Coleslaw: [noun]- What you say to someone when they ask you a question that you could not possibly know the answer to (Note: not a British word but a Wallman word).

Monday April 4 was an exciting start to our trip to London.  So my parents come to visit me after a I have lived on my own in England for a number of months.  I was hoping to squash the "silly youngest child" stereotype with my AWESOME independence.  But alas, I just ended up confirming it.  Back to the story.  Monday morning we had a train that was leaving at 8 to go to London and the day before me and my parents decided that we were going to meet downstairs in front of my building at 7:30.  When I wasn't there at 7:45 my mom decided to come into the building and ring the doorbell of the flat.  Instead of being woken up by my alarm on my computer (my computer was dead because I forgot to plug it in, very smart) I was woken up by the doorbell fifteen minutes before we had to be on the train.  Luckily, I'm pretty good at getting ready quickly so we made the train on time.  However, it gets worse.  About an hour into the train ride I realized that I did not have my passport, my passport which would be necessary for our next leg of the trip, going to Spain right from London.  So, I got off the train, went back to Leeds, got my passport, and got to London about two hours after my parents.  GOOD JOB LIZA!

Anyways, on to the good stuff.  Once I arrived in London we went out for lunch and then took the tube to The Tower Of London.  It was really well set up so that it was both informative and interesting and now I can say that I've seen the crown jewels!

After the tower of London we went to The Tate Modern and saw some artwork. 

Afterward we had dinner along the Thames and watched people train for the London Marathon.  Does anyone know why everyone in London runs with a backpack on? Later that evening, we went on a Jack the Ripper tour which actually was not as scary as it sounds and relatively informative about the city of London and its history.

Tuesday morning we went to Westminster Abbey and toured around inside which was pretty cool to see where the upcoming Royal Wedding is going to take place.  Big Ben is near by so we also took a look at that guy, he's pretty cool.  Afterward we made our way over to Buckingham Palace and watched the guards march around for a bit.

We then had lunch and then made our way to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  We took a good look around there and then had a couple of free hours for shopping, which was extremely successful.  We had dinner and then went to a play, The Children's Hour, with Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss which was so cool and also a really good play, all of the actors were wonderful.

Wednesday was a beautiful day weather wise which was too lovely.  We went to the National Library and the British Museum in the morning which both house insane artifacts and artworks.  We saw the Magna Carta, handwritten lyrics by The Beatles, Egyptian statues, and sculptures from the Parthenon.  We took it easy that afternoon because I was sick, so we just enjoyed the warm weather and did some people watching.  That evening we went on the London eye with two of my cousins, Ally and Kendra.

We then went out for dinner with Ally, Kendra and Uncle Rod (their Dad) and it was one of the more hilarious meals of my life time.  It was so wonderful seeing all of you!

Thursday was another glorious weather day.  We walked through Hyde Park, went to the Serpentine Gallery and shopped.  We went into Harrod's and Selfridges which are by far the most ridiculous, although amazing, stores I have ever been in.  They are both like mazes of expensive everything (shoes, jewelery, clothes, food, they probably had cars in these places we just didn't have two weeks to wander around the stores).

At some point during our trip we did go to the National Portrait Gallery I just can't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday.  Next up: Spain.

LUFC: [noun]- Acronym for Leeds United Football Club

On Thursday, March 31st I picked my parents up from the Leeds train station, caffeinated sustenance in tow for my surely sleep deprived guests after their overnight plane ride.  However, they surprised me with their general alertness so we got them to their hotel and then had a delicious meal at Jamie's Italian (that's right, Jamie Oliver).  But the next day the truth was revealed as apparently my Mom was so tired she didn't actually remember a lot of the meal due to sleep deprivation (sorry Mom, but it's kind of funny).  On the Friday, I had class in the morning and then I had to go to Manchester for a few hours for a class in the afternoon so my parents wandered around the city and then I met them back at their hotel and we went out for dinner, another lovely meal.  On our Saturday in Leeds we went to a LUFC match which was so much fun to go to.  I'm not one to pretend that watching sports is my favorite thing, especially football/soccer but this game was thoroughly entertaining! It helps that soccer/football is a pretty easy sport to follow but the best part was definitely the fan energy.  After a refreshing team nap (the best kind of nap) we had a wonderful evening with the Malones (friend's, that's you Caitie, dad's cousin's family) who took us to a wonderful restaurant and then to this awesome place where there is a ski slope inside and we watched people ski for a while which is really fun to do when they are in the cold in full snow gear and you are toasty warm.  Sunday we went to Temple Newsam and walked around the grounds and the building.  Afterwards we walked around Leeds and the campus of the University and also went to the Leeds Art Gallery.  Dinner that day was a wonderful meal of Domino's Pizza.  Stay tuned for details on the London portion of the adventure. 

Holiday: [noun]- exactly what you think.

What is different about the word holiday in the UK is its frequent use.  In Canada, one would be more likely to say "vacation" when discussing a trip that they are planning to take/have already taken where as in England people say holiday.  "Where are you going for your holiday?"  This may be me reading into the language differences a little bit too much but hey, if the shoe fits.  Am I right?

I'm currently on my "Easter Holiday" which is a nice little four week vacation in the middle of the winter semester.  Once this four weeks is up, I have one more week of school and then exams beginning and then this school year, somehow, is over.

The Easter break can explain my almost three week absence from the ol' blog as my parents came to visit for a portion of the break!  It was so wonderful to have them here.  We spent the first four days here in Leeds, then five days in London and then a week in Marbella, Spain.  I, being the intelligent person that I am, packed my camera and the battery charger but not the battery so I have no pictures.  Luckily my mom had her camera so when ever she sends over her pictures (hint, hint) I'll post a few here.  For now, the only pieces evidence of my trip are the mushy words of thanks I have for my parents for being the absolute best.  Thank you again for coming to visit!

Howth: [noun]- a sea side suburb of Dublin and where I plan on retiring.

On the Friday of my trip to Ireland, Andy and I went to Howth for a few hours.  I'll let the pictures do the talking in regards to Howth's beauty.

 

Adorable Seals!

Delicious food!

Boats!

Boats!

More boats!

Lighthouse!

Even more boats!

Dudes rockin' out!

Ireland's Eye! And me!

Me and Andy!

My future home!

The most beautiful view ever! x2

Dawny, your first and last name were just everywhere in this country.

As you can see by the abundance of exclamation points, Howth is awesome. My decision to retire in Howth was helped by the glorious weather that happened that day.  If your looking for me in 50 years, that's where I'll be.

We went back to Dublin after a couple of hours in Howth and went to a dinner at this restaurant where there was traditional and live Irish dancing and music.  I got to enjoy even more Irish music, which was delightful.  Also I had the strongest (and probably the last for me) Irish coffee ever.  I don't know why I was expecting Bailey's in the coffee but it was most definitely whisky.

Ladies (and gentlemen), if you are looking to fall in love with an Irish man who plays a traditional Irish drum in a traditional Irish band, go to The Arlington Hotel Restaurant near O'Connell Street in Dublin.  You will not be disappointed.

St. Patrick's Day: [noun]- Saint Patrick's Day (Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is an annual feast day that celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 387–493), the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on 17 March.

This past week has been so glorious, weather wise.  It's been sunny and temperatures have been upwards of seventeen degrees so you'll have to (again) forgive my lack of posts.

So the main reason I went to Dublin last week was to celebrate the St. Patrick's day in its native country.  The day started off pretty early because Andy and I wanted to see this annual boat race which started at nine in the morning.  The race is between two of the schools in Dublin, University College Dublin and Trinity College.

After the race we took a tour of the Guinness Brewery.  I had my first Guinness ever there and it was surprisingly delicious! They have this really cool bar, the Gravity Bar, at the end of the brewery tour where windows serve as walls for about 3/4 of the room and you can see all of Dublin.

Andy and I in the Gravity Bar with a view of Dublin behind us.

Then there was the St. Patrick's day parade.  It had some interesting floats that, to my knowledge, didn't have a lot to do with St. Patrick's day.  It was hilarious, regardless of its relation to the holiday.

Two dogs in one St. Patrick's day parade. 

Then we went back to the Guinness Brewery to have a delicious Guinness inspired lunch and stayed there for a bit because there were a bunch of events going on in honour St. Patrick.  Then we preceded to go to Temple Bar (bar in this instance meaning a place to walk along arrive) which happens to have a lot of bars.  As we were walking down the street, there was a bar playing music and it was packed and everyone was singing soo we obviously went in.  It was hilarious, everyone was having an amazing time.  The most interesting thing about St. Patrick's day in Dublin is that children are involved.  They are in the packed pubs with their semi-drunk parents just bobbin' their heads to the music.  Worst parenting ever or the best parenting ever? I don't know.

First Bar

The night continued on with going to a variety of other bars which had the same awesome vibe as the first one: happy people, good live music and lots of alcohol.  One of my favorite parts of the night was seeing this drunk man directing traffic in Temple Bar.  He was so drunk but some how managed to do an excellent job of directing traffic.

If you can't tell, he's the one with the curly blond wig. 

What I learned from St. Patrick's day in Dublin is that I LOVE Irish music.  The Dubliners are basically my new favorite band so I'm going to leave you with this gem of a tune.

Dublin: [noun]- the largest city in Ireland and the capital city of the Republic of Ireland.

Last Tuesday, the fifteenth, I flew to Dublin with my friend Andy.  The sixteenth was a serious day of touristy-ness in the city.  We took one of those no roof double decker hop on hop off bus tours which actually served to be very informative and an excellent mode of transportation.  In the following order we went to:
1. O'Connell Street (aka my mom's maiden name street, it says it on the street signs but I didn't take a picture)

The O'Connell Monument

2.  The National Gallery Ireland

3. The National Museum of Ireland which had a bunch of sub buildings like the National History Museum, "known to the locals as the dead zoo" to quote the audio guide on the bus tour.  I didn't get any pictures in the real National Museum because there were about fifty old men guards standing around telling people not to take pictures.  To summarize: there was a lot of viking stuff.

This dude here was in the dead museum and he was massive.  The picture doesn't do him justice but apparently he lived in Ireland before the ice age andddd then he went extinct.

4. The National Library was so beautiful and old and the books were the same.  There was also an exhibition of William Yeats happening while we were there so we also looked at that.  It was pretty cool and had some awesome interactive stuff which kids (so, me, basically) were just loving. 

5.  Back on the bus!

6. Off the bus at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

My absolute favorite part of the Cathedral was the fact that they sold shot glasses in the gift shop IN THE CHURCH.  Isn't there a bible story where Jesus goes nutso because people are selling food in a church? Let alone shot glasses?  I'm pretty sure there is.

7.  Back on the bus where I took a very lovely nap. 

8.  The Post Office where a lot of the Irish rebellion was planned. 

9. Deeelicious dinner + Baulmer's cider. 

Note the dude in the background prepared for St. Patrick's day about five hours in advance.

Random Pictures of St. Patrick's day type things.

Apparently the Irish like to drink...

...a lot.

Next Post: St. Patrick's day.