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
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"!!!
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