We left Thursday night, after eating the best chocolate cake that my taste buds have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. So, you could say, we started off the trip just right. I'm not quite sure as to how many students went but it was quite a lot since we had 2 coaches. After picking the coach with the leather headrests, I immediately regretted my decision since Darren, a coach driver, was driving the other coach! Side note: he was the guy that drove us around Ireland and me and Meghan loved him!! Back to reality... Matt was also on our bus, but we would have preferred Bronwyn.
Anywho, we left about 6:30 or so and headed towards the Lake District. We did get to watch two movies: Hot Fuzz and Miss Potter. Both were okay, but definitely not my favorite. I ended up setting my iPod to Rascal Flatts and was signing to the songs instead. By the time we reached our hostel, it was a little after 11. We got situated and found our rooms. My room had Savannah, Elaine, Chelsea K, Sarah, Adrienne, Jessica and myself. The good thing was there was a great view of outside, which was Lake Windermere and we could see mountains. The stars were out and it was pretty outside (the last night it was like that).
Our Hostel
Friday morning, everyone woke up about 7:30 to go grab some breakfast. Those of you that know me, know I don't like eggs unless their scrambled, don't care for sausage, but certainly do love bread. Well thank God they had croissants and toast, or else I would have been screwed! I hat elike 6 pieces of bread and just about killed over. Hehe, couldn't help it. They were mighty tasty. It was a free day, so we could do what we wanted (unless you signed up for horse back riding, but we didn't). Sarah needed to go to the Beatrix Potter attraction because her family back home wanted some souveniers. After we bought our 12 POUND ticket to the ferry, (it was so expensive!) that would take us to Bowness (which is where the attraction was), we hopped on the ferry. It was pretty nice actually. We went on the top deck and took some pictures but then went back down underneath since it was raining and chilly.
When we reached Bowness, we immediately saw all sorts of birds, ducks, geese, etc. So what did we do? We ran over to them of course! We tried to get as close to them as possible to take a picture. Melissa, Rachel and Chelsea all tried feeding them, but i didn't. They scared me!! After we had our fun with the flying creatures, we went on the lookout for the Beatrix Potter attraction. We did get lost a few times because once again, people aren't so great at giving directions. Anywho. After walking around for a bit, we finally found it.
Walking around, there is only one word that could accurately describe this place: cute. It literally looked like all Potter's books had thrown up and make little stuffed creatures everywhere. It suddenly reminded me of when Mom used to read them to me as a small lassie. Oh, those were the days. After browsing around all the cuteness...we checked out the gift shop and then left. I went into a little store later and bought a thing or two but nothing big. Sarah had to leave though and get back to Ambleside (where our hostel was) because she was zip lining at 2, so we headed back.
That night, us there decided to go on a walk and enjoy the crisp fall air. We were also a little hungry since we had eaten at like 4:30, hehe. So, we stopped in Churchill's, a little pub. Turns out, quite a few Harlaxton students were in there but we didn't sit with them, we plopped down in a chair a few feet away. It wasn't long until Jeff came over and started talking to us. Apparently over at his table, Drew had gotten sick and threw up all over the table, and some of the people and didn't even realize he did it. People got pissed and washed themselves off and left, Drew was being a jerk about it, and then Kristin and Cory came over to us to hang out when Jeff left. After a little while, Jess smuggled out my Magners glass and we headed to Lucy 4s.
Cory just wanted to go because it sounded like Lucifers. He got some nasty drink, while the 4 girls all shared a Sangria which wasn't so bad. We had a good time but decided to head back, but before we left, Cory went down and stole a bottle of wine. We are such kleptos! Of course we didn't know he was stealing it and I would never steal a bottle of wine, but still.
When we made it back to the hostel, there was a big group of people standing outside and we found out there was a bunch of drama. Two guys were causing problems and puking everywhere in the hostel, the manager had to go up there and so did Bronwyn to help sort things out. Plus a few other things were going on, but I won't bore you with the details. Us girls decided to go up to the room and kinda go to sleep since it had been a long day.
Saturday morning came all too suddenly. We got up, ate breakfast, and then got on the coach to head to Langsdale for mountain hiking and ghyll scrambling. on the way, some kid got sick on the bus, and he was sitting right in front of me. My stomach was already feeling woozy from motion sickness so seeing him get sick didn't help me out much. Thankfully we got there before I felt any sicker. We all divided up into the various activities we had signed up for: rock climbing, ghyll scrambling, or mountain hiking. Well, that morning Jess, Sarah and myself were going mountain hiking with 3 other people plus a guide.
The hike was nice, other than the fact that it was raining and windy. It felt like we were walking up small waterfalls the whole time since all the water was running down hill. Getting close to the top, it was cool to look out and all the other mountains and valleys to see how the fog was hovering over them. I love hiking, but going down hill is never quite as fun. Slipping and falling always seems to be in the description of going downhill a very wet, slippery rocky mountain. And, there were sheep everywhere! They didn't even seem to care we were within 4 feet of them, they just continued grazing which was pretty funny.
After we made it back down safely, we waited around for about an hour for other people to show up because we had signed up to do ghyll scrambling in the afternoon. I was a little nervous because we were climbing up waterfalls and being in the water for over 2 hours. This isn't like being in Jamaica, doing Dunns River Falls when its 85 degrees outside and little jamaican people are running around helping. We had a harness, and hard hat. It was in the low 50's outside and the water was freezing cold! We had one guide, Chris, and we had to go through some pretty rough rapids and ending by climbing up a 30 foot waterfall with rope. Talk about intense!! (Grandma, this is totally your type of activity, hehe!!)
My group was Jessica, Sarah, Adrienne, Chelsea K, Rachelle, Caitie, and myself. Chris was an excellent guide and was really funny. After a short while he realized that I was the giggling, silly american and would just look at me and smile because of the retarded stuff i was doing. As long as I was having fun...right?? And, i had my camera so I got some good photos of our group, but like none of me since I was the one taking the pictures...boo!
By the time we reached the 30 foot waterfall, I was really nervous. Chris was at the top with the rope and we had to hook it to our harness and it was basically rock climbing with water pouring down you. I almost didn't do it, but when Jess (who is deathly afraid of heights) did it, I knew I had to do it too. Low and behold, it was so much fun!!! And it wasn't too hard. I would have regretted not doing it, so i'm really excited that i did.
My Ghyll Scrambling group
Jess climbing up the waterfall
When we all finished, we went back to the coaches, changed and jumped on. As I was sitting on the ride back, my body continually got colder because my legs had been numb, but were returning to life. I actually found it rather funny but i didn't even care I was so cold because it was so much fun. When we got back, we were hungry so Sarah, Jess and I went out to Tarentella's (italian) for dinner where there were other Harlaxton students. The meal was very good and I was very satisfied with it.
After dinner, we played cards with Robb for a little bit and just talked but called it a night since I was exhausted. Oh, and by the way, I had some of the biggest bruises of my life. Make a fist, and that is the size of one of them, which we named Bertha. I have quite a few others too, but it's what everyone is calling legendary. I'm like a circus freak! Everyone wants to see it and then winces in pain when they do. You could say my legs are rather colorful at the moment...hehe!
Sunday was alright. We stopped in Keswick (pronounced Kes-ick, without the 'w' sound) for 2 hours for lunch. I had a burger and fries which were pretty good. Me and Robb bought some cute hats for cheap and I was able to get my patches for my sweatpants. On the rest of the way home we watched Over the Hedge and Coach Carter. Good thing I like both of those movies. :) When I got back, I didn't do any homework like I was supposed to. Instead, I did absolutely nothing and caught myself up on Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice...see I wasn't completely unproductive!
Me and Robb
Well, it's tuesday and I leave in 3 days for Poland, with Jess, Sara, Adrienne, Meghan, and Chelsea. We get to visit Auschwitz which should be interesting and i'm very excited. I have slideshow of pictures in my blog if you'd like to check it out! Love you!
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