English....and Accents!

Having never traveled before, I never had a need for a passport, and since arriving in Spain, I haven't made much use of my it, either. However, this past weekend was a Valencian holiday, therefore, we had a five day weekend! My friend Haylie and I took advantage of our vacation and headed to London, England and Dublin, Ireland.

We flew to London on Tuesday night, where we received our first passport stamp. We then took a train from the airport to London Bridge, where we were supposed to use the Tube to travel to our hostel. Unfortunately, we arrived after midnight, so the Tube was closed. Fortunately, we were in an English speaking country (thank goodness!) and the employees at the train station directed us to which bus we should take. We even got a free bus ride (mostly because the driver didn't have any change for our 20 pound bills that we got at a terrible exchange rate)! 

We used a tourist map we picked up on the way into town to plan out our 48 hours in London...and we just about did it all! That map went through a lot...

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

The National Gallery - one of my favorite museums thus far!

Buckingham Palace

Kings Cross Station - aka Harry Potter Central

SPAMALOT

Notting Hill

Natural History Museum

The British Museum

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Globe Theatre

After two jam-packed days, we took three trains, two buses, and a ferry to Dublin! We pretty much covered every form of transportation possible during this "holiday," most of them being in that one night! On the way into the city, we were hopelessly lost and asked an elderly woman which direction we should go. She proceeded to walk with us to the center of the city, pointing out buildings and giving us tips along the way. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture with Bridget, but she was a sweetheart! 

Dublin City Hall

Dublin Castle

St. Patrick's Cathedral

On our second day in Dublin, we took a train to nearby Howth to explore the Irish coast. It was beautiful, but freezing! 

Fish and Chips

Dublin Nightlife

Although there were plenty of clouds, we managed to escape the majority of the rain. While in Dublin, we encountered a Spanish-speaking family, and it made me realize how much I missed Spanish, even though it had only been four days! Going home in December is going to be quite the adjustment...