En Route to London

Woke up at 9, arranged my 3500 pictures, showered packed and woke up Toufic. We ended up walking to the park, grabbed sushi (I had bang bang chicken)from sushi king and strolled through dublin. Saw st patricks cathedral, the dublin castle, temple bar, O'connell street and henry street before grabbing my bags and narrowly catching the bus to the airport. My host in london is supposedly meeting me at the airport. I catch my flight home at 1040 am to arrive to MSP at 330 pm. Got to the airport and through security no problem. Hopped in line right away only to discover all the emergency exit row seats were reserved with paper. Took another seat and waited as the airplane filled up. Doors were shut and emergency exit row was still open so I asked the flight attendent if I could sit there, sat next to 2 foolish irish guys who had a fear of flying. They busted out their irish whiskey and chew candy as soon as the airplane was being pushed back. Apparently they knew the flight attendent also so they purchased 3 more rounds of whiskey and were quite noisy. Hilarious dudes. Arrived and got through customs no problem-- I just had to turn in my boarding pass from the irish isles. Earlier in the day, I had emailed pete explaining customs took forever last time and to not get to the airport too early. I was waiting about 20 minutes and he showed up on his phone with his sign with my name on it. We made it back to his car and headed towards his house. Stopped at a lovely restaurant on the lake and then grabbed a pizza for the way home. Stayed up talking and learned about the rules of cricket before falling asleep at 230am. 730 am was quite early but showered had breakfast and pete dropped me off at the airport. Got through checkin (no emergency exit row or window seat, but got an aisle seat up front) and now my 38 day Eurotrip of a lifetime comes to an end. Here ENDS "AMERICAN GIRL IN EUROPE BLOG. Follow me as i tour around Europe this summer! stops include: London, Athens, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Karlsruhe, Heidelburg, Frankfurt, Lubeck, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona & Dublin"

Dublin Day 2

Woke up at 645 am to make my 745 am bus from dublin to Galway to begin my full day tour of the west coast of ireland including the cliffs of Moher! Slept the entire 2 hour bus ride and easily found the tour group. Boarded the coach bus and now I'm really touristy :-) there is an asian family of 5 and 3 other couples none of whom speak english or the same language... Drove through the small towns of Oranmore, Clarenbridge and Kilcolgan before stopping for 15 minutes inside Dunguaire castle and then for 30 minutes in Kinvara where I stopped at the local Cafe for a Chai latte. We then went through ballyvaughan, blackhead and doolin where we stopped for lunch. I had baked salmon and mashed potatoes. It was quite tastey. Then we made it to the cliffs of Moher. I walked to the south through the "private property dangerous cliffs" section then towards O'Briens tower before my hour of time was up. Hopped back on the bus drove through lisdoonvaria and kilfenora one of which is famous for the matchmaking festival. Then to the leamanahg castle and we stopped at poulnabrone dolmen which is a tomb burial ground from 3000 years ago. Our bus tour then brought us home to the Galway bus station. We arrived at 525 pm and the next non-stop bus service to dublin left at 715. Sooo, I walked around the square twice before choosing to stop at murty Rabbits- an irish pub established 1764. Actually I checked it out and as I was leaving the bar tender asked if he could be of help. I ordered a cider at sat next to an older irishman to watch the horse races. Galway is known for their week long once a year horse races that is held just a few miles up the road. Apparently there was 45,000 people there yesterday. Mr old irishman also bought me a cider before I had to leave for my 715 non stop bus to dublin. I ended up keeping the glass as a souvenir and got one of the last 3 spots on the bus. The wifi wasn't working so I asked the girl sitting in front of me who was waving her iPhone around if I could use it since I was from the states and had to get ahold of my friend who was meeting me at the bus stop. meanwhile the chick sitting next to me goes "you're from the states?! What part?" Turns out she is from San fran and is in radio and TV and her husband was from Blaine. We talked the entire 2.5 hour bus ride home and I grabbed her facebook when we got off the bus. Her tour guide leader was waiting for them to greet them off the bus (McCoole tours) and Toufic was no where to be found. I used the tour guides phone and started towards the harp bridge for toufic. Found him, got home, changed, and went to watch some crazy irish at the nearby pub. Got home at about 2.

Dublin Day 1

Woke up at 10am and showered and packed a day pack to head to Howth, a small irish city on the coast just north of dublin. We grabbed breakfast at a local grocery store and hopped the train to Howth. Looked around at the harbor then started the 3 hour hike along the shoreline. there were breathtaking views of the ocean and 'very dangerous cliffs.' we even picnicked down in a Ravine at low tide. Pictures can tell what a gorgeous place it was. and everything was quite green if i do say so myself. Toufic mentioned me going to the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow and i am very interested. we made it to our train station having just missed a train and caught the next on after a half hour. made it back to Toufics house and he made sweet pasta and creamy salmon for dinner. now i am catching up on emails and he is working on his project for tomorrow that he has to present. i booked the Cliffs of Moher bus travel for tomorrow (it takes 2 hours to get there from dublin) and it was only 40 euros i leave at 745 am and get back about 7pm. i also get to see a castle too. should be good!!

en route to Dublin

Woke up at 9 am after watching Sherlock holmes with Javier. Showered, packed and had chicken burritos for breakfast. hopped the subway to the beach so i could see the barcelona beach before heading to dublin. the beach was rather nice. saw some nudes bathing.... but it was quite nice and quiet for being eleven am. stopped at a restaurant to order a spanish omelet so i could try it before leaving spain. it was quite good. just an egg bake with potatoes. Then Javier brought me home so i could grab my stuff and we hopped the RR to the airport. Waited in line for about 3o minutes to check my bag with RYANAIR to only discover this ticket counter coudlnt help me until i had my passport checked at a different counter which took another 20 minutes to get through. RyANAIR SUCKS! (in paris i did both at the same counter). got through and boarded the plane. Scored the emergency exit row window AGAIN ( 4/5) and took a nap until i arrived in Dublin. The dude at customs gave me a rather hard time (why are you here? are you traveling alone? Who are you visiting? how did you meet him? how much money do you have with you? when are u leaving? Can i see your itinerary as to when you are leaving? when did you leave the US? ETc ETC ETc) but it only took about twenty minutes to get through and my bag wasnt even ready yet. Grabbed my bags and met Toufic my host outside the arrivals gate. We hopped a bus to the city center dropped my bags off at his house and grabbed a bite to eat. We split a nachos and calzone with goat cheese. quite tastey then hit up an irish club before calling it a night. oh by the way have i mentioned it rains EVERYWHERE i go...because it was pooring on us our entire walk home. quite fun.....

Barcelona day 1

Woke up this morning at about ten am, Javier went and grabbed chicken and cheese burritos for breakfast ate and then we went to the Tabidabo-- a church high on the hill.. there was a street car to bring you up to the furnicle where you catch a tram up to the top. well--that all would have costed 10 euros--so instead we decided to walk. And yes, i wore a dress today and flipflops, i suggested walking. took us about 15 minutes to get to the furnicle and the line was really long for that so i said lets walk. it was a gorgous 45 minute hike through the winding trails of the mountain overlooking the city. even though we were still in the city limits it didnt feel like we were. once we got to the top--we walked through the amusement park andd javier grabbed an ice cold cocacola. we enjoyed the scenary and then i decided to make the climb up to the tip top of the church on the hill. for 2 euros i was allowed up (most of the way by elevator) and got some gorgeous pictures from up there-- if only it wasnt cloudy today. Afterwards we decided to start our hike back down, which only took about 30 minutes and i had a stratichicato (chocolate chip) ice cream to help with the hike. We got all the way to the bottom, hopped our metro and are home now so javier can shower and i can change my shoes. We are headed back to la rambla for the night and tomorrow we plan on visiting the beach before my 340pm flight to dublin. That host knows i am coming :-)

En Route to Barcelona

Woke up at 7am, showered and finished putting everything in my 2 bags then hopped the metro with Mohammad. Made it to the bus stop for Paris Beauvais and waited around for 45 minutes for the bus. The bus took over an hour to get to the airport and then i waited at the airport another 2 hours before boarding the plane. RyANAIR SuCKS! anyways, i got the window seat of the emergency exit row (3/4 on scoring that seat) and fell back asleep on the hour and twenty minute flight to barcelona. Landed and hopped the 5,30 bus to the city center where i was meeting my host Javier. he found me right away and rode the metro with me to his house so we could drop my bags. Then we went to the Sagruda familia (the church started by guida) and i grabbed a pizza for lunch (peppers, egg, and cheese--quite good) and then we went and walked the la rambla and even stopped in the famous market there where i had a strawberry coconut fresh squeezed juice. We then walked to the pier and went up to the la guila a park up on a mountain that overlooked the sea. Sat there and relaxed for a couple of hours. Before we knew it it was 930 pm and we headed back to Javier's house so he could change and then we went to the neighborhood irish pub. made it home by 1130 and went to sleep.

Paris day 4

Woke up at eleven and called chris(CS rugieros' friends friend) and found out im meeting him to watch the tour de france at 1 pm. Mohammad went out and grabbed bread for breakfast and then he was going to his sisters and i was going to watch the tour de france. Climbed up the seven flights of stairs to his apartment to meet his girlfriend catalina and then she made lunches quick and we were off to a nearby park to get spots on a bridge over the tour de france bike trail. We took the 14 metro to the park and there were no spots on the first bridge so we took the second bridge so we had front row seats. other people started joining us at about 145. the advertisements started at 2pm and lasted about 45 minutes. there were various things including laundry detergent, water, candy, grocery store chains, communist groups etc. Then we enjoyed our bottle of red and the lovely sandwiches while we waited another 2 hours for the bikers. they came and were gone in the blink of an eye but it was still really cool to see. then we went and grabbed gelato-- i had lemon and coconut and then decided to rent bikes and go biking around a nearby park. it was already five pm. biked for a couple hours to the fort of vincents or something like that and then headed to a nearby pub for some nice conversation before chris and catolina put me on a metro to find mohammad. Walked and found mohammad then went to a nearby french restaurant where i had duck, auggratten potatoes salad and creme brulee for dessert. mmmm packed my bags and am lined up wiith meeting my host in barcelona. hopefully its a good day tomorow too!