Bittersweet Goodbye

Alright, I didn’t say much about the location of our hostel in Dublin (mostly for my mother's sake)... but Kelsey and I dubbed it the East Harlem of Dublin. See this picture? This is what the area looked like around our hostel. Sketchy. We are definitely glad that last night was our last night in that hostel! (That's definitely the 'sweet' part in this goodbye)

Let me give you a little taste of what hostels are like (at least this one).

• Hard beds. You seriously could have slept on the hard wood floor and it wouldn't have made any difference.
• Lame breakfasts consisting of toast and cereal.
• The push button sinks where the water turns off after 3 seconds. And the showers were that way too. WAY LAME.
• 10 girls in 5 bunkbeds. Not fun. 
• Weird people everywhere.
• Just think of indoor camping and you have the general idea.

We are SO HAPPY to be out of there and in a hotel here in Anglesey, Wales!

This is what we did on our last day in Dublin:

Kelsey and I decided to sleep in, because of all the crazy partying we did the night before (ok, it wasn’t that crazy but we didn’t get to bed until 1:30!). We got on the bus and headed over to see the Dublin Castle. We just walked around outside, and afterward we found a really cute place to eat, called the Queen of Tarts. We had yummy sandwiches and an absolutely delish raspberry cheesecake tart. When we finished lunch, we took the bus to Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison.

We were so exhausted after the tour that we decided to go back to the hostel to rest before we went to RIVERDANCE. (Who gets to see Riverdance in Ireland? We're so lucky!) On the way there, Kelsey and I got our last homemade donuts from a little shack on O'Connel Street. They are so delicious. And only 60 cents! Man, I'll miss that donut lady. Anyway. We made our way to the theater, and were met by Palestinian protesters. They're in a disagreement with Ireland right now (over what, I'm not sure) and were shouting "Shame, shame Riverdance!". It was interesting.

We made it safely into the theater without any harm done and watched an amazing performance. The Irish dancers are SO disciplined and it shows! They did such a great job.

We went back to the hostel and packed up and I did some laundry. Everyone was late getting to bed, which was bad news because we had to get up at 5:30!

It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when the alarm was blaring. We quickly packed up, ate, and loaded the bus to head to the ferry. This was my first experience witha ferry and it was pretty cool! It was kinda like a cruise ship. There was a big main area that had tables and food places and there were also cabins with beds, but we all couldn't get one. I managed to get about 45 minutes of sleep stretched out on 3 chairs, then Kels and I found out that one of our friends was able to get a room. The top bunk was open, so Kelsey and I squeezed in there and fell asleep instantly for another hour and a half. It was heaven. We needed that extra sleep!

We arrived in Wales and got back on our bus to head to our hotel/the Beaumaris castle. The drive was absolutely beautiful.

We had a quick lunch and toured the castle. To be honest... they're all starting to look the same. But it was pretty!

Our little town

Our hotel gave us a complimentary dinner and it was FANTASTIC. Probably the best meal we've had so far. Everything was so fancy.

I'm so happy I'm here in Wales for the next few days! I'm going to miss Ireland so so much. I really have never been anywhere so gorgeous and green. We met some fantastic people (Peter, Amalke), and made some great memories. But I'm very excited to continue on with this journey! Until next time!

Day 23: A song that will play at your funeral. Somewhere Over the Rainbow- Israel Kamakawiwo'ole