On Friday we got up very early to leave Sam and Lisa's flat. We were SO grateful that they had let us stay there with them and couldn't thank them enough for everything they had done for us. They are such lovely, wonderful people! As they made their way to work, we made our way to the train station. Upon arriving we had to stand and stare at the departure boards to wait and see what platform we had to go to in order to catch our train. I had just enough time to get us a snack and use the washroom before we were ready to go to our platform. Oh and by the way..we left the house at 6:35am and didn't make it to the train station until 8:30am. Welcome to public transit in London. Anyways, we were in coach B on the train so we had to walk practically to the VERY back of the train to get into our spots and then we have to figure out how to get all our luggage on the stupid train so that it was out of the way. Fortunately Teresa and I each got two seats to ourselves so that helped! It was about a 3 hour train ride. It was very uneventful, I slept, wrote in my journal and stared out the window until I got dizzy and had to close my eyes again. Finally we arrived at the ferry terminal which is basically where the train stops so that was handy. We stood in line for a little while before we were able to get our tickets and then the weirdest thing happened, we got onto a city bus and were driven onto the ferry. There was no foot passenger platform..the ferry itself wasn't close at all haha so that was an interesting difference! We had had to check our large baggage so we only had our small bags which was good because we had to climb a million flights of stairs to get up to deck 9 (the first passenger deck) and then we basically just hunkered down and got comfy for the trip because it was a long ride.
The ferries here are very different from the ones at home. The one we were on had a cinema, a full size restaurant, a huge gift shop, a large kids play area, couches, a cafe, slot machines...the list goes on. Mostly though we just sat on our own (we took a time out from each other..we needed some alone time) and I watched a movie and wrote in my journal more and just relaxed. The ferry ride was about 3 hours also, definitely a full day of travel. Meanwhile my pen pal Megan had been trying to get a hold of me on Facebook but there was no free wifi on the ferry or train so I hadn't been able to reach her because we were going to meet at a train station. Though in the end it all worked out. When we arrived in Dublin Port we didn't have any Euro's for the bus to get to the train station so we ended up taking a cab to Megan's house instead which was actually really nice. It was worth the money for sure after such a long day! We arrived at Megan's house and she wasn't home but her mom came out to greet us and say hello and from the minute we've arrived we have had the most amazing time staying here! The whole family is so kind and friendly it's been really lovely! Once we got settled and Megan got home (we beat her haha, she was coming from work) we all had some supper and decided to stay in and have a few drinks. I taught them some drinking games and they taught us some and all in all it was a hilarious night, poor Megan was having a rough go of it with the drinking games!! Then we all called it a night and got ready for a busy day the next day!
Saturday morning rolls around, we got up early and had some brekie and then we were off to Dublin! Megan took us to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells but when we got there it was rather busy and it cost 9 euro to go and see it so we decided we'd just leave it and look at the grounds as they are quite lovely.
After that Megan took us around to have a look at some of the other places nearby. We went into a park called Steven's Green that was really lovely (and yes...quite green) which apparently in the summer time is really difficult to walk through as there are so many people around, sitting on the lawns and walking on the paths so it's hard to get through. But since it's winter and the weather was less than perfect (although quite good for Irish standards I thought) it was practically empty so we got to walk through a bit of the park before going back to the main roads.
From there we went into the Steven's Green mall, and then walked around to find lunch at a Japanese restaurant that I can't remember the name of and we found a lot of vintage shops on the way so I stopped and looked at a bunch of those. We passed a cupcake stand and had delicious cupcakes! Then we finally made it to lunch which was pretty good. I think Megan had the best one! After that we slowly made our way to Penneys (a HUGE store with lots of inexpensive stuff) and then we went to a shop nearby for some makeup and to a bookstore so Megan could grab a gift for a friend but they didn't have what she wanted so we headed home to get ready for a night out on the town!
The clubs here don't close until about 4am some of them so we left at 3am to grab a bite with Megan's friends and then catch the last bus home at 4am. While we were standing outside, me in my yellow rain jacket because I'm just that cool, and this guy came up to me yelling "follow the yellow brick road!" and then grabbed a handful of my hair and smelled it. I'm talking a proper deep inhale and then he wandered away like nothing happened. It was easily the most bizzare thing that's happened since I got here! But it was funny and we had a really good time. We got home and got caught in a crazy downpour (proper Irish weather!) and ran partway home, collapsed into bed and slept soundly until 11:30am this morning.
This morning has been really chill and that's been great. We haven't had a day to just sit and do nothing in a long time so it is not just after 4pm and I haven't showered or gotten dressed today. We had a lovely start to our morning actually, we were spoiled with a proper Irish breakfast of rashers (bacon basically) sausages, black pudding (aka blood pudding), white pudding (made with organs), bread and butter and sunny side up eggs. I have now officially eaten white and black pudding and thoroughly enjoyed both! Which was a surprise haha, I didn't expect to like it to be honest. But if you can forget about what they're made of they're both actually quite tasty! I think now it's about time I showered or at least got up off the couch!
Coming soon:
- More photos of Dublin
- a possible trip to Galway
- Paris and Disneyland!
And here's a song to put you in the Irish mood! Galway Girl by Steve Earle.
Cheers!!
Holly
xoxox
Holly! Sounds like you had a great weekend! I love that you got to meet your pen pal& their family (although if I recall she came to Victoria last year?) The ferries sound really cool! How much did it cost to take it?? Talk soon, love Jen
ReplyDeleteIt's been a ton of fun! But no she hasn't been to Canada ever, though I'm trying to convince her to! The ferry was really neat, for the train and the ferry together there was a deal and it was 38 pounds, so about $80 if you do the conversion.
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