Between travel, school, work, essays, and presentation, March has been an extraordinarily busy month. I have been the most horrible daughter/friend/niece/etc. and I must apologize to all. So much has been going on, and I’m finally finished will ALL of my coursework for the semester and have an opportunity to breathe and write as much as I have been meaning to. A few of you are probably curious as to what I’ve been up to for he past month and a half, so I’ll do my best to fill you in....
I spent the opening of March in Edinburgh, Scotland amidst the wind, rain, and cold temperatures. It was absolutely beautiful. We visited the castle, several pubs and cafés, and a few museums. I quite enjoyed merely walking around the city taking in all of the glorious views, though, which if you haven’t checked already, are captured and posted on flickr for your viewing pleasure.
The middle of March, chiefly my birthday through to St. Patrick’s Day was spent in Dublin, again amidst the wind, rain, and cold temperatures, but this time with a lot more alcohol consumption. Travel to Dublin was a bit of a fiasco, unsurprisingly considering the fact that European transportation hates me, so my birthday was horrid until about 23:00. I awoke that morning, got ready for work, grabbed my backpack and headed to work. My bag was searched in the Baker Street tube station, making me late for the gloriously generous birthday breakfast that everyone in the office put together for me. I was hoping that would be the worst of it, but no, it gets better. Cait and I had communication difficulties and missed our first bus to the airport, so we jumped on the next one trying to look as though we were supposed to be there. On the bus ride, Cait realized that she forgot her passport, so I, being the problem solver that I am told her to call someone and get them to bring it to her. She called her friend and he jumped on a train to London Luton. Long story short, he arrived 120 seconds after the check-in desk closed, and Cait had to pay 50 quid for a new ticket. I was making sure that she was going to make it do Dublin that day, was assured she got a ticket and then joined the queue in security. Another long story short, I missed my flight, so I had to go get another ticket, but the flight was booked, so I went on stand-by. As we were eating loads of chocolate to erase the feelings of frustration and waiting for the flight to begin check-in to determine our so far grim-looking fate, the fire alarm sounded and we all had to evacuate and stand in the rain for 20 minutes while emergency vehicles flooded the scene. We finally made it back inside, found that we’d both make it to Dublin, and boarded the plane.
We flew Ryanair, a cheap, internally caution-yellow airline that boasts low prices form offering no frills and no leg, arm, body, or luggage space. And they don’t mess around when I comes to landing. Whiplash all around, no extra charge. On the flight we sat next to an annoyingly talkative American girl who’s studying in Italy, I was lucky enough to have my headphones to alleviate my pre-existing migraine, poor Cait was not so fortunate, but talking to strangers is her forte.
When we arrived in Dublin Cait’s debit card wouldn’t work, and our cabbie couldn’t find our hotel. We finally arrived and everything turned around instantly. The lad at the front desk was a darling Polish fellow who brought us free drinks for my birthday. He ran the hotel’s 24 hour bar during the late hours, and he gave us loads of free drinks and made us the most wonderful sandwiches.
The rest of the weekend was spent with more of the hotel staff, locals, and even a few Americans, two from our CIEE program and two from Florida who were in our hotel. It was the most wonderful unproductive weekend that I’ve had in a long time, and it was spectacular. There were two six nations rugby matches on Saturday, so upon my request we stayed in a pub for most of the afternoon watching England battle Ireland and France battle Wales among people from each country in a lovely Irish pub, me with an Irish coffee in my hand. I think that was my favorite part of the entire weekend.
Aside from traveling the world. I just been working hard, playing hard, and studying hard. I’m working on building the Web site for my company, and doing heaps of new business stuff in preparation of it separating from it’s big corporate umbrella, but aside from that, nothing else too exciting.
There is an exhibit at the Imperial War Museum entitled “Weapons of Mass Communication” that looks amazing, so I’m going to try to indulge in the free museums over the next couple of months and I also hope to see Avenue Q soon. I’m so glad that I’ll finally have a bit more time to take in the British pleasures that London is affording.
