Dublin

I spent this past weekend (March 11-13) in Dublin, Ireland with Lauren, Megan, Jordan, and Allie!  Lauren and I got a late departure from Cardiff because unfortunately, we have physics lab until 5 pm every Friday.  So we left Cardiff at 5:15, got to Bristol, England at 6:30, and made it to the Bristol airport with some time to spare before our flight left at 8:30.  After a long evening of buses, planes, and walking, Lauren and I met up with Megan, Jordan, and Allie in our hostel by 11:30. 

Welcome to Dublin!

We dropped our bags off and decided to head out to get a late night snack--ice cream, of course.  At midnight we celebrated Megan's 21st birthday!!!

12:00, officially March 12, Megan's birthday! Jumping with some new friends

Unfortunately, the low of the trip came next.  When Lauren, Allie, and I were walking back to the hostel, a man came up behind us and ripped Allie's purse off of her and sprinted away.  Poor Allie lost her camera, phone, credit cards, IDs, etc :( This was quite a scary experience.

Saturday morning, got an early start to our day.  After breakfast at the hostel, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a very historic illuminated manuscript of the Gospels (of course, this is the first thing Megan, the English major, wanted to do on her birthday).

Trinity College

We then wandered through Dublin, making stops at St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christchurch Cathedral, both of which were beautiful (although we didn't go inside either because of the fee).  We were very lucky with our weather--weather.com predicted cloudy with a 70% chance of rain but it was all blue skies!

Lauren and I outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Next stop was the Guinness factory--definitely one of the highlights of the trip!  The exhibit was HUGE and included 7 floors that chronicled the process of beermaking and the history of Guinness.  It was really well done and included a pint on the top floor in a 360° all-glass room that overlooked Dublin.

The 5 of us with samples in the tasting room.

We were so hungry at this point and found a pub for an Irish feast.  We ate far more fish and chips, bread, soup, and potatoes than 5 girls ever should but we were ravenous.  Stuffed and tired, we went back to the hostel to crash for a few hours and get ready for our night.  That night we signed up for a "The Official Backpacker's Pub Crawl".  It started at 8 and we, along with 20 other kids our age, were led to 5 pubs and a club.  It was really fun and a great way to celebrate Megan's birthday!

Crawling in the pubs.

Megan, Allie, and Jordan left pretty early Sunday morning to continue on their travels (it is their spring break) so Lauren and I had all day to explore Dublin more before our flight home that night.  We had beautiful weather yet again and packed a lot into our remaining time: lots of souvenir shopping, Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Library (where they have the earliest copies of St. Paul's letters and Revelation!), a great cafe lunch, the Dublin National Archaeological Museum, and a delicious coffee/dessert cafe break.

Dublin Castle with the blue skies

Dublin Castle courtyard area.

Our flight left Dublin at 8 so after another long series of buses, planes, and trains, we made it back to Cardiff by 1.  First weekend overseas trip=success.

Day trip to Swansea

I can't believe it's March already! This week flew by. This week was highlighted by a post-physics lab girls dinner on Friday (complete with a great trip to KFC for ice cream), a Colgate potluck on Saturday, and an incredible day trip to the coast on Sunday.

Lauren's sister, Sam, is visiting for a few days so Lauren wanted to take her on a nice day trip outside Cardiff to show her some more of Wales. After consulting the tourism center here, we decided on a trip to Swansea. Swansea is a cute city on the southern coast of Wales on the Gower Peninsula that is home to Cardiff's rival, Swansea University. The city, itself, is great but on Sundays, there is not much going on. Therefore, we consulted our "Gower Coast and Countryside without a car" pamphlet from the tourism center and decided to go to Rhossili, a tiny village on the tip of the Gower Peninsula, that has incredible views of the beaches from atop huge, picturesque cliffs.

We left our flats a bit before 10 and caught an hour long train to Swansea (another great thing about the day--the train was only 7.20 pounds round trip!). We meandered through the Swansea center, explored a bit, and got on a bus to take us to Rhossili.

Swansea: 2nd greatest city after Paris??

The bus took about an hour because it was a local bus that made a lot of stops, but once we got out of the city it was an incredible drive through rural villages and countryside--I want to explore all of these places more!

Map of our journey.

We arrived in Rhossili and were immediately awestruck by the beauty.  We walked along the tops of the cliffs, which were covered in farmland and sheep, for a few hours.  It was only ~2 mile walk but it took about two hours because we stopped for the view like every 30 seconds.

Sam is the dot at the top of the cliff--SO incredible!

Lauren and I at the start of the walk.

Sheep EVERYWHERE.

Frolicking in the countryside.

We were pretty cold from the wind after the walk, so we got some tea in a cafe overlooking the ocean.  Our bus (the only bus from Rhossili to Swansea that day) left at 5 so in our remaining half hour we explored the town's gift shop and their extremely quaint church that was built in the 12th century!  We headed back to Swansea and had my favorite meal of my time in Europe so far at this great Indian restaurant, Miah's.  Lauren did some research the night before and this place is very highly rated.  The ambiance was great (it was in a refurbished old church) and had the BEST Indian buffet I've ever had for 8 pounds.

Best meal EVER.

We got back to our flats around 9:30.  I really want to come back to explore more of the Gower Peninsula and have another meal at the Indian restaurant!

London for the weekend

Friday afternoon, Lauren and I rushed out of physics lab to catch our bus from Cardiff to London to visit a bunch of our Colgate friends!  What was supposed to be an easy 3.5 hour bus trip turned out to be a bit more complicated after our bus arrived to Cardiff 45 minutes late and took a lot longer than expected in the rain and Friday evening traffic.  We finally arrived at Victoria station and made it to Megan's flat in Russell Square around 10:30 pm.  Even though it was getting late at this point, we were still able to see Sarah, who was visiting from Madrid, and were happy to reunite with our other Colgate friends!

Megan, Lauren, me, Sarah, and Suzanne in Megan's flat.

Megan, Suzanne, Lauren, and I started Saturday with a run through nearby Regent's Park.  Lauren and I then enjoyed some coffee at a cafe and headed over to Suzanne's flat, where we also met up with her friend from home, Julie, who is visiting her for the week.  We all took the tube to Borough market, a historic gourmet food market, where we sampled a lot of delicious foods and bought some lunch.

Borough Market.

We made our way down the Thames and crossed the picturesque Tower Bridge, ending up at the Tower of London.

Me with the Tower Bridge in the background.

Although it was quite rainy the whole time, we had a great afternoon of exploring.

So happy I packed my umbrella!

We took the tube to Covent Garden, a popular area of cute shops, food, and street performers.  Suzanne has been talking up cookies from Ben's Cookies for a long time, so we finally tried some while we were at Covent Garden.  I had a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and it definitely lived up to Suzanne's hype!  Also while in this area, we explored Seven Dials, a street junction at the edge of Covent Garden that is famous for its cute restaurants and thrift shops.

Suz and I posing as Julie uses the phone.

Covent Garden madness.

Enjoying the Seven Dials shops.

We made our way back to Megan's flat and then headed out for dinner with a big group of our townhouse-mates who are also on Colgate London programs for the semester!  We wanted to go to a pub but decided on Nando's, a UK chain, because of the size of our group.  We got some dessert at McDonald's (love those McFlurries!), went back to get ready, and then went out to a local student bar, "The Rocket".  So many kids from Colgate are in London for the semester and it seemed like every one of them were at "The Rocket" that night--so fun!

On Sunday, Lauren, Suzanne, Megan, Julie, and I walked down Oxford street to get to London's famous Hyde Park.  We saw the marble arch, the Peter Pan statue, and a few other classic Hyde Park sights I can't remember.  Unfortunately, the temperature dropped and it started to rain pretty hard, leaving us stranded on a residential side of Hyde Park where we actually couldn't find a cafe for shelter.  Well over 4 miles of walking into the day, we made it to Suzanne's friend, Allie's, flat where she treated us to some much needed hot tea and food.

Lauren and I outside Megan's flat.

A beautiful morning, making February look like spring!

Lauren and I took the tube back to Megan's, said our goodbyes, and made our way back to Victoria station to catch our 5 pm bus home.  Unfortunately, we also hit some troubles on our trip back when I realized I bought my return ticket for March 27 instead of February 27...but 10 pounds and a lot of stress later, I got on the bus and made it back to my flat in Cardiff before 9.  The weekend went by way too fast but it was so much fun!!!

Visitors!

Following a fairly uneventful week in Cardiff, Lauren and I were really excited were really excited for our 3 weekend visitors: Kate, Megan, and Suzanne!  Kate is studying in Granada, Spain for the semester, and Megan and Suzanne are in London.

Kate arrived Thursday evening and Lauren and I spent a nice night in with her, highlighted by making a delicious stir fry and taking a trip to McDonalds for McFlurries (side note: McFlurries in the UK are awesome! they use real Cadbury fudge and chocolate mmm). 

On Friday, Kate came to our Welsh language class, where we learned nothing about Welsh language--the day's lecture was a 50 minute whirlwind history of Wales.  Kate explored the city a bit while Lauren and I suffered through Physics lab and then we met Suzanne and Megan at their bus stop!  We made some Tesco pizza for dinner and then had a fun night out!

Happy to be reunited!

On Saturday, Lauren and I showed our friends all around Cardiff.  We started at Llandaff, a small village near us that is within Cardiff.  It had a gorgeous cathedral, lots of cute cafes, and felt like we were in the rural English countryside.  This village is also the hometown of the author Roald Dahl.

The enormous Llandaff cathedral.

Inside the cathedral--very impressive.

We walked around the city center for a while, stopping at the Cardiff market for desserts, checking out the many cute shops, and getting coffee.  We then decided to venture to the Cardiff bay, where Lauren and I had never been.  It was ~20 minute walk past the city center.  I think we were expecting a lot more than what we saw...there is a beautiful new center for performances (the Millennium Center), a bunch of cute, but expensive, restaurants and shops, and not much else.  It was SO foggy so we couldn't even enjoy the view.

The fog-covered bay.

In the bay.

We walked back to the city center for a nice dinner and then settled in for the night after another round of McFlurries.

We didn't have much time to do anything with them on Sunday, since their buses left at 12:30, but we did make it to the riverside market where we got some delicious treats.  It was so great to see Kate, Megan, and Suzanne and I'm so happy they visited!  Next weekend, Lauren and I are catching a bus to London to visit Megan and Suzanne and see Sbranz (and a few other Townhouse 6Bers!) and will spend time in Spain with Kate over our spring break.

...speaking of spring break, my tickets are booked!

1. Granada
2. Barcelona
3. Prague
4. Budapest
5. Munich (where I am meeting up with my parents--we are doing numbers 5, 6, and 7 together!)
6. London
7. Cardiff

A trip to Cadbury world

When I realized this week that Cardiff is only 3 hours away from the original Cadbury chocolate factory, I was very excited and this we were able to pull off a day trip to visit yesterday!  We (14 Colgaters in all) took a megabus to and from Birmingham (which is actually in England, making this technically my first international trip since being here), leaving Cardiff at 7:30 am and returning a bit after 11 pm.  It was a long day but very fun and delicious!

We arrived at 10:30 and had a few hours to kill before our tour at 3, so we spent that time exploring the city of Birmingham.  It had a HUGE pedestrian only shopping area, called the Bull Ring and a huge open-air market.  We spent most of this time in the market--it seemed endless--and I enjoyed a few cups of 50 pence coffee, bought some chocolate (6 for 1 pound!), and a 1 pound sweater.  The prices were incredible here and I am regretting now that I didn't buy the 5 for 1 pound mangoes or 8 for 1 pound avocados.

The market.

Great place to walk around.

Perfect weather and very pretty.

After a short train ride, we arrived at Cadbury world where we took the tour.  The tour was very underwhelming but we did get a lot of chocolate on it--3 bars and 3 cups of warm melted chocolate.

The Cadbury factory is ENORMOUS.

The long and boring tour was worth the chocolate.

Back in Birmingham, we enjoyed a nice pub dinner and then headed back to Cardiff, very full and tired.

5 things

1.  Sometimes it's nice out.

Blue skies are the best, especially when it's always overcast.

2.  Castles are everywhere.

Just a walk home from class.

3.  Everyone drives the same car as me.

Every other person here drives a little VW.

4.  I love European grocery stores.

Pomegranate seeds and coconut chunks.

5.  You walk A LOT.

2.1 miles to Physics.

Another week in Wales!

So I finished my first week of classes and I can happily say that this looks like it will be a much less academically demanding semester than any at Colgate (even though I am taking more classes than I would at Colgate).  For each of my three Welsh classes (each of which meets 1 time a week), the only graded work I have for each is a 1,500 word paper due mid-semester.  Chem, Physics, and Math all have regular homework (and Chem and Physics have a lot of labs) but no tests other than the final exam!

The university structure is much different in the UK than in America.  There is very little homework/outside work so it is really up to you to stay on top of things in preparation for the final exam.  Definitely not what I'm used to but I'm not complaining about the lack of homework!  Another big difference is that people know what they are studying from day one of their first year and it is very rare to take any classes at all outside of your major.  Therefore, since I am taking classes in the Welsh, Chemistry, Physics, and Math schools here, scheduling is pretty difficult.  Example: the labs for each of my Chem classes meet from 9-noon/1pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the first two and last two weeks of March, respectively.  So it looks like I have to miss my 11 am Wednesday physics lecture for 4 weeks straight...good thing all lecture notes are posted online here!

Wednesday was the student activities fair and it looks like there are plenty of very active sports/clubs to get involved in here.  I plan on doing the hiking/caving club (lots of trips to really cool places throughout the island) and korfball.

Google image of korfball.

Lauren and I went to korfball practice on Wednesday night and after 2 hours of drills, neither of us still understands what the game is.  There is shooting a ball into a hoop involved but that is all I got out of it.  But we hope it will be a good way to meet some new people here!

Every Wednesday the student union has a themed party at the club and this Wednesday the theme was "frat party" so of course us Americans went to see what the British interpretation of a frat is.  It was really funny--most people were wearing American football jerseys and cheerleading uniforms.

Mack and Carolyn with the frat party decor.

Last night was the Wales vs. England rugby match, part of the hugely important 6 nations rugby tournament.  We watched the game in a pub in the city center and everywhere was SO crowded.  The Welsh are very proud of their identity, especially when it comes to rivalry with England, so everyone was decked out in Welsh spirit gear (wearing red with dragons and daffodils).

Sad result.

Unfortunately Wales lost 19-26.  Rugby was a really fun game to watch because the clock is running the entire time, unless there is a penalty, so it's a really fast-moving and high-scoring game.  I still don't really understand the rules, though.

One big surprise here for me here is coffee.  I love brewed coffee in the morning but it seems like instant coffee is by far the most popular way of drinking coffee at home.  So I decided to buy some and it's not that bad (at least better than nothing).  But there are so many cafes around with great espresso coffee drinks to make up for my morning instant coffee!

Delicious hot chocolate.

So that's about all that's new here!  I need to start booking my 3 week spring break this week: Spain (Granada, Valencia, Barcelona), Germany (Berlin, Munich), and Austria (Salzburg)!!!