Contrary to popular belief, I am, in fact, still alive and kicking, even after a very exhausting and wifi-less (I know, poor me) 10 day vacation to Ireland, Scotland and London that unfortunately resulted in a really bad cold this week. But hey, no pasa nada, right? :)
Who knew traveling could take so much out of you? The leisurely strolls I was picturing myself taking through the streets of Dublin and tours I planned to take throughout Edinburgh and London that were supposed to leave me feeling well-rested, rejuvenated and culturally superior were actually more like sleepless whirlwinds of cramming everything you could possibly want to do in any of these cities into a 3-day-or-less period....
...Whew!
As far as the "cramming everything you could possibly want to do" part goes, I'd say we were extremely successful. Our group (there were 6 of us, 3 boys and 3 girls) partook in two guided tours whilst in Ireland, one that took us to the Cliffs of Moher and one that ended at Blarney Castle, both absolutely amazing things to see in person. Ireland is just as beautiful and green and Irish as I'd imagined it to be, and the tours were so fun because we had awesome tour guides both days, and the buses made pitstops in lots of cool places along the way, one of them being a restaurant where we stopped for lunch in which I ate the freshest & most amazing seafood chowder I think I'll ever have the pleasure of tasting. My dad would've really liked it (hey Dad!). Naturally we just had to do the Guinness Tour alongside other touristy activities while in Dublin, and we also went to a lot of really cute/cool/old pubs that had awesome food and live music...I'd say I'm pretty well-versed a few Irish drinking songs by now.
After exactly 3.5 days of fun seeing all the best that the land of Ire had to offer (I forgot to mention how nice the cab drivers were!!), we said our goodbyes and made our way onto the 2nd leg of the trip. All in all, it was a great time, or as the Irish would say, Great Craic! (pronounced "crack")
And then off we flew to Edinburgh, Scotland!
Scotland wasn't a part of the original plan for our break to the UK, however something in this tiny little head of mine told me we'd be making a mistake not to go, so everyone agreed on spending one day and one night there, and all I can say to my group is...you're welcome. I am SO glad we got to see Edinburgh, as it was NOTHING like any other place I've ever seen, and definitely not what I expected, either. The architecture is absolutely amazing, and combined with the winding, hilly streets and green grass and lakes in the distance, it was a beautiful city. It has a really gothic/dark/punk-y kind of feel to it, too...lots of really old graveyards and underground dungeons (which we took a tour of and saw a functioning Wicken temple), and the nightlife consisted of a lot of really small, dark bars where the bartenders dressed very gothic and played music that screamed at you. Safe to say this was not my cup of tea, but it was still interesting to see and experience...although I did leave to go home to bed quite early that night. The next morning we ate breakfast at the cutest cafe called "Elephant House" where JK Rowling sat and wrote Harry Potter! Hogwarts, the school in the books, is apparently based off of Edinburgh castle, which you can see perfectly out the windows of the back room of the cafe where we sat (I tried to channel some of her creative juices for my blog but I'm not sure I succeeded, sorry everybody!).
And then I blinked, and suddenly I was in LONDON!
Has anybody ever gone to London and had a bad time? I'd like to think not...it's too pretty and classy and the perfect mixture of old and whimsical and modern and (best of all) Chicago-like. The only bad part about it is that it's just big enough and there's just enough to do to the point where it got a tad overwhelming for a group of six 20 year olds on the 3rd leg of a 10 day break with minimal sleep under our belts. To give you some perspective, here is a rough list of all the things we somehow managed to see and fit into a 72 hour long journey in one of the most famous cities in the world:
1. Tower of London
2. Tower Bridge
3. National Gallery
4. National Portrait Gallery
5. Big Ben/Parliament (I couldn't stop quoting, "There it is, Wendy! The 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning!".....I think I got annoying)
6. The Crowned Jewels
7. The Monument (really tall overlook of the city built after the London fire of 1666)
8. St. Paul's Cathedral (Where Princess Di and Prince Charles were married)
9. Wellington Arch
10. Westminster Abbey
11. Buckingham Palace
12. St. James Park
13. Southwark Cathedral
14. Picadilly Circus
15. Abbey Road
16. London Bridge
17. Harrod's
18. Wimbledon
19. London Eye
20. And of course, Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station :) (From Harry Potter, for all you non-nerds)
Just writing that list made me tired. My favorites, you ask? It's hard to say because everything was so different. However, Westminster Abbey is definitely in there somewhere. It is so much bigger than I imagined it to be...it has at least 10 little chapels all along the sides of the center nave where, like, 50 famous kings and queens are buried! I did an audio tour and there is just so much cool history and stories about it...and to think I just thought it was the church where Will and Kate got married! Naturally I walked up the aisle silently pretending to be her once or twice...I don't think anyone noticed. Big Ben was another one of my favorites, just because of how pretty it was to see at nighttime all lit up.
I really wish we could have spend more time in Wimbledon. It's much bigger than you would think and has a lot of cool museums and trophy rooms, and it's obviously just a different kind of history than most of London's other landmarks we saw. It's actually a tennis club as well which I'm sure costs a pretty penny to get in to.
I'm also really glad we decided to make the trek out to Abbey Road on our last night there. I found my favorite Beatles quote on the wall of graffiti (which rivals the graffiti on the John Lennon wall in Prague, I'd say)! For only a 10 day long trip I felt like I was in my fair share of famous peoples' old stomping grounds!
And then we blinked again (though this was more of a 12-hour-long blink, complete with a 3 hour layover in Malaga), and suddenly we were back home safe and sound in Granada! After all that running around from city to city with remarkable ease and minimal problems, I came home Sunday night and fell asleep dreaming of what a great Amazing Race teammate studying abroad is transforming me into!
And it only took 5 days, but I now feel officially caught up on sleep; perfect timing considering....
MY SISTER COMES TOMORROW!!!!
I don't remember the last time I've been so excited for anything....we are going to have so much fun!! She's staying for 2 whole weeks and we have many journeys of our own to take in that time...the first of them being to Barcelona this weekend! More to come on our (very safe and responsible) shenanigans later on next week!
Until then, here are some of my proudest pictures/moments whilst wandering the UK:
Enjoying our Guinness pints at the top floor of the Guinness Factory
At the baby cliffs of Moher (only 200 ft high)
At the actual Cliffs of Moher - 800 ft high!
With Marge outside of Blarney Castle!
Kissing the Blarney Stone
Edinburgh! Amazing!
In front of Edinburgh Castle
Our group outside the castle!
We saw a Scotsman playing bagpipes the last day there! So pretty and cool
In London with my new friend Ben (While on a riverboat tour)
We found Starbucks! With the Tower Bridge in the background
Buckingham Palace! The flag was up meaning the Queen is in!
Center Court at Wimbledon!
