Last Thursday, we met our friends David and Ashley in Dublin, Ireland for a four day weekend of fun! We got there really late on Thursday, so we just hung out at our hostel and caught up a bit. On Friday we started our day with a walk through Grafton Street, which is known for their shops, and a nearby mall in search of breakfast and souvenirs. We then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The outside was beautiful and surrounded by a garden with flowers. We did not tour the cathedral, but enjoyed taking some pictures outside. Next we ventured onwards to the Guinness Storehouse. The brewery was HUGE, and consisted of seven levels. The first couple of levels explained the history of Guinness and the brewing process. The top few levels had several places to eat, drink, and enjoy. After the tour, we decided to go straight to the top level, Gravity Bar, for our free pint of Guinness. This bar offers a 360-degree view of Dublin's skyline. I think that we can all say we enjoyed the bar and the beer. Our taste buds have changed quite a bit over the past couple of years because none of us would have enjoyed Guinness in the past, but we have ordered it at pubs in the UK. After leaving the Guinness tour, we were all very hungry so we walked to The Brazen Head. This is officially Ireland's oldest pub and dates back to 1198. We shortly learned that their traditional Irish stew with lamb recipe must have also been around for a long time - it was fantastic! Next we wandered around Christ Church Cathedral and Dublin Castle, and also snapped some photos in the courtyard of Trinity College. The Times Hostel that we were staying at was in the middle of the town, right next to Trinity College. We met some friends at the hostel and played drinking games for most of the night. We eventually made it out to Temple Bar where live music was being played. The bar was absolutely packed, but we joined right in with the fun and listened to the music! We left the bar in the pouring rain to go to another pub that our friends had seen earlier on Thursday that advertised the "Irish Jigg". Unfortunately they already had last call and we realized that it was way later than we thought, so we headed back to the hostel.

On Saturday we went back to the mall near Grafton Street for a full Irish breakfast. We had already tried the full English breakfast, and realized they were pretty much the same. We walked to Ha'penny Bridge on our way to the bus station for our transport to Cork. The line for the three hour express bus to Cork was packed and we were the last lucky ones to get on. Unfortunately for us, there was a sketchy guy outside who decided to snatch David and Ashley's backpack from under the bus and ran. There was nothing that we could really do about it as we were at the back of the bus. John and I had seen the guy running. The driver said that we had to report the robbery, so we walked over to the station to file a report. We were told that we were in a bad area of town, so we just went to the closest pub and waited for another bus to come.

We arrived safely in Cork late on Saturday. After checking into our flat that overlooked the city, we went in search of dinner. Everything was closed. After about 30 minutes of searching, we found a small restaurant where we were able to get sandwiches. John had seafood chowder loaded with fresh seafood and I got the salmon sandwich (raw even!). We were very excited to have fresh seafood that was so delicious!

On Sunday we decided to start our day in Cork. Once again, everything was closed until about 1pm. We walked along the river and took photos of St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. We decided to switch our day around a bit and actually took the train to a small town called Cobh. Cobh is full of cathedrals, museums, and until 1920 was known as Queenstown: the last port the Titanic departed from before sinking. We wandered around town looking at the colorful buildings, a huge cathedral on top of a hill overlooking the water, and searching for lunch. We ended up eating at The Titanic Museum restaurant. Looking out from our booth, we could see the remains from the dock where the Titanic was boarded. John and I then split up with Ashley and David, and went to an island called Fota. This island has a wildlife park (zoo as we would call it). This was the coolest zoo we have ever been to! It was very unique in the fact that kangaroos, lemurs, peacocks, and other birds roamed free anywhere they pleased. Also, most animals either had no fences around their homes or short fences so we were able to see everything so much better than at a normal zoo. Obviously animals such as the cheetahs had normal fences, but the rest were lower than shoulder level. The pastures were HUGE and the animals were in more of a natural environment- the ostriches, giraffes, and zebras were all able to graze in the same pasture. The monkeys were all on islands and those who enjoyed hunting were able to fish for shrimp and clams in the surrounding water. We saw more cheetahs, giraffes, monkeys, and zebras than we had seen in any other zoo. Also, all of the animals seemed happy and energetic - we saw monkeys playing, kangaroos hopping and even saw baby giraffes running and chasing kangaroos that hopped into their area! We have noticed that normally at zoos the animals are sleepy and lethargic. It was so impressive and we were in awe. We took the train back to Cork and met Ashley and David for some drinks. Ashley and I drank baileys and hot chocolate and although I cannot say it tasted any different than at home, it was fantastic! John found his new favorite beer called Murphy's.

We stayed in Ireland until Monday afternoon because there was a bank holiday in England. We woke up really early to go see Blarney Castle & Stone. The grounds of the castle were beautiful and loaded with gardens, flowers, trees, and unique plants. We wandered around for a while to see a couple of grass huts and walkways, waterfalls, and walk the wishing stairs. There is rumor that if you walk up forwards and down backwards these semi wet stairs with your eyes closed while thinking of one wish the whole time, that it will come true in the next year. We all participated and succeeded with walking and not falling, so hopefully some wishes will come true! We next made our way to the castle. It was packed with tourists so we waited in line to climb up the extremely narrow rock staircase to the top floor where we would kiss the stone. Along the way there were different rooms of the castle that we were able to stop in, but this castle was very different than most that we have seen. It was more of a wide tower, with staircases on two sides and a few rooms in the middle. On the top floor, there was a walkway around the outside. We all laid down, bent backwards, and kissed the bottom stone high above the ground! Many people started to do so, but decided it was too much adrenaline for them so they stopped - but we all did it!!

We hopped on our plane and are now back in England to enjoy a few days here before we spend the weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland!

Hope all is well!

Cheers,

Erin & John