Day 2

Morning Dublin :)

In our lovely little hostel, our windows look out to a wooden deck square with just a view of other hostel windows, which means little to no light. When we woke up, we found that it was 11am and we were almost the only ones in the room. Remember the random guy that sleeps all day and night? Yep.. he was still asleep ;)

We got up and ready and embraced the afternoon in good ole' Ireland by grabbing a bite to eat. Just across the street, there's a fresh market with a deli inside and they have a lunch special where you get a sandwich, an apple or chips, and a drink for 5 euro. The sign above the deli says "Choose Your Own Filling". Me and Chris just stared blankly while everyone else ordered. When it was Chris's turn, he picked a sandwich already listed on the menu, but that wasn't part of the special. The man at the deli said with a thick Irish accent, "Yuh choose a mayte and tuah feelings, cayne bay mayte ore chayse ore whatayver". I ordered first and ended up with a chicken, shredded cheese, and lettuce sandwich on "brown" bread.

Then, we were off.. first thing that caught our eye was the famous Brazen Head Pub. It's the oldest pub in Ireland, established in 1198. When the Guinness Storehouse makes its deliveries, this pub is the first stop.

We walked until we reached St. Patricks Cathedral. BEAUTIFUL.. :) This cathedral was named after Ireland's patron saint, St. Patrick and the structure dates back to 1220. We're planning on attending mass on Saturday morning to see the inside, but we took this video of the outside for you all to see!

Us in front of St. Patricks Cathedral

Us joking around in the courtyard :P

We had our little Dublin City Centre map and there was a little marker for the Marsh Library. By far my favorite place so far :) This is the entrance..

Isn't is amazing? :D If you can see behind me, there is a stairwell that winds up to huge black doors and there is a little sign that says "Buzz for Library". We buzzed, as instructed, and Mr. Peter Logue - a 65 to 70 year old man answered the door and asked if we'd like to visit his library.. dated back from 1701. It was 3 euros for both of us and without a doubt, the best 3 euros ever spent. The little rickety library was covered in floor to cieling black bookcases with black ladders on each section. There were three rooms with the same set-up and every single book was OVER 300 years old. It looked straight out of Harry Potter. They had two different displays out, one was an exhibit on Bibles with a King James Version Bible published in the 1600s. The other exhibit displayed medical books throughout the ages.. our favorite being one by Santorini. He studied the body's intake and outtake by measuring all of his food, water, urine, and excrement. Sounds disgusting, yeah? We thought so too. But his "findings" were the funniest part. His conclusion was that a substantial part of a body's intake was lost to "insensible perspiration" ;) The last section of the library was watched over by an Irishman named Tommy. From him, we learned that OY? means Can you please repeat that?

Then, we went for a stroll in St. Stephens Green. What we've learned about Ireland is that all the good weather comes in the morning and leaves by around 3pm. We got stuck in a rainstorm inside a park similar to Central Park in New York. BUT, it ended up being incredible. We waited out the storm under a gazebo and watched the sea of umbrellas pass by. When it slowed down a bit, we headed to the Archeological Museum at Trinity College. We learned about bogs... :/ It was a lot of medieval Ireland utensils and rock weapons.

At this point, OUR DOGS WERE BARKING! We had to rest our feet. We went to the National Museum and walked straight to the cafe for a hot cup of coffee and what for Chris? A diet coke! We sat in the heritage library laughing and looking up information on our ancestors for about two whole hours :) I looked up my grandpa's marriage information to my grandma and the census where he was just a year old.

When we got back to the hostel, we thought going out sounded fun so we asked our native roomie Jay if he knew of any good places. He drew us up a little map. We said thank you, walked outside, decided it was too cold, and walked right back in the hostel.

Busy bees.

:)
Alicia & Chris

Day 1

Dia duit!

We had a rough first start here in Ireland :) But even now, we're laughing about it. This video was taken right after we boarded our bus to Dublin City Centre.




After we got our euros and boarded our bus, we had to find our hostel. Listening to those thick Irish accents is fun and all, but understanding them is a whole different story. When we thought the bus driver said "Smithfield", we got off. Little did we know that was the wrong stop and it would be about 5 miles before we reached our destination (how many kilometers is that?) ;) However, as rough as that may have been, we are loving every second of this new city. I have learned that I must have a pretty funny american accent because any native that I talk to stares at me blankly until Chris repeats what I said. Silly Irish!

Here's a quick preview of our hostel. Sorry for the shakey camera job :)



We'll get another video of our hostel room at a time when there are none of our "roomies" sleeping. There is one guy which we swear, has not left the hostel room. He has been sleeping for about 24 hours straight as far as we know. The hostel room has 4 twin bunk beds. I have learned that I am pretty high maintenance.. try curling your hair from the top bunk with a european converter and no mirror!

After we took a little nap, we walked around the city for a few hours. Here's a quick video of one of the busy market streets.

Ahh... so pretty ;)



:)
Alicia & Chris

Walking the Streets of Dublin

Seven to Seven



Good morning sunshine!

We left our Vegas hotel at 5am to drop off our rental car and get this europe trip started :) We arrived in Chicago at 3pm local time and boarded our flight to Dublin at 7pm. Nothing exciting or new besides the disturbing fact that the McDonalds in the airport does NOT have a dollar menu. Chris just about lost his cool ;)

The flight to Dublin was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. We had both dinner and breakfast and even though it sounds like we flew for twelve hours straight, it was only six :) The sun was coming up as we landed while the people of Chi-Town were just going to bed.

All we have to say is... HELLO DUBLIN..

Irish Accent Attempt #1

:)

Sunday Funday

Sunday was all about... relaxation! We lounged. We swam. We ate. That about sums it up :) The most fun part was without a doubt the pool. There were three hot-tubs, one ginormous pool, and music blasting. We claimed the beach volleyball net, grabbed a beach ball, and started playing. Before we knew it, we had a group of about 15 people playing with us. There was Markesh and Suri from India, Wade and Tenelle from Minnesota, and so many others [: It was intense gaming until we noticed that our faces and shoulders were looking a little lobster-y. After we rehydrated, it was laundry time! Because who wants to backpack around with half a weeks worth of dirty gross clothes in Ireland? >_< We went to a 24 hour laundrymat and watched That 70's Show while we washed and dried. It wasn't SO bad, but we for sure realized that the strip doesn't smell nearly as bad as the outer city... PEE-YOO!

We have to be at the airport bright and early in the morning.. 5am to be exact!

:)
Alicia & Chris

Do you Blue?

So much to say! Today was just too busy and too fun :]

We walked the strip all day long, and scavenged The Venetian where the Blue Man Group show is. Throughout the whole shopping center, the ceiling is painted like the sky and there is a canal running straight through it with gondola rides and little men and women dressed in black and white striped shirts and red sashes singing opera. The whole time we were thinking... "How crazy is it that we'll be IN Italy, seeing actual gondola rides with little singing Italians".

We saw a sign that said Snooki was hosting at Club Pure and The Situation would be at LAX. We thought, AWESOME... Jersey Shore in Vegas! When we looked up the club information, we noticed that it said "dress code enforced". After he showed me the nicest thing he had with him, we decided maybe that the club wasn't the right place for us ;) Everything we own is already wrinkly and we haven't even set foot on European soil yet.

After walking the entire day, it was time for Blue Man!! The streets here are insane because of labor day weekend. I mean.. 1 square foot of space per person no room. When we found our seats, we noticed a marquee with a message scrolling acrossed that said, "Please turn off all electronics including cell phones, pagers, gameboys, ipods, and portable fax machines". The show was so amazing :) This was one of the coolest parts..



:)
Alicia & Chris