Top of the Morning to ya Ireland!

November 5-7, 2010

Our weekend began with a mandatory field trip to London for our British Studies class. Darn, I know, too bad we have to go to London. It was perfect because we went to the places I hadn't been yet! We visited the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery which house some of the most famous art pieces. They gave us a booklet of art to find within the museums- so it was fun going on a scavenger hunt throughout and seeing the art we have been learning about and analyzing.Then we made our way to St. Paul's cathedral, built between 1675 and 1710 (before the USA existed) after the first cathedral was destroyed by London's Great fire of 1666. Inside the cathedral we got a tour around and then we made our way up via the stairs to the Whispering Gallery. This is the first level of the dome where you can stand opposite one another and whisper, and still hear eachother. Then we went up to the next level, up a winding staircase- and the kind you can see through; (the metal ones with holes!) it was kind of scary! But we finally made it to the top of St. Paul's for a great view down at London!

After our academic duties were done I met up with friends in Trafalgar Square and we headed to Chipotle for a much needed burrito! We also got some yummy gelato and then Shelby, Stephanie, and I headed to the Victoria Tube stop in order to board the Gatwick express for the airport. We made it with no problem and our flight to Dublin was to leave shortly. It was a kind of sad weekend as this was the Three Amigos final trip all together :'(. The weeks have been flying by so fast lately.

Funny story, I probably can't tell it as funny as it was at the time though. So, we were walking outside to the airplane from the gate, because that's how you get to the plane for Easyjet. Shelby and Stephanie are walking in front of me and I'm talking to them from behind. We were walking along side caution tape which was blocking us from an area in the tarmac where you aren't allowed. In mid-sentence this caution tape flies over my head and engulfs me and for some odd reason (perhaps cause we were headed to Ireland) I let out this leprechaun noise. It's hard to explain. But Shelby and Stephanie look back and just start cracking up cause I'm trying to get out of this caution tape. This was the beginning of a very entertaining evening.

Next story: We are sitting in the airplane with Shelby by the window, me in the middle (the youngest always gets stuck in the middle), and then Stephanie on the aisle. Sidenote: At the airport we had each bought a powerade for the trip. We were all sitting quietly listening to music and what not. Then Shelby gets out her powerade, takes the top off, and opens the mouth piece and the pressure of the airplane sends a fountain of red powerade all over me. It just sprays all over my face! Shelby saw my face, Stephanie and I saw Shelby's face and it was the most hilarious thing ever. Shelby was sobbing because it was so funny. I just needed to make sure I didn't have red all over my cream jacket!

Later on in our journey Stephanie and Shelby were listening to their ipods and I thought it would be funny to listen to one headphone from each of them. So I had a slow melody going from Shelby's ipod and some intense rap from Stephanie. Then Shelby played a rap song and was dancing in her seat acting out the lyrics...with her eyes closed I might add. Little did we know, the flight attendant was coming around telling people to turn their electronics off. So there we are, Shelby breaking it down, me watching her and laughing and the flight attendant standing at the aisle just watching and waiting for us to look up at him. Finally we saw him and cracked up cause he was watching the whole thing!

Then we landed in Dublin and had to take a bus to the city center. This was about 11pm at night- I suppose we were a little slap happy by this hour. On the moving double decker bus we proceeded to throw gummy candy for Shelby to catch them in her mouth.

We've learned to make our hours of transportation more fun!

We arrived in the rainy city and found our hostel and called it a night, as it was about 1am already and we had to be at another hostel at 7am the next morning for our Paddywagon tour to the Cliffs of Moher. Here's the green bus we were in for about 14 hours!

Our tour started and we made our way to Galway. We stopped at an old monastery and then at the shore to take pictures. I believe this was at the Burren.

Next we made our way to the small village town of Doolin where we stopped for a very quick bite to eat. I had some soup to warm me up!

Then we headed up the mountain to the Cliffs of Moher, what this day was all about. It was the most windy experience ever. We could barely walk it was so windy.

It was so beautiful up there. The coastline was green, the water was so blue!

That ended our adventure -- we would return to our hostel for a final day in Dublin.

Sunday we ventured around the city, but couldn't find many things to do. Dublin was not what I expected.; perhaps a Sunday morning wasn't the best time to explore though.

Nonetheless, Ireland was a good experience. We made our way back to Harlaxton that evening to begin another week of classes.

Next is Austria and Switzerland :)

Keep reading,

Aunt Kate