This Blog Post is Overdue and Painfully Long

Could my blog be anymore overdue? Let me start off by saying that my spring break was the most amazing time of my life and I don’t think it will ever be topped. Except maybe by my wedding, which will be held at Loch Lomond in Scotland by the way. More on that later…




LONDON March 12th – March 15th

We were planning to leave for our train to London right after my class and since the train station is so close I lugged my suitcase all the way to school, only to find out that my class was cancelled. There’s definitely worse things that could have happened, but had I know my teacher was going to cancel I could have booked an earlier, cheaper train, and would have been much happier, but oh well.

We took the chunnel to London (the train that goes under water) which was just like any other train hahaha. There really weren’t a lot of people on our train at all so we got to be loud and play cards. We got there in about 2 hours and so the adventure began.

Luckily the hostel that Taylor booked was close to the train station, so we were able to walk to it. We checked in and everything was fine until I went to check the window (half because I have obsessive compulsive disorder about locks and half because I saw the movie hostel) only to find out that the lock didn’t work. This room was on the ground floor in the back of the building away from the street with a broken window. Everything about this situation screamed “YOU WILL BE MURDERED” so we wasted no time and went back to reception to demand a different room. Luckily the guy had one room left and it turned out to be bigger and better than the last one so all was well. To celebrate our first night out we went to a bar near our hostel and got some wine. Let me tell you this about that: London knows how to pour a glass of wine, and the French could learn something from them. They pour a glass of wine like I pour it – almost to the top (as it should be). I hated that the UK still uses the pound because they’re such weird looking coins. The 2 cent piece (or should I say 2 pence piece?) was the size of a silver dollar and the 20 cent piece was smaller than a penny. It also happened to look almost exactly like the 10 pence piece. It was too confusing and I’m glad I didn’t get wasted the first night because I had a hard enough time trying to pay my bar tab sober. Oh, and on that note, I didn’t stay sober on purpose - the bar closed at 11:15pm, even though it was Friday, so we just went back to the hostel to sleep. Talk about a buzz kill.

I always hate the first couple of hours in a new city because I don’t know where anything is and I don’t understand their transportation. London’s underground was one of the first ones (if not the first, I can’t remember) built and it looks like they’ve changed nothing. Out of the 11 lines running, 5 were closed because they were working on them. Needless to say we did a lot of walking.

Taylor’s cousin Laura arrived from New York the next day, and I hated her immediately. Hahahahahahaha totally kidding – we’re bffs now. (As a matter of fact I miss her dearly and wish she could come to Paris for a visit, but it’s too expensive, so we’ll be taking donations). We picked her up from the train station and went to the hostel where we met her friend Jon, who is studying in one of the suburbs. He came to spend the weekend in London with us and turned out to be quite the asset. He was in London the week before so he knew how to navigate around and took us to all the places we wanted to see. We went to changing of the guards (which was so pointless because I was too short to see anything) and all of the beautiful parks. We also went to the Tower of London, Big Ben, and the outside of Westminster Abbey.

Our time in London was well spent and I really did like it, but I must point out a few things that were weird. For one, there were people dressed like wolves walking down the street (see facebook photos). I understand that not everyone is like the French and doesn’t care about style, but really? Wolves? I don’t get it. There were at least 20 of them hanging out downtown. Second, the people were really not that attractive at all. For the most part everyone was hideous with a few normal looking people here and there, but I didn’t see one man or woman that I thought was gorgeous. And also they all really do have fucked up teeth, that’s not an exaggeration or stereotype. Talk about a gold mine for cosmetic dentistry! London also doesn’t seem believe in garbage cans. I couldn’t find one ANYWHERE, and even in the train station there was a recording asking you to please take your garbage home with you. Do Londoners just carry their garbage around with them all day? I’ll never be quite sure.



DUBLIN MARCH 15TH – 18TH

Ah, my homeland at last. Before we even got out of the airport I counted 6 gingers – more than the entire country of France, I’m sure. That morning we got up at 5:15 to head to the airport which was way too early for me but we were so excited I don’t think anyone cared.

Once we got into Dublin we headed to the hostel, showered, and then went to walk around and get lunch. I was really surprised at how widely used Gaelic still is. I don’t know where my idea that it was a lost language except in the countryside came from, but I’ll blame the American school system for now. All of the signs were in Gaelic and English. Oh, and I’m not sure what it is about Europe in general, but these people are bathroom Nazis. Anywhere you go you have to travel through the entire establishment down into the basement to use the bathroom and sometimes there’s a code. At the McDonalds in Dublin there was a security guard. I don’t know what went wrong in his life that he had to become a McDonald’s bathroom guard but he took his job very seriously. He wouldn’t let you in unless you could prove you purchased something. I get it, they don’t want people to use their bathrooms unless they’re customers, but how much money are they saving if they have to hire someone to enforce this rule? It’s so stupid. And for someone who pees as much as I do, also very annoying.

The food in Dublin was amazing. The first day there I got stuffed chicken with carrots and cabbage and – get this – mashed potatoes AND baked potatoes. Hahahaha I really have been missing my potatoes while I’m in Paris. That night we went to a bar in the Temple Bar area which is where all the nightlife is, and it was really fun. There was a good band and we brought cards so we could play circle of death. It was probably one of the funniest nights we had I think. And the bar had strawberry beer which was DELICIOUS, but I’m also convinced that it contained no alcohol because I had about 6 and didn’t even feel buzzed.

The next day we had a tour of the Irish countryside at 9am so we called it an early night and got up bright and early. While we were waiting for the bus to leave I was standing outside of the bus and this lady started telling me that her sister was running late, so I told her not to worry about it and I’m sure the bus driver would wait a few minutes if she asked. I didn’t realize until after she kept updating me on the situation and asking me more questions that she thought I worked for the tour hahahaha. That’s what I get for having red hair in Ireland I guess?

The tour itself was absolutely gorgeous. I’ll post the links for all of my albums at the end of this post so you can see them, but it was really breath taking. We also went to the oldest cemetery in Ireland which I loved. For lunch we also ate in someone’s dining room. Hahahaha we stopped in the middle of nowhere for lunch and since the only restaurant was packed we decided to go across the street to a place that had sandwiches. We walked in and were so confused as to where to go so this guy points us to a room which is about the size of a normal dining room with tables in it, and we realized that it was just a mom and son making all the food out of their house and charging people for it lol. The final confirmation that it wasn’t a restaurant was when Stephen went to use the bathroom and sure enough there was a bathtub in it.

The next day was St Patricks Day so went to the Parade, which was alright. I liked the bagpipes but everything else in it was weird and I didn’t understand. It looked like cartoon characters and people were in weird costumes. After the parade we went to the Guinness factory because they were having Irish dancers and a bad and extra free Guinness. Surprisingly, I didn’t hate normal Guinness as much as I would have thought. I thought the extra stout was one of the worst things I’ve ever had in my life, but the regular wasn’t so bad. And the first one we tried was probably the best but I don’t remember what it was called – it was paler than the original which is probably why I liked it. I’ve never been one for dark beer.

After Guinness we went back to temple bar to eat and drink at all the bars. It was really fun, and I loved that everyone was dressed up as leprechauns and there was face painters. If I ever get the chance again I’d love to come back to Dublin for St Patricks Day!

Going out of Dublin was an interesting experience – the security guards took my shampoo and conditioner but never said anything about the razors I had in my purse. Also after we got through security there were people handing out free shots of Jameson. My kind of airport!



SCOTLAND MARCH 18TH – 21ST

I immediately loved Edinburgh. It was straight out of a fairytale – all of the old buildings are still there and there are still castles on hills, it was amazing. The first night we were there was kind of cloudy and rainy looking, and it fit right in with the atmosphere. It was so oldey timey looking. We went on a walk around the city and went to the Grassmarket area, which is in the center of town. They still have the platform up from when they used to hang people. It was creepy but still cool to see. Cody also told me that while we were there we had to climb the hill that’s right on the outskirts, so obviously we took his advice. It’s this huge hill that’s just right in the middle of everyone’s daily lives, it was awesome. Cody told me it used to be a volcano back in the day, but its not active anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. Climbing up took forever and I wish I had brought hiking boots instead of wearing flat boots but I still made it. It was SO beautiful from up there. You could see everything – the castles, the English Channel, some islands, everything. It was also so windy that it knocked me over (not an exaggeration) but definitely worth it. I could have stayed up there all day (if I wasn’t afraid for my life).

After the mountain we walked the rest of the city and saw all the sights. We weren’t able to go into the Edinburgh Castle because it was too late by then, but that’s ok. We went to an area where there’s a lot of shops and the gardens and while we were sitting there we saw a 13 year old girl (my estimation) getting arrested with no shoes on, screaming at the police. And when the cops opened her bag they pulled out three bottles of wine. This all took place at about 4pm. Anyone else know who she reminds me of? I would definitely fit in there.

We only stayed in Edinburgh for a day and a half, then took a train to Glasgow. Glasgow was… not impressive. I felt like I was going to get stabbed. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of nightlife, but not the kind of nightlife I would enjoy. It was kind of a dirty city and there were more creepy people there than there are in all of Paris. Since we decided there was nothing to see there, we booked an all day tour to the countryside for the next day. We went to Glencoe, Lochness, and some of the highlands. It was really pretty. We stopped for coffee at Loch Lomond and I fell in love with it. There are mountains all around it and the water was so still that you could see a perfect reflection of them in the water. And guess what? They do weddings. Everyone start saving up, because that’s where I’m getting married.

Lochness was also gorgeous, but no I didn’t see the Lochness monster (how disappointing, right? Hahahaha). Our tour guide was really well educated on the history of Scotland (probably because hes been doing these tours for the past 40 years) and it was really interesting to listen to him tell us the importance of everything we were seeing and the history behind it. I’ve never been interested in history but after this trip I definitely am. So much that I’m probably going to start looking stuff up on my own to get more of the stories. Spring break has turned me into a loser. Hahahaha

The tour was an 8am – 8pm type deal, so we were all exhausted when we came home. This was also the night that I started getting sick (and I’m still not over it). Everyone knows I have the worst immune system ever, so I’m surprised it took me 9 days of travelling before I got sick but I’m really glad it worked out that way. We left to come home to Paris, and after that all travelling I was kind of glad to get back and sleep in my own bed. Its funny to consider Paris “home”, but that’s how it feels these days.

CONCLUSION OF THE BEST 9 DAYS EVER

If I get the chance (which I would like to make possible) I’d love to go back to Ireland and Scotland. If I go to Ireland I’d like to go to smaller cities and see more countryside, and if I go back to Scotland I want to go on a real tour of the Highlands and go to the Isle of Skye (all of those tours required at least 5 days). Don’t get me wrong, I liked London, but after living in Paris its just second rate. I feel like I would have liked it a lot more had I gone there before Paris.

We did so much walking over these nine days that I’ve ruined yet ANOTHER pair of shoes. I’ve never gone through so many pairs of shoes in such a short time in my life! Although, even though I’ve been doing all this walking I’ve also been eating a lot of carbs so I’m 99% positive that if I don’t cut back on the baguettes I’m going to turn into one of those weird shaped girls who has tiny legs and a huge stomach. Don’t worry – I won’t let it happen. Hahahaha

I also noticed the drastic difference between Europe and the US with energy conservation and recycling. One of our hostels only had one outlet, all of them had hardly any lights, most of the time the bathrooms had Kleenex type toilet paper (so that you couldn’t take more than you needed), every bathroom had an air hand dryer, and our hostels made us wash our own dishes in the sink after breakfast instead of just using paper plates or having a dishwasher. It was pretty eye opening to see how much I waste in my life. Thanks for making me feel guilty, Europe.

Oh and just a random fact – there are apparently no rules of the road in any of the aforementioned countries. You can drive as you please and it must just be suggested that you stop for pedestrians. I almost died at least 8 times.

Last fun fact - Europe is actually cheaper than the US if you were to get paid in their currency, which just makes me more motivated to come back here and work some day. After being to all the different places, I still think I’m partial to Paris. Edinburgh was my favorite place to visit and I could see myself living there, but it doesn’t have the city atmosphere of Paris that I love so much. I’m so happy that I got this opportunity – it was the best decision of my life!

PICTURES (they’re my facebook albums, in case you’ve already seen them)

London - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54294&id=1008212994&l=3cf55a2e36

Ireland - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54313&id=1008212994&l=57a0d693f8

Scotland - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54319&id=1008212994&l=7c44050dd6