At 5:30pm on Thursday the 12th of March, Liz Pawlik and I hopped on a 44 bus down to National Express bus station to catch a 7pm bus down to London. Liz’s friend Liz was to arrive at 7:30am the next morning and my Allison were to arrive at 11am. We arrived at the bus station a good 30 minutes before departure so we just chit chatted about how excited we were till we heard the announcement to board the bus. I went to grab my ticket out of my backpack to find that it wasn’t there! I tore apart my bag and realized I left it on my desk at home. Crap. I told Liz to just get on the bus and I’ll figure it out. I went up to the information desk and informed them on my problem and they said as long as I have the reference number they’ll allow me on the bus. Well, I didn’t have that either. I called Katie who was still at the flats to go into my email box and get me the reference number. Since Allison and I would also take a bus from London to Canterbury the next day she gave me the reference number for that ticket. I was now outside waiting to get on the bus with the wrong number. After some negotiation and one more call to Katie, he finally let me on the bus. Phew.
Liz and I stayed with her friend Remi that night in London and woke up bright and early to take the hour tube ride to Heathrow. I waited in the arrival area of Heathrow for three hours before Allison finally walked through the doors! It was so crazy to have Allie there! Ahhh! We hugged forever and there may have been a few tears involved as well. We then jumped back on the tube to central London. We walked around London for a few hours before going back to the bus station to catch our 7:30 bus to Canterbury to meet up with my SIE group. We arrived around 10:30pm at the hostel, thanks to the bus driver dropping us off right outside the door. I introduced her to a few people but we immediately got ready for bed and crashed.
The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and then got on the coach with everyone else and headed to Dover. We first walked around Dover Castle. Since it was early, the castle was closed and rather boring. A group of us walked down the hill through town to the water to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We then stopped into a pub for a pint and then got back on the coach for Canterbury.
That night we went to Canterbury College’s production of “Sweeney Todd.” It was a fun time because almost 20 people from the group went to the performance, but it wasn’t a very good performance unfortunately. Then next day we all got back on the coach and went to Leeds Castle.
Leeds Castle was absolutely breathe taking and beautiful. Of all the castles I’ve seen thus far, this one is my favorite. I was so happy that Allie got to see such a beautiful place on such a beautiful, warm, and sunny day. We walked around there for a few hours till heading back to Birmingham.
Canterbury and Dover weren’t the best, but Leeds Castle was fantastic! We arrived in Birmingham around 5pm. The next morning I was to pick up Travis Peterson at 6am at Birmingham International!
I was so happy and I feel very fortunate to have two friends visit me while I’m here in England. Allison stayed from Friday to Friday, and Travis is here till the Thursday before I leave for Portugal.
It was a fun week with both Allie and Travis here! Allie and I had a shopping day in City Center and I made sure to take them to a few clubs and pubs during their visit.
Allie took a bus to Heathrow at 4am on Friday morning and I was very sad to see her go! Travis is still here and the same day I put Allie on the bus, me and Travis took a bus at 10am to spend the day in London.
We got off at Victoria Bus Station and walked to Buckingham Palace. From there we walked through St. James Park to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster. Then we walked along the Thames River by the London Eye. We jumped on the Tube from Embankment to Tower Hill to see the London Tower and Tower Bridge. We were pretty tired from our already busy day so we sat down for a break and to look at the map to see what to do next. As we were sitting there, a woman walked up and gave us two free tickets to the City Cruise! So we walked down to Millennium Pier, got on the Cruise and took it all the way back down to Big Ben. It was so much fun! After that we decided to take a long, scenic route through Leicester Square back to the coach station.
It was such a wonderful day in London with Travis and we were so very lucky to have such beautiful weather!
I leave for Spring Break on Friday morning where Katie and I first head to Porto Portugal. From there we will travel to Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Torino, Vienna, Rome, and then Greece. This is our tentative plan and things may change but we are very excited!
I’ll let you know how Spring Break goes when I get back the 26th of April!
See you!
Kirsten
Monday 23 March 2009
Wednesday 11 March 2009
March 5th-7th: Dublin, Ireland
Thursday, March 5th Katie Binning, Ashley Willeck, Mary Owen, Nicole Cartier, and Allie Kopp got on the 44 Bus and made our way down to New Street Station. After an 8 minute train ride, we were at Birmingham International. We were a little less than two hours early for our 7:45 flight to Dublin. After going through security and having to take all my stuff out of my bag because I forgot to take out my umbrella and getting searched myself, we sat down at a table and waited with anticipation for our time to board the 25 pound, Ryan Air Flight. It was a short, 45 minute flight till we landed in Dublin. We hopped on a city that cost us only 2.20 Euros, and after a 40 minute ride we were at O’Connell Street. From there we wondered a bit and finally found our hostel off this busy street down a rather sketch alley way. We were staying that “Litton Lane Hostel.” It was pretty descent, but not really worth the money. It was cheap, but after staying there it wasn’t cheap enough. After checking into the hostel, we quick dropped off our backpacks in our rooms. Katie, Ashley and I were staying in an 8 Bedroom dorm style room and just down the hall from us, Allie and Mary, were staying in a 10 Bedroom mixed dorm style room. Nicole was staying at the “Ashfield House” down the road with another friend from the SIE programme, Rachael Johnson. After a quick freshen up from our evening of travels, we all met up outside the hostel and walked around Dublin. We found ourselves in the Temple Bar area, an area on the south bank of the River Liffey. After stopping for a pint and being serenaded by an Irish man, we headed back for a much needed night’s rest. The next morning we got ready early and went down to the hostel’s lounge for breakfast that was included. The breakfast consisted of cornflakes, tea, and cardboard toast. It wasn’t the best, but we ate as much as we could so we could be nice and full for as long as possible. We grabbed some maps and got some information from the reception worker, and made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse was originally built in 1904 to house the Guinness fermentation process. This incredible building was constructed in the style of the Chicago school of architecture, with massive steel beams providing the support for the structure of the building.
The core of this unique building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from reception on the ground floor to The Gravity Bar in the sky. If filled, this giant pint would hold approximately 14.3 million pints of Guinness! After your tour, your ticket allows you one free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top level of storehouse. It was my first time ever having Guinness and although I was expecting to hate it, it was actually pretty tasty! From there were just walked around the streets of Dublin for the next few hours before Katie, Ashley, Rachael and I made our way to the opposite side of town for a Football game. It was the League of Ireland against Galway United who ended up winning 3-1. During admission, we got a hamburger and a 7 Up and wondered to the merchandise stand to check it out. As we were walking back through the gates to take our seat, the Irish man thought it would be funny to mess with us and say that our student tickets weren’t real and after him joking about kicking us out and us girls believing every word with panic, he burst out laughing and let us in. We didn’t think it was that funny. The next day, we got up early and stashed our backpacks in the luggage room before heading out. We wondered down through the shops on ‘Grafton Street’ that lead us to St. Stephen’s Green. After walking around the park we noticed a long line of horse and carriages. We approached one of the carriage drivers and asked how much it would be to take a ride and what it consisted of. He said for 7 of us, it’ll be 7 quid and it’s about a 30 minute ride. We thought I’d be fun and decided to go ahead and do it. I can’t remember everything we saw, but we got to see all the main buildings of Dublin while ride this neat, antique horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a lot of fun! After the carriage ride we stopped for something to eat at ‘Abrakebabra’ and enjoyed a yummy lamb kabab. We had a few hours left before we needed to be at the airport so we walked along the canal towards the docks. Along the way we came across a really fancy and grand boat. For the past few weeks, we have been singing “I’m on a Boat” by The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) and T-Pain. So we thought it’d be fun to ‘play’ on the boat and sing that song. We chit chatted with the bartender for a bit before heading out on deck to record our very own music video of the song. It was one of the highlights of the weekend! We finished our walk down to the docks and then turned around and went back out our hostel to pick up our luggage and get to the airport.
It was a smooth ride home and a quick train ride. We caught the 44 Bus home and it wasn’t even 10pm before I was comfy in my bed. Dublin is a wonderful city and I had a fantastic time!
Miss you!
Cheers!
Kirsten
The core of this unique building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from reception on the ground floor to The Gravity Bar in the sky. If filled, this giant pint would hold approximately 14.3 million pints of Guinness! After your tour, your ticket allows you one free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top level of storehouse. It was my first time ever having Guinness and although I was expecting to hate it, it was actually pretty tasty! From there were just walked around the streets of Dublin for the next few hours before Katie, Ashley, Rachael and I made our way to the opposite side of town for a Football game. It was the League of Ireland against Galway United who ended up winning 3-1. During admission, we got a hamburger and a 7 Up and wondered to the merchandise stand to check it out. As we were walking back through the gates to take our seat, the Irish man thought it would be funny to mess with us and say that our student tickets weren’t real and after him joking about kicking us out and us girls believing every word with panic, he burst out laughing and let us in. We didn’t think it was that funny. The next day, we got up early and stashed our backpacks in the luggage room before heading out. We wondered down through the shops on ‘Grafton Street’ that lead us to St. Stephen’s Green. After walking around the park we noticed a long line of horse and carriages. We approached one of the carriage drivers and asked how much it would be to take a ride and what it consisted of. He said for 7 of us, it’ll be 7 quid and it’s about a 30 minute ride. We thought I’d be fun and decided to go ahead and do it. I can’t remember everything we saw, but we got to see all the main buildings of Dublin while ride this neat, antique horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a lot of fun! After the carriage ride we stopped for something to eat at ‘Abrakebabra’ and enjoyed a yummy lamb kabab. We had a few hours left before we needed to be at the airport so we walked along the canal towards the docks. Along the way we came across a really fancy and grand boat. For the past few weeks, we have been singing “I’m on a Boat” by The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) and T-Pain. So we thought it’d be fun to ‘play’ on the boat and sing that song. We chit chatted with the bartender for a bit before heading out on deck to record our very own music video of the song. It was one of the highlights of the weekend! We finished our walk down to the docks and then turned around and went back out our hostel to pick up our luggage and get to the airport.
It was a smooth ride home and a quick train ride. We caught the 44 Bus home and it wasn’t even 10pm before I was comfy in my bed. Dublin is a wonderful city and I had a fantastic time!
Miss you!
Cheers!
Kirsten
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