quite possibly one of my favourite irish sayings
along with anything being 'grand,' 'lovely,' or 'terrible'
ok terrible is pretty universal, but maybe its just the accent that does it for me :)
okay...
where to begin....
well i guess last time i wrote (which seems like AGES ago!) i was getting ready to go to london
right
okay!
so my two friends and i went to london a couple weekends ago. we got up at about 330am to get a taxi at 4am (we had to make pb&j's first!) and caught a
super early flight to london!
it was amazing
the flight itself was not bad and im finding myself actually beginning to
like flying! we got into london in the early morning, but then had to figure out the tube just to get out of heathrow airport! luckily, some really nice people with
really nice accents helped us out and we were on our way in no time. we ended up having to ride the thing for an hour, but when we finally got off it was completely worth it!
as we quickly ascended the stairs towards the welcoming daylight, from the stuffy tunnels of the tube, it hit us;
WE WERE IN LONDON!!! it felt like a movie. amid exclamations of joy and disbelief that we were
actually here, we snapped our first photos of the city itself.
turns out the tube stop we got off at was trafalgar square; apparently where our tour bus headquarters were...so we thought someone would know where it was (it was in a visitor's centre) and we quickly set off with smiles on our faces to find someone to point us in the right direction.
an HOUR later, we were still in trafalgar square, having walked all througout it, talking to
countless londoners, yet still not at our visitor's centre.
we
were
frustrated.
luckily we found some random person who happened to know where it was and we set off to find it. we did. :) so we boarded a bus and took off on our LONDON BUS TOUR. it was great :) i know people sometimes say not to do bus tours because they're a waste of money, but this was really good. our first tour guide was pretty good, but our second was...well, sketchy to say the least. when one of my friends asked what a particular building was, he quickly snapped at her, "i
just covered that! PAY ATTENTION!" like it was school or something! we didn't like him. lol
all in all we were ridiculously busy and spent only 48 hours in the city, but saw sooo many things! i had to make a list to keep track of everything (come to think of it, im not so sure where that is!)
we saw the house of parliament, big ben, the london eye (and went on it at night!), took a tour of westminster abbey, toured the tower of london, did a boat tour, saw the tower bridge and got to ride over it in the tour bus, had fish and chips :) and so many other things!
looking back it's hard to believe we did everything that we did!!!
our first night there we stayed in this cute little hotel and our doorman was so nice
that night we had drinks at a little mexican restaurant; strawberry margaritas and tequila shots!
the second night we went back to the mexican restaurant, this time for food!!! :)
we didn't have a hotel or hostel for the second night because we figured we'd just stay out all night and get to the airport in the early morning since our flight was so early again.
HOWEVER
the tube closes down at midnight.
lame.
so we had to take the tube at midnight, putting us back at heathrow at about 1am
no one was there
there were about two people working some random coffee shop that i dont think was even open. there were a few other people there just lounging about and sleeping in the chairs and we were quick to join!
we slept until 4am then moved downstairs to wait for security to open (we thought they opened at 4)
buuuut they open at 5.
being dead tired, we couldnt bring ourselves to walk back to the elevator and go back to the comfy chairs in the cafe, so we layed on the ground in front of security waiting for it to open (im sure we looked ridiculous, but at at 4 in the morning, who cares?)
FINALLY we got through security and onto even COMFIER couches at the nicer cafe :)
back to dublin around 9am, we each headed straight for our respective beds and im pretty sure i slept until 330pm that day!
a much needed nap
:)
so that's london
four days later, i was on my way to karlsruhe, germany; about an hour north of france.
it
was
amazing!!!
i went with the lacrosse team for a weekend of fun- both on and off the field!
our first full day in germany we more or less toured the small town of karlsruhe
after seeing the "palace," we were just about all toured-out. (there really wasnt much to see!)
the real fun happened on saturday when we played two games against some german teams; there was germania and ...frankfurt was it? i cant be sure if it was frankfurt or karlsruhe. it was a tiring weekend!!! lol nevertheless we won both and are currently undefeated!!! :)
the next day we had a training session with the germania team and watched our lacrosse guys win a gold goat trophy! we all made fun of it, but coach is pretty proud :)
the night time was when the real fun began though.
the guys from the karlsruhe team knew all the good places to go; aka bars with 1euro shots and 2euro pints
lets just say good fun was shared by all ;)
the trip was a trip of a lifetime
good times
good lacrosse
good people.
im so glad i got into this sport!!!
now, just about a week after getting back from germany, im still exhausted!
buuuut that could have something to do with the fact that we had another lacrosse game on thursday then the guys had one on friday (yes, on halloween) and there was an AMAZING house party afterwards.
yesterday we all slept in super late...we were, eh...tired. lol
then my friends came over and we made some home made salsa and cooked up some tortillas to make tortilla chips...set off the smoke alarm for a good two minutes! lol
good times :)
today was good too
gabbie and sarah and i went to the gym for about an hour and a half and decided to start going every morning at about 8am
HOWEVER
tomorrow we're going at 7am
what was i thinking when i agreed to that?!?
i dont have class till 1pm though so i'll be able to take a nap if i need it
its going on midnight here in the emerald isle so i should be off to bed
i cant believe halloween is over
thanksgiving is just around the corner
thats definitely one of the things im going to miss the most about home.
thanksgiving.
there's no way it will even compare to thanksgivings back home
mom making the HUGE 20-25lb turkey...it is ALWAYS done early
the kunish's coming over for the day (mrs. kunish bringing my favourite part; the green bean casserole!!!)
walking to the creek to watch the salmon run
coming in from the brisk outdoors into a warm house that just
smells like the holidays
then out for a movie after dinner.
gotta love it
pie afterwards
the strohs come over
such good times.
i'm going to miss that.
a lot.
buuuut im trying not to get too homesick. this is a once in a lifetime opportunity
luckily traveling helps with the homesickness... it distracts me AND it's fun!!! :)
well, i should go to bed
i feel like this just might be the longest blog yet!!!
so props to you if you make it through the whole thing!!! lol
i love and miss you all more than i can possibly express
i'll be home on the 31st of december so you'd better be ready for some good quality hangout time!!! ;)
love and hugs from ireland
goodnight and sweet dreams
ta-ta for now <3
