Dublin day three and Airport

So one whole week ago, Sunday February 1 Kari, Katie, Kurtis and I wake up to a nice warm breakfast in the hostel. Not too much occurred at first. Our first step was to go buy food for later, so I bought a grapefruit to try and change it up a bit. We made our way to Viking World/Dublinia. Basically it is a museum about vikings and viking settlements in Dublin and the rest of Ireland. The museum was really cute and quite fun. Once we got to the end of it there was a tower you could climb and look over Dublin. It is here we decided to have our lunch. It was really funny because I got the grapefruit juice all over my hands and was all sticky. It was soo good though. Was a hell of a time getting apart with only my hands, I felt like quite the animal. But it was worth it! We made sure to go to the washroom to clean up before we headed to...

The Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery! We again had quite the adventure getting there and trying to find it, but it was fun non the less. We had time to wait for our tour to begin once we had bought tickets so looked around the gift shop and found the most fancey washroom I have been in while on travels. Seriously, it was soo cute. The first part of the tour was a video in this theatre like room. We made sure to get front seats. The video was so epic, al about the Jameson family and the history of the whiskey and stuff. We found out it was the Irish who first "invented" whiskey - not the Scotts. So funny, they are so proud of their liquer in Ireland. Anywho after the video our tour guide came out and asked if she could have 8 volunteers for whiskey tasting at the end of the tour. Of course I made sure my hand was the first up and she handed me a cardbord tube to hang onto and say that I was a taster.

Next she showed us through a museum like thing of the distillery. It was really interesting because it is so similar to beer, but not quite. I learned so much about whiskey! Aparently there is a process near the end where the...I cant really remember, all I remember is that American whiskey does the process only once, scotch does it twice, but Irish whiskey always does it 3 times, which is what makes it smoother. The other interesting thing is how the barrells effect it so much. At Jameson they only use barrels that have been used before for a certain type of lquer that I cant remember (I'm doin well today - not). Anywho it has to be distilled for at least 3 years, but at Jameson they leave it for 4 to 6 years. You can also buy (for £150) 12 or 18 year old Jameson whiskey. One day when I get that rich old hubby of mine eh. Anywho aparently Jack Daniels use brand new barrels only and thats why it has a really oaky flavour. We learned all this and more and were finally taken to the tasting room. There was this big bar with a bunch of tables and stuff one with trays whiskey on it. Everyone else who wasnt doing the tasting got a shot of Jameson and were allowed to mix it with something if they wanted or have it plain. Kari had it with Cranberry juice and Katie with sprite. They had to go to another table, while Kurtis and I went to the tasting table. There were three whiskey half shots in front of each of us, one jack daniels (amreican), one scotch and then Jameson. We were also given water. The guide walked us through it telling us when to try what and how much to taste. At the end we were supposed to push forward our favourite and I was honest when pushing forward the Jameson, I really liked it! Kurtis was the only one to push forward something different (the scotch) and the guide made fun of him for it. It was cute, our guide was so good. We sat beside a guy from England (York) and chatted with him fora bit. Katie and Kari came over and since we let them try some. Everyone agreed that we could taste the oakyness of the Jacks, so weird! The scotch was good, but Jameson was so smooth. All the tasters got another shot of Jameson that they could mix if they wanted. I of course didnt. Hee. We went to sit with Katie and Kari and we all chattedabout the Jameson. I bought souvineres in the fact that they had butlers chocolate bars mixed with Jameson! So exciting.

Our next stop (even though the sun was starting to set) was the big park on the one side of Dublin. We made it there as one side of the park was closing, but went to the other side. I at this point had to pee so bad I was mostly in search of a bathroom. The others told me if I just wanted to go in the park they would watch for me. So I went to the most secluded part of the park I could find and did my business. Right as I was finishing up who in the distance happens to drive by where my friends are standing, but the park watch/police. I couldnt hear what he said to them so I had a minor panic attack that I would get caught with weeing in public property. Luckily he had just told them that they had to leave as the park was closing. God I get these close calls dont I? So folks I have now officially marked my territory in two European countries. I now officially belong here. Hee. So our next goal was to walk all the way accross the city to a pub we had seen near the hostel that said it not only had live music but a deal for 12 euro for a pint and a meal. On our way over we got another mission. To find Irish crisps (potato chips). Apparently they are different from those everywhere else, so we went in search of them and strangely quite easily got our hands on a bag. Sorry guys, I didnt try them, i am not really a crisp person, but if you are interested in what they may have been like just ask me and I ask Kari or Katie for you.

We eventually made it down to the pub. Kurtis, Kari and I ordered fish and chips and a pint of Guiness. Katie ordered the Guiness and ...mmmm my memory is failing me again, I cannot remember what it was called. Anywho we sat near the front as that is where the music was. It turned out to be two guys at a table, one playing the guitar and singing adn the other playing the flute. It was so good and so Irishy! As we were finishing our meal they started chatting with us and the players found out that Katie played guitar and sanga little, so they asked her to give them a song and play for them. She said she would if they played us Molly Malone. They did and it was so cool and then Katie got up and played also allowing me to get loads of neat pictures of them. It was so casual and relaxing. I loved every minute of it! When Katie was finished and we had talked to them a little more they played a song about a Katie, probably just for her, it was so cute! I ordered one more drink that Heather had introduced me to a couple nights before, Baileys and milk. It was very good and I think I am going to keep it as one of my favourites.

We left not too late and packed our thingsto be ready to leave early the next day. That night I found only two young men in my room (I think a couple), so it was a peaceful night sleep. The next day we got up nice and early sowe could catch an early bus to the airport. It was lightly snowing out when we got out and had obviously already snowed a little, but to be honest we didnt think too much of it at the time. We made it to the airport nice and early and got ourselves checked in and through security. It took about an hour before we were told where our gate was and I spent most of my time looking around the shops. We eventually made it to our gate and waited patiently for our plane. We kept seeing other planes to London (on the board thing) being cancelled or delayed so we made sure to be near enough the board at least to keep checking it just in case. Eventually It popped up on our gate's sign our destination and time so we decided that we were fine. About 15 mintues later though when we look over we descovered that it had been changed to saying a plane to cork was leaving from there. So we look to the times board and see...that our flight had been delayed to 2:10 pm. This gave us three hours, so we mostly just wandered around and chatted. Once it got to 2:10 it came up on the board that we would not leave until 4:20. At this point we were doubting that we were getting back at all and Katie went to finda computer to warn people that we were stuck in Ireland so they wouldnt worry. This was last monday so we were suposed to have class, but there was no way we were going to make any of them.

Strangely enough at 4pm they told us we could get on our plane as it had finally arrived! We were very excited and managed to get seats together. Katie got the window again and this time I took the aisle while Kari took the middle. As we thought we were about to take off we were told it was going to be a delay as it was snowing and a bunch of airports in London had shut down due to snow. Luckily Gatwick was still open, but might close as well. Every half hour or so for quite a few hours they would say only a half hour longer of waiting! We were ok, but after a couple hours there were a bunch of people that decided it wasnt worth it and wanted to get off. They had to open the plane and get their luggage and for the next few hours, slowly more and more people got off. Luckily they left the door open so we could get fresh air. And at one point I had to go stand next to it because I was getting a little clausterphobic. I got to chat with one of the ground control guys who I talked to about the snow and found out that certain airports had closed and that the only way we could take off was if they got the runway cleared of the snow and that Gatwick didnt close. I eventually went back to my seat and Kari, Katie and I (all at different times) had our little freakouts. Being stuck on a plane for some reason for hours can seriously drive out crazy, so we each had our moments of insanity with eachother, but got it out of our system and could eventually feel better.

One of the crummiest things was the people on the plane. They all started freaking out because the flight crew was not allowed to feed us. They were not allowed to bring out the food and people were freaking out for some reason. Made me agery that people could not go without food for a few hours (ok it was 6, but still!) and then they would freak out at the flight crew. I mean its not their fault, gah. At one point we got passed a pad of paper that was being passed around the passengers. It said that the person who wrote the message was going to complain and talk to the media and government/airline about the fact that they werent feeding us and it was against our rights and blahblahblah and if we wanted more information we should put our e-mails down. I was so angry I wanted to rip it up and throw it in their faces. I know it doesnt solve anyhitng, but it would still have been satisfying. I wish I could have found the person who wrote it and barfed on them. There, eat that you selfish pig. Dear God, get over yourselves. There are people around the world starving every day and you cant go 6 hours without food? Around 9pm it was announced that the flight was cancelled, but if we stayed on there might be a chance we would take off. A lot of people left and after we looked around we noticed that we had lost two thirds of the passengers. We decided we had no where else to go and had nothing to loose by staying on the plane.

Sure enough about an hour later we were told we were taking off, just as it began to snow. I beleive we were the last plane to be allowed to leave before th eairport shut down. YAY! It was an uneventful flight after the adventure we had already had. When we got to Gatwick we had to figure out some way of getting home. All the trains were cancelled and we called the taxi driver who was supposed to pick us up, but he said he had an early run and he was really sorry, but couldnt drive us. He gave us other options though that we could take or do and really took care of us. Apparently he had waited for 3 or4 hours and kept being told that we were about to take off every half four or so. Gah, we instead tried a bunch of different companies to find the lowest priced taxi. We eventually found one for not too bad a price and decided to wait for him for the hour so we could get home that night. It took a bit longer, but the driver came and I crawled into the backseat. I guess after the lack of sleep and all the stress during the day made me get really car sick. I ended up sleeping on Kari's shoulder most of hte way only occasionally waking up at bumps. At one point I guess the gps took the poor driver through back roads, so we went through this forest and sketchy dirt road to get to the castle. I felt like poo the whole time so I dont remember much of it, but apparently it was really cool! We got back around 2:30am and I got to sleep around 3. I had a class the next day at 10 so I got up as late as I could before going down.

I hope you enjoyed my adventure. I have more stories to share as I had an eventful week, so hopfully I will be able to do that tomorow. Enjoy for now!