Harlaxton Weekend & Dublin and Galway, Ireland

It's been a while, I know! But I'm ready to dive into what will surely be my longest blog yet...

Here at Harlaxton, we normally don't have classes on Fridays which makes it easier for us to travel. In order to have long weekends (meaning no class on Thursday) we have to make up for the missed day. So we had class on Friday, Feb. 4 and just about the entire school decided to stay at Harlaxton on the short weekend, including me. Friday night a group of us (Sarah, Russell, Susan, Kyle, Molly, Clay, Kyle, Chelsea, and Alex) got together in the Carriage House and played Catch Phrase for a couple hours. As usual, the game provided plenty of frustration and laughs to go around. It was fun to just relax at school and spend time with each other without worrying about traveling.

I spent some time on Saturday working on homework, which unfortunately piles up quickly here. That night, basically all of Harlaxton went into Grantham to the most popular pub, The Goose. All the girls got ready together and dressed up, so that made it even more fun. We learned of a new drink called Cheeky Vimto, whose name was the source of a lot of laughter that night. We spent a couple of hours at the pub, hanging out with each other (we took up nearly half the place!) and then headed to the night club called Vibe. It was fun dancing around and acting silly, but the guys there are SO creepy! They seriously don't give up. I literally said to a 40-year-old dude: "Please stop creeping on us." And it had no effect. It's harmless but also annoying!

Monday morning brought our second British Studies quiz, which Clay, Sarah and I carefully studied for. I got a 9/10 on the quiz (stupid question about England and Scotland's treaty!) which I was still very pleased with. I had basketball practice that night, which I'm still enjoying. Several of us have started playing soccer a night or two a week in the gym, which I am absolutely loving. It's such a stress relief and one of my favorite things to do. Anyway, Tuesday brought with it the prospect of doom for the next day: my first British Studies exam. To begin studying, Sarah, Clay and I made an outline of every single English king (sometimes queen) and their importance. Then we moved on to learning about Lincoln, the town we took a field trip to, and how the city's architecture influenced different ways of life. We then studied different portraits of monarchs, as one of the questions would be to analyze a portrait. We studied together for nearly six hours and then I stayed in the library for another hour or so by myself. When I got back to the Carriage House, I still didn't feel confident, so I stayed up until about 3:30, practicing writing outlines from previous tests. We still had to go to British Studies Lecture and Seminar the next morning (all information that could be on our test too, eek!), and then I spent another hour or so looking over all our study guides.

Finally, the time came to take the test in the Long Hall and I felt like I was in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, about to take my OWLs. We had two hours to answer three essays, and you will probably not be surprised to learn I was in there until nearly the last second. The portrait was of Queen Elizabeth I, which I found to be very lucky, considering I had studied that exact portrait of her the night before. I rocked that essay. The next question was about Lincoln's architecture and I felt like I gave a solid answer but it was definitely the one I felt least secure about. The last question had four options, and I chose to talk about how church and state were related throughout British history. I wrote a freaking novel about Henry VIII and included all sorts of random, unnecessary facts, but I felt awesome about the essay. Hopefully I'll pull away with a B, an A if Bujak is feeling nice! It was such a relief to be done with the test and start looking forward to IRELAND!

After the test, we (Sarah, Molly, Kyle, Alex, Clay, Susan, E-Ho and I) gathered up our luggage and waited for the Refectory to open at 5:15. I then proceeded to shove a tuna sandwich down my throat and hopped in a cab at 5:20. Our hour long cab ride took us to the East Midlands Airport (it was cheaper to take a cab than train in this case) and we went through security (they took my lotion AND patted me down and used the scanner on me!) and got all checked in. Our flight left soon after and we flew with RyanAir to Dublin, Ireland. The plane ride was only about 40 minutes and not bad at all! Once we arrived, we grabbed a cab to our hostel, called Abigail's. We made our beds and got settled in, and decided it was time to celebrate Sarah's birthday since she had spent the whole of it studying for our exam. We made up a card game called Hooligans, and the basic point was to ask people questions and learn about each other. It was such a blast! We had the most fun thinking of ridiculous questions, and sometimes answers. It was a late night, but so much fun, and luckily we were able to sleep until about 11 the next day...

As we had to share a bathroom in the hostel, we hurriedly got ready and set out to find a quick lunch, which we located at Subway. Then we found the meeting spot for our free three-hour tour (with the same company we used in Edinburgh), and found that several other friends from Harlaxton were joining us. Our tour guide was named Garven, and although he was no Alan, he was still awesome with curly red hair (so Irish) and a cool accent. We checked out City Hall, Dublin Castle, an awesomely designed helicopter pad, Christ Church Cathedral (where Handel's Messiah was first performed!), along with the bridges along the river which made up the center of the city, a private school in the city called Trinity, Leinster House, and an adorable park where we had fun taking fake senior pictures. It was a great way to learn about the city. Honestly though, I'm not sure where the phrase "luck of the Irish" comes from. Ireland's history is full of things going wrong, failed rebellions, and shortcomings. Poor country!

On the way back to the hostel we saw a guy performing in the street, fully clothed in leopard from head to toe, dancing to Michael Jackson, doing the limbo under burning sticks. It was interesting to say the least. That night, Sarah, Clay and I went to a little pizza parlour for dinner, which surprisingly had awesome chips (French fries in America). Everyone went out to pubs/clubs that night, but Clay and I decided to check out the city outside. We ended up meeting an awesomely drunk guy (who was SO drunk it was impossible to tell if he was retarded when sober), who informed us he was an artist and told us all the best views of Dublin. It was very entertaining. We walked around a bit more and I saw a shop that was open and suddenly I wanted a snack. We walked in and, low and behold, standing there in all its glory, was an ice cream bar, complete with mint chocolate chip ice cream and waffle cones to put them in. I ecstatically ate my ice cream like a starving child and it tasted just like it does at home--delicious. We turned in fairly early and were excited to hear all our friends went to a club where Ne-Yo performed. No big deal, right?

The next morning, everyone had different plans: Alex and Susan went on a day tour; Kyle, E-Ho, Molly and a few of her friends who are studying abroad also went on a paddy wagon; and Sarah, Clay and I took a train to Galway, a city on the western coast of Ireland. After about a mile walk to the train station, we all practically passed out on the train (which was super nice--the train, and the nap too I suppose) for most of the three hour ride. We arrived in Galway around noon and spent more time than was necessary searching for our hostel, Barnacles. It happened to be located pretty might right in the center of the main shopping street. So we checked into our room and headed out to try and find a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. Little did we know, that requires an entire day tour, and the bus left at 10 in the morning. Unfortunately for us, we already had train tickets back to Dublin for 9:30 in the morning. But, being the smart kids we are, we found a coach that would take us back to Dublin the following night for €7 and a tour that would take us to the Cliffs for €10 the next morning. So we only lost out on £10 for the train ticket back to Dublin, which was totally worth it to me!

We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the neat shops all over town. We ate lunch at a sandwich shop called O'Briens. The servers were so nice--everyone in Ireland is nice! It was definitely a trend I noticed. Then we headed to the other side of the city, where we found an oceanish body of water that was high enough to come right up to a set of steps where we sat and enjoyed the view. When we first sat down, the whole place was swarmed with seagulls. They were flying all around us in all directions and it was really neat. We had seen a few swans in the water, but apparently there was an entire herd of swans (did you know they're called a "wedge" while in the air?) who were not at all afraid of us. They came so close to us that we backed away for fear of attack. But they are such beautiful creatures! It was fun to watch them for a bit. In an embankment behind us, we noticed people looking down into the water and cheering, so we decided to check it out. We ended up stumbling upon a kind of water polo/soccer in kayaks match, which I had never seen before. We tried to learn some of the rules and watch the way they scored, etc. It was a really neat thing to see--it's crazy what a different world it is over here.

We headed back to the hostel to change for the evening when we noticed it was really quite cold in our room. The heater said not to try and turn it on, so we didn't mess with it, but on the way out we asked when it would be turned on. The desk clerk assured us it would turn on by 7:30, so we went on our merry way to an Italian restaurant next door, which was tasty, especially the chocolate dessert we shared. Yum! We checked out a few of the pubs, searching for a good place to listen to some local music, but they were all so crowded and uncomfortable that we ended up finding the nicest McDonald's ever, splitting a large fry, and just hanging out. We had a good time and decided we ought to get to bed at a decent time since our tour was leaving at 10 the next morning. We returned to our room to find that it was just as cold, if not colder, than when we left. And when I say cold, I'm talking below freezing. Sleeping outside would have felt the same. So in order to adapt and survive, ALL THREE OF US slept in a TWIN sized bed with THREE blankets all night. It was so ridiculously miserable! It was freezing cold outside the blankets, but kind of warm underneath, not to mention I was breaking out in hives and AHH--it was awful! Taking a shower the next morning was the worst; I honestly have no idea how I made myself do it. But we grabbed some tasty toast from the kitchen and got out of there as soon as possible. Everything else about the hostel was perfect, but nothing made sleeping in 30 degree weather worth it.

So we headed to the coach station and located our bus for the day. We left at about 10 and our driver/tour guide told us all sorts of Irish stories along the way. We stopped at a spot where Celtics used to live and saw how they protected themselves from enemies, and we checked out a super old tomb stone that was really awesome to see. We stopped in a little village called Doolin for lunch, where I had some of the most amazing potato soup I have ever had the privilege of eating. And finally, we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely breathtaking. I honestly can't do the place justice; pictures can come close, but seeing it with your own eyes is another thing entirely. The cliffs cascaded down the shore, creating an amazing landscape around the huge expansion of the Atlantic Ocean. The sun even came out while we were taking pictures and I was able to get some awesome shots of the cliffs with the sun shining through the clouds, creating "crepuscular rays" also known as "Jesus rays."

I also thought this story was funny: I had the bright idea to climb up on one of the walls that had flat grass behind it, to get an epic photo with the cliffs in the background. Instead of simply jumping in the air to snap the photo and landing back in the grass, I for some reason thought it was necessary to jump OFF the wall entirely, making about a 7 foot drop by the time I jumped in the air. Needless to say, my feet were stinging and the picture was a fail after that. Then I realized that I could save myself some pain if I just jumped straight up and landed back where I started. I was ready to do this when Clay, who was taking the picture, said, "Okay, one--two--th--" during which time I began to jump, but he abruptly abandoned the picture to move to a better location, sending me flailing my arms in an attempt to regain balance. Finally I did, and the perfect picture was snapped. I refused to jump down again, so Clay lifted me down and intelligently put his camera string in his mouth, sending his camera free falling toward my face, which it collided with and put the cherry on top of my less than graceful experience. I got the picture though, right?

We explored the cliffs, viewing them from all different angles for about an hour and a half before we loaded the tour bus again. We stopped at Galway Bay on the way back to the city, which I LOVED. It was so gorgeous! The sun was setting in the background and the water was so blue and beautiful. We took a few fun pictures and just stood in awe of the beauty of the place. It took about two hours to get back to Galway, meaning we had only about 10 minutes between arriving and getting onto our next coach back to Dublin (we brought our luggage with us on the tour for this reason) at the bus station. We loaded up again and spent the next three hours listening to a pair of grown adults watch Alvin the Chipmunk on a computer with no headphones. Talk about annoying. Our day totaled about seven and a half hours on a bus--totally worth it!

We got into Dublin and met up with the rest of the crew who had stayed there, and checked out a few of the pubs. We found a couple neat places and ended up at a place called the Temple Bar. We ran into Chelsea there, who had gone on the trip with the school, and we decided to find the pub where P.S. I Love You was filmed. It was only about a fifteen minute walk and we found Whelan's Pub and took a picture outside. Clay and I realized we hadn't eaten since lunch and across the street was Eddie Rocket's (basically the exact same thing as Johnny Rocket's), so I loaded up on cheese fries and a burger and it was heavenly. We had a good time talking and recounting stories from the weekend.

After a bit we walked Chelsea back to our hotel (when we met some Irish guys who were fascinated that we were Americans) and hung out at a pub called Legends, which was much more relaxed and chill than any others we had been to. Then we headed to the hostel where our friends had stayed at the night before, called Abbey Court. Our cab was supposed to pick us up from there at 3 AM, but somehow the times got mixed up and our driver thought it was 4. So we were sitting in the lobby of a hostel we weren't even staying at, with a pissed off Ukrainian chick working the desk, telling her friends about us in another language. She basically kicked us out of the lobby to which Kyle cleverly responded, "Alright, you enjoy your cheeseburger!" It might help to know she was not the thinnest or most attractive person. She said, "I VILL enjoy my cheeseburger!" and that was that. Then Kyle, being the lucky person he is, said "I bet if we just stand here long enough a van will come--oh wait, here's on--hi, five Euro a person? Yeah? Perfect." I don't know how he does it!

We headed back to the airport after an awesome weekend, and waited on security to open. I fell asleep sitting up with my head against my suitcase but woke up to get through security with no troubles this time. All we wanted to do was get to the waiting area so we could sleep until our plane left at 7:30. Ah, but this is Europe, and Europe is much much different from America, especially in the fact that they do not heat buildings regularly. So we were in Dublin's airport at 5 in the morning, might as well have been sitting outside, trying to sleep. It was so freaking miserable! I wanted nothing more than a shower and a warm bed. I'd say I slept for about thirty minutes out of sheer exhaustion. Eventually the time came and we boarded our plane, on which I slept the full 40 minutes, and we were back in the East Midlands Airport. We waited for about 15 minutes (I fell asleep) for our cab, and then I slept the hour back to Harlaxton. I had a blast in Ireland but I was so happy to see that Carriage House again. I showered for ages and took a four hour nap before dinner, and it felt amazing.

Dublin was a fun city, but I liked Galway so much more. It was much smaller and homier; I felt it gave a truer sense of the Irish people. It's like New York City isn't really a representation of America, but many people think of that first thing. The Cliffs of Moher and Galway Bay were definitely my favorite parts of the trip.

Monday night the Bistro hosted a Valentine's Day Dance, so we all dressed up ridiculously (I wore a terribly mismatched outfit with red and pink clothes) and had a great time together. Karaoke night is coming up soon so I'm excited for that one! I have an incredibly ridiculous to-do list right now--all sorts of papers and projects coming up. It's so hard to focus when I'm thinking about my plans for the weekend, but it has to be done. I hope all is well back home. Miss you!

Edinburgh, Scotland

In the midst of an absolutely crazy academic week and a half, I'm ready to update everyone on the latest events abroad! I think I mentioned before that we were having a Jersey Shore (show on MTV) themed party, which we did, and it was an absolute success. We all dressed up like "guidos" and went down to the Bistro. We danced with some Irish cloggers, took lots of pictures, and had a fun experience when the fire alarm went off in the midst of the festivities. It was absolutely freezing outside but we had a blast pretending to be trashy Italians.

We had our first basketball game last Wednesday against a team called the Outlaws. It is unnecessary for me to describe each player individually because this is what they all looked like: at least six feet tall males, potential candidates for a body-building contest, wearing sponsored red uniforms. It was extremely intimidating for the Harlaxton Lions considering we had had three practices ever and not everyone was a seasoned player. The Outlaws were kind enough to give us a 35 point head start (charming) and we still lost by about 20. It was a bit like Reidland playing Paducah Tilghman in basketball, except worse. I had fun with the game though; I had missed playing! Hopefully our next game won't be against a team with quite so much experience.

Thursday night we (Sarah, Kyle, Alex, Molly, Eric, Susan and I) caught the 5:10 shuttle from Harlaxton to the Grantham train station and hung out until our train left around 7. I sat with Eric (also known as E-Ho) on the train and we had a good time talking and trying to keep warm on the ice cold train. We switched trains at Doncaster and were finally on our way to Edinburgh (said like Edin-boro), Scotland. We got to the city around 11:30 and searched for our hostel, called the Princes Street East Backpackers Hostel, which was luckily hardly a block from the train station! It was located high above the streets, meaning I had a wonderful time carrying my little suitcase up a tight, spiral staircase with at least 60 stairs. The inside of the hostel was so neat! The walls were covered with different paintings and pictures of all types and styles, the carpet was psychedelic, and the kitchen (with free tea and coffee) was really homey and cute.

That night, using the expertise I learned from my lovely sister Paige, I cut Kyle's hair in the bathroom. It was a hilarious experience because he didn't want to get hair all over his clothes, so he just wore his boxers and sat on the toilet while I cut his hair. We got a few funny looks. It turned out well though! I'm thinking about charging some money for haircuts because everyone is in desperate need of them over here! I think my shop would be called Katie's Kuts. After Kyle and I returned to the room, we played getting-to-know-each-other games which was so much fun. It was so strange to realize I didn't know any of the people I was with a mere three weeks beforehand, but I felt like I had known them forever. It was great to learn more about each other and become closer. We stayed up talking until almost 4 in the morning! This is not the place to come if you want to catch up on sleep, I'll tell you that...

The next morning we grabbed some lunch (Sarah and I bought food at the grocery to save money so we just snacked all day) and headed to what was to be my first viewing of a Squash match! Susan and Molly met a couple on the train who told them about a Squash tournament going on in the city and they wanted to check it out, so we thought it would be a cool cultural experience. The walk ended up taking about 45 minutes, but we got to see a lot of the less populated areas which was nice. We didn't actually get to see the guy they met on the train play, but we stayed to watch a game between the #2 seed in all of Ireland and his opponent. It was very similar to racquetball, except the ball is smaller and quicker. I really enjoyed watching it and trying to learn the rules!

We spent the rest of the day checking out shops, stores, and taking in all the scenery around us. We decided to splurge for one night and ate at an Italian restaurant called the Patio Restaurant. It was one of the most delicious things I have tasted since arriving here. I got pasta fagioli which was delectable (everyone tried it and loved it too) and I ate every last bit, even finished the sauce with my tasty bread. E-Ho and I split a cheese pizza for our meal. It was so wonderfully delicious. I wish I could have that meal every night!

We went back to the hostel and freshened up, then headed out to go on a ghost tour of the city. We walked over the "haunted North Bridge" and went to the cemetery, where we saw lots of supposedly haunted things, including George Mackenzie's mausoleum. He was responsible for thousands of deaths in Scotland. It was very interesting, but unfortunately it was below freezing and our tour guide was somewhat annoying, so we headed back to the hostel before the tour was over. It was just unbearably cold! We then checked out a gay bar, but personally I didn't find much gay about it, then headed to a club called Mood. It was a blast! Sarah and I danced together all night. Dancing here is so much different than in America--you just get to have your own personal space and do whatever you want. I loved it! Once we got back to the hostel, Sarah and I made some tea and split an hour of internet for a pound and checked up on all the necessities.

The next morning we went to a few shops and checked out an interesting art museum before going to a quaint Mexican restaurant, where Sarah and I split an appetizer of chips and chicken (very tasty) and snacked the rest of the time. We went to the meeting spot of the free three hour bus tour we had read about only to discover...it was a free three hour WALKING tour. This was very unfortunate news because it was so ridiculously cold. I was pretty bummed and was not looking forward to being outside for so long, but fate stepped in and gave us the most awesome tour guide ever, Alan! We walked all over the city and he kept us entertained with so many neat, interesting stories that he was very passionate about sharing. I learned so much history which is something I find so much joy in doing. We learned about Charles I, who was the King of England, and his attempts to get the Scottish people to love him; we spit on the Heart of Midlothian, which used to be the front door of a building, which shows disdain toward the government; we learned how people used to catch burglars with trip steps; we checked out the graveyard in the daylight and learned more neat stories (I even got to correct our tour guide when he said Jamestown was founded in 1620...silly Alan, it was 1607!); we got to see the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potters from and the graveyard and private school which inspired many aspects of her books; ending with an awesome view of Edinbugh Castle and an epic story from Alan about the Stone of Destiny. Although it was cold, it was 100% worth it!

Sarah, Kyle and I headed back to the hostel for a quick nap and got ready to go out for the night on my first "pub crawl." I know it sounds incredibly sketchy, but it was actual a formal event that you had to sign up for and even have a classy neon orange wristband for. We ate dinner at the first pub we went to, then checked out four pubs (for 40 minutes each) after that. They were all very different from one another and gave a good taste of Edinburgh's nightlife. The tour was done by the same company Alan worked for, and on our tour with Alan we met a couple from Canada who were a couple years older than us and studying abroad in England also. We spent the evening with them and it was so much fun getting to know them--they were very nice people! Canada, eh! A crazy part of the evening was when I was buying my wristband and had my ID out, a girl next to me said, "You're from Kentucky? Me too!" She and another girl from Kentucky were studying abroad in Scotland. They were from Florence, KY and went to UK--we had five or six mutual friends! What are the odds that I meet someone who knows someone I do in the middle of Scotland? Insane! The tour ended at a club called the Hive, which was ironic because I was beginning to get hives (as I have been doing this entire month, unfortunately), so Sarah and I went back to Princes Street, changed clothes, and went to Burger King for some fries and free Wifi.

The next day was probably my favorite of all days yet. We had been highly recommended to climb something called Arthur's Seat, which is a mountainish type of hill that rises 820 feet above the city. It took about 45 minutes to climb (Alex did it in heeled boots--impressive!) and the climb itself was gorgeous. Every step took me higher and higher above the city and I was able to see more and more. We finally reached the top, where we hung out for a good half hour or more. I hesitate to even try and describe it, because words will absolutely not do it justice, nor do the pictures. I could see for miles and miles in every direction; the city was completely in view, with the castle about a mile away, and the ocean expanding all around the island. The cold wind was blowing so hard but it was one of the most refreshing things I've ever felt. It was just something I could have looked at for ages and still not been able to soak it in. After taking many pictures, we headed back down the hill (which was almost as difficult as walking up). Many people had their dogs with them so the walk back toward the city turned into a discussion of how we all missed our animals back home and I joined right in--I sure miss Baxter and Diamond!

Next on the list for the day was a closer inspection of Edinburgh Castle. We didn't pay to go inside (it was pretty costly) but we checked out the outer area and took pictures. We returned to the graveyard for the third time for one specific purpose: to find a particular person's grave. We searched for about 20 minutes (while getting told to "get a life" by a clearly high-achieving 13-year-old girl) and finally I epically found the grave marker we were looking for and jumped up and down for a solid ten seconds. It read: "Sacred. To the memory of Thomas Riddell Esq. of Befsborough." Tom Riddell is the name of the villain in Harry Potter--for all HP fans, this was an epic moment! We unashamedly all picked up sticks and used them as wands and took magical pictures around the grave. It was seriously awesome and I loved it!

We then headed to the National Museum of Scotland, where we had heard the first cloned sheep, Dolly, was located. It was neat to read all about the experiment and see her in person! We returned to the Elephant Cafe (JK Rowling's hotspot) and bought a cup of coffee hoping to be inspired to write a fantastic book. I sat at the table where Rowling sat, signed my name on a napkin (she began writing HP on napkins because she was so poor!) and stashed the napkin in a hiding spot in the cafe. I hope I left my mark! Finally we headed back to the city and did some last-minute shopping where I bought a couple new dresses and an Edinburgh sweatshirt. We grabbed our luggage from the hostel and waited in the train station with other Harlaxtonees. We arrived back at Harlaxton (I was so happy to see home!) around 11. I showered and Clay and I traded stories on the weekend (he and Chelsea went on the school trip) and I welcomed my warm bed as I froze nearly all night every night in the hostel!

The trip to Edinburgh was so amazing. It was great to have almost three full days to do all the awesome things we got to do. How lucky am I to be having this experience? I still can't even wrap my mind around it. I'm already a fourth of the way through my time here! I miss so many things about home (mostly food, people too, but mostly food--haha) but I know I won't be ready to leave when the time comes. This is seriously just my perfect world. I love it so much.

Monday began the week of epic academicness as I had two tests on Tuesday (psychology and theatre); I had to read an entire play (Henry IV--thank you Sparknotes) Tuesday night but I also got to play soccer which was so amazing--I forget how much I love it until I play!; I went to London on Wednesday night with my theatre class to see the Pitmen Painters--a very enjoyable play and I got to spend time with Cassie, who is really cool and chill and we had some great talks in the ONE coffee shop that was open in London; Thursday night I had to read another play for my theatre class and I finally added pictures to Facebook--be sure to check them out! This weekend I'm staying at Harlaxton which I am thoroughly looking forward to. I had a meeting with my term paper advisor this morning, so I'm going to get started on research for that, catch up on other homework, and study for the British Studies quiz we have on Monday, followed by the British Studies test on Wednesday. Lucky for me, almost all the material we've covered since the last quiz surrounds Henry VIII--perfect! I'm sure we'll check out the nightlife in Grantham tomorrow night and as for tonight, a game of Catch Phrase is planned and I can't wait! On Sunday Clay and I are planning on spending the afternoon with our "family" which should be awesome. Next weekend we have a five day weekend (we have class today, Friday, to make up for it) and we'll be heading to Ireland. Another amazing trip is just around the corner. I hope all is well at home! Much love from England.