London, Killarney, Edinburgh, and Updates!!!!

Ok. So I realize it's been forever since I updated everyone, so prepare yourself for the longest blog post in the history of blog posts.

LONDON. Was amazing. So many memories that I'll never forget.

First of all  I went with my friend Mary Kate, her friend from home Ruthie, and Ruthie’s friend from the Netherlands, Marike. As it turns out, the 4 of us got a long pretty well!

Mary Kate, Ruthie, and I flew from Shannon to London together before meeting Marike at our hostel. But on the flight over, Mary Kate decided she wanted to play the scratch card game that was offered for 2 euro a card. She was nervous. It was a bit ridiculous considering it was a scratch card game, not a real live poker game. She lost, go figure, but “won” another card in a second chance scratch box. She lost again, but was laughing so hard she was in tears. To say it was amusing is an understatement.

After landing, we met up with Marike at our hostel before heading out around town to sight see. We saw so much in the two days I was there, I'm actually quite impressed with us. We made it around to the London Tower, figured out the underground (much easier than I was expecting actually), saw Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye (at night!! So cool! See picture above :) ), the Tate modern art museum, The Globe, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, visited Harrods, the standard tourist pictures in a red phone booth, London Bridge (which isn't the real London Bridge anymore), some parks, and probably some stuff I'm missing.

The four of us had a wonderful conversation with two London police officers since we managed to be in London during the protest on government cutting funds. They talked about how McDonalds in Europe is "rubbish" but in America it's "Brilliant". Also that American and German beers are "awful" compared to beer in England, Ireland, and Scotland. I must say in general, I agree with the man. The protest (more like a riot) that we somehow stumbled into, was massive! Literally the most people I've ever seen in one place at one time. Like literally you could look down a main street and not see an end to the people marching. It got so bad that parts of the underground where shut down because people were defacing and peeing in there. I can't decide if it was a good or a bad thing that we were there during the protest, but in all honesty, I can now say that I was in the largest protest in England's history!! :)

KILLARNEY. Such an amazing little Irish town. Beautiful, calm, wonderfully cute town.

So my program that I chose to study abroad with (InterStudy) has these 'excursion' weekends where they take us places, pay for pretty much everything, and basically just show us a good time. This group of kids in the program are all amazing. Like literally I don't think there is a single person in the program that I've met that I didn't like. Everyone is so nice and friendly that it makes me glad that they attempt to get to know you before letting you into the program. Anyway, the trip to Killarney is a story in itself. In order to get there from Galway, you have to take a bus to Limerick, then transfer onto a different bus that finally takes you to Killarney. On the first bus, my friend Korali and I got our own seats, which is nice, but I got stuck behind a man with the worst BO I've ever smelled in my entire life. No joke. By the time we got off the bus, I thought I was going to puke from how bad it smelled. Now on the second bus, there was no disgusting smell, but there was a woman who I swear liked to hear the sound of her obnoxiously loud voice. Now that may sound harsh to you guys, but this woman had to have been deaf or something. She was yelling into her phone for 3/4ths of the trip, telling someone on the other end about where something was in a cabinet. I don't really know what she was talking about considering she had a very thick accent that made it super hard to understand her. But after these trips, we finally got to Killarney.

Charlie playing 'Titanic' on our boat!

The first day we went for a boat ride across the Killarney National Park lake where our boat master had an ADORABLE dog named Charlie that I almost begged to take home! After the boat ride, we went on a 7 mile hike through the park, which would have been so amazing had it not been raining : /. Despite the rain, the company, conversation, and the sights made trekking through the weather so worth it. Though I do admit to my feet being sore after the long walk.

Matt, Mark, Collin, and Maddie on their horses

The second day we went horseback riding! I hadn't been riding in years, but now that I've ridden again, I can't wait to get back to the states so I can ride more! The horse that I rode was a gorgeous gray horse named Leroy. After hearing the name, I immediately turned to the rest of the group asking if any of them had ever heard of Leroy Genkins. Those who did got a good laugh out of it :).  Leroy was a great horse and did what I 'told' him to do, only protesting once or twice when he wanted to eat some of the leaves nearby. We got to trot a little, which was cool, since usually 'follow the butt' horses don't want to do that haha.

SCOTLAND: A beautiful country. Possibly my favorite place second only to Galway.

My friend Kerry and I decided a month or two ago that we wanted to visit Scotland. We planned out our trip (and by we, I mean she did most of the planning...) and decided to go this past weekend. Unknown to us, 2 other kids from our program were also going at the same time. Our friends Kimmie and Rachel were also going to be in Scotland at the same time, so we all wanted to meet up. Now getting to Scotland was a pain all in itself. The flight Kerry and I booked was for 6:30 am flight from Dublin to Edinburgh, which seemed like a good idea at the time considering it only cost 12 euros for each trip. The only problem is Dublin is a 3 hour bus ride from Galway, and you have to give yourself time to go through security, which is how I found myself on a 1:15 am bus to Dublin. Kerry, only being able to find a bus from Cork to Dublin the night before, had the  task of sleeping in the Dublin airport overnight, which I do not envy her for. On the plane ride from Dublin to Edinburgh (which is only like, 45 minutes) Kerry and I had an epiphany. Now some of you may read this next sentence and think, "wow, they never noticed that?", but give us a break, we were exhausted already and this was new to us. We discovered that the sky is always blue, its just that sometimes there are clouds blocking our view.

Kerry, Naeemah, Me, and Rachel in front of Edinburgh Castle :)

Now when we finally got to Edinburgh, it was around 8am, and I had been awake for going on 8 hours. Since we didn't have the energy to do much, Kerry and I walked around the city, getting to know it a bit, went to the Edinburgh Museum, the Zoo they have there, adventured into some beautiful churches, and pretty much did anything we could think of to keep ourselves awake. We eventually retired to our hostel and passed out. I was dead to the world until the next morning. The second day, we took a 12 hour bus tour around Scotland which covered the Highlands, Loch Ness, a few castles, and a few other less popular 'hidden gems' of Scotland. It was amazing, but soooo long. 12 hours is way to long to be on a tour for! Saturday, Kerry and I met up with Rachel and her friend Naeemah (who is so funny!) and visited Edinburgh Castle. the Scotland Disney store, Rachel ate some haggis (soooo gross. Google it. Seriously, Ew), and a general great time was had. We walked around the city shopping street some, before sending Rachel off on her way back to London. After walking about half way up to Arthur's Seat, which holy crap, is by far one of the steepest hills I've ever seen, Kerry, Naeemah, and I met up with Kimmie (another girl from our program) and her friend for some fish and chips.

Loch Ness. Where's Nessie??

After dinner, Kerry, Naeemah, and I went back to Naeemah's hostel to chill before heading off to sleep. To say that the day's were super long in Scotland is an understatement. We definately took advantage of our time there! Sunday brought me to the end of my visit to Scotland, so I boarded a bus by myself since Kerry was jetting off to Italy, waited a while in the airport, people watching (where a creepy man kept asking me what city I was from after seeing my US passport...) and finally made my way back to my home away from home, Galway :)

Hotay, now onto the updates. This week is going to be long for sure. I have an exam for my Celtic Mythology, Religion, and Folklore class tomorrow, plus I have to finish my 2,000 word essay for one of my psychology classes, since it's due Monday, which is when I'll be in Germany visiting my friend Bernadette! Which is another update, this weekend, I'll be with Bernadette and her family :) I met her last year in the International living community. She's such a sweet person and I can't wait to see her again and get to meet her family!

Also something I'm super excited about is my friend Kat from home coming to visit!!!! She's studying abroad in Salzburg, Austria at the moment, and she's coming to visit me in Galway. As much as I love the people I've met and made friends with here, it will be amazing to see a familiar face from home. I'm totally excited to see her and get to show her around "my Irish city". Now all I gotta do is think of all the good things I need to show her :)

Alright, so now that I've typed up the longest post *ever*, I need to get back to studying for my exam and writing my paper. Hope everyone reading this is doing well and I hope to see/talk to you soon!