Thanksgiving Break

November 23-29

Overall, our trip to Greece was relaxing, partly because we stationed ourselves in Athens for the entirety of the week, with trips out of the city on a couple of days. I'm not gonna lie; I was not expecting what I experienced. I didn't anticipate that the Parthenon would be covered in scaffolding or that the street signs wouldn't match the maps. I also wasn't expecting, however, that the food would be so good or that the people would be so kind.

My travelmates were Rebekah, Katherine, Mary, and Kristi, and we stayed at this hostel right in the centre of Athens called Hotel Dioskouros. From there, we were right across the street from the Temple of Zeus and about a 15 minute walk from the Acropolis. Since we stayed in a private room, we got our own bathroom. That also wasn't what I expected it to be: the "shower" was nothing more than a square of porcelain on the floor next to the toilet with a faucet and showerhead/hose. It looked like a water fight happened after anybody took a shower.

Oh, you know how I roll... just chillin' on the Areopagus

Our first full day in town we went up the Acropolis, the huge flat rock with several monuments and temples. That is where the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena are located, among several other structures. (Those ancient Greeks were really dedicated to their gods. MAN.) One of the coolest things up there (well, not exactly... It's not on top of the Acropolis, more like off to the side) is the Areopagus , which is the rock hill on which the apostle Paul gave his sermon about the temple to an "unknown god." For dessert after lunch after we explored the Acropolis, I had Greek yoghurt and honey, which was amazing, but waaay too big!

Traffic in Athens is monstrously frightening. It is a big European city, and along with that comes a lot of cars, buses, trams, and motorcycles. Just in case anyone reading this plans on visiting, a word to the wise: don't trust the crosswalks, even if the green man comes up - vehicles WILL go whenever they please, especially motorcycles!

Another interesting (and much safer) aspect of Athens is the fact that uncovered ruins are sprinkled throughout the city. You will be walking down the street or through the underground station and there will be a preserved and roped off section of crumbling stones that were once some sort of structure. It is very strange and such a clash of the centuries.

Yeah, he's really following us home

A couple of times we had random dogs follow us back to the hostel, because there are so many wandering the streets. There are a lot of cats, too, but many more dogs. I began to take photos of every dog I saw, if my camera was easily accessible. It was like a scavenger hunt I was guaranteed to win.

That's 1 Corinthians I'm pointing to, ready to read

On Wednesday, Rebekah, Mary, and I took a trip to Corinth to see the ruins of Ancient Corinth. We were a little apprehensive about going because everyone had been asking us why we would even want to go there and there weren't any easy ways for us to get there, but we learned that nobody plans travel ahead of time in Greece, so it was a lot easier than we thought it would be (i.e. Bus and coach tickets). It was quite an adventure figuring out how we were going to get from place to place (there were many steps and stops), and we were never quite sure if we would be able to get to where we wanted, but it was a lot of fun and well worth it. We took a ton of photos and spent about an hour and a half just wandering around the ruins of this once great city. We read Acts 18 and portions of 1 and 2 Corinthians. It was bizarre to think that we were in a place where Paul stayed and spread the Gospel and built relationships and bridged gaps between Jews and Greeks.

That night, our friends Josh and Erin flew in from Rome and were staying in the same hostel as us. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had a ton of fun. On Thursday (Thanksgiving!), all 7 of us went on a day cruise to the islands of Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. The islands were all fairly similar to one another, but they were still quite picturesque and the water surrounding them was the most beautiful, clear, turquoise water I have ever seen. The houses and other buildings were pretty, neat, and white. The cruise ride itself was heaps of fun, as having Josh and Erin along adds a lot of excitement (woot woot - Marriage Game! Hahaha). Lunch was included in our payment: meatballs and cabbage/carrot salad for starters, some sort of Greek-style lasagne for the main, and yummy lemon cake of some sort of dessert. On the last island, Aegina, we got to see the sun set over the water. It was gorgeous, absolutely amazing. Combined, we probably took about 300 photos of that alone, haha.

God truly is the greatest artist

On Friday, all of us, minus Josh and Erin, took the tram to Glyfada, which was supposedly a neighbourhood with fairly good beaches. Well, we got there and did not find good beaches, but they were good enough. First, however, we ate lunch at a place called Goody's that we'd been noticing all over the city. It turned out to be a fast food place, but it was, of course, European style: real dishes for eating in. Also, I ordered a meal and with it came a stuffed panda bear! Katherine and Kristi got meals as well, but they got a stuffed dog and monkey. It's so funny! They weren't even kid's meals or anything. Anyway, back to the beach part. We found a pebbly beach, but the sun was hiding behind the clouds intermittently so it wasn't very warm. The water wasn't freezing (only at first), but the pebbles made it hard to stand and wade around. It was really clear water though, yet again, even so close to the big city.

There's this section of Athens called the Plaka, and all it is is shops and restaurants. Well, there was this one road where there are a ton of restaurants, one right after the other on either side, which we dubbed "the gauntlet" because whenever we'd walk through we'd be barraged with insisting waiters trying to get us to eat at their place. They always jumped on us and tried to get us to at least look at the menu, and at first it was really annoying but by the end of the week I found it to be quite humorous. Much to the delight of one of the waiters who we'd passed several times throughout the week to get to and from the grocery store, we gave in to his request and ate at his restaurant on the last day. I enjoyed moussaka (which was apparently what we had eaten for lunch on the cruise but didn't know it) and baklava for dessert. That was the most amazing dessert I'd had in a long time.

The gelato in Greece = YUM. We had our last one (until our next European adventure, whenever that may be) on the last day we were there, Saturday.

I think, honestly, my favourite part about Greece was the people and how helpful and friendly and kind they were. For instance, when we were trying to figure out our way to Ancient Corinth from the modern city Corinth, an older lady started talking to us and told us what to do (she happened to be taking the same bus route that we needed) and we talked to her until the bus came. Before she got off at her stop, she even came up to where we were sitting and made sure we knew when we were supposed to get off for the ruins and how to get back to the city. She was so sweet, and it was amazing that she spoke English (very well, too - she had lived in the US for quite some time earlier in her life).

I finally finished writing about Spain

And since it took me so long just to type it up, you get no pictures. Check my Facebook albums.


October 2-7

Girona

Since they're within an hour and a half drive from each other, we stayed in Girona and drove into Barcelona a couple different days.

We stayed at this quaint hotel; I roomed with Rebekah and Katherine and we had a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen (which was good, because we were responsible for all our own meals)

I loved the streets in Girona, at least up in the northern portion of the city, the "old city." The buildings, of course, add to the effect. Tall, four to seven story buildings with flower boxes in every window; cobbled streets and sidewalks (which make it hard to remember that cars actually do go down them); cathedrals and churches reaching to the sky. It almost doesn't even feel like a city at all, or even a town. I can't quite grasp how it feels. Well, when you look right above you, you see all the tops of the buildings because they're so close together. Everything lends itself to a sort of "theme park" feel, though not in the touristy sense; it's more of the feeling of being enclosed, but not trapped. It's not unwelcome or given to producing anxiety; it's just the way it is. I almost want to describe it as being in rat cage or something, although that does sort of give it a negative connotation and I do not mean it in a bad way at all. Most of the time it's rather cool and shady because the sun doesn't reach most parts of the streets. The stores are "hole in the wall" style, with tin doors that pull down when they close up and usually have some graffiti sprinkled on the outside of the door. I think another thing that makes it feel so enclosed is the low volume level. I would expect it to be a lot louder, echo-y even; but there really isn't much noise. A lot of people ride motorcycles or Vespa-type vehicles; there are whole parking lots of them.

The first chance for a characteristically Spanish experience: siesta. Basically, this happens between about 2 or 3 until 5 and it means that most shops are closed and there are fewer people on the streets. A couple times during this trip I actually even took a nap during this time. I love the idea of siesta and I think it enriched the experience. I wish America would take a chill pill and think about slowing down for a couple hours like a lot of Spain does.

Trying to get by on the little Spanish I do know was interesting, especially when really, most of the signs are actually in Catalán, not Spanish. Catalán is a language that is kind of like a mix between Spanish and French and that's what they speak a lot of in Catalonia, which is where Girona is in Spain.

One of my favorite parts about Girona was the old city wall. My "moment" was one afternoon when Katherine, Rebekah, and I got gelato (which was amazing at this particular place) and walked up through the ruins of the wall, overgrown with vines and trees, up stairs and more stairs to get to the first lookout tower. It started to sprinkle and the clouds spread themselves out over the city, which we could see splayed out below us as we ascended higher and higher. Oh, while we were up there I also threw chocolate gelato all over my face; I suppose that's what I get for dancing (just ask me what happened... or I bet Rebekah could tell the story better).

Oh - another awesome thing: Faith called me one night! It was great to hear some of what was going on back in Abilene.

Barcelona

Three notable things about what I did in Barcelona:

1) Fat Tire Bike Tour - so much fun! Even though I haven't ridden a bike in years, I eventually got the hang of it (somewhat) again. It was awesome to be riding on the streets of Barcelona. Imagine a horde of 24 bicyclists (we split our group in half) riding on the street of a big, busy city, and on the "sidewalk" at times... kind of annoying right? Well, all the pedestrians and cars annoyed us too, so there. hah! Anyway, our tour guide, Buster, was really cool. He looked like he just stepped off the page of a skate magazine from California but he actually happened to be from London.

2) While most of our group went to the FC Barcelona game ("soccer"), a group of 10 of us stayed in the city for the night. We split off further while trying to decide what to eat, and I ended up eating a whole pizza at this delicious pizza place. But, really, there's nothing to do in Barcelona at night except eat and drink. Hm.

3) Sagrada Familia - the most amazing piece of architecture I have ever seen. Gaudi is so creative and it just blows my mind. It's a big church that's still under construction and it has been for over 100 years. It would be so cool to go back and see it if it gets finished in my lifetime. Inside you feel like you're in a monstrous cavern, with ornate, odd, and interesting ceilings. The view from the top of the towers was cool (have I mentioned I love aerial views? Like, a lot.)

I got another awesome phone call one night from Ashley! :)


October 7-10

Granada

The hotel we stayed at in Granada was pretty nice. We got delicious all-you-can-eat breakfasts everyday.

The Alhambra was beautiful. The palace was ornate, but the Generalife, the gardens, was the hugest most pleasant garden ever. The beauty of the palace, I thought, was mostly in the belief that Muslims hold that they're not allowed to portray God in any kind of image they make, so the decorations were these intricate carvings on the walls of parts of the Koran and its imagery. It was amazing because almost every wall was covered at least partly with them.

Did you know that vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream have two different textures? Well, I found that out one night when we ate dinner, since I couldn't taste because I had a cold. Vanilla is very smooth, but chocolate has a very slightly grittier texture... Almost like you can feel the cocoa powder.

Funny thing - I got lost. Yeah.. Hah... It was one of those situations where you know where you are, but not really... Like, you know how to get back to the place where you know where you are. I was walking and was just too curious, I guess, because I kept walking because I remembered how to get back to where I knew where I was. Turned out, my curiosity got the best of me and I ended up going to far to remember how to get back. I did find a grocery store though, and I bought the cutest jar of Nutella (it had a Spanish cartoon painted on the side). All the time I was walking I was thinking how to phrase in Spanish a question about how to get to the square where our hotel was located. Fortunately, I came across a city map with a "You Are Here" sticker on it, and was able to navigate my way back to the hotel safely.


October 10-13

Toledo

We just stopped in Toledo en route to Getafe (a suburb of Madrid where we stayed). Basically, it's a tourist trap. Lots of stores selling earrings and daggers and swords. The museum I wanted to look in was closed (go figure) and the Alcazar (castle) was also closed. Oh, and their famous marzipan sweets were gross. Fortunately we were only here for a few hours. The best part about Toledo was driving there from Granada; rolling through the mountains covered with olive trees is a surreal experience because it lasted for over an hour... and for a while after we left Toledo and continued on to Getafe. I felt peace.

Getafe

Nothing much to say about Getafe, seeing as we were only here to sleep in the hotel and buy groceries from the store around the corner. The most exciting part about Getafe was the first night at the hotel. Rebekah, Katherine, Meghan, Holly, and I were all sitting out in the hallway (our rooms were all on the same hall) when all of a sudden, from around the corner comes a group of about 4 or 5 Spanish guys, probably around our age. When they saw us they started whistling and talking to us but we just jumped up and ran into Rebekah and Katherine's room. A few seconds later we heard a frightening sound: a knock at the door! It was them. But we didn't open the door. So, from that night on, we always asked who was at the door before we opened it.

Madrid

1) City walking tour in the rain with no umbrellas

2) Reina Sofia (museum): a lot of modern and abstract art, not really all that interesting to me, but still fun. We also saw a lot of Picasso, Dali, and Miro.

3) Prado (museum): absolutely ginormous! Here, my favorite painting was called The Garden of Earthly Delights; it's actually a triptych. It depicts the Garden of Eden on the left; everyone else in the world enjoying worldly pleasures, each with a piece of fruit symbolizing sin and temptation, in the middle; and on the right is a dark and destroyed earth, overrun by death and sin. It's very detailed and pretty big and I really could have spent a long time in front of it. Other great paintings by El Greco were another favorite from this museum.

4) Immanuel Baptist Church: the most diverse church I have ever attended. It's an international English-speaking church and there were people there from several countries and a wide range of ages. It is fairly small but not tiny. Emily and I talked to the associate pastor afterwards and he told us that many times people from other countries will come to this church and then take the message home.

5) Spanish-speaking countries parade: the most disorganized parade I have ever seen in my life, but I guess that's how they do it there. The crowd basically mobbed the performers.


October 13-16

Avila

We stayed in the Residencia at the Monasterio de Santo Tomas, which was really cool, partly because they fed us amazingly, especially lunch that first day. During our stay here we took a city tour with a guy who runs a language school that teaches Spanish, English, and German. We also happened to be staying in this city during the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, so that meant that all sorts of celebrations were under way.

We went to Catholic Mass one morning and the cathedral was kind of funny because there were TV monitors sprinkled throughout it; such a clash of the centuries. The first of the songs that were sung was the most beautiful and haunting and irreproducible song I have ever heard. I can't even bring it to mind (I couldn't even remember how it went a second after it ended). I felt like God was massaging my insides. I reveled in the pure beauty of the melody.

The bullfight we watched was interesting. I saw 6 bulls die; more than that, they were murdered. There were mostly older people there, since a lot of younger people are against it (reasonably so). It's strangely interesting and I couldn't tear my eyes away, for the most part. After the death of the first bull and the taunting done to the second, I was kind of desensitized to it.

We had the best ending to our two weeks in Spain: the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen, not because of the amount, but because of how well-executed and unique the display was. They were fired off the top of the old city wall. My favorite part was the waterfall of fireworks flowing over the side of the gate in the wall.

Definitely before even this point I was ready to go home. We were all ready to go home, back to Oxford. Two weeks is a really long time to be away from a place held so dear. It was a different experience traveling around with everybody, all 36 students and 5 teachers. It was like all we had was each other, and I laughed to myself that we had everything that meant anything to us on this travel break whenever we all rode around in a coach.

Notable Notes from November (short travel break)

A view of east Oxford

I realize it's been far too long since I've last posted. It's been almost two weeks since our last travel break, of which I just decided to stay in Oxford and go to Bath as a day trip on Saturday. I will briefly update you on that weekend. (And I still have not the energy to write up about Spain... that will come later... still).

Cornmarket (and Tom Tower!) from St Michael at the North Gate tower

Thursday, November 6 --
I left the house at about noon to walk around town. I was also able to get some homework assignments done because of a couple places I went, so that was nice. I went to the Ashmolean Museum and I wasn't thoroughly impressed... the Treasures Room was cool but other than that, I wasn't too interested. Luckily it was free of charge. Than I went and had lunch in Caffe Nero, which is pretty expensive but hey, this was my day out. They have the best tuna melt you will ever eat, and the most amazing white chocolate mocha. Next I went to St. Michael at the North Gate tower and church. It was really cool to be on top of the oldest building in Oxford and I spent quite a bit of time just watching people walk down Cornmarket. After that I went to the Oxford University souvenir shops hoping to find a sweatshirt, but alas, I was too indecisive so I left that purchase for yet another day. It was interesting to be walking around Oxford without that knowledge that I need to hurry up and finish whatever I'm doing to get back to the houses right away to do homework. Well, I did have a ton of homework I could have been doing, but I was giving myself a break (because if I really had gone out of the country somewhere I wouldn't have been doing homework). I walked down Iffley Road and back up Cowley Road and decided that it was a pretty neat part of town, but not so much when it's starting to get dark. I wandered over to the basement at St Aldates' Parish Centre for the 24/7 Prayer Week they were hosting. It was great to be able to participate (again; I had gone earlier in the week), especially since I missed it on campus at ACU this semester. Cell group and Risky Living were next on the agenda for the night, and they were amazing as usual.

Friday, November 7 --

Basically stayed at home and worked on homework and read while the rain fell outside. It was lovely. I spent some awesome time with my lovelies Mary and Meagan; we even baked banana bread! :)

River in Bath

Saturday, November 8 --

I went to Bath with Mary, Katherine, and David. It is a really cute city. Besides stopping in to a little cafe for lunch, before we headed to the Roman baths we also walked a little along the river. The Roman baths were pretty interesting. I'm just glad I wasn't around during that time though. After this, we went and "bathed" as modern day people do: in a spa! The Thermae Bath Spa was awesome... we got to stay for two hours in this multi-story building with spas and scented steam rooms. The rooftop pool was the best though. David had a little trouble relaxing though (that's what happens when swimmers get into a pool), but we girls had it down. The steam rooms were really cool as well: frankincense, mint and eucalyptus, lavender, and mint. The lavender was my favorite while the frankincense nearly choked me to death. After we got dried and dressed we took the train back home.

Roman baths

Sunday, November 9 --

I spent the morning doing homework and procrastinating on doing homework. :) Katherine and I went to the late service at St Aldates because we finally had a weekend without our "house church" worship meeting, 9@9. It was similar to Unite and definitely made me miss Abilene.

Monday, November 10 --

I think I mostly just procrastinated on my Christian Worship paper this day. I don't really remember much of what happened on Monday, to be honest. All I really remember is that because Anne wasn't back from Switzerland yet, I walked down to the St Aldates intern flat alone at 10:45 PM... which was a little unnerving, but not awful. Anyway, yeah, club outreach that night was awesome... a lot of conversations got going and we didn't see any fights break out or anything. This one guy kept coming back for tea, and I think he'd had about 8 cups by the time he left (he was waiting for someone). If I see him again tonight I will definitely remember how he likes his tea!

Spain: The Best and Worst of It

So, in order to quickly update y'all and give you a taste of my real blog entries to come about my past two weeks in Spain, I made a couple of lists of the best and worst things I experienced there. I tried to put them in numerical order, but it was really hard... so the numbers don't quite adequately reflect their rankings.

In Avila on our last night

Top 10 Best Things About My Spanish Experience
10. The bullfight: although the death of 6 innocent bulls is hardly my favorite thing, the whole thing is a strange experience that, overall, I enjoyed, though I never want to go to one again.
9. There were so many pastries of all kinds, sweet and savory, and gelato was delicious and just about on every corner.
8. The bike tour we took in Barcelona was absolutely awesome despite my lack of dexterity on a bicycle.
7. Not having to resort to my backup raspberry flapjack as a fill-in meal.
6. Climbing the ruins of the wall in Girona with Katherine and Rebekah while eating the best gelato I’ve ever had… as the clouds started to sprinkle rain on us.
5. All the little curly-haired, blonde kids speaking Spanish (and even the ones who weren’t blonde and curly-haired… but they were the cutest).
4. Seeing The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych painting by Bosch in the Prado.
3. Wandering around and up in the bizarre Sagrada Familia (Temple of the Sacred Family by Gaudi).
2. The olive tree groves that we drove through for over an hour while traveling from Granada to Toledo and Getafe.
1. The last night… fireworks in Avila.

Cigarette butts and graffiti

Top (Bottom) 10 Worst Things About My Spanish Experience
10. Having 4 hours to spare in Barcelona at night when all there really is to do is eat and drink.
9. Getting lost by myself in Granada (but hey, I look at the bright side sometimes: I stumbled upon a grocery store and bought Nutella with a Spanish cartoon on the jar!)
8. Many of the streets and sidewalks are cobbled, which looks cool but is killer on the ankles; plus, you can't tell where the sidewalk ends and where the street begins so you’re always dodging cars.
7. Creepy Spanish guys in the hotel who whistle at you and then knock on the door.
6. Well, this is only a bad thing for technical reasons, and if you don't speak any form of Spanish, or at least, in my case, have trouble understanding Castilian Spanish: the fact that most people don't speak (much) English.
5. There is graffiti on almost every wall unless it's some sort of monument or semi-important building.
4. People smoke cigarettes and cigars like chimneys, slowly killing themselves and everyone else.
3. One word and place: Toledo.
2. Spanish shops keep rather random hours.
1. Having to watch your bag constantly because of pickpockets.

Part 3: Edinburgh, Scotland [cont'd]

And the saga continues...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

This is definitely Scotland.

This morning we got up at 8 AM and got ready and went to the dining hall for breakfast. Toast, cereal & milk, tea/juice/coffee, just like at the Dublin hostel. Then we checked out and hopped on the 9:44 city bus to the city. We were the only ones on the top level (most city buses there I think are double deckers) so I busted out my phone and we listened to a few Chris Tomlin songs. Once at city centre, we headed to the National Gallery of Scotland. IT was free (at least, everything except the Impressionism Exhibition was). In the first area we explored, there were a lot of drawings, some paintings and photographs. There was this one photo that was actually like 40 slivers of photographs put together, because it was a scene that was photographed over a period of a year and each slice was taken at the same time of day and month so that it looked like the scene was actually vertical chunks with different season. It was called "Rhythm of the Twelvemonth" and it was by Stephen Lawson. I loved it! First of all, it was an amazing idea. Secondly, it was well done. Lastly, the scene itself was beautiful... Clouds, trees, hills. After this are we went to a higher floor that had many rooms of just paintings and sculptures. It took quite a while to get through it all, but it was worth it. There was this gorgeous oil painting (most of them were oil) of a boy in the dark blowing on a piece of lit coal. It looked so real because the boy was in darkness but you could make out his outline, and also the burning coal in front of him lit up his face with a brilliant glow, a warm and bright orange-yellow. Another one of my favorites was of the Last Supper. Jesus and eleven of the disciples were in a circle, sitting or lying down, and Judas was walking out of the room with his front in the darkness. Everyone besides him just looked so comfortable to be with Jesus... It was just really beautiful and I think it was an interesting interpretation of that event. Everyone looked like each other's best friend. I think Jesus wants us to feel that intimate with Him and with each other as a church.

The Royal Mile


The door to the toilet... obviously

Next we walked along the Royal Mile and turns out there are a lot of tourist shops on this street. We arranged a meeting place for 1:30, which was just half an hour (not everyone wanted to look at the same places). Once we'd met back up, we went down some stairs into this little cafe. There was only one lady working there and the ground floor was full (well, there were only about 6 seats in there anyway) so we went upstairs, which was where the toilet was. I only mention this because the door to it was really neat... It had the word "toilet" painted on it in like 15 different languages and colors. The place where we ate was just a little coffee table and a couch and loveseat... This upstairs portion of the cafe was actually part of another shop, we think, because behind one of the couches was a big piece of fabric and we could hear music and people from behind it. I ate a panini with cheese and tomato and a light salad. While we were waiting for our food, David played this game with us that he read about in the Encyclopedia of Immaturity (it was randomly in the National Gallery gift shop). I don't think the game ended up like it was supposed to, haha. Well, we were in a cute little place to rest. We paid downstairs, and by the counter they had a fridge with drinks in it. I saw this can of something I'd seen a couple other places in Scotland called IRN-BRU... I thought it was some kind of beer or alcoholic drink, but I was curious, so I picked it up and read the ingredients. It was just some kind of soda! The can said that it was an original Scottish drink, and I asked the lady at the counter what she thought of it and she'd never actually tried it but said that people were crazy about it there and that it wasn't available anywhere else (but much to my delight, I've found it several places in Oxford... It's becoming more popular). I just had to try it! OF COURSE. I was so excited. I popped it open, and this orange scent came wafting out, so I thought it was going to be like orange soda back home. I took a drink, and it was more like one of those orange Smarties candies, the ones rolled in the plastic... SO GOOD. I loved it and was so glad I had gotten it.

Silly Scottie

Just part of the big "hill" once we got to a higher vantage point

We kept moving on down the Royal Mile towards the palace. On the way, we noticed a couple of Christmas shops (weird). In a window of a whisky shop there was a little Scottie dog, just sitting there watching everyone pass by on the street. We saw a fudge shop called Jim Garrahy's Fudge Kitchen that had a sign over the door advertising free samples. We went in ad tried the German chocolate swirl and it was really good. It was like vanilla and chocolate together. I thought it was kind of strange that there was even such a thing as vanilla-flavored fudge. We got there right before the man in the back came out with a fresh, warm sample of the double chocolate fudge, which was even better. We decided to all chip in and buy a hunk of the first kind to share. Then we continued down the street. We passed Scottish Parliament (the new one). It was a really modern-looking building, which was in such contrast to most of the other buildings in town. We could see this huge, HUGE hill/plateau just a few hundred yards down the road that Parliament was on, but we couldn't go climb it because we weren't sure we'd have enough time to do that and also see the memorial up on the hill before we needed to catch the bus to the airport (much to David's disappointment). Okay, well, it turns out that you had to pay to get into the palace, and we didn't feel like dishing out any more money, so we just walked on and looked for the way to get up to the monuments. These were the pillars we saw off in the distance when we were up at the castle. We found a path that led up and Holly was sure it'd get us there sooner or later, and we grudgingly ascended after her. We ran into some people walking down and they said we were going the right way. So we walked up and up... We got great views of the big green hill and that side of the city, constantly changing since we kept getting higher and higher. We eventually reached the top. It wasn't all that high but it was probably the highest we'd been since the castle, and plus, this offered a 360-degree view. There was the pillar monument, which we never found out its purpose while we were there. Google informs me, however, that it was supposed to be a memorial to the Scots who died in the Napoleonic Wars, but it was never finished because many who promised to help fund it did not pay. It's called the National Monument, by the way, and this hill we were on was Calton Hill. Another monument was the Nelson Monument, which is the shape of an upturned telescope. The city observatory was also up there but it was closed for refurnishing. The other monument was the Dugald Stewart Monument; Stewart was a Scottish philosopher. We stayed up there for a little over an hour, just taking photos, talking, and resting. Then we wanted to go see St. Mary's Cathedral (or what we thought was St. Mary's) because it looked cool from up there where we were, so we walked down into the city. We were in the "New Town" part for the first time, and there was this huge, ugly black "monstrosity" (as Holly put it) of a shopping mall that we walked by. We got to St. Mary's, but it was not the cool building we thought it was. Christ went across the street to check out what the cool building was. It turned out to be some other cathedral, like St. Peter-St. Paul Cathedral or something. While he'd been gone, we were all just sitting on St. Mary's steps, and down to our right just on the sidewalk was a small group of adults, and two of the guys appeared to be in an argument. I'm pretty sure they were drunk. But there was this woman between them trying to prevent them from punching each other. We couldn't really tell whether they were serious of not, but as soon as Chris came back we left. As we were walking I took pictures of the cigarette boxes people had littered on the ground, because there were very large, varied, and blunt warnings about the harmful effects of smoking. I love how they're so honest, but it's sad that so many people still do it. At this point we didn't really have anything else in mind to do and it was only a little after 5, and we only had to catch the bus around 7 to be at the airport at a good time. So we just kind of wandered downtown. We thought we might stop by the Edinburgh Dungeon because just the name itself sounds cool .well, we walked into this place we thought was it and it seemed just like a cheesy goth gift shop. We found out that the whole big deal was just a silly ride and that the last one was at 5 anyway. We walked toward the other part of downtown to see what this one tower memorial was. It wasn't really that interesting. Mary got coffee, and then we had nothing to do.

The National Monument at the top of Calton Hill

Just hanging out and resting

We simply walked to the bridge where our bus was going to pick us up. We'd bought open return tickets when we rode into the city so we were able to go on any of the buses, and they came really often, like less than 10 minutes apart. There was one when we got there but we decided to just wait for the next one so we wouldn't have to rush on. The next one came about 2 minutes later. We got on, said goodbye to the city. At the airport we decided to eat after security, since it seemed that at the Dublin and Gatwick airports there were better options afterward. We asked a shopkeeper if there were any restaurants after security, to be sure, and they said yes. So we went through. To our dismay, there was actually only a bar and a Costa Coffee. At least the Costa Coffee had cafe sandwiches. And... IRN-BRU!!! That made up for the lack of restaurants, in my eyes anyway. So we ate. We saw on the screen before we even checked in that our flight was delayed half an hour, which would give us 10 minutes from the time it landed to the time our bus left for Oxford. Well, it got delayed even more. We most certainly weren't going to catch our bus, and we thought the next one was at 3 AM... So we were pretty bummed, but at least our tickets would still be good because they were valid 24 hours after the return departure time. Well, while we were waiting in the airport before the flight, David and Chris got into this debate involving movies, music, lyrics, and relationships. It continued on the plane, as far as I could tell. Mary, Holly, and I just talked about guys, TV, and health. I saw on the TV that was playing that there were bombings in Pakistan. Once the plane arrived, we got on. The pilot explained the reason for the delay, but all I can remember about it is that the plane that was supposed to have flown us wasn't able to for some reason, so this plane came even though it was supposed to be in Barcelona. The free magazine in the pocket in front of us was pretty interesting, since it had a lot about cities in Greece, and I'm going there for Thanksgiving break. I sat by Mary and we talked a bit about Greece and about how tired we were. This flight was the longest of all the weekend's flights at about an hour and forty-five minutes-ish. By this time we just wanted to get home, you know. We got to the airport in London and David was convinced that we were going to be able to catch our 11:15 bus... It was 11:10 when we landed. Mary and I were like, there is no way we'll catch it and there is no way we're running through the airport to try to catch it. We all just walked fast and got to where the bus should have been at about 11:18. we were upset, so we went back inside to try to ask an employee if they knew anything about when the next one was. No one knew (well, we were only able to find one who wasn't helping anyone at the moment), so we just walked through the terminal following signs to where the local bus info was, hoping there'd be something about our coach there. We fortunately found the schedule, and fortunately (even more so) the next bus was only at 1, not 3 like we'd thought. So we figure that's not a bad wait. Mary's stomach wasn't feeling well, so she found some Sprite. We just hung out in the middle there for a while Chris looked at the exchange rates, or at least we thought he was. Next thing we know, we're turning around and he's nowhere to be seen. We decided that David will walk around for a few minutes to try to find him while we girls stay by the vending machine. About 5 seconds later (David's only walked about 30 feet), we see Chris turning the wrong corner away from us, and then we all catch up with him. We went out by where we need to exit for the bus (but still inside) and sat on these chairs. Chris went downstairs to the bathroom and David and the rest of us started talking about what he and Chris were talking about. It was all very interesting and got even better when Chris got back. Soon it was almost 1 so we went outside and the bus was there. We were doing fine until the bus driver got to Chris. He said his ticket said that he was to depart at 03:15, not 23.15 like ours, so he couldn't get on this bus because it was before his confirmed boarding time unless he paid £22. he's the driver, what he says goes, is basically the way he put it. We were like, "No, his ticket says 23:15, it's just creased right on the '2' so it's really faint," but he wouldn't hear it. We didn't want to pay so we decided we'd just wait 'til the next one at 3. we got off, went back inside. But David still wanted to go back and argue about it. We didn't go back until Mary had figured out that it wouldn't work if we just did it the way the driver said to because of a date and time conflict. So we went back and she was able to (thankfully) explain to him calmly how and why he was wrong. He realized he'd made a mistake and let us all on. We went towards the back. Everyone was on the right of the aisle except for me so I wasn't able to join their continuing conversation. It was all good though because I needed to catch up on journaling. I did, and eventually I started to feel nauseous, partly from writing in a moving vehicle (especially at the back of it) and partly because the strong cleaning scent wafting from the bathroom behind me was so overwhelming. I had to stop writing and just listen to music because I didn't want to have to be rushing to the bathroom if I needed to vomit. We finally got to the Oxford bus station at about 3ish, and since it's in the city centre we had a nice brisk walk of about 20 minutes back to our houses - we walked fast so that we would warm up, because it was cold!! There were SO many people out that late at night! It was so shocking. I noticed that there were plenty of those cigarette boxes with the warnings on them lying on the ground. I also saw an IRN-BRU can on the sidewalk! I was sooooo extremely excited, you don't even know. It gave me hope! Haha. Eventually we got to our road, and ended our journey with a prayer of praise. I went right to bed. Fell asleep right away.

One of the many... but this was my favorite

The most amazing thing that God taught me was how big His love is. I got to Dublin and realized how absolutely huge it was and how many people lived there, and God loves them all enough to die to possibly have a right relationship with them. Then I got to Edinburgh, which seemed even bigger, and realized the same thing. And these were only two cities out of the entire world! And if He loves them there, and there, and here, then he is everywhere and His love is everywhere, too. It brings me yet again to Psalm 139: "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me..." and I definitely felt Him with me that weekend. He's definitely opened my eyes and shown Himself to me.

That's the end... but tomorrow (a.k.a. today, since it's about 1:30 AM on Thursday right now) we go to Spain! We'll be there for two weeks. :) wish me luck.

Part 2: Edinburgh, Scotland

Continuing our story...

Friday, September 19, 2008

The view of city centre from the hill that leads to the castle

The cannons in the castle

This day started off at 3:05 AM, when we woke up in order to have time to get ready and eat before we walked to the bus stop for the Air Coach bus that left at 4:30 (our flight was at 6:30... never again, never again will I do this). Mary had brought bread, peanut butter, and apples so that's what we ate (interesting eating that at 3:30 AM...). We walked down O'Connell Street to the bus stop and said goodbye to Dublin... I was sad that we were leaving because it was such a great time... I could have totally spent more time in the museums and libraries and also would have just loved to stay in Ireland to travel out to the country. But anyhow, we got to our bus stop about half an hour early - talk about time padding! About 5-10 minutes later, a taxi van pulled up and the driver asked if we wanted to get a ride with him for the same price as the bus. So we decided to do it because there seemed to be no reason not to. Oh man. This bald, earringed taxi driver was wild. He drove so fast and I think he almost ran red lights at least three times and almost rear-ended other vehicles, one of them being a bus, twice. It was really scary and I kind of thought we might die (meanwhile David is enjoying it as if it were a roller coaster)... but alas; we made it to the airport. We checked in, went to our gate, and just waited until we got to board. One funny thing about these Ryanair flights is that you have to get on and off the planes with a staircase, so it makes you feel Presidential. The flight was only about 50 minutes long, but for some reason we sat on the runway for half an hour before we took off. I slept for the whole flight. When we got to the airport in Edinburgh, Scotland, we needed to find a way to the city centre so that we could have something to do before we were allowed to check in at the hostel at 2. We were all so tired and crabby that this experience felt long and difficult. We couldn't seem to make sense of the bus routes because there wasn't one labeled "City Centre." So after much confusion, argumentativeness, map consultation, and bad ideas, we finally settled on an open return for this one coach that stopped right in the city centre. It took a little over half an hour to get to the city. The first thing we did when we got off the bus was walk up these hilly streets towards Edinburgh Castle. It was a tough walk, having had little sleep, but it was also quite refreshing. We got our first glimpse of downtown from a higher vantage point. It seemed very developed and bigger than Dublin, or at least, with bigger buildings... Or maybe they were just more numerous. This castle is a huge, stone building, or actually, several buildings surrounded and atop a wall. There were cannon replicas and a couple museums (we went into one). There were signs along the way that told about each spot. Really there was so much to see and we were running on so little sleep that I wonder how much of it we actually took in - or at least, how much I took in. The view of the city from up there was amazing. There was this monument with columns off in the distance that looked interesting and we decided we'd go see it the next day. There was a tall, spindly, slightly creepy black pointy tower that we were unsure of. Anyway, the castle was pretty cool, but I would have liked all the history and reading more if I had had more than 3 and a half hours of sleep. We saw the crown jewels which was pretty neat. Of course, nothing compared to any of the old manuscripts we saw at Chester Beatty, but it was still a neat experience.

Mmm... HAGGIS

At the bottom of the castle there was this cafe that gave free samples of haggis - it was called the Haggis Cafe. We tried it and it was SO good. It tasted familiar but I couldn't quite place it. We decided to eat there and I ordered the haggis neeps and tatties lunch. Neeps ended up being these cantaloupe-looking chunks of something that I later discovered were turnips. The tatties were like mashed potatoes and gravy, only different (okay, so that's not very helpful of a description, but I really don't know how else to describe it). Those were both just "okay" - not really good or really bad. The haggis was delicious, although admittedly overwhelming due to the fact that when we sampled it, it was a small portion spread over a small chunk of bread, and the meal was just a large amount of it piled on the plate next to the neeps and tatties. So, after lunch we walked around town trying to find the right bus stop to get to the hostel, according to their directions. The city bus was supposed to leave from Hanover Street but we couldn't figure out where or something (it seems like a dumb reason now), so we just chose the other of the three optional methods of transport - the shuttle. The Globetrotter Inn (our hostel) has its own shuttle that runs between the city and the hostel. We had to wait for almost 40 minutes because it only arrives and leaves on the hour. This hostel was big... And far from the city centre, about half an hour northwest. It was right by the river (not sure which one). Our room was a lot nicer than the one in Dublin... There were little lights inside each bunk and curtains that went in front of the opening for more privacy. Mary and I took a shower (which was a better move compared to taking on at the Dublin hostel - which we didn't do - because that one only had two showers on the floor we were on and the doors were nearly clear.) and the rest of our group started their nap. We took a much-needed nap as well. We were only planning on sleeping until 5:30 but ended up resting for an extra hour because we were so tired. We needed this for sure. Hahaha.

Waiting for the shuttle to our hostel

Stealth shot of the dad teaching his daughter to ride a bike by the river

The river behind our hostel

We walked down behind the hostel to the river. It was so pretty with the clouds and everything. These 5 young girls, probably in middle school, said hi to us as we went down the back steps and said they loved Americans, and they came down to the river with us for a few minutes. We just chatted about where we were from. It was funny how they'd heard of Alaska (David), Texas (Mary), and California (me), but not Colorado (Holly) or North Carolina (Chris) (and it was also funny that I just realized then that each of us was from a different state). They said that Edinburgh was boring and we just laughed and figured that they were just so used to it that they took it for granted. We walked along the pathway along the river for about half an hour. There were a lot people with their dogs. There was even one man with his dog in the shallows. We saw this person with a whole group of dogs up on the hill. We also saw this man and a girl we assumed was his daughter teaching her to ride a bike with training wheels. We thought she might have been adopted from another country because of how he was talking to her; she seemed a little old for the tone of loving simple instruction he gave her. We were walking down to this little village of Cramond where the desk worker at the hostel said there was a good pub. We got there and checked the prices, but it was like £9 and that was quite a bit more than were willing to spend for a meal. So we kept walking until we got to a bus stop at the beginning of the street we were on and asked a woman where the nearest restaurants were. She told us a mile either way, so we kept going to the left. We walked and walked and walked... We were getting nowhere and it was dark and we didn't know where we were (fortunately we knew how to get back to where we were... But we needed food for dinner). We kept going, sometimes with the aid of the street lights and sometimes not... Because there were portions of the road without them. We passed this field with sheep. It was funny because they stared at us as we passed. Some even stood up attentively at our sudden appearance. We walked more after this until we got to this little town. We found the only open eater, a take-away fast food place with fish, chips, pasta, pizza, and savory pies and decided to get food from there. We ate it on a bench across the street from a random Blockbuster... The bench surprisingly fit all 5 of us on it. We ate and talked about stuff like the teenagers that began to pop out of nowhere and this was like 9:30 PM already. They're intimidating! I think it's because of how snobby they seem, and also the reputation the UK has with underage drinking... Plus, they usually seem a bit obnoxious. Anyway, we knew there had to be a faster way to get back to the hostel rather than to retrace our hour-long journey, but we didn't know how. We figured that since we basically did a huge sideways U-turn to get to that town, we could just cut through the U on a street. David and Holly went into the Blockbuster to ask if they knew and they didn't really and just told us to go basically the same way we'd come. We looked for the 42 bus that we know goes to the hostel but it didn't have a stop near us. So... We walked back the way we came! Yup, it took about an hour again. Actually, the first time it might have taken a little longer than an hour because we were walking slower. We just went to bed when we got back to the hostel. We were pretty excited that our hostel was a little bit in the more nature-y side of Edinburgh, even though it was inconveniently far from the city centre. But it kind of eliminated a journey out into the country that we wanted to make, which was good, financially.

The sheep that stared us down as we walked by their field

So... I'll post the end of the journey either tonight or tomorrow before we leave for Spain...
:)

Part 1: Dublin, Ireland

It's been forever since I've written! Ever since we got back from our Dublin/Edinburgh trip, everyday has been jam packed with class and homework... Now I finally have a break to give an update on my first travel break. :) It's chock-full of details, mostly for my own sake, so I'll remember everything, and I hope they don't bog you down. I hope you enjoy what you can.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

At Gatwick Airport: Chris, Holly, David, me, Mary

The journey started at a little after 11 AM, when Mary, Holly, Chris, David, and I headed off across town for the bus station. Fortunately, we got there plenty early, early enough to figure out that the confirmation email we got was all we needed for our ticket, early enough for David to stop at the open market for a few apples, and early enough for Mary to stop in Caffe Nero for a much-needed coffee and a new experience: Italian cake. (It was fruity and chocolaty... almost like a muffin, but more dense.) Our coach arrived and we prayed before getting on, asking God for unity and safe travels. The group who was going to Prague was also on this same coach to London Gatwick Airport, so we sat with them. After a couple hours, we arrived at the airport and couldn't check in yet because it was too early, so we wandered around to check the place out. This was the biggest little airport I could have imagined. There were a ton of stores and all the computers with Internet access made me feel like people either can't get away from it or that people spend a lot of time in that airport. Anyway, we spent time in a Burger King because the only other real option was a Caffe Nero or some bar. I had the unfortunate experience of opening up a tabloid and seeing a horribly disturbing image, and I made sure none of the rest of the group saw it. Makes me wonder if that sort of thing is in every "newspaper" around here, but I'm not about to go leafing through every paper to find out. UGH. Moving right along (wow, at this rate, my post is going to be a novel and y'all are just going to quit reading it before we even get out of the country), after we finally checked in, we went through security (of course), which is strange at Gatwick because you do shoes completely separately from everything else, in a different x-ray machine down the hall from the initial checkpoint. Once we'd gotten into the terminal, the screen told us to wait for our gate number, so we did... pretty soon it got to about 5 minutes until the boarding time stamped on our tickets, and we got worried because we still didn't know where our gate was and all terminals took at least 10 minutes to walk to, according to the signs. We asked one of the people at the desks and, funny thing, the time on the ticket is when they post up the gates on the screen. Horribly inconvenient, but I guess it works. What I want to know, then, is how everybody else from our flight happened to have already made themselves at home in the gate area by the time we walked into the gate. Oh, well. This flight was quick and easy... 90 minutes. And then we were in Dublin!

Our awesome hostel!

From the airport, we took a bus to the city centre. This was a pretty big city, at least compared to Oxford The main street was called O'Connell Street, and our hostel, Litton Lane Hostel, was located on a lane that was just off a street just off O'Connell. When we turned onto the lane that our hostel was on, we were a little apprehensive; it looked a little shady. Once we got in, however, all things were great. The receptionist was really kind and helpful and made sure we all got in the same room. We learned that this hostel was actually former recording studios for artists such as U2 and Sinead O'Connor. I thought that was pretty cool. Once we took a look around the place (our room, the bathrooms, the common room, the kitchen), we wandered out to look for some place to eat. We had passed this divinely-scented pizza place on the way towards the hostel, and then we had to pass it again as we went out towards town. Fortunately, the hostel was in a great location: about a 2 minute walk from the main street. Unfortunately, everybody seems to smoke cigarettes there, so wherever you walk it feels like you're walking in a smoke shop, trying to breathe. At least, that's how it was at night... it seemed to not be so bad during the day. Anyway, we wandered around for a bit, noting that there were a huge McDonald's and Burger King and instantly pushing those out of the picture as options. Eventually we decided on this little pizza joint called PaPa Pizza (okay, so this was traditional either, but it looked good... and it was delicious). O'Connell Street has a few of these really weird lit-up walking clothed stick figures... I don't know how else to describe them. They appear to be completely pointless except for decoration, but they made us laugh anyway. We went back to the hostel after dinner to plan the next day. We planned in the dining area by the kitchen, and David played a game of chess with a man from Poland who barely spoke English. It was really cool. Mostly, Mary, Holly, and I planned the trip... the guys just played chess and drank soda (Chris). haha :)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The kind old Irishman helping Mary find the National Museum on the map


Christ Church Cathedral from one angle

The morning started off with the free cereal, toast, and coffee provided by the hostel, and then we were off to Trinity College Library to see the Book of Kells. Basically, it's this intricately decorated book of the four Gospels that was mainly for ornamental purposes rather than daily reading. The library had tons of displays on how it was made, who copied it, who decorated it, the stuff it was made of, and finally, the book itself. It was amazing to see how much effort and time was put into it... I never would have spent that much time or care copying something out. Unfortunately, most of this day was spent in museums or libraries, so photography was prohibited. Upstairs was the huge and tall old library. The books were SO old. The "old book smell" was almost overwhelming. I thought it was funny how the shelves had rolling ladders attached to them to get to the highest books. They were just like the ones in movies. After a look around the giftshop, we left Trinity and tried to find the National Museum... somehow got turned around and couldn't quite figure it out, even with a map. We ended up talking to this old man on the street and he gave us directions. I loved his voice. I think that if for some reason, I could only hear everybody in one accent for the rest of my life, I'd choose the Irish accent... it's so rich and rolling. Once we finally got to the museum, we got to see the gazillion old artifacts relating to Ireland's history, including Viking times. There was also a random room with Egyptian stuff, and Chris wasn't too pleased with that because it was out of place. I think the coolest thing in the whole place would have to be this huge log boat made out of an oak tree trunk. It must have been around 50 feet long. After the museum, we were hungry, so we wandered over to the pedestrian streets to look for a place for lunch. There were several street performers: a silent clown who hit passers-by on the head with a foam hammer; a silver guy trying to be a statue; an older couple playing the keyboard and saxophone; five or so people playing string instruments. We eventually found a place called Bewley's Cafe. We were seated upstairs, kind of in an alcove, alone. I ordered a Buffalo Mozzarella Ciabatta - surprisingly, and sadly I might add, there was no meant in it. It was cheese, tomato, greens ("rocket"), and basil pesto on ciabatta bread. Very good, even though it didn't have mean like I'd hoped. It was served with these chips that were really tasty - they were on the verge of even being sweet. There was also a small salad with honey mustard dressing (I didn't really like it because of the dressing). Once we'd finished eating we had to pay, and since it was all on one bill there was some hassle trying to figure out who owed who what (not to mention the fact that, although worth more to the dollar than pounds, euros are still not all that close to dollars... so we lamented the fact that we can't get away from expensive meals).

Enjoying our meals at Bewley's Cafe.

Dublin Castle is surprisingly colorful. It reminded me of a fairy tale.

The Chester Beatty Library was next on our list, but we found Dublin Castle first. We didnt' go in, but we took pictures of the outside of it and the big round lawn with designs moved in it. The library ended up being right next to that. This was probably the best place we'd been to so far that day. It had a bunch of manuscripts on the first floor of Chinese stories, written and illustrated on scrolls. They were so beautiful, colorful and detailed. There were also samples of Indian, Arabic, and Egyptian writings. There was a piece of this Egyptian scroll that was part of a larger scroll that had about 70% of all known Egyptian love poetry written on it. Upstairs was the best part though. I spent a lot of time looking at and reading about Eastern religions and their texts and a few artifacts (Buddhism, Daoism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Janism). It was so interesting to learn all about them because, although I knew basics about a few of them, I definitely had never learned that much, and it was cool to learn about all their similarities and differences. Besides, I had never even heard of Janism before, so that was completely new. Then I spent a little time in the Islam section but I had recently learned a lot about Islam (thank you Rebekah, Provider of Everything You Wanted to Know About Islam, According to Wikipedia), so I moved on pretty quickly to what I found to be the best and most exciting part: the Christianity section. We saw pieces of the Bible written in common Greek on papyrus... one tiny piece of John was dated 15o-200 A.D.!!! It was so amazing that it was still around, even if it was only like 2 inches by 1 inch big. I don't know where the rest of it was, though, or if it was still surviving or not. There were larger pieces of other books, like Deuteronomy, Genesis, Acts, Philippians, Galatians, Romans. Most of those ones were dated 200 A.D. But really... that's SO OLD! I still can't get over it. We were talking about them afterwards and were wondering if they were written at about the time that the apostles' grandchildren (if they had children, and their children had children) or great-grandchildren or something... and if they could have had a chance to read them and ask their parents about them... "Dad, is that really what Jesus said?" "Yes, He did. Talk to Grandpa Peter for further details." 'Twas fun to think about... but really, it was mind-boggling to think of how soon after Jesus' life and death they were written. I know there are other manuscripts that were written even earlier than these, but it was amazing that we got the chance to look at and think about these. AMAZING.

Liffey Bridge

After this strange experience, we walked over to Christ Church Cathedral and decided that we didn't want to pay 6 euro for admission, so we decided to just come back for the Evensong service at 6 PM and explore St. Patrick's Cathedral in the meantime. St. Patrick's had massive scaffolding because the were restoring part of it, but most of it was normal. I don't think it was as beautiful inside as Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford - the stained glass windows didn't even begin to compare - but it was still pretty. We spent a while in there and then debated on whether or not to find dinner or ice cream or something to munch on. Instead, we stopped in at a little convenience store and a couple people in our group got something. I didn't get anything because I was low on cash and didn't want to use my card. After that little pit stop, we walked back to Christ Church and waited about 15 minutes outside. To be honest, the exterior of that church is a little intimidating... not exactly welcoming. But it was beautiful nonetheless, in its own way. Inside was pretty much like the other cathedrals we've seen. I'd never been in one for a service before, though. We got a program/bulletin/order of worship (I don't know what it would be called, but it had everything that was said/happening written on it). There was a lot of sitting down and standing up throughout the service. It was beautiful though. The choir was an absolute joy to listen to. The whole thing was only about 45 minutes long. After it, we had nothing else planned, so we wandered back towards the hostel. We crossed this old bridge, the Liffey (Ha'penny) Bridge that was built in 1816. It's this big wrought-iron thing over the Liffey River, one of several bridges over it. We walked along the boardwalk, found an ATM, then went to a grocery store to pick up a couple of cans of chili to eat with the rice Holly had brought (we were trying to save money, if you couldn't tell, haha). Then we went to a couple of tourist shops, stopped by a place for Mary to get her Irish coffee, and then went back to the hostel kitchen to eat our rice and chili. Our dessert was random Cadbury chocolate candies from the vending machine. My favorite was called Moro. It was chocolate-coated chocolaty crunch/smoothness...? with caramel. It's really hard to describe, but it was SO GOOD. Everybody else seemed to really like it as well. I looked it up online when I got back in Oxford and apparently they only produce and sell them in Ireland... although there seems to be a version of it in New Zealand. Either way, I have been searching for them here in Oxford with no luck, so I doubt we'll have them in the States. Sad day! :( Oh well. So anyway, from our hostel room we could hear the music from the pub next door... it would have been annoying if it was Irish people singing their drinking songs (which sounds kind of weird, but it's really cool to hear).

Okay, so I realize that was actually only one whole day of travels... but I'm going to break this trip up into more than one post so that at least there's something up while I gather enough energy to finish it off. The journey continues... next time I post. :)