From the airport we took a bus to the center of Dublin where we had to walk about 20 minutes to our hostel (with all of our luggage). We were pleasantly surprised with our hostel. It was called the “Brewery Hostel” because it was located about 3 minutes from the Guinness Factory. It was a great location because it was about a 10 minute walk to the center of the city so it wasn’t too touristy. Also, we met a lot of great and friendly people at the hostel- mostly Australians- who were traveling as well.
That night we ate dinner at the Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland. It was so cool! We had such an amazing dinner!!! Most of us ate hearty Irish stew and drank Guinness. Maggie had her first beer in Ireland (and she liked it!).
After a fabulous dinner we were completely stuffed and tired from our long day of traveling. So, we went back to the hostel and went to bed around 10 pm. Because of this, I woke up at 6 am and began planning our day in Dublin. We decided to take a bus tour of Dublin because it stopped at all the main tourist sites around the city and you could get off or on at any stop. So, we began our day around 10 am at the Jameson Distillery. Whiskey for breakfast probably isn’t the smartest idea, especially with two 23 year old boys who LOVE whiskey. We took the tour and learned a lot about the process of making whiskey and why Jameson is so special and unique. After the tour they asked for volunteers, and of course 4 out of the 6 people in our group volunteered (Maggie and I not included). They ended up volunteering for a taste test between 3 types of whiskey (Jameson, Scotch, and American). This picture shows them with their diplomas. 
Overall it was a super fun experience! So from there we hopped on the bus tour again and got off at O’Connell Street, which is one of the main streets in Dublin, and we found somewhere to eat really great fish and chips. It was absolutely delicious! At this point the group split up because Maggie and I wanted to go to the Oldest Coffee Shop in Dublin. Honestly, we wanted an “American Latte” in a HUGE TO-GO cup. In Italy if you go to the bar to get a coffee you can either get a “caffé” which is just an espresso, a “caffé macchiato” which is an espresso with a tiny bit of cream, or a cappuccino which is espresso with milky foam. All of the above are really tiny and you drink them there at the bar. If you ask for it to go they give you a flimsy white Dixie cup. So, once in Ireland we were on a mission! And our coffee was awesome and we got it to go! After taking the tour bus all around the town and back to our hostel we met up with the rest of the group and went to tour the Guinness Factory. We were rushing through the tour because it was already about 5 pm and we needed to be at the end of the tour by about 6:30. The Guinness Factory was 7 floors and each floor had a different theme. The first few talked through the actual making of Guinness, which was somewhat similar to the making of whiskey. Then the next few floors discussed the company of Guinness, such as advertising.
Unfortunately everyone was still so full from lunch/coffee that we couldn’t drink our free pint of Guinness that we each received when we made it to the top floor- the Gravity Bar. However, the view from the top over the city was definitely worth it! A few hours later we had a great dinner and went to bed early yet again. The next morning we woke up, checked out of our hostel, and made our way to the bus station to find a train to Galway. We all had heard great things about this county/city in the Western part of Ireland. The bus ride was about 3 ½ hours, but the ride there allowed us to see so much of the Irish countryside, which was so beautiful and green and full of sheep. By the end of the bus ride I missed home so much! Everything in Ireland made me miss home because surprisingly it is very similar to home- the language, the food, the people, and the countryside. The next few days in Galway were our favorite days of our entire vacation. We stayed at a relatively nice hostel, ate lots of great food, and just hung out in Irish pubs at night and listened to music. While in Galway I tried hot whiskey, which is whiskey, hot water, honey, lemon, and cloves. I also tried hot port, which is wine, hot water, honey, and orange. They were much better than any other drink! Galway is such a beautiful city and is not too big and overwhelming. I believe it is a city of about 60,000 people. The next day we decided to take another bus tour to the County of Clare and the Cliffs of Moher.
We got to see castles, more sheep, and the Atlantic Ocean from the other side! The Cliffs were breathtakingly beautiful and we had such a great time visiting them! While we were in the gift shop we actually heard the song “The Galway Girl”, which is the song from P.S. I Love You! Maggie and I got really excited! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to go rent P.S. I Love You. You won’t be disappointed. I made so many great memories and the pictures cannot even begin to describe the beauty. The next day we left for Dublin because our flight to Valencia was early the next morning. Early the next morning we boarded another Ryan air flight, and we landed in Valencia a short time later. We took a metro to the city center and then walked to our hostel, which was clean and had free internet!
Those are two highly prized qualities to us at this point in our trip. While there we began researching the best places for “tapas” in the city. We decided on this one restaurant that had 100 different types of tapas and they came in the form of tiny finger sandwiches. Between the six of us we had about 40 different types of sandwiches and we would just take a bite and pass it to the next person. Now looking back at it that seems kind of gross, but at the time it was a great idea. We tried all different types of food, including horse! Yes horse…we think. After our amazing lunch with HUGE glasses of COKE with ICE we decided to just walk around the city and see what we can. So we began by visiting some churches and some piazzas and we eventually found this huge castle tower thing, which we decided to climb to the top. 
It gave us an absolutely beautiful view of the city and it was the perfect time of day. That night we found another “tapas” place and this food was much nicer and higher quality. It was here that we had the best sangria, and again it was Maggie’s first taste of sangria. She tried her first wine in Italy, her first beer in Ireland, and her first sangria in Spain…how cool is that? She’s going to go back home and hate all alcohol because it just cannot compare to what we have had here in Europe. The next morning we went to the bus station to find a bus to Barcelona. Note: up until this point we had been flying by the seat of our pants and it had been working out well. We bought all of our plane tickets about a week and a half before the trip and we booked our first night in a hostel. Other than that, we decided to do it as we go. Katy and I had taken the lead with planning (are you surprised?) and things were going great! We had great luck! However, we hit a bump when we bought our bus tickets to Barcelona. We decided to buy them online so we could get the directions in English. For some reason the web site wasn’t working well so we bought our tickets about 30 minutes before our bus left and the station was about a 20 minute walk from our hostel. So, we ran! Before we left the guy at the hostel said that we just needed to go to the bus and show them our passport because they should have the information in the system. Well, as we were all loading on to the bus the driver told us that we needed to get a slip from upstairs. So again…we ran! When we got upstairs there was a huge line, but luckily our driver came running upstairs after us and saved the day! Everyone on the bus hated us, but we were going to Barcelona!
The day continued to get worse. While on the 5 hour bus ride (which was supposed to be 3 ½), it started to turn black outside and pour rain! Once off the bus, we attempted to find our hostel, except that we had no map of Barcelona and apparently maps do not exist in Barcelona.
So, we attempted to ask people for help, except none of us (except Rich…sorta) speaks Spanish. Surprisingly, I kept speaking Italian. I couldn’t stop. It was so strange. So, we finally decide to take the metro. So we go down to the station and buy a ticket…we thought. Turns out we bought the wrong tickets. So, we bought a second ticket and found our stop. We got off at the right stop and began trying to find our hostel, but the directions were awful. And again, we tried asking people and each person gave us a different way to go. We ended up going back and forth on the same street at least 4 times (while dragging our luggage). Finally, down some alley, we found the hostel. Like I said before, this is where the trip taking a dive. Our hostel was so gross! Also, there were homeless people about 10 feet from the door (more about that later) and then there were drug dealers. That night, the two boys went out and were attacked by a dozen prostitutes…seriously. The one guy even got his money stolen by them. The girls decided to find a nice restaurant and have a relaxing evening. We ended up finding the best restaurant of our life! All of the food was amazing!!! The next day Maggie and I went to Starbucks for breakfast. It was fate. There was a Starbucks on the corner about 20 feet from our hostel. We also went there for dessert too! Don’t judge me.
After breakfast we rented bikes and rode around Barcelona! It was so much fun and we got to see so much of the city! We went down to the marina and beach and then we went up to this huge park at the top of the city. Again, the views were amazing! That night we went back to the same restaurant as the night before, except this time we went with the boys. It was equally as good! Also, that same night we bought dinner for the homeless people that were outside the hostel. The night before Rick and Nick found out from some other people that one of the men lost his wife and child in a car accident a few years before and he abandoned his life and job and decided to live on the streets. There was also a man and a woman from Germany whose boat sank off of the coast of Spain and everything they owned was in that boat. We were very touched by their stories. 
Finally, our last day of travel was grueling. We woke up at 4 am, took a taxi to the bus station, took a bus to the airport, took a plane to Rome, took a bus to the train station…the wrong train station, took a metro to the right train station, took a train (originally a wrong train) to Viterbo, took a bus from Viterbo to Tuscania. It was a long day! We traveled for over 12 hours! But finally, we were home. Home Sweet Home!
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