London!

Thursday night we flew to London. The bus ride to the airport was about an hour long, and the flight was an hour. Same amount of time to get to an airport as it did to get to another country. I found this interesting. Immediately we noticed when we landed that even though London uses the pound, things just seemed a little cheaper here. The sandwich I bought in Dublin was 6 euro, and the sandwich I bought in London was 2.50 pounds. Though it might not be that much cheaper, I still felt better about myself.

The hostel was just what I expected. There were ten beds in my room and I was happy that the hostel owners were very informative and helpful. The name made me laugh though, Travel Joy Hostels. The only complaint I had was the showers.. My first shower turned off after 2 minutes and just wouldn't turn back on. So I had to finish my shower in the sink. The other two I took, one was alright, but the last one... the last one was FREEZING. I was cold the rest of the day! Breakfast was included with the hostel which was nice. Cereal and toast, which was all I really needed. So it worked out really well. A strange thing about this hostel was, it was a hostel, a bar, but also.. it served thai food. It seemed like an interesting choice but the food was really, really good!

The first day we traveled around and took a ton of pictures. We saw Big Ben, Parliment, National Gallery, and other really touristy spots. Our group made an executive decision not to pay 17 pounds for the London Eye and ridiculous amounts for other touristy things. So we just did a lot of walking, and my feet really hurt by the end of the day. We also checked out Camden Street for shopping. It was intense! I would love to take a day trip and just shop there, it was so amazing. The largest street market in Europe really lives up ti its name. There was so much I wanted to buy! But.. I'm cheap, and everything MUST fit in your one carry on bag for Ryanair. My bag was already filled so there was no room to buy anything else. I was quite sad faced.

Our last stop of the day was Primrose Hill. We just walked by it and noticed there was a huge park. I'm so glad we went in and climbed the hill. The view was amazing, probably as nice as the London Eye (But free!!) The pictures were great. One thing I loved about the park was the dogs. So many people just brought their dogs and let them run wildly around. I miss my dog.. =( We stayed there for about 20 minutes and then went to find a bus. It was an hour long bus ride but we made it back. That night we just relaxed.

The view from Primrose Hill

The second day we got a nice and early start. We got to see Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathederal. I saw the road "Fleet Street" and this made me so excited. I couldn't stop thinking about Sweeney Todd! The millenium bridge was also pretty cool. But I must say, the London Bridge was a huge let down. Not far from it was the Tower Bridge and it was so much more impressive, so we decided to just go there and not stop at the London Bridge.

Tower Bridge!

I finally got to do 2 things I've wanted to do for a long time. See a show in London's West End, and see Chicago. And I got to do both that night so it made me really excited. I'm so happy we went and it was a great end to the evening.

The last day we were there it rained. We were all pretty tired, but that day was the whole reason we came to London in the first place, to see a soccer game. It was Fulham vs. Birmingham. Now, I don't really care about sports so it didn't matter to me. But when we got there, we sat on the Fulham side. Everyone around us got REALLY into the game. So of course I had to as well. It became really, really exciting. Especially when we won on a penalty kick. Everyone was screaming and jumping up and down. I'm really glad we got to go.

Soccer (football) game

The flight home was nothing too exciting, but my housemate had an exam that started an hour after we landed. It was certainly a race to the school after we got off the plane. The trip overall left me really exhausted but it was a ton of fun. I can't wait to go on my next one. Berlin in a week and a half! And after that France and Barcelona! I really want to travel more when I'm here, the flights are so cheap and I'll never get this chance again. I can't wait!

The Quest for a Bike

It takes me 10 - 15 minutes to walk to my bus stop every morning, depending how lazy I feel. And then I wait for however long it takes for the bus to appear, and take a nice 15 minute bus ride to school. This wouldn't be too bad if it didn't severely cut into my sleep time. Waking up at 7:15 for a 9 am class is ridiculous. One of my housemates bought a bike a few weeks ago, and he said that it only takes him 15 minutes to bike to the center of campus. When I heard this, I wanted a bike immediately. Also, if I biked to class, I'd get a 6 km bike ride in every day, which makes me think I'll be working out a bit! Also, the bus pass is expensive, 75 euro for a 30 day pass. I would need at least 2 more passes if I took the bus everyday, so I made up my mind. I needed a bike.

For better or for worse, I'm a very cheap person.

My house mate bought a new bike for 195 euro. There is no way I was going to spend that much so I looked on websites like gumtree and donedeal for ad's about people getting rid of used bikes. This search may have been more frustrating than it was worth, but I couldn't force myeslf to buy a bike for full price. On these websites some people would post their numbers, some would just be via email. I wasn't very comfortable actually calling people, so I would either email or resort to texting.

After two days of that I realized I wasn't actually getting anywhere, so I gave in and called some one about a bike I was interested in. A creepy sounding guy picked up and said we could meet later that night in the center of the city. This was great news for me, and I forced my guy housemate to come with me. I called the man when I was at the meeting spot, but I got no answer. I tried again, same thing. A few minutes later I got a text explaining that he didn't have the bike because his friend took it, but he would bring it to my house later if I wanted to still see it. I was creeped out enough, so I decided against it...

From then on I didn't call anyone about bikes. I was too sketched out. I stuck to email and texting. I had three other encounters with setting up a meeting time for a bike and being strongly disappointed when I would get a text a bit later saying they were sorry but the bike was sold. One of the times was probably my fault though, I tried to bargin with the girl... Let's just say I'm not very good at it. The search was not going well...

Just when I was about to give up, I looked once more on gumtree.ie and texted a girl about her bike. It was purple-pink... But we don't have to get into the color... She agreed to meet with me later that day. And unlike the other person I contacted, she actually came! I rode it to make sure it was working, and it came with a lock. The price was good, and substantially lower than 195 euro. I'm also hoping I can sell it back at the end of my stay. So now I am a proud owner of a bike! (Picture below, if you weren't sure...)