We took a Med Cruise!

A few months ago, some family friends came into town via cruise ship. Marito and I went to greet them and show them around just a bit. After saying our goodbyes, Marito got the itch to go on a cruise. I started to do my home work on cruises from here, and being a loyal Royal Caribbean Cruise goer www.RCCL.com was the first place I looked (it also helps that the currency is in dollars, electricity is 110 v and the staff speaks English). At the beginning of November there was a 7 day Med Cruise for $399 a person!!! Granted it was an interior room, but still! After taxes and gratuity it came out to be under $1100 for the both of us to cruise across the Med Sea. I was hooked. Unfortunately we had plans to go to Oktoberfest at the end of September, and it was one or the other.

I had gone back to the states for a quick visit to be there for the delivery of my niece, and upon returning Marito and I quickly learned that we too were expecting, about three weeks along! We had planned to go to Edelweiss with another couple for Oktoberfest, but their leave chit wasn't approved for that time. Marito didn't want to go just us, because now he doesn't have a drinking buddy- being pregnant means no alcohol for this girl! In place of Germany, we routed a leave chit and made plans for our backup vacation! CRUISE TIME BABY!

We hopped on the train to Rome, and then from Rome we took another train to Civitavecchia. When you get off at that stop, we just followed the crowd a few blocks down towards the cruise port and waiting for us was a free shuttle bus to the terminal! Awesome! No Taxi! Woohoo!

Check-in was a breeze, and we dropped our bags off to be delivered to our room. Some people tote around their carry on bags, but when you cant get into your room for a few hours, that seems like just a hassle to me. My stuff will be at my room shortly.. nothing I MUST have while exploring this grand ship.

The Costa Concordia set sail and hadn't done their
safety drill. Resulting in a fatal day.

The first day of course you must do the safety drill before setting sail. Y'all remember the Costa Concordia right?? We don't want a repeat of that, now do we? We met our dining room neighbors, Marito and I felt like the youngest couple on the Ship- how many young couples can afford to fly to Rome and take a Cruise across the Med and fly back? Living in Europe has it's perks when it comes to things like this!

Our first port call was in Naples. And yes, we did get off the ship! It was actually really nice to feel like a legit tourist. We walked our way over to Christmas Alley. At the beginning of November it wasn't in full bloom just yet. I did find a guy selling hand painted Demi Johns and roof tiles. The Demi John would have been a pain to carry around, but they were stunning- I want to go back and get one, until then I have my roof tile with a Napoli scene painted on it. Not Christmas-y so I can have it on display year round. Then we headed over to Da Michele, which is the famous pizza place that Julia Roberts ate at while filming her movie Eat Pray Love. They only serve Marinara or Margherita pizza. The price is decent too. That was the extent of our day in Naples.


Next up was Messina Sicily. It was originally suppose to be Malta but bad weather rerouted us to stay north of the storm. Being in Italy still, I whipped out my phone and started looking up things to do while I still had cellphone signal. I mapped out the closest train station and times to get to a town called Taorimina. We easily found the train station and hopped onboard. When we got off at our stop, we saw taxis, but didn't want to pay. Little did we know if we waited a bit there are buses that will take you into town. We also didn't know that this town was up on a cliff. Being the adventurous, penny pinching, thrill seekers we hike it up this mountain. Remember I am like 15 weeks pregnant here! Up this trail with a million switch backs, that average out to be 30 degrees of incline the entire way, we finally made it to the top. The picture doesn't serve justice at how much of a B this thing was to climb. If you've climb Vesuvius, increase that slope and add more switch backs, I know y'all know Mt. V isn't an easy hike.

This town Taormina, reminds me a bit of Capri. A lot of tourist shops, selling ceramics and all that fun stuff. From here you can get a decent view of Mt. Etna- which was erupting quite a bit just a few days prior. I was determined to climb Mt. Etna, but after what I just wen through.. there was no way. I was really bummed that it was overcast and the clouds covered the peak, so I didn't get to see any volcanic action. No worries, my amica (friend) is moving to Sicily this month, so I am sure I will make a trip back. after strolling the beautiful Sicilian streets it was back to the train station... which was waaaaaaaay down this mountain. Let me tell you, walking down that goat trail was much better than walking up, just gotta be careful of the loose gravel.

We had our day at sea following Sicily. There was a lot of motion in the ocean (actually it's a sea). The belly flop contest was postponed because the water in the pool was sloshing out about 3 feet above the pool edge. So it was a good day to sleep in, catch some rest and get a massage. I got a 30 minutes back massage (they knew I was pregnant), a body wrap, foot massage, facial and scalp massage for $150 after tip. It was glorious.

Next on our agenda was Sardina. Again I looked up on my phone things to do (since I'm still in Italy! Gotta love that internet connection!) Marito and I decided to walk through town and find their largest indoor market. I love the markets! We find it, and it is a two story building. We walk inside and get taken aback from the smells. There were vendors selling, meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, seafood. Pretty much every type of food was being sold there. After 45 seconds my sensitive nose couldn't take any more, so we tried the second floor, hoping to find clothes, trinkets and such. Nope! the whole market is all food. A little disappointed, we left and walked around the building. There are some vendors around selling things, but nothing fabulous. We made our way back to port and meandered around the shops aimed for tourists. I helped some lady asking about the flavored salts, and I helped her translate them- fortunately I can read Italian better than I can speak it! When the day came to an end, Marito went and played on the pool deck. He won first place in a little golf tournament, and came in third place for the belly flop competition. He is such a goober!

Palma De Mallorca (otherwise known as Palma) is a place I have very much so been looking forward to going to. A few years back, Marito ported here when he was on the USS Enterprise and made some poor decisions (nothing incriminating!) and I am just the curious type, I wanted to go where he has been and see what he has seen. Well that didn't happen, since the area that he went to is pretty much a few blocks of bars, tattoo parlors and of course the nude beach- all of which isn't where a pregnant woman should be at. Instead we walked around, found their shopping district. It reminded me a lot of London meets Paris, minus the crowds. Gorgeous architecture, friendly people, wide streets. Marito found
 a Cigar shop, which made him happy. We set out to find a bull ring, got lost a little bit but eventually found it. As we are walking around the property we can see in the fence there the place looks deserted. Finally, we come to a gate that is open... do we go in? Is this trespassing? The hell with it! I am here and if it's trespassing I don't know any better. The entrance into the ring was open, so I go in. Marito being more hesitant questions whether or not we are allowed in. I mean I walked into the center of the bull ring. Not a single soul was in sight. I'm here, I am going to explore every nook and cranny until someone tells me otherwise. I found these two red doors that I assume are the hallways from the bull cage. I thought it was pretty interesting. After exploring for a solid 20 minutes,
Marito and I climb to the top of the arena and see some people enter. At first we though it was the owners until we realized that they were tourists. This alleviated that feeling of being somewhere that we aren't suppose to be. As we headed out of the arena, about 5-7 tour buses pull up. I must admit, it was such a cool feeling having the bull ring all to ourselves. It felt like we were exploring some ancient, abandoned place.

 
 


Next up was Valencia! I must admit, I did not have enough time in

 Valencia. The cruise shuttle dropped us off near the historic center of town and where I wanted to go was 2 miles away. So Marito and I didn't waste any time, we walked through the Gardens that goes through the center of town. A lovely walk that took us directly to the Science and Arts Center. Here is where you can visit a Hemispehere

(Planetarium), a hands on Science museum, as well as one of the largest Aquariums in Europe. You could easily spend two full days between the three places. First we checked out the Aquarium, which is above ground and underground, and cover quite a bit of land.
We saw penguins, seals, otters, walrus', sharks, and more. They have the underwater tunnel you can walk through- which is pretty darn neat! We watched a dolphin show while we were there, very fun! We then trekked next door to the Science Area and got to play around with gravity,
balance, look at the stages of pregnancy, and more. Again very interesting. We were losing time and still needed to get lunch, so we hiked our way back to the historic center, ate some paella and did minimal shopping. Valencia is a gorgeous city, and I hope to make it back one day.

Our last port was in Barcelona (the cruise ship did not go back to Rome, as it was then going on a transatlantic cruise to Galveston Tx). Two miles away was our hotel, and again we walked it. We stayed at Hotel Lloret Ramblas, which is a great affordable hotel on Las Ramblas. Not only is it between two metro stations, just steps away, it is also less than a block away from the Airport Shuttle pick up and drop off location. I highly recommend it! After dropping off our bags we quickly made our way to Sagrada Familia, and enjoyed a Starbucks at the foot of it. (Starbucks with a view? Can't beat it!) We didn't go inside Sagrada Familia, instead we went to Casa Batllo, which is designed by the
 same guy who did Sagrada- Gaudi. This house was fascinating! Gaudi designed it using no straight lines, the doors and windows are all custom made. Such a creative place! I loved it! Gaudi also designed a park and a couple other places. All of which are very interesting. As our day in Barcelona came to an end, Marito and I dined on paella again and said Adios to Spain.

I found that Marito and I prefer Caribbean cruises over Med cruises, in terms of excursions. We didn't sign up for any, since most of them were walking tours, and checking out churches, very history focused. That may be your thing, but I enjoy swimming with stingrays, jet skiing, and drinking on a sand bar. I did have a blast, and it was wonderful seeing places that not many people have to opportunity to visit.  I find cruises to be perfect for seeing places you don't necessarily want to spend an entire vacation at. I suggest looking at cruises during the off season, to get the cheaper rates, which may be difficult to do when you have school aged children. I'm just thankful that we were able to do this trip!

Oh Paris!

Wow. I cannot believe it's been almost four months since my last blog! I have some catching up to do!

I really want to blog about my trip to Paris. Marito and I went in July for their Independence Day (Bastille Day- July 14th). We made a long weekend trip out of it, which I recommend spending 4 full days there at the least to do everything! We definitely did not do EVERYTHING, but we did accomplish a lot.

First off, we flew EasyJet into the Orly Airport. Because our plane arrived late, we missed the last train into the City Center so we just took a cab. It cost us 40 Euros to get to our hotel, and I'm sure the cabbie took the long way because he did not follow his GPS.. but what can I do? We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Republique- which has a metro station right out front. It's a pricey hotel and we only stayed there because I used an employee discount from when I used to work in the hotel business.

Day One

Our first full day was a busy one. We woke up early and headed out to Sacre Coure Basilica. Gorgeous white church on a hill that over looks the city. Absolutely beautiful. We didn't tour the church- Marito isn't into that stuff so we just admired the beauty from the outside. directly at the bottom of the hill there is a small restaurant where we spent 8 Euros for breakfast. Baguette, croissant, butter, jam, coffee/cappuccino, and OJ. I'm pretty sure it was called the English Breakfast and they had the menu on the wall outside. quaint with an impeccable view of the Basilica.

We got there earlier than we should, there weren't any street vendors yet (which for some reason I love those guys). But we made our way to the Artist Market around the corner.

To get to the Artist Market, if you are standing in front of Sacre Coure, at the top, and you're look at it (not the city) Turn left and head down the road. It will make a T-intersection and you want to head uphill on the right. Take the street on your left and follow it (and the crowd) you will walk through cute shops and the Artists will be on the left in a Square. There you will find hand painted pictures of Paris, as well as many Portrait artists too. Immediately past the square there is a Starbucks. Marito has been missing his coveted Caramel Macchiato so he was thrilled to indulge.

We walked and made our way through the neighborhoods until we found the Abbessess Metro Station. Just beyond the station there is a free park, and a mural that is perfect for couples. It is a wall with the words "I love you" written in over 300 languages. Super adorable!

From there we wound up at the Louvre. We didn't go inside the museum. I do not recommend this! You HAVE to go inside the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa, be disappointed in how small it is and then check out a fantastic piece of art on the other wall behind it! Marito just wasn't up for it, I'll make my way back one day!

Just a couple blocks beyond the Louvre is Love Locks Bridge. I, being the sappy romantic, HAD to do this. I bought a lock from the NEX, put our initials on it and our wedding date, and had Marito find a secure spot on the bridge. After we locked up our love, we threw our keys into the river below, declaring our love and bond. Its totally cliché but ITS PARIS! Not far from the bridge is Notre Dame, so that was our next destination. We hung out and admired it, then made our way to the Latin Quarter neighborhood and explored the cute shops and restaurants.

After quickly exploring we found ourselves at the Eiffel Tower, walked around a bit before we decided to go find Moulin Rouge. The street Moulin Rough is located on, has a bunch of sex shops. Like Rebecca Rills which is just a couple shops down, has bright neon purple lettering, and is stuffed with outfits and more. Something to checkout for the curious and adventurous.




Our tummies were starting to grumble, so we found a super cute French restaurant that served Steak Carpaccio, Lamb, and my favorite... ESCARGOT. SOOOO YUMMY! If you haven't had escargot, it is the consistency of mushroom, and is cooked in garlic butter- like tofu, it takes on the taste of what it is cooked in. Give it a try! Fair warning, I've never had escargot served in the shells before, and there is a magic way to get the meat out. I had to YouTube it!

Day Two

The Eiffel Tower opens at 9 am (at least in July they do). I recommend getting there before 9, we arrived at 8:45 am, and were on the elevator by 9:30 to go up. There are different prices for the Tower, I suggest the full price and going to the top. You don't want to chicken out! Once you get to the second floor, you walk around the base and get in line for the elevator to the top. So you can take your time and hang out as long as you want before getting the courage to go higher. The first floor is highly neglected and it is currently being worked on to get more attention from tourists. Here's a video on what is to be expected.


When we finished our trip up and down the Tower, Marito and I jetted to the metro to get to the catacombs on the other side of the city. The catacombs open at 10 am and when we arrived at 10:30 the line was wrapped around the block completely! Over an hour wait. And it was closed the next day. SUPER BUMMER! If you want to go, check out the websites schedule, and make sure you don't go when it's closed or if it's a holiday (like Bastille Day).

Since waiting in line for 2 hours was out of the question, we went back to Latin Quarter to find knick knacks before we went to the Arc de Triumph. You can go up the Arc and get a gorgeous view of the city before you walk along the massive Champs de Elysee boulevard of high end retail shops. There is a McDonalds on the blvd and you can go inside, enter your order on a computer, and 45 seconds later your food is ready waiting for you. It was fancy! Haha!

I also recommend going to the mall, Galleries Lafayette. More high end retail shopping, but it's free to go in and look around. It is absolutely stunning inside the center of the mall.

At this point we have already covered so much of Paris in such a short period of time, we went back to our hotel and took a nap! After resting up we went back to Sacre Coure which was now booming with activity since it wasn't so early in the day. The street leading up to the Basilica was bustling with people placing bets on silly street games, tons of scarfs and tourist t-shirts hanging out store windows, street vendors trying to hassle you to buy a bracelet. This time instead of climbing the steps, we took the lift up the hill which is free with the metro pass. speaking of metro pass, everything we have done so far has all been located in Zone 1. We bought a 3 day 3 zone pass just to be safe.

So we make it up the hill, and find a spot on the stairs to sit and over look the city. There was a street entertainer who has a bunch of videos on YouTube climbing on light poles and bouncing a soccer ball- needless to say it's way more entertaining in person than to read about. We sat around and watched him for a good 30 minutes, but spent even more time than that just being content sitting on the stairs. Marito was very happy that there were guys selling Heineken. There we sat and drank, and were just very happy to be where we were.

After a good buzz was developed we went back to the Eiffel Tower to grab dinner at a recommended little place called Le Poincare Bistro- they have an amazing creamy onion soup and some decent mojitos! After dinner we walked to the lawn and watched the Tower light up on the hour. There were more guys selling beer and cheap bottles of champagne. What I truly enjoyed was watching a group of people make a huge heart out of red glow sticks, while a someone proposed on the tower. And when the person said yes, the crowd threw their red glow sticks in the air to celebrate. It was so heart warming to witness.

Day Three

No plans for today besides see fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, so we made a last minute decision to go to Disneyland. You pay about 15 Euro a person to take the train to Disney's front steps, then it was roughly 50 Euro a person to go to either Disney Studios or Disney Park. We went to the Studios because my only reason to go to Disneyland was to ride the Tower or Terror since I chickened out many, many, years ago and my brother has always been able to One Up me. A hamburger, drink and yogurt costs us 16 Euros a person (outrageous!) but just giving you a heads up. I finally conquered the Tower of Terror about 17 years late, rode the Rock N Roller Coaster, RC Racecar (from Toy Story) and went to the Stunt Show before we made our way back to the city. Euro Disneyland isn't all it's cracked up to be in my opinion- I've done both parks a few years ago, but if you have kids, they will love it!



The crowd waiting for fireworks

It was a fight to find a good spot in front of the Eiffel Tower. We got there two hours or so before the fireworks were to go off, and sat in the street, which is not comfortable. Once the sky was dark, music started and the fireworks exploded before our eyes. If I had realized they were going to be shot off over the river, I would have sat behind the Eiffel Tower on the lawn, and not the street in front of it. They were shot off over the lawn 7 years ago when I was in Paris the first time, so I got a great view of the tower in front of the fireworks, but things have changed since then. I must admit, Paris has a lot of money and their fireworks displays is phenomenal. The best show I have ever seen (twice!) and Marito agrees with me.

If you want to plan a trip to Paris over the summer, go for Bastille Day and celebrate their Independence with them. It's truly a wonderful experience!

The fireworks wrapped up our trip, and we caught the train to the airport the next day. Can't wait to come back and enjoy a more leisure trip, filled with more river walking, café sipping, and stair sitting.

London Dublin Trip Pt 2

So it was time to jet set to Dublin. We had bought bus tickets for easyBus (affilitated with easyJet) and met at the designated bus stop ready to get picked up. Our bus was late, but no worries, the next bus took us and we fortunately had plenty of time to spare. Always get to the airport at least 2 hours before your flight! It saves you the headache of being crunched for time. We flew out of Gatwick to Dublin, and let me tell you.. Gatwick is an awesome airport! When you go through security you scan your boarding card (which was on our phone! Paperless!) and a machine takes your picture. You go through normal security screening and when you get to the gate, the agent scans your mobile boarding pass and your picture pops up and they compare it with your Passport. I thought it was super nifty and cutting edge.

I guess 4 pints it is!

We flew Aer Lingus and landed in Dublin. The airport was the emptiest airport I have ever seen. Great time of year to fly I guess! Only 4 people in front of us at customs, it was niiiiiiice. Marito and I had made a reservation for a rental car with Dollar Car Rentals and were on our way to our hotel. We checked in at Ashling Hotel and found ourselves in a super pretty, almost posh hotel. The best part about this lovely hotel, was the free wifi, and of course the convience of how close it is to everything! After dropping our bags off, we walked next door to a pub called The Millenium and enjoyed fresh Guinness and Baileys on the rocks. Welcome to Dublin y'all!




Our first full day in Dublin we slept in some, went to a friends bar called Slattery's down the road for lunch, and had some bomb a$$ food. Next on our agenda was the Guinnes Brewery! Only 1/2 mile from the hotel, we walked to the entrance, picked up our tickets that we had bought ahead of time and followed our noses. You first enter the Guinness Storehouse where they have merchandise and in the center of the room is a piece of paper in the floor. It is the lease that founder Arthur Guinness signed for the land, for 9,000 years! Talk about confidence in your business!

 

At 12, 1, and 2 pm there is a food tasting, just a sample of Guinness bread with cream cheese and salmon as well as 1/4 pint of Guinness Extra Stout! Woohoo! Free Beer! Now I am starting to sound like Homer Simpson. Oh boy! But if you're interested, it's on the 4th floor. Now that we got that sample in our bellies we went back to the ground floor to start the brewery tour. The first part you come to is a huge sand box, full of barley. You can scoop a handful up and smell it or do what I did, take a little bit home to glue into a scrapbook! Don't judge me. You then walk up to an indoor water fall, learning about the clean water from the mountains nearby. Really cool. At the end of the 1st floor you encounter the Guinness Taste Experience. Fresh glasses of Guinness being poured and one has your name written on it. Unless you are the group of guys that have been there since 10 am, then maybe 7 glasses had your name on it!

At 2 pm, it was time for our extended tour, the Connoisseur Bar Experience. For and extra 25 Euros, you will be taken to a secret bar located in the building, where you and 15 other Guinness fanactics get to sit at a beautiful bar, learning the ins and outs of the four different types of Guinness. Not only will you learn how to properly smell and serve a glass of Guinness, but how to drink a glass too. We got to try all four types, how to properly pour one, and in the end we were able to enjoy another glass of our favorite. I enjoyed the Extra Stout- which is prefered when used for cooking. Marito, of course loves the Draught, but he loved being able to pour his own perfect beer behind the bar! Twenty-five euros may seem like a lot, but it is totally worth this 1 1/2 hour experience and the happiness that comes along with it.

We finished up our drinks and went back to the first floor and enjoyed the Taste Experience one more time. After going through all of the floors, you can redeem a ticket stub for a glass of Guinnes at either the Gravity Bar on the top floor, which over looks the city, or you can go the Guinness Academy on the 4th floor where you can learn how to pour your own beer and get an official certificate. Since we had already learned the ins and outs from the Connoiseur Bar we decided to go for a perfectly poured for us beer at the top!

It was starting to get late, and we needed dinner, and some how managed to find a Mexican Restaurant called Acapulco. Little did we realize it was Cinco De Mayo until we were sitting down. The service was good, the food was delicious, and the athmospere was quaint. We were killing time before we headed out to free comedy at Stag's Head, but we ended up not going and just called it a night.

The next day we got up and both couples decided to go different ways. Our friends booked a tour at the front desk to go to the Cliffs of Moher, while Marito and I made a 3 hour car ride to Northern Ireland to go cross a rope bridge (I saw it in a travel book!)

For me, 3 hours is like driving from Virginia Beach to Washington DC (with no traffic), easy peasy! The fun part was driving on the opposite side of the road! Which, Marito picked up on it fairly quickly! I was impressed. So this Rope Bridge is located in Carrick-A-Rede, and I had my heart set on it. How many people get to 1) travel to Ireland 2) rent a car and drive to Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) and 3) cross a frickin rope bridge to a tiny fishing island for fun?

We got to the parking lot, paid our tickets, I want to say it was 6 pounds almost. Then we walked 1 km (0.67 miles) along the cliffs edges until we got to the bridge. Only 8 people are allowed to cross it at a time. The bridge is 20 meters long, over a 30 meter drop into the crashing waves along the roacky coast. Talk about adrenaline rush. It was like standing in line for a brand new rollercaoster for me. I was super amped! Marito and I begin to walk across and I kept worrying about dropping my precious iPhone. These pictures are worth the 3 hours of driving. As we crossed I noticed how secure and safe I felt on this rope bridge. There was a wood plank the entire length and it was secured on more wood planks that were built into the weaving of rope. It wasn't shakey nor was it scary. Just pure exciting.

After we made it across you have a tiny tiny tiny, did I say tiny? I mean tiny island to explore and take pictures of the cliffs we were just on. The ground was super soft. Like stepping on a pillow, soft. Every step I took, the ground gave just a little bit. It felt like walking on moss ontop of moss. Very weird. This island, is not on water level, it too has dramatic drop offs to the water, and being the daredevil I am, I had to get as close as I could to the edge to look over- becasue I can. Mind you, there are no fences to keep you from falling over the edge. As I make my way down a slope and to the edge, I lose my footing and slip a good three feet. I can just hear Marito in my head saying "I told you to be careful." I litterally thought that if I didn't catch myself I was going to fall off the edge.. I was only 10 feet or so away. So I dusted myself off, carefully approached the edge and took a picture- I kinda wanted to give my dad a heart attack. Sorry dad!

Now it was time to get off the island.. which means, time to cross the bridge again! Yay! This time, I wanted to be the 8th person to cross so I could take my time crossing and Marito could get some pictures of me with out feeling rushed by the people behind us. After everyone else had finished crossing I was the only one on it, and with every step I took, it felt like I was walking on a trampoline. Still feeling safe and secure, I now felt the vertigo. Awesome.


Next on our list of things to do in Northern Ireland was Giant's Causeway. Only a couple miles down the road, are these beautiful stones sticking out of the coast shapped in hexagonal form. They are all about 18 inches wide and 12 meter deep. They are considered to be stepping stones for giants like Finn MaCool.


Apparently, Finn was wanting to fight another giant in Scotland, so he "placed" these stones all the way to Scotland so the other giant could come fight him. Well when the Scotish giant came, Finn saw how big he was and he hid in disguise as a baby (beard and all). The Scotish giant sees this baby, sees how big it is and flees thinking if Finns baby is this big, imagine how big Finn is. Kinda fun story. These rocks are actually formed by volcanic activity, but I'm a kid a heart and like the giant story better.


After we left we drove through Belfast, which is where the Titanic was made. We should have stopped and gone to the museum- I used to be really into the Titanic. But anyways, we got back to Dublin without a hitch and grabbed dinner at Castle and Bull. I had the most delicious Steak and Guinnes Pie. Even Marito was jealous of my meal. Afterwards we walked to the Temple Bar area, and if you go to Temple Bar then you need to get a drink at The Temple Bar! I mean the block is named after this bar, might as well go find out why! We walked in and saw a tiny packed bar, but then quickly realized that it was sectioned off into many rooms. We grabbed our drinks and headed towards the live music. These two older guys were playing traditional feet stompin, hand clappin Irish music. It was such a feel good moment. Being there with my marito, drinking great drinks and listening to fun music. I can only wish that everyone can experience it! After a few drinks we ended our night.

The next day was our last day in Dublin. We slept in and walked around town, checking out the different shops and pubs. Our friends went to the Jameson Distillery, which they enjoyed but say the Guinness Storehouse is better. They bought a special 12 year blend of Jameson that you can only get at the distillery. A nice token to take back home and remember the trip.

We flew back to Gatwick, and caught the easyBus to the Tube. As we approach the Tube station I go to grab some cash and realize I left my purse on the bus!! I jump up and down, stamp my feet and yell $#*! $#*! $*! (not the f word). After realizing what had happened, marito drops his bags and sprints back to the bus stop. Fortunately the bus hadn't left and was able to get my purse and our passports and etc back. My frineds won't let me live that down.

We had one last full day in London. We got up early and caught a Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour. Little did we know that it was a big day in Parliament, and all of the legistlation was meeting (it happens only once a year). My friends really wanted to see the palace and the changing of the guards, so this was an added bonus. They ended up seeing the Queen, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles. While they were doing that, marito and I jumped off the bus and went back to Covent Gardens, where I did my best to spend the rest of our money.

Our last day was also my girlfriend's birthday, and she got to see the Queen. How rad? We went through the Hop-on Hop-off bus website and bought discounted theater tickets. We went to go see the show Rock of Ages, and I am soooo thankful that we did. I saw the movie, but the show is so much funnier and lighter. It's not kid appropriate, but if you need a great laugh, this show is totally worth every penny! It was a great way to end our vacation.

Our flight was set for 6 am the next day, which meant we needed to be there by 4, and to get there by 4 am we had to catch a bus at 3! Which meant we needed to catch a taxi at 230 to get to the bus because the Tube was closed until 530 am. Why am I telling you this? Because when you travel in a foreign country, you need to know how to get to and from the airport and how long it is going to take you. So with only about 2 hours of sleep we said our good byes to London and made way to Bella Napoli. Fortunately we had this weekend to catch up on sleep. After a busy vacation like this one, a staycation was definitely welcomed! Just remember, when you make youre trip to London, don't forget to Mind The Gap!

If you have questions about this trip, feel free to message me on facebook.com/caseyclaire