Portugal!

Portugal is the most BEAUTIFUL place. We docked in Lisbon on Wednesday and a group of us took a train to the southern part of Portugal called Lagos. We stayed at a really nice and surprisingly cheap hotel right on the beach. The weather was amazing too. The train to get to Lagos was about 4 hours which wasn't that bad. We got to Lagos around 2 the first day and went to the beach right away. 

The waves were SO intense! I was even afraid to go in the water because the current was so strong. The water was so clear...unlike the Long Island Sound...after we went to the beach we headed back to our hotel and hung out by the pool for a while. Lagos is definitely a touristy town. It was really nice and clean too. Mostly everyone spoke english which was refreshing because it seemed like in Lisbon they only spoke Portuguese. We had dinner in town and then walked around for a bit trying to find a fun place to go for the rest of the night. Everything in Portugal starts SO LATE. People don't even go out until 1am! 

The next day we just hung out at the beach for a majority of the day. It was really nice to just relax instead of having to try to squeeze everything into such a short period of time. Then we went into town and walked around. A few people wanted to go cliff jumping (which we then found out is illegal so we didn't end up doing it) so we went to this hidden beach and swam through a bunch of hidden caves to find this secret beach. It was SO amazing!! I'll post pictures about it later. My friend used her GoPro so we have a lot of it video taped. We had dinner on the beach and then went out to some local bars.

The next morning me and a few people out of the group woke up at 5:45am (brutal) and got on the train to get back to Lisbon. At first I was hesitant about going to Lagos because I heard how amazing Lisbon is. I wanted to have a full day in the capital of Portugal so I had to take the earliest train. It wasn't too bad, I passed out the whole time which was sweeeeet.

We arrived in Lisbon at 10am which was perfect timing. We walked around the town and got on a hop on/hop off tour and went to the Castelo de S. Jorge. The view from the castle was breathtaking. It was looking over the whole city and the ocean. We explored the castle and then headed back into town. We had to be on the ship before 6 so we kind of had to rush when we were shopping in the town.

We were about to disembark from Lisbon when there was an announcement on the loud speaker telling all of the student body to go the auditorium. We knew it had to be about Morocco because of all the horrible things going on there right now. Last week they told us that they were looking into the situation and would let us know if we were changing our itinerary after Portugal. In the meeting we found out that SAS and UVA decided it would be best if we didn't go to Morocco. We are now staying 2 more days in Spain and then heading over to the Canary Islands which is right off the coast of Morocco. I'm actually really bummed about this because I was going to go on a Camel ride! Also I think that Morocco would have been an amazing experience. Oh well, everything happens for a reason.

London Pictures

Man overboard

We were only on the ship for one day before we got to England. I haven't had a good night sleep in over a week. When we are off the ship it is very fast pace. The is SO much to do in such a small period of time. You can't waste time by sleeping in or taking naps so basically my body hates me right now....and I lost my voice...

London was beautiful and had so much history. Thankfully it didn't rain once so we were able to do everything we wanted. Not only that but it is so easy to travel around. We took the 'tube' a few times but mostly tried to walk everywhere we could....i think in one day we almost walked 7 miles. My legs are sooo sore. I never knew how HUGE london is! 

Being in London made me think a lot about my Uncle Bob...especially when I got to see one of his old friends, Malcolm. Thank you for inspiring me! Not a day goes by where I don't think of you.

When we first got to London we went straight to the hotel we booked while on the ship. We booked a room at the Comfort Inn and it was awful. If you ever go to London DON'T stay at the Comfort Inn!! We were supposed to stay there for all 3 nights but ended up booking a hostel that was in a better location, cheaper, and a nicer environment. 

The first day we were in London we tried to do as much as we could. We did most of the main touristy things like London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminister. At night we went to a nice dinner and went to a few different bars. 

The next day we switched to the hostel which was more centrally located. We went shopping on Oxford street, tea time at Harrods, had dinner in South Kensington and then went to this bar called TigerTiger....which was interesting to say the least. Tea time at Harrods was so cool!! I wanted to buy a tea set but that would have been so annoying to pack and probably would have broken.

The third day we went to Piccadilly walked around there, went to Abbey road, saw the Olympic stadium, and Buckingham palace! At night we went to a show called The Doctors Dilemma. My family friend, Malcolm Sinclair, was one of the main characters. I didn't know anything about it before we saw it...I kind of expected it to be a musical but it was a full on play. It was so good and Malcolm was definitely one of the best actors. The show closes in a week so we were one of the last shows to see it! 

After the show we went to a bar that was on the second floor of the theater and met Malcolm for a drink. We saw the actor who plays Seamus in Harry Potter!! Going to the show and then the theater bar was probably the highlight of my trip. I absolutely LOVED the show and catching up with Malcolm.

After meeting with Malcolm we went to the 4th best nightclub in the world called Fabric. In my opinion it wasn't that great...way too intense of house music. But the venue was definitely cool! 

The next day we took a train back to Southampton, where the boat was docked, and went to a restaurant with wifi and sat there until we had to go back on the ship. I slept for a total of 16 hours when I got back on the ship so I'm finally feeling better!

I'm excited for my next adventure in Belgium! I booked a trip with SAS to Amsterdam/Holland so I'm happy/relieved that I have everything planned out for me!

Alsoooooo shout out to my lovely Theta sisters! I hope you guys got an awesome pledge class and I can't wait to meet all of them!!

I'll try to update this as frequently as I can but everything is happening so quickly! 

Email me if you want more updates!!

Pictures to come later!!

HOLY SHIP!

Sorry about the extreme wait for a new blog post but living on a ship is CRAZY.

I can’t believe how UNREAL Ireland was.  After the ship dropped us off in Galway, we went on a 4 hour-long tour of the Cliffs of Moher. It was cloudly out but didn't rain. The cliffs were BEAUTIFUL I couldn’t believe how amazing they were. We also saw many different castles and ruins, it was unbelievable. After the Cliffs of Moher, we went to our hostel, got dinner and then went out.

The next day, we took an early bus to Dublin. Getting a hostel/hotel in Dublin was so annoying because of the Notre Dame vs Navy game that was taking place the same day as we got there. We finally found a hotel which was kind of far away from the center of Dublin.  We didn’t want to take too many taxis to the center from our hotel so we got ready to go out and then explored all around Dublin.

We had dinner and then went out to the Temple Bar…and a few other places too. It was unbelievable how many Americans were in Dublin. I probably talked to more Americans than Irish people that night…

Next morning we checked out of our hotel and checked into a hostel that wasn’t too far away from the center, it was actually right next to Trinity College. We went on the Guiness tour and shopped around a little bit. My legs are so sore from walking around…my feet are swollen! At night I met up with my roommate from last year and my friend who moved to Ireland 6 years ago. It was really great to see them both again and also so weird that we were hanging out in Ireland together.  We later went to Temple Bar…I definitely stayed out later then I intended to do.

I had a field lab the next day so I had to wake up early and go to the ship to meet up with my class. We went to the Irish Times and to a TV network called RTE.  We saw the local news being filmed at RTE! It was so cool. Our tour guide said that our group was the first tour they have ever done!

Tomorrow I will be in London! So crazy! I don’t really have that many plans yet but I am going to go see my family friend perform in a show called The Doctors’ Dilemma! I’m so excited!

If you want more details about my stay in Ireland then EMAIL ME!