London!

Another weekend for the books!   We flew over to London for the weekend with API and stayed near Hyde Park right by the Queensway/Bayswater area at a little hotel called Queens Park Hotel.   We got there Friday afternoon and found a little italian place to get dinner (they charged us for the tablecloths... who does that?!) then explored the area we were staying at a bit and walked over to see Big Ben and ride the London Eye at night to see everything lit up!!  It was absolutely beautiful riding the Eye (a giant slow-motion glass ferris wheel) and seeing everything lit up at night - you could see all of London.  

Saturday we saw the Tower of London which was awesome because we saw all the crown jewels and fancy billion dollar swords with rubies and emeralds and DIAMONDS everywhere and all over everything from as far back as the 1600's.  We also saw the chapel where Anne Boleyn and several other queens were buried, and the torture chambers/towers were they were held before they were executed.  It was so cool seeing the places where so much of that history all took place.. the only bad thing was that we didn't see Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the Tudors walking around playing Henry VIII - I love him.  It was all way bigger than I thought it would be.. I thought it'd just be one big tower but I didn't realize there was also chapel and a separate museum and little houses where the royal guards lived and the building for the crown jewels, etc. so it was nice that there was a lot to see!

Next we went to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel to see where the queen was coronated/ where Will and Kate got married! Then we went to Buckingham palace.. we weren't there at the right time to see the changing of the guards but we still saw the guards in their red outfits and tall black furry hats (reminded me of the poster Grandma has in the basement! Looked just like them)

After walking around for pretty much ever and taking a million pictures, Kathleen and I finally rested our legs and went to see Wicked!  It was amazing, I looooved it.  I knew most of the music from chorus but never saw the play and the lead who played Elphaba/the bad witch was PHENOMENAL. She literally gave me goosebumps everytime she sang.  Everyone in the play was really talented but her voice blew the rest of them out of the water.  I don't know if I've ever heard such a great singer in a play before.   Unfortunately later that night our friend's wallet got pickpocketed (we missed safe galway) so that was the worst part of the weekend but overall it was a great trip.

Sunday we didn't have as much time to sightsee because we had to leave for the airport at 3:30 but we went to Oxford St.. fortunately for my wallet it was Sunday and we went early so the expensive stores were all still closed... then saw Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, the CUTEST FLUFFIEST husky puppy ever, a lot of art on display on the sidewalk that I wanted to buy but didn't, a rubber duck that has the british flag on it that I did buy!, and then lots of more dogs in the park that made me miss Bandit!


Mom comes tomorrow... AKA waiting til then to do laundry so i can do it in the hotel and not pay 5 euro for it! woohoo!!

The first two visitors arrived!

I had my first two visitors here in Galway earlier this week!

Greg arrived exhausted (seriously, jet lag is horrible enough..and then the sad realization finding out you have a 2.5 hour bus ride to Galway after doing all that flying = brutal) and so when he got here we just relaxed so he could wake up a bit and then we went downtown to show him Shop Street and all the pubs and street performers there.

He did say it reminded him a bit like Church St in Burlington except an Irish version, but we had a fun time trying new restaurants.. I haven't been to that many yet.. hint hint Mom you can take me when you get here!!!

Later that night we met up with five of my friends here and went out with them.  A lot of my other API friends here were either at Oktoberfest for the weekend so he didn't get to meet them all but it was nice that he got to know a few of them really well instead of being overwhelmed by a big group of random Americans!   I introduced him to Supermacs late night food of course and then we pretty much did the same thing the next day and spent two nights at a B&B in Salthill which was nice cause it is right on the water.

He got lucky too it was actually sunny both Friday and Saturday when he was here!

Then Jeff came Monday so he, Greg and I went to a restaurant at the end of Quay St down by the water to have a few pints and get dinner... They have the best beef stew there ever. It was the first time I had a really traditional irish meal so that was good.

Greg left for the airport at like 4am Monday so then Jeff and I did a little family-bonding and spent Tuesday mostly being lazy at my house but we did go back out later that night to get food and listen to live bands and see irish dancers!

Mom comes next week so I'm looking forward to that!

I've planned some trips recently too:  Paris and Barcelona for a weekend!  And we go to London this weekend!!

Any suggestions for what to see in London/Paris/Barcelona??

Long Time No Post!

Hello friends!   Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've been busy entertaining visitors!!!

So where did I leave off?
The Potluck dinner!

It was pretty amazing, there were about 18 of us who made meals and so we had to have people bring their own plates and silverware because my apartment is so small but despite the crowding around the table it was awesome to have home cooked meals!!!

Here's a list of our delicious creations:

-pizza rolls (made by me!!! I was so proud of them. I bought crescent rolls and then put pepperoni and cheese in the little triangles, then rolled them up and baked it all together.. genius!)
-salads:  tomato and mozzarella, green regular lettuce salad, apple salad, fruit salad
-chocolate fondue
-chocolate covered oreos
-chick pea curry and rice
-fried rice
-chicken fingers
-chile
-fajitas
-cake
-garlic bread
-dip and guacamole with chips!!

So it was a pretty big success!  We're definitely going to do it again sometime soon.
Also, while I'm on the topic of food, Mom and Greg pulled through and brought me five boxes of Mac and Cheese so I'm pretty much the happiest girl in Galway right now!!

Mi bicicleta!

This is going to be a quick post because I want to get to bed - I've got 4 awkwardly spread out classes tomorrow which makes for a very long day. 

So first and most importantly, I rented a bike today!  It's actually weird how excited I am about it.  I don't know why, but after walking foreverrr every day back and forth to campus (it's 20 minutes one way to classes, and then 20 mins from my apartment to downtown, and I go back and forth a lot between classes and whatnot) I realized I really should just get one since I keep thinking about it and not doing it.  So I basically felt like I was flying when I was coming down the hill on the way home from class today.

And the very best part is, you give a $50 deposit that they return to you at the end of the two month rental, so I'll have a tleast $50 to my name to go home with when I leave Ireland, haha! Which means I'll have enough to buy some mediocre airport food while traveling/and can say I didn't go completely broke on my trip.. woot woot!


I'll post more stories/pictures tomorrow or more likely Thursday about the latest adventures I've been up to (went to Dublin for a night, celebrated Arthur's Day, and more fencing lessons!)

Also I decided that my API friends here should do some bonding time even though we are all already a part of a happy little abroad family but so I'm hosting a pot luck dinner at my apartment tomorrow!  I'm pretty excited.  So I'll put up pictures of our meals and let you all know how that goes! I'm making pizza-rolls, courtesy of this amazing blog that makes me disgustingly hungry every time I look at it...  http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/01/pepperoni-cheese-stick-roll-ups.html


tata for now!