Edinburgh, Scotland: October 29-30
The week of October 27th was "review week" at DIT. This means that most of the professors don't hold lectures, but are allowed to have exams. I got lucky in that none of my professors assigned any exams, so I had the week off! Kayleen had just one exam on Tuesday, so on Wednesday, the two of us headed off to
Edinburgh, Scotland! We planned to stay only one night, so we found a really early flight on Wednesday morning- 6:30 am. We planned accordingly (or so we thought) to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport. Apparently, we were a little off and almost missed our flight. We got to the check-in right as it was closing. Rushing as fast as we could and apologizing profusely, they got us in and we ran to the security line. It, of course, was incredibly long and as I stood there, I even started thinking about our options if we missed it. As soon as we both got through security, we sprang into a full-out run through the airport to our gate. It felt just like a movie as were yelling "excuse me!" and maneuvering around people, doing our very best not to run into them. We got to our gate with two minutes to spare. We decided we would NOT be letting that happen on the way home-- it was a little too close for comfort.
d off our bags, and then decided to spend the afternoon in St. Andrews, about an hour away. We took a train, which we decided was just an added bonus because it allowed us to see some of the countryside as well. St. Andrews was so gorgeous!! It's actually a little town, too, with a college and some neighborhoods. The golf course is located right on the beach as soon as you get into town. We walked along the 18th green of the Old Course, had lunch in the country club, and spent a little bit of time seeing the sights. It was picture perfect.We got back around 6:00 pm and were pretty tired since we had been up since 3:00 am, but because it was so close to Halloween, Kayleen had her heart set on doing something haunted. Edinburgh is apparently one of the most haunted cities in Europe, so there were plenty of haunting things to do. We found a tour that took us down into the underground city where we heard ghost stories and such from back in the day when people lived down there. It was pretty fun and not too scary. I thought I would freak out because I don't handle scary things well, but I was one of the best ones in the group!
Thursday, we got up early, checked out of the hostel, and went to the Edinburgh Castle which was just right up the street from where we had stayed. It was high up on a hill that overlooked all of Edinburgh-- such an awesome view! We had to hurry through in order to see other things, but it was totally worth it! We got to see the crown jewels that are used in all of the coronation ceremonies! Pretty incredible.
Afterwards, we ate in a restaurant called "The Witchery". It's advertised as a popular place for celebrities to eat. We could see why. The service was excellent, the food was so good, the decorating was beautiful, and the bathrooms were clean. :)
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping. There were so many shops along The Royal Mile. My favorite one was called "The Christmas Shop", full every kind of Christmas ornament you could think of. I think we went into it three times just to look. Of course
, since it was Scotland, there was an endless amount of plaid available along with Loch Ness stuffed animals and bag pipes. We shopped til we dropped and decided to get to the airport even a little bit earlier than we had planned, just to be extra extra safe. We got there well before check-in and then afterwards, still had a two hour wait before our flight. About an hour or so before we were supposed to board, we found out there was an hour delay. We were originally going to be getting back around 10:30 pm and now it was going to be even later. We were already so exhausted. As we were waiting around for our flight, I was looking through my bag and realized my cell phone wasn't there. I had used it a couple of hours earlier and stuck it in my pocket and it must have fallen out sometime on the bus to the airport. Major bummer. It was just a cheap phone I bought when I got to Ireland and I really didn't use it much anyway, but it was convenient to have at times. I've actually gotten quite used to not having one now. I'm happy to know that I am completely able to get along just fine without one, though I can't deny it will be really nice to have my real one back when I get back to the States.We finally made it back at 11:30 and had to catch a bus back to the city center. I was already so tired at this point and most definitely not looking forward to another bus ride seeing as I don't handle those very well. Of course, we picked a seat right next to a guy who wanted to smoke, though they had given specific instructions NOT to do so. So that, combined with the regular bus fumes did not sit well with me. We still had to get a taxi back to our house from the city center. After taking so many taxi's here, I will never ever have a car with manual transmission. All the cars here are like that and I get so sick every time I have to ride in one. We finally made it home at about 1:30 am and crashed. The traveling was exhausting, but so worth it. We had such a great time!
County Mayo: November 1-2
A day after getting back from Edinburgh, the four of us girls headed off to County Mayo, which is on the north western side of Ireland. Jeanine has some distant relatives, Micael and Maurine, living there, and we were all invited to stay with them for a night. This was our chance to see a rural Irish town and countryside. We had all heard and seen pictures of sheep grazing on the green hillsides and really wanted to see some for ourselves. This was the perfect place to do it! They live in a tiny little town called Swinford, where they have a farm less than ten minutes away. We took a bus (for four hours) to the town where he picked us up. When we got to their home, Maurine had a meal all ready for us. Everything we ate was from their farm! It was a typical Irish meal with lamb (it had been grazing in their yard only a couple of days before), mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables which were all from their garden, and apples from their trees with custard on top for dessert. She told us the custard was the only thing bought in a store. It was so delicious and we all agreed it was the best meal we had eaten the entire trip! Afterwards, Maurine took us to their cottage where we would be staying for the night. It was actually the house that she had grown up in. She and Micael and redone it and now it was a beautiful little cottage in the middle of nowhere. Only green hills and sheep were around. It was so cold, but we started a fire in the fireplace, drank hot chocolate and enjoyed being cozy. :)
Maurine's niece, Claire Anne, picked us up that night and took us out for a little bit with her friends. We had such a great time with her! After church in the morning, Micael took us for a drive in the mountains. It was totally breathtaking! It is so rural and quiet up there, unlike all the cities we've been used to seeing. The people there live such a different life and I loved it. Everything seems to run at a slower pace which is so nice to see when what we're used to is a crazy hectic life, it seems. We went back to their house where Maurine had prepared a huge Sunday lunch for us; something you really don't see anymore, but is still pretty common there. It was another typical Irish meal, but this time, it was ham from their pigs, baked potatoes and cabbage from their garden, ice cream (store bought) with berries from their bushes on top. Again, it was amazing! I think we would have all been happy to stay there and let her cook for us some more, but we had to go home.
Thirsk, England: November 8-10
One place I have always wanted to visit is the English countryside. So I did. By myself. Kayleen was going to be in France and Jeanine and Monica were going to London for a night, but I decided I wanted to out to the country since I had the opportunity. Never would I have imagined that I would travel to another country by myself, but I surprisingly, didn't mind at all. In fact, I was looking forward to having a nice relaxing weekend to myself where I could just chill out and do whatever I wanted. However, it didn't start off that way at all. Traveling there was a total nightmare. Between losing item in security (dumb 3oz rule), not having a bus to get me where I nee
ded to go, getting on the wrong train, and having absolutely no clue where I was at one point, I thought I was completely crazyfor doing this on my own. It was just not my day. At all. I thought this was a sign for how the rest of my weekend was going to be, but I was very wrong. I finally got to my B&B and it was beautiful! The couple who owned it could not be more hospitable and my room was the nicest place I have ever stayed in. I was able to relax, drink numerous cups of tea, read, study, shop, and go to bed at 7:30 both nights. It was perfect and I was praying that my trip home would
be nothing like the first one, but I was wrong again. Getting to the airport was exhausting, but I got there without any problems. However, I got there two hours before check in because I had wanted to be extra sure I would have plenty of time in case anything did go wrong. I was already exhausted at this point (this is a common theme). I waited til 8:30, checked in, and then found out my flight had an hour delay. Now I wasn't going to get back to Dublin until 12:30 am. I couldn't have felt more miserable. To make
things worse, when I finally go to the check in line, I ended up next to a little four-year-old boy and his mom. Now this kid was extremely cute and I could tell he was just a really sweet kid, though a little rambunctious. He immediately started talking to me and asked me to sit next to him on the plane. At any other time, I would have thought this was adorable, but at that moment, I was so tired, not feeling very good, and all I wanted to do was sleep. But I couldn't tell him no, so I spent the entire flight entertaining him and trying my very best to be pleasant. By the time we finally got to Dublin, I was his "girlfriend", so I apparently didn't make it too obvious that I really did not enjoy talking to him. I finally got home about 1:15 am. The traveling was absolutely horrible and I didn't enjoy one minute of it, but getting to go somewhere I've always dreamed about made it totally worth it.Krakow, Poland: November 15-17
Kayleen, Adam, and I just got back from Poland a few hours ago. Once again, it was so incredible! It was really different from the other trips we've taken so far. I think one
reason for that is the fact that this time, we were in Eastern Europe. It's so much different than Western Europe. This may sound strange, but it seems so much more foreign. Obviously, everything in Europe is foreign, but so many things are similar to the States. The language barrier was the biggest issue. Adam ensured that we knew a few necessary phrases. He and Kayleen are both Polish, but he, especially, was excited to try his hand at communicating there. I have to say, he did a pretty good job. It's a strange feeling not being able to read any road signs or billboards. Luckily, we weren't left to fend for ourselves. Actually, the whole reason we were able to go was because Kayleen had a contact there. A lady she knows at Purdue is Polish and has family still living in Krakow. We met up with her sister-in-law, an older lady named Anna. We had the best time with her! She had never met us before, but yet she was so incredibly hospitable and took so much time to show us around and make sure we had anything we wanted. One thing that is so different about Poland is the food. Ireland, England, and Scotland have a few traditional foods that are good, but nothing is too far from everything I'm used to. Poland has some of the best food I've ever had and Anna made sure we had plenty of it! She took us straight to her house from the airport and had a meal all ready for us! The first part was kind of like broccoli soup with mushrooms. Then she made golabkia, which is meat and rice wrapped in cabbage and hers was topped with mushrooms. Now, I don't usually like mushrooms, but this was seriously amazing!
We were so fortunate to have Anna! She lives by herself in an apartment that she's lived in her entire life! It's very old, but so beautiful. Her English was broken, but we didn't have any problem communicating. We had a great time asking her questions about Krakow, how to say certain things, and just Polish life in general. We learned so much more than if we had just stayed in a hostel. She told us that the names "Adam" and "Elizabeth" are very traditional Polish names, but are pronounced differently and that's how she would be calling us. In Polish, my name is spelled Elzbieta with a dot above the "z". It sounds so cool and I loved it. Adam's name is Adas (pronounced Adash) and now the three of us call each other by our Polish names. :)
We
got there on Saturday and Anna had the whole day planned for us! She took us to the city center where there were numerous amounts of shops along with some incredible buildings! That's another difference about Western Europe; the architecture. So beautiful! We shopped and thoroughly enjoyed that fact that the Polish zloty is so cheap compared to the American dollar! It's the first time the entire trip where we've actually gotten a good exchange for our money! Anna took us to several historical places and had "Adas" read the history about it that she had printed off earlier. So funny! 
She took us to a Polish restaurant for dinner. We had so much fun deciding what we wanted. Anna absolutely insisted that we get a soup called zurek. It a soup made with rye flour and has potatoes and sausage in it. Kayleen and I both got the traditional pierogis that had potatoes and meat inside. YUM!!! I'm pretty sure I would move to Poland just for the food. After dinner, we met up with a few college students that Anna knows and we went out with them for a few hours. They were so friendly and we had so much fun with them! We've all decided to be Facebook friends now. :)
In the morning, Anna had outdone herself, yet again, and had a HUGE breakfast all ready for us. This was, by far, the most unique breakfast I've ever had, but again, so good. She had poached eggs in those the little egg-stands. I don't know what they're called, but I've always wanted to eat an egg like that. She had ham, tomatoes, sour cucumbers, cottage-cheese spread for the two kinds of bread, and plum jam. The table always looked so pretty. She even had two spoons set out along with a fork and knife, just like a real set table is supposed to look. Seriously, this lady was incredible!
After breakfast, she packed us a lunch and the three of us headed out. The first thing we were scheduled to see was the Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camp. This is something I've always 
wanted to see. I've been to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. but I really wanted to see the actual place. It was very hard to walk through and very sobering, even more so than the Holocaust Museum. To actually be where it all happened is almost incomprehensible. We started out in Auschwitz where several of the buildings have been turned into museums. They still have one original building, Block 11, that still has cells where prisoners were kept. We also saw a execution site where many people were shot and walked through a gas chamber. I got chills several times just from looking at it all. The tour then
took us to Birkenau, which was only about five minutes away. That's the camp that most people think of when they hear "concentration camp". The railroad tracks are still there that brought in the cattle cars full of people. The fields are filled with rows upon rows of barracks where the thousands of prisoners stayed. Most of them have been rebuild as exact replicas because the originals were bombed by the Nazi's after the liberation in attempts to cover up the "evidence." As much as this tour wasn't exactly enjoyable, we were all so glad we went.
The next tour was a little bit happier. We went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, right 
outside of Krakow. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, salt was considered very precious and mining was a huge resource for Poland. For the past one hundred years or so, parts of the mines are opened to the public. We went 130 meters under ground by stairs. I never thought going down stairs was hard, but my legs were shaking for the rest of the tour! Everything was made from salt! The walls, floors, and sculpters. Along the way, several sculpters portray the original mining d
ays. There is a chapel, and several large banquet halls with intricate designs and pictures, all made entirely from salt! Even the chandeliors are made from salt crystals. The largest salt chandelior in the world is down there, which makes sense I guess, considering not many places would have chandeliors made from salt crystals. There are even several lakes down there that have the salt content of the Dead Sea. Pretty cool! They say it's really good for you and we're guaranteed to live three days longer just from our one visit. Nice, eh?
We found a gimongous mall in Krakow and had dinner there. Kayleen and I both got kababs with lamb meat, another traditional Polish food. Again, we weren't diappointed. The mall was huge and had mostly designer stores. Most things were incredibly expensive, even by American standards, despite the exchange rate, but we had fun looking around. We were so tired by that time and dec
ided to call it quits for the night, so we headed back to Anna's house. When we got home she had a little snack all ready for us, of course. She had made jello with strawberries and oranges inside with champagne to go with it! Our friends weren't kidding when they told us Polish hospitality is above and beyond amazing. The four of us had a great time chatting about our day and enjoying our snack. Anna showed us pictures of her few visits to the States and we begged her to visit again really soon! We loved her so much and were so sad to leave this morning. She even got teary when we all said goodbye. Poland was a great trip and we all decided it was most definitley not long enough. There were so many things we still wanted to do. Regardless, it was a great trip to end on. No more traveling for me. There's only a five more weeks left and now it's time to focus on school. Final exams and project deadline are fast approaching and I'm cringing just thinking about how much work I need to do. I love traveling, but it's time for a break. Four places in three weeks is a lot! It has been so exhausting, but so rewarding. This next weekend, all we're doing is studying, decorating for Christmas and then Stephanie is coming to visit!! I am so excited, but I've got so much to do between now and then. I should probably start by going to bed now. I've got quite a lot of sleep to catch up on. Goodnight!
