Where to start?! Dublin kicked our butts! Haha this is a super long post, prepare yourself.

Day 1

We started Thursday morning at 5:30am. Luckily, we had packed Wednesday night and also figured out our route to the airport because we had quite the journey.

I say that we packed Wednesday night but in reality, it took us all of Wednesday to pack our bags. Why? Because we could only take one little bag each. We were flying RyanAir,
which is super cheap ($50 round trip from London to Dublin), but they get their money out of you one way or another and it's usually in the form of checked luggage. For free, you can only take one carry-on bag and ALL of your cabin belongings must fit in that bag - that means your purse, camera bag, etc. It's not like a normal airline where you can have your purse AND a carry on... No, it all has to fit in a certain sized bag (really small) and it can't be over 22lbs. No big deal, you'll just bring a small piece of luggage and check it in, right? Sure! But that'll be $81 for one 35lb piece of luggage. Haaa yeah right! I don't know if you've noticed recently but the American dollar sucks! Which means I had to pack my camera, my purse, toiletries, and 3 days worth of (warm) clothes in my BOOKBAG. Have you seen me pack?! I brought 11 pairs of shoes on this trip to London. I go to Paige's house for the night and easily bring 3 outfits and 2 pairs of shoes. Andddd it's freezing over here. Have you ever seen me in the winter? I wear like 8 layers and then I still bring another coat because I can't decide on which coat I want to wear so I just bring 2 (I mean what if it rains, right?). So the fact that I could only bring my book bag for 3 days in a cold country was a big deal and it took nearly all of Wednesday to pack.

Beside the packing ordeal, we also had the ordeal of getting to the airport. Had I have known that it'd take around 2 hours to get to the airport from West London, I would have either chosen another airport or booked a later flight. We had to walk to the tube station, take 3 different tube trains and then an above-ground train to get there. So we left at 5:45am and made it to the airport fairly early, which was nice.

The flight from London to Dublin was only about 55 minutes, which was really nice. But within that 55 minute flight, I learned that the English woman next to me (about my grandmother's age...with pigtails) was going to Ireland for her husband's nephew's third wedding, she's been to Hawaii and Fiji and her favorite place to vacation is Italy, her mother used to live right next to the airport, she's had knee surgery and that was a mess, she's been to Vancouver but only stayed for 3 days, she loved Princess Di, she hadn't eaten breakfast that day, oh... and she loves Americans. She wanted to buy me food off the airline menu so bad and even asked me if I wanted to house sit for her when she goes to visit the states...and do I live near anyone famous in America? She was the sweetest woman but if that flight was any longer than 55 minutes I would have taken her up on her offer and gotten an alcoholic beverage off that airline menu.

We landed in Dublin and arrived at our hostel which was pretty nice. The guy who checked us in was a local and whenever he said "thirty" he said "dirty." So breakfast started at seven-dirty and ended at ten-dirty, and our room won't be ready until two-dirty and oh look at the time, it's twelve-dirty. I was just like ....will you read me Harry Potter?? Haha Since our room wouldn't be ready until two-dirty, we decided to go out and get some lunch - we were starving.

We walked around and wanted something quick and cheap so we unknowingly ended up walking into the Dublin's version of Bonanza (I'm sure my Dad is cringing now, I know his love for cheap buffets). In our defense, we didn't know it was Bonanza level until we'd already sat down, and we were so hungry at that point that we just wanted food. We took turns going up to get our food and while Kristin was getting her lunch I ate and looked out the window. And wouldn't you know it, I saw Irish gypsies! It was like seeing Amish people...but on the other end of the Jersey Shore scale. I knew they were gypsies because the guys all looked exactly the same and were wearing track suits (the ones where the pants & zip up sweatshirts match, with the two white stripes down the sides of the legs and arms...classic). The women had long hair and of course had spiked heels (perfect walking shoes for Dublin cobblestone). After hearing these descriptions you may start mistaking people at your local gas station for gypsies now...but I just knew they were gypsies. Trust me. I definitely knew they were gypsies after a police van pulled up and an officer stepped out. The three gypsies held out their wrists and the officer handcuffed them and put them in the van, all without a single word exchanged. This all happened within 30 seconds of me originally spotting them, it was nuts.

We got back to our hostel and our room was ready so we went on up and left our stuff. We met one of our roomies, he was a German guy who was staying for the week due to a work conference. We later met the other guy who was staying in our room, I was unpacking my bag and I asked him where he was from. He looked Middle Eastern and when he said where he was from, I thought he said South Kannistan, which I'm pretty sure is nonexistent, so I was like "oh, I don't know where that is," and continued unpacking. Kristin and this guy stopped and looked at me and Kristin was like "you know where that is Amanda!" and I was like "uh...no I don't?" Apparently he had said Afghanistan. Haha which I obviously know the location of. Come to find out that guy was really from Germany and is a liar (and a horrible snorer).

It was still early in the afternoon so we decided to find Trinity College and check out their library. I've alwayssss wanted to see their library, it's so epic. If you haven't seen any photos of their library before, stop reading this right now and google Trinity College library. It's amazinggg. We paid for the tour and got to see the Book of Kells and some other really old books too. But I really only wanted to go because of the library part. It was so amazing, seriously a dream come true.

Later, we were going to go out to a pub or two but decided to just get dinner and go out Friday night instead since we had to get up early for our tour. We ended up going to this little restaurant that was a part of the Dublin Theater Institute. We got really good food (Salmon Penne) for really inexpensive.

We had to get up the next morning at 5:30am again so we could catch a tram to the train station for our rail tour. We got NO sleep. Between everyone snoring in our room, and these crazy drunk Germans who were legit partying in the hallways (even after being yelled at by multiple people trying to sleep), we got no sleep whatsoever.

Day 2

So we walked down to the tram station at 6am and I ended up asking a woman which direction our tram should be going. She was this short red haired woman and she had the PERFECT Irish accent. She then told us that we were in a bad area and we should hide Kristin's camera. I was like grrreat. The tram came and we weren't mugged or robbed and we made it safely to the train station. Yay.

We met up with our tour group...which consisted of random oldish people from the States and a small group of Asians. This group of Asians were legit the most stereotypical Asians ever, we hadn't even left the station and they each had taken about 50 photos of the most insignificant things. Every time the tour guide would be like "On the right hand side...." all the Asians would run to that side of the bus and take tons of photos (with the flash on). It was hilarious.

Our rail tour was really nice but by the end of the day everyone just wanted the tour guide to stop talking... It was so information heavy lol it was intense. But besides that it was really cool. We visited Bunratty Castle and got to take a tour of that, which was amazing. We got to see the Cliffs Of Moher and Galway Bay. It was a 14 hour tour and by the end of it, we were exhausted. But! We were in Dublin and we had to visit Temple Bar when we got back.

We went out to Temple Bar and it was PACKED. Like wall to wall people. Completely completely packed. But we made our way to the bar, where I paid €14 for a double (2 shots) Southern Comfort & Coke. If youre wondering how much €14 is...it's EIGHTEEN DOLLARS!! What the heckkk. So I got my drink and Kristin got her €5 Guinness. We hung out, ran into a "stag do" which is what UK people call bachelor parties. Have you ever seen drunk Irish people stand in a circle with their arms over each others shoulders and dance around/jump around to music? Yeah we did that. Haha I got a Guinness dropped right next to my foot and I sloshed around in soppy flats the rest of night but whatever, we were in Dublin. haha We ended up meeting a guy from Pennsylvania who was in Dublin by himself, his Dad actually used to own a house in Georgetown, DE and he vacations at the DE beaches. Smalllllll world! We decided to leave Temple because it was getting nuts and we were sick of being pushed around by people the entire time. So we walked down the street and ended up going to this super super local pub. We were the youngest ones in there by easily 40 years. This super old guy came up to me and asked where I was from. He then started talking to me about some Amy woman? Some Amy girl he knew and loved but then she left and got married. This is what I'm ASSUMING he was talking about because he was drunk and at some point I'm pretty sure he started talking in Gaelic instead of English. It was really loud in the pub and I just kept saying, "Wowwww... Really? That's awful. Thats so sad." This man looked like his dog had just been ran over, he looked so sad. Then at the end, about 5 minutes later, he started speaking English again and was like, "So, you've met a real Irishman now. Good luck and live your life for you...no one else. And tell your friend there the same. Cheers." and walked away. It was the saddest and most random moment ever.

We headed back to the hostel and passed out, Im assuming everyone was quiet but it didn't really matter since we were both so exhausted.

Day 3

We got to sleep in, finally... Until 10am. Woohoo! Check out wasn't until 11 so we left and headed out to get breakfast. That German guy was leaving too and he said he'd show us a good place to eat for cakes and scones and stuff. It was called Queen of Tarts and it was delicious! It's funny because I've noticed that on this trip, we've had some legitimate conversations with people from other countries. Like "small talk" with other people consists of politics or theories, just more substantial topics. It's nuts.

We said goodbye to our German friend (still never caught his name?), and took the bus over to the Guinness storehouse, hoping that maybe we'd be able to take the tour before heading to the airport. We turned the corner and there was THE longest line for the tour. We both totally forgot it was a Saturday and everyone and their mother were doing all the touristy things. We asked the lady managing the line if we'd have enough time to stand in line and see the tour and we wouldn't :( So we decided to get back on the hop on-hop off bus (we had gotten a 3 day pass) and head back to the center of Dublin, we saw a bookstore earlier that we wanted to stop by. The bus we got on wasn't an automated tour bus, like the last one we had just taken to Guinness, it was a "live" bus where the bus driver does their own speaking. The bus driver we got was the most hilarious tour guide ever. He drove the bus down the Guinness road and swayed the bus back and forth as if he were drunk and was like, "It's so fun driving the bus down this road like this, everyone's like oh man he's been there all day." We also went around a roundabout (the Irish love their roundabouts too!) twice, and as we are driving around the roundabout for the second time he said, "The best thing about driving a double decker bus is that you can do whatever you want...because you're driving a double decker bus. I could do this all day, I'm paid by the hour."

We get to the bookstore, it's cute. Then it's time to start heading to the airport. This is when our trip gets stressful. It takes us 20 minutes to find the correct bus station and then we stand at the station for 10-15 minutes waiting for the bus. We meant to leave at 2:30 (or as they say two-dirty) for the airport and at this moment it's about 2:50. We finally get on the bus and we are making our way to the next station when literally a PARADE comes down the main street and blocks up all the traffic. Yes, a parade. Out of nowhere. So we sit there for 5 minutes as this parade goes by. Then we finally get to the next station where THE biggest group of people are waiting with alllllll their luggage. Of course it takes them forever to all get on the bus because they're all tourist-retarded (yes it exists in other countries). They take so long to get on the bus that the bus driver actually turns off the bus. By this point it's 3:25 and we have to be at our gate, checked-in and through security by 4:15. At this point Kristin and I are legitimately starting to panic. The guy behind us is getting aggravated because his flight leaves at 5:30 and we were like dude, our flight leaves at 4:45, WE should be aggravated. The bus is full so we can't stop at any more stops (thank goodness) and we start heading to the airport, which is still 10 minutes away. Next stop is Terminal 1, which is the terminal we need to go to. The bus has to go through this super long tunnel before getting to the airport and Kristin and I decide that we'll go down to the first level (it's a double decker bus), after we get through the tunnel. So we get downstairs and are right at the front of the bus so we can run off as soon as we stop, of course the bus is heading to the airport at a super slow speed and then I suddenly remember that we won't be going to Terminal 1 first, we'll be going to Terminal 2 first because the bus route is opposite from when we arrived. Now we are stuck in the front of the bus and half the people have to get off with all their luggage at Terminal 2 and it's just hectic. We FINALLY get to Terminal 1 and the bus isn't even at a full stop before we run off and literally run into the airport. We have 40 minutes to get checked in, through security and to our gate. For RyanAir they require you to get your boarding pass stamped at the bag check-in desk. We don't have bags to check-in but we still have to wait in line while everyone else checks-in their bags. We get to the desk and there are 2 lines that are SO incredibly long and it's moving so crazy slow. We walk up to the front of the line and I ask the people waiting if they mind if we slip in front of them because our plane leaves super soon. They say sure sure and let us cut in line. Of course we are at the wrong check-in desk because we are non-European Union citizens but thankfully the woman still stamps our passes. We yell thank you to the couple who let us cut and we run down to the security area.

I ask the woman there who works at the airport if she can escort us up to the front of the line because our plane is leaving shortly and she looks at me and says "You can't cut the queue." I was like okay then! We look up at the line and it's one long line that snakes back and forth at least 6 times and it's then feeding into 5 separate security lines. It's awful. So we get in line and we are panicking. I was like no, we are not missing this flight, so we start politely asking people if they mind that we pass them because our flight leaves in 30 minutes. Everyone was so nice and let us pass, we get up ahead quite a ways until we get to this one man in a cowboy hat. Kristin asks him if he minds, yada yada yada and he just looks the other way. And I was like well maybe he didn't hear her? So I kind of touch his arm and he looks at me and I say, excuse me sir? Our plane leaves very shortly, do you mind if we pass you?? And he stares at me and without any facial expression or anything, he looks the other way. He completely ignored me! I look at Kristin in disbelief and I am just like maybe he doesn't speak English? Or maybe he's crazy, maybe he just is going crazy and doesn't know what I said and thats why hes traveling with these young people...maybe its his son and this old guy has gone off the deep end? Maybe hes deaf? Im trying to give him every benefit of the doubt. This couple behind us who previously let us pass see that we are no longer moving forward and I motion that the man in front of us wont let us pass. They shake their heads and are like don't worry just go up front! And a few other people shake their heads yes and say yes, go to the front, don't miss your plane. So we butt up all the way to where the line is splitting 5 ways and everyone there is really nice and they say you'll be fine now, you'll make it if you're to this point. So we relax a little, at this point it's like 3:50, we have 25 minutes to get through security. We wait and wait. Then! We see that man with the cowboy hat get up to security and wouldn't you know it, he speaks PERFECT English to the security woman. At this point, Kristin and I are enraged, cursing him up and down, I'm wishing that he'll fall asleep while driving and Kristin is saying she hopes he poops his pants in public. Ugh, I despise that nasty man. We get out of security fine and we figure out our gate number and guess what, it's the farthest gate away. Predicted to be a 12-15 minute walk away. So we book it. And we made it in time. We catch our flight and I literally pass out before we take off, I actually sleep the entire way there, through the take off and everything. I woke up and saw land and didn't know if it was still Ireland or England, then they announced that we should prepare for landing. We land in London and are still in shock that we made our flight. We took the train and the 3 tube rides back to Indy's house. Then we slept until noon today because we were so exhausted. Haha

Ireland was amazinggg. Obviously 3 days was not nearly enough but what we did see was beautiful. I can't wait to go back one day and see more. I've never been more relieved to be back in London though. This is our last week here so we are putting a list together of things we must see before we leave. I can't believe it will be ending soon!