Last few days in Dublin

A little wandering around the city, a movie, and some fun in a Penny's

Here are just a few of the randoms from the last few days.  :)

Dundrum neighborhood, enjoyed a fantastic burger at a place called The Counter

Yes, they were actually selling these... for 1 Euro they could be yours too!  Later that night we actually saw a girl sporting them at Everleigh Gardens nightclub.   Motto: Look reem, smell reem, be reem.  

A few extra thoughts about Dublin.  It's way less industrial than I expected.  I don't know why I thought it would be that way, but it was not full of skyscrapers for such a large city.  I don't know if this is true, but someone mentioned that there is a law about how tall buildings can be.  Not only that any building that gets built over cannot be any taller than the one that was torn down.  And the cider.  Oh my goodness, I knew I liked cider, but I had no idea it came in so many flavors.  Not just Apple, but Pear, Berry, Strawberry Kiwi, all of which are fantastic.  I think the pear is my favorite!

Giant's Causeway

I decided to explore a bit more of Ireland by going on a day tour that would visit several sights including  Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce Castle, White Park Bay, Ballintoy, the Antrim Coast and Belfast.

The rope bridge has an interesting history, built to help with salmon fishing.  After the Capalano suspension bridge in Vancouver, this bridge was quite short and so I chose to walk down to it, but not cross.  I made a good decision as the walk was beautiful and the 7 Euro price tag to cross was quite steep.   It was a beautiful trek though!  Round trip about 4 km.

After the rope bridge we took a very short bus ride to Giant's Causeway.  There was a great fable that went along with the formation and I recommend you read it, it was very good.  We had an audio guide included with our walk, so that was a nice addition!  There were 4 different trails of varying degrees of difficulty, and though I thought they had sugar coated it... they didn't.  So I thought I'll take the moderate trail down, and then the challenging one back.  I absolutely should have done it the other way around.   The views were amazing, but the walk back included a stair-master type of workout.  

And lastly, Belfast!  It was a very quick stop in Belfast, and by this time my backpack was on it's last straps. I was able to find an outdoors store, kind of like a Tri-State back home and after a lengthy debate about the size of pack I needed, I settled on a blue one that just happened to be on sale.  :)  

Dublin, Ireland - More of!

Another day in the city with my friend... at the Guinness Factory!

The museum/factory was pretty good, learning about what goes into the brewing process, ingredients, and then everyone's favorite part: the tasting!

At the Guinness Academy we learned how to pour the perfect pint.  :)

We passed!  Here we are with our perfect pints and certificates!

It was his last night in Dublin before his own vacation so I was very helpful helping him pack.  See?  Yeah, not really, dressing up Captain was so much better.  I wasn't sure if I was going to stay in Dublin without him, but his roommate was super accomodating and so I decided to stay a few more days.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Giants of Causeway.

Dublin, Ireland

Yay!  Finally get to see my best friend!  The first day in we did a nice walking tour of Dublin city center. taking the bus in and ending at Queen of Tarts off of a small farmers market.

Spent the evening playing fetch with these guys!  Both gave me a dog fix and made me miss Bella all at the same time!   I'm here with Captain, Bella's boyfriend.  He seems a bit sad she didn't come with me!  I'll send his love.  After this we went to a local haunt called Coppers where we were out into the wee hours of the morning.  Past 4am and the sun was coming up when we walked outside.  I have never had a night quite like it!  Met some new friends along the way as well.  

Next day we went to Dun Laoghaire for an even better farmer's market, yummy potstickers, beautiful day, a walk on the pier and a slushie.  :)   Everyone was enjoying the weather and there tons of sailboats out on the water.  Some people even went swimming!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

When Bec told us at the beginning of this trip that wee would be sad to see our bus-mates go... I didn't believe her.  I do now.  The tour is coming to an end in Amsterdam.  Some people are going on to London as their final stop.  I'm taking advantage of a few more hours in Amsterdam and then a quick flight to Dublin to continue my vacation.

It's bittersweet to say goodbye, but we've really had an amazing trip.  It's not over yet though!

So the original Sin City, is not as sinful as I had anticipated!  The red light district is close and unmarked but it's a beautiful city strip with a canal and boats running through the middle just like all the other parts of town. I found my way there by accident getting back to the bus, and it wasn't until I looked up from my map and saw a bikini clad woman in a window shaking her hips at me that I realized exactly where I was.  I'm constantly confused by the sex industry, every woman in these windows was beautiful, and surely could put their powers of persuasion into other tasks.  I suppose without a wanting audience, their trade wouldn't exist.

Coffee shops... are not shops that sell coffee.  The wafting aroma was much different.

Day two in Amsterdam we went on a bike ride in a small town called Edam.  We stopped along the way at a Gouda cheese factory and clog making shop.  They sound like they don't go together, but leftovers from the cheese process actually going into making clogs.  The bike ride was so much fun, simple bikes, but beautiful little town.  We stopped at a dike with lock system as well as a windmill... not pictured (sorry!)

The afternoon to ourselves, I tagged along with a group for a rooftop lunch and then a humbling visit to Anne Frank's house.

The evening ended with a night on the town after a wonderful canal cruise.  Picture courtesy of Hilary.

Rhine Valley: St. Goar, Germany

So Amsterdam is a long way from Prague, so we drove most of the day with a planned night stay in a small German town called St. Goar.

St. Goar was more under water than Prague!  The whole first floor of the hotel was flooded. The difference is that it was finally sunny!

The town had constructed a series of walkways to get around the flood areas.  To get to our hotel, we had to walk the plank... straight into the second story bar area, haha.

In a small town there isn't much to do, but we did wander and found some charming hideaway places!

That an entertained ourselves the best way we knew how, haha.

Prague, Czech Republic

Really given all the rain in the last few weeks, I should have expected flooding.  But I didn't.  While in Prague there were many flood warnings and the river had escaped it's bank at many points along the way.  Old Prague was being threatened by rising waters, as the rivers still hadn't crested yet.  But you know, we were on vacation!  First night in we split up girls going with Bec and boys going with Firo, all to meet up at midnight in the square to continue our evening.  We ended up at a place called Bed in Lounge.  An awesome girls night out.  We drank girly cocktails and actually curled up on a bed surrounded by pillows.  Very relaxing.

Pictures from the main square.

Inside of the Bed lounge.

Here is some of the flooding we witnessed the next day.  Our evening was cut short because the clubs we were going to go to were right on the river, and closed due to the possibility of flooding.  Prague was pretty empty for sure!  

View from the castle

Gargoyle water spouts, and you know, since it was raining, we could actually see the water pouring out of them :)

Sightseeing is hard, we gathered for coffee and treats.