Day 77

Saturday, July 28 -

We drove across Ireland today to the Cliffs of Moher! It blows my mind that you can just take a day trip all the way across this whole country and back again. The cliffs were beautiful and so was the countryside getting there. It was kind of like going to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, I took a billion pictures of the same thing because it was just so pretty.

The sea and a castle! Excuse the glare, this was taken through the bus window

More of the sea

Even more sea and green grass

I can't get over how green the grass is

Ireland countryside

A castle

More water and grass

Waiting for the leprechauns to come out

Baby stonehenge

Some old castle 

The Cliffs of Moher!

Watch out

More of the cliffs

The castle on one side

Atlantic Ocean

If you squint reeeeally hard, you can see America on the other side of the ocean!

Don't jump

Long way down

Crazy dog that went psycho when the bus driver honked the horn. It ran super fast up and down the fence and when it got to the side it ran in several circles.

Another castle

Day 76

Friday, July 27 -

It was off to Dublin today! The flight was quick and easy, the Tube ride to the airport lasted longer than the plane ride. Once we landed, we made our way to the hostel to dropped off our luggage and then went to Temple Bar for lunch. They had 106 sandwiches on their menu!

Temple Bar

106 sandwiches. All different!

After lunch we were able to check into the hostel and see our rooms. We were a group of eight, but since we booked separately we ended up in three different rooms. I was really unlucky (maybe because I wasn't wearing green?) and got the crappiest room. Everyone else had a bathroom in their room but us.

My room/jail cell

Creepy shower room

But it's all about location, location, location and that was great. We were right in the city center, within walking distance of all the main touristy stuff so we didn't have to pay for transportation all weekend.

Ha'penny Bridge 

River Liffey

After we were all settled in we headed off the the Guinness Storehouse! It was cool and I think I could probably brew my own beer now. At the end we went to Gravity Bar at the very top that has a bunch of windows and an awesome view of the whole city.

Guinness factory 

Grain

The cool waterfall they had to demonstrate that you put water in beer 

Old equipment 

Everyone knows this

Our inner journalist came out on the floor about Guinness advertising

The view from Gravity Bar

They made a shamrock in the foam on the free pint

More of the view from the top

We went to a pub later to try and watch the Olympic opening ceremony, but I guess they were just not really excited about it. They had it on Sky but BBC has the rights, so we had to ask them to change the channel. Then whoever knew how to work the TV wasn't there so we had to wait for that person to come back. They finally changed the channel but they were playing live music so we couldn't hear the sound. It looked really cool but I feel like I would have understood it more with music. We gave up on that and went back to the hostel to watch the ceremony there.

That was good for several minutes, but there was some crazy drunk lady there. She went off on some racist rant and was constantly yelling at the TV. At first I thought it was funny, but then she was serious and wouldn't shut up and it was super annoying. All the athletes started coming in by country and we were going to stay until Team USA came in. Crazy lady was screaming 'WELCOMEEEEE TO LONDONNNNN' to each country that came in and it was getting really late, so we gave up and went to bed sometime in the C's.

Day 75

Thursday, July 26 -

I got up at the crack of dawn (not really, the sun rises at like 3 a.m.) and went into work to go out on a shoot! I was surprised because the Tube was pretty much empty and the Olympics are upon us, so I was expecting it to be packed and awful.

Anyway, I went out on this shoot to see Mitt Romney have a meeting with former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Pretty much all that happened was he arrived, walked to the door of the building, glanced at the press (CBS London photog and me, two interns from the CBS affiliate in Boston, some other intern guy who had people inside), and went into the building.

Mitt Romney and his security team of 3498574897 guys in suits with ear pieces and black sun glasses, rolling up to Tony Blair's office.

Mitt Romney looking over at us, walking into the building.

The whole thing was very anti-climatic. He stayed in there for about 30 minutes and we hung around outside, waiting for him to come back out. You could tell he was about to leave because all his security people started moving around, they drove the cars up and everything got really serious. Then Romney walked out and went straight into his van. No glance, no wave, nothing.

Romney's black SUV driving up with the doors open, ready for him to dive in and speed away.

Romney leaving, ignoring the people to the side who showed up just to get video of him.

Romney in his van. The guy in white getting in looks so much like him, I think he was a decoy. 

After all that crazy excitement I went back to the bureau and logged the video feed of Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate going to some school to talk about this new charity program Coach Core. Then I got to go run an errand and bring bags of food to the production crew at Downing Street. Romney went there to chat with David Cameron and CBS brought complete coverage of his entire journey! I think he lost popularity here, because he said, "there are a few things that were disconcerting" about the Olympic Games, and London got super mad. British papers tore him apart and David Cameron rushed to the Games' defense.

The traffic getting to Downing Street was terrible. We almost got stuck on this road that seemed like it should have been a one-way street. Cars were parked on both sides so there was barely room for two cars to squeeze by, and some truck was parked in the road delivering something. We tried to back out, but more cars were turning on the street. We tried to go back in, then the truck got stuck, and everyone got stuck. But we somehow made it out in the end.

Once I made it back to the bureau, I texted Romney's final remarks about his day and went home for the evening!

I also did my laundry for the very last time this whole trip. I didn't do five pounds worth of laundry every week this whole trip, so I think I made a profit off the stipend!!! (Except not really, because I think it was part of the program fee.)

Day 74

Wednesday, July 25 -

I taught another intern how to do Eurovision! I'm like the super intern now! Then I got sent off to help Newspath with their interview with some air pollution guy. Their story was about pollution and how it's affecting people and the Olympics. The air pollution expert guy said it's a huge problem and the government doesn't really do anything about it, or tell people it's a huge problem. He also said they are using scare tactics to help bring down pollution, like telling people to stay off the roads because they will be congested, even though they won't be. I'm not sure I believe him, but it was certainly something to think about.

When I got back to the newsroom, I had to log the interview. I was just glad it was short and the air pollution guy talked nice and slow so it was very easy. I also had to log vox pops (opinion sound bites from the 'people on the streets') about Olympic traffic. It was so funny. Everyone hates the Olympics and everyone hates the Olympic lanes (Game Lanes) that they just opened on the roads. Reactions went like this:

Q: What do you think about the Olympic lanes?

"I think they're pointless. Pointless. And as a UK citizen trying to get to work, why should it take me another 2 hours, try and pay tax and fund silly lanes and stuff like that, so it's pointless, pointless."
"Well, there's not, there's nothing using it is there?"
"Rubbish. Waste of time."

Q: How's your journey in today been?

"Crap. Absolutely terrible, but you know, that's going to be much the norm for the next couple of weeks, or til the end of August. But, uh, I think the biggest thing is the restrictions at the moment."
"Crap. Basically."
"Pain in the bum."

Q: Are you looking forward to the Olympics?
"Not at all, mate. No."
"No. I'll be glad when it's over. Causing too much trouble."


Also, the way they did most of these interviews was while they were driving in the car. The producer would lean out the window with a microphone and talk to other people driving their car down the road. It's a good thing they drive on the left, otherwise this strategy wouldn't really work out.

It was a day full of logging because I had to text this interview with the mayor, Boris Johnson. It was also about the Olympics so it was pretty urgent. I couldn't really understand I word he said though. He talked way to fast and his accent was really strong and his hair is really distracting. He also wouldn't answer any of the questions and he said that the Game Lanes were working really well (clearly everyone agrees).

Boris. Fix your hair.

Day 73

Tuesday, July 24 -

I posted several stories on CBSnews.com. These not-so-exciting ones about an American killed in Afghanistan and the U.K. deploying more troops to help with Olympic security. But then I got to post this super important story about a goat man! He's some guy dressed up like a goat hanging around the mountain goats preparing for his archery hunt.

The most interesting (and actually meaningful) story was about a teenage girl who was sexually assaulted and the two guys that did it got a 'leniant' punishment, and there was a court order that none of them could talk about it. She was upset they didn't get into more trouble, so she tweeted their names. Then she was facing contempt charges, even though she was the victim in this situation. The boys' lawyers decided not to charge her, but according to the story, the lawyer said, "publicizing (the boys') names may create problems for them in the future." Well, oh no. Maybe they should have thought about that before they sexually assaulted this girl.

After work I went to class and did my last presentation for the summer! Mine was about phone booths, which is why I went to take pictures of all of them a few days ago. I think it turned out really well, much better than yesterday's presentation. Everyone else's presentations were interesting as well, so overall it was a good class!

I was walking along the beautiful South Bank in the evening and they had a FIRE GARDEN! They're always doing crazy stuff on the South Bank. I'll definitely miss it.

This is what a fire garden looks like

Walking through a fire garden is not a good idea. It was very hot.

The view from Waterloo Bridge is the best view in London