The British Isles

Happy Spring Break everybody! Whether you just got off of Spring Break, or you just started it, I hope you are having wonderful times relaxing and taking you-time. We pulled into Leipzig last night around 21:00 after 13 hours of travel with heavy bags, and happy stories. All after leaving from Leipzig 10 days earlier on March the 9th for our trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland. So sit down, strap yourself in, and prepare yourselves for an over-sized blog.

We begin our story on a Wednesday night in the relaxed Leipzig airport. We had no troubles with tickets or airport security, and our flight arrived in London 30 minutes early. We were greeted by a dark night sky and a combination of rain and mist that still confuses me. Our car took us straight to the house of a teacher of Nevan's, Mrs. Sharp. Mrs. Sharp greeted us at the late hour, and made us feel at home right away, a theme she would continue for the duration of our stay.

We woke up Thursday morning and ate a nice breakfast with our lovely host. We spoke with Mrs. Sharp about what we wanted to do, and she gave us suggestions on what to do, and how to do it. We went off, got our tickets for the day, and readied ourselves for an adventure in London. We began our day by walking to the famous 221B Baker street to see the house of the insightful detective Sherlock Holmes. We then went to see Queen Mary's Garden, followed by having a classic, yet massive lunch of fish and chips at an English pub. I then took a brief detour to stop by a modern philosophy company called the School of Life, before rejoining the others at the British museum. The museum was filled with more exhibits than one person could possibly look at in the time we were there. There were rooms of mummies, ancient paintings, wood carvings, and even the Rosetta Stone. We rounded our day off with last minute half-price tickets to see Phantom on the Opera in her Majesty's Theater.

I deduce that this place is awesome

Just a man hand feeding a swan. No big deal.

Classic Fish and Chips meal with juice

Part of the mummy collection

In British Museum

Rosetta Stone!

Depiction of Revelations

He's there...

We left early Thursday morning to see as much as we could, and began our day by visiting the Tower of London. The crowning jewel of the Tower (pun intended) was the crown jewel collection. I have never been so in awe of a collection of gems and ornaments before. While in the area, we were able to walk across London Bridge, and I can confirm that it is still standing and not falling down. We then took the tube over to the Westminster stop where we were greeted by none other than Big Ben when we emerged from the tube. This small area contained the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. We continued on our walk through the crowded town to Buckingham Palace. The gate was beautiful and the gravel inside looked soft to touch, but there was less to see than one would have wanted. We then walked on to the National Gallery where we got to see plenty of works we had seen before, some by the likes of Van Gough and Monet. We left for the the Sharp house while there was still sun, as we planned on having a cook-out together. Mrs. Sharp made lamb and chicken kebaps, as well as her world famous corn. After dinner we continued our Harry Potter marathon, as one does when in London.

Tower of London's White Tower

#notastatue

Easily the most intimidating horse I've ever seen

London Bridge: Still standing

Big Ben

The Eye of Sauron

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

A Monet

A Dog who has clearly pooped in a shoe

Sunflowers by Van Gough

Special side note about the Sharp family. These are really awesome people. Really. They take people in who are traveling near London all the time, and their hospitality is unmatched. Though you may not read this, I want to put out a special thank you to the Sharp family, and especially to Mrs. Sharp for all that you did for us.

Nevan and Frau Sharp

We went into Glasgow central on Saturday afternoon, where we took a short train to head to the south of Central Station. A Scottish man with a Russian accent named Victor took us to our house (which we rented through Airbnb) from the train stop. The house was of modern design, and considerable size. Needless to say, we were quite excited about our stay. We took to the park near our house to see nature in Scotland, and we broke up into groups. Nevan, Cole, and I went GeoCashing, which is basically a world-wide miniature treasure hunt. We found our GeoCash, and spent the rest of the night relaxing in our house having pizza and watching Harry Potter.

Living Room in Glasgow

Kitchen has heated floors!

Front of our house

McTaggart for President 2016

Scotland GeoCash

JAMMIE DODGERS

The next morning we made a delicious breakfast of eggs and toast before going into the center of Glasgow. Nevan learned, that morning, of something I hadn't seen in my planning. He led us through the city to the Glasgow Cathedral, and boy am I glad he did This is the most beautiful church I have ever seen (and we see quite a few beautiful churches in Europe). The walls were darkened stone, smooth and curving in waves along the archways. The stained glass was bright and colorful. It depicted images of Scottish kings, of Apostles, and of war and peace. Just outside was the Glasgow necropolis, which was built on a hill looking over the city. It's amazing what peace one can find surrounded by gravestones taller than themselves. We left the necropolis, and ran into the Tardis along the way. We then went into Market Square, where we ate a late lunch and found a hat that was too great to pass up. Later that night, Nevan, Cole, and I went back to the park to go GeoCashing because of how much fun we had had the day before.

Henry was waiting for us in the morning

Glasgow Cathedral

Cathedral Stained Glass

Stained glass crest

The Glasgow Necropolis

I FOUND THE TARDIS

Fabulous action shot- Credit Tanner

On Monday we split into groups: Nevan and Tanner went to bike around a loch up North, and Cole continued to explore Glasgow, while Reuben, Jacob, and I took a train to Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and is built on a series of large hills. Our first task was to climb Arthur's Seat that loomed over the city. It was two major hills up to the top, and on the top, people left messages made of stones for the next hiker. I left my own message. I got separated from Reuben and Jacob, but went to see the hundred year old optical illusion building. I was genuinely surprised at the illusions they had set up, the peak being the moving tunnel and the camera obscura. The rest of the day was spent walking around the town, and enjoying the uniquely Scottish feel that it had.

First hill of Arthur's Seat

Ours is the Way

From the top of Arthur's Seat

Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh Castle

In Camera Obscura

The Camera Obscura

All of Scotland had humorous public signage

The flight to Dublin from Glasgow was brief. The bus was comfortable enough for the three hour ride down to Wexford, even though some of us learned that they get bus sick easily *cough cough Tanner cough*. Wexford is a town of around 150,000 that sits on the Eastern coast of Ireland in a natural harbor. Because we could not find a place for 7 total people to stay (as we were joined by our friend James), we split into three groups for housing. Jacob and I had a stay in an apartment overlooking the harbor with a man named Peter. Peter is a short, energetic, friendly, Scottish man who works for "the newspaper". He lived in the same apartment that we lived in, and was friendly and helpful to us.

View from Wexford window

An Irish close

The next day we spent in Wexford. It was a bit of a rest day to prepare for what was to come. We visited the tourist information center where we met a kind old lady who gave us about 15 pamphlets, and all of the info we could need. She had traveled across a large portion of America, and had even heard of Abilene. We then visited a park called the rocks. This park was covered in the classic Irish Ulex flower, which quickly became one of my favorite flowers. The park was filled with all sorts of rocks to climb, and valleys to explore. The best story was of the time we wanted to cross the swamp that looked like it belonged in The Lord of the Rings. There was a solid path of rocks that led to the other side, and Reuben, leaped across the swamp to the first rock. Except it wasn't a rock. It was a floating piece of styrofoam that was in the swamp for so long it was dirtied enough to look like a rock. Both of his feet went straight into the swamp, though his tall boots saved him from a fate worse than death: wet socks. We then visited an old Abbey, learned that Zorro was from Wexford, We split up after this, and I received an email I had been waiting for for over a day. You see, I made a small mistake on the bus into Wexford by leaving my 3DS on it. However, they had saved it and it was only 15 minutes outside of town by car. I called a taxi and was about to take the ride of my life. The taxi driver was an old Irish man with a thick accent. He shot down the streets big enough for one car going around curves at 30 km/hr. We had light conversation that had highlights such as "You ride horses?" and "Us Irish, we're all #%^^&#*@^@* mad!". He was a special guy. 

The Rocks Park

Reuben being model of the year again

Swamp in Rock park

It was not a rock! It was a rock-styrofoam!

Reuben after escaping the swamp

Wexford's Abbey

Human Tooth in the Abbey

The next day was the big day, as it was St. Patrick's Day. We took a train into Dublin, and made it just in time to see the St. Patrick's Day parade going through town. After receiving a compliment from one of the float people, and seeing St. Patrick's Cathedral, we met up at the Guinness Storehouse. The Guinness Storehouse is an awesome visit, and I highly recommend it to anyone in Dublin. We learned how Guinness was made, the history of the Storehouse, and Reuben and I even took part in classic Irish line dancing. The rest of the day was spent exploring the crowded and loud streets of Dublin before our train left later that night. 

Along the parade

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Guinness gates

Casks that used to carry Guinness

Irish line dancing in Dublin

Guinness's 9,000 year lease

Our final day was spent in rest: walking the Irish coastline. On the left of our path was the yellow Ulex flower as far as the eye could see, and on our right was the endless ocean that reached England. We took a break after a few hours, and sat on the beach to eat cheese, bread, Jammie dodgers, and rocky road digestive biscuits (I don't know either). We capped the day, and our trip by listening to classic Irish music performed by the Carty Sisters, who are some of the most talented musicians I have ever heard.

Ulex flowers

Nevan takes his own path

Should be the cover of a boy band album

Irish Coastline

Wildlife reserve

The Carty Sisters

Final check mark on the list, buy an Irish potato

The differences between these three countries are quite interesting. Though all English speaking countries, they have distinct aspects to themselves. First and foremost are the accents. While England English is high and proper, the Irish tongue is comparable to having a Texan accent in the Isles. Scotland had plenty of alleyways called closes that were used for average businesses, while Ireland felt most like Texas with their roadways and buildings. Also, for any traveling bachelors out there, I would highly recommend going to Ireland due to the incredibly high number of drop-dead gorgeous women, and equally high number of unattractive men.

These past ten days have demarcated the beginning of the trip from the end. It has revitalized us by going smoothly and giving us a chance to speak English. It inspired us to see new sights and adventure to new heights. It also let us let loose, and have fun. There are so many other things to say about our adventure too. I could tell you about our adventures on the London tube, or about the pun war between Tanner, Nevan, and I, or even about Reuben's supposed St. Patty's kiss. But, there is not time for that now. Now, I must go back to my reading to catch up on homework.

Till next time friends.