Yorvik!

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

6am wake up calls should be banned. As should morning people. I found myself at 6am brutally awakened by my alarm that I still think sounds like a really bad 80s porno. Everyone has agreed with me and no I can't change it because believe it or not the other ringtones are worse... ANYWAYS, my Dad and I trekked to York to do some exploring. York Minster was the first thing I saw after getting off the train so i was excited to see that. However, we had to take a 45 minute detour to Dad's hotel where he checked his emails and took a painfully long time. Once we finally got outside it rained... BUT we got to see this:

My Dad has always wanted a stained glass copy of one of the wrens depicted on the stained glass windows in the private prayer room. My Dad being the rebel that he is defied the "rules" (they're more like suggestions anyways) and lucked out by having the room to himself with me as his lookout. He then took AGES taking picture of each bird there... There had to be over 40. Needless to say I was slightly bored, but amused at the same time. 

We then climbed all 257 steps to the top of the tower while squeezing through the winding staircase that was just big enough for me. Again I heard more grumbles about exercising. Once at the top there were great views, cold winds, and no rain! 

We met up for lunch with Jo and Phil, who are long time friends of the family. York was having its first ever chocolate festival. I tore through there like a tornado in a trailer park. Just picture a kid in a candy shop where all the chocolate is free and there's no parents to restrict how much you buy. That was me. 

I also saw Guy Fawkes's birthplace, a pastry called a fat rascal and the Merchant Adventurer's museum where my Dad showed an undying love for beams... it was practically heaven for him. It was a pretty interesting morning for me. The next thing we visited was the Jorvik Viking Museum. This is a very creative place where they recreated smells so you could experience how AWFUL York used to smell... thank goodness hygiene standards have been raised. The museum was creative and I was definitely impressed. They recreated the archaeological dig so when you first walked in you were walking on glass overlooking the "original" dig site. There was also a ride taking you through what it would have been like to live in the past. They ended it in a lovely way. There was a robotic man behind a stick fence having a poo. Classy, so of course I loved it and laughed obnoxiously to the disgust of the woman sitting in front of me trying to get her children to look in the opposite direction. To my dismay I learned there were 250,000 ... wait for it... cue the dramatic music... DUN DUN DUN... OYSTERS found at a part of the site. To my further dismay and slight depression I saw oysters and picked them up and was asked about them... I just can't escape.

Meanwhile at the Yorkshire museum I reverted back to the little kid in me. I discovered I weigh slightly more than a Hypsilophodon, but my Dad is almost as heavy as a velociraptor.  Proof: 

 I also had the pleasure of seeing a dodo bird skeleton, more viking helmets, and other dinosaurs. I had the pleasure of learning that bees have hairy eyeballs, rhinos poop their body weight every 48 hours (that's a lot of poop), and people used to eat lady bugs because they thought the poison would cure headaches.

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." --Oscar Wilde

Ye Olde Trip to Lincoln

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."--Mark Twain

Ellie, Tam and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Lincoln! It is a small town about an hour away that is famous for its cathedral and castle. What the don't tell the tourists about it the extremely steep hill they have to climb to get up to it. Me being the exercisaholic that I am thought the hike wasn't too bad. Meanwhile, Ellie is holding onto the railing for dear life and practically dragging herself up and all I hear are complaints about "this &*^%$#%$^& hill". I bet we were quite entertaining for the locals.

 We went to the castle first and walked along the outer wall. It showed the whole castle and a great view of the city. A lot of the castle was under reconstruction for tourist season so we went around saying "Ye olde tractor, ye olde scaffolding, ye olde electric lighting" etc. 

We then viewed parts of the Magna Carta. I had absolutely no idea that one of the most important documents in the world was in such a small, random, out of the way town. Kudos to Lincoln. We couldn't take pictures in the show room, but there was another piece of it in the cathedral. Don't worry I didn't use flash. 

Next we saw the cathedral. While I appreciate cathedrals and enjoyed how pretty it was, cathedrals are not my thing. I was more excited when I saw a mug in the gift shop that sported the phrase "Rather spiffing old chap". That is just more British in my opinion. If it hadn't been so expensive I would then post a picture of me in some ridiculously stereotypical attire drinking from that mug. Maybe one day I will get the mug of my dreams. Instead you get a picture of the cathedral.

Speaking of ridiculous attire... THIS is what we saw after leaving the cathedral: 

Keeping it classy...

On our way back to the train station I saw a picture of a dinosaur in a window of a small shop. Tam is as obsessed with dinosaurs as I am with sharks, so obviously we had to stop in. I immediately found a basket FULL of fossil sharks' teeth. I freaked out while Ellie and Tam explored the shop more. Each tooth was 3.50 pounds. The owner was shocked that I got that excited over the teeth that he let me dump the whole thing on his counter and go through them. I talked his head off about sharks and the teeth. I also noticed he had about 8 teeth max, but back to the shark teeth. I literally got so excited I teared up when the guy who owned the shop told me I could have 5 for 5 pounds.

My babies!

 I looked him dead in the eye and told that 8 toothed man I loved him. This led him to the glorious moment when he unlocked the cabinet in the other room that had perfectly preserved 7 inch long megalodon teeth... and he actually let me alone with them. My day was made :)

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." --Dr. Seuss

Time For A Change

I've been blonde for the past 2 decades of my life. 2 years ago I decided to go even blonder. My hair was down to my mid-back. Here's a picture for those of you who don't know me.

I'm the one on the far left. Now I desperately needed a haircut because my hair was just plain fried. I decided it was time for a HUGE change. Ladies and gentlemen I went all out. HERE is what I look like now :)

I adore it and am going to rock this new look like there's no tomorrow. As my friend said "Emma you are a stone cold fox with red hair." Thanks Sydney. I hope everyone likes it as much as I do!

From Heaven on Earth to Hell... I mean Leeds.

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." --Jacques Cousteau

The next day Lindsey and I ventured out to Howth. The first thing I saw as I walked towards Howth off of the train station was a giant shark. I took this as an indicator that the day was going to be pretty awesome.

As you can see I was pretty excited.

After I had my moment with the shark, Lindsey showed me the local seals. I was expecting something slightly smaller, but what I saw were seals of gigantic proportions.

Howth is really a fishing town that has a surprising amount of tourists. There are abbey ruins, a castle that we could not find to save our lives, and a really cool hiking mountain with a great view. We ventured up a very steep hill to see the abbey and I decided to Indiana Jones it and climb all over it. Sacrilege? Maybe, but it was still fun and the building is still standing... well let's just say I didn't cause it any harm. 

After we were done exploring there we decided to start the hike up the mountain. Halfway up I saw a rickety staircase leading down to a beach with mini caves, so of course we had to get down there and crawl in them.

Here I am getting attacked my spider webs.

And I survived without any mortal wounds to jump around in a different cave with Lindsey.

Back to the mountain we went! The weather held out on us long enough for us to get to the top and back and to get hopelessly lost on the way back down. How I can get lost when there was only one path to follow I will never know. The good things is we made it back in one piece!

After Howth we journeyed back to Skerries and I packed for my flight the next night. I arrived at the airport around 7pm for my flight. It was delayed by 30 min. This kick-started my lovely and adventurous night back to Leicester. I arrived in Leeds at 1130 thinking I was going to be picked up by the friend of a friend we had stayed with before departing to Dublin. After not returning my 5 calls, 2 voicemails, and 3 texts I figured that was a lost cause. When hearing from him an hour later and after yelling at him profusely I was on my own at the airport and in need of a hotel... I got the bus into town and arrived there at about 1230am. I followed the bus driver's instructions and walked 30 minutes to stay in the world's sketchiest hotel of all time for 4 hours to catch my 630am bus to Leicester. Needless to say I was not happy at all. 

To leave this post on a happy note below is a sign I saw in Howth...

 I swim... YIKES

"At the beach life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour, but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun."--Unknown

I walked to an Irish island... No big deal

"Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, who blood is in our veins." --Charles Alexander Eastman

The second half of my trip to Ireland I stayed with a good friend, Lindsey, who I have known since Kindergarten. It's sad to say that we had not seen each other in years, but I was extremely excited to catch up with her and just enjoy a few days exploring Ireland with her. She works as an Au Pair in Skerries, which is a very small beach town outside of Dublin. After making sure Kelsey got on the right bus to her airport I set out for Skerries. The only problem was finding the correct bus station. To give whoever is reading this a mental image of what I was carrying around the following picture should be good enough.

 I lugged all 30 pounds of this everywhere I went.

There are about 5 bus stops in Balbriggin where I searched for the bus station. I walked to one end of the city following someone's directions, while getting looks something akin to "Why in the world is there a tourist in Balbriggin of all places?" This look also followed me to Skerries. Meanwhile, the bus station I needed was directly on the other side of town... 2 miles away. Off I went albeit slightly perturbed.

I managed to get to Skerries in one piece and even found the street and place where I was meeting Lindsey on the first try. Everyone who knows me and my amazing lack of directional skills will know this was a feat worthy of an award. However, I had gotten there 4 hours before Lindsey was scheduled to meet me. I walked around getting odd looks and explored. Then I found what might possibly be the most fun beach in Ireland.

One of the coolest things about it was that in Ireland low tide really means LOW tide. There were a series of islands about half a mile off shore when the tide is in, but when it's out it's possible to walk to them. So I set off for one of them! It is such a weird feeling to walk to an island when something like that just isn't possible back home. The whole time I felt like I shouldn't be out that far, especially since no one else even bothered to walk there either. The picture should also be a good indication of how far from shore I was!

I must have looked nuts because I bent down every few seconds and almost fell each time I did it since I was slightly top heavy from my backpack and I really didn't want to fall in the random puddles. For those who don't know, I have an obsession with macro photography. I really liked the random creatures and plants I kept finding because of their textures and positioning so I tried to take as many creative ones as I could. I'll give you guys a taste of it. I am by no means amazing, but I really enjoy it.

I also crawled all over some very slippery rocks and managed to neither wound myself or fall. This should also be considered award worthy. Here's some of what I saw that day. I was amazed by the colors. It was just too gorgeous for words.

After trekking all day I finally met up with Lindsey! We went to a really cool pub and then called it a night. See part 2 for the rest of that trip!

"Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone." --Anonymous