Tori's European Travels: Journey to the Land of Tasmanian Devils and Leprechauns with Pirate Accents

Last Wednesday I left to go on my third trip of the semester. I headed to the airport after my class (yes I had class, I have learned that some of you are under the impression that I never attend class). This was my first time flying RyanAir which is a discount airline here in Europe. I flew out of Gothenburg City Airport, which is the much, much smaller airport here in Gothenburg. And by much smaller I mean there are two gates and only RyanAir flies out of the airport. All of this information I did not know, so I was at the airport outrageously early.

After waiting two hours in the airport with one restaurant(I seriously think Palwaukee airport was bigger), I got on the plane. I had a relatively pleasant flight to London, with one exception. Because RyanAir is so cheap, and by cheap I mean I paid 10 euros to fly to London, they have to compensate in some way. They jam pack flights and try to sell you products during the flight. Throughout the entire two hour flight to London there were constant announcements trying to sell everything under the sun. From RyanAir lottery tickets, to smokeless cigarettes that you can smoke on the plane, to dozens of food options, the announcements never end. This is pretty annoying when it is 11:00 pm when all I want to do is sleep.

So we arrive in London totally fine and I start to walk to the exit. Usually I am an exceptionally smart and prepared traveller, but for some reason I totally forgot that the UK was not a part of the Schengen Visa program. This means I had to go through immigration and fill out a customs card. Of course I had to go through the non-EU line which was incredibly, incredibly long. So I grab a customs card and see one really alarming thing: exact address of where you are staying. During this trip I was planning on staying with my friend Cierra for two nights and with my cousin Michael for the other night. I frantically grabbed my phone and tried to call both Cierra and Michael to get their addresses. However, in good 30 euro phone form, my phone didn't work. I later figured out my phone would take calls, and send and receive texts. At this point I'm panicking outside customs. I was two seconds away from writing the London Hilton as my address, when I saw these two 20 something American girls. I ran up to them and I was like do you have a phone that worked? Now what they did next is completely against everything they tell 20 something American girls traveling in Europe (reference to the movie Taken), they let me borrow their phone. So I called Michael and got his address and everything was good. But I have no clue what I wouldn't have done without those two American girls, so thank you wherever you are :)

So I made the trek from the airport and met up with Cierra. Cierra lives in a house in London with about a dozen other students from AU. I got to her house around 2 am. We talked a little. I met some of her housemates and then went to sleep. The next morning we woke up and I went with Cierra to the Museum of Brands for an assignment for her school. The museum was actually pretty cool. It had products and packaging from the 1800's to present day. The funniest thing that I saw was some old Barbie dolls Alli and I used to have. They were either my Aunt Karen or Aunt Chris' dolls, but these dolls in the museum had the exact same clothing and everything. It was pretty cool.

After the museum we went shopping on Portobello Road, which had really cool old vintage and antique shops. It was more of a market with dozens of cheap shoe and clothing stores. Cierra went on a crazy shopping spree in true Tasmanian Devil form. I would have joined in if not for the strict 10kg limit on luggage for RyanAir. The purchase that I did make was an adorable bag that I got for 5 pounds. Later Cierra and I had dinner and then went out to a pub in Piccadilly Circus. Cierra had a major interview the next morning, so we only stayed out for a little.

The next day I slept in and when Cierra came back for her interview we hit up the gym. After the gym, we got ready and went on our pub crawl of London. We went to a bunch of different pubs before we met up with my cousin Michael and his girlfriend Jennie. I said goodbye to Cierra and then went to dinner with Michael and Jennie. By the time we all got to bed, we were going to have to be up in 3 hours to go to the airport for our flight to Dublin.

We got up super early and headed to King's Cross to catch our train to the airport. This was the beginning of one of the funniest days ever. On any other day the event probably wouldn't have been as funny, but we were all running on less than three hours of sleep. We barely made our flight to Dublin because security at 5 am was ridiculous. While we were on the plane Michael almost accidentally killed a flight attendant with a water bottle and we had to listen to the annoying RyanAir announcements. We were so delirious Michael and I were contemplating buying a lottery ticket.

Soo delicious and it fills you up all day. After breakfast we went on a walk through the park in Dublin. We decided to go visit the old Kilmainham jail in Dublin. The jail was pretty cool, but the best part was our crazily enthusiastic tour guide Rosemary and Michael plotting how to make a haunted house in the jail.

After the jail tour we headed to the Jameson factory. Michael and Uncle Bill did a special whiskey tasting and sat at their own part of the bar. Jennie and I got Jameson hot chocolates and Aunt Debbie got an Irish coffee. The drinks were delicious and got us well prepared for our much needed nap.

We all went back to our hotel, took a nap and were ready to go for dinner. We met up with Brendan O'Reilly for dinner and we all went to this cute Irish pub. I had a delicious Irish stew, which was the greatest thing ever because I had been freezing since I woke up and it warmed me down to my bones. After dinner, we made our own little pub crawl through Dublin. Brendan stayed with us at the first pub where one of the strangest experiences of my life occurred. After a series of pubs we went home for the night and I prepared for my early flight home.

I got up said goodbye to Michael and Jennie and then started my journey home. I flew RyanAir again this time to Stockholm. I then took a 7 hour bus from Stockholm to Gothenburg, which was surprisingly not bad because I just got some much needed sleep after my crazy weekend.

Update on life in Gothenburg: first snow fall today in Gothenburg. It didn't stick, but still a bit crazy! This weekend I am going on a student cruise from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia. The weekend after my best friends Khine (studying in Nice, France) and Stephanie (studying in Rome) are coming to visit me in Gothenburg. The following weekend my cousin Michael is coming to visit me. Busy weekends coming up, but I am excited to show everyone the now freezing land of Sweden.

Here are some pictures of the weekend: