An Irish St. Patrick's Day

So I went to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day Weekend. It was crazy, let me tell you. But before I talk about that trip, I need to tell you about Oxford! Our group took a bus into the town and first we took a walking tour around town and saw the different colleges and learned about how the University works. It is split up into many separate colleges that all make up the uni. Students are enrolled and live in their own college and have a common room and play in sports matches against the other colleges just like at Hogwarts. (Just a quick overview)

Then it was time for lunch!

We went to this pub which is famous because JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis would meet here for drinks and discuss literature!

The my sorority sister, Lauren, who attends grad school at Oxford came to see me! She showed my friend, Rachel, and I her college and the local market and some other neat Oxford sights. This picture was taken in front of the library!

Then we went on a tour of Christ Church College which is probably the most famous one because it is the oldest and most prestigious.

This is the entrance to the great hall where the scenes were shot in the first Harry Potter movie! All the first years queued here before getting sorted.

This is the main courtyard, very pretty!

Oxford was just a day trip, so we weren't there long. But it was great!

Now for IRELAND

We took a very long bus and ferry ride overnight into Dublin then immediately got on a tour bus and headed to Southern Ireland. Our first stop was the Rock of Cashel.

This was a very old castle that was built around 1100. Ireland was not under the rule of one king at that time, so the King of the county known as Munster lived here. It was very beautiful and almost haunting as it softly rained and a mist covered the countryside.

Then we got back on the bus and headed more south towards Cork. And our next stop was the famous Blarney Castle!

at Blarney Castle!

Me kissing the Blarney Stone! Rumor has it, if someone is brave enough to climb the castle and dangle outside to kiss the stone, he or she will be blessed with the Gift of Gab or ability to speak eloquently. I've not really noticed a difference so that means it is just a legend, or I already speak with grandeur and elegance! ;)

We also walked around the grounds and the gardens were lovely. Ireland is really very green and deserves its nickname of the Emerald Isle.

Then we went on to Cork and walked around for a while. And I found a shamrock shake!!

After this very long day we got back to Dublin and crashed in our hotel.

DAY 2- DUBLIN and ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

Dublin was crazy all day! People were running around in leprechaun outfits and Irish flags and drinking in the streets and altogether causing chaos. There was this big parade in the streets that lasted 3 hours and it was bizarre, not the outpouring of Irish culture like I thought it would be. After the parade we spent most of the day at the Guinness Factory!

Outside St. James' Gate!

We learned to pour the perfect pint. I was very successful.

All 3 of us were!

We also got our caricature done, listened to some Irish music and met quite a few friends along the way.

Then it was nighttime in Dublin! So we headed to the most famous spot- Temple Bar!

Yay for Temple Bar on St. Patrick's Day! It was such an experience.

The next day we took it down a couple notches and did some sightseeing. We first went to Trinity College and saw the Old Library and the Book of Kells.

Its the oldest bible in existence. A very big deal.

Me in front of the Ha' Penny Bridge. This is what is on most postcards of Dublin.

Outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In the gardens of Dublin Castle.

After a day of sightseeing we went back to our hotel and onto Dublin Port to catch the ferry home! It was a wonderful weekend and certainly gets a big check on the Bucket List! I love everything about Ireland, but too bad I'm not Irish. But then again, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

Exploring England

I know I have been very delinquent in my posting! But to make up for it I have 2 big trips to talk about!

York & Northern England and Windsor Castle! Plus a lot of other stuff I did.

So it was my birthday on the 22nd! It was my "angel birthday" 22 on 2/22! I had a very Leigh Moring bday and went to the oldest museum in the world, The British Museum, this really cool bookstore called Waterstone's, and to the very 1st Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. On top of all that, it was Reading Week, aka no class all week. Who knows why, but I wasn't complaining. So yes The British Museum was pretty cool just because of the importance of all the artifacts inside like the ROSETTA STONE for instance. But I found the Medieval England room more interesting, personally. The museum was neat, but I have a lot of criticisms and suggestions on how to improve it. I won't get into that now. Waterstone's is this great bookstore a little like Barnes & Noble but with much more charm as it is in an old Victorian building that has 4 floors that you must use stairs in. I bought a book about Paddington Bear and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. You heard correctly, the UK edition!!

Hard Rock Cafe was really fun. My birthday is also National Margarita Day, so I had a raspberry margarita on the rocks and a birthday shot of jaeger. It was a very fun atmosphere with the music videos going and surrounded by guitars and clothing by some of rock's greatest like The Beatles and Madonna. We had some really good food and I had barbeque for the first time since December! It was pretty good for non-southern bbq.

So then it was the weekend and time for a trip up North to York, Ripon, and Haworth! York is a very old city founded by the Romans which was later invaded by the Vikings. The Vikings took over, plundering monasteries and pretty much wreaking havoc and doing whatever they wanted all over Northern England. When they started to take over more territory, King Albert the Great established danelaw, where he drew a line that ran diagonally along the North east of the country and let the vikings stay there if they promised not to move south of this line. So York was their main hang out. The wall that they built along the city is still there and you can walk on top of it. Our coach pulled in around noon as it is ways north from London, and we took a walking tour all over, saw York Minster (the 2nd most important cathedral in England behind Canterbury), and checked out the town. Here are some pictures of York.

That night we had dinner as a group (there were 20 of us) and went on a little pub crawl around town. We stayed in a youth hostel which actually wasn't that bad, and then had a full English breakfast that morning which was great! Then we were off to Fountains Abbey in Ripon. The abbey was founded in 1132 by cistercian monks who lived there for 400 years until Henry VIII decided that making a brand new religion was the only way he could get a son. So, he proclaimed himself head of the Anglican Church of England, and the monasteries were dissolved. The monks were kicked out with nowhere to go and people raided the abbeys for anything valuable. Kind of sad, and now they abbey lays in ruins, but it is still cool nonetheless. We walked around the grounds for a while which were really beautiful. Here are a couple pictures.

Next we went to Howarth, which is where the Brontes are from! We took a tour of their family house which was neat. Their story is quite sad, with all 6 children dying before their father who had already lost his wife early on. We also walked around the moors which were absolutely gorgeous. It was definitely the English Countryside!

After that, we hopped back on the coach and came back to London! It was a great weekend. This past week I did a number of things as well. I took a tour of the Imperial War Museum which is definitely a world class museum with all its war artifacts and really cool simulations of a WWI trench and WWII London bomb shelter. I also toured the National Theatre and went backstage and met some actors. It was good to be around a theatre again, I miss it sometimes. That day was gorgeous, so I decided to walk around the south bank and go see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey again.

The next day was not so nice weatherwise, but I worked on a project for a class by walking around Kensington and then I took a run through Regent's Park and checked out Kensington Palace and the Diana Memorial Gardens. They're fixing it up for William and Kate to come live there next year!

Yesterday I went to Windsor Castle which was great! I had been before in 2004, but it was lovely to go back. First we went to Eton College, established by Henry VIII, where a lot of the royal boys went to high school including William and Harry! This is a part of Eton.

Windsor Castle is the oldest that is continuously occupied by royals. We saw the state rooms that are used for official dinners and entertaining guests. I also saw King Henry VIII's armor! He was a large lad to say the least. The best part of Windsor though was definitely Saint George's Chapel. I was pretty much freaking out because of who is buried there. King Henry VI, Henry VIII, Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Jane Seymour, and the Queen Mother. I had to take a moment. I also found the Elizabeth I arch that I took a picture in when I was 14!

The last thing we did was take a picture with a guard, and guess what? I made him smile! I went up next to him and said that I'm sure it was annoying to have people take pictures with him all the time and that if it made him feel better he would be in my profile picture. And he smiled and nodded! To be true to my word, he is in my fbook picture! It was really fun. Then we hit a pub for a late lunch and took the train home.

Today I took a tour of Olympic Park which was really cool. I saw the main stadium, swimming facilities, and velodrome. It will be neat to watch and say that I was there!

So I had a pretty busy 2 weeks. Next up in my adventures are seeing a musical on the West End, going to Oxford and seeing my friend who is in grad school there, and then our Ireland Expedition! March is sure to be a fun month!

The Magic of Paris

Okay so since I last posted a lot of things happened! Here's what happened up until Paris:

-I went to class

-Saw the worst play I've ever seen in my life. It was this weird Japanese manga criminal thing. The only highlight was that Mrs. Figg from Harry Potter was in it.

-I went to the Science Museum and met one of the curators and talked to her for a while.

-Saw The Lion King on the West End!!!! Best show ever. Seriously.

-Went to this youth group bar party. Yes they had youth group at a bar! It was really nice to meet some English people.

-I almost met Emma Watson! She was at Selfridges advertising her new lipstick line but I was just a little late, she was only there for 15 min!

-Went to Charles Dickens' home/house museum. It was cool to see where he wrote his novels!

-Rachel's parents were in town, so they took us to a really nice Italian dinner. And we went back to the British Library and rode in a black taxi cab!

-I did some homework, went to more classes, ran around Regent's Park.

-Packed for PARIS!

PARIS: THE CITY OF LIGHT

DAY 1

So it was finally time to leave for Paris! We left Thursday evening via bus from the Victoria Coach Station to the Charles De Gaugh airport in Paris. It was a long trip and we didn't get much sleep, but for 40 pounds it was worth it. We arrived around 6 am and went to our hotel to stash our bags and we walked around to Moumonte area for a little bit. We saw the Sacre Coure which was gorgeous. It was quite a hike to the top, but the view was fantastic.

Then we went to a little cafe and had breakfast. Gabby can speak French really well so we were great on getting around. And the Parisians weren't really mean at all! We only had 2 mean people the entire trip. After breakfast, we went back to our hostel to clean up a bit and we walked around and saw Moulin Rouge and the small town around the area. It felt like a small French town and was lovely! We saw artists painting oil on canvas of various Parisian scenes. Then we decided to go to a patisserie for lunch. Let me tell you about a little thing called a croc monsieur. BEST THING EVER. It is an open face ham and cheese sandwich that has the best melted cheese on it. Delicious. This is Moulin Rouge and the Moumontra area.

Then we walked back to the Sacre Cour and walked inside and around. The view really was great. Next we checked into our hotel and got all ready to take on Paris! We walked around the Luxembourgh Gardens and saw the Senat Building. Even in winter the gardens were lovely. Right on the other side was Notre Dame! Westminster Abbey is still my favorite, but it is gorgeous. It was built in the 1200s and is so intricate in the exterior and interior. It has the most stained glass of any church in the world and is the center point for all of Paris direction-wise. It is really tall and you can see it from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Next it was time for the Louvre! We walked over this special bridge in which people put locks on and toss the keys into the river. Its called "lovers' locks" and people come from all over to put their names on a lock on this bridge.

The Louvre was on the other side. Biggest museum in the world holllaaaa! It used to be a palace. We took some touristy pictures and ventured inside.

Museum Love.

I'm not super into art, but there were some amazing paintings and sculptures. We also saw Napoleon's apartments which I really enjoyed. We stayed really late then went home and went to sleep!

DAY 2

The day of serious sightseeing. Woke up, had a lovely breakfast at our hotel of French croissants and nutella! We got around on the metro which was a little complicated but we got the hang of it. We got off at the Eiffel Tower!! It is so gorgeous by day and night. It was built in the late 1800s and was meant to be a part of a world's fair but it stayed as a permanent fixture of Paris. Here are some pictures:

Next we went to where the Bastille used to be. I'm not super into French history for a number of reasons, but I love the French Revolution. Its probably because its the only time other than the Hundred Years War that they have shown some balls (excuse the expression). So a little history because you know I can't let you get away without any. The people of Paris were fed up with the monarchs living lavishly in Versailles while they were in poverty so on July 14, 1789 they stormed the Bastille and tore in down brick by brick. They saw the Bastille as a symbol of the monarch's power over them, as it was a prison that held people on unfair causes. I thought there might be some ruins there but the Parisians did a really good job of tearing it down! Here is the monument that stands there now.

Next we walked to the Place Des Vosges which is this really pretty residential square where Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables lived! There were adorable French children running around everywhere.

Then it was back to Notre Dame to go inside this time. Afterwards we walked around the River Seine which runs through Paris and back to the Louvre.

We walked all the way from there through the Champs Elysess to the Arc de Triomphe. It is supposed to commemorate French victories in war buttt I don't know of any other than Joan of Arc's... I know a great joke about it! Why did the French plant so many trees in Paris? Answer: So the Germans could march in the shade. HAhaHAHAhaha I know. Here it is anyway:

Then we went to Longchamp and I got my birthday present! A medium navy one! I was very excited.

After the best day ever it got better. I ate another croc monsieur for dinner then went to the Eiffel Tower at night!! It sparkles the first 5 min of every hour and is breathtaking. We climbed all the way to the second level via STAIRS and it killed my feet and knees but the view was definitely worth it. Then we cracked open a bottle of wine and drank at the bottom! Very French. I think these pictures speak for themselves.

DAY 3

VERSAILLES CHATEAU omgggg this was the best thing ever. Obviously I'm obsessed with history BUT its history of monarchs I am really fascinated with and especially the castles. I've seen the English castles which are great, but nothing compares with Versailles. It is almost as if Louis XIV was saying "oh yeah? well can you top this? Didn't think so." The Sun King certainly had style as an absolute monarch but he did put the country in debt over this and started the downward spiral to the Revolution. Well at least the castle is gorgeous! We went to go get tickets, and guess what? HISTORY MAJORS GET IN FO FREE yeahhhh buddy. So we went in and toured around everywhere. My words cannot compete with pictures so here they are.

We then went on to the grounds and had a croissant with nutella! The gardens are about 3 miles wide so there was a lot to see! I cannot imagine what it must look like in the summer and I must go back when everything is in bloom. We walked all around and saw the Grand Trianon (King's summer home and place to entertain) and Marie Antoinette's "Play House". She liked to pretend she was a peasant to she had this little village and house built... excess at its finest. I guess the Palace wasn't good enough so she needed her own estate.

Then we walked around the town of Versailles and met the only mean French person we encountered. We went in and ordered coffees and tried to order food but he told us the kitchen closed at 5. Well another waiter told us it closes at 9, soo he just wanted the Americans to leave. What a trick. But we went back to the Chateau to see the sunset to feel better and boy did it! We also filmed me doing a historical segment on the palace as my alter ego Ron Van Der Hoosey. This is something that Will and I started when we were in Italy in 2006! It was really funny and I'll make sure the video gets put on facebook.

So then we left Versailles and went back to Paris. We had one last dinner and one last croc monsuier for me. The last thing we saw was the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. How lovely!

It was a magical 3 days and I hope to go back to Paris not too long in the future, but this time in the summer!