Traveling Queens!

Well hello again! Sorry about the longest delay ever on my posts, it has been a crazy couple of weeks here at CIMBA, where to begin? Well first with a WARNING: this is going to be a long, long, long blog..I can just feel it. Saturday, February 12th marked the first day of our first weeklong travel break. My roommate, two other girls from Clemson and I decided to travel and make our way to 3 fabulous places: Dublin (and also Cork, Ireland), London, and Amsterdam! It was an incredible week and where we spoiled ourselves with pub food, pub crawls, Chipotle, Haagen Dazs, shopping, and most importantly the English language :)

We first flew out to Dublin, Ireland and landed at about 7pm, thankfully meeting a guy on the plane who wrote down some of the best local places to go. The first night we ended up at a local pub and made friends with some Irishmen who shared some stories of the city and culture of Ireland, while all drinking their dark pitchers of Guinness (gross!). It was a little embarrassing though when we asked if they ever played drinking card games and they all busted out into laughter saying "Psh, please, the Irish don't ever need a reason to drink!" Silly Americans...

We woke up the next day and decided to explore the city, so we walked around the main spier of Dublin and saw a number of places like Trinity College, the Bank of Ireland, and the Post Office. I absolutely loved Dublin because the city was so bustling and everyone seemed so happy! This also may have been because later on that day was a HUGE rugby match between Ireland and France, so we got to see plenty of crazy fanatic rugby fans preparing for the match.

We ended up doing a free walking tour where our tour guide took us to a number of famous, historical spots throughout Dublin. I think the biggest fact that I learned during this tour was how much the Irish resent the British. From the way our tour guide talked, the animosity between the Irish and the British was still pretty recent, which was pretty surprising to me. Here are some of pictures from the tour:

Capitol Building--where the British ruled  over Ireland for over 700 years

Dublin Castle- notice the two different styles of architecture

The gardens of Dublin Castle- this wall was built for Queen Elizabeth to block her view of the city slums

Christ Church Cathedral--oldest cathedral in Ireland

Inside the courtyard of Trinity College--yeah, I'm transferring here

Ya know, some locals just watching the rugby match.

After the tour, our tour guide took us to O'Neils Pub where the tour guide company had reserved a room and thankfully so because the place was PACKED! I felt like the entire city of Dublin was inside this pub, beer in hand, eyes glued to the TV watching the match. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty cool watching the game too because I was wearing my bright green Ireland scarf (trying to look like a local). As we ate our fish and chips, I looked around and was jealous of how much country pride every person had in the room. I don't know, but I realized I was extremely jealous that Ireland, and all of Europe for that matter, have sports that compete internationally where huge rival matches turn into a national holiday. It got pretty intense too when Ireland started coming back in the last 3 minutes and almost scored the winning goal (?). Unfortunately the boys could not cross the line which resulted in a lot of people yelling at the TV then sitting in silence.


After the pub, we hurried back to the bus station and ended up being the last people on a bus to Cork, Ireland. One of the girls I traveled with knew a friend studying abroad in Cork so we decided to visit her for the night and see the Blarney stone the next day. After about a 4 hour drive, we got to Cork and made our way out with some other girls studying abroad there. I was so grateful to stay with these girls in their apartment because the next morning we were able to make breakfast which consisted of eggs, sausage, bagel and a banana: we were in heaven! We made our way back to the bus station and headed off to see the Blarney Castle. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for us either making for some great pictures. It was so unreal to think that at one time people lived there and was used to protect kings and queens.

Top o' the mornin to ya!

Blarney Castle!

View from the top

After making our way to the top, we were able to kiss the Blarney Stone! Legend says that kissing the stone will grant you with the "gift of eloquence". Pretty cool to think that powerful rulers like Winston Churchill climbed the same set of stairs and kissed the same stone as we did! And warning for when you kiss the stone: it's a lot farther down than you think so don't get too scared when the guy that's holding onto you makes you go farther down haha.

Me kissing the Blarney stone!

After the Castle, we took a bus ride back to Dublin getting there around dinner time. Earlier, when we went on the walking tour we met a girl our age from Australia. We learned that after graduating high school, she decided to take a break from school and travel around the world...all by herself! As much as I love studying abroad and being in a new country, I don't think I could travel and learn by myself. She is paying for everything herself and told us that she is on the lookout for a part-time job because her money is starting to run out (we all related to that). So anyways we had told her the previous day to meet her for dinner so we met back at O'Neils pub and had a fabulous girls night out!

The next morning we headed to the airport to catch our flight to LONDON! The whole way there we talked with a British accent, casually preparing for the next couple of days and trying to sound local haha. After running into a little money trouble (sorry Mom and Dad), we made our way to our hostel via train. Luckily for us, our hostel was directly across from one of the major train stations. And then we get to the good part: we changed and got ready to do some shopping and of course grab a bite to eat. Don't judge us that the two spots we had circled on our London map was our hostel and CHIPOTLE! I think we spent about an hour and half in Chipotle thoroughly enjoying our burritos and chips and guacamole; no words spoken while we ate haha. After the meal, I vowed never to take advantage of Mexican food again. We then headed off to shop and wound up a couple local stores where we made some purchases and actually found a TK Maxx (oddly similar to TJ Maxx haha) and a Forever 21. The clothes were so cute too so needless to say we spent a good amount of time in these stores. After seeing all these stores I've concluded the rumor is definitely true: Europe has the best fashion in the world. Even people just walking their dog down the street looked so stylish and put together...it was a little depressing for us.

The next day we began our sightseeing by purchasing a two day pass for the double-decker bus tours that stop at all the major landmarks. It is a hop on / hop off type of thing so we got to pick and choose what places we wanted to see. Of course, our first destination was Buckingham Palace! To be honest, it was a lot different than I pictured in my head. I thought the gates were right outside the door and there would be guards standing in front of the gates suffering from crazy tourists trying to make them laugh. However, the gates were pretty far from the actual building and there were only about two guards: one standing at the door and one pacing back and forth. Unfortunately on that day they were not having the "changing of the guard" ceremony either which would have been cool to see. Regardless, the palace was spectacular and HUGE! I couldn't even imagine what the rooms inside looked like because just seeing the outside of the palace gave me chill bumps.

Buckingham Palace!

 Also, I will apologize for my lack of stories for this blog too because waiting two weeks to write about this trip has hurt my memory a little. However, after the palace we hopped back on the bus and continued to sight see. Here are some more pictures from the bus tour:

Trafalgar Square

Big Ben and Parliament buildings

 

View from the London Eye

Our next big stop was the London Eye, the gigantic ferris wheel and one of London's most popular attraction. Before getting on, they made us watch a 3D presentation, pretty much getting us excited to get on the Eye. It showed different scenes of people on the Eye and showed one of a couple getting married...I wonder how many people have actually done that? We got inside one of the carriages on the eye which were surprisingly pretty big. We had about 10 other people with us and plenty of room to sit and walk around. It was amazing to reach the top and see the span of the city, with Big Ben is clear view. We all made sure to bring our Clemson gear this day and tried to get a picture with Big Ben in the background. Unfortunately, the sun blocked our background but don't worry we got one back on the ground with the Tower Bridge as our background. I'm sure we looked ridiculous too because some of us had to take off all of our layers and put on a Clemson t-shirt in absolutely freezing weather. After the Eye, we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch at the weirdest place that served Mediterranean food. It was big enough for one person to stand so we probably caused quite the scene trying to decide what we wanted to eat. Oh and if you decide to eat in, expect to pay more than what it says on the menu because those prices are only for "take away" food.

We ended the day with some more bus rides but had to hold off on visiting the Tower until the following day. That night, we decided to do a pub crawl in the Camden area. It was a trendy part of town with huge sculptures on the outside of the buildings. For example, a dragon scaling the top of a tattoo parlor. The pubs we walked to were all local spots, each with unique atmospheres. One of them used to be an old horse hospital so they turned the stalls into rooms that people could reserve for the night. We made our way back for the night and caught literally the last train to our side of town thank goodness!

Tower of London

The next morning we woke up and I treated myself to a nice cup of coffee and some quality book reading at the Starbucks across the street. We explored the Tower of London, which was easily one of the coolest attractions thus far. The employee who conducted our walking tour gave us plenty of insight into the castle and told us stories of different places in the castle. The Tower was a place for public executions but actually only 4 executions took place inside the castle, where the rest occurred on the hill across the street. It also holds the Royal Jems and armor that kings once wore.

Is that the Beatles?

 After the Tower we decided to lay low, eat at Chipotle (yes, again) and head back to the hostel. But before going back, we felt it was necessary to visit another London hot spot: Abbey Road. Probably not the smartest idea to go during rush hour however. It took us at least 20 minutes to get a decent picture. We went exactly sure which crosswalk was the correct one either but hey it still counts.








The next morning we headed off to the airport to our final destination: Amsterdam. While waiting in line at the airport, we spotted a group of about 8 guys all wearing the same t-shirt with their names on the back and one wearing a top hat with big letters reading "GROOM". There is no way I will let my future husband take a bachelor's weekend trip to Amsterdam haha.


We were a little nervous going to Amsterdam after realizing that the hotel we booked had terrible reviews about the noise and the owners being scam artists! It didn't help when we got there that they told us we hadn't paid yet even though one of the girls booked it and paid for it all online. Thankfully nothing had been charged to her account so everything was okay. We then walked around and explored the city as we made our way to the Anne Frank museum. Biggest lesson in Amsterdam: always watch where you're walking unless you want to get run over by a bike. I have never seen a city where literally everyone rode a bike: businessman in a suit, girls in heels, and toddlers sitting in the front basket with the groceries.

View from right outside our hostel

One of the many canals

We walked to Anne Frank's house which was again surprisingly more modern than I imagined. At the bottom was a very sophisticated-looking souvenir store. However, the museum itself was very interesting and informative. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside but trust me, it was so scary trying to picture people hiding in the tiny rooms behind the office. We got to see spots on the wall where Anne decorated with pictures and magazines and marks where the family kept track of their height.

Outside the Anne Frank museum

That night we stayed around the local square next to our hostel and went to a place called "Club Nasty". Yeah, gross right. Funny thing was that during the day instead of lighting up club they light up the word cafe making it "Cafe Nasty" during the day.

 
The next day we woke up to an amazing breakfast provided by our hotel. I think the part that made it amazing was the fact that we didn't have to pay for it. After, we walked to the Heineken brewery, the first one ever built. It was pretty cool learning how the beer was made and did you know that Heineken only has 4 ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. However, after seeing this part the rest of the tour through the brewery was all about marketing and the Heineken image. I got the vibe that they wanted us to buy a lot of Heineken products once we finished.

Where they brew the beer

After the factory we treated ourselves to a nice lunch at yet another O'neils Pub. We probably had the best lunch ever considering the TVs in the pub were showing the movie Spacejam! That night, we decided to do another pub crawl that took us through the Red Light district. What were we thinking right? I will tell you one thing, it was weird..The guides made it very clear that we were not allowed to take pictures unless you wanted a punch to the face. Honestly, if you go to Amsterdam you should walk through it, but definitely a one time thing.

On this crawl, we met a couple of people who were from Australian but working in London, teaching kids in elementary school. It was a little scary at one point when we witnessed a fit in the pub. Two guys were yelling and screaming at one another, obviously not in a sober state of mind. Luckily, our group left right after this happened and ended up passing one of the guys in the fight standing outside of the bar pacing back and forth. Crazy!  The next morning we treated ourselves to a nice dessert at Haagen-Dazs. Honestly one of the best meals I've had thus far: caramel latte ice cream on top of a chocolate chip cookie. We had to sit awhile and let our food digest, but weren't complaining since our flight didn't leave until 4pm that day. We also walked around the Sunday market and enjoyed ourselves in the local flower and cheese shops.

So many clogs!

One of the many flower shops

By the time we got back to campus we were all SO exhausted and SO excited to be back home. We were all so excited to change into clearn clothes! Never in my life have I worn the same couple of outfits, so yes packing light is very very important. We got so lucky on the last fight too because there were no weight restrictions and my small rolling suitcase would have definitely been over 10 kg. My roommate and I probably had the most intense battle of rock-paper-scissors over who got to shower first. (I won in case you were wondering).

Well I think that is all I have for now, I probably should head to bed anyways considering I have to catch a taxi to the airport in about 5 hours..yikes. Get excited my next blog is about our weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland pronounced eeenturlahken, svitzurlund. Until next time!