My weekend on the "tube"

I spent this past weekend exploring London with three other Ball State students. We left Dublin on Friday but not until seven o'clock, therefore we didn't get to do much exploring Friday night. When we got there we focused on finding our way around the "tube," otherwise known as the subway, and getting food, which we did get from subway (see what I did there?).

After eating dinner we went to a few pubs. We just wanted to get a few drinks and explore the area of London we were staying in, it was called Camden. Camden was busy during this time of night. We went to a pub that was playing Jamaican music. One thing we noticed the first night out was that people in London weren't as open to talking to foreigners. I felt as if we socialized more in the other countries than in London. But for the people who did talk to us Friday night, I fell in love with their accents.

So, finally at two in the morning, we made our way back to the hostel. The hostel was pretty clean, for a hostel that is. We had our own bathroom and it was just the four of us in the room which was nice. We didn't have to lock our belongings up in a locker, just had to make sure the room was locked when we left.

On Saturday we did a lot. We started our day off with seeing the guard change at Buckingham Palace. This was probably one of my favorite things. First off, it was packed. I didn't realize how many people come to watch these things. Second, I didn't realize how much there was to it. I expected us to go there, watch them march in and out then be gone in 10 minutes. Instead, they march in, with bands, and play a few songs for the crowd. I absolutely loved it. Especially because the first song played was from Pirates of the Caribbean.

We were lucky enough to get a pretty close spot to watch. We were second row, right next to the gate opening where the old guards and the bands marched out of at the end.

Once we saw the guard change we then made our way to the London Tower. This tower was filled with history. The coolest thing that we saw in there were the Crown Jewels. I loved going through the Crown Jewels museum because it taught so much history about the ceremonies and who was chosen when and also that the jewels had to be remade after the Civil War in the 1600's, when everything was destroyed. The jewels were beautiful. I can't believe that they are used by the queen herself, not often, but she has used them for specific ceremonies. I would be too afraid that I would break them.

After the tower, we made our way back to the London Eye. This was located near Big Ben, which has been one of London's landmarks that I have always wanted to see. This clock is astonishing. It is large and defined. Even though we didn't do any tour of Big Ben, I still enjoyed gazing at it like a typical tourist.

 After we walked a bit we went to the London Eye. This is basically a Ferris wheel looking contraption. It has rooms that you can stand in that take you around this large Ferris wheel where you see almost all of London's skyline. This event made me realize just how big London is. We could see far and wide for miles and yet we still did not see all of London. London is a enormously beautiful city. I enjoyed the London Eye, but I do think it would have been better in the dusk or even night time to see all the lights around the city.

Finally, after a long day of walking and tourism, we made it back to the hostel. The hostel, did not have any towels, so when I showered for the night, I dried off with one of my bed sheets. They were definitely not as absorbent as regular towels, but it got the job done. If I wanted a towel I was going to have to pay 7 pounds for one, which is about 10 dollars. I didn't think one towel was worth it.

That night we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca. It was DELICIOUS! It was a Tapas restaurant but I actually got a big burrito meal that was exceptional. My favorite part may have been the two tequila shots we took at the end of our dinner. It was like a little bonding moment because one of the guys with us had never had a tequila shot before, so we had to teach him all the tricks, like the salt, shot, lime.

After dinner one of the girls and I went out to a club downtown London. It was fun for the most part but the music was EXTREMELY loud. Louder than any club I have been to. The club was cool though because it had several rooms you could go into and dance. But the dancing is what got me. I don't know if it's just me but I feel a bit awkward just swaying in the middle of the dance floor. But this is what people in Europe do. I wasn't sure if boys were dancing with me or not because they would look at Laura and I, continue swaying, get a bit closer, but not say a single thing! I wasn't sure if this counted as dancing or not. In the end, Laura and I just ended up walking away each time to go to the bathroom, so we will never know!

On Sunday we wanted to go see West Minister Abbey buttttttt it's closed on Sunday's for service. We should have known that. We were able to walk around it and it is still a beautiful building. The outside is so stunning that I can't imagine what the inside looks like.

After looking around the building we decided to go to the Tower Bridge. This was on another side of the city so we had to take the "tube" to get to it. The tube is the subway (as I mentioned before) and we probably rode it 10 or more times this past weekend. I enjoyed it because I have never rode a subway before. Supposedly, London has an impeccable underground system. It was pretty simple to get around, which I liked.

So, we got to the Tower Bridge and walked across it. It was beautiful. I enjoyed the view from the Tower Bridge but I mainly enjoyed the view once we were across it looking back at the Tower Bridge. It truly is a remarkable bridge that I understand why it is used as a main landmark in London.

Once we were done at the Tower Bridge, we then did not do any more touristy things. We went to Picadilly Circus and found a place to eat. This place was delicious. It was like a Dinosaur Diner that served DELICIOUS burgers. I got mine with cheese, bacon and guacamole on it. Guacamole makes anything and everything better.

After lunch we made our way back to the airport and back to Dublin in general. The weekend was great, yet exhausting. London is a huge city that trying to fit in a lot of it in one weekend just can't happen. Especially when the weekend is one of their hottest of the summer. But nonetheless, I enjoyed every thing we did, no matter how much my feet hurt or how bad my shoulders are peeling right now. This trip had so much history in it and I'm glad I got to witness at least a third of the city. I plan to be back in the future, maybe to live there or maybe just to visit, who knows.

OH! One last thing. On Saturday we were walking down Brick Lane. Here we found a Vintage Market which I fell in love with. It was in the basement of a building and it just had a ton of racks filled with vintage clothing. There were over-sized sweaters, my favorite, high waisted shorts, my favorite, an abundance of flannels, my favorite and much more. I purchased two things from this store, they were SUPER high waisted shorts that have been bleached and designed very cool as well as a awesome Chicago flatbill hat.

The only thing that I will keep in mind for the next time I make it to London is how expensive it is. First off, they use sterling, which is like a 1.6 conversion rate for the dollar. Second, they are a city, so of course everything is a bit more expensive than usual. So, when I come back, I am going to either have to have a solid job to live there or been saving up for a few years to be able to afford what I will want to do.

Sorry this blog is like all over the place, I'm just not too focused because I'm too excited that my family gets here TOMORROW! It's all I can think about and I can't wait. It's been seven weeks too long without them.

I also can't believe that my summer across the pond is coming to an end so soon. Thank you to everyone who has supported me! I can't wait to be back with you all. Love each and every one of you.

Barce-freakin'-lona

First off, I apologize for not blogging for almost a full week, it has been hectic but phenomenal. Second, let me apologize because this is about to be a pretty long blog post. Enjoy :)

This past weekend Laura, Sara and I took our trip to Barcelona and let me tell you, it was the best weekend I have had in Europe. Why? Everything.

I have been told my multiple people that I needed to visit Barcelona while I was over here. I personally thought they were just exaggerating how awesome it was but to my surprise, IT WAS THAT AWESOME!

Let's start with Friday. Our flight was at about seven p.m. Friday night, we took Ryan Air for the first time. Many people have told me stories about Ryan Air and how it is pretty run down but they are cheap flights. So, I didn't have that high of expectations for this plane, but to my surprise it was not as near as bad as I expected. The only big difference I noticed from some of the flights I've been on throughout the states, is that they don't provide free refreshments or snacks. They offer food but you have to pay for it all. I also heard that you have to pay to use the bathroom, luckily, I never had to find this out because our flight was only two hours so I was able to hold my pee. The only thing that got me on the way there was when we were descending into the Barcelona airport. For some reason the pilot decided he wanted to descend faster than any other plane I've been on. This caused my face to get a sharp pain in it and it also felt as if my teeth wanted to pop out of the gums. I know this sounds incredibly painful but it only lasted for 10 minutes. Once we were landed I felt 100% better and SUPER EXCITED to be in Barcelona.

Since Barcelona is an hour ahead we didn't get there until about 10 p.m. their time. Once we got off the plane we made our way to our hostel, which was not as bad as I expected either, more about that later. On the bus to the hostel we were just looking out the windows at the magnificent city and architecture when this taxi pulled up next to us. There were two boys in the taxi that began to wave to us, we waved back and thought that was that. But then, we got dropped off and turned the corner and saw the same two guy walking the direction we were, so we decided to start up conversation with them (mind you, they were cute!). These two boys were from Australia and had been in Barcelona for about 10 days now. They ended up walking us to our hostel, waited for us to get changed to go out to eat with them and possibly out to a club. Once we were changed we walked on the beach to an area that had restaurants and clubs. It was 1 a.m. by the time we found a place to eat. At this restaurant we got to know the Australians better while Sara and I shared our first jug of Sangria (it was DELICIOUS).

After dinner we got in the line for one of the most popular clubs in Barcelona called Opium. The line was incredibly long and we probably wouldn't have gotten in their until it was about to close. The crazy thing about Barcelona though, is that their clubs don't get crowded until one a.m. or later and stay open until six or seven in the morning. Their nightlife is a lot later than any I am used to. We wanted to go to Opium but it was already three something in the morning so us five (the Australians, Sara, Laura and I) decided we would go back to the boys hostel and play some drinking games and just hang out. So we did. It was a blast getting to know people from another country. We didn't leave their hostel until about 5:30 in the morning because they had to actually catch a 7:30 flight to Portugal. So, after a fun night of bonding with Australians, we kissed them goodbye and headed back to our hostel.

Once we got back to our hostel, which was on the beach, it was about six in the morning so we decided to stay up a bit longer and watch the sunrise over the sea. This was stunning. We sat on a set of rocks that were sitting between the beach and the water and took in the scenery. It was incredibly stunning and peaceful. As you can see in the following picture:

Finally, we went to sleep, at about seven in the morning. We slept until about 10:30 and decided it was time to get up and go to the beach. Laura and I stopped at one of the restaurants on the beach for some sort of breakfast. Her breakfast consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich while I just had Sangria. We then spent the next few hours on the beach, getting burnt to crisps. The most shocking thing about the beach though, was that it was a nude beach, so we saw A LOT of boobs just hanging out. I was not warned of this so this caught me incredibly off guard. I was not uncomfortable, I was just unprepared. It was definitely a culture shock because in America that would not be okay, which is why we don't have nude beaches in our country. It did make me think a lot though, like how do you explain this to the kids that are on the beach? Or what do people's significant others think of them just showing off their goodies? Who knows. Definitely something that I would have to get used to if I ever moved there.

While at the beach we met a group of guys. One of them was American while the other eight or so were from France. The most ironic thing to happen all weekend was the fact that the American in this group was from Wheaton, Illinois, which is a town only 30 minutes from me. What a small world? Who would have thought I'd be all the way in Barcelona yet meeting people from the same area code as me.

This group of guys was a great time. We decided we were going to meet up later and get dinner and go out. So, after us girls went for a walk around Barcelona and took a nap, we met these guys on the beach. A few of them spoke English quite well, while a few others were hilarious to listen to try and speak it. Instead of getting dinner, we all just sat on the beach, drank some booze and got to know one another. It was a spectacular time. Once I told them my name they continued to say it about 100 more times that night. One of the boys kept on saying "Maggie girrrrrrrrrl" 10 times in a row. He would even say it when I wasn't even talking to him.

After some time spent on the beach we ended up going to Razzmatazz, which I guess is the largest club in Europe. It was kind of way in the ghetto of Barcelona. We had to take a subway to get there. But this was fun. I have never been on a Subway myself so that was a new experience I got to enjoy.
We got to the club around midnight but had to wait an hour at a bar near by because the club didn't even open until one a.m. Such a different night life than I am used to. I am used to the clubs being open by like nine p.m. and having to close around three a.m. Therefore, again, I got little sleep that night. We got back from the club and hanging out with the french group of guys at about four a.m.

On Sunday, we woke up around nine a.m. in order to make it to our tour of La Sagrada Familia. This a large church built in Barcelona that has impeccable architecture. It was started by the architect Gaudi, in the year 1883. It is still unfinished and is not planned to be completed until 2028. Even though it is still under construction, it is still one of the most gorgeous buildings and architecture I have ever seen. Both the inside and outside were breathtaking and so much to take in. It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Barcelona (which you should be because it's the best place I've ever visited).

As you can tell, we did a lot this weekend with a little sleep. Probably got about seven total hours the entire weekend. But it was all worth it. I loved every single minute we spent in Barcelona. I feel as if I experienced more of a country in this one weekend than I have over these past five weeks. We had to figure our way around the city by reading Spanish. Even though many of the people in Barcelona know a few English words, every sign, every menu and every native to Barcelona, spoke only Spanish. It was my first time in a country that didn't even have some English displayed. I really enjoyed this, because even though I love Ireland and my experience here, it is an English speaking country so I haven't felt too much out of my element. While in Barcelona I was able to feel out of my element and learn how to handle not being able to speak the same language as others.

When we were purchasing the tickets for Barcelona, I was a little stressed. I didn't know if it were worth the amount of money I was about to spend, but honestly, it was more than worth it. Now knowing the type of experience I got to be a part of, I will spend double of what I spent to experience this past weekend all over again, not matter if I get sleep or not.

Now, I get to spend another week in Ireland. I am celebrating the Fourth of July on Thursday with a bunch of Irish people and heading to London on Friday evening. I'm extremely excited for another week in Ireland and another weekend in another country.

I have less than two weeks left here and I'm not ready for it to end. I still have so much to take in. So wish me luck! I hope I get to take it all in within these next few weeks.