Well… one “isle” – the Isle of Wight. But
I believe it IS the largest of the aforementioned "isles". As I mentioned in my last post, this
weekend was our labor day. BANK HOLIDAY! I’m sure I missed a crazy weekend of
partying in London. However, my friend Ashley’s boyfriend owns this mansion of
a house on the Isle of Wight and invited me for the long weekend. You do not
pass this up!!!
The front of the "Beechwood" house - designed to look like a New England seaside home
You get to the Isle by way of the city of
Portsmouth.
Super cute town of Portsmouth
Then you have to take a boat of some kind
to get there. My options were take the “rib” that Stefan has if the tides
allow, take a hovercraft haha, or take a “fast cat” ferry-style boat. So on the
way there Stefan and Ashley picked me up in their rib and brought me up to the
backyard of their place. Holy moly man. This was what I had to deal with for 5
days! ;)
The back of the house facing the sea
Nice infinity swimming pool!
My room was the "green room" with an ensuite bathroom!
The first 2 days were just the three of
us. Thursday was beautiful and spent lounging out by the amazing infinity pool.
At least you can tell I'm doing SOME studying here!
Thursday evening we went to go check out some Cricket game that was supposedly going on in the middle of the water because the tides were such that the water receded and you could stand on this sandy patch in the middle of the water!? I would say a Cricket match was a stretch... I think people just dressed up in uniforms and took pictures. It was definitely THE thing to do....
Not sure if you can see the commotion, but there are a bunch of players in the middle there.
Stefan is on the left and Ashley on the right. Pretty awesome boat ride out there. That is until I got completely SOAKED!
The town of Cowes (which was where the dock was) was super cute.
Friday Ashley and I went to a local pub
in the evening for a few beers and heard a local musician (who was pretty good)
play. I also was able to go on a run around the
coastal paths, which were SO pretty.
I wish I could explain how peaceful this was. It was completely secluded from the main roads. I just sat here for 10 minutes listening to the waves lap up against the land.
There is an Abbey right down the street
that I popped into (and actually returned to on Sunday for a proper mass along
with monks chanting the prayers!). It was so cool to see a working monastery.
There were also gardens and farmland around that were really pretty.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday unfortunately
did not behave so much with the weather. Typical English grey and drizzly
weather. But on Saturday we were joined by Stefan’s sister and friend, and
Sunday another friend. This was a good thing as Stefan’s favorite activity was
to engage in debates with me about government, foreign policy and business.
Ahem. Seriously?? I don’t remember the nitty gritty details of the Gulf War,
but we spent about 30 minutes discussing it on Saturday….lol. I needed some lady allies.
Truthfully most of the weekend was spent
relaxing and eating. I wish I would’ve taken photos of this, but Stefan is an
insane gourmet chef. I volunteered to cook one night. He asked me what I cooked
and essentially scoffed at my mention of good pasta. Let’s just say that my
Italian pasta wouldn’t have stood up next to steak, roast lamb, shrimp cooked
in a white wine sauce and goosefat potatoes. I think I gained a stone while I
was there (the Brits refer to weight in stones, so I figure it only makes
sense).
Sunday we also took the boat and jet skis
out for a bit. I wish the weather would’ve behaved to be able to do it more
because I LOVE being out on the water!
This is all the proof I have that I did get on the jet skis.
I may have gotten old lady and fallen
asleep on the deck by the campfire Sunday night. Eek! What can I say? Wine +
campfire = sleep for Kirsti!!!
Monday thankfully it was a beautiful
sunny day. Us 4 girls sat by the pool for 5 hours. I seriously started and
finished a book!
It was such a lovely, relaxing weekend! And then I took the
fast cat ferry boat back, and this was my sunset! Sooo beautiful!
I’m sure after all
these posts of the travels I’m done, it’s beginning to look like all I do is
play. Clearly I was able to travel a lot this summer. Italy for 9 days,
Amsterdam for 4 and then Ireland for 6 days. I've also hit a few more local
places: Brighton for a day to see the UK's version of Atlantic City, Bath (with
the probability of a trip to the Cotswolds and the West cost of England), and
Richmond for the day. Not bad given that a primary objective for this trip to
London was travel. I've also booked trips to Budapest and Lake Como in October.
HOWEVER.... as sexy and glamorous as I know this may sound, real life is
creeping back up. I assure that’s not entirely the case. I’ve literally
been knee deep in flat-hunting for MONTHS! I thought I found a place and just
got a late email that the woman apparently gave the flat away without telling
me! Ruthless around here! The standard of living here is SO different. I would
argue way worse than NYC. I’ve been paying more than I paid for my 2 bedroom
flat that I had alone in Chicago for a 4 bedroom shared house with ONE bathroom
that’s tiny! Some of the flats I’ve looked at are just ridiculous. At this
point, I’m honestly contemplating just stashing bags at friends’ houses and
being homeless when I return from the States so I can save rent money for the
month of September. Not exactly my preferred style of “feeling settled” …. But
it might be what has to happen.
Also, it's worth noting that I actually AM doing
schoolwork. To elaborate, I'm doing a RESEARCH project which I'm totally
overwhelmed by. I hate research. Reading journal articles I don't mind so much.
But designing scientifically valid research methodology for a primary research
project including detail on how you're going to code and analyze data is a
nightmare! As soon as I start reading about analysis systems my head starts to
spin, my eyes glaze over and everything in my body goes numb…. Ok, maybe
nothing goes numb. That’s an exaggeration…but it’s close. We don’t get any
extra time to finish this thesis like most people get at the end of their
program. It’s just do at the end of exams, so I’m feeling a bit nervous about
getting it all done. If anyone is good at SPSS or statistical analysis, let me
know! I may hire you!
And then there's considering what I want to do when
I return to the United States. Given that I'm more than halfway through this
exploratory adventure, I realize that "what's next" is something I'm
going to have to start thinking about soon. I've certainly started to narrow
down what I'm looking for. I've ruled a lot of things out, and been reminded of
a lot of things I'd forgotten. Such as the fact that I really enjoy writing! I
guess this may not be a shocker given that I've started a blog, hahaha. But for
me it's been a nice reminder. And despite the fact that I'm here to get my
Masters degree.... I'm not sure I want to work for the kind of company that
will require that I have a Masters. I just don't know that the piece of paper
is the most important thing in an employee.
Blah blah. I'm droning on. This is just to let you
know that this trip has remained a personal exploration for me. It's not all
crazy trips and nonstop playing. As much as one hopes that going away means you
don't have to think about anything aside from what you're doing, it's not true.
But I'm reassured that I've continued to learn more about myself, grow as a
person, expand my network of friends and loved ones, and experience things I
could only have dreamed I'd be doing a year ago.
So currently we are heading into the bank holiday
weekend (our version of Labor Day) and this morning I took a train out of the
city again down to the Isle of Wight where my friend Ashley’s boyfriend has a
house. Admittedly, I’m feeling pretty lucky to have an opportunity to just go stay
for free along the coast, go boating, lay at the pool…. J I’ve
been missing those “typical summer” type of activities. As I was sitting on the
train going through the British countryside, I was reminded again of just how
pretty it is here. It’s sort of fun to sit and listen to the 20 year old boys
that seem to be going on a party weekend speak with their British accents in
the seats around me, talking about how “fit” a girl is. Ha! Out the train
window, I pass by rolling hills, the lush green trees and the sporadic lakes
that are sprinkled throughout the countryside. It’s nice to just soak in this
experience. It’s really funny how despite how much I HATE the constant rain
around here, it really does make the grass and trees SO much greener.
I also had my train ticket checked on board – standard procedure – and
was told that my student ticket that I bought is only valid if I have a special
student rail card (which I do not have). Today I’m thankful for being a cute
girl when the ticket checkers are young guys so I can sweetly smile, feign
innocence and get away with a warning instead of a fine for buying the wrong
pass. Eeek!
Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Expect a post after
the weekend with more fun photos from the Isle of Wight.
Yesterday I went with my friend Jane and some others to The New Forest. Jane is a super fun, adventurous Kiwi (New Zealander if you don't know this slang) who has a worse case of FOMO (fear of missing out) than I do, haha, and always is up to something fun. She'd suggested we go to New Forest - an area of the British countryside about 1.5 hour train ride outside of London that's supposed to be beautiful and have great bike paths. Honestly, these are the things I craved when I lived in Chicago and needed a nature fix. It's so nice to have started to make some friends that are up for adventure and outdoorsy stuff!
It was a pretty straightforward trip: take the train from Waterloo
rent bikes next to the train station, head to the forest!
Some things I didn't know? Apparently New Forest is known for their wild ponies? We encountered this immediately when we got into town to pick up some water, and 4 horses were literally causing a traffic jam as they walked down the street, circled (and kicked) several cars, and walked up onto the sidewalk next to us!
These guys were seriously just strolling down the road through the middle of town.
Starting to head our way a bit...
Making buddies with Mitch, who was holding onto our bikes while we ran into Tesco!
Ha! NOT something I expected to see. So we decide to head into the "forest". Gotta say, we should've spent more time looking into a good map. We had no idea just how HUGE the forest was (it was like a huge nature preserve with loads of different paths and roads winding around for miles and miles).
We thought we could sort of just.....go! Not so much. And the funnier part for me, is that there were basically too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone sort of had an opinion about where we should go and how we should get there. While I typically admit I like to be in control, this time I was happy to just sit back, ride around wherever I was pointed (which was frequently seeming to be in circles), and realize that we were literally in the middle of the forest!
Jane and Mitch waiting for the rest of the group to catch up.
Throughout the entire day, we saw TONS of wild horses (or ponies...not sure which they were).
It was funny that they would be in the middle of the road. Right next to the road. Circling the road. In a heard all together. They pretty much did whatever they liked. And I've never seen horses stand like this, but frequently we saw two of them standing side-by-side facing each other almost like they were cuddling!
Also saw a live bull. Haven't actually seen one of those face-to-face before.
Other than that, we just explored. Got lost. Stopped 3498439 to look at a map and turn around. We went up some crazy steep hills, so got a good leg workout. Did some putsing around on our bikes...
Jane and I doing a totally natural pose...
Group shot
Stopped for lunch in one of the towns for an awesome roast and some beers. (The horse decided to camp out by our bikes as well.)
And then headed back to the town after an exhausting 5 hours of riding. So cool to me that there are places like this that are easily accessible from a city the size of London!!!
I'm actually finding it a bit tough to figure out where to start here! I know... me! At a loss!? And what's more is that I've tried to finish this blog now like 3 different times....and at this rate it will NEVER get posted. So.... I'm going to do a split-post. Half of this is typed up about Galway and our start to the next town: Doolin. But to be honest, given that I have already posted more photos of Ireland than I'm sure ANY of you care to see on Facebook, I'm struggling to finish this blog post. I'm obsessed with Ireland, don't be mistaken. Whoever thought it was boring is wrong. There's live music everywhere. They drink a lot of Guinness beer (which I've come to like in small portions), and they are WAY friendlier than....ahem....other people from the United Kingdom. But I've been typing for a week. Soo....enjoy this half and half post that looks like I may have schizophrenia... (because maybe I do).
Resuming where we left off: Our road trip commences in Dublin. We're ready to leave, pick up our rental car, and begin our 3 hour drive out West to Galway. So I get the drivers seat first.
You'd be making this face too if you were on the left hand side driving!!!
Left-hand side of the street, right-hand side of the car. Only a weeee bit stressful trying to get out of the city.
Michelle was an expert navigator, even counting the "exits" on the roundabouts for me.
For the most part our drive to Galway was rather uneventful. It's certainly not the prettiest of our drives. However we did see a bit of these...
But after we got to Galway - to our cute little B&B - and saw the coastline, we were in heaven! Or at least I was. My love of water was completely validated this trip. I couldn't get enough. I don't know why I didn't realize how much coast and water we'd be around on this trip. I guess you think of Ireland as green rolling hills, and no one really talks about the awesome views of the Atlantic.
Our B&B in Galway
My attempt at a panorama of the view
No better place for some vino and to plot our night than out by the water!
Walking out on the rocks for a bit of photography
That night in Galway was one of my favorite nights. We happened to be in town for their big arts festival, so the town was ALIVE with activity. We walked up to the main drag, and it just oozed culture.
It didn't take us long to find our first musician...
Who had some really funny props...
As we walked around more, we decided to do a bit of a pub crawl. Stop, have some oysters and and seafood chowder (the BEST on our trip), then go, listen to more live musicians in the street.
Stop, go into another pub where there were live musicians playing.
I had to have a pint of the Galway Hooker! I mean...how do you resist!?
Then walk to another famous Galway spot for some fish n chips.
I think it was about that time that a bird decided to fly by and POOP on Michelle!!! Hahah, she was super pleased.
As soon as we finished dinner, the festival ended in the streets, complete with a dragon parade!!!!!
Next stop? You guessed it. Another pub. More live music. This time it was a bunch of 40-60+ year olds doing awesome Trad (traditional) dances!
Despite the fact that I could've stayed in Galway for DAYS....we had already planned to move on the next day. Sigh. The realities of a 5 day road trip were kicking in and sadly we had to leave. (Not before I got a good run in along the coastline though!). Next up we decided to head to the Cliffs of Moher (famous sweeping cliffs that drop into the Atlantic that were featured in Harry Potter). This part of the trip begins the more beautiful drive....
Off we go...driving on the left again!?!?
Just thought it was worth pointing out that the speed limit was 100 KM/HOUR!?!? And it's going around sharp turns!?!? Let's say I stuck closer to 60....
Michelle really wanted a photo in the BRIGHT green grass...
...which happened to be up to her thighs!!
so we hit our first castle....
and then continued driving through VERY windy roads, past the town of Boston....
only to stumble upon an adorable little "street" (even calling it a town is a stretch in my opinion), with a restaurant advertising fresh seafood. Seemed like a perfect place to get some lunch!
The boat was pulling in their catch for the day as we ate...
Hard to beat fresh chowder, crabs and some vino!
Our next stop? Doolin - a little townalong the Atlantic coast.
We were under the impression based on some poorly written travel guides that Doolin had a bustling town full of live music. Hmmm... not so much. It had 4 bars and restaurants combined. However it had beautiful coastal views...
Highlights of Doolin?? We made friends (shocker - Michelle and I made friends in nearly every city we went to) with two Irish folk: Eve and Kevin. They were awesome. And we kept running into them everywhere because the town was so small that they were even staying at the same B&B as us. We saw more live music.
We also went on a ship to see the famous Cliffs of Moher from the water. For those of you interested in Harry Potter, there is a scene in one of the movies that was filmed here. It's stunning. We also saw a dolphin that proceeded to race our boat! Also very cool. Please preview here.
Alright schizophrenia begins. Too much typing. Never going to finish this blog. From here, I'm just going to post pretty pictures and videos of cool cool live music at our stops.
Killarney - Unintentional stop. Accidentally booked a B&B (one of the nicest) in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. So...we drove 30 minutes to Killarney and had a night out.
There was a horse race around that turned into a total shit show (pardon my french) of glitzed up young kids
Dingle Peninsula - This was actually our intended destination the previous night. We loved it. Everything about it. It's gorgeous. If you ever have the chance, GO THERE!
Michelle took over driving at this point....
We started driving through mountains on skinny roads with gorgeous countryside surrounding us.
As we approached the water, it really got pretty!
We stopped at one of the beaches and it was early enough in the morning that the water from the tides was still lingering on the beach, and it was nearly deserted. It was so gorgeous!
Honestly... SO beautiful. I could just sit and stare at this forever. I wished there was a running trail along the water I could've run along.
We approached Dingle, and it was an adorable little fishing town nestled in the mountains and directly on the water.
All of the pubs were super cute in the town... this is a great example.
Okay I guess this one wasn't the cutest, but it was literally the 5734th "Murphy's" pub we'd seen in Ireland.
Sadly, we could only stay in Dingle for a few hours, and then had to make our way off to Cork (ugh) to fly out the following day.
And on our way out, we passed a sheep!
Our last night was spent in Cork. Honestly, Cork was shit. Anticlimactic. It's like Detroit. We stopped and got a drink at ONE cool pub and heard some 12 person choral group singing Bill Withers outside...
And admittedly they did hand out free ice cream cones there, which OBVIOUSLY made us happy.
Seriously happy girl: cider and ice cream!
But after that, there was seriously NOTHING. Sigh. Sort of a sad way to leave our Irish adventure. Oh well. All in all, it was one of the best trips I could possibly imagine.
