Ireland!

Sorry this is so delayed!

Wednesday (April 18)

                It was off to Ireland on Wednesday! We began the journey by taxi to the train station, and then took the train to Edinburgh, then a bus to the airport, then our flight to Dublin that was only forty-five minutes, and finally we took a three hour bus ride to Galway and walked two minutes from the bus station to our hotel. By the time we arrived at our hotel it was around nine-thirty so we decided against venturing out and just spent the rest of the evening taking it easy in the hotel planning Thursday’s excursion.

Thursday (April 19)

                We went on a bus tour from Galway that included a stop at a farm house, the Cliffs of Moher, and a couple other random things along the way. I knew it was going to be a marvelous experience as soon as we met our bus driver/guide and he had a very definite Irish accent that was a wonderful to hear. Our first stop was to a little farm in Burren (which is an area of hills/mountains full of limestone) where we had a hiking tour up to a nice viewpoint. The owner of the farm, John Connelly, was our guide for the excursion and as we began our little walking tour he pointed out some sheep and baby lambs of his which were adorable and I wanted to pet them so badly. We stopped to see a fairy tree which is basically a tree that people tie random stuff to in order to follow a superstitious custom that their burdens are left at the tree with the object. Then we continued climbing and as we progressed upwards it definitely got a lot colder and windier but the view also got better which made it bearable. We saw the ruins of three churches, which are actually called the seven churches, but four never were built. I think there may have been more to the story than that, but I can’t remember everything our guide said about it. There were also a ton of stone fences that ran up and down the hills and according to our guide, serve no purpose. Finally we returned to the farm house and some people got homemade desserts like cheesecake and apple pie, but I decided against it to save my spending for lunch. Right before we left our guide brought out his King Charles spaniel puppy, Coco, who was absolutely precious. I got to hold her for a couple minutes and she gave my face quite a good washing with her tongue. Then I made a quick trip to the barn where one of the farm hands was showing some people a lamb named Spot.  I also got to hold her for a brief moment and it kind of made me want to have a pet lamb.

                                             The view while hiking in the Burren

                Back on the bus we headed for the Cliffs of Moher which are about an hour and a half away from Galway, but it wasn’t that far from the farm. The cliffs were gorgeous and I wanted to spend hours there. It reminded me a lot of Portugal; however it was super windy, so much so that my hair was kind of all over the place in the majority of the pictures. We were there for an hour so we wandered along the cliffs for a while and saw a tower called the O’Brian Tower that you could go up in, but it had a price, so I just enjoyed taking pictures of it.

                                              The gorgeous cliffs

                From the cliffs we next went to the town of Doolin for lunch at a pub called Fitz something and I got a very yummy vegetable soup with brown bread. Then we made a stop at a five-thousand year old tomb, called Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, which was basically a few large stones with another stone on top where the remains of thirty people had been found. From there we made our last stop of the day to see from a distance Dunguaire Castle. We had passed it earlier in the day and the tide was out so it was all barren looking and so our driver told us that we would stop briefly on the way back when the tide was in. It definitely improved the scenery with the water right up next to it.

                                              The ancient tomb

                                              Dunguaire Castle

                Once we were dropped off in Galway, we walked around the shopping streets and ended up at the Spanish Arch, which wasn’t that exciting but I took a picture of it anyway. Then we continued walking and came across a church that had a little grotto for Our Lady of Lourdes.  Finally we stopped for supper and then returned to the hotel after having completed what I would consider a very successful day of sightseeing.

                                               The unimpressive Spanish Arch

Friday (April 20)

                In the early afternoon we were off to County Cork on a little over three hour bus ride. We passed the time by watching the 25^th anniversary edition of the musical Phantom of the Opera on Paige’s laptop. By the time that finished there was less than a half hour left to the trip and as we arrived in Cork, right on cue the rain began to fall. Fortunately our hotel was only a couple minutes away so my luggage didn’t get overly wet. After checking in, we ventured back out since the rain had stopped and did a little gift shop browsing as well as getting some supper. Eventually we headed back to the hotel after picking up some breakfast food supplies, (ended up being cookies since that was the cheapest), and then spent the rest of the evening using the internet and planning our activities for Cork and the surrounding area.

                                                          

Saturday (April 21)

                We were up with the birds and took a bus to Blarney to visit the Blarney Castle. We were some of the first to arrive at the castle and ended up staying for about three hours because there was a lot to see. First we went into the castle, and at the top, is the world famous Blarney stone, which supposedly gives the gift of eloquence to all those who kiss it. Among the famous who have participated in the tradition is Winston Churchill. So we both kissed the stone, which was a little scary because in order to actually kiss the stone you have to slide on your back and lean your head down into this hole that gives the sensation of falling, but I survived it and maybe I’ll be rewarded for my efforts. That remains to be seen.  After the castle, we made our way to the poison garden which consisted of a large quantity of deadly plants. Then we wandered along a path that led to a horse graveyard where there were markers of horses with names like Snoopy, Magic and others that I’ve forgotten. Further along we crossed through a fern garden that had ginormous fern trees and I also climbed a tree that had these huge trunk-like branch parts that were perfect for sitting on. The last thing we did was go to a rock garden area that had some bridges and waterfalls as well as wishing steps that you are supposed to walk up and down backwards with your eyes closed in order for your wish to come true.  We both participated of course and then as we continued on we saw a witch’s kitchen, a witch’s stone and a fairy glade, according to the signs posted about. Finally we made a couple quick stops to nearby gift shops and then it was back to Cork.

                                                         Blarney Castle

                                              Kissing the Blarney Stone

                                   Way up at the top is where the Blarney Stone is located

                We then went in search of the train station and caught the 1:00 train to Cobh in order to see the Queenstown exhibit of the Titanic. Cobh used to be called Queenstown and it was the final port that the Titanic stopped in before the tragic iceberg collision. The exhibit featured some of the last photos taken of the ship thanks to a passenger named Frank Brown who had his camera along with him on the journey from Southampton to Queenstown where he got off the boat. He had been given the trip as a gift from his uncle, a bishop, however when an American couple on board offered to pay the rest of the trip for him, he wired his uncle who insisted that he still get off the ship at Queenstown. I’m sure he was quite grateful to his uncle after the tragedy for refusing to let him continue. The exhibit also included information about emigration from Ireland in general and also showed things from the sinking of the Lusitana during the war since it happened right off the coast near Cobh. It was an interesting display and it took over two hours to get through the whole thing, so we didn’t catch the train back to Cork until five.

                Back in Cork, we wandered around in search of a good place to eat. We eventually settled on a place called Ketchup that much to my excitement had traditional Irish stew.  I felt like I couldn’t leave Ireland without at least once sampling some Irish stew, so I ordered it and received a huge portion in a giant bowl and with at least six or maybe more slices of bread accompanying it. Irish stew is basically composed of lamb, potato, swede (kind of like a turnip), carrots and celery. It was very good and super filling. I did an impressive job of eating the majority of it considering it was way more than a normal sized serving. After our stomachs were extremely satisfied, we made our way back to the hotel and called it a day.

Sunday (April 22)

                We went to Mass at a church called St. Mary’s that was run by a Dominican order of monks. It was a rather short Mass, but it was strange how most of the people didn’t know whether to kneel or stand or sit at various parts and responses were almost non-existent, or the people would say the priest’s parts too. Just a little strange; nothing like Mass in the United States that’s for sure.

                After packing up to head out to Dublin, our final destination in Europe, we grabbed lunch for the road and caught a bus that made the journey in around three hours. Once in Dublin, we almost were really lost while trying to find our hotel, because we became confused and so began to turn around to retrace our steps. Thankfully, this friendly Irishman saw us two with all our luggage and slightly bewildered expressions and asked if we were lost, to which we responded in the affirmative. So he told us where to go, which ended up being the direction we had originally been going, so back we went and at last we did find our hotel.

                After recuperating a little from the strenuous job of dragging our luggage for a good half hour, we headed back out to see if we could find some souvenir shops before six, the closing time for shops in Ireland. We walked quite a ways before finding one, and then we found the same shop again and again in different locations, sometimes even on the same street. It would seem that there is some sort of monopoly going on, because all of the shops are the same with the exact same prices and products (being the same store and all) so it is kind of a bummer. As we were walking out of one of them, we were face to face with the movie theater so we decided it wouldn’t hurt to see what movie times and prices were. Just as we were entering, it started pouring and neither of us had had the foresight to bring our umbrellas. So while we waited we decided a rainy day was acceptable for seeing a movie and decided we would go see an 8:10 showing of the movie Battleship, although neither of us knew much about it other than it was an action-adventure type of movie based off of the game. We had some time to kill before the movie so we ventured out for some supper during a brief reprieve in the rain and also made a stop to another of the same tourist shops in the hope that there would be something different or cheaper, but it was to no avail. 

Monday (April 23)

                The last full day in Europe arrived and sadly it was another rainy day like every day before it. Our first destination was to Trinity College which we made it to before the rain started thankfully. Our tour was done outside, but our guide was nice and tried to find spots to stand out of the rain so it was all good. He basically pointed out some old dorms, the examination building, the cafeteria, the library (housing the famous book of Kells) and a little arch type of building in the center of the university that has a bell that is older than the school itself. He also pointed out a bronze ball sort of sculpture that was identical to one that I took pictures of at the Vatican Museum. I guess it is to symbolize how humanity destroys itself or something depressing like that. Apparently there are a ton of those sculptures all over the world including two in New York. After that our guide dismissed us to go see the library with the Book of Kells. There was an exhibit that included information about various old bibles including the Book of Kells and explanations of the long, complicated, and tedious process of making such bibles. After those rooms, we came to the room that held two parts of the Book of Kells as well as two other bibles. The detail and illustration was pretty amazing for something done in the 800s. The last room to see was the great hall room that was full of books and had a cool domed sort of ceiling. Sadly I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures but it was a really cool room. After stopping at the gift shop where I bought a postcard as a souvenir, we head out to our next destination, St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

                                       A rainy setting for our Trinity College tour

                The cathedral was interesting and it had a large quantity of tombs including Jonathon Swift’s, who had been the dean of the cathedral for many years. After that Paige and I split up for a couple hours while she went to the Guinness Factory and I explored some random streets and saw a couple churches. One of the churches I came across was St. James, and it had a sign saying it was affiliated with the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and was considered a first stop in the pilgrimage. I thought that was kind of neat, but unfortunately the church was closed so I was unable to go in. Once I met back up with Paige, we did our last bit of souvenir shopping, and we also found a gelato place, so in honor of our final day we got some Italian gelato. It was a good last day, but it felt so strange to realize that after over three months, I was finally leaving Europe.

                                                         St. Patrick's Cathedral

Tuesday (April 24)

                We were out of the hotel before 7am in order to get to the bus stop for an hour ride to the airport. After checking in our bags, we had to go through customs for the U.S. which wasn’t too bad and as a pleasant surprise we then didn’t have to go through any customs upon arriving in Chicago. It seemed kind of strange to think that all of my travels were over and I had left Europe for good. Tuesday made the hundredth day of me being outside the United States. It’s hard to believe I was really gone for that long, but it has been a great experience and one I’ll remember forever.

                Well this is my final entry since all my exciting adventures have come to an end and I’m back in good old Nebraska. I hope for those of you that have taken the time to follow along with my posts, it was an agreeable experience and I’m super excited that I’ve actually accomplished my goal of blogging throughout my whole trip! I had my doubts about following through on my plan, since I’m not much of a writer and any previous writing attempts have never made it past a first entry. Anyway, without further ado, I bid you all farewell; it’s been a grand few months!

                  

                  

Scotland!

Monday

                It was a real struggle waking up when it felt like I should just be going to sleep, but somehow I did. The taxi we had requested from the hotel the night before, but it was kind of a rip off since the driver charged us nineteen pounds for a trip that with a normal cab costs at the most thirteen. When he dropped us off, it was a block up and across the street from Victoria Station, causing us a little confusion as we went in search of where to locate buses. Once we did end up at the right place we saw the bus to Gatwick and asked the driver if we paid him or if we needed to go get tickets, to which he pointed to a door where we could purchase them. So we went in the door as directed only to get called to by some random guy chilling in the room next door telling us that that building was closed and we needed to go into the other room for tickets. That was a little embarrassing and odd, but we eventually got our tickets and were on our way to Gatwick.

                Once at the terminal, it was a cinch getting through check-in and security since there were hardly any lines. Then we ended up at our gate a good two hours before boarding so I settled myself comfortably on a couple of seats to try to take a nap. I don’t know if I actually slept at all but it was relaxing anyway. A funny incident happened when the gate next to ours was rather late boarding and so there was a crowd of people just sitting around waiting for their plane, when suddenly this guy came rushing in and asking in a loud and panicked voice if he was too late, only to be informed that it hadn’t even begun boarding yet. There was a murmur of chuckling that went across the room and although I felt bad for the guy, it was rather humorous. Eventually we boarded our flight and I was very excited when we were given a free hot breakfast on the plane. I’m definitely a fan of British Airlines.

                From the airport in Edinburgh we took a bus to the train station and then a train to Stirling. We arrived in Stirling around 11:30am and then relaxed in a coffee shop for a half hour or so while we waited for Rachel to meet us. Rachel, (for those who don’t know, a friend of my sister’s from her college days who was nice enough to let us stay with her and her flatmate Kate for a couple days), arrived and we were off to her lovely flat where we pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the day. We made one quick stop to the grocery store, and saw a little Scottish scenery on the way, including the famous Stirling bridge as well as the Wallace Monument from a distance. In the evening we watched the first episode from the TV series Sherlock, which was very intriguing and also was cool because I recognized some of the sights, since it takes place in London. It was a little disturbing though because there was a killer taxi driver in it and since we’d taken two cabs that day, it was a little unsettling.

Stirling Bridge

Tuesday

                It was sightseeing in Stirling day, so Rachel was our lovely tour guide and brought us to see all the most significant sights. We started off taking the bus to a high school and from there walking up a rather steep incline to get to the Wallace Monument. Once at the building where we bought the tickets, we then had an even steeper climb to actually get up to where the monument was located. Finally a bit winded we arrived at the monument, only to have to climb 296 steps I believe, to make it to the viewing point at the top of the tower. Fortunately, there were three rooms at various levels on the way up, so we were able to take short reprieves while we read about William Wallace, looked at busts of famous men of Scotland, and learned about the tower’s construction. The view of Stirling and the highlands was definitely worth the hike to the top, but the wind was on the freezing side and since we were rather exposed to the cold air, we snapped some pictures and descended in a hurry.

The National Wallace Monument

                Our second stop was to the university that Rachel is doing her postgraduate studies at, in order to warm up with a hot drink while we ate the sandwiches we’d brought along with us for lunch. Rachel introduced us to her honest to goodness English friend, Ed, who had a quite nice British accent. It would have been neat to meet someone with a Scottish accent, but British accents are fun too. On the way to catch the bus into town, we passed by the loch (lake) which was inhabited by a large quantity of swans as well as ducks and other interesting types of birds that I do not know the names of. Some of the swans were out of the water and so we were able to walk right among them which was really cool, however I think they were expecting food so we were a disappointment to them.

Hot Chocolate at the University

                                             

Swans!

                Finally we wound up on the bus and got off in town to walk up another hilly area to see Stirling Castle. We spent a good couple hours wandering around since there was a lot to see. We started off in a little garden area, and then walked through an exhibit of the past royalty who lived there, including Mary Queen of Scots. After that we walked through an interactive dungeon sort of area, that had rooms for playing musical instruments from the medieval time period, for dressing up as royalty and other fun stuff, that was meant more for children, but we enjoyed it. Then we went to the Stirling head gallery, which consisted of displays of carved wood heads from famous people that had at one time been hung up on the ceiling, but had been so heavy they had caused parts of the roof to collapse. Now only some of the originals remain, however on the ceiling are painted replicas of them all. Then we saw the apartments of the queen and king as well as some other places including the great hall and kitchen area.

Stirling Castle                                             

                As we were leaving it started to rain, but fortunately before we got too soaked we arrived at our destination: a legitimate Scottish pub where we got our supper. I ordered macaroni and cheese which I know doesn’t seem very Scottish, but apparently it is quite a popular dish in Scotland so it was acceptable. I got for a drink, Iron Brew, which is not alcoholic but actually a soda, that is specifically from Scotland and a big favorite.

Iron Brew 100% Scottish

                Once back at the flat we basically relaxed and I had some tea, because when you’re in the UK it is just the cool thing to do. We ended the night watching another Sherlock episode. I think I've become quite a fan of the series.

On Wednesday I began my adventures in Ireland, but that blog will be at a later date. I will say though that the accents are fantastic!

London!

Thursday

                Arrivederci Roma and hello London! The process of getting to the airport was a lot less complicated then with our flight from Madrid. We were able to take a bus for only four euros that got us there in about forty-five minutes and over three hours early for our 3:20 flight. We had to wait around for a while in order to check-in because apparently there is a no earlier than three hours rule. For an inexpensive lunch we stopped at the airport McDonalds and much to my surprise they still had a one euro menu that even included milkshakes. Then we went through security and then customs and I got my passport stamped for the second time finally.

                The flight went smoothly and I felt relatively little pressure in my ears which was a great improvement from the flight to Rome. To get to the hotel we had to take the metro and it is no simple system that is for certain. It took a good hour I’d say and we had to change lines twice, but fortunately we made it to the hotel and got settled in a bit before heading out to see The Hunger Games at a nearby theater. The commercials started at the time the movie was supposed to begin and they were unlike any I’ve ever seen before and were really ridiculous. I thought movies started late in the U.S. but after being in a London movie theater and waiting about a half hour after the scheduled time to begin, ten or fifteen minutes late doesn’t seem so bad. I enjoyed the movie, however I think I preferred the book and some things were taken out that I wish had been left, but overall it was good.

Friday

                It was another early day, because we had to be outside our hotel at eight to be picked up for our tour to Windsor Castle, Stone Hedge and Oxford. It took about an hour to get to Windsor and we had only about an hour and a half to see the castle and grounds, which was hardly sufficient time. An audio guide was included with the price of admission, but I didn’t have enough time to listen to all the descriptions and we had to go straight to the State Apartments and then St. George’s Chapel in order to see the most significant things before meeting at the bus. Windsor is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and according to our tour guide Queen Elizabeth spends Friday through Sunday there although she has a total of six residences. In fact, our guide said it was quite possible that she was there while we were there since it was Friday. Rather neat. Paige and I started off seeing Queen Mary’s doll house, which is a miniature palace complete with miniature artworks by the top artists of the time, real gems in its treasury room, gold and silver tableware, and electricity among other things. It was never used to play with though, since it was given to the Queen when she was an adult because she liked to collect miniatures. It was really cool and I would have loved to take pictures but they weren’t allowed in the castle or chapel. We then saw the State Apartments which are still in use on certain occasions. We saw some ornate rooms full of art collections, including by famous artists like Rembrandt, as well as the bedroom used by Napoleon when he came to visit. There was a big banquet hall and fancy rooms that are used to greet very important guests, as well as a huge room that has on the ceiling and walls crests for every knight of the garter. An interesting note was that some of the crests were just white and I learned that these ones were from knights that had done some dishonorable deed and so their crests were painted over as a reminder of their shame. We also saw the room where the knights meet with the queen when they are knighted and have a celebratory meal together. While we were in the castle, we heard music and watched out the window for a bit as the changing of the guards took place. We had tried to watch earlier from outside, but there were too many people to be able to see, so we at least got to see a bit of it from inside anyway. Then we made a very quick visit to St. George’s Chapel where a bunch of past kings and queens are buried including the infamous Henry VIII and Napoleon I. Then it was a fast-paced walk to get back to the bus on time, which didn’t end up leaving right away after all so our rushing was unnecessary but we didn’t want to take any chances at being left behind.

                                      Just a part of the enormous Windsor Castle

                Our second stop to Stonehenge was an hour and a half drive away so I got to take a bit of a nap to pass the time. On the way we passed by Ascot Race Track which is a big deal place that all the royalty and upper classes go wearing somewhat absurd hats to watch horse racing. We had forty-five minutes to walk around Stonehenge, and it seemed like plenty of time, however with listening to the audio guide and taking photos, we again had to book it to the bus in order to be on time.

                Our last stop took over an hour and a half due to a detour in order to avoid an accident on the freeway. It was a neat detour because we ended up driving through a quaint little English town as well as seeing some nice scenery of the English countryside. Finally though we made it to Oxford and Claudia, our guide, led us around to see a few of the thirty-eight colleges of Oxford. We saw the oldest one, called Balliol and we also saw a couple others as well as seeing a huge library that apparently has tunnels and tunnels underground filled with books. Right next door to the library was the Radcliffe Building which is used as a place to read the books from the library since it isn’t permitted (not even if you’re the king) to check-out the books. Then we saw a courtyard area of the library that is exciting for any Harry Potter fans since it was used for filming some parts of the movies. Apparently a lot of the movies were filmed in Oxford. We walked by a couple of other buildings that are part of Oxford and then we were given free time before heading back to London. It was a rather long day, but I definitely enjoyed getting to see some cool English sights that I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t done the tour since they’re so far out of the city.

                                                       Part of the Oxford Library

                Once the bus dropped us off a street down from our hotel, we stopped at the grocery store nearby in order to pick up some cheap food items as well as some pizza for supper. Surprisingly food items weren’t super expensive and would have been relatively cheap if it weren’t for the dollars to pounds conversion rate.

Saturday

                We headed out to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace on Saturday morning and although we were there about forty-five minutes early, people lined the whole front gate of the palace already. So we ended up staking out a spot along the road in the hopes that the guard would pass by us on their way in. It turned out that the guard went by the other road in, so we saw them from a distance and some of them went back by our side but before the band that accompanied them left, we had given up our spots to see if we could get any closer to the palace. Overall we didn’t get to see all that much, but once the crowds died down, we were able to see a couple of the guards marching back and forth which was cool.

                                      The only part of the ceremony that went by us

                                         what I could see of the band leaving

                                                        Buckingham Palace

 After we took some photos in front of the palace, we headed off to see Big Ben and on our way we crossed through St. James Park which had a bunch of random birds about in it. I was especially a fan of these huge white birds with super long beaks, and a couple of them were even letting people pet them, so of course I had to join in. The top of the bird’s head was really soft and kind of fluffy and it made for a great photo opportunity as well. Finally we ended up in Parliament Square which as its name suggests has the building of Parliament and also Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Then ensued a crazy amount of photo-taking. We didn’t go in to the abbey since the entrance fee was a little too much to make it worth it so we opted to at least visit the gift shop where I bought a postcard commemorating the diamond jubilee of the queen which is quite a big deal in the UK.

                                           The huge pelican sort of birds

                  

We then walked up to Trafalgar Square where we saw these huge statues of lions that were pretty cool. Our next stop was to King’s Cross Station that was necessary to fulfill Paige’s lifelong dream of seeing platform 9 ¾. So then we made a quick stop for lunch at Mickey D’s before heading to London Bridge. When we got off the metro at the London Bridge stop, we encountered this small and rather pathetic looking bridge and we were both rather confused. It certainly didn’t seem anything like the bridge we’d expected to see. Fortunately we decided to walk a little farther past it and after going a couple blocks we discovered the amazing Tower Bridge. After some more photo-taking, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our night at the theater seeing Les Miserables. Although the tickets were a little on the pricey side, we fulfilled another of Paige’s dreams by seeing it, (it was a very fulfilling day for Paige), and it was quite a memorable experience.

                                  Tower Bridge

Sunday

                We went to an 11:30 Mass in a church on Queensway, a street just down from our hotel. After we did some shop browsing in search of a cheap shirt or something that says London, but gave up for a little while and took a stroll through Kensington Park and Hyde Park, which are both right next to each other. It would have been slightly more enjoyable if the weather had been a little warmer, without a biting wind, but it was still pleasant scenery anyway. There was a nice little lake that was full of swans, and other bird life, as well as some fountains including the Lady Diana Memorial Fountain.

                                          Italian Fountains in Kensington Park

After about an hour and a half, we ended up at Kensington Palace, the current home of Prince William and Kate, as well as Prince Harry. We decided to pay the admission fee since there were several different exhibits to see within the palace, making it seem worth the price. We started off going through the Queen’s Apartments, which were set up to depict the decline of the Stuart line. Next we visited the Lady Diana exhibit that displayed some of her gowns. Then we saw the King’s Apartments and there were men and women in various rooms dressed as courtiers and they would tell additional information about the specific rooms. I believe there was also a game of sorts that involved collecting cards with letters to spell a word that would reveal your status with the king, but I never discovered any cards, so I’m not totally sure what that was all about. Our last stop in the palace was to the Victoria Revealed exhibit, which started with Victoria becoming queen as a teen and each room showed the events of her life. Definitely interesting to see, and we spent a good two and a half hours in the palace overall.

                                               The throne room

                   Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their 9 children

Before leaving the palace grounds we made a quick trip to the gardens which were filled with some gorgeous and bright colored flowers. Then we headed back to the Queensway Street to do some more shop browsing and pick up a cheap supper from the grocery store. Once back at the apartment we rushed to use the internet and get all prepared to head out at three in the morning in order to take a taxi to Victoria Station, where we would catch a bus to Gatwick Airport for our flight at 7:30am. Despite our attempts to get to sleep at a really early hour, I didn’t fall asleep until close to midnight, which was kind of unfortunate considering I had to get up at two for a big day of traveling to Scotland.

                          Kensington Palace and the gardens

Scotland and Ireland info will follow at a later date!

Rome!

Easter Sunday 

It was a very long day of traveling. From Santa Justa Estación, we took the train to Madrid, from the Madrid station we took a train to terminal four in the airport, and from terminal four we took a bus to terminal one. However, that was almost very disastrous because we needed to get to terminal two for our flight and so when it stopped at terminal one we remained on the bus thinking that it would continue on to our terminal. When we heard people mentioning the train station in Madrid, we became concerned that the bus was potentially going to go all the way back to the first train station we arrived at in Madrid, which would put us in jeopardy of missing our flight. So when a fellow passenger informed us that we needed to get off at terminal one, we started trying to get the bus driver to open the door, and after a couple other people chimed in and came to our aid, the door opened at last much to my great relief. Then we weren’t exactly sure how to get to terminal two, so  we began walking along the outside of terminal one until we came to this restricted looking zone and realized that we were definitely going in the wrong direction. Then we backtracked and actually went into the airport, discovering that there were signs pointing towards our desired terminal. So after a rather long and exhausting walk, lugging my really heavy carry-on and checked bag, we arrived at the right place and we even made it about a half hour before boarding time.

Once we headed out our gate to board the plane, we discovered that all of the passengers had to board a shuttle bus to get to the plane because it was way out in the middle of nowhere in the airport. Finally we arrived at our plane, but the crew wasn’t ready for us to board so instead of letting us out of the bus we were shut inside in the crowded and hot space suffocating for a good ten minutes. Anyways, we finally boarded the plane and it was really big, having eight seats to a row, and at long last we arrived in Rome. Then we had to take a half-hour train to Termini Station in the center of the city, which happens to be ideally located right next to our hotel. After what seemed like hours and hour of traveling, we finally checked in to our hotel, called the Champagne Palace.

Then we set out to find something for supper. We ended up giving in to a persuasive guy outside this pizza place who convinced us to eat there, so we got a pizza to split that was very satisfying and the price wasn’t terrible. However, as we were waiting to pay after, some sort of brawl broke out in the front of the place, and I couldn’t see what was happening very well due to being back in a corner, but a guy who came in later had a swollen eye so it certainly got a little too violent for my tastes. Two women, who were also eating there, were so freaked out that they went and hid under the tables next to us, making me a little concerned. Since the brawl happened just outside the door, we were a little nervous as to if it was safe to leave, so we waited for a bit and when these three American guys left, we took the opportunity to follow them out and safely arrived back at our hotel. I definitely won’t be visiting that part of the area to eat anymore. That experience made me want to go back to my comfortable lifestyle in Sevilla, where I never felt afraid to just go out and eat somewhere at night. Not the greatest ending to my Easter Sunday, but things improved a lot in the light of day.

Monday

                I woke up at 6:25am in order to get an early start on sightseeing.  To see as much as possible in so short a time, early mornings were a necessity. The first stop of the day was to Vatican City since we wanted to beat the long lines by going in the morning. It was amazing! I went up the 320+ steps to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s and the view was definitely worth the climb and price.

                Then I wound up in the gift shop on the roof and made a couple purchases before it was all the way back down into the Basilica. I could have spent many more hours just taking everything in; however, I managed to get through seeing everything, including JPII’s tomb and the Pieta, as well as go to Mass and still was out before one.  Then we wandered around in the square taking pictures and also tried to figure out where we were to get the tickets for the Wednesday Papal Audience. We knew it was at the Bronze door, but when we found the door, it was mostly blocked by a gate making it seem like people were not supposed to pass through there. So we asked some guy in a suit that seemed like security of sorts, and he said that was the way to get the tickets. We then went back and passed by the gate, with a bunch of people giving us weird stares because it looked like we were going into out of bounds area, and approached the Swiss Guard. As we neared him, another Swiss Guard came over to us looking a little surprised, and we informed him that we were trying to secure tickets for the Audience, to which he gave us some, but I don’t feel like we necessarily went about it in the correct manner. I was just glad we got the tickets though.

                                                            Tomb of JPII

                                                            The Pieta!

                                                      The super cool Swiss Guards

                Our next stop was to see if the Vatican Museum had a long line, but it ended up being closed for Easter Monday. So that was the first thing on the agenda for Tuesday. Then we got some amazing gelato, (my first official gelato in Italy!), for our lunch before heading back on the metro. Then we went to the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the Holy Stairs. The Holy Stairs was quite the experience, let me tell you. Next we went to the Church of the Holy Cross and got to see an actual piece of Christ’s cross, a couple nails and the inscription that was on the cross. As an extra bonus, St. Thomas’ finger was there as well.

                                                            The Holy Stairs

                Then we took the metro to the Spanish steps and sat there for a little bit in the sunshine. For Roman Holiday fans, it is where Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were in part of the movie. How cool! 

                                                             The Spanish Steps

                After that we walked all the way to the Trevi Fountain and I had to throw a penny in of course, then we passed by some shops and wound up trying on fun masks in one of them. Eventually we walked to the Pantheon and took pictures outside it before walking to the entrance and realizing that it had closed five minutes before we arrived. Kind of a bummer, but we planned to go back at an earlier time. Our last stop of the day was to the Piazza Navona where we watched this amazing artist make awesome creations with spray paint. In a matter of five minutes she whipped up artwork that was so detailed and beautiful that I wanted to buy one so bad, but I don’t know how I would have taken it back with me. After staying there longer than we should have, we rushed back to the nearest metro stop in about a half hour in order to get back to Termini Station before the metro closed at nine. I don’t know why it closed so early in Rome, but it was kind of inconvenient. It was extremely packed on the metro due to it being closing time, and when the Termini stop came there was such a mad rush to get off that one guy got completely pushed out and another girl was knocked to the floor and almost trampled. A little scary; I was just glad that I wasn’t standing right next to the doors when they opened.

                                                  Throwing a penny into the Trevi Fountain

                                                Cat mask!

                                                The Pantheon

Tuesday

                We got up with the birds again, and managed to avoid a really long wait in line for the Vatican Museum. We only had to wait about a half hour or so, and that was because we were there a good twenty minutes before it opened. It was very neat seeing the Sistine Chapel as well as some cool paintings by artists like Raphael.  We also saw a bunch of really old statues, some maps, pope carriages and cars and also Egyptian artifacts including a couple mummies, which were a little gross. We ended up missing a couple rooms on the way through to the Sistine Chapel, so we had to backtrack a little bit, but in the end we saw pretty much everything in about two and a half hours.

                                         A cool hall full of old maps in the Vatican Museum

                                                Spiral Staircase in the Museum

                Our next stop was to Santo Spirito Church that Jenny discovered when she was in Rome and we made it just in time because after about ten minutes a nun bolted the door and had to let us out afterwards. After that we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum which was a little pricey, but since we got to see both, it was worth it. The Forum was basically a bunch of ancient roman ruins that had some cool pillars and arches scattered about, but it was interesting. The Colosseum was really neat though causing me to take way too many pictures. After that we went to St. Peter in Chains Church that had the chains used to bind St. Peter and then we went to the St. Paul Outside the Wall Basilica that had the chains used to bind St. Paul as well as his tomb. It was definitely a cool church to visit, and as an added bonus, all along the top of the walls are the images of all the popes since St. Peter through to Pope Benedict XVI. From there we went to the Basilica of Mary Major which was the last of the four major basilicas in Rome that we had yet to visit. It also happened to be less than five minutes away from our hotel, so after a visit there, we were able to just walk back to the hotel and relax for a little bit before heading out again to access the internet at an internet shop in order to print out a confirmation ticket for a tour in London.  Overall it was a successful day in regards to sightseeing, but also very exhausting and I was dead on my feet by the time we were done for the day.

                                                           Roman Forum

                                          Some beautiful flowers in the forum

                                               The Colosseum

                                               An outside view of the Colosseum 

Wednesday

                I went to the Papal Audience and saw the Pope! We managed to get seats in the front row of the second section and he went right by us twice. It was so cool seeing him and being so close! None of my pictures came out that great because the ones that aren’t blurry are the ones that he is not looking in my direction, but it was still an incredible experience.

                                                    The Pope!

                In the afternoon we got pizza for lunch because that is the Italian thing to do, and then we went to the Pantheon which used to be a Roman temple of sorts but was converted into a church. It was neat to see and it is probably the only church I’ve ever seen that has a hole intentionally in the roof. From there we stopped for some gelato, because in Italy gelato is an absolute must, and then we went church exploring. We visited a church that I believe might have been called Minerva, but I’m not a hundred percent sure about that. It was huge and beautiful, like a lot of churches in Rome, and the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena was there. It also had a chapel dedicated to my patron St. Rose of Lima, which was sweet. Then we visited a little church that we passed along the way to St. Ignatius, that I’m not sure of its name, but it was pretty. St. Ignatius was also huge and beautiful and had the tombs of some saints who I didn’t recognize. Then we visited another church called Gesu and it was also cool and had a couple of hands as relics, one being from St. Francis Xavier and the other I couldn’t find a name with.  We then stumbled across another church called St. Luigi that was really huge and had some impressive paintings as well as a chapel dedicated to St. Cecilia who is my confirmation saint. Our last church of the day was as we were heading back to the metro and we encountered this huge church called St. Andrew. It had the tombs of some saints, but I don’t believe any were very well known.

                                                 Ceiling of Pantheon

Once we were back on the metro, we stopped at a shop near the Vatican to see if any good photos were taken of us near the Pope. Unfortunately, both the pictures with me in them had my face totally covered by the camera of the girl standing beside me. Even if I don’t have a picture of me with the Pope, it was awesome being there and I have pictures of him anyway.

For supper we went to a relatively fancy restaurant that the receptionist recommended, because we had to at least once get pasta in Italy. So I got spaghetti, bread and water for around ten euros. Not a great deal, but I couldn’t leave Italy without eating some truly Italian food other than gelato.