So two weekends ago I went to Glendalough with the Outdoor Pursuits Club. We got to our hostel on Friday night and left for our hike on Saturday morning. We hiked for most of the day and even though it was pretty cold, it was absolutely worth it. These are some pictures I took on the hike, although they don't really do it justice.
The second of my recent adventures was a weekend trip to London! I went with two friends, Meg and Claire. We got in our taxi at 4:30 last Friday morning to get to the airport for our 6 am flight. Our original plan was to spend Friday night in Leeds with my friend from USC, Kendra, who is studying there now. But, due to poor planning (on my part, of course) we were sadly not able to make it to Leeds. So we had to book a different hostel for Friday night. We were exhausted by the time we made it to our hostel and desperately wanted to take a nap. However, we realized almost immediately that we were going to want to spend as little time as possible in this particular hostel. Everything in our 18 person room was a pale, hospital-blue color and I would not have been surprised to have seen a "Quarantine" sign on the door. The bathrooms were essentially indoor porta johns and I think I made a wise decision in opting to be greasy instead of catching any number of diseases by showering there. Maybe you think I am being dramatic. I AM NOT BEING DRAMATIC.
So, after paying one pound to secure our backpacks safely in lockers, we decided to go exploring. We had no idea where to go or how to get there so we just started wandering. Wandering, getting lost, and eating were really the three main events of our trip. However, we managed to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye all during that first afternoon and evening. We debated whether or not we should spend the money to ride the London Eye, a HUGE ferris wheel overlooking the city, but we decided it was the kind of once in a lifetime event that would be worth it. The view was truly spectacular, especially since it was nighttime and the city was all lit up.
We spent Saturday doing a whole lot of getting lost again but we managed to see some cool places along the way. We walked through Kensington, which was an obviously very ritzy part of London. We also visited Platform 9 and 3/4. We happily checked into our second hostel that afternoon and took a well-deserved nap before going to dinner. I ate traditional British fish and chips for dinner, which was delicious. We went out into the city that night, although we never ended up actually making it into any bars or clubs. I think we were in a bit of a too touristy area and every place was incredibly expensive to get into. We were mostly content with just walking around and seeing the insanity of London at night. I have always liked big cities, but this trip made me question whether I would actually want to live in one. It was definitely fun to walk around there, but all those people made me feel like my head was going to spin off. About every seven and a half seconds, someone would pop out and try to convince us that he was offering us the best deal in the world to get into the most fun club that has ever existed. At first, I was more polite, gracefully saying "no, thank you" and walking away. By the end of the night, I was power-walking through the streets, hunched over like an animal, and barking "no" in response to anyone who said anything. (So maybe I'm not cut out for true city life.)
We slept in a little on Sunday and then spent the day doing some more wandering, getting lost, and eating. We made it to the Natural Science museum and also did a little shopping, although I didn't buy anything because traveling is making me so broke it isn't funny. We also stopped at a cute cafe and ate some delicious pastries there. We took a nap again that afternoon (seriously, we deserved it, you would not believe the amount of walking we did every day.) We went to dinner at a cool Mexican restaurant that night and then went to bed early because we had to be awake by four in the morning to catch our bus to the airport. Overall our trip felt less like a vacation and more like a challenge. I had to throw away my favorite brown boots that I brought with me because all of our wandering literally obliterated them. I learned some valuable lessons on this trip, like how important it is to always have the exact address of the hostel where you are staying, and how it might be beneficial to do a little more planning in advance when you're going to a huge, strange city in a foreign country. But overall I was pretty proud of our navigating skills and our ability to endure sleeping one night in the grossest place that has ever existed. We decided that we will be creating an audition tape for the Amazing Race soon, so make sure to look for me on television! I'll probably be the girl who is wandering and lost. Or eating.
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