It certainly has been a crazy and exciting week for me. I've had a fantastic time being a tourist in my own town, traveling to Ireland, and just being with some of my best friends from home.
Tuesday night the Rome ladies arrived, the Ocho girls Anna and Janine from Loyola, and they brought along Laura from their Rome program who goes to CUA back in DC. She's a great girl and a lot of fun, so she was an excellent addition to the group! We all headed back to my flat to get them some dinner at 10pm and get settled. Naturally, my British friends and flatmates named us "Team America" for the week. And what does Team America do upon arrival in Newcastle? Go out and enjoy the nightlife, of course!!! So we went out and about on the town ... the Rome crew agrees that it's a lot crazier here than anywhere else we've been. We managed to collect pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags from my flatmates and rearranged the furniture to fit all 4 of us into my tiny bedroom. It was a challenge, but we made it work.
Wednesday we got up early to tour around Newcastle. We toured the Newcastle University campus, the city center, Grainer Market, and gathered the makings for cheap Halloween costumes. Then we headed on the metro to the coast town of Tynemouth. It wouldn't be a proper England trip without seeing castle ruins or the North sea. We wandered about Tynemouth, saw the old castle and priory, and walked along to the seaside and lighthouses. Breathtaking English coastline views. Of course, for lunch we all had fish and chips in the village chippery. We got back around dinner time to get our costumes ready, meet up with my flatmates and friends, and went out for Halloween. Everyone got along brilliantly, and as usual all my British friend were extremely welcoming. It was so nice to see my home world and my Newcastle world collide all at once. Great time. Newcastle does Halloween even crazier than Baltimore (and I did not think that was possible!). The usual Wednesday scene was even wilder then usual, and we all had a great time. There were about 20 of us in the group of Team America, flatmates, and friends from the block hopping from one place to another. What a night to remember!
Thursday we had unfortunately early wake up calls to get out and get going. Anna and Janine headed up to Edinburgh on the train to visit Clarice who was there for the weekend, and Laura wanted to continue touring around Newcastle. We all got breakfast and dropped Anna and Janine off at central station, then Laura and I did a bit more Newcastle touring before I headed off to catch all 4 of my Thursday lectures. I met back up with Laura after classes and we went out to dinner with my flatmate Natalie and Graham. Being the good little Catholic girls that we are, Laura and I headed to church (darn those Holy Days of Obligation!). Then we met up with Rachel who wanted to see the Loyola Rome girls and we all headed to be Anna and Janine's welcoming committee at Central Station. We all headed down to the Quayside upon the River Tyne to see the riverside and the Tyne and Millennium bridges at night (gorgeous!). We grabbed some dessert down at the Quayside and tried to head back for a semi-early night before Dublin.
4:30 am wake up! Off in a taxi to the airport by 5am to catch an early (but cheap!) flight to Dublin! We got to the Marlborough hostel by 11 am, only to find that we couldn't actually check in until 1:30. All we wanted to do was take a quick nap before touring! We managed to plan out trip though and grab lunch before crashing for a bit. The accommodations were ... interesting. We were all for a cheap vacation since we're all running out of money, and of course a EuroTrip college student style just wouldn't be the same without at least one crappy hostel. The common areas were nice and they had internet access and all, but the beds and showers were not to pretty. O well, all in the poor student experience! We got out Friday night to explore the Temple Bar and Medieval district areas by night, got a bite to eat at a pub, then saw some live Irish music and dancing. The Liffey River at night is quite the social scene and beautiful as well.
Saturday was a jam-packed tourist day! We got out and walked ALL over Dublin to see Trinity College, Christ Church, St. Steven's Green and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We managed to catch a tour of the Dublin Castle, too, which is still used today as a working political building. And of course a trip to Dublin wouldn't be complete without a tour of the Guinness Storehouse and a pint at the top at the Skybar! The Irish certainly know how to brew their beer. Once all the tourist places closed in the evening, Laura and I stopped in for a weekend mass. I was really glad I went with her as we ended up in one of the most impressive churches I've ever seen. Then we went shopping and got dinner, then headed to a pub for more music and beer (do the Irish even do anything else at night?)
As usual with our tour group, we got up early Sunday to catch out tour bus for the Irish countryside (Janine's great suggestion). We booked a trip with Over The Top Tours, which took us for an all-day tour of all the lakes and mountains surrounding Dublin. We went on the Wicklow and Glendalough tour, stopping at multiple places along the way just to take in the views. In a word - stunning. I've never seen so much green and natural beauty in my life. And it was the perfect season to tour the countryside, too ... all the leaves were just beginning to change colors! What a perfect day! We spent the night at the famous and very popular Temple Bar sampling all the traditional Irish brews, and even saw some of our friends from the countryside tour there.
Then, 3am wake up for me to head out to the airport for a 6am flight back to Newcastle. Ridiculously early, but seriously inexpensive.
It's back to the usual routine here again. Tomorrow the rugby 1st and 2nd teams both have away games in Sheffeild, so the entire team will be on the 3 hour bus rides together! It should be a fantastically fun time lasting from 7:45 am until about 2am the next day! I'm supposed to be starting and playing the entire game for the 2nds to I get playing time (and apparently help them out since they haven't been winning much). But who knows ... they like to change teams around on me pretty often! Since we'll all be on the party bus together tomorrow, we'll get our "Rugby Moms" and "Rugby families" just like sororities do. Kind of cult-ish, but more crazy and fun. Then we'll all head out directly from the bus on the Newcastle University Athletic Union bar crawl. Every sports team will be out tomorrow night on a massive bar crawl wearing matching blue TShirts. Just because we're insanely fun, the rugby girls are setting ourselves apart. This week's theme ... Ravers! We'll all be busting out the neon tights and glow bracelets along with our Athletic Union Ts (I saw half the team out in the mall today shopping!). This could get wild!
And Rachel and I just booked our flights to Rome ... I'll be in Italy November 23 - 26! SO excited!
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