12 days, 1 pair of jeans, 3 showers

So, we got back from 10-day today (which was really 12 days for us). it was definitely incredibly memorable!!! 

We started with a day in London. Really, it was just the cheapest way to get to the U.K., but conveniently, we could go see Les Mis while we were there! We started out our day by going to Portobello Market. It was really cute and quaint, but then we decided to head into the heart of London instead of just the outskirts. We walked all over London until it was time to go to St. Paul's Cathedral for the Good Friday service, then to Les Mis!!!! We were sitting in row N, so it ended up being about the 16th row or so. It was absolutely amazing!!! We also never figured out how to flush the toilet in our hostel, so we just went in the city before coming back...

After London, we went to Glasgow. I have since been told by like 4 people that I should avoid Glasgow and that it's shady. Before we left, Dr. Roper said to be careful on Day 7 because that's when everything bad happens. Ashlea and I decided to call Glasgow "Day 7". We got to our hostel in the morning and handed the man our reservation for 2 beds in a female dorm. He responded "Female dorm? Well, we don't do female dorms. We'll find you a couple beds and there should be some girls in the room!" At that point, we didn't realize what we were getting into. The guy leads us through a maze of random rooms and stairwells until we finally arrive at our room. The door has no lock. It doesn't actually shut. It's more like one of the kitchen style doors that you just push through. We go in and the guy starts yelling about 

his Irish co-worker who didnt make our beds while he finishes making them. The basic run-down of this hostel goes something like this: the bed below me has blood stains, the linen looked like it had never been washed, the bathroom walls, floors, and ceilings were covered in substances that shouldn't remain in the bathroom, and ashlea tied her shoes to her bed to make sure no one would steal them. we were afraid to change our clothes or brush our teeth in the hostel, so we went to starbucks to brush our teeth and just didn't change our clothes. The second night, I went to tell the guy that we were checking out in the morning (our plan was to go to the airport and take it from there). A different guy was working, so he started yelling at me that I wasn't staying in the room I said I was. Apparently, that was impossible because there's a group of 25 coming into that room that sleeps 8. Ashlea and I were then instructed to go get our bags so he could move us somewhere else. When we got back, there were 2 girls standing there. We started talking to the American and she informed us that 

she was shocked she waited so long before leaving. They had gotten in that morning. The Australian one was talking to the guy and then said something about not knowing how to get to the airport, so Ashlea and I just looked at each other and said "we'll show you!!" so we all told the guy to give us back whatever money we could have and we went to the airport. once we got there, ashlea and i knew we had 2 nights to look forward to in the airport if we didnt find a hotel for the first night. we saw a big sign that said it had a free shuttle to the hotel and there was a free direct line to the hotel, so we figured that was our best option. they took us out to the middle of no where, but we were excited about having a shower and actually bed linens. the shower was colder than river water, so we used the water heater to make sponge baths in the sink. in the morning, the water worked, so we got show

er #1. we then spent an entire day in the airport. we read our lit trad homework, started our theology papers, played Guess Who? for a couple hours and cards for several hours.

After "Day 7", we went to Dublin and met the rest of the Gypsies. Well, really, we met Stephen because everyone else was sleeping in and shopping around Dublin. That's why he's our favorite. We told him that if he hadn't been there, we might have sat crying outside Dublin castle. The three of us walked up to the Garden of Remembrance and a couple other places before meeting everyone for dinner. 

From Dublin, we went to Galway, then to Kinvarra and saw the essence of Ireland. It was amazing!!! We stayed at a farmhouse that had a sheepdog and cows and sheep! Ireland was beautiful and we both want to go back and spend more time there. It was also where we got to take our second shower of the trip.

From Ireland, we went to Germany and stayed with Cara Miller. After a day on the trains of Berlin getting yelled at in German (apparently, we had children's tickets), we made it to her town. On Sunday, she made us a traditional German brunch before we headed into Berlin for a tour. She showed us a bunch of the monuments and such, then took us to the top of the capitol building so we could look out over Berlin. Then, we went back to her town and ate dinner. I had Wild Boar and Ashlea had Eisbhan (which is like pork cooked wrapped in its own fat so it stays tender...i think it was called eisbhan). It was crazy good!!! Monday we went back into Berlin and got our train to Munich. We saw some friends in the train station and were really excited when we knew all 4 of the other people in our couchette. It wasn't that hard to imagine since like half of UD was coming back from Munich on the night train, but it was still excited. We had to buy our tickets in Berlin from a lady who didn't speak English, so we were just happy they got us back to Rome.

We got into Rome this morning and celebrated as each new person got back on campus. It's really fun to trade stories about who didn't sleep in a bed over the entire trip and who got shaken by a man with no eyes in Morocco.