Time flies when….

I am very sad to say this is my first post since I returned from the UK. I have been home for almost two months and I can’t believe how fast the time has flown. Parts of me feel like I just left (reliving the trip for people that I have been seeing for the first time since I’ve been home) and another part feels like I’ve been gone forever (the part that has to go to work everyday without the treat of traveling to another country that weekend). All in all, it was a great experience and I am so glad I did it. Now that I’ve conquered London, its on to bigger and better things…adulthood!

That is a blatant lie by the way. I am not conquering adulthood. I am currently wading my way through the swamp known as responsibility. I am not complaining (at the moment) because lots of good things come out of responsibility like new cars. I bought my first brand new car. How’s that for adulthood? I have also recently inherited bills but again all a part of adulthood. I have a job, albeit temporary, but its still a job. In this economy, I’m thankful for it. So right now I’m doing okay on adulthood.

Even though I have sadly neglected my blog, I am going to make a concerted effort to keep posting. Hopefully I will have something interesting to chat about.

Quarter life crisis

So two weeks ago Sunday was quite a milestone for me, turning the age of 25. My car insurance rates now drop and I can rent a car without being charged an arm and leg. I had many plans for what I wanted to do with my birthday weekend. In the end, I decided to travel to the West coast of Ireland and be based out of Galway. So Thursday night Erin and I left for Gatwick, bound for Galway. After a few minor mishaps, me forgetting my passport and Erin requesting the car for Dublin Airport, not Shannon, we arrived in Galway around 1 am, slept for a few hours and woke up to the memory of the girl that had come in an hour after we got into the hostel and had drunkenly told Erin how she had made out with a girl the night before and then sat down on Erin’s bed to tell her more about it. I was laughing so hard the entire time because she thought everyone else was asleep. She was a bit irritating but we also met Rachel, Steph and Sam, 3 Americans traveling around separately.

We woke up pretty early, had breakfast at the hostel and chatted about what we wanted to do. We decided to walk around town to figure it out. We walked around town, went to the tourist center, found our friend Provan who had just moved to Galway and decided to head out of the city for a half day tour of the Cliffs of Moher. It was quite a drive through absolutely breathtaking countryside that pictures will not do justice to. I still took as many as I could. The actual Cliffs of Moher were stunning. It was so windy that you thought you were going to get blown off the edge of the cliff. It was actually a bit scary. The self preservation part of your mind is trying to make your body move away from the cliff but the rest of your is trying to look the 700 feet down to the water because it’s amazing. After taking in the stunning view, we headed back to Galway. We had dinner at this place called the Couch Potato. Basically it had anything you could want in a baked potato. Obviously it was amazing. We went to a pub, listened to the band and had a few drinks, just content in each others company.

The next morning Erin and I set off on what was probably my most favorite trip of my entire European relocation. We drove to Rosamil, about 40 minutes up the coast to the harbor. From there, we took a boat to the Aran Island, well just one of the islands, Inis Mor. It is the biggest of the three islands. The boat ride was really choppy because of the wind but Erin and i just enjoyed ourselves while half of the boat looked rather sea sick. Thank God I don’t get sea sick. We arrived at the islands which are primarily Irish speaking (Gaelic). The island is pretty small, only about 9 miles by 2 miles. We rented bikes, grabbed a little map and took off. The scenery was stunning. Most of the island was farmland with its quaint rock walls everywhere but it was bordered by limestone cliffs and a shoreline that was to die for. We made a leisurely trip on the east side of the island, stopping at a graveyard that must have been 500 years old by the oldest headstone we could read. From there, we parked our bikes which thank goodness were 10 speeds, paid 1 pound and took a mile walk up to Dun Aonghasa. This is a small fort perched on the edges of 100 m cliffs. The difference between this and the Cliffs of Moher is you can walk right up to the edge. Erin and I immediately laid down and spent a good 20 minutes staring down at the waves crashing 300 feet below us. It was breathtaking. We spent about a hour and half here and I didn’t regret a single minute of it. laying/standing close to the edge you experience moments of sheer terror, followed by moments of sheer exhilaration. We ate our lunch there and then biked around the rest of the island for the rest of the afternoon. We didn’t want to leave but didn’t really have a choice. Not that we were opposed to staying the night on the island, but the rest of the girls from our hostel were waiting for us.

We got back to the hostel, showered to get the salty earthly smell out (though I was said to do it). Erin and I grabbed some dinner. We mentioned to the waitress that it was my birthday and she brought out a piece of cake with a candle in it. She was pretty good for brand new waitress. It was her first night! We made sure to give her a really big tip. From there, we went to a bar and spent pretty much our whole night. It was a great time…good dj, a mini dance floor, a dance off, good friends and lots of whiskey. At the next bar, Provan came to meet us and we went to ride the mechanical bull. All the ladies gave it a ride. It was great. We grabbed some late night food and then hit the hay. It had been a long strenuous day.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny. Erin and I packed our bags, said our goodbyes (sadly) to the girls and were on our way. We were driving up the coast to this tiny town called Cleggan to go horseback riding on the beach. I thought it would be a fabulous way to spend my birthday. We had the address and our GPS so we figured we’d be alright. We were totally wrong. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, nice sunny day and we weren’t too hungover. We got near the area and could see the town we were trying to get to but had no way of getting down there. We were on these tiny tiny back roads, more like paths, with no cell service so we couldn’t even call the place to ask. We finally stopped and asked a woman who was out in her yard. She gave us perfect directions and in 5 minutes we were there.

It was a family run riding center and the people were so nice. We got on our gear (helmets and boots) and were lead through a short assessment of our skills. They decided since we were beginners that we would be right behind the instructor, that way if anything went wrong he could stop the horse. haha We had no problem with this. We went on a three hour ride down to Omey Island which can only be accessed by land during low tide. The land between the island and the mainland is a huge expanse of white sand. It was sort of a dream come true to be trotting on a horse through shallow water on the beach in Ireland. It was such a great way to spend my birthday. Afterwards, Erin and I grabbed a picnic lunch and ate on our leisurely ride back to the airport. We boarded the plane and I made it back to London around 10.

I walked in to my flat and my flatmate Alicia was waiting with dinner and a birthday cake complete with candles. It was wonderful! She had framed a picture of the three of us together taking during the snow storm. Brooke had left that day to return to New Zealand for a month but she had left me a present as well, a necklace made out of green stone. It was so sweet. So my birthday weekend went so well. Pictures below.

Cliffs of Moher

stunning

it was a bit windy that day

hanging over the cliffs on the Inir Mor

so pretty

Happy birthday to me! New and old friends

Horseback riding

Omey Island

Town of Cleggan

Tulips and bikes and hookers. Oh my!

Last Thursday, my friend Anthony flew in from Prague where he has been working and I took him on a whirlwind tour of London. That included Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and Kensington Palace as well as a proper pub lunch. After all that walking around, we met Anthony’s cousin Kristin who lives in London for some Indian food. After a few drinks, we all headed to bed.

The next day, Friday, we flew to Amsterdam to meet Anthony’s cousins and friends and some other friends of mine that happened to be in the area. Thursday was Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, which is a celebration of the Queen’s birthday. It is supposedly a big day for unity, everyone wears orange and drinks in the street. I was sorry to have missed it but was happy to meet up with some friendly faces to continue the celebration.

After checking into our hotel, we went to meet up with a friend of mine from work and some of his friends. We headed to a bbq that one of his friends was holding. It was a great group of people and we had a lot of laughs and great food. Everything was made on the grill. I haven’t had anything from the grill the entire time I’ve been in England so that was a welcome meal for me. Around midnight, we headed to meet Anthony’s cousins and friends for drinks before hitting the hay.

The next morning we went to the Keukenhof exhibit. Even if you don’t like flowers at all, this is something I recommend you do before you die. There are over 9 million tulips in bloom in the park, all at once. They come in every color and size that you could imagine including black (it’s not actually black but dark enough purple that it could be). It is only open from the middle of March until the end of May. But they draw an insane amount of people. It was stunning.

From there, we grabbed some lunch, wandered around the city for a bit and then headed for our next destination, Mike’s Bikes. In case you’ve never been, Amsterdam is a city of bikes. There are thousands of bikes around the city. So we decided to be like locals. Kristin had been to Amsterdam before and heard about this guy. The bikes we got weren’t touristy, as in all one color with Mike’s Bike’s splashed across them. In fact, they were all different. I instantly fell in love with my bike. It was a 1950′s looking bicycle, painted bright teal green.

We rode around the city, with our guide stopping at random places to point things out to us. We rode all over the city including through the red light district. We stopped and he explained to us why it is that prostitution is legal. He also asked if anyone had noticed the girls that were in the windows. They were quite attractive and he proceeded to ask if anyone knew why they were special. Come to find out, all the strippers on that street in the window are actually men. Our guide did explain to us about the legalization of prostitution and the mentality behind it. Apparently they have a union for the workers that offers them healthcare, counseling and other services. They figure if they legalize it, it will be in the public eye and it will be as safe as possible.

From there we went to a different location in the city where our guide talked to use about the legalization of marijuana. From a social work perspective, it is a really interesting experiment. They figure if marijuana is the gateway drug, legalizing it will mean that people won’t want to experiment with other drugs. They tell the kids if they want to use it to wait until they are older. They educate them to the adverse effects of marijuana when they are still maturing. Apparently their experiment is working. The use of other more serious drugs has decreased. Besides coffeehouses where marijuana is made available are strictly regulated by police. Only a certain amount of licenses are given out. It was certainly interesting to hear from a local perspective. We ate dinner, had a few drinks and headed to bed.

On Sunday, we went to the Heineken factory before heading to the airport where we all flew our separate ways. All in all, it was an interesting weekend.

Keukenhof

Me and my bicycle

Heineken

Woman of leisure?

Today marks the end of my first week of unemployment, though I have been far from bored. I returned from my 3 days in Portugal late Monday night, which was followed by a Tuesday full of running around. I returned my faithful Vauxhall Astra to her home in South-end, sold/explained my GPS to a colleague and ran some much needed errands. On Wednesday, I took a pleasant day trip with my former coworker Jacqui to Bath and Stonehenge. I am running on a limited time budget and I needed to check off as many things as possible while I can so my remaining time here is pretty packed.

Bath was an adorable little town. Way back in the day (around the 1800′s) the mayor of Bath declared that all houses had to be made out of Bath stone. Convenient you might say considering he owned the only quarry in town. Needless to say that ordinance stuck and all houses in Bath are made out of Bath stone or something that looks exactly like it and most of them are also in the Georgian style. The town is cute. The Roman Baths themselves are also impressive. 10,000 year old water boiling up from 25 miles below the Earth’s surface at a consistent hot temperature is nothing to scoff at. The site has excavated only a small portion of the old Roman site but the engineering for that time was impressive.

From there, we drove about 45 minutes to Stonehenge. It was not nearly as awe-inspiring as I thought. You leave Stonehenge with more questions than answers. For me, that is a bit irritating. There are many speculations as to why Stonehenge was built. It was interesting to hear all of the theories but a bit frustrating. I want answers! The wonderful weather made for beautiful pictures and a memorable day. However, I have to say I enjoyed the part of the day spent in Bath the most because at least I had some definitive historical answers to my questions.

The Roman Baths

source of the springs

Bath Abbey

Stonehenge

So my time in the UK is slowly winding down. My first week of being unemployed and a tourist just finished. My last week of work was really busy. I was handing over my cases to the new girl, Claire that was just hired. That meant doing a whole bunch of joint appointments so that my clients could meet her before I left. The week went by so fast and by the time I realized it, it was Thursday and time for my leaving do (aka going away) lunch. My manager and the rest of my team met up for a lunch out in town. I had decided on this fabulous Spanish tapas bar to which my manager commented it seemed odd that we would celebrate the leaving of our American friend at a Spanish tapas bar on St. George’s day which is like England’s version of Independence Day. The irony was lost on no one.

My manager got up to give a speech and as I looked around at my team’s smiling faces, I realized how much I was going to miss them. It had been an eye opening experience and they had been with me every step of the way. I have learned so much from all of them and realized it will be hard to leave them. The week before the lunch, one of the girls had told me she was in charge of my present. She asked if there was anything I wanted. I told her that I just wanted something to remember them by. Apparently that sparked some sort of idea in her mind because she was off and running with something. Well they decided to get a group shot of all the people in the team, a scrapbook and all kinds of scrapbooking supplies. It was very thoughtful and I’ll definitely put it to good use. They also handed me an envelope full of money that they had collected from people. I was touched. I had no idea that many people cared. It was interesting to know what kind of impact I had on them.

The next day was my last day and goodbyes were said. I then headed to the pub next door with some of my colleagues for drinks where I had quite a few . There was about 10 of us that chatted and had some drinks. I then headed home (someone else drove) and then a few of us girls headed out for a night on the town in London. We had an awesome night that ended about 4:30, when I had to be up to pack and be ready by 6:30 for a 9 am flight to Portugal. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep but instead stayed awake and packed my bag. I was useless the first day in Portugal but made up for it the rest of the time. Below are the pictures of the Portugal….

Breathtaking

there are no words

Are you jealous yet?

Deserted beaches

Our faithful Skoda, Bertie

Beautiful girls My flatmate Brooke and her friend Hayley

Islas Canarias

The pictures sort of make you understand what these 4 days were about. I needed some relaxation. So this is what I did during Easter weekend. Tenerife…

View from our hotel room taken from our balcony

The beach at Los Christianos

Our daily cocktail hour

Gorgeous colors

La playa