You + Me is bad news

Well, we didn’t go directly there… we had a layover  at London Heathrow for 5 hours first… which totally sucked because we got the shaft and had to wait  in the smallest terminal with only one half-operation café. I was looking forward to setting up shop and getting a drink during the short stay, but it didn’t really work out like that. Oh welllll.

When we got to Dublin we took a bus to the city. Again, we hopped off and wandered around for about a half hour with all of our bags looking for the hostel… we kept getting different directions but we just couldn’t find it. We finally asked a taxi to take us and he loaded up the car, then literally drove 30 seconds to the front door of the hostel – then he proceeded to charge us 6 euro for it. Whatever. We checked in, unloaded and headed out to explore.

We ended up walking around Temple Bar – a really famous square block in the city centre with bars, pubs, restaurants and clubs galore. The streets were just crawling with people and there was a really fun mood in the air. We ended up going to this Persian place for dinner- Zaytoons – for donners and chips. Very tasty and fun to people watch from.  The long day of waiting tuckered us out, so we crashed pretty early.

The next morning we woke up at our leisure and had breakfast, then just decided to wander around the city and see what kind of trouble we could wrestle up. We went to the castle first…. Which was probably one of the most unimpressive things I’ve seen these past 4 months. Hahaha. Well, to be fair we didn’t go inside… but I really feel like we didn’t miss much. Afterwards, we walked to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Park,



which was beautiful, then we went to Christ’s Church to take a look. Both were expensive to go into, and lets face it… I’ve seen enough churches and cathedrals to last me a lifetime.  We then went to take a look at Trinity College and the shopping districts around there – which we later found out were two of the most expensive shopping streets in all of Europe (Grafton and Nassau to set the record straight). We soon found ourselves souvenir-less and sitting in a random bar with lots of Irish men watching the horse races. We had a few beers and mingled, then decided to head home. That night we made a pizza and watched Braveheart – guess we weren’t over Scotland yet.

The following morning we decided to take a day trip to Wicklow County – an area of mountains south of Dublin known as Ireland’s Garden. Our bus driver was pretty hilarious and kept us laughing the whole time… but the sites were even better. We started off driving to the harbor of Dan Laoghaire; then to Acove where I bought my only scone on the trip; up into the mountains where we saw the glen in which they filmed Braveheart and P.S. I Love You, set right along side the Guinness Estate;



and finally to Glenadough, where we visited the Monastic City with some of the oldest celtic crosses in all of Ireland.



We walked some nature trails and it was so beautiful – I don’t think I’ve ever breathed cleaner, purer air in my life, nor have I ever seen that much green.



GREEEEEEEEN, my golly green.

We got home around 6:30 that night and decided to order pizza in and watch ridiculous movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pineapple Express. I didn’t really care that we weren’t going out to the pubs and what not… because let’s face it, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of going out and after 4 months of being away from home and almost 10 days of living out of a suitcase the only thing on my mind was relaxing. And relax I did.

The next morning we slept in and then went on the hunt for the bus stop we had to get to Wednesday morning for our flight. We ended up running into Henry Street, one of the best streets for local shopping as we were told  by our bus driver. Pete was apparently sick of European food… being there for 10 days and whatnot haha… so he wanted to go to KFC for lunch, which we did. I don’t frequent the Colonel’s turf much at home, but I’m going to go ahead and say it was subpar. And the staff was insane. Oh well, I’m over it.

We then wandered to the Jameson’s Whisky Distillery  and dinked around the gift shop for a while. Pete was really into buying whisky or scotch, but for some reason he passed. It was expensive though – I’ll give him that. We decided to forgo the tour and make our way to the Guinness Storehouse, which is apparently the most visited tourist attraction in all of Ireland. I was actually really impressed with the whole thing – I mean, how interesting can it be? VERY! As soon as we started the tour, we saw the 9000 year lease that Arthur Guinness signed in 1759. Yes, 9000 years. He wasn’t joking around. The entire building was modeled to be in the shape of a pint glass, and apparently if one were to fill that it with Guinness, it would hold 14.3 million pints. The first floor explained the process of brewing the beer – roasted barley, hops, yeast and water straight from a reservoir in the Wicklow mountains! The master brewer, although it was pretty nerdy, took the guests on a guided tour of the entire process and we got to try the roasted barley and a little sample of the beer in the tasting lab. The second and third floors explained the history of the company and what makes Guinness so special, then came the history of the advertisments and there was even a display the of original sketches and artwork of the man who designed all the famous images and slogans like “My goodness, my Guinness!” and “Great day for a Guinness.” I guess the only fact I can’t remember is his name… whoops bong. BUT, he even did a series that involved the reworking of Alice in Wonderland images – which made me gasp for air in surprise and it pretty much sealed the deal for me, making the visit totally worth it.



Last stop: the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor, which gave everyone a panoramic view of the city and an opportunity to partake in a free pint of Guinness. Believe it or not, I drank it. At first, it wasn’t that bad… but after the first few sips it became harder and harder to swallow, and the roasted barley was reminding me too much of coffee. So I ended up drinking it in counts – as in I would guzzle it for 5 seconds, rest for a minute and then repeat the guzzling until all I had left was the thick creamy foam.



Then I proceeded to feel sick and threw up in the bathroom on the way out. There’s a reason that I don’t drink beer… and not even the institution that is Guinness can change that apparently.

We spent our last night having dinner at Zaytoons again – I got some hummus which really hit the spot! Then we went home, packed everything, showered, looked up all our information, sent out a few last minute emails and called the ‘rents. I was so excited to be going home that I couldn’t fall asleep until around 2:00. Oh well, that’s what a day of traveling is for.

I’ll keep you all posted on my first few hours back in the States, and how the babies are doing. I know none of you probably care about the latter, but I am now a doubly-qualified auntie who has missed so much in the past few months – so get ready for pics and comments galore come tomorrow!

That's right, I said mattress dancing

We took a different airline to Scotland, British Midland, and I was pretty pleased because they were very efficient and they didn’t charge me for my extra baggage.  I had turned my phone off as soon as I woke up that morning so that I wouldn’t forget to do so when I was on the plane… but we had extra time at the airport and for some reason I felt compelled to call Mom. Good thing I did because the first thing she said to me was that Courtney was at the hospital in labor. I WAS SO UPSET! I mean first of all, I had literally had my phone attached to my hip for the past week and a half and nothing had happened… the second I turn it off the baby’s on his way. And all of that goes without saying that I was extremely disappointed with myself for not being able to be there. When I got off the phone I was definitely emotional… ok, so maybe I cried…  but I just kind of had to handle it, because there was nothing I could do but wait for new news. Pete certainly didn’t know what to do with me in that state, in fact he didn’t say anything one way or the other so that just upset me even more.

The flight was smooth and we got on the bus to go into the city centre. Sure enough, Colton Money-making Chamberlain had come during the flight. Ten fingers, ten toes, and the cutest little cry, from what I heard on the phone that is. So it’s a little delayed, but welcome to the world buddy… I can’t wait to meet you!

The woman at the airport who worked for the bus company said that if we took this certain bus we’d only be about a 5-7 minute walk away from the hostel. She forgot to mention that that 5-7 minute walk would be up a nearly VERTICAL HILL. What a twat. I had a 50-pound suitcase, a 10-pound backpack and another 10-pound laptop bag, while Pete had my other suitcase and his own… halfway through the climb I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. I just started laughing and all I could get out of my mouth was, “REALLY?” I was sweating. I might have confused the walk to the hostel with the half marathon I ran that day though… it’s all just running together right now.

Once we were finally at the hostel, we got put into the couple’s room- which I thought was hilarious. We had 2 Australians, 2 Spaniards and a couple of floaters for roommates. The facilities were nice and I felt pretty safe and sound. We set out for a walk and ended up covering a good portion of the city. We stopped by beautiful cemetery and took some neat photos… then just looked around a bit more before we headed back in the direction of the hostel. There as a small pub right by our place called Castle Arms where we ate dinner. IT WAS DELICIOUS. I started off with a big o’l fatty Magner’s, perfectly chilled, and ordered sausage and mash for dinner. The sausage was from a pretty famous butcher in Edinburgh, so they were perfectly seasoned, one with lemon pepper and then the other with rosemary and sage – all on top of a huge pile of mashed potatoes and a rich gravy.



Can you tell I like food? Looking back at this blog, my best descriptions are all about food. OH WELL. We had really tasty chocolate cake and then topped the evening off with some smooth Scotch- I love scotch, scotchety scotch scotch scotch. Slept like a baby the first night.

The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast then headed to the National Gallery – a museum with a decent collection that was free to get in to, so really it was a win/win situation. Afterwards, we headed to Edinburgh Castle where we stayed for about 2 hours.



  It wasn’t as big as the Tower of London per say, but there was certainly a lot of history and ground to cover. We saw the oldest building in Edinburgh – St. Margaret’s Chapel – the Honors of Scotland (crown, scepter and sword) and the room where Queen Mary gave birth to the would-be King James. All in all, I liked it. We then set out to find Greyfriar’s Bobby and Kirkyard – a cathedral with a graveyard attached that is apparently famous for being featured in old Disney cartoons, and also for the dog (Bobby) that lingered by its owner’s graveside for more than 14 years. How… exciting?



We ate lunch/dinner, took another long walk around the city and then hung out in the hostel to rest up for the next leg of the trip.

Friday morning we bummed around town… went and saw a few sites like the Scottish Monument, and then did some minor souvenir shopping. We had to head back to the hostel early because we were getting picked up by my friend Neil’s parents. Although I don’t really know Neil that well, when he found out that I was going to be in Edinburgh, he immediately offered to put Pete and I up at his parents’ place in Penicuik – a city outside of Edinburgh. Of course, I took him up on it… I would have been daft not to! So Charlie picked us up around 1:30, and had quite the time putting allllllll our luggage in the boot of his little BMW. We drove around the city for a while and chit chatted, then he drove us out to Roslyn, to visit the Roslyn Chapel that has become ever so famous since the Da Vinci Code book and movie featured it. Pete and I went in and had a look around – it was a pretty old place but still had maintained a lot of the original stonework, carvings and the like. I guess back in the 1950’s, the owners were worried about the condition of the stone inside the church, so someone told them to put a limestone wash over the entire surface. Well, the plan backfired because in the late 1980s, they discovered that the wash had smothered the stone and hasn’t allowed it to properly breathe, or for the building to ventilate itself.


After 30 years of rain the stone had become saturated and the whole structure was in jeopardy of crumbling, so in the mid 1990s they put this huge scaffolding around the roof and building to allow the entire chapel to dry out. It kind of hinders the beauty of the architecture, but on the up side it allows visitors to go up to the roof level and walk around to see everything on the chapel and the surrounding countryside. 

After the chapel, Charlie drove us to Penicuik where Neil’s mum Anna was waiting for us. The first thing she said when we walked through the door was “oh come in, come in, would you care for a wee cup of tea?”


Hahaha, I laughed so hard – not only because of how cute the question was, but how THICK her Scottish accent was. I had to ask her to repeat nearly everything for about 5 or 6 minutes, but then I caught on kind of quick. Pete went out in the garden with Charlie and I hung out with Anna for about an hour – we talked about all sorts of things and got on really well right from the start. I had 3 cups of tea and all sorts of sweet biscuits and treats. I told her about my strange love and obsession with grocery stores, and she offered to take me up to the Tesco in town and give me a personal aisle-by-aisle tour… which she did! So funny, but I loved every minute. What can I say, I’m not a hard girl to please!

Later the four of us went to dinner at this cozy little inn near the countryside outside of town. The food was delicious and the company was even better - we were all cracking jokes left and right and I had a wonderful time. Afterwards, we all hopped in the car for a wee ride up into the park… which was beautiful. I don’t know if it was a reservoir or just a park or a lake or what – but what a site.



The hills were a perfect golden green, and the sky was so blue that you could see a crystal clear reflection of the clouds on the glass lake. There were sheep baaaaahing on the hills and men fishing off the bank. The sun was just about to set, so it was really amazing.

When we got home, Charlie put on a sci-fi movie, which he and Pete got pretty into, while Anna and I drank a bunch of wine and just had girl talk, which seemed so much more fun than usual for some reason. We went to bed around midnight or so and the next morning when we woke up she had bacon rolls, tea and orange juice waiting for us. What a sweetie – I mean a real top bird. They drove us to the airport and we said our goodbyes; to be honest I was kind of sad. I mean we only spent an evening with them, but it might have legitimately been my favorite part of the hole trip. There were hugs all around and Pete and I hopped onto the plane to the Emerald Isle….