Vay K in the UK

I've been really bad at keeping the world updated, up until break I had been pretty diligent about my own journal and even that has gone down the drain. Oops- the strike is affecting my will power.

So for your sake I'm going to try to recap my travels in the UK as succinctly as possible, be aware that that wont be very fast, as hard as I may try.

Saturday I left my house that was already semi abandoned by my host family who were on their way to Paris, Skiing[Alps?] and Canada (little brother, other host sisters and brother and parents respectively).

I met up with the other girls I would be traveling with to take the tram and bus to the airport. The airport was nothing special, simple enough, because I have shnazzy EU citizenship my travels through airports were considerably faster than the other girls who were being interrogated at every check point along our travels, but ca va.

We made it to London on Saturday evening and after a crammed bus ride, my first encounter with the London Tube, and the sad realization that London is expensive (4pounds for a less than 10 minute metro ride, what?) we made it to our hostel, checked in and made out way up the 5 flights to our room. I was so tired and kind of ill feeling that I just passed out, while the other girls found the only place that was open at 9pm-chinese food.

Sunday morning we wandered around London a bit, saw Parliment, the London Eye, big ben, westminister abby, the works, obviously taking a million photos at each. Then Michelle had plans and the other girls wanted to buy tickets for the bus tour, which didn't really interest me- so we divided, I went to the National Gallery and we were supposed to meet up at the Tate modern at 3pm. Well let's just say that never did happen, I didn't get there til around 4 because it was apparently a lot further than I had thought and I walked around without a map tryiing to find it. Luckily I found a map on the floor and made it, only to sit at the museum for over 2 hours hoping to see the girls, and EPIC FAIL.

I started to freak out a little because my phone wasn't working, I didn't know how to get back to the hostel, I didn't even know the name of the hostel. Eventually, after asking around, walking in the wrong direction for a long time and remembering the name and tube stop of my hostel, I made it home. I was amused, upset, frustrated, and a little scared all at once. Luckily, the walk along the Thames was quite beautiful at night- London was redeemed.

Monday morning we checked out the harry potter 9 3/4 platform, an actual pseudo platform which was pretty lame, headed to the beautiful British Library- checked out a bunch of original texts and then split ways again. Michelle and I headed to Hyde park where we strolled around taking pictures eating chocolate, and generally chilling for about 2 hours. By which time we decided we were kind of hungry, but tried to find the most economic way to eat, which ended up being walking into a Mark and Spencers ((which became a good friend of mine in the UK) and buying soup which we ate after arriving at our hostel. After our linner we went to a free jazz concert in the national theatre and met a friend of michelle's.

Tuesday Madelyn and I headed to the oh so touristy Madame Toussads- the wax museum where we photographed with obama, elvis, einstein, robin williams, brad pit, etc etc, Sad news- they had a whole little area with Troy from High School Musical and (barfs) I especially enjoyed the end where they had a little 'spirit of london' ride which took you through the history of london-was cute. From there we walked to the London Eye- quite a walk let me just tell you- my faux ugg boots were already starting to take a toll on my feet.

We finally made it to the London Eye where we were meeting another friend of ours, a more difficult feat than we had initially thought. you see, our friend always sticks out in France because she has a bright pink coat, and in France everyone wears black and grey all of the time, but London is not the same, and it's full of tourists...soooo, yeh. We found her, rode the eye, took some lovely pictures, strolled around and made our way to the Imperial War Museum- I was super tired and my feet hurt a great deal from wearing the same dumb shoes, so I wasn't that into it, but none the less, it was pretty cool, from there we wandered off to a shnazzy restaurant where we had shnazzy food- my big London meal, which I was able to afford by eating soup for 3 days - haha. And then we went to a dessert place where I had this huge brownie nuttie creamy trifley thing called 'the Godfather' twas epic. From there madelyn and I hurried to this place along the Thames where all of us went to just chill and you could grab a blanket and order drinks- very chill, plus we were laughing the whole time.

Wednesday was our last day in London- we did some last minute visits like Buckingham palace, a quick visit to Picadilly and Trafalgar Square and soon thereafter we were on our way to the airport. Of course, the train that should take 15 mins to the airport took about an hour because for the second time while we were in London someone tried to jump in front of a train and take their life-oh man. We made it and after some airport difficulties, (in London they are fine with HUGE but slim backpacks, but not small but round ones...uncool) we made our way to Ireland!

I was for sure glad to be back on the euro once again, because the pound was starting to kill me, granted, I know that the euro to pound correlation is not a huge difference, but my fear of the pound seemed to work as I spent not nearly as much money in London.

After a bus ride and quite a while searching for our hostel, we made it to our very nice hostel. Once again by the time we were checked in and settled we decided to get some food and our only lucky rested in chinese food-so very dependable, pervasive and delicious.

Thursday after an enormous free (including in the hostel) irish breakfast consisting of an egg, baked beans, sausage, bacon, hash brown toast cereal and tea, we wandered about and saw the major buildings one sees in Dublin-Trinity College, the bank, and the National Library, a Yates exhibit etc We ended up in this pretty park (as per usual) and split up. Michelle and I simply wandered around with no set plans and stumbled upon these hole in the wall stores that were selling things for dirt cheap- I found this squeezqble knock-off nutella for 50 cents and thought it was hilarious so I bought it- it didn't end up tasting too bad either. I discovered that I might have a small obsession with supermarkets, how they are different in different countries etc. PLus I found out that this store that I thought was not a pervasive chain-our village's store in Spain- is totally widespread across Ireland and England--crazy. Plus I kind of freaked out when I saw a Dime [Daim] bar because it was a chocolate bar out scotish neighbors used to bring us back when we were little and I hadn't seen since. Anyhow after wandering and meeting back up we headed to the hostel to meet up with so;e girls fro;e the program who were quite coincidentally in our hostel. Instead we ended up splitting up because we had to decide our plans for the next day when we went up North to Belfast.

Which brings me to friday- we woke up pretty early because not only were we catching a train to Belfast, we also needed to check out because the hostel was a little confused(only to be put in another room). Swallowed our breakfasts and caught a train to Belfast-where a friend of our friend lived and had kindly offered to show us around. We arrived, ate Subway-go figure, but my fear returned as Northern Ireland is on the pound-haha. He drove us way up to the coast and saw the country side which was really pretty (pictures somewhere around here). We had ice cream along and then were in a rush so ate some pizza hut- haha who knew. After a long bus and car ride we were back, exhausted in Dubln.

Saturday morning we all split up doing our last minute things, which for me somehow involved buying a lot of chocolate for random people, and bagels and muffins for myself- because they don't have bagels in France :( and Imiss them- as for the muffins they were on sale and I wanted something to eat since we were leaving at 5am for the airport. The rest of the day was spent wandering about- more confusion about the hostel room, they apparently forgot to tell us that we had to move again--oops. ALSO- I was caugh in the middle of a strike in Dublin! But rest assured they are super classy about it, there was a bagpipe band and the strikers (mostly cops, firefighters etc) were in uniform marching in step like it was a parade! Apparently- as everywhere, the economic crisis hits hard, and for these guys it meant pension reductions- no fun.

Upon returning to the hostel we tried to figure out somewhere really pub like and irish to go for dinner- we went to a pub, had some typical (kind of bland) irish food, got some super over priced gelatto (hazelnut, mhmm) and after walking about the temple bar area- headed back.

We left the hostel around 5am and headed to the airport all was well, got to Paris and took an hour bus into the center, but we were stuck at the train station because a) we didnt want to take or abandon our stuff b) we were super tired c) it was Sunday and French cities essentially shut down. So although we were in Paris for 5 hours, we didn't leave the train station- sad news

For some odd reason I ended up speaking more Spanish in Ireland than I had in a while, the receptionist as well as various peolpe in the hostel spoke spanish, most of the people being from spain some from elsewhere. As for London it felt like no matter how hard we tried we kept hearing french! We think our teacher sent out random people to just talk it all the time near us, haha.

All in all, good trip, I was so tired by the end, next time not wearing those shoes for sure, I had blisters and i mean we walked a lot, but not that much! It was a bit weird to be in Europe hearing English all the time- but oh my goodness, please someone import the irish accent because it is the hottest thing ever- maybe not but I do find it great, more original than the British accent, so yeh.

As for this last week that I've been home I think I'll spare you all until next time. not too much has gone on- striking at the university continues, midterms kill me, and the weather is quite surprisingly beautiful, its been in the upper 50s and sunny-but apparently wont last.

If anyone read, major props. Comments quite appreciated