Pictures...

Haha, so silly me didn't realize/pay attention to the fact that there is a storage limit for pictures on the blog and that I have currently reached the limit on that. Luckily I have 4 different e-mails so I can make 4 different picture accounts to add to the blog if I need to. I'm in the process of making the second one and I will eventually get around to uploading the Italy and Paris photos. The only issue is that with me traveling around I don't have hours to sit around online waiting for them to all get uploaded. It may take a while before there are any new pictures up. I will get around to it all eventually though. Last time I tried to upload things I got a wonderful blue death screen from my computer that told me it was deleting files so I had to shut down my computer and reset it. So for now, just to be safe, I'm going to give my computer a break and not upload pics. When I have the chance to try it again I will and hopefully my computer won't give me the death screen again. These foreign countries haven't been kind to it so I think it just needs a bit of a break. I will be around but today I'm in Dublin and I have more to see and do here. So I will go for now and come back in time.

With Love Always

I hope you don't mind but...

So I'm going to be completely honest with this. I do have at least one if not two more blog posts that I could write about Italy since we did Venice yesterday and are now in Rome, but I have no desire to. Actually I probably won't really want to until I'm back in Cork and I have to be studying for exams. I'll most likely use the blog as my study breaks/ procrastination tool. If I do get around to finishing one and I get online for a bit I'll post it, but I can't really say that will happen a whole lot. I will most likely update pictures as often as I can but it's been a bit of a drag to go through and write the posts. Sorry if this upsets any of you but I figured you at least should know that for the rest of April I really have no desire to write things out. That may change in time, but for now this may be it for a while. Enjoy the pictures and I'll wander my way back to this eventually.

With Love Always

A little bit of home

The past three months have been the longest (and farthest) I have ever been away from my family, even when I’m at school, I go home on occasion and I only live 20 minutes away. It has been really different to be apart like this. To be honest I have enjoyed it in a lot of ways and I’m glad that I’ve had the distance for so long, but after a while it did start to finally hit me that I do miss the states and being so close. Today my mom got here and for the next 9 days we’ll be traveling together. It’s nice to have my mom here for a bit, it brings home a little closer. Lately I’ve been in and out of feeling home sick. This has been a great semester and I still have another 2 months before I officially fly back to the states, but I’m ready to be back among familiar places with friends and family. Nothing will ever be better than being home with everyone and the closer I get to the end of this semester the more prepared I am to be home already.

My mom being here marks the beginning of my month long euro trip. She came down to Cork from Dublin for a few hours and I showed her around the campus and where I lived and we took some time to just relax and figure some more things out for our trip. Now that classes are over I have the entire month of April to do anything, and by anything I mean travel. For the 9 days that I’m with my mom we’ll be going to Venice, Rome, and Paris, which were the top 3 places that I wanted to go to at some time during April. Since I knew I had this entire month to travel I spent some time figuring out places I wanted to go to and I knew that it would be impossible to go everywhere, but knowing what I wanted to do helped with planning things out. When my mom found out she was coming (my dad and I planned it out together before telling her) we talked about traveling outside of Ireland together and we agreed upon Italy and France. After my mom flies back home I’m spending a day in Dublin to see what I missed around St. Patrick’s Day and then I’m flying back out of Dublin to start my 10 days in 5 countries. I am spending 2 days in The Netherlands, 2 in Sweden, 3 in Germany, 1 in Norway, and 2 in Finland. After those 10 days I’ll spend another 10 in Spain where I have family. When I get back to Cork I start final exams and then before I know it I’ll be headed home. It will be a very busy last couple of months here but all in all this has been a great experience and I’ll be ready to be home when it’s all over.

With Love Always

It wouldn't be right if something didn't go wrong

The last day in Scotland started around 5:30am on a train to St. Andrews. The train was very empty since it wasn’t really a time where a lot of people were traveling, but St. Andrews is also a little town where there isn’t a whole lot to do if you don’t golf. St. Andrews is the birthplace of golf and has the most famous course in the world. I’m not a golfer, to be honest I can barely even mini golf, but I enjoy playing it. When it comes to actual golf I’m not much of a fan and I have never really had a desire to play. So going to St. Andrews was a little bit of a questionable decision since there didn’t seem to be much to do but play golf. While that is true, there are some other things to do and see around the town. The train there was only about an hour long so it was really early to be there and the latest I had to leave was by 8:30 to catch the trains back to the airport for my flight in the morning.

Right from the train station there’s a bus that goes into St. Andrews and I decided that starting off at the golf course would be a good idea since it was early and there wouldn’t really be anyone around. Little did I know that there were actually going to be quite a few guys out on the course already golfing and getting an early start. St. Andrews doesn’t just have one course on its grounds; actually there are about 4 or 5 different courses in this one area. I walked around for a couple of hours and just tried to follow the paths through the different courses. A couple of times I walked across the greens just to see more of the course and I did get yelled at because I accidently walked through a golf match. Is golf even played in matches? I don’t really know what they’re called, but I didn’t know at the time that there were multiple courses going in different directions and I walked through one of the greens that were being played on.

I have to admit I’ve never been on an actual golf course before, so it just looked like a large green field with some sand pits in it. I know that they’re called bunkers but to be completely honest I’m still not sure what the appeal is in golf. Along one edge of the course there’s a beach that goes out to St. Andrews Bay and walking along a beach seemed more enjoyable than a golf course. It was so nice to kick off my shoes and walk barefoot in the sand. I’m really not a fan of sneakers, if it were up to me I would always either be barefoot or in flip flops, but it’s safer to wear sneakers so I always have them on. I was beyond ecstatic that I could take them off and walk around for a while without them. As I got closer to the water I ended up going searching for sea shells and I collected a bunch more to add to my collection back in Cork. I walked along the beach until I hit the end of it and had the choice of heading back to the golf course or walk into town. I decided to go into town and see if I could find the castle that was falling into the sea. St. Andrews is one of those little towns where everyone knows each other and they are all very friendly people and welcoming to visitors. Most of the other cities or towns are so big that people aren’t really bothered with tourists. It was a nice, quiet little town and most of the people I saw were dressed and ready to go golfing.

After taking a small break for a couple of hours I walked around more of the town and found the castle ruins. I also found the old cathedral that was also standing in ruins. I walked around and just saw the town and what was there. Once I had seen pretty much all there was to see I headed back to the golf course and walked around it a little bit more, without getting in anyone’s way this time. I also returned to the beach and climbed out on the rocks just for the sake of doing so. It was getting late and I still had to get the trains back to the airport so I got the bus back to the train station. For some reason there were issues going on in Edinburgh that was causing trains to either be delayed or terminated all over the place. I got to the train station a couple hours earlier than I really needed to be because the 8:30 train was the last one I could take in order to make it to the airport on the last train from Glasgow. While I was waiting I did end up dozing off for a while, but there was still a lot of time left for me to catch a train back towards Edinburgh where I would switch trains for Glasgow and then switch one last time for Prestwick. With the issues that were going on with the trains a lot of the trains to Edinburgh weren’t even making it to St. Andrews so I was stuck waiting for hours to catch a train. None of them were coming and when it came time for the 8:30 train to get there it was originally running late, but after a few minutes the guy at the station announced that it was terminated as well. I’m generally not someone who freaks out about things, but at that moment I did just a little bit. I talked to the guy and asked him if there was any way to still make the last train to Prestwick and he looked it up and said I would make it with plenty of time. So I was fine with that and I got on the next train that came. When I got into Edinburgh I actually got onto an earlier train than I was supposed to since it would take less time, but it went to the Queen Street station which was a few minutes away from Central Station where the last train I needed would be. Things were working out and I was feeling better about things because I was still very nervous since the trains at St. Andrews had pushed me back about 20 minutes. When I got to Glasgow I walked to the Central Station where all the gates were closed… The last train that the man said left for the airport was at midnight and it was only 11:35. I was panicking a bit and was really worried that I wasn’t going to end up getting back in time for my flight since the next train wasn’t until 5:30 in the morning and my flight was at 6:00. I started asking around and a couple people kept saying I wasn’t going to make it and that the gates were all closed, which didn’t really help, but one guy told me where to find the only open gates into the station. When I got there it was about 20 of and there weren’t any departures up on the board. I was really hoping that I was just looking at it wrong so I asked a couple of the people who worked in the station and one of them told me that the last train towards the airport left 10 minutes ago. I feel really bad because I lost it a little bit and freaked out on the guy and he was a little taken a-back by my reaction. I explained that I needed to be at the airport and when my flight was (all in a very panicked way) and he said that if I hurried I could make it to the bus station where the last bus left at midnight for the airport. I thanked him and then pulled out my map from the first day I was there and very frantically found my way to the bus station. Of course the main concourse of the station is closed and I didn’t really know where to find the buses so I’m only panicking even more about it. I ended up following a few other people and I found the bus as the last few people were getting on. The bus driver realized that I had no clue where to get off so he offered to give me a holler and let me know.

I will admit, I don’t think I finally settled down from that set back until I was finally back in my flat in Cork. While I was on the bus it all started to make sense though that the man in St. Andrews thought there was a midnight train. All of the train and bus schedules for the cities are run by the same company so the schedules are all just put together. So he was thinking train as he was looking at the times for the buses. Either way I was thankful that I was on my way back to the airport and was going to be there in plenty of time to take a small nap before my flight. All in all Scotland was great and I’m glad that I had gone. I’m back in Ireland for a couple days before my mom arrives and I’m headed back out of the country.

With Love Always

So much to see and plenty of time to do so.

Around 8 this morning I packed everything up and left the hostel that I had spent the night in. I got to the end of the street before realizing that I had no idea where my camera was and I thought I had left it in the room at the hostel. So I went back and looked just to find out I had accidently thrown it in my backpack when I was packing. Next to my laptop, my cameras are the most important things that I have with me, so I always have to check and make sure that I have them. My laptop isn’t hard to miss, it’s pretty much half the weight in my bag. Keeping track of its cords can be hard sometimes but I’m usually pretty good about it. I have 2 cameras that I keep on me at all times. My blue one is always within arm’s reach if it’s not already in my hand since it’s the one that I use most. I had it though so it was okay and I walked into the city center.

At the hostel there were flyers all over the place for a free walking tour through the city of Edinburgh. It was 3 hours long and it walked through both the Old Town and the New Town. I gave myself about an hour to get to the starting point since I had no clue where I was going and I was trying to figure out where things were on the map. I ended up finding a very beautiful cathedral on my way to the starting point, so I took a small detour to go look at it and I walked around the area and took pictures of it. Unlike Glasgow, Edinburgh is very picturesque and there is a lot to see and do there. On the way to the tour there was a lot to see and normally I would have stopped to take pictures of it, but I figured that I would get to see a lot of it during the walking tour and would wait to take them. The starting point for the tour was a Starbucks that was located in a little corner of the Old Town and to get there I had to walk through the New Town, which is pretty much a high end walking mall. It had all the big, name brand stores lining the streets, and whatever wasn’t along the road was in the mall. It felt like a regular city with traffic filled streets and stores everywhere with people rushing to and from different locations. It was only about 10 in the morning and the streets were packed with locals and tourists. Once you crossed the North Bridge into the Old Town it was like a completely different place.

The real stunning part of Edinburgh was in the Old Town. I could see why the walking tour was 3 hours. There was so much to see and learn about. I will admit, my favorite parts of the tour were the ones about Harry Potter. I have not read any of the books, only because when I was younger I had no desire to read them, but I have seen all of the movies up to this point and it does make me more interested in reading the books since books are always so much better than their movie counterparts. So at some point when I have the time to read a book that isn’t for school I may start the series or I may read something else, to be honest it depends on what I’m in the mood to do. Either way, the walking tour was a lot of fun and our tour guide James was a theatre/ history major, so doing the tours was pretty much his dream job. After the tour was over it was only a little after 2 and all of the museums and cathedrals closed at 5. I worked my way back through the city and saw the galleries and museums. I went into a couple of the Cathedrals and looked around. Since I wasn’t allowed to take pictures it didn’t take me long to really work my way through things. I spent more time walking around Edinburgh Castle (what I could without having to pay), and I worked my way back through the town and took more time to see the things that we just walked through or just passed on the tour. I walked around until about 11 that night, I did stop in a few places and ate or just hung out, but I headed to the train station since I was taking the 5:30 train to St. Andrews the next morning. I’m actually really surprised at how short this post is, but I won’t make it any longer so St. Andrews will be on its own.

With Love Always

Disney Stickers and Scottish Pen Pals

Today was my first day in Scotland. I got in around 9:30 and was in Glasgow by 11:00. I really didn’t make any plans for any of these places. Honestly the plan was get a map, see what there is, and walk around for 12 hours and just see the sights. To most people 12 hours seems like a lot of time for something like that, but for me it seemed like a good amount, mainly because it gave me time to get lost and also to take pictures. I’m not going to lie; it is a little weird being on my own since every other trip I’ve been on has been with the girls. In a lot of ways it has been good for me though. As much as Glasgow may be well known as one of the top places in Scotland it really didn’t have a whole lot to do. I had a map of Central Glasgow and it had all of these galleries and places on the maps that would make you think that it was a museum or a tourist spot. All of the galleries that I went to today were shopping malls. They weren’t art galleries or museums; they were high end shopping malls. I’m not exactly the shopping kind of person so that really didn’t help a lot. I did see the City Hall, where a protest for disabled peoples’ rights was being held, so I didn’t really get that close. I figured that it would be a good idea to keep out of trouble while I’m here.

After a few hours I had pretty much walked all over Central Glasgow and was struggling to find things to do. I figured that I would go find wi-fi somewhere and spend a little time getting things done and talking to people. As Sarah Brokaw puts it, “Europe is a jerk about internet.” It’s so true, they have wi-fi hot spots all over the place but only about 10% of them are free. Honestly internet is not really worth paying for but I eventually just gave in and got 24 hour access for £4, which really isn’t that bad. I spent some time online and then fell asleep where I was. The funny thing about that was that I was in a hotel lobby when I feel asleep. I only slept for about an hour, but when I finally came around there was this guy who would glare at me every time he walked by me sitting there. So I figured it would just work out best to go walk along the river and see where it led me.

I don’t exactly have the best attention span and instead of staying by the river I got drawn in towards the city by a building that I could see towering all of the others that looked really cool. It ended up being a church. I feel like that always happens in Europe. There’s a building that towers over all the rest with very elaborate architecture and it turns out to be a church. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing; I’m just making an observation. I realize the way that I said that could have come off the wrong way. I ended up somewhere in the West End of Glasgow which was not on my map, but I’m good at retracing my steps so I could find my way back. I found a cute little icafé with free wi-fi. It figures that after I already give in and pay for it that I find it for free. It happens, but it’s fine. It was late when I got there so I ended spending a couple hours there talking to people. This is when the day just got interesting.

So a man walked in to the café and apparently he’s a regular because the girl had his cup of coffee already on the table for him when he came in. I wasn’t entirely paying attention but I could hear him mumbling to himself and he seemed a little close so I turned around to see if I could help him with anything. The poor guy was so apologetic. He swore that he wasn’t reading my messages between me and the people I was talking to. Actually he was intrigued by the Disney stickers all over my laptop. He started talking to me and wanted to know where I was from and what I was doing in Scotland. We just had a 10 minute conversation about so many different things. He was such a friendly guy. He was giving me hints and pointers about what’s in Edinburgh and St. Andrews and what to expect from the people there. He was so upset that I was only spending one day in Glasgow and was talking about how he wished he had met me earlier in the day because he would have set me up with a group of people my age that could have showed me around. He was just being so accommodating and it was just because the Disney stickers on my laptop made him feel cheerful. We talked about my major and how I wanted to become a teacher, and he tells me that he guessed I was going to say I wanted to be a teacher. I was confused as to how he could have guessed that and then I realized that there really isn’t a whole lot that you can do with an English degree. So we talked for a little while and he ended up having to leave but he asked me if I was going to come back to Glasgow anytime later in the year. I said I wasn’t really sure. So he gave me his card and said to e-mail him if I did manage to end up coming back to Glasgow and he would plan to meet me and whoever else I’m with and show us around. I thanked him and he left. It was just so unusual that he did that. People in Ireland and the UK have been very friendly so far but not that friendly. He made it a point to say that he wasn’t trying to be pretentious about it but that he was just proud of his city and he would take any opportunity he could to show someone around it and let them see the good parts of Glasgow. As he left he told me that his name was Joe. It never really crossed my mind the entire time that we were talking that we never really introduced ourselves to each other.

After Joe left I spent some more time in the café since I really didn’t have much to do but catch my train to Edinburgh, which to Scots is pronounced as Edinborough, I’ve been corrected a few times on that but they usually do it in good fun and say that they understand, I’m American. After about another hour I left the café and walked back the way I came and found my way back into Central Glasgow. I had a couple of hours before my train left so I figured I would just walk around the area for a bit and see the city at night. I was outside of the Museum of Modern Art taking a picture of the statue when a man walked by me and said, “Hi.” I didn’t think much of it so I smiled and said “hi” back to him and the next thing I knew he was starting a conversation with me. I wasn’t expecting a response to come from me saying hi to him. He told me that he knew I was a nice person the moment he saw me and that he just felt like he needed to talk to me. With strangers I’m not a very talkative person, actually I get really shy and become an awkward person to talk to, but he insisted on us talking. He asked if we could go get drinks and talk for a bit that he would like to just sit and talk to me. I apologized and told him that I actually had a train to catch at 10. Of course it’s only about quarter after 9 when I say that so he insists that we go get drinks and just sit in a pub and talk. I kept saying that I really had to go and I was sorry but I couldn’t. He decides that he wants to be pen pals. He asks me for my address and I really didn’t want to be rude about it so I apologized and said that I wasn’t going to be in Europe very long and that my address back home was going to be changing, which is the truth cause once I get back to UConn it changes to that one. So instead he gives me his address and insists that I write him. At this point I figured that if I said okay he would let me go, but nope that didn’t happen. Actually he was so intent on talking to me that he offered to walk me to the train station and wait with me for my train. He was telling me that he wasn’t a mean person and he was just trying to be a true Scottish gentleman. At this point it was kind of like I didn’t have a choice. So we walked to the train station together and he really wanted to buy me a drink so we walk into this store and he tells me to pick something out. I really didn’t want something but he wasn’t taking no for an answer. So I apologized for being an indecisive person and he was like, “that’s okay” and we walk out of the store without getting anything. At the train station there’s a pub and it was only 20 after 9 so he’s like let’s go get a drink and just wait for the train inside. I kind of gave up on getting out of it because he was being so persistent and I really had no good excuse to tell him no.

So we sat down and he asks me what I wasn’t for a drink. I really didn’t want anything but he seriously was not taking no for an answer. So I just got a soda and a shocked response about the fact that I didn’t want any alcohol. In Ireland no one is ever shocked if you don’t get alcohol so it was weird to get that response from him. Actually I was slowly starting to realize that he was a little tipsy already. As we were talking he was telling me that he had been drinking as the day went on, so he was definitely at least a little buzzed at the time. We talked for about a good half hour about a lot of things. I got pretty much his ENTIRE life story, from being a sniper in the Scottish Armed Forces to his girlfriend leaving him and him losing his job. That’s when I realized why he was looking for someone to talk to. He had a lot to get off his chest and apparently I looked like a nice enough person for him to talk to. He asked my opinion on the mother’s day gift he had gotten his mom, of which I found out that they celebrate mother’s day on the first Sunday in April. He got her a trinket box made out of mirrors with a little rhinestone heart on the front where you can put a picture. It was really nice and I’m sure that his mom will like it. We talked about the differences between the Scottish and American Armies and how he was envious of the Americans because the people who go into the forces are people who are willing to fight for their country and people who truly love their country. He said that the Scots aren’t really like that and that he was a little ashamed of his own country’s sense of nationalism.

He kept checking the time for me even though I could see a clock on the wall. I actually decided against bringing any kind of jewelry with me on this trip so my watch is in my apartment back in Cork. I have my phone on me if I really need to check the time, but there are clocks everywhere so I never really need to pull it out. He starts taking his watch off as we’re talking about the time. I’m thinking that he’s just going to put it on the table so that I can see it as well, but of course nothing with this guy is that simple. His name is terry, by the way. He took his watch off and holds it out to me and tells me that it’s a gift from him to me. I apologized and told him that I couldn’t take it, that it was his watch and he should keep it and that I had one of my own back home. He refused to take it back. He gave me his watch and I just wanted him to keep it. He was being really nice and all but I felt like he was going way over the top and he disagreed with me on that. He kept saying that he was being a true Scottish gentleman. After giving me his watch he asks about my faith. So we start talking about religion, which was the only conversation we had that I really had anything to say about. We talked about whether or not God and the devil really existed or if we just gave names to the good and evil that every person has within them. Honestly I think he was just playing devil’s advocate because his view point changed every few seconds, but he never agreed with me in that they do actually exist. After a couple of minutes of that conversation I realized that it was time for me to go. So he walked me out and I went to the bathroom before going to figure out which train was mine. He waited for me, he would not return home until he knew that I was on my train safely. So I went to go check the train boards and I realized that I was in the wrong train station. I was supposed to be at the Queen’s Street Station not the Central Station. So he walked me there since they’re only a few minutes away from each other. On the way there we were walking past a bakery and he stops inside and tells me to follow him. He buys us both a sausage roll. I don’t know what to do because this guy is going out of his way to be so accommodating and he was being so sweet but it was all really unnecessary. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that though because he was so happy that he had company and someone to talk to that I felt like it would have been cruel if I asked him to leave me alone. He also wouldn’t take no for an answer to anything. So we got to the corner right before the station and he stops and takes off his backpack and asks me to wait real quick. He pulls out two milkshakes from his bag and hands me one while saying “McDonald’s is good for two things, milkshakes and their Arabic coffee.” I felt bad because I’m lactose intolerant so there was no way that I could drink it, but the gesture was much appreciated. So we got to the station and I found my train and said bye to him. He put his bags down and gave me a hug and told me how glad he was that we ran into each other and he had the chance to sit down and talk to me. As awkward as I felt about the entire that I was with him, I felt better about it because it helped him have a better day. He reminded me about being pen pals and that he wants me to write him and let him know how I’m doing. Part of me says that I should write to him and part of me says that it would be a bad idea. So I really don’t know if I’m going to. I got on my train to Edinburgh and I felt good about how my day in Glasgow ended up going. When I got into Edinburgh it was about midnight and I literally just went to the hostel closest to the station and spent the night. This post is long enough so I’ll do Edinburgh in a separate one.

With Love Always