Dublin

I honestly don't want to talk about Dublin. Kellsey and I went together and we were on the way to the train station when Kellsey told me I needed my passport, which I didn't have. The part of Ireland we were going to required a passport, the other part does not and I got them confused. So we went back and it cost me a little extra, not a big deal. We made all of our trains, busses, and cabs to the Luton Airport and then we just had to wait until 6 am when our plane was supposed to leave. The flight wasn't awful and I didn't puke so that was good. Once we landed we had to get euros and ask for directions to get to our hostel. The lady told us that all of the busses weren't going to take us that far; so we were going to walk. She told us that it was 13kilometers to walk there. We only know miles, so we asked about how many minutes would it take us and she said, more like hours, like 3 hours. She was really snotty about it too. So then I converted it on my phone once we were out of line and 13 kilometers is 8 miles, no way would it take us 3 hours to walk that. So we were dead set on walking to our hostel, we switched shoes and put our backpacks on. We asked a construction worker outside of the airport which direction to head and he told us that we could jump on a bus for 2.20 euro and it will take us to our intersection. WTF lady. So thats what we did, but then we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a ways. We stopped to ask for directions because the street we were looking for wasn't labeled. Kellsey waited in line at a cafe and when it was her turn, she asked the lady if she could tell us which way to head. All the lady said was, NO. NEXT. What a jerk. So then we asked a man walking his bike and he told us and it was right, so we finally get to the hostel around 9 that morning and our landlord says we aren't allowed to check in until 2pm. Now the internet said, anytime checkin. So we were exhausted and pissy, and now we have to walk around for the next five hours before we can sleep. We got breakfast which was EXPENSIVE then tried to get to the Guinness Factory. The streets were pretty cool and all of the doors to apartments were cute on the way there. We walked the River Liffey for a bit and then we needed to ask directions again because our map apparently didn't have all of the streets. Kellsey asked a man to point us in the right direction and in plain english, with no accent, the man says "I don't speak English." SO that was frustrating. We finally found it, waited in line, got our ticket, then went on the tour. It turns out that we had both seen the episode of How It's Made about beer, so it was kind of a waste of time, but we got a free pint. I do not like Guinness. I'm glad I had that experience but I don't think I'll be doing any more alcohol tours. We started to walk back and were let in to our hostel. Now it gets better, we reserved a 4-man room. Well we got stuck in a 7-man room, it was us, 3 japanese people who were living there and 2 begian girls. The girls were really nice but the guys were really weird. We had been awake for 30 hours before we got to nap. We wake up and get dinner at a little pub. The food was really good and we both got a drink that cost like 7 euro... way to expensive. We were fortunate enough to be seated next to a drunk weirdo who invited us BOTH to his apartment. next door. So we left and then slept again.
Day 2: We walked to Temple Bar which is like the Broad Ripple of Dublin. There were some really neat shops and architecture and all sorts of things. The best part was the kids doing Parkour. It was sooo intense and I saw a kid roll UP stairs. So we watched these kids for a bit, got some lunch and I had my very first crepe - my new favorite food. It was a Nutella crepe and I could have eaten about 5 of them. We decided we wanted to walk by the ocean and take pictures. On the way Kellsey bought a Sprite and I bought a Bulmers (pear cider). Derek said to drink and it would be more fun, and it was. We walked and walked and found Dublin's Oktoberfest and a street fair so that was really cool. We couldn't reach the ocean though which really stunk. When we were walking back we stopped and watched some rec-soccer games and that was neat to watch them play. We had to go back to the hostel because the landlord made us change rooms so we did that and went back out. We saw a fight on the way to dinner, it looked domestic but it was pretty intense, so we walked on the other side of the street.
Day 3: We woke up really early to catch our 2:00 plane incase there were any problems, which there were. We tried to catch the bus and 2 scheduled busses passed our stop. So we hailed a taxi and got to the airport. Checked in and then went through security. Kellsey's bag was ripped apart. The lady was soo mean, all of her liquids were in the range, not to mention we didn't buy anything but food and keychains so we made it through security on the way there. That got sorted out and we ate, got on our plane and landeded in Luton. The bus that took us there was supposed to take us back, which it did after we had to get money out of the ATM, buy a ticket, and pay the bus man, because all we had were euros. So we get to the train station, find our platform and the train arrives. We made it. We caught our other train in King's Cross by about 2 minutes and that left for Grantham. We called a cab and went back to the castle in time for dinner. I didn't think I would have missed my tiny tiny room that much but I did. I'm really glad I got to see Ireland but I'm not going back.