We're halfway through Trinity term, the 3rd and final term at Trinity. Nothing major has happened, I've been trying to study a bit and work through the tutorial work and playing quite a bit of frisbee. But I have had some new developments which are kinda cool. So here goes update on the past 3 weeks.
1) I'm officially coming home in June! I fly in late June 4th and will be here until June 8 when my flight leaves in the morning, back to Ireland and then on to Frankfurt and from there to Wurzburg (that's going to be quite a long day(s) of traveling, but it was much cheaper than flying straight to Frankfurt. I'm definitely excited about coming home for a bit before spending the summer in Germany.
2) Frisbee! This gets abc's because there's lots of stuff.
a) I joined the club Open Club Sandwich, which is mostly beginners but needed more girls for a tournament next weekend, mixed nationals. (mixed means you have 3/4 guys and girls, the ratio can go either way) It'll be an interesting tournament, we're not very good but at least its more frisbee :)
b) I'm officially going to a tournament in Bruge, Belgium the weekend May 1-3. It's supposed to be a lot of fun and Ireland has 3 teams, 2 open and 1 women's. A girl dropped out of the women's team so I joined to fill the spot and am really looking forward to playing! And going back to Bruge, which I really liked from my previous travels
c) Colours: this thursday was the annual Colours match against UCD. It's apparently a big deal and happens in every sport. We had two games, one womens and one open. The weather was terrible, rainy cold and a bit windy, but it was still great times and some pretty good frisbee considering the conditions. Trinity won both matches, the women 13-1 and the open 15-7. Woo Trinity!
d) Because of the above, I've trained for or played frisbee every day for the past 7 days. I did fitness training 2 days, OCS training 2 days, a day of Trinity training, the Colours match, and a day of women's training. :D
3) I bought a ticket to Trinity Ball, which is a huge party the Student's Union throws every year just after teaching finishes and before exams. They have several bands come play and apparently its over most of the college. I still need to figure out my dress.
4) Other random things I've been doing include taking pictures (flowers and trees are blooming everywhere, its so pretty!), cooking (a couple girls and I made fajitas after fitness, and my room mates want to have a tea party, and possibly more cooking dates in the future with frisbee kids), and studying (exams are coming up :( ). Time goes by so fast its crazy! I can't believe that I've only a month and a half left in Ireland!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Weeks 2 and 3 of break
So quite a lot has happened since my last post, specifically I've been to 5 countries and 10 different cities. And my sister was visiting. So I'm going to try to not make a massive long blog about it all, though I do have a cup of tea at the ready. What would probably be more enjoyable for you though is to look at pictures from flickr! Since I got my camera I've been a bit trigger happy, so most of it is recorded on film (well, digital film). So go look at pictures (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradyabroad/) and I will try and fill in details and tell anecdotes on here :)
Where I last left off on my life my sister had just arrived to visit for a week. We spent the first day running her around Dublin, making sure she was as exhausted as possible after just getting off a plane from North America :) We were Dublin tourists for the day, and invented a game called "Spot the Tourist" It was quite easy since most of them were wearing ridiculous green clothing and guinness shaped hats. We tried to be discreet and act like locals :P We packed sandwiches for lunch and basically just wandered west from Trinity to Phoenix park, ate lunch and then wandered back, by way of attractions in either direction :P We saw Dublin castle, both cathedrals, Phoenix park, Guinness factory, Grafton St, Stephen's Green, and the Book of Kells. We got back to my place with just enough time to drop stuff and then head to Porterhouse to watch the 6 nations rugby match between Ireland and Scotland. The place was packed but we found some standing room at the walls and Katie tried her first strawberry beer, and began her love of rugby :) We left to get dinner and then met some friends of mine at Doyle's, where there was actually room to sit. Ireland won! and after the game we just headed back and basically went to sleep (I told Katie jet lag was real)
The next morning we woke up really early to catch a bus to Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher. It was a 5 hr bus ride with a short break during which we bought Aero bars to try (Europe has better candy than the US). We made it to our hostel for lunch and then rented bikes and biked up to the cliffs. It was quite a ride, but really pretty. When we got there we realized that we didn't have chains and so had to take our bikes with us. Oops. We took lots of pictures and had tea and hot chocolate to warm up our hands before biking back. We had dinner at one of the local pubs, went back to the hostel for a bit, and then went to listen to live music, but apparently we were too early and so ended up just having a pint and going to bed again.
We headed back to Dublin the next day, stopped in Galway a bit to buy more chocolate and lunch supplies, and take pictures of daffodils :) We got back to Dublin and I think we spent the afternoon shopping but I'm not sure. Then the next day was St. Patricks day - so much green everywhere! We watched the parade, I was a creeper and took pictures of people, and then we took Bulmers with us to Stephen's Green and sat in the gorgeous weather for a bit. On our way back my friend Sean called me and he came and hung out with us for a while and we ended up going out with him to Temple Bar, which is indeed insane on Patty's day. We went to the Porterhouse and listened to the band there for a bit before heading home before the craziness really started.
The next day we went to a church service at St. Patrick's Cathedral which was pretty cool, I did laundry, we did more shopping, made a picnic lunch because it was so gorgeous out and did some throwing with a couple frisbee kids then packed and got on a plane to Edinburgh. The sunset was gorgeous, both at the airport and on the plane. In Edinburgh we found our hostel, watched a movie they were showing, then bed time.
Here's where I really started taking pictures, so I'm going to be much briefer here (and I also ran out of tea and have started eating chocolate (see later in the post), which is probably a bad idea so I should get away from my computer soon). In Edinburgh we started the day with a walking tour, which was a good way to see the highlights of the city. For lunch, we tried haggis, which was really good, and Iron brew, which was less good and really really sweet (but not bad). After the tour we went to an art museum and then climbed Arthur's Seat, which is the tallest point in the city. It was really gorgeous there, definitely could have spent a day exploring and wandering around the park! We stayed for sunset because it was going to be gorgeous, and indeed was. I took lots of pictures of that :P On the way down we took the interesting route (= lots of sliding and running down slopes) and ended up at the base with only a small mishap (muddy boots and pants). Dinner was sub way and then we went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel to see some of the Edinburgh night life (apparently they have 27 bars on one street).
The next day we started at the castle which was really cool, we saw lots of stuff about scottish soldiers, the Scottish crown jewels, and really cool views of the city. It was lunch time when we left, and we found fish & chips at Marks & Spencer, so went back to our hostel to make lunch. After the hostel we went to the National Museum, which was way cool - they have stuffed Dolly the sheep! We actually didn't do much of the museum - it was huge and we had limited time. On our way back we picked up our stuff from the hostel and went to the New Town to wander a bit before catching the bus back to the airport. Apparently I had miss remembered our flight time, and then our flight was delayed, so we ended up spending a good chunk of time in the Edinburgh airport, but ate lots of chocolate :) (chocolate can indeed be a mean). We got back to Dublin about 10:30, got back to my apt, unpacked, showered, and repacked before going to bed.
The next morning we got up early again and headed back to the airport for our flights home and to Amsterdam. My flight wasn't until 11, so they wouldn't let me check in until 8, so I couldn't go down to wait with Katie, but I did manage to get through before she boarded and so we said bye in the airport and she flew back home and I sat and wrote post cards while waiting for my flight. In Amsterdam I found Kristin, Alex, and Josh and we went to Kristin and my hostel to check in and dump stuff. We then went to the Mannequin Pis fries place and had some delicious fries with mayo (the first of many such meals). Afterwards we went to the Heineken brewery for a tour and some beer, and then to an Irish pub to watch the last 6 nations game, which Ireland won, meaning it swept the tournament!! It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we got crazy hot dogs (mine had chicken and some sort of veggie, maybe peppers, on it). Kristin and Alex wanted to see a coffee shop, so we went by one and then Josh had to leave so we said bye to him and then just talked for a bit at Alex's before going to bed.
The next day I got up early to go by the Anne Frank house, which the others had done the day before I got there. It was a really cool museum! Afterwards I met up with Kristin and Alex and we wandered/souveneir shopped until Alex left, then Kristin and I went to the Tulip museum, tulip sellers area, bought some yummy cheese to put on our fries and walked along one of the canals through the Jordaan area. It was a really nice afternoon of wandering. We had more chips for dinner, had a couple of pints at an Irish bar near our hostel, and then went to bed early in preparation for our first train the next day!
Our first train was from Amsterdam to Antwerp, which we had planned on spending half a day in on our way. But then we walked out the train station and it was raining and icky, and we didn't really have anything planned, so decided to not stay long. Originally we were just going to find waffles and get on the next train to Brussels, but it took a bit longer than expected, and I bought gloves, and we got lost a bit, and ended up spending a grand total of an hour and a half in Antwerp :P Then on to Brussels! It took us a bit to find our hostel, but we did in the end. The rooms were really cute, and had high ceilings so I had fun jumping on the top bunk of our bunk beds :) We got hamburgers for dinner and tried our first Belgian beer, which is really good! We realized though that we didn't have a bottle opener, so could only buy cans from the supermarket (a problem) and began our search for one (to be continued). That night at the hostel we met Becca and Cara, who it turned out were planning on doing the exact same route we were! It was quite funny. They were really nice and we ended up traveling a lot together.
The next day Kristin and I started out by finding the Mannequin Pis (peeing boy statue) and wandering through the tourist area. Then we went through the market square and up to a cathedral, the palace, a park, a really cute square for some more chips and mayo for lunch, and my first chocolate purchase :D Then we visited the Cantillion Brewery, a working brewery that makes geueze and kriek beers the traditional way. It was really cool to see, and taste at the end. Afterwards we did some more window shopping (and found a cheap bottle opener), went back to the hostel for a bit, and then went out for cheap sandwiches. The guy at the shop gave us free coffee and told us some stuff to do in Brussels, it was really nice. We then headed to Delirium (bar that sells 2004 beers and has 25 on tap, including what was voted the best beer in the world) after dinner and tried their delirium beer, which was indeed very good.
The next day we day tripped to Bruge. In the lobby we met Cara and Becca, who were going to stay there that night as it was cheaper than Brussels, and so we took the train there together. Bruge is adorable, we loved it as soon as we got out of the train station! First Kristin and I walked through a park that had really cool benches and a giant Harry Potter-esq (from Chamber of Secrets, yes I'm a nerd) chess board. After the park we headed to a market they have every wednesday, and passed by a pond with lots of swans and ducks and LOTS of chocolate and lace shops. We finally made it to the square (after lots of oggling in store windows) and they had lots of different food and flowers. We decided to eat lunch there and got chicken kebabs from the meat stand and some bread and pastries to go with our amsterdam cheese. It was quite delicious. Afterwards we went to the chocolate museum where they showed the entire history of chocolate, pretty nifty and included samples :) From there we went to a spot that was supposed to have a good panorama of the city, but was actually just a slight rise with some windmills on it. The windmills were cool though, and the fence around them had been made into lace! It was way cool. We wandered back to the city center, I made Kristin play with me on a bunch of logs, but we felt justified because afterwards we went in search of lace and so figured that the 5 year olds playing on the logs and the 70 year olds buying lace evened out to a nice 21 :P I did quite a bit of chocolate shopping, and couldn't help but buy a lace apron :) We then headed back to Brussels for our Belgian meal, mussels in Brussels :P We decided to go with the cheaper place, which was probably not the best decision, but it was pretty good, and afterwards we went back to Delirium for our final belgian beers (in Belgium, we took some with us to Switzerland).
The next morning we met Becca and Cara at the train station (they had come back down from Bruge) and headed to Luxembourg. This was our longest travel day, a total of 9 hours to get us to Interlaken, so we decided to stop in the tiny country along the way. When we got to Luxembourg we stowed our bags at the train station and went exploring. We didn't really have any plans and so just ended up wandering around the city for 3 hours. It was pretty interesting, it was on 2 sides of a deep valley with city on either side and in the middle. Very cute, but not much to do there. We bought groceries for dinner and got back on the train to Interlaken. Lots more train riding later and we were in Interlaken. Kristin and I had decided to splurge and stay at a cute looking B&B called Walter's. We got there, and it was indeed adorable. We had our own (large) room, and a post card and chocolate next to our beds :) We ate our dinner and then went to sleep.
The next morning when we looked out our window, there were the Alps! It was awesome! We met Becca and Cara at the train station and headed up to Grindlewald to go sledding. On the first train we didn't get off, so ended up riding the train a bit more than expected, but it was gorgeous so that was ok. On the second train though, the conductor told us that Eurail/Interrail passes weren't valid, which was a bummer so we had to buy tickets. Then in Grindlewald we realized that sledding was actually going to be pretty expensive, so we walked around for a bit to see what else we could do. Becca and Cara decided to go back down to Interlaken and Kristin and I took a cable car halfway up one of the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous! I got very picture happy and took over 200 pictures of the alps (about half the pictures from the entire trip). At the top we made a snow man on the side of the ski run, my first real snowman!! It was a lot of fun, and we used chocolate for his eyes and chapstick for the nose :P We had to destroy him in the end since he was on the ski run, and ended up making a snow ball fight out of it. We had a beer at the restaurant and then headed back down to the town and then to Interlaken. Walter offered a fondue dinner, so we told him that we wanted to do that, and walked around Interlaken for a bit before dinner. It was really good fondue! We bought veggies to add to the meal, Walter provided cheese, bread and wine and dessert, and so it was a really fun meal. The dessert was ice cream and cookies, brought in adorable little cups that we got to keep. We decided that Walter was our favorite person ever :) After dinner we went to Cara and Becca's hostel to have a drink with them and ended up talking for several hours before going back to Walter's.
The next day Becca, Cara and Kristin and I took a scenic train to Lucern - it was absolutely gorgeous! I really wanted to get out and wander around for a bit and take pictures ;) In Lucern we did some more wandering (We're really good at that :P ) And saw their cool bridge and lion sculpture and tower on a hill and shops. We spent about 2 hours there and then parted ways as Kristin and I headed to Zurich while Cara and Becca were back to Interlaken for one more night. At the train station we grabbed some food and then hopped on a train to Zurich! It was raining there too, which was kinda depressing, so we went to our hostel, sat for a bit, bought hamburger making supplies, and then did the hw we had been meaning to do all trip :P When we made dinner two guys were in the kitchen cooking so we talked to them for a bit and made our dinner. Since it was our last night we decided to go out for a bit, but had a hard time finding a place close by that wasn't a club, and ended up at another Irish bar :P We watched the tail end of a soccer game and then headed back to the hostel (late night for us - 11:30 woo! we laughed the whole trip about us going to bed super early every night).
The next morning I got up early and wandered around the Old Town, which was super cute and had some really cool streets. Kristin's flight was 6 hrs later than mine, so she was going to do it in the afternoon. After checking out we went by the train station to check on getting to the airport and then walked down the main shopping street (I can't remember the name, something with a B) but everything was closed because it was Sunday - probably good for our wallets. We also saw the lake, the corner with all the swiss banks and a cool park and aviary before going back to the hostel to grab my bag. We got preztles and eclairs for lunch and picnicked in a park. After killing time by taking pictures and watching an adorable dog play fetch we headed back to the train station, looked for drawings of the swiss alps (sadly couldn't find one) and then it was time for me to leave. Sadly we said goodbye (this was our last of several trips together) and I headed to the airport and back to Dublin. I had to check my bag (the Swiss would be the first ones to actually weigh it), which was sad but I guess inevitable (as much as I wanted to try and get it down to weight, putting on 6 kg of clothing probably wasn't going to work, I think it was the massive amounts of chocolate I had bought that did me in). I made it home safely and unpacked before a couple of people from UT arrived to crash on my floor for the night. We made dinner and talked for a bit and I finished my hw before going to bed.
The next morning was the start of Trinity term and back to class. Not so fun, but it's good to be back! I've been going through pictures and getting caught up on emails the past couple of days. Also, Trinity Ultimate won intervarsities! That was pretty exciting to hear and so we celebrated that monday night. And that about wraps up my life for the past 2 weeks in a very long post. I'm impressed you made it this far, and even more impressed if you did it in one go :P
Where I last left off on my life my sister had just arrived to visit for a week. We spent the first day running her around Dublin, making sure she was as exhausted as possible after just getting off a plane from North America :) We were Dublin tourists for the day, and invented a game called "Spot the Tourist" It was quite easy since most of them were wearing ridiculous green clothing and guinness shaped hats. We tried to be discreet and act like locals :P We packed sandwiches for lunch and basically just wandered west from Trinity to Phoenix park, ate lunch and then wandered back, by way of attractions in either direction :P We saw Dublin castle, both cathedrals, Phoenix park, Guinness factory, Grafton St, Stephen's Green, and the Book of Kells. We got back to my place with just enough time to drop stuff and then head to Porterhouse to watch the 6 nations rugby match between Ireland and Scotland. The place was packed but we found some standing room at the walls and Katie tried her first strawberry beer, and began her love of rugby :) We left to get dinner and then met some friends of mine at Doyle's, where there was actually room to sit. Ireland won! and after the game we just headed back and basically went to sleep (I told Katie jet lag was real)
The next morning we woke up really early to catch a bus to Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher. It was a 5 hr bus ride with a short break during which we bought Aero bars to try (Europe has better candy than the US). We made it to our hostel for lunch and then rented bikes and biked up to the cliffs. It was quite a ride, but really pretty. When we got there we realized that we didn't have chains and so had to take our bikes with us. Oops. We took lots of pictures and had tea and hot chocolate to warm up our hands before biking back. We had dinner at one of the local pubs, went back to the hostel for a bit, and then went to listen to live music, but apparently we were too early and so ended up just having a pint and going to bed again.
We headed back to Dublin the next day, stopped in Galway a bit to buy more chocolate and lunch supplies, and take pictures of daffodils :) We got back to Dublin and I think we spent the afternoon shopping but I'm not sure. Then the next day was St. Patricks day - so much green everywhere! We watched the parade, I was a creeper and took pictures of people, and then we took Bulmers with us to Stephen's Green and sat in the gorgeous weather for a bit. On our way back my friend Sean called me and he came and hung out with us for a while and we ended up going out with him to Temple Bar, which is indeed insane on Patty's day. We went to the Porterhouse and listened to the band there for a bit before heading home before the craziness really started.
The next day we went to a church service at St. Patrick's Cathedral which was pretty cool, I did laundry, we did more shopping, made a picnic lunch because it was so gorgeous out and did some throwing with a couple frisbee kids then packed and got on a plane to Edinburgh. The sunset was gorgeous, both at the airport and on the plane. In Edinburgh we found our hostel, watched a movie they were showing, then bed time.
Here's where I really started taking pictures, so I'm going to be much briefer here (and I also ran out of tea and have started eating chocolate (see later in the post), which is probably a bad idea so I should get away from my computer soon). In Edinburgh we started the day with a walking tour, which was a good way to see the highlights of the city. For lunch, we tried haggis, which was really good, and Iron brew, which was less good and really really sweet (but not bad). After the tour we went to an art museum and then climbed Arthur's Seat, which is the tallest point in the city. It was really gorgeous there, definitely could have spent a day exploring and wandering around the park! We stayed for sunset because it was going to be gorgeous, and indeed was. I took lots of pictures of that :P On the way down we took the interesting route (= lots of sliding and running down slopes) and ended up at the base with only a small mishap (muddy boots and pants). Dinner was sub way and then we went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel to see some of the Edinburgh night life (apparently they have 27 bars on one street).
The next day we started at the castle which was really cool, we saw lots of stuff about scottish soldiers, the Scottish crown jewels, and really cool views of the city. It was lunch time when we left, and we found fish & chips at Marks & Spencer, so went back to our hostel to make lunch. After the hostel we went to the National Museum, which was way cool - they have stuffed Dolly the sheep! We actually didn't do much of the museum - it was huge and we had limited time. On our way back we picked up our stuff from the hostel and went to the New Town to wander a bit before catching the bus back to the airport. Apparently I had miss remembered our flight time, and then our flight was delayed, so we ended up spending a good chunk of time in the Edinburgh airport, but ate lots of chocolate :) (chocolate can indeed be a mean). We got back to Dublin about 10:30, got back to my apt, unpacked, showered, and repacked before going to bed.
The next morning we got up early again and headed back to the airport for our flights home and to Amsterdam. My flight wasn't until 11, so they wouldn't let me check in until 8, so I couldn't go down to wait with Katie, but I did manage to get through before she boarded and so we said bye in the airport and she flew back home and I sat and wrote post cards while waiting for my flight. In Amsterdam I found Kristin, Alex, and Josh and we went to Kristin and my hostel to check in and dump stuff. We then went to the Mannequin Pis fries place and had some delicious fries with mayo (the first of many such meals). Afterwards we went to the Heineken brewery for a tour and some beer, and then to an Irish pub to watch the last 6 nations game, which Ireland won, meaning it swept the tournament!! It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we got crazy hot dogs (mine had chicken and some sort of veggie, maybe peppers, on it). Kristin and Alex wanted to see a coffee shop, so we went by one and then Josh had to leave so we said bye to him and then just talked for a bit at Alex's before going to bed.
The next day I got up early to go by the Anne Frank house, which the others had done the day before I got there. It was a really cool museum! Afterwards I met up with Kristin and Alex and we wandered/souveneir shopped until Alex left, then Kristin and I went to the Tulip museum, tulip sellers area, bought some yummy cheese to put on our fries and walked along one of the canals through the Jordaan area. It was a really nice afternoon of wandering. We had more chips for dinner, had a couple of pints at an Irish bar near our hostel, and then went to bed early in preparation for our first train the next day!
Our first train was from Amsterdam to Antwerp, which we had planned on spending half a day in on our way. But then we walked out the train station and it was raining and icky, and we didn't really have anything planned, so decided to not stay long. Originally we were just going to find waffles and get on the next train to Brussels, but it took a bit longer than expected, and I bought gloves, and we got lost a bit, and ended up spending a grand total of an hour and a half in Antwerp :P Then on to Brussels! It took us a bit to find our hostel, but we did in the end. The rooms were really cute, and had high ceilings so I had fun jumping on the top bunk of our bunk beds :) We got hamburgers for dinner and tried our first Belgian beer, which is really good! We realized though that we didn't have a bottle opener, so could only buy cans from the supermarket (a problem) and began our search for one (to be continued). That night at the hostel we met Becca and Cara, who it turned out were planning on doing the exact same route we were! It was quite funny. They were really nice and we ended up traveling a lot together.
The next day Kristin and I started out by finding the Mannequin Pis (peeing boy statue) and wandering through the tourist area. Then we went through the market square and up to a cathedral, the palace, a park, a really cute square for some more chips and mayo for lunch, and my first chocolate purchase :D Then we visited the Cantillion Brewery, a working brewery that makes geueze and kriek beers the traditional way. It was really cool to see, and taste at the end. Afterwards we did some more window shopping (and found a cheap bottle opener), went back to the hostel for a bit, and then went out for cheap sandwiches. The guy at the shop gave us free coffee and told us some stuff to do in Brussels, it was really nice. We then headed to Delirium (bar that sells 2004 beers and has 25 on tap, including what was voted the best beer in the world) after dinner and tried their delirium beer, which was indeed very good.
The next day we day tripped to Bruge. In the lobby we met Cara and Becca, who were going to stay there that night as it was cheaper than Brussels, and so we took the train there together. Bruge is adorable, we loved it as soon as we got out of the train station! First Kristin and I walked through a park that had really cool benches and a giant Harry Potter-esq (from Chamber of Secrets, yes I'm a nerd) chess board. After the park we headed to a market they have every wednesday, and passed by a pond with lots of swans and ducks and LOTS of chocolate and lace shops. We finally made it to the square (after lots of oggling in store windows) and they had lots of different food and flowers. We decided to eat lunch there and got chicken kebabs from the meat stand and some bread and pastries to go with our amsterdam cheese. It was quite delicious. Afterwards we went to the chocolate museum where they showed the entire history of chocolate, pretty nifty and included samples :) From there we went to a spot that was supposed to have a good panorama of the city, but was actually just a slight rise with some windmills on it. The windmills were cool though, and the fence around them had been made into lace! It was way cool. We wandered back to the city center, I made Kristin play with me on a bunch of logs, but we felt justified because afterwards we went in search of lace and so figured that the 5 year olds playing on the logs and the 70 year olds buying lace evened out to a nice 21 :P I did quite a bit of chocolate shopping, and couldn't help but buy a lace apron :) We then headed back to Brussels for our Belgian meal, mussels in Brussels :P We decided to go with the cheaper place, which was probably not the best decision, but it was pretty good, and afterwards we went back to Delirium for our final belgian beers (in Belgium, we took some with us to Switzerland).
The next morning we met Becca and Cara at the train station (they had come back down from Bruge) and headed to Luxembourg. This was our longest travel day, a total of 9 hours to get us to Interlaken, so we decided to stop in the tiny country along the way. When we got to Luxembourg we stowed our bags at the train station and went exploring. We didn't really have any plans and so just ended up wandering around the city for 3 hours. It was pretty interesting, it was on 2 sides of a deep valley with city on either side and in the middle. Very cute, but not much to do there. We bought groceries for dinner and got back on the train to Interlaken. Lots more train riding later and we were in Interlaken. Kristin and I had decided to splurge and stay at a cute looking B&B called Walter's. We got there, and it was indeed adorable. We had our own (large) room, and a post card and chocolate next to our beds :) We ate our dinner and then went to sleep.
The next morning when we looked out our window, there were the Alps! It was awesome! We met Becca and Cara at the train station and headed up to Grindlewald to go sledding. On the first train we didn't get off, so ended up riding the train a bit more than expected, but it was gorgeous so that was ok. On the second train though, the conductor told us that Eurail/Interrail passes weren't valid, which was a bummer so we had to buy tickets. Then in Grindlewald we realized that sledding was actually going to be pretty expensive, so we walked around for a bit to see what else we could do. Becca and Cara decided to go back down to Interlaken and Kristin and I took a cable car halfway up one of the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous! I got very picture happy and took over 200 pictures of the alps (about half the pictures from the entire trip). At the top we made a snow man on the side of the ski run, my first real snowman!! It was a lot of fun, and we used chocolate for his eyes and chapstick for the nose :P We had to destroy him in the end since he was on the ski run, and ended up making a snow ball fight out of it. We had a beer at the restaurant and then headed back down to the town and then to Interlaken. Walter offered a fondue dinner, so we told him that we wanted to do that, and walked around Interlaken for a bit before dinner. It was really good fondue! We bought veggies to add to the meal, Walter provided cheese, bread and wine and dessert, and so it was a really fun meal. The dessert was ice cream and cookies, brought in adorable little cups that we got to keep. We decided that Walter was our favorite person ever :) After dinner we went to Cara and Becca's hostel to have a drink with them and ended up talking for several hours before going back to Walter's.
The next day Becca, Cara and Kristin and I took a scenic train to Lucern - it was absolutely gorgeous! I really wanted to get out and wander around for a bit and take pictures ;) In Lucern we did some more wandering (We're really good at that :P ) And saw their cool bridge and lion sculpture and tower on a hill and shops. We spent about 2 hours there and then parted ways as Kristin and I headed to Zurich while Cara and Becca were back to Interlaken for one more night. At the train station we grabbed some food and then hopped on a train to Zurich! It was raining there too, which was kinda depressing, so we went to our hostel, sat for a bit, bought hamburger making supplies, and then did the hw we had been meaning to do all trip :P When we made dinner two guys were in the kitchen cooking so we talked to them for a bit and made our dinner. Since it was our last night we decided to go out for a bit, but had a hard time finding a place close by that wasn't a club, and ended up at another Irish bar :P We watched the tail end of a soccer game and then headed back to the hostel (late night for us - 11:30 woo! we laughed the whole trip about us going to bed super early every night).
The next morning I got up early and wandered around the Old Town, which was super cute and had some really cool streets. Kristin's flight was 6 hrs later than mine, so she was going to do it in the afternoon. After checking out we went by the train station to check on getting to the airport and then walked down the main shopping street (I can't remember the name, something with a B) but everything was closed because it was Sunday - probably good for our wallets. We also saw the lake, the corner with all the swiss banks and a cool park and aviary before going back to the hostel to grab my bag. We got preztles and eclairs for lunch and picnicked in a park. After killing time by taking pictures and watching an adorable dog play fetch we headed back to the train station, looked for drawings of the swiss alps (sadly couldn't find one) and then it was time for me to leave. Sadly we said goodbye (this was our last of several trips together) and I headed to the airport and back to Dublin. I had to check my bag (the Swiss would be the first ones to actually weigh it), which was sad but I guess inevitable (as much as I wanted to try and get it down to weight, putting on 6 kg of clothing probably wasn't going to work, I think it was the massive amounts of chocolate I had bought that did me in). I made it home safely and unpacked before a couple of people from UT arrived to crash on my floor for the night. We made dinner and talked for a bit and I finished my hw before going to bed.
The next morning was the start of Trinity term and back to class. Not so fun, but it's good to be back! I've been going through pictures and getting caught up on emails the past couple of days. Also, Trinity Ultimate won intervarsities! That was pretty exciting to hear and so we celebrated that monday night. And that about wraps up my life for the past 2 weeks in a very long post. I'm impressed you made it this far, and even more impressed if you did it in one go :P
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