London, I'm Yours

The last 2 weeks (condensed version)

So I haven’t done an update post in a really really long time. I guess I’ve just been slacking in my typing up skills. So Spring Break ’10 went really well. I loved seeing my mom. The week back was okay too. It flew by. Last weekend I went to Scotland. It was beautiful but, Ireland still holds a soft place in my heart. We stayed in Edinburgh. The first night there we saw the play The Hobbit. It was interesting to say the least. The next day Rainey, Zach, and I went on a bus tour through the Scottish Highlands. It was BEAUTIFUL. We saw Loch Ness, Glencoe, and so many other places that I can’t remember their names. But let me say it was money well spent! The next day Zach and I hiked up a hill to get a panorama of the whole city of Edinburgh. The train ride back was pretty uneventful. I’m doing really poorly at recounting this, I guess I shouldn’t have put it off so long. Sorry guys. This weekend I did alot of bonding with my roommate Emily. We got drinks, meals, went to Camden, and took walks through London. I’m being a really bad at this whole blog thing right now. Well that’s about all that’s been going on in my life, in a really short condensed version. I’m going out to dinner with my roommates tonight so that should be interesting. We’re doing Mexican Monday! 

Dublin!

Dublin oh Dublin, how I love the mother country. We arrived in Dublin on Monday afternoon, after a plane delay out of Barcelona. We ended up finding the hotel at about 5 after a little bit of wandering around. The hotel was cute and charming. Since we got to Dublin so late all the touristy attractions were closed, so my mom and I laid it low for awhile, getting dinner and a drink at a pub. After that we called it a night and watched some TV before going to bed. The next day we had a day trip through the country. We took a bus to Wicklow and Kilkenny through the country side. Wicklow was a really cool old cemetery with loads of celtic crosses and old ruins. Kilkenny was a small touristy village in the country side. We got lunch there and had a nice tour of the city. The Irish countryside is so breathtakingly beautiful! The pictures do not do it justice! When we got back to Dublin we went out for a late dinner to the Arlington Hotel, which had free traditional Irish music and Irish dancing. We stayed till 10 and listened to the music, but neither my mom or I wanted to just continue drinking, so we headed back to the hotel. The next day was St. Patrick’s Day! It’s truly a national holiday for the Irish. The city shuts down…well everything but the pubs and Guinness Storehouse closes down. We started the day off with a short Catholic mass. After church we went to the main street to wait for the parade to start. We got to our spot at 10:30, it was right at the barrier, so that was really cool. The parade didn’t start until 12 so we had a lot of waiting time. The parade was weird in a different way. I expected the parade to be a big thing in Dublin, but it wasn’t that big. There weren’t a lot of floats in the parade, which was a little weird to me, but overall the parade was fun. I got to see some things that other people will never get to see. After the parade we went to a pub to get some lunch. It was delicious. After lunch we made the long trek up to the Guinness Storehouse, only getting slightly lost. The Guinness Storehouse was so cool, it was one of my favorite things in Dublin. I took lots of pictures for Brent, because it’s his favorite beer. After the Guinness Storehouse we wandered around Dublin for awhile watching all the drunks stumble out of pubs. We ended up going to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, my mom and I shared a pizza and some bread. After dinner we stopped by a little shop, and I got a new claddagh ring. We ended up going to a small pub to get a drink in honor of St. Patrick. We headed in around 10 because most of the pubs were filled with drunk people, and we had to get up early for our flight to London.

We ended up getting to the airport pretty early for our plane, we waited around to board. We had a 30 minute delay on the runway, so we got to London around 4 or 5. We ended up going to Oxford Street, to find Shelby a souvenir. After having no luck at Primark we ended up getting dinner at a pub. We hit up H&M after dinner and found a few good things for her. We ended up at my flat early because my mom was tired from all the walking. She’s not used to it like I am. We went to the grocery store and watched American Idol for the rest of the night. 

The next morning we woke up and came to Regent’s so my mom could print out her boarding pass. I gave her a short tour of the campus and we printed the boarding pass. We walked out of the school to find that it was raining, and me being stupid and not thinking ahead, forgot my umbrella. We ended up getting lunch at Pret and eating at my flat. After we ate lunch we headed over to Abbey Road. My mom loved seeing the studio. We headed to the tube again and headed to Camden Town, to find some more cool clothes. We ended up going to the market and finding a bunch of dresses for both Shell and I. I also got a cheap bomber jacket. I love it. After the shopping we headed over to the crypt, which is a cool place to get coffee and scones. We chilled down there for a little while, then I took my mom to see Big Ben and Westminster. After the touristy things happened we walked over to the Strand to get some dinner before we saw the play of the day: Love Never Dies. We had bought tickets earlier in the day. I LOVED THE PLAY. It’s the sequel to Phantom of the Opera, and it’s not in the US yet. It was worth every penny spent. After the play we headed home, so my mom could pack for her long journey home the next day. 

I had to walk my mom to the train station on Saturday morning. It was really sad to see her leave, I wish she could have stayed with me forever! I had an amazing spring break it was the best one yet!

I’m back to school today, it’s been a hard day, because my computer won’t connect to any network! I’m getting it looked at tomorrow, so wish me luck with that. :) 

Day 2

Today was our second day in Barcelona. It was amazing to say the least. My mom and I woke up around 9 in the morning, laid in bed for a little bit, and then dressed and got breakfast in the hotel. After breakfast we started our long day of tourism. First off today’s weather was fantastic, blue skies and beautiful weather! We decided that the best way to see the city would be doing the official city tour bus thing, so we stood in line and got our tickets. We decided to do a full revolution of the bus route, because we had prime up top seats. We saw so many breath taking sights including: Caixa Catalonia, Casa Batllo, and La Sagrada Familia (all which are works from Antoni Gaudi). Gaudi, is an architectural genius! These places were some of the most breath taking buildings that I have ever seen. My mom was freaking out over La Sagrada Familia. She’s a fairly devout Catholic, so seeing this church completely dedicated to the whole family took her breath away. The church has been under construction for more then 100 years and it’s only a little bit more then 50% finished! There’s 4 towers dedicated to the 4 gospels, 12 dedicated to the apostles, and 1 to Mary, and a giant tower dedicated to Jesus, with a cross on top (Mary and Jesus’s towers haven’t been constructed). There are 3 facades dedicated to the passion, the nativity, and the glories. It was amazing. The pictures don’t do it justice. The detail this man put into the building is ornate and magnificent. After the church, we had a late lunch, and headed off to see La Pedrera of Caixa Catalunya, which is where Gaudi lived. It was enchanting with its roof top view of the city. After that we went to Casa Batllo, a building that Gaudi renovated. Again let me say it was stunning. Everything this man touched turned into architectural gold! After that tour we walked around for some time and found a nice restaurant. I got some delicious chicken paella while my mom got a chicken breast. After dinner we walked around that area for a little while and saw a street performer that was singing opera! He had an amazing voice, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t a singer in real life. After walking around for awhile we headed back to the hotel. It was about 10:30. Now I’m sitting in bed typing this up. Today was a good day. Up tomorrow is the red line bus tour, Piccasso’s museum, and maybe a castle on top of a mountain and a flamenco show.

So I’m writing this new journal post on my brand new Mac book! It’s a super early birthday present because my computer decided to crap out on me. I love my dad so much!

So yeah I got to Barcelona safely after a long stressful day of traveling. The day started bright and early at 5:30am with my alarm buzzing under my pillow. I woke up feeling really disoriented and groggy, but ready to start the day. I finished packing from the day before, got dress, ate some yogurt, and we off on my way to the EasyBus stop. EasyBus is the bus that gets you to the airport, because taking a train costs soo much money. I left with 30 minutes to get to the bus stop, which is right down the street from where I live. I thought I’d be okay finding the stop without any difficulties. I was wrong, I wandered around Marble Arch for too long. Finally I saw some bus stops and decided to ask, luckily I found the stop that I was supposed to be at with 1 minute to spare. The bus ride to Luton wasn’t awful, I was asleep/dozing for most of it. I got to the airpot with 2.5 hours to spare before my flight. I ended up sitting by two American girls from Belmont College, in Nashville (Emily’s College) I thought that was a weird coincidence. I ended up watching the monitor for the rest of the time after getting some pret for a brunch treat. Finally my plane started to board. Easy Jet lets you get to pick where you sit, so I sat near the front of the plane. It was a decent flight, but there was a lot of turbulence. I though the plane was going to crash during the landing, but we all ended safely at the airport in Barcelona. This is where the issues started to happen…

So the original plan of action between me and my mom was to meet in baggage claim, because I don’t have a Spain sim card, so it cost a lot in roaming fees for me to use my phone. The first issue was I was in terminal B and her plane landed in terminal A…which is a bus ride away. I was confused as to what I should do because I figured that she was going to come and get me. I went to ask info about her plane and such and they told me about The free bus that would take me to A. I took the bus. It was super dodgy. I thought It was taking me into the city or something, but I finally ended up in terminal A, praying to God that my mom hand’t gone to terminal B looking for me. I walk all around the terminal looking for my mom, but not seeing her, so I incurred the roaming fees and called my mom…only to find out her cell phone was off, so at this point I call my dad to ask what I should do. He said to wait around and/or get someone to page her. Well fun fact, they don’t page people in the Barcelona Airport (unless the lady lied to me, which she very well could have). I ended up waiting outside the baggage claim area hoping she was going to come out soon. After about 20 minutes I got to see my mom’s face for the first time in 2 months. I missed her! She was super frazzled because the airline had told her her bags had been lost during the flight, but when she was putting in a claim her’s suddenly popped out of the conveyor belt. That was 40 minutes after her plane had landed. Then she finds out that even though she told Verizon she was going overseas they didn’t turn on her blackberry’s overseas capability, which was why she didn’t answer my phone calls!

We finally get situated in the airport and go searching for the bus that will take us into the city. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, bust a lot of catch up with my mom. We ended up being dropped off at El Catalonia Plaza, which is a really cool place in Barcelona filled with flower vendors, street performers, and believe it or not lots of animal/pet kiosks. We got extremely lost trying to find our hotel, but after asking 3 people we found out that we had bypassed it by a lot! We ended up finding it and checking in. When we got to the room is when I got my  new birthday present. It’s amazing! Let me tell you. My mom ended up calling Verizon from the room phone and got the cell phone issue settled. After we relaxed for awhile we went out in search of tapas. The hotel had recommended some places so we decided to check one of the out. We were super sidetracked on the way by the vast amount of stores littering the street. I saw at least 5 H&M’s in a mile. We finally found the restaurant and got some delicious food and sangria. Yum. Dinner went well. It was so tasty! The only this is that neither my mom or I like fish, so when we ordered the paella we thought it was going to be good, but it was filled with fish. I ate most of mine, it was good, but it had a very fishy taste to it. After dinner we walked around for a bit more. We found a nice farmer’s market place. Kind of like the Borough Market. It was amazing! We got fresh squeezed juice, I got strawberry pineapple and my mom got kiwi pineapple. They were good. We decided to turn in early because my mom hasn’t had real sleep in like 2 days. So far Barcelona is a success! I can’t wait to see what the next few days brings us!

Pony Trekking in Wales!

So Pony Trekking was last weekend, and let me say it was AMAZING. I love Wales. It’s one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been. The amount of open land is astounding. I wish I had more pictures. If you guys ever get a chance to go there I would take it in a heart beat, because pictures will not do the landscape justice.

 

So let’s start off with Friday, the long day of travelling. I woke up at like 10, finished packing my suitcase, had a leisurely breakfast, got cash money, and was ready to go. I met Bri, Zach, and Andrew in the lobby and we started the short walk to Paddington Station. We arrived and got some food for the train and started talking to the people we were going to spend the weekend with.  There were 20 people going on the trip, and I knew about half of them already. I ended up sitting by Abby, a girl from my ethics in the media class, on the train. We bonded over being from Kentucky and then I read my book for the rest of the train ride. We got to Swansea and took a bus the Parc Le Breos’s bed and breakfast. It was so quaint. I chose the double room with Bri. It consisted of one queen sized bed. At the B&B, Olive, the owner, has a strict policy of only married couples staying in single rooms, so yeah me and Bri got the marriage bed… we tried not to think of that fact.  After getting settled in, the whole group took a walk to the beach. It was breathtaking! Let me say it again, Wales is beautiful! We ended up trying to walk up to old ruins, the path we tried to take was blocked by a stream of water, we crossed the stream by jumping on rocks, but my new red shoes did not stand up to the test of the mud and sand. They were ruined by the time I got back to the B&B. Dinner was served when we got back, chicken and a bakes potato. After dinner I chilled in the room and watched VIVA and read some more. Bri came back and we chatted for a few minutes and decided to hit the hay early at 10.

 

Muddy Shoes

We woke up ready to find out who our ponies were. After breakfast and some waiting around, we were assigned out ponies. Mine’s name was Cheeko. He was an awesome pony. We brushed out ponies, got them saddled up, and got a lesson on how to ride and control the ponies and we were off. We rode through the country side and saw some amazing views of harbours and bays. It was amazing. We stopped for lunch in this small cultural centre. I got a sandwich and chips and was ready to continue with the ride. After lunch is when the crazy stuff started to happen. We were all walking single file into a field and something spooked the horses, so mine took off into the field. I really enjoyed riding fast on my horse, other people didn’t. We had a few people freak out because of it. I found out later that it was Bri’s horse Baby who created the scare. She ended up falling off Baby, but she handled it well and didn’t get trampled and was okay. We all had to cut the riding short after that. We ended up going back to the B&B. I took a shower and then Bri and I went to hang out with Becca, Abby, and Caitlin, our neighbours. We went to dinner after that. After dinner we ended up going to Mumbles, a quaint sea side town in Wales. Catherine Zeda Jones is from there. We spent 4 hours in the pub, which was too long for me because the drink that I like is generally like 7 pounds, which means I can only get one. I talked with everyone for awhile. The bus came to pick us up at 11 and we went back to the B&B. The front door wasn’t unlocked so we had to wait outside for someone to let us in, while waiting I got to see more stars then I have ever seen in my life. The night’s sky was amazing! I saw so many constellations! It was like seeing the sky in a whole nother way. It’s amazing what being in the country side can show you.  We finally were let in and we headed off to bed.

Sunday was our last day in Wales. We woke up early again and got breakfast. Half of the people opted for taking a walking tour instead of riding, so we had less people. We all got our ponies ready and were off on a second day of riding. We had another person fall off a horse, so we had to take her back to the ranch, so the plans were changed, but I think it’s for the best, because we ended up taking the ponies to the beach! I can officially say I’ve ridden a horse on a beach! Again let me say Wales is beautiful. I know I’m being redundant, but you won’t understand until you go there. After another day of riding we went back to the B&B and showered and packed and such. I ended up taking a nap until we were about to leave. We all got food before we got on the train. The train ride was uneventful. I just studied for my Marketing mid-term. We got to Paddington Station and all walked back to the Landward. I ended up having to be practically carried back, because my foot started bleeding, but everything is alright. I did laundry, talked to Brent, and my mom and went to bed.

Monday I had my first mid-term in Marketing. I was kind of worried about it, because it’s 50% of our overall grade, but I got an A, so I’m extremely happy. Today I had Accounting, I’m pretty sure I did well on it, and I have a presentation in Advertising later. I’m fairly certain I’ve got that one covered.

3 Days Till I Get To See My Mama!!! I leave for Barcelona on Friday!