London!

Hello! Last weekend Anne Marie and I headed off to London! We arrived in the city thursday night and headed to our hostel. Surprisingly, we didn't get lost and easily found it after a short walk from the Victoria Train Station. Friday morning, after enjoying a free breakfast at our hostel, we headed to Westminster Abbey to meet Anne Marie's cousin. Her cousin, Danielle, moved to Bristol(a city a few hours outside of London) in July because her husband is from there. Once we found them we decided to begin our day! After walking by and taking some photos of Big Ben we headed to the London Eye. The London Eye is a huge ferris wheel that overlooks the entire city! After the London Eye we continued walking around the city. We walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral and then headed to a local Pub for lunch. Even though Anne Marie and I don't like fish we decided we had to try fish and chips since we were in London, and it was actually pretty good! After lunch we saw the Tower Bridge of London(which everyone calls London Bridge) and Buckingham Palace. It was fun to actually see the guards in the red suits! After walking all day we decided to take a ride in what was basically a cart driven by a bicycle to go to Queen's theatre to see Les Miserables! After picking up our tickets and grabbing a slice of pizza Anne Marie, Danielle, and I headed in to see the show. It was AMAZING! I was jealous that my family had gotten to see it a few weeks earlier back in Louisville, but it was definitely worth the wait to see it in London. After the show we were exhausted from walking around all day and headed back to our hostel and went straight to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up early to go on a bike tour of the city. We were very lucky and had perfect weather! Both days we were there it was 70 and sunny, which is extremely unusual for London! Our bike tour was fantastic! We rode bikes called Bromptons that are only made in London and are very different than a normal bike. The tires and frame of the bike sit very low but the handle bars and seat are still normal. The back tire of the bike also flips under and serves as a kickstand. On the tour we biked across Tower Bridge which was kind of nerve racking because we were on the road with all of the cars. This tour was great because it took us to several different parts and places in London that we would have never found on our own! At the end of the tour we got to see the place where the Mayflower took off which was cool to see! After the tour we headed off to finish up some last minute sight seeing before we headed back to Madrid the next day. Our first stop was Harrods, the huge department store! The outside looked like a Palace and the inside was just as elegant. The store was huge and filled with all kinds of designer items. After Harrods we walked around Hyde Park before heading to dinner. For dinner Saturday night we went to Chipotle! It was great to have food that we haven't had in over 3 months.

Sunday morning we woke up early to make our way back to the airport. We arrived in Madrid on Sunday afternoon. London was definitely one of my favorite cities! It was absolutely beautiful(plus it was nice that they spoke english)! Tomorrow I head off to Italy to visit Milan, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Rome! I can not wait for my Italian adventure to begin, I will definitely have a lot to blog about when I return from the 10 day trip!

Guard at Buckingham Palace!

Tower of London Bridge!

Harrods!

On the bike tour!

The London Eye!

Alicante!

While I have been on many fun field trips with school in the past nothing quite compares to this one. This past weekend I traveled to Alicante, Spain with my oceanography class. I knew the trip was going to be fun but I had no idea just how much fun it would be.

We left from school thursday afternoon and headed on a 6 hour bus ride to Alicante. When we arrived that evening it was already dinner time and we sat down to a three course dinner at our very nice hotel(the whole weekend we joked about how the hotel was like a cruise ship because everything was included). The next morning we got up and headed off to a local Yacht Club. Several days earlier we had been told by our teacher that we would get a surprise friday morning and we were all very excited to see what it would be! After exploring a submarine we finally got to see our surprise, a rescued turtle who we were going to get to see be released back into the ocean. After talking with our teacher's sister who works at the Yacht Club and learning a little bit about what they do there we split into 3 groups and hopped aboard kayaks, small sailboats, and a large sailboat they call a cruiser. My friend Rachel and I went on the cruiser first and were able to lay out and tan on top of the boat while we cruised around the ocean. The weather this day was absolutely gorgeous, 75 and sunny! After basking in the sun it was mine and Rachel's turn to kayak. In the middle of the ocean a man on a small motor boat came and got us so we could transfer into the kayak. While getting into the kayak was successful, the driver decided he wanted to turn us around, and he did so very quickly. Well needless to say our tiny kayak couldn't keep up with his motorboat and we capsized in the middle of the ocean, quite a site! After taking turns on the 3 different boats we headed back into the marina for lunch. Afterwards we laid out by the pool for a few hours. While this is not normally part of the trip we had a substitute teacher(our teacher is pregnant and couldn't go) who really didn't know what was going on so he told us simply to ret by the pool! After some lovely tanning which resulted in sun burn for everyone we headed off to a fish auction. I had been dreading this because I absolutely hate fish and their smell but it was actually not as bad as I had imagined! We learned how everyday all of the fisherman bring in what they have caught and take it to the fish auction where restaurant owners and other people who want fish come to purchase it. In the middle of the room is a large TV screen that begins by listing the type of fish and a price for it that is about 3 times its value. The price immediately starts to decline and whoever presses the button on the buzzer that they have first gets the fish. While we were there a fight broke out because apparently some fisherman have been hiding small fish under the larger ones so the unit seems to weigh more and they make more money and another man was calling them out on it. After a long day in the sun we headed back to the hotel for a delicious buffet dinner!

Saturday was the day we got to go snorkeling! We headed off to a snorkel shop to get our wetsuits fitted, which is not near as easy as it sounds. These wetsuits which were basically skin tight pieces of foam were not easy to get on, especially over bad sunburn! After struggling into my wetsuit which by the way did not fit(even though I was told it did) we immediately had to get back out of them and then catch a ferry over to Tabarca Island where we would snorkel. Once we arrived we visited a local aquarium and then it was time to yet again put on the dreaded wetsuit. Once we were all suited up with suit, mask, snorkel, booties, and flippers we began to snorkel! This was difficult at first because I had to get used to the wetsuit and to breathing with the snorkel that kept getting water in it, but eventually I got the hang of it! We saw large schools of fish, jellyfish, and some people even saw an octopus. It was a lot of fun, but the water was very cold. After snorkeling we ate lunch on the island and then boarded the ferry to head back to the mainland.

Sunday morning, our last day in beautiful Alicante we ate breakfast and then went on a "nature hike" of the sand dunes and beaches. Basically this was the part that justified this amazing weekend being a school trip! After that we loaded up on the buses and headed back to Madrid. While I had always been excited for this trip I had no idea just how much I would love it! Alicante is a GORGEOUS town and I would love to go back(hint hint mom and dad, family vacation soon?). The trip was way better than I had ever expected and now I have a great tan which is always a bonus!

Turtle that we released into the ocean!

Rachel and I on our favorite boat(before falling in the ocean)

View

from my

hotel room

Ireland!

So it's been awhile since I last blogged, this might be a long one!

Last weekend my friends Anne Marie, Liz, and I headed off to Dublin, Ireland. I was very excited for this trip but didn't know exactly what to expect. We arrived late thursday night and checked into the Globetrotters Hostel. This hostel was fabulous, the people were amazing and there was a huge free breakfast which is always a plus! The location was also within walking distance of everything! That night we went to a pub close to our hostel. We really didn't like the music they were playing and noticed that they had something where you could hookup your ipod so we asked if it would be ok if we played our own music. They said it was fine so we began blasting country music, something they had certainly never heard before. It was great!

Friday morning we started our day with a free walking tour of the city! The three hour long tour took us to many historical locations in Dublin and explained much of the history of the city. On the tour we went to Dublin Castle, Trinity College(absolutely beautiful), St. Stephen's Green(a gorgeous park), as well as several other buildings and monuments. The tour dropped us off at an Irish pub for lunch. I had a delicious bowl of traditional beef stew, it was great! After lunch we decided to head to the Kilmainham Jail. This jail had been used for many people involved in Irish rebellions up until 1924. The prison was in use for over 128 years and housed women, men, and children. At that time children could be punished for even very small crimes(like stealing a loaf of bread) by being put in prison. It was very interesting to see all of the cells and to learn about the prison's history.

Saturday morning, after enjoying our delicious free breakfast, we began by going to the Leprechaun Museum(sounds ridiculous, I'm aware). The Museum was actually very fun! It explained and illustrated all kinds of different Irish myths and folk tales. My favorite part was the giant room. This room was supposed to resemble the house of a giant and had extremely oversized furniture that you could climb on. After our visit to the museum we began to head back into the center of the city and ran into a Forever 21. We naturally had to go inside since we hadn't seen one in over 3 months! That afternoon we continued to walk around Dublin and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Cathedral was beautiful! It was enormous stain glass windows and extremely tall, gorgeous ceilings! Saturday night we had a lovely Irish dinner in a pub across from our hostel and then headed back because we had to wake up extremely early to go on a tour of the Cliffs of Moher the next day. This day seemed even earlier because it was daylight savings so we had to set our clocks forward an hour(daylight savings is a week later in Europe than in America).

Sunday morning we boarded a bus to Galway to go on a tour of the Cliffs of Moher. The tour also included stops at many other places in the Irish country side. After stopping in Galway we continued to the Cliffs. Once we got there they were absolutely breathtaking, and we got lucky and had perfect weather(this is rare in Ireland where it is usually rainy). The huge cliffs overlooked the water and the sight was absolutely amazing and rivaled my favorite view from Portugal! We roamed around the Cliffs for almost two hours, but I could have stayed there all day! This was definitely the highlight of my trip! This view of the huge cliffs all in a row overlooking the water was absolutely amazing! Overall Ireland was definitely one of my favorite trips, I absolutely loved it!

Dublin Castle!

Dublin!

St. Patrick's

Cathedral!

Cliffs of Moher!

So pretty!