Turkish Delight and Visiting Mosques on Easter in Istanbul

We had breakfast at the buffet that morning and then just lounged around until we had our small meeting with Paola. After the meeting, we just lounged around some more. I wasn't used to all of this feel time and it was very nice after running around everywhere in Rome and Ireland. For lunch we did the pasta bar where they cooked the ingredients we wanted. It was delicious. By that time, we were sailing into Istanbul so we went onto the boat deck and watched us sail in. Once we were docked, we got on our tour bus and set off into the city. Our first stop was a museum that used to be a mosque and before that it was a christian church. It is called the Hagia Sophia and it was huge! When it used to be a christian church they had religious paintings of Jesus Christ and Mary all over but when it was changed into a mosque, the religion Muslim allows no images so they painted over them. They are still finding new mosaics today while they are restoring the place! After touring the place for a while, we left to go to our next destination . . . . . the Grand Bazaar!!!!!!!!!!!! I had no idea that we were going to go here! I have always heard about it but who would have thought that I was going to see it. It is the oldest and biggest bazaars in the world and it certainly was! The entire thing is in a building with shops lining the walls. It was a maze in there. There were so many twists and turns and little alleys filled with shops and people. I swear each store owner came out of the store to stop us and show us what they are selling. It was insane! A lot of the men called out to Teresa, Mel, and I as we walked along the stores like pretty ladies. We even got called Spice Girls twice and Mel got told that she looks like Shakira. I bought a pair of earrings, a statue of the Hagia Sophia to add to my city, and my name written in calligraphy. Our next stop was the Spice Bazaar. Now, ever since I read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe about the part where the White Queen gives Edmund Turkish Delight, I have always wanted to try it. Well . . . . . when we went to the Spice Bazaar, there was Turkish Delight everywhere!! We went into a shop where they let us eat as much Turkish Delight as we wanted while we sipped on apple tea (which tastes just like hot apple cider). I bought a small box of Turkish Delight, half of it pistachio and the other half rose petals. It is absolutely delicious! I had the box vacuumed sealed so I can bring it home. I am not opening it until I get home in the States so I can have the family try some. It is just so good. After I bought my Turkish Delight, we walked around the Bazaar a little bit. There were mounds upon mounds of spices and Turkish Delight everywhere as well as cheese and meat. Back on the boat we just relaxed and hung out. Teresa went to go write in her journal and Mel and I went out on deck and played some cards. It was a good way to end the evening.

We woke up the next morning and headed back to the charter bus to finish our tour of Istanbul. We went to the Blue Mosque first that day. The reason it is called the Blue Mosque is because of all of the blue tiles that cover its interior. We had to take our shoes off before we went into the mosque and make sure we covered our shoulders and knees that day in respect for their religion. As we were touring the place, it felt weird to be in a mosque on Easter. Our next stop was the Topkapi Palace, the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for about 400 years. The entire place was decorated with tiles on the inside of the buildings and sometimes the outside as well. We saw the gifts that were given over the years to the Sultan, the greeting room, the building were the state meetings were held, and the 7th biggest diamond in the world. There were gardens everywhere and four courtyards in the entire palace. We stayed there for a while and enjoyed the sun that was shining and the flowers blooming. After the palace, we went to a store that gave us a demonstration of the different hand woven carpets while we sipped on apple tea. They were absolutely beautiful carpets and rugs and I wanted to buy one very badly. But there were two reasons why I couldn't: one, they were extremely expensive and there was no way I could afford even the smallest one and two, my suitcase was packed full, I wouldn't be able to get it back home. That was the end of our tour in Istanbul and it was off to the island of Mykonos. After we left the port, we had a while before we had to get off the boat again. The ship made a stop at Athens to drop off the Greek people who only did a 3-day cruise and then set off to Mykonos. We sunbathed for a little bit and at 5:30, Teresa and I went to the Metropolitan Lounge and learned how to Salsa dance. I must say that my salsa dancing skills really stink. We had a cocktail party hosted by Contiki and then dinner as a group afterwards. The boys and Beth had been drinking all day long and they came drunk to dinner that night. Let's say that it was a very interesting evening that night at dinner but it was certainly funny. After dinner we went to the Metropolitan Lounge to watch the show. It was songs from Broadway musicals and it was alright. All I would have to say is that I'm glad that these people are not going on Broadway.

Athens Here We Come!!!

We left our B&B in Rome the next morning and got on a train at 7:09 and rode it to the airport (had to change trains only once). Getting through security wasn't difficult at all, just a little nerve racking since we were afraid there was a chance they didn't speak English, and hung out at the airport for a little while. Our plane left a little late but we arrived to the beautiful Athens around 2:30 that afternoon. This time I got to have a window seat on the plane. Unfortunately, I was right by the wing so I couldn't look down. I never seem to get any good luck on the seating arrangements on a plane. While we grabbed our luggage and walked out, there was nobody to check our passports or even a customs to go through! It was all very odd. We ate some lunch at a some deli place in the airport and then found a taxi to take us to our hotel. This was the stressful part because we were afraid that the taxi driver wouldn't speak English. But our driver spoke fairly good English, knew exactly where our hotel was, and even turned on English speaking music for us on the radio on the drive. The taxi cost about 40 euros total but it was about 13 between each of us. At the President's Hotel, there was a bellboy who took our luggage up to our rooms and unloaded them for us. We were on floor 15 and our room was pretty sweet. We had a really good view of the city but to tell you the truth, the city is not that pretty. It is very dirty and graffiti is everywhere. We rested for a bit and then headed on downstairs to lounge area to meet our tour guide from Contiki and the rest of the group. We were expecting a huge group but apparently there was going to be only 7 of us. Our Contiki guide was Paola and she was from Colombia. She was the best and most fun tour guide I have ever had. She was always smiling and very helpful and she was also very young as well. Beth was 19 and from Boston but studying in London at the time. Then there were the 3 Australian boys who were working in London at the time as well. Dave and Nathan were 23 and Ian was 25. The only reason they came on this trip was to drink. We went out to eat as a group that night to a restaurant that night underneath the Acropolis that was lit up. We had all of the traditional Greek foods. We started with red wine to drink (which wasn't too bad, so either Im getting used to the taste of wine or it was good wine) and had Greek salad, spinach/cheese pasties, bread with a good paste to put on it, beans, and cooked zucchini. Then we had our main dish which consisted of chicken, rice, potatoes, and vegetables and to finish the meal we had a certain type of ice cream that was pretty good. Throughout the meal they had music playing and people in costumes would come in at random times and do some of the Greek dancing. Everyone in the place would start clapping at different times and yell Opa throughout the evening. I had the most fun that evening and the food was delicious! I know that the cooked zucchini sounds disgusting but actually it was incredibly good! We got back to the hotel and went to bed.

We woke up the next morning and packed up our stuff, had breakfast downstairs, and checked out of the hotel. A bus came to pick us up at 11:45 and we were on our way to the port to get on our cruise ship! We had to wait an awfully long time to get our passports checked and stamped before we handed them over to the cruise ship for them to keep on our cruise for safe keeping. It was very nice because we didn't have to worry about our passports for 7 days. We checked our luggage in and then loaded on a bus to take us to our ship. Our ship was called the Cristal and once we boarded, there were people everywhere that wanted to help! A worker from the ship took the card that had my room number on it and led us in the elevator and took us up to our room on deck 7 while another guy brought up our luggage. We went to the lunch buffet right away to get some lunch before it closed and then went back to our room to unpack. We were in a small room (no porthole) for four people (it was only the 3 of us though) and a small bathroom attached to it. Teresa and Mel got the bottom bunks and I got the top bed that folds down from the wall. Once everyone was on the cruise ship, we had a safety drill that required us to put on our lifejackets and proceed to our designated places. Our place was deck 5 and we had to get in two lines with the women and children in the front. Then a worker came by and checked each one of our lifejackets to make sure they were secure and tight enough. Apparently I didn't have mine on tight enough because he had to tighten it. The entire time this was going on I kept thinking Titanic, Titanic, Titanic. The drill was over after a short period of time and we went up to deck 9 to meet with Paola and talk about our day trips. We had dinner reservations at one of the restaurants with the Contiki group that night. It was the most fancy place ever! I dressed up in a skirt that night and when we arrived there were waiters and servers everywhere with the white towel draped over their arm ready to serve. We got the most fun and the best waiter ever. His name was Pipit and he took care of us the entire cruise making sure we ate enough. They folded the napkins in our laps and there was so much silverware in front of me, it was a little intimidating. I had chicken Parmesan and a chocolate pastry dessert. After dinner we went to the Metropolitan Lounge to watch a show they were putting on that evening: the songs of Mama Mia. At the end, the dancers from the show went through the audience and picked a whole bunch of people to dance to the last song. They picked Teresa but she wouldn't let us let her go up there alone, so she dragged us with her to dance. We headed up to the disco lounge on deck 10 after the show and met up with the rest of the group. We hung out with them for a bit before heading down to our room and hitting the sack. We were due to arrive in Istanbul in the afternoon the next day.

The Pope, gladiators, a spectacular view, and good friends to end my time in Rome

That's right, I saw the Pope! Before I get ahead of myself, I will explain the breakfast that we get in the morning. A lady comes and makes breakfast for us in the morning, bringing it to us in our rooms on trays. The breakfast consisted of espresso, yogurt, croutons, croissants, and juice. It was the cutest thing ever. Anyway, Morgan met us at our B&B at 8:30 and we walked down together to St. Peter's Basilica (I have seen this place so many times, I know it like the back of my hand now). Morgan's class got cancelled so this was her chance to go down and see the Pope address the people. We waited outside the gate for a while because as we watched people go in, they had tickets. They had to go through security as well. We didn't have tickets because we thought we didn't need them but we didn't want to chance going up to the security guards because they looked scary and I did not want to mess with them. But we overheard an American lady who went up to the guards and asked about the tickets. Apparently we didn't need them and we followed the lady right on through! Thank goodness that lady was fearless when asking the guards because we didn't want to at all. We walked in feeling kinda stupid as well but we were really really early so we made camp by the pillar in the center and waited for the Pope. After a while, we saw people waving and cheering by a corner of St. Peter's. Then on the screens it should the Pope, but he certainly came in style. He was riding a car which was named, the Popemobile! We rode it up and down aisles waving to everyone before going up to the stage. Once the Popemobile was at the stage, the Pope got off and sat in his chair at the center. They started off the ceremony with verses and some other things in different languages: German, Italian, French, English, Latin, and it looks like he knows a little bit of Portuguese. Groups of people from all over the world sign up to be read by a person and then the Pope acknowledges them. The groups that speak the same language are read together and then after all the groups have been read, the Pope reads off a piece of paper in that language blessing them and such. There were so many people here! I couldn't get very close with my camera but I got some pictures of him on the screens that were places everywhere. After the Pope had read off all the groups, in every language possible I swear, everyone dispersed. We left Morgan so she could go to her class and get some lunch and we headed over to the Piazza del Popolo. It's another piazza but we bought some gelato (mint with whip cream this time!) and climbed up some stairs to a section that overlooked the piazza but had a nice park on the top. After staying up there for a bit, we took the metro to the Colosseum to have our pictures taken with some gladiators. We found three older men very happy to see us. We each got a picture taken with them. Teresa sat in the chair holding grapes, I stood on the chair with my arm on one gladiator's shoulder and my hand being held by another, and Mel stood on the ground with her leg up on the chair. We all got to wear crowns and they would say funny comments the entire time. They were so much fun! It cost 5 pounds for each picture but it was worth it. Unfortunately, Teresa accidentally lost her memory card when we were on the island of Mykonos during the cruise and the gladiator pictures were on it. It was a little disappointing but it's just a picture. I'll definitely remember it. I had an idea though, we could dress up each of our dads in a gladiator costume, pose with them, and then photoshop the Colosseum in the background! Anyway, after the pictures we got onto the tour bus and went to the Isola Tiberina. It is an island in the middle of the river that has a hospital on it. We walked around the entire island and then headed right back to St. Peter's Basilica where we did the dome climb. We had to wait in a really long line for 2 hours but it only cost 5 pounds to climb up. There were 520 steps that winded up in a circle and then went up corridors that were slanted and made it a little difficult to walk. Once we reached the top, it had a awesome view of Rome. It was extremely crowded at the top so we didn't stay very long but before we went back to our B&B, I bought myself some earrings and a statue of the Colosseum. We rested a bit at the B&B and then met Morgan at 7 at St. Peter's Basilica. We walked to the restaurant called La Scalletera. I split a cheese pizza with Teresa and for the main dish, spaghetti with ham. The ham is not like American ham and I wasn't too fond of it. After dinner we got gelato at Morgan's favorite store again and this time I got mint, stracciatelli, and viscoli. While licking our wonderful gelato, we walked to the Trevi Fountain to see it all lit up. There were still tons of people there. We walked back to our bus stop where I said goodbye to Morgan. I still couldn't believe I was able to hang out with her in Rome. But we promised each other to get together in summer to exchange stories and pictures. We got back to the B&B, packed everything up and then headed to bed. Tomorrow was another adventure to find our train, get to the airport, and then fly to Athens, Greece!

You know, the big round thing and a bunch of ruins by it?

This day was my most favorite day. We went into the Colosseum! It really is smaller than what it looks like. But we stood in line for a while and then had to push and shove our way up to the ticket line. We got a deal to see the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palentino and an audio guide that took us around the Colosseum. We finally got in and started our audio guides. The only problem was there were no numbers on where to start on the guide. So we pushed random numbers and even though we were in the wrong locations of the Colosseum to what the audio guide was talking about, I still learned some cool things. I didn't learn this from the audio guide but did you know that they used to fill up the fighting area with water and have ships come out and do fighting? The Romans were incredible! But back to the Colosseum. There are two levels you can go on but you cannot walk completely around it. We spent a little more time there but I loved every minute of it. We turned in our audio guides after two hours and left the Colosseum. Outside of it were several men dressed as gladiators to take a picture with. It was so funny! We went and got lunch (pizza, of course) and then went through the Roman Forum. We didn't pay for a audio guide for this but it might have been better because nothing is labeled. Everything is just a bunch of ruins but it was still cool! We spent a while in there because there was sooooo much! But we got back on our tour bus and headed right next door to the circus maximus, the place where chariot races used to occur. The tour bus says it comes every 10 minutes so we decided to just get dropped off, take some pictures, and then hop back on the next bus. We were completely wrong. We waited about 20 minutes and while we were waiting, it started to rain on us. We weren't very happy about it. But FINALLY (after seeing about 5 other tour buses stop) our bus came and we hopped on. We rode to St. Peter's Basilica and decided to go into the church after all (even though we planned on doing it tomorrow). Once we were through security, we followed the mass amount of people into the church. St. Peter's is beautiful! It is so decorated with designs, statues, and paintings. I loved it! And I got to see my favorite statue: the Pieta by Michelangelo. We went through the main part of St. Peter's and then moved on down to the Tomb of the Popes. The whole place looked like it was made out of marble and there were stone coffins everywhere. It was a little creepy. We didn't do much the rest of the night. We grabbed a bite to eat at McDonald's and then headed back to our B&B because we were really tired. But overall, it was a fantastic day.

A Day full of the Vatican, Gelato, and Pizza

We woke up early the next morning and was walking to the Vatican by 8. We had already bought tickets online for the Vatican before we left so we didn't have to wait in line. We got to go straight to the front. We had to go through security and then we were officially in. We didn't pay for a tour so we got to go on our own pace through the place. It might have been nice for a tour guide but there was so much information that we kinda skipped right over a lot of stuff. My main item I wanted to see was the Sistine Chapel. There were so many paintings, statues, and vases. Here are a few pictures of some paintings. They were always on the ceiling. But they were so neat. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures in the Sistine Chapel. There are so many men walking around making sure people don't take pictures. The chapel was incredible dark and very dim lit. The one thing I found to be funny was there was a man at the front of the room walking underneath the Last Judgement Painting and every so often he would yell silence and quiet if they room got to be noisy. It was just so weird! We stayed in the Sistine Chapel for a little while. I absolutely loved it! The ceilings were just amazing. And I got to see the God and Adam painting. It was so neat! We left the chapel and walked on out to the exit. As we were walking down the sweetest staircase ever, we heard Melissa's name being called. I don't know if I mentioned in my London post but we randomly met up with two girls we knew from Central who were visiting London that weekend as well. They were studying in the Spain program but it was just so weird to accidentally meet up with them in London. But back to my story, we heard Melissa's name being called and we turned around to find Katie (one of the girl's we saw in London) coming down to meet us! She was touring the Vatican at the same time. Who knew!?!? It was so odd to see her first in London and then in Rome! We all walked out of the Vatican (which now had a TON of people waiting outside to get in) and stopped at a gelato shop called Old Bridge. This time I got Carmel gelato and it was delicious! We left Katie at St. Peter's Basilica and went to buy a 3-day pass bus tour. Not only did it give us the bus tour but it also gave us the chance to use any public transportation for 3-days (which worked out perfectly). We began our tour of Rome with starting at the Pantheon. Of course, there had to be construction on half of it, but I was used to construction by then. We went on it and explored a little. There really wasn't much to explore because it is a dome building with a circular interior, but it was still cool. We left the Pantheon and wandered over to the Piazza Venezia where the tomb of the unknown soldier is located. The building is massive with two huge statues at both ends of the building. The statues were angels holding the reins of four horses. There was a small older guard in front of the soldiers guarding the tomb that had a whistle and would blow it if he found people sitting on the steps. It was really funny. We went down a street and found a pizza place called Pastarito and had some lunch. The pizza was better than last night. We walked on down to the Colosseum but we didn't go in. Don't worry! We went in the next day. We hopped on our tour bus and rode it back to St. Peter's to find an atm for me and a place to email Morgan to tell her when to meet us. We hopped back on our bus and rode it to the Trevi Fountain! I was really excited for this because I have seen the Trevi Fountain in so many movies and heard so much about it. And I got to see it! There were so many people there! The place was packed but we made it to the front and we all threw coins in. When you throw in a coin, it signifies that you will return to Rome sometime in your life. We walked on to the Spanish Steps. We bought some gelato (this time mint and cookies) to give us a reason to sit on the Spanish Steps. There were so many people there as well! It was crazy! We sat there for a while until our gelato was finished. We took the metro back to one of our tour bus stops where Mel and I bought some sunglasses and then we rode our tour bus back to St. Peter's to meet Morgan. The metro by the way is really creepy. If you ever go to Rome, I suggest to stay above the ground. Anyway, we got to St. Peter's and didn't have to wait long for Morgan to show up. I still couldn't believe I was in Rome and I was hanging out with Morgan. It was soooo cool! Morgan walked us around the city a little bit more and then we stopped at a restaurant for dinner called Casa Matallo. Morgan and I both got the house special which was pasta with alfredo sauce, meat, and peas. It was awesome! And then of course, we split 2 pizzas. It's almost a rule to have pizza everyday while you are visiting Rome, or in my case, several times a day. We walked on over to Morgan's favorite gelato store where I got three flavors: armena (black cherry), pistachio, and limone (lemon). We were going to see the Trevi Fountain at night but the three of us were extremely tired from walking around all day so we made plans to see Morgan on Wednesday and went back to our bed and breakfast for the night. And so ends day one in Rome.

Making our way to Rome

Teresa, Melissa, and I met up with our bags packed and ready. We were so excited! We walked on the way down to the train station with Teresa and I's suitcases rolling behind us while Mel carried her dufflebag. We arrived at the train station and then hopped on the train and we were off to London. We got to London three hours later arriving at Euston station and ate some dinner at Burger King. We rode the Tube to Victoria Station (which was extremely busy and it was not fun with the suitcases) and then bought tickets for a 30 minute train ride to Gatwick airport. We got to Gatwick and found an area to camp out for the night. I only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. It was a lot more comfortable than sleeping in the Liverpool airport however. Around 4am we checked in our luggage and went through security around 4:30. There was a huge shopping area once you got through security! It was massive! Once we found out our terminal number (terminal 2) we walked really fast to beat everyone so that we could get good seats on the plane. The flight only took about 2 hours and both Teresa and Mel fell asleep. Somehow I always get stuck in the middle and the people beside me always fall asleep. I am unable to take naps, I have really tried. It would have been nice to get a window seat and look out while the others slept but oh well. We arrived and as I walked out, I expected to see Morgan. Then I realized that I told her the wrong terminal in which to pick us up in. I told her Terminal 2 but we came in Terminal 3. So we stayed there for a while then we went to Terminal 1, 2, and then back to 3. I got on a pay phone and tried calling her but there was no answer. So my friends and I went to the train station and got in line to get tickets. I kept looking out for Morgan, just in case. Then praise the Lord, I saw her. She was looking everywhere and I just left my luggage and ran to her. Apparently she forgot that last night was daylight savings time for the rest of the world and didn't set her clock. So she rushed over to Terminal 2 and found out that it is only for departures. So she went franticly looking for us at other terminals and luckily went to the train station. Morgan told us that they don't ever check your tickets on the train so we got out of line and followed her to the train that took us to her apartment. We went in and got directions to our bed and breakfast and then Morgan took us over to it. When we arrived, there was a note on the wall that had Teresa's name on it with a number. Teresa called it and it turned out to be our bed and breakfast lady but she wasn't going to be able to meet us for another 30 minutes because she was out to lunch. So we had to wait outside of the building for another 30 minutes until we saw the lady. Morgan left us to go do some homework and we followed the lady up to our room. She opened the door to a small hallway and then we opened another door on the right that was our room. It was really nice. It had two beds (single and double), a small bathroom with a shower, and a balcony. In the hallway there was a cupboard so we opened it and it was a tiny kitchen! It was so cute. We threw down our stuff in the room and just crashed. We were all so pooped from the lack of sleep and the amount of traveling we had to do. Melissa got the single bed and I shared the bed with Teresa. I was tired but for some reason I didn't feel like laying on the bed. So I laid down on the wooden floor (don't ask me why) and actually took a nap. I woke up a few times but I was so tired that I didn't pick myself up to go lay on the bed. After a very nice and very long nap, we made ourselves a little more presentable and then went out into the city of Rome to find dinner. Our bed and breakfast was right by St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican so there were plenty of shops. We passed a gelato shop and we decided to buy our first thing in Rome: Gelato. And it was delicious. I got mint chocolate chip and it was just amazing. We walked around the Vatican a little bit and found the entrance where we were supposed to go to tomorrow morning. We then found a restaraunte called Picalo's and ordered our dinner. I got pizza (which tasted alright) and afterwards we headed back to our room, took showers, and then hit the sack. Apparently I snored really, really bad that night. I woke both Teresa and Mel up. I remember waking up in the night and noticing that my throught hurt incredibly bad. I took a drink of water from my water bottle on my night stand and it helped a little. Then I went back to sleep. I woke up the next morning with the worst sore throat I have ever had. It was terrible. I also had some sinus thing going on. But good ole Mom told me to pack some Mucinex just in case and guess what, I needed them. Thank you Mom! I would be terribly lost without you, and would have had a miserable time on Spring Break if I had not taken some Mucinex.

Ireland Part 2-Living life on the edge

So I left off at leaving Dublin on a very long bus ride to Galway. . . . . .

The bus ride lasted about 4 hours and we stopped at a town to stretch our aching legs and to have some lunch. I cheated a little and took some bread from breakfast and made a peanut butter sandwich instead of paying for lunch. We finally arrived to Galway in the afternoon on Monday to our hostel. I got to share a room with Teresa, Ashley, Megan, Sarah, and Melanie. This time I got to have the bottom bunk but the pillows were as flat as pancakes and the mattresses were super hard so it wasn't like it made any difference being on the bottom. After we dropped off our stuff, Tecwyn walked us around the town. We went into the cathedral, which was beautiful, and then ended at the harbor. Tecwyn let us explore and have the rest of evening free to ourselves. The group split up and Kaylee and I went off by ourselves and looked into some shops. I bought myself some earrings and then we raced to the pier out to the lighthouse so we could watch the sunset. We saw the other group but then we realized that we had to walk quite a ways to catch up with them. We started to walk really fast to catch up but then so we wouldn't miss the sunset. We eventually made it but then realized that we had a good hour before the sun was going to eventually set. That made Kaylee and I feel a little stupid. But the rest of my group of friends were there, so we made the time pass quickly. Or so we thought. The wind was blowing like crazy and it was COLD! So the time did not pass as quickly as we had hoped. But we still made some fun use out of our time. The sunset was very pretty but we were ready to go someplace where it was warm. Teresa, Ashley, and I had not eaten dinner so we were starving. We went into to a local restaurant where we ordered cod and chips. The cod was pretty good but I still don't like the texture. But at least I can say I have tried it a few times now. We went back to the hostel after dinner and everyone just crashed. I think the entire Central group was in bed early that night because everyone was pooped.

Galway Day Two: We got on a bus around 9:30 and made our way to our first stop, a tower that was once occupied by a landlord of a certain town. We were only there for a few minutes and then we were off again but this time we stopped at one of the many favorite places of Ireland I loved, the burren landscape. It is a land that is completely filled with rocks but with crevices and other formations. It doesn't look pretty to a lot of people but I found it amazing. We got to send a little time there, taking pictures and exploring. Then we went to our next spot, which was cooler than the burren. They were cliffs that were not very high but it was extremely rough that day and the waves very huge!!! They were coming up and sometimes reaching higher than us. We made sure that we stayed back so we wouldn't get wet. I can't say the same for the boys though. They went to the edge where they were getting their pictures taken when a massive wave came up and just drenched them. It was pretty funny. We got a little more time here but then we hopped back on the bus to our main destination of the day, the cliffs of Moher. They are about 1,300 feet high and we got to spend a few hours walking along them. They were really cool but I was more excited for the cliffs we were going to see the next day. We made our way back to Galway but not without stopping at a church in the town of Kilfenora that held several old celtic crosses surrounded by a cemetery. I think every grave had a tombstone with a celtice cross on it. They really didn't think about how to save space there. You couldn't walk without stepping on the slab of a grave. After the church we stopped at a portal tomb that was 3,000 years old and then we stopped to take a group picture. Kind of a weird place to take a group picture but whatever floats your boat. We got back to Galway where Ashley, Teresa, and I went shopping. Teresa got a sweatshirt and I bought myself an Irish pub souvenir. We got back to the hostel where my group of friends and I had some lasagna and garlic bread for dinner and then a few hours later we went out to the King's Head pub. We watched the battle of bands for a few hours (unfortunately, it wasn't very good) but it was fun hanging out with my friends.

Galway Day Three: This was my favorite day of Ireland by far. We left around 9 in the morning and rode the bus to the ferry where we rode that over to the Aran Islands. When we arrived, Tecwyn had rented bikes for us and we were let loose! We got to ride bikes all through the Aran Islands! It was the most beautiful day ever. God gave us the most perfect day anyone could have asked for. We rode up to the highest point of the island called Oun Arann Lighthouse and then rode down a really rocky path (just like mountain biking which I didn't enjoy) and rode to the Port Mhuirbigh beach. We kicked off our shoes, walked along the sand, and ate our lunches that we brought. Melissa and I waded a little bit in the water, thinking that it would be a little cold, but it was freezing! It was very misguiding because the water was so blue and it was sunny and nice out. We dried our feet off and got back on the bikes to ride to the cliffs by Dun Aonghasa. These cliffs were much, much, much better than the cliffs of Moher. They had no wall to keep you from the edge, which I know sounds very dangerous but it was awesome! We didn't stand right by the edge because a blast of wind could knock you off your feet but we laid on our stomachs when we went to the edge. It was about a 600 foot drop but it was absolutely gorgeous! We had a little fun with the picture taking as well. We took a long time at the cliffs but it was getting late and we had to be back at a certain time for the ferry. On our way back we rode to a beach and spotted some seals. It was so neat. We got back to the ferry in time and got back to our hostel in the evening. The entire Central group went out to the pub Monroe's, even Tecwyn and his friend Richard that came along to Ireland. For dinner, my friends and I bought stuff to make taco salads. They were very good (but they would have been better if there was some Ranch dressing on it). The next morning we packed up our stuff and headed on back to Bangor. It was another 4 hour drive to Dublin and then another 2 hour ferry ride to Holyhead port, and then another 45 minute drive back to Bangor. We were all so very happy to be back after a long day of travelling. As soon as I got back I went right to the post office and there it was. The most biggest package I have ever received in my entire life. It was AWESOME!!!! The man who was checking my mail for me had trouble looking for it. I don't think he believed that it was for me. But when I got back to my room and opened it. It was the highlight of my day. I got all my favorite foods and even more. The letters and cards from everyone was so nice. Thanks everyone! You have no idea how much I have enjoyed it. I have been sharing my life savers and we have already planned when we are going to do smores. I will have to admit that some of my friends told me that they are jealous of the package I got. It was a good way to end the first half of my spring break.