I think I threw away my boarding pass...

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On Saturday, Aimee and I were on our way to IRELAND. We flew using Ryan Air, the "always on-time airline". Personally, I believe this is false advertising and their new slogan the "always delayed and makes everything an inconvenience airline." I will explain a little bit later. In order for you to fly to Dublin, you have to fly out of the Gatwick Airport which is about 30-40 in from Kensington. In order to get to the Gatwick Airport, you have to take the tube to Victoria Station, and then take a train to the Gatwick Airport. It was a little bit of work, but we did get our flights for practically nothing. So, we our on our way to the airport. We arrive at the airport about an hour and a half before our flight is supposed scheduled to take off. Obviously, we had a lot of time to just do whatever we wanted to to do and it was lunch time and there was really nothing to eat in the Airport besides McDonalds. So, we did the American thing and ate McDonalds. (one thing you should know about the MD here is that all of the meals are the same price. The Big Mac...or small mac as Aimee calls it here...is the same price as quarter-pounder. not really that significant but Aimee and I were weirded out) Aimee actually got a happy meal and with that comes a toy. As many of you might know, the Euro Cup has started, and the toy she received were some stickers of different "footballers" from all different countries. The purpose was to place the stickers on the right square to make up 11 players. She did have some left over stickers so so we put them on our "money belts" as decoration but realized that we looked like complete douche bags and took them off a little bit later. Anyway, after we ate, we decided went to the bathroom. On our way to the bathroom there were these shadow people all over the walls "leading you to the bathroom" or something. Being the Americans that we are, we took pictures with the Shadow People. And these people actually go into the bathrooms. As if the Shadow People were not strange enough, right in the middle of the wall there is a picture of a foot coming out of the water. And thats all you can see. there is no person and no purpose. Just a giant foot coming out of the water. I dont know if anyone reading this thinks that is normal, but I do not. It was hilarious. As we were acting like typical tourists and taking pictures, I stop, look up, and say to Aimee, "I think I thew away my boarding pass." We ran back to the McDonalds that we had eaten at in the airport and I began digging through the trash can in an attempt to find my boarding pass. Just picture that for a minute. Not to worry guys. I did find the boarding pass. Luckily not that many people had thrown away their trash in between the time I had and when I realized I had thrown it away.

After heading to the bathroom, we looked around some shops and had did some liquor sampling in the mean time. Earlier I was telling you about Ryan Air. Well, Ryan Air + the Gatwick Airport = a bad combination. The Gatwick Airport doesnt tell you what gate your flight is coming in on until about 15 min before you have to be there. On top of that, the flight was delayed by about 20 min....always on-time...This creates a bit of stress in an airport that you are unfamiliar with. Once we figured out our gate, we went ran there to find that the plane was even later than we had expected. We waited in a long Q and finally boarded the plane. It was an eventful airport experience to say the least. It may seem as if I am complaining about the situations we were in, but I was not. It was actually entertaining and makes for a great story.

On our actual flight, we sat next to this really old woman and before the flight started she started singing to herself, so I put my headphones on and just tried to drown it out. The flight from London to Dublin is only an hour long and Ryan Air does not provide beverages for you. They do however let you look at the tabloid newspapers. haha. Anyway, as we approached Ireland, the old woman next me started singing again and this time I tried to listen a little bit better to see what exactly she was singing. The jingle went something like this, "My, my, my...Dublin is so greeeeen." I could hardly contain my laughter because she was just singing that over and over again...as if it were a REAL song. She ended up being Irish (you could tell by her accent) which could have been the reason for her singing. Who knows. All I know is that it was really funny. After we got off the plane we had to go through customizes again and tell them what we were doing in the country, how long we would be there, etc. We bought a ticket for a bus ride to O'Connell street and we were on our way to find the hostel.

One thing I noticed about the Irish people is their friendliness. Our bus driver was more than willing to guide us to our hostel; drivers in London do not answer your questions and just want you to get off the bus. Anyway, we headed to our hostel but Aimee went in alone because we thought they had enough rooms when we reserved Aimee's room, but it turned out they didnt because 10 seconds after Aimee did her reservation, I tried to do mine and they didnt have any available. So, we ended up just booking one room and on the first night we shared a bed. We heard some horror stories about the hostel we were staying at so we didnt have very high expectations which actually worked out to our benefit because I didnt think it was as bad as the other made it out to be. After checking into the hostel, we had no idea what to do and we ended up getting on one of those "hop on hop off" buses that take you around the city. You get this 24 hour pass and can get on as many times as you want for that 24 hour period. It was actually worth it because it took you to all the main sites in Dublin. We ended up getting off at Graffton Street (much like a 6th street in Austin) and saw some guy that was dancing in a leopard print outfit and doing the limbo under a bar that was extremely hot. After watching that interesting event, we headed to a pub to watch the first matches of the EURO cup (the Euro cup is a World Cup like thing, but only for European countries). At the pub, we met some interesting Irish men, a bit older, but very eager to learn about us "Americans/Texans." They told us some of the hot spots and let us known where the best Kebab place was. For those of you who dont know, kebabs are one the most amazing foods I have ever eaten and not be confused by shish-kebabs that come on a stick. It's a type of Indian food and is much like a pita but comes with an amazingly delicious sauce. If you ever get a chance, you should eat one! Later that night, we met some other American guys in our hostel and decided to tour the city with them the next day. (I fell asleep in the hostel in all of my clothes because of the bad review our friends gave the place, and I was hugging my backpack).

The next day we woke up, ready for our free breakfast that comes with the expense of the hostel. At this point I am having images of a continental breakfast with eggs or cereal or something. Oh, how my dreams were crushed that morning. We were given two pieces of white bread with some butter and two different jellies and had the option of coffee or some watered down cranberry juice. I ventured out and tried the juice and it didnt take long for me to realize that I wasnt going to drink that again. After our gourmet breakfast at the 5 star hostel, we headed on our way to tour the city with our new American friends. Our first stop was the Dublin Castle. We didnt actually go inside the castle but we took some pictures and walked to the "backyard." There was some strange pattern in the grass and I'm not sure what it means. Sorry that I wont be able to enlighten you. After the castle, we headed to the St. Patrick's Cathedral. From there we went to the John Jameson Whiskey factory to check out how Irish whiskey is made. I have new found appreciation for making beverages because of the time it takes to actually make the whiskey. At the end of the tour you get a "free" drink and there is a whiskey tasting competition with 6 different kinds of whiskey and the people that participated got a certificate showing they were official "whiskey tasters." They only chose 3 girls and 3 guys, and I didnt put my hand up fast enough to be a taste tester, but one of the guys we met did. After the whiskey tasting, we had a chance to try making our own Irish coffee. This was the first time I ever had Irish coffee and it was one of the greatest things I have ever tried. We made some coffee staches. The next stop on our tour was the Guinness Factory. The Guinness Factory has multiple levels showing how the beer is made. One of the floors is a taste testing floor where you get to sample the beer (its part of the process they actually go through in the factory). It was a lot like the whiskey factory, and very interesting. At the top of the factory there is a Gravity Bar. This bar allows you to see all of Dublin and you get a free drink. Gotta love those free drinks! haha.

After making our rounds on the bus, we headed to Temple Bar, one of the most touristy areas in Dublin; we were watching some of the EURO games that night. After watching some of the games, we decided to get some wine and drink it on the river. We assumed you could drink on the streets here because you are allowed to in London. We were wrong in thinking that. We were sitting on a bench and two officers came up to us and took our drinks from us and said that it was illegal to drink on the streets and we could be arrested for drinking on the streets. Thank goodness we were Americans because she let us off because we didnt know the law. There were two officers and they already had a Polish guy in custody for being publicly drunk. They told us we had to get up and leave the area and as we were walking, the lady told us we could a little further down the river and drink the rest of our wine if we wanted to, as long as we didnt cause a scene! So, she takes our drinks from us and then tells us that we can actually disobey the law and drink anyway as long as we arent loud...interesting. This is coming from the police officer who was taking pictures with the Polish guy they were ARRESTING! haha. What kind of police officers do the Irish people have? As we were walking back, we saw a bunch of German and Polish people on the streets. Earlier that day, they had played each other and Germany had won, and fights were breaking out all over the place in the city. We saw one guy with blood running down his face with his friends holding him back as we was yelling, "Who are you? Who are you?" What that means, I dont know. A little further down the street there was guy laying lifeless on the ground with a group of people trying to wake up him. We didnt see what happened to him before that but when he finally got up, his nose was bleeding everywhere and he looked completely out of it. CRAZY EUROPEANS I TELL YOU. It was a good night to leave on.

The next morning we were on our way home. The last night we had the hostel all to ourselves, which was really nice. But we rode the bus to the airport, went through customs and got some coffee to waste some time. Little did we know, we were going to need a lot more time to waste. Big surprise, Ryan Air had a delay in the flight again. This time it was a little more serious for us because we had to get back for our class at 3. We finally board the plane and take off. We landed at Gatwick at about 120 or so and we still had a 30 min train ride to take back to the Victoria Station where we would then have to take the tube back to our place. Of course we had to go through customs again, and they make people with none European Union passports take a huge detour to customs. We finally got through customs, buy our train tickets and run to the board to look for the train time. The trains run every 30 min, so if you miss the one you want to go on, you have to wait 30 min. Luckily, we made it to our platform with 4 min to spare. If any of you are worried, we made it back home with 15 min until class. I had not showered all weekend because I would have had to check my bag if I brought shampoo with me on the plane, and that was 25 pounds (which I would not pay). So, I ran to my room, showered in 2 minutes, and then RAN to class. I made it with 2 min to spare and my teacher ended up being late. It was a very stressful hour in our lives, but funny to think about now.

Well, thats all there is to say in my blog about Ireland I suppose. We are off to Scotland this weekend so I should have another fun filled blog for you all in a bit!

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Photos

the foot
the random foot with the shadow people

shadow man
i was holding his hand...

hostel
this is a picture of our hostel...top class...i know

hostel 2
a view further out of the hostel

not sure what this called
but this is where the prime minister lives in Dublin

photographed door
this is the most photographed door in Dublin...is had two doors

graffton street
this is a building on graffton street. this is where a lot of musical things are done

Irish friends
these are the guys we met that told us about Ireland

the police force
this is the name of the police force in Dublin

me and aimz
in the grassy area by the castle

the "crop circle"
the symbol in the grass that i dont know the meaning of

friends
at the whiskey factory

cat
they stuffed this cat...longer story to it though

whiskey making
i forgot what this was...

waterfall
in the guinness factory they had this waterfall because it has to do with making of beer