London, Dublin & the Irish Countryside

Last Wednesday night, we flew to London on a circus flight. When I say circus, I mean circus. It was the first time I flew Ryanair and it made me wish it was my last. Unfortunately, their great prices always draw me back in for more adventures! The flight was horrible. There is no assigned seating so everyone lines up at least 30 minutes before boarding to try and get a good seat or to be able to sit with their friends and family. We got onto the flight and I realized that the seats don't recline. Interesting... I guess that saved them a few thousand dollars per airplane. (Sorry Boeing!) There were so many Spanish people just screaming on the plane at each other the entire time. By some miracle I managed to fall asleep with my sweatshirt over my face backwards. When I woke up and opened my eyes, a fat old Spanish man's crotch was in my face! He was leaning over me to talk to the people sitting behind me. It was a horrible experience. As soon as we landed, they sounded a horn over the intercom and all the Spaniards clapped...



After that, we paid almost 200 bucks for a taxi and rolled into our hostel at 2 am. Then, we woke up at 8 AM and we did all of London in a day. It was insane. We were all so tired and wore our backpacks the entire day so obviously we had some grumpiness happen, but we were okay. We saw the London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and Camden. I think my favorite place was Platform 9 and 3/4's. :)



We were planning on staying out that night with our friend Charlie. We met him in Portugal (he lives in London), but everything closed at 12:30. So weird. We had to take a taxi back to the airport, got there at 2 and slept on the ground like hobos until our flight at 6. We got into Dublin at around 8 and attempted to check into our hostel at 9:30 and sleep, but oh my. You can't check in until 2:30. We walked around and shopped and ate an Irish breakfast. Yum! It was eggs, bacon, a tomato, sausage, and white pudding. Finally, we went to sleep and napped! We woke up around 8 and attempted to find dinner, but 5 Guinnesses later we wandered out of Temple Bar into the street with 30 British guys singing "Wonder Wall" by Oasis with a busker while other people video taped us! We even got on Youtube. Epic night. We made friends with this guy named Dan. I also made another friend named Brian who asked my my ethnic background and was surprised that, being half Chinese, my English was really good.

Day two in Dublin, we had toast at the hostel for breakfast and went shopping. We looked at a bunch of cathedrals too and went to the Guinness factory. I had a delightful Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake at lunch and a baked potato. That night we went out with the British guys, but prefunked with personal bottles of wine. I was a bit too drunk that by 10:30 I had to go home because I started crying to Kelsey in the street about how I missed Jake. Such a saint, she took me home and I had some fun drunk Facebooking. I slept nicely though!

Day three in Dublin, Kristen and Tarah were still drunk in the morning (we woke up at 8 and they came home at 6) and we couldn't find a rental car so we ended up drunk shopping and taking a bus to the airport, waiting 2 hours, then a bus to Cork that passed right by our hostel. Shit. Haha so we basically wasted our lives. We got to Cork and took a taxi to the four star Blarney Golf Resort where we ordered pizza and watched a weird movie that we were half-expecting would turn into a porn at any given moment. I Took a bath because I was disgustingly dirty. I also slept the best I had in months in that bed though!

We left early in the AM after gorging ourselves on yummy yummy breakfast and made our way to the rental car. We hit up the Blarney Castle and I kissed the stone so now I have the gift of eloquence. :) Then we went to the Cliffs of Moher. I abhor heights and I managed to not throw up to take those pictures. It was gorgeous! I am so in love with Ireland! We made our way to Shannon and stopped at a local pub. Drunk ass Irish country worker guys talked to us as we were leaving and needed to catch our flight. The cutest little girl was there too. She had the most infectious laugh I have ever heard. It made me miss playing with Frankie and Isaiah.



Anyways, went to the airport, slept at London-Stanstead again, and then flew back to Sevilla, took a train and got home at 4:30 pm. It was one of the best trips I have ever had. Ireland is lush, green, and felt like home. If I wasn't such an American girl, I'd move there in a heartbeat.

Birthday Weekend

I had a really great birthday! We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. It's not too terribly authentic, but it's the best one that they have in Cadiz and it is always nice to get a bit of that flavor, especially considering how bland the food is here. I was excited to eat some jalapenos! I even got a chocolate cake and my friends sang to me in Spanish and English. After that, we went out to Nahu and La Punta. La Punta was pretty dead because there had been a huge party the night before. I got home early at around 2 AM because Annie and Caitlyn succeeded in getting me a little bit wastie-faced. (Don't worry! It's legal!)



I woke up at 8 the next morning. Our bus left at 10 so we had to get there early to get tickets too. It was a 2.5 hour bus ride and I slept for most of it. We got to Gibraltar and walked for hours! We walked all the way through very, very, very British town. It was really crazy walking down the street in the town too because not only was there English everywhere and the main currency was pounds, but we got to a cemetery and there were monkeys just living in a tree there. Wild monkeys in a British colony in Spain? No big deal. Also, Lord Nelson was a very famous dude there so I took some pictures of my family name!



Then, we took a tram up to the monkeys and they were everywhere. We walked around the nature reserve and I swear I saw at least six monkey babies with their mommas. One monkey grabbed my friend Kelsey's backpack and she ran away screaming, another started walking straight at me looking PISSED and I ran out of the way and hid behind my friend Caitlyn. Another monkey grabbed my friend Brittney's purse! I am proud to say that none of us got bitten and no monkeys ran away with our belongings or threw our cameras over the cliff.



It was really gorgeous at the top. On one half of the cliff over the beaches was the most beautiful mist and clouds. I could see Africa! The other side with the Marina and the waterfront hotel resorts was clear. It was gorgeous and I felt like I was looking down on the world from heaven.



We went back down and ate at Lord Nelson's. I had some British fish and chips, Kristen had some mussels, and my friend Noah had curry chicken! Yummy! It got me really excited for London on Wednesday. I found a giant Cadbury bar! My favorite chocolate :) I didn't buy it though because it was a bit too expensive, although delicious.



Today I am resting up because I am just exhausted from this weekend and I need to make sure I have gotten enough beauty sleep before Ireland. Here is my itinerary: Wednesday night we fly to London, spend all of Thursday there, leave London for Ireland on Friday morning really early, and then spend a day or two in Dublin then hit up the country side and come back to Spain on Tuesday.

HOW ABOUT THOSE HUSKIES BEATING USC?! GO DAWGS! WOOF WOOF!