I'm going to write until I get bored or pass out. Here goes:

So for the last 11 days I've been off cavorting around London, Dublin, Limerick and Cork. This was by far the most amazing and memorable part of the trip so far, and I'm keeping our London itinerary in front of me so I can remember all we did.

Thursday, 14/2

After dinner on Thursday we flew out of Dusseldorf/Weeze airport just across the border in Germany. We flew into London-Stansted, which was about 90 minutes from the hotel. A bus connected us, and by the time we got to the hotel, it was nearly 11.

The hotel was (many would use a harsher word) modest, but we were downtown right by the tube and a place to sleep. Also: free breakfast. There was a breakfast caste system going on. We could only select from the continental breakfast side (rolls and cereals) while other guests had access to a full English breakfast of fried eggs, baked beans (in tomato sauce), sausage, bacon and the like. I don't know who was expecting the Ritz, but they were surely disappointed.

Friday, 15/2

Today was a bit of a (non-alcoholic) hangover day, beginning with a morning walking tour around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace followed by a rather lethargic tour of the British Museum. It was cold as balls outside, so the walking tour--given by Castle faculty, as were the museum tours of the trip--was pretty short. The museum trip was interesting but I didn't have much mental energy left, so I didn't get too much out of it. I did see the Rosetta Stone, though.

That night we went to a bar called The World's End. Really cool place. A drunk Rastafarian tried to sell us plastic jewelry. No sale. After that, my friends went to a club, but I went to sleep. We each had a night like this over the break where we, more than anything else, needed to sleep. We did have to get up at like 8:30 each of the mornings in London, so our sleep was limited.

Saturday, 16/2

Today, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we signed up for our events instead of moving as a huge blob. In the morning I went to the National Gallery. The coolest thing I saw there was probably the paintings by Georges Seurat, the subject of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George, which I have listened to quite a lot lately. Pointalism. Like impressionism with poking stokes instead of sweeping ones. Very striking.

I had fish and chips for lunch. They served them with sour cream (or relish-less tartar sauce, I guess). Then we had gelato that cost way too much money. And it was way too cold out. And I was way too full to eat it. But I did, and it was freaking great.

That afternoon I went to the Tate Museum. There was a lot of Classical Age sculpture and bas-relief there. The Greeks are actually still pretty peeved about it. They want their stuff back.

That night was tried to get tickets to a show, failed, and subsequently crashed from disappointment. Balls.

Sunday, 17/2

Today I'd signed up to go on a daylong (10 a.m.-7 p.m.) tour of Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was optional and they guilted us into signing up for the damn thing (which was really damn annoying), but I didn't go. I have to sit captive in front of my crazy, senile magazine writing teacher twice a week already, which subject myself to a full day's dose of her ramblings? Instead, I slept in a little and went on a Beatles walking tour with a few of my friends.

The tour guide was interesting, but there were no bells and whistles, just the sites and stories of the Beatles in London, including Abbey Road and the Abbey Road Studios, Paul McCartney's record label's offices, the offices of Apple Records (the Beatles' label), the townhouse on the roof of which the band played their final and most infamous concert, the theatre where "Beatlemania" began, Yoko Ono's art studio (where she and John Lennon met), and some other cool stuff, too.

That night, we went to see one of Ben's favourite (when in Rome on the "-our") musicians, Kaki King. That girl can do some awesome stuff with a guitar. Damn, son. Before the concert, I went with two of my friends to try to get tickets again for Billy Elliot: The Musical, and we were triumphant! I got an obstructed view ticket for about $34 (which wasn't obstructed after I contorted my spine to see the stage). Billy Elliot's moving to Broadway in a year or so or something, so we were very excited at our luck!

The exchange rate on the British Pound, by the way, made me want to die. Math-impotent Emersonians failed to understand that 1 Pound has always been more valuable than $1, and that a currency like the Yen, although in smaller increments, can still "beat" the dollar. I've said that Emerson students should be accomplished enough in math to understand how in debt they'll be after graduation, but we can't move past exchange rates. END OF DIGRESSION. Ok. 1 pound=$2. London=exorbitant prices. Terrible.

That night we went out and looked for a club or something but didn't find anything and stumbled back to the hotel. It was still really fun, though.

Monday, 18/2

This morning we toured Westminster Abbey. By this point, we were quite tired, but I'd say this was the most impressive part of the London trip. There is so much to describe and the building is so vast. Most distinguished Britons are buried there, and the artwork and architecture are staggering. Good stuff.

That afternoon was a tour of "the London of Dickens and Shakespeare." The tour was given by a quaint British woman. She was, as Meg put it, "precious." She really was. We saw the old moorings of London Bridge; the new London Bridge; the prison where Dickens father was interned; the site of the old Globe Theatre (it burned down); the new, replica Globe; and a lot of other really cool things in that neighbourhood, including the outside of St. Paul's Cathedral.

That night we went to see Billy Elliot! It was very good. I have some issues with the show (it's no Sondheim), but it was really quite good. The experience was well worth the money, exchange rate or no.

All in all, over the 11-day trip, I spent $520 dollars (about $47/day). That's a small fortune, but significantly less than others spent and I could have spent myself. We spent the entire break in cities and had to pay for our own housing after London and most of our own food. None of that helped.

Tuesday, 19/2

Last day in London. Our flight to Dublin was at 5 p.m. That morning we went to the Docklands area--London's (much large and more impressive) version of Boston's State Street financial district. Our faculty guide was reading off a printout and clearly didn't know much about the area, and she, like us, had a flight to catch, so we were done by noon thirty. We crossed London via tube back to the hotel, grabbed lunch and headed to the train that would take us to the airport. I validates my Eurail pass that day, so the ride was free for me.

We had some issues with carry-on luggage and were scrubbed pretty hard at security and our flight was delayed an hour, but we made it to our hostel in Dublin around 10 that night. We had a big Italian dinner (always check the specials board, folks, not just the menu), had a drink at a very Irish pub and passed out for some well-earned sleep.

I'm very tired of writing and have some other urgent matters (such as watching a movie for fun) to do. I'll write about the rest of my trip maybe tomorrow.