My parents visit Dublin!

On December 2^nd, my parents departed Boston to come visit me in Dublin! They had a couple problems with their flights on the way out of their connection in New York though, and instead of landing around 9am, they got in at about quarter to two! I met them at their hotel, and after a teary reunion (you know mothers..), they got settled into their room. We stayed at the hotel for a little while, and then began to wander around the city. We walked down O’Connell Street over to the Grafton Street area looking at all of the city Christmas decorations (and snapped some photos!). We found a small Italian restaurant to have a bit of lunch/dinner. We got a pizza with peppers, pepperoni, onions and spinach on it- it was really good and the perfect size for the three of us!

After we were all fed and happy, we made our way back to my campus so that they could see my room/apartment. At my apartment, we got settled in and warmed up for a little while. Both of them were exhausted from the flight delays and the 6 hour time difference, so at about 9ish, I walked them to the bus stop and they were on their way back to the hotel for some much needed rest!

The next morning, Stacie and I made our way to their hotel for 9:30ish and had a full Irish breakfast with them! We walked around the city centre a little bit more and then hopped on a bus that would take us to Kilmainham Gaol, a jail built in 1796 that is famous in Irish history. It was originally built as a jail for the county of Dublin, but soon became a key location to keep prisoners responsible for uprising in favor Irish independence. We went on a tour of the jail and Mom and Dad were able to hear a lot about Irish history. Stacie and I knew much of the history of the country and the struggles itself, but the details of the jail and how it was run were also very interesting/surprising. For instance, prisoners didn’t have beds, just boards of wood on the floor to lift them up a bit from the cold limestone. They were in their cells for about 23 hours out of the day and when they were let out, they had to walk in a circle with their head facing down and they weren’t allowed to talk. Talk about cruelty! The jail is also famous because it was the site of the execution of the 1916 Easter Rising leaders. Here are some photos from the tour!

The family at the gates!

Leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising who were executed by firing squad in the jail.

Example Cell

Dad being... Dad.

The Victorian Wing

Courtyard

After the tour, we got some tea. Since the jail is made entirely of limestone, the walls keep the cold inside and we were all frozen! We made our way back to the city centre, and then back to DCU. Mom and Dad wanted to do some Christmas shopping and stock my fridge/cupboards (which I was in no way complaining about). We walked to OMNI, the local shopping mall and spent a few hours shopping in Penneys and Tesco for all of the essentials! After we shopped, we came back to my apartment to drop everything off, spent a little time talking here and then went back into the city! I took them to O’Neills for dinner, which was the best choice of the day! I had a delicious Italian chicken something, Dad had a huge piece of beef and all the fixings to go along with it, and my Mom ordered a sandwich that was big enough to feed 3 people! She didn’t end up eating it all, but wrapped it up and gave the rest of it to a homeless man on the street. Good deed for the day! 

After dinner, we were all stuffed and tired, and we headed back to their hotel for the night. I spent the night there so that we’d be able to get a good start in the morning. We woke up, got ready and then went down to Grafton Street to meet Alex and her mom for some brunch! We all got paninis, which were really good, and then made our way to the DART to take a ride out to Malahide! My dad really really REALLY wanted to see/touch a castle, so we made our way to Malahide Castle to go on the tour. The castle was beautiful; so were the grounds! It dates back to 1185, and the tour was very interesting!

On the way to the DART!

Malahide Castle!

Castle Grounds

Alex & I

Mom and Dad

View from the front entrance

Path around the back!

After the tour, we got back on the DART and made our way back to the city centre. I wanted to show my parents a traditional Irish pub with some live music, so we walked around Temple Bar for a bit and finally found a place that wasn’t too crowded, The Temple Bar. We all sat and had a drink, listened to some live music in the back and enjoyed the atmosphere. We made our way back to my apartment after that and I cooked them dinner, like I promised I would!

Mom and Dad at The Temple Bar!

Homemade dinner!

They got a chance to meet some of my roommates, Aidan and Sean!

Monday Morning, I met my parents in the city and we made our way to Trinity College! I had class later that afternoon that I couldn’t miss, so I wanted to maximize the time in the morning! We tried to get into the Book of Kells, but unfortunately, the line was really long and we weren’t able to! We did walk around the campus for a bit, though. The buildings have so much history, like the college altogether, and it was a great day out!

Mom and Dad under the archway!

In the center of campus

After Trinity, we walked down Henry street for a while, and then I made my way to the bus. I left my camera with my parents though, and they went to some great places and saw a lot of the city! They went to Eddie Rockets for lunch, walked around Dublin Castle, and made their way to both St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Christchurch Cathedral.

They found Butler's Chocolates!

An Eddie Rockets lunch!

Dublin Castle

St. Patrick's Cathedral

What time is it?!

Christchurch Cathedral

I met back up with them after my classes were over, and we went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner! My Dad loves places like this, so it was really great that we were able to go to the one in Dublin! Dinner was delicious!

Dad and I at Hard Rock!

I went back to their hotel for a little whle after that, had some wine, and then said my goodbyes. I had class at 10 am the next morning and wouldn’t be able to make it to the city and then back again in time. They took a bus to the airport Tuesday morning, and despite the snowstorms that morning, were out of Dublin with a delay of only 20 minutes!

Monday night was also Alex’s 21^st birthday, so we all got together and went out for the night!

All in all, we hit a lot of the things they both wanted to do for the weekend! I’m glad they finally got a chance to visit and work it out with their schedules. I’ll be home soon, but it was still really great to see and spend time with them in another city abroad. Plus, they got some sweet stamps on their brand new passports!! :-)

Just touched down in London Town!

On Thanksgiving, after our huge dinner, we all decided to go out to the city! After spending the whole night out, we came back, picked up our backpacks (prepacked!) and got in a cab to go to the airport at half 4 so we could catch our flight to London!

We got to the airport incident free and perfectly on time- we’re becoming pros! None of us had any sleep so we all passed out very quickly on the flight to London. When we touched down, we took a train from Gatwick airport to Victoria station and then hopped on the tube to Highland and Islington, where Alex’s cousin lives! Alex, Stacie and I were staying with her cousin, Chris, and Deanne and Alli were staying with our friend Chris (studying with us in Dublin)and his best friend, Chris. There were a lot of Chrises in the equation that weekend!

We all went to Alex’s cousins, though, and got settled in with some tea and hot chocolate. We had an appointment scheduled with Brian (aka Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore), a Supreme Court Justice for the UK- also one of Alex’s family friends. We first met up with Alex’s cousin, and then made our way to the Supreme court building to meet Brian. We got a personalized tour of the inside of the Supreme Court building- it’s absolutely gorgeous!!

The outside of the Supreme Court building

One of the courtrooms

The symbol representing the four parts of the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Where the justices sit to hear the case

The library! I want one just like it in my house!

Vaulted ceiling of the library

After the tour, we all went out for lunch together at a local restaurant frequented by those who are out to eat before a show at the theatre situated above the restaurant. I had some soup and delicious butternut squash risotto. MMM! While Alex and her cousin went with Brian to the House of Lords, D, Alli, Stacie and I just wandered around that area and got a closer look at Big Ben!

After we met back up with Chris and Alex, Chris showed us all around the city centre! We walked over a few bridges, by a skate park, through a Christmas outdoor marketplace, saw the London Eye (and even got a sneak peek at a very rare photo op of Big Ben thru the London Eye!), Buckingham Palace and more. It was really cold out and we’d been outside all day, so then we stopped and got some tea at a local café! Here are some photos from the day:

The London Eye!

Walkway along the river

Buckingham Palace- the flag was up, so the Queen was home!

We all went back to Chris’ to warm up a bit, and then D and Alli went to meet up with our friend Chris (who had missed his flight) and then to bring their stuff to the place they’d be staying! Alex went to dinner with Brian’s family, and Stacie, Chris and I went to a local pub/restaurant that Chris recommended to us. It was absolutely delicious and very fairly priced! I had a plate of mussels in a white wine sauce and Stacie had a pasta dish with blue cheese, broccoli and tomatoes. Yum! We also had a few pints of Chris’ favorite kind of cider- I wish we had it back home, it was so so good! Stacie and I were exhausted after not sleeping the night before and being up for about 48 hours, so we called it a relatively early night and went to bed!

We all didn’t wake up until about 11 the next morning (which was absolutely wonderful!). We decided to spend the day on Oxford street, a big street shut down for cars and lined with tons and tons of stores and shops! We went shopping for a few hours amidst the Christmas decorations, carolers, performances and music. It definitely made me very excited for the holiday season! After Oxford street, we went back to Chris’ area for a bit, and then out to a place we had researched online where there was supposed to be reindeer petting! Unfortunately, we missed the time frame that we could have pet them, but it was an area of London that had tons of Christmas decorations and a gigantic reindeer and Christmas tree! We also did a bit of shopping here as well.

After this, we went our separate ways, as Alex, Stacie, Chris and I were planning to go to this really unique cocktail bar. Chris told us all about the crazy things they do to make their cocktails the best- like adding ‘essence of dry’ and using a centrifuge to separate elements of fruit.. what?! We ended up making some pasta back at Chris’ for dinner and lost track of time. We were too late for our reservation, so we just went to a different cocktail bar down the street called Playtime. It was a really cool atmosphere- something you don’t really get a lot of in Dublin, as it’s mainly full of pubs and traditional bars. Later that night, we met up with Alli, Deanne, Chris and Chris who were all at Chris’ (Dublin Chris’ friend studying in London). We headed home at a decent hour and went to sleep!

The next morning was our last full day in Dublin, as we’d be staying at the airport hotel that night. First thing’s first- Platform 9 ¾! I have been waiting, ever since the Harry Potter books came out and I realized King’s Cross Station is a real place, to go visit platform 9 ¾. My dream finally came true (dorky, I know.)! We all took pictures as if we were running onto the platform to get to the Hogwarts express. We were there for about 45 minutes, haha, but it was the best 45 minutes of my life!

After we got our thrill pretending to be Hogwarts students (I’m still waiting for my letter!), we hopped on the tube and went to the Tower of London! It was a really cold day outside, but the views were breathtaking! We also stumbled upon a little red phone booth and took our touristy pictures there J

From here, we made our way to the Tower Bridge. Most people actually think this is the “London Bridge” we all sing about during our childhood, but it’s actually not! Apparently the London Bridge isn’t that impressive- we didn’t get a chance to go to it! The bridge was gorgeous, just as picturesque as I’d imagined!

We warmed up with some lattes at Starbucks (which left me feeling sick for the rest of the day- I think it was bad eggnog!) and then made our way back to the tube/Victoria station so that we could make our way to Gatwick and check into our hotel. We got to our hotel in a pretty timely manner, ordered some pizza for dinner and went right to sleep! We were all worn out from our busy busy weekend! The flight the next morning arrived in Dublin right on time (much to my dismay-RyanAir plays this annoying bugle sound when you’re on time and it’s the absolute worst!). I slept for most of the day since I was still feeling sick from the day before, but all in all, the trip was fantastic! I’m so happy that I finally made my way to London- a perfect Thanksgiving weekend!