Dublin, Ireland

I love being in Europe. There's so many cool things to do for the weekend like.... oh I don't know go to Ireland! Somewhat spontaneous but totally fun. And it was perfect because I got to visit with Trish and Pamela who live there. :-)

While in Dublin I had the joy and honor to go to the National Leprechaun Museum. It was really cute and pretty interesting. It talked a lot about the mythology of Ireland and the history of Leprechauns.

And of course I made my way to the Guinness Factory. It was really cool. And at the end they taught us how to pour our own pint of Guinness and how to wait for the gas to separate and then add more beer without the gases to make a beautiful pint of Guinness. Mine is the third one from the left.

And look who I found in Dublin. Meredith Zdenek! She was there to witness my first Guinness. It was rather exciting. Good times, good times


Trish and me decided to take a city tour by bus. And one of the bus tours ended up in the river. We took the regular one. The Viking tour bus was also a very loud bus. They seemed to do a viking yell every so often at random people. And they had really cool hats. I know that Trish was highly jealous of them.


Trish had enough of us so she took us to the jail. Well actually it's a museum now. It was really really cool, a bit creepy, but so interesting. It's been closed down for a long time now, but there were a bunch of people who were imprisoned and killed there who were very important for the history of Ireland.
And I thought the weekend was finished for fun adventures when I got to the airport, but I was wrong. (viewer discretion advised - Mom please don't freak out or worry. Everything turned out fine) So I went through the security and I thought everything was fine so I grabbed my bag and a lady asked me "Is that bag yours?" and it was so I said "yes." And she told me there's liquids in the bottom. I totally forgot to take out my little baggy of face stuff and contact solution. Oops, my bad. The security lady made me through something away because it didn't meet the size regulations. Interestingly enough I flew to Ireland with it but they wouldn't let me fly back with it. You can figure that out. So I make my way to my gate with about an hour before boarding. Wonderful! I get a chance to eat a little snack and read a bit. The plane comes a little late but it's all good, no worries. So I get in line to board and the guy taking the boarding passes stops with mine and says "I can't let you board. You have to have your ticket stamped." OMG! "Are you serious?!?! Where do I need to go?!" I start panicking because the security area was a good 10 minute walk away. All I heard from the guy was something about the security station. So I start running (with my 20 lb. backpack). And it's literally like the movies. I'm running between people and dodging suitcases. I make it to security - out of breath- and I ask a woman working security where I need to go to get my pass stamped. She asked me when my plane was boarding and I pant in return "NOW!" And literally we walk through the scanning gates thingy and past another security guard. The woman flashes her security badge and starts a very brisk walk. We get to the desk where they check passports and then stamp your boarding pass. We bypass the entire line and the woman flashes her security badge again and pushes all my documents at the woman behind the desk. I can't believe that this woman is helping me so much. Once I get my stamp we start the brisk (meaning almost a sprint) back towards the security lines. And we just walk right by everyone and I walk straight through the metal detectors and they go crazy. She just waves me on and says good luck. WOW! What should have taken me about 45minutes just happened in 45 seconds. I thought to myself "well I may actually catch my flight" and I take off again. I really don't understand why the engineers of airports feel the need to put the entrance so far away from the gates. It doesn't make sense to me. So I'm running and dodging people again. And the gate is closed. BUT the next gate over is about to board so there's tons of airport personnel around. I run up to the desk panting and say I need to get on that plane. And this guy looks at my ticket and looks at me and I'm just trying to catch my breath. He radios the pilot and tells him that there's another passenger that needs to board. He we briskly walk back to the gate where my plane is and he opens the door so I can get to my plane. And I made it on the plane back to Spain. It was the absolute craziest 20 minutes of my life from the moment that the guy said I couldn't get on the plane to when I sat down on the plane and got buckled. Whew!

I hope that story was for your enjoyment and was not intended to worry you. Better me than you, right? Overall, Ireland was awesome!