The Longest driving day!!!!

Day 5...

Wales was a beautiful place to visit but I can't see myself spending more then 2 days there. I was excited the fact that night we would all be in London! We left the Hand hotel after our breakfast and headed for the Warwick Castle. The castle was actually pretty cool because they had exhibits inside some of the buldings. It would have been a lot nicer to walk around if was actually warm but it was freezing. I don't know how the hell kings and queens were able to walk up and down 100 stairs every day...They must of been in good shape!! I was exhausted doing that!!!

After walking around the castle we all jumped back on the bus for another hour or so and soon arrived in Stratford(Shakespere's Birthplace). It was a cute little town with plenty of shops. We saw Shakespeares house which was pretty cool...It was set up real nice...giving you the vibe of what it was like back then. We then all met up for dinner then jumped back onto the bus for another 3 hours till we got to London...It was a very long ride because we were stuck in most traffic when we got there. We got there close to 8 and most of decided to just chill in the hotel because we were all excited to go out on the tours throughout London the next day.

The Country sideeeeeeee...

Day 4...

It was our time to leave Ireland and head for Wales. We left the hotel early in the morning to make it to our ferry. The ferry was huge. It wasn't what I expected. It was like a cruise ship! The ferry ride was about 3 hours...It was a nice time to relax..At times I felt drunk because of the movement of the ship.
We eventually dock in Wales and it was different from Dublin. It was a lot of sheep and hills. We stop at this little town that litterally had the longest name ever!!! After our stop we end up at the Beumaris Castle. It was absolutley breathtaking. The castle was all broken down but it was just amazing to see it. When you climbed to the top of castle of the view was unbelievable with the mountains in the background. It was very exciting to be there and it made me want to come back and visit.
After visiting the castle we take like a 2 hour ride back to where our hotel was. This was probably one of my favorite rides on the bus from all week. I mean driving through the mountains was ridicoulous. It was something i've never seen before. I just sat back with my ipod and enjoyed as much of the scenery as I could.
When we finally got to the Hand Hotel I could so easily tell this place had to be haunted. I got this weird vibe from the place...maybe cause it was like 300 years old!!! The town it was located was very weird. It was like a Ghost town...I'm surpised they even had a convient store that was open late. Everyone bugged out when we found out the hotel had no elevators..we were all tired from the day and now we had to bring our heavy luggage upstairs!! Some people went on a walking trip up a mountain..I decided to take a nice hot shower and chill out in the room..Later on some of us found out that the room our tour director was staying in was 28(it was haunted from a little girl in a red dress) that kinda made the night a little more exciting...I felt bad for Liz though because the room she had to stay in was scary as hell...I mean she had no tv..it was one bed and her view was a graveyard..Tamika and I didn't allow her to stay in her room so we invited her to stay in our room..she didn't care about sleeping on the floor..lol i wouldn't because that room was freakkkkkkkkky!!! We eventually went to sleep..it was hard at first for me because I knew how old the place was ...and I was afraid I was going to wake up with a ghost in my face!!! I slept with lights on lol

Tiredddddddd....

Day 3...

I was supposed to attend a tour to this park 2 hours away from Dublin but didn't go because I didn't get any sleep from St. Patricks Day...So I suffered the consequences and wasted 25 euro's..i've learned my lesson haha...I basically slept the whole day till 2pm...then met up with everyone for dinner around 6...I didn't really feel like partying so after dinner me and some of the girls went and got some more food..stopped at a sovenier shop then took a taxi and bus back to the hotel...we spent the rest of our nite using the internet to call home since we haven't talked to our family since we left for Ireland..Then it was time to sleep because the next day we had to catch the ferry to wales..we were all happy because we've seen enough of Dublin

St. Patricks Day!!!

Day 2...

I woke up at 6:30am..got ready..then met up with everyone for Breakfast downstairs at 7:30am. We all left on a coach bus around 8 and headed for St. Patrick's Cathedral. Our tour guide for that day was from Ireland. She explained different parts of the city while on the bus and had quite a sense of humor too. The one quote I remember her saying was " A woman is to be loved, not understood." I forget who she said wrote it but I thought it was great and true!

We arrive at the Cathedral and it was so BEAUTIFUL! When you walk into the church it is just incredible to see how big it is! The architecture was just amazing to see because I remember learning about these buildings when taking an Art history class last year. How they used a lot of arches and stained glass during that time period. While in the church they're were a lot of exhibits to look at. I really liked looking at the old books...such as the music books...I've taken music appreciation in the past and the way music all started is very interesting to me. There was a choir of children singing and some people were praying. St. Patricks is more of a religious holiday in Ireland as in the US it is more of an excuse to drink and party. The tour guide then gave us some time to look around and buy any souveiners. I decided to buy rosary beads and then I walked outside to the bus.

We took a ride to a beautiful park that had a HUGE cross that was given to the land from Pope John Paul 2..I took some pics and then we got back onto the bus. We also saw the (white house) of Ireland. I had no idea that a woman was President there and that there was a previous woman president. I guess you can say I had cultural shock when I heard that because it is crazy for us that Hillary is running for President..that is my opinion. So then we ended up at Trinity College for the book of Kells. The tour guide then left and we were on our own. The book of Kells was interesting because of how this guy had the neatess hand writing!! I thought the library was insane!! It reminded me of the library in the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast." The people that guarded the exhibits were very strict because you were not allowed to video or take pictures.
It was time to see the famous St. Patrick's Day Parade!!! Unfortunately is was way to packed at the time...so I did not see it...kids were climbing up on street lights and sitting on top of telephone booths to catch the view but I wasn't going to risk getting hurt in a different country!!!I got my face painted with a shamrock..had my irish drinking shirt..bought a irish scarf, and irish whistle be part of the festivities. It was just madness but I had a lot of fun spending it with my new friends. A lot of walking, but lucky for us, the day was beautiful with the sun shining making it feel not so cold.

Later..checked out the fair that was in the middle of the city. It was very "Americanized"...reminded me of being at Great Adventure..Me, Tamika, and April decided to go on the ferris wheel because we heard from locals the view is great. It was Tamika's first time on one..and well..I give her a lot of credit going on it because the ride was not safe at all!!! I was sitting next to where you get out.. I mean I could litterally fall out of this thing with one wrong move!!!(good thing they didn't open bars till 4pm!!)

We all eventually met up with everyone near the spire for dinner. Please forgive me for not remembering the names to these places...but it was a cute little place and they served us fish and chips..the fish was ehhh but the chips were good..like I said before..the food was not great..but after walking all day anything tasted good. After dinner most of us went back to the Hotel to chill out before going back to the city...afterall how could you not go to the pubs on St. Patricks Day!?

The pubs were packed and filled with drunk people...had a lot of fun and danced the night away..met some locals outside and learned a little about there culture...I think meeting people was probably one of the best things about the trip. It started getting late so we all went back to the hotel and met some more locals. Did not get to sleep till 8am the next morning!! St. Patrick's Day was probably one of the best days on the trip and it just made me more excited about the rest of the week!!!

We're finally here!!!

Day 1...
(I wasn't able to blog every night...So I will try my best to remember as much as i can)
The plane landed and I realized I am millions of miles away from home. I was in Ireland!!! How excited I was to be in Europe!!! The only country I've been to besides the U.S. was Mexico. I didn't know what to expect to happen that week because I felt at first I was traveling alone. Meaning that I didn't really know any of people on the trip besides the teachers and couple people(that changed soon because I met some incredible people on this trip!) But you know what I mean? It kinda made the trip feel more like an adventure and it gave me the chance to go out and explore. I forgot about everything else back at home. It was like being in a different world.
We were all exhausted from the flight because it was around 7pm when we left and when we arrived it was close to 6am in Ireland. Surpisingly enough I was able to adjust to the time difference pretty well. I thought I was going to go straight to sleep as soon as we arrived at the hotel..but I didn't...don't get me wrong I love to sleep but I didn't come to Europe to sleep...I was going to intake as much I could...This was an oppertunity that I got and how did I know I would ever come back to Europe.

Our tour director David(awesome guy)gave us an option to either sleep for the rest of the day till about 5 or take a quick little trip to Dublin. Most of us decided to take the trip because we were all thrilled to be there. It was a bit chilly but we were all dressed comfortably. I started going crazy taking 5 million pictures of the most random things. Such as McDonalds signs...little did I know that McDonalds would save my life from the terrible food that I had to eat for dinner. A running marathon happened to take place that day, and I saw a lot of street entertainers dressed up freaky costumes. We all eventually meet up at the mally malone statue and head on back to the hotel to take a nap. Before I went back to the room, me and my roommate(Tamika) agreed to have a drink at the bar. Our first drink in Ireland. So I of course drank a Guiness and Tamika had a mixed drink.

After our naps we all walked to the train station which was about a 10 min walk. The trip to the city only took about another 10 min and we walked a little bit before we ate at the resturant. The resturant was near a lot of other pubs(not a surpise..there were pubs everywhere!!!) It was a cute little place and we were all hungry and couldn't wait to eat. The first plate arrived...I'm not gonna lie...I thought it was an appetizer cause there was hardly any food on the plate. I then fond out it was my main course...At that moment i thought to myself...I must eat horrible if this is Ireland's normal way of eating. Sure...I was disappointed!! butttt it tasted good...could of added more meat...but that's what McDonalds came in handy for!! After our appetizer/meal they brought out dessert but I didn't even bother because I was more concerned about walking to the bar and having my first irish carbomb!! That for sure...didn't disappoint me in any way =) It was the first drink of many guiness's to follow...not tooooo many...but just enough!

After the meal most of us went to resturant near the temple bars called Thunder road. It was very "Americanized"(I don't know if that's a word) All they played was American music...kind of looked like your regular TGI Fridays or Applebees from back home...Met some people from London which was pretty cool. The night eventually got tiring so me and some others decided to call it a night while others continued to party at a club...Needed to rest for the long awaited St. Patricks Day....

Ireland was a lot different then I expected it...

Well unfortunately I have not been able to blog the past couple of days because there were some issues with the internet...I will try to make this quick because it is 1:11 AM in Dublin and I have to be up in 4 hours!!!!! Ireland was cool but very expensive...spent most of my money on food because the food they served us for dinner was toooooo small...most of the locals seemed very smart and extremely funny while others were completely rude...by far the best day here was St. Patricks day...was deff a great experience...I woke up at 6:30 am and didnt go to bed till 8 am...i will try to continue this if we have the internet in London...its too late right now!!!

What To Expect In Ireland!