" Big Girls Don't Cry" - except when in Dublin...

O where to begin, should I start with the almost missed flight, the late bus, the screaming children or the awful waiters? I guess I will just start at the beginning.

After getting an early start Friday morning to catch the tube to the Gatwick express to the airport we managed somewhere to get behind. The Gatwick express stopped somewhere in the middle of the route for no apparent reason, we had to stand in line to get our passports checked even though we were not checking baggage BEFORE going through security and then AGAIN when we went through security and then had to practically RUN to the gate before they closed it.

We took the flight on Ryan Air because it was cheaper and for the most part it was fine, minus all the advertising and selling, they would sell you their own hand if you paid enough I think. We had a good pilot and got off and on the ground safely and that’s all I can ask for. When we got to the airport we had no trouble going through customs or anything but managed somehow to wait for 20 minutes for a bus before deciding to take a Taxi to our hotel in Blacherdstown outside of Dublin. We got in a bus taxi so it ended up being cheaper that way, it was great. We checked into the hotel and were on our way to a great weekend.

Once we finally figure out which bus we have to take to get to the city center of Dublin and find where it leaves by our hotel we are set to go, it’s only 7 miles away! 45 minutes later we make it to Dublin. Who would have thought 7 miles would take 45 minutes to drive! Apparently in Dublin it does. We found the green tour buses for the hop on hop off tour and hopped on and headed to Trinity College. We walked around Trinity for a little while and found the area that held the book of kells. We were really excited about seeing the book of kells until we realized we weren’t going to be able to see it unless we wanted to pay 8 euros, which is about 10 dollars. So we went into the store looked through the books of the book of kells and I bought some postcards. We hopped back on the green bus and headed to the main attraction of our trip, what we had been waiting for and had heard so much about, the Guinness factory!

As we got off the bus the smell of beer was in the air, and while I’m not much of a beer drinker I was still pretty excited as I had never been to a brewery before. As we were purchasing our tickets something happened, it was almost as though they knew we were in the building and were having a rough day, the power went out, complete power loss, apparently first one in Guinness history while they were open because the workers didn’t have a clue what to do at first. We all stood outside for around 45 minutes before the power came back on and they let us come back into the building. We toured around for a while, took lots of pictures, bought souvenirs and then moved on to trying to find our way home for the night and find something to eat!

After we hopped off the green bus we searched for the 39 bus back to Blanchardstown. And kept searching… for about an hour or so. Finally we found the 39 and jumped on, so excited to finally be headed back home. 10 minutes later he stopped the bus and said, “end of the line”. So there we are searching for the 39 again, but this time we ask before we get on to make sure we are FOR SURE going to Blanchardstown. We made it back to next to the hotel and are starving and decide to go to the Captain America, just kidding it’s a 90 min wait, even for 2 four person tables. So we head over to wagamamas and ended up paying like 15 euro for dinner but at least our waitress was helpful! Then on to bed for a good night’s rest on a bed that you couldn’t feel the coils in!

Day two started with a trip to starbucks on the way to the bus stop as we headed into Dublin on the 39 to catch the 7 into Dun Laoghaire. As we climbed on the bus, happy with our coffee and pastries we were greeted with a screaming child. The child wasn’t screaming because he was in pain or because he was unhappy, he was doing it just to hear his voice, he had to be 16-18 mos he could say some words like mommy and things like that so he knew better. His mom didn’t stop him at all, in fact it seemed like she encouraged him! Not the best way to start out the morning.

After the 45 minute ride into Dublin we managed to find the number 7 bus to Dun Laoghaire and rode 45 min into the port city. We walked around for a while until we found this quaint little jewelry shop with some great jewelers. A few of the girls we were with wanted to buy the traditional Irish rings and we found some beautiful ones there. While we were there Katrina and I were able to talk to one of the men about why we were in the area and in the UK and got to have an interactive discussion about healthcare with him, it was really awesome. Then he saw my ring and told me it was beautiful and that it looked like I had gotten a really great diamond. Good job baby!! We got an OK from another jeweler! Then he told us about a festival that the town was having and told us where to go to see it. It was such a blessing to find this jewelry store because otherwise we would have been at a loss.
We headed down to the pier and looked at the water and took pictures and realized how to use the timers on our cameras so that we could get a picture of the 8 of us. We walked around the festival and took in the fun and found some fun foods to eat like crepes. I have found my new favorite chocolate, buttons, it’s the chocolate from Cadbury eggs just in like little buttons. They are wonderful. So I had them in a crepe. HIGHLIGHT!!!!

So after that we rode back to Dublin and sat next to a chick whose music was playing so loud we could actually hear the lyrics also, it was annoying. So after we had all been beaten down for 45 min with awful music from loud music chick next to us we went shopping for souvenirs and headed to Dublin castle, which by the way is not really a castle. Then we headed on to St Patrick’s Cathedral to take pictures… in the rain… go figure.

After the rain we decided to go to a pub in Temple Bar to eat dinner and have a drink so we go into Quay Restaurant. We proceeded then to have wonderful food and AWFUL service. Our server came to the table all of twice, we had another server that filled our glasses and brought our food to us. Not only that but our server also wouldn’t split our check, even though at the beginning we told her we needed to because 3 of us needed to pay with a card because we wouldn’t have enough money to pay for the taxi to the airport which tends to be kinda expensive… We had a girl go to the bar to break a 20 euro note and she said something to the bartender about our server and asked for a manager so he pointed her out to our friend, and guess who the manager was… you guessed it… our server. So two hours and a service charge later we walk out and find our 39 bus home. The bus ride home wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the people pressing the stop button every 2 minutes and every 30 seconds after each actual bus stop. 45 minutes later we were back at the hotel, our wonderful 4 star hotel, and we decided to go down to the bar and have a drink and dessert. It was crazy expensive and it was like she got the notice that it was bad service day and took 30 minutes to get our drinks to us, well to me. Apparently they didn’t have mint and Melissa couldn’t have her mojito but they decided not to tell her that for 20 minutes so she had to change her drink order and wait another 10-15 minutes.

Welp after all of that we crashed into our wonderful hotel room early , showered, and got up at 530am for our taxi ride to the airport this morning thinking that it would take 30 minutes to get to the airport, 7 minutes later we arrived and were headed on through security. After that we headed to find something to eat, all we could find was a burger king, thinking that we could get a soda in the morning so that we could wake up only to find that the soda we bought was FLAT and disgusting. Then as we were boarding the plane we were gagged by an awful smell , we all look at each other and realize that the man in front of us had just ripped a big one, in fact it smelt like diarrhea for about 5 minutes just trailing behind him.. it’s not like he was an old man and he might have actually had some, he had to have been like 23. AUGH!!

So by the time we got onto our 745am flight today Katrina , Melissa and I were all delirious and irritated, as we loaded onto the plane I noticed that the advertisements on the overhead bins were all the same but at that time I didn’t really pay that much attention to them, that is until Melissa said something about the advertisements, it said “ summer love, the way it’s meant to be felt”… I’ll let you think about that for a second…. Are you there yet…. Do you need another second….. yes it was advertisements for prophylactics called skyn and I don’t mean antibiotics.. ALL OVER THE PLANE. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the words, but no it had a picture of the box AND a picture of the item in question. We tried really hard to be mature about it but after 4 hours of sleep and no caffeine we could hardly contain the laughter. So once we got to cruising altitude and turned on our Ipods I put down the tray table so that I could lay down my head and take a nap for the hour flight, o wait what is on the tray table, an advertisement, what for? Skyn, again…. Not only do we have to look at it all over the plane we have to SLEEP on it!

Once we landed in Gatwick, and got on the express we could not have been happier. We got on the tube at Victoria and headed back to 17 Bedford place. When we got to the door we almost ran in we were so excited to be back to London. As much as I have enjoyed my trip abroad, mostly London, I think I am about ready to go home. I miss my family, my bed, my snickers, and of course my sweet fiancé.