Week 6

Hello all!!
And so my adventures have continued! Last week was pretty chill; I mostly stayed in Cambridge and we went to see Hairspray on Tuesday because we get a really good deal on tickets at the Grafton Center; so that was fun. I also went to High Tea and Croquet at Pembroke College which was cool, especially because the food was free! Yay free food! There were amazing cakes, sandwiches, and many assorted teas to choose from....what more could you want? And I got to talk to the Australian guy in our program which was awesome...! He also speaks French! He has dual citzenship! I thought that was really cool...

Anyway, I went to a lecture on graduate school at King's on Wednesday night and attempted to start my paper for my gothic architecture class which is due Monday. It's not coming along so well unfortunately. I think I have things organized now, but it's taken a while. On Thursday, we had another formal hall. After formal hall though, I went straight to bed, ready to wake up at 2am in order to catch a 3:30am bus to Stansted airport. Three other friends and I were catching a lovely 6:30am flight to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend. It was very early, we were very tired, and it was crazy. But we got to Ireland fairly safety, except I lost about $25 worth of items that I couldn't take in my carry-on....freakin' security. AND on top of that, it cost me about $50 to REPLACE all that stuff...and they were only half the size! PLUS $20 to check-in my luggage! Absolutely ridiculous...and there was a shortage of soft contact lense solution in Dublin which made it extremely difficult to find solution to store my contacts that night (that was one of the items that they threw away).

Anyway, after getting into Dublin and getting a bus to our hostel at DCU-Dublin City University, we took another bus to the downtown centre and took a train to Malahide Castle. However, the trains were messed up that day and the train station thought it would be a wonderful idea not tell the passengers that their trains were changed...and so, of course, we ended up on the wrong train and ended up going in the wrong direction. Upon noticing our mistake, we got off and waited about 20 minutes in the middle of nowhere to take a train back to the main centre and try again. We got to Malahide Castle eventually though, and then after that went to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. Trinity was gorgeous and their library was absolutely amazing! Sooo beautiful...it was like my dream library!

After Trinity, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral for eveningsong. It was quite nice and the choir was very good. The cathedral itself is a lovely early gothic piece and it was a nice way to see the cathedral and get in for free. After that, we found some food (which was harder than you think because everything closes so early in Dublin surprisingly!) at Burdook's Fish and Chips...it was actually really good and they are supposed to be world-famous! Then we went shopping for a little bit and then headed back to our hostel.

We woke up early the next morning, got a picnic lunch from the grocery store near our hostel and got breakfast at our hostel. We then trooped down to the downtown centre again to catch a bus to Glendalough, a small town outside of Dublin with, as we heard, spectacular nature and views. The bus ride was about an hour long and it was raining when we got there. Actually, it had been raining the entire time...so no biggie I suppose. We ate our lunch standing up in the most complex way possible that one could while holding an umbrella, and then did a hike to the top of the mountain. It was two large mountains covered in green and trees, surrounding a gorgeous lake. It was quite picturesque and exactly what I pictured when I thought of Ireland. We visited the monastery at the bottom after we did the trail and the graveyard. I have some beautiful pictures, although some were ruined by the rain. It does make a cool effect at times though; however, my shoes are permenantly ruined and I must get new ones now. After we took the bus back into Dublin from Glendalough, we got dinner, went shopping, and then went back to our hostel, only to wake up at an unreasonable time to catch a 4am taxi to our 6:30am flight back to Stansted. So, that was Dublin. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by the city itself-very industrial, ridiculously expensive, not very pretty, and too big to walk everywhere. However, Glendalough was beautiful and I would recommend doing that instead. We missed going to a couple of museums and galleries that we wanted to because of a time constraint, but overall, it was a pleasing trip. AND our hostel was really nice...for a good price! 2 single bedrooms sharing a bathroom and a kitchen! For about 20 pounds a day...which is pretty good here.

Anyway, yesterday, I slept majority of the day, the same as I did on Sunday when we got back, and missed a class because I was sleeping! Actually, I didn't even know I had class at all...they changed the schedule yesterday and ahhh....I can't believe I missed a class! I didn't mean too..but ironically, I was sleeping while class was going on. Bugger. Anyway, must go to class now and work on my paper.

Sherilyn