Our first problem with booking through this company was more than likely the fact that we used a third party website to book through. It was similar to something of expedia.com or something along those lines. After we had found out that our friends weren't going to be able to go we decided that maybe we should try calling the company and canceling our flight, it was actually the websites fault in general. After being put on hold for over an hour we finally got to talk to someone only to be told that we could not cancel our flights. We decided we were going to make the best of it and just stick it out and go to Dublin anyway. As the weeks went by we made a joke about the trip and how awkward it was going to be that it would just be the two of us walking around Dublin by ourselves. My credit card never even got charged for the flight so we also joked that they probably wouldn't even let me on the plane. I probably said that maybe a few too many times, because I jinxed myself.
On Thursday we left school straight from my last class. We took the tube to the train station and took an express train straight to the airport. Thank god we got there early because all hell was about to break lose. We got up to the check in spot, I gave them my passport, only to find out that I literally didn't have a ticket. What ended up happening, bizarrely enough, is that cheapoair, the third party company we used managed to combine my ticket information with my friend Jenna's information (even though we booked on two separate computers with two separate credit cards.) After about another hour on the phone with the company they finally scrambled around and got me a ticket. We were incredibly close to turning around and going back to school and screwing the whole Dublin trip in general. I've decided now that I'm home, maybe it was a sign from the Gods.
After a very quick plane ride over to Dublin, we were in for quite another treat. We had no idea, but the day we decided to fly over there was Arthur Guinness day, so when we got there, everyone was drunk. On our walk to our hostel we saw people brawling in the streets and drunk people stumbling around everywhere. We were definitely not in the mood. We finally got to our hostel, our first hostel experience by the way, and it was weird! Because we had spent a decent amount of money on our plane ride we tried to find a cheap hostel and the cheapest one we found was in a 12 bed female "dorm" so we were rooming with 10 other females, some of which didn't even speak english! This was just adding onto our experience, but we just kept telling each other, "it's all part of it!" What good vacation doesn't have some fun stories to go along with it! Who would have thought it could get better, or worse...
We went to bed, woke up the next morning, had a quick breakfast and decided to head out for the day. They have double decker "hop on hop off" tour of Dublin buses everywhere. We decided since there was nothing really that we wanted to do that we would buy a ticket for one of those buses. It was actually quite a good deal because you could get off at the stop that you wanted to get off at, tour whatever you wanted to tour and wait for the next bus to come around and hop right back on. We decided that our first stop would be at the Jameson factory. This was a pretty cool place! We got to learn how Jameson is made and what makes it different from scotch and Jack Daniels. At the end of the tour we had a complementary drink with Jameson in it, which was actually my first time having Jameson. To my surprise it wasn't that bad! After that we hopped back on the bus and decided to finish up the rest of the tour that they gave. We got off at one stop to do a little souvenir shopping which was fun and successful. I got a really cute bracelet with clovers on it, a shot glass, a long sleeve Irish rugby shirt and some post cards! After that we went and got a really good dinner and then met up with our friend Megan who was there with another group of girls.
Jenna and me outside the Jameson factory
The next day we woke up, met back up with Megan and decided to do some more souvenir shopping. After we stopped at the store and bought a few more things we decided to walk a little ways down the street to get some breakfast at a restaurant that we thought would be nice. Unfortunately, what was a really good breakfast ended up being a really bad time. At the end of our meal I went to pick up my purse and realized it was a lot lighter than it was when we walked in. I had been carrying around my iPad because of the International plan that I have on it and was using it not only as a map but to look things up, where they were, etc. That might have been bad idea number one. I opened my purse and immediately saw that my iPad was no longer there. I started searching through my bag and realized my wallet was gone as well. I started panicking. We quickly paid and went right back to the souvenir store, the last place I had had my wallet. The owners were extremely friendly and helpful and went back and looked at the security films where they saw me put my wallet back in my bag, zip my bag and leave. From there we went to the police station to report my things stolen. Again, they were very helpful and told me that they would go back to the restaurant, where we all decided we thought it happened and they would look at the cameras there. While we waited for the criminal report to be written up we decided to go have some Irish coffee. Thank god for Jenna and Megan this weekend because I don't know what I would have done without them. While we were at the cafe we then realized that my American phone was missing as well and that it was stolen with my other things. Things just kept turning for the worse and I was not a happy camper.
After going back and forth to the police station and calming down a bit we finally got our day started. We walked around a little bit and then decided it was only right to do the Guinness tour. Surprisingly it was really fun and interesting. It was also very similar to the Jameson tour, just different alcohol obviously. We got to have a little sample and then when we finally made it up to the fourth floor we were taught how to properly pour a Guinness and got to do it ourselves! We of course got to drink the beer afterwards. To my surprise, since I'm not much of a beer girl in the first place, I actually enjoyed the Guinness. Whether it was because I had had quite the horrible day and was just valuing any type of liquid to calm me down or that I actually just have the right taste buds for it I drank almost all of it!
Megan, Jenna and me outside the Guinness tour!
:)
Its official!
At the end of the tour we went to a small little restaurant for some authentic Irish food and walked around a bit. We got to see some street performers singing Irish music and watched some people in the streets dance. That was by far a really cool thing for me to see and really made me think this is what Ireland really is all about. Afterwards we went back to the hostel to get a good nights sleep.
This morning we woke up early, got to the airport and headed "home" to London. After Paris last weekend I was happy to be home in London, but after this weekend in Dublin I was ecstatic! It's really unfortunate that this had to happen and I don't want to have bad memories about Ireland at all, but nothing worked out in my favor at all this weekend. I kept saying "it's all apart of the experience" and in my head I kept reminding myself to appreciate all my opportunities and experiences, but maybe I shouldn't value them all. I've definitely learned a lot from this trip though! If you're not fully charged for a flight, you don't have one. Do NOT bring your iPad around with you anywhere, and if you do, don't let it leave your lap, EVER! And always, always, always keep your money and credit cards in separate places, it is not a fun feeling, feeling actually and literally broke.
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