One way to the UK?

Well Friday morning I headed off and had a good training session at the gym; in preparation for the 4 days of Easter!

At about 130pm Mara and I arrived at Liverpool Street station to catch the train out to Stansted… we had it planned to meet Sarah and Emma there and get the 1340 train, and meet Kate 11 minutes later at Tottenham Hale station to head to Stansted all together! We ‘just’ made it onto the train all together after Sarah and Emma arrived a little late from their connections etc… anyhow all went well and we had a good chat on the way to the station! Once we’d checked in at Stansted, our flight was almost on time, we got caught up a little in security as Kate only took hand-luggage and one of her expensive face creams was in a 200ml bottle (oops!) but luckily the nice security guy let her go through to Boots and purchase some little 100ml containers to decant it into!

We then had a look around the small range of duty free shops, tried some free Baileys and Snow Queen 5x distilled Vodka, before buying a bottle of that and a British tin with cookies inside as Jen’s thankyou present! Mara and I grabbed a coffee each and the other girls grabbed something for lunch before we walked through to the Ryan Air departure area for more waiting… our plane literally pulled up and disembarked while we were all in line waiting to get on (quick turn around, no wonder Ryan Air planes aren’t always the cleanest!). Anyhow Sarah, Emma and Kate had priority boarding (paid the extra 2 Pound) so they saved two seats for Mara and I to join them! Mind you, for once just as it worked out, Mara and I were at the front of the ‘other passengers’ boarding line so it wasn’t too bad regardless.

Jen picked us up from the airport in two lots, and as I was in the first car to her house I got a proper bed to sleep on (haha). I’m sure next time we’ll swap around for couch duties. So, Friday being Good Friday all the pubs in Ireland were closed, and the alcohol isles in the supermarkets were blockaded off; literally NO purchasing of alcohol at all! In Ireland! Jen has stocked up the house well with food and drinks to last the weekend so we were all quite happy to all just talk and talk and catch up and drink and eat bits and pieces for dinner until the early hours of the morning (well about half one we headed to bed!).

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Well seeing as tomorrow is Easter Friday, Holy Day, and Mara and I are heading up to Cork for a girls weekend/reunion I thought I’d better quickly write about last weekend, which was spent in Dublin helping the Irish and thousands of tourists celebrate St Patrick’s Day in style! St Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, contrary to the popular beliefe that he drove the snakes away, that’s not actually why he’s famed and given a day in his honour.

Dublin is a lovely city – quite small and homely and with a massive spike in the middle of town… literally just called the Dublin Spike. The weather wasn’t exactly on our side for the weekend however we still made the most of visting a new city, and as it wasn’t windy (like London) it was actually pretty tolerable. On the Friday after checking into the B&B, well located right near town, we headed off down the main shopping streets and visited Trinity College… started because the Queen (way back then) was worried ‘her people up there’ were heading off to Europe to be educated. The College is quite nice, and small which I’m sure is pleasant for the students there… as are all the pubs on every street!

We were all on a strict budget for the weekend but still managed to have a great time – vodka, juice, loaf of bread, crackers, nutella, ham and cheese and jams, oh as well as bottles of water and 5 choccie bars each to sustain us for the weekend! The B&B included a great Irish Breakfast (same as an English breakfast, but eaten in Ireland…) and the rest of the time, when we weren’t walking around or visiting coffee cafes and chocolate shops, we were on the Bulmers Cider in the various pubs we visited. Kristy and I also visited the Guinness Storehouse – quite interesting set up that takes you through how Guinness is brewed (roasted barley to give dark colour) and the best part was getting to pull our own beers. I drank a bit of it… the foam of Guinness is nice however the actual stout is definitely not my kind of drink so I won’t go ordering that anytime soon!

In Dublin we also visited St Stephen’s Green (huge green park area), Christchurch Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral and spent most of our time in (the touristy area) Temple Bar. It was really a lovely city, and I wouldn’t mind going back there apart from the fact that there’s not a massive amount of things to do there… and it rains a lot and pay in Euros seems to be a bit lower than pounds!

Well not much happening - feeling a bit isolated sometimes in such a big city! Been going to the gym lots, which fits in really well with new job  as I finish at 430pm most days (unless we have an ... [Continue reading this entry]