Well it has been an amazing, crazy, bizarre, and wacky couple of weeks here for me! I left Victoria September 14 and when I arrived in Vancouver for my connecting flight to London, I discovered my 8:40 flight had been delayed until 3:00 in the morning! I was not exactly what you would call a happy camper at that point, but I survived! Once I actually made it on the flight it was fairly uneventful (which is nice when you are flying over a really big ocean . . . yipes!) and I spent my time watching movies and doing more sleeping than I wanted! Oh well! So I made it to London, made it to my hotel, had no problems there at all, so decided to settle in for a good night's sleep before meeting up with a friend in London to go exploring the next day. Well here's where I ran into a PROBLEM! I didn't really have a problem with jetlag when I went to Australia, so underestimated the power it would have over me in Europe! I did sleep a lot on the plane, but by a lot I really only mean maybe 4 and a half hours and I didn't sleep in the airport while I waited for my 3am flight, so I didn't really think sleep would be an issue for me! And it wasn't at first . . . I fell asleep pretty quickly (for me at least), but then woke up at 2am and stayed awake until about 6! My body was tired, I could feel it, but it just would NOT go to sleep because its internal clock was saying sorry it's time to be awake now!
So that was an interesting first night in London! Very little sleep following a sleepless night/day (I don't know what to call the time in between the time changes!) since I'd left Victoria . . . I was not exactly in prime condition to journey alone to the heart of London where I was meeting my friend, but what choice did I have??? Fortunately after asking for some help I did manage to make sense of the Tube system and meet my friend and we proceeded to have a great day together. We visited Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey, and the Tower of London! I absolutely LOVE doing the typical touristy things so enjoyed visiting those "tourist traps" (though I will say the Tower of London was a little dry for my taste!). We walked all over the city that day, so I was exhausted by the time I was finished at the Tower of London, but it wasn't time to call it a night yet! I had tickets to go see the Lion King musical and I was STOKED! I love musicals and love going to shows and I was so excited to see the Lion King! And the show was AMAZING! If you have never had the opportunity to see this live (and you like the story of the Lion King), you MUST! I was absolutely blown away by it. Of course I already knew the story and songs by heart, but the costumes and stage design were incredible! I cannot recommend this show enough . . . it was fabulous! Of course it was quite late by the time the show finished and I still had to manouever my way through the Tube system again to get back to my hotel, so I didn't get to go to bed until after 1am (after my sleepless night before!) so I was EXHAUSTED!
Fortunately that exhaustion meant I slept through the night that night! Unfortunately it also meant I slept through half the next day and it was 1pm by the time I made it back into London for my second day of sightseeing! So I didn't end up getting to see as much the second day as I wanted to, but I did make it to St. Paul's Cathedral and for all those who have never been to London, but plan to one day I just have to say you MUST put St. Paul's Cathedral on your list of places to visit . . . it is BEAUTIFUL! I absolutely loved it! It was too bad I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside because the inside was even more amazing than the outside, but I did take lots of exterior photos and I climbed to the highest observation tower (528 stairs thank you very much!) and took some great shots of London from above! Unfortunately by the time I finished touring St. Paul's it was pouring rain! That kind of put a damper on my plan to take a cruise on the Thames. However I'm a BC girl so I'm not afraid of a little rain and I went on the cruise anyhow! It was quite interesting actually! I got to learn about the different buildings along the Thames and the riverboat captain told us interesting stories about different points of interest. Plus of course I got to see and take a million photos of Tower Bridge which I am slightly obsessed with! It was really when I was in the vacinity of Tower Bridge that I was like wow, yep, I'm in LONDON!
Definitely after my late night the night before I was wanting to get back to my hotel early because I needed to repack one of my bags so it was easier to carry, so I stopped off at London's Chinatown (to check it out and I have to say Victoria's is WAY better!) and to get some dinner, then went back to my hotel. My packing went a lot better than I thought it would which was nice so I was able to spend some time on the computer, but that's when another problem arose! I plugged my laptop cord into my adaptor and I could hear sizzle sizzle sizzle! Uh oh! That's not good! So I unplugged it and decided to run off the battery for now and try plugging it in again when the battery was lower and hope it worked better that time! So I ended up chatting with Joanne and spending time on Facebook and sure enough battery is running low so I plug in the cord and there is no sizzle sizzle, but there is no power either! I fried my laptop cable 2 days into my adventure! So that explains the delay in posting on my blog . . . I was computerless! I was happy to have my Ipod touch so I could still connect to the internet and have basic communication and connection with home, but it was not gonna cut it for blogging!
So my time in London ended on a sour note . . . especially with the debacle at the airport which I won't get into, but I don't recommend Aer Lingus to anyone! However I was on to the next phase of my adventure which was 3 days in Dublin! Fortunately my flight and immigration and bussing to my hostel all went without a hitch (greatly appreciated after the recent debacles in London!) and I checked in and was happy with the conditions at the hostel! However it was dinner time so I decided to try braving the streets of Dublin to see what I could see. What I didn't know was that there was a big football match going on between Dublin City and their archrivals Carrey so there were people everywhere! The pubs were full, there were people in the streets wearing blue and grey or green and orange . . . people were cheering or booing together and releasing balloons into the air as a show of support for their team . . . it was absolute madness in downtown Dublin, and this was my first taste of the city! I did manage to find something to eat and then hid out in my hostel for the night, but unfortunately for me Dublin City won the match and the celebrating in the streets outside my bedroom lasted until after 3am so sleep wasn't the best that night either!
The next day I decided I needed some chill time to just relax and go at a quieter pace, so I visited Dublin Zoo! It was quite a nice little zoo and filled with history as it is something like the third oldest zoo in Europe. I love animals and going to the zoo, so this was the perfect activity for me to kind of recenter myself and just relax! I spent the whole afternoon at the zoo and ended up staying until closing time (my favorite was the 12 day old baby hippopotamus!). I kept my chill and relax attitude as I left the zoo and bussed back downtown to find somewhere I could eat dinner and hide away in a corner reading my book. It ended up being a very nice day and definitely what I was needing after the craziness of London and the madness I arrived to in Dublin! The next day in Dublin I had my work orientation which walked me through all the red tape stuff of foreigners living and working in Ireland, but it only lasted an hour and a half and I had the rest of the day free, so I just explored Dublin. I didn't take any tours or visit museums because I have lots of time for that in the future after I have researched more what I would be interested in seeing. I did however find Christchurch Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral (the oldest church in Dublin and the most famous church in Dublin) and they were beautiful. St. Patrick's Cathedral had this wonderful park outside it with beautiful gardens so I ended up spending a bunch of time there journaling and reading my book. Once I started getting hungry I walked somewhere for dinner, then found a Starbucks and curled up there with a Creme Brulee Latte and read my book some more. It ended up being another nice chill day in Dublin, which was good because the next day I faced the task of officially registering myself in Ireland, and then making my way to my new home of Malahide and meeting my new family! I think I will cliffhang the story there for now seeing as this post is already monstrously long! But then again those who know me know I love to write and really should expect monstrously long from my blogposts ;) So I hope you enjoying hearing the beginning of my European adventure. There are many more adventures to come this year, and I will keep you up to date on all of them!
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