Bath & Stonehenge!

Hello Everyone!

I just got back from a wonderful short weekend trip to Bath and Stonehenge.  I have got to tell you, it was absolutely gorgeous.  I have officially found my new favorite place in England!  I was surrounded by the best scenery and people all weekend long.  I took so many pictures and videos...and I leave for Switzerland on Wednesday!  It's unbelievable how fast time is flying over here...less than 40ish days and I will be home again!!!  It's very exciting to think about all of the adventures I still have yet to come, and how soon I will be home again.  But back to the whole point of this blog- Bath and Stonehenge!

Bath is quite a large town that is nestled away in southern England, which is about 4 hours of driving away from Harlaxton.  The sights, the shopping, the history; everything is completely wonderful.  We started off our day at the Roman baths.  It was such a cool sight to see...I figured there would only be the one bath, but there were multiple baths that are actually located under the city, which was really cool to learn.  The Baths may have been one of my favorite parts of Bath itself.  Here are some pictures, so feast your eyes!  I went below sea level to see all of these areas, which was also cool.  It was like a small Roman city under there.
I got to see many different types of Roman artifacts that have been discovered by historians.  However, everything is really left up to interpretation because they really don't know the intention of the Romans with every single item.  The baths that I sat next to are the ones that are featured in the bird's eye view picture (top).  This is a naturally occurring spring that is STILL going, even in 2012.  I was able to touch the water that was running inside, which was surprisingly warm and tasted slightly like iron.  It was still pretty awesome to sit there are think of the Romans during this period in time.
After I left the Baths, I was able to go to Bath Abbey, which is an outstanding cathedral that is located right outside of the Roman Baths.  It was an outstanding sight; the walls, the arches, the stained glass windows were all so beautiful.  You would think by now I would get sick of looking at these unique buildings, but I'm still fascinated by them every time I enter the building.  Everyone is so quiet because their mouths are dropped to the ceiling!  I really enjoyed walking around, and one of my nursing peers noticed that Thomas Boelynn was buried in this cathedral, which happens to be that father of Ann Boelynn, who is one of Henry VIII's wives (six degrees of separation right there!).
I spent the rest of the day wandering around shopping through small stores, and I ate dinner at a place called, "Giraffe" with some friends.  It was a funky restaurant located in the shopping district (which is almost all of Bath!) and we all had a great time.  From there we got a cab ride back to the hostel, which was quite an experience.  Let's just say, it was NOT a CashCab, even though we were led to believe it was!

The next morning, we left for Glastonbury Abbey and Wells Cathedral.  These were both magnificent places to go; one was a very structured and Victorian style cathedral, while the other was in ruins from a great fire, but some of the walls were still in place.  The weather was absolutely stunning on this day; I was able to walk around without a coat on!  We had a great time at these locations, and then we made our way back to Bath.  I went to different places in the city, including the Circus and the Royal Crescent.  Enjoy the short videos I created!

On Sunday on our way home, we went to Stonehenge, which was also a very unique trip experience.  We were able to walk near the stones, but not through the middle because of stones moving and falling down.  We had a good time even though it was BONE chilling cold!  From there we went to Salisbury, which is where some special people I know have already traveled to.  :)  The town was beautiful and hopefully I can upload those pictures soon!  But right now I'm getting ready for bed because I leave for SWITZERLAND tomorrow!!!  I cannot wait for this trip, and I ask that you all pray for safe travels for me and my friend Sara.  We will try to check in via facebook every now and then, but I should be home on Sunday afternoon with a possible blog posted!  Thanks for keeping up with my blog, and until next time (MORE time, honestly...I still have more stories from Bath and Stonehenge!).

Cheers! <3
Taylor

Upcoming Trips to Bath & Stonehenge and Switzerland!!

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while since I've last checked in through blogging.  I am staying at the Manor for the last time for a full weekend until I come home so I can work on homework and projects.  Also, I'm catching up on the sleep that I know I will be rid of when I'm traveling these next few weeks.  I figured I would give you a little update about my life though and the trips that I will be going on!

I will be going to Bath & Stonehenge this coming weekend (October 19-21)!  I'm pretty excited about this trip because I did schedule it a little last minute, which was about three weeks ago.  Apparently Bath is an extraordinary city and there is a lot of shopping opportunity, so I'm pretty excited to see the culture here.  It looks like a completely beautiful city, so I'm pretty excited to see it.  I'm also going to Stonehenge, which is pretty amazing as well.  I don't have an exact itinerary yet because we have not had our school trip briefing for it.  More details to come this week hopefully on Tuesday!  I know two of my roommates are going on this trip, and I'm really excited to spend some time outside of Harlaxton with them.  It's nice to be able to get away with each other, and I don't know when the next time we will all be going on a trip together with each other.  

I have officially booked Switzerland!!!!!!!!! I am beyond excited about this trip because I have been dying to go here ever since I was a senior in high school and I found out I would be able to study abroad when I went to Evansville.  This trip is like the tip top item on my bucket list.  I am completely blessed to be going on this trip and I'm so glad my family supports my decision to go here.  I am planning this trip with my friend Sara Doss, who is also a nursing major and one of my sorority sisters, so it's pretty exciting that I get to go somewhere with her as well.  We will be leaving the Manor on Wednesday  October 24th to take a train into London Gatwick, which is the airport we will fly out of later that evening.  We will arrive in Zurich that night and take a train to Interlaken, which will get us to our destination around midnight.  We will have a ten minute walk to our hostel, and we plan on sleeping in a little bit the next morning.  On Thursday, we will be going on our PARAGLIDING adventure over the Alps!!!!  It will be at 2:00pm in the afternoon, and I'm SOO excited!  It is going to be one of the most thrilling things I will ever do in my life guaranteed!  On Friday we plan on hiking in the woods, which will be a lot of fun.  There are free trails that many backpackers take.  Saturday morning Sara and I will take a train back to Zurich so we can explore that city and then we will fly out Sunday morning and get back to the Manor on Sunday afternoon.  It will be a complete blast and you will all have to pray for safe travels for us!   

The next weekend, I will be taking a day trip to Cadbury World and Birmingham on Saturday November 3rd.  I am really excited to get some fresh Cadbury chocolate (place your orders now!!).  The factory is kind of like a Willy Wonka experience, which is going to be awesome.  There are a lot of people from our school going on this trip, including our nursing professor and her kids.  I'm excited to go somewhere different and have an unique experience.  Birmingham is known for exemplary shopping centers, so hopefully I don't have to buy another suit case to bring all of my new clothes home!  I think I may have to take a trip into London on Friday just so I can get back to see the city :) 

Well, it's back to writing papers for me at the Manor this weekend.  I want to get all of my homework done that I can because I have a lot of trips coming up pretty fast!  I can't believe that I will be home in less than 55 days!  I love it here, but I can't wait to see my family again because I miss them all so much.  Thanks for keeping up with my adventures and hopefully I can get some more information about Bath and Stonehenge this week!  

Cheers!
Taylor <3

Weekend at Harlaxton

Hello Everyone!

It's about 1:00pm here, but only 7:00am your time...so while I wait for you all to wake up so I can Skype my family, it's blogging time!  I decided to stay at the Manor this weekend- I had some trips I could go on, but I'm still excited over Ireland and I had some homework to get done....so I would say it's worth it to stay here.  Besides, the weather is beautiful and I may just have to go on a bike ride this afternoon to get in the sunshine and to avoid homework for a while :)

As you have seen through TWO blog posts, I went to Ireland.  Yes, I am still in love with it :) I find myself thinking about it quite often, and I have looked at weekends that I could go back already because I loved it that much.  However, there are other countries to travel to, so we will wait on that for later in life.  This week at the Manor has been pretty busy/crazy, so I will fill you in as much as I can on what has been going on.  

Monday was my nursing midterm, so we were busy busy busy with school work.  Also, in British Studies we covered an entire century of history, so my hand was extremely cramped.  

Tuesday I had a work day for nursing; we are planning a health fair for students to address unhealthy behaviors.  We are going to present information in interactive ways to them through the health fair.  In order to evaluate that they have improved their lifestyle, we are going to hold an Olympics in November for students to compete against each other.  I think it's going to be a great experience over all.  My part in this project is Logistics, so I am overseeing a lot of this project with Desiree, my friend in nursing since freshman year.  I think it's going to be a great success...but more details on that later!  

Wednesday I again had British Studies and we learned about all of the opinions about the Declaration of Independence from our instructor.  It was honestly funny when they said, "We could talk about how the bloody blue coats beat us, but I think you have gotten enough of that subject..."  After lecture on Wednesday, I went to Burghley House, which is the house that Harlaxton was designed after.  It was SO BEAUTIFUL, but of course, I forgot my camera's SD card AND they wouldn't allow pictures inside the house.  One of my friends took pictures, so hopefully I can share them once she posts them.  We spent the entire afternoon at the house and in the gardens.  First, the wildlife there is incredible.  I believe we all referred to it as the "Hunter's Dream", because there were hundreds of deer running everywhere.  Students could even walk up to them and pet them!  Second, the gardens were my favorite part.  We entered "The Gardens of Surprises" and I had no idea what to expect....and I was seriously surprised.  The entire garden was like a water playground, complete with water curtains, mirror mazes, water houses; you name it!  When you left, you had to run through the curtain of water, but it shut off when you went through thankfully.  When we got back to school, it was Open Mic Night in the Bistro, so we went downstairs to hear the hidden talents of students.  I have never laughed so hard at some of the poetry that I heard.  Someone even composed the "Ode to the Refectory", which was the truth to say the least.  The Bistro was packed to the maximum capacity that night, and they even ran out of different ciders!

Thursday was spent doing homework because I don't have classes that day.  I did have a nursing term paper to write.  My roommates also left for different countries; Bailey went to Scotland with her best friend and her mom, and Erin went to Sweden with some of her best friends here as well.  Heather went on day trips to Oxford and York this weekend with the school.  While I love my roommates, it's really nice to get a weekend of peace and quiet in the Manor.  I normally wake up to people running up and down the hallways on the weekend, but today I woke up on my own to birds chirping, which was really weird!  Thursday night the small group of people that remained at the Manor hung out in the Bistro talking about home and some people attempted to reenact Open Mic Night, which was just too funny to watch.  

Friday I finished my nursing term paper just as the fire alarm went off. I was so nervous that I didn't hit save as we headed outside, but no worries, it stayed the same.  Phew!  I stayed in the movie room all day on Friday, watching Top Gun, Walk the Line, Casino Royal, and Footloose.  I would say I was pretty productive; I was able to study for my British Studies quiz next week, go over my nursing notes ,and start working on my British Studies term paper.  It was nice when people got back from day trips- they all stopped in to say hello and join for a few minutes on a movie.   This day was really exciting though, because my Little sister in my sorority got a little sister, making me a Grandma!  I also got to Skype my big sister in my sorority and catch up for a few minutes.  Finally, I FINALLY PLANNED SWITZERLAND!!!!  I am leaving on Wednesday, October 24th after classes and flying from London Gatwick to Zurich, Switzerland.  I will be going by train to Interlaken, which is supposed to be one of the thrill capitals of the world.  On Thursday we are paragliding over the Swiss Alps, and getting a train on Saturday back to Zurich to spend a day there and see the lake.  Sunday morning we are flying back to London Gatwick and we should be back to the Manor for the roast meat and potatoes dinner.  I will post more details next week :) :) :) :) 

Saturday (TODAY!) I woke up and cleaned my room jamming to music along the way.  I have more to work on for my term paper, but I will be taking a bike ride fairly soon so I can get out in the sunshine that is teasing me from my window.  I also want to Skype my family because I miss them dearly, and I believe my friends are dragging me out into Grantham tonight.  :)

Well, back to homework until the family gets online!  Cheers :)
Taylor <3

The Ring of Kerry AKA The Ring of Wonders

Hello Everyone!
I hope this post finds you doing well today.  I unfortunately woke up feeling a bit under the weather...so I am going to try to fight off the sickness by staying in bed for the most part and getting homework done.  But before I do that, I wanted to give more information that was requested about the Ring of Kerry bus ride that I went through which has been my favorite experience since being at Harlaxton!  Here it goes...
The day we left for the Ring of Kerry (Friday) was absolutely gorgeous.  The sun was starting to rise, the clouds were dark (but parting away!), and the mountains were in sight and beautiful.  I was told by past students that the bus ride was awful, so I was trying to keep an open mind about being on a bus for 8 hours that day.  Little did I know, it was about to be the best experience thus far!  We boarded and started our tour off by listening about a little history of the Ring of Kerry from our couriers, who are Harlaxton staff.  We were told that we were going to see many beautiful scenes and some places we were only stopping at for a few minutes so we could get some pictures.  Sounds fair enough, considering we had 112 miles of scenery to look at!

Our first stop was at the Red Fox Inn and Kerry Bog Village, which was absolutely beautiful.  The sun was shining over head, and the mountains were visible in the distance.  We were given 1.5 hours at this location to tour the Village and to try the "best Irish coffee you will ever find".  We entered the village quickly, because we were all excited about the coffee!  We saw animals, statues, small houses- you name it.  It was really cool to see the history of this Village because it's not common to see it nowadays.  The thatched roofs were pretty cool, along with all of the furniture still in tact.  We had a lot of fun here, because the group I was with was starting to become more friendly; people were taking pictures of others doing silly things, and everyone was laughing with each other.  We had about 30 minutes to down some Irish coffee, so we skipped into the Red Fox Inn.  They were prepared for us, that's for sure.  All they had to do was add the coffee and cream to our drinks when we entered (there were over 50 of us!).  I ended up trying Irish coffee, which is made with whiskey, but I actually had an entire Baileys and coffee, which was really sweet.  It was a lot of fun sitting and talking with different groups of people.  When we were getting ready to leave, there were a few raindrops falling, so we had to RUN to the bus because no one wanted to get wet!  However, the rain stopped fairly quick.  We were soon on our way to our next stop, Dingle Bay.

The second stop was really fast; we were able to use the emergency exits to jump out fast!  We had about 10 minutes to take as many pictures as possible.  Dingle Bay was beautiful; but it was also on a steep mountain without any barriers if someone were to fall down.  Everyone was falling over when they were trying to get pictures because the wind was blowing so hard.  I even had a close call...but no worries, I'm still alive :)  We also grabbed a quick group photo that I'm still trying to locate, so hopefully I can post it later.  We were on the bus again quickly because we still had many stops to go.  At this point, we were driving along and had sang "Brown Eyed Girl" at least 5 times.  We were laughing and joking about all of the sheep that we had seen- people went as far to make up their own "sheep puns", which were so corny you had to laugh.  We ran into some traffic, so that's when the bus pictures of the front and back started to commence.  After 15 minutes of waiting for construction, we were on our way again.

Waterville was our third stop, and one of my best photo stops.  We were three for an hour, so we were able to get a lot of pictures in during this time.  I loved the beach and the water, even though it was really windy and cold.  The rocks that were there were a lot of fun to climb on as well.  The beach was very relaxing and calm...and it was nice to just look out onto the water.  A lot of people were taking silly pictures of each other...some of the boys were pretending to be the "Little Mermaid" on the rocks, and others were doing handstands on the sand.  Nonetheless, it was a pretty stop that had us all in awe of Ireland and its scenery.  We boarded the bus quickly and headed out because we had a lot more to see!

We made our way up the mountains to get to another beautiful view of the coastline.  This was the Madonna Statue and Coomakista Pass stop.  This stop was EXTREMELY windy.  We all got off the bus and started walking sideways the wind was blowing so hard.  Our couriers decided to get a group photo at this location, which was quite amusing.  Everyone was FREEZING cold and the wind was blowing us backwards.  We got a great picture, featured on the left.  It definitely describes us as a group of people who had just started to get to know each other earlier in that day.  See if you can spot me (hint: I'm more towards the viewer's left).  It was a great stop to get pictures though.  I kept thinking of the Irish blessing when I stopped here.  This was a beautiful location and there was a man playing Irish tunes.  He also had his sheep with him.  Many students went and held the sheep in their arms.  I was not that adventurous and got back on the bus quickly after getting my pictures.  I was cold to the bone and wanted the heat of the bus again!  

Our next stop was Sneem, which was a funny name for a town.  By the time we got to Sneem, we had sang "Sweet Caroline" and "Brown Eyed Girl" at least 30 more times than the USA legal limit.  The funny thing is, we were listening to Irish radio the whole time.  Sneem was a cute village; all of the houses were painted a different color.  The reason for this was because the townspeople needed to be able to find their way home from the pubs at night!  We had lunch at this stop, and there were a lot of us who headed to the Village Kitchen, which was a family-owned restaurant with home cooked food.  It was a nice change from the brown bag lunches that we had been eating, that's for sure!  We took over the restaurant and by the time we finished eating, it was time to board the bus again.  I wish I had more time to explore the village...but we still had a few more stops to go before we got back to Killarney, and it was already 2:30pm. 

 

Our next stop was "Ladies View".  There is a small story behind this that I believe I said in my video that I posted on the last blog, but I can tell it again in case you weren't able to make it out.  Queen Victoria was travelling the countryside to view the Ring of Kerry.  She had her ladies in waiting with her as well.  When they arrived at this location, it was difficult to see from the carriage window.  She requested that her ladies in waiting went to see what it looked like.  When they came back, they said it was definitely worth a lady's view.  There's where the name comes from!  It was a breathtaking view of the lake below and the mountains around.  We were stopped here for a long time because everyone loved the view so much!  The pictures we got were stunning.  I was so impressed by everything that I was seeing.  Again, I thought of the Irish Blessing and how blessed I was to be on this journey.  We were on the bus quickly because there were more tour groups coming through.  They were American, and we were all high-fiving each other and saying how wonderful it was to see other Americans in Ireland, which was really fun.

We ended our tour of the Ring of Kerry at Torc Waterfall, which was so so so so pretty!  It was a good 5 minute hike to get there, but the entire time you were enveloped in this lovely green scenery, which made it seem more like Ireland.  The river was just refreshing to look at, and the waterfall was really incredible.  I have been to Niagara Falls before and seen that waterfall, but this one was so simple it was just stunning.  I took a video here as well, which is in the last blog.  A lot of us tried to climb the rocks in the middle of the stream, which was a bad idea.  I had no idea that they would be that slippery and full of moss.  I slipped a little bit on a rock and got completely muddy.  However, I think it was totally worth it.  

All in all, the Ring of Kerry was the best experience yet!  I hope you enjoyed more of the story that goes along with it.  I will be staying here this weekend and maybe going to London next weekend, so the journey continues then.  If there is anything you want to hear about, I can try to blog it for you during the next week :)  I miss you all and surprise- I'll be home two months from today!

Cheers!
Taylor <3

Ireland Holds My Heart

Hello Everyone!

I have just arrived back at the Manor, and I must say, I'm absolutely filled with blessings after visiting Ireland.  It is honestly the most beautiful and breathtaking place I have ever been in my entire life.  I took so many pictures, and I wanted to share them all with you.  Hopefully you enjoy them as much as I have while taking them. I tried to include some detail on there as well, but let me know if you want me to explain anything more to you.  The link is posted on the page, and it will take you to my Facebook.  Let me know if you can't access it.

Ireland Pictures

On Wednesday I had my British Studies exam...which was interesting to say the least.  I completely understand why I am a Nursing major after that test!  Anyways, we went to dinner and got on the bus and we had a 5 hour drive to Hollyhead, Wales, which is where we were to board the ferry.  Everyone on that bus was fast asleep within the first 30 minutes of the drive!  But nonetheless, we got to Hollyhead at 2:30 in the morning.  We all got off the bus and boarded this massive boat- it honestly looked like a cruise ship.  We got to get a little bit of sleep on the ferry...and we finally arrived in Dublin, Ireland at 5:55am.  We boarded the bus again to get to down town to a hotel for breakfast...and then we were off yet again to head to Blarney Castle.

Yes, this drive sounds absolutely boring so far right now, I understand.  We spent a long period of time in transportation.  I was one of the only people who were able to stay awake for a little while on the bus, but I was able to see the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.  I wish I could have taken a picture!  But I knew at that moment it was a blessing to be in Ireland.  We arrived at the Blarney Castle around noon, and we were given sack lunches from the school and roughly 2 hours of time to go to kiss the Blarney Stone.  I had a blast climbing the castle and it was one of the coolest castles that I have seen thus far- and I have seen a lot of castles!  I went up to kiss the Blarney Stone....but I actually can't tell you if I did it or not.  A girl can never kiss and tell....The grounds outside of the castle were stunning; the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day!    I am so glad that I got the opportunity to go to this wonderful place.  It was full of history and lovely scenery.  But we had to get back on the bus so we could travel to Killarney, which is where we were to stay for the next two days!   




















We arrived in Killarney and immediately I loved the village.  It was full of bright colors and very welcoming locals.  Everyone was excited to see us there and intrigued by our accents, which was quite the opposite for us since we loved to hear theirs.  I spent the afternoon shopping at the small shops and walking around the town.  The houses and doors were all different colors...locals say it is so they can find their way home from the pubs at night!  I thought that was hilarious of course, but some of us found it to be true later on during the trip....I had dinner at the hotel we stayed at, which was the Falite Inn.  It was a really cute bed and breakfast joint that many politicians from Illinois had stayed there (cool!).  I ended up staying relatively close to the hotel that night since we had a long day ahead on Friday- the Ring of Kerry!

Red Fox Inn and the Mountains we were to climb!

The Ring of Kerry is a 112-mile drive that was full of scenic and breathtaking views.  It was a complete blast, to say the least.  During this trip I completely fell in love with Ireland, absolutely head over heels.  The sights were just beautiful.  Normally Ireland receives 120 inches of rain per year; our trip, we were lucky enough to get ZERO rain the entire time!  I had the best people on my bus ride; I had never met them before in my life, and they were completely hilarious.  From sheep jokes to singing "Brown-eyed Girl" over and over again, we had a great time.  The pictures are just breathtaking and I have a lot of captions on them on the facebook album, but I will share some of my favorites on here.  I tried to attach some videos as well, so hopefully they work!After the Ring of Kerry on Friday, we went out to explore the nightlife of Killarney, which was a lot of fun.  We were able to go out to different pubs and hear the local music; apparently, they REALLY enjoy American music!

This first video is the "Ladies View", which was one of my most favorite spots on the entire trip!

Torc Waterfall

Waterville Beach

Coomakista Pass

 This last video is at Torc Waterfall.  Again, it was absolutely beautiful!

On Saturday morning, we departed Killarney for Dublin, where we were able to explore the city.  I went to the Guinness Storehouse and to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  I did a little exploring of the city and found Temple Bar, which was a fun college town area.  My favorite part of Dublin was the Storehouse, which was INCREDIBLE!  I had a blast learning about Guinness and trying it at different points in the tour. It's definitely worth a trip to Ireland for.  St. Patrick's Cathedral was gorgeous- I saw a lot of my British Studies history inside.  It was a really beautiful cathedral full of stained glass windows and old flags from centuries ago.  

Sunday morning we had to depart Ireland.  I was so upset, but I was also excited to go back to school to see everyone again.  We had a great trip all in all, and hopefully I will be able to post more about each place on the Ring of Kerry each night this week.  If I included it in this blog, it would be SOOO long!  But it's late here and I have a lot of work to get back to- and some trip planning as well!  Thanks for following my blog :)

Cheers!

Taylor <3