The Journey Day 12: Wales, Cardiff to London, England

September 14th, 2016 Cardiff Wales

On this day, we traveled from Cardiff to London. I left a note in my journal that I logged the day in my phone. However, I have not been able to locate the log on my phone. I will try to explain some of what we did that day, but I am sure we will miss most things. Maybe I will find the log on my phone another day. 

We woke up in the morning and packed up our bags. Then we went across St. Mary to Coffee Heaven for coffees! We had all of our luggage with us and the girl at the cash register was a new so it took a while, but eventually we were off! We took the food to go and walked to the train station. We had to take a detour because there was some construction going on, but we didn't get lost! 

We made it to the train station and I bought our tickets. Before we went through with our tickets a nice gentleman told us that we should take the elevator because we had all of our luggage. Which saved us from having to carry the luggage up the stairs! We had to wait on the platform for the train, but we were able to drink coffees. I believe Kelsi stopped to get something to eat and another coffee.

On the train, I caught up on my log, finished my book, watched the scenery and had a sandwhich. Kelsi read a little, took a nap and had some oatmeal. 

September 14th, 2016 London, England

The train got off at Paddington Station. I was secretly really happy to see Paddington Station, they even have a little bear statue! We made our wait out of the station and then took a cab, at lunch time, which we learned was the slow way to go. I didn't mind the ride, I got to see a lot of sights. We had to walk around to get to the gate of the apartments. Our host was home, so he let us in and gave us a key. 

We settled in before going out. We started walking towards the river, but we missed our street at one point, we had to go back, but luckily it was a quick fix. When we ran into the Tate, I was able to reorient, and get to the Globe Theatre which was where we wanted to be. I thought maybe we would see a show, but we didn't end up doing that. There wasn't a show so early, and we were getting hungry. So we walked around to look for a restaurant.

Guess what! We ran into Alex and John. We had planned to meet them and Kelsi had messaged them, but we were trying to eat before. Ah well! After meeting up we went around to a few restaurants to look at the menus finally we settled on an Italian place. We sat outside which was fine, until the sun started setting. Alex and I were in the sun for a while, but we didn't move the table until the Kelsi and John were in the sun too.

We all ordered food and had some drinks, except for John because he doesn't drink, much. Inside there was live music and drums which were very loud. Nice from outside, but I think it would be hard to talk if we had been inside. 

After dinner we walked across Millennium Bridge and went over to the Blackfriar. Kelsi convinced John to have a beer stating that it was real ale. The Blackfriar was very busy with people just off of work, but we managed to squeeze in and have a drink. I am pretty sure we didn't have real ale at that bar. Which meant John had to have a real ale at the next place. I'm not sure he ever did! After our drink we walked over the Blackfriar bridge and ended up at Prince William Henry's Pub. We spent the rest of the night there drinking and chatting. It was really fun to just have a night out and not have to turn in early because of a tour! 

When we left Prince William Henry's pub we continued down the same street. For all the times we were lost during this trip, I immediately recognized the underground that we had past to get to the river, we turned up the Cut. I was getting hungry again so I made everyone stop at Ristorante Olivelli and I think I ate a pizza. I think Alex also had pizza, but I'm not certain.

After dinner, I convinced Kelsi, Alex and John that I knew the way back to our room. So we said goodbye to the guys. They were going to Italy so we wouldn't see them for the rest of the trip. I got us back to the apartments without any trouble! Once we arrived the trouble began! We didn't realize that the key for the outside door worked on the gate. So we stood at the gate trying to figure out what to do. Kelsi, had to hop the fence and get us in! 

The Journey Day 9 Edinburgh, Highlands, Loch Ness, Scotland

September 11th, 2016 Edinburgh, Scotland Day trip to Highlands and Loch Ness

Loch Ness

The third day in Scotland we were up early. We stopped in at Starbucks for pumpkin spiced lattes, they weren't as good as usual because in Ireland I heard a girl say that Pumpkin Spice was just ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. She took the magic out of the pumpkin spice! I also got a pan au chocolate again! Yummy! Then we walked down the Mile to Haggis Adventures to check in for our day trip to Loch Ness and the Highlands. 

Glencoe

We were there with plenty of times and had to wait a while before we got going, but at least we were able to do so on the bus. The trip was not our favorite. The majority of the trip was spent on the bus. It was a four hour trip to Loch Ness and four hours back. There were very few stops and mostly they were comfort stops. Now, I want to say that visiting the Highlands is amazing and it is very pretty, but because there were few stops and most of it was seen on the bus, it wasn't as good as it could have been. Loch Ness was also very pretty, but since it took so long to get to the Ness, we didn't have a lot of time there either. My recommendation for someone who has one day outside of Edinburgh is to take a trip around the Highlands either a whiskey tour, or hike Ben Revis. Don't try to visit Loch Ness in one day. If you want to visit Loch Ness, then I suggest taking a two day trip! 

North American side

Europe side

I did like our driver and guide. He was very knowledgeable and I learned more about Mary, Queen of Scots, the Highlands and the Loch. One fact that I learned was that the hills were created when the North America plate and the European plate were pressed together creating a mountain range. In the United States we call the range the Appalachians! The land on one side of the Ness used to be part of the North American continent and the part south of the lake was part of the European continent. When the continents split it is very messy!

Hairy Coo!

I also learned that cows is pronounce 'coos' and there are hairy coos, and regular coos. We met two hairy coos on the way up to the Loch.

Another story the guide told us was, The story of the Massacre of Glencoe, which sounded a lot like the Red Wedding. MacIain was late when pledging alliance to William and Mary. So, troops under the command of Robert Campbell were sent to Glencoe. The MacDonalds gave them hospitality for days while they were there. After ten days the troops and Campbell began killing the MacDonalds. So, it was similar to the Red Wedding, only instead of the host killing the guest, it was the other way around.

There was one exciting thing about the trip. Kelsi saw the monster! She was wearing a pink bow and waved at Kelsi before disappearing. This didn't happen when I was looking, but Kelsi wouldn't lie.

Highlands

After the mostly bus ride and little touring we wanted to find a place to watch American football. So we went into a hotel to ask. The hotel gave us three places where the games might be played. The first place was a dud, but the second place was a success! It was called the Three Sisters, and we only got lost a little bit on the way there. 

Highlands

Inside there were all sorts of people dressed up in equestrian gear, not sure what that was for, but it was fun to see. Most of the televisions were playing soccer, and we had to go way in the back to watch the American football games, but we were able to watch them. It was not surprising to find that the section was mostly filled with American tourist! I do believe there was at least one or two Scotsmen watching too. The television were showing only one game for the morning game and one for the afternoon, the night game would be on around 3 AM in the morning, which was the Cardinals vs. Patriots game. Considering the tragic loss, I am ALMOST glad I missed it.

We ordered food. I had a meatball sub which was good. Kelsi had pizza, she said later it wasn't her favorite. Kelsi drank Hop 13 and I had a Tennents! I really liked that beer! 

While we were watching the game, some guys started talking to us. John and Alex were from Kansas City, Mo. They were on their own journey, stating in Ireland, and going to Italy via London in a few days. They were staying in hostels along the way. Though they distracted us from the game they were quite funny. I was also unintentionally funny. I started talking before I quite finished my thoug

"Computer books!"

hts, and Socially Awesome Penguin occurred. Kelsi and John were in a slightly heated debate about eBooks vs Hard books. I really don't care what medium my books come in as long as the books are good. Alex also had a neutral stance, because he prefers movies. Kelsi and John however were very passionate about their side. One of John's key argument was that writers wouldn't stop writing hard books, but Kelsi thinks that eBooks will be the only form of most books in the future. Then, I suddenly remembered that computer algorithms nearly won a literary competition! Instead of saying that I said, "Computer books, have you read them?" Well, I think I won the argument because after that the debate was dropped. We laughed about computer books for most of the night. 

We laughed about it again when we met up in London a few days later. Meanwhile, we go to Cardiff at ten am the next day. 

The Journey Day 8 Edinburgh, Scotland

September 10th, 2016 Edinburgh, Scotland

Woke at 9am we went to a cafe for breakfast Olly Bongo's Cafe and Bistro for breakfast. I had a full English Breakfast and Kelsi had french toast. We both drank lattes. My opinion on the full breakfasts is that I like the English beans better than Irish and I also liked the Soda bread and potato cakes. I prefer Ranch style beans over baked beans so please keep that in mind, if you like sweet beans then you might prefer the Irish ones. 

English Breakfast

After Breakfast, I mailed some postcards, Kelsi got candy. At the Paradise Palms there were Tunnock's Carmel Waffers that she loved! So she was on a mission to find more of them. She didn't find any this time, but she did by the end of the day, and stocked up for the entire trip, she has to restock in London for on our return home.

Then we went to Edinburgh Castle. It was probably the most legit castle that we went to, it had kill holes. Which was the main criteria that we looked for when determining if a Castle was really real. While at the castle we tried some very delicious whiskey. We liked it so much we bought some for Caitlin and Dave as a gift. I think I should have bought more, I thought there would be more alcohol that I would want to bring home, so I only bought one bottle. 

Whiskey Tasting

The views of the city from the castle were awesome. We walked all around to get a look in all directions. At the castle they also have a museum of the military history and prisoner history. It was a lot to absorb! A real history buff might be able to spend all day at the castle alone! We made sure to look at everything, but by the end of each tour we didn't take as much time at each exhibit as we did at the beginning of the tour. It was so much to process.

From the Castle we went to the Whiskey Tour. There is a ride that quickly explains the whiskey making process. I remember the first step is the quality of the water, but then we moved on to the tasting part of the tour, so I'm not certain of the rest of the steps. Some of the steps I remember because I tried home brewing beer over the summer. I learned the lesson, don't brew beer in Arizona in the summer. In the Tasting Room we were given palettes to smell and from the scents and descriptions we were supposed to pick which region we wanted to try whiskey from. I picked the Highlands and Kelsi picked Spokane. The whiskey was pretty strong and I think perhaps I need to practice with lighter less smokey tasting whiskeys for a while longer yet.

The next part of the tour was to a huge collection of whiskey that had never been open. I looked at almost all of the bottles, and they all said Scotch! There were so many bottles and brands. Some of the whiskey will disappear from the bottles overtime, this is called the Angel's tax. Some bottles were more empty than others. Either the Angel's liked that whiskey more, or the sealing process was better in some than others.

Holyrood Palace

After the tour we went to the whiskey bar. Part of our package was tasting 4 of the 5 regions of Scotland Whiskey. So we had a flight of those. Now, I know I don't like the smokey ones! I may have ordered some more whiskey, except that there was too many choices, also we were getting hungry. So we walked down the Royla Mile and ate at The Royal McGregor. I had fish and chips. Kelsi had curry. She is getting more adventurous!

When lunch was over we went to Holyrood Palace. The place is still in use by the Queen when she visits Scotland, but there are no kill holes. This tour I picked up an audio guide, and summarized the guide for Kelsi. I think she enjoyed it because I was so good at relaying the information. People died in this room, this room is where people eat dinner, and etc. Just the fact from me!

Blue box 

Then we went to Franksteins it was a hoot! We ordered beers, Tennents, and sat on the second floor to watch people. People from the UK and Europe are just different enough that I know they are not Americans, but they aren't so different that I can't really pick out what makes them different. It is fascinating! I love watching people. After our drink we crossed the street to the restaurant Cellar Door. We kept walking by it, and it reminded me Tolkien every time we past it!

When you walk in you walk down the stairs to a cellar, only it's not really a cellar, because the building is kind of on a slope so there is a floor below that, which is also at street level and the door we went through is at the bridge level! I'm still pretty confused about the bridges and streets in Edinburgh even though we got better at navigating it!

Cider

The room does feel like a cellar so that was kind of fun. We both ate risotto dishes and Thistle Cross Ciders. Kelsi's was ginger and mine was strawberry. I took a picture of mine and sent it to Caitlin because she is my gluten free friend! 

After dinner we went to get drinks at Paradise Palms. We started with a tea pot, then Kelsi tried a gin fize, gin is pretty popular in Edinburgh, and I had another Tennents. This time at the Paradise Palms it was very busy with tons of people and awesome music. It was such a fun place it seemed to me that many of the people there were locals so it was great watching everyone! I loved it. We couldn't stay out too late because we had to get up early tomorrow for our tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness. When we got back to our room the music was just as loud as the night before, but it was a little easier to sleep. In the middle of the night, after the music stopped, one of the other guests ran out of their room to the bathroom because he was sick. Then he started sobbing! Getting sick is gross, but there was no need to cry about it the way he was. Kelsi and I could only laugh about it.

 

The Journey Day 7 Edinburgh, Scotland

September 9th, 2016 Belfast to Edinburgh, Scotland

Great Scot! I know a few!

We were up early for our flight. Our host had left us some things for breakfast. I had pancakes, I don't eat pancakes with syrup so it was easy to eat while repacking and getting ready. Kelsi ate toast. We both had some tea. We took a cab to the airport. It was a bit of a drive out of the city, but I guess that is pretty typical with airports. There was some difficulty with the card reader in the cab, but everything eventually worked out! 

At the airport, there were more issues with Kelsi's survivors, she bought too many tea towels! She had to fit all of them in her carry on which was difficult, but she eventually got the bag to zip. The there was more issues with the wifi and our electronic tickets. We could only get the Wifi in the lobby not at the first security point. So she had to take screenshots in order to make sure we could scan through the gates. All these mishaps were a bit of a bother, but I didn't mind too much.

Edinburgh, from Scott Monument

After the first point, there was a long security line. Luckily the Wifi worked in there and I took the time to buy tickets for a day trip to Lochness and the Highlands. When we finally got through security we stopped for coffee. Then we went our gate, there was already a queue. The queue was pretty long, in the states they call groups of people at a time, but there was just a single line. I'm not sure which is actually faster, but waiting in line is not better than waiting for your group to be called.

On the plane, I wrote some postcards and read. Kelsi closed her eyes, but I'm not sure if she slept too much. 

We arrived in Edinburgh just a bit after the scheduled time. The flight was short, but waiting to get off the plane took almost the same amount of time! We got our bags and took the tram to Princess Street. It was raining, but that didn't deter from the city's appeal. 

The city is so beautiful. It is built on hills and because this and the buildings, there is a bit of an illusion where two or three buildings look like one building! The hills make dragging luggage around more difficult, but I actually didn't mind too much because it gave me more time to look at everything and everyone. We had pretty great directions and didn't get lost so that made it more enjoyable. The room we were staying at is above the Paradise Palms, which is a bar. When we got in we were shown up to our room and informed that we were allowed a discount at the Palms. We took advantage of this after a quick dress change. I made the decision to wear ballet flats which didn't hold up later in the rain. So that dictated some of our later activities!

Punch Tea

At the Paradise Palms, the menu is American Soul Food and 100% meat free, many dishes are also vegan. I had a veggie burger and Kelsi had nachos. We shared a kettle of punch "tea". The Paradise Palm is so cute inside and the food is delicious. We were there pretty early so we had no way of knowing that at night Paradise becomes a very popular and crowded place. We would find out in short time.

After lunch, we walked back down to Princess street to visit the info center. Kelsi wanted to get more tea towels even if she didn't say so, but they didn't have any. We got a hop-on-hop off bus ticket, but before we took the tour we climbed Scott Monument.

Scott Monument

Scott Monument was built for Sir Walter Scott the Scottish writer of some note. He wrote novels like Ivanhoe and poetry like "Marmion". Which contains the famous quote, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." Edinburgh has many many famous authors and was named as the first city of literature in 2004. Every year in August, there is had a huge book Festival. It would have been great to see it! Anyway, Scott Monument is a Gothic style spire, that Charles Dickens said that was "a failure," but I quite liked it. We climbed to the top and the views were great. 

After the Monument, we took a turn on the Ferris wheel. I liked spinning our pod, but Kelsi did not! She was nice though and spun it very slowly.  

I wanted to take the hop-on hop-off tour bus after that because my shoes were soaked and I was hopping they would dry. They did a bit, but it was still raining after the tour was over. The tour was nice because we had a chance to look at sites that we wanted to explore more later. It was the last tour of the day, so it was too late to do any other site seeing that day.

After the bus tour, I waited in a doorway to keep my shoes from getting to wet until Kelsi was ready. We hurried back to our room so that I could change my shoes. We took a different street back up the hill to our rooms. We got pretty lost doing this. We didn't realize at the time that because the city is built on hills there are levels to the city. So when we went up a different street it didn't bring us back to the Royal Mile instead it brought us to a street below it. We only figured it out when we climbed some stairs. As soon as we climbed the stairs, we recognized some buildings and sites from the hop-on tour and were able to reorient our position. I eventually was able to change my shoes, but it took a lot of work.

Edinburgh

Once I had proper shoes, we walked over to Greyfriars Bobby's Bar for dinner. The is a restaurant is named after a very loyal Skye Terrier dog. After his owner died, he stayed at the grave side for 14 years. The dog could sometimes be called away to eat, but would return quickly after. What a cute story. There is also a statue of the dog in front and people will rub it's nose. The nose is shiny and worn compared to the rest of the statue. I'm not sure why they do so, but I patted it a few times. Kelsi started laughing at me when I would. There wasn't much of a wait, but perhaps that was because of the rain. I had a Tennets beer and I thought hard about trying haggis, but I was worried that I wouldn't like it. I am pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but I haven't seen many people review it favorably. Instead, I ate spotted sausage yum! Kelsi had a burger and a ginger beer.  During dinner Kelsi was a hero! A lady forgot her umbrella at her table, she's lucky that Kelsi was there!

The Elephant House

After dinner we walked up to the castle it was too late to go in so we turned around. We also saw a whiskey experience nearby that we decided we wanted to do later on. On our way back to our room, we stopped at the Elephant House for dessert and special hot chocolate drinks. It's a shop where some of the Harry Potter series was written, which thrilled the child and nerd in me. I tried not to be too much of geek about it. Inside the bathroom, the walls are covered with shout outs from fans about the series. It was so cool! 

We called it a night after that, going back to our room to find that the cute Paradise Palms from early was a machine of noise designed for keeping the delicate sleeper awake. Luckily, it ended around 1 am so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. 

The Journey Day 3

September 5th, 2016 Dublin Ireland

Christ Church and surrounding area

We were up and out in time to get breakfast at Third Space, one of the restaurants recommend to us by our host. It was the place that was closed the night before. I ate a mini Irish breakfast. It was similar to the one I had on the first day, but I thought the pudding was better at Third Space. This may have more to do with the fact that I had never ate Irish pudding before, now that I was familiar with it, I knew what to expect. However, I thought the pudding was spiced better. Also, the baked beans weren't quite as sweat, which I liked. Kelsi had granola and a muffin. She must have liked the granola because she talked about it a lot afterwards!

Christ Church

 After breakfast we went towards Trinity College, but we stopped at Christ Church instead. It was very beautiful architecture. The style seemed romantic to me, but it was too early for that to be the case. It was renovated with a romantic style. Inside, we also visited the crypts. It was kind of weird that the crypts were kind of like a museum. There is even a gift shop down there!

From church we went to college, but apparently we failed at our attempt. The line for the Kells book was so long!  Because of the length we decided to look at exhibits in the science and zoology buildings. The Zoology exhibit is only open in the summer, the science exhibit is not open Mondays! So we left. One thing of note, we talked to a college student at the information center near the Kells book. He was eating a Nature Valley bar and I told him they taste good heated a bit in the microwave. He told us about the exhibits in the other buildings, but he didn't say they weren't open! After my great tip and everything!

Park, and Clock Tower

We caught the bus from Trinity College to the street we were staying. That way we could navigate to Guiness Storehouse. We could spot Guiness above the buildings, so it wasn't hard to find. We ended up on the near side of the building which wasn't the entrance. So we had to walk around. From there we took tour, we learned the history of the beer, and history of the advertisements, we also learned how to pour the beer, we learned how to taste the beer and received complementary pint. After the tour we went up to the top of the building. You can see the most of the city from there. After we finished our pint we went to get lunch. It took forever because there were a few locations to eat. The first place we tried had a wait, so we went down to get hamburgers, but they only take cash! So we went back up to the first place. We both had burgers, but I didn't get the chutney on mine. The burgers were pretty good. We also had more beer! 

After that our plan for the day was kind of thrown off because we wanted to go to the Gaols, but it was booked. When I was planning the trip, everything recommended to wait to get to Dublin before booking any tours. Which probably is good advice, but once you arrive you should book your tours and not wait until the day of. Instead, we went to Phoenix Park which was beautiful, but we didn't end up spending a lot of time there. 

On our way back to our room, we took the bus, but we missed a stop or two...or several! So we had to back track! By the time we ended up at the room it was almost at the time for the pub crawl. We had to rush to the duke to make it there. Which would have been easier, if we didn't get lost on the first day. We did make it, but thanks to Kelsi. We were there right on time, and ushered in to the start of the show. We were supposed to arrive early to check in and pay, but at least we were there. At the Duke the guide performed a two person play Waiting for Godot. It was so funny, but the room was crowded and a bit hot! Also, because we were just barely on time, we didn't get a beer at the Duke!  Ah well, after the play we went down to the street to go to the next site. There we were able to pay up and so everything was all right. 

Guiness Storehouse, Waterfall

The tour was great! I highly recommend it. If you like literature then you will really like it, but if you don't it is still a good tour. The guides perform a few skits along the way. You get to visit historical sites and also historical bars. The tour group also do a Lit Walking tour if the pub crawl part of it doesn't appeal. There was also a quiz at the end, and Kelsi almost won the whiskey prize, but Jim Morrison got in the way!

When we finished the tour we stopped to get gelato, which was so delicious! However, when we left the gelato shop we weren't paying attention and we started walking the wrong way! We didn't exactly get lost, but we did have to turn around to get back to where we once belonged!

  

In conclusion the day was a bit of a scramble! We did somethings we didn't plan, and did other things we didn't plan! Oh well, the mixes ups were a bit entertaining. I also enjoyed the fact that we just laughed off mistakes, without getting upset. Tomorrow we will have to make up for the sites we missed and then we have to get to Belfast!

The Journey Day 2

September 4th, 2016 Dublin Ireland

The Cliffs of Moher

We woke up at 5:30 and were out the door by 6:00. We needed to grab coffee and a breakfast on our way to the meet up for our tour to the Cliffs of Moher. At 6 in the morning there aren't very many places that are open, but there was convenient store. We picked up coffee and pastries. The meet up point, had a statue in it, but I found out later that the statue is there temporarily because of road work.  We sometimes oriented our position when we came across the statue and spot in the following days.

We arrived about five minutes ahead of schedule. We followed the guide to the bus. We were split into at least two groups. I think there was another tour with the same company that also goes to the cliffs, but we didn't see them at every stop, so they must take a different route.

Cliffs of Moher

Aswe headed out of the city the tour guide gave us some information on places we passed in the city, and a bit in the country, though he tried to let people rest until the first stop. The first stop was more of a comfort stop. It was at The Barack Obama Plaza. The guide explained that the plaza was named for Barack Obama because his ancestors came from the area. He also visited the area before. While there we decided to pick up donuts. Which meant we had two breakfasts! A thing that I noticed with donuts and pastries in the UK and Ireland is that the majority of the time they are served cold. Which is a bit surprising, but they still taste fresh, so I can't complain. 

Selfie from O'Brien's Tower, at the Cliffs

We arrived at the cliffs around 10. We walked up the path to the benches, the cliffs were so pretty. From the benches we walked to O'Brien tower. The view was even better from there! The Cliffs are such that there are hills and bumps. So we kept seeing areas of the cliff that we wanted to walk to. We would get to that area, and want to keep walking. Every spot had a great view and I could have walked them for much longer, but we eventually had to turn around. We even walked through the unofficial area. It wasn't completely barricaded so people were allowed to walk there, but there was no wall between you and the cliff face! It was also muddy in thar section, but the views were worth it. Beside the cliffs, there were cows and sheep in the field, which was interesting to see too. There are cows and sheep in Arizona, but these were Irish cows and Irish sheep and therefore special!

O'Brien,

After walking the cliffs we went to info Center which is build into the hill. There was interesting information about the cliffs there. How they formed, information on the caves that were near by, the animals that make a home of the cliffs, and families from the area. I saw a name that I recognized, so I took pictures of the shield. I don't knoe what county the O'Brien come from. I know Thomas Fitzpatrick and Bernard Fitzsimmons are supposed to have come from Clare County, but I didn't see shields for them at the center. A little more on family history we did drive through Port Laoise, Laois County, which isn't actually near the ocean at all, and is in fact one of the most landlocked counties in the country. This is because the counties that surround it do not board the ocean. I believe the tour guide said Port comes about because there are major rivers around it.

Stoney Outcrop

We lunched at in Doolin. There were a few choices, so we walked up the street to a little cafe. I had a delicious ham sandwich with sweet BBQ sauce, a brownie and a Galway beer. Kelsi had turkey and brie, sea salt and Irish vinegar crisps (chips) and a brownie. She also bought some popcorn that was marshmallow flavored. Which she saved for an afternoon snake. I think she liked her sandwich and the crisps, but she said the popcorn wasn't good. 

After lunch we drove to the Stoney Outcrop. This was created when the area was a seabed, it was revealed during the carnivorous period. Such an interesting features. It's very hard to describe, so I will just post some pictures!

Plaque

Then we drove to an old Abbey called St. Maria's. It houses the bones of residence in the area from the distant past until the present. Since I love family histories, I appreciate places like this. I took a picture of a plaque that said the Abbey was founded in 1182 CE. Ascribed to Donnel Mor O'Brien and that his grandson was one of the people buried there. As I don't know much about the O'Brien's in my family, especially outside of the United States. I'm just going cross my fingers and think that perhaps they came from Clare Co. I looked at so many headstones, but most of them were too new or too old to be ancestors of mine. 

Abbey!

Once the Abbey was finished we stopped in a small seaside town for a pint or shopping. I picked the pint, but only a little one. We sat at the window facing the ocean which was great view! It was also fun to watch the people inside the bar.

That was the last stop of the trip. The rest of the ride was through the beautiful landscape of Ireland back to Dublin. I tried to catch some zzz, but the view was too pretty. Kelsi may have managed some. The bus played a film on the way back. It was called The Field. It was about a dispute over an area of land, and ended with a scene at the Cliffs of Moher. It wasn't a bad film, but I'm not sure I understand all of it. 

Upon returning we stopped by the room for a little bit. Then we went to The Brazen Head the oldest bar in Dublin and had a pint. The bar was kind of interesting, it had a bunch of different rooms on different levels and it was very crowded! The table we sat at was reserved, but the staff said it was reserved for later. I think we sat there until after the reserved time, but the group had not shown up. Perhaps they never did. 

Jameson's

We left because we wanted to go to a to dinner, the restaurant was recommended by our host, but it was closed! The restaurant was near the Jameson's Distillery. We found out earlier that Jameson's was closed until 2017. They are doing updates to it. Since it was closed we were not planning to visit, but because we were close to it, I had to get a picture! 

Then, we different bar, called McGillan's. It was a lounge. Which meant that there wasn't food, only drinks. Of course we had one! It helped us forgot our hunger, at least for a little while. 

In the end we went back to a pizza place that we had past. It was nearly closing, but they allowed us to take away. We took the pizza away, and it was probably the best pizza. Although, we were very hungry. 

The Journey Day 1

The Journey, Day 1 - Dublin, Ireland

Early morning after long night on plane. I managed to catch some zzz, but not enough! Cloudy, rainy, cool. Just like I pictured. Made it through customs and airport fine. Had to buy a leap card. Took bus to meet airbnb host. Arrived 50 minutes early and had to wait. A bit more waiting at airbnb before we could put our stuff down. Our airbnb apartment is right on the river at Usher's Quay. Our room doesn't face the river, but it has it's own bathroom!

The host, recommended that we eat at Wuff for brunch. We only managed to get a bit lost. There was a wait for a table, but it was worth it. Wuff is a cafe that is average sized. They fit in a lot of chairs and tables. It was packed tight. I had my first Irish breakfast!!! So yummy! I am not too sure about the pudding yet, but I will give it ago later. The baked beans tasted very sweet. I don't usually eat baked beans, so I'm not sure how sweet they should be, but I thought they were sweeter than normal. Overall it was a great breakfast!

Came back to room for a cat nap, I only allowed a one hour nap. A short nap can help with jet lag, but a long one will make it take longer to adjust. 

After that we walked down towards The Duke, because when I researched things to do in Dublin, the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl was listed. I was of course interested in both the literary history of Dublin and also the pubs. So doing a literary pub crawl seemed perfect. 

First Guinness in Ireland

We decided to take a little longer route in order to have a look at some sites. We passed St. Augustine church. We went inside. It has beautiful arches and stain glass windows. Loved it! Then, we kept walking passing Christ's Church and other sites, that we will visit on another day. 

After that we got a little turned around on Grafton Street, but a nice girl saw us turning in circles and stopped to help! At least we had a good tour of the area. 

When we arrived at The Duke we found out that the literary pub crawl was full. The problem was that there was a college football game in town between Boston College and Georgia Tech. So there were many students and parents in town for the game. So not only were they booked Saturday, but Sunday as well so  we called booked for Monday, then we booked the The Cliffs for Sunday. After that we stayed at The Duke for our first Guiness in Ireland.

The Duke is a bar that dates back to 1820s. Many literary writes like Joyce and Kavanagah visited. There are two floors, we went up stairs to the second floor. There was college football games on there, but not the Boston College and Georgia Tech game. 

We took our time with our first Guiness, but eventually we wandered out and made our way towards Trinity college. On the way we scoped out where we needed to meet the next day, for the cliffs tour. It was kind of on the way. Because of this, we past by not only the entrance to Trinity College, but we went down the Pearse Street. From that side it doesn't look like there is a good way to get inside the college, though in the following days we did exit the Science Gallery onto that street. So we probably could have gone in from the Science Gallery, we just didn't know it. We ended up walking around the college, towards the sea until we reached the Grand Canal. It was almost night by that time, and with the cloudy sky it was pretty much dark. Growing up in Arizona, any sort of water, looks quite pretty so of course we liked the view. 

Picture from our table at H Bar, before we went inside.

We had dinner at the H Bar. We wanted to eat outside, however we sat out there for a while without getting service. It was much faster inside. I had fish and chips while Kelsi had pizza, we both had another Guiness of course. The Fish and chips were good, but the fish is plainer than the fish fry in Arizona. I think the fish is saltier in Arizona. Nonetheless, it was a good dinner. I am not sure how Kelsi liked her pizza, but later in the trip she says that certain pizza's are her favorite so far. So I'm not sure this one was all that good. 

Afterwards dinner, we walked to the river because we determined that once we were at the river we could just walk down it, and eventually we would get back to our room. The walk along the river was beautiful. The bridges are cute, and there were many restaurants and bars along the way. We took our time, but we wanted to get back to our room. We were tried from traveling, and we had to be up early in the morning. Tomorrow the Cliffs!

HOSA Hub of Social Activity Post 2

HOSA Post 2 June 11th 2016 

Guess what? This past Sunday I went on a little day trip. I went down to Tucson to visit family. My cousin Bre is moving to Michigan and my aunt had a dinner to send her off. I also made plans to go to Tucson for the 3rd and 4th of July. So I am going to put both trips on one post after that is finished. 

Today, I want to do a second HOSA post about an social activity that happened June 11th. It was the last Saturday before my sister, Caitlin, started working. As you may remember she just graduated in May from school. She already had a job at the time, but it started June 13th. So, earlier in the week I said we should get a drink on the 11th as a send off. That is what we did, we also invited Kelsi because when we went out over my birthday we said we should get drinks soon. 

So I tried to find a location that was centrally located between us that we could have a drink. I wanted to try a place we had not been to before. I used this app called Untapped, which I use to track beers and rate beers that I drink. I like the app because it helps me remember if I liked a beer and sometimes it helps me remember why I liked it. I think the app could be better because it doesn't suggest beers based on previous ratings, but I don't think there is an app that does that! Untapped does have a list and map of venues though. So with that I was found a tap room called Huss Beer Company. I think perhaps I was familiar with the beer from beer festivals because it sounded familiar, but I had never been to the room.

I was a little concerned because the location is in a business plaza, but when I went inside it was very nice. When I first went in the lights were mostly off and the lighting was from the windows. The seating was super cute. There are many tables and chair sets that are all different. There are also games that you can play, which I wanted to play, but never got around to it. 

I arrived first, a little early, and found a table for us. The bartender came right out to ask me what I wanted. I think usually people go up to the bar to order, but I think I had a look on my face like a lost dog while picking a seat! The bartender was super nice and friendly. And I ordered a beer called Koffee. I have heard of coffee flavored beer before but never tried it. It is so yummy. It taste like chocolate covered coffee beans, but without the chocolate. The coffee I drink at work tastes more like water and/or burned water with a hint of the coffee taste. So the beer had a more pure coffee flavor. It was so delicious that when Kelsi arrived she ordered one. Caitlin cannot drink beer. Huss had one cider and one wine on tap. She got the cider, and it looked like apple juice. We nursed our drinks and chatted for quiet a while. As the evening waned the house lights did come on so that threw the chill vibe off. Which was fine. People around seemed to get a little more chatty, and the group playing Jenga caught everyone's attention a few times. But it was all in good fun. At one point a herd of people came in to get handles of beers to go. It was quite the location.

So at the tap room you can order food or bring it in, but they don't have food there. Since we didn't know that, and we didn't know much in the area we decided to go south a few miles to get sushi at a place called Sting Ray. It is right next to Orange Theory Fitness off the I-10 and Ray. Caitlin and I go to the OT Fitness sometimes and every time I go in I just think about the delicious sushi while I'm running on the treadmill. But I had never gone to Sting Ray before. 

We arrived around seven and were seated quickly. We ordered other drinks. I was going to get another beer, but then Caitlin asked if they served Sake Sangria. They don't officially have that drink, but they did serve it. So I ordered one, Caitlin did too, but only after making sure that it was gluten free. Then we decided to split some sushi rolls. It was quite tricky because certain ones had gluten, and we removed one of the ingredients in one roll, but the crunchy roll we ordered anyway and Caitlin didn't eat that one. It could have been quite the issue with the waitress, but she was so nice about it. She was very concerned and she seemed like she enjoyed learning more about the menu items as well. What a great attitude! The waitress also reminded Caitlin of Julia Stiles, which she took well too and was a running joke all night. 

The sushi was very good, so was the Sangria. This will probably just make my treadmill thoughts even worse, but oh well. We spend a lot of the night laughing about the jobs, guys and life in general. So it was really a good Social Activity! I think it was a good send off for Caitlin, even if she had to go home before midnight because she is a real working adult now and she wanted to get a good night sleep--not the day before, but two days before her first day of work!