Mermaids

I think if mermaids had to have hair and it had to look like some kind of seaweed type plant, then it would look like the water weeds in the River Lee by UCC. My camera can't capture the billowing, glowing green of these eerily hair-like tendrils, but trust me-- we have here the equivalent of plant hair.

Not to mention you can totally see my shadow on the bridge.

That was yesterday though, with the walk to the bank on campus to close my account. Today was sell back the textbook I forgot to take with me yesterday day. So maybe I only got 11 out of 33 euros back and maybe I only needed about three articles within the book to pass the class, but hey, the book itself probably weighs twenty pounds, so at least I'm not carrying it home. Laurie joined me in my adventures today, closing her own bank account. Then, who should we meet in town, but the fair maid Mika. With all our souvenir shopping complete, we headed for Jackie Lennox's for, perhaps, our last Lennox fish n' chips meal. Laurie had the fish n' chips, I had the fish, and Mika had curry fries, which she is glad to show you.

Here, Laurie holds up a forkful of fish, while Mika is blinded by the sunlight. Today was brilliantly sunny, while maintaining a jacket-worthy chill. We are so going to melt into gloopy puddles when we step off the plane in Alabama.

I believe the Covers have been sleeping off the aftermath of the last exam and walking around Fota respectively. Tomorrow, we're off to the Aran Islands. Should be too much fun!

Awe

My room... it looks so empty. The Cover sisters and I are off to the Aran Islands come Wednesday. In other words, I've had to go ahead and pack most everything while I still have the time. Still, I wouldn't want to miss this opportunity. The Islands are said to be amazing. Hopefully amazing enough to compensate us missing the API farewell dinner. Meanwhile, we're all getting our last minute chores done. I closed out my bank account today and plan to sell my text book back tomorrow. This is it. We're really leaving.

West Cork

Some of us are studying, some of us have boyfriends, some of us have Sarah's sister Mary-Caroline to see seals with. Yay me, it's me, I have Mary-Caroline and a bus tour of West Cork. We met at the ripe hour of 8 o' clock to be at Grand Parade before 9. Our tour took us through the beautiful Irish countryside, including the exclusively Irish speaking area known as the Gaeltacht, but had several key destinations. One such stop included this small Church dedicated to Saint Fin Barre in the tiny tiny village of Gougane Barra.

There were craggy mountains, there were lakes, there were flowers, well, see for yourself.






Caroline decided she wanted to collect toilet signs, but had forgotten her memory card. Therefore, I had to do the honors for her.

We had to leave Gougane Barra way too quickly, but the ferry, Seal Island, and Garnish Island were still to come. The ferry to Garnish Island was an extra 12 euros, but it was worth it to swing by the seals and visit the island sized garden. Here's our ride.





Caroline showcases the exquisite landscaping of the island, right off the coast of Glengarrif.

Bonsai!





There were so many interesting varieties of plants in the gardens. Check out these weird things.


We walked up to the island's tower, to get a bird's eye view.



There was also an area called the Temple.

We decided it was a temple erected for the worship of nature's beauty.


Once more, we were forced too soon to leave. Our final stop was Bantry. Caroline bought a cute, knitted, green toboggan and I like this anchor.

We hunted Bantry for scones to no avail. With all the drizzle and cold and walking, I was ready to pass out once back on the bus, which I did. The bus driver was great. Not only did he have a non-stop supply of interesting commentary (for our 8 hour tour), including a five minute ramble about rhododendron, but he also dropped us off personally at Victoria Lodge. Successful day overall. Now I'm busy trying to work out a trip to the Aran Islands. I think everything's actually going to go my way. How cool would that be?

the third and final post of the day i swear

I just wanted to show what I've been working on today and to put Zoe at ease. I heard how disturbed she was at the sight of herself without the top of her head. Well, Zoe, here you go -- a flowerdy hat. It's better than it was, but still in the rough stages. I don't think I'll be working on it until I can get home and in a better ventilated room. I can keep the room relatively fresh, but it requires sitting on my desk with my turpentine bottle outside the window.

Take it to the Top!

SO, yesterday Sarah, Mika and I got out as early as we could to see the infamous Shanndon Bells. There's a Church on the other side of town where anyone who so desires (to pay 5 euros), may ring the bells in their bell tower. We had fun, to say the least. I'm not sure if most visitors play every song they have available, but we certainly gave it our best. I mean, there was a sign saying to play to our hearts content.

The area where the bell pull-ropes were located was not too much of a climb. The top of the tower, offering a panoramic view of Cork city, however, was 40 meters up.
Look at Mika go! Sadly, I lost the video of Mika displaying her innate bell skills. When deleting old videos off of my camera, so as to speed the uploading process, I was so tired that I went into a sleepy trance and started to delete half my Shanndon videos. Sad, I know, but what's done is done.

There's still Sarah and me.

You are my Sunshine anyone?

This is one of the creepy statues by the window in the rope room. I kept seeing them from the corner of my eye and thinking other people were in the room.

The next floor up was the clock's pendulum.

Floor after that we had an up-close look at the gears of time.

Eventually we made it to the small space the bells hung in. We actually had to hunch ourselves through a small door, climb a little wooden ladder and over a large wooden beam to get past the bell room and out to the balcony.

We were wearing the headphones provided in case anyone like us decided to play the entire set of songs while we were standing by the bells.
The farther up the tower we climbed the more narrow the stairwell became. Here Sarah has enough room to reach out her entire arm. At the very top, however, the space was hardly wider than the breadth of my shoulders. I had a picture, but it was also lost in my sleepy stupor.

At the top, we promptly began locating all the buildings we could recognize. We also got to see just how far, precisely, our apartment is from City Center. It came as a surprise I can tell you.




After playing a few more songs on the way out, we considered going to the nearby Butter Museum, but decided to devote our money to shopping instead. We saw our second cat for the day, sitting on this glass encrusted wall. The Irish are serious about people not climbing over their barriers. I've seen glass, barbed wire, and a variety of wicked looking metal spikes.

Now, I'm currently dying because Sarah only bought book 1 of Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials. Which means, now that I've reread it, I want to read the rest and can't. Not to mention I did some oil painting today and didn't aerate the room of turpentine fumes as well as I should've. But hey, Sarah's sister has arrived, so woo-hoo! Least a ways, I assume so. I better call and ask.

It's about time...

I totally forgot I hadn't posted any of the London videos. So here goes.
Trafalgar square pigeons. You may or may not be surprised at how many people seem to delight in simply running through the pigeons and making them fly away.

Here's the funny soldier march I had mentioned. Look closely to see the special shuffle he does after the high knee lifts. Better yet, the footage is so blurry you'll probably be better off backing away from the screen. Actually, now that I watch it again, it may only be funny if you were there and actually know what's happening. But I've already put it up here so it's staying.

Here's the one the only King's Cross Station. This platform (4) was used for the film. Didn't I tell you the arches look way wider in the movie?

Last but not least, while the interior was too dark to film, you can at least have an idea of the area surrounding the Harry Potter Staircase. The Dining Hall is at the top of the stairs. And at the bottom of the stairs, a huge courtyard within Christ Church. Who'd a guessed?

P.S.

The second time we were at Trafalgar Square, we started to leave and a pigeon guy followed us! Down the stairs. "No! Come back, people come from all over the world to see our pigeons!" We just kept going of course, but geez... like they own all the pigeons or something.

The Day of the Underground

We went everywhere on day 3. We bought an all day pass for the underground (5.10 pounds) and went everywhere we could think of. Well, first we walked to Buckingham Palace with the "Changing of the Guard" set to go off at 11:30. The morning was pretty drizzly, nothing too awful. Yet, the red coats decided the weather was too much to march in. So after standing around for an hour, we witnessed a very small changing of the guard with no elaborate marching or band playing. I took a million pictures and videos anyway. Be prepared to see a very humorous march once I get around to uploading the videos.


After making absolutely sure nothing else interesting was going to happen, we left the touristy bustle of the Palace in favor of the serenity of St. James' park. They had an impressive array of bird life and this amazing tree. How fun would it be to sit at the top?





After making our way over the river and through the woods, we headed down the street towards Trafalgar Square. The street ended in these impressive arches. Here they are as a whole.

And for perspective, here's Mika in the bottom right hand corner (in the red pants).

Trafalgar Square featured an interesting array of statues and fountains. The kids seemed to favor the four giant lion statues and can you blame them? If I were younger, I would have totally climbed up on one too.

I particularly enjoyed the statues in the two large fountains.

I mean, come on, yay mermaids!


They all had split tails, making it much more convenient for them to ride dolphins.

And mermen, how gender equalityfied.

Ascending to the upper tier of the square, we stumbled into the infamous pigeons. There weren't as many as I expected, but there were a fair few. We hadn't been there long when one of the gentlemen (who we came to term 'pigeon pimps') forced some rice upon us. By us, I mean Mika and Sarah. On their heads.


I shielded myself with my camera and managed to avoid giving away any change.
Feeling the need to press on, we headed towards the Australia House, the interior of which was used as Gringott's bank. On our arrival, we found that we weren't actually allowed inside and so got no more than a peek through the door. That excursion foiled, we headed to the nearest underground station.


Thereafter, we rode various trains about a million times, going here there and everywhere as best we could. First, we went to King's Cross Station. Eeeeee! Platform 9 3/4!!!
A nice gentleman took a photo for us. At least he got us and the trolly half-way through the wall in it.

But he totally missed the sign! There was a sign. Tee-hee!



Then I used my magic umbrella wand to access Harry Potter Land where we spent the rest of the day.

We also tried to see the actual platform 9, but they wouldn't let us through without tickets. We also went and saw platform 4. I'm not sure we were sposed to, but no one said anything, so we did. The filming took place between platform 4 and 5. Once again, the arches looked much bigger in the film. I have a video. You will see later.
Next stop, London Bridge!

Maybe not quite as exciting as the Tower Bridge, visible from London Bridge, which I'm standing on in this photo.

You can also see the HMS Belfast, floating naval museum.
We walked from one bridge to the other, seeing some interesting things along the way. We stopped into the courtyard of a shopping center where a smiling, bronze boat sculpture entertained us all.

We also passed City Hall and Mika hugged an egg.


We crossed Tower Bridge to see the London Tower, home of the crown jewels and the place to be for beheadings.

We decided not to pay the entry fee and use our money for fish n' chips instead. The food was good, but the diner contained this creepy suit in the corner. I kept expecting it to suddenly leap up and start trying to eat people's faces off or something. I think I'm scarred for life.

From there, we headed back to Trafalgar Square to play with the pigeons some more. The pigeon pimps kept trying to force seed upon us. I even acted like I was scared to be near birds and he still wouldn't go away.

So we went and sat on the edge of the Square and admired the pigeons from afar.




We eventually tired of chilling at Trafalgar and made our next stop Hyde Park.

Hyde Park was so amazing. The air was literally sweeter there. They had so many rosebushes, the whole place smelled amazing. I think I'm going to grow up and live in Hyde Park. But first, we crossed these awesome gates. (Remember, I told you London was full of awesome gates?)


We were walking along like we normally do. You know, like this...

Mika and Sarah are checking out a St. George and the Dragon statue, when I'm like "Wow, it's a fox." Then I'm like "No, that can't be a fox. Not in the middle of the park with everyone staring at it." So then I'm like, "Hey Mika and Sarah, come check out this dog that looks just like a fox." Needless to say it really was a fox. Trotting around like there was nothing out of the ordinary. It eventually ran off into a more wooded area, but talk about neat-o. Meanwhile, the park had a beautiful garden area.





The park even had another one of those amazing trees, the likes of which we saw in St. James' Park. This one was even more tent like.

Yes, we went inside.

It wasn't really that dark, but it was amazing.
We wandered down more paths, until we came to the river. I was afraid we had found another pigeon pusher, but no, just a bird-loving old lady. Apparently all the pigeons and ducks and swans and herons were all named James. James got to enjoy loaves and loaves of bread from the woman's cart. In Hyde Park, we watched the sun set and contemplated how our last day in London could end any more perfectly, or beautifully.

Then there were the mice! The tiny, adorable little mice running back and forth between the rose bushes. I think I should live in the park, under the tent tree, and protect the mice from the fox.
We made our very last London stop Big Ben. I really wanted to see the tower lit up at night. The view was well worth it. We also got an up-close look at the Millennium Wheel (after spotting it from afar everywhere). Even if my camera could have captured the purples and blues of the Wheel reflected in the waves of the black river, I had already filled my memory card with 500+ pictures.
When we got back, we tried to pack up as quickly as we could without disturbing the one sleeper. We ate a midnight snack and grabbed a couple hours of sleep. We had to be at the bus station by 2:40 in the morning. Our flight departed around 6 and we got home around 7 somethingdy. Needless to say we all promptly passed out in our respective apartments. Meanwhile, I've finished one more exam and have my last on Monday. So, this brief summary of London done, I must go study for the Book of Kells.