When in Ireland....

Drink as the Irish do!!!!

I spent five days in Dublin last week and man was it wonderful!!

My first morning I went on a free walking tour and they invited us to lunch afterwards where I had some Guinness stew with all of the fixings.

I spent some time in St. Stephen's Green afterwards where I chilled next to some swan babies :)

The next morning I went to Howth.

Howth is a small fishing town about 25 minutes from Dublin by train.

I went with a group of about 10 and it was one of the best decisions of my trip!

It was so beautiful!

This is Lauren and Jessica and they are from Florida!

We met on the free walking tour and hung out a bit for the rest of our time in Dublin!

All of us from the tour went to the pub crawl that night!

Apparently I hadn't had enough Guinness yet, so I took it a step further by going to the storehouse!

They had this amazing tasting lab where we smelled all of the ingredients through these steam machines and got to sample a bit to learn how to taste Guinness!

Then I got to pour my own glass, perfectly I might add ;)

That night a few people from my hostel and I went out to watch the Barcelona game!

All different nationalities! 

Spanish, Chilean, French, and American!!

 

We went to this bar/restaurant called the Church and it was a deconsecrated church turned into a bar! 

Of course

The next morning I took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher with some stops along the way!

The cliffs were incredible! I sat on the edge taking everything in for about half an hour

At lunch, I was able to try a truly authentic Irish coffee!

Just as good as it looks, actually, probably better

On what was supposed to be my last day there, I explored Dublin some more and just enjoyed everything the beautiful city has to offer!

After finding out in Edinburgh that I don't hate whiskey, I decided to give the Jameson distillery a go!

We tried a Scottish whiskey, American whiskey, and Jameson of course and Jack Daniels was definitely the worst. (sorry)

Raquel from Spain and I went to have drinks before I headed to the airport!

At the airport I had my last pint of true, Irish Guinness!

Ireland was one of the highlights of my whole time here.

I wish I had more time to spend there because it is so beautiful.

Slàinte Mhath!!

The downside to hostels, well one of many, is that the wifi is very iffy so I haven't been able to post about my few days in Edinburgh, Scotland!

I finally have my chance and here it goes!

The first thing I did when I got there was climbing up to the top of the Scott Monument and peering out at all of Edinburgh!

The views were amazing, and quite chilly in comparison to Greece! 

I then went in search of the cathedral!

It was so beautiful and I loved all of the stained glass!

So the normal person might think this is a church, but I've found in Scotland that a lot of Catholic churches have been deconsecrated and turned into other things.

Like this one, this one is an event center!

I went on a pub crawl that first night and it took me to yet another deconsecrated church.

This one had been turned into a bar called Frankenstein's.

And yes, they had a little show where Frankenstein dropped from the ceiling.

Terrifying.

I met some great people on the tour that night!

These girls were from Australia and Dallas!!!

The next day I took a day trip to the Scottish Highlands, Glen Coe, and finally Loch Ness!!

The sun was kind of coming out and you could see a beautiful rainbow!

I found out that there are more sheep in Scotland than people...

Do you recognize this bridge?

It's the bridge shown in the Harry Potter movies that the Hogwarts' Express goes over!

Fun fact, J.K. Rowling is from Edinburgh and started the novels in a coffee shop there.

There are actually tombstones with names of many of the characters and even a street called Potter St. It was interesting to see how she got her inspiration for the names!

There's Nessie herself!

I met these lovely people who were about to start med school in Michigan!

That night I had a traditional Scottish dinner complete with some whiskey and haggis.

Haggis is essentially sheep innards that are ground up and mixed with a bunch of spices before being encased in sheep stomach.

I went for the tastier appearance of the haggis, neeps, and tatties!

This was the haggis with beets and mashed potatoes.

It was tasty but had a very odd texture.

My last morning there I climbed to the top of Arthur's seat.

As you can see, it's freezing!

The museums in Scotland are free so I spent a little while in the Museum of Scotland!

Lastly, I went to the Scottish whiskey museum to try out some Scottish whiskey!

They even had it paired with chocolate which made it a little easier for me, an amateur.

Here is where I learned the phrase "Slàinte Mhath!!" 

It's a Scottish gaelic phrase pronounced slanja va.

That directly translates to "good health" in English, but is used instead of saying cheers!

The sun finally came out and all felt right in the world.

I spent the rest of my time lying in the park before heading to the airport for Dublin!

On my flight to London I got upgraded to the exit row all by myself. It was quite a nice change to the very cramped seating in RyanAir jets.

I've been in Dublin since Wednesday night, but my time here will be for a different post.

Hope all is well across the pond!