Tá sí ina cónaí i Londain

The title of this post (which is of course, in Irish) means "She lives in London." You know when you get a phrase stuck in your head, and it's the only thing that you can think of? Well, this phrase has been running through my mind since I left for London on Thursday afternoon! Spoiler alert: I LOVED London and who knows, maybe one day this sentence will describe me! The first picture is of course the lovely London Eye. My friends and I got to ride it right at sunset and see some beautiful views. The London Eye itself is just so gorgeous and I had to share it with you!

But anyway, let me chat about my week before I chat about my weekend. Monday was quite normal. I had classes as usual and then I went to pilates with a friend! The instructor made the class super challenging and I was sore from it for the whole rest of the week. On Tuesday, I went to the gym, and then a movie, and then trampoline club! It was quite busy and by the time I got home, I was exhausted and ready for bed.

On Wednesday, I had classes as normal until my friend Taylor arrived! Taylor was one of my teammates from the 4K for Cancer run across the country that I did in the summer of 2016, and she's been working abroad since then. She had some time off and was able to visit me, so she came to Dublin from Wednesday-Thursday!! I was so happy to see her! It's been a while since I've seen her and I was so glad that she was able to visit :) On Wednesday night, we hung out and then on Thursday, I took her to some of my favorite places around Dublin. Here are some pics of us and our adventures (with captions!).

Above: Taylor and I exploring Kilmainham Gaol (more on that in a bit) on Thursday and enjoying some traditional Irish nourishment on Wednesday night! Also I actually got to use Irish in a conversation outside of my Irish class! It's pretty commonly known that most Irish people are not fluent in their own language. Outside of road signs, buses, and government buildings, you don't see or hear Irish in everyday life, especially not Dublin. But on Wednesday night I happened to chat to a few Irish people and we exchanged some phrases in Irish. They told me that my Irish was better than theirs, which is crazy to me! It would be so cool for them to have their own language, but a lot of the younger Irish don't seem too interested in continuing their linguistic traditions.

Above you can see the main interior of Kilmainham Gaol. This was where many prisoners were held throughout the history of Ireland. Kilmainham is most known for being the place of incarceration and eventually execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. Many of the leaders who were executed after the Rising were executed in Kilmainham Gaol, and even more were held during the interrogations. Since the Rising was a militaristic failure, public opinion was not behind the republicans until after the executions and mistreatment of the rebels at Kilmainham, so this marks a turning point in Irish history.

Below you can see a painting through the keyhole of a door that one of the prisoners (Grace Gifford, wife of executed Rising leader Joseph Plunkett) was able to paint during her time of incarceration. As we were walking through the prison, which has been out of use since the mid 1920's, name placards noted famous prisoners who had been held at Kilmainham. The one below, Éamon de Valera, was the only commandant of a battalion in the Easter Rising who was not killed. He later became the first President of Ireland. Other famous prisoners include Robert Emmet, Charles Stewart Parnell, Patrick Pearse, Willie Pearse, James Connolly, Constance Markievicz, and Thomas Clarke.

I had not yet had the chance to go to Kilmainham and was therefore very happy to show Taylor that very interesting piece of Irish history! We wandered around and explored for the rest of the day before I had to head off for my flight to London!

London was much more incredible than I had expected it to be!! On Thursday, we ended up going right to our hostel, which was in the Hyde Park/Kensington area of London. Friday morning we woke up bright and early and started the day off by checking out Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James's Park, and more! I'll explain in the captions what everything is :)

Above left is Millennium Bridge, which I learned is the inspiration for the scene in Harry Potter where the bridge is shaking/moving. Apparently when it first opened, the bridge was a little wobbly and it inspired a very similar scene in Harry Potter! And to the right you can see the London Eye, Big Ben (who was under construction the whole weekend, so sad!), and the Houses of Parliament. The views from anywhere in the city were just so gorgeous!

This is Shakespeare's Globe!! It was crazy all weekend to think about how many famous people have lived, worked, and been inspired by London! Below, you have a lovely view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben at sunset (and then the east side of London) while I was on the London Eye.

Here's Big Ben/Houses of Parliament from the ground. I was sad that Big Ben was under construction, but it was still really cool to see it! And of course here's me using the very famous telephone booth! Below is Westminster Abbey.

Next you will see Buckingham Palace!!!! My friend and I got to see the changing of the guards ceremony! It took a while and we didn't really understand what was going on, but it was really cool!

On our way to lunch, we walked through St. James's Park, and it was so lovely! In the picture below you can even make out The London Eye in the background. There were also a lot of parks and green spaces throughout the city, which I was not expecting! It just made me love it even more.

One thing that I loved about London which I didn't take enough pictures of is all of the markets!! For lunch on Friday, we ate at Burrough Market, which was filled to the brim with street vendors selling all varieties of food! It was absolutely delicious and there was every possible option available! We also walked by and got dessert at Southbank market! There were just so many cute areas with food abound all over London. That means it found its way to my heart very quickly :)

On Saturday, we stopped by Kensington Palace (where Will and Kate live), went to the London Tower, Tower Bridge, saw fireworks over the city, went to Covent Garden and watched street performers, and ate some really good food. We also got to walk through both the Piccadilly and Oxford circus areas. They were quite lovely and all decorated for Christmas!!

 Kensington Palace is above!

The next few pictures are all the Tower of London. This was a museum of the historic fortress and it was really really cool! We got a guided tour from a Yeoman Warder, who is a guardian of the Tower of London. Built around 1066, it was originally used to guard the Crown Jewels and the Royal mint (all of the money in the city). It eventually morphed into a prison that was also capable of holding prominent political prisoners. This area is a triple-walled fortress with many places for guards to watch out for enemies and to look over the prisoners who used to be kept here. The Yeomen have been watching over the Tower for over 600 years.

We got to learn so much about this area! We saw where Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were beheaded, we saw graffiti carvings from prisoners inside the Tower, we saw Crown Jewels and other royal clothing, we saw the King's Palace, and we saw medieval torture chambers! All in all, the story of the Tower of London is pretty gruesome and violent. Many prisoners held inside were brutally executed just outside the Tower on Tower Hill, and two young princes even went missing right inside the walls. Famous prisoners of the Tower of London include Hubert de Burgh (founder of the infamous de Burgh family from Galway I spoke about a while ago), King Henry VI of England, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Penn, and Rudolf Hess. The prisoner I feel most connected to is Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat of Scotland. Simon Fraser was executed in 1747 after the failed Jacobite uprising of the Scottish highlands. He features in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, and it was astonishing to see that sort of history in real life.

Guarding the Crown Jewels!

The Tower Bridge!!

Everything was decorated so wonderfully for the holiday season, as I mentioned above! Finally, today, we had a bit of time before our flight left! I took the bus to King's Cross Station and stopped by Platform 9 3/4! I also walked over to Camden Market and ate some food and shopped around for a little while.

King's Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4 are pictured above! Below you can see the Platform 9 3/4 shop, where it was possible for you to pick out a wand as if you were in Ollivander's! :)

The Camden Market area was beautiful, but it was also so busy and large! I didn't realize how many people would be there, so it was really great to get a chance to walk around. I had some very yummy food there as well.

Overall, I'm so tired from all of the walking and excitement from this past week, but I absolutely loved London! I feel like one could live there forever and never quite know every single corner of it, which is quite exciting. It was large, but not so big that you feel lost. By the end of the weekend, I figured out how to get around on the public transportation for the most part. And despite all of the negative things I've heard about the Underground/the Tube, I absolutely loved it! It was fast, efficient, and very very easy to understand!

I would love to return to London at some point! The food, the views, the history, and the amount of things to do mean that you'd never really get bored here! It was a great weekend.

I'm looking forward to traveling to Scotland this upcoming weekend, as my friend Alyssa from UMD will be visiting me! Maybe we'll be cast into our own Outlander adventure... updates to come!!

P.S. Since I mentioned the 4K above, I wanted to share some more 4K info with you! I am doing the 4K for Cancer again this upcoming summer! I'll be running from San Francisco to Baltimore to raise money and awareness for young adult cancer. To learn more about this journey, please check out this link. Thank you!