The Long Way Home

We weren't able to book a place to stay Saturday night because everything was full, but our flight left early Sunday morning so we decided to spend the night in the airport. The bus driver had told us that the last bus to the airport left at 11:25pm, so we hung out at the pub after watching the game until about 11:00, then headed to the bus stop. Unfortunately, the bus driver was wrong and after standing out in the cold for almost half an hour, we realized we had missed the last bus. This was a disappointing revelation. After some discussion about our options, we ended up taking a mini van cab; since we split the cost, it didn't end up being very expensive. We made it to the airport, but couldn't check in yet, so we went upstairs to a food court area. Apparently, the airport is a popular place to sleep because there were a lot of people there and all the couches and big chairs were already filled and we had to find some table in a side area. We got McDonald's for a literally midnight snack and tried to sleep some. This was probably the most excited I have ever been for a time change because we got to set our watches forward and lose an hour of a long night. They were supposed to open the check in area for RyanAir at 3am, so we went down there, but they were just starting to get there so we had to wait some more. Finally, we got our boarding passes, but then the security areas were closed so we sat on the carpet over there and waited some more. When they opened that area and we made it through, the screens weren't working to tell us which gate our plane was boarding at. We picked a random gate and crashed there for about 45 minutes, then went in search of our gate and finally made it there. Our hopes of being able to sleep at our gate were by now thoroughly dashed and we were tired and hungry. Our flight boarded at 6am and we were thankful. We had to walk out to the plane again and it was early enough that it was still dark and had that early morning feel with the lights of the runway and the town still shining brightly. The short flight back was made shorter because I slept the whole way. We had to take a bus from the airport and then catch another bus that would take us close to home. We spent more time on the buses than on the airplane, but we finally made it back to flat 8 a little after 10am. I promptly fell asleep for a couple hours and woke up to have breakfast for lunch about 1:00pm. It was the first time I ate anything since our midnight snack in the airport, so I had 3 bowls of cereal. In the evening, I went to Hillsong for the last time. It was a great service and I was sad to be leaving.

Day 2 in Dublin

We had quick showers this morning since all 6 of us were sharing one bathroom. The hot water ran out, but I didn't mind having a mostly cold shower because mine and Ashley's room was so hot during the night; we were both too out of it to turn off the heater, so it just kept getting hotter and hotter. We checked out of our apartment and went to the Bagel Factory for breakfast. Then we walked around and did some tourist shopping. Charity and I got mood rings to match the ones Ashley and Alicia got in York. We wandered through a couple of markets and I got a blackberry and raspberry crepe with Bailey's whipped cream. It was good, but hard to eat. In the afternoon, all of us except Darrin went on a bus tour to the northern coast. That was cool. We visited Malahide Castle first, which wasn't that exciting. The tour played through speakers as we walked from room to room and we didn't get to see the gardens, which I think we would have enjoyed more. Then we drove back down to Dublin along the coast. It was beautiful; the coastline was rocky and we got to see the Irish Sea and the Dublin Bay. Most of the time, we were driving, but we got to get out and take pictures for a few minutes. The day was cold, but the sun came out and we were so excited. Our time in Dublin was cold and windy, the wind was brutal at times. Our bus tour got back to Dublin about 5pm and Darrin met us at the bus stop. There was a football (soccer) game starting in a couple hours and we thought about getting tickets, but decided it was too expensive. Instead, we went to an Irish pub and watched the game there. It was a World Cup qualifying game between Ireland and Bulgaria and ended up tying, which was boring.

An Afternoon in Dublin

After our tour of the Guinness storehouse, we went to find somewhere to eat. On the way, we passed a section of the original city wall and couldn’t resist taking a picture; our first full day in London our flat went out exploring and we found part of the original London wall, it felt like we had come full circle. We found an Irish pub and sat upstairs for lunch. It was a cute mellow place with good food. I had a club sandwich with chips and a salad; the chips were like steak fries, nice and thick. We enjoyed a leisurely meal then we headed out to find our hotel. The directions provided by the website were not clear and we walked around for awhile before we finally found it. Then we discovered we had to check in at a hotel that that was a couple blocks away. So we walked over there and checked in then came back to our apartment. We thought we were getting a room in a hotel, but it really is an apartment that is pretty nice. There are a bunch of locked gates and doors that we have to get through and they are finicky about opening. We put all our stuff down and tried to have a conversation about what to do for the rest of the day, but everyone was tired and had different ideas about what to do, so we ended up just hanging out and talking for about 4 hours. It wasn't an Irish experience, but it was fun to hang out. Finally about 8:00pm we decided we should go get some dinner so we took a bus to the city centre and looked for a cheap place to eat on Temple Bar, one of the main streets. Ashley, Darrin, Charity, and I ended up getting fast food at Hungry Harry's and then meeting Juan and Alicia at a nearby club. They carded us at the bar and Ashley didn't have her ID, but they let us in anyway. We got dessert there and I had lemon cheesecake. It was pretty good, but fluffy instead of rich and creamy like cheesecake should be. They served it with ice cream, which was interesting, but good. Then people wanted to go somewhere else to get a drink, but the next place we went was so packed that half our group didn't even make it to the bar. Everyone was packed together and the floor was already sticky. It seems to me that the only way you could enjoy that type of thing is if you had already had a couple drinks. The other places looked just as bad so we decided to go back and go to bed. I was quite thankful for that because it was already almost 11:00pm and I was exhausted since we got up at 3:00am!

Ireland and Guinness

We had an early start this morning; the alarm went off at 3am. We were out of the flat a little after 3:30 and had to catch bus 25, but we just missed it so we had to wait at the bus stop for about 12 minutes. It was cold out there waiting in the dark. When the bus came it was pretty full, the most full of any bus I've ridden while I've been here, we had to stand the whole time. We just barely made our connecting bus to Stanstead airport, but we did and this time we got seats. We got to the airport and speedily checked in using the self service kiosk, except Alicia who didn't have the same credit card as when she booked her flight (that's how they look you up at the kiosk). She had to wait in a long line, but Juan and Ashley were able to round up her confirmation number and print her boarding pass, so she didn't have to continue waiting in queue. We made it through security without trouble and found our gate. To board the plane we had to go outside and climb the steps up to the plane, it was cool. There weren't assigned seats, so we just grabbed some together. Our flight was less than an hour and was surprisingly quick. Our landing was rough, we really hit the ground. It took awhile to get off the plane and through customs, but I have an Irish stamp in my passport and it is green! It took awhile to figure out what bus ticket we wanted and then it took even longer to buy them because no one had them and they kept sending us to other places that didn't have them either. But we finally got our tickets and took a bus into central Dublin. Our first order of business was breakfast; we found a little place called Gertrude's and ate there. I had bacon and eggs and toast. The bacon here, and in England, is not like the thin strips we have at home. It is more like slices of ham, but cooked more so they're usually pretty tough. But my food was good. Next we caught the green tour bus, the hop on, hop off tour was included in our bus passes, and rode on that for awhile. We sat on top in the open and it was cold. Most of the time it was cloudy and we got a few drops of rain. But it was fun and the driver was a good tour guide, giving funny commentary. We got off at the Guinness storehouse stop and took the tour there. It was really interesting. Arther Guinness took out a 9,000 year lease to build his brewery there 250 years ago. They took us through the process of making beer and we got to taste the roasted barley and sample some Guinness. Then there were floors about the effects of alcohol, their advertising campaigns, and the history. I thought the advertising level was cool; did you know that the Guinness book of world records was started by one of the managing directors of Guinness? The core of the building is open and forms the shape of a giant pint glass that could hold 14 million pints of Guinness. So you circle around it on your way to the top. The top floor is the Gravity bar which has glass walls and boasts a 360 degree view of the city of Dublin, it's one of the highest points in the city. They give you a complementary pint of Guinness with your entry ticket, so we got our pints and enjoyed the view. It was really hot and crowded though, which was a bummer. I drank my first full pint of Guinness, not great but it wasn't too bad. Overall, we all liked the tour, it was interesting and fun. By the time we got done though, we were tired and hungry. Jonah, we made this video especially for you; you'll see why.

Oliver!

We wrote poems in class this morning about we are from. I had a bad attitude about it, but it ended up being pretty easy because we just had to fill out a worksheet and the result were neat. It was fun to hear everyone read theirs and find out a little about their childhoods. I thought I would share mine here, keep in mind this was written in about 10 minutes following a set format.

Where I’m From

I am from the blocks and ponies on the bedroom floor, bunk beds, the lamps from the ‘70s that looked like golden fluffy ladies skirts, the flowers our neighbor threw over his fence that we used to make “Kool-aid”, the leaky shed roof.

I am from funnel cakes for our birthdays, banana pancakes, Thanksgiving yams, air-popped popcorn, muddy buddies, macaroni & cheese, rainbow Jello on the 4th of July.

I am from Ephesians 4:29, Sarah Beara, “You’ve seen one canyon, you’ve seen them all”, good night Sarah, I love you, Trust and Obey.

I am from Grandpa, sisters, Louise Irene, Dad and Mom, cousins, Grandpa Lyle and Grandma Jay, Grandma.

I am from those moments, beneath the white petals falling from the tree in the backyard.

After school and lunch, we went to the Texas Embassy while the cleaning ladies were here. It was fun because our whole flat (plus Shane) went and we don't do much as a flat anymore so it was cool to have everyone together. We had just had lunch, so we got drinks and nachos. When we left, Ashley and I went to Camden Market and did some shopping. It was nice because it wasn't too crowded there and we could walk around without bumping into everyone. We got back to our flat in time to have some food and then head to the Theatre Royal for our last theatre class performance. We got to see Oliver! and it was a fun show. Our seats were bad, we had to sit forward and lean the whole time to see anything, but with all the trouble John went through to get us tickets, we were grateful to get to see it at all. The sets, actors, and music were great. Here we are in front of the poster with Fagin. If he looks familiar, it's because he's Rowan Atkinson, also known as Mr. Bean.

Pickled Egg

Back to school this morning, we talked about Brick Lane in class. I had lunch with Charity at a bagel shop and that was good. We worked on papers in the afternoon, then Darrin, Charity, Jen, Laura, Ashley, and I went to the Hat and Tun for our weekly pub quiz. We did terribly, but it was fun. It was our last attempt because we are planning to see Les Miserables next Monday. Since we knew it was our last week, we decided to try a pickled egg. It was nasty. It sounded gross, but I thought maybe it would be okay since they like them, how bad can it be? Pretty bad, it was nasty. We all tried a bite and that was about as much as we could handle. Besides tasting bad, it had a weird consistency. I don't think we need Ashley's mood ring to tell us how she is feeling.

Castle Howard

We left York at 10:00 this morning. After about an hour, we came to Castle Howard. There was an entrance in a stonewall that we had to drive through and it was so tight. Tony had to take the mirrors down and we just squeezed through with maybe 6 inches of clearance on either side of the coach. It was crazy. The castle was interesting, it was more of a palace or ornate and large house than a castle as I tend to think of them. This is a portrait of the current Howard living in the castle. The most interesting part in my opinion is that the Howard family still lives there and they have family snapshots around in frames on the side tables, Jen and Juan even saw one of the children. They have their own area of the house that is not included in the tour, but some of the areas we saw they still use occasionally, like on Christmas. This was the servants' hall, they would wait here until they heard everyone leave the state rooms, then they would run in and straighten everything before the guests returned. We didn't have much time to see the gardens after touring the house, but there was a cool fountain and tons of daffodils near the building. Daffodils are common here, sometimes they just grow by the road or there will be fields of them in parks and gardens. The rest of our drive back to London was long, I read a lot of Brick Lane, our last novel for our literature class. We got back about 6pm and crashed, glad to have made it back.

Fountains Abbey & York Minster

We took a side trip Fountains Abbey this morning. It is about an hour away from York. Ashley bought a kite at the gift shop and she, Juan, and Jen tried to fly it in the courtyard. They got it in the air, but not for long. Fountains Abbey is an abbey in ruins and it was incredible. There was grass and a stream and birds and we got to wander all over and explore. This was part of the nave, there was a feeling there I can't put into words, but it was awe inspiring. Courtney, Teresa, Kim, me and Laura in one of the open rooms. It was a beautiful sunny day, warm enough that I even had to take my sweater off at the end and just have short sleeves! I didn't even listen to my audio guide, I just wandered around and let myself get lost in the moment. I didn't stay with a group, I wanted to alone and take pictures. It had a sacred feel; there is something about ruins , I think more about the history and the people who lived there, I guess it looks older if it is already being reclaimed by the earth. But it was beautiful and huge. It was soothing to my soul. There were some ponds and lakes and stuff too and I went over there but didn't have much time left. Some of it was cool, but I didn't regret spending most of my time at the abbey, I loved it. I think it gave me the boost I need to make it through the last two weeks in the city. When we got back to York, Laura and I went out to get lunch and ended up eating at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. It was a good deal and good food. They had skinny noodle chow mien and it was the best chow mien I have had in awhile, including a lot of places in America with their gross thick noodles. We had our tour of York Minster at 3:30pm and that was cool. We got to climb the tower, all 275 steps of a narrow spiral staircase that got smaller as it went up. Looking down, looking up. There was a walkway along part of the roof about half way up and we got a cool view from there, among the buttresses and carvings. From the top we got a good view of the city. The top was caged off with metal mesh, so we could only get clear pictures through little viewing rectangles. That was a bummer but it was still cool. Next we went down beneath the church and saw layers of Roman, Viking, Anglo Saxon, and Norman history. Then we went into the rest of the church. It was pretty, but nothing super special. Darrin said it reminded him of Notre Dame and I agree; really ornate on the outside, pretty typical on the inside. Then I went with Kim, Ashley, and Alicia to Dorothy Perkins and H&M, where I got a new top. Then we walked back to the lodge and I enjoyed a quiet evening by myself while Laura was out and about.