A Swede, An Australian and Two Americans Walk Into A Bar...

Despite a few bumps in the road, I made it to Dublin last weekend! The day started at about 3am for a 6:30 flight. It definitely took a little longer at the airport than we anticipated and at about 6:05 I found myself sprinting through Standsted Airport in order to get to my gate which closed at 6:00. Thankfully I made it with time to spare! But not without falling up an escalator and having little kids point and laugh at me. But, I knew Dublin was worth it. The city was just like I remembered. It was definitely a change from being in London for so long. Where London is huge with people everywhere always rushing to get somewhere, Dublin is more open and not as crowded and definitely cleaner. Although we didn't get out of the city at all, as we were flying in it was so nice to see countryside and hills again! We got into Dublin at about 8:30 and started by just walking around and exploring. One of the things I love about Dublin and Ireland in general is the buildsings are more colorful. You can walk down the street and see shops and businesses in red, yellow, green and blue buildings.

The first place we went to was the Jameson Distillary. I'm not a big whiskey drinker, but it was actually really interesting to see how they make and 'mature' the whiskey, as they say. The alcohol tour continued with a stop at the Guiness factory, but unfortunately another girl and I were nearly broke so we decided to opt out and grab some food. And by food I mean two packages of pita bread, one container of hummus, a box of granola bars, a package of biscuits (aka cookies) and a giant water to share. These were the contents of our meals for Saturday lunch/dinner and Sunday lunch. And it was only 5 euro in all! Thats 2.50 per person! Best shopping I think we've done all trip. As we ate our pitas and hummus on the hop on, hop off tour bus (since we had no where else to go) we felt like we were truly European travelers.

Tesco Feast!

The Temple Bar

We made it to our hostel and it was actually pretty nice as far as hostels go. There were about 20 of us so we were able to get 2 ten person rooms so we didn't have to deal with any shady people sleeping 2 feet away from me. That night we went to the Temple Bar area of Dublin, which is basically like the pedmall of Iowa City, but one thousand times better. There are hundreds of pubs just lined up with live music coming out of all of them. There were people everywhere just meandering in and out of pubs and talking to people on the street. Irish accents everywhere!  : )  We went to one place that had five floors and we ended up on the top balcony looking out over Dublin. We also managed to meet some people from Ohio State who were studying in Dublin.  I think the best part about this trip has been going into all the pubs and meeting so many local Londoners and Dubliners.  They've all been so friendly and eager to talk to Americans. Its been interesting to see their point of view of America what they think of us.  One night a few weekends ago we found a pub that we stayed at for a bit and ended up meeting an Australian, a Swede, an Irishman and a few Brits. It's amazing how diverse London is. I could never get this experience in most places in America, definitely not Iowa.

The trip made me got me really excited when I go back to Ireland in a couple weeks. We'll spend some time in Dublin, where I plan on going to the Guiness Factory and will finally have a pint at the Gravity Bar looking over the city. Last time I was there, I was still too young to drink, even in Europe! After a few days in Dublin, my mom and I are hitting the road to explore the gorgeous country side of Ireland for a week. I've been looking into things I'd like to do when I get there and one thing I found is surfing lessons! There are surfing lessons all along the coast you can take! One of the things on my bucket list is to learn how to surf and what better place than on the coast of the Emerald Isle?

The people I've been sharing my travels with

Only two weeks left in London and making the most of every minute.

Cheers x