actually! There were five bunkbeds and our group of seven was the majority of the room. There were only two strangers. It was like one big slumber par

Transcription

1 Trip to London London was our first out-of-ireland trip, and it was an exciting, amazing, hilarious learning experience. If I had to describe this vacation, I would say that it was a weekend full of things ALMOST going horribly wrong, then working themselves out in a somewhat miraculous manner. Friday At 1:45am on Thursday night/friday morning, Meghan, Joe, Caitlin, and I headed for the Galway bus stop. When we arrived, we had our tickets ready to go, but had not reserved seats because we did not think we would need them in the middle of the night; we should have. A large group was also traveling to the Dublin airport and the bus was packed. Luckily, there were just barely enough seats for us! So, we got on and settled in for the next two and half hours. Immediately, I got a call from Marielle who was already in London with Emily and Connor. They had trouble with the buses and ended up quite a way away from their hostel, but had found shelter in a family hotel for the night. We were happy for them, but I got a little nervous after hearing this. Meghan had voluntarily taken care of the logistics of the trip, so I didn t really know what was going on. I hoped we would have better luck with our first night! The plane was weird because we walked outside into a plane parking lot and then climbed stairs that were attached to the door of the plane. I felt like a very important person getting onto their private jet. I also got the front row (lots of foot room) AND window seat! We were delayed an hour, but it was okay because I dozed off for basically the whole delay and flight until we touched down in LONDON TOWN! When we arrived, there were no customs. It was very strange; we literally just walked out of the airport. It was so strange that we thought we had made a mistake. Anyway, almost immediately we first took a bus to get near our hostel. I dozed off on this bus, as well. Immediately after exiting the bus, we got much needed coffee and walked to our hostel. It was noon and we could not check in until 2:00. We were meeting up with Emily, Marielle, and Connor anyway, so we waited in the hostel bar for a few hours. We needed some time to relax because of the exhausting travels, so this was perfect. We also ate the first of many mass produced PB & J sandwiches. Then, we reconvened and went to our room. It was a nice room,

2 actually! There were five bunkbeds and our group of seven was the majority of the room. There were only two strangers. It was like one big slumber party! We got settled in, then went to hit the town. On the way out, we noticed that there was a Camden pub crawl every night through this hostel. We said, sign us up, paid our 12 pounds, and then went sight-seeing. We first saw the London Bridge, Shakespeare s theater, the gherkin, the shard, St. Paul s Cathedral, and (my personal favorite), the Tower of London! Margaret had made us a very detailed map of things to see and it was definitely a HUGE help. The weather was beautiful and we walked past the Tower just before the sunset; the lighting was majestic. By now, it was about 6:30pm and we were starving. We had planned to go to a pub for fish and chips but every single place was totally PACKED! I could not believe how crowded they were! We could hardly find anyone to sit down and eat, but finally came across a burger Shakespeare s Globe restaurant called Honest Burger. It was amazing but we could not fully appreciate its deliciousness because we inhaled them. Then, we sat around our table feeling completely exhausted, but trying to revive ourselves for the pub crawl because, after all, we had paid for it. We finally mustered up the energy to walk home and sat in our hostel until about 9:20. The pub crawl flier had said that we could show up between 7:30 and 9:30, so we were cutting it close! We went down to the hostel bar (which was just the main level of the hostel) and the place was packed! Live music was playing and it was a lot of fun. Personally, I was too sleepy to enjoy it as much as I should have but it was a really awesome, lively atmosphere. After a half hour, we realized that no one was leaving the bar. We started to think this seemed a little fishy for what should have been a pub crawl, so we did some investigating. The

3 front desk informed us that the pub crawl had started at 7:30 and we just actually completely missed it; we felt really silly. How did we not notice that we were not on a bar crawl for a whole thirty minutes? Beats me. Anyway, they let us reschedule for the pub crawl for the next night, so no harm done and no money lost. I was ready to call it a night, but we decided to try one pub first. It was nice, but once again I was too sleepy to enjoy it to its full potential, so we left shortly after and went back to the hostel and straight to sleep. Saturday It was hard to get out of bed, but I managed because today was HARRY POTTER DAY! I showered and got ready. There was continental breakfast (aka toast) at the hostel so at around 9:45 we headed downstairs and ate. Then, we planned out our trip to the magical world of Warner Brother Studios. We walked through the Borough market before heading to the tube. I accidentally showed some interest at a jam stand and ended up having to sample about 10 different kinds. They were good, but weird to eat alone. Also, I couldn t buy any because I wouldn t be able to ship it back to Ireland with me, so I felt awkward walking away from the sweet little jam lady. The market smelled amazing, but we were ballin on a budget so we did not get anything. Taking the tube for the first time was confusing for Marielle, Meghan, and Joe. Caitlin and I just talked while they figured it out. There may have been too many cooks in the kitchen if we were also trying to check the tube maps (plus we just didn t want to). Eventually, Marielle figured out getting a day pass, so we all did that. The tube was like our best friend. It is so efficient and genius! I think every city should do that, although I don t understand how there can be entire railways under a city without it just collapsing. Pretty cool! In a way, that is magical on its own. Our day was about to get a whole lot more magical, though. We got off On Baker Street because that is where DUNKIN IS!!!! Also, the Sherlock Holmes house, but that was not my focus. I was reunited with my caramel iced coffee and it was truly lovely. Obviously, nothing can compare to the Dunkin on Green Street, but this came close. Meghan and Joe stayed and hung out on Baker Street while Marielle, Caitlin, and I boarded

4 the tube again. Our Harry Potter tour started at 2:00 and theirs was at 4:30, so they had much more time to kill. We had opted for a cheaper, shorter tour of the studio or so we thought. When we got off the tube, we power walked/ sprinted about a mile to the bus stop that would take us to Harry. We arrived just to watch the us pulling away, but discovered that there was another one in 10 minutes. We got on that one and sat in the front row of the top of the double decker bus. This was really cool! It looked like we were crashing into the cars in front of us and also sort of like we were driving. We pulled up to the studio and went to get our tickets. The machine wasn t working with our code weird, we thought. So, we got into line to collect them from one of the real people, not machines. It was then we found out that we had bought tickets for the wrong thing! I had bought a WALKING TOUR OF LONDON NOT tickets to Harry Potter studio! They are not even affiliated with Warner Brothers. WHOOPS! The ticket woman informed us that this is not an uncommon event, but we were bummed. Immediately, we started thinking of alternative options and remaining really positive! I was thankful to be in such optimistic company during such a disappointing time. We accepted that we would not get to see the studio, but decided to just check if there were any cancellations. Susan, the ticket woman, informed us that there were NEVER cancellations and that the tour was ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS sold out. However, she clearly pitied us and went to double check, anyway. It was a miracle. She came back with three tickets and we got them for the cheapest deal! We thanked her about ten times, and were truly thankful. The woman checking tickets was also really happy for us (she had been watching our endeavors, as well), and was shocked that we had gotten tickets! We were SO lucky! We first went to the gift shop and waited until there was extra room in a tour. Around 3:00, our tour began. It was literally amazing. I learned a ton about movie magic, and was astounded by how much effort goes into every seemingly miniscule scene. We saw the chess pieces, Diagon alley, the Hogwarts Express, Platform 9 ¾, the Great Hall, Buckbeak, and so so much more. We

5 even tried butterbeer! There was so much to see and every bit of it was amazing. (We watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone when we returned to Galway and spent the whole time pointing out all the props we had seen in person). I truly have a whole new appreciation for those movies; people are so smart and creative! Hogwarts We headed home on the double decker bus, then the tube. When we got back to our hostel, we reconvened with Emily and Connor, who had gone to the aquarium instead of the studio, and went to the CAMDEN PUB CRAWL!

6 This pub crawl was insanely fun. There was a huge group of all different kinds of people! We got free shots at every pub we went to and covered a lot of Camden. This is Amy Winehouse s neighborhood, so I also got to see a bronze statue of her! I loved it. We went to two pubs and two nightclubs One of them was foggy and laser-lighted. The last one had a roof top pub and a night club inside. We much preferred the rooftop. At the third bar, we made friends with some other travelers. Two of them were dating and we found out that he was proposing on Monday! So exciting! Then, we hopped the tube and went back to the hostel. Sunday Sunday was a hectic start. We were supposed to check out of the hostel by 10am, but we were not at all ready. So, we scrambled to get our belongings together and get the heck outta dodge. When we did, Emily and Connor got ready to go on a bus tour and we started to figure out getting a new room in the same hostel. We had really taken for granted the 10-person room. Now, we were in a 33-person hostel with level bunk beds. It was smelly, too. We threw our stuff in there and tried to make it to mass, but were embarrassingly late especially because the church we ended up attending was only about 30 people. It was nice, though. Afterwards, we got fish and chips at a little restaurant by our hostel. DEEEEELLLLLISSSHHHHH!!!!!!!

7 With full bellies, we were ready to take on Day 3! We boarded the tube and got Oyster cards this time. By now, we were tube experts. We could ride that baby for miles and ride we did. We went to see Westminster, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and all that jazz. Big Ben was under construction so we just saw the clock face, which was a minor bummer. You re not gonna believe this but we ran into the friends we made at the pub crawl! Just by coincidence! It was really funny. Westminster was so cool. I had no prior knowledge about its appearance, and it exceeded any expectations I had. We headed toward the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace was HUGE! Quite extravagant, I think I ll live there someday. Westminster Abbey We went to see Kensington Palace, but it was late by that time so it was a little dark. There was also virtually no security, which caused us to feel a bit concerned for William and Kate! We wondered if they were chilling in there eating dinner at that moment. Though doubtful, I am going to choose to believe that they were. It was time to get home now; we were sleepy and had covered very much ground. We rode the tube back to the hostel where we would spend the night playing beer pong with beer provided by the hostel, meeting other travelers, and having a good time. It turns out that our pub crawl friends were staying at the same hostel as us! We did not even know! We were once again reunited. That night was super cool because there were people from America, Europe, and Australia all of whom had just met and were hanging out like friends. Although we had planned to get a good night sleep, we ended up having a great time until about midnight.

8 We headed up to our janky hostel room and went to sleep (wearing a hood and clothes that fully covered my skin). I was able to doze off for about 2 hours before the fire alarm went off! YAY! I grabbed as much of my stuff out of the locker as I could and went outside. The bar was still open so a bunch of party people were able to see a large group of us half asleep in our pajamas with an angry look on our faces. Luckily, we re-entered the hostel after only five minutes and headed back to bed. About an hour later, it sounded again but no one even stirred. If there was a real fire, we all would have been screwed. Monday It was already our final day in London! WOW, time flies. We once again were too late waking up, and at 10:12am the cleaning people had to kick us out. We gathered our stuff as quick as we could. Emily and Connor were headed home by now, but our flight was not until 10pm! We had all day to explore. We booked our bus from Dublin to Galway at 12:30am and figured out some more logistics (while Caitlin and I ordered lattes from the nice French barista). Then, we threw our belongings in a locker at the hostel and set out for a fun-filled day. First thing on our agenda Abbey Road.

9 Abbey Road was pretty surreal. I had heard it was underwhelming, but disagreed. It was actually a little dangerous, though! There were large groups of people running out in front of cars and pausing for pictures we were included in this group. We also saw the gift shop, which had a wall of major musicians who had recorded in Abbey Road Studios. That was super cool. Outside of Abbey Road Studios was a wall where people wrote Beatles Lyrics or their names. I wrote Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. This is one of mine (and Molly s) favorite lyrics. There was not much else to see other than the road, the gift shop, and the outside of the studio, so we had plenty more time in our day! We decided to go to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, so we were able to see that again. Meghan, Marielle, and I had a photoshoot with the lion statues there while Joe facetimed his mom s first grade class. The kids were excited to see London and we enjoyed talking to them, as well. The National Gallery was cool, but I was not really feeling up to perusing art pieces. We only spent about a half hour in there, then started toward Somerset house. The exhibit here was not free unfortunately, so we did not really experience anything here. It was on the way back to the hostel so we just kept on walking. We totally overestimated how much time we had to get back before our bus, so we ended up power walking. It was 4:18pm and we had a bus to catch at 5:25 and it was a half hour tube ride away. We were about a 40-minute walk away from our hostel, so we booked it back to the hostel to get our bags, then to the tube, then to the second tube because we had to switch lines, and finally to

10 the bus stop. We made it by 5:14pm, and were pretty proud of ourselves. Little did we know this would not be our last time running for the bus that day. Everything was smooth sailing for a bit. Bus ride good. Plane on time and smooth. Arrival in Dublin perfect. Customs line CRAZY long. It looked like it would be at least 2 and a half hours. Now, it was 11:30 and our bus left at 12:30. If we missed that bus, there would not be another until 6:30 the next morning. We mentally prepared to spend our night in the airport, but the line moved surprisingly fast. At 12:26, we were next in line. We got totally ready to go, sent Meghan ahead because she needed to grab her bag from bag check, and planned to just cruise to the busses as fast as we could. 12:28 we were finishing customs. 12:30 Meghan, Caitlin, Joe, and I met up, but without Marielle. She was in the right place and we were all wrong. We called her and heard the bus driver tell her that he was not going to wait for us. THEN we heard her scream, WAIT COME HERE. We sprinted a few lanes up and found her there next to the bus! It had gotten stopped by another bus!!! We ran on and the bus driver goes, you are VERY lucky. We never leave late. It was 12:323when we took our seats. That was the longest seven minutes of my life, but worth it. We later arrived safely in Galway, relieved to be home and securely in our own beds.