Ireland!!

Did you know that Ireland only has 4.5 million people on the island but over 90 million people claim to have Irish heritage worldwide?

Ireland was fantastic from the start! We got off the ferry from Holyhead, Wales around 5:30 and we were in Dublin! So we walked up Grafton Street on our way to the hostel. This was the best hostel yet, with very comfortable beds. We dropped off our stuff and went exploring. Along the way we grabbed some kababs for dinner, and went back to the hostel. Here we made some friends and got free wine complements of the hostel before we headed for The Temple Bar. On the way to the bar we saw a guy getting arrested while saying "All I wanted was a f&&@ing milkshake" don't know why that got him arrested...anyways on to the bar which apparently the Drake choir was at at the time, but we somehow "missed them, but our newly made friends didn't.

We woke up early on Wednesday and got on the tour bus, which was free thanks to our new friends, who weren't going to use them that day! So we took a lap around the city stopping at the Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson whiskey distillery before we unfortunately had to catch our bus to Galway. I also lost my bus ticket in there somewhere and when i told bus driver this he came back with a great quote "sir you have an honest face, get on." So once we were in Galway we stumbled around the city aimlessly trying to find our hostel. Good thing it only took us 20 minutes to lap the city :) the backpacks obviously needed to be dropped off at this point and we were hungry, since we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and the only stops we had made since then were for touring Guinness and Jameson factories, we grabbed some fish and chips, which we were later told was the best fish and chips in all of Ireland! Awesome! So after dinner we went to check out the local scene at The Kings Head Pub, which had live music and Irish dancing! There we met Cristina, a spanish girl who went to college in Canada and now lived in the Arran islands. She invited us to stay with her after we saw the cliffs of Moher on her tour - she was really drunk, but they are so friendly here! And don't worry we did not stay at her house!

The next day we slept in till 10:30 or 4:30 AM CST :) and caught a tour of the Cliffs of Moher(herherher) they really annunciated the end of it haha. Anyways the tour was of a lot more than just the cliffs, we also got to see some small towns and lots of castles on the way, as well as grabbing a bite to eat at a small pub. After the bus tour we grabbed some corned beef sandwiches for dinner and walked around the town when we stumbled upon a huge party by the river. Apparently the college students just finished finals. So we grabbed some Bulmers and sat by the river with all the people. The sun was still up at 10 so we were completely thrown off by the time, and headed back to the hostel where we decided to go out with our French hostel mates(everyone at this hostel was French, it was weird) so we went with them as we hit up a local pub. It was a much older crowd here so we didn't stay long, but it was packed there! (as was every other bar we went to in Ireland (remember were in Ireland from Tuesday-Friday) but maybe that's the reason their in a recession?) So we headed back to the main bar area, talked to some more locals, who knew Kansas and MinnesOTa accents, and made fun of them a little bit, but we called it an early night.

Friday started really early since we had to catch the 7:15 bus back to Dublin, and then we had a few hours to kill before our train to Rosslare, Ireland so we walked across the Haypenny bridge, through the temple bar area and down Grafton St and by Saint Stephens Green before we had to leave the city to catch our ferry into France. As we were on board the Oscar Wilde Ferry we thought we would have a quiet night. Not with the Irish though, around 10 pm we were watching terrible tacky disco cruise ship entertainment when Grant got up to go to the bathroom where he ran into an Irish guy who had clients from his business in Minnetonka, Minnesota and he offered to buy us a pint and come talk to Irish girls. He didn't really know these people but apparently everyone knows each other in Ireland. That's what they told us anyways. They knew about the states too (including the Minnesota accent and that Dorthy from the wizard of Oz is from Kansas(and clicked their heels together for us 3 times)) They were really nice though and gave us tips on France. We also met some business men who were on a "booze cruise" (their words, not ours) to buy wine in France to last the rest of the year (40 cases each they said) but they bought us another pint and asked us about our family heritage, (they liked Michael's Irish and told us we needed to go to Helsinki for Grant's mom) they were also very nice. Then it was bed time.

Goodbye Ireland, I think there will be more trips to you in the future. Also,
Goodbye English as the primary language.

Bonjour France. As I'm writing this we're almost to Paris - break out your je ne parle pas francais, parlez-vous anglais? (also the Irish said the French like Americans and love the Irish, they just hate the British which is why they may not like speaking English).

Jolly Ole London

Hey Guys,

We are now on our third day here so we thought we would update you on what we've done so far.

First of all if there are any errors in this, I'm sorry - keyboards are weird over here

ok so
Day 1:# We landed in Reykjavik, Iceland around 6:30 AM and explored the airport for about an hour.  After doing that, and us both watching a poorly done documentary on the country - we both want to visit it - but that will have to be another trip.
We jumped back on the plane and landed in London around noon.
Once we were there we were greeted by an immigrations officer who was less than friendly. She wanted to see our travel itinerary and proof that we were leaving her country (which we didn't exactly have) anyways so after she grilled us we got through and were allowed into the country.
From there we jumped on the Tube and headed off for our first hostel - the International Student House - which was kinda weird, but whatever we are in London!
So we dropped off our stuff and got settled, and took off walking down the streets. The first thing we discovered was some sort of mall/market place in the middle of London.  Before we knew it we had stumbled upon (works in real life too) Picadilly Circus. 
From there we went to check out Big Ben and Parliament before we crossed the River Thames.  There we checked out the Eye of London and saw some street performing goons. Grant was tired so he got a greasy cheeseburger from a street stand, and we also picked up some ice cream and made the TREK back to our hostel.  There we grabbed some beer and met some people who claimed to work at Apple (we weren't convinced) and we were in bed by 8 - yeah we missed Chelsea winning the Champions League, but whatever we hadn't slept for 30+ hours.

Day 2:
We woke up nice and early, Grant around 7:00 and Michael around 4:45.  Then we headed down and got some free breakfast courtesy of the International Student House. It was complete with white, soupy, watery scrambled eggs, and some fried toast (not french toast, it was like they literally put a piece of break in a deep frier)  After this, first things were first - get the hell out of the International Student House and to our new hostel - The Arsenal Tavern Hostel.  This one was complete with 3 story bunk beds, and a two inch mattress - but it felt more like a hostel and was all around better, so we were happy.  Then we made the one mile walk over to the Arsenal (Emirates) Stadium.  Then we made our best decision of the day and bought tube passes that were good for the entire day.  So we headed over to Kings Cross Train Station (yeah were Harry Potter heads to Hogwarts from) and bought our own train tickets (and farry ticket) to Dublin (suck it immigrations lady, we didn't want to stay in your expensive country).  So after we booked our tickets we grabbed some local fast food - we think, and then it was time for us to do something we had both really wanted to do, check out the Olympic Village.  This was complete with a giant mall, tons of other people, a giant construction zone that prevented us from getting close, and a ton of delicious smelling high end restaraunts that we couldn't afford to eat at, and it was far away (we had to sneak through the tube gates, because we had left the zone we had bought tickets for, shhhhh).  After we check all of that out we rushed as fast as we could to the other side of town, to see the Chelsea Champions League Parade.  Unfortunately the tube had other ideas (Karma I guess) and held the train for a while because the other train was too far behind. So when we got there the parade was over, and everyone was walking back. We thought we would at least check out the stadium since we had traveled all the way out there, and on our way we found ourselves in the middle of the parade that was still going on!  We were promptly covered in champagne and pelted with celery (yeah, idk English tradition?) [and back to everything we had lost in the internet disaster]
At this point we were starving - and once again exhausted, but we vowed to ourselves we would stay up till 10 PM (yeah we're old - or our bodies are out of whack, or both) We then grabbed a few beers, and giant burgers, and managed to make it to exactly 10 before we headed to bed.
[sub note - St Pauls church was in there somewhere, it also needed to be cleaned, and Michael took a picture in the church despite there being signs everywhere telling him not too)

Day 3:
Breakfast at the hostel was plain, but good.  Toast and cereal left us full and ready for the day.  We took off to spend our last day in London seeing the things we hadn't seen.  First stop on the list was Hyde Park, so naturally we stepped off of the Tube and walked into Green Park (yeah, we don't know how it happened either) but it lead us to Buckingham Palace, which seemed like a nice place to live, exept for all the people watching you every day.  We were also unwilling to wait for the changing of the guard, which would have been a 40 minute wait (bad timing by us I guess.)  Then we went to the famous department store Harrod's, and saw some expensive stuff (inluding a £20,000 bottle of whiskey) and some expensive chocolates and cheese too :).  Then we finally checked out Hyde park, which was fine.  Westminster Abbey was next on the list, then headed towards the Tower of London (£26 to see the place - rip off - skipped that) so we headed accross Tower Bridge and grabbed some lunch, which was very good but very small portions.  Then it was back towards the hostel where we grabbed some stuff to make ourselves some sammiches.  Then we went exploring around the hostel. First stop, Cockfosters, which had made the two of us chuckle everytime we had heard it for 2 days, so we had to visit.  Then we came back and checked out a £1 store, and a couple of other grocery stores.  Then we went to the local park (Finsbury Park) and saw the locals work out.  None of them look like they had run very much in their lives, but one guy in particular was wearing Cargo Capri's and a Polo Shirt to go running in.  It may not have been the best running gear, but I guess he looked good doing it?????  Then we headed back here and started writing this!

Tomorrow Dublin - Watch out Ireland, here we come.

Leaving Tomorrow!

Friends and Family,

Graduation has come and gone, and Grant and Michael leave for our excellent adventure through Europe tomorrow!

As a preview for the first part of our trip we will be landing in London, England on the 19th and will spend the first three nights in England, then we will make our way over to Dublin, Ireland for the night of the 22nd, then we will head up to Galway, Ireland for 2 nights, and then Back to Dublin for one more night before we head off to Paris.  The 25th will be spent in Paris before we jump on a train and go down to see Kevin in Cannes for a few days.  From there the trip is a little less structured as we head for Spain, then up to Amsterdam, and then into Germany to visit Fabian.  After that the plan is to go to Switzerland, Croatia, and Italy, and wherever else our little hearts desire.

You guys can follow our trip through this blog.  We will update this as often as we can with site, funny stories, conversations and of course pictures.

Please leave us comments (you might have to have a gmail account, I'm not sure) and let us know whats going on back home!

Hostels All Booked!

Just booked our Hostels for London!

T-minus 2 days till lift off.