Time for part II of a several part catch-up series. Yesterday, you learned about The Lord Mayor's Parade, the Children's play, and Remembrance Sunday (and how much I really liked it). Next, gear up for an amazing week/weekend as you take the next step in my journey to see the world.
You ready? Let's go.
12 November 2007: Class
Yup, just class today and homework. Nothing speical worth talking about, really. Except for the fact that Dr. Tullos left for Boston early this morning for work or something lame like that. He missed the next day field trip, but I'm sure American food was treating him well...I get some in two weeks. Yay!
13 November 2007: Field Trip!
So, as all Tuesdays are, we have another field trip. Where did we go today? Portsmouth and Salisbury! Yeah! We started out at Portsmouth where we saw the HMS Victory. It is the oldest ship still on commission in the British Navy, even though it's 300 years old. Yeah!! It's been dry-docked since 1923 but could still be called to go out and fight for her country should the Queen require cannons instead of high-powered machine guns to protect her... This ship is mostly famous for the Battle of Trafalgar, where Admiral Lord Nelson was killed. I saw the place he died at. Anyway, we took the tour and it was so interesting! Now and forever, I never want to live on a ship ever! It was so gross and I really admire those few men that actually chose to be sailors and Navy men and the like. Most of the men upon the ship were forced into service - which was why they weren't allowed on land when the ship stopped for food and drink, because the forced ones would have run away because it was NOT a life worth living for very long at all. There is quite a bit of original work still on the ship, but most of the cannons are replicas - though there are several original ones - they're big, cold, heavy and I definitley would NOT want one of them pointed at me. Apparently, every 1 cannon took 12 men to take care of it - and the ship held 104 cannon. Thats a bunch of men! In fact, the HMS Victory had to hold over 800 men (and just two toilets....imagine the line in the morning for the loo). Now the ship is big, but it did not look big enough to house 800 men. There was one deck we went onto that just freaked me out. The men on this deck (I believe it was the very bottom one) were not allowed to leave. They had to live with 500 other men, animals, sick, and dying. Nasty. If you want the real down and dirty, I will explain more when I talk to you, if I do - I hope I do. So that trip pretty much dashed all my hopes and dreams of ever becoming a pirate. Dang....makes me sad. Then again, I'm glad I dont have to eat 5 year old salted meat and wash my clothes in urine. Oh, and the punishement was harsh. Stocks, the cat of 9 tails (from which we get the saying "letting the cat out of the bag"), and the stick. Yikes. Again, more explaination when I see everyone. We also get the saying "three square meals a day" from the ships. (later, later) It was a very interesting day. I also found out that just before Russell Crowe starting filming Master and Commander, he walked upon the HMS Victory to kind of get the feeling of what it would feel like to be a captain. I think it worked because the movie was really good and the ship looked VERY similar to the Victory. It's the most historically accurate war ship movie out there as far as I know. I walked in Russell Crowe's footsteps...dude. And I really felt like part of the ship...even better (I think).
After our really awesome battleship adventure, we went to Salisbury. Just for clarification, this is NOT where Salisbury steak is from. No one actually knows where it's from, but Salisbury does NOT claim it at all. So who knows. Anyone want to research it and see if we missed something? Great. Get back with me on that. We went to the Salisbury Cathedral where I saw (get this) the Magna Carta!! Well, one of the four originals. I saw another original at the British library. Now I have two left and I'd really like to know where they are...Oh well. I also saw a clock that was made in the middle ages (about 1300) and that still worked. It was awesome! It was really tall and used pendulums, etc. Kept great time, I think. The cathedral spire (which is 104 feet tall) is the 4th tallest church spyre in England. That was really cool - it was pretty. I think I've had my fair share of churches for a while. I've been to so many...they are all starting to run together and look all about the same. It's sad. I really like them, but too many.
So that was the extent of that day. Really cool. Really cold and really cool.
I bought a Magna Carta for my classroom. Yeah!!
14 November 2007: 4 day Free Travel #2!!
Today marked the first of the seccond 4-day free travel (if you didnt get that from the title). Before any of us had left the states, Kaity, Jordan, and I had all of our free travel stuff ready to go, so we were so excited when we hopped on a plane at Gatwick and landed in ... Ireland!! We went to Cork, Ireland for 4 days and that was amazing! So, what's in Cork you ask? Well, nothing really. But what's outside of Cork is worth going to, especially what's 5 miles outside of Cork - Blarney. Anyone ever heard of the Blarney Stone? Yeah, I kissed it.
Let's start at the very beginning...Arrived in Cork, took a shuttle to the city centre and walked to our hostel from there. It took us a while to find it, but when we did, we crashed...almost. Spent the rest of the day/afternoon/evening exploring the really small city, looking for places to eat and planning our day out the next two days. Found this really great market (thanks to some really awesome guys we met when we were looking for a coffee shop - Starbucks doesn't exist in Cork) and bought REALLY cheap bread, then Nutella to eat it with and cheese. Yes! Food for three days! After we ate, we went to bed...and I got sick. Thanks to the people in Europe who think that smoking is the next best thing to sliced bread!! I applaud you for your STUPIDNESS! Since air conditioners are almost non-existent in Europe, you have to open the window. Not so bad really...unless that window is JUST above the smoking section outside the front door. If you close your window, it will get so unbearable hot that there is no other choice but to open the window again and, thus, smoke. It didn't help either that my comfortor was caked with smoke smell - that just made it SOO much better!! So by day 2, I couldn't breathe, taste, or sleep for that matter. Yuck. But I still had a wonderful time! So, went to bed (got sick) and slept as best I could before the next day which was one thing I had been waiting for since I was little. Yet another dream coming true! I love traveling!
15 November 2007: A touch of eloquence
Woke up a little stuffy but ready to take on the day. Yes!! Today we were going to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. Score! So we left the hostel a bit early and got bus tickets (because that's the only way to get ANYWHERE to and from Cork) and headed to Blarney. When we got there, I was really surprised at just how small Blarney really was. I mean, Cork isn't huge. You can walk from one end to the other in about 30 minutes or less, but Blarney - even smaller. It took us less than 5 minutes to find where the entrance to the Castle was. I think there's 1 grocery store and 1 pub. That's about the extent of the town. So, we get our admission, and by this point, I'm was so excited you could have tasted it. We explored the castle for a while before going up. Found the cave that Oliver Cromwell and his men stayed in for a while when they apparently were in Blarney. Then we explored the overlook - and that was an awesome view! Ireland in autumn is breath-taking for sure. We finally entered the castle (after 20 years of waiting, I didn't want to wait any longer!) and walked up it. I liked this one because you could actually explore the whole thing. You could go into all the rooms and stuff. It was really cool. The castle itself is not very big, but it felt like it. It was still dark and cold, but I liked it. Caernarfon is still my absolute favorite, though (GO TO WALES!). So, we explore and then...we're at the top. Yes!! I'm about to kiss the Blarney Stone. The Stone that gives those who venture beyond the point of comfort the gift of eloquence. The Stone that millions of people have kissed, including Winston Churchill (BEFORE he became Prime Minister of England - makes you wonder whether the Stone actually helped in those wonderful speeches he gave). The Stone that I had waited years to see. The Stone that was right in front of me. I started jumping up and down, even though there was a nice crowd around it. Wow! Stone Kissing!! Jordan went first because he was standing in front of me. Wahoo! My turn! We weren't allowed to take our own pictures because they took one for you - but I was TOTALLY ok with that. So, I (still bouncing up and down) get on the wet, cold ground, lay on my back, and reach way out away from the edge of the castle. Good thing there's support bars you can hold on to so you don't fall and die! So, I edge my way towards the cold, hard stone and Yes!! contact!! I kissed the Stone, smashing my nose in the process, but kissing it all the same. Wahoo! Now to wait and see if the gift of eloquence has been bestowed upon me.... Yeah, it was cool. Kaity kissed it, too, of course. After that, there was nothing else to do but go down and see how we looked kissing the Stone. I never wanted to forget the moment, so I bought a picture. It was totally worth 10 Euro! After that, we went to the Rock Close, which was the garden of the castle. It would have been gorgeous in the summer time. It was still really pretty when we went. Saw a mysterious rock that weighed about 5 tons that still sometimes swayed back and forth. I tried pushing it, but it wouldn't budge. I don't get it...Then we did the Wishing Steps. For these, you have to walk up the steps with your eyes closed wishing for the same thing over and over again until you reach the top. Then you have to go back down the way you came - exactly the way you came - meaning you have to walk down the steps backwards, eyes closed, wishing for the same thing the whole time. It was hard, but it was so much fun! Want to know what I wished for? Sorry, can't tell you. But I can tell you it hasn't come true yet. We continued to explore the Rock Close and came across some waterfalls and a really interesting tree. Then we had to leave because it was getting late. So we ate lunch/dinner at the castle (Mmm bread, nutella, and cheese) and made our way back to the bus stop. Rode the bus back and ate Subway for dinner - yay good semi-American food! Then we crashed because we still had another day to go somewhere. That night didn't get any better for sleeping. In fact, it got worse. But I dealt with it. When I was away from the hostel, things were usually ok - but night was a very different story...
16 November 2007: Eating capital of Ireland and a fort I had never heard of
Woke up, couldn't breathe, but didn't care. It was our last day in Ireland. Who knows when I will be going back. So, once again, we went to the bus station and hopped on a bus to Kinsale. I had never heard of the place, but Kaity had done he research. It was a nice drive and the town was really cute. It sat right on the water and had a harbour and everything. Yay! So, got to Kinsale and found out the a few of the things we had on our list were only available during the summer. That's ok - we had more than three things on our list. We finally decided to go to Charles Fort. I thought it was cool because it was a fort, but I knew nothing about it. There was no transportation there except to walk...so we did - like 2 miles. It was up some really outrageous hills and down some others, but it was a GORGEOUS walk. It went right around the harbour and then looked out onto the Irish Sea (which was beautiful at dusk). When we finally got there, we found the entrance and got ready to go inside. This made us really excited - the admission was 1.50 Euro. That is SOO worth seeing! And it really was. The fort was HUGE! It was built in 1603 when the Spanish Armada landed on the shores of Kinsale to protect the city. It was used during WWI, bombed and then abandoned. I walked around the WHOLE thing - at least, every part that wasn't blocked off. I took a lot of pictures of the fort. I kept wondering exactly what happened there. Haven't had time to really look anything up since then. But it was peaceful and we were just about the only people there. It's not a very popular tourist spot - probably because no one knows about it. But, we did the fort, and then we left...to walk along the beach. That was amazing at sunset! We climbed all kinds of rocks, skipped rocks along the coast, and followed the path - at least I did. I walked for a while until I decided that I should turn back. I saw lots of cows and some gorgeous skyline. Wow, do I love Ireland. We ate dinner at a restaurant (since Kinsale is the eatery of Ireland apparently - they're known for that and the prices showed it) which was amazingly good. Before we caught the bus, we found a pub and drank tea there (it's Ireland and we still had to find a decent pub to go to) and that was good. Yumm! Then we caught the bus back to Cork. It was our last night in Ireland. None of us knows when we will be back, but I want to go back. Anyone want to plan?
Still stuffy, I climbed back into bed ready to depart the land of the greenest grass I have ever seen.
I'm going to miss Ireland - a lot!
17 November 2007: Leave for London
So, we got up early and prepared to depart for home - for London. Flew back into Gatwick, caught the train back to Victoria Station, and made our way back to our flats. By this time, London had become our home - and it was good to be home. It felt comfortable. Argue with me all you want, but I think London will feel like home for a long time. It's the first time I actually felt fairly independent - aside from Harding rules. But I got to decide what to do with my days, I didnt have to sign out to go places (unless I left the country, then we just had to tell Dr. Tullos where we were going) and I didn't have people breathing down my back, watching me like hawks to see if I had followed the rules or not. I was free to make my own decisions and plans. I'm going to miss that freedom so much when I go back - even at home. I don't feel like I can make my own decisions and have my parents trust me. Just once, I'd like to just up and go someplace and not have them worry or call and ask where I am and what I'm doing. I don't need that if I'm going to be leaving in a couple of years and I get that enough at school. London is where I grew up - not physically, but emotionally and mentally. I'm more independent. I like that.
I learned so much in London - not academically because, well, the classes were SOO easy - but about myself and about the world. I will always see London as home, even though I may never live there again.
I already miss it...
More to come! But I'm getting closer!
Cheers and Ciao!
Aimee
acancien@harding.edu
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