Dublin

It feels like it has been years since I’ve traveled to London and Dublin. I just finished a two-week Spring Break which is why I haven’t posted in a while, but my trip to Ireland quickly became one of my favorite places in the world.

After our drama at the airport, we thought we would want to relax for a little before heading out to see the city of Dublin. Instead, we dropped our things off in our hostel and got right into it!

Lucky for me, my friend Shannon studied abroad in Dublin last semester so she was able to give us tons of tips about seeing Ireland. She suggested we take the Hop On Hop Off tour that most cities offer and gave us all the stops to get off at.

We first stopped at Trinity College, which was a really gorgeous campus that we got to walk around. Didn’t compare to UMD, though ;)

Our next stop was at St. Stephen’s Greens, which was just a beautiful park and all the flowers were blooming! Afterwards, we stopped at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Unfortunately, there was a mass going on so we weren’t able to go inside, but we walked the grounds and it was stunning.

And of course, we went to the Guinness Factory. We saw how the stout is made and even learned how to pour our  “Perfect Pint.” We got lunch inside the factory after we finished up the rest of the tour and headed out once more.

Our final stop (after the longest day in history) was at Kilmainham Gaol. It’s a super old jail which I was dying to see. Our guide was awesome and we learned so much about the jail, like how it was one of the first single-cell jails, but it didn’t stay that way for long because of the Potato Famine. We were standing in the hallway at one point and he told us that dozens of prisoners would stay exactly where we were standing just to get out of the cold and have food. It was really amazing to see it all.

We got a typical Irish dinner (mm, I love Irish food) and crashed super early because of our long day and our even longer day tomorrow!

We caught a bus at 7:30am that would take us to the Cliffs of Moher with a couple of other stops along the way. We first stopped at one of the many Castles in Ireland, and then went to see a really old Abbey. The countryside of Ireland is gorgeous, especially with all the short stone walls everywhere. I totally fell in love.

We were then off to another little town called Doolin. We got lunch there and some gifts and then it was finally time to see the Cliffs of Moher. These are hard to describe, but here a few pictures that hardly do it justice:

We saw a third of Ireland in one day. We got dinner at a pub and then suddenly, our long-awaited trip to Ireland was over. It was one of the best weekends of my life! It was exhausting, stressful, and long, but over all, it was one heck of a trip.

Hopefully that isn’t my last time visiting that gorgeous place.

So, until then,

A

Here's the video from London and Dublin:

(Eh bien, c'était bien de parler anglais encore! En dehors de cela, notre voyage à Londres et Dublin a été incroyable. Je suis tombé en amour avec les villes et j'espère vraiment qu'un jour, je pourrai y retourner. Il est toujours bon de revenir à Nice. Je la manque toujours quand je suis loin!)

And of course.. here's some pictures of delicious food in Ireland:

From London to Dublin

I know I promised a post immediately after the last, but my family just visited for a few days so I’ve been busy enjoying my time with them! (which I will be blogging about soon!) I hinted in my last post that Amanda and I had quite an adventure getting from London to Dublin. So let me break it down…

My app SkyScanner found Amanda and I a flight for about 35 euro flying from London Luton to the Dublin Airport…. at 6am on Sunday. The flight was with RyanAir who is notorious for how awful it is (ihateryanair.org). We wanted to get to the airport a few hours in advance, and our hostel told us the best way to get there at that time in the morning was to take a train to the airport for 15 pounds.

Of course, since our flight is at 6:30am, we had to leave our hostel at 2:30am. We couldn’t take the Underground to the train station because it shuts off from around midnight to 6am, so we had to take a cab to the train station. So we got to the station and each bought our train tickets.

There was a Starbucks there, so we figured we’d get some caffeine in our system and then figure out where the next train left from. I asked one of the security guards, and there was a group of people who were also going to Luton and told us we could follow them in a few hours! I asked when the train left, and they said 6am. Apparently this 24 hour train skips the first few hours of the day on Sunday mornings only. So there goes that plan. We knew the only other option would be to get a taxi.

Naturally, since its 3am, no one is out and we’re trying to hail a cab from some random street corner. We didn’t know if a cab would even take us all the way to Luton and if anyone was running at that time. We finally got a cab and it got us to the airport at 4am. The cab ride was 129 pounds (we had 130 pounds with us) which translates to a whole lotta dollars.

So we’re tired, sassy, broke and ready to get on this dang plane. We get through security, everyone’s nice, the airport is empty and we got a seat in the front of the airport and had two whole hours to kill.

We slept, played IceCream Jump on our iPhones and complained about the lack of free WiFi in airports (and outlets by the way. I mean what is up with that?!). Luton is the most annoying airport I’ve ever flown through and I’ve been to a lot of airports. They have one screen in the front of the airport that tells you where your gate is, but they don’t announce the gate until boarding time. You know how at home you have the gate and can hang out there until you can board? Nope. They display it 30 minutes before and everyone sprints to the gate to get in line. And this is a big airport.

So we speed walked to our gate and we were fourth in line. We already knew we’d have to be careful about our baggage because RyanAir doesn’t allow more than one personal item on the flight (I can’t even have a purse) and they charge you 50 euro for having it. So we had to shove all our things into our bag. I had borrowed a duffle from a friend because I knew if it was too big to fit inside the tiny compartment they say is the size of the plane (lies) I’d have to check it, but Amanda had a rolling bag and we were both nervous about the fees.

So the British RyanAir lady comes up to us and asks to see our boarding passes. All The Mean Lady says is “sorry, you can’t fly with us.” Uhm, what? Excuse me? “You need to get this boarding pass stamped. You won’t be allowed on the plane. You can sit here and we’ll figure out how to get you on another plane but you’ll have to pay a cancelation fee and for a new flight.”

Tears.

We had to get our boarding pass stamped. Are you kidding me?! You made us check-in online and print our boarding passes in advance or charge us 70 euro so we obviously didn’t got to check-in and we needed to get it stamped? Apparently for all non-EU passports, you need a stamp from RyanAir (not security) on your boarding pass (not the passport).

I’m crying. I mean, we paid for our flight to Dublin and to Nice already. We booked a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher and our hostel. Are we just going to have to fly back to Nice? Are we going to get to Dublin tomorrow and miss our bus tour?

The Mean Lady told us there was absolutely no way we would make it back to check-in on time to get it stamped, go back through security and make it back to board the plane. We were sitting down for about a minute thinking about how terrible it was, but then we decided we had to try. I wish we had gotten this filmed…

We SPRINTED. I mean, sprinted. We ran all the way back to the front of the airport, through security, and to the RyanAir check in desk. I have the duffle bag so I feel like I’m in the army or something and I’m way too out of shape for all this nonsense. We get to the check in and all she does is stamp it for us. Literally, she didn’t even see our passports. Okay…

So we run back. I’ve never moved so fast in my life. We get to the front of security because they actually opened another line for us. Thanks, Luton! We get through and the guy even helps me pack up my bag. But oh, I lost my passport. Of course. More tears.

We found my passport underneath my bag (thank goodness) and got back into track mode. I just laughed aloud thinking about what happened next. So we’re running running running and Amanda’s a couple steps ahead of me and drops her sweater off of her bag. So, being the natural athlete I am… I’m running super fast(this is all slow motion in my head as I type this) I see the black sweater on the ground. Amanda’s hair whips around and she spots the sweater. Should she grab it? Should she leave it behind? Am I going to grab it for her? I am going at full speed. Amanda staring, sweater on ground. Cue me. I swooped up the sweater like I’m some crazy athlete and I don’t even slow down. I have this 40 pound bag on my back that basically pushes me down but somehow I don’t fall. We got the sweater. If you can picture ME doing this, you should actually be laughing right now.

Okay, back to the story. So we’re running still. Everyone in the airport is clearing their way for us like the Red Sea and yelling “Good luck!” We hear some running behind us and realize it is a random man who was at the same pub crawl as us a few hours before (he had gone up to Amanda and asked where she was from. She said the U.S. and he walked away…).

The three of us are apparently all trying to catch the same plane. We get to our gate and see The Mean Lady standing there still. We asked if the plane had left yet and she was shocked to see we had made it. Yep, WE MADE IT! We got through the entire airport twice and through security with Amanda’s sweater and my passport all in 20 minutes.

The Mean Lady wanted to measure Amanda’s bag, but we just ran right past her. We got onto the plane at 6:29, sweating like pigs and we’re both crying because we made it.

We landed in Dublin one hour later and toured all of Dublin that day with no sleep, a 20 minute run and a really good story.

Cheers, RyanAir.

A

Here’s a stunningly beautiful photo of us from after our sprint:

And here’s some photos from this week with my family to redeem myself:

My sister and her godmother, Jean and I in an ancient monastery off the coast of Cannes

My mom and I outside our hotel in Paris!

All of us at our amazing dinner (Eiffel Tower in background!)

London Adventures

Its been a few days since we arrived back from our journey of a lifetime and I still feel exhausted from everything that we fit in this past weekend. We left for London on Friday, Dublin on Sunday and came back to Nice Tuesday! Since we did so much (and had a few not-so-great travel experiences), I’m going to be splitting the posts into three: London, Getting to Dublin, and Dublin!

So like I said, Amanda, my roommate, and I left for London on Friday. We had been trying to figure out a way to get to Dublin but it was so expensive to fly there from Nice, but luckily my friend Shannon studied in Dublin last semester and was able to give us a LOT of help! She suggested we try flying through London, but since I had never been to England before, I didn’t want to just fly through, so we spent two nights in a hostel in London.

Amanda and I were so excited to get to England and Ireland that we were basically pacing around all day. Like I said, they were both places we really wanted to see and we were anxious to get going!

We left Nice about 3:15 and were settled in our hostel a few hours later! One of my friends studying abroad had traveled to London and gave us a lot of tips and recommended St. Christopher’s Hostel. It was really great and definitely a fun and different experience. Amanda and I stayed in a room with 6 other girls and shared a bathroom with the rest of the rooms on our floor. It felt a little “5-man” ish but with random people from all over the world.

We dropped our stuff off and then went on a search for CHIPOTLE! Since its so big at home and the only city that really has it is London, we knew that had to be out first stop. And it was as amazing as you’d expect.

The Chipotle was right near Picadilly Square which is like a smaller NY Times Square. We walked around and were amazed by everything- they actually drive bright red double decker buses? Their cabs still look like that? We got a coffee at a really delicious small shop then grabbed a drink at the hostel bar. We called it quits early because we only really had one day in London, so we needed to take full advantage of it.

The next morning we got breakfast and found out about a free walking tour that started at 11, so we had the chance to run over to the Tower Bridge in the day time since we had seen it in the dark the night before, then stopped in the Bourough Street Market (I just love seeing

all the markets here. It has to be my favorite thing to do in Europe). Then we headed out with our tour group (where I ended up speaking French. Are you kidding!? Do you know how excited I was to speak ENGLISH this trip, and of course one of the tour guides was born in Paris. Classic).

Our tour guide was your typical British man with a think accent, very vulgar and spit a lot. It was definitely fun and we saw a lot of the main sites in the short amount of time we had, but I don’t know if I would recommend the walking tour (maybe a bus tour- the walking tour didn’t stop so I have a lack of pictures of some of the cool sites. I don’t even have a picture of me in front of Buckingham Palace! Sigh). Anyways, we saw Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben (with a lot of other random small stops in between).

We didn’t finish up until early afternoon and our whole tour group went to a pub to get some food! Amanda and I got fish and chips, which was actually delicious, and finished it off with an apple pie covered in warm custard. YUM!

We walked back to Big Ben so we could actually see it, since we didn’t really with the tour group, and took some touristy pictures in phone booths. We hung around there for a while because it was so beautiful and busy. Oh, and we had PHENOMINAL weather! Yes, that’s right, we had fantastic weather in one of the rainiest placed in the world. Blue skies, sunny, and I was comfortable in just a sweater and light jacket. So we strolled around for a while then headed back to the hostel to freshen up before our Pub Crawl that night!

We could only stay a few hours at the pubs because we had to get to the airport extremely early the next day, we wanted to take the Underground back which stops running at night and the “pubs” were actually clubs and we were completely underdressed. We had a blast though and met people from all over the world.

We really had hardly any time in London at all so it was awesome to see all of the big sites, but there’s so much more that London has to offer that we’d need weeks to see. It was so amazing being able to take a break from worrying about communicating and just be able to enjoy our time. I always thought London would be too much like the U.S. for me and I wouldn’t like that, but I LOVED IT. It was so nice to feel a little closer to home and its some place I would love to go back and visit.

My next post will be all about our interesting voyage from London to Dublin, so stay tuned!!

Cheerio!

A

P.S. If you missed my video, here's a compilation from my trips!

A Little Video...

Hey y'all!

Here's a video I put together of my trip to London and Dublin. Its pretty amateur, but it gets the job done! Hope you enjoy it (and if you do, let me know and I will try to make more videos of other trips!)


England and Ireland from Amanda Witt on Vimeo.

A

P.S. In case the embedded video doesn't work, here's the link: http://vimeo.com/63720824

Pâques

Since I’ve gone off to college, of course Easter hasn’t been the same as it was when I was younger. One year my parents came down to D.C. for brunch, last year I came back home and celebrated with our good family friends, but this year was much different.

On Saturday, it was raining (of course) so my roommate and I went to the Modern Art Museum here. We’ve wanted to do that on a rainy day, but can never get ourselves motivated to crawl out of bed. It ended up being really cool even though some of the art was dark, but my favorite was one exhibit that sort of mocked the idea of art. Here’s some photos from the museum:

On Sunday, Amanda and I got up early for mass at a church right down the street. The service ended up being in English other than a few French sections and the church was really beautiful. It made me kind of homesick- I’m not sure if I’ve been to mass without my family at all other than getting ashes in the Catholic Student Center at Maryland one year.

I told Amanda about how my dad and I always play a game when we go to church together. When we share a sign of peace, my dad and I always count how many people we shake hands with and then hold our fingers up at the end. A few hours after our service, my dad texted me “11 peace be with you’s!” Obviously it brought a tear to my eye. Luckily though, I get to see my mom, sister and our good family friend in less than two weeks! (Even though I really wish my dad could be here too.)

After mass we got crepes for brunch, then changed out of our church clothes and went to the beach. It felt like 70 degrees and sunny and it was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed there for almost four hours and I even got freckles! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is the just the beginning on beautiful weather.

That being said though, I’m heading for the cold to London and Dublin this weekend! Look out for a blogpost about that!

Until then,

A

P.S. Here's some pictures of a really cut husky puppy on the beach that everyone deserves to see:

(Depuis mon copain a visité et Pâques ce week-end dernier, je me suis senti mal du pays. Ma famille me manque beaucoup et je ne peux pas attendre de les voir bientôt. Pâques était une expérience différente, mais je manquez la célébration avec les amis et la famille de la maison. Mais je n'ai certainement pas l'esprit de la conditions météo!)