Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Dublin Ireland

I got the lovely opportunity to go back to where my relatives lived and go to Ireland. However, I was unable to connect with my family. I had never been to Dublin before, but after finding a five pound ticket, said why not. So myself, Jenn, Pip and Anna all made the half an hour flight to Dublin on Thursday evening. We found our hostel and just hung out the rest of the night, had some tea, and talked over what the next couple of days would bring. We got up bright and early on Friday and got our surroundings and walked the city. Looking at cute little places, passing by the famous Temple Bar and the famous Trinity College. Trinity was amazing. There was some sort of graduation going on and so there were a lot of people milling around the breathtaking campus. We also went and saw the Book of Kells, which was really interesting. It was good, just the lighting was a bit dim, so I of course had to work extra hard to read it, but the history the book and how it was put together along with the alphabet it self was incredible. We then got to go into the Library which is the size of a ballroom with two story high books filling its shelves. Mom I thought of you the whole time, the books were not organized like they are in the states. The biggest books went on the bottom and the smallest on the top, and there were letters on the shelves starting with AA and going on the Bb. It like you look for the author , it correlating to something else that slips my mind at the moment, but basically the book you are looking for could be in three different places. The books that fill this library are still in use today, however, you have to have a very good reason for using them. They have thousands of first editions of books from famous British authors that every two weeks they change what are in the disply cases the run up the middle of the ailes. Seeing Trinity was one of my favorite things about the trip.
Saturday we had planned on going on a tour to Wicklow where Brave Heart was filmed, unfortuantly we didn't get intouch with the tour service early enough and had to go on Sunday. So instead, we went to a ruby game in an Australian bar because Anna and Pip are both Aussies' and this was unbelievable. I've never seen a bar so full. That following night we met up with a guy we met in Rome and did a bar crawl with him and his friends. Which was really good but very tiring.
Sunday we got up and went to see Wicklow, which was a lot of country side and really a lot of sitting, i think it would have meant more to me if I hadn't already been to Ireland but it was still really beautiful to see the many secret Ponds and waterfalls that are hidden just outside the capital of Ireland.
Pictures will follow this, but I'm about to go meet a friend for lunch. So i must go a little quicker then planned. I am finding myself missing home when i found out my family is having thirteen amazing people over for thanksgiving :( but alas there is always christmas!
Always Love.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

VT in England

This past weekend I went to the Lake District with five friends and what I found made me so happy. it was Vermont...except not. We went to Lake Windermere. It is a common tourist attraction with many cute market towns to see. My friends and I rented a little cottage for the weekend and greatly enjoyed ourselves with lovely Halloween party spent in front of a fireplace and laughter. The next couple days consisted of viewing the lake towns near by, we went to Keswick where we viewed all the markets that were displayed on the street. One thing I really enjoyed was that there were dogs everywhere. However, they aren't very friendly. Alas, it was fun to be around them anyway. Our first day ended with a gorgeous view of one of the lakes over looking the mountains. Our second day there was my friend Anna's birthday so we had a morning party with presents and scones. it was delightful. We then drove in the car and went to Coniston which is another near by town, and we proceeded to go on a hike up a small mountain walk, which ended in the most amazing sight of the mountains. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to finish this post when I figure out my computer its broken. hope everyone had a fun weekend and GO OBAMA!!!! woooooooooo.
Love