Because I was such a slacker and didn't blog for 15 days, my blogging for the dates above is going to be pretty lame because I don't really remember what I did specifically. Additionally, not much worth noting actually happened during those ten days.
Things I remember/are worth writing about:
- On Tuesday, February 16, I woke up at a decent hour because I was planning on running errands and being productive. Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to get into the shower, someone from maintenance knocked on my door and asked if he could quickly change the shower head. Then he took my shower head and said he'd be back within the hour with a new one, which is code for he would come back in three hours with a shower head that looked exactly the same as my other one with the exception of being shinier.
- Also on Tuesday, Maggie, Steve, Christine and I went to go see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (which was nothing like the book). Steve kept laughing every time Pierce Brosnan came on screen as Chiron the centaur, which we thought was because Pierce Brosnan was playing a centaur but was really because, according to Steve, "the horse-man looked ridiculous". He didn't even know it was Pierce Brosnan.
- On Saturday, February 20, Maggie, Elysse, Christine, and I met up with Marissa and Steve (who were at the Dr. Who exhibit) at Cardiff Bay for some fish and chips and ice cream. While we were there we also saw the Welsh Bockers. They were amazing. Then we headed back to Elysse and Marissa's flat and ordered pizza and watched She's the Man.
- On Friday February 26, I bought a nice tiny suitcase for pretty cheap. It doesn't have a name yet, but Steve named his Spencer, so I want to name mine. I'm taking suggestions. Later that night I watched the France v. Wales rugby game with Maggie, Meg, and some of Meg's flatmates (Wales lost :(). Then I went back to my room and packed for my trip to...
Saturday, February 27
On Saturday, Steve, Christine, Maggie, and I all met up in the center to catch a megabus to London. The ride is about 3 hours, but this time it went by faster because I actually had people to talk to the whole way. Then when we got to London, we rushed to catch a bus to Luton, which is about forty-five minutes to an hour away. Once we got to the airport, we ate some dinner and Maggie and I played a skiing arcade game while we waited for the plane.
The plane ride was just over an hour. We caught yet another bus to our hostel. Finally, after about nine or ten hours of travel, we were officially settled in Dublin. We were pretty tired, so we didn't do very much that night besides eat a ton of food.
Sunday, February 28
On Sunday, we got up pretty early and had some free breakfast (bread and tea) at the hostel. Then we decided to get on a Dublin tour bus. We stayed on the bus for about half of the day driving around and looking at stuff. It had a "hop off, hop on" policy, so we got off a couple of times, but most of the stuff we wanted to see (like the Book of Kells and the Guiness Brewery Museum) cost too much money, so we didn't end up actually seeing much except for the outside of big buildings.
We ate lunch in the first small pub with reasonable prices we could find (Dublin is super expensive compared to Cardiff), and it was either the best sandwich I have ever eaten or I was starving. After lunch and some more slightly disappointing over-priced tourist attractions, we ended up just walking around in the city for fun.
We headed back to the hostel and rested for a bit (we played a few hands of spoons) and then went to a pub/club to hang out (luckily it was free!) but ended up being too tired to stay for very long.
Monday, March 1 (St. David's Day in Wales!!! We were bummed we missed it.)
Monday was AMAZING. We started off by getting some delicious breakfast and catching a bus to Enniskerry because we wanted to see some Irish countryside. The view from the bus was gorgeous, and once we got there, our walk was even better.
Christine picked a random way to walk, and we ended up leaving the town and finding a gorgeous church and small cemetery overlooking a beautiful field. We kept walking, hoping to eventually find the entrance to the Wicklow Mountains National Park (the one in the movie P.S. I Love You, if you've seen it). Instead we found a nice stream in the woods, so we climbed down off the street and took some pictures and found some pretty rocks. Then we climbed back up onto the street and kept walking. After we had walked about 3km, we came across a man washing his big coach bus. We asked him how far ahead the park was and if there was anywhere remotely close to eat.
He told us the entrance to the park was about 6 hours away (we thought we were waaaay closer) but that there was a gas station a bit aways (far, but not too far, ahead) where we could get some food and catch a bus back to Dublin. Since we could see the mountains from where we were and we were all really hungry, we decided to go to the gas station. We kept walking along leisurely, taking in all the views, until about fifteen, twenty minutes later, a huge bus puled up next to us and the man we had talked to earlier asked us if we wanted a lift.
We took him up on the offer, which was a good idea because he ended up offering to take us where he was going, Dunlaoghaire, a coastal city. As we were driving, he pointed out places of interest, including Bono's house.
Once we got to Dunlaoghaire, we bought some food and ate it near the water. Then we caught a train to Howth, a town that the bus driver had recommended.
By the time we got to Howth, it was starting to get dark, but we still spent a little time walking around. We even started up a pretty long conversation with a nice local old man about Ireland and loving people and not fighting. It was very exciting. We had some fish and chips at a little restaurant, and then headed back to Dublin.
In Dublin, we went to a little pub/bar to talk for a while and then headed back to the hostel to sleep.
Tuesday, March 2
On Tuesday we got up early and went to the Writer's Museum. In the Writer's Museum I saw a first edition copy of Dracula, which was amazing. We lost Christine because she didn't go into the Writer's Museum and then her phone died, but eventually we found her and headed to the National History Museum. We wandered around there for a little bit and then headed off to catch a train to Howth again.
Once we got to Howth, we got some sandwiches at a little convenient store and walked along the pier to the lighthouse to eat them. We were hoping to catch a ferry to a really gorgeous island a little bit out, but the ferry wasn't running. We did see a seal, though, which almost made up for it.
Then we decided to go find the Howth Castle (which is now a culinary school) and something called Aideen's Grave. The castle was really pretty, but we just looked at the outside of it. Then we kept walking for a while on the street through what looked like really gorgeous Irish countryside but was really an Irish golf course. When we finally got past the golf course, we came to the edge of the woods and a fork in the road. We decided to go left and up a mountain. The climb wasn't actually too bad (although it was a little muddy.slippery), and the view at the top was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a bit of time at the top until we realized it was going to get dark soon so we should head back down. Once we got down, it was still light enough, so we took the right path of the fork and found Aideen's Grave.
We headed back down to the more populated area of Howth and ate dinner at a really nice pub under the train station called the Bloody Stream. Then we headed back to Dublin.
Since it was our last night, we decided to try and stay out and make the most of our time, so we went to a bar/club for a while and hung out. Then we were really hungry so we stopped at a chips place and ate some chips (fries..). We finally headed back to the hostel and fell asleep.
Wednesday, March 3
On Wednesday, we woke up and got ready to go back to Cardiff. We got on a bus to the Dublin Airport, ate breakfast there and waited around for our plane. The plane ended up landing ahead of schedule, so after we took the bus to from Luton to London, we decided to go get waffles at our favorite place, the Waffle House.
Unfortunately, despite the deliciousness of the waffles and the fact that we thought we had plenty of time, our tube to the bus station was a bit slowish and we missed our megabus back to Cardiff. Luckily there was another bus running at 7:30 and another at 8:00. Steve, Maggie and I took the 7:30 bus back, and Christine took the 8:00 bus (the 8:00 bus was cheaper so Steve and I were going to take that one, too, but Christine accidentally bought the last ticket).
The bus ride took about 3 and a half hours and then we took another bus from the centre to UniHall, and we got there around 11:45pm.
Links to Ireland pictures on Facebook:
Did you ask why the place was called the Bloody Stream? I'm sure there's a good story behind it... One doesn't just name a pub that for no reason!
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