The title of this post is what my study abroad advisor told me before I left for Edinburgh and I could not agree with that statement more. I feel like my time in Europe has been flying by and that I am constantly busy. And I absolutely love it. It feels awesome to have something to do all the time. I can honestly say there hasn’t been more than half an hour that I’ve been bored here.
I had the most fabulous week last week. My sister, Renee, came to visit me, and anyone who knows me well knows that I am absolutely obsessed with her and couldn’t have been happier to spend so much time with her. We had a lot of fun while she was here… on Sunday when she arrived I forced her to go up the extremely windy Arthur’s seat where we were huffing and puffing until we got to the very top to see the gorgeous view. I don’t think that I will ever get tired of climbing up Arthur’s Seat. We went to dinner at a gorgeous Italian restaurant and then went to go see This Means War with a couple of my friends. Throughout the week we went shopping on Princes Street, saw the city from Camera Obscura, went through a crazy optical illusion museum, went to a pub with tons of international beers, went to the zoo and saw the pandas, went to a ridiculous museum of modern art that had a huge, life-like statue of a baby, visited a deserted castle, got lost on the bus, and saw an amazing Irish band play some music. I’m quite lucky that I only have about 2 hours of class a day and got to spend the rest of the day showing my sister around the city, taking her to my favorite lunch spots, and having her meet my friends. I even convinced her to try a snake bite— one of our library bar’s most popular drinks. I wish that she was here for the entire semester but all good things must come to an end.
I topped off my amazing week with a trip to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day and my friend Liz’s birthday. On Friday Liz and I went in the rain to go see The Guinness Factory and got to drink beers on the beautiful skytop bar overlooking the sunset. I discovered I am actually a big fan of Guinness… dark beer is definitely my thing. At night we went out with her friends to a pub where we rang in her 21st… what a way to spend such a big birthday! Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and we got up super early to start the day right. We drank Irish Coffees and had breakfast before heading to the parade which had the incredibly weird theme of Dublin as the city of science. There was a lot of “under the sea” action going on which was a bit confusing considering it was St. Patrick’s Day which has nothing to do with science. After far too long at the parade, we fought the crowd to get to a pub for lunch- I had a delicious Guinness Pie. We spent the rest of the day in a very laid back pub, watching everyone go crazy over the Rugby game. Ireland lost. Whoops. At night we went to another pub after some rest and spent the night dancing. Sunday we ate crepes for brunch and went to go see the insanely gorgeous Trinity College and the incredibly old Book of Kells. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we spent the rest of the day hanging out in a park.
I have been so lucky to have been able to travel so much and will continue to do so. I am in the midst of planning my trips for the rest of the semester… I will be jet-setting all over Europe with friends and I couldn’t be happier.