So when I left off, it was the middle of spring break and I was lonely, blah blah blah. But then Jon and Kyle came to visit me! I was so excited that it took me forever to go to bed the night before I was supposed to pick them up from the airport. Brianna and I ended up leaving later than we should have and got to Heathrow airport about an hour late...oops. Luckily Jon wore a bright neon orange and green jacket so I could spot him right away! I won't go through all the details but it was so much fun having them around for a week! I had missed Jon so much and now Kyle and I are biffles...bahahahah he will never admit that.
I showed them as many places as I could like Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, The London Eye (Jon payed for my ticket, THANKS JON), local bars, Regent's Park, The National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of London (which was so cool!), etc. They also had a couple of mini adventures on their own while I attended classes, they even went to Oxford! When they left I was so sad, they were like my children, wahhh. Also, while they were here we found a beautiful goose that I named Norma. He was lovely (yes he), and he couldn't really walk but I will always love him. Kyle and Jon joke that Norma drowned and died...but I don't believe them...he's alive in my heart.
Anyway! So last weekend Caroline, Lindsey, Lindsey, Nick, and I went to Dublin. It was my first time flying out of London and I was so excited but nervous too. Our flight was early, round 6am so we took a bus to the airport round 2am and chilled at the airport for an hour and a half or so. The flight was cheap...like 22 pounds round trip (roughly 40 US dollars) but it was cheap for good reason. We used RyanAir, and let me first start off by saying that I don't really like flying but I can deal, but this was ridiculous. I won't go into much detail but let me just say that the take off, flying, and landing was rough. I was so scared I almost held the the guy sitting next to me's hand...but I didn't. Th good thing was that the flight only took an hour so we were there in no time. We got through customs and found a bus for cheap to take us to central Dublin. The ride was so pretty! Dublin's more of a city so it wasn't green everywhere but the ride into central Dublin shows the transition between the greener part and the city and it's so beautiful. Once we got into the city we walked to our hostel which was actually pretty nice for what we paid (11 euros per night!!) and we set down our stuff and then we went to lunch at Eddie's Rocket. It's kind of like a 50's diner and it was so cool and the food was YUM, ugh so good I want it now. I had a beautiful veggie burger that was dripping with guacamole, special sauce, and onions...it was so good.
After that Nick, Lindsey M., Caroline, and I went on a three hour free tour. Oh, you're wondering about the other Lindsey? She stayed at the hostel. No comment.
The tour was fun though, our tour guide was really enthusiastic and funny and we got to see all the main spots without having to get lost, and for free! Some sites include: Trinity College, City Hall (and the back story behind Ireland's fight for Independence), and some other cool stuff that came with lovely stories and historical background. We also saw the forty steps and the door of the house where Jonathan Swift was born (he wrote Gulliver's Travels). So this whole time during the tour we all had been waiting to sit down and finally a little bit before the tour is over we get to sit down by this archeology museum, so I sit down la la la not paying attention and then we move on to the last location. I start walking and then Caroline notices there's something on the back of my shirt....it's bird poop. I sat in bird poop.I quickly zipped up my jacket, and slid down my shirt without anyone noticing. I was so embarrassed because apparently it was a HUGE poop spot on the back of my shirt by my bum...I didn't know how long it had been there. I must have looked like an ass walking around Dublin with poop on my bum. I threw away the shirt (obviously I wasn't going to walked around with a pooped shirt in my hand) and then asked if there was anything on the back of my jeans...there was. There was only a spot but I tried rubbing it off with napkins as much as I could. It looked horrid but I just waited to get to the hostel...I wasn't going to take my pants off too! Don't worry once we got to the hostel I put on a shirt, put on my pj's and washed my pooped jeans in the bathroom. We had a right laugh about it that night once we were all happy from our drinks. I'm not embarrassed anymore about what happened, shit happens. Ha ha, get it? Bahahah, it's one for the books that's for sure!
After the tour we were so exhausted that we took a short nap at the hostel, and woke up just in time for dinner. For dinner we went to this restaurant/pub called Flannigan's or Finnegan's, ha ha I can't remember but they had yummy tuna cakes mmm. The waiter was super nice too although he kept making fun of me for ordering a tiny dinner, a coke instead of a beer, and a water bahaha. After that we went to this bar/club called The Purty Kitchen (by the way both the restaurant and the club were in Temple Bar...look it up very well known) and it was pretty cool they had three floors and cocktails for 5 euros which is pretty good, and the bartenders were nice too ;).
The next day we ate lunch at La Pizza, it wasn't too bad and it was in close proximity to our hostel. After that we started walking just to look around and we notice that the streets are a bit more filled....well we were there just in time for the riots! There a couple of different riots, one was protesting what was happening in Libya and the other was protesting the British queen coming to visit Ireland in May. We did not utter the words London, British, England, that day for fear of getting anyone angry. I hadn't realized how hostile the Irish and the British are towards each other! But thanks to my trip I know why, don'tworry, I won't bore you with history, although it is thrilling!
Most of the day was spent shopping for souvenirs and taking a nice walk to the ferris wheel off in the distance. I was able to get some awesome pictures and a really good iced caramel latte at this coffee shop on our walk. It ended up being like Dublin's equivalent to the London Eye but I didn't go in it, Nick and Lindsey M. did though. After that we were too lazy to walk back to central London so we took the tram back. It was so cool! And cheap! And so sleek and modern! AND the automatic announcer on the train spoke in English and Gaelic! It was real cool.We went out again that night but we couldn't go big because we had a 6am flight back to London and the bus to catch to the airport at 2am .We went back to The Purty Kitchen, there was a band playing old 80's songs, I didn't drink (because I was broke wahh) but I belted out all the songs I knew, GOOD TIMES WERE HAD.
All in all I was so sad to leave Dublin, honestly it's such an amazing place and I really want to go back there in the future and see more especially the greener parts of Ireland. Ah, I just love Dublin so much.
But we must all move on, and next weekend I'll be going to Paris, France. YES! AND, it's with the school which happened to book a hotel. YES! AND I get to use my French and eat croissants by the Eiffel Tower. WINNING. But that's not until next weekend and in the meantime I have loads of "end of the term papers" to write... dude you don't even want to know how much I have on my plate right now.
So, TA-TA, I must go procrastinate some more! But before I go, I will leave you with this: in the past week, I've jumped the gate to get within school grounds (the gate closes at a specific hour and has been closing earlier than it's supposed to) twice! The gate has spikes and all sorts of scary things that try to make you think twice before you jump it. BUT I am happy to say that I've successfully jumped it twice without hurting myself. Let's hope I don't have to jump it anymore.
I'll try to update this as soon as I get back from France so you get more details and what not. Hope you enjoyed this!
à tout à l'heure!
s'laters!
xx
