The Land of Green; Ireland

20 April:

Good morning Dublin!

First stop with Hope... Take a guess... Guinness factory, Irish pub, no no no. It's green. It's has caffeine, yup. Starbucks.

Chai and Vanilla Soy Lattes

Walked around explored as I always do in a new city. 

Dublin Caslte

Inside Dublin Caslte

Cathedral

Most amazing lunch at Cornucopia.

 

 Hope and I might be the same person, she knows what geocaching is. I asked her about Cedar point... She immediately said Maverick! I died. Oh and Los Destinos... Everyone in my Spanish class, you know what I'm talking about. Oscarito, la leche! :) hilarious Explored more.

Picture taken for Kristin and Caitlyn!

Biggest suitcase I've ever seen in my entire life. At least I could get everything back to the states in one piece! Can you imagine checking this in at the airport!!!

Chilled at Starbucks again.
Made a vegan dinner!

Hope- "This is the most elaborate meal I've made since living here."

Couchsurfing!

Then we went out and explored Dublin at night.

Catching up with the locals.

The Famous Temple Bar!

Hope saw friends in Temple bar!

Having fun at Temple Bar!

My twin!

We then went to another club, which was having a UV paint party with glow sticks. Yes please!

My new mustache, hand-painted by Hope!

Being silly as always.

Woo!! Awkward balloon pose upside down!

Dancing!

Dangeroussss.

 

Some famous bridge.

Walking back home!

21 April:
Up far to early. Bus tour day!! 

Hope's apartment

Excited!

Hope, Sanne (another CS!) and I were On our way to Galway, Cliffs of Moher, and numerous other stops!

Missed bus, whoops. The photo above is the reason we missed our bus... Haha!

Streets of Galway

Saw this bike on a postcard, thought I'd get a picture!

Galway

I've somehow managed to avoid paying to use the bathroom (typical here in Europe) all the way until today. Go me!

Oh and they drive on the other side of the road. I just look both ways because I always want to look left.

Cliffs of Moher

 

 

Walking along the cliffs

Cliff of Moher are used in films including Inception, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Saving Private Ryan. Awesome.

Apparently puffins come up on shore later in the evening as well! We didn't see that as we left earlier in the day.

Guest Book

Stopped for lunch. Then continued on our way.

The bus driver was cracking me up the entire time. Others were too occupied to appreciate his humor apparently, but I couldn't stop laughing! The roads are extremely narrow in the country, not wide enough for two cars. When you approach someone, you must pull over so the other can pass. Well we were in a bus obviously, and this particular passing was narrower than normal. So the bus driver told us all. "Hold on! This one is as tight as a fishes ass." 

Our next stop was more amazing cliffs again. And across the road, people were rock climbing!! So jealous! Soon that will be me!

Sanne on the cliff

 

 

Probably scariest moment of my life... and Hope was just taking a picture!

Intensity!

 Bus driver's humor continued. We passed a cemetery and said "Yes they are still using graveyards here. Haven't found a cure for dying in this area yet." No one else laughed, I thought it was hilarious.
He was quite funny. "I think I just swallowed a fly." "I want to come back as a ram" His jokes were never ending. 

Castle!

He was always interested in nature and pointing out animals and such. We passed a pasture, then slammed on the brakes. Backed up, and we just saw a cow that gave birth a few hours ago! The calf was by the mom and everything looked healthy! Crazy!

Baby lambs

So then we made our way back to Galway. I stopped and looked for something Megan left at a hostel, but it wasn't there.

Bus ride back to Dublin- nap time!

Hope was hosting another couchsurfer that night, so I had another host lined up! Dave and Alice from the UK . Met in front of Trinity college and right away I knew they were extremely nice and a lot of fun! We went out to a bar and met a lot of their friends and got to know each other.
 
Dave worked in Malta, but his job recently moved him to Dublin where he and his girlfriends now live. They live in Beggars Bush which used to be army barracks. Very unique!!

After a drink at the bar, we went back to their place! First house party for them!  Dave started playing acoustic guitar! I got asked a million stereotypical American questions, which was hysterical! They started singing the national anthem. After everyone left, Alice, Dave and I just stayed up talking for awhile until three. More amazing couchsurfers!! Looking forward to getting to spend more time with them!

22 April:

Happy Good Friday and Earth day everyone!!

Dave had to work so Alice And I spent the day together. 

We bought strawberries at the market on the street- seriously one of the funniest thing ever happened!! Gave the old woman my money and then began to choose which strawberries package I wanted. I went through at least five or so and tried to pick the best (what most normal people would do). I kind of disorganized it a bit, but I planned on putting it back. The old angry woman came back and said "Jesus Mary and Joseph!" I started laughing immediately, I said I was going to put everything back, and then she took the strawberries from my hand and gave me back my money! She was really impatient and upset and said "You aren't I man!!" I was so shocked and could NOT stop laughing. Alice and I looked at each other like, did that really just happen? Ironic thing is that the next fruit stand had strawberries that were better quality and fifty cents cheaper! Take that old angry woman!! I didn't want your strawberries and negative energy anyway!


Walked around, shopped a bit. 

Had lunch at a different vegetarian/vegan restaurant!

Visited Trinity college also!This is where Hope goes and where Alice applied to!

 

Tennis Courts @ Trinity

I texted Hope and asked if she wanted to meet at Starbucks, guess where she already was? So Alice and I went there and met Andrea who was Hope's new couchsurfer for the night! Got to know each other and had a great time as always.

Unoffcial CS dinner tonight! We bought ingredients and making dinner now! Playlist going on, time to have more fun!
Vegan dinner: Plantains (Kat!!) sundried tomatoes and mushroom cous cous and salad! Making Pimms drink (most bristish drink possible) and red mulled wine!

Ladies making a great dinner!

Pimms!

You soak Pimms with all this fruit, then you add about 1/4 into your glass and put lemonade (Sprite) in the rest of the drink. Most refreshing drink!! I just imagined sitting at Wimbledon on the lawn! 


Delicious dinner. Had a fun fun night with all my friends. Played games all night, well all morning really.

Alice and i!

Couchsurfing!

We taught each other a lot of different drinking games and let's just say that Alice loves to ride the bus! She honestly was the only one drinking for about an hour! Also, Hope and I don't drink soda so we didn't have many options for drinking, so we were chugging coffee at like 2 am! Needless to say, I didn't go to sleep until around five!

Oh, but I did forget to tell you that we actually went to a circus here in Dublin. Probably wondering how it was right? It was in tents (intense)!

Okay so we didn't go to the circus!


But here's another joke for ya, What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot! 

Don't get offended... Why can't Mexicans play UNO? Because they steal all the green cards.

23 April:

Beggars Bush

Another day of exploring! Had lunch at Cornucopia again!

Taste buds got really excited!

Street Art

Our main adventure of the day was a Vikings city tour! Hysterical and a blast! We yelled and scared people on the street far too many times, so much fun! Good way to see the city and all the sites quickly while having fun, not just a typical boring city tour!

About to begin!

 

Life jackets!?!

Floating!

Our boat!

Another Starbucks stop and then off to the supermarket to buy ingredients for dinner.

Sniffy Liffey

Alice unfortunately didn't feel well, so Andrea, Hope, and I made another deliciossssss vegan dinner.

Vegan Chocolate Cake!!

Having fun!

 Went out for my last night in Ireland. 

Taken for Alyssa Cerrito! 747!!

 We were on a mission to dance and found a few clubs, but they had 10euro cover, no thanks! So we heard good music coming from this one club, turns out there was a GIANT group of people going in at once, and we went in with them at the same time! Woo! Sneaky us! Also danced in there for a few hours! 

Andrea, Hope, and I

My favorite lady to dance with! She was fanning everyone!

Haha!

 Ended up meeting people who had connections and got us free cover and VIP access into another enormous nice club! 

Another late night, but a great end to a great trip. Good night Dublin and the Sniffy Liffey!

24 April:
Happy Easter everyone!!! And Happy Birthday to my amazing mom! Can't wait until she's in Europe in just few weeks!!!

I didn't arrive at the airport as early as I probably should have, but I would say it was good timing. I bought two giant bags of Emerald Irish Caramels. Was an entire bag gone by the time I arrived in Munich? There's a possibility, I'll let you decide.

Travel day. Ireland to Munich to Innsbruck. Slept the entire flight and I don't want to brag, I don't want to boast, but I'm arriving in Innsbruck three hours before expected! Got an express bus from Memmigen airport into Munich (which I guess I should have known existed, but I never thought about it.) I planned on taking the train into Munich.

Anyhow, I ran amazing race style through the train station in Munich with my backpack, bought a ticket super fast at the machine and got on the speed train (ICE) back to Innsbruck just five minutes after buying the ticket. Good way to end one of the best trips I've ever taken. Only thing that went wrong was that bug that seriously flew right into my eye, people probably thought I was crying in the Munich train station.

Goodbye Munich

 What an amazing experience, couchsurfing the entire time and honestly meeting the most nice and fun people out there. Thank you to every single person I met on my trip! Hope to see you again someday!

So overall:
Sixteen days. Five countries. Four languages. Three flights. Two time zones. One amazing experience....
Couchsurfing the entire time: priceless!