This morning we woke up early and headed out to Malahide Castle for the day. Malahide is on the coast, not far from Dublin. Our first adventure was finding the train station, which thankfully we managed pretty easily. We then had to wait a while for the train, but it was a good chance to rest. Obviously the traveling is starting to get to us, when we rest at like 9:30 in the morning. Oh well.
The train out to Malahide was nice; it was cool to see outside the city. When we arrived, we made our way to the castle first. The town is really small and cute. The castle has huge grounds with gaelic footall fields and cricket fields and playgrounds for kids and all sorts of stuff, and we saw lots of families out enjoying the weather. The castle itself was also pretty cool, but a little disappointing. The tour was weird…we thought we would have an actual guide like in most places, but instead you walked through the rooms with a group and audio played in each room. It was informative, but not as much fun as a guided tour. Also, we didn’t get to see very many rooms. But it was fun, overall. It’s hard to believe that one family lived there for over 800 years.
After our castle tour, we grabbed lunch at a café in the village…you guessed it, pizza. It was delicious though. Then we made our way down to the harbor…it wasn’t very pretty, but there was a very pretty stretch of beach that didn’t look too far away….it was pretty far away. But completely worth it. The beach wasn’t white sand like in Alabama…it was much darker, but the sand was really soft and the water was FREEZING. It was lots of fun though, very pretty and very relaxing. We played on the beach and just sat around and collected shells. It was great. We finally made our epic journey back to the village, and caught the train back to Dublin.
In Dublin, we did some shopping on Grafton street, a very popular street with lots of cool shops. I bought a new Swatch, as is my tradition on all my overseas trips – it’s cute J Also, H&M is my favorite new store in the world. I wish we had one in Alabama. Apparently there is one Atlanta, according to Anna, but the clothes in the US aren’t as nice. Boo.
We headed back to the hotel to lay down for a bit after our exhausting beach day. Then we took our computers over to the mall to use the internet like hobos and figure out when and where we had to get on our train to Cork. We then spent some time repacking our suitcases, as we have purchased a few things and had made quite a mess in our room. For dinner we had….Burger King French fries. Haha. We just weren’t very hungry because we had a big lunch, so we just had some fries and some Bulmer’s and watched Private Practice. Awesome.
For our last night in Dublin, we though we might try a new place, but then John, our friend from last night, texted and invited us out to Temple Bar again where he was there “with some mates”. Btw, I think I’ll add mates to the list of words I want to start saying because they are precious. We headed over to Temple Bar, where there was another live band, but definitely not as good as the one the night before. But it was much less crowded, so we hung out in the courtyard and talked. The other two guys were both Physics professors – needless to say, I felt a bit dumb around them at times. Although I did learn a bit…like the importance of actually studying physics. As well as that kangaroos are actually quite violent, and like deer in Alabama, will run out in front of your car and stuff. Oh, and Australia has more dangerous or poisonous animals than the rest of the world combined, according to Jason. And they have a lot of animal epidemics, like rabbits and foxes toads.
It’s really hard to try to explain Alabama to people who have never been there, especially when the only thing anyone knows about is “Sweet Home Alabama” (that the band definitely played)….but I guess it’s better than people thinking we still have slaves like the people I met 2 summers ago. The physics guys did seem pretty interested in the space and rocket center though, and the idea that kids go to space camp. Quite hilarious.
Overall, I would call our trip to Dublin a great success. Our hotel wasn’t the nicest thing in the world but it was clean and safe and worked out fine. We really got to see a lot of cool things in the city, and I really liked that we didn’t have to stick to a schedule, so that gave us flexibility. Everyone we met was ridiculously friendly, from people hanging out in restaurants or Temple Bar, to people on the street we had to ask for directions in County Sketch. Dublin is really an awesome city. We saw a lot, but I feel like there’s so much more we didn’t have the chance to see…and I definitely plan on coming back!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wandering about in County Sketch – June 28th, 2009
This morning we woke up and took our time getting ready, as well as spent some time in the shopping center across the street using the internet. I miss having the internet all the time. The funniest thing is, I don’t even miss Facebook or anything that much, we just miss being able to look things up. It’s really annoying to not be able to figure out the bus schedule…and don’t even get me started on how many things we have to Google once we have internet access for real.
Anyway, we began our day by walking through Trinity College – beautiful. Although, I bet Oxford will be even more beautiful. And we actually get to study there. How cool.
Afterwards, we began our journey to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Oh, what a journey it was. We began walking, and on our way there we passed this cool looking old church. We went in, since we weren’t really on a time schedule, and admission was free…it turned out it was the oldest still used church in Dublin, and was really cool and beautiful inside. The staff were really friendly and told us tons of old history about the church, and we rubbed the “lucky stone” that has been in use since like the 1100s.
Upon leaving, we saw a spire in the distance and assumed that that was St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and we should just head that way….not our best idea. We finally got to “St. Patrick’s” and it definitely was not. Another old church instead. We were a bit lost. We walked around a bit trying to figure it out, and finally had to ask directions. Let’s just say we managed to find ourselves in a bit of a sketchy part of town. Not like, gangs on the streets or anything scary or anything, but just a bit sketchy – hence, County Sketch. Eventually we found our way and made it to St. Patrick’s just in time to see it before it closed for the afternoon.
After leaving the cathedral, we had a nice long hike to the Guinness Factory. Funnily, the factory was actually only a few minutes from where we had been walking around in our search for St. Patrick’s…not so funnily, we were exhausted by the time we finally got there.
The Guinness Factory was AWESOME. I really liked it. The way it was laid out was really cool, and it was cool to get to see the way they make it, and have been making it for 250 years. Quite exciting. Then, at the very top of the building (it’s like 7 stories) there is a big bar where you can enjoy a free pint of “the black stuff” and look out over views of Dublin. I drank my pint, and it wasn’t as bad as the first time I tried it in Brazil last summer…but I don’t think it will ever be my drink of choice.
We decided to take the bus back from the factory to the hotel, since we were exhausted from walking all day. We hung out at the hotel a bit to rest, then grabbed some dinner at a nearby restaurant. Pizza again. It’s quite popular and one of the most inexpensive things you can get, so we’ve had it a couple of times.
After dinner, we headed down to the Temple Bar area to watch the football game between the US and Brazil. I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the whole bar cheering for Brazil, but whatever, I’m glad they won. I mean, it would have been cool for the US to win, but just a little much to soon…we beat Spain, we didn’t have to win overall.
We then made our way down to Temple Bar again, where they had live music. It was quite fun. We talked to a lot of entertaining people…and I must say that Australia is officially on my list of places I want to go now. First, there was John, the Australian calculus professor who was in Dublin doing research and giving workshops. He was really cool, a lot of fun to talk to. Then, there was Hugh Jackman look-a-like cultural anthropologist who was hilarious. At first he tried to convince me he had no idea where the US was or that it was separate from Canada and I was getting quite frustrated, but he turned out to be really cool. He told me about one of his colleagues who is an anthropology professor at Oxford that I should try to get in touch with, as well as gave me ideas for a future thesis. It was cool.
The band was great, they played a mix between traditional Irish music and American music – like Johnny Cash. It almost sounded like walking into a bar back in the States…I guess drinking music is practically international?
We finally made it in later, after an exhausting day in Dublin.
Anyway, we began our day by walking through Trinity College – beautiful. Although, I bet Oxford will be even more beautiful. And we actually get to study there. How cool.
Afterwards, we began our journey to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Oh, what a journey it was. We began walking, and on our way there we passed this cool looking old church. We went in, since we weren’t really on a time schedule, and admission was free…it turned out it was the oldest still used church in Dublin, and was really cool and beautiful inside. The staff were really friendly and told us tons of old history about the church, and we rubbed the “lucky stone” that has been in use since like the 1100s.
Upon leaving, we saw a spire in the distance and assumed that that was St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and we should just head that way….not our best idea. We finally got to “St. Patrick’s” and it definitely was not. Another old church instead. We were a bit lost. We walked around a bit trying to figure it out, and finally had to ask directions. Let’s just say we managed to find ourselves in a bit of a sketchy part of town. Not like, gangs on the streets or anything scary or anything, but just a bit sketchy – hence, County Sketch. Eventually we found our way and made it to St. Patrick’s just in time to see it before it closed for the afternoon.
After leaving the cathedral, we had a nice long hike to the Guinness Factory. Funnily, the factory was actually only a few minutes from where we had been walking around in our search for St. Patrick’s…not so funnily, we were exhausted by the time we finally got there.
The Guinness Factory was AWESOME. I really liked it. The way it was laid out was really cool, and it was cool to get to see the way they make it, and have been making it for 250 years. Quite exciting. Then, at the very top of the building (it’s like 7 stories) there is a big bar where you can enjoy a free pint of “the black stuff” and look out over views of Dublin. I drank my pint, and it wasn’t as bad as the first time I tried it in Brazil last summer…but I don’t think it will ever be my drink of choice.
We decided to take the bus back from the factory to the hotel, since we were exhausted from walking all day. We hung out at the hotel a bit to rest, then grabbed some dinner at a nearby restaurant. Pizza again. It’s quite popular and one of the most inexpensive things you can get, so we’ve had it a couple of times.
After dinner, we headed down to the Temple Bar area to watch the football game between the US and Brazil. I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the whole bar cheering for Brazil, but whatever, I’m glad they won. I mean, it would have been cool for the US to win, but just a little much to soon…we beat Spain, we didn’t have to win overall.
We then made our way down to Temple Bar again, where they had live music. It was quite fun. We talked to a lot of entertaining people…and I must say that Australia is officially on my list of places I want to go now. First, there was John, the Australian calculus professor who was in Dublin doing research and giving workshops. He was really cool, a lot of fun to talk to. Then, there was Hugh Jackman look-a-like cultural anthropologist who was hilarious. At first he tried to convince me he had no idea where the US was or that it was separate from Canada and I was getting quite frustrated, but he turned out to be really cool. He told me about one of his colleagues who is an anthropology professor at Oxford that I should try to get in touch with, as well as gave me ideas for a future thesis. It was cool.
The band was great, they played a mix between traditional Irish music and American music – like Johnny Cash. It almost sounded like walking into a bar back in the States…I guess drinking music is practically international?
We finally made it in later, after an exhausting day in Dublin.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Pictures
By the way, I added the first few pictures so far....they are all of London. They are on facebook. I will go back and clean them out so I don't have 12 thousand pictures of the same thing, and I will add captions...at a later time, as I would much rather spend my time in Dublin actually in Dublin. Enjoy though!
The 20 Mile Walking Tour – June 27th
Our first full day in a city! Yayyy….
We slept for like 8 hours last night and were still exhausted when we woke up. So tired. After we finally got up and got dressed, we journeyed over to the shopping center across the street to take advantage of the free wi-fi (unfortunately it was slow and my battery was dying, which is why none of these have actually been posted so far – in case you’re wondering, I’m typing whenever I get some time, but I don’t actually have internet so I’ll probably post like a ton at one time). After using the internet, we tossed our computers back in our room, then set out for a fun day of adventure in Dublin J
We walked by/through St. Stephen’s Green – an awesome park- and were making our way to the art museum when we passed a cool looking building. We happened to stop and ask what it was, and found out it was the Taoiseach’s office - basically the Prime Minister of Ireland. It happened to be open for free tours, and the tour guide invited us to join in, so we did. It was really cool. We learned a lot about Irish government and history.
Afterward, we made it to the art museum as planned. The National Gallery of Ireland, to be exact. It was amazing. A huge collection of Irish painters, but some others as well. A wonderful Picasso, a Monet, Goya, and El Greco. Pretty cool.
After the museum we grabbed sandwiches from a café on the street…mine was delicious. Chicken, bacon, lettuce, and like…garlic mayonnaise? I don’t know. It was delicious though. But expensive. As is everything.
While we were at the Taoiseach’s office we also learned that the house of parliament just happened to be open for public tours today. It only opens up maybe once or twice a year. We found the building and the people working were really nice and grabbed us tickets and showed us right in. While standing in line, we got started talking to an older couple behind us in line – okay, so what we were doing was actually a lot more awesome than we originally thought. Apparently, only 8000 tickets were offered for these tours of the buildings, and otherwise the public is not allowed inside the buildings. The tickets got snatched up within a day. They made people who wouldn’t be able to attend send back their tickets though, and those are the tickets we managed to get. So, that was really cool. The people we were talking with also taught us a lot about Irish history and government, especially compared to the US. Don’t laugh at me if you think this sounds boring…because it was not. Not a bit. We saw stuff that most Irish people don’t even get to see. And we learned a lot. It was cool. Very.
After our journey through parliament, we finally headed to our next planned stop of the day – Dublin Castle. It was the original city center, back in the day. Of course, it was a nice long walk to get there, and then we got lost, well – sort of. We couldn’t find the entrance. We eventually made it though, and were able to rest a bit before touring the castle. We even got to see the parts of the castle that are still standing and have been there since the 1200’s, as well as the river that used to be the moat for the city but now is completely underground.
Finally, we headed to Christ Church. We thought we would make it in time to tour, but we got there right at 5:00pm, which is when Evensong starts. So we went to that instead. Anna is Episcopalian, so it was totally normal for her, but new to me. But it was really interesting, and a great way to get to see the church as well. Except I wasn’t such a fan of the incense…I was a bit light-headed at the end. Also, today was the last day of gay pride week and culminated in a huge parade and festival (which was pretty awesome to see, to say the least)…and while they were saying the nice long prayer in the church, the artist playing at the festival definitely covered Kings of Leon “Sex on Fire”. That was weird. (Oh, at the bar last night I definitely met a huge Kings of Leon fan. It was great. EVERYONE listens to American music).
After Evensong, we strolled along the river a bit, then Anna had a crepe at a café. We finally made it back to the hotel to rest for a bit, but not before I stopped at a market to buy a Bulmer’s Cider. Bulmer’s is made in Ireland and is really popular, but I didn’t want to buy it at a restaurant or bar and not like it, since it’s so much more expensive there. I definitely liked it though. It’s just like drinking apple juice!
After a bit of rest we got ready and headed back out for the night – back to the temple bar area. We had Turkish kebobs for dinner, and I tried lamb for the first time. It was actually delicious. After walking through temple bar a bit, we ended up back at the actual Temple Bar, where we happened to run into Max’s football team from last night minus Max. The guys remembered us though, so we hung out with them for a bit. Highlight of the evening – they wanted to go somewhere less crowded but I still had like two-thirds of my pint left. They told me to just finish it…so I did, and they definitely did this great German cheer thing. It was absolutely hilarious, and apparently I earned a great deal of respect for being able to finish a Heineken like that (although I swear the beer here has lower alcohol content or is watered down or something.)
Anyway, we journeyed up the street, stopping to talk to people and check out hen parties and street artists. It was quite hilarious. When I have my hen party, I’m definitely making t-shirts, as everyone does here. But no one is wearing tu-tus because that’s just unfortunate looking. Also, I decided I want to be married in the National Gallery – it has the most perfect place. Haha. I guess I would actually have to agree to get married to do all of that though.
We ended up at a different pub down the street, but it wasn’t as much fun and the guys weren’t as much fun, so we left and went back to Temple Bar for a couple of Bulmer’s and some people watching, which was lots of fun. Although the curse of the creepers definitely continues. Good thing I’m used to it.
We called it a bit of an early night since we were exhausted from walking around so much today and have a lot we want to do tomorrow. It was quite a fun evening though. My computer is still on home time…it’s hard to believe it’s only 6:21 while I’m typing this, it’s 20 after midnight here.
My favorite new words: fortnight, queue, and cheers.
We are future expatriates in the making…why does anyone live in America when being abroad is so much fun?
Off to sleep for a bit before an excited day of sightseeing, shopping, and checking out the Guinness factory tomorrow!
Instead of comments about my tan…I bring you…the INTERNATIONAL CREEPER COUNT! Woo!! Okay…let’s see. Cedric the Parisian, creepy local who wants to hook up with foreign girls, roughly the entire German football team save a few, the guy who propositioned me while waiting outside the bathroom, add a couple randoms throughout the bar, guy with indistinguishable accent who randomly grabs me while we’re walking through the crowded bar and starts talking to me, the Italian guy who I started talking to who then proceeded to grope Anna’s leg and invite us to a party at some flat, and the guy I bumped into leaving…”Oh, I’m sorry.” “Not as sorry as I am, stay here with me..” Round it off to around 10 so far. Awesome.
Raise a glass of Bulmer’s! Cheers J
We slept for like 8 hours last night and were still exhausted when we woke up. So tired. After we finally got up and got dressed, we journeyed over to the shopping center across the street to take advantage of the free wi-fi (unfortunately it was slow and my battery was dying, which is why none of these have actually been posted so far – in case you’re wondering, I’m typing whenever I get some time, but I don’t actually have internet so I’ll probably post like a ton at one time). After using the internet, we tossed our computers back in our room, then set out for a fun day of adventure in Dublin J
We walked by/through St. Stephen’s Green – an awesome park- and were making our way to the art museum when we passed a cool looking building. We happened to stop and ask what it was, and found out it was the Taoiseach’s office - basically the Prime Minister of Ireland. It happened to be open for free tours, and the tour guide invited us to join in, so we did. It was really cool. We learned a lot about Irish government and history.
Afterward, we made it to the art museum as planned. The National Gallery of Ireland, to be exact. It was amazing. A huge collection of Irish painters, but some others as well. A wonderful Picasso, a Monet, Goya, and El Greco. Pretty cool.
After the museum we grabbed sandwiches from a café on the street…mine was delicious. Chicken, bacon, lettuce, and like…garlic mayonnaise? I don’t know. It was delicious though. But expensive. As is everything.
While we were at the Taoiseach’s office we also learned that the house of parliament just happened to be open for public tours today. It only opens up maybe once or twice a year. We found the building and the people working were really nice and grabbed us tickets and showed us right in. While standing in line, we got started talking to an older couple behind us in line – okay, so what we were doing was actually a lot more awesome than we originally thought. Apparently, only 8000 tickets were offered for these tours of the buildings, and otherwise the public is not allowed inside the buildings. The tickets got snatched up within a day. They made people who wouldn’t be able to attend send back their tickets though, and those are the tickets we managed to get. So, that was really cool. The people we were talking with also taught us a lot about Irish history and government, especially compared to the US. Don’t laugh at me if you think this sounds boring…because it was not. Not a bit. We saw stuff that most Irish people don’t even get to see. And we learned a lot. It was cool. Very.
After our journey through parliament, we finally headed to our next planned stop of the day – Dublin Castle. It was the original city center, back in the day. Of course, it was a nice long walk to get there, and then we got lost, well – sort of. We couldn’t find the entrance. We eventually made it though, and were able to rest a bit before touring the castle. We even got to see the parts of the castle that are still standing and have been there since the 1200’s, as well as the river that used to be the moat for the city but now is completely underground.
Finally, we headed to Christ Church. We thought we would make it in time to tour, but we got there right at 5:00pm, which is when Evensong starts. So we went to that instead. Anna is Episcopalian, so it was totally normal for her, but new to me. But it was really interesting, and a great way to get to see the church as well. Except I wasn’t such a fan of the incense…I was a bit light-headed at the end. Also, today was the last day of gay pride week and culminated in a huge parade and festival (which was pretty awesome to see, to say the least)…and while they were saying the nice long prayer in the church, the artist playing at the festival definitely covered Kings of Leon “Sex on Fire”. That was weird. (Oh, at the bar last night I definitely met a huge Kings of Leon fan. It was great. EVERYONE listens to American music).
After Evensong, we strolled along the river a bit, then Anna had a crepe at a café. We finally made it back to the hotel to rest for a bit, but not before I stopped at a market to buy a Bulmer’s Cider. Bulmer’s is made in Ireland and is really popular, but I didn’t want to buy it at a restaurant or bar and not like it, since it’s so much more expensive there. I definitely liked it though. It’s just like drinking apple juice!
After a bit of rest we got ready and headed back out for the night – back to the temple bar area. We had Turkish kebobs for dinner, and I tried lamb for the first time. It was actually delicious. After walking through temple bar a bit, we ended up back at the actual Temple Bar, where we happened to run into Max’s football team from last night minus Max. The guys remembered us though, so we hung out with them for a bit. Highlight of the evening – they wanted to go somewhere less crowded but I still had like two-thirds of my pint left. They told me to just finish it…so I did, and they definitely did this great German cheer thing. It was absolutely hilarious, and apparently I earned a great deal of respect for being able to finish a Heineken like that (although I swear the beer here has lower alcohol content or is watered down or something.)
Anyway, we journeyed up the street, stopping to talk to people and check out hen parties and street artists. It was quite hilarious. When I have my hen party, I’m definitely making t-shirts, as everyone does here. But no one is wearing tu-tus because that’s just unfortunate looking. Also, I decided I want to be married in the National Gallery – it has the most perfect place. Haha. I guess I would actually have to agree to get married to do all of that though.
We ended up at a different pub down the street, but it wasn’t as much fun and the guys weren’t as much fun, so we left and went back to Temple Bar for a couple of Bulmer’s and some people watching, which was lots of fun. Although the curse of the creepers definitely continues. Good thing I’m used to it.
We called it a bit of an early night since we were exhausted from walking around so much today and have a lot we want to do tomorrow. It was quite a fun evening though. My computer is still on home time…it’s hard to believe it’s only 6:21 while I’m typing this, it’s 20 after midnight here.
My favorite new words: fortnight, queue, and cheers.
We are future expatriates in the making…why does anyone live in America when being abroad is so much fun?
Off to sleep for a bit before an excited day of sightseeing, shopping, and checking out the Guinness factory tomorrow!
Instead of comments about my tan…I bring you…the INTERNATIONAL CREEPER COUNT! Woo!! Okay…let’s see. Cedric the Parisian, creepy local who wants to hook up with foreign girls, roughly the entire German football team save a few, the guy who propositioned me while waiting outside the bathroom, add a couple randoms throughout the bar, guy with indistinguishable accent who randomly grabs me while we’re walking through the crowded bar and starts talking to me, the Italian guy who I started talking to who then proceeded to grope Anna’s leg and invite us to a party at some flat, and the guy I bumped into leaving…”Oh, I’m sorry.” “Not as sorry as I am, stay here with me..” Round it off to around 10 so far. Awesome.
Raise a glass of Bulmer’s! Cheers J
International Creep Magnet? – June 26th
So, we arrived in Dublin yesterday evening and had a wonderful time dragging our luggage to our hotel and getting lost a few times. Thank god the Irish are even nicer than the English. We finally made it to our lodging, which is technically student dorms…well, let’s not talk about how much fun it was to drag our luggage up to the third floor. But hey, at least it’s not the 6th like we originally thought.
After getting to our room, we died. Basically, died. For a little while. Took showers and whatnot. We finally decided to grace the great city of Dublin with our presence, and headed out to the Temple Bar area, a part of town full of bars and restaurants and people on the streets playing music and all sorts of fun. We stopped and had some pizza for dinner, and I had my first beer of the trip – I chose Heineken. Great. Started talking with the Norwegian guys next to us a bit – their accents were so great..so unfair.
Btw, I’m having a hen party. It’s a bachelorette party, but better because it’s in England and/or Ireland. And girls where matching t-shirts (or corsets and lace if you’re really lucky…) and it just looks like the most fun ever.
Anyway, after our pizza we strolled through the Temple Bar area and along the river a bit. We then made our way into the Temple Bar itself – the most famous bar in Dublin – where…yes, this is completely true….Sweet Home Alabama started playing as soon as we walked through the door. Clearly, this was a sign.
I later found out that the “maximum number” of people allowed in Temple Bar is 600 people. This bar is probably the size of a bar in Tuscaloosa, maybe one and a half…it’s not big. But there were probably more than 600 people there. No joke. You can barely move. Ordering a beer requires a great deal of strategizing. It was crowded. And really interesting. It’s a big tourist place, so obviously there’s people from all over there.
This guy starts talking to us…Max the German…he’s really nice. He and Anna totally have apparently everything in common and start talking. He’s here with his football team, so he introduces us to like half of them. This is amusing, to say the least. So…Anna and him start talking and stuff and I’m just kind of hanging out, sort of talking, whatever. This is where I realized a very sad thing.
I am, in fact, an international creep magnet.
I thought, that perhaps, it was just confined to the US, and I even thought it was starting to fade a bit. Oh, but no.
Let’s see, I’m quite sure I got hit on by a creepy representative of every country in the Western world. Yes. My favorites of the evening were definitely Cedric, the French guy, who was very upset that I had been to Paris before…because he wanted to be my first French guy. I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but I have a few guesses….creepy. Also, he possibly licked my hand.
My other favorite was a guy from Dublin. Clearly this guy hangs out at Temple Bar to hit on foreign girls. He’s a “big tennis player” apparently. He was fun to talk to though. He spent time in Fairhope, AL. How unfortunate. His friend plays tennis for LSU. Also unfortunate.
They asked me why people in Alabama are so racist. What exactly do you say to that? Awkward.
Anyway, we hung out in Temple Bar for several hours, then finally headed home before it got too late and creepy outside.
All in all, an awesome night in what seems like an awesome city so far.
After getting to our room, we died. Basically, died. For a little while. Took showers and whatnot. We finally decided to grace the great city of Dublin with our presence, and headed out to the Temple Bar area, a part of town full of bars and restaurants and people on the streets playing music and all sorts of fun. We stopped and had some pizza for dinner, and I had my first beer of the trip – I chose Heineken. Great. Started talking with the Norwegian guys next to us a bit – their accents were so great..so unfair.
Btw, I’m having a hen party. It’s a bachelorette party, but better because it’s in England and/or Ireland. And girls where matching t-shirts (or corsets and lace if you’re really lucky…) and it just looks like the most fun ever.
Anyway, after our pizza we strolled through the Temple Bar area and along the river a bit. We then made our way into the Temple Bar itself – the most famous bar in Dublin – where…yes, this is completely true….Sweet Home Alabama started playing as soon as we walked through the door. Clearly, this was a sign.
I later found out that the “maximum number” of people allowed in Temple Bar is 600 people. This bar is probably the size of a bar in Tuscaloosa, maybe one and a half…it’s not big. But there were probably more than 600 people there. No joke. You can barely move. Ordering a beer requires a great deal of strategizing. It was crowded. And really interesting. It’s a big tourist place, so obviously there’s people from all over there.
This guy starts talking to us…Max the German…he’s really nice. He and Anna totally have apparently everything in common and start talking. He’s here with his football team, so he introduces us to like half of them. This is amusing, to say the least. So…Anna and him start talking and stuff and I’m just kind of hanging out, sort of talking, whatever. This is where I realized a very sad thing.
I am, in fact, an international creep magnet.
I thought, that perhaps, it was just confined to the US, and I even thought it was starting to fade a bit. Oh, but no.
Let’s see, I’m quite sure I got hit on by a creepy representative of every country in the Western world. Yes. My favorites of the evening were definitely Cedric, the French guy, who was very upset that I had been to Paris before…because he wanted to be my first French guy. I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but I have a few guesses….creepy. Also, he possibly licked my hand.
My other favorite was a guy from Dublin. Clearly this guy hangs out at Temple Bar to hit on foreign girls. He’s a “big tennis player” apparently. He was fun to talk to though. He spent time in Fairhope, AL. How unfortunate. His friend plays tennis for LSU. Also unfortunate.
They asked me why people in Alabama are so racist. What exactly do you say to that? Awkward.
Anyway, we hung out in Temple Bar for several hours, then finally headed home before it got too late and creepy outside.
All in all, an awesome night in what seems like an awesome city so far.
Off to Dublin – June 26th
We slept in this morning until about 8:30, then got up and had breakfast at the hotel. At breakfast we found out that MICHAEL JACKSON DIED!!! WHATT?? No way! I can only imagine that the States’ news channels are packed – even the news here has it everywhere! After getting ready and doing a bit of repacking we journeyed back into the streets with luggage in tow to head back to Victoria station to get on the tube to Heathrow. Oh, what fun. By the way, there are few elevators here, and lots of stairs. They don’t have codes here about making things handicap accessible or anything…so dragging suitcases around is tons of fun.
We got to the airport and got checked in, and now we are just waiting for our flight to Dublin this afternoon. Unfortunately, the internet is rather pricey here, so I’m hoping for free internet in our place where we are staying in Dublin. I’m currently sitting in the airport typing this, and will post it later…
Things I miss already: water and things being cheaper. You have to pay for water everywhere here….and it’s very expensive. Oh well. People here are so nice though. We’ve had a lot of fun.
Comments on how nice my tan is by strangers: 4
We got to the airport and got checked in, and now we are just waiting for our flight to Dublin this afternoon. Unfortunately, the internet is rather pricey here, so I’m hoping for free internet in our place where we are staying in Dublin. I’m currently sitting in the airport typing this, and will post it later…
Things I miss already: water and things being cheaper. You have to pay for water everywhere here….and it’s very expensive. Oh well. People here are so nice though. We’ve had a lot of fun.
Comments on how nice my tan is by strangers: 4
Eye Spy….Big Ben! – June 25
Bright and early this morning…okay, around 11:30, I finally arrived in London Heathrow airport – after a fun-filled 9 hour flight. A recap of the flight – sitting on the plane for an hour waiting for passengers who had been delayed, watching The Office and Confessions of a Shopaholic, magical lasagna plane meal, and about 5 or 6 hours of freezing cold and/or burning up restless sleep, where I’m sure the guy sitting next to me probably got to know me more than he wanted to. Overall, it was a good flight though.
After arriving in London, I hiked roughly 12 miles through the airport, then went through customs. On the other side I was happy to find both of my checked bags had also found their way to London, as had Anna. After meeting up, we made our way to the tube station, purchased our tickets, and settled in for a 45 minute ride into the city. Unfortunately, we had no idea how many sets of stairs are in London tube stations, and getting around with our suitcases was not very much fun…at all. Luckily, there were lots and lots of nice people who were willing to help out some struggling American girls.
We finally made our way to the hotel, after much struggling and fighting with luggage and traffic. Our room was really cute – tiny, but cute. After quick showers and relaxing a bit, we headed out into London for the afternoon. Our hotel was about 2 or 3 blocks from Buckingham Palace, so that was our first stop. We then wandered down to Big Ben and Westminster, wandered back up to Trafalgar Square in search of something to eat, the stopped in Trafalgar Square for sandwiches. After our late lunch, we purchased cell phones – they are international cell phones…how cool! They won’t work in the US, but they work anywhere in Europe, you just get a new SIM card in each country and put money on it. It’s awesome! With new cell phones in hand, we crossed the Thames and strolled along the south bank, checking out a cool used book sale, and sitting around in the park, just resting and calling home. Then it was time for a flight on the London Eye. The half hour, 17 GBP flight was definitely worth it – the views were AMAZING! Of course, we took tons of pictures. And had to give a big Roll Tide to the Florida fans in our pod.
After the London Eye, we crossed back over the Thames right by Big Ben and Westminster. We walked through government square and checked out the house of parliament and Westminster Abbey. We finally journeyed back towards our hotel, and stopped a couple of blocks away for dinner – crisps (salt and vinegar potato chips), nuts, olives, and a bottle of wine. Afterwards we were exhausted and headed home to go to bed early, around 10.
Overall, it was a pretty awesome day, just walking around London and seeing what there was to see. It was nice to be able to just walk with no strict plan of where to go.
Comments on how nice my tan is by strangers: 2
After arriving in London, I hiked roughly 12 miles through the airport, then went through customs. On the other side I was happy to find both of my checked bags had also found their way to London, as had Anna. After meeting up, we made our way to the tube station, purchased our tickets, and settled in for a 45 minute ride into the city. Unfortunately, we had no idea how many sets of stairs are in London tube stations, and getting around with our suitcases was not very much fun…at all. Luckily, there were lots and lots of nice people who were willing to help out some struggling American girls.
We finally made our way to the hotel, after much struggling and fighting with luggage and traffic. Our room was really cute – tiny, but cute. After quick showers and relaxing a bit, we headed out into London for the afternoon. Our hotel was about 2 or 3 blocks from Buckingham Palace, so that was our first stop. We then wandered down to Big Ben and Westminster, wandered back up to Trafalgar Square in search of something to eat, the stopped in Trafalgar Square for sandwiches. After our late lunch, we purchased cell phones – they are international cell phones…how cool! They won’t work in the US, but they work anywhere in Europe, you just get a new SIM card in each country and put money on it. It’s awesome! With new cell phones in hand, we crossed the Thames and strolled along the south bank, checking out a cool used book sale, and sitting around in the park, just resting and calling home. Then it was time for a flight on the London Eye. The half hour, 17 GBP flight was definitely worth it – the views were AMAZING! Of course, we took tons of pictures. And had to give a big Roll Tide to the Florida fans in our pod.
After the London Eye, we crossed back over the Thames right by Big Ben and Westminster. We walked through government square and checked out the house of parliament and Westminster Abbey. We finally journeyed back towards our hotel, and stopped a couple of blocks away for dinner – crisps (salt and vinegar potato chips), nuts, olives, and a bottle of wine. Afterwards we were exhausted and headed home to go to bed early, around 10.
Overall, it was a pretty awesome day, just walking around London and seeing what there was to see. It was nice to be able to just walk with no strict plan of where to go.
Comments on how nice my tan is by strangers: 2
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Jetsetting
Hello everyone!
As I sit in the lovely Dallas airport, having just enjoyed some "authentic Texas Mexican food" (I'm not sure an airport taco salad counts), I have decided to start a blog so that anyone who cares can see what I'm up to on my trip to the UK - and so I'll have something to look back on when I'm old and gray.
Currently I'm hogging a free internet/charging station, and will continue to hog it until I either have to go somewhere, or board my plane to London. It's almost too much fun to handle. Seriously.
Anyway, I'll do my best to keep this updated over the course of my trip, and hopefully I'll be able to add pictures and stuff too!
As I sit in the lovely Dallas airport, having just enjoyed some "authentic Texas Mexican food" (I'm not sure an airport taco salad counts), I have decided to start a blog so that anyone who cares can see what I'm up to on my trip to the UK - and so I'll have something to look back on when I'm old and gray.
Currently I'm hogging a free internet/charging station, and will continue to hog it until I either have to go somewhere, or board my plane to London. It's almost too much fun to handle. Seriously.
Anyway, I'll do my best to keep this updated over the course of my trip, and hopefully I'll be able to add pictures and stuff too!
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