Doing the Emerald Isle Ian, Kat, and I left on Thursday, February 26th for Manchester Airport enroute to Shannon Airport in Ireland. The trip started off crazy to say the least. To begin with, we were late to board the plane (well, what's new?). Then after boarding we taxied toward the runway until the plane suddenly stopped. Ryanair called out an engineer to look at the plane. We sat there for about thirty minutes. Finally, the captain of the plane informed us that the engineer fixed the nose gear in the landing/takeoff equipment. An hour after our expected departure, we took [View Full Entry]

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Weekend Trip to Edinburgh, the Capital of Scotland Departure from Leeds occurred at 8am (saturday) at the train station. However, my roommate Yong and I were taking a bus as part of a tourist group called "Don't Be a Tourist". The group is essentially a bunch of international student who want to partake in overnight, weekend trips to different parts of the UK. It is an easy way to get out and meet more international students living in your area. The bus ride was probably close to five hours as we drove from Leeds to Edinburgh. On the way, we stopped [View Full Entry]

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The Yorkshire Dales The morning began with a short train to Skipton followed by a bus ride to Bolton Abbey. The commute took about 40 minutes. And the transportation there and back cost 7 GBP. The trip was largely organized by Stacey (from California) and I. After arriving at our destination, we walked to the Bolton Priory, which was a large church founded in 1120. Several photographs were taken of the fantastic building. Then we proceeded to cross the river by a stone footpath. One of the stones were missing, requiring one to leap 4.5 feet across the open river. The [View Full Entry]

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February 7th At 9:55am me and my buddy Ian hopped on a train to York. The ride was very short (prob. 25 mins). The return ticket was expensive for the distance travelled. It cost 10.50 pounds which is about $15.25. However, the trip to York proved to be worth while. Upon arrival, we exited the train station and immediately noticed the Walls of York. In fact, York has more miles of intact city walls than anywhere else in England, and some sections of the walls date back to Roman times. However, most date back to the 12 to 14th century. They [View Full Entry]

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Trip to Liverpool January 31st, 9am, Departure from University to Liverpool via Coach The ride over was pleasant as the English countryside is absolutely amazing. Never have I ever seen 1.5 hours of green rolling hills dotted with cottages and lakes and yes....a nuclear power plant. The trip was organized by the International student office at a cost of 14 pounds. At first I only new one girl, Chelsea from New Zealand, but quickly made friends with a couple chicks sitting in front of me...Britney and Kat from Canada (the US's retarded deaf step-brother of the North). Anyway, [View Full Entry]

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Harrogate and Ripley Castle After meeting some new people (several Canadians and a Californian), we ventured north of Leeds via train on Saturday at noon. Meeting at the Leeds train station, we bought a return ticket for ~5 pounds. The short train ride took us to the town of Harrogate. After arriving there, we promptly bought bus tickets to take us to the Castle and Gardens at Ripley. Upon arrival, we noticed the quaint town and the Ripley Castle, surrounded by a beautiful landscape. The castle belongs to the Ingleby family and it dates back 700 years. The castle was truly [View Full Entry]

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ARRIVED The trip went through with out a hiccup. Each plane arrived at times located on the itinerary, thus leaving no guess work for me. Upon arrival in Dublin, however, I met a fellow gamecock. Crazy...I know. He is Chaz and he is going to school at Limerick University in Ireland. Following that, we both checked through immigration and successfully got into the European terminal. Following that encounter, we went our separate ways. However, a meeting in Ireland with some of my other buddies is a high probability. Anywho back to my arrival in Manchester. Myself and anot [View Full Entry]

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Flight Itinerary Flight 1: GSP->Dulles, Departs 2:25pm, Arrives 3:58 pm Flight 2: Dulles->Dublin, Departs 7:45pm, Arrives 7:30am Flight 3: Dublin->Manchester, Depart 10:50am, Arrives 11:45am Arrival in Manchester will be followed by a trek to the train station in the airport to catch a direct train to Leeds. Arrival in Leeds will be followed by (I suspect) a taxi ride to the my accommodation, St. Marks. [View Full Entry]

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