Ireland Pictures

One of the things I encountered on my walk from my hostel to the Jameson Distillery

Another thing I encountered on that walk. I wish I ended up going in

Happy about the Whiskey tasting at the Jameson Distillery 

It's so cool to see what makes the Whiskey's different!

Trekking through the forest on my Game of Thrones tour

Right by that bridge is where the Starks find a dead direwolf and her pups in the 1st episode!

Gabriel, the Argentinian guy, and I (AKA Jon Snow & Sansa Stark) posing where the opening scene was filmed!

Me with the adorable "direwolf" pups

The dude all dressed up had a blonde wig on earlier and was the guy having his Bachelor party

Winterfell! Home of the Starks

Winterfell really doesn't look much like it does in the TV show

There were many of these signs along the trail since it was a major filming location

Towers, cows, and grass. Basic Ireland picture right there

Me posing with a sword where Robb Stark was crowned "King in the North"

Bryan and I at the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. They look unreal

Casually falling off the cliffs

Some scenery from the long drive. There's a tower, there's some grass, but where are the cows?!

These pizza guys stole my camera and took a selfie!

Gabriel, the 4 California guys from the GOT tour, and the 2 random girls and I smiling after a fun and random night out

A Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow

I’d slowly been traveling more and more by myself, and Ireland was the first country I traveled 100% alone to. I’d never really cared about going to Ireland for some reason either…I think any place cold was just unappealing to me. But just how I was wrong about England, I was wrong about Ireland too. I had so much fun! I kept busy the entire time there and had such an amazing time. I definitely did the most unique things in Ireland and jam-packed it all into the 3 days that I was there.

DAY 1

I arrived in Ireland after a very short flight from Scotland. I found a bus terminal outside of the airport (I could not survive without looking at Google maps for public transportation routes) and hopped on. There was a stop that was right across from my hostel so I got off there. I walked into Abrahams Hostel and got a key to my room. I only stayed there 1 night out of the 3 because I wanted to stay at Generator (yes, there is 1 in Dublin too) but it was booked the first night. As I opened my room door, I wondered who would be my roommates. It’s always a fun experience in hostels meeting your roommates! I opened it and there were 2 girls and a guy standing there unpacking some stuff. They were all really friendly Americans who were studying abroad I think in Germany and took a trip to Ireland. We talked for a while as I connected to the wifi, and that’s when I saw I had a message from Bryan. I “checked in” to Dublin, Ireland on Facebook when I arrived and Bryan saw. He told me that he was also in Dublin with his brother and said we should meet up. They were currently at the Guinness Factory on a tour, but they wanted to do the Jameson one next. When Bryan told me they were headed to the Jameson factory, I left my hostel.

It was about a 30 minute walk to get to the Jameson Distillery and it was a completely straight walk. The street I was on had so many people with lots of shops and lots of action which made it a really fun and entertaining walk. I saw a guy dressed up in a Leprechaun costume, a Leprechaun museum (whatever that was), and just a lot of typical Irish stuff. I finally made it to the Jameson factory and saw Bryan and his brother right away. We bought our tickets to go on the Jameson tour, but the next one available didn’t leave for a few more hours. We started walking and crossed over a bridge to get to this area called Temple Bar. I originally thought it was just one restaurant but later realized it was what the whole area was called. We found a pub and decided to have a drink. It was midday and the pub was packed, full of lots of loud middle-aged men drinking beer. Such a different vibe than America. Pubs are the casual hangout spot in the UK and Ireland and people are always getting together and having drinks no matter the setting. I heard lots of people even have work meetings in pubs. I like that.

After soaking in the environment and wandering around for a bit, we started heading back to the Jameson Distillery. Our tour guide was really funny and made the tour interesting. We learned all the steps into making Jameson Whiskey and boy did it look complicated. The tour ended in a room with tables. There were placemats and on each placemat, there were 3 little shot glasses about ¼ full. 1 had Jameson in it, another had Jack Daniels in it, and another had some Scottish whiskey. Our tour guide walked us all through trying each one and tasting them to see what makes them unique. I couldn’t drink the Scottish one since it tasted so gross to me so I gave it to Bryan who happily drank it. Jameson was alright, but I liked American Whiskey, Jack Daniels, the best! After our little taste testing sesh, we got led out to another room where we got to pick between 2 drinks with Jameson in it. I don’t remember what the options were, but the one I chose was so good!

After the tour, we went back to Temple Bar to grab dinner. Out of all of the countries I traveled to, I was surprised to find that Ireland was the hardest place to find gluten free food! It took us a while to select a restaurant since everything was so crowded and places were expensive. We finally found a restaurant and sat down. I asked them what they had that was gluten free and they said they had nothing. I asked if they could modify anything (since everywhere I go tries to be accommodating) and they said no. They literally told me that there was nothing for me there. I couldn’t believe it because even if they don’t have gluten free stuff, there’s basic things they can make that are gluten free like mashed potatoes with grilled fish or something. I felt bad but we had to get up and find a new place to eat at.

We discovered a place close by that had typical American food. It was kind of like a hybrid of Red Robin and the Hard Rock Cafe actually. It was a fun environment with lots of people celebrating different things like Bachelorette Parties (in the UK and Ireland, they call Bachelorette parties “Hen Parties”) and all that. The food was really good but I was bummed I couldn’t eat at an Irish restaurant! After we ate, we were pretty tired and parted ways but said we would meet up again. When I got back to my hostel, it was still pretty early, but the 3 Americans in my room were already getting ready for bed. I was trying to convince Bryan to go out but realized that it probably was not a good idea since I was waking up so early the following day, so I joined the other Americans and went to bed early.

I woke up in the middle of the night to a guy coming in the room. There were about 4 other people staying in the room and I hadn’t met any of them. This guy was noticeably drunk and somehow managed to climb up to the top bunk where his bed was. A few minutes later, I heard him stumble back down and saw him standing by the door. All of a sudden I heard something that sounded like running water. He was peeing! He was too drunk to make it to the bathroom and peed on the carpet/wall by the door. I was both disgusted but so entertained. When he finished peeing, he stumbled over to the closest bottom bunk and falls face first onto it and passes out laying on his stomach. I tried to contain my laughter and finally closed my eyes and fell asleep. Within the next hour, I woke up again to 2 more guys walking in the room and one of their beds was the one that the drunk guy had passed out on. He started poking him and eventually got him up out of his bed. It was so funny and when people ask me to tell them any stories from abroad, this one is usually the one that comes to my mind first! Oh hostels…

DAY 2

I woke up and checked out of the hostel. Luckily they let me leave my stuff in the storage room because I couldn’t bring it on my daytrip…to Northern Ireland (only Northern Ireland is part of the UK). There are so many daytrips offered in Ireland where it’s a nice tour on a bus and you get off and see lots of stuff, but since I only had 2 FULL days in Ireland, I had to choose my 2 carefully. Well the first day was an easy choice: Game of Thrones tour!

The bus was parked in front of a hotel and I checked in and got on. I was a bit nervous because I thought I might be the only person traveling solo, but there were a few more! I chose my spot towards the back of the bus, and in the very back sat about 5 guys who were dressed up. It turns out one of the guys was doing the tour as a part of his Bachelor party and he wore a blonde Daenerys wig and all that. It was hilarious. As the bus got fuller and fuller, I wondered who would end up sitting next to me. Well I got lucky! A really nice late-20s Argentinian guy sat next to me and we immediately got talking. We stuck together the whole tour and everyone else was so friendly and pretty much as much of a Game of Thrones nerd as I am.

I booked the tour through gameofthronestours.com and picked the “Dublin Winterfell Locations Trek” which was just 50 euros for the whole day. It left at 8am and we got to our first location 2 hours later. In the trunk of the bus, there were a ton of wool cloaks that are worn by characters in Game of Thrones, so the vast majority of us put one on and trekked down a path and into the woods. I got the only blue coat and everyone else’s was black. The blue one is what one of the main characters, Sansa, wears (I don’t think it’s the real one but who knows…). We headed into the woods and the site was so funny. About 40 people, most of them in cloaks, trekking through the woods where other people were going for their morning runs and all that. So many people looked at us funny and I was just cracking up but owning it.

Those woods were used for various scenes from different characters, and our tour guide would lead us to the location then show us the Game of Thrones scene that was filmed at that location on her iPad. It was really cool! I took tons of pictures and couldn’t believe that all these characters I love had all walked where I was walking.

We later had lunch at a place called “Paddy’s Barn” where I had “mash and gravy”. I pre-ordered it so they already knew of my gluten allergy and it wasn’t a problem which was nice. After an amazing lunch and drinking some hard cider, we got led out front when our tour guide said there were surprise guests waiting for us. I thought it could no way be any of the Game of Thrones actors so I had no idea what to expect. I came out to two adorable big Huskies! They were “actors” in the first season and were 2 of the dire wolf puppies that were picked up by some of the main characters. I couldn’t stop petting them...they were adorable! Another guy was there with a little scrapbook and he showed us all how he was an “extra” in a lot of the Game of Thrones episodes. It was really cool.

We set back out after a nice break and meeting cool people and animals, then arrived in Winterfell shortly after! This is the home to one of the main families, the Starks, and I was amazed how much it DIDN’T look like it did in Game of Thrones. They built so much that was already taken down, they used a green screen, and they added snow to make it look so different. We were greeted by a guy dressed up like people are in Game of Thrones (he looked a lot like Stannis for you Game of Thrones watchers), and he welcomed us. We later set out on a little trek on a trail close to the lake where 9 different Game of Thrones film locations were!

After we left, we got on the bus to head to our last stop. We were handed out a sheet and our tour guide asked us some Game of Thrones trivia questions that were pretty hard. I think I still got like 8/10 but the guy having the Bachelor party got 9/10 right, so he got to be crowned “King in the North” (just like Robb Stark for you GOT watchers) at the next location we went to, where that actually happened in the TV show.

It was a 2 hour drive back to Dublin and they played 2 episodes on the bus. I had so much fun on this tour and met such great people. From 2 American girls who were my age, to a friendly mother and son, to solo travelers from around the world, to the Spanish Bachelor party guys, it was a great group. I definitely let out my nerdy side and we didn’t get back until 10.5 hours later, at 6:30pm! When I got back to the hostel, I grabbed my stuff and headed off to Generator hostel. It was right by the Jameson Distillery so it was really easy to get to. I walked in and it was such a nice open area and I was so excited to be staying at another Generator. I got the key to my room and right as I was about to enter, I wondered who I would encounter in the room this time. I opened the door and there was a guy and girl about my age. I immediately started talking to them and they were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. Why? Because they’re Canadian! They were such a cute couple who were traveling around some of Europe together.

I got settled and connected to wifi and all that while non-stop talking to them, and they said they wanted to go down to the hostel lobby and get a drink. They invited me to come along and of course I said yes. I hadn’t had dinner yet and the grill was just closing up, but the cook was nice enough to whip me up some nachos with the remaining ingredients he had out, free of charge! I love those random acts of kindness. I grabbed a table with the Canadian couple and the guy grabbed the first round. We only ended up having one round of drinks though, but we talked for a couple of hours about who knows what. I feel like I turn into a different person when I travel…more outgoing because you’re pretty much forced to be, but I wish I remembered the conversations I had with people better because they were always good. You meet the best people while traveling!

DAY 3

The next morning I left for my 2^nd day tour (that left at freaking 6:50am) to the famous Cliffs of Moher! I told Bryan about it and he and his brother decided to book the same tour! I planned on walking to the Trinity College area which was around where the bus picked us up, but as I left the hostel, a girl around my age with her brother were leaving too for the same tour. They knew about a trolley and we made it to the trolley just in time which went a little closer to Trinity. We made it to the place and Bryan and his brother showed up a few minutes later.

I booked the tour through daytours.ie which offers a ton of other tours, but I’d always heard of the Cliffs of Moher and knew I had to see them. It cost 40 euros for the 12 hour tour which sounded good to me. There were a couple pit stops along the way, but we finally made it to the cliffs after almost a 5 hour drive. It was worth it though because the cliffs were absolutely stunning. Our tour guide warned us to not go too close to the edge because the wind picks up at random times and can even move CARS! Luckily it wasn’t too windy when we were there and it was a really nice day. The previous day or two had been raining so we were lucky! We had about an hour to walk around, and I took a ton of GoPro videos and pictures. At one part of the cliffs, the wind somehow blew the water all the way up to us and I got kind of wet! This was right by the O’Brien’s Tower part of the cliffs which marks the highest point of the Cliffs at 702 feet! It is so crazy to think that the ocean water managed to travel that high up.

We had lunch after we walked around the cliffs, then slowly started heading back. We stopped a few more times at old ruins (tombs I think) and to look at some old forts/castles, but we were all getting pretty tired from the long ride. Ireland is so beautiful and green so I loved just gazing out my window, or sleeping. We made it back and I said bye to Bryan since I was leaving the next day and I probably wouldn’t see him again for a long time (I haven’t seen him since then and it’s been 7.5 months-he lives on the East Coast).

I headed back to my hostel and sadly the Canadians had checked out. I connected to wifi and got talking with the Argentinian guy, Gabriel, who I met on the Game of Thrones tour. He invited me out to Temple Bar where he was meeting up with 2 of his friends. I bussed my way to there, found the pub, but couldn’t find him for about 20 minutes. I decided to sit and wait at the bar, and this guy came over and started talking to me while ordering 2 drinks. He was on a date with this girl he was really interested in and was talking to me about how awesome his night was going but he was still feeling kind of nervous. It was adorable and I loved how he found me approachable to just randomly start talking about that with me.

Gabriel finally found me (he was already there but it was awful wifi and he just saw that I was there) and led me towards the back. He was with 2 women who seemed to also be in their late-20s, and they both were from Spain and so sweet! We talked for a while, but the women had work early in the morning so they left about an hour later. Gabriel and I then decided to leave and see what was happening around town that night, but it was a Monday night and we didn’t expect much. Well, after walking around for a few minutes, I ran into a group of 4 guys from California who happened to be on the Game of Thrones tour we were on a couple days ago! We were so excited to see each other and they joined in the wandering about. (One of the guys was the designated “Hodor” of the tour and kept saying “Hodor” throughout the day and kept saying it that night too. It was hilarious. If you don’t watch Game of Thrones, just type “Hodor says Hodor” on google and watch the 42 second clip).

We finally found a place that was playing live music, and it was packed! The band was playing a lot of country music and I was having a blast singing along. We stayed there for a while, but it closed pretty early. We were not ready to call it a night, so we wandered about a bit more. We found 2 other American girls, 1 whose birthday was that day, and they tagged along with us. We ended up at some club that had no one in there, maybe 3 at most. It was sad. So we made it fun ourselves. We requested fun songs like “Don’t Stop Believing” and danced and sang wildly on the dance floor. It was so much fun! Again, you meet the best people while traveling!

After all our voices were almost gone from belting out every song, we left and stopped by some pizza place because some of us were hungry. We then departed ways, but luckily the 4 California guys had an Airbnb (they rented out someone else’s apartment) literally a block away from Generator hostel. I walked with them and we realized none of us were tired yet, so I came up to their apartment after they tempted me with a new Game of Thrones episode that had aired the night before. It was probably like 4am by the time it ended but I’ll stay up anytime to see a new episode! Only one of the guys was still awake so I said bye and walked across the street to Generator and crashed.

DAY 4

I took a taxi to the airport after I got led to a “bus stop” that wasn’t actually the correct bus stop. Sometimes Google maps can be stupid. I was getting sick of public transportation anyways, so I just paid the money for a taxi. I got to the airport so excited to get to my next stop: Lisbon, Portugal! But I thought about how much Ireland surprised me. It’s such a beautiful place with friendly outgoing people. There is so much to do and I wish I had more time to go on more tours! Oh well, maybe next time… ;)

England & Scotland Pictures

Taken from the bus from Southampton to London

Kings Cross!

10 points for Gryffindor 

Just hanging out with Rick

The Tower Bridge! Such a perfect day. This is my favorite type of weather!

Diiiiiing Dooooong

I couldn't resist. Plus with Big Ben in the background, it's the perfect telephone booth!

The London Eye that had way too long of a line 

The last lunch with some amazing friends <3

The force is strong in this one

Cutting through the beautiful park to get to Buckingham

THE QUEEN'S IN THERE

Aishwarya, Heather, Rick and I tired from so much walking

View from my first double decker :D

Heather and Rick street performing, while Heather's dad got up in their face to videotape 

The street Tom lives on in Liverpool

The most scrumptious creation. Now I'm craving it. Must.find.in.America.

Hannah's Bar with Tom and the owner, Gerry

Oswaldo and extremely under-dressed me at a bar. That hoodie was too comfy!

Glasgow, Scotland

Just casually conquering Edinburgh Castle

I was way too excited to see this dude playing bagpipes

Pip pip cheerio

One of the many reasons I chose to do the Spring Voyage of Semester at Sea was because it left in the city of my school, San Diego State University, and ended in England. That means the voyage would basically be a 3.5 month long route to eventually drop me off in England. The Fall Voyage usually is the opposite, starting in England and ending in San Diego. I was so happy to be able to continue traveling even though Semester at Sea had come to an end. Now, for some reason, I never really cared about going to England. I love the accent and all that, but I knew it rained a lot just like where I grew up in Seattle, Washington. Well England sure surprised me. It was absolutely gorgeous and the sun was shining the whole time I was there, and I just loved the whole England vibe. I would go back in a heartbeat.  

DAY 1

The second I got off the ship and heard someone working at the ship terminal speak, a huge smile spread across my face. If you know me, you probably know I’m kind of sort of obsessed with the British accent. I walked into a huge room full of everyone’s luggage and finally found mine after 10 minutes or so. I dragged it all out of the room where some people’s friends and family were waiting and crying and reuniting and all that. I found a line for the company that was shipping people’s luggage home for the ones who still wanted to travel around. I got to the front of the line and left two huge fat suitcases with them and that was that. I was free.

I got a taxi with Aishwarya and Rick, and we headed to the Southampton coach station. We were there quite early for our 3:30 bus, so we each took turns wandering around a market close by and getting some food. When the time finally came, we hopped on the bus and arrived at the London Victoria coach station at 5:50. We walked a little bit through a mall and also exchanged some currency and we ran into a few SAS’ers along the way. I swear, we take over every place we go to! After exchanging some currency, it was time to go underground and take the famous tube! We were trying to get to the hostel we were staying at, Generator. Aishwarya was going home a few days later and decided not to pay the money to ship her luggage home, so she was lugging everything everywhere, through long hallways, down and up the stairs (there are no elevators or escalators that we saw!), and not to mention, there were SO many people hustling and bustling about. It was a huge struggle but we finally made it to our platform and the subway (or whatever it’s called) came and opened its doors briefly, but it was so crowded! There was a guy’s neck literally sticking out the door and as the doors shut, he quickly tucked it into the crowded tube. I literally thought he was about to get beheaded. So we didn’t make it on the first two because it came and went so fast and we could not shove all of our stuff in there, but we FINALLY made it after some necessary pushing.

We managed to get off at the correct stop and had about a 10 minute walk to our hostel. We were so relieved when we finally made it. Our hostel was huge and there were tons of people of all ages. I saw grandmas, kids, and entire families! Generator is a big hostel chain in Europe and I quite liked it. Our room was pretty small though, with I think 3 other people sharing it. Emily and Brie were meeting up with us later and they booked another room because it was kind of last minute. It was also Jordan’s birthday the following day and he and Caleb were going to stay at Generator as well. We definitely started a trend.

That night, we last minutely bought tickets to the 1 Big Night Out Pub Crawl. I knew I wanted to do it but thought maybe I would be tired. Well I wasn’t tired at all and turns out, just about every other SAS’er had the same idea. It started so early at 7:30! We had to get there by 8:30 or they would have left for the first bar already, and we made it with like 15 minutes to spare. We met up in the Generator lobby with some friends and saw other SAS’ers who were about to leave for the pub crawl as well. We walked for about 25 minutes (taxis are so expensive) and made it to Verve Bar, the starting location. About 3/4 of the people there were from Semester at Sea and there were a ton of us. We showed them our tickets then got glow sticks, t-shirts, and a highlighter (to write on other people’s shirts). We also got a ticket at each place we went to so that we could get a little flavored shot. It was a good deal!

After a bit, this loud funny British guy led us all to a room to say the pub crawl rules. I got it all on video because it was so hilarious. We finally left for our first stop. There was a total of 5 stops that night I think, and some were small bars and others were fun clubs. It was Jordan’s birthday at midnight and we made sure he had fun. I met fun Aussies, Emily and I took pictures with some British police officers, we danced and screamed out “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “You’re the One that I Want” from Grease. It was a great night with fun people and was the last big Semester at Sea takeover.

DAY 2

So basically everyone had been craving Chipotle since the voyage left. It was in none of the countries we went to, and we discovered that there were a few in England. It isn’t a huge thing in England, though, like it is in the US. So for “brunch” we excitedly headed out to Chipotle. We managed to go the opposite direction we were supposed to on the tube, but eventually we made it to Chipotle. We were salivating and shaking (not really…okay, maybe a little). The workers were probably thinking “crazy Americans”. I went all out with that beautiful fresh guac and chips. Mmmm. The first bite was beautiful and we all devoured our meals. Apparently too fast. Everyone got really tired and wanted to go back to the hostel and sleep, besides Rick and I. I was determined to get to Kings Cross and take a picture at Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter, and luckily Rick was still down to come with me. We tubed it to Kings Cross as the others went back to the hostel, and we went straight to looking for Platform 9 ¾. Well it was easy to find! There was a line and a guy who had the best job ever: to put a Harry Potter house scarf on you and fling it into the air and back away so that you can take cool pictures with it flying up in the air. I hurried over to get in line and was so excited to take pictures.

After having a little photo shoot, I went into the gift shop with lots of cool Harry Potter stuff. I got some pens and buttons, the cheapest stuff there, then headed out. That’s when Rick and I ran into one of our SAS friends, Eric who actually had studied abroad in London and knew the area well. He was with another SAS girl, her mother, and a guy who lives in London who he met when studying abroad and Eric said he was just about to show them the city and invited us to come along. It was perfect. It was such a beautiful sunny (but chilly) day and we walked around for a while. We basically had a photoshoot around London. We took pictures in front of the Kings Cross sign, where the London Bridge once was, the famous Tower Bridge, Big Ben, telephone booths, The London Eye, and just everything possible. We ran into SAS’ers on a bridge while walking from Big Ben to the London Eye! We got hungry and went to a pub in Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square that I think had some special Indian food night. It was a nice long day and I was so glad I didn’t decide to crash after eating that Chipotle! I took it easy that night and just connected to the internet at my hostel and got in bed at a reasonable hour.

DAY 3

I met up with Heather in the afternoon and Emily told everyone to come to a restaurant called Nando’s for lunch at 1. Well there were a good 10 SAS’ers along with 3 friends who decided to meet up with them in London. Nando’s is extremely popular in England and it is all about chicken. Amazing chicken whichever way you’d like it and with different sides. It’s so good and I wish they had Nando’s in America (I just looked and they only have it in Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Illinois!). I think it’d be a huge hit in California!

After lunch where we said some goodbyes, Heather, Rick, Aishwarya and I headed out to slowly make our way to Buckingham Palace. We walked through lots of action comparable to the Hollywood Walk of Fame (with street performers like Yoda hovering above the ground) and then walked through a beautiful park that led us to Buckingham. We took a ton of pictures and I couldn’t stop staring at the guards since I’d always seen it on TV/in movies and now there they were right in front of me. We walked more to some square with lion statues called Trafalgar Square and were exhausted by then. It took us a while to find a way to get back to our hostel on public transportation and we finally caught a bus, my first double decker!

That night, we went to Leicester Square and Rick brought his guitar. Heather is an amazing singer and we came up with the idea to go and street perform just for fun. So they stood out in Leicester and sang and played guitar. They did that for a while, then a man came to watch and started recording them up close. I didn’t even realize for a few minutes that it was actually her dad, and he took her back to wherever they were staying when she stopped singing. We got some dinner, put the guitar back at the hostel, and went back out since it was our last night in London. We forced Aishwarya to come with us even though she didn’t feel like it, but she just ended up leaving after like 30 minutes anyways. We were at a pub but it wasn’t too fun so we decided to look at other places around the area. We found a club with a line and entry fee, but managed to talk to these women who had a table in there and they got us in! We had a great night dancing until the club closed. As I was leaving, I discovered the “Cloakroom” which is just the British version of a coat check. I like the term “Cloakroom” better!

DAY 4

Since I was leaving in the afternoon to take a train up to Liverpool, I chilled at the hostel until then. I finally had my first traditional English breakfast at the hostel and it was AMAZING! Sunny side up eggs, beans, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, bread, potatoes, and sausage. I was so full but so satisfied. I ate and was on my computer in the common room and there was big news that day: Kate Middleton had just had her baby girl! I think it’s pretty cool to say I was in England just a few miles away from Kate when she had her baby. When it finally hit the time to leave for the train station, I said goodbye to Rick and Aishwarya. It suddenly hit me that I was now going to be alone for a bit. I always traveled with people on Semester at Sea and had been around SAS’ers constantly in England so far. And now, I was about to be all alone when walking to the train station. I was nervous but mostly excited!

I headed out to the station which wasn’t a far walk at all. I printed out my tickets and headed to the big board to see what platform I was at. I started cracking up. There were a ton of people just staring up at the board waiting to see their platform number and they all looked like zombies. It was a hilarious site, but I joined them. When my platform popped up, I hurried to my designated platform and got on the train. There was a stop about halfway to Liverpool where I had to get on another train, but I finally made it. I got off and after a few minutes of waiting, I finally saw my ex, Tom. I met Tom in July 2012 on a Mediterranean Cruise and we talked non-stop until he came to visit me July 2014 in California. We tried to make long distance work out but it didn’t and he had another girlfriend by the time I got to England. We were still talking though and good friends, and I was heading up to Scotland to visit a friend who was studying abroad anyways so I decided to stop in Liverpool.

Liverpool was kind of my “you get to relax for a few days now after constantly traveling” stop. It’s pointless to say day-by-day what I did because I didn’t do much, but here’s the gist of it:

DAYS 4-8

-I watched a ton of Game of Thrones to get Tom caught up

-We went out the first night and I met some of his friends. Liverpool nightlife is pretty crazy. Girls go all out and dress up no matter what day of the week it is.

-There was this amazing restaurant where we had brunch about a 20 minute walk down the road. It was an even better English breakfast than the one at the hostel!

-Tom still had “uni” as they call it, so I bussed it over to him when he was done and he showed me around Liverpool

-There was a place called “Hannah’s Bar” that was right by a bus stop, and I would always get off there because it was the only time when I actually knew where I was. One time when I was waiting for Tom at Hannah’s Bar, an older guy called me over to his table. There was a young woman sitting there with a clipboard and paper and she said that he is the owner of the bar and they are trying to make new drinks. They asked if I wanted to try it and of course I said yes since it was free! All I remember is that it had ginger beer and tasted amazing. They gave me the whole drink and asked me some questions about it, then I got into a conversation with the owner, Gerry Conteh, talking about how my name is Hannah and I’m from America and how he has a Hannah’s Bar in New York as well. Tom finally showed up and got chatting with him as well, and the owner bought us champagne. You have the best conversations when meeting people while traveling!

-Oswaldo happened to be in Liverpool when I was, so we met up and went out to a bar. I was so extremely underdressed though!

-The last full day I was in Liverpool, I introduced Oswaldo and Tom and we ventured out to the wharfs by a Beatle museum that we didn’t end up going in. We just kind of wandered around and ended up eating at my favorite place, Nando’s!

I arrived in Liverpool on May 2, and stayed all the way until May 7. I really needed that downtime to process everything I had done in the past few months and to plan out what to do in the next 2 weeks I had until I had to go home.

DAY 9

I took the 3.5 hour long train from Liverpool, England to Glasgow, Scotland. One of my (now ex) roommate’s ex-boyfriend, Will, studied abroad in Glasgow the same semester I went abroad and he still had a few weeks left in Scotland. Of course I made an effort to visit him since that meant a free place to stay, plus they had an extra room where a roommate had recently moved out of! It was perfect.

I got off the train and spotted Will after a few minutes. He had walked from his dorm/apartment which was about 20 minutes away, so he helped with some of my stuff and we eventually made it to his place. It was noticeably colder in Scotland, but the sun was out so that helped. I dropped my stuff off at his place and after I met his roommates and a few friends, we left so he could show me around some of the city. Will walked pretty much everywhere since he lived right at his college so everything is right there. It’s a pretty walkable city. We set out and walked around for a while where he showed me churches, statues, shopping centers and all that. We were hungry and after seeing many restaurants that looked good, I picked an Italian one that had really good sounding gluten free pasta. It was scrumptious. I decided to get dessert too. I thought I’d reward myself for traveling so well and without getting anything stolen!

That night, Will and a few of his friends showed me the Glasgow nightlife. The clubs are really fun and they had such cheap drinks! I think a jack and coke was only $2! We stayed out late and went to this really good take-out place. I can’t seem to remember what type of food it was though…oops.

DAY 10

Will had to study for his exams, so I went off by myself to Edinburgh. The bus took only about 1 hour and I got off the bus feeling completely free. This was the first time I was about to explore a city all by myself and it felt AMAZING. Edinburgh looked much older than Glasgow and I really felt like I was in Scotland. I walked through streets and couldn’t stop staring at the beautiful buildings. I found a park-like place that had a little coffee shop and ordered some coffee. I saw a guy playing the saxophone not far away, so I brought my coffee over to some stairs right by him that some people were sitting on and soaked everything in. It felt awesome to just sit down, look around, and realize that I was in freaking Scotland. It was such a serene moment that I will always remember.

After I sat down for a good while, I headed up stairs that led to a hilly street. I finally saw the beautiful Edinburgh castle in the distance. I made my way to it and bought my ticket to enter. It was beautiful and so old (the castle has existed since at least the reign of David 1 in the 12^th century!), and the whole thing was treated like a museum. I could wander wherever I wanted, from places where cannons stood to dungeons where people back in the day kept prisoners. I was there for a couple of hours, reading a lot and imagining a time when people actually lived and ruled at this castle.

Right down the street from the castle, I saw a guy in a kilt playing the bagpipes! I couldn’t stop listening and staring (and of course I got a picture with him) because I’ve always heard about it and seen it on TV. That was definitely another moment when it hit me that I was in Scotland. I started heading towards the Edinburgh Dungeon which took you through Scottish history underground and featured rides and live shows. I got in line for it but last minutely backed out after realizing it wouldn’t be a fun experience alone. I instead went to a mall close by and found an amazing restaurant dedicated to serving all types of baked potatoes. I was happy. After eating and charging my phone for a bit, I made my way to the bus station and headed back to Glasgow.

DAY 11

I said bye to Will and headed off to the airport for my next stop: Dublin, Ireland! Scotland was a nice short stop and I loved it. There’s so much history in the UK compared to America, and seeing that castle really made me think about how things used to be like in this beautiful world we live in. 

The Final Moments

After getting on the ship after our final amazing port of Morocco, we had 6 days until the voyage ended. Finals were then, and I had a presentation in every single one of my four classes (if you know me, you know I hate public speaking) but I got through it pretty well. I guess talking about subjects that were interesting to me and about the world really helped!

The alumni ball was on April 26^th and everyone got all dressed up. I didn’t find a dress and didn’t really have a fancy dress I brought, so Aishwarya let me borrow a pretty dark blue sparkly dress. We got ready really early because we made reservations for the late dinner, so Aishwarya and I went around the ship and had a photo shoot.

Finally it was time for dinner and we sat down with our friend group at our reserved table. Yup, it was that fancy. We all got a glass of champagne to drink then they served us a few courses. For the main course, we could choose between a few different things and I chose salmon which was delicious.

After dinner, the alumni ball started. It was in the student union and people were already dancing when I walked in. My dinner group walked in and did a loop for probably a minute, then decided to leave. But I usually love dances so I decided to stay. I walked deeper into the dancing crowd and saw Shannon who I started dancing crazy with. A lot of fun people were there and I ended up having so much fun! They played really odd music at first though, but that didn’t stop us all from dancing. I stayed until the very end and had found my other roommate, Yesenia, by then. We even brought the dance party to a classroom when we got kicked out of the union.

So after the alumni ball, Yesenia and I were hanging around the snack bar and it hit me that there were only a couple days left of Semester at Sea. So I decided that we should have a photo shoot around the ship doing the randomest stuff so we could remember the ship. We ran around and took photos of anything and everything and I was just cracking up and having so much fun.

The rest of the days involved lots of packing, cleaning, taking pictures (like with my favorite dining room server Alfonso), and just trying to enjoy the ship since we were the LAST Semester at Sea voyage on the MV Explorer. The current fall 2015 voyage is on a different ship now called The World Odyssey I believe.

The final day, April 29, 2015, everyone sat around in the hallway, around the snack bar, and anywhere that had a lot of people. I was with Heather, Oswaldo, and Arien and recorded a video of us singing the Lion King song we did in our acapella group, High C’s. I made a ship tour video and just documented as much as I could. When it was finally time to get off and my sea, the Adriatic Sea, got called, I got in a long line. As I slowly got closer and closer to the front, the tears started flowing more and more among everyone. I got the whole thing on video with my last descent down those tall stairs and into our debarkation port of Southampton, England. I had mixed emotions: sad for the voyage to be over, excited to be in England, happy I still had 3 more weeks to travel around, and confused because it felt like just the other day I was starting Semester at Sea.

The stairs ended and I finally put my feet on solid ground. Semester at Sea was officially over but a new adventure was about to begin…

FINAL THOUGHTS:

If Semester at Sea sparks any interest at all in you, MAKE IT HAPPEN. Yes, it is expensive, but I was determined and got thousands of dollars in scholarships, even more money from family and friends, and saved up some of my own money as well. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I’ve never learned so much and it caused the greatest growth in me as a person. I’m at a loss of words trying to describe how much Semester at Sea means to me. Right now, December 11, 2015, about 7 months after Semester at Sea ended, I still think about it every single day. It comes up in so many of my conversations and is such a great conversation starter as well. Not only will it mean so much to you, but it looks good to employers. I got both an internship and an assistant job the semester following Semester at Sea, and we definitely talked about SAS for a while which made me stand out. If the only thing holding you back is money, just go for it. Take out the loans, start the fundraiser, work your ass off…because the experience you will get is like none other.

Semester at Sea changed my life. I’ve become a global citizen and have learned to love, appreciate, and understand other cultures. And this experience has ignited a fire in me that can only be temporarily subdued with travel.