London, England

After Dublin, we flew over to London on the "mysterious" Ryan Airways and we made it with no problems at all. We then made it to our hostel, Palmers Lodge in Swiss Cottage. I'm not going to lie...I thought I booked us in the ghetto by mistake and was to scared to admit it...but luckily it was right next to Abbey Road in a huge victorian house! We arrived in the afternoon and just did a little roaming of the area, checked out one of the 8 million endless parks in this city then hung out with some new friends in the pub.

Then the touristy adventures begin.....we packed up our dorky backpacks and went on a walking tour of the city so we didn't get lost... our Austrailian tour guide showed us around (?? it was free...). Now, as you all know....I am NOT a city person at all! And I would move to this city in a heartbeat. It basically is amazing. On our walking tour we got to see Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Harry and Williams house, Big Ben, London Eye, harass the guards and a whole lot more. The buildings here are CRAZY and I want to live in one. And then of course there is the grocery stores...and ohhh man, these things show up Trader Joes like you wouldn't believe (again...good WW products...wtf mate?).

On our last day in London we did the remainder of the "touristy things" starting with Abbey Road....and yes, I had to be the dork and take the Beatles picture. We also got to check out the Tower Bridge (not to be confused with the London Bridge which is basically just a boring bridge), the Tower of London, St Pauls Cathedral, some more parks and the British Museum which displays all the stuff they stole from other countries. And we visited the gingerbread man on Druery Lane obviously.

So basically, Dublin was cool, but London is amazing!!! 3 days was to many and if it wasn't for the stupid pound we would stay longer! Next we are off to Belgium for some beer, chocolate and waffles. By the way....we went to get our chunnel tickets and there just so happened to be a fire in one of the tunnels last week so all the trains are backed up....go figure....fire stalks my life apparently.

London Top 5
1. Just look both ways a million times before crossing the street because no matter how hard you try to change...you just can't
2. Getting into Westminster Abbey is easy for free....if you want to learn how you have to buy me a beer
3. Even though they hide the guards behind the gates....there are still some to harass around the corner
4. The "London Bridge"....not cool
5. Always carry an umbrella.....


Step Count in London: 71,321
Total Count: 166,604

I know you have all been waiting....Dublin, Ireland

So I know that you have all been anxiously awaiting my awesome posting, so I figured I would save it so you get it on Monday morning before you actually have to start doing work...

So we arrived in Dublin on Thursday morning and thanks to my amazing sense of direction we made it to hostel number one, Avalon House, with no trouble (seriously...we did). According to Ian, our hostel is like "camping indoors", but thats a good thing for this trip. So of course the first thing we do when we get here is stop in the grocery store to explore because as you know, we are wierd like that....and you will never ever guess what they had....Weight Watchers Wine for 1 point....I love this country already.

Well, besides the grocery store we have got to do a ton of fun stuff so far. Again, thanks to my amazing navigation skills (hehe) I think we managed to do just about everything we wanted to. Over the past few days we have checked out the Guiness Factory, Jameson Factory, the oldest bar in Dublin, Brazen Head (sense a theme here??), Temple Bar, a bunch of churches including St Patricks Cathedral, toured the old jail, checked out a really cool castle, tried to figure out the rules of cricket, played on the most amazing playground in the world had some good old irish food (yes, I even ordered it), and of course we found the ocean.



Saturday we spent the day riding the train up and down the coast stopping at a few little towns along the way...very pretty....and we know it was very pretty because we saw it for the 10 miles that we walked out of the way by mistake. Don't ever assume you can just "walk to the next train station"...it apparently can be really far.So much to do in so little time, but I think we covered the majors. I think we have seen the majority of the city and a lot of the surrounding towns as well (well, we have seen a total of 95,283 steps worth in three day....yes I brought my pedometer....just a few more than my 1,000/day in the office..haha). So now our new goal is to hit 1 million while we are in Europe...so I'll keep you updated.

Tomorrow we are off to London for 3 days before we head to Belgium. I will try to post some pictures as soon as I get to a computer that lets me upload them...so this will have to do for now....

And because I love making lists...we'll keep you posted with what we learn in each country so you will know when you go, haha...

Dublin Top 5
1. Never assume the next train station is within walking distance
2. Weight Watchers in Ireland is WAY more fun
3. When reading dates on the bottom of food, remember they put the day first and not the month before you almost throw up because you are eating something from 04/10/08
4. Always volunteer when asked....it will get you 3 free shots at the Jameson Factory...James, Jack and Jim
5. Guiness is actually kind of good

This one's for you Jess

I will miss our lunch dates with taco salads and turkey sandwiches, taking our walks and catching up on Gossip Girl....I will eat lunch everyday at 1:00 and pretend Ian is you....