our last half term was at the end of may; i spent a weekend in scotland with becca which was so much fun - i can't wait to see her again next week for t in the park; and then 5 days in dublin with aine again! its crazy that we still get along so well and are so similar after almost 7 years!
during that week in dublin we saw x-men, made brownies, attended a party and talked non-stop the entire time.
the final half of term before summer really flew by. claire and louisa came to visit us and we had such a laugh with them; it was strange seeing people from home when we're not there! same with cole, she stayed for 3 days and it was amazing to have her there - i've really missed her.
work finished up for me last monday; it was the lodge kids last day and they all dressed up so i dutifully donned a main school uniform like i had told them i would and they were suitably amused. tuesday was all speeches and the prize giving for main school; then the staff party at night. on wednesday we helped clean and organise the school before georgie, rose and i went to see darren criss in the evening. what a night...seriously one of my highlights here! thursday was all a rush as everyone was leaving and in a hurry. we all set off, me second to last - heading to scotland for t in the park.
i had a BRILLIANT weekend. totally muddy and exhausting, my hair has never been so matted but i don't think i've ever been so happy. i saw some of my favourite bands, hung out with my friend, ate rubbish food, drank overpriced drinks and was so relaxed and peaceful (despite the huge amount of noise). when the arena got flooded on sunday, causing the previously slightly squidgy mud to turn in to a full scale swamp; i even embraced that! anyone who knows me can probably vouch that i am not averse to mud or dirt and it seems to be attracted to me so i actually really enjoyed dancing in the mud and rain with makeup trailing down my face - after realising that no matter how hard i tried i was inevitably going to get filthy.
now it is 4.56am and i am about to go to gatwick airport and then fly to florence where georgie and rose will meet me and that, dear reader, is where i must leave you for about a month. really it's not too bad, there's about a month between most of my posts anyway so it could be worse...and then next one should be really interesting! here's hoping i don't run out of money too early (i feel like it's inevitable) and don't lose anything too valuable.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Thursday, 19 May 2011
may 8 - easter continued
on april 21 we spent our morning at the beautiful calcium terraces in pammukale (where my camera sadly died; RIP) and paddled in the hot springs which was an amazing experience. the cliffs gave a really beautiful view of the turkish countryside and the surrounding towns; to sit on the terraces with our feet in hot running water and look out was...wow, amazing.
after pammukale we went to the ancient city of aphrodisias which was beautiful and we took loads of photos including one in a huge ampitheatre. typically, georgie and i got jumping photos and then went on to the beautiful seaside town of kusadasi. my reaction to kusadasi was almost ridiculous; on seeing the beach and the sea my heart skipped a beat, i was so excited. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and then spent an evening on the beach, eating magnums and relaxing before going out for a night with our tour bus, plus two other topdeck buses which were staying at the same hotel.
the next day we went to the ancient city of ephesus (yes, another ancient city - there are two more to come!) which was stunning, one of the highlights of the trip for me. the city has been really well preserved so we could really get a feel of what the city would have been like, including a walk through the "public toilets" where slaves used to have to sit in the winter to warm up the seats before their masters came in to use the loo! we were given free time to explore the ampitheatre in ephesus, and we saw a performance being put on for a norweigan tour group; and took some potentially-disrespectful-to-ancient-monuments photos with "skippy", the inflatable kangaroo we had somehow inherited while out the previous night. we all wound up soaking up the sun in the giant ampitheatre and were then whisked off to lunch where we could pay 15 lira for a buffet or bring our own food. we had decided that morning to bring our own food; so we settled down to a picnic of bread, banana and nutella; and crisp sandwiches washed down with water and juice boxes. after lunch to everyones surprise; the bus took us to a leather warehouse where the owner and his staff then put on a fashion show for us; showcasing the apparently "underappreciated" turkish leather industry. i found it a really uncomfortable experience as we had clearly been brought along as a western tour group expected to spend a lot....but i don't think anyone travelling with topdeck could afford to be spending $300 on a leather jacket that day!
that night we went out again although the night ended pretty early as we were all tired.
on april 23 we started off our day at pergamon; another ancient city which we had to ride a cable car to access. the city was really poorly preserved as the ottoman empire had made a deal with germany in the early 20th/late 19th century and they had thus claimed a large portion of the artefacts found in pergamon. it was very pretty and windy, apparently people used to come to pergamon to be "healed" by the wind. after pergamon we went to the island of junda, slightly off the coast of turkey and so pretty! yve, caitlin, rose, janet and i explored the markets on the seafront and then we were called back to our bus where we carried on to the delightful hotel where we spent the night. after taking a (cold) shower, we went to dinner which was, surprisingly, really nice, and then planned for an early night which didn't really work out too well as our rooms were draughty and even though turkey is warm during the day...it gets down to around 3 degrees at night!
we all rose bright and early on april 24, excited to be heading to gallipoli. on the bus we listened as our beloved tourguide tolga talked (and talked and talked) about the turkish perspective of WW1, which i think we all agreed was important but unfortunately tolga managed to make us all hate the very mention of turkey in WW1 by the end of our tour! before going to gallipoli we first stopped in troy where we took the obligatory photo with a replica of the trojan horse before we carried on to a giant supermarket to stock up on food for the next 24 hours. and stock up we did! georgie and i did well between us, meeting the guy who actually OWNED skippy the kangaroo and was looking desparately for him, and buying enough food to feed a small army. our bus pulled up to the gates of the gallipoli site around 3 in the afternoon and we began to crowd around but the gates themselves didn't open until almost 6pm. getting in to the actual site took a while, there were a couple of security checks that we had to pass through and then we had to collect a "welcome" bag and wristband before finding a place to set up camp. we got really lucky that georgie and kate had pushed way in front of us so they got a good spot which was probably too small for 7 people but we made do. when the sun started to go down it got cold quite quickly and everyone started layering up.
janet and i lay next to each other listening to music for a while before we decided to try and sleep...
the night was passed eating at regular intervals to pass the time and attempting to sleep but as there were performances and presentations every 20-30 minutes which were blasted through the speakers; sleep was hard to come by. at 3am a video presentation of the ANZAC dawn service in many cities around australia was broadcasted, (including townsville but not melbourne) and then at close to 5am; janet, georgie and i descended to closer to the barrier to try and get a good spot for the service itself.
the dawn service was....i can't even express the effect it had on me. everyone was in tears, it was a really powerful, beautiful thing to witness. the only slight irritation were the turkish site staff who had no respect at all for the occasion, talking and laughing loudly throughout the 2 minutes silence. i was blown away by the tragedy and scale of war; especially being on the beach where the ANZACS landed 96 years ago. boys as young as 14 and 15 were displayed on the screen as being killed on april 25, 1915.
after the service ended we began our walk up to lone pine for the australian service. georgie had bailed already, and the others fallen behind so kate and i took our time walking up the (steep) hill to lone pine; calling in at some of the cemetaries along the way and arriving at lone pine just after 9am. as far as i know, it was chosen as the site for the australian service as it was the location of one of the most gruesome battles seen in the entire gallipoli campaign; with 7000 people killed in a space the size of maybe...one and a bit tennis courts.
when the australian service ended georgie, kate and i continued another 3.5km uphill steeply to the new zealand service, but by the time we arrived we decided instead to set up camp on the grass and wait for the rest of our bus to arrive. when we had all gathered we had to wait for our bus number to be called and then it was back on the bus to istanbul! on the ride back we watched eurotrip, took bets on what time we would pull in to our hotel and i think EVERYONE slept for a couple of hours. literally a minute after we had walked in to the hotel we decided to go to bed and took turns showering before getting a good oh...13 hours?
the next day we visited the grand bazaar again and did some more site seeing; kate eventually took off for her flight back to england and we took it pretty easy for the evening; attempting to go out for a final nights drinks with the other members of our tour, but ended up returning to our hotel pretty early.
rose, georgie and i had one more day in istanbul which we spent really bonding and drinking A LOT of apple tea and eating baklava. our taxi ride out to the airport took a turn for the terrifying when our driver decided to race the other taxis on the road and we could see the speedometer inching over 130km...
still we made it home safely and spent a couple of days together in peace before the other girls got back.
amazing holiday. life changing experience. just wow. just...wow.
after pammukale we went to the ancient city of aphrodisias which was beautiful and we took loads of photos including one in a huge ampitheatre. typically, georgie and i got jumping photos and then went on to the beautiful seaside town of kusadasi. my reaction to kusadasi was almost ridiculous; on seeing the beach and the sea my heart skipped a beat, i was so excited. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and then spent an evening on the beach, eating magnums and relaxing before going out for a night with our tour bus, plus two other topdeck buses which were staying at the same hotel.
the next day we went to the ancient city of ephesus (yes, another ancient city - there are two more to come!) which was stunning, one of the highlights of the trip for me. the city has been really well preserved so we could really get a feel of what the city would have been like, including a walk through the "public toilets" where slaves used to have to sit in the winter to warm up the seats before their masters came in to use the loo! we were given free time to explore the ampitheatre in ephesus, and we saw a performance being put on for a norweigan tour group; and took some potentially-disrespectful-to-ancient-monuments photos with "skippy", the inflatable kangaroo we had somehow inherited while out the previous night. we all wound up soaking up the sun in the giant ampitheatre and were then whisked off to lunch where we could pay 15 lira for a buffet or bring our own food. we had decided that morning to bring our own food; so we settled down to a picnic of bread, banana and nutella; and crisp sandwiches washed down with water and juice boxes. after lunch to everyones surprise; the bus took us to a leather warehouse where the owner and his staff then put on a fashion show for us; showcasing the apparently "underappreciated" turkish leather industry. i found it a really uncomfortable experience as we had clearly been brought along as a western tour group expected to spend a lot....but i don't think anyone travelling with topdeck could afford to be spending $300 on a leather jacket that day!
that night we went out again although the night ended pretty early as we were all tired.
on april 23 we started off our day at pergamon; another ancient city which we had to ride a cable car to access. the city was really poorly preserved as the ottoman empire had made a deal with germany in the early 20th/late 19th century and they had thus claimed a large portion of the artefacts found in pergamon. it was very pretty and windy, apparently people used to come to pergamon to be "healed" by the wind. after pergamon we went to the island of junda, slightly off the coast of turkey and so pretty! yve, caitlin, rose, janet and i explored the markets on the seafront and then we were called back to our bus where we carried on to the delightful hotel where we spent the night. after taking a (cold) shower, we went to dinner which was, surprisingly, really nice, and then planned for an early night which didn't really work out too well as our rooms were draughty and even though turkey is warm during the day...it gets down to around 3 degrees at night!
we all rose bright and early on april 24, excited to be heading to gallipoli. on the bus we listened as our beloved tourguide tolga talked (and talked and talked) about the turkish perspective of WW1, which i think we all agreed was important but unfortunately tolga managed to make us all hate the very mention of turkey in WW1 by the end of our tour! before going to gallipoli we first stopped in troy where we took the obligatory photo with a replica of the trojan horse before we carried on to a giant supermarket to stock up on food for the next 24 hours. and stock up we did! georgie and i did well between us, meeting the guy who actually OWNED skippy the kangaroo and was looking desparately for him, and buying enough food to feed a small army. our bus pulled up to the gates of the gallipoli site around 3 in the afternoon and we began to crowd around but the gates themselves didn't open until almost 6pm. getting in to the actual site took a while, there were a couple of security checks that we had to pass through and then we had to collect a "welcome" bag and wristband before finding a place to set up camp. we got really lucky that georgie and kate had pushed way in front of us so they got a good spot which was probably too small for 7 people but we made do. when the sun started to go down it got cold quite quickly and everyone started layering up.
janet and i lay next to each other listening to music for a while before we decided to try and sleep...
the night was passed eating at regular intervals to pass the time and attempting to sleep but as there were performances and presentations every 20-30 minutes which were blasted through the speakers; sleep was hard to come by. at 3am a video presentation of the ANZAC dawn service in many cities around australia was broadcasted, (including townsville but not melbourne) and then at close to 5am; janet, georgie and i descended to closer to the barrier to try and get a good spot for the service itself.
the dawn service was....i can't even express the effect it had on me. everyone was in tears, it was a really powerful, beautiful thing to witness. the only slight irritation were the turkish site staff who had no respect at all for the occasion, talking and laughing loudly throughout the 2 minutes silence. i was blown away by the tragedy and scale of war; especially being on the beach where the ANZACS landed 96 years ago. boys as young as 14 and 15 were displayed on the screen as being killed on april 25, 1915.
after the service ended we began our walk up to lone pine for the australian service. georgie had bailed already, and the others fallen behind so kate and i took our time walking up the (steep) hill to lone pine; calling in at some of the cemetaries along the way and arriving at lone pine just after 9am. as far as i know, it was chosen as the site for the australian service as it was the location of one of the most gruesome battles seen in the entire gallipoli campaign; with 7000 people killed in a space the size of maybe...one and a bit tennis courts.
when the australian service ended georgie, kate and i continued another 3.5km uphill steeply to the new zealand service, but by the time we arrived we decided instead to set up camp on the grass and wait for the rest of our bus to arrive. when we had all gathered we had to wait for our bus number to be called and then it was back on the bus to istanbul! on the ride back we watched eurotrip, took bets on what time we would pull in to our hotel and i think EVERYONE slept for a couple of hours. literally a minute after we had walked in to the hotel we decided to go to bed and took turns showering before getting a good oh...13 hours?
the next day we visited the grand bazaar again and did some more site seeing; kate eventually took off for her flight back to england and we took it pretty easy for the evening; attempting to go out for a final nights drinks with the other members of our tour, but ended up returning to our hotel pretty early.
rose, georgie and i had one more day in istanbul which we spent really bonding and drinking A LOT of apple tea and eating baklava. our taxi ride out to the airport took a turn for the terrifying when our driver decided to race the other taxis on the road and we could see the speedometer inching over 130km...
still we made it home safely and spent a couple of days together in peace before the other girls got back.
amazing holiday. life changing experience. just wow. just...wow.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
may 3
wow it's hard to believe we're in to our 5th month here already...high wycombe looks incredibly different to when we first arrived...crazy.
today was the first day of summer term and all the kids came back looking tall and sun tanned and absolutely adorable in their summer uniform (dresses and boater hats for the girls, the usual shorts and tshirts for boys).
i'm really excited for this term - we have 18 more days of work before half term when i go to scotland and back to dublin for 3 days; all the sports days and exciting things happen now and we finish up for the summer in just over 2 months which is insane! georgie and i are in deep discussions about where we want to go and what we want to do.
for now though; i should catch up on the easter break.
after the last blogpost, georgie, rose and i watched (and sobbed over) romeo and juliet and we then enjoyed a lazy saturday which involved me buying a sleeping bag, mascara and toothpaste; and an early night as we had to be standing outside of godstowe at 6.30am for our taxi. we may have been a little paranoid with getting to the airport on time as we were ready and waiting when the bagdrop opened at 7.30 am and then had a nice 90 minute wait before boarding the plane to istanbul.
during the flight i watched a narnia movie and started my new book - which i am still yet to finish. when we were coming close to landing, georgie got a little nervous as it looked like we were about to land on the sea. istanbul from the air was beautiful and i was suddenly very excited about our trip...
my excitement dispersed somewhat when we realised that getting a visa to enter the country would require queuing for close to 45 minutes but like the good english girls we are becoming, we found the queue not too stressful or long in the end. georgie and i got our visas easily, but rose had some currency trouble. eventually we found ourselves in the line for passport control (yes, another line...well done istanbul airport) and waited. and waited. and waited. we ultimately realised that the reason the passport control queue was going at snailpace was that there were roughly 300 people queuing to get through; and only one booth open. a second booth did open - but of course the line we chose to stay in was controlled by a man in a booth who clearly hated his job, and was stopping every passenger for a 10 minute chat on the way through.
by the time we finally all got through passport control, my backpack had been taken off the carousel and was about to be whisked away to "unclaimed baggage", and we had missed our meet 'n' greet at the airport. luckily georgie had come prepared with the name of our hotel so we made separate arrangements to take a shuttle bus taxi thing to the hotel and with minimum hassle we sped through istanbul to the akgun hotel. sped being the operative word. turkish drivers are definitely up there with vietnamese drivers in terms of disregard for speed limits and all other motorists.
when we walked into the hotel we discovered that the group was halfway through their briefing. luckily, this group was on a 10 day tour and so our briefing wasn't until the next night .we still went out for "welcome" drinks and dinner and got to know them a bit before heading back up to our beautiful triple room for a blissful sleep.
on the morning of the 18th of april, we had been invited to join the 10 day tour on their walking tour of istanbul however after sleeping in we decided to take our time enjoying the delicious buffet breakfast and do some exploring of our own. turns out this was the right decision as literally 30 seconds after leaving the hotel it began to pour with rain so georgie and i ran to the corner store, bought toothpaste and ran back to our hotel room. we spent the day reading, sleeping, "dubbing" turkish soap operas and reading texts-from-last-night. we went down to the lobby in the evening for our tour briefing and then to our second round of welcome-dinner-and-drinks. we met another tour group called "fanatics" and joined them for some karaoke and drinks and then headed back to our hotel.
april 19 began with another buffet breakfast and then a walking tour of istanbul. our turkish tourguide tolga (turkish law says all tour groups must have a native guide) rubbed me up the wrong way immediately and i was proven right! by the end of the tour our entire bus - 45 people plus the topdeck guide - all hated him too. on this first tour he showed us around the blue mosque which was incredibly beautiful; the nearby hippodrome which is thousands of years old and pointed us in the direction of the grand bazaar which i loved. we spent a good 90 minutes wandering through it, admiring the jewellery and i bought a beautiful leather bound notebook. we quickly learned how to haggle and smiled politely at the verbal appreciation we recieved from every single man in the city. " hey spice girls" "australian? aussie aussie oi oi yeah?"
in the afternoon we took a river cruise and then wandered back to our hotel. some of the others took part in a traditional turkish meal with entertainment but georgie, janet and i decided to go the cheap route and scoped out a kebab shop and then bought mcflurrys and chips to smuggle up to our hotel room and eat in bed. georgie and i had planned on going to sleep pretty early but at midnight when kate returned to our room we were still wide awake.
by the morning we regretted this late night as we left the hotel at 6.30am and drove for roughly 10 hours with a few stops for toilet breaks, lunch, to buy snacks etc.
this day was pretty uneventful; we didn't reach our hotel in pammukale until after 8pm and then went straight to dinner and after taking photos with the calcium terraces which were all lit up in the darkness, we went straight to bed.
today was the first day of summer term and all the kids came back looking tall and sun tanned and absolutely adorable in their summer uniform (dresses and boater hats for the girls, the usual shorts and tshirts for boys).
i'm really excited for this term - we have 18 more days of work before half term when i go to scotland and back to dublin for 3 days; all the sports days and exciting things happen now and we finish up for the summer in just over 2 months which is insane! georgie and i are in deep discussions about where we want to go and what we want to do.
for now though; i should catch up on the easter break.
after the last blogpost, georgie, rose and i watched (and sobbed over) romeo and juliet and we then enjoyed a lazy saturday which involved me buying a sleeping bag, mascara and toothpaste; and an early night as we had to be standing outside of godstowe at 6.30am for our taxi. we may have been a little paranoid with getting to the airport on time as we were ready and waiting when the bagdrop opened at 7.30 am and then had a nice 90 minute wait before boarding the plane to istanbul.
during the flight i watched a narnia movie and started my new book - which i am still yet to finish. when we were coming close to landing, georgie got a little nervous as it looked like we were about to land on the sea. istanbul from the air was beautiful and i was suddenly very excited about our trip...
my excitement dispersed somewhat when we realised that getting a visa to enter the country would require queuing for close to 45 minutes but like the good english girls we are becoming, we found the queue not too stressful or long in the end. georgie and i got our visas easily, but rose had some currency trouble. eventually we found ourselves in the line for passport control (yes, another line...well done istanbul airport) and waited. and waited. and waited. we ultimately realised that the reason the passport control queue was going at snailpace was that there were roughly 300 people queuing to get through; and only one booth open. a second booth did open - but of course the line we chose to stay in was controlled by a man in a booth who clearly hated his job, and was stopping every passenger for a 10 minute chat on the way through.
by the time we finally all got through passport control, my backpack had been taken off the carousel and was about to be whisked away to "unclaimed baggage", and we had missed our meet 'n' greet at the airport. luckily georgie had come prepared with the name of our hotel so we made separate arrangements to take a shuttle bus taxi thing to the hotel and with minimum hassle we sped through istanbul to the akgun hotel. sped being the operative word. turkish drivers are definitely up there with vietnamese drivers in terms of disregard for speed limits and all other motorists.
when we walked into the hotel we discovered that the group was halfway through their briefing. luckily, this group was on a 10 day tour and so our briefing wasn't until the next night .we still went out for "welcome" drinks and dinner and got to know them a bit before heading back up to our beautiful triple room for a blissful sleep.
on the morning of the 18th of april, we had been invited to join the 10 day tour on their walking tour of istanbul however after sleeping in we decided to take our time enjoying the delicious buffet breakfast and do some exploring of our own. turns out this was the right decision as literally 30 seconds after leaving the hotel it began to pour with rain so georgie and i ran to the corner store, bought toothpaste and ran back to our hotel room. we spent the day reading, sleeping, "dubbing" turkish soap operas and reading texts-from-last-night. we went down to the lobby in the evening for our tour briefing and then to our second round of welcome-dinner-and-drinks. we met another tour group called "fanatics" and joined them for some karaoke and drinks and then headed back to our hotel.
april 19 began with another buffet breakfast and then a walking tour of istanbul. our turkish tourguide tolga (turkish law says all tour groups must have a native guide) rubbed me up the wrong way immediately and i was proven right! by the end of the tour our entire bus - 45 people plus the topdeck guide - all hated him too. on this first tour he showed us around the blue mosque which was incredibly beautiful; the nearby hippodrome which is thousands of years old and pointed us in the direction of the grand bazaar which i loved. we spent a good 90 minutes wandering through it, admiring the jewellery and i bought a beautiful leather bound notebook. we quickly learned how to haggle and smiled politely at the verbal appreciation we recieved from every single man in the city. " hey spice girls" "australian? aussie aussie oi oi yeah?"
in the afternoon we took a river cruise and then wandered back to our hotel. some of the others took part in a traditional turkish meal with entertainment but georgie, janet and i decided to go the cheap route and scoped out a kebab shop and then bought mcflurrys and chips to smuggle up to our hotel room and eat in bed. georgie and i had planned on going to sleep pretty early but at midnight when kate returned to our room we were still wide awake.
by the morning we regretted this late night as we left the hotel at 6.30am and drove for roughly 10 hours with a few stops for toilet breaks, lunch, to buy snacks etc.
this day was pretty uneventful; we didn't reach our hotel in pammukale until after 8pm and then went straight to dinner and after taking photos with the calcium terraces which were all lit up in the darkness, we went straight to bed.
Friday, 15 April 2011
dublin!
i have had a brilliant week!
ok get your mind in order aisling, start from the beginning
on tuesday april 5 after my last post i stayed up until 1am skyping mum and making sure i had everything organised. i had a taxi booked to take me down to the bus depot in high wycombe and then a 1 hour bus ride to luton airport. at the airport it all got a bit intense as ryanair are the devil and really strict on size limits. after squashing my bag down i managed to make it small enough to satisfy the people working at the desk and i boarded the flight where i finally realised how exhausted i was! i got excited when ireland loomed on the horizon and i was through customs in a couple of minutes (hurray for having a british passport). my aunt andrea collected me and took me straight to see my granny for breakfast and then we went on to the pavilions in swords, near where i used to live. after visiting the pavilions andrea took me out to the house i had lived in when i was very young and we went to another shopping centre! eventually we headed back to her house, i saw my uncle patrick and put my case away etc. in the evening andrea and i went to see "killing bono" at the cinema which we both thought was great; very funny and very attractive leads.
on thursday i met my granny in town and we had morning tea...lunch...and afternoon tea, while she did some shopping and we had a nice chat. i had to work out how to ride the bus which was scary, but i did it! also while i was standing at the bus stop in dublin waiting to go back to my aunt and uncles house, a drug deal was casually going on beside me. in broad daylight. thanks for moving us away mum and dad!
the in the evening andrea and i attempted to go for a walk...but ended up window shopping again.
friday i met up with angela, my great aunt and she took me out for lunch. again it was very strange to see someone who i had known when i was a kid and now treated me like an adult. i found it weird anyway.
friday evening/night i went out to a pub with my cousin daniel and his friends. it was a good night ,ending quite early around 2am and i then talked to people online for a couple of hours.
saturday i was staying at my granny's house, we saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof performed at the theatre and i had an early night - asleep before midnight for once!
on sunday around 2pm andrea came to get me and drive me out to donabate where i used to live until i was 12 and i was staying with my friend aine. almost immediately after arriving at her house we went for a 2 hour "clifftop walk" around the peninsula that donabate is on; just catching up. aine's parents took us out for dinner and we talked the whole way through dinner like no time at all had passed. we both discovered the other loves the vampire diaries which filled in the next two evenings as we worked our way through her season 1 dvd.
monday morning aine and i went in to trinity college where she is studying, to meet with her boyfriend and go for lunch to a creperie just down the road. after this they discovered that i hadn't had marks & spencers cookies and decided to end this travesty and brought me to the store where we waited around for the fresh bags of cookies to be put out before buying individual portions of milk and going back to the trinity grounds to eat them. it rained on the way so aine's plan of sitting on the grass was thwarted and we ended up in a corner sitting on couches and eating our way into a food coma where we remained for a good hour or so. when we got back to donabate aine studied a bit and i downloaded music, organised my things and generally kept out of the way.
tuesday morning aine got up early to study so i talked to friends at home until her sister ciara got home from school and we went to the pavilions. again, we spent quite a lot of time hanging around and just talking.
wednesday was quite similar - aine studied and then we went to newbridge park near donabate, played on the playground i used to visit which has changed monumentally and then went home. in the evening another friend of mine - orlaith, came over and we talked for hours and had a couple of drinks before she went home just after midnight.
yesterday alas aine had to leave around 11am to go to a revision lecture - i cleverly timed my visit to dublin to co-incide with the preparation period before uni exams - so i walked her to the train and then finished my packing before her mother took me to the airport. after spending a good 8 hours hanging around for a 1 hour plane ride and quietly checking out the swedish guys sitting near me; i got back to godstowe and went upstairs , jumped on georgie and ate chocolate before going to bed.
we're going to turkey on sunday morning, our flights and tour are booked and paid for, i just booked a taxi to take us to heathrow and then we realised that we have no accommodation booked for our last night in turkey. yay! well done us! it's all under control now but it was a tense few minutes.
ok get your mind in order aisling, start from the beginning
on tuesday april 5 after my last post i stayed up until 1am skyping mum and making sure i had everything organised. i had a taxi booked to take me down to the bus depot in high wycombe and then a 1 hour bus ride to luton airport. at the airport it all got a bit intense as ryanair are the devil and really strict on size limits. after squashing my bag down i managed to make it small enough to satisfy the people working at the desk and i boarded the flight where i finally realised how exhausted i was! i got excited when ireland loomed on the horizon and i was through customs in a couple of minutes (hurray for having a british passport). my aunt andrea collected me and took me straight to see my granny for breakfast and then we went on to the pavilions in swords, near where i used to live. after visiting the pavilions andrea took me out to the house i had lived in when i was very young and we went to another shopping centre! eventually we headed back to her house, i saw my uncle patrick and put my case away etc. in the evening andrea and i went to see "killing bono" at the cinema which we both thought was great; very funny and very attractive leads.
on thursday i met my granny in town and we had morning tea...lunch...and afternoon tea, while she did some shopping and we had a nice chat. i had to work out how to ride the bus which was scary, but i did it! also while i was standing at the bus stop in dublin waiting to go back to my aunt and uncles house, a drug deal was casually going on beside me. in broad daylight. thanks for moving us away mum and dad!
the in the evening andrea and i attempted to go for a walk...but ended up window shopping again.
friday i met up with angela, my great aunt and she took me out for lunch. again it was very strange to see someone who i had known when i was a kid and now treated me like an adult. i found it weird anyway.
friday evening/night i went out to a pub with my cousin daniel and his friends. it was a good night ,ending quite early around 2am and i then talked to people online for a couple of hours.
saturday i was staying at my granny's house, we saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof performed at the theatre and i had an early night - asleep before midnight for once!
on sunday around 2pm andrea came to get me and drive me out to donabate where i used to live until i was 12 and i was staying with my friend aine. almost immediately after arriving at her house we went for a 2 hour "clifftop walk" around the peninsula that donabate is on; just catching up. aine's parents took us out for dinner and we talked the whole way through dinner like no time at all had passed. we both discovered the other loves the vampire diaries which filled in the next two evenings as we worked our way through her season 1 dvd.
monday morning aine and i went in to trinity college where she is studying, to meet with her boyfriend and go for lunch to a creperie just down the road. after this they discovered that i hadn't had marks & spencers cookies and decided to end this travesty and brought me to the store where we waited around for the fresh bags of cookies to be put out before buying individual portions of milk and going back to the trinity grounds to eat them. it rained on the way so aine's plan of sitting on the grass was thwarted and we ended up in a corner sitting on couches and eating our way into a food coma where we remained for a good hour or so. when we got back to donabate aine studied a bit and i downloaded music, organised my things and generally kept out of the way.
tuesday morning aine got up early to study so i talked to friends at home until her sister ciara got home from school and we went to the pavilions. again, we spent quite a lot of time hanging around and just talking.
wednesday was quite similar - aine studied and then we went to newbridge park near donabate, played on the playground i used to visit which has changed monumentally and then went home. in the evening another friend of mine - orlaith, came over and we talked for hours and had a couple of drinks before she went home just after midnight.
yesterday alas aine had to leave around 11am to go to a revision lecture - i cleverly timed my visit to dublin to co-incide with the preparation period before uni exams - so i walked her to the train and then finished my packing before her mother took me to the airport. after spending a good 8 hours hanging around for a 1 hour plane ride and quietly checking out the swedish guys sitting near me; i got back to godstowe and went upstairs , jumped on georgie and ate chocolate before going to bed.
we're going to turkey on sunday morning, our flights and tour are booked and paid for, i just booked a taxi to take us to heathrow and then we realised that we have no accommodation booked for our last night in turkey. yay! well done us! it's all under control now but it was a tense few minutes.
last few weeks of work up to april 5
written april 5//
work has continued being enjoyable although i am getting sick of walking up and down to main school several times a day!
we finished up for easter today and i'm off to dublin in a couple of hours. some of the kids brought us "easter presents" so i have a ton of chocolate to eat now and an egg cup and mug, which are both really lovely.
again there isn't a huge lot to write as work continues to be pretty same-ish day to day.
i stayed at my aunts in kent a couple of weeks ago which was nice to just get away and do something a bit different for a weekend.
anyway i should go finish packing my cases - georgie, rose and i are going to avenue q with some of the teachers tonight and i want to be done packing before we have to go so there wont be too much of a rush when i get home
work has continued being enjoyable although i am getting sick of walking up and down to main school several times a day!
we finished up for easter today and i'm off to dublin in a couple of hours. some of the kids brought us "easter presents" so i have a ton of chocolate to eat now and an egg cup and mug, which are both really lovely.
again there isn't a huge lot to write as work continues to be pretty same-ish day to day.
i stayed at my aunts in kent a couple of weeks ago which was nice to just get away and do something a bit different for a weekend.
anyway i should go finish packing my cases - georgie, rose and i are going to avenue q with some of the teachers tonight and i want to be done packing before we have to go so there wont be too much of a rush when i get home
Saturday, 12 March 2011
12 march
germany part 2:
tuesday 22/2
today we took a walking tour of berlin with the GREATEST tourguide known to man - george from missouri. yes i am going to marry him ok, he was hilarious and knew so much and was obviously incredibly passionate about history. he knew so many anecdotes and odd facts about things; we saw the brandenburg gate and holocaust memorial (again), then the carpark where hitler's bunker stood, remnants of the wall including another look at checkpoint charlie, the war ministry, bebelplatz where the book burnings occurred under nazi control, and we were taken through the history of east germany while under soviet occupation up until the fall of the berlin wall. it was so fascinating and (like in year 10 and 11 history with mr allan as i'm sure my parents are aware) having someone who knows so much, is clearly fascinated by it and has numerous facts to share entrusted with teaching us about it made the day fly by.
we then walked back to our hostel visiting mcdonalds on the way where yve and i sampled vegetarian burgers, and crashed for a few hours before going out for dinner.
wednesday 23/2
today we visited sachsenhausen concentration camp which is about an hours train ride out of berlin. to say it was confronting would be an understatement. it was a really interesting day and once again we learned a lot but i was so drained by the end of it - especially when the last 5 minutes involved a mad dash sprinting up the street to make the last train for the day. i feel like being in europe for the year it's a really important thing to see and to acknowledge the horrors of our history so it isn't forgotten etc.
the others then headed back to the hostel while yve, rose and i carried on to visit the visitor centre of the holocaust memorial. again, i think "enjoyed" is the wrong word, but it was incredible to see and read all the first hand accounts of life during the 1940s.
that evening we met a group of people from melbourne! it was so good to meet people who know all the places we know and made it really easy to make friends.
thursday 24/2
georgie and i woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast in the hostel while the others went to go on a tour of potsdam. we decided to walk to the east side gallery and 3km later we reached it. it's basically 1.5km of the berlin wall still standing in its original position; but it has been entirely decorated with commissioned artworks and all of them have a very political message. my photos of the gallery still wont upload but they will be up on facebook soon. i really loved being there, it is one of my favourite memories of berlin.
friday 25/2
i'm a little bit ashamed to say that georgie, janet and i slept most of our last day away after a busy thursday night which didn't see us in bed until the sun was about to come up. at 3pm we all woke up in a panic and went out for lunch. then georgie and janet went for a walk while i wrote some postcards and my travel journal.
can you tell i'm sick of writing about this holiday now? it was amazing, berlin is beautiful and cool and really interesting, there are so many things i would like to do that we just didn't have time for and i would love to go back some time soon.
tuesday 22/2
today we took a walking tour of berlin with the GREATEST tourguide known to man - george from missouri. yes i am going to marry him ok, he was hilarious and knew so much and was obviously incredibly passionate about history. he knew so many anecdotes and odd facts about things; we saw the brandenburg gate and holocaust memorial (again), then the carpark where hitler's bunker stood, remnants of the wall including another look at checkpoint charlie, the war ministry, bebelplatz where the book burnings occurred under nazi control, and we were taken through the history of east germany while under soviet occupation up until the fall of the berlin wall. it was so fascinating and (like in year 10 and 11 history with mr allan as i'm sure my parents are aware) having someone who knows so much, is clearly fascinated by it and has numerous facts to share entrusted with teaching us about it made the day fly by.
we then walked back to our hostel visiting mcdonalds on the way where yve and i sampled vegetarian burgers, and crashed for a few hours before going out for dinner.
wednesday 23/2
today we visited sachsenhausen concentration camp which is about an hours train ride out of berlin. to say it was confronting would be an understatement. it was a really interesting day and once again we learned a lot but i was so drained by the end of it - especially when the last 5 minutes involved a mad dash sprinting up the street to make the last train for the day. i feel like being in europe for the year it's a really important thing to see and to acknowledge the horrors of our history so it isn't forgotten etc.
the others then headed back to the hostel while yve, rose and i carried on to visit the visitor centre of the holocaust memorial. again, i think "enjoyed" is the wrong word, but it was incredible to see and read all the first hand accounts of life during the 1940s.
that evening we met a group of people from melbourne! it was so good to meet people who know all the places we know and made it really easy to make friends.
thursday 24/2
georgie and i woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast in the hostel while the others went to go on a tour of potsdam. we decided to walk to the east side gallery and 3km later we reached it. it's basically 1.5km of the berlin wall still standing in its original position; but it has been entirely decorated with commissioned artworks and all of them have a very political message. my photos of the gallery still wont upload but they will be up on facebook soon. i really loved being there, it is one of my favourite memories of berlin.
friday 25/2
i'm a little bit ashamed to say that georgie, janet and i slept most of our last day away after a busy thursday night which didn't see us in bed until the sun was about to come up. at 3pm we all woke up in a panic and went out for lunch. then georgie and janet went for a walk while i wrote some postcards and my travel journal.
can you tell i'm sick of writing about this holiday now? it was amazing, berlin is beautiful and cool and really interesting, there are so many things i would like to do that we just didn't have time for and i would love to go back some time soon.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
march 3 - berlin!
saturday 19/2
woke up, finished last minute packing of makeup, toiletries, toothbrush etc. and after a last scout of the flat we left - trekking down the hill with a detour at poundland to buy sweets for the plane. we took the A40 bus to heathrow airport and checked in a lovely 4 hours early. of course this meant we spent 4 hours eating and looking for food at regular intervals.
once on the plane we realised our entire day had been spent sitting in transit in an airport but we were finally on our way!
my first impression of berlin wasn't over exciting. the airport was abandoned and i couldn't speak the language; what did i expect?! it was cold and dark; we took a bus to an underground train station and from there took the train to just around the corner from wombat's - the hostel where we stayed all week!
after unpacking we all headed up to the "wombar" where we cashed in our free drink $1 bill and soaked up the awesomeness of being in berlin. yve, georgie and i then went to explore the streets around our hostel to find somewhere else to go out but we gave up eventually and headed to bed.
sunday 20/2
after a leisurely buffet breakfast we went looking for a flea market yve had heard of and along the way we found a memorial to the berlin wall. we spent an hour or so looking around the visitor centre and really getting a feel for the history of berlin. we also visited a "ghost" underground train station which was shut off during the soviet occupation of east berlin and learned more about that.
eventually we made our way to the flea market but at this point i was absolutely freezing and ready to go home. luckily it was quite small; and packed full of interesting vintage (or just second hand) items. we spent a good half hour drooling over a case of expensive rings and i almost bought a black velvet dress - saved at the last moment by realising it had a tear in the top. still, georgie had to drag me away because i insisted " i'll sew it up, i will!"
on this evening (yes i went out every night ok everyone stop judging me please) georgie and i went up to the bar and met a girl from new zealand and her room mate who was from boston in america! again we didn't stay very late as we were quite tired and a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of people around.
monday 21/2
today we visited checkpoint charlie; the jewish history museum and tried (and failed) to find the berlin guggenheim. checkpoint charlie was fascinating; to be in such a historical spot and to stand where so many people have stood was unbelievable. my history nerd came out and i spent ages reading all the "first hand experience" posters etc. next we walked to the jewish history museum where we kind of split off into 2 groups - agreeing to meet up after an hour. georgie and i spent what felt like forever wandering the museum and visiting a kind of "message tree" where you write a wish on a paper pomegranate and hang it off the tree. some of the messages were really lovely and some were incredibly sad. it hadn't really registered with me that we are actually IN EUROPE and that not everyone will speak english until i was reading messages off the tree and only understood a tiny fraction of the languages.
after the jewish history museum we tried to find the guggenheim but got terribly lost and ended up walking up potsdamer platz admiring the shops and took our first look at the brandenburg gate.
next we headed to the memorial of holocaust victims which is really...confronting in a weird way. the memorial itself is very effective and its a very sobering experience.
on monday night we finally made friends! yay!
georgie, yve and i saw the same girl from boston as the previous night and the people she was with invited us to sit with them. having a group of people to be with was really nice and as the 2 canadians were doing similar work to us (although they both have a good 9 years on us), it was fun to swap stories and joke around.
installment 1, finally complete. i just got home from a night out with georgie in london (lots of fun, enough said) and i'm going to eat pasta and watch the notebook.
ill finish this off tomorrow. sorry i'm so lazy, every time i got to blog i get distracted by something else.
woke up, finished last minute packing of makeup, toiletries, toothbrush etc. and after a last scout of the flat we left - trekking down the hill with a detour at poundland to buy sweets for the plane. we took the A40 bus to heathrow airport and checked in a lovely 4 hours early. of course this meant we spent 4 hours eating and looking for food at regular intervals.
once on the plane we realised our entire day had been spent sitting in transit in an airport but we were finally on our way!
my first impression of berlin wasn't over exciting. the airport was abandoned and i couldn't speak the language; what did i expect?! it was cold and dark; we took a bus to an underground train station and from there took the train to just around the corner from wombat's - the hostel where we stayed all week!
after unpacking we all headed up to the "wombar" where we cashed in our free drink $1 bill and soaked up the awesomeness of being in berlin. yve, georgie and i then went to explore the streets around our hostel to find somewhere else to go out but we gave up eventually and headed to bed.
sunday 20/2
after a leisurely buffet breakfast we went looking for a flea market yve had heard of and along the way we found a memorial to the berlin wall. we spent an hour or so looking around the visitor centre and really getting a feel for the history of berlin. we also visited a "ghost" underground train station which was shut off during the soviet occupation of east berlin and learned more about that.
eventually we made our way to the flea market but at this point i was absolutely freezing and ready to go home. luckily it was quite small; and packed full of interesting vintage (or just second hand) items. we spent a good half hour drooling over a case of expensive rings and i almost bought a black velvet dress - saved at the last moment by realising it had a tear in the top. still, georgie had to drag me away because i insisted " i'll sew it up, i will!"
on this evening (yes i went out every night ok everyone stop judging me please) georgie and i went up to the bar and met a girl from new zealand and her room mate who was from boston in america! again we didn't stay very late as we were quite tired and a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of people around.
monday 21/2
today we visited checkpoint charlie; the jewish history museum and tried (and failed) to find the berlin guggenheim. checkpoint charlie was fascinating; to be in such a historical spot and to stand where so many people have stood was unbelievable. my history nerd came out and i spent ages reading all the "first hand experience" posters etc. next we walked to the jewish history museum where we kind of split off into 2 groups - agreeing to meet up after an hour. georgie and i spent what felt like forever wandering the museum and visiting a kind of "message tree" where you write a wish on a paper pomegranate and hang it off the tree. some of the messages were really lovely and some were incredibly sad. it hadn't really registered with me that we are actually IN EUROPE and that not everyone will speak english until i was reading messages off the tree and only understood a tiny fraction of the languages.
after the jewish history museum we tried to find the guggenheim but got terribly lost and ended up walking up potsdamer platz admiring the shops and took our first look at the brandenburg gate.
next we headed to the memorial of holocaust victims which is really...confronting in a weird way. the memorial itself is very effective and its a very sobering experience.
on monday night we finally made friends! yay!
georgie, yve and i saw the same girl from boston as the previous night and the people she was with invited us to sit with them. having a group of people to be with was really nice and as the 2 canadians were doing similar work to us (although they both have a good 9 years on us), it was fun to swap stories and joke around.
installment 1, finally complete. i just got home from a night out with georgie in london (lots of fun, enough said) and i'm going to eat pasta and watch the notebook.
ill finish this off tomorrow. sorry i'm so lazy, every time i got to blog i get distracted by something else.
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