October 17, 2019

I'm on the first flight of our vacation (Chicago to Reykjavík). I was very frustrated when we boarded our flight because Hunter and I weren't seated together (even though we picked two seats right next to each other when we bought our plane tickets a month ago). Fortunately, a kind woman sitting next to me was willing to switch seats with Hunter so that we could be together. I am very thankful for that kind gesture because I was originally sitting in the middle seat between two strangers.

It's 11:21 PM in Chicago, but 4:24 AM in Reykjavík, and I can't sleep because there is very limited legroom, and the seats are not very comfortable. I keep telling myself that I can nap when we get to Copenhagen, but Hunter's been able to sleep for the majority of the flight, and I doubt that he'll be tired enough for a nap when we arrive. I'm jealous that he can fall asleep so easily.

We have one hour and 53 minutes left until we land in Iceland, and I'm very excited to get off of this plane! Unfortunately, our layover is less than two hours long, so we won't have enough time to do any sightseeing, but at least we'll get to our destination a little bit faster.

October 19, 2019

Today is Hunter's 24th birthday! We did so much to celebrate. First, we explored the shopping district of Copenhagen. I was surprised at how many of Copenhagen's stores are also in the United States (H&M, Sephora, Footlocker, Victoria's Secret). It was comforting to see some of those familiar places.

Next, we ate lunch at a really cute café (Hunter's choice). There were two floors separated by a spiral staircase that was just beautiful. I had a delicious ham and cheese sandwich on a unique (but tasty) bun, smoothie, and grapes.

After that, we went back to the hotel to put our food in the fridge and relax for a little bit. Then, we went to a BEAUTIFUL park. There were so many trees, a big pond, a neat bridge, and a lot of cute dogs! From there, we found an outdoor/indoor farmers market. There were so many interesting fruits, beautiful flowers, and interesting foods. Hunter got a coffee at one of the indoor stores, and our barista was from Boston-small world!

Soon after, we went to shop a little bit more. Some of the stores that we looked in were very neat! Finally, before going back to our hotel (it was getting cold and was supposed to rain soon), we went back to the farmers market to get gelato. I got lemon-flavored gelato, and Hunter got coffee-flavored. On our way back to our hotel, we stopped in a quaint, little bookshop where they had books in Danish and in English. Hunter bought a book about science.

Once we returned to the hotel, we ate our leftovers for dinner, I called Mom and Dad, and then we read our books. It was a very enjoyable day!

October 20, 2019

Today was our first day on the cruise! We started off our day by taking a taxi to the cruise port. I was a little bit nervous, but not too much. Hunter noticed that I felt a little bit anxious and asked how I was doing. That made me feel a bit more at ease. It was also comforting to see all of the American people getting on the boat because it reminded me of home.

We went through the lines to get on the cruise pretty quickly and immediately went to eat lunch after boarding. I ate chicken noodle soup.

After that, we went to look around the ship. Our cruise has a lot of cool things to do: rock climbing wall, mini-golf course, bowling alley, rope course, ping pong tables, a board game room.

We then ate dinner at the Garden Café (buffet). I had macaroni and cheese, carrots, peas, and cake. The food is OK-I want to try a different restaurant tomorrow to see if I like their food better.

Soon after, Hunter and I went to play ping pong. We played four games, and I won all of the games. We had so much fun! I think we're going to be playing a lot more.

Finally, we went to a show that showed a preview of a bunch of different entertainment onboard. I really enjoyed a ballroom dancing act and a comedian act.

So far, I haven't felt the boat move very much and am feeling less anxiety now-I'm very happy about it! I hope that tomorrow goes just as well as today did.

October 23, 2019

Today was our fourth day on the cruise! Our port was in Southampton, and Hunter and I were disappointed to discover that London is 2.5 hours away by bus. As we started to walk toward the shopping district of Southampton, I had the idea to look for the train station to see how much it would cost to take a train to London. Once we found the train station (after 15-20 minutes of walking), we found out that the train rides are fairy reasonably priced ($50 both ways). The ride was 1.5 hours long.

We got to London around 1:00 PM and immediately began to look for something to eat for lunch. We found a place similar to Panera that was reasonably priced and took it to Jubilee Park (where the Eye of London is located). I had chicken noodle soup, and Hunter had a wrap. Soup was the perfect choice for lunch because it was a bit chilly outside.

After we looked at the Eye of London, we walked across a bridge toward Big Ben. Unfortunately, it was under construction, but we enjoyed seeing the views along the way.

After that, we walked through a beautiful park. There were so many interesting birds there, such as huge pelicans, interesting looking geese, and funky ducks!

We then (accidentally!) ran into Buckingham Palace-it was such a treat to see! The gates are absolutely beautiful, but Buckingham Palace itself is fairly plain.

We ended up walking about 4.5 miles in total, and we were able to see everything that we wanted to see in just 2.5 hours. I'm so glad that we decided to be brave and make the trip on our own! It was definitely worth it.

October 25, 2019

Today was our sixth day on the cruise, and for the most part, it was a good one! We started our day at 8:15 AM, ate breakfast, and got ready to explore Portland. Hunter and I decided to explore the island of Portland instead of taking the bus into Weymouth, and that was a great choice!

We started by walking outside of a castle in Portland. It was pretty neat and looked very old.

We then walked through the town and toward the cliffs. Man, climbing up toward the cliffs was tough! They were extremely steep. But once we got to the top, we knew that it was worth it-it was beautiful. We could see the ocean, the town, and mountains. Unfortunately, about 1.5 hours into our day in Portland, it began to rain and got very windy. We decided to head back to the ship, and I'm glad that we did, because there were A LOT of people that came back to the ship just after we got through security.

After getting back on the ship, we ate lunch and took a nice, long nap. We then went to one of the nice restaurants for dinner and were seated with two older couples. They were so nice and really funny! We really enjoyed their company. One couple offered to buy us drinks, and the other gave us necklaces to wear while we were in New Orleans and a card to have a cake delivered to our room. We really enjoyed their company!

When we were done with dinner, Hunter and I went to play games in the game room. I was trying to distract myself because the boat was rocking a lot (we are near a tropical storm), and it was making me nervous. The waves were huge! Fortunately, our cruise ship had a lot of different games to choose from, so we played Monopoly for almost two hours, and I won! After that, we played checkers. I won that game, too.

October 26, 2019

What started off as a great day quickly turned into a nightmare. Today is our seventh day on the cruise ship, and we are at the port in Cobh, Ireland. Our ship is right next to a train station, and we bought two tickets to go into a nearby city, Cork.

Cork was very neat. There was a ton of live music and windy streets. We were looking for places to eat, but there weren't very many restaurants. We decided to eat at Subway just to get something into our stomachs.

Next, we looked for a bus station to take us to Blarney. Hunter really wanted to see Blarney Castle, as did I. We bought two tickets and were on our way.

The bus dropped us just down the road from the castle. The tickets weren't cheap to get into the area near the castle, but they were worth it! The area surrounding the castle was incredibly beautiful. It looked a lot like a botanical garden. There were also waterfalls.

We made our way to Blarney Castle and walked inside of it. We had to walk up this narrow, steep staircase for a long time, and we both got very claustrophobic! Once we made it to the top, we waited in line to kiss the Blarney Stone. You have to hold on to railings and lean over backwards in order to do it. It's about 300 feet in the air, and even though someone holds on to you, and there's grates below you, it's still quite scary!

Once we were done touring the area around Blarney Castle, it was 3:45 PM. We knew that the boat leaves at 5:30 PM, so I thought that we'd have enough time to take a 20 minute bus ride, walk 10 minutes to the train station, and take a 24 minute train back to the port. In theory, this is correct. What we did not account for is when the buses or trains arrived and how much time was in between each.

We hurriedly made our way toward the bus stop and saw it sitting there. We ran to catch it, waving our hands, and while we were within 10 feet of the door, it pulled away. I was disheartened as we had not accounted for this. But the next bus was supposed to come in 15 minutes, or so we thought.

We waited. And waited. And waited some more. 25 minutes had passed, and there was no sign of any bus. I was beginning to panic. At a previous port, the cruise ship had taken our passports, so if we missed the cruise, I didn't know how we'd get home.

I ran into a nearby gas station and told the cashier about our situation. He kindly called a taxi and said that it should be there within 10-15 minutes. It was 4:30 PM, and Cobh is a 45 minute drive without rush hour traffic. I walked back outside to meet Hunter. He had just finished speaking with a man that had little faith that we'd make it back to the cruise ship on time. I prayed. Hunter prayed too.

Again, we walked across the street toward the bus stop where a man was now standing. He told us that the bus would be there in just one minute. I was relieved. Just as I was about to tell him "thank you", our taxi pulled up, and Hunter decided to get inside. I followed.

Our taxi driver was very kind and had two crosses hanging from his dashboard. This put my mind a bit more at ease. I was very nauseous at this point because I still wasn't sure if we'd a) make it back in time, and b) would be able to call my parents (I had told them that I'd call them at a certain time today and didn't want them to worry). 45 minutes and a lot of windy roads later, we arrived at the cruise terminal (5:15 PM). I was absolutely elated! We made it! I got out of the taxi to call Mom and Dad while Hunter paid. I was able to talk to them for about five minutes. I miss them so much.

Hunter and I talked about what happened when we got back to our room. He said that our taxi driver had said that we wouldn't have made it back in time if we had taken the train. We realized that he was right when we were getting back into the boat and looked at the train station. The train still hadn't arrived.

During this conversation, Hunter also asked, "didn't the cashier tell you that he was supposed to meet you in 10-15 minutes in the parking lot across the street from where we were?" I said yes. And then he said, "isn't it crazy that he pulled up a couple of minutes after calling for the taxi (instead of 10-15 minutes later), pulled up in the bus lane where we were rather than across the street in the parking lot where we were supposed to meet, and knew exactly who he was looking for?"

Yes. Yes, it is. I believe that God answered our prayers today. There is no reason that he should've known that we'd be across the street instead of in the parking lot, who we were, or arrive just seconds ahead of a bus that would've made us miss the boat. Thank you, Jesus.