Dublin, Ireland

 Hello again!! I have safely returned from my spring break trip to Dublin, Galway, and London and because I had so many wonderful adventures my blog got a little long, so what I am going to do is break it up into 3 parts over the course of the week. Here is the first part about my time in Dublin...enjoy!!

Friday March 30, 2012
Amy and I woke up bright and early at 5:45 this morning to catch the first city bus to the bus station. Carmen wasn't too pleased with us, but she got up and made us breakfast anyway. I love her for that. We made it to the bus station in Granada for our bus to Malaga. We made it to the Malaga bus station, then took a shuttle bus to the airport, where we got our tickets, went through security, and chilled in the terminal for 2 hours before our flight.

We flew Aer Lingus to Dublin. I like the Aer Lingus company very much; Amy and I were able to sit next to each other on the flight and each passenger was able to watch movies on a personalized screen. During the 3 hour flight I watched The Ides of March. Loved it!!

Finally we were in Dublin!! Yay!

A city shuttle bus brought us to the city center and from there a 5 minute walk brought us to our hostel. We are staying at the Dublin Center Hostel, but Amy and I believe that the receptionist is an imbecile. Other than that the hostel is great. When we checked in and I had the reservation under my name and when you book online hostels automatically charge your credit card 10% of the bill in case you cancel. Well, the receptionist couldn't work his brain around the fact that Amy and I wanted to split the bill and that he needed to factor in the 10% already taken off the original amount. Amy and I attempted to use our best customer service voices possible to explain the situation, and we ended up figuring out the correct amount that each of us owed and telling the dummy what he was supposed to charge us.

After settling in we went off to explore Dublin! We started choosing streets at random to see where we would end up. We passed a Catholic church during our wanderings, so we went in. It was so beautiful!! We continued on, stopping for coffee and chips (french fries), wandering through an adorable residential area of the city, then to Phoenix Park (one of the largest parks in the city, and boy is it beautiful and FULL of green grass!), then down by the river, and finally exploring the area around the Guinness Factory. One our way back towards the hostel we took a wrong turn and ended up taking the long way back. We were recommended to a nice bar & grill called Aurora for supper by a bartender at a different bar. Aurora was delicious! I had chicken and pasta, yum! With our bellies full we got back to the hostel, showered, then collapsed on our beds for the night. We were exhausted!

The homes here are actual home, not apartment complexes like in Spain. Some of the homes even have small lawns in front of them! It is so cozy and reminds me a lot of home. The homes here are almost all connected (I believe they are called row houses?) and each house tends to be a different bright color with an equally bright front door.

Since the Irish drive the opposite side of the road than they do in the United States one has to pay extra special attention to which way traffic is traveling. Normally when you automatically look left you should have looked right. Thankfully the Irish combat this problem by painting "look left" or "look right" on the cement in front of the crosswalk depending on which one is necessary. This is incredibly helpful because I will see it out of the corner of my eye and will look in that direction for traffic versus looking the opposite way in which my mind tells me to look. Even though these messages are painted on the cement I still manage to walk out in front of on-coming traffic sometimes because I looked the wrong way. I will get this down eventually...

Saturday, March 31, 2012
Today, Amy and I slept in till 8:45 am, got up, had breakfast at the hostel (cereal and toast) and were headed to the Guinness Factory by 9:30 am. At the factory we went through a self-guided tour where we learned the process and the ingredients it takes to make the Guinness beer the way it is, went through a taste-testing (I actually like the beer, that is saying a lot because I normally cannot stand beer.), participated in other interactive activities through the plant tour, saw a view of the city from the sky deck at the plant, and learned how to pour the perfect beer from the tap. We even got certificates showing our achievement of pouring the beer! Lol at the end of the tour we got a complimentary pint of Guinness, but Amy and I could barely drink it because neither of us are major beer drinkers. I drank about three inches of my cup, than gave up.

Amy and I were hungry after all our excitement at the Guinness Factory, so we got lunch to go at a little cafe and took it to eat in Phoenix Park. The park is so beautiful. It is full of luscious, green grass, and blooming flowers. You can walk into the park and instantly smell the wonderful aroma of all the flowers. In the park is the Dublin Zoo, so after lunch Amy and I spent over 2 hours exploring the zoo. We saw lions, and tigers, but not bears (Oh my!). It was a lot of fun!

We were exhausted after the excitement of the day, so we returned to the hostel to rest for a while. Once we were rested we headed out again to find the bus stop we will need for tomorrow and to find the Hard Rock cafe so Amy could buy her dad a pin. After that, we shopped a little in the tourist shops and walked past the Dublin Castle. We found an early supper, 7:30 pm (early for our stomachs that are set on Spanish time) at Murray's Pub where we enjoyed some Irish music while Amy had pasta and I had Irish Stew with Guinness bread and potatoes. The Irish Stew had lamb, carrots, squash, and broccoli in it. It was one of the best meals in my life!!

After supper we returned to the hostel, where we have been relaxing and where I am now currently writing about my time from today.