Baile Átha Cliath

Hello hello! I'm back at the blogging after a wonderful week in Spain which followed a particularly stressful week of exams. I have a LOT to catch you all up with, and will attempt to blog daily this week to accomplish that. So, I must back up to where I left off. I do hope you all got a chuckle about Darth, and I'm happy to report his extended family got the hint and have yet to show themselves.

SO - ever since Christmas last year, Mom and Dad's trip to Ireland has been on my mind. In a good way! The trip was planned before I knew my schedule, and it turned out to be the weekend prior to exams. I was not be deterred, and started studying as far in advance as I could to compensate. This trip also was the first time, other than my trip to Maastricht, that I'd be traveling alone. Now, I discovered that traveling alone isn't necessarily for everyone, and not because it's scary or hard to do, mainly I find it dull. I'm a talker, which you all know, and enjoy having someone to chat with while traveling. Plus, it's fun to have memories to share with someone other than yourself. But - I knew my solo traveling would be worth it, as I'd get to see Mom and Dad!

I left on Thursday mid-afternoon and caught the bus to the train station. The train wasn't bad - only a hour ride. Once I finally made it to the airport, I had a bit of time to wait. My waiting was done with Pringles and iPod in hand, and also did a fair amount of people watching. Ryanair is first come first serve for seats, so as soon as our gate was posted, it was a mad dash to the line. I was towards the front, thank goodness. But that was the beginning of the wait - as our plane was an hour late. I'm never a fan of lines, but it's rather unpleasant in an airport, especially when one has to stand in line instead of causally sit until they call for boarding. Oh Ryanair, we are not friends! I did make a friend with a girl from California...she was wearing a Kappa Kappa Gamma sweatshirt, and so we did a fair amount of chatting about Greek life and such. It was nice to have someone to chat with while waiting! ANYWAY...we eventually made it to Dublin. I then had to find my bus to take me into the city and to my hostel. I should also mention it was dark and rainy. FUN! :) I found my bus, and also met another fellow traveler! This Dutch woman was going to see her daughters, who were studying in Dublin. She and I bonded while we tried to figure out when our stop was, as we both were looking for the same street. The two of us ended up getting help from this wonderfully friendly Irish woman. She made sure I had all my bags and pointed out exactly where to go from the bus stop to my hostel. I could have kissed her! (How appropriate, as we were in Ireland!) The rest of the night I spent eating Dominos pizza and meeting the other people who were staying at my hostel. Glee was on TV in the background, and that made me quite happy as well. :)

The next morning I was up early! I checked out of the hostel and headed out in search on Mom and Dad's hotel. I got a bit turned around, and again was helped by more locals. One guy that I stopped and asked for help then stopped another guy and they both hemmed and hawed about which way I should go. Apparently my directions weren't very good, as even they were confused. They eventually pointed me in the right direction, and as the hotel came into view, who should I spot on the front steps, but the parentals! I had hoped to beat them there, but oh well. Hugs all around and an overview of the travels we had all undergone commenced. We grabbed breakfast while we caught up and then checked into their room. I was on a roll-away in their room, which was better than any hostel. The hotel even had complimentary brownies with their name imprinted in the frosting. I was officially a fan!

We all showered and then went out to explore Dublin! We bought tickets for the 'Hop on, Hop off' bus tour, and started to take in the sights of city. We got off at Dublin Castle to take a tour. We had a bit of time before the next tour started, so we took the opportunity for their first pastry break in Europe! (And even they will admit, they were pretty hooked after that!) The tour was actually really interesting, and we learned some history about the building, the country's founding, the UK in general and of course, the royalty. They had some fantastic chandeliers and I took as many pictures of them as possible! The coolest thing I found out was that the Castle is still in use by the Irish Government! The President is inaugurated there and all the big Presidential events happen there. Back in the day it was for the Viceroy of Ireland, and used by the UK royalty when they visited. Lots of furniture dated to Queen Victoria, including the throne. I took LOTS of pictures, so if you want to see more - check out Shutterfly!

Post-tour we did a little souvenir shopping and then wandered towards Christ Cathedral. It's a BIG cathedral, and we were bummed it wasn't open for us to see the inside. Mom and Dad were able to go back after I left to see a service and take a look around the inside, lucky them! We then walked down to St. Patrick's Cathedral and the park next it. It too wasn't open, so we took pictures outside and strolled around the park. At this point we were all pretty hungry and found the perfect little Irish pub. We all enjoyed our first Guinness of the trip as well as some UK fare. Dad and I both had bangers and mash while Mom had an appetizing-looking fish soup. Afterward, we walked down towards Trinity College (which we decided to tour the next day) and then down Grafton Street. Grafton Street is the main shopping street as well as the place to see many musicians/bands playing outside. It was fun to wander and look in shops and have the music in the background! St. Stephen's Green is at the end of Grafton Street, so we walked in and enjoyed ALL the green plants and colorful flowers of the park. There were swans in the pond, birds chirping, and beautiful flowers planted everywhere. It was wonderful, and the perfect end to the afternoon.

Mom and Dad hadn't really slept for a few days, due to the overnight plane, so we took a bit of time to nap and be blobs in their room. We were a bit hungry later on, and we all were thinking of something dessert-y...and spotted a restaurant across the street from the hotel. Dad and I both enjoyed a wonderful rhubarb/raspberry crumble with whipped cream while Mom ate a delicious piece of cheesecake. It hit the spot! We headed to bed after that, so that we'd all be fresh and ready-to-go the next day.

Saturday was again a beautiful, sunny day, though a bit chilly. We hit up the 'Hop on, Hop off' bus again and rode it for almost the entire route. We saw up close the sights of Dublin, including the Guinness Storehouse and Phoenix Park. Phoenix Park is unique in that it's the place where the Irish president lives as well as the place the US Ambassador lives. The park is HUGE, and you could spend all day there. We intended to explore the park a bit on our own, but our bus driver/tour guide did a great job giving an overview and the cold wind was also a bit of a deterrent. We next drove along the River Liffey and saw all the different bridges that connect the North and South parts of Dublin. Mom's favorite was the Ha'penny Bridge, which got it's name for the toll pedestrians used to have to pay to cross the bridge.

We 'hopped off' in search of lunch, and found it at Toddy's. It was a restaurant/hotel and had the perfect lunch menu. Fish and chips was had by both Dad and I (we apparently like all the same foods!) and Mom had salmon. We tested out the dessert menu as well with a pear and almond tart and a creamy pudding. Full and warmed up from the cold on the bus (we were on the top level of the double-decker bus, which was open-air), we walked towards Trinity College. Trinity College is known for not only being a top-notch university, but also for being the home to the Book of Kells. It's an illuminated manuscript that contains the four Gospels of the New Testament, and was transcribed in the year 800. None of us knew much about it before the tour, and it was interesting to see and learn about the process of transcribing illuminated manuscripts. We also saw the very famous Chi Rho page (which Mankato West students studied in AP Art History)! We grabbed a pint of Guinness after our tour, at John Kehoe's pub. It was fun to listen to all the Irish accents as we sipped our drinks and chatted. We wandered around Grafton street again and bought ourselves some chocolates to munch as we continued to wander. We then headed down towards Merrion Square, another park in the city. We had a lot of fun exploring and picture-taking. Mom found the perfect spot to do her headstand picture and we even did a jumping shot too. After walking back to the main city area, we were famished. We located a neat place off of Grafton street, which turned out to be HUGE inside. We all tried different things this time, and I had a REALLY tasty steak sandwich. We enjoyed one more Guinness before heading back to the hotel for the night.


Sunday was my day to head home, but we had hoped to still get some sight-seeing in that morning. Sadly we all overslept our alarms, but it was almost a blessing, as I think we all needed the extra sleep. Instead of sightseeing, we grabbed some pastries for breakfast and sat in St. Stephen's Green while we ate. Fun story: we had a little goldfinch friend who kept eating our crumbs, and we eventually named him Ian. Ian eventually grew tired of us and hopped away. A few minutes later, we were still eating, and one of us had dropped a large crumb under our bench. All of a sudden, this bird flew from under our bench and up into trees behind us, which was quite startling actually. Dad just looked at Mom and I, and asked bewildered, "Was that Ian?" Perhaps it's the ridiculous name we gave him, or the situation itself, but we laughed REALLY HARD after that. Instead of asking, what was that, Dad simply wondered if Ian was back. Hilarious. Perhaps it's one of those 'you had to be there' things, but either way, quite funny.

We went back to the hotel so I could catch my cab to the airport and then start the travel adventure home. The trip home went much more smoothly than my trip there, no delays and very quick trains/buses (or so it felt). All in all, a really fun trip! I had never really traveled with JUST Mom and Dad on a vacation, only day trips here and there. It was wonderful to see them after being away for two months, and also to catch up in person instead of on Skype. We did miss G/D&L from the trip though! I loved Ireland, and all the green everywhere! Spring finally hit Europe, and I saw it in the perfect country. The people in Ireland were also the friendliest of any country I've been to so far, and I'll always remember that!

More to come tomorrow about Spain! Get pumped! :)