Haven’t been on here in such a long time! At the moment I am sitting in class, so bored! I think we should go back Shans!!! -Andie
Guinness, Jameson and U2!
Any stereotype that people have about Ireland and Irish people were definitely confirmed in our stay in Ireland. Irish people like to wear green, drink Guinness and Jameson and have a passionate love for U2 and St. Patrick.
Our arrival to Dublin was exciting because it was the first country in 3 months that speaks English (well apparently English, sometime it was questionable what they were saying with there accents). After sleeping in the Brussels airport the night before we jumped on a bus and headed to check into our hostel at 8 in the morning.
When we arrived at our hostel we dropped our bags off and decided because we had a few hours to kill before we could get into our room that we would do a free walking tour.
The tour was awesome and we learnt all about Ireland and Dublin, but after being up all night and walking for 4 hours a bed was all we wanted!
The next day Shannon and I along with a girl we met in the hostel headed out of Dublin and checked out a few local towns. We visited Dun Laoghaire in which we saw the largest man made habour in Wester Europe. Then we went to Bray and climbed a mountain, well more a hill but it felt like a mountain half way up. And finally we went to Enniskerry in which ended up not having much to see so instead we went to a local pub and met some interesting Irish people who were a little difficult to understand. The whole day we awesome and it was nice to get out of the city and see other parts of Ireland.
Our two nights in Ireland were spent in local pubs listening to local bands in which played awesome Irish music. We also tried both Guinness and Jameson and were not very impressed with either of them. The Guinness was better then the Jameson both neither of us managed more then a sip or two.
Dublin was awesome and a great city to visit. Though our stay was short we managed to see and do everything you are supposed to do in Ireland. Both of us are excited to one day come back and to see what else Ireland has to offer.
Thought our adventure is almost coming to an end we are still having fun! Off to Northern Ireland now!
Andie
The City of Love and Lights!
After our unfortunate and chaotic departure from Barcelona, just getting to Paris seemed like a major accomplishment. We stumbled off the plane walking like zombies from one form of transportation to the next until finally reaching our hotel just outside Paris.
Sparing no time to let ourselves relax, we threw on some clothes and refreshed with a little deodorant and headed out the door to start conquering the city. Within no time we were at the base of the Arc de Triomphe, waking the Champs Élysées, touring the endless halls of the Louvre, checking out Mona, Venus, Napoleon, and the Victory Wings. We strolled along the Sans along the way to Notre Dame and then finally made it to beds where we crashed into the pillows like no ones business.
Our second day in Paris was not exactly spent in Paris, but in the happiest place on Earth… Disneyland! We hung out with Mickey, screamed our lungs out on the Tower of Terror and flew over London on our way to the second star on the right… Neverland! Eurodisney was awesome! It was a great change of pace from staring at beautiful architecture and paintings all day, rough life eh?
Our next day in Paris turned out to be Bastille Day, the French national day! We took out time getting up that day then wandered our way in to town where view checked out the Eiffel Tower and I climbed (Andie decided to pass after seeing the height of it). Climbing the Tower was freakin’ awesome, let me tell you, that is some view.
That evening we met up with two Parisians who we met randomly at lunch. Together we went out for a drink and then headed to the Eiffel Tower greens to watch the best display of fireworks I have ever seen. They lasted and easy 45 minutes, were perfectly timed to some rad disco tunes and best of all were right in surrounding the Eiffel Tower.
Our last full day in Paris was spent shopping and touring around a bit more. We checked out the famous cemetery, saw Jim Morrison’s grave and then headed to the Champs to try our hand at a little shopping. While we had no luck there we did pick up some awesome street art along the Sans.
Paris is exactly what I imagined it to be…Stunning. I now understand all of the lore surrounding it as it truly is the city of love and lights.
Heading to Belgium for a quick and then another long night at an airport… We’re going to be pro’s at sleeping on floors by the end of this, unfortunately.
Vous aimez!
Shannon
