days 7 & 8, london

When our train arrived in London early in the morning, we boarded a bus right away and began a tour of the city. We made stops at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, as well as driving over the Tower Bridge, past Big Ben and the Parliament building, and also by Buckingham Palace among the rest of the city. After the tour, we went to our hotel to drop off our bags, then our entire tour group (54 people) jumped on the tube (London Underground) to the center of the city, where we took a short walking tour. After this, we had the next day and a half for free time. My group went to many museums, roamed the city, rode the London Eye, and once again, took tons of photographs during our final time in the British Isles. The last night in London we saw Wicked, which I'd previously seen in Chicago, but was a nice way to end the trip. I wish I would've had even more time in London, as I didn't get to see everything I wanted. I guess that just means I'll have to go back!

Our flights home went fairly well, only experiencing small delays. We arrived back in Rochester around 11:30 PM on Thursday night, June 18th. I took SO many photos throughout the trip, I can't even begin to guess a number. Although I'm still trying to adapt to the time change, 3 days later, and have a cold on top of that, the trip has already become one of my favorite memories. I got to meet so many new people and explore places I might never otherwise have the chance to see. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

St. Paul's Cathedral

mmm, London fish & chips! (and St. Paul's Cathedral in background)

coming out of the London Underground

in Trafalgar Square, looking at Big Ben

really cool place along the Thames covered in graffiti, where there were tons of skateboarders

group of some of the RIT and UCM students and professors in the London Eye

on the London Eye, looking out at the city

me on the Eye, with Big Ben and the Parliament Building

day 6, edinburgh

Our one day in Scotland began with a tour similar to the one in Dublin, except with a native of Edinburgh. Along this tour, we visited Edinburgh Castle. This day was very overcast, but we were lucky enough for the rain to hold off while we were outside at this castle. After leaving the castle, we had free time for the rest of the day. Both the RIT group and the group from Missouri traveling with us decided to visit the Camera Obscura and Museum of Visual Illusions along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The museum was a lot of fun and we ended up spending most of our free time there. After leaving the museum, we walked around the rainy streets for a bit, stopping in lots of shops. We met up with our group at a certain time and had a Chinese buffet for dinner, then had a bit more free time before we had to catch our night train to London. The night train was QUITE an experience, to say the least. I've never been in a room so small in my life! I didn't remember to capture a picture, but I was able to find one online, which I posted below.

view from cannon at Edinburgh Castle

a self-portrait in the Museum of Visual Illusions

typical street in Edinburgh (everything in the city is made of stone)

another street view of Edinburgh

Again, this is not my photo, I found it online, but this is what our rooms looked like in the sleeper car to London. Whoever took this photo was likely standing in the doorway of the room. To the left, there is no more room than is shown. That's pretty much the ENTIRE room!

day 5 of touring, lake district

The Lake District in England, just like North Wales, is a gorgeous place. This was another relaxing day. We began at the former house of poet William Wordsworth, then drove into the town of Grasmere where we spent the afternoon looking around the town, shopping, and of course, photographing. That night, at a hotel in Scotland, our tour group played a huge, intense game of capture the flag. At first, I really didn't want to play, but our tour guide convinced us to play just one game. I ended up getting really into the game, and lasted quite a while, to my surprise. I sure slept well that night, despite the fact that our hotel was supposably haunted.

looking out William Wordsworth's bedroom window (not a bad view...)

sitting in Wordsworth's chair, in which he supposably wrote many of his famous poems

chairs at a house in the Lake District

one of the many rivers in the town of Grasmere

too bad the streets of Rochester don't look like those in Grasmere

day 4, north wales

Day 4 was probably my favorite day of the entire trip. The day started out very, very early, as we had to catch a ferry from Dublin to North Wales. Once we arrived in Wales, we stopped in a small town that had the longest name I've ever seen. I tried counting the letters of the name on a sign but lost count at 56. I'm not even going to begin to post the name, so I'll just post a picture of the town's name instead, haha. After we left the long-name town, we visited the town of Beaumaris on the isle of Anglesey in North Wales and it was stunningly beautiful. The gorgeous weather definitely intensified the beauty of this place, but even so, it really was breathtaking (and so relaxing!). I genuinely consider Beaumaris Castle to be one of my favorite places I've ever been. After taking pictures inside the castle, we explored the town and coast of Beaumaris for the remainder of the afternoon. That night, the RIT group minus our professor walked around the small town in England in which we were staying. We just kept walking, photographing, and laughing and weren't paying attention where we were going and ended up getting lost for quite a while. It turns out we really weren't lost at all, as our hotel was only two minutes from where we were when we asked for directions.

It may be hard to see in this small photo, but the very long word across the red sign is the name of the first town we stopped in.

gorgeous ruins of Beaumaris Castle

another part of Beaumaris Castle, looking out at the water and mountains (this does not do justice to the view!)

me on the beach in Beaumaris

part of the town of Beaumaris along the coast

day 3, dublin

Our third day was spent in the city of Dublin, Ireland. We began with a three-hour tour of the city with a woman who has lived in Dublin her entire life. While on the tour, we stopped for a while at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was beautiful. The tour ended at Trinity College, where we saw the Book of Kells. It was so cool to see such an ancient manuscript! Afterwards, we had free time for the rest of the day in the city. I spent the day with my roommate Taylor, and the only boy from RIT who went on the trip, Alex. The three of us walked around the city and photographed for the remainder of the day. We saw some pretty interesting things, including the drunkest woman I've ever seen dancing to some street band's performance and the "bog bodies" at the National Museum of Ireland. These a

ncient bodies (I mean, ANCIENT! from B.C. times) were discovered in some bog in Ireland and were very well preserved. It was so creepy, one of them still had hair on his head! We spent two nights at a very nice hotel and actually ended up in a two-bedroom apartment with a full kitchen. The 6 girls from RIT therefore got to spend the night all together, so we had a lot of fun getting to know each other better in Dublin.

Georgian architecture doors common to Ireland

inside St. Patrick's cathedral

again inside St. Patrick's

flower vendor in the city streets

the woman in red is the drunk woman I referred to above, but I chose to show this picture to show how different a typical Irish band is than one you'd find playing in American city streets

in the Temple Bar area of Dublin (this is what most of the streets looked like in the city)

day 2, blarney & cashel

The second day of actual touring began in Blarney. At the Blarney Castle, I did lean backwards to kiss the Blarney Stone, therefore receiving the "Gift of the Gab". Irish ruins are sacred and aren't demolished like those in our country. So many beautiful ruins exist throughout the countryside, including these castles. Its just amazing to think of the history of these castles and ruins. After visiting the Blarney Castle, we stopped for a one-hour break on our way to Dublin at a town called Cashel. In this town, at the site of Cashel Rock, is the legendary origin of the emergence of the shamrock as the symbol of Ireland. During a baptism here, St. Patrick plucked a shamrock out of the ground to explain the mystery of the trinity (or something like this-I may be slightly incorrect, but that's what I remember!) Part of these ruins, therefore, include the original St. Patrick's Cathedral, which dates back to the 14th century.

This might be able to see because the photo is so small, but the legs in the center are those of the girl who is kissing the Blarney Stone. In order to do so, you have to lay down, hold your hands behind your head to the two bars that are attached to the side, and lean backwards to kiss the stone.

This is a view from the ground looking up at Blarney Castle. Although it may be hard to tell in this small photo, the opening at the top 3rd from the left (almost in the center) is where the Blarney Stone is located. When the photograph is bigger, you can make out the form of a person kissing the stone.

ruins in the Irish countryside

Rock of Cashel

panoramic view from the top of Cashel Rock (looks better when larger)

the real day 1

Our first actual day began with breakfast at the hotel, which consisted of cereal (Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes), rolls, and toast. Every breakfast to follow was the exact same the remainder of the trip. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to try anything authentic, but that's alright. Maybe next time!

After breakfast, we drove to the city center of Killarney, where some of our tour rode the jaunting cars. I opted out of this one and instead chose to explore the city. Some friends and I went to St. Mary's Cathedral/The Cathedral of Killarney to photograph. We didn't have much time here because our day was filled. After leaving Killarney, we began our day-long tour of the Ring of Kerry, which was absolutely gorgeous! This is the Ireland that most of us Americans picture when we think of the country. Everything is so green and beautiful. Along the route, we stopped for many photographs. We stopped to see sheep dogs in action, went to the Bog Village (where I tried "Irish Coffee", which is coffee, brown sugar, and Irish whiskey), ate lunch in a small fishing village, took a "paddle" (our tour guide's word for putting your feet in the water, I guess) in the Atlantic Ocean, and ate amazingly creamy soft serve ice cream in the town of Sneem. We ate dinner at Darby O' Gill, our hotel, then went to the pub in the hotel. I was the only one to try an Irish beer, which ended up being very tasty.

St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney, Ireland

a window in one of the houses of the Bog Village

a panorama I created from the Ring of Kerry

me in the wind at the Ring of Kerry

the Irish countryside along the Atlantic coast (Ring of Kerry)

The beginning...

Unfortunately, because of lack of time and internet, I wasn't able to post photos or daily updates while on my trip. Now that I'm home and have gone through my photographs (which took about 7 hours in total haha), I'm going to post a little something about what we did each day and a few photographs to go along with each blurb.

To begin:

Day 1 and 2 were basically hell. We left Rochester around 2:40 PM, then flew to D.C. where we had a layover for a few hours, then rode on an overnight flight to London, and finally to Cork, Ireland. We arrived in Cork around 10:00 AM or so only to find that no bus was waiting for us. We sat around the airport for about an hour before someone FINALLY came with a bus for us. Apparently there was some mix-up with the buses and the tour guide didn't know our flight was coming in in the morning, so we were dropped off in the city of Cork, where we ambled around for a few hours with nothing to do. We took some pictures there, but mine were all awful. I was just so exhausted at that point, running on about an hour of sleep and trying to adjust to the time difference. Finally, we met up with another bus driver who took us BACK to the Cork Airport, where we met another group on our tour and eventually reached our hotel (called Darby O' Gills) in Killarney, which was about an hour and a half from the airport. To say the least, it was a long few days.

British Isles update!

My first post in the Isles! We haven't had much internet service nor the time to really spend time on the computer. I'm at a hotel in Cheshire tonight, where we have very good wifi, so I'm hoping to get some photographs posted later this evening. It's currently 7 PM here, so 2 PM Eastern time.

So far, the trip has been amazing! Ireland is absolutely beautiful, and Wales is even prettier. We have been so, so lucky with the weather, as it has only rained once and just for the morning in Dublin. I've visited Cork, Cashel, The Ring of Kerry, Dublin, Killarney (all in Ireland), North Wales, and now England. Tomorrow we will be spending the day in the Lake District and then traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Later when I post photographs, I will say more about each place we visited thus far. It's about time for dinner now. My first course will be Leek and Potato Soup, my second is going to be some kind of chicken in a mushroom sauce, and the third is vanilla cheesecake. I've found that a lot of the restaurants and hotels where we've eaten have given us food that they consider to be "American", as if we are not interested in trying theirs. It's been a little disappointing, as I wanted to try some ethnic foods. Hopefully I'll get to on the remainder of the trip...

the journey begins tomorrow

My British Isles adventure begins tomorrow! I'm excited, but nervous too since I'm not sure what to expect. I hope I get the photos I want out of this trip and am not disappointed by my work.

My flight schedule for tomorrow (6/8):

2:40 PM depart from Rochester

3:58 PM arrive in Washington D.C.

6:00 PM depart from Washington D.C.

6:20 AM arrive in London

9:30 AM depart from London

10:50 AM arrive in Cork

From Cork, I believe our group will be travelling by bus to Shannon, where we will begin our trip! It's going to be a LOOONG but exciting day.

Hopefully I'll get some internet access overseas to post photos and entries as I travel.