Day 11

My trip is officially at its end!
I can't believe it, actually! It just felt like yesterday that we got off our plane in Ireland... And now here we are, boarding our last plane back home from London... I have to say, this was one of the best trips I've ever been on! I've seen so much, experienced a lot, made a lot of new friends, and had loads and loads of fun! I couldn't ask for anything more :)
Having the chance to visit all of these places felt like a dream come true, really! Words can't even describe...I did so many things that I never expected to do! I visited Dublin and London, two of the most well-known cities in all of Europe! All the things I've seen... Completely breathtaking :) I have always wanted to visit London, and here I was, waiting for the plane back home... London, home to the 2012 Olympics this year... Simply AMAZING!
This morning we got up rather early and had our last English breakfast at the hotel- scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, crossaints, toast with jam and honey... yummy!!! We packed up and got our things ready on the coach bus, making our way to the airport. After going through security and getting our tickets, we were boarding our plane to New York before we even knew it! It all happened so fast, in a blink of an eye... But I was happy :) I was more than happy about everything I've experienced! A once-in-a-lifetime trip! I stayed up on the entire trip back home with my friends. On our wonderful 7-hour flight, we had pretty good food, I have to admit...

For lunch, we had pizza and some delicious ice cream! We had a 2 hour layover at JFK, which wasn't too bad compared to our other layover. We got some snacks for the plane ride, had Starbucks, and enjoyed our last little bit of free time all together on this amazing trip! At this point, every second counted, every smile, every laugh... Why not end this trip in the best way possible, right?

We boarded our plane to O'Hare and on the flight back home, I couldn't ask for better seats. All of my friends and I were sitting right next to each other, having fun, talking, listening to music, and taking lots of pictures! Even the view from the airplane window was amazing! We landed at O'Hare and it immediately felt like the very first day of the trip when we were boarding our flight to Europe... I couldn't believe it... Were we really going back home already? It seemed like a lifetime ago that we were here in Illinois and yet it was only about 2 weeks ago. I get the same thoughts and feelings everytime I travel... But I guess that's good, as it only makes me more eager to travel the entire world! I love traveling and seeing new places I've always ever dreamed of seeing! It's the best feeling in the world and truly a passion of mine :)
Before we knew it, we picked up our luggage and made our way to the front of the airport, getting onto our yellow school bus back home to Grayslake North. The bus ride was so much fun! We ended up singing songs all the way home, laughing and having the time of our lives! And truly, "Call Me Maybe" is like THE song of the trip! We sing it all the time! I've made so many new friends on this trip! I hope I get to see everyone again soon :)

It was when we were pulling up to the school that I realized that I was actually home. The world seems smaller and smaller each time I travel, which is weird knowing how far away Europe is from here! We were all greeted by our friends and family, as they were waiting for us at the front of the school. My mom and brother greeted me with big smiles on their faces, me hugging them back with an even bigger smile! I couldn't be more thankful that I had such an opportunity, and if it weren't for my family, I wouldn't have been to all the places I've been to! Thank you so much!!!

Like I said, I love to travel! So hopefully, in the near future, I'll be going someplace totally different, visting new places and meeting even more people :) After all, it's a world worth seeing! I wanna visit London again someday :)
Thank you so much again and I can truly now say that this was the most AMAZING trip ever!
Hey! Guess what?
I've been to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England!! :D
See you soon!

Day 10

Finally, our trip was coming to an end, our last day in London is today... We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Afterwards, we split up into two groups, as some of us were going on the bike tour around London.
My group and I took a tube to the place where we were going to meet out tour guide, Chris, for the bike tour. After a while of waiting, he finally met us and we walked around the block into this tunnel that was covered in graffitti... every inch of the tunnel wall was covered with colorful spraypaint! Usually it's illegal to spraypaint around the city; however, in this tunnel, it was legal, which was kind of cool, actually!

I personally thought that this bike tour was a lot of fun and definitely worth it! We rode our bikes around London, around the streets full of people and cars, and really got to see this wonderful city from a different perspective! :) The bikes were a little different than what I'm used to, as the brakes were switched around... The back wheel break is on the right in America, where here it was on the left, as the roads are flip-flopped, too. So, it definitely took me a while to get used to that, but other than this, it was loads of fun!
Our first stop was the London Eye, which is one of the biggest ferris wheels in the world! It's huge! Currently, the world is constantly competing for who can build the biggest structure... Man, if this one is huge, how big are all the other ones?! haha
We drove down a couple of streets to a wonderful view of the parliament palace and Big Ben. Big Ben, the clocktower, is one of the most well-known icons of London! And here I was, staring at its beauty... We didn't get up to it real close, but it was close enough for me to take it all in- the view.
As we rode through some small alleys, the streets were still covered with festive decorations and it was pretty cool to see it all!
We even got to see the church where the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate was held last year! I thought that this was pretty unique! I mean, I've seent the church on TV, but to see it in real life... Wow. It had such great detail and everything was so decorative, it was hard to believe that I was standing in the very spot where the married couple walked through. It was an amazing feeling!

We stopped by a couple of other places, too, including ones we saw yesterday, like the Trafalgar Square. If I could, I'd go there everyday and visit :) We saw the famous Savoy Hotel, too, where famous celebrities come, as well as the Royal Ballet School!

The bike tour was loads of fun and definitely gave me a different view of the city. Because there's so many cars here in London, no wonder that a lot people ride their bikes around town. And I have to admit, it's pretty fun, actually! I loved it!

After we dropped off our bikes, we took another tube to the other side of the main city, were we met the other half of our group (which went to a couple museums and just walked around the streets).

Together, we walked down the big market street, where there was a store, after store, after store, I think you get the point... The place was completely crowded by people! There's hundreds of people here! You could barely get through! Thinking it'd be easier, our tour guide led us through one of the big market places, walking through a bunch of little vendors... It took a while to get through... We even lost some of our group along the way! As half of us were waiting outside the market, the other half was inside, crazily trying to make it out on the street and find us. I thought it was pretty funny! But I could tell that the teachers were a bit mad that they didn't stick to the group... It's definitely hard to.

After walking a long time, we finally stopped and got at least 3 hours to shop around the area and grab something to eat for lunch. There were so many stores here! I was glad I had some time to get my souvenirs from London, as the other day we didn't have much time... My group and I (Maureen, Hannah, Jessi, Joe, Joe, and Jack) grabbed some pizza and chinese food for lunch. I was amazed at all of the options they had to eat here! It was like every culture was crammed into a small space! The chinese food tasted funny to me, but that's probably cause it was made differently here than in the US. After our wonderful shopping spree in Camden Market, where I bought a bunch of stuff, we walked to another part of the city. Here, we walked into a huge tunnel that seemed ENDLESS... But we were walking under the Thames River! I thought that was pretty cool! But it was neverending... when we got back out, it seemed as if we never saw daylight haha :P The view from the river was breathtaking!

We took yet another tube after tube after tube... Truly saying, tubes are a big part of the city's way of life! If it weren't for them, I don't know how people would get around. However, everytime we took it, it was completely packed, always trying to find some seats to sit down... And if it weren't for the teachers and tour guide, I would probably be lost by now, trying to find my way back. There are so many routes, it's ridiculous!
Anyways, we finally got off at our stop, right in front of the London 2012 Olympics Stadium! I couldn't believe that I was looking at where the Opening Ceremony would take place in a couple of weeks! It was amazing! I saw the Track and Field area, the swimming pools, the town the athletes were going to stay in... It was... WOW. This was definitely a highlight of the day!!! No doubt about it :)
Then, most of us went to the Jack the Ripper tour. I have to admit, the guy who led us definitely played his part! He appeared as a really creepy, old, mysterious guy... and in real life, he was really funny and nice! He told us a lot about the history of London, which was cool.
We had dinner at an Indian restaurant... It was definitely a different experience. I mean, I've never really had Indian cuisine before. And I thought it was kind of weird how England adopted Curry as their national dish, but I can see why, as there are so many cultures here! I thought I wasn't going to like Curry, but I tried it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, actually! Which was good :) trying new things!
And that was how my last day in London ended! I had lots of fun with my wonderful friends! :D We couldn't stop laughing and having the time of our lives!
London is definitely on the top of my list :) I wanna come back here again.
As for now, I can't believe we'll be leaving here tomorrow... It's all too fast! haha
But I love every second of it!!!

Day 9

Reflect on the initial thoughts of London
Ever since I was small, I've always wanted to visit London, especially because it's so well-known along with Paris. I've always visualized London as a pretty big city, full of people, stores, markets, food, the big red buses, the oh-so-famous telephone booths, noises, cars, the list could go on and on. Going to London someday always seemed like a dream to me... And yet here I was! :) I wasn't wrong either... London is a big city, but I never expected it
to be so jam-packed, bustling with people and cars, and THIS huge!
Our tour guide told us London would be the biggest city we would see, but this was not what I had in mind. The very center of London is known as the "city", which is like Downtown. There's also an East End and a West End, which are completely opposite of each other, so far apart. By actually walking around and touring, I realized that a city couldn't get bigger than this. Even though we visited the main sightseeing spots all-over London, there was still so much left to see! It would probably take days or even weeks to do so... London is a beautiful city! I love it!Waking up on the midnight train was definitely something different! I've never been on a midnight train before, only a Metra, so this was a big change, especially cause we had cabins, too. Limited space, a non-working sink, a bunk bed, and a bathroom completed on the other end of the wagon... I had a goodnight's sleep though :) As soon as we met our tour guide, Nikko, at the train station, we got onto our coach bus and started our bus tour. Now, keep in mind that we were all still tired from the night before, our backs aching, and feeling all disgusting as there were no showers on the train...

Anyways, Nikko stopped at another train station, which had a recreation of the 9 and 3/4 platform from Harry Potter (the wall he runs into to get to Hogwarts from the train station). He also led us to the bridge that was used in the filming of the Half-Blood Prince. I have to say, there are a lot of Harry Potter related things in London! Even the main street with all of the shops from the first movie. We stopped at a bunch of other buildings and churches, which remain a big part of London's history. After our tour, we checked into our hotel and got time to take showers and get ready for the rest of the day. We had lunch at Hummis Bros... It was interesting. I ate lunch, but I have to admit, even though I eat almost everything, I'm not a big fan of Hummis... But at least I tried something different :) Not too soon after, we went on a walking tour around London, seeing everything we didn't get to see earlier by bus. It was a long walk to get everywhere... We had free time in the Camden Market, which was a lot of fun, as there were a lot of stores and markets here! The Market was still covered with Jubilee decorations, which was a big celebration in the past week or so, we missed it by at least 2 days...

Then, we walked around some more, walking down the main street, visiting many famous landmarks and buildings, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Square, walking through Chinatown, and then finally wandering through the sketchy part of the city... and many more other places! We even found a couple of telephone booths and fit 6 of us in there! We were definitely cramming! Joe, Jack, Hannah, Jessi, Maureen, and I had a blast getting inside the telephone booth! It was fun :) I've always wanted to do that!

Theatre is a huge part of London's culture! We had a chance to see a live musical at the Pheonix Theatre called "Blood Brothers", which was a play about two twin brothers that got separated at birth, trying to find their way and who they were as they grew older, eventually becoming best friends and not even knowing they were related. They encountered many problems which resulted in their death at the end. A story about two twin brothers who were born and died at the same time... I loved the musical! It was full of music and drama and dancing... I've always loved musicals.

But to see one in London, one of the biggest theatre cities in the world, was like a dream come true! :) That was definitely a highlight of my trip! I'll always remember it. We took a tube (a subway or underground train) back to the hotel and went to sleep, anxioiusly waiting for our last day of the trip in London...

Day 8

Reflection on Edinburgh and its architecture and style of the city
Edinburgh is an interesting city, that's for sure! I'm quite amazed by the architecture here. It's all dated very far back in history and you can tell, yet at the same time, the exotic feeling brings about a different atmosphere. I have to say, it's very different from Chicago... Chicago is full of "new" buildings and skyscrapers... Edinburgh is the complete opposite. As weird as this city seems to me here in Scotland, I love the buildings here! The colors, the styles, and the history related to it all. The main street is beautiful! It's definitely full of stores, but most of the stores are filled with kilts, I'm not gonna lie. It makes me laugh, but I guess that's the cool thing about Edinburgh! You'll never find stuff like this anywhere else in the world in such a setting. There's a lot of street performers, too... It's not everyday you get to see that either. Edinburgh is beautiful city!

This morning, we started off with a bus tour around Edinburgh, visiting and learning about the many sites here. Our tour guide's name was Keith... He was really entertaining! He wore a full Scottish costume, kilt and everything, and how he talked, loudly emphasizing everything, made everyone laugh! Hey, at least we started off the day with laughs and smiles :) Before we went over to the Edinburgh Castle, we dropped off our luggage for the midnight train tonight at a hotel not too far away from the train station...

The only bad thing about this was that we were only allowed to check-in one piece of luggage, which ended up being my suitcase, and we all ended up lugging around our heavy backpacks for the rest of the day... It was soo heavy and annoying by the end of the day, but oh well. Anyways, we finally walked into the castle grounds and I was amazed. I've never ever seen a castle like this before! Edinburgh Castle was huge! There was so much to see, we almost ran out of time... But our tour guide, which made people stare at us haha, made sure we got to see everything that we needed to see :) After he left, we had about an hour or so to walk around the castle grounds and stop at a cafe for a small snack. Then we all met somewhere towards the entrance where cannon was shot at exactly 1pm. I got scared, I'm not gonna lie! I definitely wasn't expecting it! We got a half day to just walk around the city, which was a lot of free time, actually! Plus, it was raining and pouring, so that just made things even better... We were pretty muched soaked all day long.

Together with Hannah, Maureen, Jessi, Joe, and Jack, we went into a bajillion stores, walked down really far to both ends of the main street, and stopped at at least 5 or so different cafes, trying to find a place to sit down and relax before the rest of the day ahead of us. We had lunch at a restaurant and it was probably one of the biggest meals I've eaten on the trip so far... I had a fajita :) 

Around 6, we went on a Ghost Tour, which was really fun and really scary! I loved how the two guides acted out all of the important figures in history, making everything fun to listen to. At one point, I was chosen as a volunteer and got accused of being a witch... Fun stuff. Albert was a beggar that collected dead bodies and Joe got punished for stealing a banana, too. The guide pointed out many stories that remain a big part of Edinburgh's history. It was fun, even though I jumped and got scared a lot! For dinner, we walked across town to a little Italian restaurant, where the food was delicious :) Dinner was fun, no doubt about it! After, we had to walk quickly to the hotel, pick up our luggage, and then walk quickly again to the train station.
We finally boarded our midnight train to LONDON! I was more than excited! Our cabin on the train was really tiny, but it was different! I liked it! Maureen got locked in the bathroom before the train even started... I thought that was pretty funny! After this long day, I needed a good night's sleep, and I did! The beds were so comfy :) Before we knew it, we arrived in London! I was more than excited! Words can't even describe...

Day 7

Poem inspired by a photo we took near William Wordsworth's house, using his style of writing...

On this fine bright morning of happiness I smile from ear to ear,
Thinking about the little flower from my big garden.
I never knew that one such flower could change my entire world-
A world of my happiest moments,
memorable times,
and beautiful views.
Covered in teardrops from the sky,
A golden yellow color of the sun,
A bundle of buds hang from a green stem.
Nothing could be more beautiful
Than this flower from my garden.
Its presence lights up my world
In a way that no other part of nature can.
My life is like this flower,
Now that I think about it some more,
ready to seize a new day.
A life full of happiness and sadness,
ups and downs,
laughs and jokes,
and then tears and cries...
This little flower represents my entire life and this moment,
Its delicate petals, golden color, and teardrops all over.
My life is beautiful just the way it is,
I wouldn't change it for the world, for this flower...
It's unique in its own way,
Grasping the hearts of many and taking chances.
This little flower speaks to me,
As if we've been friends forever and ever.
The power of nature...
What a wonderful thing.


Today we visited William Wordsworth's house and garden. It was breathtaking, especially all of the different flowers and plants in the garden. He really couldn't have had any prettier view from his window into the Lake District :)

As we left this part of England, we stopped by Keswick, a small village not too far away, for lunch and some free time. My friends and I stopped at Bryson's Cafe for some ice cream and then walked around the village, stopping into a couple stores. I was quite surprised, as there were so many people with dogs here. Everywhere you looked, you were bound to see a dog or a puppy... So different from Chicago and where I come from. After this fun stop, we continued to make our way to Edinburgh, Scotland. Our hotel was interesting... A hostile... Barely any floor space, two bunk beds, a sink outside the bathroom, and the toilet and shower sharing the same room with the same floor, nothing else. It was interesting, definitely different from all of our other hotel rooms. We had dinner, which was in a sketchy bar down below the lobby, and afterwards, we had some free time to visit the main street. I have to say, as weird as our day started here in Edinburgh, the city itself was fascinating... the buildings, the architecture, the people, the atmosphere... It was different. Today was full of new things!