London Calling

Here I am, back from my last trip! I’m here in Dublin for 10 more days and then I fly home. Time has really flown by fast. I’m excited to go home and see my family over Christmas, but I’ll be sad not to be coming back right away.
I’ve got my cup of tea and a story, so now I’m going to tell you all about my weekend in London, England.
We arrived late at night on Friday because Kristyn has an afternoon class that she didn’t want to miss. I think we should have just flown in early on Saturday, but she was not into the whole morning flight thing. It was midnight by the time the bus got us into the city from the airport and we had to try and figure out how to get to our hostel, which is way outside of the city centre. First we took the bus the wrong way, so we got off and hopped on the right bus, went to the end of its line and had to take another (this hostel was about a 40 minute bus ride out) to the stop the hostel told us to get off at. Then we start walking towards the hostel using the house numbers to guide us, and after about 10 minutes of walking next to this enormous cemetery we figure we’re going the wrong way because it didn’t end any time soon. By this time it was about 4am, so we just called the hostel and want to know what their directions for us were? “Up the road.”
-“Which direction up the road? We’re across from a street called Waverly and a gas station.”
-“Yeah, just go up the road there.”
-“Do we pass Waverly Rd. or go back the way we came towards Kilburn?”
-“Just keep walking up the road until you see a white building.”
We both had thought up some very colorful and unacceptably violent things we wanted to do to the people running this hostel, but I’ll leave that part out.
We hung up and decided to continue going past the cemetery to see what was up there just in case that was the direction “up the road” she meant. Turns out it was, so we dragged our tired selves in. We got our room and headed upstairs only to find that the beds we were supposed to stay in had no bedding on them. More violent thoughts. We went downstairs, told them and ended up, thankfully, getting a room to ourselves. We couldn’t believe that we had to come back to stay here on Sunday evening. We knew it was going to be a nightmare.

On Saturday morning we woke up as late as we possibly could and still get breakfast, which gave us only about 4 ½ hours of sleep. We took the London Underground, which is extremely easy to get around on (and kind of expensive), to our next hostel on the complete opposite side of town in Greenwich to drop off our stuff. After we finally figured out how to get into the hostel/bar/playhouse, we dropped off our stuff, freshened up, and went into the city to see Billy Elliot, my first West End show! It was fantastic. The kid who played Billy was a phenomenal dancer, especially for a child, could sing beautifully, and was quite comical. After the show, Kristyn and I went back to the hostel to drop stuff off, get changed, and went out to a pub-crawl. It was the best 14 pounds we spent. They took us to 5 clubs and gave us some good drinks. Strangely enough we met 2 American girls studying right outside of Dublin, the one was from Williamsport, PA (about 30 minutes from Lock Haven) and the other was from L.A. (just like Kristyn). We also met 4 Aussies who were all really fun. At the last club we all stayed until it closed because we were having such a great time. The music was about 15 years behind, which made it so much fun to dance to!
The next morning when we got up, again we only had about 4 ½ hours of sleep. We were going to take a walking tour of London, but that would have required us to get up a couple of hours earlier, and we weren’t having it.

First we used the break in miserable weather to go to Kensington Gardens to see the Peter Pan statue for Kristyn who is obsessed with all things Peter Pan. Kensington Gardens was gorgeous. We saw the Princess Diana garden memorial, Royal Albert Hall (across the street from the park), the Peter Pan statue, and much more. After that we headed to Westminster Abbey. While going there we saw Parliament and Big Ben because they’re so close and took tons of pictures. The abbey closes on Sundays for worship, so we decided we’d wait for the service to start, we’d go in to see and take pictures and then leave. Then we find out that the Westminster Abbey Choir was singing and there was a candlelight service for Advent Sunday, so we stayed and ended up getting these great seats where high commissioners sit. How we pulled this off, I have no idea. It really is a beautiful Abbey. Then we took the tube to King’s Cross to see PLATFORM 9 ¾!!! They had a plaque set up and a trolley that looks like it’s gone halfway through the wall. We had quite the little photo shoot and I think we were more excited than the little kids who were there. We went to that craptastic hostel we stayed in the first night for our first full night’s sleep since we arrived in London. We both fell asleep around 8pm.

The next morning we woke up to go on the London Eye (big ferris wheel on the Thames). We ended up arriving late for our scheduled time to go on because the shuttle our hostel was supposed to have running from 8am-8pm was not running until 10am and the buses take forever. It turned out that they didn’t care, which was good. The sights up there were amazing! It was definitely worth the money we paid, I think. We then got off the Eye and headed to Buckingham Palace. We didn’t quite know when the changing of the guards was, so we figured we’d just go and mess with them, take some pictures and leave. It so happened that we arrived just as they started changing! It was cool to see, but the fuzzy hat guys didn’t come back! There were just two guys with flat cop-type hats behind the gates. It was kind of disappointing, but at least we saw them change and got lots of pictures. After we saw Buckingham Palace we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see, so we went hunting for souvenirs and found the best postcards ever (Mom, Dad, and Christopher will know what I mean)! When the time came to call for the shuttle (like we were told we’d be able to do) so that we could get our bags back from our hostel and head to the airport, they said that the shuttle wasn’t running. We gave them a piece of our mind and ended up getting our bags and getting back to Victoria Station on time to catch the bus back to the airport. I absolutely loved London and can’t wait to go back someday!
I guess I’ll see all of you who read fairly soon! Until then…

Cheers,
Katelyn

Kilts of Tartan, Wee Lads and Lassies

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged, but not much was going on up until this past weekend. I was just writing papers and hanging out until my trip to Edinburgh...Scotland, not the small college town in PA :).
On Saturday morning Phil, Kristyn, Krista and I met outside the GAA pitch (where kids play hurling and Gaelic football) to pick up the Patton Flyer to the airport. When we arrived in Scotland around 2ish, we got Sterling (that's Pounds or Quid) from the ATM in the airport and hopped the bus into the city centre or "Old Town" Edinburgh. The ride there was absolutely gorgeous. I thought Ireland was green! Man. All of the buildings were made of this old yellowish sandstone that's tarnished a grey-black color because of the soot from old chimneys over years and years. The whole place makes you feel as if you're inside a book. I wouldn't mind living there at all (especially because of the cute accents!). When we got into town we immediately were drawn to the carnival/festival they're holding in Prince's St. Garden (a valley-type lawn). There was a ferris wheel, a carousel, open-air ice skating, and a German Christmas fair. Krista, Kristyn, and I all got these fantastic venison burgers (the best of any type of burger I've ever had) with the most incredible Scottish cheddar cheese. Then to top it off we found these homemade donutholes covered in sugar and then melted Nutella. We couldn't not have them, they were divine! A few minutes later we met up with Phil who was enjoying a mulled beer, which is warmed and tasted like cherries. Quite delicious. By then it was time to head out to the enactment of "T'was the Night Before Christmas".
First off, it was chilllll-y. Once everyone started gathering around and we were all in a big huddle of puffy coats, hats, and scarves it warmed up a bit. Before the play began properly a jazz band played a few non-Christmas songs to warmup, and then once the play started they played some old Christmas classics to go along. The play was way better than expected! There were flying sugarplum fairies, Santa's sled flew over the audience, and toys were suspended from his sled and dropped down into Christmas boxes beneath a large tree. Quite a spectacle. All the while the actor playing "Papa" was narrating in an adorable Scottish accent. As the grand finale, fireworks lit up the sky not-so high (especially not as high as they would legally have to be in the U.S.) above us while everyone joined in singing "Silent Night". The whole evening really put me in the Christmas spirit. It was quite extraordinary that this was a free event, as well. Afterwards we were all freezing and quite tired from our journey and Nutella covered donuts so we decided to head to our hostel, which turned out to be very nice (we lucked out with our own room and fort-like beds with curtains), especiall since it was only 10 pounds and included breakfast and free tea!
The next morning Kristyn and Phil took a bus tour up to the Highlands to see Loch Ness and Krista and I slept in until 8:30, had breakfast at the hostel, and then began our day of wandering all around on our own talking about everything. We walked the "Royal Mile" which is actually a mile and 100-some yards and bought some souvenirs for family in the cute shops (I got myself a 100% lambswool tartan scarf for 3 pound), then explored some of the side-streets when we happened upon a very pretty graveyard called Grey Friars Graveyard, which we later found out is a famous graveyard during our walking tour the next day. Afterwards we found a chipper and had some delicious fish and chips, though definately not as good as in Dublin. We continued to wander around and take pictures, talking about everything until we met up with Kristyn and Phil around 8 to go to our next hostel. It was kind of a walk out of town, but was a nice hostel. An old church converted into a hostel. The next day we took a free walking tour of the town guided by a very well-informed Aussie who had just moved to Edinburgh. In the middle of the 3 hour tour (:sings: a 3 hour tour) we all stopped for lunch at a pub where Phil ordered haggis (a traditional Scottish dish of intestines) that he let us all try. It was surprisingly scrumptious. After getting all warmed up inside and absorbing some good travel tips about our next trip to London from some Londoners, we continued on with the tour until mid-afternoon. Our tour guide left us with a very intriguing story about the Stone of Destiny (ask me and I'll tell you to the best of my ability). From there we went into the castle to wander the different museums scattered among the grounds. Very informative and interesting. The best part was getting to see the crown jewels of Scotland and the breathtaking view! We spent the rest of our time wandering the German fair (ending where we began) until it was time to take the bus to the airport and wait for our flight home to Dublin.
It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend that I'll never forget. Scotland is an amazing country that everyone should visit. Just gorgeous. That's all now until next week when I'll be blogging about London! Eeeeee!
Cheers!
Katelyn
OH! P.S. Almost forgot...I saw the cafe where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter in, The Elephant House, and the school that inspired Hogwarts!!! So exciting!

Krista and I enjoying our Fish and Chips


The fanciest hotel in Edinburgh behind Waverly train station

Birthplace of HARRY POTTER!!!

How I Fell in Love with Roma

So it's Tuesday and I'm already blogging about my weekend! A vast improvement, I think. I spent this past weekend in Rome, Italy (hence the title), so for simplicity's sake I'll just give a day-by-day synopsis.

Me in front of the Colosseum

Thursday:

Phil, Kristyn, and I met in Dalkey around 12 to catch The Patton Flyer, a convenient way to get to the airport from the suburbs. We meet Amy and Meaghan at the airport and get on our flight to Bergamo, a small city near Milan in northern Italy at 4:45. Around 7:30 (local time) we arrive in Bergamo and immediately go out in search of food. In town we find a restaurant called Piemontese Risorante e Pizzeria. We thought it looked really fancing--white linen on the tables, an assortment of fancy pastries displayed, linen napkins folded up into some oragami-type shape, but it turns out that's just what restaurants in Italy look like. For 5 people the bill only came to €44.50, including wine and two bottles of Pellegrino, and we were all stuffed. I was in a pasta coma afterwards from eating a big plate of the most delicious gnocchi sorrentina that I have ever tasted. Afterwards we all went for a short walk farther into the town and lo and behold! What did we find? A gelato place! It was so tastey that ice cream will never be the same for me. Afterwards we headed back to the airport to spend the night. Our flight to Rome in the morning was too early to even bother with a hostel, but it was a very uncomfortable night. It wouldn't have been that bad if this night guard didn't keep moving us. He didn't move anyone else around, so I think he just felt like giving us a hard time. Every time we started falling asleep he'd say we had to go to another part of the airport or sit in chairs or not be so close to the door. It was a little ridculous. I think I was the least bothered by it, though. With all the traveling time to Rome the next day, I got plenty of sleep.

Friday:

We started our day off with some espresso, fresh squeezed orange juice, and a delicious croissant (all very cheap, may I add) at the airport, got on our flight, and then took a bus into Rome. We checked into our hostel (which was really nice for only being €13.50 a night) and started off toward Vatican City. When we got there we were all starving, so we sat down at a pizzeria and had some pasta while we waited for Kristyn's friend Lizzie who is studying in Rome. It was too late by the time we were done to get in line to go to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, so Lizzie took us everywhere else. We saw St. Peter's Square, got some more gelato, Roman Forum (original center of ancient Rome), Piazza Navona (we saw the Fontana del Moro, but unfortunately the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi was being worked on), the Pantheon, had espresso at the best coffee shop in Rome (according to Lizzie), ate gelato on the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna (where Keats, Goethe, and Mark Twain used to go frequently), we threw coins into the Trevi Fountain for safe return to Rome, the Colosseum, and then we had to go back to the hostel for a nap. We all slept for a couple of hours and then found a pizzeria down the road for dinner. Then we went in search of a souvenir shop (which we found) and then...you guessed it, another gelato shop.

Trevi Fountain

Me in front of the Spanish Steps

Saturday:

We woke up early, got dressed and headed down to breakfast at our hostel. They had this fabulous machine that dispensed quality lattes, cappuccinos, mochas, cafe Americanas, and espresso. I was nice and wired that morning because after making a latte I just kept pressing the "espresso" button. We all began to plot stealing the machine, it was that good. Anyways...I digress. We got to the Vatican in time that morning and stood in line for about 2 hours. We saw priceless religious tapestries, paintings, and statues. I wish I had more of an interest in art so I could have better appreciated what I was looking at. Then started the walk towards the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina), the place I had been most anticipating the entire trip. The rooms leading to it were very stunning. Art on every crevice of the walls, ceilings, and even mosaic art on the floor. Then after all of these ancient paintings there are a few rooms of modern religious art. I've never taken a liking to modern art anyways, and appreciated it even less after what we had just seen and what was to come. After much pushing and shoving up stairs and through many rooms there it was. The most fascinating work of art I have ever seen. Michelangelo's Cappella Sistina. I arched my neck backwards, my jaw dropped, and I stood in awe for minutes. I was extremely impressed. All of the bodies he painted. Everything was so intricate and all of the different paintings seemed to flow together flawlessly (I snuch a fuzzy picture of God Creates Adam). It was an emotional experience to see this. A scene I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life.

God Creates Adam by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel

Afterwards we met up with Lizzie and got lunch (gnocchi with gargonzola cheese sauce and wine) and then gelato. Once we were nice and full we got in line to go into the Basilica of St. Peter. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately it was too big and too dark for my dinky camera to take any good pictures. I'll put some up from my friend Meaghan's camera when we have our picture-swapping day. Then we went to the grottoes under the basilica, the Tomb of the Popes. I saw where Pope John Paul II is buried. There were beautiful roses laying aroud his white marble grave and devout Catholics kneeled in front of it, clinging to their rosaries, and praying. Yet another emotional experience for me despite my not being Catholic and my lack of knowledge about him. He did a lot for humanity and worked hard to bring peace between people of different religions. It was very apparent how beloved he was.

Later that evening we went to see the Colosseum lit up at night and then to the Trevi Fountain again. On the way to the Trevi Fountain I found a Gucci purse knockoff that I loved, so I haggled a bit and bought that :-D. We went to Piazza di Spagna again to meet up with Lizzie and her friends for dinner a little early so I could drool over silver Dolce and Gabbana pumps. After dinner we got gelato at a famous gelateria in Rome, Giolitti. There I discovered that cinnamon is my favorite gelato flavor. Yum! We tried to stay out to experience Rome nightlife, but since it doesn't really start until around 11pm-midnight, we had to call it a night and catch some much-deserved zz's.

Sunday:

Again we debated the possibility of stealing the coffee machine in our hostel before departing Rome. As a departing gift, Lizzie brought us all Nutella-filled donuts (best ever!) before we boarded the DaVinci Express train to the Fiumicino Airport. I arrived back in Dublin around 3pm.

It was an incredible weekend that I'll remember forever! A perfect way to kickoff my series of trips that I'll be going on in this last month of the semester. Next stop: Edinburgh, Scotland!

Ciao! Cheers!

Free

So I'm in the library with some free time on my hands and I'd thought I'd blog about little things going on. The reason I have free time is that despite my pestering, my advisor at Lock Haven still hasn't cleared me for registration yet, so I'm waiting for that to go through so that I can schedule for next semester. Here's what I'll be taking

• Applied Psychologicla Statistics
• Drugs and Human Behavior ( Excited for this one :-D)
• Speech Seminar
• Biology Seminar (Blech!)
• Jazz/Rock Ensemble

All of them are MWF classes, except for the seminars which are only MW and Jazz/Rock Ensemble has a Thursday class that is more or less optional. It'll be nice to have 2 free days to do homework and whatnot. I'm actually looking forward to the classes, especially Drugs and Human Behavior. I'm such a psych-nerd.
On the travel front, I've got everything ready for Rome. I've printed out my confirmation numbers for my flights, I bought travel-sized toothpaste so that there is no way (according to airport security) that I could be disguising lethal quantities of explosive fluids as Aquafresh Mint for Tartar and Whitening.
Some new news that is related to my travels is that I will be going to see Billy Elliot, a West End show (Broadway's equivalent in London) for free! My friend Kristyn (the redhead in all of the pictures) had planned to go to a show when we go to London, but I told her I couldn't go because I simply can't afford a ticket. So she called up her wealthy dad and asked him to buy us the tickets and viola! I get to go. I think it'll be a great experience. I'm very excited
So I was talking to my roommate (in Lock Haven), KP this morning and she told me that something bad happened to this little rug I have in our room. I guess it slid too close to the heater and was there a little too long and she heard the smoke alarm go off. The rug got burnt! I got the rug free from a friend and thought it was kind of ugly anyways, so I really didn't care. The real reason I even put it in my room is to cover up a scratch that a nail in my bed made on the floor (woops!). It's still functional...just a little burnt. Here's a picture

Burn mark!Where there's smoke...
Burning stuff stinks!

Ok...well I'm going to get going. Still no sign of my advisor. I'm starting to get peeved...and hungry for lunch. I'll blog again when I get back from Rome!

Arriverderci!

Cheers,

Katelyn

St. Stephen's Green

Here are the rest of my pictures from St. Stephen's Green. When I was taking this first one I had to restrain myself from jumping in :)

Dublin, Double Toil and Trouble Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!

Ok...so I couldn't really think of great title for this week's Hallowe'en (that's how the Irish spell it) blog. For Halloween I went trick-or-treating with Jack (the youngest) and 5 of his friends. He was dressed as an American boxer with USA boxing gloves, a boxing hoodie and a black eye that was painted with Halloween makeup. They sang the "Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!" song ran around wildly trying to get as many sweets as possible just like in the States. Trick-or-treating didn't last long because around here there aren't that many houses that don't have big stone gates, so the boys proceeded to eat probably too much of their candy and played video games while I got dressed up to go out on the town with some DBS people. I picked Kristyn up who was dressed as a bunny (I just wore a dress and a masquerade mask) and we took the DART into town. We first went to the apartments and played some card games, I met some people that I hadn't spent time with who turned out to be fun people, then we headed for Temple Bar. We should have just stayed at the apartments because some people really weren't in the right state to be out and about, but luckily there were enough sober people (me included) to make sure everyone got home ok. Unfortunately Kristyn lost her wallet, though. Nothing tragic or irreplaceable was lost, but it was still kind of pain and we fruitlessly spent an hour that night and a couple of the next day looking for it. I had a really good time and managed to meet Scooby Doo, Superman, and Batman all in Temple Bar that night :-p.
On Thursday all I did was read some of On the Road by Jack Kerouac, which I'm not quite sure if I like that much, walked to the park in Dun Laoghaire and then after dinner I went to movie night at Kristyn and Krista's house. Phil, Andrew, Amy, Krista, Kristyn and I watched The Holiday and generally had a good time and a quiet night.
Friday was probably the highlight of my week. Krista and I set out early for a day of exploring secondhand shops and vintage shops and just meandering. We found some really good green tea mixed with strawberry, blueberry, and vanilla at a very small stand in this arcade between Aungier and S. William St. It was kind of a bonding day for us and I realized that she's the person I feel most comfortable around here. It's kind of sad it took this long for us to just spend a day doing whatever together, but I think we'll be hanging out a lot more now. The rest of the weekend will be spent writing a paper for my Cinema History class and then on Thursday I'll set out for ROME!!!!! I'm very excited (hence the multiple exclamation points and capital letters). About a week ago I was walking around thinking about how easy I have it here and that most of my time is spent doing whatever it is I want, on a whim. And that particular fall day happened to be sunny and beautiful so I went for a walk with my camera in St. Stephen's Green in the middle of Dublin City Centre. It's very close to the buildings I have classes in so I go there to watch the ducks sometimes. Here are some pretty photos I took that day. Enjoy!

Pictures!

So here are the long-awaited Blarney photos. I forgot that I changed the quality of my pictures to the highest and therefore they were too big to load onto Blogger. So I just changed the size and viola! Enjoy!

I kissed the Blarney Stone and don't feel much "gabbier"

Me in front of Blarney Castle next to a very snotty little kid

Phil giving a look that could kill

These steps were very smooth and slippery. All that kept me from falling was that rope on the side.