We started off our day with what has become a pretty basic routine. Set an alarm for an hour early, snooze said alarm repeatedly, remember you have to pack up your entire room, frantically hop out of bed and hope you don't forget anything. If I make it back to the States with the same stuff I left with and all souvenirs in tact, it will be a miracle. You would think I would be better at getting everything together by now, but I guess when you constantly go to bed at 2:30 am that's a good enough excuse as any to be scatterbrained. We got on a bus and drove to the botanical gardens in Edinburgh. They weren't that interesting and everyone headed for the cafe as soon as our teacher stopped talking. I'm not going to say the lack of excitement and energy of the group was due to the pub crawl that took place the night before, but I also won't say it's not. We left the botans and I had a semi comfortable nap on the 2 hour bus ride to or next destination, Little Sparta. This experience was also not very enjoyable. Our teacher lined us up next the girls in our sorority (talk about letter your letters define you, gosh) and put us in groups of three with other members of the group. As a group we had to walk around the garden and try to relate it to the other gardens we have seen. If it hadn't been so dang freezing it probably wouldn't have been so bad! The garden was in a really pretty part of Scotland though. It looked much more similar to the image I had in my head of what Scotland would look like, rolling green hills full of sheep and cows frolicking about. Very pretty. Very cold.
It was about 3:00 when we got back on the bus to defrost. We were headed toward the coast to catch our ferry ride that would take us to Ireland. I've never been on a ferry, so I didn't really have any expectations. Our boat was a cruise ship!!! There was an arcade, a spa, resturaunts, a gift shop, a coffee shop, even a movie theater!!! Unfortunately, the main difference between this and a cruise is on a cruise the stuff is free...
It just so happened that almost everyone on our ferry was returning from the biggest soccer tournament for Ireland! From what I understand, it would be the equivalent of UGA beating Alabama in the SEC championship. All the Irish people were singing songs and drinking for the full 3 hour ride. It probably would have been annoying if it hadn't been so entertaining!! When I read Harry Potter, that was how I imagined quidditch teams acting and carrying on. The people had scarves on and big hats, everyone had on a jersey, some had face paint, and even the little kids were decked out. I find their spirit quite admirable and I think we could learn a thing or two from them! Toward the end of the ride the crowd started getting a little rambunctious. A man came up to me in my chair and started yelling very closely in my face about how much he hated Obama. He was going on swearing about how he is a disgrace to our country and we should be embarrassed, give or take a few F bombs and some Irish slang I don't understand. Lucky for me another man yanked him back right as I was about to fall out of my chair from leaning back so far. He kept inching toward me whenever I backed away; as if it was my fault that Obama was president. Thanks Obama.
We are at our second to last hotel of the trip and it is blowing my mind. It's the nicest one we stay in all trip, so it's also the nicest breakfast we are having all trip :) My diet plan isn't exactly going as expected. I thought I just wouldn't eat once we got to London since no one every has anything nice to say about the food in the UK, but instead everyone just eats American food. More fries and more burgers. I am pumped to eat some fruit and non-fried food! (Did I just say that?)
Time for some beauty sleep! Next stop, Dublin. Goodnight everyone!
~emily
You shouldve told the Irish guy you understood exactly where he was coming from! Great post - I feel like i have sort of been on your trip. Thanks so much for taking the time to write.
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