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.