In search of the perfect Guinness

Well today we made the trip across the Irish Sea to Dublin. The journey from London was a bit hectic with us getting lost along the way before finally finding the right train only to get fined 20 quid for not having the right tickets...we were pissed! But somehow we made it to the flight, and I'm now sitting in our backpackers writing to you all.

Since getting to Dublin we haven't done much just strolled through the town to get a feeling for the place. I will give you a post tomorrow after we find a Guinness and a soccer game.

...Alright well since I last spoke to you we have had a Dublin Adventure. The first day we arrived in Dublin we just strolled around the town and took in the culture of the place. Dublin is pretty crazy because 70% of the population is under the age of 30, so there is no problem finding young people. It has also turned out to be one of the most expensive places we've visited so far. But anyways first night we went to Temple Bar (the Dublin Tourist clubbing Area) and obviously had a pint of Guinness at its most famous pub the Temple Bar. Dublin has the most amazing live music ever, Tim and I can't help but stop in the middle of the street listening to buskers or sitting in a pub listening to a guy who puts Tuffy to shame! Yes buskers put Tuffy to shame...its amazing.

The following day we went strolling around the city again taking in the culture and the sites. We decided to go to on the Guinness Experience, but instead of being the normal tourist we took the pov version and decided to walk (I mean how hard is it to find the tallest building in Dublin right....pretty hard!) it took us like an hour to do a 10 minute walk but experienced some of the suburbs of Dublin in our travels. The Guinness tour was very cool and at the end you sit in the gravity bar where you can have a free pint of the freshest Guinness you will ever drink (its so much better then Aussie Guinness, completely different taste). While taking in the serenity of the gravity bar we ended up getting picked up by four welsh girls who were absolutely nuts. We left with them and sore an old man outside with a horse pulling a cart and he had been standing there all day....20 euro later and we are riding in the back of a horse pulled cart through the main streets of Dublin. I have photos of the stunned locals as we held up about 20 cars and i gather its not that usual to see a cart with 6 people..plus a Irish scallywag or two being pulled through town. Later that night the group of us managed to find the Trinity College uni bar (it had been hidden to us beforehand), and for the first time we found cheap alcohol and crazy Irish uni students. To all of those reading who question whether we did Australia proud...don't worry, we controlled the drinking games at the Pav and there we met an especially crazy Irish man named Connors. We left the welsh and went out from there with Connor and the boys to a secret Melbourne style bar in a back alley and danced the night away.

The next day after a morning of pain, we went through our regular stroll through the town and listened to the buskers, and for some reason went on a bit of a shopping spree. (Don't worry mum it was budget...kinda) and then to save money we used leftovers for dinner, which is where we met a German and Hungarian who we went out for a drink with to a local pub last night, and then tonight they nicely cooked us some Hungarian food (onions, sausage, peppers, and rice)...glad im not going to Hungary.

Today we went on a tour to the Wicklow mountains to see where some of the movies such as Braveheart, PS. I love you, and Excalibur were filmed. It was a pretty leisurely tour with a couple of older people. Tim loved it....I was not that excited. And then tonight we went out again to temple bar to a really cool place called the Purty Kitchen (All of the clubs are like 5 levels, its pretty insane) and that brings me to the current time....4am as we're going to go to the airport now so we don't miss our flight.

Talk to you soon. Jez

12 Days on a Contiki Bus...and i'm still alive!

It has been ages since i've posted anything and that is because Tim and I have been on our Contiki trip which was really full on but unvelievable at the same time. For starters we went to:
Amsterdam
St Goar
Munich
Innsbruck
Venice
Rome
Florence
Lucerne
Paris
and then home...London.

I will fill you guys in on each of these when i get a chance.

Miss you all.