Wow, it's been forever since I've updated this, I'm sorry!!!
Ireland: Wow. That place is absolutely gorgeous. Peter O'Fegan (my cousin) and his family were wonderful hosts and made me feel so wonderfully at home and welcome with them. Just before New Years, Siobhan Fegan and her friend Megan came into town, so during the day Peter would take us out to different parts of Galway county and other counties (including the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare). It was gorgeous!!! On New Years Eve, Megan and Siobhan invited me out with them, but I had caught the cold that had been circulating the O'Fegan household, so I stayed in and had a little champagne with Alice, Peter, Seóna, and Noreen (Ellie and Grace had Coke and Nicholas was out with friends). It was quiet, but really nice. We watched the countdown in Noreen's living room, and then went back and watched a movie =) It was a lot of fun, especially since my cold made me horrible at conversation ;-) On the night of New Years (Jan 1, 2010) I was feeling better, so Peter and I got together with Megan and Siobhan and went to Tig Coili (a pub down in Galway city) to hear some live Irish music. It was a LOT of fun. =)
Around the 6th, it was getting close to the time that I was due to go back to Germany (my flight was for 1pm on the 7th), but Siobhan and Megan had invited me to join them in London, if I was up for it... So I looked up the way to get there and how much it would cost... It wasn't too bad (even with the Euro to GBP exchange) so I booked a ride over on the Ferry and a hostel in London.
SO. On the 7th, I took the train from Galway to Dublin, grabbed some dinner at a pub near the bus station that would take me over to the Ferry, and boarded the Ferry towards Holyhead. =D The Ferry was SO cool. It was HUGE and so comfortable. You could hear the engines going, but there wasn't really a lot of rocking or swaying going on. It was great. The ride went from 9pm to half past midnight. Soooo cool. And you could buy an internet connection (which wasn't too horribly expensive) so I bought one and emailed Mom my itinerary to help her worry less.
Wales: Holyhead is in Wales. I had no idea. Haha. No, seriously, I had thought that Wales started below Holyhead... Way to pay attention to Geography, right? =P Anyways. We got into Holyhead about half past midnight and the train from Holyhead to London wasn't until 4:45am... Which meant spending a night in the freezing Holyhead station. This was the first time during my trip that I missed my Carhart jacket... (Yeah, I had forgotten to pack it considering it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit when I was packing to come to Europe in the first place...Oops...) Anyways, around 4:30 they assigned our train a platform and I found my place. There was a small mixup due to the fact that there was nowhere for me to print out my ticket, but thankfully I had the reservation open on my laptop, so I showed that to them along with the credit card I used and the reservation number they had sent me in an email and after a small, stomach twisting, minute where the conductor had said I would actually owe something close to 254 GBP instead of the 16 I had paid for the ticket, I was able to fall asleep and continue the journey unbothered.
England! I got into London around 9am and texted Megan and Siobhan to arrange a place and time to meet up. We met in Paddington Station and checked my huge bag for a while so we could go to BATH. Yes. Bath. The Jane Austen nerd inside me who had been sleeping inside of me during most of this trip suddenly woke up and started dancing around. =) It was amazing. While we were in Bath we booked a trip over to Stonehenge. The trip included a stop at Lacock Village (which is where they shot a few of the scenes from Harry Potter as well as a show called Cranford). The bus driver was also a sort of tour guide, who kept up a running commentary on the state of the roads and how English drivers don't know how to handle snow (he had been a truck driver in the States previous to this job, which amused me to NO end). It was a great tour, but in the end, Stonehenge had been closed due to the weather... =P But we got back to London around 8pm, picked up my bag, checked me into my hostel (which was only a few blocks away from Megan and Siobhan's) and went to dinner.
On Saturday, we went to Harrod's. Wow. That place was SO cool. Huge and ... WOW. I am not what you would call a "shopper" but I could wander around there for days on end and still be amused. =) Then Siobhan and Megan had to go to Gatwick airport to catch a flight up to Edinburgh, so I continued wandering around Central London by myself. Around 4pm it was starting to get dark, so I went to the Hostel and asked if they knew of any good places where I could find some dinner. They suggested a few places up the road, so I started walking...and passed a sign for Wicked that was playing nearby. There were still tickets left, so I figured if there were still some inexpensive tickets available after I finished my dinner, I'd go to Wicked. THERE WERE INEXPENSIVE TICKETS AVAILABLE!!!!! Student discounts are probably the best invention EVER. For only 25 GBP I was able to get a seat in Row M. M!!!!!!!!!!!! (You can imagine the jumping and dancing and general silliness that I had to hide while purchasing this ticket...) =D So, I saw Wicked in London. It was amazing. Afterwards, I went back to the hostel, packed up everything and went to bed.
On Sunday, I had breakfast and checked out of my hostel. I figured I'd save the four pounds it would cost me to take the Underground to the train station, and walked there instead. I love London. Definitely putting this on my list of "Places to which I need to return." =) (Porto, Munich, Kraków and Galway are on that list as well. Hmm, I'm sensing a trend...) Anyways. I caught my TRAIN TO PARIS without any problems. And I now have a stamp on my passport that says "LFT LONDRES" which amuses me to no end.... =D
France: Got to Paris and had to make train reservations in French... and it WORKED. I was amazed. I could understand her, and thankfully I didn't botch up my French too badly, because she could understand me. The wonderful woman at the counter was able to book me a ticket as far as Karlsruhe, which is only about a half hour ride from Pforzheim. =D It was highly amusing on the train, because the announcements were in English, German and French. AND I UNDERSTOOD ALL OF THEM. Which was probably the most exciting bit. I haven't spoken French in ages, literally, since High School. And it's still with me. I think I need to write Madame a postcard ;-)
Germany: Obviously, I arrived safe in Pforzheim on Sunday night. =) Bank and Younghoe were completely awesome and had texted me to find out when I was going to be back and then had dinner waiting for me upon my arrival. What wonderful friends I have...
♥
On Monday, my friend Cory, from IIT, (who had been studying in Budapest) came by to visit me on his way back to Bonn. He's going to be returning to the States soon. It was great to see him, especially since we've been "so close" this entire time but never actually had a chance to meet up until now. I introduced him to some of my friends in Kepler, we had dinner and a beer or two, and watched Inglorious Basterds. (Highly amusing movie, albeit really graphic (lots of blood and guts and stuff)... what you'd expect from Quentin Tarantino, though...) Tuesday, I was supposed to have five hours of German, but they were all cancelled, so I came back and walked around Pforzheim with Cory before dropping him off at the train station. Got back just in time to attend my only class of the day. =)
So, yeah. That's my life about now... I have a presentation this weekend and then finals at the end of the month. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do in February. I posted a map in an earlier entry of possible places, but I think I'm going to add Seville to that... =D As of yet, I don't have any definite plans, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated =D
Much love, and I'm sorry about all of the radio silence while I was in Ireland and England...
♥
(Sorry for the ridiculous run-on sentences, I know it's horrible grammar, but I'm in a hurry because I need to get to class... ♥!!!)
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