I HEART LONDON

This past weekend our program, API took everyone to London for the weekend. We took a bus to Shannon Airport where we boarded our flight and then landed in London around 11 at night. We had to wait around outside, it was so COLD, and wait for our bus to bring us into the city where our hotel was. We waited till midnight (now October 23!) and a few people decided to sing me happy birthday. I didn't yet feel 21 so I didn't really go along with it, but it was nice people remembered.

We finally got to our hotel and everyone was exhausted! Between the bus rides and the plane and long waits outside, everyone just wanted to go to bed. Luckily there were only 2 of us per room and we got awesome accommodations this time!! Queen beds and fluffy comforters and a huge bathroom and flat screen TV!

Saturday morning, we all went down and had breakfast. There we got our tour bus hop on/hop off tickets like we had in Dublin and we got maps of the city. A bunch of us wanted to see the London Tower and decided to split off from out directors and went out on our own. I could not believe how big the city was!! It was like being in NYC with all the hustle and bustle. We headed off to the Tower where we learned we could play games and goof off, why learn history when you can play giant tic-tac-toe?!

London Bridge

We got to go inside the Tower and check out the cool things. There was a nice elevator ride to the top of the tower where we then got to see the city views. This lead to the bridge that connects the 2 towers where it looped around and you could see more of the city and the Thames River. There were jumbo sized-games where we of course played with! Hopscotch, bowling, tic tac toe, and ring toss! We also set up giant dominoes! But I can't upload videos on here unfortunately =[

We continued to walk through London and checked out all the architecture old and new. London reminded me of being back in Liverpool a few weeks ago. Clearly the UK has all the best architects in the world to themselves, all the buildings were beautiful whether modern or old, not like what you would see in Worcester or Fitchburg where some of the buildings are just a giant eye-sore.

Buckingham Palace

We saw the Big Ben and Buckingham Palace as well!! It was starting to get dark, the setting sun gave me some pretty cool pictures of the two sites. Security has been increased at the Palace so we weren't able to get too close, there was a huge wrought iron gate around it with guards at the doors.

On our walk back to the hotel, we decided to see how many people we could fit inside a telephone box! The first time we were able to fit 5 of us but we were venturing for more! We were able to squeeze the 6 girls in the telephone box this time! It wasn't easy but we some how managed to squeeze our butts inside the small space. People walking by even decided to take a few pictures with us or capture us on their video cameras, we were instant celebrities.



Unfortunately Blogger doesn't upload upright pictures correctly

London was also a great place to celebrate my 21st birthday!! I was surrounded by new friends and I was spending it in a city with the best night life. The girls surprised me first by singing happy birthday which then lead to noise complaints from the hotel on our behalf ha ha. I got a tiara and my pimp cup, followed by peanut m&ms =] I was now officially 21 so we went out to a club called The Zoo, and it really WAS a zoo!! So busy and there was several floors of dancing with different types of music and drinks being served, but really fun none the less.

The next morning, a few of us decided to go check out the British Museum. It was interesting getting there, we were having trouble with our directions but we made it there eventually. I could not believe how big the museum was! And it was free, music to my ears. There were so many different rooms in the museum, all were dedicated to a different country and culture. I definitely liked Asia and Southeast Asia the best. Very colorful, that will be my next trip!

While walking to the museum our friend Alison wanted a picture with the giant bronze lions that are in the center of the city. When we got there, we didn't realize how big they were and how hard it was going to be to climb up onto them! The stone it was sitting on was really slippery and we had to boost each other up. We were only to get up there for a minute because the city was having a ceremony of some sort for their Navy and there was security everywhere!



London was an overall great weekend and a place I would definitely visit again! I started to get used to the fast-pace and hustle/bustle of the city towards the end of the weekend. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me as I got more comfortable with the city and realized how much there was to see. I didn't get to see nearly 1/10th of the sights I wanted to experience, but I am happy with what I got see. I am glad the program chose London, but wished it had been a 3-4 day trip and not a day and a half.

Scotland in a few weeks and a day trip through County Clare coming up soon! 51 days till I am back in the States =]





Learning to Cook!!

API was kind enough to plan a night of cooking for the group! We got terrible directions to walk down Shoppe st and get lost through the small winding side streets. We finally found the small cafe where we were greeted by Kevin, our assistant API director. Kevin introduced us to Kate, the owner of Cobblestones Cafe. The cafe was small and the 20 of us barely fit with all the cooking-ware and small tables. We managed to squeeze in and make ourselves at home.

Kate started the night off with showing us how she prepared for the Irish Stew and the Leek and Potato soup. Both seemed really easy to make, but then again I am not the most avid person in the kitchen. She diced all the vegetables and showed us how to properly cut up lamb and prepare it for the Irish Stew. I'm not a huge lamb fan so I only tasted the stew, but the Potato and Leek soup was delicious!

Kate also showed the group how to make scones and bread! I have made bread before with my Grammy of course, but this was completely different. All of the ingredients were fresh and the flour and sugar was different from what we use in the US. We didn't have enough time to bake everything in the oven properly, but she had made some earlier that day and we were able to taste it. I though the brown bread was DELICIOUS! We still had soup so I dipped mine and it didn't get soggy or anything. Very good!

When she was done showing us how to make the bread and scones, we used the left overs to made the Bread and Butter Pudding. It looked really gross at first, and I don't really like pudding because of the texture. I only got grossed out more as she kept adding milk and cream to the mixture and letting the bread soak it all up. I was not looking forward to trying it at all! When it came out of the oven, I was seriously mistaken. It smelled delicious and looked nothing like pudding or anything drippy and soggy. The pudding looked more like a thick cake and when you sliced it up, you poured a creamy sauce over it. I loved every bit and then some!

For all you at home with your mouths watering, don't worry. I've got the recipes and I plan on making a few things for Christmas Eve and Day! So Uncle Harry and Grammy...be prepared to taste real Irish food made by yours truly!

Cliffs of Moher and The Burren

Saturday, Caitlyn and I joined a tour bus and ventured down the coast to the Cliffs of Moher. The weather was beautiful and the sky was clear. On our way to the Cliffs our tour guide brought us to several stops along the way.

 We saw The Burren which was really cool. I didn't realize that it was a dessert of rocks that covered  A LOT of acreage. We got to walk along the Burren and it was pretty tricky. The rocks weren't flat and there were spaces and holes between them. We had to watch our step, it would have been easy to break a leg or fall in between the rocks. In the Burren there were old tombs that were over a thousand years old. They didn't look like tombs that you might expect though. There would be 2-3 rocks standing up like the legs of table and then a large rock on top to look like a large hut. We couldn't get close to the old tombs, they were roped off. But we could take pictures and continue walking through the Burren.

Portal Tomb

We got back on the bus and continued our tour through the Burren and the small villages that lined Galway County's coast. There were a lot of sheep and cows everywhere, and the tour guide was even surprised to see a small flock of llamas. I guess llamas are rare in Ireland, they are imported from Peru. He also went on to say how they are friendly and quirky. Friendly, NO. Quirky, YES. Ha ha, I remember my grandparents and their llamas. They had great spitting aim!!

We stopped in Doolin for a quick lunch. We went to a small pub called O'Connor's. The food was delicious. I got the seafood chowder and I could not believe how much fresh seafood was in it! Back home, you are lucky to get anything besides potato and a few pieces of fish.

Moving on, the bus ride from the pub to the Cliffs was only about 20 minutes. The weather continued to stay lovely and the temperature got warmer too! The bus pulled up to the Cliffs and we all clambered out to stretch our legs. I had to go back and get my sunglasses, having the sun out here is a rarity and I was surprised at myself for having remembered my shades.

Caitlyn and I headed out to the Cliffs immediately. There was only a small stretch of fenced land where we were "allowed" to stand. But if you walked a little further there was a break in the fence and a sign warning tourists of the dangers of trespassing. We decided to chance it and hopped the fence.

Once you get over the fence, you follow a narrow path that goes on for about and hour and half. We didn't have enough time to go along the whole path so we only walked about a third of the coast along the Cliffs. I couldn't believe how close the path was to the edge! I was afraid to get close in case the ground fell out beneath me! Fortunately there were a few spots where you could get on your stomach and crawl and look down over the edge.

This was my first view of the Cliffs. It was so beautiful and the clear weather made it that much better! I couldn't believe how lucky we were to have gotten such great weather. Ireland isn't known for their sunshine and warm weather =] This was taken before we jumped the fence. You can see that you can't get close to the edge, but the view was amazing. You could see almost the whole length of the Cliffs. We only walked to the second one sticking out I believe, it's a good hike!

We continued our trek through the Cliffs to try and get some close up shots of the rocks and the water crashing up against the Cliffs. We continued along the path and I found a nice spot for a picture. After Caitlyn took the photo, an Irish woman came up to me and told me that 8 people had already died this year from falling off the Cliffs and a few of them had fallen where I had just been sitting. THANKS LADY FOR SCARING ME! I wasn't sure if she was being serious or not, but I moved.

Here's the spot the lady freaked me out at

We walked a bit further along this side of the Cliffs, but we turned around and walked back the other way to check out the other coast. There was also a small castle where you could climb to the top and check out the view from 360 degrees. We also found out that this side of the Cliffs wasn't as exciting, the water wasn't crashing along the rocks and the Cliffs were smaller and less dangerous, therefore less fun!

We only had an hour and a half to check out the Cliffs, so we headed back to the bus to continue the rest of the tour. We headed back along the coast and made a few short stops to take a few last tourist-scenic pictures before the ride back to Galway. The last stop was my favorite. It was more of the Burren but it was right along side of the water and Cliffs and it was beautiful.

The Cliffs here were a lot smaller, I could have lived if I decided to jump...

All in all it was a great day! We met some great people from all over the world on the tour, our tour guide had a great sense of humor and the weather was perfect! I got to spend the day and this experience with a great friend and it's something I will remember for a long time. I would recommend visiting the Cliffs to anyone, it was a great experience with a little adventure as well.

London this weekend! And my 21st birthday!! Look out London =]



We All Live in a Yellow Submarine..

Friday morning I puddle jumped over to Liverpool via Ryanair to check out the Beatles capitol of UK! I went with Caitlyn and Tim and went straight to the hostel we were staying in once we landed. I wasn't sure what to expect from a hostel, I had never stayed in one before. We got there only to find out that Caitlyn and I would be the only 2 girls in a room with 10 other boys...bummer haha!

The first guys to arrive after us weren't too friendly. Tim tried to make a good impression but it just wasn't working. That's OK though, the ones after that made it all better! Welsh accents and Argentinean accents...hott! The man we met from Argentina was actually pretty cool. He came to Europe to better his English speaking skills and was backpacking through England and Germany for a month. He tried out his English on us and we got pretty far, he was doing very well with his lessons! We also met another man who was in college but had come to Liverpool to see a friend's performance. He was from Wales, and was very scholarly indeed. I thought he was the friendliest out of them all and was probably the nicest man we had met so far in the UK.

But moving on...Friday we explored the city and walked around and saw all the wonderful architecture. I was a little worried at first about visiting Liverpool because some of our Irish friends said there wasn't much to do there. But I liked the sights and the weather was pretty decent, no rain! I couldn't believe how tall some of the buildings were in Liverpool. There were sky scrapers, but they weren't just tall business buildings, everything was an art. The buildings had curves and dimension to them. They weren't ugly boxes sitting there obstructing the views.

We eventually found a Beatles museum that was FREE! I love seeing that word in places...The museum was great. I posted the pictures on facebook for all to see. There were guitars used by the Beatles and lovely quotes all over the walls by their kids and wives. Definitely something I would go back to see. When we were done in the museum we headed back to the hostel and met some more roommates that were there for the night. Again, Cait and I were the only girls but that was OK. We managed just fine with ONE bathroom between the 12 of us! Yes, I repeat, ONE bathroom. Ughhh. We ended up making an early night of it and hit the sack.

We got up early on Saturday and went to take a tour of of Anfield Stadium. This hour of the weekend was dedicated to our friend Tim, he was the only boy travelling with us! The field was pretty cool. A lot of history there and you could feel the love from all the people we talked to during the tour. Someone had actually travelled from Australia to see the stadium! Once the tour was done we hopped on the bus and headed back into the city. We ended up walking around all day and we didn't have a set plan which turned out to be fun.

I wanted to see the Beatles museums so we headed there and toured several of them. When that was over, Tim saw a huge building he thought was interesting so we walked across the city to it. I can't even begin to imagine how many miles we covered throughout that whole weekend! When ever we saw a tall building we made a point to walk to it, not knowing what it was or far away it might have been. We ended up finding Liverpool Cathedral. It took over 100 years to build and was amazing! I could not believe how big it was once you were up close to it. If I thought the outside looked cool, the inside was 10x better! The cathedral ceilings were so high and everything echoed. The church was full of natural light streaming in from the stained-glass windows that took up most of the walls. There was even a smaller cathedral attached to the basement of the church. It had to be 5x bigger than my house!

When we left the cathedral, we headed back to the hostel for dinner and a nap. We decided to go out and see the nightlife of the town, but it ended up being a bust like the night before. Girls were dressed like they were heading to the red carpet and again we were all in jeans and t-shirts. We walked around and people-watched which ended up being pretty entertaining. We went back to the hostel and hung out with our roommates. We exchanged stories and helped one another understand each other's languages. It ended up being an early night because we had a 9 am flight the next morning and we needed to be there 7 am for immigration.

Our cab ride in the morning turned out to be pretty entertaining! Our cabbie was Scottish and had been to America several times to visit his friends and family. Although I was a little weary once he started talking more and more. He was informing Tim of how to properly beat your wife and keep the ladies in line. He even showed him his metal bat! Although I knew it was all fun and games, he always seemed to take his jokes to an all new level. The cabbie proceeded with how he did not like Americans (not jokingly) and how he didn't understand the women and why we acted the way we did. He then went on to say how he appreciated the English women and girls because he liked how they took 2-3 hours every night to get ready and poofed up their hair with a whole can of hair spray and how they wore next to nothing; mini skirts, leotards, and 6 in heels! I could not believe what was coming out of his mouth...I'm sorry I like wearing jeans and being fully clothed lol. I miss being home and going to a party or club wearing jeans and a tank top, whatever happened to being comfortable?

All in all the weekend was a success. We had fun and saw the sights we wanted to see and then some. We met some great people and not so great people, but you get that everywhere you go. We even ran into some of our program friends at the Shannon Airport. They had gone on a weekend trip to Belgium and Paris! Updates to come soon, my birthday is in 12 days and London is in 11!!

Trip to Dublin with API

This weekend was AWESOME! Went to Dublin Saturday to Sunday with the kids from API. We had to get on the bus for 8am on Saturday and rode for about 2.5 hours. Thankfully I slept most of the way! We got to our hotel and dropped our bags off in the lobby and headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. When we got there it started raining and we found out that the line was long!! Fortunately our group is pretty awesome and we had fun waiting around. I wasn't able to take photos of inside the college where the book was held and the library because of privacy precautions.

Once we saw the book, we all moved on to the restaurant where we would be having lunch. The fun began there when we all ordered and found out that the bathrooms had black lights!! This was both fun and definitely gross when you think about it...I was also the unfortunate one to find out that our waiter was wearing plastic shorts and spandex. I thought I being sneaky about it, pointing at him and telling all my friends to look when in real life he could in fact hear me and decided to come over and have a chat. Oh Boy! He was pretty cute actually and he informed me that he had to wear the ridiculous outfit because of Oktoberfest. And yes, my face went red like the ketchup bottle.

Moving on...

We didn't have to stay with the group, so a few of us decided to go off and do our own thing. That mean GUINNESS FACTORY! We headed off and ended up finding it after a few tries. The factory was amazing, I never knew how Guinness was made and the tour was very informative. Too much happened for me to give it to you here in detail, but look on facebook and you will see all the photos from the factory and that weekend. When the tour was over, we all got our free glass of Guinness. I couldn't finish mine though. I still have to develop a taste for the stouts and heavier beers. But because the beer is made right there in Dublin, it was fresh and very STRONG! I could feel it in my hands and legs and so couldn't the others I was with. I couldn't believer I was getting tipsy off of a few sips of beer!

When we left the factory, we headed back to the hotel and decided to stay in. The night was pretty slow and we all had to get up super early the next morning so we didn't want to have a late night out. A few of us gathered in my hotel room and decided to make a joke of it. We pushed our beds together to make a huge one and decided to jump up and down like we were 5 again, doing flips and pillow fights of course. When things settled down we played a bunch of card games. We settled on kamikaze spoons. For those of you who have never played before, you are seriously missing out! What happens is, you sit in a circle and pass the cards around to get 4 of a kind. During this you have to check to see who is winning. When someone leaps up to get their spoon everyone else does the same! Well if there is 5 players, then you only have 4 spoons and the person who doesn't get one, gets a point till they are kicked out. The kamikaze version of spoons is INTENSE! People were flying all over the place and I had the lovely opportunity of getting hit in the face by Kevin! Thanks Bud.

The morning after, Amie and Caitlyn and I compared battle wounds and cuts and scrapes. Needless to say, I bruise like a peach. We went downstairs and got our breakfast and made plans for the day. We had to be back on the bus for 3pm so we could only pick and choose a few things to do. Luckily we had a Hop-on-Hop-off bus tour ticket which brought you around to different tourist sights. We chose to see the Jail and the Dublin Zoo.

The Jail was so amazing! You could feel the history as you walked down the crumbling hallways and looking at the small cells. I could not believe the way people were treated there and how people were executed. The tour guide told us that the youngest person to ever have been detained in the Jail was an 8 year old girl who stole a ladies jacket to keep warm. She only spent 5 months there, but had to do the labor of an adult; clean the clothes and bedding and make the food for all the inmates. The tour also had a lot of other information about the political activists and extremists who were locked up and later executed in their fight to separate Ireland from British rule.

When the tour was over, we jumped on the tour bus and went straight to the zoo. We only had a few hours to run through it and make it back to the hotel so we had our game plan and checked out all then animals as fast as we could! I'm not really a fan of zoos, but this was probably one of the cleanest ones I have even been to. There were no weird smells, there was sufficient room for the animals and in general they all looked pretty happy.

When we were done, we headed back to the hop on hop off bus and made it back in time for a quick lunch and then our bus back to Galway. The ride back home seemed a lot longer than the ride there. I didn't get much sleep and it rained the whole way, which seemed to be putting everyone in a somber mood. Also, everyone including myself seemed to be catching the bug that has been going around lately.

I know there isn't a whole lot of detail in this post, but so much happened in Dublin, it's really hard to pick and choose my favorite parts and then to break it down. Look at my album in facebook labelled Dublin with API and you will see all the photos I took and I explain some of the history below the photos. This weekend I leave for Liverpool, UK with Tim and Caitlyn. Looking forward to that!

I also could not upload any photos on to this blog for some reason. It was taking a half an hour to upload one photo and it would come out looking horrible. It seems blogspot has made some changes to their software and I will have to find a better way of getting some pictures up here!