Back to Galway!

This weekend we took a two day trip to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher. Not only did we see some beautiful sights, we also learned that the six of us seem to have a curse traveling together. We decided to catch a 2pm bus on Friday after everyone's classes so we were all packed up and waiting at the station when we saw that our bus was boarding. We went out to our terminal and it was PACKED. The Cork bus station is usually filled with maybe 50 people (and its a big station), so to see more than fifty people all trying to get on the same bus was a little out of the norm. Turns out by the time we got to the front of the line there were only 5 spots left on the bus, just one short of how many we needed because we were traveling as a group of 6. Luckily they called an extra bus that came thirty minutes later. Just our luck that bus broke down about halfway into our ride. After an hour pit stop on the side of the road and two mechanics the bus finally started running again! By the time we got to Limerick (an hour and half later than we expected) everyone needed a bathroom break, but by doing that we missed our connecting bus to Galway. We finally got to Galway seven hours after we left Cork which should be at max a three and half hour ride. It was all worth it though as we got ready for a night in our favorite town in Ireland.

The next day we did a bus tour (luckily no break downs this time) of the Barren and Cliffs of Moher. We did a walking tour up a mountain and got to see stereotypical Ireland, the green landscape with stone walls dividing the properties. We were amazed by the stone walls because it literally looked like if you touched them they would fall over because the rocks seem simply placed on top of each other like a balancing act. The tour guide said that the walls were erected in the famine era (to give the poor jobs) and therefore have been standing for years.

 

We then had one hour at the Cliffs of Moher and I totally understood what all the fuss is about. Its so goregous there you could spen all day just looking out at it. You have probably seen the Cliffs before in movies and not even know it. They're in Harry Potter, Ryan's Daughter, the Princess Bride and a few other movies too. The Cliffs are also a finalist for the 7 Natural Wonders of the World!

 This is O'Brian's tower

 One of my favorite pictures of the Cliffs (still can't figure out how to switch the pictures so they're rightside up -- sorry!)

It was a great weekend, and luckily our trip home was bus-drama free! :)

London calling...

London was the weekend trip this week and let me just say it was a much needed getaway from Cork. London is a city that I have always wanted to see ever since many of my favorite movies that take place there (what a girl wants, winning london, etc.)  but I actually knew very little about the actual city. Our trip started late Wednesday night (thankfully because there was a fatal plane crash at the Cork airport the very next morning). Our trip to get to actual London was, lets just say not the easiest few hours. We got off the plane at about eleven and were about to go through customs when my friend Amy realized she forgot her passport on the flight. After about an hour of trying to retrieve it (couldn't because the flight was already "secured" and no one was allowed on) we finally got to the bus to take us into the city. As we were walking to the bus stop we realized our bus was just leaving and started freaking out because we thought it was the last one. Thankfully there was one more bus coming yet that night. When the bus finally came half an hour later we were about to get on when the ticket person said we had the wrong dates for the tickets. So, after 5 minutes of Amy running around trying to get the dates changed we finally made it onto the last bus of the night just in the nick of time. After the bus ride we grabbed a cute taxi to get to our hostel but of course it wasn't that easy. The name of our street which we thought was Westbourne Road was actually Westbourne Terrace. After walking around the city at 1:30am not entirely sure where we were going, we finally called the US to get someone to googlemaps where we were. Luckily we found out the area we should have been walking in before the phone ran out of minutes. So after another two hours of walking around London and a few stops asking for directions later we finally made it to the hostel at 3:30am.

The next day we woke up to find the rain followed us to London. After a quick breakfast we made our way to town to see it in the daytime and visit a few inside places to get out of the rain. We went to the National Galley of Art and the V&A museum and saw Trafalgar Square and platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross from Harry Potter!

 national gallery

Day two started out with again a quick breakfast then off to see Big Ben, House of Parliament, and the London eye

 london eye!

 then the tower of london...

 St. Paul's Cathedral..

 Then souvineer shopping! we went into this huge shop at Picadilly's Circus and found this car and a man all decked out in the England flag!

Right after we went to the London Bar that is completely made out of ice! We walked in all decked out in our igloo suits and gloves and got a drink (in a cup made out of ice of course!) It was the coolest bar I've ever been in!

The next day was sunny and warm so we woke up early and started sigtseeing on our last day in London. First we went to the Portabello market (for those that have seen Notting Hill, we even found the bookshop that Hugh Grant worked in!!!). It was full of clothes, food, trinkets, and street performers. It made me wish we had a market like that in Cork! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip, getting to see all the amazing food and just "window" shopping at the street vendors. After the market, we met up with Sarah's friend and saw Westminster Abbey (where Prince William and Kate will get married at the end of April) and then went to Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the guards were behind the gates, so we didn't get to try and make them laugh. The palace and the grounds surrounding it were gorgeous though, and there was so much of it that we didn't even see!

 After seeing the palace, we went to Herrods, basically a place where all the prominent designers have a massive mall. This Herrods was five floors with every designer purse, jewelry, furniture, and toy you can imagine. Then came the best part. I walked into a little bit of heaven. We went into a massive room filled with only chocolate and tea, my two favorite things! Amy and I (the other chocolate lover of the group) went to buy on of the truffles and they kept giving them to us for free! Like I said, heaven!

 As our final thing to see in London, we went and saw Big Ben and the House of Parliment at night which was amazing! Then we went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, then went to the airport to sleep for the night and catch our 6:20 flight! It was such an amazing trip, my favorite to date! For next week, we're going to Galway again to see the Cliffs of Moore!