Hey Everyone!
So my first and last full day in London has been amazing! I caught the last of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace this morning which was quite impressive, but I am really glad I only caught the end of it. I think Lonely Planet was right when they said the official name which is Guard Mounting seems much more interesting, nonetheless I am really glad I saw it. From there I walked along the birdcage walk to Parliament Square where Westminster Abbey and Big Ben are along with loads of other beautiful government buildings. Walked up to the very impressive Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery is right behind this amazing fountain...words can't really describe it...i will try and get pictures up soon. I then walked across the River Thames to the London Eye...wow....so great. I thought I might freak out because I am not a fan of 'ferris wheels' but it was so great and now i can say i have been on the worlds largerst observation wheel :) On the eye I met a hilarious gay couple from Texas ... really ironic story but more on that later. After the eye, which I got on very quickly by the way, I walked along the south bank of the River Thames to the Tate Modern. I loved the Tate, they had a great exhibit, by an artist whose name I have written down somewhere upstairs, who went to a post-communist community (but did not disclose the location) and painted all the buildings bright colors...or should i say colours... and made a video about how the community reacted. After the Tate I meandered by the Globe Theatre then went to the London Bridge area which by the way I have always thought was the 'pretty' bridge but really that is the Tower Bridge and therefore was terribly confused when I started walking across...then i looked to the next bridge over and laughed to myself when I saw the Tower Bridge. So then I walked to the Tower Bridge and across the River Thames where I walked around the Tower of London and went into the non-touristy area of the financial district where the Bank of England is. After that I took the tube back to the Kensington Garden area which is where my ironic story comes is! So after a few stops people get off and I take an empty seat. Right after I sit down a familiar voice says with a slight drawl ' well hello there again', I look up and see my texas friends from the London eye! How crazy is that! The even crazier thing is, there seems to be a conspiracy with gay couples from Texas (of all places!). When I was in NYC over Thanksgiving I went to a broadway show with my brother and his boyfriend and who do I happen to be sitting next to....a gay couple from Texas!!! I can't complain because both couples were very nice but ah how weird is that! Anyway, I took the tube to the Keksington garden area and then caught a double decker bus to Hyde Park and walked around...very beautiful. Then I caught a bus back to Kensington where I went back the the Irvine's (very nice people) and had dinner with them. Well that is the short story for now! I have to get up in about 5 hours to get to the airport to go to Norway but I will write again soon after that...and I have to add this...Mind the Gap!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
9 more days to go!
With only nine more days until I go to Europe life is getting a bit crazy! Anytime I even think about sleeping I freak out about what I still need to do for my trip. Needless to say I didn't sleep in today and instead bought more flights, a rail pass and am now "set" for my trip as far as dates and times are concerned. So my current itinerary looks a bit more believable now than it did a few days ago. Now it is starting to feel like I am actually leaving.
On March 27th I fly to London, England
March 30th I leave London and fly to Oslo, Norway to visit Gunnar my 4th cousin and family there.
I will catch a train that same day and head to Bergen, Norway where I plan on staying for a few days and Gunnar who seems so great is going to take time off of work to show me where my great grandfather lived in Laksevåg and of course show me around Bergen as well.
Gunnar is leaving Bergen on the 4th to go on holiday so I will be using my rail pass to go back to Oslo and hang out until the 6th of April when I go to...Maryland! er Ireland!!!
From there I will be going to southern Ireland where the wind comes from Spain! I plan on working on the organic farm for a week then possibly to the Aran Islands where an old roomate is also working on an organic farm to visit and see the area around Galway. So after my whirlwind tour of southern Ireland I will head back to Dublin and hang out with friends for a few days until we go to our school in County Donegal...where the wind comes from Iceland brrr!
That is my plan so far .. subject to change the next time I can't sleep ... or maybe not.
Thankfully the end of the quarter is bringing my stress level down a lot and now I am able to read my travel guides without feeling guilty for neglecting Seamus Heaney.
Oh, if there is any confusion over the name of my blog, Maryland, the best explanation I can give is this: My amazing active listening skills, riding a duck (tour), a smart ass friend, and two guys who I thought were from Maryland (listening skills!) but they were from Ireland and yes, they had very thick accents.
Before I forget, I feel obliged to comment on the fact that today is St. Patricks Day. As much as I would like to be annoying and blog about how St. Patrick is the one who brought Christianity to Ireland, got rid of the "snakes" by suppressing Irish culture and how annoying Irish stereotypes are...I won't go there. All I can say is I am not wearing green as a silent protest, and also because I wore my green shirt yesterday :)
On March 27th I fly to London, England
March 30th I leave London and fly to Oslo, Norway to visit Gunnar my 4th cousin and family there.
I will catch a train that same day and head to Bergen, Norway where I plan on staying for a few days and Gunnar who seems so great is going to take time off of work to show me where my great grandfather lived in Laksevåg and of course show me around Bergen as well.
Gunnar is leaving Bergen on the 4th to go on holiday so I will be using my rail pass to go back to Oslo and hang out until the 6th of April when I go to...Maryland! er Ireland!!!
From there I will be going to southern Ireland where the wind comes from Spain! I plan on working on the organic farm for a week then possibly to the Aran Islands where an old roomate is also working on an organic farm to visit and see the area around Galway. So after my whirlwind tour of southern Ireland I will head back to Dublin and hang out with friends for a few days until we go to our school in County Donegal...where the wind comes from Iceland brrr!
That is my plan so far .. subject to change the next time I can't sleep ... or maybe not.
Thankfully the end of the quarter is bringing my stress level down a lot and now I am able to read my travel guides without feeling guilty for neglecting Seamus Heaney.
Oh, if there is any confusion over the name of my blog, Maryland, the best explanation I can give is this: My amazing active listening skills, riding a duck (tour), a smart ass friend, and two guys who I thought were from Maryland (listening skills!) but they were from Ireland and yes, they had very thick accents.
Before I forget, I feel obliged to comment on the fact that today is St. Patricks Day. As much as I would like to be annoying and blog about how St. Patrick is the one who brought Christianity to Ireland, got rid of the "snakes" by suppressing Irish culture and how annoying Irish stereotypes are...I won't go there. All I can say is I am not wearing green as a silent protest, and also because I wore my green shirt yesterday :)
Friday, March 9, 2007
March 27th
Is the day I leave the states for precisely 63 full days and 2 1/2 days where I will be stuck in a flying box just me my ipod and 60+ complete strangers for so long I don't want to count. For those of you who have had the misfortune of not hearing my current itinerary in person here it is.
I fly into London on the 27th and stay in a swanky house with my friends aunts family for a while, then I will somehow end up in Oslo, Norway where I will embark on a journey. This particular journey involves a train, bus, boat, and train again and is said to be one of the top 20 train rides in the world. I will hop off the train in Bergen, Norway where I am going to meet Gunnar and his family. Gunnar is my 3rd or 4th cousin that my nifty Grandma found on the internet in '98 and has been conversing with over email ever since.
After what I imagine to be an amazing trip to Norway I will head back to London or to Scotland and hang out for a few more days before I reach the reason I am finally leaving the country in the first place...Ireland.
In Ireland I am first going to a teeny Island that only inhabits about 100-150 people to work on an organic farm for a week or two. On this particular farm they have a ton of goats that I will help take care of and possibly build a fence around. This brings me to possibly the greatest fear of my trip: no, not falling off the cliffs of moher or getting lost in an English speaking country...no, not even close. My biggest fear of this trip is goats milk! It just seems so gross, granted I left my vegan life a few months ago and have been drinking cows milk since I still find it a little gross. Goats are cute, but goat milk? ... ew. The farm is even noted in both Lonely Planet and Let's Go travel guides as having the creamiest GOAT ice cream in Ireland so I think I might be offered some while I am there since they are probably very proud of this achievement....poor goats.
Anyway, after recovering from ingesting goat products I am possibly going to travel around Ireland and do touristy things or head to Dublin and hang out with some classmates before we head to the Glenn. The "Glenn" is a nickname for the village we will be staying in named Glencolumbkille, and "we" is a nickname for my 37 classmates and 2 faculty who are going to occupy several cottages and a dorm at Oideas Gael, a language school in County Donegal.
For 5 weeks we will have language study every morning and other classes throughout the day. The Glenn and the farm in County Cork are both in designated Gaeltachts, where Irish is the official language, which is why I have been trying to learn as much of the language as possible
After the five weeks in the Glenn are up I will head back to London for a night to catch my flight on May 29th back to the states, but instead of going back to Olympia I decided to mix it up and stay in New York City for a while. Unfortunately school is not over once I am back, I get to write a 30 page paper on Ireland as theory and Ireland in practice while surrounded by all these amazing things to do and amazing people like my brother and friends I haven't seen since Thanksgiving when I was last in the city. After I finish my paper I plan on hanging out in Coney Island indefinitely...but I really want to check out Boston, D.C. and Philly(for more than an hour this time) while I'm on the east coast if my wallet allows.
Finally on June 25th I leave NYC and come back to reality in Oly where I have to find a job for the summer so I can pay rent again.
So that is my current itinerary, aren't you glad you know now! Lucky for you, you didn't hear bits and pieces as they were being planned out over the past few months while I look up from travel guides to tell you another interesting fact about goats...and Ireland.
I fly into London on the 27th and stay in a swanky house with my friends aunts family for a while, then I will somehow end up in Oslo, Norway where I will embark on a journey. This particular journey involves a train, bus, boat, and train again and is said to be one of the top 20 train rides in the world. I will hop off the train in Bergen, Norway where I am going to meet Gunnar and his family. Gunnar is my 3rd or 4th cousin that my nifty Grandma found on the internet in '98 and has been conversing with over email ever since.
After what I imagine to be an amazing trip to Norway I will head back to London or to Scotland and hang out for a few more days before I reach the reason I am finally leaving the country in the first place...Ireland.
In Ireland I am first going to a teeny Island that only inhabits about 100-150 people to work on an organic farm for a week or two. On this particular farm they have a ton of goats that I will help take care of and possibly build a fence around. This brings me to possibly the greatest fear of my trip: no, not falling off the cliffs of moher or getting lost in an English speaking country...no, not even close. My biggest fear of this trip is goats milk! It just seems so gross, granted I left my vegan life a few months ago and have been drinking cows milk since I still find it a little gross. Goats are cute, but goat milk? ... ew. The farm is even noted in both Lonely Planet and Let's Go travel guides as having the creamiest GOAT ice cream in Ireland so I think I might be offered some while I am there since they are probably very proud of this achievement....poor goats.
Anyway, after recovering from ingesting goat products I am possibly going to travel around Ireland and do touristy things or head to Dublin and hang out with some classmates before we head to the Glenn. The "Glenn" is a nickname for the village we will be staying in named Glencolumbkille, and "we" is a nickname for my 37 classmates and 2 faculty who are going to occupy several cottages and a dorm at Oideas Gael, a language school in County Donegal.
For 5 weeks we will have language study every morning and other classes throughout the day. The Glenn and the farm in County Cork are both in designated Gaeltachts, where Irish is the official language, which is why I have been trying to learn as much of the language as possible
After the five weeks in the Glenn are up I will head back to London for a night to catch my flight on May 29th back to the states, but instead of going back to Olympia I decided to mix it up and stay in New York City for a while. Unfortunately school is not over once I am back, I get to write a 30 page paper on Ireland as theory and Ireland in practice while surrounded by all these amazing things to do and amazing people like my brother and friends I haven't seen since Thanksgiving when I was last in the city. After I finish my paper I plan on hanging out in Coney Island indefinitely...but I really want to check out Boston, D.C. and Philly(for more than an hour this time) while I'm on the east coast if my wallet allows.
Finally on June 25th I leave NYC and come back to reality in Oly where I have to find a job for the summer so I can pay rent again.
So that is my current itinerary, aren't you glad you know now! Lucky for you, you didn't hear bits and pieces as they were being planned out over the past few months while I look up from travel guides to tell you another interesting fact about goats...and Ireland.
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