Dublin Adventure: Part I

At first, when I was planning out my year in England, I had been unsure whether or not to come home during either of my six week breaks. I didn't want to miss out on any opportunities abroad, since I didn't know when I'd get to come back to Europe again. However, after talking to some of the senior Oxbridge students and really thinking about what it would mean to miss Christmas with my family, I decided (with some encouragement) to come home for half of my Christmas holiday. And I am really glad that I did. Although several of the other Jewell students stayed in England or traveled in Europe with their families and seemed to have had a really wonderful break as well, I am really happy with my decision to come back to the States for a bit. Mainly, it was just extremely nice to get to spend time with my family and friends from home. It was also refreshing after being in a different country for three months to return to a place with which I am so familiar. Although, there was also a time of mapping out new lands when Neil and I went to visit our Dad in Florida for a week and a half. Florida was beautiful and warm, and we were able to spend some really nice time with our grandparents (who we don't get to see nearly often enough) as well.

Photos from a wonderful holiday back in the States:

After returning to Springfield for a couple days, Ryan drove me and Lauren (one of my best friends since high school) back to Kansas City. We spent a fun night (with delicious food) at Gethers' (our family friends in Kansas City), and the next morning, Ryan took Lauren and me to the Kansas City airport.

At the airport, saying goodbye (again):

Lauren and I left from Kansas City at 11:30a.m. on Saturday and arrived in London (via Houston, TX) at 6:20a.m. on Sunday, thus beginning our week-long UK adventure.
After battling our way through immigration, finding my (gigantic) floral suitcase, and locating the airport central bus station, we took a bus to Oxford, arriving around 11:20a.m. (5:20am Missouri time). Our internal clocks completely confused, we struggled to not spend the entire day sleeping. Although, I ended up taking two naps. (Unfortunately, I had gotten really sick the night before we left for Kansas City and still hadn't fully recovered.) We went to bed around 8:00pm, and woke up the next morning at 4:00a.m. to take a bus back in to London.

At the bus stop in Oxford (4:40a.m. on Monday):

We arrived at Victoria Coach Station in London, and after some aimless wandering and asking a kind bus driver for help, we figured out where to go to catch our bus to the airport. After another hour or so on a second bus, we arrived at the airport, to take a flight to Dublin, Ireland. Our flight left London Stansted (one of London's four major airports)  at 9:50a.m., and after going through immigration in Dublin and taking a bus from the airport, we arrived in Dublin city center just before 1:00p.m. Just in time for our walking tour! Sandeman's New Europe Tours operate in several of the more famous cities throughout Europe. They are free (read: tip-based) walking tours of the cities given by locals. I definitely recommend them to anyone traveling abroad and interested in being shown around and learning some neat history. They offer tours two or three times a day, depending on the city, and you don't have to do anything accept show up a few minutes before the tour is scheduled to start in order to join. All the tour information is online, and here's the link: http://www.neweuropetours.eu/

Our Dublin tour started right outside the town hall, and lasted about three hours.

(I stole this photo from the Dublin New Europe Tour facebook page)

Our group began with about 10 people, however, all of the other Americans left before the tour had ended (all tipping first though!), and by the end, it was just Lauren and me, a girl from Australia, a guy from Norway, and a local Dublin couple. 

We were shown around a good portion of the city and learned a lot about Ireland's (especially Dublin's) history. The sites included: city hall, Dublin castle, the alley where Jonathan Swift was born, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar, Trinity College, and others that I'm forgetting now. 

About two-thirds the way through the tour, we stopped at the famous 'Temple Bar' for a break. Everyone else ordered Guinness, but Lauren and I each had an Irish coffee (fitting, right?). We later found out that Temple Bar is mainly a huge tourist trap, which explains why our Irish coffees were outrageously expensive. Also, I would have been happy with about half the amount of alcohol in mine. It was real strong. Still a really festive and fun stop!

The Irish coffee is at least really pretty, isn't it?

During the break, we talked a bit with the guy from Norway who, it turns out, had come to Dublin for the term to study economics (I think) at Trinity College, a really famous university in the heart of Dublin. We also talked to the Australia girl later, who told us that she 'had moved to London last year to find work and to travel, but it turns out that there isn't any work and she had just started to travel'. When I asked if there was anywhere she had been before that she really loved, she told us about a lake in Italy, but I can't remember the name just now... Anyway, both she and the Norwegian boy were quite nice.

Also, on our tour, we saw The Clarence (a really high-end hotel and bar that is owned by Bono, the lead singer of U2). I mainly include this reference for Heather, who asked us to go there and find Bono for her before we left. I'm sorry to say that we didn't find Bono, but we did take a photo and think of you, Heather!

It was just starting to get dark when our tour ended, and, unfortunately, it ended somewhere different than it had began, so we were a bit lost. A stranger, who saw us looking confused, offered directions, which decided not to follow and found a map instead. It was still a really sweet gesture, though! After taking a sort of round-about way via a neighborhood, we found the hotel! We were really lucky and thankful to have a lovely place to stay in both Dublin and Edinburgh, thanks to my dad's generosity with his hotel points. 

The victorious moment when we located the hotel!

After checking in and getting situated in the room, we ventured back out into the city to find supper, after being given a helpful map from the woman at the reception desk and learning that there was a much more direct route to city center, of course. We ended up eating at a little Chinese restaurant.  

Nom, nom:

And then, we came back to the hotel and went to bed at 8:30pm, sleeping a glorious 12 hours, after a very long, exciting day. Don't worry, though, we woke up in time for the great continental English breakfast in the morning! 

There's a lot more to say, and many more photos, from our second day in Dublin. However, it's getting late, and I have a lot of reading separating me from sleep still, so I'll end at the end of our first day in Dublin for now. Thanks for reading!