when I return the lock when I check out on monday.
So since it was getting to be lunch time, I first stopped at a semi grocery store/convenience store/deli/coffee shop and bought a tuna wrap and a drink for about 5 €. I then quickly realized that I should've brought my messanger back to just carry random stuff around during the day - when I noticed a camping store that had small day packs for 50% off. So I bought a rather nice one for 10 €. My next major goal was to find a dirt cheap, basic digital camera since I left mine in my room. I realized while trying to fall asleep last night that even if I bought one disposable camera a day and just used that - it would cost about 100 € for the whole trip and I figured i could find a digital camera for around that price and thus be able to take more pictures. I found one for 80€ which doubles as a webcam and had a leather carrying case and a waterproof case included - and since it was the last one the place had they gave it to me for only 70€. This was a great deal, and although it is very basic (only has a digital zoom) it was a rather good camera. I had packed my 1 GB SD card in my laptop bag so I thankfully didn't have to buy another one. I was really glad I got this camera because earlier today when I came back and got online for a bit I uploaded the pics to my computer - and I had taken 360 pictures! I probably won't upload them online till I have a chance to sort through them and everything and that might not be till my trip is over but don't worry - I'll get them up online just give me some time and you can see all that I saw!
Once that was all settled, I started to figure out what I was going to do for the day. I ended up on O'Connelly street which is the main street in Dublin and there was a stop for a City Tour bus which boasted a 24 hr ticket and 23 stops that you can hop-on/hop-off at any time with buses every 10-15 min. So I bought a ticket for that and hopped aboard. It was a double-decker bus but the upper part was packed full so I took a seat next to a woman on the first level. After awhile we started talked as I realized she and the woman in front of her were together and seemed to know a lot about Dublin. The one woman I sat next to ended up being from Wisconson and the other apparently has been living in Ireland for a while. They were incredibly friendly and helped make the tour a good time. We all agreed that since we got on at the 3rd stop of the 23, that it'd be best to take the whole hour and half bus tour and then decide where to get off. The bus driver we had was also great and really knew what he was talking about!
(I realize I'm going to be talking about a lot of places in Dublin and stops and when I get the chance I will upload a picture of the map showing the stops and the different things I visited.)
After that, I decided to get off at Trinity College which is the site of the Book of Kells - an ancient and one of the first recorded texts of the four gospels. However when I got there, I realized it was about 7€ for admission to see a library of old books and one important book... which I deamed wasn't worth the money so I walked down the street a little bit to the main upper priced shopping area. I didn't go into those shops but stopped at the statue of Molly Malone, who is rather famous in Dublin and all of Ireland and perhaps you have all heard the song about here. It was rather a sight to see!
After that, I walked down the street some more to another stop on the City Tour line, that of the house Oscar Wilde was born in and the park next to it which has a monument of him. I went inside the park and took some pictures. The park was amazing! There was the part throughout it but it was so dense and filled in with flaura that it didn't even seem like you were in the city! This whole area is in the Georgian part of Dublin which was interesting in itself. There are a lot of museums around that area but I didn't go to any as they either were closed (The one museum had to close as the staircase collapsed according to our driver!) but also becasue I had other places I wanted to see. When I upload the pics of this area, note that the buildings which nowadays sell for upwards of 6 million euros, have windows that get increasingly smaller as the building rises. This is because when they were built, the Georgian idea was to have the illusion that they were taller, thus the forced perspecitve but aslo there was a glass window tax in Dublin at the time. The more window glass you had, the more tax you paid - so the higher flats were for cheap people who couldn't afford to have large windows!
I hopped back onto another bus after the stop for Oscar Wilde, and this driver wasn't as informative as the other one but still I learned new thigns. I decided to head over to the Christ Church Cathedral which was built in the 1400's if I remember correctly. It's a gorgeous cathedral from the outside and the tour guide from before said it was even sinking in parts of the cathedral! I was unable to go inside it as there was a performance going on till 3pm and it was closed til after that was over. So, instead I walked across the street to another church building that was attached to the cathedral by a bridge built later on. This other building had an exhibit called Dublinia which showed life back in the begins of Dublin as well as an exhibit about the vikings who conquered the area. There was a tower in that buidling called St. Michael's tower which I walked up the couple flights of steps to. There was a great view of the city from up there and I took many pictures! Unfortunately by the time I was done going through that museum and exhibit, the cathedral hadn't opened back up. So I dedided I'll make it a stop tomorrow and I walked a few blocks down to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Outside St. Patrick's cathedral is a cute little park that I walked around and took great pictures of the cathedral itself. There was also special memorials to famous Dublin poets, writers and artists at the one end including George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Jonathan Swift among others (pics will be uploaded!) After this, I headed inside the Cathedral itself. It was gorgous inside! While it is still used for services, there are many plaques and monuments and statues for various people associated with the cathedral and it's history. I took a ton of pics and will upload them and explain them as best I can! What is interesting about St. Patrick's Cathedral is that Jonathan Swift, known for his writings including Guilliver's Travels as well as one of the most famous deans of the cathedral, is buried inside the cathedral with one of his two mistresses beside him!
After this, I hopped onto the bus again for my next stop of the day - the Guinness Storehouse Museum! Dublin is home to the original factory of Arthur Guinness' famous lager. This is one of the most vistied attractions in Dublin and I ended up having to wait in a long line oustide the building in the cold and then inside as well! (It was a gorgeous day but got colder as night came along) While it was an interesting museum and fairly new - it opened in 2000 - it did not compare to the Budweiser factory tours I have been on. While the building it is in used to be part of the brewery, it was renevated and you didn't see anything actually happeneing in the brewing process. It was still interesting to go through and of course I loved the complimentary pint of Guinness that everyone gets at the end! They have a great 360 degree Gravity Bar for the compimentary pints of Guinness and it was cool to see more of Dublin for high up! After that, I realized I had to make sure to catch the last bus on the tour route so I quickly made it through the gift shop.
What ended up happeneing, aside from it getting darker and colder... was the bus that was supposed to show up never came. I was there about 10 min before it was scheduled to arrive and the one couple had told me the bus driver said it normally makes it's last stop about quarter after 6 pm... but by 25 after there was still no bus. I did get the chance to talk to a woman and her daughter about the states and home. They were from Utah but the daughter and her husband had moved to Ireland about 6 months ago. Again, very friendly people that made the day more fun! But anyways, as the Guinness Storehouse was a good walk from the main city centre and the hostel I was staying at, I was trying to figure out how to get back as there was really only either walking or taking a taxi. Thankfully that same couple that told me the bus would come about quarter after was going in the same direction as me and suggested we share the cab fare. It ended up being only 10€ and when I went to pay the man my share of the fare he told me not to worry about it as I needed the money to get to Scotland! (We had talked about what we were doing and things like that before and during the taxi ride) So I graciously thanked him and we went our separate ways. The kindness of strangers is incredible and will really put a smile on your face - I just hope I can offer somethign similar to someone else at some point to pass the kindness on! It was also great to talk to friendly people as well - most people in Ireland have been amazing nice and friendly!
Anyways, I was getting hungry and as it was almost 7pm, I figured I should probably eat something - So I went to McDonalds. Don't get me wrong - I normally wouldn't opt for McDonald's however they had a cheap eurosaver menu and I got a coffee, sandwhich and curly fries for 5.50€. I also hadn't had McDonald's since before I left PA, as the ones in France are incredibly pricey! But after that I walked back to my hostel and got on my computer in my room. Someone else was still claiming the bunk I was assigned so I took another one wiht an outlet plug beside it. Of course, an older gentleman came in later and apparently I was in the bunk he was assigned. However, we resolved things and ended up spending a good hour and half to two hours talking about so many things from politics in the US, to governments, to healthcare, to history, school, music, etc... It was odd because he was wearing a kilt and had an incredibly thick accent and I believe he mentioned he was from another part of Ireland. I actually had trouble talking in English at times - as far as getting the wording correct. Apparently French is becoming more common for my mind to think in, which is a good thing!
But after a while, I ended up heading back out around 10 pm. Being a Saturday night I wanted to exprience the nightlife of Dublin, Ireland! I called my mom and just chatted for a while, as we hadn't talked in a few weeks over the phone, as I was walking around. I walked over to an area of Dublin across the river called Temple Bar which is packed full of pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants - not to mention the ton of people! After walking around just soaking in the ambiance and atmosphere, I finally entered a bar/club called The Capitol which was rather fun. I had another pint of Guinness and just chilled for a bit. I then headed back towards a club I saw while roaming around called The Dragon. I had another pint of Guinness and a shot of Bailey's there and ended up spending about an hour or so dancing on the dance floor. I really enjoyed both clubs a lot and they were so much nicer than any one's I have been in before in Pittsburg. Europe knows how to have amazing clubs with great atmospheres!
After that, I walked back to my hostel and am here typing up this blog. I promise I will upload all the pictures later after I have time to sort through them and everything - I just didn't want to forget anything from today!
Well, I'm off to bed now, as I have a busy day aimed for tomorrow! Hope things are going fine back wiht everyone!
Friday, February 15, 2008
To Dublin I go!
Well, the day has come for my first trip. I had everything booked out - ended up being more than I had originally priced because I waited till last weekend to book things. But aside from getting things ready and trying to pack and everything Thursday night - it's been interesting so far but kinda boring too. I had issues trying to pack and what to bring etc but that is behind me now and I've got all that I should need.
So I wake up this morning, hit the snooze and sleep for a bit more cause I was tired... wasn't such a great idea. I ended up waking up later than I had planned and as such was unable to do some random last minute shopping I thought I needed (mainly a scale and an adapter.) So I was finishing packing things up, getting ready to head out when I realized it was getting late and I had to take the metro to catch my shuttle to the airport. However I realize in gathering my paperwork I printed out... I forgot to print out the ticket saying I paid for the shuttle already! So I loaded it up on my laptop and figured I'd try to see if they'd be able to use that just by looking at it - worse case I would have to pay for another one. So I rush out of my room, and hop on the metro. As the stations slowly roll by, it's getting close to 3 pm when the shuttle was supposed to leave Gare Lille Europe and it's about 10 till and I'm still a few metro stops away. So I finally get to my stop, hurry uptop and realize I'm not exactly sure where I need to meet the shuttle... or what it even looks like. So I asked the two busses that were there if they were the one I wanted - neither was. Meanwhile it's about 3:05 now... and I'm on the verge of panic thinking I'm going to have to find another way to get to the airport which is going to cost more money.... and the shuttle shows up and a bunch of people flock to it. Thankfully they took my pass on my laptop and I was good.
So we're going along... and then we come to the Belguim border. (I was flying out of Brussels Charleroi Airport b/c that's where RyanAir is closest to me. RyanAir is dirt cheap flights over Europe) I see the sign for Belguim and think that'd be a cool pic... so I go to get out my digital camera .... and then it dawns on me after it's not where I thought I put it... I left it on my desk in my room. I thought I had taken it out of the case last night, as I wasn't planning on bringing the case along, so I didn't think twice seeing the case pushed off to the side of my desk when I left this morning. I double checked everywhere and when we got to the airport I checked in my other bag too - no camera... which completely sucks because I take a ton of pictures .. :-(
But anyways... I get to the airport and after realizing it's tiny and there's not much there... I settle down to wait. I had to take the 3 pm shuttle b/c it was an hour and half shuttle ride to the airport but my flight didn't leave till 9:35 pm. Naturally the airport is outside the city so i couldn't even go into there and look for a cheap camera or something. So I couldn't get the wifi to work in the airport so I sat there on my computer (I had to charge it as it was dead from not fully shutting off when I left :-() I'm checking the departure board the whole time as well. You can't check in for a flight until 2 hours before departure... so around that time I notice that it says closed! So I grab my things thinking I missed the time limit to check in... when it changes to checking in and there's a long line of people too. So there's panic attack number 2 or whatever which wasn't fun. So I get checked in, had to pay more money b/c I didn't say i was checking a bag in when I made the reservation online. Thankfully my bag was underweight! (I was worried and that was why I wanted to get a scale.) I go through security only for my shirt to set it off (metal snaps) and I forgot to take off my belt too! But after that I was good and headed to the better part of the terminal.
They had a tax and duty free shop there which souvenirs and other things from perfumes to alcohol and more. I found my playing cards there as well as the shot glasses. So I picked up those for me and my mom for Belgium and Brussels, one for matt... didn't have spoons for steph so she get's a china plate and dad get's a thimble! I also got the European plug to UK plug adapter (I couldn't find one before) so I can charge my one phone. Though I ended up spending more than I thought as well which isn't that good.
So after I grab a drink I have to go to the international part of the terminal - and apparently I should've had my passport stamped when I arrived in Paris b/c they didn't do that. But they stamped it and I was good to go. Our plane finally started boarding. I was waiting in a long line, but had priority boarding so was confused why the line wasn't moving - I was in the other line! So I got in the right line and was good to go, walking out to the plane and up the steps. The way RyanAir works is you buy a ticket but seats aren't assigned. I wasn't happy with the plane nor the flight even though it was cheap. The seats weren't comfortable and the engine was really loud. It was a hideous yellow all over inside as well and thankfully it wasn't that long of a flight. It didn't help that there was a huge group of I think high school kids on the flight as well, and a baby who didn't stop crying.
So I land, walk along I don't know how many moving walkways to get to baggage claim. My bags were there when i got there which was surprising and nice, and I headed out through customs where they stamped my passport again. Then I had to ask someone how to get to the Connelly Station in the city center which is near my hostel I booked. I finally got on the right bus, paid for that ticket, and was good to go. The drive into the city center was quick and nice. I got out at my stop, and got lost again - realizing I didn't have a decent map either. I finally ended up asking someone and the hostel ended up being right around the corner! But I got there, got checked in, semi checked the place out - not the best but it'll work. I'm in a dorm room with 8 beds, and a shared bathroom. I'll probably either sleep with my laptop under my pillow or pay for a safe - not sure yet... but I have to pay to keep my luggage and stuff stored during the day.
I'm not sure yet what I'm going to tommorrow but I'll talk about aout it in the next post! Laterz!
So I wake up this morning, hit the snooze and sleep for a bit more cause I was tired... wasn't such a great idea. I ended up waking up later than I had planned and as such was unable to do some random last minute shopping I thought I needed (mainly a scale and an adapter.) So I was finishing packing things up, getting ready to head out when I realized it was getting late and I had to take the metro to catch my shuttle to the airport. However I realize in gathering my paperwork I printed out... I forgot to print out the ticket saying I paid for the shuttle already! So I loaded it up on my laptop and figured I'd try to see if they'd be able to use that just by looking at it - worse case I would have to pay for another one. So I rush out of my room, and hop on the metro. As the stations slowly roll by, it's getting close to 3 pm when the shuttle was supposed to leave Gare Lille Europe and it's about 10 till and I'm still a few metro stops away. So I finally get to my stop, hurry uptop and realize I'm not exactly sure where I need to meet the shuttle... or what it even looks like. So I asked the two busses that were there if they were the one I wanted - neither was. Meanwhile it's about 3:05 now... and I'm on the verge of panic thinking I'm going to have to find another way to get to the airport which is going to cost more money.... and the shuttle shows up and a bunch of people flock to it. Thankfully they took my pass on my laptop and I was good.
So we're going along... and then we come to the Belguim border. (I was flying out of Brussels Charleroi Airport b/c that's where RyanAir is closest to me. RyanAir is dirt cheap flights over Europe) I see the sign for Belguim and think that'd be a cool pic... so I go to get out my digital camera .... and then it dawns on me after it's not where I thought I put it... I left it on my desk in my room. I thought I had taken it out of the case last night, as I wasn't planning on bringing the case along, so I didn't think twice seeing the case pushed off to the side of my desk when I left this morning. I double checked everywhere and when we got to the airport I checked in my other bag too - no camera... which completely sucks because I take a ton of pictures .. :-(
But anyways... I get to the airport and after realizing it's tiny and there's not much there... I settle down to wait. I had to take the 3 pm shuttle b/c it was an hour and half shuttle ride to the airport but my flight didn't leave till 9:35 pm. Naturally the airport is outside the city so i couldn't even go into there and look for a cheap camera or something. So I couldn't get the wifi to work in the airport so I sat there on my computer (I had to charge it as it was dead from not fully shutting off when I left :-() I'm checking the departure board the whole time as well. You can't check in for a flight until 2 hours before departure... so around that time I notice that it says closed! So I grab my things thinking I missed the time limit to check in... when it changes to checking in and there's a long line of people too. So there's panic attack number 2 or whatever which wasn't fun. So I get checked in, had to pay more money b/c I didn't say i was checking a bag in when I made the reservation online. Thankfully my bag was underweight! (I was worried and that was why I wanted to get a scale.) I go through security only for my shirt to set it off (metal snaps) and I forgot to take off my belt too! But after that I was good and headed to the better part of the terminal.
They had a tax and duty free shop there which souvenirs and other things from perfumes to alcohol and more. I found my playing cards there as well as the shot glasses. So I picked up those for me and my mom for Belgium and Brussels, one for matt... didn't have spoons for steph so she get's a china plate and dad get's a thimble! I also got the European plug to UK plug adapter (I couldn't find one before) so I can charge my one phone. Though I ended up spending more than I thought as well which isn't that good.
So after I grab a drink I have to go to the international part of the terminal - and apparently I should've had my passport stamped when I arrived in Paris b/c they didn't do that. But they stamped it and I was good to go. Our plane finally started boarding. I was waiting in a long line, but had priority boarding so was confused why the line wasn't moving - I was in the other line! So I got in the right line and was good to go, walking out to the plane and up the steps. The way RyanAir works is you buy a ticket but seats aren't assigned. I wasn't happy with the plane nor the flight even though it was cheap. The seats weren't comfortable and the engine was really loud. It was a hideous yellow all over inside as well and thankfully it wasn't that long of a flight. It didn't help that there was a huge group of I think high school kids on the flight as well, and a baby who didn't stop crying.
So I land, walk along I don't know how many moving walkways to get to baggage claim. My bags were there when i got there which was surprising and nice, and I headed out through customs where they stamped my passport again. Then I had to ask someone how to get to the Connelly Station in the city center which is near my hostel I booked. I finally got on the right bus, paid for that ticket, and was good to go. The drive into the city center was quick and nice. I got out at my stop, and got lost again - realizing I didn't have a decent map either. I finally ended up asking someone and the hostel ended up being right around the corner! But I got there, got checked in, semi checked the place out - not the best but it'll work. I'm in a dorm room with 8 beds, and a shared bathroom. I'll probably either sleep with my laptop under my pillow or pay for a safe - not sure yet... but I have to pay to keep my luggage and stuff stored during the day.
I'm not sure yet what I'm going to tommorrow but I'll talk about aout it in the next post! Laterz!
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