In the airport

So after 2 security points, customs and 2 boarding check points we finally got to where the plane will be boarding at. Laura made a good point that security was more slack when she left Nicaragua than leaving Ireland. Obviously they are more worried about smuggling drugs in from Ireland than central America, go figure. We have about a hour till our flight leaves and should be landing at 1pm Eastern time. It is only 3:30AM eastern time as I write this. I will post a couple of more photos. I took about 650 so I'll have a fun time going through all of those later on. Time to go home! See you soon!

80% of dogs didn't need a leash to behave at the town of Howth.

 

 

 

 

Last day...sad

In honor of our last day of vacation the weather gods decided to bless us with decent weather. We went to an uninhabited island called Ireland's Eye. There use to be some sort of watch tower on it but now it's a bird sanctuary. There were a lot of gulls and something that looked like cormorants (?) that nest on the island. It was very pretty with lots of wildflowers and rocky outcrops. It was also very grown up in areas. We got to some old ruins on one side of the island. Not many people went over there since we had to get through a lot of brush. Wish we has a machete, oh well. It kinda looked like something out of lord of the rings or the lion the witch and the wardrobe. Also while we were waiting for the ferry we watched what was either seals or escaped loch ness monsters outside the harbor following the fishing boats around. I suppose they were probably really just seals.

 

 

 

 

 

Second to last day

Well the end of our trip is in sight :(. Today was our second day in Dublin. We toured Trinity College which was founded in 1591 (I think) by Elizabeth the first. Their big claim to fame is an extensive collection of 1000 year old documents, the most famous being the book of Kells. It was weird to think that the book we were looking at was written in the year 700. They also had one of the original copies of Ireland's declaration of independence. I particularly like the part where it referred to Irishmen and irishwomen. They also had the actual Nobel prize for the first guy to split the atom. It was pretty cool. We wandered around Dublin some more and saw St Patricks cathedral among other things. We lucked out with some sunny (gasp!) weather and came back to the island to do some hiking. We climbed up to (we think) the highest point where we had a great view of the surrounding area.

 

 

First days of Ireland

We finally arrived in Ireland and made our way to a cute bed and breakfast that had over booked and threw us out in the cold dreary weather. Well sunny and 70 and they were very nice and accommodating to the situation according to Laura, but that is just one persons opinion. Then they sent us up a hill to another bed and breakfast that felt sorry for us lonely Americans and took us in. The island is technically part of Dublin, just right outside the main part of the city to the East. It is a port town that is very hilly. However they have fishing boats all over the place so we will get the best seafood around, Yum! By the way it only took us a hour to walk and find the first one. According to the information center they have never heard of Nashville road and the maps the use look like the were drawn and colored by 8 year olds. Anyways we finally got settled and decided to go for a walk on the cliffs. It reminded me of the ocean side in Oregon, very rocky and lots of cliffs and hills. We did hike down the face of a cliff to a beach for some photos. It was quite dangerous, but us experienced hikers made it down. The next day we came into Dublin to do some exploring. We went on the Guinness brewery tour, which is like Disney world for brewery tours. Up top was a circle cafe area that had an amazing view of Dublin. It was probably the best place in the whole city to see all of Dublin. As far as the tour goes I can say that Arthur Guinness was a genius! The reason he used Dublin for his brewery was to use the crisp clean mountain water flowing down to the city. He was also smart to sign a lease for 40 pounds a year for a period of 9,000 years! It was very sunny and warm the first day and now it's very cloudy and rainy. I would say it was 60 today, but the lows only get down to 50 at night. Might be similar to San Francisco. So we didn't get to be outside quite as much and now on our way back to the island to get warm.

 

 

 

 

 

Onwards to Wales

Well we've left sunny England for raining Wales on our way to Ireland. Thank you England, we had a wonderful time. We got to see a lot of the mountainous Welsh countryside from the train. It was very pretty with rocky outcrops and covered in wildflowers. We got to meet a couple of very interesting Welsh guys on the train fresh out of prision on their way home. I'm not quite sure what they did to get into prision, but they seemed very pleasent on the train ride. I would have to say their accent was so heavy ot was hard to make out what they were saying half the time, but if all ex-convicts are that nice around here no wonder their isn't much murder crimes, just low level crimes. At some point in my life we should come back and do some hiking. We're staying tonight in a town on the coast where the ferries have been going back and forth from Dublin to Wales for probably a thousand years or so (I was told the story about 7 years ago so I don't really remember the details). Anyway we walked around the harbor and town for a little while until it started raining pretty good and then went back to eat. Tomorrow we sail for Ireland!

 

Last days of the Olympics

So we had a couple of busy days so I haven't been able to update till tonight. Yesterday was our free day to do some exploring in the city. We wanted to go to Westminster Abbey, but didn't quite make it in. We were able to watch some contemporary dancing in the park there though and the smaller "chapel" next door. I think my sister would have really enjoyed it. So we went walking and ran into a Korean street band walking down the side street playing some awesome music! We can't wait to go to Korea to hear some more of their music:) Margaret. We also stop by Hamley's, which is their super toy store like FAO Schwartz in New York and since I'm just a big kid it was awesome! So after some more walking we finally get to our destination. We saw this play called Billy Elliot, which was about the strike with miner workers and boy trying to live his dream in London. Thank you Margaret for a great time:). So about the time we got back to the flat is 1AM...ouch that is late. Today was our last event, tennis. We got to see a doubles match with Bryan brothers or we think they are brothers since they look the same and have the same last name. We also got to see a singles match with Maria Kirilenko and Petra Kvitová. Unfortunately we were not able to go into Center court on court number 1. Only the lucky ones got to get in there I suppose. Or the ones that paid a lot more than we did. It was still an amazing site to just see and walk around inside of Wimbledon. That has been about it for the past two days. I'm actually at the pub right now eating our last meal in Oxford. We will get on the train tomorrow and head towards Wales for the day before we go to Dublin. I'm not sure about Internet connection there, but I hope I'll be able to continue to write to everyone. Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Morning!

Wow this was a great night. We got to sleep in till 8:30! Today is our free day to do some more exploring and take it a little slower than the other days. Tonight we do have a play to go to at 7pm, but thats a good ways off. I'm going to back the bus up to yesterday though.... We only had one event, one person canoeing. The event was held about 30 min or so outside of London on the North side where there is a park and lake. It is a brand new white water facility that was man made instead of using an existing river. Since the event was outside it rained pretty much all day. Nothing to bad though, just light rain and then there was a little bit of heavy rain for 30 min. Today is going to be gorgeous with the high of 73 and sunny. Back at the event we got to watch the Semi-Finals and Finals. Only 12 canoes were in the semi-final and it was judged by going through all the gates cleanly and putting up the fastest time on the course. In the end it was a French guy who won and brought home his third gold medal from this event. Laura was pulling for the Aussie since he was an engineer but he didn't get a medal. He did make it to the final 8 in the finals though. After the canoeing we went back into London to the London Tower and the Tower Bridge. They had the Olympic rings hanging on the bridge that we wanted to get a closer look at. So we just walked around that area a bit and then went to a pub for dinner. I got some fish and chips, Laura got the same and our friend and host Jennifer got the burger special. It was very good and I would like to point out that the fish and chips here are actually served with mushed peas. So if you order traditional fish and chips in the States and do not get mushed peas, just remind them that it is not traditional then. At this time it was time for journey back to the flat and ended up getting back around 11. All in all it was a great day and will keep you posted about our journey today.