Its been forever since our last update so get ready, this is going to be big! We have been busy all these weeks with lots of fun stuff to share with our faithful followers!
Quite literally the only thing we did in the days following St. Paddy's Day was write our final papers.... whooo hooo. So nothing to report there, but then Katie's family came! Mom, Dad, sisters Kara and Amy, uncles Jon, Joe, and Kevin all came to spend some time on the island. While it rained a majority of the time (first rainy week since we arrived), there was still a lot accomplished! The girls all made a trip to Paris as part of Kara's belated graduation present. Lots of walking, some shopping, and sightseeing at all the usual spots- including a very interesting Eiffel Tower experience. Camille stayed in Paris to meet up with some friends to start her two week European tour and the rest went back to Ireland to continue on with the boys. The rest of the vacation was spent in pubs and on the road (Jon got to be an expert at driving a large van on the wrong side of the car and road), with the Cliffs of Moher and parts of the Connemara area being explored. Fun to have them here, sad to see them go....
PARIS: Camille's stay- Well on Wednesday I made my way over to another hostel to meet up with Allison and Estef. The three of us then headed out to the Louvre as the weather was not too great. We walked all around the Louvre for 4 hours. Seriously. There was tons to see and we got in free with our European student IDs. Awesome. Later that evening Lizzi came to join us and we had a mini Luther reunion with Erik too! Thursday we did some more epic walking up to Sacre Couer and Mon Martre and over to the Eiffel Tower. Friday was a day for Versailles. The typical meal while in Paris consisted of a baguette, Camabert cheese, apples, and the occasional crepes. Most importantly...macarons! Katie joined on Saturday. The majority of that day was spent walking around Paris and just enjoying being there! And it rained....
MARSEILLE: Sunday morning we left for Marseille via train. The journey lasted about 3 hours. Katie slept for most of it and Camille was awed by the French landscape. Marseille was the place where it had been decided we were just going to take it easy. Sunday afternoon we walked to St. Vincent's Church and saw the crypt and just got our bearings of the city. We passed through a small market where an American woman was trying to pay with American currency and when the teller was making conversation about where they were from and such the woman replied, "the States". Well duh, the French aren't stupid lady. This is why Americans have a bad rep. as tourists...Anyway, the next day we walked to some more lovely cathedrals and had a cappuccino and banana split on the port where we got some sun. Lovely!
BARCELONA: After a very lengthy bus ride, we finally arrived in this beautiful city! While there, we saw Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia, and accidentally climbed the mountain trying to get to Park Guell. Also, we spent a few hours at the beach where we got harassed by women wanting us to pay them for a massage every thirty seconds. This is also the city were Katie FINALLY got her Starbucks, although they did not have coffee based ANYTHING for some ungodly reason... AND they didn't take gift cards, but whatever. It was still good! This was our favorite stop and we each got an adorable scarf to remember it by :)
ROME: Basically....we walked the city to death seeing a ton of sweet stuff. We saw the Colosseum, the Pantheon, a ton of Piazzas and water fountains, and the Spanish Steps, and I am sure that there are more things that I could list as well...We also went to Vatican City! It was a Sunday, so the museums were closed. But, we got to attend Mass in St. Peter's Basilica which was cool, however, it was in Latin and Italian and there were people in Mass that would try and take pictures the entire time. Rather annoying. Probably the best part of Rome was the Gelato. We had it four times and the last time we enjoyed it was also the best. It was the cheapest thus far and it was the best quality, and while enjoying it we watched an albatross kill and devour a pigeon. Free gelato-dinner entertainment!
N. IRELAND: After our lovely slumber party in the airport (1/2 on the floor in check-in, 1/2 in Starbucks!), we made our way to Belfast. We killed some time at Queen's University, the museum and the Botanic Gardens until our room at the hostel was ready. When it was we took a much needed four-hour nap, then we went back to sleep after dinner. Glorious! The next day we boarded a tour bus to Carrick-a-Rede Ropebridge, Giant's Causeway, and (London)Derry- all very cool spots! The plan in Derry was supposed to be to catch a bus straight to Galway at 4pm. Here is what actually happened: We got the ticket window and found out that the last bus to Galway was at 3:15pm... the only bus we could get would be halfway to Sligo... We thought we could do that and then catch the connecting bus five minutes later to make the rest of the trip... We got to Sligo to find out that the second bus was only on Fridays... the next bus to Galway was at 6am the next morning, it was 9:30pm... we went to a pub across the street from the bus station (mmm, Smithwicks)... met the very nice bartender who was previously a student at NUIG... stayed there til 3:30am... ended up with only two hours to kill til the bus came! FINALLY made it back to Galway at about 9am and took the longest, most amazing shower that ever happened. And then took another one today! And we also ate food!!
Now we are sitting on the couch, eating noodles and watching the Ninja episode of Myth Busters. Tomorrow is another trip to the Cliffs and hopefully, if the volcano in Iceland cooperates, we will be on a plane home on Tuesday morning! Wish us luck- goodness knows we need luck while traveling... See you sooooooooon!
LOVE.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
St. Paddy's Day!
Hello people! So...yesterday we celebrated a national holiday of Ireland's called St. Patrick's Day. It was lots of fun. We actually started out our St. Paddy's Day celebration Tuesday night at out neighbor, Katie's, apartment. She made traditional Irish stew for us and invited some Irish people over to dine with us. The stew was delicious and the company was grand!
Around 4 am on St. Paddy's morning Chelsea's friends finally arrived from London to celebrate with us! So they of course settled in and got some sleep right away because we had an early morning. Around 9 am the ten of us from Dunaras journeyed out to the other side of town where we had "Eggs and Kegs" with some friends. Num! They cooked us eggs and toast and we had some mimosas and Irish cider. After a fun morning of chatter and food the even larger group of us walked into town for the parade.
The parade....apparently the American rule of whoever is there first gets the best view does not necessarily apply in Ireland. There were several groups of people (mostly mothers with their children) who thought that they could push and shove ahead of us. Annoying. There is a reason we got there a half hour early....but we have learned and next time we will just show up whenever we feel like it and shove our way to the front. After the parade we stopped at McDonald's where we thought it would be extremely appropriate to enjoy a Shamrock Shake! NUM!
After a full morning and afternoon we took a few hours back home to rest up for the evening. We headed out to the pubs around 9:30 and had great fun with great friends. All in all, I couldn't have imagined a better St. Paddy's!
With LOVE from across the pond!
Around 4 am on St. Paddy's morning Chelsea's friends finally arrived from London to celebrate with us! So they of course settled in and got some sleep right away because we had an early morning. Around 9 am the ten of us from Dunaras journeyed out to the other side of town where we had "Eggs and Kegs" with some friends. Num! They cooked us eggs and toast and we had some mimosas and Irish cider. After a fun morning of chatter and food the even larger group of us walked into town for the parade.
The parade....apparently the American rule of whoever is there first gets the best view does not necessarily apply in Ireland. There were several groups of people (mostly mothers with their children) who thought that they could push and shove ahead of us. Annoying. There is a reason we got there a half hour early....but we have learned and next time we will just show up whenever we feel like it and shove our way to the front. After the parade we stopped at McDonald's where we thought it would be extremely appropriate to enjoy a Shamrock Shake! NUM!
After a full morning and afternoon we took a few hours back home to rest up for the evening. We headed out to the pubs around 9:30 and had great fun with great friends. All in all, I couldn't have imagined a better St. Paddy's!
With LOVE from across the pond!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
My Birthday!
So last Monday I turned 21, and it was pretty spectacular.
We got up early in the morning so we could do a day adventure to one of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor. The Aran Islands are located off of the west coast of Ireland, not far from Galway. In order to get there we took a 45 minute bus ride to the ferry port. From there we took the ferry to the island which was about another 45 minute journey. The island was beautiful! We rented bikes and explored! Fun Fun!
So....my birthday.....we started the evening out by walking down to a pub called Monroe's. The whole Dunaras gang came out to help me celebrate! My first drink as a 21 year old was actually a shot at a neighbor's apartment on the way to the pub. The entire apartment area was crazy on Monday night to kick off a charity event called RAG (Raise a Grand) Week. Basically, students from NUIG binge drink all week and proceeds go to charity. Another reason why Monday night was sure to be grand! Everyone was out! ...So where did we leave off...oh yes, Monroe's. At Monroe's Katie and Chelsea asked the bartender to make me a special birthday drink. She did and it was really good. With my drink, Katie and I split bacon cheddar chips (fries). NUM! After Monroe's we went to a few pubs and ended the last couple of hours of the night at a place called BAR 903. Overall, the night was a great success! And, I celebrated my 21st in Ireland, could it get much better?
We got up early in the morning so we could do a day adventure to one of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor. The Aran Islands are located off of the west coast of Ireland, not far from Galway. In order to get there we took a 45 minute bus ride to the ferry port. From there we took the ferry to the island which was about another 45 minute journey. The island was beautiful! We rented bikes and explored! Fun Fun!
So....my birthday.....we started the evening out by walking down to a pub called Monroe's. The whole Dunaras gang came out to help me celebrate! My first drink as a 21 year old was actually a shot at a neighbor's apartment on the way to the pub. The entire apartment area was crazy on Monday night to kick off a charity event called RAG (Raise a Grand) Week. Basically, students from NUIG binge drink all week and proceeds go to charity. Another reason why Monday night was sure to be grand! Everyone was out! ...So where did we leave off...oh yes, Monroe's. At Monroe's Katie and Chelsea asked the bartender to make me a special birthday drink. She did and it was really good. With my drink, Katie and I split bacon cheddar chips (fries). NUM! After Monroe's we went to a few pubs and ended the last couple of hours of the night at a place called BAR 903. Overall, the night was a great success! And, I celebrated my 21st in Ireland, could it get much better?
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Finally, an update!
Hey all! We really have not forgotten about you, I promise! We just truly have not done anything since our last post! Well, we did get our final paper topics... But that's really it.
Chelsea's sister is here for a while, so we are going to the Aran Islands on Monday to bike around and see the sights! It is also Camille's 21st Birthday so we will be going out to celebrate with some friends that evening as well. We will definitely have an update after this fun day!
Other than that, we both miss friends and family, a lot. (Camille says hi to Grandma!) Thanks to all of you for keeping up with us, we will try to update again very soon with something fun!
LOVE!
Chelsea's sister is here for a while, so we are going to the Aran Islands on Monday to bike around and see the sights! It is also Camille's 21st Birthday so we will be going out to celebrate with some friends that evening as well. We will definitely have an update after this fun day!
Other than that, we both miss friends and family, a lot. (Camille says hi to Grandma!) Thanks to all of you for keeping up with us, we will try to update again very soon with something fun!
LOVE!
Friday, February 26, 2010
"So Happy I Could Die"...
...a really good song by Lady Gaga, gotta love her! But Katie and I have spent the last 4 hours planning our April travels, and now that we finally have it all figured out, I think that we are both "so happy we could die". Ugh, it was exhausting! But we are going to see some really cool places!!!! I will tell you but you have to listen to what we did the past week first!
On Monday....Katie and Jack left in the morning to go on the Burren/Cliffs of Moher tour (the same one that Katie and I went on last month) and did a neat little overnight thing in Doolin. It sounds like they had tons of fun! But apparently the stores and such do not open until around noon in Doolin, so they were rather bored Tuesday morning. Katie, having gone on the tour before, was slightly targeted and teased by Desmond, the same lovely tour guide we had before! He is a cutie. But Katie, being the amazing friend that she is, inquired about the wildflowers, so Desmond is going to call her if they come out sometime in March or April so we can be sure to go see them!
On Tuesday....Chelsea hosted what we call "Family Dinner" and invited all of our neighbors over for fajitas. NUM! This was also nice because most of the folk that came over for dinner were to leave for London on Wednesday. Later that evening we also played some intense Bananagrams, Katie and I upset the rest of the players because we basically took turns winning. We are awesome English majors, no big deal...
On Wednesday....Katie and I got up early in the morning to go to our classes for the day. English, history and then more English. Jack meet us on campus after our last class and we took him to have some lovely crepes at Zatsuma! Jack liked the crepes so much that he insisted that we go back on Thursday....
On Thursday....We ate more crepes....really that's about all we did.....well, I guess that Katie and Jack went for a walk to the bay....but that's not really that eventful.....really.
Early Friday morning....We said our farewells to Jackie Poo Poo Bear (insert sad face here). However Katie and I decided to spend the evening booking various buses, trains, flights, and hostels around Europe....wanna hear? Okay!
Well.....On the 4th of April we are leaving from Paris via train to go to Marseille. We will be spending 3 days in Marseille from whence we will take a bus to Barcelona (this was particularly interesting to book because the bus site was in French, let's hope we got the right date/time!!!). After our 4 day stay in Barcelona we will be taking a flight to Rome. ROME! Somewhere Katie and I desperately wanted to go but had not planned on....however, after looking at prices in Norway and Scotland, it made sense to spend that money in Rome instead, since our desire to go there was much stronger than that for Oslo and Edinbourgh. So ROME! From Rome we are flying to London where we will spend an eight hour layover to end in Belfast, but it is saving us about 50 euro, so that is certainly worth it to both of us. Finally....we will arrive in Belfast where we will spend a night and then the following morning we will take a day tour to see the lovely Co. Antrim coast and Giant's Causeway, leading us to Derry. From Derry we are catching a bus to take us back to Galway, our home away from home. In case you have not been keeping up with the days...our return to Galway will be on the 14 of April. This will give us about 6 days to say goodbye to the city that we love. And to hopefully see some wildflowers!
On April 20, in the late afternoon, we return to you....tired.....cultured....grown individuals....AND WE CAN'T WAIT. We love it here so much, but after planning all of this we both realize that it will be leading us back home. Which is something we are certainly looking forward to....
In case you haven't noticed....I like ellipses.....
On Monday....Katie and Jack left in the morning to go on the Burren/Cliffs of Moher tour (the same one that Katie and I went on last month) and did a neat little overnight thing in Doolin. It sounds like they had tons of fun! But apparently the stores and such do not open until around noon in Doolin, so they were rather bored Tuesday morning. Katie, having gone on the tour before, was slightly targeted and teased by Desmond, the same lovely tour guide we had before! He is a cutie. But Katie, being the amazing friend that she is, inquired about the wildflowers, so Desmond is going to call her if they come out sometime in March or April so we can be sure to go see them!
On Tuesday....Chelsea hosted what we call "Family Dinner" and invited all of our neighbors over for fajitas. NUM! This was also nice because most of the folk that came over for dinner were to leave for London on Wednesday. Later that evening we also played some intense Bananagrams, Katie and I upset the rest of the players because we basically took turns winning. We are awesome English majors, no big deal...
On Wednesday....Katie and I got up early in the morning to go to our classes for the day. English, history and then more English. Jack meet us on campus after our last class and we took him to have some lovely crepes at Zatsuma! Jack liked the crepes so much that he insisted that we go back on Thursday....
On Thursday....We ate more crepes....really that's about all we did.....well, I guess that Katie and Jack went for a walk to the bay....but that's not really that eventful.....really.
Early Friday morning....We said our farewells to Jackie Poo Poo Bear (insert sad face here). However Katie and I decided to spend the evening booking various buses, trains, flights, and hostels around Europe....wanna hear? Okay!
Well.....On the 4th of April we are leaving from Paris via train to go to Marseille. We will be spending 3 days in Marseille from whence we will take a bus to Barcelona (this was particularly interesting to book because the bus site was in French, let's hope we got the right date/time!!!). After our 4 day stay in Barcelona we will be taking a flight to Rome. ROME! Somewhere Katie and I desperately wanted to go but had not planned on....however, after looking at prices in Norway and Scotland, it made sense to spend that money in Rome instead, since our desire to go there was much stronger than that for Oslo and Edinbourgh. So ROME! From Rome we are flying to London where we will spend an eight hour layover to end in Belfast, but it is saving us about 50 euro, so that is certainly worth it to both of us. Finally....we will arrive in Belfast where we will spend a night and then the following morning we will take a day tour to see the lovely Co. Antrim coast and Giant's Causeway, leading us to Derry. From Derry we are catching a bus to take us back to Galway, our home away from home. In case you have not been keeping up with the days...our return to Galway will be on the 14 of April. This will give us about 6 days to say goodbye to the city that we love. And to hopefully see some wildflowers!
On April 20, in the late afternoon, we return to you....tired.....cultured....grown individuals....AND WE CAN'T WAIT. We love it here so much, but after planning all of this we both realize that it will be leading us back home. Which is something we are certainly looking forward to....
In case you haven't noticed....I like ellipses.....
Sunday, February 21, 2010
REUNITED
On Tuesday evening, Camille and I were reunited in our apartment once more. Jack and I waited up watching TV until her and Lizzi arrived around midnight or so. Then we moved next door where we celebrated the first day of Lent with some grilled cheese :)
The following day we took Lizzi and Jack to our history class, where they got to experience our crazy and very stereotypical Irish professor. After that was just a long day of walking around in city centre, trying to figure out the details for our trip to Cork that was taking place early the next morning. As per our usual, our travels started as a struggle; we missed our bus. However stressful that was for Katie, we made it onto the bus that left two hours later with no problems. Our hostel in Cork was great and very close to the city centre. Cork was fine, nothing too special really, unless you had lots of money you wanted to spend at Monsoon! Which, unfortunately, we do not. But we had Kebabs for dinner and they were delectable. Later that night we went down the street to a pub, where Jack got his first Guinness in Ireland and us girls had some Bulmers to go along with the massive amount of crisps (fries) that we ordered at a semi-sketchy place nearby.
Thursday was spent in the lovely town of Blarney, where we toured the castle and grounds. The castle was average, I mean, for a castle, ya know. Although it did have a terrifying series of stairs that you were forced to take in order to get to the top, way too small for any normal sized person to climb, especially when you are carrying a backpack. At the top, we had all decided that we were not going to kiss the stone because really, that thing is so gross. Imagine all of the people that have touched and put their mouth on that. Ick. Confirming our decision was the man in front of us who had an incredibly obnoxious cough. But... as we were about to begin our dangerous descend, Jack had a change of heart, convincing Katie to come along. So we did it. And it was gross, but probably worth it for "making memories" that Jack is so fond of.
The grounds of the castle were gorgeous, lots of trees and soon-to-be flowers. Camille was horribly depressed by the fact that the flowers were in this stage of development, and has committed to traveling back to get them in bloom. In one part of our tour, Camille and Lizzi made their wish on the Wishing Steps by going down and back up a flight of outdoor stairs with their eyes closed and their minds on only that wish. We have a year or so to see how it works out for them. Good luck! :)
We made it back to Galway on Friday night, again, no meat. So we ordered a pizza! And relaxed while watching Zombieland!!!!!! Great movie. Therefore recommended. Lizzi left on Saturday morning, and the rest of the day and Sunday were pretty much spent on the couch, with Camille and Jack playing Sporcle for about seven hours....
Katie and Jack will head out tomorrow for an overnight Cliffs of Moher tour and Camille will enjoy her day of no class. That's all for now, more later... Hopefully ;)
The following day we took Lizzi and Jack to our history class, where they got to experience our crazy and very stereotypical Irish professor. After that was just a long day of walking around in city centre, trying to figure out the details for our trip to Cork that was taking place early the next morning. As per our usual, our travels started as a struggle; we missed our bus. However stressful that was for Katie, we made it onto the bus that left two hours later with no problems. Our hostel in Cork was great and very close to the city centre. Cork was fine, nothing too special really, unless you had lots of money you wanted to spend at Monsoon! Which, unfortunately, we do not. But we had Kebabs for dinner and they were delectable. Later that night we went down the street to a pub, where Jack got his first Guinness in Ireland and us girls had some Bulmers to go along with the massive amount of crisps (fries) that we ordered at a semi-sketchy place nearby.
Thursday was spent in the lovely town of Blarney, where we toured the castle and grounds. The castle was average, I mean, for a castle, ya know. Although it did have a terrifying series of stairs that you were forced to take in order to get to the top, way too small for any normal sized person to climb, especially when you are carrying a backpack. At the top, we had all decided that we were not going to kiss the stone because really, that thing is so gross. Imagine all of the people that have touched and put their mouth on that. Ick. Confirming our decision was the man in front of us who had an incredibly obnoxious cough. But... as we were about to begin our dangerous descend, Jack had a change of heart, convincing Katie to come along. So we did it. And it was gross, but probably worth it for "making memories" that Jack is so fond of.
The grounds of the castle were gorgeous, lots of trees and soon-to-be flowers. Camille was horribly depressed by the fact that the flowers were in this stage of development, and has committed to traveling back to get them in bloom. In one part of our tour, Camille and Lizzi made their wish on the Wishing Steps by going down and back up a flight of outdoor stairs with their eyes closed and their minds on only that wish. We have a year or so to see how it works out for them. Good luck! :)
We made it back to Galway on Friday night, again, no meat. So we ordered a pizza! And relaxed while watching Zombieland!!!!!! Great movie. Therefore recommended. Lizzi left on Saturday morning, and the rest of the day and Sunday were pretty much spent on the couch, with Camille and Jack playing Sporcle for about seven hours....
Katie and Jack will head out tomorrow for an overnight Cliffs of Moher tour and Camille will enjoy her day of no class. That's all for now, more later... Hopefully ;)
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