The Last day... and another Last day

So our last day was bitter sweet. At that point, we wanted to stay in Dublin forever, but couldn't wait to get home to our family and friends.

That last Wednesday morning, we made a sad attempt at waking up at a reasonable hour. We had big plans for our last day! lol. Our main objective was to finally take The Guinness Storehouse tour, which we had been putting off every day since we had gotten into the country. After putting on our faces and finding our outfits for the day, we decided that it would be a good idea to take care of some of the shopping that we had been unable to squeeze in until that point. We wandered around the market, buying clothes and souvenirs, trying to make it to specific shops before they closed at 5. After unloading our loot back at the hotel, we prepared to take our final tour. Now, I do have to say, I am a little ashamed... We were under the impression that Guinness tours went until 8pm, unfortunately, we were a week too early for their peak season hours... they closed at 5 and we were kind of s.o.l

I'm not going to lie, I do feel a little pathetic for spending a week and a half in Dublin and not going on the Guinness tour. But, if it makes any of you feel any better, we had more than our fair share of authentic Irish Guinness during our stay. lol

Now here comes the unexpected part...

So, we arrived at the airport bright and early Thursday morning, 6 am approximately, for our return trip to the U.S. Well, as ready as we were to leave, our airline was not so prepared. While standing in line to check our luggage, we received a lovely pamphlet that let us know that our flight had been canceled, and that it wasn't rescheduled for departure till the following day :/

My stomach sank at that point. We were completely out of money and I was dreading staying overnight in the airport. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Our airline herded us like cattle into like 4 tour buses, and unloaded us into two separate hotels for the night. The hotel ended up being pretty sweet... Huge flat screen tv, surround sound (that even continued into the bathroom), full breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So, basically, we spent all of Thursday sleeping, eating, watching t.v. and trying to find out what the heck was going on with our flights.

Needless to say, most everything has been figured out. Today has been a LONG day. We woke up at 3:30am, took a shuttle to the airport, waited in one huge (and very unorganized) line, got on the 8am flight to Toronto from Dublin (of course with a screaming baby on it), and are now waiting for our 2:45 flight into Chicago.

Lets just say that I can't WAIT to be home :D

The rest of the week. lol.

So... the last few days have been kind of a blur... and I have been too lazy to blog. lol.

I'm sorry about not posting any new pics. My laptop is finally on its last leg, and won't let me save any pictures, even to my external hard drive :/

But on a lighter note, we have been keeping busy!

The weekend involved a lot of Guinness... pubs, clubs, taverns, and a few inebriated adventures back to the hotel. lol.

Since my last posts, we have taken our train tour to the Cliffs of Moher, Galaway, Bay, Bunratty Castle & the Burren lands. All of it was simply beautiful! The cliffs were breathtaking. I've never seen anything like them. When we finally got there, the mist had just began to settle in, and we could feel the light pitter patter of rain on our faces soon there after. The water was a intense shade of dark blue, which made the sheer sides of the cliffs seem that much more menacing.

Galaway was a cute town, and the Bunratty Castle was interesting, but what really caught my attention were the Burren lands, an area of Ireland that is along the coast and is just covered with large slabs of limestone and huge boulders. It is one of Ireland's national parks, where many of the countries rare flowers grow between crevasses in the rocks. It was an interesting contrast to the lush, rolling hills that you typically see in Ireland, but it was still gorgeous.

For today, we plan on getting in all of our last minuet shopping in, finally going on the Guinness tour, and packing up our lives back into our 3 suitcases. lol.

Going home will be bitter sweet :)

Day Four & Five

Day Four


So today we again had to wake up at 5:30 am to get ready & catch our train tour to Cork. lol. We arrived at the train station way early to exchange our vouchers. The train ride to Cork was a little over 2 hours. Once we arrived there, we got onto a tour bus that transported us to Blarney Castle, where we would wait in a good hour long line to kiss the famous Blarney stone. I must say tho, it was a pretty cool experience. The line went through the castle & up the winding staircase, up to the very top of the castle, where you then proceed to lay down on your back, hold two grab bars, and lean backward into this hole, where you can then see that your hanging about 150 ft in the air, all to kiss the wall that has the Blarney Stone embedded into it :)

After we received our gift of gab, we left the castle to grab some lunch & check out some of the tourist shops. We met up at the bus a little later & then drove to a town called Cobe (pronounced cove). It was the Titanic's last stop before it's first & final departure, and as a bonus it is the cutest little town in the world. lol. Our tour guide brought us to this little exhibit about Cobe's siginificance as a port city. It was kind of cool, but I was more amused with the swarm of jelly fish that tricia & I spotted in the bay.

After the long train ride back to Dublin, we headed to the hotel, got all gussied up, and hit the town for our long Friday night :)


Day Five

Day five was a little less fast paced than the day before. We slept in and relaxed for the majority of the afternoon. When we finally left the hotel, we decided to take a trip to the Chester Beatty Library & pick up some fish n chips. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the Library was closed, along with the fish n chips cafe that we were going to hit. While we worked on what our next move was going to be, we sat & watched a random mens choir sing a few songs (which we still can't figure out why or what they were singing for). It was a pleasently unexpected event :)

After we took of from the library, we walked over to Yamamori Noodles, a fancy Japanese restaurant just down the street from our hotel. I had the BEST sushi of my life. It was super good :) We then headed over to the temple bar area, and back to the hotel to have a few drinks and drift off to a few scary movies :)

Day Two & Three

Day Two

Yesterday was a blast :) To start the day, we woke up bright and early and headed down to the bar for our continental breakfast. We hung out in the room for most of the afternoon, sleeping, and still adjusting to the time difference. After taking a much needed nap, we headed out in search of a sushi restaurant that my Frommer's guide had given great reviews. We walked around town for about an hour and ended up not being able to find it, so we settled on a cute Irish tavern just down the street from our hotel. Around 6:30, we got ready for our traditional Irish music pub crawl. The only non-Americans on the tour were our two guides, a Swedish couple, and a few of German sisters. Overall, it was pretty fun, but very touristy. It ended up being more music oriented and less pub crawl-esk, which was fine with us because we ended up going out on our own pub crawl later that night :)

Day Three 

Well, this morning was about as chaotic as the night that we ended with. Today was suppose to be our train tour to Cork. We had to be at the train station at 6:40am to redeem our vouchers, with the train departing at 7. Because we accidentally stayed out WAY past our bedtime, we slept through both of our wake up calls. We didn't even get out of bed until the concierge came up to our room at 6:30. At first, I was so proud of us because we got ready in less than 5 min and had called a cab to come ASAP. Unfortunately, our cabbie didn't understand that we had a train to catch, and didn't show up to the hotel until 7! By the time we got to the train station, our tour had already left (we missed it by 5min!!!). Luckily, the tour guide company let us change our trip to tomorrow :) After the morning's disaster, we went back to the hotel to sleep off our hangovers. Eventually, we forced ourselves out of bed and did a little bit of souvenir shopping and went out to a fancy dinner at a restaurant called Darwins. Since then, we went out to pick up some groceries and are planning on taking it EASY tonight. Bed by 10:30 and train tour to Cork tomorrow :)

Day One

Oh gosh, where to start...

So the flight was long... VERY long. lol. Thank god for Air Canada and on flight movies. lol. We took off from Muskegon at 8 and flew out from Chicago to Toronto, where we proceeded to have lunch and our first legal drink in Canada :) Our longest flight was from Toronto to London. I think that we actually slept for about a half hour during the entire 7 hour and 45 min flight :/ Heathrowe international airport was, for a lack of a better word, disgusting. But, I was thankful that we got into London at 6, so going through the excessive amounts of securities wasn't as horrid as I had expected. 

We arrived in Dublin at 9am, but of course, it felt like the middle of the afternoon and we hadn't slept in 24 hours. Since check-in wasn't till 2, we dropped off our baggage and wandered about in search of a grocery store. We ended up finding a bar/cafe and sitting on the patio with a few drinks. At first, we were kind of confused by the lack of "service" that we were receiving, mostly because the waitress hadn't stopped by our table in over a half hour. After realizing that this was simply a cultural difference and not an act of American hate, we relaxed and decided that we needed to adjust to Dublin time.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and took a power nap in hopes of fighting off jet lag. Around 5, we cleaned up and went out on the town, making friends with all of the bartenders. We ended up finishing up the night at the Bia Bar, just below our hotel. Our new bartender, Patty, even stayed at the bar with us, hanging out well past closing time.  

 So for today, we are finally going to pick up some groceries, have Patty give us the grand tour of the town, and go on our traditional Irish music pub crawl :)

*Also, just a side note, for all those who seem to be concerned about our safety, our hotel is in a GREAT area. There are always people on the streets, it's well lit, and kind of ritzy (burburry and coach stores across the street). And, as an added bonus, everything is within walking distance :)

sunrise

Chicago Airport

Canada

after 8 hours of traveling...

so cute :) baby starbucks

oh how I love international flights. lol.

                                         

patty&patty. lol

Getting ready for the night. haha

Packing :)

After a fond farewell cookout last night with all of our friends, I plan on packing for a large portion of my day. It's sort of sad, that at this point, my shoes are taking up the majority of space in my bag, not yet including the rain boots. lol. I have found that it is hard to pack for rain when the sunshine is streaming in through my windows. The predicted weather for our stay is on and off showers, with only our first day in Dublin being partly sunny :/

At this point, with only two days to go, we have most everything set up. We're buying our train, bus, pub crawl, and Guinness tours today, and then tomorrow picking up snacks for the plane. After I finally finish cramming ten days worth of clothes into my suitcase, we should be all set to go!

The suitcase so far. lol.

One week to go!

Next Monday, Tricia and I will be taking off from Chicago to Dublin! It's sort of weird to think that we will be in four different countries in one day (Chicago, Toronto, London,  & Dublin). This will be my longest flight and my first experience with jet lag. Seven hours shouldn't be too bad, but I am expecting it to be draining.

We exchanged our spending money to Euros a few days ago, and I'm impressed at how much prettier they are than USDs. Both Tricia and I like the 20's most, probably because they're the most colorful and shimmery. lol.

Just seven more days and the adventure begins :)

Counting Down the Days

Only 17 days to go! Tricia and I just finished finalizing our itinerary, which only adds to our excitement. Haha.

After checking out all the restaurants and pubs we plan to dine at, I can't begin to think of anything else :)

Hotel Pics

A view from the street of the hotel

Right outside our door :)

The Room

Dublin Castle, located just down the road

The overview :)

For those of you who may not be aware, both Tricia and I, have been planning our summer trip to Dublin Ireland for the majority of this last year. We take off on June 13th and plan to stay for an exhilarating 10 days. We're lodging at the Drury Court Hotel, a B&B that's nestled directly above the Bia Bar near the city center.

This is my first trip to Europe and I couldn't be more excited! We have train and bus tours planned in hopes of taking in as much of the country as we possibly can in our short stay. I'm keeping this blog so that we can let everyone know how the trip is going. I'll be giving casual updates until we actually take off, and then I hope to put some pictures and blog every few days :D