Cheers!

This past weekend, Nick and I traveled to Dublin, Ireland! To me, Ireland is the land of luck, green and of course Guinness. I have to admit, I wasn't super excited at first because I prefer warm, sunny & beachy places which Ireland is the complete opposite of. But it has always been Nick's dream to go to Ireland so of course we went while we had the chance. We both LOVED it! We left early Friday morning and had some Starbucks in the airport. I had the best muffin in the entire world, strawberry with white chocolate & a caramel frapaachino. Amazing! After our flight being about 2 hours behind schedule, we arrived in Dublin around 5pm (there is a 5 hour time difference from the US but we actually gained an hour coming from Spain). Upon arriving, we were exhausted! We had already been up for more than 12 hours just traveling from bus to plane to bus again. However, everyone was SO nice and friendly it just made it that much better. A very nice, older man got off at our stop and walked us to our hotel so we didn't get lost. Once at the hotel, the people there were just as nice. Our room was great, we had a bar and restaurant right downstairs with delicious food (caesar salad and buffalo wings!) We also got free coffee and tea delivered to our room whenever we wanted, a comfortable bed, hot shower and a TV. For breakfast, we were surprised to find out that included in the price was a full irish breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and unlimited fruit, yogurt, cereal & coffee. How spoiled were we?

To start off our first day, the weather couldn't have been nicer for being in Ireland. There was no rain and the sun was shining all day, we couldn't complain. Since we are so used to walking everywhere now, a 20-30 minute walk to the center of Dublin was nothing for us. We stopped at the Garden of Remembrance then made our way to Trinity College and the Dublin Castle. We stopped to shop a little where Nick spoiled himself for once :) then we had Subway for lunch (even better this time). Nick found his irish roots, so awesome and then we made our way to the St. Patrick's Cathedral. The park and the stained glass windows were gorgeous. It is so funny to see when it's 40º in Ireland everyone walks around like it's summertime and when it's 70º in Spain, the people are still bundled up to their necks. Also, did I mention they have 2 level buses to take you around? So cool. They drive on the wrong side of the road! It's so weird to get used to seeing on the streets and in the cars. Twice on the walk home we were stopped by locals asking us (tourists) for directions. I guess we look like we belong in Ireland.

Finally after a long day of walking we went to our last and furthest walk, the Guinness Storehouse. What did we find...but a closed factory :( We were so bummed because we had no idea what time it closed and that was our only chance because on our last day we were supposed to take an all day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We were torn. Since the Cliffs were an all day thing that cost 40 euro with a 3 hour bus ride there and back, we decided to pass on it and stay in the city our last day to visit the Guinness Storehouse. It was a good thing we did because Sunday it was raining all day and absolutely freezing. Instead, we slept in and this time took a bus to the factory because of the weather. We learned the history behind Guinness, how to make it, the right way to drink it, how to pour the perfect pint and got a free tasting. Once we returned to the hotel we split some hot & spicy wings. 16 wings each later....we were ready for bed.

It was so hard to say goodbye to Ireland, maybe one day we'll return. Sláinte!

Before --->

After