Londontown

This seems like ages ago because I haven’t blogged in about a month…. I’m sorry but I’ve been too busy traveling and squeezing in some school work as well… hahaha yes I really do have school work.  So In the beginning of February Katelyn, Sarah, Emily and I went to London for the weekend and stayed with Bridgette at her school which so happened to be in the middle of a park-lucky her! She had the best of both worlds of living in a park inside a major city.  We had to take a plane, train, and subway to get to Bridgette but it was SO GREAT seeing her when she met us at the tube station.  After grabbing a quick bite and dropping off our things at her dorm we were ready to see London!   The first touristy stop we made was Abbey Road, and of course we had to battle the traffic to duplicate that famous Beatles picture.  I heard that London drivers will do anything to avoid that road because of all the annoying tourists like myself who need to take that picture.

The gang on Abbey Road!

Next off we went to Camden Markets which is a big street with shops full of everything you can think of and several outdoor vendors, very much like Canal St in New York.  I got a couple of cool scarf things at one of the vendors, but I could have dropped a fortune in some of the stores we went into…fortunately I paced myself with the shopping, because I knew I had a big purchase coming. 

After Camden Markets we hiked it back to Bridgette’s place and glammed ourselves up for our first night out in London!  Bridgette took us to a club called KoKo which was a personal favorite of hers.  It is an old opera house that was turned into a club so the architecture of the place was really cool, and looked like an opera house would have on the inside with the different mezzanines-which were now turned into dance floors!

Awww best friends in London!

Koko-you showed us a good time...



Before we knew it Friday night turned into Saturday morning and after a few hours of sleep it was time to get up to go walk the city of London and see the sights! There is a tour group called New Europe that gives free walking tours of different cities around Europe so needless to say hopped right on board.  We met our group outside of Hyde Park at the Wellington Monument and went from there.  Our tour lasted almost 3 hours and check out all the cool sites we got to see….

The Wellington Monument

England's Triumph Arch...no where as big as France's

Hello Buckingham Palace : )

Me and Katelyn-love that girl

Trafalgar Square

Oh hey Big Ben!

So touristy, I know

Westminster Abbey- Where William will marry Kate and break the hearts of girls all over

After the tour we ran on over to a site, we were all excited to see and experience: the London Eye, which is a HUGE ferris wheel on the water that overlooks Big Ben and Parliament- so we had great views of both of them on the Eye !   Oh and did I mention we just happen to get on as the sun was setting…it was simply gorgeous.

The London Eye!!

On the Eye (Big Ben and Parliament are in the back)

had made reservations for us at the Ice Bar in London for Saturday night.  Everything in the bar( including the bar itself) was made out of ice so we had to put on these big furry blue cloaks and ski gloves before going in.  Because the bar is below zero you’re only allowed to stay for 40 minutes.  So we had a few drinks and took ton of “Touristy Ice Bar pictures” and were on our way to continue our night!

One of the things I had really wanted to see was the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace-I’ve always heard it was a big deal at the Palace.  After hearing how cool it would be from my Mom and watching Lucille Ball’s experience with the royal guards in I Love Lucy, I had to go check it out for myself.  Sunday morning everyone overslept and I freaked a little because I had heard that you have to get there really early if you want a good spot, and bear in mind this was a Sunday.  So Sarah and I had gotten ready quickly and dashed over to Buckingham Palace.  There were areas roped off on the street right in front of the Palace so I thought that it was going to happen right there on the street-I was thrilled because we were able to walk right up and would have had front row seats even though we weren’t that close to the gates…well I was wrong.  We eventually see the bands coming and all the guards walking INTO the palace gates-which I should have figured.  So we made our way through the crowds and eventually get close enough to the palace gates to see part of the ceremony.  It was pretty cool and I’m glad I was able to see at least part of it.  Unfortunately my camera died Saturday night so I have no pictures from Sunday.

 Bridgette and I met up afterwards and headed over to the huge department store-HARRODS!  It was absolutely massive-and kind of reminded me of Saks.  We walked through the different departments-our favorite one being the floor with all the DIAMONDS from Tiffany’s to Cartier and Harry Winston.  We each picked out what our future ring will look like and told each other that we’d just have to marry someone who can afford rocks like those.  I don’t know if diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but they’re certainly more fun, when you’re with your best friend : ) After Harrods we walked over to the Burberry store and after long contemplation I bought my wallet!! I was very nervous and excited about it all at the same time, but I'm glad I got it!

Bridgette photographed the big purchase : )



Caitlin is studying in London this semester too so later on that night we met up with her and Nick for dinner before heading back to the airport.  She was away all weekend, but I’m glad we were able to enjoy dinner together before taking off.  Unfortunately it was a short time with her but two weeks later she would be coming to Dublin to celebrate my birthday!!!

We had an interesting next couple of hours ahead of us…our flight wasn’t actually until early Monday morning but the train we needed to get to the airport stopped late Sunday night, so we took the train to the airport and decided we would just sleep in the airport for a couple hours.  I can say I did it once-but NEVER again.  We were all exhausted and the airport floor was freezing.  That blue fleece mini sleeping bag Dad made me bring came in handy once again.  I opened it up and we all squished together on the blanket trying to keep warm and get maybe an hour of sleep.  Before we knew it we were back in grand Dublin.

Sleep tight...

The Story of the Grandest Birthday Buddies!!

It was about three years ago that Kerry and Eileen or to some known as Karl and Edward became next door neighbors in the oh so great Deegan West dormitory back at "the Mack".  Both girls came off as shy and innocent, but whoever decided to have us live next to each other was in for a real treat : ) After a few months of becoming what can only be called, "the best of friends"...and enemies (if you want to count UFC pillow fights or apples being thrown at heads)  mwahahaha ; ) they realized that they were born on the SAME day and ALMOST at the SAME place...how ironic because they are pretty much the same person.  How cool would it have been to say we were born at the same hospital on the same day and become best friends 18 years later....oh well. As Eileen decided to study abroad junior year, they figured out they would be on two separate continents for their 21st BIRTHDAY...Kerry was not pleased. However  I still feel as if the world could not handle these ladies if they were together on this monumental day...

I wish we could have been together today Kerry and I know my card probably hasn't gotten to you yet, so enjoy this little gem to look back on some of our AMAZING MEMORIES and to look foward to a million more to come! HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY DOLLFACE, I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!

Some of my favorite Karl/Edward pictures!!

One of our first pictures together...best friends already : )

"Work that ponytail....OWN that updo"

"I wanna love somebody like you" 

 Oh our song will never get old  ; )

Gotta love those infamous U-C-O-N-N parties, there's nothing like a party in the USA

Can't forget those crazy fun nights in "The Can"

Theme song for life originated that day...pretty much

"Yes Eileen, you really do have to paddle"

Mary: What are you guys in such a rush to get home to?

Kelsey: UHM HALLOWEEN.

"Oh Alien....So happy together!!!!!"

"Because I....have something....to showww youuu" ; )

"Don't forget the rogaine next time. AND USE IT."

Best. Friends. Forever....Literally DO IT.

(p.s. I hope this makes up for standing you up at our skype date last night....haha)

Cobh, Cork, & Blarney!

Ok so I know I’m very behind and I’m sorry …I thought I never had enough time during the day back home, but here the time goes by 10x faster…A couple weekends ago we ventured on down to the “rebel county” of Cork…(why it’s called the rebel county I’m still not sure).  UCD has a travel group for international students to allow us to see Ireland outside of Dublin.  The group is run by Irish students and they plan group trips around the country for us.  We willingly hopped on board this first trip to Cork.  There were about 200 international UCD kids and we filled up 4 “Paddywagon” tour buses.  Clearly we did not pick the right bus to get on…during our drive to Cork our door flew open and a side mirror flew off…great-you can only imagine how safe we all felt.   We left UCD Friday morning and our first stop was a small town on the water called Cobh .  Cobh is a beautiful town on the water about an hour outside of Cork City.  The main attraction of this small town is that it was the last port of call for the Titanic before it sank.  The Titanic was able to dock here because this port is the 2^nd largest port in the world, the 1^st being Sydney, Australia.   We walked on down by the water because everyone had to take a “Jack and Rose” picture on the railing in front of the water.  Also on the waterfront was a statue of Annie Moore and her children… she was the first ever emigrant to be processed in Ellis Island. 

Annie Moore and her kids are headed off to America

The town of Cobh-gotta love those colored buildings

We had a couple of hours to walk around the city so we then walked up the hill to visit St. Coleman’s Cathedral.  I will never get sick of looking at different churches….and I’ve learned in Europe that is the thing to do.  Each one is uniquely beautiful and gets to me in a different way.  Here are some pictures of the cathedral in Cobh:

We got back on our bus with our side mirror taped on (that’s how we knew it was our bus) and headed to Cork.  We arrived about an hour later and checked into the hostel which all 200 of us took over. There was a little bit of a rooming mix up for me and my friends so I ended up in a hostel room with 5 French girls, their Spanish friend, a guy from Switzerland, and one from Sweden.  At first I was upset that I wasn’t going to be with my friends but I got over it and eventually thought it was cool being with all these kids from different countries.  We were all starving so once we dropped our bags off we found a place to eat and OH! I got my first Bailey’s Coffee : )  The UCD kids who were leading this trip had organized a pub crawl for us to go on so needless to say we went and had a great time! We stopped at four different pubs- I took a picture of the first three but forgot to get the last place once we got there…woops.  

Our first stop on the pub crawl-it was more of a bar than a pub scene but a fun place

Stop numero dos: we weren't there for very long...

Our 3rd stop and where the jenga competition took place the next night

Saturday morning I went on a tour of the Cork City Jail with Kara, Emily, Sydney and Allie. It was about a half hour walk ALL up hill.  I never thought I would step foot in a jail of any sort but I guess since it was not being used anymore I could make an exception.  The tour was self guided and equipped with a walk man and cassette player-hello flashback to the ‘90s.  It was cool, we were able to walk around the jail and even take a peek inside the old prison cells.  They had different statues of characters acting out some of the things that would have happened in the jail. 

Outside a prison cell-look all the bullet holes

The main hall inside the prison

Don't those look nice and cozy

Outside the jail

Heading on into the jail....dun.dun.dun.....

Our next stop in the city was the English Market-this market was full of fresh food-everything you could imagine and 10 times more.  The best part about the whole thing was that it was ALL FRESH and delicious.  We all scarfed down the sandwiches we got for lunch and enjoyed every bite of them.  The whole time we were there all anyone could say was-“Why can’t Dublin have something like this?”  The place was that good we all came back later for dinner aka fresh loaves of Irish soda bread and chocolate truffles for dessert. 

Look at all that delicious bread!

After lunch we did do some more walking and burned off those calories consumed from the amazing food at the market.  In Cork there is a street called St. Patrick’s Hill which we decided to hike up because you can get one of the best views of the city on the top of the hill.  The street was so steep we were questioning whether or not we were in San Francisco.

At the top of St. Patrick's Hill in Cork

As I’m sure you know, rugby is a very popular sport here in Ireland.  I’ve been to a couple games at school and watching it you would think it was a complete free for all.  In the afternoon Ireland was playing Italy so a bunch of the kids from UCD met up at a pub and watched the match.  It was great-we had our own section in the pub and they had a projector on the wall so it was big enough for everyone to see.  The game was a close one, and the Irish fans were not pleased with their rugby team.  Apparently Italy is not a very good team and they were winning the majority of the game.  We did however win the game in the last couple of minutes…”Luck of the Irish” I guess you could say!

The rest of the night was spent back at a pub called An Brog.  It was one of the pubs we went to the previous night on the pub crawl.  We got there pretty early had a couple pints and relaxed from a long day of walking and touring.  Somebody noticed that the bar had Jenga so of course we pulled it out and started playing.  After a while a group of Irish guys challenged us to a competition.  It was our best 3 players vs. theirs.  I was not one of our chosen three but it was just as fun watching.  Unfortunately “Team America” lost and had to sing “Twinkle, twinkle little star” to the winning Irishmen.  

An intense Jenga game going on right there

Sunday morning we headed to the famous Blarney Castle!  Before I left Kelsey gave me a checklist of things to do in Ireland and kissing the Blarney stone was on the list, so I obviously had to check it off for her : )  I didn’t realize we had to climb to the roof of the castle to do it.  We climbed up these steep, winding, and narrow stairs and eventually we made it!  In order to kiss the stone you have to lie on your back, hold onto the bars above you, and then lean back.  I’m not going to lie-it was a little scary because as you lean back you can see the ground below you…not to mention it was raining so it was kind of slippery.  But no worries there was a man sitting there to hold on to you and make sure you don’t fall…On the way down the castle there were different rooms you can explore and at the bottom we got to basically crawl through these cave like tunnels…I’m actually surprised I did it, normally I think I would be too scared, but then I realized- how many times am I going to be in Ireland exploring the Blarney Castle.  On the grounds of the castle there is a huge Irish souvenir shop-I wish I had more time to look through the store because they had basically everything Irish you could think of.  I was excited though- I made my first purchase and bought myself a pair of Irish wool gloves! 

Top of the Blarney Castle

Walking up to the Blarney Castle

The Blarney Stone itself

I kissed the Blarney Stone!

Yours truly in front of the Blarney Castle

The gang at the Blarney Castle

(Rich, Allie, Me, Sydney, Katelyn, Kara, Emily, Sarah, Emily, Justin)

After a fun yet tiring weekend in Cork we boarded the Paddywagon and back to UCD we went.

The past two weekends were spent in London and Paris and I promise as soon as I have more time I will update this again.  I'm so looking forward to celebrating my 21st Birthday this week in Dublin! Bridgette and Caitlin are coming from London to celebrate with me! Hope this finds you all well. Love, Eileen