June 13

Our trip to Ireland went by so fast! I was sad to go. So of course, our last day in Belfast was spent shopping. :) Not much to really report there, except the mall had really neat modern architecture. I liked the modern sculptures all over the city. We walked into a couple shops that sold homemaking stuff like rugs, kitchen tools, etc which I really enjoyed. And there were these guys standing on the street corners everywhere selling tickets for bus tours, and we had a couple guys hit on us. We even got a picture with one guy! Haha.

In the afternoon we flew back to London. By the time we got back and we were all exhausted. Then again- we’re always exhausted by the end of the day! 

Jesse called our 3 day trip to Ireland a “vacation on our vacation”. I must say that’s a pretty accurate description! I felt like Ireland was much more relaxed than London. Our days were still very eventful but I didn’t feel rushed.

I have loved being in London, but I think I liked Ireland more. I think I'm just more of a small town person than a city person. :)

June 12- Giant's Causeway

Our day had a very lovely start- we went to the breakfast buffet in the hotel. There was so much good food! To be honest, that was probably my favorite thing about our hotel.

We spent the whole day on a bus tour around the coast of Ireland. Our tour guide had this awesome Irish accent which made it fun to listen as well as difficult to understand sometimes. We made occasional stops so we could step outside and take pictures.

For one, we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle, which belonged to William of Orange. We also stopped by Carrick-a-Rede, which is this rope bridge that connects two platformed islands. Who knew that crossing a rope bridge could be so awesome?? It was pretty high up, but the only thing that made me nervous was the strong wind- it made it hard for me to see what with my eyes watering and my hair all over my face, plus it rocked the bridge. But we all got across just fine and the view of the ocean was incredible!

Our final destination on our bus tour was Giants’ Causeway. I don’t completely understand how Giants’ Causeway was formed, except the rocks are Basalt, which comes from volcanoes. But by some natural phenomena, this huge cluster of rocks are all in the shape of hexagonal prisms. The local myth is that there were two giants- one in Scotland, and one in Ireland. Each giant argued that he was bigger and stronger than the other. They would throw giant rocks at each other which are now scattered along the shore line. Finally it looked like it was going to be a fist fight. Once the Irish giant saw the Scottish Giant heading over, he realized that the Scottish giant was much bigger and stronger than him and was sure to win. So he went to his wife who dressed him up like a baby. When the Scottish Giant arrived and saw the Irish Giant dressed like a baby, he turned around and went straight back to Scotland. He said, with a baby that big, I would hate to run into its Daddy!

It started raining just as we got back into the bus to head back. The luck o’ the Irish must have rubbed off on us! We got back to the hotel around 6. After eating a simple dinner, Jesse, Leslie and I had a small scripture study/ devotional. And (shock!) I got to bed at about 10:30. Inconcievable.

June the 11th- First Day in Ireland!

I just spent 3 days in a foreign country with no computer, no cell phone, no camera, and no iPod. And I had a blast! And it hardly bothered me at all to go without those things, except for my camera. (I left my camera battery in its charger in London) But some of my friends let me take pictures with their cameras, so it turned out ok.

We left the flat at 5:30 AM (Yikes!!) to catch our flight to Ireland. The flight was only an hour long but there was a delay so we got there at about 11. 

Since the hotel wasn’t ready for us to check in when we got there, we dropped our stuff off at the front desk and went across the street to St George’s Marketplace. The word is LOVE. It was this awesome place where locals sell fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, handmade crafts, and fresh baked goodies.  I loved the community-like atmosphere of the place.

After lunch we took a bus tour of Belfast and learned about the city’s history. Around the time of Industrial Revolution, Ireland became the world’s number one seller of linen and tobacco. There are still a lot of linen factories throughout the city, but very few of them are still used to manufacture linen. I found it really neat to see the Peace Wall- it’s this wall that divides Ireland and North Ireland. The wall itself is a very sad thing, but over time people have covered it with their hopes for peace. It’s covered in graffiti and such and it’s actually really neat. 

We also got to see the place where Titanic was built. I had no idea that the Titanic came from Belfast so that was really neat. And it was incredible to see how big the Titanic was- if it was stood up on its end, it would be taller than any building of that time!

When we got back we were finally able to check in at the Hilton Hotel. And holy cow, the Hilton was AWESOME. It was soo much nicer than our flat in Kensington!

We walked into the shopping area of Belfast to get some groceries for Sunday and to find dinner. After wandering around for a good place to eat for about 2 hours, we finally settled on the Kitchen Bar. I had this soda bread pizza that was way good. 

We conked out by 11:00. That’s the earliest I’ve gone to bed this whole trip!

Cambridge

Today we toured Cambridge University. Interestingly, instead of having one designated campus, the buildings are interspersed throughout the town. So you might say we did a bit of walking today! Cambridge University is very, very old- its first buildings were built around 1020 AD. It actually began as a school for 14 year old boys who were studying to become priests. Now there are about 18,000 students enrolled.

This is the Corpus Clock: a million-pound clock invented by one of the professors at Cambridge. -And when I say pounds, I mean money :P

After our walking tour we toured the back of Cambridge via "punting". A punt is a long, flat boat; it works a lot like a gondola. It was so fun to float down the river in these cute little boats!

For dinner, Averyl and I went to South Kensington to get fish and chips. So yummy! Then we went to Covent Garden Market in search of gelato. We went to the Ice Creamists- I don't think what we got was gelato, but boy was it good. I guess that means we'll just have to go back again. Poor us!

Hopefully I can come back to Covent Garden- tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Ireland for a few days, then we'll come back to London for one more day. And while we're in Ireland, I'm leaving most of my stuff in our flat in London, which means I probably won't bring my laptop, which means I won't be blogging until I get back on Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm leaving at 5 AM for Ireland! I'm super excited but I'm not looking forward to such an early start!

Haddon Hall and Hardwick Hall

Today we went back to Chatsworth to see Haddon Hall and Hardwick Hall.

The oldest rooms in Haddon Hall were built around 1060 AD. More rooms have been added on over the years up until the 1920s. I was so excited when I found out it was used for filming of Princess Bride- one of my favorite movies! :D It was also used to film Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. It was so beautiful. I loved all the roses growing along the walls.

Hardwick Hall was built in the 1590s for Elizabeth of Shrewsberry. She had lots of windows put in, because at that time more windows meant you were very wealthy. She also had her initials put in the architecture because she wanted everyone to know the house belonged to her. Hardwick Hall was partially torn down and rebuilt next door- therefore, we have Old Hardwick and New Hardwick. I really loved going through Old Hardwick. The old windows made picture frames to magnificent surrounding landscapes.

Windsor Castle

When we were told we were going to Windsor Castle, I had no idea the Queen of England lived there. We were standing in line for the tour and I was shocked to see the sheer number of tourists lining up behind us. I was even more confused when we had to go through security to get in. Don't worry, it all came together when the tour started.
 
Windsor Castle was first built around 1080 AD- it's the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. Most of our time there was spent touring the State Rooms. Some of the State Rooms had been rebuilt or repaired after the castle had a terrible fire in 1992.

We also saw the changing of the guard. I can now say I've seen the British guys in the funny hats.

And I really liked Queen Mary's doll house- sounds funny, but this doll house was crazy. It was so meticulously accurate- famous painters provided miniature paintings, it had electricity, it even had plumbing!

After we were done at Windsor Castle, we journeyed to the legendary Abbey Road and took a picture! As it turns out, Abbey Road is just a regular road- and the drivers hate it when you take pictures. If you take too long they'll honk at you! We saw a few other tourist groups there doing the exact same thing as us so people must do it all the time.

Leslie and I have been craving ice cream for a long time now, so this evening we decided to indulge ourselves. We each bought a 2 liter container of ice cream and ate it all!! Ok, we didn't eat it all. Actually I was pretty much full after 3 giant spoonfuls but it was still fun. And we got some pretty sweet pictures.