Toussaint: Ireland

I ended my Toussaint trip by meeting some of my best girl friends from Santa Barbara on the Emerald Isle. It was great to be reunited since we hadn't seen each other since July (well except for Amanda who I had just visited in London) but even greater to explore a new place together. All four of us (Halley, Amanda, Katy, and I) stayed in Galway for most of our time in Ireland because Halley's mom's boyfriend happens to be Irish and live there. So after a brief flight from Glasgow to Dublin, I made my way to Galway via a three hour bus ride. The scenery along the way consisted of rolling hills and farmland and reminded me of the film, "P.S. I Love You" starring Hilary Swank.

I was the second one out of our group to arrive in Galway, where I was startled by a hug from behind by Miss Halley Rainer. We spent the early evening catching up, sitting outside at a café sipping tea while it rained (so Irish). We had curry fries (yum!) before meeting Katy at the bus station. Then we headed back to Halley's mom's boyfriend (Ger's) house in the Irish countryside where we again, sipped tea and spent some time catching up.

The following day was beautiful and we successfully avoided rain, an impressive feat for November in Ireland. Katy began her day with a ride on Ger's motorcycle with him through the Irish countryside. I avoided it because I'm quite the scaredy cat. I need to work on being more brave. After that we headed to Galway Bay for a stroll near the Irish seaside. I got caught in a bush when my wool sweater got stuck on some thorns and I successfully collected some seashells to take back with me as a memory of Ireland.

Halley and Katy walking by the seaside

A glimpse of Galway Bay

Later in the day we met Amanda at the bus station and finally (!) we were all reunited. We marched around Galway for a while, ate a delicious lunch, and then took a sunset stroll to see the colorful Galway Bay houses and the surrounding area. 'Twas lovely. We spent the evening at Monroe's pub, drinking Guinness (my first!) while listening to live music. It felt very Irish.

Downtown Galway

Origin of the claddach ring!

Halley, Katy, and Amanda

An Irish sunset

My first Guinness beer.

Live music at Monroe's

The following day we took a bus tour to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Unfortunately, it poured with gusts of wind throughout the day. The weather, however, made for an entertaining tour of the Burren, as everyone in the tour suited up in bright red rainproof gear. During the walking tour we learned a little bit about the history of the Burren and the gravity of the potato famine. One of the stops on this part of the tour was "fairy tree", one of many signs of Irish folklore. People believed that this tree was a point where fairies could move between this world and the fairy world. Different items were tied to the tree and we were instructed to do the same and make a wish, if we liked. I didn't have anything to tie on the tree except the hair from my own head so I rescinded the offer but others tied pieces of garbage or hair ties to the tree. It reminded me of a British movie called "Fairy" I used to watch as a child.

Halley lookin' pretty hot in those pants

Rainbow = )

Fairy tree

The Burren

Irish coffee

After exploring the Burren, we headed to a traditional Irish inn for lunch. There we ate some rich but delicious chowder, exactly what one wants to taste after a brisk day out on the Burren. Next we headed to the famed Cliffs of Moher. We were warned both by our guide and by the gusts of wind rocking our bus that it would be windy there, but boy were we in for a surprise. Once we stepped out off of the bus we were almost knocked to the ground by the powerful gales coming from the sea. It was so incredibly windy it became amusing as we struggled to stay upright. We slowly made our way up to the "lookout" point, taking pictures along the way with our hair flapping all around. At one point we asked a woman to take a picture of us but she was pushed over by the wind and almost injured herself trying to snap a photo.

The most dramatic part of the Cliffs of Moher experience by far was when Katy ran out against the wind, was knocked over, and then proceeded to bounce along the ground, losing her phone along the way. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the scene on tape (although I had been video taping before). We were, of course, all concerned for her well-being but instead she erupted with laughter and then so did we. Halley too rolled around on the wind-swept grass as Amanda and I clung to the wall for our dear lives. It was an entertaining scene to say the least.

We were all exhausted after the Cliffs of Moher adventure and dozed in and out of sleep on the ride back to Galway. Along the way we stopped at a castle. It was a foreboding scene with darkening skies behind the centuries old stone fortress. The evening ended with us going back to Ger's house and relaxing and falling asleep.

The next day we headed to Dublin. We didn't leave ourselves much time there, less than half a day and an evening, so our primary focus was to go to the Guinness factory. Well, rather the Guinness storehouse. This past summer I went to the Coors factory in Golden, Colorado and that was truly a "factory experience"; I got to see exactly how Coors beer is produced (for the most part I think) and then of course indulge in some free beer afterwards (I chose Blue Moon-- a more craft-like beer that to my surprise, is produced by Coors). My experience at Guinness was much different. We didn't get to see how the beer was produced but instead learned about the history behind Guinness beer. At the end of our self-guided tour we went to the bar at the top of the storehouse, otherwise known as the Gravity Bar. Included in the entry fee for the storehouse is a free Guinness beer but Katy and I managed to charm our way into getting two. I conveniently discovered, however, that I don't really like Guinness, so I passed mine off to Halley.

Afterwards we hung out in The Temple Bar district near our hostel. We met up with Milena, a girl I became friends with after she food-boarded at Manley during winter and spring quarter last year. Milena is going to Graduate school in Dublin. She took us to a neat bar where there was live music and of course more Irish beer. It was nice to catch up with her, if only for a short while. Our night ended pretty mellowly as we made our way back to our hostel and all attempted to rest in the 16 person bunk hostel room we were staying in for the night...

Overall my trip to Ireland was lovely but the best part was getting to be reunited with my girlfriends! I'll be seeing Miss Katy Cutaran at another point this year but the rest I won't get to see until this summer at least. I'm glad that we all got to make some memories together while abroad : )

Toussaint: Scotland

I spent the second part of my Toussaint trip in Glasgow, Scotland. The journey began early on a Tuesday morning, as I left Amanda's dorm at 4:15 a.m. and boarded a quintessential ruby red double-decker bus headed towards Euston Rail Station. I seriously felt like I was in a scene from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the one in which Harry boards the Knight Bus and finds himself in for a crazy ride. Okay, mine wasn't that crazy, it was actually very smooth sailing and only took 30 minutes. I was proud of myself for managing to arrive with plenty of time to spare before the train departed. Traveling is so much less stressful when you don't have to rush.

The train departed at 5:37, just like clockwork, and I was on my way North. I allowed myself to doze off for the first two hours and then devoted the rest of the time to writing in my journal, listening to music, and gazing out the window at the beautiful English countryside. The scenery was lovely! I felt, again, like I was in a scene from Harry Potter, perhaps this time on the Hogwarts Express.

Rainbow in the English countryside!

An interesting article in a British newspaper...

Once I arrived in Glasgow, I got off the train and made my way towards the main entrance, searching for my friend Roxan who was essentially the reason why I decided to go to Scotland. Roxan was one of my 16 housemates in Manley, the co-op I lived in in Santa Barbara last year. Looking back, I really wish I'd kept a blog or journal about my year living with 16 (at first) strangers. That experience was just as formidable as this year's and I wish I had a series of writings to remember it by. Oh well.

The lovely Roxan in her Scottish element

Anyway, Roxan is originally from Sweden but goes to "uni" (haha I'm catching on to the lingo) at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She spent last year as an exchange student at UCSB (we had three other housemates who were exchange students as well) and now I'm an exchange student on her continent. The last time I saw her was back in June when I moved out of Manley and had to say goodbye to everyone and was sobbing and running around hugging people and taking snapshots with a disposable camera. Needless to say, it was an emotional goodbye. But now, 5 months later, I got the opportunity to see and hang out with one of my former housemates again.

As I scanned the platform for her doe-eyed face, I finally found her and slowly approached her. It was a strange hello because she was looking for me and didn't realize I was standing right there. It was also just so strange to see each other in a completely different environment than we were used to. It was great though, seeing a familiar face and a former Manleyan.

After our silly greeting we spent the day just catching up and drinking tea and walking around Glasgow. We went to this DELICIOUS hippie-ish tea shop and café where we sat on pillows and drank some of the most amazing chai tea I've ever had in my life. I went to one of her psychology classes with her, which wasn't exactly the most interesting class but it was nice to go to a lecture taught in English for once. It was the first (English lecture) I'd been to in 5 months. We also went to a "Tea and Talks" event put on by her school, during which a Pyschology professor talked about the research he is working on. There was, of course, tea, and to my delight, Scottish shortbread cookies. It was really interesting because her professor talked about the psychology and biology behind attraction and how the way we are attracted to people is a product of our biological instincts.

Soup and delicious chai tea

Roxan and I at her Uni

Her school was used to film parts of Harry Potter!

A lovely day in Glasgow

In the evening we went to a concert at the Old Fruitmarket, a really cool venue that, as the name suggests, was once an old market and today hosts artists from all over the world. We saw Josh Ritter, an American folk artist I had never heard of until Roxan told me about him and this concert. I listened to a few of his songs before seeing him live but for the most part his music was unfamiliar. It was a great concert! His lyrics are really relatable and they all seem to tell a story. Roxan and I were both moved by his performance and the opening act as well. Her name was Tift Merritt and she reminded me so much of my sister with her strong voice and powerful lyrics. Overall, it was a fantastic night.

The concert venue!

Glasgow by night

The following day I hung out on the main street near the "uni" while Roxan was in class. I scoured tons of thrift stores for winter ware I could bring back to Lyon but found nothing really worth trying to stuff into my already over-packed carry-on. I did, however, find a used Philippa Gregory novel about Mary, Queen of Scots so that was exciting! Oh how I love reading in English haha. I spent the rest of the afternoon window-shopping with Roxan, popping into cute boutiques and nifty thrift stores. We had afternoon tea and carved pumpkins and made pumpkin pie using the pumpkin filling from our carved pumpkins. Then, Roxan had a brilliant idea, that since it was the night before Halloween, we should go to the main cemetery in Glasgow to look at the view from the top of the hill.

Why of course I will = )

After piling on layers of clothing to bare the chilly Fall Glasgow air, we embarked on our adventure. We had to hop a brick and iron gate fence to get into the cemetery and once in we both quickly realized how scared we actually were. Apparently I was the one who held us together, although I kept imagining a hand ready to pop out of the earth and grab my foot. Finally we made it to the top though and just as I had been told, there was a lovely view of the city lights. We sat and talked for a while before finally heading back to Roxan's cozy apartment where we ate warm pumpkin pie, drank tea, and watched Sleepy Hallow. It was a really lovely evening.

The pumpkin carving process

Roxan hard at work

The finished product

The next morning I had to get to the airport to catch my afternoon flight to Ireland. My trip to Glasgow was brief but wonderful and I'm so glad I had the chance to reunite with Roxan, albeit if only for a short while. I hope to return to Scotland this year because I would really like to see Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, preferably in the Spring time when it's a little warmer. And of course I would love to see Roxan again this year while we're still on the same continent! Until next time Scotland : ) 

Toussaint: Bath

During my week-long break at the end of October (otherwise known as Toussaint), I managed to go to England, Scotland, and Ireland and visit friends in each place. While staying in London, I made a day trip to Bath with my friend Molly. Bath, as the name denotes, is a spa town known for it's ancient Roman baths. These are the best preserved Roman baths still standing today.

Bath is about an hour and a half train ride from London. It was lovely to pass through the English countryside and get out of a city for the day. Upon arrival, we passed by several quaint tea shops, something you can't as easily find in London (or at least not from what I saw). There's something kind of liberating about going to a city with out much prior knowledge about it. The main attraction I was aware of in Bath is the Roman bathhouse, but it has several other landmarks including the "Circus", a cylindrical shaped building that resembles a government building but is in fact just a series of apartments. The city is also known for being a residence of Jane Austen and for its Georgian architecture.

Molly and I spent a good 2 1/2 hours exploring what was once a spa for the elite in this Roman outpost. It was interesting to hear about the strong religious connection people had with the mineral waters. People would throw personal items into the water and say spells to punish those who had wronged them. I'm just amazed out how well preserved the baths were, with a murky green pool of water still existing in the center of the forum. It's also incredible how much information historians were able to gather from this era, mostly based off of artifacts found in and around the area.

After our time at the Roman bath we sat down for some tea and scones with jam and clotted cream. I'm not really sure what clotted cream is, but boy is it delicious! I absolutely love the tradition of afternoon tea and I think that is something I will try to bring back with me to France and the U.S. I'm already a tea fanatic, but it's nice to have a routine of relaxing and drinking tea with a snack every afternoon. Well, maybe I won't be able to do that every afternoon, but once in a while it would be nice.

Tea, scone, and clotted cream. Yum!

One of the other main features of Bath is it's Abbey. The city has long been known as a spiritual site and the construction of this Gothic structure is evidence of that. We didn't go inside but the church serves as a focal point of the city.

The abbey

After touring the Roman Baths Molly and I ventured off in search of the building known as the "Circus". We eventually found it, along with a beautiful lawn lined with trees clad with crimson leaves. It looked like a scene out of Downtown Abbey. Actually, I'm quite sure that they have filmed scenes for t.v. shows and movies here.

The circus was our last site to see for the day. After that we headed back to the train station and back to London. It was a lovely day and I'm glad I got to experience a smaller English city (or town) and I would definitely recommend a visit to Bath!