Archive for the ‘Travels’ Category

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most of march mashed together in one big heap…

March 21, 2006

SPRING BREAKERS VISIT

One of my friends from high school and I had made plans to fly to Dublin for St. Pat’s this year… before I up and decided to study abroad in London. So plans got tweaked and she flew over on the 11th and stayed with TZ and at a hostel I booked in London. We spent almost a week just seeing the sights in Londontown and then roomie’s best guy friend from home came to see her too!

So roomie and I took my friend out on the town that first night. Start London off with a drink is our motto! It was student nite at the Walkabout off Leicester Square. We almost always go there despite class/work the next day. It is always an amazing time! Immediately my friend met a guy there she absolutely fell in love with! She thought he was so genuine and sweet. While I spent the night makingout with random boys, my friend ended up going out around London with this guy she fell for. They spent up into the early morning looking at the stars and talking. How sweet! It was cool to talk to her all about it. The next day we went to Covent Garden and walked around. We went to Sports Cafe because two of the schools represented by us here were playing each other during March Madness and Sports Café is the only place that you can see American games. Bear came with roomie and was really rude by not talking to anyone but roomie… weird.

For the weekend, roomie and I took our friends all around for touristing, something I really havent done any of. We had a great time just wandering about. We all did the London Eye, which I did the year before when I was in London with my family over Christmas. It was fun all the same and then we took them to Wagamamas – best food EVER!!!! We did Tower of London on Sunday but then… the week + class + work started. Roomie and I hadclass on Monday. So our visitors went to see Buckingham palace and the changing of the guards. They had a good time and we all met up for dinner, and then went out to Angel and met up with TZ.

Tuesday thru Thursday I alway have my internship so my friend had to fend for herself during the day, but we still got together for evenings – saw Phantom of the Opera in the West End!!! It now TOPS my list of favorite musicials! It bumped Les Misérables and Wicked down a notch each! Then Wednesday we went to Walkabout again – but left early because my friend and I had to catch an early flight to Dublin the next day.

DUBLIN

Dublin was also a stop my family made last Christmas before our final destination (Killarney, IRE). So I’m pretty familar the area. I made sure we stopped at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and by the Molly Malone statue etc… We had a blast playing tourists. We spent the first night roaming around the Temple Bar and actually ending up at a place called The Temple Bar listening to live music and drinking Guinness. My friend kept getting hit on by men as old as our dads… creepy! But eventually we met some (sadly, americans) students there and talked to them. Pretty sure this random Mike and I would’ve hit it off a bit better if it wasnt such a family atmosphere. lol. like those two men!!! Oh!!! so right up by the musicians, who are playing all my favorite irish traditional drinking songs, which i knew all the words too… anyway, up by them are these two old men (prolly into their late 80s) sitting and enjoying their music and Guinness… they were ADORABLE!!! It was like 1am and they were still sitting there singing along and toasting each other!

The following night was St Pat’s and my friend and I wandered (again) thru the Temple Bar but this time we had two of her friends from university back in the states with us. They were studying just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland for the semester. The parade that day was weird so we just hung out and drank Guinness. I’ve always loved the beer but I am more of a hard-liquor person than beer so one will keep me for ages… hence why i was sober all of St Pat’s day. It was still tons of fun tho. We watched a bartender leap over a bar, put a guy in a headlock and drag him outside. We had the funniest cab driver give us a play-by-play on a barfight that was happening just in the street in front of our cab… everything! it was awesome!

My friend got herself an honorary star (or two) on our makeout map. *wink*

BIRTHDAY

The night before my official bday, my friend who was visiting bought all my drinks at The Angel where we went with the City Uni boys. It was her last night in town. We got absolutely smashed on Aftershocks! I’ve no f’ing clue how I got home – I don’t remember it at all! Actually I do remember putting on my coat to leave the bar. I know I had to take the bus from Angel to Trafalgar and wait for the N97 there to Cromwell Rd…. I don’t remember any of that. I cant believe I made it. I think I remember getting off the bus on Cromwell… but? I do remember waking up the next day at 8am stark naked on my bed with my clothes literally chucked all over the room. Roomie slept at Bear’s that night thank god!

My birthday itself was awesome! Although the boys back home all forgot it. dicks. oh well. Roomie was a doll and got me a card and a potted plant…. Who gives a potted plant for your 20th birthday??? Whatever. So roomie, Chicago, and Kris took me out for dinner at Med Kitchen that night and I got mmmm spagetti!!! and we had gelato cake!!! Actually dinner was amazing fun. I had such a blast. It was just roomie, Kris, chicago, and I bc alot of people were really busy and even more were not talking to each other and couldn’t be bothered to come. No prob! We ate, drank, and acted like children! Kris started us on melting the plastic straws from our alcoholic drinks in the candle on the table bc the alcohol in the straw would make them pop and sizzle and it was really exciting. Our waiter was such a dumbass. Seriously! First of all, chicago asked if we could get a pitcher of tap water and he was confused by the pitcher idea. Then they were always bringing out 3 plates and then lastly – as if forgotten – the last one . When he brought out the cake he helps sing to me and walks away w/o giving us any plates or forks for the cake. So we are sitting there trying to figure out if he went to get some or forgot… and we start eating the chocolate walls of the cake that keeps the gelato in a cake shape… so the cake begins to melt. He comes by when we call him and goes “OH! You’re cake! It’s melting!” We’re like yea… so the forks and plates please? He returns with 3forks and 3plates and leaves… there are four of us… We finally get his attention again and get another set. Finally, toward the end we just played with the straws until he gave us our check (w/o us asking for it so he must have seen us playing around with the flame…). So we finally leave and roomie walks smack into the glass door. She says she thought was open. It was hilarious. The moment she walked into the door chicago doubles over in laughter and slams his fist on the other door making an even louder thud than roomie did, and the whole restaurant turns and looks at us. We seemed such drunks we were falling all over laughing so hard.

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Edinburgh

February 1, 2006

Well…. We made it safely to Edinburgh, Scotland by plane last night. The place here (BackPackers Hostel) is pretty damn sketch what with its crazy painted walls and counted steps (all the way up to the 5th floor where the hostel is). Then there is that smell. I seriously think roomie and I are getting high off the smell. This whole place reeks so thoroughly of weed I keep thinking that if I turn the wrong corner in the corridor I’ll be face-to-face with 50 people all lit up. So anyway. Roomie and I had the “J” room all to ourselves last night. Today there is someone else too. We have our own lockers – named after our beds: Jungle (me) and Jeopardy (roomie).

Today we woke up early. Me at 7ish, because it was frickin freezing as hell! I lost all the blood in 2 toes (but they came back as they always do. damn raynauld’s disease). We had left the window open last night in hopes of airing out the room a bit… it worked a bit. All I know is before we entered the building I had no problems with my allergies and since then… I cant shake this damn headache and my nose has gone insane.

But we left nice and early and walked around a bit. Sainsburys for b-fast and then walked towards the Edinburgh Castle. We got confuded looking for the Vistors Center and ended up going to the National Gallery for a bit. I got a bit pissed at roomie for all this. I dont know. She’s kind’ve a pain to travel with. I dont like to plan out every minute of my day and she does. I was kind’ve a child sulking til we left the National Gallery. Then we went to check out the castle. Take away the red phone booths, nice toliets, and signs and it looks just like you stepped back in time. The coolest part about it in my opinion was the view. The castle itself overlooks the entire spread of the city. I love it! Then we went to walk the Royal Mile again and stopped at the Fudge Kitchen – best place in the world!!! mmmm belgium choc and vanilla swirl…. After those sweets roomie and I went to The World’s End Pub (which roomie knows the story of and I forgot already) where I had a very normal meal of burger and chips. Then we popped over to Princes St. for shopping… Lost roomie in Jenners, which is frickin huge… We were supposed to meet up by the knitting at the cashpoint… but somewhere between the foodhall and the 8 millions stairways and lifts we missed each other. It was rather eventful.

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Excerpt from conversation with one of my friend’s boyfriends back home – what a sweetheart! girl, you picked a good one!
Me: i couldnt remember fot hte lifh of me
Me: wow my spellig sucks
Him: are you drunk
Him: and with boys with bad teeth
Me: no not drunk
Me: and i have only met guys from britain with good teeth
Him: ok good
Him: i worry about you two
Him: when you get a little liquor in you, the guys with bad teeth look like the ones with good teeth
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So over the next few days a lot happened. Scotland was beautiful! Roomie and I spent 2 days in Edinburgh but also traveled to Loch Ness and Glasgow. We seriously had a blast, but I definately missed out on sleep.

The days were awesome. We traveled a lot by train and saw castles and touristy things, earned an addiction at that fudge shop (amazing… seriously), and got lost quite a bit. Loch Ness was beautiful. Roomie and I left for it late in the day (didnt sleep much the night before… see “Officially the Worst Sleep Ever”) and thus we arrived at Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness after the Castle and grounds closed for the day, but it was still an amazing sight becuase we were there at sunset. So we ended up walking the few miles back to the nearest town to catch a bus. It was quite the adventure.

We wokeup earlier for Glasgow and spent the day just wandering through the major sites and saw the Moscow City Ballet Co perform Romeo & Juliet (never been a fan of the play, but the ballet was cool). Roomie and I got into a huge fight during the 2nd intermission but patched things up on the way home. I’m still a bit mad tho. She always plans everything and nothing I suggest is ever good enough…. Other than that there was just a lot of sightseeing around Edinburgh.

The most adventure really was at the hostel. omg. My allergies were soooo horrible after staying there! I have a major headcold now. It sucks. Seriously though the place reeked of weed. I kept waiting to find some in my bed it was that strong. Honestly I havent slept more than my dozing on the trains and an hour here or there at the hostel in the past 5 nights. I’m exhausted. The first night the smell kept me awake plus the window (right by my feet) was open to air out the room so i froze! The second night Christy and I went to bed at 10pm but were woken up at 2am to the horrible sound of two people having sex. So yea. that was great. My mom laughed her ass off when I told her about it. I personally didnt think it was that funny at the time, but in retrospect it is quite amusing. The following night we got back pretty late and all the beds were full. Unfortunately, 3 men snored really loudly and the loudest one’s head was right next to mine.

The last night I just couldnt sleep my allergies were so bad. I was starting to wonder if you really could get high off weed even if you dont smoke it. Seriously though… allergies at their worst so feeling pretty shitty right now. Not to complain too much of course (yea, that’s sarcasm)

Otherwise it was a total blast. I cant wait for this weekend. My dad is coming to visit! I think we’re going to go see Phantom in the West End bc I’ve never ever seen it (with exception of the movie). Hopefully my cold will be gone by then. Actually, hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow because roomie and I have a presentation to do for Marketing. I am a headcase right now. I’m sick and congested (therefore grumpy) but on top of that my ears didnt pop on the plane so I am half deaf and cant hear anything (so of course everyone is making fun of me because I never realise I am talking 10x louder than I should be.) Oh well. Prolly should get to my homework.

Moral of the story: Stay away from hostels. You can get a hotel for $4-10 more and it will be 30x better.