On my four flights home.

Four flights to get home? YEP. You read that right. I had to fly back to Brussels so that I could fly from Brussels to the States. Sunday morning I got through security at the Manchester airport with three hours to spare. I grabbed a cappuccino from the bar and settled in to catch up on some reading and writing. It was fantastic and so, so relaxing. At around 10:30am, I started noticing groups of people getting beers from the bar. And then I remembered. The airport is a no-judgment zone. Nobody cares. Do what you want. So I went for it.

Why not?

The flight I was waiting for was the one to Norway - which I was actually super excited about - it's another country I can add to my list! Some people may debate that it doesn't count, that I was "only in the airport." BUT I did also walk outside to get from the plane to the airport so that argument would be invalid. Since I wasn't flying on a budget airline for this flight, I got to check my backpack! When I was checking in for the flight, the guy asked me, "Do you want to check you bag?" I was like, "Um, is it free?" He looked at me like I was crazy. "Of course!" A half a second later my backpack was on the scale ready to be checked. It was great to walk around the airport and pretend like I was a normal person.

I was a bit nervous about my 30 minute layover in Oslo. Granted, probably not as nervous as I should have been, but I still wondered a little if I would definitely make it. But thanks to Norwegian efficiency, I was off my plane and in the next one in under 15 minutes! And THAT is with going through passport control! 

Got my passport stamped and everything! No one can tell me I wasn't in Norway.

On my flight from Oslo to Brussels, I sat next to a super nice pilot that got all these extra treats from the flight attendants - which he in turn shared with me!

At the airport in Brussels, it took me FOREVER to figure out those stupid pay phones again... but I finally did and the people from the Zav center came and picked me up. I had this whole plan to shower and get dressed up and go to a bar in Brussels one last time... 

But this is what I did instead. 

Walked to my favorite kebab place and grabbed my favorite beer. Last night in Europe well spent.

The next morning I got a ride to the airport. I had gotten out cash to pay them for the ride and for letting me stay there for the other night - but they said it was all free! I then had all these extra euros that I didn't know what to do with, so I went to a chocolate shop in the airport and bought my family A LOT of chocolate! 

On my flight to Frankfurt, I was chilling and reading my book. The guy next to me would not stop commenting every two minutes on what he was reading from my book over my shoulder. I was so annoyed. Also, he had a really thick accent, so I couldn't have even had a great conversation with him if I tried... nor did I want too. Get your own book dude.

My flight from Frankfurt to Philadelphia was everything I hoped it would be. There was no weird guy reading over my shoulder and I had my own TV to myself and I had free alcohol. Those are the flights that I wouldn't even mind if they were longer. It was a great 9 hours.

I watched some great movies, met some interesting people and was home before I knew it!

On Manchester

Saturday consisted of a lot of wandering around and catching up - who's dating whom and studying what and so on and so forth. Oh and ya know, the unavoidable talk of politics. Norway is way up there on the far left and Socialism scale... and I, as I'm sure you know, am not. To put it in perspective: compared to the Norwegian government - Obama is right wing. So yeah - politics - we do not agree on. BUT we did have a fabulous time and saw some super cool things, like a library with manuscripts of the Bible from like 200 AD. We also went to some other museum that I didn't understand at all, so I have nothing to say about it.

Wandering through Manchester!

We had forgotten that since it was Valentine's Day, EVERYTHING was booked - but after failing at one place, this delicious Asian restaurant in Chinatown made room for us!

Note Johannes and Harold in the mirror!

Our next adventure was the escape room! Now, what is an escape room? Well, basically you pay to be handcuffed and locked in a small jail cell with your friends and you have an hour to find clues and decipher codes to break out of prison - it was SO much FUN!

...We didn't make it out.

I think that we made a valiant effort to escape. I mean we did make it out of the cell, we just had a whole other room that we also had to escape from. So we paid to be locked up basically. But it was SO worth it. We then had some drinks at the dorm...

So normal to them... but so weird to me! At Liberty not only could we not drink in the rooms, but we couldn't even have BOYS in our room. 

We then headed to a bar and then bed since we all had an early morning ahead of us! The boys had a hike at 8:30am, which meant that I had to head to the airport then too. We scrambled all of our things together and headed our separate ways - after we took a two second ride in a taxi because Christopher thought it was necessary OF COURSE.

Johannes: "Wait, so how are we gonna get from the grocery store to the University?"

Christopher: "Uh.... Taxi!"

He takes taxis so much that they say, "Hello, Christopher" when he calls the taxi company. He actually has a problem.

On leaving Dublin.

I woke up to my last day in Dublin with a mix of sadness, apprehension and excitement. Sadness that I was about to leave this city that I was just starting to understand and get to know. Apprehension that I was still in bed, hadn't packed and didn't know what time check out was. And EXCITEMENT - that I still had a full morning of doing whatever I wanted - granted they would let me leave my backpack behind after I checked out.

I raced downstairs to make sure that I had not missed check out - I still had 30 minutes. I then packed up all of my belongings once more (in the dark since all of my roommates were still asleep at 10 am) and headed out with a skip in my step because I was not weighed down by my enormous backpack. 

It was a beautiful, sunny morning - perfect to stroll around and take pictures - so that is just what I did, as I sipped my coffee from the little shop right next to my hostel.

It was the perfect way to say goodbye to this city full of character. I took some great videos of myself reminiscing about my time in Dublin - those can be seen in my video journal of this trip - the release date for that is still TBA. I didn't have to use my map once because the city is so easy to navigate. As long as you stay near the river, you can figure out where you are based on which bridge you are near. Each bridge has a specific name and a story.

This bridge is a walking only bridge and people used to have to pay 2 pence (or something like that) to cross it. Now, of course, it is free! Many friendly homeless folks seem to have taken up residence on this bridge.

They decorated the bridge for Valentine's Day!

So beautiful, right?!

I lost track of time a bit - well not so much lost track of it as disregarded it. Right when I decided that I should probably head back to the hostel to get my bag, it started raining - a clear sign that it really was time to leave Ireland. I snagged a bus to the airport just in time, and I was off! Thankfully, I had just enough time to drink one more Guinness at the Dublin airport.

Beautiful - aye?

And then the most magical thing happened as I was looking out the window, sipping on my Guinness. The rain stopped...

And BOOM. Definitely a sign that I'll be back. Also, I bet I could sell this to Ryanair. Could make a great ad out of this picture!

Ryanair is very strict about luggage. If your bag is over a certain size, then you have to check it, and it costs an extra $15. If you try to bring a bag that's too big onto the plane, they can charge you $50 at the gate. So, I had gotten away with it once, so I figured I'd go for it. There were two people that were checking boarding passes - a man and a woman. Guess who I steered clear of? The woman. And good thing, she was yelling at the people next to me about the size of their bag as the nice gentleman flashed me a smile and let me right on the plane. Moral of the story? Women can just be plain mean sometimes - something to remember in such situations. 

I sat next to a nice couple that had just been in Ireland for their honeymoon - they rented a car and drove all around Ireland - sucha great idea. But they did have to fly home early because of all of the snow that was bombarding the states - so annoying!

The flight to Manchester went smoothly, without a single glitch. The real trouble came when I tried to get to the University of Manchester to meet up with my friends. The bus was thirty minutes late and took about twice as long as it was supposed to. When I asked Christopher where I should get off - all he said was "the end of curry mile." As if I'm supposed to know what that is! I asked the bus driver to tell me where that was and he told me right where to get off - so I did! 

Turns out he and Christopher of different perceptions of where "the end of curry mile" is. "What is this curry mile?" you may be wondering... well, let me tell you. It is a mile of Turkish restaurants, bars, hookah lounges - things like that. It was sooo sketchy. Well, the difference in opinion of where this "curry mile" ended resulted in me wandering up and down the street with my huge backpack - lost and forlorn, with no way of contacting Christopher. I went into a few places to ask if they had wifi - they did not. 

Thankfully, I eventually walked by a barber shop that Christopher had stepped into while he was looking for me because his friends were getting haircuts. Who knows what would have happened to me if he hadn't found me then - my mace had been previously confiscated!

After freaking out for a little bit about how horrible he is with directions - we headed to a comedy show - which was AMAZING! There were six different comedians for two hours. I, being the only native English speaker among us, definitely understood the most. I love English accents, so not also did I understand more, I just thought that everything they said was 5X as funny because they were saying it in an English accent - so I may have been laughing a bit obnoxiously.

Harold, Christopher and I

After the show, we met up with Johannes (my other Norwegian friend - he goes to Durham, so he took a train to Manchester) and got some kebabs on curry mile! The evening started out a bit stressful, but ended up being absolutely wonderful!!

On the Cliffs of Insanity.

If I thought that the day before was early, then I was really in for a wake up call. This bus left at 7:10am - thankfully I knew where I was going this time! I made sure I had time for my Starbucks run, of course. The tour guide for this trip was an interesting one, that's for sure. She was obsessed with Lord of the Rings... and herself. If people were talking while she was talking, she would very obnoxiously say "sssshhhhh" into the microphone. That's just not enjoyable for anyone. 

I was fully prepared for this trip. Maybe that's why so many horrible things happened to me the day before - so that I would be 100% prepared for an even more spectacular adventure. We enjoyed a 3 hour drive to the Cliffs of Moher. This group was a bit of a different mix than the day before. There was many other girls traveling alone (and when I say girls I also mean the two 50 year old women who took an extensive amount of selfies).

When we arrived at the cliffs, the guide told us about all the movies that shot scenes at the cliffs, like Harry Potter and THE PRINCESS BRIDE - hence the title. As soon as I got out of the bus, I walked over to the edge and looked down, imagining Inigo Montoya helping Westley up over the edge so that they could engage in their epic sword fight. 

What great childhood memories were brought to mind!

I then put in my headphones, pulled out my camera and began walking along the cliffs. When you're walking along the cliffs, they don't seem real. Around every turn, the view gets better and better. As one couple said to me, "We are getting SO many Facebook cover photos." Not exactly where my mind jumps when I'm standing on the edge of a cliff... but it is true.

I actually wish that I could get this picture to this guy (he's the one that was taking all of the cover photos!) I was absolutely terrified for him. Then his girlfriend said, "You are pretty brave for a guy who is 'afraid of heights.'" I was so impressed - I would never get that close to the edge and no part of me is afraid of heights.

I was feeling pretty adventurous as I climbed over the wall to walk closer to the edge of the cliff, but then I came across a photographer even more dedicated than I.

Liiike I don't even know what she's standing on!

Seeing that she was clearly an experienced photographer - or something - I got her to take some pictures of me!

My other friend that was leaning over the edge of the cliff also took some pictures for me and told me to make sure I made it my cover photo... I ended up using a different one, but I do love this picture!

You can already see that I must have been beyond grateful that my camera had been dead the day before and not on this day. I can't even imagine not being able to show people the beauty of the Cliffs of Moher! It's amazing how many people you meet when you're just walking along the edge of cliffs!

We piled back into the bus and headed to some more cliffs - only for a fifteen minute stop this time so that we could take pictures, but we sure all made the most of those fifteen minutes! This is where I bonded with my Croatian friend over our love of nature and cliffs! Not too hard to love either of those things.

I was actually TERRIFIED for this shot. I made the mistake of looking down and realizing that I was standing a foot away from the edge on a wet rock. But hey, I love this picture!

These cliffs were actually where none other then J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis came for inspiration for their mythological lands. So in other words, where Narnia and Middle Earth were born. 

Makes sense right?!

We then journeyed onward towards Galway... driving along the sea the whole way.

The drive wasn't so bad.

We arrived in Galway and after a short walking tour with some fun stories, were sent on our way to explore the town. Off I went again with Julia's amazing camera to see what beauty I could attempt to capture. 

Incredible the things you stumble across when wandering along rivers in Ireland.

We were strongly encouraged to find a bathroom before going back to the bus because apparently the highway in Ireland does not have rest stops. So, I decided to grab a beer before taking my pee break at the pub called "The King's Head." It was opened by the Irishman, "Stubbers," who executed Charles I because no one else would. With the money he was given for completing this task, he bought himself a pub - what a stand-up guy.

I then met up with my Croatian friend and chatted with her all about how people back home thought that we were crazy for just heading off to Ireland alone... don't you feel better about it now? Look at all the fun that can be had when you travel alone?!

After 2 and a half hour ride home, the bus dropped me off right in front of my hostel! I grabbed a few things and then headed off for one more night of Irish stew, Guinness and Smithwicks (Irish red ale from Kilkenny). Oh! and live Irish music. The singer ended his show and then walked over to me at the bar and said, "Don't drink too much Guinness, girlie." Close to how the love story goes in P.S. I Love You right? Except in that movie the singer wasn't 50 and they actually had a conversation and fell in love, but hey, same difference!

This was just another one of those days where I took to heart that pictures are worth a thousand words - hope you enjoy them all!

On smoke and lessons learned.

Intersting title, huh? Well, interesting day...

Have I mentioned why I originally wanted to go to Ireland? Well, let me tell you. I was looking at a map one day (this is after I had already decided to go to Great Britain because I wanted to go back to London and I wanted to see more of the UK than I had four years before - and they speak English), and I thought, "Wow, Ireland is so close to Great Britain - bet that would be easy to get to." And the decision was made. Also, in movies,  girls are always safe when they go there alone - so there you have it. I had two perfectly logical reasons to go. 

I woke up at the crack of dawn for my day tour - giving myself plenty of time to get to the bus on time. It was leaving at 8:10am for Kilkenny. I may have ended up leaving my hostel late - me? Weird, I know. So unlike me. I HAD to go to Starbucks though and get a coffee and some food - wouldn't be able to survive the hour and a half bus ride without it. True story though. After leaving Starbucks I had ten minutes to find where the bus left from - I had never been there before, of course. The tourist info guy had said it was at Gresham Hotel down the road. So I walked down the road. After four minutes - a little bit of panic started to build up inside of me... but then I saw it! Buses parked in front of... Gresham Hotel across the street! I headed that way and went to board my bus, thinking I had made it early woohoo, yay me! The tour guide said, "Mary?" Woooo how'd she know my name? Oh. I'm the last one. Oops. And just like that we were on our way to Kilkenny! Me and all the retirees on their Valentine's vacation!

One thing that I forgot to mention. The night before, I couldn't find my camera charger and my camera was on low battery. And somehow, my stupid self forgot to charge my phone - so that was the situation as I headed into the Irish countryside. The first stop was Dunmore cave, where we learned of a major Viking battle that took place there. My favorite part of cave tours is always when they turn off all of the lights because no matter how much your eyes attempt to adjust - they can't because there is absolutely no light. It's just so cool!

The next stop was the town of Kilkenny. While in the caves, my camera had died, so when we got to the town I headed to the camera store that my guide had recommended. They did not have the charger that I needed, but they did have a universal charger that the owner promised would work with my battery. I wandered through the town and soaked in the beauty of the quaint town - I have no pictures of the town, but I did manage to snap one of the castle.

The last picture that I took with my phone before it died.

Shortly after we got back onto the bus, I asked the tour guide if I could plug in my (very expensive) universal charger that I had just bought to charge my camera. She had a spot for a car charger (which was of course a part of the package). I was finally able to settle in, knowing that when we got to where P.S. I Love You and Braveheart were filmed, that my camera battery would be charged and ready to go. 

After five minutes of peace, the tour guide screamed into the microphone as she was describing the scenery. I looked toward the front of the bus, and saw smoke pouring from the front of the bus. And then I saw the smoke coming towards me. The charger that I had just bought was smoking, and the guide, seeing no other option, unplugged it and raced it back to me and placed it in my hands. So, there I was, holding my smoking charger. Not exactly how I expected my day going. I definitely got some looks.

We then stopped where Braveheart was filmed, and I did not have a camera of any kind. So I soaked in as much as I could to hold onto as a memory. I then had the brilliant idea of asking my guide to take a picture of me, which she graciously did.

This picture doesn't do it justice - but so thankful I got A picture!

The next stop was just as beautiful. And my guide let me take her phone, so that I could at least get a few pictures - and then she sent them all to me later! Although right when I really wanted to get a picture of something - her phone died too. I was so mad, but I couldn't help but laugh. I guess God really wanted me to learn to not lean on technology and just live in the moment and really appreciate His beautiful creation that I was observing. 

Never before have I thought that a graveyard was so Beautiful.

I tried to charge my camera again when we were in the hotel at this stop, but it didn't work. My guide then offered to front me the money for the charger and then take it back to the store the next time she was there, which was amazing!

When we arrived back in Dublin, I was feeling a bit defeated. After finally buying a camera charger, I booked a reservation at a show for the evening. I took a shower and got all dressed up and then went to a three course meal and two hour show featuring authentic Irish music and dancing. Because that is what you do when you're traveling alone. No one is there to say, "It's OK that the bus almost caught on fire because of you." So you buy yourself a fancy night out and then all is well with the world again.

The final course - it was divine.

On Ireland, my new favorite country

Never before have I been so proud of a country that I am not a descendant of. The Irish people just have a way of tricking you into thinking that you are also Irish. By the end of my short visit there, I was like, "Yeah, Hozier is from Ireland! And the Script! And Guinness. We ROCK." And then someone would bring up that Obama is from Ireland, and I quickly would be brought back to reality... "Oh yeah, I'm not Irish like him..." Ha.

Tuesday, I let myself sleep in. Well, this was also the morning that I thought one of my roommates was in the bathroom... When in reality, I ended up getting ready in the dark every morning because they all loved to sleep in until God knows when. Feeling fully refreshed, I headed to the tourist information office straightaway. 

Now that's another amazing thing about traveling in the winter - the tourist people don't have that much business, so they treat you extra special... At least in my experience! Not only did he spend so much time telling me everywhere I should go in Dublin, but he also explained to me all of the day trips that I should and could make from there. When two ladies came in asking for bus tickets, he said, "Are ya students?" Their reply, "No..." "I'ma ask you again, are ya students?" "Yes!" they said. And just like that they got cheap tickets. 

He asked me how long I was staying in Dublin for - I replied with a "Ummm, I don't know. I should really look at plane tickets though... til Friday possibly?" He looked at me with a horrified expression on his face and replied with, "You're an interesting kind of traveler..." Why, yes. Yes, I am.

With a good idea of what I wanted to accomplish, I grabbed a coffee and muffin from a local bakery and hopped on the bus. 

Another perk of winter travel: best seat on the bus... because no one else is on it!

After a short ride and nice little tour, I hopped off at the National Museum of Archeology. Now, you may be thinking, "...Why?!" Well, let me tell you. Rick Steves highly recommended it, and it was free! After wandering lost for a bit in the museum, I remembered that Rick had a walk of the highlights of the museum! I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this museum. Seeing so many ancient artifacts with incredible stories was so fascinating. From gold jewelry from 2000BC to Viking swords from the 12th century - I learned so much and soaked it all in. This brings me to one of my favorite stories from the day.

I overheard this interaction between a 5th grade student and his teacher...

Student (standing in front of ancient Viking sword, holding his iPad): "Hold on, everyone, get out of the way. I'm going to take a selfie with this!"

Teacher: "If I hear that word come out of your mouth one more time, I'm gonna take that thing from ya and break it over your head!"

I wanted to give him a standing ovation and applaud - it was such a brilliant statement that I've never had the courage to say to my friends... I have been inspired.

I then headed to my favorite part of the museum. It was a special exhibit with human remains of people that were found in Irish bogs anywhere from 200 BC to 200 AD. It held my attention for so long and the time just flew. Take a look.

Yep, you're seeing it right... the hair is still there from 100 BC! SO CRAZY. 

They had a detailed description listed by each body of where they came from and how they died. They could even tell that the second guy used a certain kind of hair product from Rome. 

After the history geek in me was fully appeased, I headed back to catch another bus with absolutely no clue where I wanted to go next. I stared at the map, pretty sure that I was going to go to St. Patrick's Cathedral - felt like an Irish thing to do. Then everyone started getting off at the Guinness Brewery... now if that's not a very Irish thing to do then I do not know what is... And when in doubt, follow the crowd, right? Well, at least, that's what I did. 

Now, for some people the Guinness brewery is a pilgrimage. If you are thinking of going on a pilgrimage, I wouldn't recommend this one. Thankfully, I had been warned that the brewery is disappointing. It is not actually a tour of the brewery - it is more like a museum and fake brewery to show tourists how the factory began and how everything is done - which is cool I guess - but after touring both a working brewery and a working distillery in Scotland, this was definitely not on the same level of authenticity. There was a tasting room that was pretty cool and I did get an included (or "free" as they like to say) pint of Guinness at the end.

When I was in line for the tasting room, I observed another funny interaction. 

Guide: "So the free tasting room is right through here."

Irish guy: "But where do I get my pint?"

Guide: "Upstairs, but there's free tastes right through here."

Irish guy: "Thanks, but I want the pint."

The Irish are often a one-track-mind kind of people.

 My "free" pint with Guinness stew at the end of the tour!

My next stop was Dublin Castle. I navigated my way there with my trusty map. I could have taken the bus, but I would have had to loop all the way around because we had already passed it. So I basically navigated by following the many steeples in Dublin and made it without a problem to the castle, where I did a self-guided tour. I couldn't stay too long because I had to get back to the tourist-info guy before he closed because he told me if I booked the tour through him, he would give me a discount. 

So I booked my day tours for the next two days through him and then grabbed the bus on its last loop through the city. I just sat at the front of the bus on the top deck and listened to the fascinating history of everything on the tour for a full acclimation to the city of Dublin. When the tour ended, I realized just what a perfect location my hostel was in because the bus dropped me off right in front of it!

I then headed out with my computer to find a nice, quiet restaurant at which to plan the rest of my trip. Wanting to be healthy, I ordered a salad - mistake. I was hungry again by the time that I left. I did buy two plane tickets though and figure out where I was staying for the rest of the trip. 

I feel like I may be stressing some of you out... ferrying into a country not knowing how I'm going to leave the country. Booking my hostel a day at a time as I figure out that I don't want to leave the city. I originally booked it for one night and ended up staying for four. I wouldn't dare traveling this way if I was with other people - because then when something inevitably goes wrong everyone gets stressed out and the blame game ensues (this is when things aren't planned ahead for a group.) But when you're alone, you have only yourself to blame - so why not wing everything? It adds excitement. I love it. Keeps me on my toes. 

On towns being smaller than pecieved: Conwy, Wales

Monday morning. I had the hardest time getting out of bed. Also, I had been too tired the night before and hadn't packed. So I got out of bed - much too late - and threw everything in my bag, splashed some water on my face, brushed my teeth and walked out the door. It was just one of those mornings where all my faith in my optimistic self was restored. I woke up late. Walked out the door late. Made it to the train station late, but got on the train without a problem. Things just worked out. They always do.

Ten minutes later, I realized I shouldn't have felt quite so triumphant. My glasses hadn't made it into my bag in my rushed packing of the morning. It was then that it hit me. I've been to Europe four times. This was the third time that I had lost my glasses while in Europe. I'm stupid. I need to be more careful with things that are that freaking expensive. To set anyone's mind at ease - mainly my dad's as he reads this - all is OK now. I emailed the hostel and they are sending them to me, so all is not lost :)

Apparently when one wants to stop at Conwy, Wales, they need to tell the conductor, else the train just doesn't stop there. Definitely underestimated the size of the town. Thankfully, there was one other backpacker on the train, who knew this and had requested the stop. If not, I would have been in real trouble. When I got off the train, I saw a building straight ahead that said, "Visitor's Center." I thought, "aha, I am in luck!" No. It was closed. I then pulled out my handy Rick Steves' book and read that I shouldn't go to the "Visitor's Center" anyway. What I needed to find was the Tourist Info.

I followed the map and in probably two minutes I was there. Now, my biggest concern for the day was whether or not I was going to be able to leave my bag somewhere or not. That was another reason that I wasn't planning on staying long in Wales... If I was going to walk around with a 12 Kilo backpack, then I did not want to be there for the entire day. This leads into me falling in love with the Welsh and Irish people. I think I may have been the only client at the TI that entire day, and the owner graciously let me leave my bag behind the desk for the length of my stay... "unofficially" of course.

With a skip in my step - I could not hide my joy of having that ginormous weight lifted - I headed to the castle. I didn't know what to expect when I went to the castle... Oh, and by headed to the castle, I mean I walked across the street. I don't even know how else to explain how small and quaint this town was. I thought that it would maybe take me 30 minutes to explore the castle. Nope. It took me two hours. It had so many rooms and towers. The view from each tower was more exceptional than the last. 

It was another one of those "silly grin on my face for hours" deals. In my entire time there, I saw maybe 10 other people in the castle. It was just the perfect time to go. Yes, I was cold, but the pictures - with absolutely no one in them - were worth any frostbite that I may have accrued. One tower would have a perfect view of the bay - another tower a perfect view of the sun in between two mountains. Just beyond thankful for Julia's camera which made it possible for me to capture, to the best of my ability, the beauty of Conwy.

After a perfect afternoon tea and lunch, I hit the highlights of Rick Steves' walking tour of the town and then headed to the train station. 

Now get this - in order to get picked up from Conwy, one must wave down the train, or else they won't stop. I was the only person on the platform, so whether or not I would get on that train (that only frequented Conwy once an hour) was completely up to me. I accepted this challenge... seeing as I had no choice. I stood on the edge of the platform and waved my hand wildly as the train pulled up, and it was worth all the energy I put into it. 

The conductor stopped the train for me, gave me a discount on my ticket for no apparent reason (because he's Welsh and he's awesome?) and I settled in for my ride through the countryside of Wales. Which was gorgeous. I wish pictures and videos from trains turned out well, but they don't. You'll just have to go yourself. With me. I'm going back.

So there I was on the train, headed to Holyhead, where the ferry to Wales embarked for Ireland. Did I have a ticket? Nah. Was I sure that I would be able to figure out where to get one and how to get on the ferry when I got there? Yep. Was I right? Yep. Thank you optimism for another win. When I went up to the ticket booth to buy my ferry ticket, the guy said, "Do you have a rail pass?" "No..." I replied. "Ah, yeah ya do," he said - and just like that my ticket price was cut in half. And just like that my love and respect for the Welsh soared.

The ride on the ferry went by much too quickly, but I guess, in the end, I was happy that I got to Ireland sooner. I had spent so much time the night before trying to figure out how I would get from the ferry to my hostel. Nothing made sense. 

This time around, I was much more realistic than usual, and positive that I could not figure out how to get there, I took a taxi. I feel like, in the end, taxis are never worth it. This one ended up being more than half the price of my ferry ticket. But this taxi was worth every penny.

The moment I climbed into the cab, the driver said, "Where ya from, girlie." My reply - obviously, "The states!" "Oh, I'm sorry." I start laughing, thinking to myself how funny Irishmen are when he glares at me and says,"You people think that we have such a great sense of humor, but really we're just rude and mean everything we say." And this is the moment I fell in love with the Irish people. I have read that they have the "gift of gab." But it's something so much more than that. Not only can they talk to whomever about whatever... They actually care. You can see it in their eyes and in their actions. Businessmen on their way home from work sit down and chat with the homeless and beggars on the street. It seemed like every Irishman I came in contact with immediately took on the role of either brother or father to me. Like, back to the taxi driver for example, "If anyone bothers you, call me up honey, I'll teach 'em a lesson."

He gave me a tour of the city, as only a taxi driver can do. Telling me absolutely everything that I need to do during my visit in Dublin - I gladly soaked it all in, having absolutely no plan for the upcoming week. He then launched into a lecture about how stupid I was for traveling alone, and that 350 girls get taken in Europe each year. And even though I may think that everyone will come looking for me that I'll be in Saudi Arabia by then and I will never get out and never be found. 

After scaring me senseless, he gave me a grin and told me that I would be OK as long as I stayed in Ireland. When he dropped me off at my hostel, I handed him my card - as I have always seen it done in NYC and Boston - and he looked at me like I had two heads. "What am I supposed to do with this?!" Apparently they only take cash in Dublin. "Ummm... Do you know where an ATM is?" I have learned from this trip that you never ask a taxi driver if he knows where something is; the reply will always be, "I know where everything is." He left me with a "f***ing crazy blonde girlie" and boom there I was in Ireland, and I already knew that I never wanted to leave.

I immediately booked my room for the next night as well, not wanting to have to think about checking out the next morning. Upon arriving in my room, I saw that I had 3 guy roommates. I couldn't help but laughing to myself, thinking about the reaction that this would have caused among my fellow interns in Brussels. A couple of them probably would have cried if they had stayed there and seen the guys walking around in boxers. They preferred the apartment scene... But you don't meet new people that way!

John, my Portuguese roommate, had just gotten a job as a chef and was staying at the hostel until his apartment was ready for him to move into. Just an example of the different people you end up sleeping feet away from. Another plus about rooming with guys - they take like 5 minute showers. When rooming with girls, I outwardly groan if she beats me to the bathroom. If a guy gets into the bathroom, I know I better hurry and get all my things ready, so that I am ready when he gets out! Although, one morning, I waited for about 30 minutes and was starting to get super annoyed. I decided to knock to hurry them up... Only to realize that the last guy had left the light on. It was empty.

I then headed out to find a good Irish pub, realizing as I left what a perfect location I was in. I surprisingly found a nice, more quiet pub where I drank the recommended Guinness and read up on the history of Ireland. After coming up with a tentative plan for the next day (aka: go to the tourist info center and possibly get a hop on/off bus ticket), I strolled the streets - and grabbed McDonalds. In my excitement I had forgotten to eat. Now THAT is how you really know that I was excited.