Ireland, Switzerland, Italy and Englad ...

Hello all!! Sorry it's been awhile since I posted. I've been on a whirlwind of travels in the past 2 weeks. We left for Ireland on Wednesday the 6th of September, taking the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. I'm not quite sure how I feel about ferries. I definitely wasn't feeling super awesome while we were on the boat but once we got off I felt much better. Anyway we got to our hostel which was very close to the downtown-ish area of Dublin. Tecwyn took us on a little tour of O'Connell Street and down to the Temple Bar area. And then in true Tecwyn style he just left us there to find our own way back to the hostel. I walked around for awhile with a few people and we got food and then headed back to the hostel. That night a group of us went out to Temple Bar and listened to some wonderful live Irish music. It was really wonderful. We moved around to a few other pubs just trying to find some good Irish music and then headed back to the hostel to sleep. My bed at the hostel was extraordinarily squeaky, literally any time I moved a centimeter of my body it squeaked so incredibly loud. The next day we went on a walking tour of some other parts of Ireland; through Trinity College, the park where the Oscar Wilde memorial is, the statue of Molly Malone, down to Saint Patricks Cathedral where the cult of St. Patrick began. We got to go inside and have a look around and it was very interesting to learn all about St. Patrick and the Cathedral itself. The walk ended there except for those who wanted to go and take a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, which of course I went on. We got to learn all about how Guinness began and how it's made and we got to see a bunch of the old machinery that they used to brew it back when Arthur Guinness began brewing. At the end of the tour we got to go up to the Gravity Bar, which sits on the top of the storehouse and is a circular room with all glass walls so that you get a 360 degree view of Dublin. It was very very cool. That was also where we got to collect our free pint of Guinness :D I very much so enjoyed my free pint while gazing at Dublin from the sky. We had a girls night that night and went to a pub where there was a guy doing acoustic covers of popular songs and older songs. It was so much fun. We requested a few and danced for awhile till he was done playing. Then we met up with the guys and went around to a few other ones eventually making our way back to our hostel. The next morning was our last day in Dublin. Tecwyn took those who wanted to back to Trinity College to go see the Book of Kells, a 9th century manuscript of the gospel. Oh my goodness, it was such an amazing site. The book itself of course is under glass but it was very neat to see the actual book. The intricacy of the pages themselves and the words and all of the images and drawings was just amazing. It was crazy to think that the book was created all by hand. We then got to walk through the Old Library of Trinity which was also very interesting. The display in the Long Room of the library was called 'The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman' (Jonathan Swift. The School of Medicine 1711-2011. It was so interesting to see some of the documents and devices from doctors and operations of the 18th century and later.

                                                               St. Patrick's Cathedral

At noon we left Dublin and traveled across Ireland to Galway. While we were in Galway not only did we get to explore the city but we got to take another ferry ride over to one of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor, where we rented bikes and biked all around the island. On that trip we got to climb up to the edge of an 800 ft cliff!! It was so amazing to look out at the sea over this cliff that went straight down! It was amazing. A group of us even crawled out on our bellies to the very edge to look over it. My heart was racing and I was so scared but it was so amazing it was worth the terror. Another one of the days we were there we went to the Cliffs of Moher which was so amazing as well. Seeing all of these cliffs just blows my mind completely. We definitely don't have anything like this in Wisconsin. It was a pretty amazing trip to Ireland. Although since we were in Galway which is on the complete opposite side of Ireland from Dublin where we came in on the ferry we had to get back to Dublin to in turn get back to Wales. However the day we were scheduled to leave there was a huge storm coming and they had cancelled our ferry in the early afternoon. In order to make it back in time we had to leave Galway at about 3:30 in the morning!!! We got to Dublin by about 7 and our ferry left just after 8. Needless to say we were all very, very tired and most attempted to sleep on the ferry. I got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep on the bus back from Galway and probably another 1 1/2 of sleep on the ferry. Needless to say I was beyond tired when we got back to Bangor. All in all it was a good trip, but I definitely missed Wales by the end.

                                                           Edge of the Cliff on Inis Mor


As soon as we got back to Bangor I had about 12 hours to get all of my stuff moved into my new room in a different building before I left for Rome, Italy with 9 other students on my program!!! It was a crazy few hours trying to get everything moved and pack for my next adventure. We took a train at 7:22 the next morning from Bangor to Liverpool where we had some small 'hiccups' with bags and tickets and such but we all made it to Liverpool. We then took a bus from the train station to the airport where we learned when we went to check in that when flying with easyJet you are only allowed 1 carryon bag. Not one and a personal item, just one bag. We all of course had figured we could bring one bag and a personal item so we all desperately tried to shove our personal item into our carryon bag. Most of us were fairly successful we ended up carrying some of other peoples things as well but we all made it on the plane eventually. We took of in Liverpool and landed in Geneva, Switzerland a few hours later. We then had about a 14 hour layover in Switzerland so after finding out that the official language of Geneva is French and unlike we had though their currency is the frank ... not the euro ... ughhhhh. We found a place to lock up our bags so we could go explore Geneva a little since we were there. Because it was so late when we got there we couldn't do a whole lot but we walked down the downtown area and saw some neat things. Definitely the coolest was the water jet in the middle of Lake Geneva. It's fairly random but it was definitely worth seeing and walking out too. We then headed back to the airport where we slept ... on the floor of the airport. That is sure something I could go without doing ever again. We got up around 4 and went and checked in for our 6 am flight to Rome. We got to Rome before 8:00 and couldn't check into our hostel until about 3 so we got a cab from the airport to our hostel so we could at least drop off our bags until we could officially check in and take a much needed nap. We had our first Italian meal, which was delicious! After we checked in and napped we got ready for dinner and headed in the direction of the Trevi Fountain. We ate at a little pizzeria by the fountain and then headed to the Spanish Steps and then back to Trevi Fountain to see it at night and throw our coins in and make wishes. The next day a group of us went to The Vatican to see St. Peter's Basilica. I spent close to an hour just going around the basilica in complete amazement of everything. I easily could have spent another hour in there just looking. I got to see a real Michelangelo ... it was so amazing!! We then got the best gelato ever, I swear it was the best at Old Bridge Gelateria. We started walking back in the direction of our hostel making stops at Vittorio Emanuele, the Pantheon,  Piazza Navona and the Colosseum. That night we got dinner and went back to the Colosseum and Vittorio Emanuele to see them all light up. The next day we took it pretty easy and did a little shopping and had lunch outside of Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica and then relaxed at the hostel until we had to leave for the airport. We left Rome around 9 pm and arrived into London about 10:45 pm. We then had to make it from the airport to Victoria Station and then to our hostel which was quite the adventure since we didn't make it to the hostel till after 2 am. We slept and got up and checked out of the hostel and had a few hours before we had to be at Euston Station to get our train from London back to Bangor. Jake, Kelsey and I walked around for awhile and ended up by the London Eye and Westminster Abby and Big Ben. It was nice just to walk around and see things for the little time we were there. We then got on the train and headed back to Bangor to truly start our "Welsh Experience"!!! 

                                                          water jet in Geneva, Switzerland

                                                                The Colosseum

                                      Jake, Kelsey and I across from Westminster Abby in London

Through the wind and rain

Well today we got to explore a few parts of Snowdonia which I've got to say is so amazing! We climbed up part of one of the mountains, or it could have been a foothill I suppose. It wasn't 'that' big. When you compare it to some of the bigger mountains or Snowdon, but definitely much larger than anything I would climb in Kenosha. But although it was extraordinarily windy and misty/rainy we got up to a mountain lake called Llyn Idwal. Llyn in Welsh means lake. But this llyn is also known as Hell's Kitchen because when it is windy enough the wind wraps around a few large slabs of rock at the back side of the llyn and it makes this demonic sounding howl. Although to us today seemed extremely windy it was not windy enough to howl. It was a beautiful hike though. The mountains are covered in Welsh heather and because there was so much rain last night there are little streams/rivers running down the sides of the mountains that look like silvery veins. It's absolutely gorgeous to say the least.

                                                              me at Llyn Idwal

After Llyn Idwal we went to Swallow Falls which was amazing today because of all of the rain last night. The waterfall was massive and raging and even though we were a good distance away we were still getting sprayed by mist. It was truly an amazing site to see.

                                                                     Swallow Falls

After Swallow Falls we went to the biggest city in North Wales, Llanudno. I definitely am going to try and go back there and explore. There are tons of shops there and some bigger stores. It seems like a very nice place to go on a free Saturday or something.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Ireland for about 6 days! I'm very very excited about it! I can't wait to share what I all get to experience over there with all of you! And then when we get back from Ireland next Monday we will hopefully be able to move into our permanent housing for the semester and then on Tuesday a group of 10 of us are heading to Liverpool in the morning to get on a plane to Geneva, Switzerland and then from Geneva to Rome, Italy for a few days before we start classes and such. I'm so unbelievably excited for the next 2 weeks!!! Stay posted!!  

Castels and Slate and so much more!

Today we had our first field trip of many that we are going on as a program group this semester. First we headed to Caernarfon Castle which is one of the largest Norman Castles in Wales and was built by King Edward 1st. Tecwyn told us that there are many Welsh people who won't set foot inside the walls of Caernarfon because they feel that it is a sign of oppression because it was at this castle where King Edward I presented his son Edward II as the "new" Prince of Wales after Edward I killed off the last Welsh born prince. At that time, and still to this day for some, the Welsh saw this as a huge slap in the face. Also at that time the only people who were allowed inside the castle and the walled city of Caernarfon were the English. The Welsh had to live outside of the walls and were not allowed to enter. With all of that being said the castle was gorgeous and although it was cool and windy today, especially once we got to the top of some of the towers, the view was amazing!

                                                             inside the castle

                                           view from one of the Eagle towers, the tallest tower of all the Norman Castles

The second castle we went to today was Criccieth Castle. Structurally this castle is nowhere near the beauty of Caernarfon however the view from atop Criccieth is simply amazing! We did not spend a whole lot of time up there but I got to see so much. The castle is at the top of a cliff essentially and right on the shore line. It feels like you can see to the ends of the earth from it. It was absolutely breathtaking! Tecwyn brought us down and took us to the Cadwaladers ice cream shop and bought us all an ice cream. The are world known for their vanilla ice cream, although I got the toffee, which should also probably be world known because it was fabulous.

After the two castles we headed more into the mountains and went to the Llechwedd Slate Mine where we got to go on a tour of one of the mines and were told all about how slate was mined in a Victorian style mine. It was very interesting and definitely was not an easy life for the gents who spent their years in the mines.

We headed back to Bangor through a mountain pass that left me absolutely speachless. The countryside of Wales is so amazingly beautiful. The mountain sides are covered with lush green and purple colors and dotted with sheep. There are little mountain rivers that cascade down the sides of the mountains ending occasionally in some small waterfalls and rapids. I don't think I have ever seen pastures and grasses as green as they are here. It's just so amazing. Every day I have been here has been more eye opening and I feel like I see someone more beautiful every day. I'm completely head over heals in love with Wales at this point!

Unbelievable Sights

Hello everyone! Since I am still waiting to gain access to the blog for Central College for my program I thought I'd start one here just because there is just to much for me to say right now! I have officially been in Wales for 3 days but let me tell you they have been 3 of the greatest days of my life. I cannot believe how lucky I am to be here. I have never seen anything as beautiful as this wonderful country. The first day we were here (Friday, Sept. 2nd) was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning and we got to explore lower Bangor a little which was wonderful. There are tons of little shops down there and cafes and other really interesting places. Our director Tecwyn led our group of 29 down to the clock tower and then left us there to find our way back on our own. It was an interesting time for sure but we made it back up the huge hill to Upper Bangor where our flats are.

Yesterday was very rainy. It pretty much rained all day but the rain was not going to stop us from doing some exploring. A group of us went down the road from our flats and went to Mike's Bites to get food. And then we walked down to the grocery store, Morrison's, and picked up some things to make for dinner. We ended up just doing some pasta and sauce with some garlic bread but it was very delicious. Later on last night the majority of our program group played one huge game of mafia which was so fun and a great way for us all to get to know each other. The towns people of course won the game, taking out the mafia one by one ... although I was not successful in finishing the game as I got run through by a unicorn horn. :) It was a very fun time though.

Today I woke up and was very happy to see the sun shinning into my window. We met with Tecwyn and he went over some things with us for about an hour and a half. He also told us that there are some places that we need to explore on our own and journal about for his class. Two of the places, the Pier and Roman Camp, he highly suggested that if we were up for a bit of walking today that we should go to them since it was such a nice day. So a rather large group of us decided to take on the challenge. We began walking down to the pier, passing many university buildings. I found were one of the music buildings is, so that was very exciting! We got down to the pier and I don't even have words for how amazingly beautiful it was. It was honestly so breathtaking. I do not think I have ever seen anything quite so peaceful and beautiful. I will definitely be going back down to the pier any time that I can. We walked down to the end of the pier where there is a little shop where they sell scones and tea. So of course we all had to get some. They were so delicious!! And they people working were so very nice! We headed back from the pier and found the entrance to Roman Camp, which none of us really had any idea what it was. But we started walking up this dirt trail on the side of this hill ... let me tell you it got quite steep as we got higher. After a short while we got to a clearing and walked over to the edge and we could see everything!! I was looking down onto the pier where we just were and up at the mountains. It was absolutely wonderful, definitely worth the steep climb up.

                                                                   view from the Pier

                                                                view from Roman Camp

                                                                           Bangor                

Words and pictures cannot even begin to describe how wonderful it is here and how beautiful it all is. I definitely know I made the right choice in coming to Bangor. And everyone that is here on this program has been wonderful. We already feel like a bit of a family for each other which I think is amazing when you have a group our size. Tomorrow we get to go take a look at a Norman Castle and a slate mine and on Tuesday we get a general tour of Snowdonia and then Wednesday it's off to Ireland for a few days!! I'm so excited!!