Today started bright and early at 5:30am to catch our bus to Dover. We arrived at the bus station with plenty of time and a few hours later we were dropped off in the middle of town. It was a very small town, smaller than Bilbao, but very beautiful! Right away we hiked up the mountain to Dover Castle. As we were walking, I was getting flashbacks from the hike up Gernika! On the way, there were also little information boards that gave background info and history about the place you were standing. I absolutely love the idea and think every city should have them! Just like the hike up Gernika, the view from this mountain was worth the extra strength from my calves. Also, we were on our way to a CASTLE! What better excuse is there? When we got up to the castle, we paid our admission fee and started exploring. The first thing we found was a set of stairs that leads to no where. As Lauren walked up, I snapped a photo and captioned it, "Your future with college debt." I think I'm pretty clever. ;) We also saw a small house that used to be the Sergeant Major's House but you can rent for a weekend! How awesome would that be?! Our admission came with free tours of the Secret Wartime Tunnels and the Underground Hospital Annexe. Both tours were awesome but they wouldn't let us take pictures inside but we made sure to sign the guest book in the gift shop. Before going on the Underground Hospital Annexe tour, we went up the small hill to see them fire one of the first cannons that was made to deflect German fighter planes. It was loud and classically soon after, a baby started crying. When we actually went into the castle it was breath taking. All the rooms were decorated with furniture that would have been typical but you were able to interact with some of the items. We got some great pictures there! By the time we finished going through the castle (even though we didn't see everything), we were all starving and didn't have much time to eat before our boat tour at 4pm. Since we didn't get a chance to have high tea yesterday we had the perfect opportunity in one of the restaurants on the castle grounds. We all ordered the traditional English tea with cream and a scone with jam and clotted cream. It was fabulous. I even drank my tea with my pinky up! (Just for you Abhi, Gaby, and Azucena!!) Unfortunately, for some reason after I finished I didn't feel so well. My throat was getting scratchy and I felt a bit nauseous. I'm not sure where it came from but I was hoping it would go away. Luckily the boat tour wasn't that far away from the castle and even though we had a little trouble finding it arrived with plenty of time to spare! The captain was really nice and on our tour pointed out sights and gave us some history lessons. When we reached the White Cliffs of Dover he told me to join him in the cockpit and taught me how to drive the boat! I WAS SO EXCITED!!!! I never thought I would be able to drive a boat in Dover by the cliffs of Dover with at least 15 people on the boat!!!! No, Bobby I did not crash or kill anyone. I was a phenomenal captain! After the tour, we all signed the guest book and proceeded to ask our captain where the best place to eat around was. He recommended a pub called the Eight Bells, about a 15 min walk from the dock. On our way there we decided to have a photoshoot with the classical red phone booth. It was hilarious. Lauren tried a little too hard to be creative and we ended up having to poorly rescue her. By the time we got to the pub my sickness was full blown. I was so nauseous and I could barely talk. It even hurt to swallow! I had no appetite to eat but knew that I had to eat something or else I wouldn't eat anything at all. I settled for Chicken Tikka Masala. It was great and probably the cheapest meal I've bought for 6.70 pounds. After spending about 2 hours at the pub, we headed to the bus station. It was very cold outside as we waited for our bus, which came about 30 mins later. Our 2 hour bus ride back to the city was blessed by Matt having Toy Story 3 on his iPad and it served as a pleasant distraction for how terrible I felt. We arrived at the bus station, frantically looking for Kelsey (she opted for the Harry Potter tour in London instead of Dover) to be able to catch our bus to Stansted Airport by our hotel. Luckily 30 mins later we found her, bought our bus tickets to the airport and boarded the bus. This bus ride was terrible because I was trying my hardest not to throw up, I had completely lost my voice at this point, and couldn't sleep. A grueling 2 hours later we arrived at the airport where we just caught our shuttle to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel around 1:30am, checked in, and tried to get at least 3 hours of sleep before waking up again to meet in the lobby at 5 am for the shuttle back to the airport. I hopped into bed and tried my hardest to fall asleep, of course, my body retaliated. I was so nauseous and was praying that I could throw up so I could get it over with. It was the kind of nausea that comes with burping every few minutes, so it's like teasing you to throw up. Finally, after tossing and turning for an hour an a half, at 3 am I ran to the bathroom and threw up. It was horrible and I don't think I've ever been that happy to throw up. I tried to fall asleep but I did not help one bit. After an hour of restlessness at 4am I gave up, made some tea and got ready to go. I wanted to go home so bad. Just to be able to knock on my parent's door and tell them I'm not feeling good. Have my dad make me some tea and have my mom invite me to sit on the recliner while placing a cover over me. These are the moments during study abroad that suck the most. Because you have none of that. I am very grateful that my friends were doing their best to take care of me; letting me sit down, asking if I needed anything, looking for medicine and trying different remedies. Without them I probably would have had a mental break down. We met downstairs at 5 am but our shuttle didn't come until 5:30 am or so. We had to fight to squeeze in, to avoid being left behind and missing our 7 am flight. At the airport, I made a last ditch effort to try to alleviate my nausea and bought an over priced 7-up. Of course, it didn't help. Going through security was a free for all disaster. By the time we all got through, we were frantically running to our gate past all the useless duty free shops. It was like a mall in there! When we finally got to the end, we ended having to take a train to our gate and again fought to squeeze in tightly. When we reached our gate it happened to be the final call. We were lucky! We boarded the plan without a ramp (I don't know what it's called but it was kind of cool) and took off about 25 mins later. I tried once more to fall asleep on the plane, but it just wasn't happening. I am grateful I downloaded some books to read on my tablet to distract myself. We landed 15 mins early, went through customs, and rode the bus back to the center of Bilbao. I managed to send a text message to my host family explaining that I couldn't speak and was feeling terrible. As soon as I got home, they came to the door asking if I wanted to see a doctor. I declined because I really just wanted to shower, eat, and sleep. I was created with a full bowl of green beans, and some medicine. At around 1:30 pm I fell asleep soundly in my bed, only to be woken up 3 hours later by my insane amounts of texts from my parents, freaking out because I hadn't responded. (Even though I told them I was going to sleep.) Not even 30 mins I fell back asleep until 8:30pm, ate dinner, and tried to work on homework. I thought for sure I would be up all night because of how long I slept. Thank God I was wrong, at 11:30pm I knocked out.
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