Spring Break 2k16

I assume that I won’t do my spring break justice with my shabby writing, so just magnify my excitement by 100x. Six of us went on a tour through London and Cork, Ireland, and it felt like a daydream that I was finally getting to go to the UK. It’s hard to visit cities like London without looking like a goofy tourist, an experience that I usually try to avoid, but I think I learned to embrace it this week. We went on double-decker buses, stared at maps in the Underground, some of us danced in public places quite frequently (no names), and we all couldn’t help but gaze in wonder at everything we saw.

London blew my mind. I honestly didn’t think it would, but SO MUCH happened there and is happening there right now! It’s not like downtown Dallas (no offense, D-Town); it is littered with a deep past beyond what I remember from 11^th grade European History, and crazy architecture that can vary drastically at each address and so many types of cultures mixed together in what feels like the largest city I’ve ever been in. For some weird reason, I love the tubes. I know that undergrounds are sketchy, smell weird, and are always somehow warm and windy, but I love them. I love the markets. Not the cheesy, rip-off toy and clothing markets. I mean the food markets, where there are endless opportunities for filling your belly with goodness. I love the museums. I saw the Rosetta Stone and that will pump any nerd up. There were elaborate halls filled with so much history, I was astounded.

                                                                                  

Our schedule was full of activities. I never thought that I needed to see a play in West End, but apparently I needed to see two. And the Book of Mormon and Wicked rocked my socks off. We completed an Escape Room, and that was neat. Maybe being locked in a dark room by strangers with a bunch of people is not my favorite thing in the world. The Tower of London was probably the coolest attraction to me, but mostly because of the fascinating facts and stories told by the Beefeaters leading us around.

We jetted over to Cork, Ireland over the break, too. Cork is the second largest Irish town, certainly not as well known as Dublin, and is probably best recognized as being the home of Blarney Castle. St. Patty’s Day was different than expected, because Americans have established much of the “Irish Traditions” that we celebrate on that day. There was still a ton of beer, lots of green, and a cute parade. Despite all of this excitement, the peak of that day for me was my morning run, which is a pretty rare occurrence, through the city and along the river (RIVER NAME). I don’t really get a ton of alone time this semester, and it was just enough peace and stillness to be fulfilling. I ended up needing this energy later that day when we went to Blarney Castle to kiss the stone and walk the grounds a bit. The flora of Europe consistently amazes me, and Ireland was no different. We were there a bit before dusk, and the golden-hour of natural lighting hit just as we were taking a walk behind the castle. It was gorgeous and I couldn’t resist but take a billion photos of flowers. I realized a pretty important thing on our way home from the castle – we are very lucky to have our base in Germany. Irish buses do not arrive on time, and I’m not sure that they ever even arrive.

We spent the majority of our next day with three of my favorite things on the Earth – picnics, coastlines, and Frisbees. A taxi driver convinced us to change our destination to Charles’ Fort, and I’m still thankful that we picked his van on the street. Gosh, what a magnificently spent day. I also grabbed a new book, “All the Light We Cannot See”, and I’m struggling to do anything else but read it. … I’m probably going to go read my book right now instead of writing a proper conclusion to my spring break.