C' était une aventure

Sarah and I left on the 4:10 shuttle and we arrived in time to the train station to catch our train, we sat at a table seat with a mother and daughter, they were very nice and talked to us. When we arrived in London we got a taxi and asked him to take us to London Lutton, much to our surprise he said they didn't have that, and after correcting our mispronunciation we agreed it was "louton", and he said very surprised and rudely that it was very expensive and we couldn't get there in time for our plane. At that moment I felt like I was going to puke and cry and scream all at the same time! Luckily Sarah was there to basically hold me together. So we called grace who found us a customer service number and we called and the lady said as long as we got there within 2 hours after our flight departed we would be able to make it on the next available flight for £50. So we  went to the victoria bus station and tried to get a bus to paris for £56, but it was full so ended up getting a coach from the Victoria coach station and took it to Lutton for only £15 per person. We made it within our 2 hours and we cannot check in until 4 am, so we are just buying our time and stocked up on caffeine and got is a sandwich and were watching pearl harbor until the bar closed. Then we went to burger king and got onion rings and used the ketchup because they didn't taste very good and much to our surprise the ketchup tasted like barbecue  sauce! And now we are just sitting and waiting until 4 am to check in and then wait for our 7:50 am flight.

         Sarah and I successfully stayed awake until after we checked in, then I fell asleep for about 15 min. After we boarded the plane Sarah slept on the way to Paris, I think I may have too. When got off the plane we got our Paris stamp and went on our way to Disneyland!! We stayed there for about an hour, hour and a half. It was much much smaller than downtown Disney in Orlando, but cool nonetheless. After that we took the RER to Montmartre and to Sacre Coeur, we went inside and it was beautiful! After that we walked through the Montmartre area looking for our hostel, after we found it, much further than we had originally expected, we took a nap, then went to find food, and came back ate and went to bed. 

         We woke up this morning and had a French breakfast a baguette and a croissant. We then headed to sainte Chappelle, the upper Chappell was just breath-taking! After sainte chappelle we saw the outside of Notre Dame and accidentally cut in line to get in, so we didn't go in, it was an hour wait, so we went to the Louvre saw the outside then we t to see the mona Lisa and the Venus de milo ate in the louvre and then headed to Versailles. We walked around the royal apartments, and the Hall of mirrors and then spent a little time in the garden, although there were not any flowers in bloom it was still cool to see how they were set up. After Versailles we went back and saw the Eiffel tower, then headed to the arc du triumph and climbed every single step to the top. After coming down we saw veterans under the arc du triumph. We then walked down the Champs Elyssess, then headed back to the hostel and ate dinner and went to bed.  

         We woke up and went to the eiffel tower viewing deck, took some beautiful pictures and then walked around listening for English speakers to do a front row foundation picture with us.

 We then went back to montmatre to get some cheap souivneers, and headed to the airport. We had pizza hut for lunch, and waited to check in. We went to the gate to check in, but didn't understand where security was, then we figured out after you check in, you just go out through to your gate and that's where security was. After sitting there for about 1 hour we found our plane was 30 min late. After being on the plane and it almost landing we found we could buy a train ticket from Luton to st. Pancras, we had 12 min to get from st. Pancras to kings cross and collect our tickets, we did it, we ran along our train and boarded in the dining car and made it back to grantham! 

C' était une aventure

The Beauty of Ireland

While I do know that it has been over a week since I returned from Ireland, I've just been really busy with school and haven't been able to post, so here it is....IRELAND!!

We had a British Studies Exam on Wednesday before we left, so we were kind of mentally gone on Thursday morning at 4:30 am when our cab came to pick us up. haha! We made our flight just fine and arrived in Dublin around 8 am. We checked into our hostel (but we couldn't get into our room until around 4) and walked around the hostel for a bit, got breakfast and then did a Jameson Distillery tour at 10. We got to see how Jameson is produced and then we got to try it. It was very sweet, nothing at all like the Scotch Whiskey from Scotland!! I had a Jamesone and giner ale and then we had to do a taste test for what was better Johnny Walker Black Label, Jameson or Jack Daniels no 5, I personally chose Jack, I'm American haha!! After that we got a ticket for a hop-on hop-off bus tour we road to Temple Bar area and went to Hard Rock for lunch, I had a veggie burger and fries and onion rings. Then we shopped around some more and then went to Trinity College where they were having a protest against testing on animals, we got back on the bus and road past Christ Church and St. Patrick's cathedral, and then got off at Guinness and took a tour of that storehouse. It was kinda cool, but I'm not sure it was worth the €10.60. We had a free Pint of Guinness at the Gravity bar that provided a 360 degree view of Dublin, it was really cool. I could only finish about 3/4 of the pint, but I can still say I had some Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin! After Guinness we shopped around a tad more then walked back to our hostel and took a nap, we tried to try some Irish Coffee, but the pub was too full, but they were playing live music so that was neat to hear. We slept through dinner so we bought some cookies at a grocery store (before we found the pub to be too full and that our hostel stopped cooking at 9 pm) so I had 3 large biscuits for dinner. 

The next day we woke up at 5:30 to get our taxi to the Paddy wagon tour at 5:45am!! We met a girl named Lauren on our tour, she had just graduated from Temple. We took a public bus from Dublin to Cork and arrived around 11 am, where we found out our tour was only us 3 people, very cool!! Once we were picked up in Cork we went to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone and see the beauty of Blarney!! We went into the dungeon and basically were crawling to get through a small passage, and our legs killed us after we got out because we basically did 50 yards of lunges in and 50 back out!! After that we climbed ALL the wet, slippery, uneven steps to the top, holding onto the rope hand rail very tightly. It was breathtaking when we got to the top, and then we kissed the Blarney stone!!

 After that we went into the rock close, but we didn't see the wishing steps. After Blarney we headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove) for Lunch, this was also the last port of call for the Titanic. During lunch we tried Irish Coffee, it wasn't made with Jameson and so it was gross, I also tried a soda bread sandwich, that was GROSS!!! We got to see the Lithuania and the Titanic Memorials. the Lithuania one was beautiful. We also saw a huge cathedral built for the immigrants leaving for America to pray in before they boarded the ships, then we left for Kinsale. Kinsale was AMAZING!! I LOVED IT!! We found a small silversmith shop and I bought a ring I got to watch him make in a different size. Kinsale is on Kinsale bay (Atlantic Ocean). After we headed back to Cork where we went an saw a covered market that was pretty cool, then we boarded the public bus back to Dublin. We went out that night and I tried Bulmers and Irish Cider, it was pretty good, and we listened to live music in the Temple Bar pub. 

The next morning we met Lauren at the Leprechaun Museum, that was really cool!! We went through a Giant's house then through a rainbow and found a pot of gold and heard stories of fairy people and Leprechauns! Then we went to a Quizno's and then Elizabeth and I headed for the Dublin Airport. 

I loved Ireland, I didn't so much love Dublin, but I would go back in a heartbeat, I would recommend Ireland to anyone wanting a trip overseas!! 

Scotland

Well I know its been a couple of days since I got back from Scotland but I have an adventure to tell you! We left the manor around 8 am, and drove for about 8 hours, but we stopped a couple of times so it took a while longer. Once we finally got to Edinburgh my friends and I walked up the Royal Mile and to Edinburgh Castle. We got to the castle just as the sun was setting and it was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen in my life. We did a little bit of shopping while we were on the Royal Mile and I finally found the stickers I've been looking for! After all that shopping we were famished so we found a pub to eat in called Deacon Brodie's. After dinner we were walking back toward our hotel and stumbled upon Mary King's Close and "The Real Mary King's Close" tour, that was really cool we went on a tour of the underground city was the filled in or built over from the 16 and 17th centuries! The next day we got up at 7 to eat breakfast and we finally got to go inside of Edinburgh Castle and saw the crown jewels and the stone of destiny. We got to go on a Scottish Whiskey tour and try Whiskey, I tried the speyside, and I liked the taste but it was too strong for me. We ate lunch at a little Italian restaurant I had vegetarian cannelloni and some dessert that was like a chocolate ea clair. It was amazing! We went to the Scottish Museum and saw the Maiden and Mary Queen of Scot's casket I guess? and then went to the Elephant house where J.K Rowling started writing Harry Potter. We then went to Grey Friar's cemetery and saw Grey friar's bobby and saw some of the tombstones that J.K. Rowling used to name some of her characters. We then caught a cab that took us to the North Sea, and we also got an American History lesson in why we should support the GOP, I laughed at the man and said thanks for the advice and swiftly got out of the cab. After we watched the sun setting on the North Sea and I got to touch it we went back to the royal mile and ate dinner and went back to the Hotel, then Elizabeth and I went to Hard Rock and also found a beautiful Bar that was built over 100 years ago and then went back to the hotel and slept. The next day we went to Haidran's wall and saw the oldest bath house in England, then went to Durham and saw Durham Cathedral, absolutely beautiful!