Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)

Well, here we are. August. I can't believe it, but I will be home in under seven weeks. How do I feel about that? Mixed emotions galore! On the one hand, I am so incredibly excited to see my friends and family again, sleep in a bed wider than three feet, and live in a place where pickles are pickles, NOT gherkins. On the other hand, I will miss the greenery, the fresh air, walking outside and seeing a thousand year old cathedral, and the family I have made here. I'll probably be laughing and sobbing as I board that flight. -Sigh- but let's not dwell on that shall we? These posts are for recording the past, not worrying about the future.

Academically there really isn't anything new to report. I've been working on my thesis, and I should be done in about three weeks. That can't come soon enough, let me tell you. It's gotten to the point where I get on my computer in the morning, check my email, move on to the dissertation, and just stare at it like, what the heck am I supposed to do with this now? Thankfully I have some people who are willing to read through it for me so that I don't have to (thanks parents and boyfriend!). So when the editing is done then all I have to do is make a table of contents, write a conclusion, and print 140 or so pages. Woohoo!

Famous Sutton Hoo helmet.
Want to see the real one?
 Go to the British Museum. 

In terms of fun stuff what have I been up to? Well, I did my first big round of traveling before I leave England, which was wonderful. I got to put away the books for a few weeks and see some more of this beautiful world. First was a trip back down to Bury St. Edmunds to see Lucas. We managed to do quite a bit of sightseeing in just a few days. We went to Sutton Hoo, one of the most important Anglo-Saxon burial sights in the world. And get this...IT WAS THE MOST BORING PLACE EVER. I mean it might have been okay, if we hadn't been charged eight pounds per person to see a one-room museum full of facsimiles, and a burial hill we couldn't approach. Tourist tip: don't go. Read about it. It's honestly much more thrilling to imagine then to see.

Reconstruction of the Burial Ship;
probably the coolest part of the display

This stag decoration was pretty.
I don't even know what it was.

Burial Mound.  

 Okay, so now for some more exciting times. Lucas and I also spent a beautiful day in Ely, which is a lovely place in East Anglia. Ely is famous for its cathedral, and we were lucky enough to go on one of the most beautiful days of the year and see it in all its splendor. We also went to Oliver Cromwell's house, but unfortunately no pictures were allowed.

Front of the Cathedral 

The Side of the Cathedral

The locals

 We also went for a nice walk in Ickwith Park, where we got terribly lost and theatrically frightened.

Oh yeah, I totally know a shortcut.

Completely lost in the dark woods where people were probably murdered.

Found a sign pointing us to safety. Phew!

 After a lovely time at my home away from home, I had to head back to Durham. Of course, it's much easier to go back when you have one of your best friends coming to visit you. Less than 48 hours after I got to Durham, so did Christianna! Two days in Durham, and then we were off to Dublin!

O'Connell St. Dublin, Ireland

The Shannon (I think).
Honestly, it was a pretty gross river.

Customary drink in a Irish pub (O'Neill's)

We stayed in a very nice house close to the station. Below you can see one of our hosts. The humans were nice too, but let's be honest, they just weren't as cute as this kitty!

 After settling into Dublin a bit, Christianna and I set out on a bus tour to Powerscourt Gardens along the south eastern coast. It was a gorgeous day, and the beach looked just like Malibu! It's funny; no matter how far you go from home, you'll always find something that makes you feel as though you never left.

 The gardens were absolutely beautiful, and massive! We didn't have time to walk around all of it (though we made time to eat this gorgeous dessert. Priorities!)

Here is the house from the gardens. I don't really remember anything about the people who had lived there, but I am incredibly jealous of their view.

Christianna taking a picture of me as I take a picture of her. Classic.

Our best day in Ireland by far was our trip to the West Coast. We took a train tour and saw Bunratty Castle, the Burren, Galway, and my personal favorite, the Cliffs of Moher.

First up on our tour was Bunratty Castle. While not the most comfortable of castles (think really tiny spiral staircases), this stop was very special to me, since 30 years ago my mother and her friends went to the very same castle.

 The Castle Interior

From there is was on to the Cliffs. I cannot adequately articulate how much I fell in love with this place. Rarely have I seen things that take my breath away, and I felt like every time I got a look at the cliffs from a different angle I had to gasp and stare. It's like looking out over the edge of the world.

I took so many pictures of this place. It is impossible to choose which ones to post! 

 We then ventured on to the Burren. The Burren is a really eerie looking place, but beautiful. It's basically this large area of rock that grows in layers, and has wildflowers somehow pushing their way through into the sunlight.

 
After this amazing day, we headed back to Dublin. Quick story about our journey back though. So our train was delayed by about two hours because another station had caught fire. After finally getting on a train to take us east, we were told we could have all the free food we wanted from the dining car. Sweet deal! So supper was danish pastries, chips/crisps, and coke. Oh, and our tour guide decided it would be fun to break out the whiskey (Irish obviously), and share it with us. That made for a very interesting (and loud) trip back. When we finally did get into Dublin, it was past midnight and Christianna and I weren't thrilled about walking back to our BnB. Thankfully, we met a lovely couple on the train, who offered to fund our taxi back. It's a shame human decency comes as a surprise these days. Of course, we then got stuck in traffic, because a certain Mr. J Timberlake had to be in Dublin the same night we were. Some people have no respect.

Okay, done with story. On to final day in Dublin. We really didn't have much time for anything big, so Christianna and I went to Kilmainham Gaol. It's a very famous prison, where they held the Easter Rebellion rebels, and also shot a few films. See if you recognize it from anything.

One of the main cell blocks. 

Prison Cell. At least there's a window.

Plaque naming the members of the Easter Rebellion killed at the gaol.

After visiting the gaol is was time to do a final suitcase check and head off to the airport...to Paris! Now, I'm going to be completely honest, Paris is a bit of a blur. We did and saw so much, I know I'm going to leave something out. Oh well, here it goes. Our first big stop was the Museé d'Orsay. It's a beautiful museum, and had a lot of impressionist pieces, which I really like. I was definitely hyperventilating over the Van Goghs. Again, unfortunately, no photography allowed.

View from our Paris hostel

Tiny room, but pretty comfy. 

View of the Sacre Coeur from the clock tower in the Museé d'Orsay

That afternoon we went for a walk along the Seine. It really is a lovely river, and along a few bridges there are a bunch of locks attached to the fencing. Apparently, lovers who come to Paris buy a lock with the keys, attach the lock to the bridge, close it, and then throw the keys into the river. I guess it represents eternal love or something mushy like that.

Christianna also took me to Angelina's, a cafe where Coco Chanel spent a good portion of her time. We got white hot chocolate, and some sort of pecan dessert. I don't know exactly what it was, but I do know that my taste buds have been to heaven. It was AMAZING.

The next day we ventured on to some smaller museums, including one simply on local Paris history. Not really my thing, but there was some really cool stuff to see. Also, can you say gaudy? Holy toledo, I got a headache just looking at some of the ceilings. 

Girl in the Fireplace...in Paris. Get it?

Super fancy schmancy ceiling. 

Naturally what everyone wants to talk about in Paris is the food. Of course, since we're poor, Christianna and I couldn't really indulge (though macaroons made their way into our hands more than once). One really nice meal we had was in this indoor international food market.  

Indoor Food Market

Of course we made time for the bigger sites as well. We stopped by Notre Dame twice.

We also got to see the Bastille lit up the night before Bastille Day. That was pretty spectacular. 

The Bastille

 Then it was time for the big day. Bastille Day! For those of you who don't know, it's essentially the French Independence Day. It started out with a parade in the morning. It was the most boring parade EVER! It started something like and hour late, and after a few airplanes flew over, nothing else happened. A politician got booed, and some firemen walked by. Oh well. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring, and found our way to the Medici fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens. My picture does not do it justice. Search in Google Images if you want to see it properly.

Medici Fountain

Me at the Arc de Triomphe. 

The crowning glory of the day was the fireworks show. Christianna and I camped out on the hard Champs de Mars ground for about four hours after walking close to two miles to enter the park through security. It was a lot of effort to get there, but it was worth it. We were seated about 100 yards in front of the Eiffel Tower, and were treated to a wonderful concert as the sun set. I'm usually not one for opera, but when you are in an environment such as this, it really does work. We then enjoyed a massive fireworks show and a rock concert. It was so much fun. Unfortunately my camera kind of died at this point, so I don't have any images of the fireworks themselves, or the Museé de Cluny, which we went to earlier on. There are some pictures on my phone, but I'm tech challenged apparently and can't get the files over to my computer. I'll have Dad help me when I get home and hopefully update this then.  

 Our last day in Paris was nice and relaxing. We stopped by the Louvre, but didn't go in. That's for another trip I guess.

 We then grabbed our stuff and headed to the Chunnel. It's cool to say I've traveled underneath the English Channel, but honestly it's not that exciting. You're only under for about 15 minutes, and I had been thinking the whole trip was like a thrill ride in the dark. Oh well, check it off the bucket list I guess.

 Christianna and I wrapped up our time together in London. The first afternoon after getting in from Paris we went to the Harry Potter tour. Oh my gosh. So much nerdy awesomeness.

I was disappointed by the lack of John Hurt. 

Christianna and I in front of the model of Hogwarts!!!

We saw the big London sights, like Big Ben, but did some other cool stuff as well. We stopped in the British Museum (my favorite), and went to the Churchill War Rooms. That was incredibly interesting.

We also took a day trip to Brighton, and visited another friend of mine in the nearby town of Lewis. If anyone gets a chance to go to England, I highly recommend these places. They are very artsy and fun, and Brighton has a pier to rival Santa Monica. 

Since it's too small to see, the reason I'm so excited in this picture is because the two claw machines behind me have Star Wars and Doctor Who toys. 

Brighton

Christianna and I parted ways in London, and I headed back to Durham. I'm never alone for long though, because Lucas came up to visit for his birthday. While he was here I got more stuff done on my thesis, but we managed to do a bit of traveling as well. First up was day trip to Edinburgh.

Alexander and Bucephalus 

Edinburgh Castle

We heard the cannon go off from the castle at 1 pm, went to the national museum, saw a bit of the university, and just walked around the city. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

We also went on a day excursion to Hadrian's Wall. This was made all the more fun by the fact that we didn't go to one of the big touristy forts. Instead, we did public transport to a small town called Wall. 

The Hadrian. Aptly named. Lucas bought me some black licorice ice cream here.

This is what England is supposed to look like. 

From there we hiked through some forrest, climbed over some hills, traversed some fields, and braved some bulls, to find a piece of the wall out in the middle of nowhere.

 Touching Hadrian's Wall. Super exciting for Roman history nerds like me.

 We also went to a lookout turret a mile or so away from the piece of wall we found. It was so amazing to sit up there and think that almost two thousand years ago a Roman soldier was standing there, thousands of miles from home, looking north for invading barbarians.

My boyfriend, the centurion.  

Well that's pretty much it for now. Lucas has gone home and I'm here trying to finish up my dissertation. I'm so close! I will have one more blog entry (which I will probably finish when I'm back in Burbank) to record my last few weeks in Durham and my adventures in Italy!!!