Amazing Race, Ireland style.

It began Saturday morning at 9 a.m. We met in Biz and Kamilla’s flat and walked to the Chancery Lane tube stop because our tube stop was closed. When we got to Baker Street we boarded our Easy Bus and talked to our Bangladeshi driver all the way there. Here’s what I learned:

- He was horrified when I told him that I didn’t want to leave London and go back to the U.S. and that I had never been to New York.
- He asked how close Indiana was to Hollywood and even though we explained it was far away, he wanted to know if we saw movie stars all the time.
- He thought all American roads are two lanes.
- If you compliment the city bus driver, he will let you off at a light or not a stop if you ask nicely.
Then it was off to Ryanair, which you board by going up the stairs a la important politicans on TV. When we got to Dublin, we wanted a cab but the cabbie quoted us nearly double what we were told it would cost, so we opted for the bus.

It dropped us off near the hostel and here’s what we did from there:

Day 1
-Check into hostel and almost score free tour because we are staying 3 nights, then realize we are only staying two, but decide to sign up for the tour anyway
-Walk into our 12 person room to find an American flag draped across the bunk beds and sorority letters in the bathroom.
-Go exploring to the famous Temple Bar area where we find a pub with the most amazing brazed beef stew. (It was cooked with Guinness.) We also drink our first Guinness in Ireland and watch Galic hurling on TV. (We were expecting the World Cup.)
-Continue to wander in and out of pubs to find that the Irish in the touristy areas really like to sing Sweet Home Alabama. Also we eat amazing Bailey’s cheesecake and text Lesa to hang out with us. (She never responds.)
-Go to explore Trinty College, only to be locked in and then led out by some nice Irish girl named Laura and her swipe card to the gates.
-Finish at the hostel only to have our hostel mates come in around 3 a.m., screaming “Look! The newbies are here!” Also, learn from there conversations that they wanted to smother Stephen when he snored.

Day 2
-Continue to overhear the hostel mates to find out they are from UGA, fratastic and leaving that day.
-Get on a bus with our tour guide Helen, who is Irish but lived in Texas for a while.
-Go to Glendaloch and explore the 6th century monistary. And then climb a mountain, see two lakes and a waterfall. Not a big deal. Oh and we played in the lake.
-Take the bus on an extremely bumpy road so Biz and I are jumping out of our seats
-Eat at the hostel BBQ and have burgers with American burger sauce aka Big Mac sauce.
-Go to the Jameson distillery, learn how whiskey is made, have a Jameson and cranberry juice and then watch Anna & Kamilla drink Irish coffees
-Then go explore Dublin including St. Patrick’s cathedral and more pubs. We find Lesa, her parents and Allen in a pub called “the hairy lemon.”
-Finish the night at an American style diner and then go back to the hostel and meet our roommates

Day 3
-wake up and go to full Irish breakfast with the brotrip a.k.a the four guys that replaced our UGA roommates. They were super cool and had just graduated from UCLA and were on a month tour of Europe.
-take the brotrip with us the Guinness Factory where we learned to pour the perfect pint (it’s official – I have a certificate that said I succeeded!)
-Leave the brotrip a half an hour late, luck out and take a taxi to the hostel and airport.
-Land in London to find a huge line for customs, but we are given a pass and we arrive at our bus with 6 minutes to spare
-go straight to the Globe to watch Henry VIII and eat ice cream
Race Complete.