Dublin continued finally

Sunday was a long day, but it was relaxing. There wasn't too much rushing about which was nice...but we started the day out in the pouring rain! Yuck. We were really wet..and my shoes were soaked through. We walked about 45 mins. down to the Guinness Storehouse, since that was the furthest away. It was definitely worth the walk I think though. It's an awesome place. They have a self guided tour and as you follow it along and keep going higher, you are going up escalators in the part of the building that is shaped like a pint! The tour was of the history of Guinness and how it is made. There were a lot of quotes and real items that associated with Guinnness and Arthur Guinness, who started it all. Interesting Fact: Arthur Guinness actually signed a 9,000 year lease for the Guinness Storehouse...and this year they are celebrating 250 years, so it looks like they have a long time to go! When we made it to the top in the Gravity Bar we had an awesome view of Dublin, and we were happy to see the clouds were leaving and the sun was coming out! This of course made the view much better. We got our free pint of Guinness, drank some, then headed out.

We walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was nice. We walked along the park/garden type area and took a few pictures, but we didn't go inside the Cathedral. We kept going and the next stop was Dublin Castle...which was closed. It didn't open until 2pm, which was still a couple hours away so we just went to lunch! We went to a small cafe and I had a really good sandwich. Then we went and did some shopping! Found some gifts, and our next stop was Trinity College for the Book Of Kells, which I decided not to go in and see. Instead, I walked around in a few stores waiting for the other girls. We then took our time and walked back up O'Connell Street towards The Writer's Museum! Along the way we stopped in the Garden of Remembrance, which is a pool of water, statue and flowers dedicated to those who fought for Irish freedom. The Writer's Museum was right across the street. I thought the Writer's Museum was really interesting, although it was small. They only had a few rooms, but they had a lot of information. It covered a wide range of authors and poets, including some of the more famous Irish Writers, like James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. There were so many original and first editions of books! I wish I could have taken a first edition Oscar Wilde book!

After the Writer's Museum we kept with the original plan and went back to the hostel and Jenn and I got our bags. We then just walked down O'Connell Street again waiting to get the bus to the airport. We had a extra time and ended up going to the airport earlier than we really had to, but we had a really good day. And for that matter, a really good time in Dublin!

Dublin, Ireland

I spent last weekend with the Irish! I flew to Dublin with Katie, Jenn, and Rita, and the plane ride was only about an hour long. It was a late flight though, and by the time we arrived at our hostel, it was midnight! The hostel was actually really nice, much better than in Bath, and we quietly got ready for bed, anticipating the next day's adventures.

Saturday we had breakfast at the hostel since it was included in our stay, and then split up. Katie and Rita went horseback riding, while Jenn and I decided to go to Newgrange, Ireland to visit their well-known neolithic/megalithic passage tomb. We had some issues getting out there though, since the booking didn't exactly go through the way we had planned, but we made it there nevertheless. It took a little less than an hour to get out there, and when we arrived, the shuttlebus driver showed us where and what bus to take to get home, since we weren't able to take the shuttlebus back like we had planned. We got our tour for 1:45pm and walked around the exhibit until it was time to take the shuttle out to the passage tomb, which is only like a five minute drive. The passage tomb looked kind of ordinary from a distance, like a small hill with a building in it or something. But when you get close to it you realize the white part that looked like a wall, is actually white stones built around the hill. The entrance has been cut and it is distinct from the white stone; it is dark and it is limestone. There are two entrances, the one on the top is for the sunlight, and the one of the bottom was put there when they decided to allow people to enter. People didn't realize the passage tomb existed for a long time because it just looked natural in the landscape, until some rich guy was going to excavate and discovered it. Inside the passage tomb it was really tiny, but so neat to be inside there. The guide was really smart and he recreated the event that happens on the winter solstice every year, when the sunlight slowly enters and lights up the passage tomb, which was really exciting.

We then had to hurry and get back to the visitor center to try and catch the 3pm bus back to Dublin, but we missed it, so we had to wait around until 445pm, so we were slightly bummed but we had scones and tea while waiting. Yumm. We eventually made it back to Dublin and met up with Katie and Rita, and went to dinner at a nice restaurant. Dinner was really good, and then we decided to have dessert as well! It was really good, and we took our time just talking and enjoying the atmosphere. We then went back to the hostel, and it was 930pm and the other person in our room for 8 was sleeping already! haha so we hung out down in the common area until it was a normal time to go to sleep.

Okay...looks like I'll have to do this in two parts unfortuantely, but it's late and this post is getting very long! More later!

Tea and Scones anyone?

Two weekends ago I travled to Bath, England! It took about 5-6 hours by train, but it was worth it. Bath it small, but very pretty. There's a lot to do there I think also. We got to our hostel around 9pm Friday night, and just stayed in for the night since we were on the train all day and it was rainy. We met a nice girl from Germany who was one of the others to share the room with us. We woke up early the next day to make it to the Roman Baths by opening. It was a rainy morning, but we were prepared with our umbrellas and rain shoes! We weren't too worried since most of the baths were indoor or under some type of cover, but we were worried about our plans for later in the day - Stonehenge! The Roman Baths were really awesome; I enjoyed walking around and learning about the Romans and why they decided to come to Bath and stay there and build their community. Bath has the only natural hot spring in Britain, making it the perfect place for the Romans to build their public baths. It was important for the Romans to be clean (i would hope so) and so most Romans spent a portion of their day at the baths. I remember some of the terms and information from Latin class in high school and for a moment I thought it wasn't a waste of my time to take 4 years of it...but then I remembered it actually was haha. We learned about the baths I believe freshman year of high school...so long ago. Anyway, at one point there was a circular bath where Romans would jump in and cool off from the hot water from the main bath, and Jenn and I tossed in American coins and made a wish :) The Roman Baths in my opinion were definitely worth a visit.

Next we grabbed lunch at Pret, and walked around a bit until it was time to go on our tour to Stonehenge! We took MadMax Tours, and the guide was nice, funny and had some good information to share. We made it out to Stonehenge and had about an hour there. Stonehenge may just be a bunch of rocks in a field and there are larger and more important rock formations elsewhere, but it was SO COOL. Stonehenge looks kind of small at first, but you are able to walk all around it and see it from different directions. It was surreal to actually be there looking at Stonehenge and taking pictures of it. It was extremely windy...but no rain!! It cleared up and it was actually really nice out for our visit to Stonehenge, which added to our great moods. After Stonehenge our tour guide took us to a small village called Lacock. When I say small, I mean really small, like 2 streets. A bunch of movies were filmed there...including one of my personal favorites, Harry Potter! It was cute, and we only spent a half hour there...which might have actually been too long considering the size haha.

In the evening, there wasn't too much to do, but we luckily discovered a comedy walk called Bizarre Bath. It was two hour long walking tour...but all a comedy show pretty much. The guide took us around Bath and performed stunts, cracked jokes and made a fool of himself and others he made fun of. If I tried to explain some of the jokes/stunts to you, you just would think it was really weird and not too funny...but it was really funny at the time and in person.

Sunday was one of my favorite days. We checked out of the hostel and carried all our stuff with us, and then made our way up to the Jane Austen Centre!! I was so excited...Jane Austen lived in Bath for five years, and two of her novels take place in Bath. The centre is really cute. We had a informative talk that lasted about 15 mins, and then were able to walk around the exhibition. It was tiny, but nice. We spent some time in the gift shop of course, where I purchased a book, a notepad, and a small tote bag that says "I (heart) MR DARCY" haha.

Then was probably the best part....we had tea and scones in the Jane Austen Regency Tea Room!! So delicious :-) traditional, and the perfect ending to our weekend in Bath.