My journal Aug. 8th:
Ahh! Last night = worst ever! Had to spend 16 hrs at Stansted airport and didn't (couldn't) sleep a wink, either of us! We changed locations lots, but to no avail. My last 2 weebly posts didn't work either, so that's wasted internet money. We had our Pounds changed to Euros, so we couldn't buy food at the airport and just had to eat our leftover muffins and cereal. Tired, headachey, so hungry, exhausted and discouraged, we left on our flight to Cork.
We put on our iPod to life our spirits. We didn't know the true depth of each other's feeligns at that point, but found out later that our morale was so low and we both felt under spiritual attack. Yet as we flew over Cork, the clouds cleared and our hearts leapt. It was as if God had prepared the most beautiful day for our arrival! It was warm and sunny, and we were so pleased to be away from airplanes.
The airport staff were SUPER friendly, and the first security officer we saw told us to check out the town of Kinsale on the southern coast of the county of Cork and about 30 mins from the airport. We ate the most glorious Subway breakfast and then headed off on the bus to Kinsale. And WOW, the scenery here is incredible! We find it not only breathtaking, but a breath of fresh air for us outdoorists who were beginning to feel claustrophobic in the big, tourist-filled city. Don't get me wrong, London was amazing, but the green pastures have been calling to us.
We stopped at the tourist centre in and got directions to some of Kinsale's attractions and to a hostel. We thought about sleeping in the park, but we REALLY needed a good night's rest.
We found Dempsey's Hostel, along with Rory, a somewhat flaky, Barry Manilow-loving, chipper as all get-out young Irishman. He's the receptionist/maid and he's also the one who called the doctor after David's incident. More on that in a bit.
From there we walked a few gorgeous kilometers up to Fort Charles which overlooks the inlet and yaght-filled sleepy harbour. It was REALLY neat, used during a battle in 1601, and we didn't pay to get into the major part, but we got some pretty rad pics nonetheless.
On the way home David was stung by a bee and his whole, poor foot is soo swollen! And now we've napped for 4 hours (oops! alarm misfired...) and then walked up the road to some rolling corn and wheat fields. Most fantastic day yet!
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(Previously journaled 3 days ago) [Written three days ago... lost in cyberspace... trying again! :)] I have a crush on British accents--they're so beautiful. But it's embarassing! I can't speak to an accented person without picking up their accent. We had a teensy TV in our room at the B&B in London. After bouncing around the city all day (LOVE the place!), we'd pick up dinner at the market and watch one of the 4 channels. We loved the News! It was so interesting, funny, upbeat and optimistic, and then you have those lovely accents again! Also, Britain has an odd assortment of absurd game shows and reality TV. My new favourite park EVER is called Hyde Park. It used to be one of the queen's private parts, erm, I mean PARTS (ha, still jet-legged much?), and it is incredible! Firstly, it's definitely massive for a park, and then there's this wide (like 60 ft) dirt path around the perimeter... FOR HORSES! AND there's a cross country jumping section too! I saw a few riders go by... definitely jealous. We hung out at the park for a bit one afternoon. David snoozed, I fed the geese and their fellow duck friends a muffin, and then David's dad and I played Crib. We got kicked off the lawn chairs we were sitting on because, apparently, just because there are chairs on the grass it doesn't mean they are free to sit on. Oh, we went to the British Museum and it's INCREDIBLE! By far the most educational and cool museum. We got to see real mummies! And the teeniest receipt written on a clay tablet from thousands of years ago! And the hieroglyphics and cuneform is mind-boggling. We also touched (shh! It's forbidden!) the stone steps that were a part of King Darius' palace... meaning that Daniel (as in, of the lion's den) probably walked up them! Then we walked by the sarcophogi and I proceeded to tell David and his dad that I was pretty sure that the ancient Egyptians believed a sarcophogus would heal the person inside, to which David's dad debunked my "reliable source" as the movie Stargate... wow, I'm so cool. Annnnnd no, they're just fancy coffins. My bad. :) We went to Harrods, a super luxurious department store in London, and holy moly, that was fantastic! It was like walking through a fancy hotel, but you could BUY stuff. There was a whole floor of designer perfume and purses, a large section of individual chocolates and truffles from all over Europe, a classy fish and meat market, a whole floor of toys and games, a massive pet section, a floor of sporting equipment (including horse tack, etc... that was weird to see on the 5th floor of a mall!), a table and chairs costing £165,000 (over $350,000!), and Henry VIII's cognac for £20,000. UNBELIEVABLE. The escalator was Egyptian-themed, and everything everywhere (including the washrooms) made me feel like I was in a castle! On the 7th, we went to Whitehall to see the royal guard and their horses. That was pretty sweet... AND we got on British television! They were filming the news near the fountain where we had lunch, and so we walked (quite conspicuously) behind the news anchor. Twice. All in all, London was FABULOUS! I would love to spend more time here. We visited most all of the touristy places--look for David's pics coming up soon! Minor disappointments? -didn't get to have high tea with Her Royal Highness -didn't get to exercise the royal horses -didn't get to play Quidditch with Harry Potter -didn't get to search for the holy grail with Monty Python and his crew -didn't get to play a set with U2 Ahh well, perhaps we'll fit that in on the way home :). Well....this is going to be the shortest blog ever! Janelle and I have been trying to get these computers here at the airport to work for a while now and we are going craxy!!!!! They dont allow you to upload pics onto our website and only let you do blogs sometimes....soooooo....the dilio is that we promise to send your way the best blogging action with crazy pics and movies youve ever seen once we are in ireland(we arive friday morning), until then im going to attepmt to throw some pics to facebook......not sure if its gonna work but we shall seee.......weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Janelle just posted a sweet update but i see now it never was published on our site......so i will publish what i am writing now and see if it works.....here we goooooooooooooo.............. Hi friends! "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you |
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