Monday June 30, 2008

Monday June 30, 2008: Edinburgh, Scotland
The last two days have been exciting. Yesterday (Sunday) Charlie and I got up early to pack up our stuff and enjoyed the delicious breakfast there in the hotel.

We walked around Dublin a bit to stretch our legs – I have to say that I’m really going to miss the city. I know its not much there, but it was a nice starting point for our trip. We found an electronic store and waited around for them to open to see if they had a canon rebel battery – no. L By the time we got back to our hotel it was time to check out and our taxi was there to take us to the airport. I love Europe airports, their direct and to the point. AND, once you’re through security its like a shopping mall in the middle of all of the terminals. So, that was fun! Lol I really didn’t buy anything except for a bottle of water – thanks to the nice security lady who confiscated my old one. Our flight was delayed almost an hour so we snacked from the food stands and played card games until we boarded the plane. We flew Aer Lingus to Edinburgh, which was only a 45-minute flight.

I’ve decided that I’m cursed to always sit in front of people who enjoy kicking, punching, pushing, rocking the chair in front of them! Quite uncomfortable, really. This time it was an adorable (at first he was adorable) little British boy who was talking to his father about all of the parts of the plane and what he was seeing out the window. Then about half way through the flight he turned into a tyrant child. His younger brighter was getting more attention I guess so then this slew of 4-letter words came out of his mouth in anger, and his way of getting mom and dad’s attention was to hit the window of the plane and kick my chair constantly. The parents had NO control of him, so I just sat forward in my seat more and tried to ignore the incessant kicking and rocking of my chair.
Scotland is beautiful… no surprise there! I didn’t really think it would be anything but gorgeous. There are a lot more hills here than in Ireland and the plant life is a variety of greens, dark and bright. Its really wonderful. We got dropped off at the address for our lodging here, the taxi left and we walked up to the door and couldn’t get in! Ya, at this point its like 58 degrees, windy and almost 5:30 pm. The sign on the door said that we had to check in at another building about 1 1/2 –2 miles away. There is no way that we could’ve drugged our luggage up there and been there in decent time (they closed at 6). So Charlie stayed with the luggage and I took out my little map, trying to find my way to this random building. Ya, I got lost… really lost. It took me about an hour and 10 minutes to get back… ridiculous. But the street signs are so different here! L Needless to say by the time we got into our place I zonked out. We’re on the 4th floor, and there are no stairs. I woke up on the little couch like 2 hours later and Charlie was watching this talk show – it was bloody awesome! I think I like the television over here much more than at home.

Today (Monday the 30th), we woke up at 5:30 to get ready for our tour. We walked down to the bus stop to wait for our coach, stopping at a little fruit stand to get a banana (that was frozen…random). Our tour coach was really comfortable, but because I didn’t take my Dramamine we sat in the front seat, which also meant that we had an awesome view of everything. We left Edinburgh around 8 (we had a lot of people to pick up around the city). We headed out through little villages on our way towards the highlands.

We stopped in this little resort town called Calendar, where we stopped to get a late breakfast and see a highland bull.

We had delicious Scottish pancakes with raspberry jam, and coffee – we then walked around and fed Hamish.


The rainy weather from Edinburgh disappeared while we were there and it got nice and sunny for a while. I spent most of the trip admiring the countryside. Once we entered the highlands the weather went from sunny to cloudy and drizzly again. The mountains are covered in green grass and all of the stones are mossy. We passed by the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, Sterling Castle (where the battle of Sterling was fought by William Wallace), we saw the Wallace monument from the road as well as Lithgow palace. It’s a beautiful part of the country and it was enhanced by the fact that our Scottish tour guide/bus driver was giving us a full historical background of the things we were seeing as well as the perspective of the Scots. We were able to stop for like 15 minutes and look at all of the beautiful hills while a man with a bagpipe played some Scottish songs for us – it really added to the atmosphere. :)



Before too long we were back on the bus, and only a little bit longer we stopped for lunch, random food I’m telling you. Penne pasta with fries (called “chips”) and carrots - Weird. Haha

Back on the bus I fell asleep until we got to St. Augustus – which is where Loch Ness starts. Charlie and I didn’t feel like paying 25 pounds to take an hour “cruise” out on the loch, it was FREEZING and windy. So we just walked around and enjoyed the area, I loved it there.



Again back on the bus I snoozed all the way to Iverness and back down towards Edinburgh. We got back to our hotel/apartment around 8:30 pm. Now we’re randomly watching One Tree Hill on the tv and waiting for that talk show guy to come back on.
Ps. Jessica – I was watching a British/Scottish comedy improv show and they have to come up with the first line for the (new) Harry Potter book… hilarious.

Saturday June 28

Saturday June 28, 2008 – Dublin, Ireland

We just got back to the hotel after our day in Cork, Blarney and that whole area.

We woke up at 4:30 this morning to get ready since we had to be out of the hotel by 6 am. Abbey St. is maybe a half-mile from us and it is one of the main stops for the LAUS, which is Dublin’s tram system. We took that across the city to Heuston (sounds like Houston), which only took us 5 minutes and met up with our group there. Our train left the station around 7 am and headed southwest. This was my first trip on a train in Europe, and so far I’m quite impressed – it was so clean and comfortable.

They even have a trolley with treats going back and forth. I spent the first half of the 3 hour journey completely in awe of the Irish countryside, its so green and there are pastures with cows & sheep everywhere.

After the trolley came through the second time, Charlie and I were hungry enough to get a muffin and orange juice/coffees for the both of us. The two men sitting opposite us in our little booth started talking to us, asking us where we’re from, what we’re studying, the usual travelers questions. They were from the University of Minnesota and were there on conference – it’s a small world. We had a great time talking with both of them, discussing the importance of school, how to better the current system, the positive experiences that are treasured (like traveling). Their tour got off the train earlier than us, so they had to leave. Most of our car was empty after the stop in Mallow so Charlie and I had tons of space to stretch out, snooze, talk, and take in the sites. We finally arrived in Cork, and our lovely tour guide took us to our bus for the day. Cork is a beautiful city, the second largest in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin. One thing that has amazed me about Ireland is that the doors and/or houses are painted bright beautiful colors, at random. I love it!

It only took us a few minutes to get to Blarney Village and the Castle.

I’m still in awe of the beauty that is here in this country, and this village is no exception. We were able to spend almost 3 hours walking around, exploring the grounds and castle.


There was a line to kiss the Blarney Stone, which we of course stood in and it was worth it!


So fun… The grounds are filled with little trails that take you all over the place, past little waterfalls and big rocks covered in moss all in the middle of a forest.

I honestly couldn’t have cared less about the rest of the tour, staying there would’ve been fine by me.

We grabbed a small lunch there in the village after buying little souvenirs and left around 1:20ish. We drove around Cork for a while, looking at all of the amazing little shops and landmarks. They have a hill that is so steep and windy that it’s the place that the cyclists come to train before the Tour de France! After leaving the main part of the city, I took the opportunity to snooze a bit on the bus – traveling and site seeing can really make one exhausted! I woke up when we were arriving to an old cemetery, which has been around since the Celts rule of Ireland. They have a monument there for the people who lost their lives in the tragedy of the Lusitania in 1915. That was pretty cool. The old cemetery was beautiful to walk through, although it was quite cold. We got to go see the harbor and port where the Titanic made its last stop before it sunk.
On the way back to the hotel we met a couple from Fullerton who were on our tour with us. I’m telling you, this world is too small! But it was enjoyable to talk to them about our love of traveling and our views of America. Sigh. It was great getting to hear about their travels and I have decided that I need to get a job that lets me travel all over the world. But I’m glad that my hubby loves to see the world as much as I do, at least we can share that passion.
Its already 10 pm now and we’re so beat. We’re fuddy-duddies… but oh well. I’m still on USA time and tomorrow we have to go hunt down a battery for my SLR (because in my sleepy stuper I forgot ours in its charger in my mom’s living room wall… yep, brilliant) and then fly to Edinburgh, Scotland. So in case we don’t have Internet access there, we’ll be there until Wednesday the 2nd. Either Monday or Tuesday we’re taking a tour up to Loch Ness and the Scotland highlands. Keep us in your prayers!

Friday June 27

Friday June 27, 2008 – Dublin, Ireland

Its around 6:15 pm here in Ireland, Charlie and I just got back to our hotel room from 10+ hours of walking all over Dublin. My feet are dead and I’m thankful that my pajamas are so very comfortable…and I’m also eyeing the raspberry cheesecake tarts we bought this afternoon. So up to now we’ve had so many experiences:
The night/morning that we left, Wednesday – we got NO sleep! We were up packing our backpacks and suitcase while trying to remember all the airline rules for weight limits and carry ons. I tried to relax a little bit, but the washer and dryer kept beeping at me. Around 3:20 in the morning my mom and Tim along with the two of us and our monstrous luggage all piled into the car to head to LAX. Tim got into a driving “zone” and had us there within 45 minutes – ridiculous! We only had to stand in line at the Delta check-in point for 15 or so minutes, and had no problems checking us in… our luggage on the other hand. One bag, the one that Charlie told me to put all the heavy stuff in so we’re not carrying it around on our back was over their weight limit. So, of course that meant that we had to take stuff out and put it into a backpack. One of my pet peeves is having everyone in the Delta line seeing my underwear fly about in my suitcase. Oh well, right? Once we got to our gate, Charlie tried to snooze and I went on a hunt for breakfast. I was amazed at how ridiculously overpriced the airport vendors are – I guess its only because they know that they’ll get the price they ask for, and I am now a part of the problem because I paid 6 bucks for a breakfast burrito. Dumb huh? We waited around for about 2 1/2 hours, snoozing every once in a while and getting up for walks around the terminal to stretch our legs. We boarded the plane on time and although I didn’t really sleep on the flight, I was too tired to remember much of it. I do remember that they now charge for snack food and drinks – so the one bag of complimentary peanuts was it for us. Also we had our own tvs, so we got to watch channels that we chose. Charlie watched tennis on ESPN and I watched the Food Network. There was also a variety of music albums we could listen to, so I found the Wicked soundtrack and enjoyed that for a while. Our layover was in New York, which made me quite happy. Its one city that I’ve always wanted to visit, so when we were landing in JFK I got to see the Empire State Building! Yay! We sat on the runway for over an hour due to a fire in the control tower – so they weren’t able to get planes in or out for WAY too long. Once we got in the airport we had to get to what felt like the far opposite side of the building for our next flight. On the way we found a bagel place and DUNKIN DONUTS!!!!!!!

That was way to exciting for poor Katie, who hasn’t had her favorite doughnuts in AGES! Charlie struck up a conversation at the gate with an older Irish lady who has been living in Florida for quite some time and is not thinking of going back to Ireland. After eating, calling our parents and relaxing for a little bit we got onto the plane and I zonked out! There was a group of high school kids from Ohio on the plane and they were sitting all around us – quite loud. I woke up with about 5 hours left on the flight, and enjoyed talking with Charlie, playing cards, reading my book and then watching the sun come up.


I fell in love with Ireland from the sky – through the many layers of fluffy and some rain clouds I could see the rolling GREEN hills as we descended. I’d almost forgotten how brown California really is, and how much I need some greenery in my life. We landed without a hitch, went through customs in about 5 minutes (beats LAX) and got our luggage to then head out the door! The nice gentleman helped us find a taxi bus for two right away and we were off. Our driver was extremely nice and helpful, he gave us helpful hints as to where to go for the best deals, sites, and food/ drink (haha, he’s Irish) as well as where not to go and what to look out for (pickpocketers). When we got to the hotel, around 9 am they told us that we couldn’t check in until 2:30 in the afternoon (boo!) but we were able to put all of our luggage into this ginormous Safe room in the basement. Honestly we were quite bummed, having not showered in way too long, sitting on airplanes and in airports, walking all over the place and not sleeping, all we wanted was to take a shower and lay down for a few hours. Haha But that’s not what was in the cards for us. We took clean clothes out of the luggage, freshened up in the lobby bathroom and headed out to walk around. We ended up finding a Dublin tour bus that you could hop-off at any of their 22 stops around the city, look around the area and hop back on when another bus from the same company comes along by just showing them the original ticket. It was pouring down rain and around 58 degrees, plus windy. I realized with great disappointment how Californianized I’ve become, a.k.a tolerant of good weather.

After the first half hour, having past Trinity College, the GPO, and Dublin Castle I zonked out on the bus and don’t really remember much. Thank God I had Charlie sitting next to me, he just bundled me up in his arms so I wouldn’t fall over in my seat while I snoozed away the city sites. After getting off at the original starting point we decided to explore a bit down a little side street and luckily found a Hard Rock Café. As dumb as it sounds, a veggie burger and fries hits the spot! (especially after the day we were having) It felt good to just sit down and enjoy a nice fresh meal… because lets face it – airplane food is the pits. We made it back to the hotel right at 2:30, got our extremely small hotel room, showered (which I don’t remember at all) and fell asleep by 4 pm.
I slept for a good 13 hours, no joke. By 5:30 am, Charlie was awake too, and we were contemplating whether or not we wanted to brave the ice-cold tile in the bathroom to shower and start the day or just roll over again and sleep for another 13 hours, for about another 30 minutes. I found out that I’m more willing to get my toes cold than he is. Breakfast here in the hotel is amazing!!!! WE had fresh triscut type cereal with fresh fruit and milk, fresh squeezed orange juice, homemade whole grain honey bread with Raspberry Jam (yes NOT strawberry, raspberry!) and sunny-side up eggs and toast. I had never tried my eggs like that, and I actually really enjoyed them.

We headed out after that and were on our way down towards Trinity College, we got there and realized to our chagrin that the tours didn’t start until an hour and a half later, so we kinda looked around a little bit and then decided to walk around the surrounding neighborhoods, Dawson and Kildare Streets are right around the corner from there. Even though we didn’t really “do” anything, we got to see the city and almost blend in with the locals, all of us walking down the narrow cobblestone streets with our umbrellas out. We found the tourist center, which is actually an old church that has been renovated. There we were able to book our tour for tomorrow down to Cork, Blarney and Queenstown. It was only a 10-minute walk back to Trinity College, and we got there right in time for the tour. The school is very very beautiful, and I’m convinced that if La Sierra University looked like that, I would be MUCH more motivated to be studious.

The Book of Kells is there in their library, which was beautiful to see. Their library has what the call “The Long Room,” and I could definitely spend hours in there. Sadly they have all the books roped off, its gorgeous in there though. Tall ceilings, with enough room for two stories of books to line the walls, each row has a gold letter “A,” “B,” etc. Stunning! At the end of each row there is a marble bust of some great scholar or contributor to the knowledge of today, Newton, Socrates, Shakespeare, Locke, etc. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures
After that we walked down to Dublin castle, and because we’re cheap we decided to not pay for the tour but rather take random pictures from the outside and in the garden.

We found a Starbucks to get a warm drink and sit for a while to rest my poor poor feet. Then we headed down to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in which I probably could’ve spent a few hours – just looking at all the stained glass and carvings.


The next trek we took was down to the Guinness storehouse for the tour of the 7-story building. I wasn’t that impressed with the factory as a whole, perhaps because by this point in the afternoon I was starving and didn’t feel like climbing up 7-story’s worth of steps with no food at the end? Haha The first couple of floors were the more interesting ones, they had a huge pile of barley that you could smell and play with, then they had these glass containers for the hops… reminded me of seaweed, then a jar in a locked refrigerator that you could see that is where the original yeast is kept and finally a huge waterfall to all symbolize the ingredients in their beer. After we left there I was officially done walking around and the 25-minute walk back to the main part of the city took forever, although I have to say that their pedestrian cross walk signs are the most amazing things ever!

We found an Italian place to eat dinner. I was so excited just because they had pizza and garlic bread! After that we walked around the corner to the Queen of Tarts bakery and bought three tarts… delicious!

Now we’re here, in our shoebox hotel room and are definitely ready to sleep.

We're leaving

Yep, its been an all-nighter! We're waiting for the last load of laundry to be done drying, and we're leaving in 1 1/2 hours. Exhaustion has been forgotten and its just pure excitement at this point. We'll sleep on the plane... thats what its for. We land in Dublin Thursday morning (their time) and I'll try to find an internet cafe as soon as possible so I can update you on our travels. 

We love you all! Pray for safe travels!

Sunday June 22, 2008

We're officially moved out of our first little apartment. I'm surprised by how sad I was to leave it that first night. We're staying at my parents' home until Wednesday, which is when we leave. We have to still pack our suitcases for the trip and finalize some of the details of our trip, but we finally have a return flight home. We'll be gone June 25 through August 14.

Yesterday we took the opportunity to be in LeAnn's pool for most of the day, which was wonderful! My family & Lizza took me out to dinner last night in celebration of my nomination in Psi Chi next year. I discovered a love for their Key Lime cheesecake and Lemoncello cake. Dangerous. We then played poker until almost midnight here at home, and decided to go out for boba at 1. I love my family and their willingness to be spontaneous. My parents and Cody had never had boba before, so new experience for them. :) Tee-ohm says the jury is still out on whether or not he likes it. haha

Jay and Shanna are getting married this evening, and I couldn't be happier for them. So thankfully in the midst of all of this hubbub of packing and cleaning, moving and leaving we get to go celebrate with all of them tonight.

I'll try to post before we leave - our flight leaves early Wednesday morning from LAX and we're heading to Ireland first! :)

Getting ready to be leave!!!

This quarter is finally over, and I couldn't be more thankful for surviving it. :) I feel like I've been tested in new ways academically these past 10 weeks - and its paid off. I pulled two all-nighters in a row, eek... but during that period of time I found out that I had been elected as Psi Chi president for this upcoming year! I'm so excited - I hope I can serve the rest of my peers to the best of my abilities and I know we'll have an awesome year. 

I'm thinking that this fall is a going to be the first time in over 5 years that I'm not going to be working. Thank the Lord... although I don't know how that'll work out, I'm sure I'll go crazy. At the same time however, it'll be really nice, I'll only have to work on school and Psi Chi. 

One week from today we'll be moving out of our first home :( I'm so sad... I love it here. Next year will be so different, living right next to the university = no commute! :) 

Since we've been working on getting our lives organized and ready to pack up and go, Charlie and I have been listening to Harry Potter on cd... the 7th book is pretty darn awesome. Which we all knew that already, but listening to it again just provides that opportunity to pick up on new things. I love J.K. Rowling. I can't wait to go to Edinburgh, her home. :) Should be exciting!

We leave in just a week and a half! We'll be gone until mid-August... I'm so excited!