Lately in London: Off to Ireland

Today was the halfway mark of our time here and the first day of our free days. Kacey, Laura, and I woke up at 4:30AM so we could catch a bus to Victoria station, then take Easybus to Stansted, and then fly to Dublin. While it was a bit of a process, it ran smoothly and I slept most of the way. The flight was only 45 minutes and as usual, Ryanair landed on time. We then made an ATM stop, grabbed a smoothie for breakfast, and caught a local bus into town. We jumped off the bus and wandered to our hotel in the POURING rain. The good news was that it wasn’t cold and we were able to check –in to our hotel early even though it was only 11AM. We decided to take a little power nap for about an hour and then headed out to explore Dublin. While walking down O’Connell Street we stopped at the best donut stand. The donuts were made right in front of you and topped with sugar…so good. Our first tourist stop was Dublin Castle. While waiting for our tour to start we went to the Beatty Library near the castle and the Revenue Museum in part of the castle. We then went on a guided tour of the castle. Today the castle is used as a government building, but we got to see the State Rooms and also the undergrounds of the castle. It was funny because there were 4 missionaries on our tour and they were surprised that we knew who they were. After our tour we headed to Christ’s Church Cathedral to attend Evensong (Yes this was for an assignment, not just for fun). However, there was no sign of Evensong or even a way of getting into the church. From there we wandered Temple Bar. This is a really fun area in Dublin full of pubs and music. For dinner we ate at Bad Ass Café. The three of us shared French Onion Soup, a Chicken Caesar Salad, and a Margareta Pizza. After dinner we stopped for Gelato and walked around the city. We finished the night by going back to the hotel and watching P.S. I Love You in preparation for tomorrow.