First Easter, then London.

Long overdue, but better late than never! Enjoy reading about Easter in Ireland and my experience in London! Cheers!

Easter in Ireland - Spending holidays away from my family is always hard becuase I have such a large family and we all get together and have such a good time with wonderful food and lots of laughter. Though, I decided to make the most of my holiday away from home since I was in Ireland. In all honesty though, it wasn't as wonderful as I had hoped for it to be. On Easter morning a friend and I went to Easter Sunday service at St. Mary's Church. I think I went into mass with too high of expectations, because I felt disappointed after leaving this mass. The mass was basically led by children. I did love their singing voices, but there was not much structure and meaning throughout the whole service, not many people dressed up, the priest seemed to go as fast as he could and his homily was about Easter eggs and chocolate. All in all, the mass just didn't feel like an Easter mass. After mass my friend Katie and I went back to her apartment. Her roommate joined us to make apple french toast, eggs, and bacon. It was all very delicious. Especially the apple french toast! I loved the company and it was a sweet time, but I still felt something missing. I went back to my apartment and decided to watch an Easter Catholic service online. Even I laugh a little at myself for that, but I do have to admit that it did feel good to watch it and hear the classic Easter time songs. :) The sun finally decided to come out! So I went on a run. It was lovely! Then when I got back I Skyped into my family Easter! (My family was hosting it for our Schottler side). I was greeted by a whole slew of family members and I couldn't stop laughing for the first 5 minutes! I was so happy to see them! They asked me a few questions, cracked some jokes, showed me the food counter, had some conversation with grandma and some others and then it was time for them to go. After that I just relaxed the rest of the day. Easter in Ireland wasn't the same, but I'm still glad to have had the experience!

Then we had a few days of school and on Friday at 3:30AM it was time to head off to London! Wooo! I was going with my friends Kristin and Elizabeth. We had a taxi pick us up and bring us to the airport. We were all so tired! I didn't sleep at all, Elizabeth had just woken up from sleeping for a few hours and Kristin had taken an hour nap. We got to the airport nice and early, got through security and waited in a Starbucks until it was time to go to our gate. Then we boarded the plane (got 3 seats next to each other) and 45 minutes later we arrived in London! Ahhhhh! We were in London! How cool is that? I looked over at them and said, "Hey guys, we're in London." We all giggled like little girls and had smiles plastered across our faces. We scrambled around the airport, got our bus tickets, exchanged some Euro into pounds, got on the bus and then made our way to London, Victoria - where we would be staying.

*Side story about money: I've been spening my money wisely over here, but I didn't come over with that much. I had just checked my account and thought I had enough in my account to take enough pounds out for the weekend, but when I tried to take an amount out, it said I didn't have enough funds in my account. It was so scary, and I wasn't able to take out that much. Money situations stress me out so much. I pulled off to the side and looked very flustered. Thankfully God blessed me with amazing friends. Kristin said, "It's okay, Megan. We will cover you if you need to be covered. Don't let this ruin your trip. We'll figure it out!" I love that girl.

First day in London: I was so sleepy, but I couldn't close my eyes! I wanted to keep looking out the window to see the beautiful London scenery! We got to the bus stop and walked to our Hostel. It was so adorable and the gentlemen who worked it were so kind and funny. We dropped off our luggage and headed out to the door for our first venture. We got to Buckingham palace and there were a bunch of people there. What was going on? Oh it was 11:30 - The changing of the guards. The changing of the guards is a very big deal. We joined in the crowd. So much happened - Some more guards came in and did some routine stuff, a band of guards came in and played amazing band music, guards came in on horses, etc. It was such a neat experience. Then after watching this, we went and got some food! We all got the same thing. They are something like meat pies. It's like a pastry filled with meet and veggies. It was delicious! Since I had such little money, I kind of regretted getting this and wished I would have gotten the soup instead since it was cheaper. I also ordered water, but forgot that when you order it in London, you have to pay for a bottle of water, so that was more money tacked on. Oofta. I was so cold and just very down about my money situation. We left to go see Wesminster Abbey. On the way we spotted a beautiful building. Kristin said, "Let's go find out what it is!" So we went to find that it was the "Westminster Cathedral". We went inside and it was breathtaking. I separated from the girls and walked around. On the edge of the Cathedral were these themed chapels. Walking around the church I was starting to feel more at peace with my money situation and just with myself. I went into the St. Patrick chapel and sat and prayed for a few minutes. After leaving the Cathedral, I felt this renewed happiness come over me. I had prayed for God to guide my spending decisions and to just help me to stay at peace with everything. I was happy.

Westminster Abbey/Big Ben - Kristin got a tour of the Westminster Abbey and while she was doing that, Elizabeth and I wandered around London. We took pictures by Big Ben, walked along the river, walked through a garden, walked past a riot in a street (which we thought was a parade at first), walked past beautiful buildings, took pictures, and by the time we circled back to the Westminster Abbey, Kristin was done! Then we walked back over to Big Ben, took some more pictures. We walked across a bridge to the London Eye. Elizabeth and Kristin went on the London Eye and I stayed on the ground. (I didn't go into the Westminster Abbey nor the London Eye because they were a little too expensive for Megan). I was doing my best to spend wisely. I knew that I would be able to experience London even on the ground, and boy am I glad I stayed because as I was wandering around I saw some human statues, street dancers, street acts, and more! I got my picture with some of the human statues! Now it was time to go. On our way back over the bridge we got these delicious nuts! I'll never forget the smell of those nuts. Then we went to the Parliament Building and took some pictures. Then we got Crepes at CrepeTastic. The people working there were fantastic! And so were the Crepes! Then we walked through a garden. It was such a long walk, we were tired and I was getting kind of crabby, but how could I be crabby when such a beautiful sunset was in the sky and the atmosphere was so peaceful and I was surrounded by all of this beauty... in London!? Sometimes I think God paints beauty around me at just the perfect times. This whole walk we were trying to find this Peter Pan statue. Though once we got to the end of the first part of the park, the 2nd park was closed and we realized the statue was in that part. We grew restless as we were walking back to the hostel. It was such a long walk. That long walk made our beds that much more satisfying. After writing in my journal, it was time to catch some Zzzzzzzs.

Day 2 in London:
I woke up and went right down to have breakfast. I didn't bother changing out of my super-duper-awesome-cool Green Bay shirt. After breakfast and getting ready, we were off! We walked to a park, passed many theatres, went to the British Museum (there was so much to see! We didn't even see an 8th of it!), went to the train station for Harry Potters 9 and 3/4 (Elizabeth and Kristin were a little more interested in that, but it was still neat to see), went through a couple parks, Picadelli Circus (very beautiful and interesting), had lunch (I had soup and Kristin and Elizabeth had fish n chips). It was a long day, and God blessed us with beautiful weather! We hopped on the tube and headed to the O2 arena for the One Direction Concert! Random fact: The O2 is one of the biggest arenas in the world. It seats 20,000. We were so giddy on the tube. Elizabeth and I were listening to our headphones and lipsinking to Kristin all of the One Direction songs we were listening to. When we arrived at the O2 we practically did cartwheels we were so excited! We danced, sang, skipped and laughed all the way to the venue. We got a picture in front of a big poster of 1D. I laughed at myself because we were in line with all of these little girls and their moms. And here I was 22, giddy about One Direction. We got into the O2, Elizabeth bought a T-shirt, we ended up getting food at a convenience store, then we headed into the arena. It was amazingly huge! During the opening acts, Elizabeth and I went to scope out the vendors for candy. She ended up getting candy floss (cotton candy). It hit the spot. The concert was so much fun! I had so much fun dancing around, singing to the song, losing my voice, taking pictures, etc. When we got back to the Hostel we ordered pizza and chips. It hit the late night snack spot. Then we headed off to bed.

Day 3 in London (Last day): So sad that it was our last day, but we were going to make the most of it! It was packed with lots to do! We took the tube EVERYWHERE! At breakfast I snagged a PB&J to have for a snack (such a rebel, I know).
1st stop - The London Bridge. We took a LOT of pictures around the London Bridge and on it. I offered to take pictures of these two ladies that were together. Small world... they were from America. We ended up striking up a conversation with them. I love it when that happens! Kristin decided to go on the tour of the London Tower, so Elizabeth and I wandered around that part of London. STORY: Elizabeth got a hot dog and we went past many vendors and she decided on one at the end and when she asked how much it was I whispered to her: "Is that the cheapest form all of them?" and the VENDOR replied, "It's the cheapest and the best!" He laughed. I did too. It was such a funny moment. And he said, "You should work on whispering more quietly next time." I also got ice cream that said it was 2 pounds, but when I ordered it, the lady said I only had to pay 1 pound. God was looking out for me! Time to go on our walk! There were huge buildings, including this one that looked like a glass egg. So we weaved through many streets to get to it. Since it was Sunday, everything was closed, so the streets were pretty deserted. It was kind of eerie. We got to the glass egg and still couldn't figure out what it was. (Still don't know.) We eventually wandered back to the London Bridge and just sat and people watched. It was another beautiful day. We eventually found Kristin after her tour, and I asked them to take a picture of my heel click in front of the bridge. After a few tries, we finally got one! We hopped on the tube!

St. Pauls Cathedral! It was such a beautiful Cathedral. It is where Princess Diana got married! Though we weren't aloud to see much of it because there was service going on. So we decided to go somewhere around there to have tea. We ordered tea and a food and sat outside. I was feeling a little sad at this point. It hit me that I wished my family was there with me to experience all of this beauty WITH me. I prayed about this feeling and eventually slipped back into happiness.

Baker Street - Kristin and Elizabeth were very excited about this. They wanted to see this street because it had Sherlock Holmes address. After visiting it and getting pictures we went to the Beatles store. STORY: On the way to the Beatles store, a guy grabbed my hat from behind me and started running around with it. I wasn't scare, but I didn't really know what todo. Eventually the guy threw it at one of his friends and his friend just gave it back to me and kind of rolled his eyes. What a weird encounter that was. After the store we hopped back on the tube!

Abbey Road! - I was most excited about this. We followed our map to get to Abbey road and we were at this intersection that we THOUGHT was Abbey Road but a gentleman stopped us and said, "This isn't THE Abbey Road, THE Abbey Road is down that block." What a nice guy! It was crazy trying to get pictures at the cross walk because traffic was bad and many people were trying to get pictures, but we managed to get our pictures crossing. :)

Notting Hill - Notting Hill was absolutely beautiful. So many colorful buildings! We got there a little late, so we weren't able to really shop at the markets, but we stopped at a couple souvenier shops. We didn't spend long in Notting Hill. We headed off to the Kensington Gardens!

Kensington Gardens - This is where we would find the Peter Pan statue. It was another beautiful night. There was a big pond in the middle with many beautiful swans and other birds that we didn't know what they were called, but they were pretty strange. There were people playing football and frisbee, walking their dogs. It was a lovely moment. We finally found the statue! We took lots of pictures of it, then made our way to the City Center to have our last meal. We ate at the first place we saw. It was like a pub and eatery. Kristin and Elizabeth ordered Taters and Mash and I ordered the celery soup. It was all so good! Then we all ordered pie and custard. That was delicious as well! At one point in our meal an Irish man came up and asked us where he could find some good wine. Then I opened my mouth and he realized we were also not from London. Then he told us that he was from Ireland and we told him we were studying there and we had this long conversation about religion, school, family, and studying, and football. It was a hoot! I love talking to strangers because it's like they aren't strangers! We were in such a good mood and joked about how we could really go for Crepes even though we were so full. We looked up the CrepeTastic place and found out they were open until late! So we quickly paid our bills and hopped on the tube to go to CrepeTastic to finish off our night in London. The Crepes and employees were fantastic again. Such a perfect way to end our time in London.

We got back to our hostel and slept soundly until 3:00AM. We caught the bus and wandered around the airport until it was time to board our plane. I ended up getting a newspaper to bring back home (thinking of my dad!). I sat next to a young child and his mother. They spoke Spanish to each other almost the entire time. :) When we arrived in Ireland, this feeling came over me. I just felt like I was home. I was so happy! I can't even describe the feeling. We caught the bus back to Maynooth and I talked to my dad for a bit on the internet and then took a nice long nap until class.

I'm sorry about that long post about London! I left a lot out, but I wanted to share with you a good chunk of my experience. I hope you are able to go to London someday! It was an amazing experience to say the least.

Blessings to you!