Ireland, I miss you

It’s been less than 24 hours since I left the beautiful island. I am now driving somewhere between Wales and London, heading toward London. I can only hope that I fall in love with London just as I have with Ireland. I just finished watching P.S. I love you, which was filmed in Galway. As much as I miss my family and home, I am not looking forward to returning home- I was already missing Galway while I was in Dublin and now I’m missing them both. Europe is truly an amazing place. I’ve decided my next trip here will be to Paris, Greece and Switzerland.

My last day in Dublin was spent at the Guinness factory. The marketing director spoke to us for about 30 minutes. He was a very good speaker and held my attention. A pint of Guinness contains fewer calories than a pint of OJ. So obviously the smartest thing to do for my weight would be to have a Guinness with breakfast ;). The factory produces 3 million barrels of Guinness per day! The building is structured to model the Guinness pint glass. On the fourth floor you have the opportunity to learn how to pour the perfect beer. It takes exactly 119.5 seconds for perfection. You begin by first titled the glass at a 45-degree angle until it is about ¼ filled, and then tilt the glass regular until it covers the harp logo. Let the beer set and the gases rise to the top, while the foam dilutes. After that is finished fill the beer up to the top and enjoy the drink. To enjoy the beer to its full potential you push block all the foam out with your lip and take a big gulp of the dark stuff. Ps- it really works!

Later that evening we headed out for our last night in Ireland. We started out night at the bar we had been at the previous night. After making friends with a local in the girl’s bathroom, she told us of a better local bar that we should go to. It was the perfect place to spend our last night. The floor we walked into, and spent most of our time on, had a live band playing Irish music and songs from kings of leon. Downstairs played house music and the upstairs terrace was a refreshing spot for air. When we headed back to our hotel it was very sad. Crossing the bridge over the river we stopped and took in all that Ireland had given to us.

This morning we headed to the ferry at 6:45 a.m. It took us 4 hours to get from Dublin to Hollyhead. Then we got on our coach bus and drove for 2 hours to Wales, stopped for lunch, got back on the bus for a 4 hours bus ride to England. I’m excited to see what England has to offer us!