Monday, June 21 - With a heavy heart I packed up to get ready to head back to Canada. This meant my trip was finally done. 6 weeks earlier I had arrived at the RN and wishing I had never left Canada and now I was dreading going home. This post would be quite boring except with this excerpt - while drinking at the Happy in Belfast Kara dared me to go hit on this random guy. I accepted the dare, and successfully chatted up said boy. In the end it was playful fun and nothing happened. I remember talking to him but I don't remember much of our conversation. In the end I wish I had...
Turns out, some how this guy is on my flight out of Dublin back to Canada! Random coincidence. Worse, I didn't even recognize him the first half of he flight, but he did me. Oh well. Quite a funny story at any rate.
My Euro adventure ends here, sadly. I'm hoping it will be updated in the somewhat near future. I have plans in place (and the wheels are in motion) to move to the UK for a year starting spring 2011. I'm currently working on obtaining my UK Visa and securing employment. Wish me luck! Talk soon.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Day 40 - Back to Dublin
Sunday, June 20th - I woke up feeling quite horrible, thankfully we had a quick send-off with Chris's parents and then we were heading back to Belfast. With it being Sunday, the train ran on limited hours so Sandra and I had to make it back to Dublin by mid-afternoon or we wouldn't make it back for our flight home the following morning. Really, I was quite okay with missing it and staying in Europe forever. Sandra was eager to get home though. I said a tearful goodbye to Kara at the train station - it was hard, really had no idea when I will see her next. As of now UK Visa is in the works, may be sooner than I thought!
2 hours later we arrived back in Dublin and checked into the lodge we had stayed at before. Turned out we had luck-out the first time, our room wasn't as nearly as spacious as the last one, in-fact we had to share a queen bed. It still wasn't horrible, and it was still dirt cheap. We cleaned up and then headed to our last dinner out in Europe. We went back to the restaurant we went to earlier in the week since the food had been fantastic. We splurged and had ridiculously expensive meals with over-priced but delicious wine. After that we headed back to our lodge to get ready to fly home in the morning. Here we dropped heaps of stuff trying to lighten our luggage. This was the worst night of sleep of the entire trip for me, a car alarm started going off around 3am and never stopped. I ended up getting up at 4 to shower and get ready for our 6am departure.
2 hours later we arrived back in Dublin and checked into the lodge we had stayed at before. Turned out we had luck-out the first time, our room wasn't as nearly as spacious as the last one, in-fact we had to share a queen bed. It still wasn't horrible, and it was still dirt cheap. We cleaned up and then headed to our last dinner out in Europe. We went back to the restaurant we went to earlier in the week since the food had been fantastic. We splurged and had ridiculously expensive meals with over-priced but delicious wine. After that we headed back to our lodge to get ready to fly home in the morning. Here we dropped heaps of stuff trying to lighten our luggage. This was the worst night of sleep of the entire trip for me, a car alarm started going off around 3am and never stopped. I ended up getting up at 4 to shower and get ready for our 6am departure.
Last Dinner
Day 39 - Exploring Belfast
Saturday, June 19th - Despite going to bed early (at least by contiki standards) I slept quite late and woke up to the delicious smell of home cooked breakfast made by Chris's mom. Bacon, eggs, sausage, rustic bread - it was all delicious. Chris's parents were great, extremely welcoming and quite entertaining to talk to. It was a nice change of pace to sit down to a family breakfast, I don't remember the last time I've done this - certainly not on contiki nor anytime recently at home.
After breaky we took a day trip to see one of the main attractions of Northern Ireland - the Giant's Causeway. We drove through the country-side and arrived at the attraction. It was quite windy and cold compared to what I'm used to. Poor Kara is used to hot Ontario summers and she's been stuck in Ireland in the cold. We climbed down the path to the waterfront and it was an amazing site, the rock formations were all symmetrical columns that were formed from a volcanic eruption that happened ages ago. It was really neat to look at and climb around. Only problem was that Kara and Chris hadn't advised me to where we were going so I was only wearing thongs so I had a bit of a problem on the slippery rocks. I still managed okay, I had climbed waterfalls and trekked around Europe in these thongs, I could definitely handle a few rocks. After admiring the waterfront we make a quick trip to the organ (see picture below) and then headed up the hill back to the car. Poor Sandra wasn't doing very well, the chilly winds made her feel worse than she already did and she had a difficult time climbing up the hill, but she was a trooper. The fresh air did the opposite for me, I felt renewed for the first time in weeks and was well ahead of the crowd, eager to explore the next turn.
After leaving the Giant's Causeway we went to a tiny waterfront city that Kara and Chris swore had the best ice cream. We weren't disappointed - it was elaborate and delicious. I still prefer gelato to ice cream but this was a definite treat. We passed by some shops and decided to stop, Kara and Chris were looking for a tent and I as everyone knows I just enjoying shopping - they didn't find a tent but I found some really cheap hoodies - 6 pounds and fit me perfectly!
We finally arrived back at Chris's parents place and after a quick shower we settled in for a family BBQ. The food was amazing - sausages, hamburgers, steaks - our host family went all out. It was simply delicious. Again, I really enjoyed the family time, and since one of the most famous Irish past-times is drinkin', we all got quite liquored up. Highlights of the evening include me trying to make friends with a herd of sheep - I spent a good 15 minutes trying to convince them to be friendly. I fail, but there is a pretty funny video of this. The entire group of us (parent's included) decided to head to the only pub in town "The Happy", which was heaps of fun. Everyone knew each other and those who didn't were extremely welcoming. It was very small town and unlike anything I've ever experienced I enjoyed every minute of it. We spent a few hours here and by last call I literally had to be dragged from the bar, I was having too much fun to leave!
More Giant's Causeway
After breaky we took a day trip to see one of the main attractions of Northern Ireland - the Giant's Causeway. We drove through the country-side and arrived at the attraction. It was quite windy and cold compared to what I'm used to. Poor Kara is used to hot Ontario summers and she's been stuck in Ireland in the cold. We climbed down the path to the waterfront and it was an amazing site, the rock formations were all symmetrical columns that were formed from a volcanic eruption that happened ages ago. It was really neat to look at and climb around. Only problem was that Kara and Chris hadn't advised me to where we were going so I was only wearing thongs so I had a bit of a problem on the slippery rocks. I still managed okay, I had climbed waterfalls and trekked around Europe in these thongs, I could definitely handle a few rocks. After admiring the waterfront we make a quick trip to the organ (see picture below) and then headed up the hill back to the car. Poor Sandra wasn't doing very well, the chilly winds made her feel worse than she already did and she had a difficult time climbing up the hill, but she was a trooper. The fresh air did the opposite for me, I felt renewed for the first time in weeks and was well ahead of the crowd, eager to explore the next turn.
After leaving the Giant's Causeway we went to a tiny waterfront city that Kara and Chris swore had the best ice cream. We weren't disappointed - it was elaborate and delicious. I still prefer gelato to ice cream but this was a definite treat. We passed by some shops and decided to stop, Kara and Chris were looking for a tent and I as everyone knows I just enjoying shopping - they didn't find a tent but I found some really cheap hoodies - 6 pounds and fit me perfectly!
We finally arrived back at Chris's parents place and after a quick shower we settled in for a family BBQ. The food was amazing - sausages, hamburgers, steaks - our host family went all out. It was simply delicious. Again, I really enjoyed the family time, and since one of the most famous Irish past-times is drinkin', we all got quite liquored up. Highlights of the evening include me trying to make friends with a herd of sheep - I spent a good 15 minutes trying to convince them to be friendly. I fail, but there is a pretty funny video of this. The entire group of us (parent's included) decided to head to the only pub in town "The Happy", which was heaps of fun. Everyone knew each other and those who didn't were extremely welcoming. It was very small town and unlike anything I've ever experienced I enjoyed every minute of it. We spent a few hours here and by last call I literally had to be dragged from the bar, I was having too much fun to leave!
First Sight of the Giant's Causeway
Up the hillside
More Giant's Causeway
The Organ
Kara and I
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