hear me now like you did back then
10pm edit: http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o239/cross_d85/Ireland%20and%20Scotland%20trip/?start=all
go there for the first half of my pics...this posting pics thing is taking way too long...
I am...home. I'm not too sure whether I like that or not but I'm here non-the-less. The past two weeks have been amazing, tiring, educational, ridiculously fun, and all-in-all an experience. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I have a feeling there will be many more trips to come.
So general outline of my trip so that I can stop going over it multiple times a day...
Left christmas day around 4:30pm...took the train into Chicago only to jump on the El to O'Hare...got to O'Hare...there is NOONE there! And by noone I mean I literally saw about 3 people...it was strange sitting in an airport all by myself from 12am-12:40pm....read 3 books in that time...those were supposed to last me my whole trip...ha.
Flew Chicago to New York without a hitch and got to wait there for a few hours. Met the entire Stanford Rugby team...one guy didn't catch the ball and I did (to avoid it hitting me in the face) and threw it back correctly. That was apparently enough to get them all talking to me for awhile.
Flew New York to Dublin...decent flight tho I was sitting next to a talker...didn't get the headphones on quickly enough ha. No, she was nice and it wasn't too bad. I was wrecked by the time I got to Dublin though I had officially been awake for 48 hours when I got there.
David and his parents met me at the airport and took me to drop my stuff at Dave's and then took us into Dublin (yup still no sleep). We had breakfast and did some amazing sight seeing and a little shopping. Had lunch with his parents and then I spent the entire car ride back to Dave's slowly passing out in the back seat ha. Immediately crashed and slept through the night which was great. The next day we went to the Dublin Zoo and to a shopping center to kill time until we had to pick up Stuart...who arrived safe and sound and we all went to bed when we got home...we're lazy ha.
The next day (Friday at this point) we took a bus up to Belfast to meet up with all the Northern Irish gang. Faye was there to pick us up an take us o her house. Then we went and wanderes Belfast for awhile while waiting from Frankie to arrive. She got there and I experienced Irish Chinese food for the first time...so good...better then ours. Went to the pub and sat around talking and catching up...was grand. Saturday Karen came to Belfast and we went to the city center to do some shopping...she drives like a maniac...I almost died in N. Ireland ha. Had my first beans on toast...flippin amazing...why we don't eat it I don't know...I'm addicted ha. That night we got some movies and tons of food from a chip shop...just hung around all night wrestling/eating/watching movies/etc. Got to partake in some cave woman chat which was awesome. Sunday was New Years Eve and we started out with a traditional Irish Fry for breakfast...so good. Then we thought ice skating/bowling was a good way to spend the day. Fell lots trying to do stupid tricks. Was bowling like an idiot (throwing two balls down the lane at once....I'm a 2 yr old haha) and ate a crazy amount of candy...why is their chocolate so much better than ours?! That night there was a party @ Faye's to ring in the new year. Neil came for that so that almost completed the camp kid reunion...just missin Joanne, Johnny, and Lizzy who couldn't come. It was really chill, all Faye's friends came and it was a grand group of people. Noone got too drunk or stupid...in fact most of us didn't drink anything but tea and pop ha. It was actually a lot of fun though and I met some awesome people...I love the Irish I've decided. We finally fell asleep around 7am after lots of shenanigans w/ Faye's bf and his friend who stayed and more cave woman chat. Woke up around 10/11 Monday morning to Phil being crazy. Ate breakfast and woke up our boys then we all headed down to Dublin City. Phil, Faye, Frankie, and I all rode down in Faye's little car and there was an immense amount of ridiculousness. Frankie and I then flew to Scotland to stay w/ her fam for a bit (well me anyways). Tuesday Joanne came to Frankie's and we had breakfast and headed up to the castle. lots of hiking and gorgeous scenery (pics by tonight hopefully). Then we wandered into the village and saw the boarding school she and her brother went/go to. It's a very posh/cute little village. That afternoon we made our way into Edinburough (sp?) and we hiked up to the castle there, did a little shopping, and checked out the street fair. It's such a cool city...you all should go there. Wednesday we made our way to Loch Lomond and went to a little pub with delicious food and drove around the loch for awhile until the weather got gross. Made our way home and I made Frankie stop at the Wallace monument to take pictures in the dark...I hope they lighten up cause we went out of our way for that one. Spent the night watching old camp videos and looking at pics...hilarious. Thursday morning I made my way back to Dublin and dave and I finished my shopping and then headed out to Cavan where he's from. We went through all the glorious greenness that Ireland has to offer. It was awesome. Dave's mum picked us up and we stayed with his parents for the night. His mum made a huge meal that was delicious and fussed over us ridiculously, but they were oh so nice to me and totally took care of me.
Friday morning we had a bit of a rush to the airport thanks to a change in flights that I missed, but I made it onto the plane...barely. Got to New York safely and spent 4 hours waiting only to get onto the plane and taxi for a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours before we could take off...not good times so much. Go to Chicago waaaay late and made my way on the El to Megan. Then I stayed up way to late (3am) to have to get up for my 6am train ride back to Michigan which I almost didn't make.(had to take a taxi and run in order to make it) Got home around 3pm saturday and made it through dinner before I passed out. Woke up long enough to go to Kel's baby shower, drive up to school, and have dinner w/ Meg and Car then I passed out...only to be woken up by a few text messages/IMs that I answered half asleep ha. (if you were one of the people that talked to me...if I didn't make sense sorry...I was dead pretty much)
I'm still slightly jet-lagged but I've made it through most of my day...still one class to go. Then it's on to unpacking/dinner/passing out yet again. Hopefully I'll be caught up on sleep by tomorrow. There will be pictures within the next couple days...need to play with them a bit before I post them...but I promise they will be there soon.
Hope you all had a Merry X-mas and Happy New Year and all that crap:)
go there for the first half of my pics...this posting pics thing is taking way too long...
I am...home. I'm not too sure whether I like that or not but I'm here non-the-less. The past two weeks have been amazing, tiring, educational, ridiculously fun, and all-in-all an experience. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I have a feeling there will be many more trips to come.
So general outline of my trip so that I can stop going over it multiple times a day...
Left christmas day around 4:30pm...took the train into Chicago only to jump on the El to O'Hare...got to O'Hare...there is NOONE there! And by noone I mean I literally saw about 3 people...it was strange sitting in an airport all by myself from 12am-12:40pm....read 3 books in that time...those were supposed to last me my whole trip...ha.
Flew Chicago to New York without a hitch and got to wait there for a few hours. Met the entire Stanford Rugby team...one guy didn't catch the ball and I did (to avoid it hitting me in the face) and threw it back correctly. That was apparently enough to get them all talking to me for awhile.
Flew New York to Dublin...decent flight tho I was sitting next to a talker...didn't get the headphones on quickly enough ha. No, she was nice and it wasn't too bad. I was wrecked by the time I got to Dublin though I had officially been awake for 48 hours when I got there.
David and his parents met me at the airport and took me to drop my stuff at Dave's and then took us into Dublin (yup still no sleep). We had breakfast and did some amazing sight seeing and a little shopping. Had lunch with his parents and then I spent the entire car ride back to Dave's slowly passing out in the back seat ha. Immediately crashed and slept through the night which was great. The next day we went to the Dublin Zoo and to a shopping center to kill time until we had to pick up Stuart...who arrived safe and sound and we all went to bed when we got home...we're lazy ha.
The next day (Friday at this point) we took a bus up to Belfast to meet up with all the Northern Irish gang. Faye was there to pick us up an take us o her house. Then we went and wanderes Belfast for awhile while waiting from Frankie to arrive. She got there and I experienced Irish Chinese food for the first time...so good...better then ours. Went to the pub and sat around talking and catching up...was grand. Saturday Karen came to Belfast and we went to the city center to do some shopping...she drives like a maniac...I almost died in N. Ireland ha. Had my first beans on toast...flippin amazing...why we don't eat it I don't know...I'm addicted ha. That night we got some movies and tons of food from a chip shop...just hung around all night wrestling/eating/watching movies/etc. Got to partake in some cave woman chat which was awesome. Sunday was New Years Eve and we started out with a traditional Irish Fry for breakfast...so good. Then we thought ice skating/bowling was a good way to spend the day. Fell lots trying to do stupid tricks. Was bowling like an idiot (throwing two balls down the lane at once....I'm a 2 yr old haha) and ate a crazy amount of candy...why is their chocolate so much better than ours?! That night there was a party @ Faye's to ring in the new year. Neil came for that so that almost completed the camp kid reunion...just missin Joanne, Johnny, and Lizzy who couldn't come. It was really chill, all Faye's friends came and it was a grand group of people. Noone got too drunk or stupid...in fact most of us didn't drink anything but tea and pop ha. It was actually a lot of fun though and I met some awesome people...I love the Irish I've decided. We finally fell asleep around 7am after lots of shenanigans w/ Faye's bf and his friend who stayed and more cave woman chat. Woke up around 10/11 Monday morning to Phil being crazy. Ate breakfast and woke up our boys then we all headed down to Dublin City. Phil, Faye, Frankie, and I all rode down in Faye's little car and there was an immense amount of ridiculousness. Frankie and I then flew to Scotland to stay w/ her fam for a bit (well me anyways). Tuesday Joanne came to Frankie's and we had breakfast and headed up to the castle. lots of hiking and gorgeous scenery (pics by tonight hopefully). Then we wandered into the village and saw the boarding school she and her brother went/go to. It's a very posh/cute little village. That afternoon we made our way into Edinburough (sp?) and we hiked up to the castle there, did a little shopping, and checked out the street fair. It's such a cool city...you all should go there. Wednesday we made our way to Loch Lomond and went to a little pub with delicious food and drove around the loch for awhile until the weather got gross. Made our way home and I made Frankie stop at the Wallace monument to take pictures in the dark...I hope they lighten up cause we went out of our way for that one. Spent the night watching old camp videos and looking at pics...hilarious. Thursday morning I made my way back to Dublin and dave and I finished my shopping and then headed out to Cavan where he's from. We went through all the glorious greenness that Ireland has to offer. It was awesome. Dave's mum picked us up and we stayed with his parents for the night. His mum made a huge meal that was delicious and fussed over us ridiculously, but they were oh so nice to me and totally took care of me.
Friday morning we had a bit of a rush to the airport thanks to a change in flights that I missed, but I made it onto the plane...barely. Got to New York safely and spent 4 hours waiting only to get onto the plane and taxi for a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours before we could take off...not good times so much. Go to Chicago waaaay late and made my way on the El to Megan. Then I stayed up way to late (3am) to have to get up for my 6am train ride back to Michigan which I almost didn't make.(had to take a taxi and run in order to make it) Got home around 3pm saturday and made it through dinner before I passed out. Woke up long enough to go to Kel's baby shower, drive up to school, and have dinner w/ Meg and Car then I passed out...only to be woken up by a few text messages/IMs that I answered half asleep ha. (if you were one of the people that talked to me...if I didn't make sense sorry...I was dead pretty much)
I'm still slightly jet-lagged but I've made it through most of my day...still one class to go. Then it's on to unpacking/dinner/passing out yet again. Hopefully I'll be caught up on sleep by tomorrow. There will be pictures within the next couple days...need to play with them a bit before I post them...but I promise they will be there soon.
Hope you all had a Merry X-mas and Happy New Year and all that crap:)