My Semana Santa trip consisted of 7 people, 7 days, my 1 backpack and 4 flights. It was quite an experience, ha, but we had the time of our lives! This entire week was full of us doing stereotypical tourist stuff. It was pretty ridiculous, haha, but we had fun while we were at it and we got to visit three different countries that none of us had been to before. :) I'll just start from the beginning...
First, we went to Germany - we flew into Weeze airport and took a van to Dusseldorf which was about an hour away. When we originally booked our flight to "Dusseldorf" through RyanAir, we did not realize that it did not fly directly into Dusseldorf. So this nice man ended up taking us, for fairly cheap, directly to our hotel. There were seven of us, though, and only six available seats. He wanted four of us girls to cram together on the three-seater back portion of the van, but I'm pretty sure it was made for more like two people, so that didn't work. Basically, when it all came down to it, I spent the hour long trip sitting on the floorboard between two captain style seats, and this is how our trip began...talk about our own "Eurotrip." We literally all felt as if we were on Eurotrip, and, as we've said all along, we need a camera following us around throughout our adventures. Ha.
We were in Dusseldorf for two nights. We flew in late one night, had a full day and then another half of a day before our next flight. We got to Dusseldorf the first night...walked around a bit only to find most likely the ONLY Mexican restaurant in town, and of course we had to stop there. So, we spent our first night in Germany drinking margaritas - is that Texan enough for ya? The next day we woke up fairly early and went exploring. We found the shopping district (of course) and saw the river and parks. We also went up into the Rhine Tower which gave some gorgeous views of the city and distant countryside.
This is the German car we found that we felt like was very stereotypical and so cute!
This is the river/park area that runs through the shopping district in Dusseldorf. There were all kinds of upscale shops throughout Dusseldorf...it was actually a really nice town, and definitely somewhere I never would have gone if RyanAir didn't fly there - ha. This is probably the case with most of the places I visited this trip.
Honky Tonk Hugo cracked us up and gave us a little "hometown" feel. He also asked us if we "Sprechen sie Deutsch," so apparently he mistook us for Germans, and, like I've said before, it's always a compliment if someone doesn't immediately know that we're from America.
This is along another river/canal right before we went up into the Rhine Tower.
View from the Rhine Tower
A typical German meal - bratwurst and a beer. :)
I had to find something with my name on it since I was in my native country! Haha...this was the closest I could find.
Next stop: Edinburgh, Scotland, and oh boy did we fall in love! We were in Edinburgh for the same amount of time, but we got there a little earlier on our first night in town. I never would have imagined that I would like Scotland, much less Edinburgh, as much as I did. It was not only, by far, my favorite city on this trip, but one of my favorites throughout the entire semester!
:)
This is the GrassMarket area that we stayed in. I would recommend it to anyone! It was the perfect location with all kinds of cute pubs and restaurants and was close to the Edinburgh Castle.
This was our first night in Edinburgh in a small pub by our hostel. We danced with the locals at a Scottish pub - it doesn't get more authentic than that! I think this was one of the reasons we liked Scotland so much...we definitely started off on the right foot.
Just me holding up the Edinburgh Castle
Our group of seven - five girls and two guys (poor guys, but they put up with us pretty well for 7 days!)
This was the beginning of the Royal Mile. A mile of shops, restaurants and pubs in Edinburgh.
This is a view looking down the Royal Mile
Like I said...stereotypical tourist stuff - haha. :)
The Edinburgh Palace - this marks the end of the Royal Mile
This was at the bottom of the hike before Arthur's Seat. We literally sat on these hills and just hung out for a while - it's the little things like these that I'm going to miss so much. It was so relaxing and something we would never do in the States. It was GORGEOUS! It kind of reminded me of the Sound of Music.
After our hike to the top of Arthur's Seat - loved the view.
This was the beginning of our ghost tour that we took one night through Edinburgh. It was too funny and creepy as well. We went down into the vaults underground and everything, but this is just the beginning when our tour guide was giving a demonstration of how they used to torture the citizens of Edinburgh back in the day - and used one of our friends as an example, of course.
The Scott Memorial
At the top of Calton Hill
Wreck 'em Tech!
This is Arthur's Seat that we climbed - the view of the acutal hill/mountain from a distance.
Next stop: Dublin, Ireland. We stayed in Dublin for three nights so we had a little extra time there.
This is the Dublin Castle
I loved the inside of the chapel at the Dublin Castle - it was so pretty and quaint.
St. Patrick's Cathedral...
and the gorgeous tulips in front of it. :)
We went to the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin! It was actually really interesting and cool. We learned all about how Guinness is made and a lot about its history. I loved the way the storehouse is set up.
We also got to each pour our own "Perfect Pint" :)
We went on a day trip through the Irish countryside. Our first stop was on an authentic Irish farm that an Irish family still keeps in service.
This was our tour guide on the farm. It was actually his family's farm that is still in business. He is telling us about this tree that people tie a piece of themselves to (usually fabric of some sort) as a way to leave their worries in Ireland.
This is Granny's cottage that was on the farm. We got to eat some of her homemade apple pie - it was to die for. :)
These are the little baby lambs that we got to feed...they were precious!
Cliffs of Moher on the coast of Ireland
They were actually in one of the Harry Potter movies and the Princess Bride.
I love this photo of the tulips and the little barn in the background. We took this trip at the PERFECT time of year! All of the flowers were blooming and we had gorgeous weather - not a drop of rain, which apparently is very unusual for Ireland.
Okay...that's about all for my Semana Santa trip. I loved it all and had a blast - we all did! It was so much fun, but it was also exhausting. We saw a lot of sites, though, and enjoyed ourselves. :) I should have another blog or two up today or tomorrow. Then I head to Italy to start my journey home!
I'll be in Texas in less than two weeks - counting down the days. :)
Abrazos,
Paige
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