I haven't updated in a while, and I still haven't written about Dublin, but here is a quick look back at my week.
I got an A on my first test here, care of Todd Morrison and the Social Psych department. Very excited about that.
We didn't go out at all this week except for last night, since we have all been working on a paper for "Problems in the History of Ireland (1580-1700)." I just finished it and printed it. Also excited about that.
Tuesday I went and saw (for free on campus) La Vie en Rose. It was amazing. You should all go see it, the actress absolutely deserved her Oscar.
Last night we went to see (again, for free) Transformers, and again I absolutely loved it, despite initial reservations and the amount of geeky guys in the audience.
Wednesday I taught in kindergarten and a little girl asked me "Is that English ya speakin?" It was hilarious, I was caught entirely off guard. She said I sounded weird when I talk. Also, her news of the day was that she's going to "pierce her belly" when she grows up. Keep in mind she is four years old.
Also, in the best news of all, my roommates and I got one of the last two Mods to live in next year on-campus. If you don't know what the Mods are, they are the best, most fun, most BC-traditional housing you can get, and mostly every Senior wants one. You live in a little 6-man house thats pretty crappy, but you get a yard and a patio and its all Seniors, all the parties and tailgating happen there, etc. I am sooo excited and still can't believe we actually got one!!!
This weekend is going to be mellow. Molly's brother and friends and Meaghan's brother and friend come on Saturday, so this upcoming week should be fun.
More soon.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Pictures from Sevilla
I think this is a huge hotel that was near our hostel. If it is, it runs E800 a night.
More gorgeous architecture. The Sevillian Cathedral. The largest one in Spain.
Christopher Colombus's tomb. For real.
The view from the top, after walking up a steep, dirt path for what seemed like 20 minutes...
Jenny and the bell! We were worried it would go off when we were up there...
Pictures from our first night in Madrid!
Alison and I at JOY!
Me, Molly and Cristin
Me and one of the dancers (she may be a he - we weren't sure...)
This guy was the only for sure male on the stage...
At the airport the next morning, headed for Sevilla. Note: Andy fell asleep with a sucker in his mouth...haha.
Finishing up Spain, and then on to Dublin
So I trailed off as the train from Cadiz pulled into Sevilla. It was about 10am, which meant that we had used up our time to rush back to the hostel and sleep. If we had gotten on the phantom 5:45am train, we'd have been back in time to shower AND nap for a good four hours before having to check out. Unfortunately, with our botched reading of the time tables to blame, we all cabbed back to the hostel, packed up and got outta there.
Our first move was to find some food, naturally, and boy did we ever find some food. We happened upon a glorious place that served food from all over and also had English speaking waiters. So, I chose Italy and Mexico(!) and got NACHOS, yeah baby, and some tomatoes with mozzerella (delish.) We sat in the sun recounting our night and basking in the gloriousness of it all, watching the horse drawn carriages going by, etc. Then, all of a sudden Cristin started to not feel well. Feeling well was a relative term, since none of us felt WELL, per se, but she felt pretty bad. This quickly moved to Cristin being unable to stand up and then about to pass out. We carted her across the cobblestoned streets to the steps of the cathedral (how appropriate) and laid her down, elevating her feet. After a few minutes she was fine, but it prompted us to pay our bill, say goodbye to Colin, Jenny and Suzy and move on.
Moving on meant buying some post cards and other memorabilia, hitting an ice cream shop and Starbucks, and then laying on the steps of the cathedral ourselves, homeless, until Meg came to collect us and take us to the airport. We hopped the bus to the airport quite early, falling asleep on the way, then arrived and found rows of empty seating on which to continue sleeping. After an hour or so, refreshed but by no means enthused, we checked in, blew through security, hit duty-free and got some lunch. Again. Olives, a pear, a banana, some nuts, you know, whatever. We played 20 question and other stupid games until we could go to our gate. Our flight was a little delayed, but we were so out of it that it didn't even matter. Once we were on the plane it took only an hour.
We landed in Madrid and I went to the first information desk I could find to request information about hostels nearby. At the start of our trip we had planned another all night extravaganza of partying, to save money on a hostel. Of course, we had not factored in all the in between nights of partying with no sleep, so we were idiots and ate our foolish words. We wanted sleep and we would pay anything for it. Eventually we secured a hostel that was nearby and would come and get us for free. Ten minutes later we were in a van. Twenty minutes later we were checking into Hostel Viki. Thirty minutes later we were in bed. Yesssss!
The next morning me and Meg got up at 10, showered (YES!!!) in the nicely heated and pressured shower, packed up and checked out. We met everyone else and we walked around until we found a small square with cafes. We chose one, got some sangria and went to town. Kidding. I didn't have any or I would have died. But, we had to pass the time from noon to 1:15 when they started serving lunch, so we did. Eventually we all ordered lunch, which was cheap and good. I have to say that I have no idea what the kind of meat was that they brought me, but I ate it all and loved it. Oh how adventurous I am...haha.
When 3pm rolled around, I had a sunburn, haha, and a sunglasses tan, but I was full, rested and happy. We got on the metro to head back to the airport, only one stop, checked in and got on our flight. We landed in Dublin to rain and cold, of course, having just missed the last train. Dammit. That meant we had to take a 4 hour BUS back to Galway, but we did. And we didn't complain. Much.
After getting to Galway, we cabbed back, said goobye I never want to see your faces again and went to bed. Haha. It was an excellent trip and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I loved it!
Coming soon: Dublin trip and RAG week
Our first move was to find some food, naturally, and boy did we ever find some food. We happened upon a glorious place that served food from all over and also had English speaking waiters. So, I chose Italy and Mexico(!) and got NACHOS, yeah baby, and some tomatoes with mozzerella (delish.) We sat in the sun recounting our night and basking in the gloriousness of it all, watching the horse drawn carriages going by, etc. Then, all of a sudden Cristin started to not feel well. Feeling well was a relative term, since none of us felt WELL, per se, but she felt pretty bad. This quickly moved to Cristin being unable to stand up and then about to pass out. We carted her across the cobblestoned streets to the steps of the cathedral (how appropriate) and laid her down, elevating her feet. After a few minutes she was fine, but it prompted us to pay our bill, say goodbye to Colin, Jenny and Suzy and move on.
Moving on meant buying some post cards and other memorabilia, hitting an ice cream shop and Starbucks, and then laying on the steps of the cathedral ourselves, homeless, until Meg came to collect us and take us to the airport. We hopped the bus to the airport quite early, falling asleep on the way, then arrived and found rows of empty seating on which to continue sleeping. After an hour or so, refreshed but by no means enthused, we checked in, blew through security, hit duty-free and got some lunch. Again. Olives, a pear, a banana, some nuts, you know, whatever. We played 20 question and other stupid games until we could go to our gate. Our flight was a little delayed, but we were so out of it that it didn't even matter. Once we were on the plane it took only an hour.
We landed in Madrid and I went to the first information desk I could find to request information about hostels nearby. At the start of our trip we had planned another all night extravaganza of partying, to save money on a hostel. Of course, we had not factored in all the in between nights of partying with no sleep, so we were idiots and ate our foolish words. We wanted sleep and we would pay anything for it. Eventually we secured a hostel that was nearby and would come and get us for free. Ten minutes later we were in a van. Twenty minutes later we were checking into Hostel Viki. Thirty minutes later we were in bed. Yesssss!
The next morning me and Meg got up at 10, showered (YES!!!) in the nicely heated and pressured shower, packed up and checked out. We met everyone else and we walked around until we found a small square with cafes. We chose one, got some sangria and went to town. Kidding. I didn't have any or I would have died. But, we had to pass the time from noon to 1:15 when they started serving lunch, so we did. Eventually we all ordered lunch, which was cheap and good. I have to say that I have no idea what the kind of meat was that they brought me, but I ate it all and loved it. Oh how adventurous I am...haha.
When 3pm rolled around, I had a sunburn, haha, and a sunglasses tan, but I was full, rested and happy. We got on the metro to head back to the airport, only one stop, checked in and got on our flight. We landed in Dublin to rain and cold, of course, having just missed the last train. Dammit. That meant we had to take a 4 hour BUS back to Galway, but we did. And we didn't complain. Much.
After getting to Galway, we cabbed back, said goobye I never want to see your faces again and went to bed. Haha. It was an excellent trip and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I loved it!
Coming soon: Dublin trip and RAG week
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
CADIZ! The Home of Carnivale 2008!
After stepping off the train in Cadiz, we walked outside into warm weather and palm trees to catch a bus to the beach. Yes, the beach, in February. Excellent.
We got off the bus after probably 15 minutes, grabbed some tapas and sangria for lunch, picked up some refreshments from the local liquor store and headed to the beach. At first we were put off by how windy it was, but soon the sun came out, brightening everything up, and the wind died down. We stayed and played on the beach for about two hours, building sand castles, walking in the water, playing soccer with some kids we met, climbing up this huge, random structure they had there, practicing our Spanish, talking U.S. politics with local Cadizians and getting to know one another better. The refreshments also helped...we went through that rum pretty quickly, let me tell you.
After we got tired of the sand, we wandered across the street to a couple of bars for some drinks and more tapas. (If you haven't yet realized, the theme of this weekend is Food and Drink...) By this time it was getting dark, so we got on the bus that would take us to the big square where the heart of Carnivale was located. As we got closer, we started seeing people dressed in ridiculous outfits. There were Smurfs, babies, bees, superheroes, Waldo, Shrek, mugs of beer, convicts, wizards, etc. Everything and anything you could think of, it was there. After exploring the area a little bit, we split up, with Meg and I going to watch a live concert given by a Spanish female singer whose name escapes me at the moment. She was so good, and everyone was dancing and having a good time, but it was getting colder and colder as it got later.
But then, amidst the thousands of people from all over the world, dressed like idiots and dancing and drinking at a world-renowned festival, what do I stumble upon but a red jacket hanging on a fence post. The jacket is cute. It fits like a glove. It appears to have no owner. Could it be another gift from God?! I donned it with quick-fire speed and was immediately warm. Then I was able to enjoy the rest of my night. Perfection...
After a small tiff (read: Caroline gets angry and yells because half the group refuses to leave another stupid Irish pub...) we were off down the streets.
Here are some of the main events of the night:
1. Seeing a really really drunk guy peeing on the street and then getting arrested.
2. Molly getting lost on her way back from the bathrooms. It took us 20 minutes to realize she was gone, at which point a manhunt ensued. We found her speaking to about five Spanish guys dressed as chickens...she doesn't speak Spanish.
3. Eating dinner at sort of a nice restaurant - Jenny dropping her wine glass on the floor...
4. Standing on this one street corner for about an hour just observing the insanity of the square, while making friends with tons of Spanish-speaking people.
5. Buying Carnivale tee-shirts, shot glasses, etc.
6. Me implementing a lot of my Spanish-speaking skills (J, you'd be proud), since nobody else besides Tara and I spoke it.
7. Running into Goldilocks and the three bears (all men), right at midnight when it turned into Colin's 21st birthday - they joined us in singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" on the street corner.
8. Molly freaking out when these three guys dressed as toilets, complete with toilet brushes (wands) started to come at her (jokingly) with their brushes.
9. Losing 10 euro. Finding 10 euro.
10. Calling Cara at least twice, effectively spending about 30 euro in phone charges, unknowingly...
All in all it was a tremendous experience. Everything went as planned, nobody got hurt, we all survived, etc.
At around 4:30 in the morning, we decided it would be best to start moving toward the exits, since our train back to Sevilla left at 5:45ish. So, we collected our friends from all their various locations and went to grab a taxi, having no idea where the train station was. But, of course, we had to wait in a queue of about 60 people. Well, Suzy was not happy with this concept, so she cut the line with Jenny and Meg, instructing the rest of us to hang back behind a parked truck. As she, Jen and Meg got into their cab, another one pulled up behind it. The rest of us bolted and stole the cab right out from under the noses of a bunch of people dressed as cows. Looking back, if someone did that to me, I would have been really upset, but we played the "we don't speak Spanish" card...and after all...they were dressed as COWS. How can they be taken seriously?
It turned out the train station was about two minutes away, but good thing we got there when we did (around 5am), because there were already about 100 people sitting outside on the ground. Apparently the train station wasn't open all night. So, we got some prime real estate near the front doors, against a wall to lean on, and passed out. It was freezing cold, miserable, dirty, etc. All I wanted was to get on the train and go to sleep. But, as 5:45am came and went, with no activity from within the station, we started to get nervous. Once 6:30 arrived, and the doors opened, everyone bolted inside. We thought they would all run down the stairs to board a waiting train, but we were sadly mistaken. Instead, all the costumed Spaniards ran for chairs in the waiting areas...puzzled, we inquired as to what the deal was and learned that the 5:45am train does not run on weekends...therefore, we needed to wait for the 8:50 train.
Well that just about made me cry. I was so cold that I was literally shaking. I was going on almost no hours of sleep from the past two nights. I was hungry. I was dehydrated. I was pissed off. Multiply that by the 8 other people I was with, and it made for a pretty dire situation. But, my tiredness soon took over and I fell asleep, huddled in a ball on the ice cold train station floor. I guess time must have passed quickly because before I knew it the train was there and we were running for seats. Thankfully we all got seats together, except (again) for Meg, who had to sleep on the floor. The train took probably two hours to get us back to Sevilla, and we all slept every second of that ride. I kept my red jacket on me the entire time...
We got off the bus after probably 15 minutes, grabbed some tapas and sangria for lunch, picked up some refreshments from the local liquor store and headed to the beach. At first we were put off by how windy it was, but soon the sun came out, brightening everything up, and the wind died down. We stayed and played on the beach for about two hours, building sand castles, walking in the water, playing soccer with some kids we met, climbing up this huge, random structure they had there, practicing our Spanish, talking U.S. politics with local Cadizians and getting to know one another better. The refreshments also helped...we went through that rum pretty quickly, let me tell you.
After we got tired of the sand, we wandered across the street to a couple of bars for some drinks and more tapas. (If you haven't yet realized, the theme of this weekend is Food and Drink...) By this time it was getting dark, so we got on the bus that would take us to the big square where the heart of Carnivale was located. As we got closer, we started seeing people dressed in ridiculous outfits. There were Smurfs, babies, bees, superheroes, Waldo, Shrek, mugs of beer, convicts, wizards, etc. Everything and anything you could think of, it was there. After exploring the area a little bit, we split up, with Meg and I going to watch a live concert given by a Spanish female singer whose name escapes me at the moment. She was so good, and everyone was dancing and having a good time, but it was getting colder and colder as it got later.
But then, amidst the thousands of people from all over the world, dressed like idiots and dancing and drinking at a world-renowned festival, what do I stumble upon but a red jacket hanging on a fence post. The jacket is cute. It fits like a glove. It appears to have no owner. Could it be another gift from God?! I donned it with quick-fire speed and was immediately warm. Then I was able to enjoy the rest of my night. Perfection...
After a small tiff (read: Caroline gets angry and yells because half the group refuses to leave another stupid Irish pub...) we were off down the streets.
Here are some of the main events of the night:
1. Seeing a really really drunk guy peeing on the street and then getting arrested.
2. Molly getting lost on her way back from the bathrooms. It took us 20 minutes to realize she was gone, at which point a manhunt ensued. We found her speaking to about five Spanish guys dressed as chickens...she doesn't speak Spanish.
3. Eating dinner at sort of a nice restaurant - Jenny dropping her wine glass on the floor...
4. Standing on this one street corner for about an hour just observing the insanity of the square, while making friends with tons of Spanish-speaking people.
5. Buying Carnivale tee-shirts, shot glasses, etc.
6. Me implementing a lot of my Spanish-speaking skills (J, you'd be proud), since nobody else besides Tara and I spoke it.
7. Running into Goldilocks and the three bears (all men), right at midnight when it turned into Colin's 21st birthday - they joined us in singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" on the street corner.
8. Molly freaking out when these three guys dressed as toilets, complete with toilet brushes (wands) started to come at her (jokingly) with their brushes.
9. Losing 10 euro. Finding 10 euro.
10. Calling Cara at least twice, effectively spending about 30 euro in phone charges, unknowingly...
All in all it was a tremendous experience. Everything went as planned, nobody got hurt, we all survived, etc.
At around 4:30 in the morning, we decided it would be best to start moving toward the exits, since our train back to Sevilla left at 5:45ish. So, we collected our friends from all their various locations and went to grab a taxi, having no idea where the train station was. But, of course, we had to wait in a queue of about 60 people. Well, Suzy was not happy with this concept, so she cut the line with Jenny and Meg, instructing the rest of us to hang back behind a parked truck. As she, Jen and Meg got into their cab, another one pulled up behind it. The rest of us bolted and stole the cab right out from under the noses of a bunch of people dressed as cows. Looking back, if someone did that to me, I would have been really upset, but we played the "we don't speak Spanish" card...and after all...they were dressed as COWS. How can they be taken seriously?
It turned out the train station was about two minutes away, but good thing we got there when we did (around 5am), because there were already about 100 people sitting outside on the ground. Apparently the train station wasn't open all night. So, we got some prime real estate near the front doors, against a wall to lean on, and passed out. It was freezing cold, miserable, dirty, etc. All I wanted was to get on the train and go to sleep. But, as 5:45am came and went, with no activity from within the station, we started to get nervous. Once 6:30 arrived, and the doors opened, everyone bolted inside. We thought they would all run down the stairs to board a waiting train, but we were sadly mistaken. Instead, all the costumed Spaniards ran for chairs in the waiting areas...puzzled, we inquired as to what the deal was and learned that the 5:45am train does not run on weekends...therefore, we needed to wait for the 8:50 train.
Well that just about made me cry. I was so cold that I was literally shaking. I was going on almost no hours of sleep from the past two nights. I was hungry. I was dehydrated. I was pissed off. Multiply that by the 8 other people I was with, and it made for a pretty dire situation. But, my tiredness soon took over and I fell asleep, huddled in a ball on the ice cold train station floor. I guess time must have passed quickly because before I knew it the train was there and we were running for seats. Thankfully we all got seats together, except (again) for Meg, who had to sleep on the floor. The train took probably two hours to get us back to Sevilla, and we all slept every second of that ride. I kept my red jacket on me the entire time...
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sevilla and Cadiz - Carnivale Part Two
So with about five hours of sleep under our belts, we hit the streets for food. Our first stop was a tapas bar close to the hostel. It had an interesting set up, with the bar where you ordered your food on one wall and then step-like seating that resembled pretty, Spanish-detailed bleachers. We sat in the top corner, had some canas, or tiny beers that you drink with tapas, and began to eat. We had about five or six different things, which is traditional when eating tapas. I can't remember them all, but there were little circles of bread with delicious cheese, jamon iberica, which I had in Madrid the last time, a mayonaisse-y egg and potato salad thing, and some others. They were all good and the rule was that everyone had to try everything.
After that we began our hunt for a legendary pizza place that Colin's sister had recommended. We walked for kind of a while, stopping to decide how much we wanted this pizza versus how far we were willing to walk, keeping in mind that we were all still pretty tired and had to be up the next morning at 8. The nice thing about Europe, or at least most of the cities I've visited thus far, is that they post their menus outside the front door so you know what you are getting into. After basically giving up hope that we would ever find the place, and beginning to hear our stomachs grumble, we finally found it! We had to wait about 40 minutes before getting a table, since there were so many of us, so we wandered over to Pizza Hut to get some beers. (Not too high class, but who cares?)
We sat at a small table near the restaurant and cheers-ed Spain, while the temperature began to drop. By the time we got a table we were starving and pretty cold, but we ate outside anyway. Good thing I had forsaken a jacket to look cute...what a stupid idea. We ordered salads to start, which were absolutely delicious -- stocked with lots of different lettuces, sweet corn, some sort of fabulous white cheese, etc. Then we got wine and pizzas for dinner. My pizza had bacon on it, which turned out to be more like ham, shocking, since ham runs rampant in that country...but it was still good. Unfortunately Jenny's Hawaiaan pizza order was lost in translation and was about 20 minutes late. Of course we still had to pay for it, but at this point it was probably at least midnight, so we were pissed. We all ordered desserts, of which mine was the best, some cheese tart with fruit (their version of cheesecake) obviously, and then decided not to go out, but to go to bed instead.
Jenny, Suzy, Meg and Colin went to go meet some friends at a club, but the rest of us walked home, after not being able to find a cab big enough to take us all, and went right to sleep. However, it was not like we were turning in early, because it was about 2am already...people eat late in Spain!
Side note: There was a gay bar located on the street perpendicular to where we were eating, and they must have been hosting an "Angels and Devils" themed party, because all throughout our meal, gay guys dressed as either angels or devils would waltz by, eliciting cat calls and cheers from our table. They were decked out too, many of them wearing heels higher than I ever would! Maybe they passed on the news that we enjoyed their costumes to others, because soon angels and devils were everywhere! It was really great. (Although when they tried to speak to me I had no idea what they were saying so I just smiled and cheered.)
I was awoken the next morning around 8:30 by Meg coming in and announcing that there were omlettes, bacon, eggs and bagels for breakfast! After getting out of my tiny, somewhat hard bottom bunk and scurrying into the main hall, I was disappointed to see that what she really meant was that there was plenty of machine-made coffee and some toast. Grrrr. I guess it got us all up though...
We all got dressed in our Carnivale finery, the girls in dresses or crazily-patterned tops, the boys more normal, trying to hurry, since we hadn't been able to pre-buy train tickets to Cadiz, and left the hostel around 9:15 or 9:30. We took a bus to the train station, recieving weird looks from elderly men, and then got in the mile long line to buy tickets with about five minutes left before the train left. Standard.
Then, all at once, I see a mass of people in line turn around and just start to run. So, naturally, we all ran too. I guess the guy behind the counter had been so fed up with all the loonies trying to get to Cadiz that he told them all to just get on the train and buy the tickets once we boarded. So, we all were assigned budddies (care of me and Meg, former camp counselors) and threw some elbows to get to the front of the line to get on the train. We succeeded too, because when the train pulled in, Me, Andy, Cristin, Tara, and Jenny all got seats together, as did Colin, Suzy and Molly. Meg had to sit on laps, but it worked. Our section took naps and played the celebrity game, which made time absolutely fly. (You say a celebrity and the next person has to say one whose first name starts with the first letter of the prior one's last name. Exameple, I say Britney Spears (who always starts off our game), and you say Samuel L. Jackson. Then it goes to J. You can't repeat and if a person has the same letter start their first and last names, you have to go again (Sylvester Stallone...). It was a great time. We bought round trip tickets on the train also, so we were all set for the way back.
The train probably took close to an hour and a half or a bit more, but it was a nice day and warm weather and we were all so excited, so it was fine.
After that we began our hunt for a legendary pizza place that Colin's sister had recommended. We walked for kind of a while, stopping to decide how much we wanted this pizza versus how far we were willing to walk, keeping in mind that we were all still pretty tired and had to be up the next morning at 8. The nice thing about Europe, or at least most of the cities I've visited thus far, is that they post their menus outside the front door so you know what you are getting into. After basically giving up hope that we would ever find the place, and beginning to hear our stomachs grumble, we finally found it! We had to wait about 40 minutes before getting a table, since there were so many of us, so we wandered over to Pizza Hut to get some beers. (Not too high class, but who cares?)
We sat at a small table near the restaurant and cheers-ed Spain, while the temperature began to drop. By the time we got a table we were starving and pretty cold, but we ate outside anyway. Good thing I had forsaken a jacket to look cute...what a stupid idea. We ordered salads to start, which were absolutely delicious -- stocked with lots of different lettuces, sweet corn, some sort of fabulous white cheese, etc. Then we got wine and pizzas for dinner. My pizza had bacon on it, which turned out to be more like ham, shocking, since ham runs rampant in that country...but it was still good. Unfortunately Jenny's Hawaiaan pizza order was lost in translation and was about 20 minutes late. Of course we still had to pay for it, but at this point it was probably at least midnight, so we were pissed. We all ordered desserts, of which mine was the best, some cheese tart with fruit (their version of cheesecake) obviously, and then decided not to go out, but to go to bed instead.
Jenny, Suzy, Meg and Colin went to go meet some friends at a club, but the rest of us walked home, after not being able to find a cab big enough to take us all, and went right to sleep. However, it was not like we were turning in early, because it was about 2am already...people eat late in Spain!
Side note: There was a gay bar located on the street perpendicular to where we were eating, and they must have been hosting an "Angels and Devils" themed party, because all throughout our meal, gay guys dressed as either angels or devils would waltz by, eliciting cat calls and cheers from our table. They were decked out too, many of them wearing heels higher than I ever would! Maybe they passed on the news that we enjoyed their costumes to others, because soon angels and devils were everywhere! It was really great. (Although when they tried to speak to me I had no idea what they were saying so I just smiled and cheered.)
I was awoken the next morning around 8:30 by Meg coming in and announcing that there were omlettes, bacon, eggs and bagels for breakfast! After getting out of my tiny, somewhat hard bottom bunk and scurrying into the main hall, I was disappointed to see that what she really meant was that there was plenty of machine-made coffee and some toast. Grrrr. I guess it got us all up though...
We all got dressed in our Carnivale finery, the girls in dresses or crazily-patterned tops, the boys more normal, trying to hurry, since we hadn't been able to pre-buy train tickets to Cadiz, and left the hostel around 9:15 or 9:30. We took a bus to the train station, recieving weird looks from elderly men, and then got in the mile long line to buy tickets with about five minutes left before the train left. Standard.
Then, all at once, I see a mass of people in line turn around and just start to run. So, naturally, we all ran too. I guess the guy behind the counter had been so fed up with all the loonies trying to get to Cadiz that he told them all to just get on the train and buy the tickets once we boarded. So, we all were assigned budddies (care of me and Meg, former camp counselors) and threw some elbows to get to the front of the line to get on the train. We succeeded too, because when the train pulled in, Me, Andy, Cristin, Tara, and Jenny all got seats together, as did Colin, Suzy and Molly. Meg had to sit on laps, but it worked. Our section took naps and played the celebrity game, which made time absolutely fly. (You say a celebrity and the next person has to say one whose first name starts with the first letter of the prior one's last name. Exameple, I say Britney Spears (who always starts off our game), and you say Samuel L. Jackson. Then it goes to J. You can't repeat and if a person has the same letter start their first and last names, you have to go again (Sylvester Stallone...). It was a great time. We bought round trip tickets on the train also, so we were all set for the way back.
The train probably took close to an hour and a half or a bit more, but it was a nice day and warm weather and we were all so excited, so it was fine.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Galway to Dublin to Madrid to Sevilla: Carnivale Part One
Even though it seems like forever ago that we returned from Spain, I haven’t documented it yet, so here goes.
Last Thursday morning, the 7th, Meaghan, Tara, Andrew, Cristin, and I got up around 8am and ran around doing last minute things (shocker that we weren’t ready to go…). We grabbed a cab, forsaking The Bagel Factory for train station bagels to save time -- see, we’re learning. We bought our student priced tickets to Dublin, saving mad cash, and after boarding the train, recognized a friend of ours from our apartment complex who was on her way to Belfast via Dublin. Excellent. Side note: She told us Belfast is amazing, and she goes there all the time to stay with family friends, so now we have plans to go soon! Yay!
Anyway, after two hours, many hands of rummy and some Mars bars, we finally arrived in Dublin. We jumped a cheap and convenient bus to the airport, which took twenty minutes, and then breezed through check-in and went to our gate. Molly met us at the airport, since she had been in Dubs two days longer than us visiting a BC friend who is studying there. Our RyanAir flight was on time, thank god, and we snuck on the back entrance to the plane so we could all sit together. Our flight went well and we touched down in Madrid around 5 or 6 pm their time.
I think we were all expecting to be immediately inundated by warm weather, but it was actually a bit nippy. Furthermore, once we actually got into the Madrid airport, we realized we had no plan. That’s right. We had planned to fly into Madrid and stay up all night, choosing to save money over booking a night in a hostel, since we had to be back at the airport at 6am, but we hadn’t actually gotten around to deciding what that thing was that was going to keep us occupied/awake. Since I had been to Madrid before and was familiar with the airport and such, I led our group to the metro and bought tickets. We got on going in the only direction possible, and got off at a stop near the centre of the city that I recognized. At this point, we still didn’t really have any plans, but were starving. However, unfortunately for us it was only about 7pm, much too early for most places to be serving dinner. So, we found a map, located where we were, contacted the States to secure my BC roommate Alison’s Spanish phone number, and called her. This is Alison’s second semester in Madrid, and we had plans to meet up.
After making tenuous plans to go out, we finally found a place that would serve us at 7:45, and sat on some benches outside it staring hungrily in the windows until they let us in. We were the only people in the restaurant at first, so we took full liberty to use their bathroom ten different times (toothpaste, anyone?), use their floor for all of our backpacks and bags, etc. We were so touristy looking it was ridiculous. We ordered “coronitas” to start off our meal, as well as steaming loaves of delicious bread. I don’t remember what I ate, but I do remember that it was delicious. So was the cheesecake.
Side story: I was nominated as the person who was the best as getting the lime all the way to the bottom of the Corona by sticking my thumb in the opening and flipping the bottle upside down. As I was doing this for the sixth or seventh time with someone’s beer, and clearly acting over-confidently, I messed up, causing beer to squirt all over two entering patrons. The youngish women shrieked and said something in Spanish, and all I could do was just laugh and say “lo siento” (sorry) a lot, but it was really funny slash embarrassing. Andrew told me later that he had seen them walking in and didn’t warn me, thinking it was funny…excellent. Haha.
After dinner, using our Irish pub radar, we found an Irish pub and had a pint. Then, feeling stupid for not expanding our cultural horizons, we made plans to meet with Alison and spend a night on the town!
Fast-forwarding through the minute details, Meg and I cabbed with all the bags to Al’s apartment to drop them off, then met the rest of the kiddos at a random McDonald’s where they had, more randomly, bumped into about six or seven BC kids who are studying in Madrid. It was hilarious -- when we walked up to the window, we were not expecting to see them: Bobby and Johnny Johnson, Alexia Schwartz and her friend from home, Katherine Dolan, this kid John, a girl named Jackie from my floor freshmen year etc. I was so excited to see everyone, but me, Al and Meg needed a quick refreshment, so we hit a bar where drinks were free for “ladies.” Holler. After one drink and some “Ella, Ella, Ella, Eh, Eh,” we met back up with the BC crew outside a club called Joy. Or Fever. I’m not sure. I think it was called both of those names actually.
We were in a pulsing/pushing mass of about 100 kids who were all trying to get in before one am for about ten minutes, until Alison pushed to the front and got us in, no problem. Sweet. The only problem came when I went to the bar to order some drinks for our group and was told too late that each mixed drink was eleven euro. I nearly died. Sooo we all had one drink, wishing we had saved our money, and then danced our butts off for about four hours. The place was huge, it was packed, and it had cross-dressing professional dancers. They were extremely pretty and they could have fooled me. (Pictures soon, I swear.) The music was great, everyone was having a good time…exactly what we needed to keep us awake!
Once the bar was closing around 4:40am, we hit the road, went back to Al’s to grab our stuff, bid everyone goodbye and hopped on the metro right when it opened at 6. It was then off to the airport on no hours of sleep to catch our 8am flight to Sevilla. After check-in, etc. we all passed out at the gate for a bit before getting on our once again on-time flight. We landed one hour later in Sevilla, dazed and confused, dirty and exhausted.
We had instructions to board a bus that would take us to a square near our hostel – easy, right? It didn’t take too long before we were told in broken Spanish that this was the last stop. Unfortunately, it was not any name that we recognized. Boo. After wandering around for a good hour, asking fruitlessly for directions and getting crankier and crankier with each other, we found the hostel. Of course it was down a cobble-stoned street where cabs can’t drive, tucked away behind a huge building, on as street with no sign, etc. But we had found it! And they had safes, towels, running water, friendly staff, free Internet, free international phone calls and free breakfast! We were in heaven…until we were told that we couldn’t check in until 2pm.
I don’t know if you follow, but this meant that we couldn’t sleep until 2pm. Damn it. I nearly cried. But, manning up, we dropped our stuff and went to meet three more BC kids for lunch. Jenny is Meg’s roommate from school – she’s studying in Sevilla and is crazy. She’s straight-forward and funny and great. Colin is studying in Madrid but was visiting for the weekend. He was really relaxed and nice. Suzy is living with Meg/Jenny next year and is studying in Rome currently, but was also up for Carnivale. So, we wandered down the WARM, SUNNY streets of Sevilla, trying to shake off our fatigue and enjoy the sights. There were big open squares where horse drawn carriages lined up for service, a huge cathedral that we investigated the next day, open air market type things, gorgeous architecture, flamenco dancers and small quartets playing on the streets, etc. It had the small town feel of Galway, but its actually much bigger. It also reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of Greece, since its near the water and all the buildings are smooth and pure white.
We passed up lots of weird looking food places before finally settling on one. I ordered some sort of shrimp salad and tortilla Espanola, which are both typically Spanish foods. They were both quite good. Then we got banana split ice cream, which was even better. We wandered around until 2, at which point we hit the hostel hard. After checking in, it was into glorious bed, where we slept until 7ish. Then we all took freezing showers, got ready and headed to dinner.
Last Thursday morning, the 7th, Meaghan, Tara, Andrew, Cristin, and I got up around 8am and ran around doing last minute things (shocker that we weren’t ready to go…). We grabbed a cab, forsaking The Bagel Factory for train station bagels to save time -- see, we’re learning. We bought our student priced tickets to Dublin, saving mad cash, and after boarding the train, recognized a friend of ours from our apartment complex who was on her way to Belfast via Dublin. Excellent. Side note: She told us Belfast is amazing, and she goes there all the time to stay with family friends, so now we have plans to go soon! Yay!
Anyway, after two hours, many hands of rummy and some Mars bars, we finally arrived in Dublin. We jumped a cheap and convenient bus to the airport, which took twenty minutes, and then breezed through check-in and went to our gate. Molly met us at the airport, since she had been in Dubs two days longer than us visiting a BC friend who is studying there. Our RyanAir flight was on time, thank god, and we snuck on the back entrance to the plane so we could all sit together. Our flight went well and we touched down in Madrid around 5 or 6 pm their time.
I think we were all expecting to be immediately inundated by warm weather, but it was actually a bit nippy. Furthermore, once we actually got into the Madrid airport, we realized we had no plan. That’s right. We had planned to fly into Madrid and stay up all night, choosing to save money over booking a night in a hostel, since we had to be back at the airport at 6am, but we hadn’t actually gotten around to deciding what that thing was that was going to keep us occupied/awake. Since I had been to Madrid before and was familiar with the airport and such, I led our group to the metro and bought tickets. We got on going in the only direction possible, and got off at a stop near the centre of the city that I recognized. At this point, we still didn’t really have any plans, but were starving. However, unfortunately for us it was only about 7pm, much too early for most places to be serving dinner. So, we found a map, located where we were, contacted the States to secure my BC roommate Alison’s Spanish phone number, and called her. This is Alison’s second semester in Madrid, and we had plans to meet up.
After making tenuous plans to go out, we finally found a place that would serve us at 7:45, and sat on some benches outside it staring hungrily in the windows until they let us in. We were the only people in the restaurant at first, so we took full liberty to use their bathroom ten different times (toothpaste, anyone?), use their floor for all of our backpacks and bags, etc. We were so touristy looking it was ridiculous. We ordered “coronitas” to start off our meal, as well as steaming loaves of delicious bread. I don’t remember what I ate, but I do remember that it was delicious. So was the cheesecake.
Side story: I was nominated as the person who was the best as getting the lime all the way to the bottom of the Corona by sticking my thumb in the opening and flipping the bottle upside down. As I was doing this for the sixth or seventh time with someone’s beer, and clearly acting over-confidently, I messed up, causing beer to squirt all over two entering patrons. The youngish women shrieked and said something in Spanish, and all I could do was just laugh and say “lo siento” (sorry) a lot, but it was really funny slash embarrassing. Andrew told me later that he had seen them walking in and didn’t warn me, thinking it was funny…excellent. Haha.
After dinner, using our Irish pub radar, we found an Irish pub and had a pint. Then, feeling stupid for not expanding our cultural horizons, we made plans to meet with Alison and spend a night on the town!
Fast-forwarding through the minute details, Meg and I cabbed with all the bags to Al’s apartment to drop them off, then met the rest of the kiddos at a random McDonald’s where they had, more randomly, bumped into about six or seven BC kids who are studying in Madrid. It was hilarious -- when we walked up to the window, we were not expecting to see them: Bobby and Johnny Johnson, Alexia Schwartz and her friend from home, Katherine Dolan, this kid John, a girl named Jackie from my floor freshmen year etc. I was so excited to see everyone, but me, Al and Meg needed a quick refreshment, so we hit a bar where drinks were free for “ladies.” Holler. After one drink and some “Ella, Ella, Ella, Eh, Eh,” we met back up with the BC crew outside a club called Joy. Or Fever. I’m not sure. I think it was called both of those names actually.
We were in a pulsing/pushing mass of about 100 kids who were all trying to get in before one am for about ten minutes, until Alison pushed to the front and got us in, no problem. Sweet. The only problem came when I went to the bar to order some drinks for our group and was told too late that each mixed drink was eleven euro. I nearly died. Sooo we all had one drink, wishing we had saved our money, and then danced our butts off for about four hours. The place was huge, it was packed, and it had cross-dressing professional dancers. They were extremely pretty and they could have fooled me. (Pictures soon, I swear.) The music was great, everyone was having a good time…exactly what we needed to keep us awake!
Once the bar was closing around 4:40am, we hit the road, went back to Al’s to grab our stuff, bid everyone goodbye and hopped on the metro right when it opened at 6. It was then off to the airport on no hours of sleep to catch our 8am flight to Sevilla. After check-in, etc. we all passed out at the gate for a bit before getting on our once again on-time flight. We landed one hour later in Sevilla, dazed and confused, dirty and exhausted.
We had instructions to board a bus that would take us to a square near our hostel – easy, right? It didn’t take too long before we were told in broken Spanish that this was the last stop. Unfortunately, it was not any name that we recognized. Boo. After wandering around for a good hour, asking fruitlessly for directions and getting crankier and crankier with each other, we found the hostel. Of course it was down a cobble-stoned street where cabs can’t drive, tucked away behind a huge building, on as street with no sign, etc. But we had found it! And they had safes, towels, running water, friendly staff, free Internet, free international phone calls and free breakfast! We were in heaven…until we were told that we couldn’t check in until 2pm.
I don’t know if you follow, but this meant that we couldn’t sleep until 2pm. Damn it. I nearly cried. But, manning up, we dropped our stuff and went to meet three more BC kids for lunch. Jenny is Meg’s roommate from school – she’s studying in Sevilla and is crazy. She’s straight-forward and funny and great. Colin is studying in Madrid but was visiting for the weekend. He was really relaxed and nice. Suzy is living with Meg/Jenny next year and is studying in Rome currently, but was also up for Carnivale. So, we wandered down the WARM, SUNNY streets of Sevilla, trying to shake off our fatigue and enjoy the sights. There were big open squares where horse drawn carriages lined up for service, a huge cathedral that we investigated the next day, open air market type things, gorgeous architecture, flamenco dancers and small quartets playing on the streets, etc. It had the small town feel of Galway, but its actually much bigger. It also reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of Greece, since its near the water and all the buildings are smooth and pure white.
We passed up lots of weird looking food places before finally settling on one. I ordered some sort of shrimp salad and tortilla Espanola, which are both typically Spanish foods. They were both quite good. Then we got banana split ice cream, which was even better. We wandered around until 2, at which point we hit the hostel hard. After checking in, it was into glorious bed, where we slept until 7ish. Then we all took freezing showers, got ready and headed to dinner.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Finishing up Scotland
Sooo, I ended with our final arrival at Dan's dorm in Scotland. Thank god.
Just to wrap up, we spent that night sitting around Dan's room laughing and making fun of each other, having some drinks and just catching up. It was fabulous to see people from home, and everyone got along really well so I was happy.
The next morning we got up at ten and Tara, Molly and I found our way into town (the boys were still sleeping). We got some decent lunch at a little cafe and then wandered around the rest of the town. St. Andrew's the town is tiny - think the town where Dartmouth is located. It has a few main roads with shops, etc., but that is about it. However, it's lovely. There is really no other word to describe it. Everyone drives slowly around the roundabouts, people are out walking their dogs past the intensely detailed architecture, and all the shops could be deemed "quaint." They have a movie theater, a Subway, and a few Starbucks, but the rest of the places are provately owned. There are a bunch of kilt-making shops, and we saw a butcher shop with huge racks of meat hanging and haggis in the window. Gross. I think my favorite store was the OxFam secondhand store where I bought 3 books for 2 pounds each. Can't beat that!
In the afternoon we played cards, read and drank coffee, enjoying the Scottish accents around us and waiting for the boys. When they finally came to town, we ate lunch and then went back to campus for a nap, while the boys went to see a movie. We ended the night at a delicious Italian restaurant where we spent probably three hours and a couple hundred dollars total. It was relaxing, delicious and just what we needed (alcohol-free). That night we hit the sack early, after watching music videos and commenting on the strangeness of being essentially alone in a massive dorm (all the other students were still home on break..)
Sunday morning we were up, showered and packed by ten, in time to say goodbye to the boys and head into town for some food. Forsaking regional cuisine, since most providers weren't open yet, we guiltily hit Subway and Starbucks before grabbing a taxi.
The day was then spent travelling back to the airport by means of four trains. It was quite uneventful, except for having all of five minutes to transfer from our third train to our fourth train...ohhh, and run to a different train station in the process. Yes. That's right. We got into the Queen Street station at 4:31 and had to run, full tilt, about four or five windy blocks through the centre of Glasgow to catch our last train at Central Station, which was departing at 4:36. We hustled. We made it. We also elicited screams of "RUN, FOREST, RUN!" from locals. We collasped onto the floor of the fourth train, out of breath and sweating, but entirely victorious. It was great.
The flight was fine, and then we grabbed another airport dinner before taking the Shannon bus home to Galway. That night we ate penna vodka care of Tara and watched all of five minutes of the SuperBowl pre-show before heading to bed.
All in all it was a great trip. We got to see a lot of Scotland on the trains, I introduced friends from home and friends from school, we ate good food, experienced our first weekend away, and did it all without complaining. Hah, yeah right -- all we did was complain. But we made it, and I was proud of us.
We also became professional "would-you-rather" players. Example: (while sitting in the train station waiting room in Glasgow, waiting for our last train) would you rather lick the floor of this waiting room or wander over and innocently sit on that strange man's lap? Yeah...think about it.
I am dying to update about Spain, since it was the experience of a lifetime and I fell in love with Sevilla, but I am freezing cold in my room and need a nap. I promise to write soon.
Just to wrap up, we spent that night sitting around Dan's room laughing and making fun of each other, having some drinks and just catching up. It was fabulous to see people from home, and everyone got along really well so I was happy.
The next morning we got up at ten and Tara, Molly and I found our way into town (the boys were still sleeping). We got some decent lunch at a little cafe and then wandered around the rest of the town. St. Andrew's the town is tiny - think the town where Dartmouth is located. It has a few main roads with shops, etc., but that is about it. However, it's lovely. There is really no other word to describe it. Everyone drives slowly around the roundabouts, people are out walking their dogs past the intensely detailed architecture, and all the shops could be deemed "quaint." They have a movie theater, a Subway, and a few Starbucks, but the rest of the places are provately owned. There are a bunch of kilt-making shops, and we saw a butcher shop with huge racks of meat hanging and haggis in the window. Gross. I think my favorite store was the OxFam secondhand store where I bought 3 books for 2 pounds each. Can't beat that!
In the afternoon we played cards, read and drank coffee, enjoying the Scottish accents around us and waiting for the boys. When they finally came to town, we ate lunch and then went back to campus for a nap, while the boys went to see a movie. We ended the night at a delicious Italian restaurant where we spent probably three hours and a couple hundred dollars total. It was relaxing, delicious and just what we needed (alcohol-free). That night we hit the sack early, after watching music videos and commenting on the strangeness of being essentially alone in a massive dorm (all the other students were still home on break..)
Sunday morning we were up, showered and packed by ten, in time to say goodbye to the boys and head into town for some food. Forsaking regional cuisine, since most providers weren't open yet, we guiltily hit Subway and Starbucks before grabbing a taxi.
The day was then spent travelling back to the airport by means of four trains. It was quite uneventful, except for having all of five minutes to transfer from our third train to our fourth train...ohhh, and run to a different train station in the process. Yes. That's right. We got into the Queen Street station at 4:31 and had to run, full tilt, about four or five windy blocks through the centre of Glasgow to catch our last train at Central Station, which was departing at 4:36. We hustled. We made it. We also elicited screams of "RUN, FOREST, RUN!" from locals. We collasped onto the floor of the fourth train, out of breath and sweating, but entirely victorious. It was great.
The flight was fine, and then we grabbed another airport dinner before taking the Shannon bus home to Galway. That night we ate penna vodka care of Tara and watched all of five minutes of the SuperBowl pre-show before heading to bed.
All in all it was a great trip. We got to see a lot of Scotland on the trains, I introduced friends from home and friends from school, we ate good food, experienced our first weekend away, and did it all without complaining. Hah, yeah right -- all we did was complain. But we made it, and I was proud of us.
We also became professional "would-you-rather" players. Example: (while sitting in the train station waiting room in Glasgow, waiting for our last train) would you rather lick the floor of this waiting room or wander over and innocently sit on that strange man's lap? Yeah...think about it.
I am dying to update about Spain, since it was the experience of a lifetime and I fell in love with Sevilla, but I am freezing cold in my room and need a nap. I promise to write soon.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Scotland Part Two
So we last left off in the bus stop at the Glasgow airport... After standing in the cold for about 35 minutes, laughing at our travels thus far, a two-tiered bus appeared, exactly as Dan had described it. We each paid five pounds and headed to the second tier. At this point it was pitch black outside, and Scotland doesn't waste money on street lights, so it was difficult to see where we were going. However, we were still excited, and our enthusiasm carried us right past any doubts about that 25 minute mark passing.
Yep...it passed. We were on that bus for about an hour and a half. Shit. We thought something was amiss, but we did continue to see the random sign here or there for the city centre, so we felt okay. Finally, after asking the bus driver what to do, he let us off at Buchanan Street in the centre of Glasgow. At this point we were starting to get nervous, since it was almost 8:15pm (beginning hour eight of travel) and we thought we were really far from St. Andrew's. We headed to Central Station, ran in and cornered some security guards, begging them for information. We were met with laughs and exchanged dubious glances. They quickly filled us in: we were idiots. We were probably not going to get to St. Andrew's that night. We were "VERY" far. Why did we even fly into Glasgow?
Great. Thanks for the confidence booster, boys. So, with tears almost overflowing, I asked them "WHAT DO WE DO?!" One of the nicer men, with an accent that we could sort of understand, instructed us that there was an 8:30 train out of Queens St. station, a 5-minute walk. We thanked them and started to speed walk. Out the door, make a right, to the end of the street, make a left, then another right, then another left. Queen's street. Excellent. Into line and bought a ticket to Edinburgh - only 19 pounds, sweet.
We even had time to grab a coffee (much-needed), before going through the turnstile and positioning ourselves at platform 3. We had chosen platform 3 since there was a 3 on our ticket, and it had been partially confirmed by a Scottish-accented attendant. We were sitting there, determined to be the first ones on the train, when we realized it was 8:29 and there was no train. Weird. As we started to freak out once again, a boy our age approached and asked if he could "join us." Since it took so long to understand exactly what he said, once we did, we invited him to sit. It was a great choice, since his next move was to pull out a fresh bottle of Jack Daniels and a 12 packs of mini-Cokes.
Now, let me interject, if this Jack and Coke had not been clearly sent from God, I would not have drinken it. However, this boy was a blatant angel, so who was I to pass up this little blessing? I couldn't. Grabbing the bottle and opening it (ensuring it had not been tampered with...), I cracked some Cokes and went to town. After about five minutes, I checked the time again, wondering where the hell our train was. I asked Tara if she would be so kind as to inquire as to the whereabouts of our train, and she obliged.
Two seconds later, as I sat there draining the last dregs of Coke, I see Tara sprinting toward me, full-tilt -- "PLATFORM SIX, PLATFORM SIX!" Oh no, she didn't. Yes, folks. We had missed our train. We had missed it, when it was about twenty feet behind us. We had missed it because we were not paying attention. The three on the ticket meant nothing. Awesome.
Still in high spirits, we laughed instead of cried, and asked a security guard what we should do. He mentioned that the next train heading that way was coming along in 30 minutes and we could use our same ticket. Excellent. We bid adieu to our friend, bought some playing cards and cemented our feet to platform 6. Aaaand, would you believe, the train pulled in at five to nine and pulled out again on time.
This was when our luck changed. We had time on our first train (about an hour) to play some great games of Rummy and make friends with a train attendant (Roger), who sold us train tickets for our connection, and also told us that he would ensure we got off at the correct stop (he literally got off the train and pointed to the stairs we had to take...haha). In Edinburgh, we had time to grab a slice of pizza and some bottles of wine before hopping our last train of the night to Leuchars. At around 11:55pm, we pulled into our last stop, only one taxi cab away from Dan and Micah's loving arms. Phew.
The cab ride only took ten minutes, and we were bursting with excitement. We were finally there!! Although St. Andrew's was dark and deserted at this point, there was a definite majesty about the place, an impressive feeling...
Yep...it passed. We were on that bus for about an hour and a half. Shit. We thought something was amiss, but we did continue to see the random sign here or there for the city centre, so we felt okay. Finally, after asking the bus driver what to do, he let us off at Buchanan Street in the centre of Glasgow. At this point we were starting to get nervous, since it was almost 8:15pm (beginning hour eight of travel) and we thought we were really far from St. Andrew's. We headed to Central Station, ran in and cornered some security guards, begging them for information. We were met with laughs and exchanged dubious glances. They quickly filled us in: we were idiots. We were probably not going to get to St. Andrew's that night. We were "VERY" far. Why did we even fly into Glasgow?
Great. Thanks for the confidence booster, boys. So, with tears almost overflowing, I asked them "WHAT DO WE DO?!" One of the nicer men, with an accent that we could sort of understand, instructed us that there was an 8:30 train out of Queens St. station, a 5-minute walk. We thanked them and started to speed walk. Out the door, make a right, to the end of the street, make a left, then another right, then another left. Queen's street. Excellent. Into line and bought a ticket to Edinburgh - only 19 pounds, sweet.
We even had time to grab a coffee (much-needed), before going through the turnstile and positioning ourselves at platform 3. We had chosen platform 3 since there was a 3 on our ticket, and it had been partially confirmed by a Scottish-accented attendant. We were sitting there, determined to be the first ones on the train, when we realized it was 8:29 and there was no train. Weird. As we started to freak out once again, a boy our age approached and asked if he could "join us." Since it took so long to understand exactly what he said, once we did, we invited him to sit. It was a great choice, since his next move was to pull out a fresh bottle of Jack Daniels and a 12 packs of mini-Cokes.
Now, let me interject, if this Jack and Coke had not been clearly sent from God, I would not have drinken it. However, this boy was a blatant angel, so who was I to pass up this little blessing? I couldn't. Grabbing the bottle and opening it (ensuring it had not been tampered with...), I cracked some Cokes and went to town. After about five minutes, I checked the time again, wondering where the hell our train was. I asked Tara if she would be so kind as to inquire as to the whereabouts of our train, and she obliged.
Two seconds later, as I sat there draining the last dregs of Coke, I see Tara sprinting toward me, full-tilt -- "PLATFORM SIX, PLATFORM SIX!" Oh no, she didn't. Yes, folks. We had missed our train. We had missed it, when it was about twenty feet behind us. We had missed it because we were not paying attention. The three on the ticket meant nothing. Awesome.
Still in high spirits, we laughed instead of cried, and asked a security guard what we should do. He mentioned that the next train heading that way was coming along in 30 minutes and we could use our same ticket. Excellent. We bid adieu to our friend, bought some playing cards and cemented our feet to platform 6. Aaaand, would you believe, the train pulled in at five to nine and pulled out again on time.
This was when our luck changed. We had time on our first train (about an hour) to play some great games of Rummy and make friends with a train attendant (Roger), who sold us train tickets for our connection, and also told us that he would ensure we got off at the correct stop (he literally got off the train and pointed to the stairs we had to take...haha). In Edinburgh, we had time to grab a slice of pizza and some bottles of wine before hopping our last train of the night to Leuchars. At around 11:55pm, we pulled into our last stop, only one taxi cab away from Dan and Micah's loving arms. Phew.
The cab ride only took ten minutes, and we were bursting with excitement. We were finally there!! Although St. Andrew's was dark and deserted at this point, there was a definite majesty about the place, an impressive feeling...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Scotland! Part One
This weekend was two things: hilarious and a learning experience.
Tara, Molly and I made plans at some point late last week to fly from Shannon airport to Glasgow Prestwick, where we would then take the train to St. Andrew's where two of my friends from home (Dan and Micah) are currently studying. We needed a break from the same old thing here, plus most of our friends were also travelling, so the weekend would be quiet at home.
Thursday night ended up being pretty wild, with a flip cup tournament at a local bar, care of the International Student's Society, so we didn't get in until pretty late. Thus, Friday morning (departure day) dawned rather late, and we hadn't even checked the bus schedules to Shannon. Soooo, I got up at 10:45 on Friday, showered, packed, ate, met Molly and Tara and hustled to campus. We had about 15 minutes to print out our tickets and change our euros into pounds before jumping a cab to the bus station for a 12:30pm bus to Shannon. Yep. The only bus that would get us to the airport on time was at 12:30...oops.
Error number one: Molly headed to the first floor of the library to print her ticket, while Tara and I went to the ground floor. After going through about 38 steps online to check in with Ryan Air and get our boarding passes, we realized that only citizens of the EU were allowed this priviledge. So, irritated by the waste of time, we abandoned our efforts and went to find Molly. She found us first, boarding pass in hand. How, you may ask? Well, she explained, when she couldn't find United States on the list of countries, she just clicked United Kingdom. ARE YOU KIDDING?! YOU DON'T HAVE A UK PASSPORT!, we reminded her, but we had literally no time to worry about this error, and ran to the corner to catch a cab.
It was rush hour, so the normally five minute ride to the bus station took ten minutes. We sat in heated silence, wondering if we were going to miss the bus, which would cause us to miss our flight...
Thankfully, we made it to the station with five minutes to spare. We bought tickets and got three of the last seats on the almost-full bus. Although we weren't sitting together, we were happy. We had completed step one of our mission. Thank God we didn't know then what lay ahead, or we may have just turned around.
After two hours on the bus (almost 40 minutes extra) due to some traffic and construction, we got to the nearly empty Shannon airport with an hour and a half before our flight left. Perfect. We surveyed the scene and decided we had enough time to grab lunch. After delicious burgers and drinks, we hustled through security and got on our flight, no problem.
(Thankfully, the Ryan Air people found humor in Molly's passport "error" and let her through with just a shake of their heads...)
The flight was uneventful besides our conversation about the chances of the yellow flotation devices actually saving our lives if we crashed into water - the landing was incredibly fast and bumpy, and we landed in Scotland to freezing temps and flurries of snow at around 6pm.
We were all smiles and cheers, and I called Dan to see what to do next. He instructed us to find the buses on the first floor and get on the bus that would take us to the "city centre" in 25 minutes. We wandered along a walkway with a bunch of other people, down some stairs that looked like they led to a dungeon and outside to where the trains were...and stopped. For all intents and purposes it looked like the train platform simply dropped off, despite signs for the bus stops. After wandering around looking like touristy idiots (the theme of the day...) we discovered a staircase leading underneath the platform where we waited for our approaching two-tier bus.
After asking a random bus driver which bus to get on, he studied the schedule for us (since we can't read..?) and told us we had just missed the bus. The next one would be coming along in 30 minutes. So, we bundled up in all our warm clothes and huddled together in a small bus stop cubicle until the bus arrived.
Tara, Molly and I made plans at some point late last week to fly from Shannon airport to Glasgow Prestwick, where we would then take the train to St. Andrew's where two of my friends from home (Dan and Micah) are currently studying. We needed a break from the same old thing here, plus most of our friends were also travelling, so the weekend would be quiet at home.
Thursday night ended up being pretty wild, with a flip cup tournament at a local bar, care of the International Student's Society, so we didn't get in until pretty late. Thus, Friday morning (departure day) dawned rather late, and we hadn't even checked the bus schedules to Shannon. Soooo, I got up at 10:45 on Friday, showered, packed, ate, met Molly and Tara and hustled to campus. We had about 15 minutes to print out our tickets and change our euros into pounds before jumping a cab to the bus station for a 12:30pm bus to Shannon. Yep. The only bus that would get us to the airport on time was at 12:30...oops.
Error number one: Molly headed to the first floor of the library to print her ticket, while Tara and I went to the ground floor. After going through about 38 steps online to check in with Ryan Air and get our boarding passes, we realized that only citizens of the EU were allowed this priviledge. So, irritated by the waste of time, we abandoned our efforts and went to find Molly. She found us first, boarding pass in hand. How, you may ask? Well, she explained, when she couldn't find United States on the list of countries, she just clicked United Kingdom. ARE YOU KIDDING?! YOU DON'T HAVE A UK PASSPORT!, we reminded her, but we had literally no time to worry about this error, and ran to the corner to catch a cab.
It was rush hour, so the normally five minute ride to the bus station took ten minutes. We sat in heated silence, wondering if we were going to miss the bus, which would cause us to miss our flight...
Thankfully, we made it to the station with five minutes to spare. We bought tickets and got three of the last seats on the almost-full bus. Although we weren't sitting together, we were happy. We had completed step one of our mission. Thank God we didn't know then what lay ahead, or we may have just turned around.
After two hours on the bus (almost 40 minutes extra) due to some traffic and construction, we got to the nearly empty Shannon airport with an hour and a half before our flight left. Perfect. We surveyed the scene and decided we had enough time to grab lunch. After delicious burgers and drinks, we hustled through security and got on our flight, no problem.
(Thankfully, the Ryan Air people found humor in Molly's passport "error" and let her through with just a shake of their heads...)
The flight was uneventful besides our conversation about the chances of the yellow flotation devices actually saving our lives if we crashed into water - the landing was incredibly fast and bumpy, and we landed in Scotland to freezing temps and flurries of snow at around 6pm.
We were all smiles and cheers, and I called Dan to see what to do next. He instructed us to find the buses on the first floor and get on the bus that would take us to the "city centre" in 25 minutes. We wandered along a walkway with a bunch of other people, down some stairs that looked like they led to a dungeon and outside to where the trains were...and stopped. For all intents and purposes it looked like the train platform simply dropped off, despite signs for the bus stops. After wandering around looking like touristy idiots (the theme of the day...) we discovered a staircase leading underneath the platform where we waited for our approaching two-tier bus.
After asking a random bus driver which bus to get on, he studied the schedule for us (since we can't read..?) and told us we had just missed the bus. The next one would be coming along in 30 minutes. So, we bundled up in all our warm clothes and huddled together in a small bus stop cubicle until the bus arrived.
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