UPDATE!

                WOW! This has been a TRUE adventure of a lifetime!  I’m very sorry for the lack of blogs since my mom has been here.  We have been very busy and have very little time to write these blogs to keep everyone up to date.  I will give a brief catch-up to those of you who are actually trying to keep up with everything we are doing!  I will eventually give you more details of everyday highlights that we did, but that probably won’t come until I come back to the states since we are none stop going and I am usually very time by the time we get back! 

                Normandie:  This was definitely very informative.  We did a bus tour from Paris to the Normandie region of France.  We visited a couple different sites that are famous from World War II and then visited the American Cemetery.  I definitely could have spent a full dya there; I didn’t even get to go in the visitor center which I heard was the best part after we got back on the bus.  We spent the night in Caen and then the next day went to Mont St. Michel.  This was very cool.  It started out as a church on a rock and kept getting built up and around.  This is an island that during the day when the tide is out (low) can be reached; at night when the tide is in (high) you cannot leave or enter the island.  It has been used for slavery; prison, monks and nuns have lived here/live here, and is now a tourist town.  One of my goals for this trip is to expand my horizons with different kinds of foods.  Well at one of the restaurants we ate at I decided I was going to try their Prawns; which is shrimp for those of you who may not know.  I’m not a big sea food person but I thought I’d try it at this place.  WELL, I got a cocktail glass with about 15 raw, shelled shrimp on this glass….AND they still had their EYES in!!!!  I don’t know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn’t that!   I could barely stand to look at it, let alone eat it.  But like I said I’m TRYING to expand my horizons, so I tried.  I didn’t know how to take the shell off so mom showed me and I saw these lil ball looking things inside and was so grossed out from everything I just pushed that aside and tried it.  It wasn’t bad once I got it deshelled and took the lil ball things off.  But it wasn’t for me so mom and I switched plates.  She later told me that the ball things were the prawns guts and shit!  EWW!  I don’t know that I will ever be able to eat shrimp again!  Like I told her, just give me my food prepared, I know it has a face and fecal matter, but get rid of it and just serve it to me!!! 

            Paris: Palace of Versailles was HUGE!  From one end to the other it is a 60 minute walk!  This place was built by King Louis the something!  He started it and as time went on other kings would just add on their own areas and leave the previous kings’ stuff alone!  It was magnificent!  The gardens were beyond gorgeous!  Marie Antoinette had her own house here and from the main palace it is a 25 minute walk!  Let me tell you, if you got mad at your husband you had a LONG hike to take to get away from him!  I’m not sure why you would need that after going thru the main palace…if you can’t hide in that thing, you had some MAJOR issues!  I was not very impressed by her house and area.  It was cool but definitely not up the to the quality as the main palace!  Mom and I had lunch alongside one of the ponds and I ended up enjoying my sandwich with about 20 fish!  They were ODD looking fish that LOVED my bread and chips, but was not fond of the lettuce I tried to feed them!  The palace was definitely worth seeing; however, the amount of people that were there was CRAZY!  It was suppose to be a hour and a half wait to get in, well there was a huge gap at the front of the line where no one was paying attention so mom and I squeezed in there and we got in within 10 minutes! J hehe Definitely glad we did tho! 

              Moulin Rouge was mom’s favorite part of the trip thus far.  It was a great show!  I didn’t know what to expect so I was really surprised when I saw women who were shirtless and had thongs on for coverage, or lack of coverage, of their rear!  But it was really a cool show and is a very historic show that has been played for the past 100 years!  Before we went to the show we went to a place called Le Traine bleu.  I picked the place because I saw it had steak; well what I thought was steak!  It was actually steak tartar.  YUP!  I ordered it and mom wasn’t paying attention to what I ordered and I was definitely surprised when they brought me out RAW meat!  (Jill if you’re still reading this you would have loved it!  Chip Chop at its finest!)  The waiter brought out the meat and put some mustard in it and some cappers, onions and a RAW egg….he mixed it all together and grounded it up like one would with a hamburger and then put it on the plate and put it in front of me.  I did try it…..but I couldn’t get past the idea of raw meat on my plate!  I finally caved and asked him to cook it for me; which he did and was very nice about it.  It still was only cooked for maybe 2 minutes and was still pretty raw.  Needless to say I ate very little that meal! 

                Monte Carlo-Well first off the train we didn’t know where the heck to go.  I decided to head one way and we ended up coming out at the bottom of a hill.  I tried to figure out on a map where we were and decided we needed to head up the hill.  We walked for about 10 minutes up this HUGE hill with 3 suitcases, 2 purses and one carry-on bag with temperature in the high 80’s with humidity near 100%.  After about 10 minutes I was definitely a bear to be around so I stopped and told mom that she needed to get a taxi because I was not moving any further!  I was dripping sweat and mad that we had no idea where we were going except up this HUGE hill!  So she stopped a random person and figured out where we could call a taxi.  I’m VERY happy we figured it out because the last part of the hill was at about a 75 degree angle!  It was VERY steep!  (Mom realized how Princess Grace had died here since all the roads were on this hill!)  We checked into our very nice hotel and went to dinner.  At dinner we met a VERY nice couple!  The woman, Maria, was originally from the states and her husband, Bob, was from England.  They had 7 children together and 7 grandchildren.  We had a great time talking to them!  They definitely had a LOT of money as they have a house in Chicago, 2 in Fort Lauderdale, 1 in England and one in Monte Carlo!  They invited us to share a cab with them to a bar called “Stars and Bars.”  This day was the 4^th of July and this bar was owned by an American couple and the GM was also from America so they were having a special!  We definitely were in for that; so we got a taxi and went to that bar with them.  After the bar we headed to the Monte Carlo Casino.  I thought mom was going to crap her pants she was SO excited!  I guess this casino is in the James Bond movies.  It cost 10 euros to ENTER the casino.  We only had 20 euros in cash left at that point and I knew we needed 10 euros to get back to the hotel with the taxi so I chose to let mom go in and see the actual casino while I waited out in the lobby.  She said it was VERY pretty and worth the money to go in!  I am very happy she got to do it as it was one of the things she was most excited to do! 

                CinqueTerra- The first view we got coming off the train in Monterrosso was a GORGEOUS view of the Mediterranean Sea.  I will never forget the beauty we saw in this place.  It definitely is one the most beautiful places I’ve ever been!  This place was VERY laid back and the sea just made you feel very Zen and laid back!  We didn’t do too much here besides hike up and down hills and sweat A LOT!  J  It was definitely worth the stop and I want to head back here one day for my honey moon or with someone I am with!

                Florence-HOT, HOT, HOT!  WOW Florence is a very hot city this time of year!  First day in Florence it was 95 degree with a high humidity level!  It also is a very busy city, or at least where we are staying.  We are only a couple feet away from PonteVecchio.  This is a bridge that has lasted since the 1200 and is the only bridge in this city that survived World War II.  It is the place where gold jewelry is EVERYWHERE!  It’s a bridge and this bridge probably has 100 different shops where you can buy GOLD!  It is very crazy and a lot of people look at it!  First day in Florence we found our Pandora charm and Dolce and Gabbana as well as many other high end stores like Louis Vuitton, Pradda, and Tiffanys! 

                Speaking of Pandora, so far my Pandora bracelet has four charms on it; the four countries I have visited!  I have the UK Royal Wedding charm from England, a red four leaf clover from Ireland, a Paris suitcase from France, and the Firenze flower for Italy!  Can’t wait to get my 5^th and final charm from Germany!  J  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the GREAT Birthday present…along with this WHOLE trip!!!!! 

                Up to date: We did the cooking class today!  This definitely will be one of the top things I have done on the trip for sure!  It was filled with great food and wine as well as laughs and according playing men!  We made a four course meal and then got to enjoy it with 13 other people.  Our class consisted of 10 people (including mom and I) and then the chef.  He has been a chef in restaurants around the world for the past 30 years; he has spent the past 10 in Florence working in restaurants and the past 4 doing these private cooking lessons.  He definitely had a good sense of humor!  The people who were in the class were us were very fun people and 6 of the 8 came from the US with 4 of them coming from Ohio!  Midwesterners definitely got along the best! J  I can’t wait to get back and try cooking my own pasta/noodles!

                I will fill in more details as I get more time to write!  It currently is midnight here and I am listening to mom breathe heavily as she sleeps away and I am starting to doze off as well!  We have to get up early and go see the Duomo tomorrow followed by a Chianti Wine tour that includes an Olive Oil farm and a Castle!  Then hopefully we get on our overnight train to Munich.  We were informed tonight that there is suppose to be a train strike tomorrow from 9 pm to 9 pm on Sunday.  Our train isn’t supposed to leave until 9:52 tomorrow so we are nervous about it!   We talked to our travel agent and she said that it’s not supposed to affect the international trains so we are hoping for that.  Otherwise we have to fly and that would be an additional 384 euros per person on top of the train ticket we already paid for!  I will definitely let you know what happens!  As mom always says…it is what it is and we will have to take it as it comes!  It wouldn’t be an Adventure if we didn’t have a lil worrying to do!  J  Definitely miss everyone, but I’m not quite ready to think about coming home yet!  I am having such a great time here I just wish you all could join me so I didn’t miss everyone so much!!!   

Mom and I at one of the stops in the Normandie Region

(out of order but can't figure out how to change it!) Monte Carlo Casino Entrance

(Out of order again) First view off the train at CinqueTerra!

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Mom's Favorite Place

(Out of Order) View from the walk in Cinque Terra

Steak TarTar.....yummy?

Palace of Versailles Enterance

Ceiling in the Palace

One of the many fountains at the palace

Mom at a random gate on our walk in Cinque Terra

Florence!  The view from the terrace of our hotel!

Mom in her flower apron....at first they didn't have our cooking school aprons so she was given this one!

Mom and I at our cooking class!

The Chef picking the herbs we were using in our dishes

In the process of making the stuffed Chicken



Ricotta Cake I made the Larger one!



Chicken Stuffed with Crushed Pistaccio, Pork and Ham!  It was actually VERY good!

The According guy and I...he liked me :)

Ending of School Trip, Beginning of Mom and I's adventure!

                My last night with the group was a very good one!  We stayed at a bed and breakfast in London that ended up being GREAT for me and my roommates.  We ended up having the ONLY air conditioned room that the bed and breakfast offered!  We were pretty happy since we were accustomed to the lower temps in Ireland and the lower temps we had experienced in London before that.  The temperature when we got into London was around 80 degrees and the night stayed warm!  Almost everyone packed in our room that was for 3 of us…a double bed and a twin bed!  Yup it was definitely an interesting arrangement!  We ended up going to a pub that night and then just hanging out at the bed and breakfast.  Nothing too exciting as everyone had a long plane ride home the next day!

                Today is the day that mom gets here!  I ended up riding with everyone who was going to the airport because they had to be there around 11:30 and mom was due in around 12:30, so it made the most sense to jump on the free coach ride that I had to pay for anyways to get to the airport!  I only ended up waiting for about 45 minutes before I got to see mom!  I was super excited!  We then ended up jumping on the Heathrow Express train that only takes about 18 minutes to get to the tube station we wanted to go to for our hotel.  Well about 10 minutes into the ride a lightning bolt struck a signal box and ended up causing the express train to stop running for an indefinite amount of time.   I knew that a taxi would be very expensive as our ride to the airport was about a 45 minute ride (with good traffic) and the ride back from the airport the previous day was more like a 2 hour ride.  I had never rode the buses around London so didn’t feel that was a smart option; so the only other option for us was to take the tube back to the station stop we needed.  That took us around 2 hours to get where we needed to go.  From the time mom landed to the time we got checked into our hotel 4 hours had already past!  Mom of course hadn’t slept at all on the plane right over, even though she was in first class and her seats reclined fully, so I knew I needed to keep her up for a while so she could get somewhat of a routine started.  She decided that she just wanted to walk around London for some time and check things out.  First stop we made was to the pub!  We definitely needed some pub-grub energy to get us around!  After that we took the tub to the Westminster Abbey area where mom got to see Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye!  She definitely was amazed by everything!  We decided to do the London Eye just so we could say we had been on it!  It was really cool, but something I wouldn’t do again!  After that we kept walking and I took her to the London tower bridge!  She thought the tower bridge was the London Bridge; boy was she surprised when I actually showed her the London Bridge! (It is only a bridge, nothing fancy!)  When we went by Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey it was still light and she wanted to see them lit up because I had earlier told her how pretty everything was lit up.  So we ended up going back to those sights so she could see everything lit up!  J  That pretty much summed up our first night in London together!

                Day two: London and flight to Paris

                Day two held a morning where I told mom that we HAD to downsize everything since we had 4 bags together plus a carry on with my computer.  This was not sensible for us as we pretty much have to carry our own luggage around from place to place and up and down stairs.  I tried to warn mom that she couldn’t bring much; but she didn’t thoroughly get the message I was trying to send!  That morning I ended up going to the local post office (Royal Mail) and talked to them about shipping things to the US.  I made an executive decision that we were going to send a bunch of stuff back to the states.  We ended up having to downsize a full suitcase by throwing things away or sending them home.  When we got to the post office we had to weigh everything and it ended up being around 12 kilos; which is around 35 pounds!  The people at the place were VERY nice to us and even taped the box together and helped me put everything in the box!  Mom was very impressed by the customer service they had given us!  So g-baby you can be expecting a big box around the 5^th of July! J 

                After that we ended up getting back on the tube to go get me a Pandora charm.  I had previously bought mom one and decided I wanted a bracelet like it and to pick out a charm in every country to remember my trip by.  In Ireland is where I started my bracelet.  I bought a four leaf clover that is made up of four red hearts!  It can be purchased at any Pandora store; however, I will know that mine was purchased in Ireland!  I had gotten moms present in the UK and that was the royal wedding charm.  It is a heart with a blue sapphire on one side (like Catherine’s ring) and then the initials of C&W on it!  It can only be purchased in the UK from April till September of this year, so I knew I needed to go get mine!  I mean mom can’t have it when I don’t!  So we made our way over to the Oxford Street where I had purchased mom’s….this is the street that I talked about earlier in my blog that is a mile and a half long street with stores on it!  After that we decided to go to Buckingham palace.  Mom decided she just HAD to see where Kate and William kissed!  (Tho I don’t blame her I had wanted to see it too, I just already had!)  She definitely liked that and sent a text of it to Kathy T!  After that we made our way to Westminster Abbey so mom could see the inside of it!  She definitely liked it just as much as I did!  It definitely is a marvel to see!  (She also wanted to see where the royal wedding had taken place!  She is majorly obsessed with that wedding :P) 

                After that it was time for us to go collect our luggage and walk the 5 blocks to the tube station where we had to take the tube one stop where we could hop on the Heathrow Express to the airport!  Wow that airport is really impressive!  We belonged at terminal 5; so there is 5 different terminals.  Our terminal had 3 different gates in them (A,B,C)  C was a 25 minute walk from gate A!  To me that was amazing that was only ONE of the terminals in this airport.  I still have to look up is Heathrow is the biggest airport in the world, and it if isn’t, it definitely has to be close to one of the largest!  It had many different stores in it!  They even had a Harrods, which is a department store like Macy’s!  Along with Harrods they had Tiffany’s and Gucci and Prada, and a bunch of high end too expensive for me! 

                The flight to Paris was only about a hour long plane ride!  They offered me free wine, so of course I had to take it!  Once we got into the airport we had to wait in line for customs.  OMG, it was so hot waiting and the line was ridiculous!  We also both had to use the restrooms which was on the other side of the customs window!  Once we got through the line mom went to the bathroom which had a good 15 minute wait and I gathered our luggage.  One thing that I have noticed in Europe thus far is that the restroom facilities are TOO small for the demand of people!  They only had 2 stalls in the bathroom right by customs and it was the only bathroom in that area!  The first thing mom does after the bathroom is looks at me and starts laughing!  I asked her what the heck she was laughing at, and she goes, “there was no toilet seat on the toilet!”  At this point she was a bit overtired and lacking sleep, but she was right in that bathroom the toilets didn’t have toilet seats….and we would soon find out that this would occur at more places than the airport! 

                We decided we would take a taxi from the airport to the hotel as we had NO idea where we were in comparison to where we belonged!  Well, that was an interesting experience!  We ended up being stuck in traffic at 10:30 pm (Oh and by the way, when you go to France you lose an hour of sleep, so mom has had no sleep since she’s got here and she now loses another hour of sleep!)  We finally get to our hotel after over an hour in the taxi!  This makes it just shy of 12 and we have to be up and out of the hotel by 7 the next morning!  UFTA!  Our hotel room for the night is very small; two twin beds that are pushed next to each other, a walkway about 2 feet wide next to each side of the bed and then at the ends of the bed probably a 3 foot gap to the wall!  VERY SMALL!  And our bathroom had no shower!  Just a tub with a detachable shower head!  I was stupid and knelt taking my shower because I had no idea how to use it, definitely felt like a midget!  Mom figured out a way to stand and shower, I have yet to learn how she did it!

<3 E

Weekend Trip in Ireland

                This weekend was a weekend that I will never forget in my whole entire life.  It was filled with the most beautiful and breathtaking sights I have ever seen!  I am one lucky girl to have had the privilege to be where I was this past weekend, and well the whole entire trip!  I have a WHOLE new outlook on Ireland; it is the most beautiful place on the earth! (from what I’ve seen, and I haven’t seen very much, but I bet it ranks very high on the list!) 

                Anyways, this weekend was our class trip to the south western tip of Ireland.  For those of you who might be a little geographically inclined (like I was) Ireland is an island that is pretty far north.  It is further north than the continental US, which I hadn’t known!  The main weather path that Ireland gets is from the jet stream in Canada that flows across the Atlantic Ocean and hits Ireland first before continuing to England and then continental Europe.  The weather here is ALWAYS rainy.  Heading out for the trip Phil had told us that it was suppose to clear up for Friday and Saturday and be just lovely out.  We all were super excited to possibly get a dip in the ocean!  WELL, in true Ireland fashion it RAINED!  Friday we headed 2 hours to a castle called Bunratty’s Castle.  It was really cool to see; however it rained the whole time we were there and it was very, VERY cold out!  We were suppose to go see the Cliffs of Moher after that; however, once again it was raining too hard and Phil decided we would postpone that until Saturday because it was suppose to clear up!  We then were scheduled to play golf after the Cliffs of Moher and that of course didn’t happen because of the rain.  Some did want to go golfing despite the rain, but the course that we were supposed to play on was closed.  We did however see a regulated course for the professionals on our way into Doolin and there were people playing in the rain!  Crazy people!  The course looked SUPER hard….LOTS of sand traps and hills and bunker shots!  We ended up just heading to our hostel in Doolin early. What can I tell you about Doolin…..If you blink you miss it?!  It literally had a hostel and a hotel, 2 pubs and a restaurant that probably measured a mile long!  It was a very tiny town but we made the best out of it!  We were bored since it was raining and someone ended up going to the main office of the hostel and got a deck of card and the game monopoly!  We headed to the pub and ate and then some people went back while others stayed.  I ended up staying and played a mean game of monopoly with my professor and two of the other girls!  I ended up forfitting because we had a huge pile of money in the middle and Phil had gotten “boardwalk and park place”, which in this game where names of Ireland streets, and had hotels on there so I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up much longer!  So yes my professor beat me and I guess that’s why he gets paid the “big” bucks! 

                Saturday morning, what can I say, it was rainy AGAIN!  Writing this now I can say we only had one day without a single drop of rain and that was today!  Every other day we were here at one point or another it rained throughout the day!  Anyways, we went to the cliffs of Moher despite the dense fog and wind.  Phil really wanted us to see it because well it is amazing!  The pictures I have of it don’t do it justice because the camera would not take it through the fog!  You could see thru the fog to the ocean and the cliffs, a sight I will never forget! It probably would have been a million times prettier had it been bright and sunny but everything happens for a reason and I got to see it this way! 

                After the cliffs we took a ferry across the Shannon River to Dingle (YES, we took a coach bus on the ferry!)  It was really cool, I had never been on a ferry before so my experience was definitely neat!  The ferry ride was about a 20 minute adventure!  We ended up in the town of Dingle for some delicious lunch before heading around the Dingle Peninsula!  WOW.  That is all I can say about the Dingle Peninsula!  The stops we made were just breathtaking and like I said earlier words and pictures cannot do it any justice!  The mountains and the cliffs and scenery were just beautiful!  God really made a gorgeous island when he formed Ireland!  This is where I started to remember a dear family friend, Sammy Bauer, who we lost to a battle of cancer almost 10 years ago.  Sammy was the most vivacious woman I have ever met to this day!  So full of life and so in love with lamb and sheep!  I will always remember that about Sam and her house…..sheep!  She was a dear friend to my grandparents so I was over to their house often and she always had sheep and lambs for me to play with…..well I saw many of them on this Saturday, and the weather had cleared up where we were able to get some amazing shots of the scenery.  I definitely believe Sam may have had a part in that!  At one of the stops we made there were three sheep, a mother and two lambs running wild.  They were on a cliff that went down on maybe a good 500 feet!  How they kept their balance on there was beyond ANY of us!  We were all amazed that they were able to actually maneuver around on there!  At one point the littlest lamb was on the retaining wall for the road and I was going to take a picture of it walking away but it ended up turning its head right as a snapped the picture!  It is a really cool picture, thanks Sammy!  So we ended up jumping a few fences to get better pictures of all the mountains and scenery along the way!  At one point we went so far down a “hill” that we couldn’t see the bus and some only went half way and they were a LONG ways away!  It was no fun walking back up it!  It definitely was like rock climbing that showed me I was VERY out of shape!  Some of the people on the trip ended up falling in some sheep shit!!  Long story but one you can ask me when I get back!

                After heading around the Peninsula we went to a town called Killarney.  This was the cutest little town ever!  We had dinner and went to a pub called Scotts.  This was a local pub that was definitely fun!  There was a band playing outside and a lot of people there to support them!  It almost felt like a Wisconsin night where there is a tent outside with a band in the street playing….but this was way nicer and the street was just an alley way!  The band was really good and we ended up seeing a bunch of “hens” parties, which is a bachelorette party to us!  One of the themes was Zombie bride where the bride was a zombie and all the other girls with here were dressed up in black dresses….it was unusual!  And one of the others was a Moulin Rouge themed one where everyone wore red and black corsets with red feathers in their hair and boas!  This was definitely a fun night for me!

                Sunday held brunch at a small little café in the mountains!  Then a trip to Torc Falls and Lady’s view…..definitely both VERY beautiful places!  We were in the midst of a national forest with mountains and trees!!!  We hiked up a VERY large mountain to see a falls and the start of one of the rivers here in Ireland.  This river is the river that runs through Cork where we stayed for the majority of the trip!  From the hiking yesterday at the cliffs of Moher and the hiking to get better pictures I definitely was feeling it already but then we went to this mountain and I DEFINITELY was feeling it after that!  WOW, this girl needs to whip her butt into shape!  But I knew that I needed to make the hike up because the sight was worth it!  I definitely wouldn’t mind taking up some hiking/rock climbing in the near future!  But only if I was going to see something cool by doing it! 

                The sights that I saw this past weekend makes up for any negative opinion I had of Ireland before!  I cannot thanks my grandparents enough for helping me make this whole journey possible!  I am truly one lucky girl who saw the most beautiful sights here!  I just wish they were here to see them with me!  Now I will be heading back to London tomorrow with the group, spending the night at a bed and breakfast with everyone and then heading to the airport with them.  This is where they will depart to the US and where I will meet my mamabear for our part of the journey!  I’m not sure how often I’ll get to post on here after this point!  I’m hoping not very much because mom and I will be too busy roaming around, but I hope to get some on here to keep everyone updated on what we are doing!  Once again thanks for reading everything and I can’t wait to share with everyone all of my pictures and stories that I have!  J

<3 from Ireland for the last time ~*E

A house in Doolin

Our bus and 2 gas trucks on our ferry ride

At a Rose Garden...With the ring my mom gave me!

LOVE

BEAUTIFUL

Lamb.....

Crazy sheep on the cliff

Still can't believe I experienced this!

Three who didn't go all the way down...the bus was about another 2000 feet uphill from them!  It was a crazy hill to climb back up, but got some amazing photos!

At Inch Beach

Is this real?! Still can't believe it!

Torc Falls

Half way up the mountain

Break time for some of the group!


**THANKS AGAIN G-BABY AND GRAMPS!  This whole experience was the GREATEST adventure of my WHOLE life!  I still can't believe this is MY REAL life....I feel like I'm watching a movie or something!!!  You guys are my whole world!!! I am SO grateful for this  opportunity and the opportunity to have MY mom come join me!  We definitely will make the most of it!!!  I guess we will find out if Europe is ready for the two of us!! I really wish you could be here with us, but I will definitely continue taking loads of pictures for you and will continue to miss you guys!!  <3 E**

Ireland and my 22nd birthday!

                To all of you who actually read my blog, I am truly sorry for the lapse in time since my last post.  I haven’t felt that I had a lot to write about and then I just got plain lazy, but I promise to not let that happen again!  I’m not going to go day by day on this part but I will give you a general overview of the past week or so!

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” –Christopher Robin to Pooh

                This quote reminds me of something that my mother would tell me.  Her famous words, “When you feel lonely remember you always have people back home who love you!”  The quote above is something that I have had to remind myself of every day on this trip.  I haven’t been able to fit in with the others on this trip so I finally decided to quit trying and to start living this trip up as a strong independent woman!  I am only looking out for myself and doing what I want to do.  I’m not letting anyone hold me back, if I want to go see it I will do it alone and not wait for a group of people to decide what I am going to do or see!  I know this doesn’t make my grandpa too happy, but I promise I am a big girl and I can hold my own in the world gramps!!  I’m getting old now; I just celebrated my twenty-second birthday here in Ireland.

                Twenty one brought me a whole lot of firsts; however, twenty two has already proven to be a year that I will never forget!  On my last couple days of twenty one I kissed the Blarney stone, went to Waterford crystal and bought my first crystal ever, and walked endless miles around Cork Ireland! 

                Let’s see we flew from London to Ireland on June 15^th.  This was a quick hour flight that was really fast and easy compared to the flight from MSP to London (8+ hours!).  The airport in Cork was very small.  For those of you who have flown out of Central Wisconsin Airport, Mosinee, it is just a tad bit bigger; however, you still have to walk on the actual runway to get from the airplane to inside of the airport!  Old school!  My first impression of Ireland……A LOT like Wisconsin!  Cork honestly isn’t anything great.  You can really tell that the recession has hurt them here.  Half of the town looks very run down and the other half is nice, but is definitely struggling. 

                We got to the place that we were supposed to be staying and that was a bit of drama between the girls.  Honestly for me I could care less who I lived with since we all have our own bathroom and bedrooms, but that isn’t the way some of the other girls worked.  The minute I walked into the apartment I was suppose to be staying in it smelt HORRIBLE.  The whole apartment was just disgusting.  There ended up being 8 girls on the first floor which isn’t good because the first floor is not safe for us in a foreign country where anyone could see into our bedrooms.  After everyone complained about something it seemed like our professor talked to the people in charge and they said they’d look for others that they could clean up and move us too.  Well we finally got moved two days later and it’s not anything wonderful but we are managing.  For the amount we paid for this trip, one would sure think we would have better accommodations.  We are located in the middle of this long stretch of city!  We can walk to the left of our flats and go on a 30 minute walk to the mall or we can go to the right and go for a 45 minute walk to the city centre.  The city centre is like a downtown area with little shops, pubs, and restaurants.  There isn’t much to do in this town, reminds me a lot of Medford; you can go to the bars or a movie or just stay in. 

                Waterford Crystal was an hour and half bus trip for our first site visit in Ireland.  Waterford was a cute little town and the country side heading there was gorgeous (for what I saw….I tend to fall asleep very easily in a car if I’m not driving!) We learned about how the crystal is made and we got to take a tour and watch them create certain pieces of crystal!  It was cool to see them have to blow the crystal out after putting it in the hot fire.  We saw them sketching it and creating the different ridges and divots in each piece!  They also had one of the possible models for next year’s Super Bowl trophy!  Jealous much?!  Overall Waterford was a cool place to go and I got a few memorable pieces sent home for myself and family!

                Blarney castle: an amazing view and place!  This was site visit where we got to kiss the blarney stone and get the gift of Gab….so talking.  (like I need to talk anymore than I already do!)  It was a long wait to get to the top of the castle.  The castle was filled with very narrow and short doorways as well as steep uneven stairs to the top that got smaller as you got higher.  They had a rope so you could hold on and pull yourself up.  I don’t know how anyone larger would have been able to complete the venture to the top, there definitely was some tight squeezing going on!  Once we got to the top it was a gorgeous view of the countryside!  I will post a few pictures at the end of this post!  In order to kiss the Blarney Stone you have to lay on your back, hold a rail that has been put in and put your head backwards and kiss down.  It is about 4 stories above the ground and it is cool!  I bought the picture they took of us doing it, yes a tourist trap, but a good memorabilia!  We then walked around the land and went to the wishing steps.  This is a stair case that you have to walk up and down…..but the catch is you have to make the wish at the bottom of the steps and only think of the wish as you go up and down the stairs….BACKWARDS and with your eyes CLOSED in order for your wish to come true!  Phil our prof said he has done it and that his wishes have come true..whether or not it’s true, I definitely climb the stairs backwards with my eyes closed and never opened them!  If my dream ever does come true I will definitely let you all know!  J

                MY BIRTHDAY!  I was sick on my birthday, didn’t get to wake up to my grandpa’s crack of dawn phone call where he sings his “awesome” rendition of happy birthday, no presents, no cake and no friends to help me celebrate…..sad but true!  Even with a lot of the norms missing my birthday was still fun.  Though I’m not sure how one’s birthday can’t be considered great when they are on vacation in a foreign country!  The day of my birthday was a dreary day where it rained/misted all day long!  We went to a town called Cobh.  It is a port city where a lot of the Irish emigrants left from to come to America.  It also was the last port that the Titanic picked up passengers at before it started its voyage to America.  They had a historical centre where we went through and saw the significance of the port.  It was really cool and of course my favorite part was all the information on the Titanic!  We were then suppose to go to eat at a place that overlooked the port and have a few drinks; however the weather was less than nice so Phil said we have two choices.  Those choices were we could head back to the flats and do whatever we wanted to for the rest of the day or we could go an extra 20 minutes and tour the Jameson Distillery.  Umm hello phil, are you crazy…..we all do not like Cork because it’s boring so OF COURSE we decided on the Jameson Distillery!  Who wouldn’t want to go to that and get a free drink of Jameson!  Phil decided he would pick up everyone’s bill since it wasn’t scheduled and he was planning on buying us drinks anyways.  So we got to see how the whiskey is made and then got to sample the whiskey!  It was definitely a good birthday!  My day ended with my mamabear singing happy birthday to me!  A good 22 birthday!

                Today we were supposed to do a tour of Carbery foods.  Phil called two days before to confirm the tour and found out that the person he always had dealt with was no longer with the company and the person who took the spot had no idea about us coming.  That person wasn’t able to fit us in to their schedule so we ended up not doing that tour.  Phil decided that we would go to Kinsale and go to an old Fort that was built to protect the city.  It was very cool and BEAUTIFUL place!  It overlooked the ocean and was a bay that used to serve as a trade highway.  The fort was build to protect the city from pirates and enemies trying to take over the city.  We got to explore it and take lots of pictures!  After we did that we went into the city for lunch and roaming around.  Cute little tourist city!  After that Phil decided to take us to the beach to get a look at the ocean up close and personal!  It was VERY cold, but breathtaking!  The country side and coast in Ireland are really to die for.  G-baby, it is amazing just like you’ve read about!  I am in love with it!  However I would never want to live here!  It rains all the time even if it doesn’t look like it’s going to a random cloud will come and start raining!  I went for a walk the other day and it was a good 45 minute walk…..it rained 5 DIFFERENT times on me!  The random rain showers is a definite downfall of this place, but I guess for it to be so green you need a lot of rain, and a lot of rain is what they get!  In the past 7 days that we have been here, it’s rained every day at least a couple times!  

Well that concludes this post for now!  I probably won’t get another one up until Monday or Tuesday since we are going on a weekend trip!  We get to go to the coast for the weekend and golf and look at more castles!  Definitely stoaked about that!  By the time I write again mom will almost be here and I will be writing about our adventures together!!! 

<3 E

Cinderella's Carriage out of Crystal!

Waterford Crystal

Blarney Castle

Phil, our professor, kissing the Blarney Stone

building seen from the top of Blarney Castle

"Oh Phil!"

Wishing Steps, I am coming down backwards with my eyes closed almost to the end at this point!

Church in Cork

Jameson Whiskey-the five different barrels are the different whiskeys in the fermentation process

Where I spend my 22nd birthday!

Words can't stop explain how gorgeous this sight was!

View of the city where we had lunch

On my walk around Cork tonight.....

Made me miss my Grandpa!