It's almost over...

Well folks, my time here in jolly old England is almost over.  On Sunday I will board a plane to head back home to Indiana.  (And of course as I am writing this I can hear Jim Nabors sing Back Home Again in Indiana!)

 I remember when I first got here how crazy I thought I was for doing this and how long 6 months seemed.  However, these last 6 months have just flown by!  And I can honestly say that I am thrilled that I did this.  I won't lie to you and say it was the easiest thing that I have ever done, but it was well worth it.  I have made some really great friends while I have been here and will miss them terribly.  They made this experience all the more worth while. 

I have also enjoyed sharing this experience with all of you.  I still have more to write about.  I did a lot of traveling in the last several weeks that I haven't had a lot of time to write about it.  So, I hope you keep coming back to read about the things I have done here in England.  And after that who knows what I will write about!

But for now I have to pack!  I can't figure out how I have accumulated so much stuff in the last 6 months.  I am coming home with more than twice the amount that I came with!  And if I'm honest with myself, I plan on doing a bit more shopping before I leave...I can't leave England without a proper pair of wellies!

But before I go, I thought I would add a couple of photos!  Everytime I took the train into London, I used the King's Cross station.  And everytime I was there I looked for Platform 9 3/4 and I never was able to find it.  Over St. Patrick's Day weekend they opened up a new section of King's Cross Station, which is beautiful by the way.  I now know why I couldn't find it...it was in the new part.  Although I will say this about it...it's nowhere near platforms 9 and 10! 


Oh and I finally remembered to get my picture taken inside the map.  If you remember in my first blog about London I mentioned that I am a rather big Friends fan.  It wasn't until my second to last trip to London that I remembered to do it.  I didn't have as cool of a map that Joey did with the pop up landmarks, but I figured this still did the trick!

Lovely Day for a Guinness

When my sister, Holly decided to come out and visit me for a week, I decided that I would take the week off as well so we travel around together.  Our first stop was Dublin!  We got there on Saturday evening.  We really weren't able to do much more than grab a bit to eat that night, but we did make our plans for the next morning. 

First on our list of things to do was to visit the Guinness Storehouse.  Who doesn't like starting their day off drinking a Guinness?!  Our hotel was on the other side of Dublin, so we caught the tram and headed towards the Storehouse.

The tram doesn't drop you off in front of the Storehouse, you had to walk a little ways to get to the entrance.  Actually, it's almost like a maze trying to find the entrance!  It has been in the higher 40's, lower 50's temperature wise here for awhile.  However, Holly had left 70 degree weather and found it extremely cold.  She was practically racing to get inside.  I didn't find it all that cold, but then again I didn't just leave 70 degree weather.  And to be fair to Holly, we were in the shade the whole time we were walking there, so that didn't help much.  I'm just glad she remembered to bring gloves!

We finally found the entrance and got our tickets.  Guinness is a self guided tour.  I believe there is an audio guide if you want to listen to the history, but we opted not to do that. One of the first things you see once you start the tour is a water fall.  They show you all the elements that go into making a Guinness throughout the first part of the tour.  Once through this part of the tour, they offer a small sampling of Guinness for you to taste.  At first I was a little thrown off because I thought we were suppose to get a full pint, but that doesn't come until the every end of the tour.

The part that I was most looking forward to was the advertising section.  I have always enjoyed the way Guinness has made their ads and posters.

"Lovely day for a Guinness",  "My Goodness My Guinness" & "There's nothing like a Guinness".  Simple, to the point and it has great artwork to go with it.  Even if you don't like Guinness,the ads stick with you.

The best part about the whole tour is without a doubt The Gravity Bar at the top of the Storehouse.  It has by far the BEST views of Dublin.

 

Not only are the views AMAZING, but as part of the tour, as I stated earlier, you get a pint of Guinness.  I have never really liked Guinness, I generally like lighter beers.  I was told that if it was a bit strong for me I could put some blackcurrant flavoring in it.  However, I didn't need to.  I really enjoyed it!  I must say, nothing is better drinking a Guinness while looking out over the city of Dublin.  And we were really lucky, it was a bright sunny day! I'm interested in trying a Guinness back in the States as I hear it doesn't taste the same...that it's much better here in Dublin.  I see some tastings in my future!

Dublin - St. Patricks Day

What could be cooler than being in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day?!  Nothing that I can think of!

My Aunt Jo and cousins Courtney and Tyler were over visiting for the week leading up to March 17 for spring break.  Since they were already going to be over here, Tyler wanted to go to Dublin for that weekend.  The rest of us thought that sounded like a good idea.

We landed in Dublin on the 16th and headed to the hotel.  We were actually staying in a town outside of Dublin called Leixlip.  We were a little concerned that it wasn't within walking distance of Dublin, but it turned out quite nicely.  It was an easy bus ride there.  And the best thing for us, their bar is open 24 hours!  So when we got there which was a bit late, we all had a few drinks.  I, of course, had a Guinness and Smithwicks ale...when in Ireland!  We stayed up to ring St. Patricks day in properly.

Later that morning we got up and caught the bus into Dublin.  After stopping off to have breakfast and do a bit of shopping before it got too crazy, we headed over to the parade route.  The one thing we forgot to do before we left was to find out what time the parade started.  We ended up waiting about 2 hours for it to start.  While none of us were overly thrilled with waiting that long, we knew we had too.  How could you not see at least part of the parade?!

While we were waiting we met a couple from the Chicago area that were there on their honeymoon.  It was nice to have to some friendly people around to talk to. Not that other people weren't friendly, but the closer it got to the start of the parade, the crazier people got.  People kept trying to get in front of us after we had been standing there longer than them.  At that point in time we were NOT going to give up our spots!

While holding onto our spots, the parade finally started.  However, this wasn't what I was expecting the parade to be like.  I was thinking it would be Irish in theme with shamrocks and leprechauns...you know, St. Patrick's day stuff.  Instead, the best way to describe it is to say it's like a Tim Burton film...very odd, yet kind of cool.

They also had a lot of things we Americans are use to having in parades...marching bands.  What I didn't realize, but wasn't surprised by, was that they were American high school marching bands.  I can only imagine how cool it was for those students to be there!  Although I must say that I'm glad I wasn't a chaperone for the them! 

We didn't stay for the whole parade, as we wanted to check out some things around Dublin before all the crowds got there.  I think the several rows of people behind us were glad to get a closer view!  What we did see was very cool and I'm glad that we got to see some of it. 

This was my second trip to Dublin and I love it just as much as I did the first time.  I know I haven't written about it yet, and I will.  I just wanted to write about the parade as close to St. Pattys day as I could. 

I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!  I know we sure did!

Stonehenge

One of the must see places that was on my list while I am here in England was Stonehenge.  And I have now been there twice.  Once while my parents were here and once while my sister was here. 

When I went with my parents, it was part of a long weekend that started with us going to Hever Castle.  I made sure we got fairly close the day before so we only had to drive about 45 minutes before we got there.  When we woke up that morning it was a pretty sunny day. Unfortunately it didn't stay that way.

I had always heard that Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere...and it really is.  You start off driving over a hill and once you are at the top of it, Stonehenge just appears a little ways off in the distance.  I was thinking that we were going to have to take some back roads to get to it, but it is off a main road.

Once we had parked and got out the the car, we could tell that the temperature had drop and I was glad that I had my winter coat with me!  We made our way over to the entrance, paid and picked up our audio tour when the rain started.  And it was a cold rain at that!  As I said to my parents...welcome to England!

We stuck it out anyways and listened to the audio tour.  Lucky for us it wasn't pouring, so that made it easier to stick it out.  It was pretty interesting to listen to the history.  I won't get into all of it here as I know there are hundreds of websites that offer up way more information than I could.  But if you do make it here, I highly recommend the audio.  It is free to use with your price of admission.

The second time I went, the weather was MUCH better!  (In fact, all the pictures that are on here are from the second trip, except for the picture of my parents bundled up!) This time I went with my sister Holly and we just decided to make a day trip out of it.  We went on a Tuesday, so it wasn't very busy when we got there.  This time though, instead of having only a 45 minute drive, it was about a four and half hour drive.  Stonehenge is on the other side of London from where I live.  I know it seems crazy to drive that far one way just to see a bunch of rocks in a field, but it is consider one of the wonders of the world, so why not!

Holly isn't as interested in history as I am, so this time we didn't listen to the audio guide.  We just walked around and took a lot of photos.  You can't get close enough to touch the rocks, (well, you can if you are on TV!) but you can get pretty close to them.  Much closer than I thought you would be able to.

I am thrilled that I got the chance to see this wonder of the world in person!  And it didn't disappoint.  It was pretty impressive. Although, no disrespect to my parents, but I enjoyed it a lot more when I went with my sister.  Although that is only because it was a gorgeous day!