Ok, now moving on to Dublin…When we arrived in Dublin we were able to get directions on how to get to our hotel via public bus. This would be our ultimate mode of transportation besides our feet in this city. So we made it to the hotel but not without first having to walk quite some way with our bags on our backs. Of course the whole time you hear me, “slow down, i’ve got short legs.” Ruth slowed down, Chase sped up. I guess thats what brothers are made to do. Anyways we made it to our tiny tiny room, decided to go walk around the area that we were in. We werent exactly in the city center. So we walked around looking for a place to eat and after not finding a decent pub in the area, we opted for “Eddie Rockets.” It was just like Johnny Rockets…one of my favorite places. These people didn’t dance though…..they actually didn’t look very happy at all to be there.

The next day we got up did our thing, took a morning nap (maybe, i can’t remember) and then headed out. Our first stop was the Jameson Distillery and then the Guinness Storehouse. After that I don’t exactly remember where we went or what we did. We might have just wandered around looking for something to eat…i’m not sure.

The next day we went to Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). Both interesting places. We walked a lot that day just like the day before. We found some suivenir shops too.

The last day we were there, once we checked out, we were told that there was a Maritime Festival on the Liffey River, which we called the River Liffey. So we decided to go down there and see what that was all about. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. People were selling overpriced things and expensive food. So we looked at everything, left, saw the location in Dublin that Chase’s work was at, then found a little pub to chill in for a little bit. It was filled with a bunch of old people on some kind of tour that spoke German or something. Chase ordered some kind of beer and I thought I should order something since I was going to be sitting in there so I just ordered a coke and that thing for a tiny glass of coke cost almost 3 euros……in america thats almost 5 dollars. So soon after that, we left and headed back to the hotel, got our things, made our way to the airport and fought the mass chaos. Let me just say that the Dublin airport is one of the most crowded inefficient airports i have ever been to. It was too small for the amount of people that come through it and it was not set up in a very good way. Anyways, we made it, had to fight for seats once they left us get on board. It was a budget airline, ryanair I think. They don’t assign seats so we had to do our best to get three seats together. We succeeded. We scored the exit row with extra leg room. Anyways, we got on, headed for Gatwick again where we would make a connection the next morning at 11 am. So when we finally landed at Gatwick it was 8:30 ish pm. We got our things, made our way to the north terminal and set up camp for the night.

Ok on to our second destination of the trip…Edinburgh. I think overall, that city and Prague tied as my favorite of the trip. We were in Edinburgh 2 nights. The first day we got there was a bank holiday in the U.K. Also known as memorial day for us in the US. Anyways, once we made our way to the cute little b&b we decided that we would just walk around there because we didnt want to pay to go back into the city on the bus. So we just explored the promenade and walked down the waterfront to see if we could find somewhere to eat. We ended up eating at pizza hut. We actually got our pizza to go, went back to our room and enjoyed our tiny pizza that would have cost about 15 dollars in america. The next day we got up and after we got ready, we went down to have a nice huge cooked breakfast by Mac, our host. We had everything from cold cereal to porridge, to bread, croissants, waffles, eggs, and other stuff too. It was a fabulous breakfast. We decided to go to Edinburgh Castle that day and after exploring the castle in the rain we walked around town still in the rain. So we were walking along the road and trying to find somewhere to eat and get out of the rain. We saw a casino and decided to go in. We couldnt actually go into the casino until we became members, so thats what we did. We each got 5 pounds to play with and a free drink! So we are now members of some random casino in scotland, haha! Then we found this neat little pub once we left there. It was called Jekyll and Hyde….not to be confused with the one in NYC. The people were so nice there and when Chase asked where the restroom was, he was instructed to follow her because it was too hard to explain. When he came back he said he had to walk straight through a book case to get in. So it was my turn to find this book case. Indeed you did have to walk straight through a book case to get into the restroom. It was crazy! Anyways that was the day we decided to go back fairly early to our room. We took a nap, waited for the rain to stop, which never happened, then Ruth and I decided to go take pictures of ourselves frolicking on the waterfront. I was collecting shells for someone I work with. The water was extremely cold and it was still raining, but we figured what the heck. So the next day, we stayed as long as we could at the b&b and then headed out but not without first checking our email, myspace, facebook, etc. and then we walked around town for a short time before making our way to the airport. So that’s our time in Edinburgh….it was short, sweet, and not long enough. If I go back to the UK, that would be the country I would like to visit and spend more time in.

So I finally made it home and have so much to tell about my trip. So over the next week I’m gonna do my best to give you readers (all three of you, one of which was on the trip with me) an overview of all we did and some fun, exciting, scary, and interesting stories. Quotes from the trip will follow at some point.

So our trip started in London. The plane ride was actually quite nice and I slept most of the way. I was awake for maybe the first hour, ate our dinner, slept for probably 7 hours and then woke up for the last hour of the trip…..the plane was nice, little tvs in the back of every headrest. I didn’t watch much though. I listened to the IPOD a little but like I said, I slept most of the time. So we landed went through customs and were intensly questioned on why we would even dream of entering the UK. We got our things and then navigated our way to our hotel. It was actually quite easy to find. So we got there, checked in and then we were told that our room was at the top of the stairs in the building across the street. No problem right….our bags were probably lighter now than they would be the rest of the trip. So we hiked up 4 flights of stairs rested a little and headed out to take a big bus tour of the city on a double decker bus. It was neat, but it got kinda boring after a while. So we decided to get off at some point and I dont really remember what we did. Actually yeah, we went and ate dinner and then I think that is when we attempted to contact Dare (Chase’s girlfriends brother) that lives about 1.5 hours from London. After figuring out how to work the payphone with all 3 of us in the phone booth, we made our way to Dare but not without first making another phonecall to him. Finally we found him, we stood in the rain then decided to go in somewhere……and about an hour later, we realized we had to go because of the ceremony of keys at the tower of london. So we rushed through the tube stations trying to get there. We made it there but once we got there Chase and I had to go in search for the bathoom and to make a long story short, nothing was open except a nice little italian restaraunt so we had to go in there and then run back to the tower just in time for them to let us in for the ceremony. After the ceremony we had our own little photo session outside the tower, you can see some of those pictures on facebook. Then we headed back to our small little hotel room on the top floor.

The next day, we overslept…the alarm never went off! That was the one day we needed to be up and moving because we were going on a day tour to see Bath and Stonehenge. So we got up and got ready super quick and headed out. I knew pretty much were we were going, so after we made a quick stop at McDonalds for breakfast we were on our way. I must mention too that I was a little disappointed that there were no biscuits at McDonald’s…I mean, what is that all about. Anyways, we got on the bus, had a fun little Irish man as our tour guide. We made our way to Bath to see the Roman Baths. I think the best part of that trip was our lunch there. We got some great paninis in a little place that were so delicios……we had to scarf them down though, because we were about out of time. So then we headed to a little village called Lacock. When I say little I mean tiny! We almost walked in on a wedding while were in search of some place dry to go. We decided that since there were a bunch of umbrellas hanging out outside the building, we ought to not go in. Ruth peeked through the key hole in the door and where there was a ceremony that looked like a wedding going on, we decided to find somewhere else to go. We found a little place, one of the only little places to go and just hung out there for a while before time to go back to the bus. Then we made our way to stonehenge. The whole time we were praying for the rain to stop but it never did. We got there walked around the stones outside the rope and waited our turn to go inside the inner circle of stones where we could actually touch the stones, but “no sitting or standing” on the stones. Once we got our pictures and saw what we wanted to see, we headed back to get out of the rain. Then it was time to head back, we headed back to our room but not without going to McDonalds first. This time it was not to eat. We were there to check our email because they had internet. It was a crazy computer and there was a crazy man in there…….he was yelling at us, “no porn! no porn!” He was seriously nuts! We had some trouble with the McDonalds card so we gave up and went home.

So that’s our first 2 days in London. I’ll blog about Edinburgh later.