Getting Ready to Backpack

Hey Everyone,

Whats to Come: Iceland!

I finally ended school and all I have left is finals, but they are a month away! What will I be doing in the mean time you ask? This wednesday I leave for Disneyland Paris and from there Iceland for a week and a half! We rented a car and are going to travel down the bottom part of the island. We is: Me, Evita, and our good pal Ryan (you may remember him from my Dublin blog). Were staying in cabins in remote areas, enjoying the beautiful atmosphere, and hopefully seeing some Puffins!
When we return I complete my last three finals and then someone very special comes to visit me...MY DAD! My dad is flying to see me in the beginning of may and I couldn't be more excited. We are going to tour the Ring of Kerry, fly to Scotland, Barcelona, and Malaga. Ending our trip with a night in Dublin and a day around my home, Galway. I have been craving some Daddy time!
After my dad takes off back to the states I have three days to say a big goodbye to the amazing group I came to Galway with and Alysse, Kyle, Evita, and I take off to Amsterdam! The few days in Amsterdam will be a sad goodbye to the four amigos as Alysse will be flying back to Philadelphia from there. Kyle, Evita and I fly to Paris where we get to spend time with my cousin Eric and his family! Then Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and two weeks in Italy!
Just when you think its over, we fly back to Wicklow for one last weekend with my amazing roommate Peter. I can't imagine this part yet, so lets keep it short and sweet. We are staying with his family for our last few days on the East coast of Ireland. Kyle and I depart from there to Galway and Shannon to take off back to the states!
That is what I have in store for the next two months, HOLY SMOKES, time has flown by here!
Until Next Time,
Lex

Happy Birthday Carolyn

Hey Everyone, 

This is the first year I have been out of Country for Carolyns birthday! Obviously this is no fun for me because I love being there for my family and celebrate them. I sent Carolyn two ridiculous DVD's in the mail that she loves. We have a movie bond, we both like to sit and be lazy every now and then and just watch a cheesy film. I miss my sister very much and wish I could have been there to eat her delicious handpicked meal...or restaurant and eat good cake! Love you baby sister, see you in two and a half months :) MUAH. 

Until Next Time, 

Lex

Saint Patricks Day

Hey Everyone,

I am going to make this short and sweet. I had the amazing opportunity to see my best friend from home this weekend for Saint Patricks Day; Lydia flew from England to stay with me in Galway. Evita and I celebrated Saturday for our friend Katherines birthday and then proceeded to wake up and start early for the Saint Patricks Day Parade in Galway. There were children and families everywhere, celebrating the history that comes with this country.
After taking an afternoon nap we got ready to go out and went to our favorite place Karma. We got to dance with close friends and have a great time. I am sad Lydia left today, but ended my Monday planning a trip to Iceland, ordering our car, and booking our first B&B reservation. AND I WENT TO A HURLING MATCH FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! We watched Galway lose, but regardless it was awesome.
Until Next Time,
Lex

Wicklow with Peters Family!

My favorite weekend in Ireland was spent with my roommate Peters family in Wicklow. I was shocked that he even invited his two crazy roommates back to his house and our good pal Ryan. The three of us departed to Dublin early Friday morning where we would catch the dart and meet with peter in Blackrock where he picked up his new car! He has been shopping around for a while and finally found what he was looking for! We walked around this beautiful rock beach in the freezing weather (which I think made it cooler) and waited to pick up his girlfriend Trish at the dart stop.

Trish is amazing! Evita and I were so excited to see her because it has been a while. We greeted her with big hugs and stories about what she has missed. Peter became a tour guide when we got in the car as we ventured to one of the largest gardens, Powerscourt. It was absolutely beautiful, minus the pet cemetery, which I found creepy. At the garden I was absolutely shaking, worried about meeting his family and making sure they would like me. It was really ridiculous thinking back to it now; his parents and two brothers greeted us warmly as we walked into their wonderful home and sat down by the warm fire.

Saturday was a little different. Peter schedule was completely packed with work in the morning, straight to his Gaelic Football match, and then back to work again. This is a day where Evita, Ryan and I spent wandering around the beautiful place and hanging out with his amazing family. This was my first taste of a family since I left the U.S so I was absorbing it as much as I could. Peters Gaelic Football match was absolutely awesome. It is such a face-paced game and he played so well. He is so quick! Evita was cracking me up at the match because she was stealthily trying to take pictures of him, but of course he knew, and I think was even a little flattered J. Saturday night we got snowed into his house and he got snowed into work so we didn’t get to see him much! We went out to dinner with his family and enjoyed a pint where I met a fellow Washingtonian and painter, Lance Neal, look him up his work is amazing!

Sunday we went out and enjoyed some history with Peter’s father pat, and drove around Wicklow. We went hiking to the beautiful upper lake where we spent hours taking pictures and absorbing our surroundings. Ryan climbed every dirt hill possible, Evita walked slowly and enjoyed everything around her and captured some great shots, and Peter and Trish had snowball fights.

The weekend was absolutely amazing, and I had a really hard time saying goodbye to an amazing family that is so dear to my roommate. I got to see where he came from, and really appreciate him so much more after meeting everyone so important around him.

Until Next Time,

Lex

Edinburgh Scotland!

Hey Everyone,

This is not an excuse but I have been extremely busy! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I plan on making up for it the next two weeks by posting every other day. This past weekend I spent my time in the capitol of Scotland! I think I may have fallen in love...the buildings are incredibly old, ancient statues stand at every street corner, and my group that travelled includes some of the most amazing people!

Friday we arrived in the evening. We had a little bit of a chaotic stretch trying to check into the airport, eat dinner, and arrive to our tour on time. When we did though, boy did we see the most amazing castle. Our tour guide was a traditional Scottish woman, who explained a lot about the history of Scotland. After the dark stroll, we were famished. We stopped into Rabbies (a local pub) and had our first Whiskey! The smell of it made my eyes water, and after drinking it, it didn't get any better! I am glad that I drank it, but decided Whiskey would probably never be the drink for me.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early for a tour of Mary Kings Close. This was probably my favourite tour of the entire trip! Why you ask? Because it was entirely underground and reminded me of Seattle! Our guide acted as if she was born in the original Scotland and told us all about the history of this place. The rooms were small and dusty, but held their original plaster and reaped of their history. We were told a ghost story and educated on the black death. I think my family would have loved this place! The rest of Saturday was a blur of museums and a daylight walking tour of the castle we saw Friday evening. Here is a picture of me and my friend Scott enjoying the castle. Saturday evening we went "pub crawling" on our own. We ended up meeting two girls from API Dublin group and inviting them out for the evening. We shared in good conversation, old school music, and excellent long island ice teas! The night life in Scotland wasn't all that different from the nightlife in Galway, so it felt like home pretty quickly. 

Sunday we woke up early, ate, headed out for a tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia and had tea with the Queen :) The boat was awesome! We had an audio tour with these giant phones that looked like they were invented a thousand years ago. In the picture I am standing on the deck at the bottom of the boat playing around with my giant tour phone. I couldn't get enough of that thing, and was extremely sad when we had to part. The second half of the day we spent walking around the old bridge. It was a beautiful place and had a rocky beach where we all spent too much time trying to skip stones in water and soaking each other with large rocks. That was the moment when it really hit me. I am so lucky that I get to be in a group where every individual is extremely unique and brings so many good things to the dynamic. I feel very fortunate to have each and every person in API and can't believe that two months have almost flown by.

The plane ride home Sunday evening was not the craic ("fun" in Irish). I got extremely sick and ended up being sick the whole bus ride home between Dublin to Galway. Fortunately for me the people in my group were extremely helpful and supportive and I made it back to Galway with out getting sick on top of anyone!
Bloopers of the Weekend:
Evita helping a man out and then accidentally telling him he had man boobs.
Ryan elbowing Evita in the forehead at the airport.
Me running into a cement peg coming out of the ground.
Alysse casually falling on the rock beach (no one noticed really, maybe sort of :)

Until Next Time,
Lex

Talbot Place Dublin!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been so long, just wanted to give you an update. This past weekend was my first trip out of Galway! I ventured to the incredibly large city of Dublin. I couldn't believe the size of it (you would understand if you saw Galway and why Dublin was such a change of pace). I'm going to share with you a few stories and images to give you a gist of what my trip was all about!

The People: First there was the API couple, Max and Kay who ventured to Galway together from Massachusetts. Then, of course, was my roommate Evita and our new pal Ryan (who I call "Ry" out of habit due to my friends at home).

The Place: This was my first Hostel abroad. We stayed at Jacob's Inn located a bit out of the main part of the city on Talbot Place. We had a six bed ensuite that had an empty bed (thank goodness) so it was just our group. The bathroom was amazing. I know that sounds weird but our bathroom at home has a broken toilet seat and limited space and hot water (making it nearly impossible to shave my legs, so I just haven't done it yet). If I bend down in my shower at Gort my head literally kisses the glass walls that encase me. Europeans must be tiny, or just always with hairy legs.

The Activities: On Friday it was pouring when we arrived by bus so we ventured from coffee shop to coffee shop sipping on tea and exchanging stories. In the evening Ry, Evita and I went on our first pub crawl which introduced us to a lot of great pubs and live music! I have to say the best part of Dublin was the music scene. They had unique instruments and great sounding bands no matter where we had a pint! Saturday was a different story, we took a "short" trip to the Guinness factory that only lasted five hours. That was the best Guinness of my life and we snapped a million great photo's! That night we ended up going to a nearby pub and meeting fellow Jacob's Inn hostelers that were travelling from London. They were extremely entertaining and curious about Americans. They asked so many questions and even tried their best American accents, which were terrible. Sunday was a full tour of one of the oldest jails in Ireland. The building was unbelievable and eerie, but completely different from anything I had ever seen. After visiting Alcatraz in San Francisco I had something to compare it to. The history was bleeding from the walls (somewhat literally) and taught me loads about the Irish people and the IRA! I enjoyed the shopping, good food, and great people all weekend!

SURPRISE FACTOR: We managed to land in Dublin during the annual TradFest! How lucky were we? There were stages set up in the middle of the cobblestone roads with unbelievable women musicians playing both Saturday and Sunday! People gathered all around and swayed to the talent that was presented on stage. It was a good weekend and I cant wait to travel again soon!
Until Next Time,
Lex

My People

Hey Everyone!
I don't know how I got so lucky! Evita, as you read in my previous post is my roommate. I mentioned earlier that we thought our third housemates name was Peter, and boy were we right. Evita and I had recently purchased men's pajamas (because they are bigger and warmer and it is FREEZING here), so we were just casually lounging out on the couch. We heard the door open and Peter burst through, adorable and awkward as ever. I freaked out, I probably jumped about five feet because I had been having nightmares about our Peter having long nails and leaving us raw meat in the refrigerator for a month (true story as far as the meat goes). Evita had been waiting to confront him about the meat for five days, so she was ready. Turns out the meat was his last international roommates, and they left after he did! He still walked over the the fridge, picked up the meat and chucked it out the window. Evita and I sat with our jaws wide open and ran to the window and looked down. A moldy slab of meat lying in the middle of the road! Little did we know Peter would turn out to be one of our closest friends who protects us when we go out! He has been an amazing roommate and we feel very lucky to have got him!
Here is a picture of us at our favorite pub The Skeff!

The people in our group have been amazing. I am the only one from Seattle, but Evita is also from the west coast, California. Everyone else (the other 23) are from Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine, and Ohio. I spend my nights hanging out with my girls, Kyle and Alysse, and get the opportunity to talk to someone fantastic in my program (API) everyday. These people are all amazing and I feel very fortunate to have this experience!

Until Next Time,
Lex