The Adventures of Big Red in Ireland!: October 2014

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Make New Friends Whom You Meet Through The Old.

Every day I'm in this gorgeous country I fall even more in love.
In the past few weeks I took a full day walking tour around Dublin (on accident) and I went to Galway for a night away. I gained two more friends and have planned for my birthday weekend in a week and a half! Oh and if you haven't heard, I'm going to Spain with Helena for Christmas!!!

I honestly am not sure how I feel about Dublin. We took a bus in to go shopping and we ended up visiting just about every landmark there is there. SO, if you asked me where a certain building was in Dublin, I could probably direct you to it. We saw the castle, city hall, Saint Patrick's (Padraig) Cathedral and some places where Vikings used to live. I swear we walked for maybe 6 hours of the total 8 hours we were there and I have seen enough of Dublin for a lifetime. I'm ready to go there for some fun!

Galway on the other hand was grand! We only stayed for one wee night because most of us had to be back on Monday to watch the kids but that night was pretty fun. We stayed in a hostel right in the city center but it was more like a hotel. We had our own bathroom in the room and the mattresses were pretty comfortable. Get this, it was called SNOOZLES. hehe. I met up with Helena again and she brought to other Au Pairs, Jules and Hermance, who are from France! Their English was also really good and the language barrier is almost unapparent. We did some shopping and took a free train tour around the city which was absolutely gorgeous. I wish we were there for longer but the kids come first!

We were there to celebrate Hermance's 20th birthday and we were all carded for the first time ever in Ireland! We went to the Coyote Bar which is Ireland's take on Coyote Ugly! The bartenders even dance on the bars and there was a huge poster of Tyra Banks and the rest of the cast from the movie. Of course I was doing all the line dances to the country songs they were playing so people kept telling me to get on the bar but that was not an option haha. There were loads of stagg and hen parties there and I actually met another person from County Louth who didn't believe that I live here! haha.

I'm planning to go with the girls to do something for Halloween and then the next two nights we will celebrate my birthday! I was thinking maybe to do my "ginger bread wo-man" costume here since it was such a hit in the states and Halloween just started to become a big thing for the Irish. The kids here get two weeks off of school for Halloween because it's a "bank holiday" which is pretty great for the kids. I've had the house to myself the last two days and the peace and quiet has been nice but I miss the constant smiles from the kids. They'll be back tomorrow tho and I'll get to take care of them all weekend.

I would say I'm becoming a tourist but there's loads of other places I need to see! My birthday is on November 2nd and it takes approximately 8-14 days for packages or letters to get here so if anyone wants to send me a birthday gift you better hop to it! haha just kidding!

I doubt anything eventful will happen between now and Halloween/my birthday weekend but if it does I will definitely write about it! Oh and I still find it hard to understand the different Irish accents sometimes, but I'm getting there! haha. And for those of you wondering about Nathan, I tried multiple times to see him again but got no return for my efforts so off to the next!

Stay tuned ya'll!!

Eyre Square, Galway

Obviously I wasn't prepared for the rain in Galway

Helena and I in our room at Snoozles!

My new French friends, Hermance and Jules

She loves her Icecream

Cillian loves to swing

Trying to get a picture of all 3 of them.

Cillian eats everything

A panoramic view of the Dublin Castle.

More of the Castle

Trinity Uni in Dublin

There's plenty of water here!

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Belfast was a Bel-Blast!

My first weekend away was so class like!

I met up with another Au Pair who lives about two hours west of me and we met at the bus station in Belfast. Her name is Helena and she's from Spain but her English is AMAZING!

Belfast is also part of Northern Ireland so it is considered part of the UK so they use Sterling there so I literally had to learn how to use a different form of currency AGAIN!

So we decided to stay at a hostel because it was super cheap like. We each paid about 20 Euros each night which would probs add up to about 35 dollars a night. Our room was literally only big enough for one bunk bed and a sink but it wasn't like we were in there much. Everything was in walking distance it was grand!

The first night we were there we went to a pub called Laverys and we were just checking out the Belfast scene. Its great being from America because I never run out of stuff to talk about and for some reason, Irish people love the American accent! I'm definitely not hating all this attention. But there were these two guys standing next to us claiming that some chick was trying to rob them and they were freaking out. I ended up starting up a chat with them and this guy Nathan ended up being hillarious. He had me laughing all night! Helena was definitely appreciating the love she was getting for being Spanish as well. I can tell that she and I are going to be lifelong friends.

After Laverys we went to a night club right across the street and it was so crowded like. I love to dance but there was no room on the dance floor! We ended up staying out pretty late and then when we got back to the hostel we had to show our room keys to get in and the staff guy named Gary started up a chat with us. He works the night shift so I'm sure he enjoyed getting the opportunity to talk to two foreigners. He ended up being super cool and saved us from this creepy dude who was like 40 and staying at a hostel. Like who does that?

The next day we only slept til about half ten and then we went to go eat food. Then this tour guide approaches us and asks if we wanted to take a hop-on hop off-tour for 10 pounds and I was like hells yes. Especially since none of the shops were opened til 1 anyways. This tour literally took us around the whole city of Belfast and we got to go to the Titanic museum! Definitely my favorite thing by far. We also drove by Queens University which is absolutely gorgeous. Oh and we drove by the Parliament building. NBD. Then we went back and took naps and got ready for the night!

We went back to Benedicts which was the night club before but it closed at Midnight because it was a Sunday. So we ended up going to another bar/club called Filthy McNasty's and that's not a joke. We ended up just being able to meet new people and got a free cab ride home! Gary was working again and he gave us a mini tour of the hostel at 3am and showed us one of the rooms with like 12 bunks in it. I was like this would not be fun to sleep in. We checked out the next morning at 11 and I walked with Helena to the bus station and then hung out with Nathan until my bus left at 4. Overall it was such an amazing weekend!

However, I took the wrong bus and missed the last connecting bus to my town so I had to take a taxi all the way from Newry to Tallanstown which would have been like 45 minutes. It only cost be 30 quid which is about 38 Euros. I guess it was the American accent haha.

When I got home, the kids were so excited to see me and I realized how much I missed them! Cillian crawled over to me with a huge smile and in the two days I was gone, his walking has improved so much! Tonight is my first night by myself with them so I have to rock Cillian back to sleep every time he wakes up so I'm a little nervous about that and I'll probably be awake by 7 since the kids like to get up early haha. So wish me luck!

Every day I fall more in love with this family and this country. I am literally so blessed.

Stay tuned ya'll!