One Week Tomorrow

So its been a few days since I last took the time to sit down at a computer and update my blog but here I go.  I've been maintaining a scrap book with all my receipts and have done quite well with updating that before every night so far.  Just taping receipts/maps and writing a few sentences about the museum/experience has been a lot of fun and I look forward to updating it in the future.  Haven't had a chance to updated my personal journal, where I have been recording my thoughts but I've been so busy seeing so many new sites that I haven't had much time for self reflection

Henley, UK

• Day one (Dublin): After an hour of walking down the streets of Dublin, double and triple walking the spots, I finally found my hostel.  Once I got situated in the hostel, I visited the Brazen Head which was founded in 1143 and is Dublin's oldest restaurant.  There, I had a Guinness and a stew while made small talk with an older gentleman who stopped in for the same during his lunch break.  Afterwards, I made my way to the Guinness brewery and then off to Killmainham Goal ("jail").  I enjoyed the 360 view at the top of the Guinness tour but especially enjoyed the jail tour which is like the "Alcatraz" for Ireland.  It was founded in the 1500s and housed a lot of the political prisoners during Ireland's independence from 1918-1921.  Afterwards I crashed hardcore and slept like 11hrs straight as I pulled an all-nighter on the flight over. 
• Day two (Dublin): I woke up around 4am Dublin time and read my book "Pride and Prejeaous" for a few hours when my other 5 hostel roommates began waking up.  I introduced myself and became friends, and ended up doing the Jameson tour with two girls (Jojo and Laura) and had a great time. I then ran across town and did a walking tour all around the city.  After the tour, I went back to Trinity College and saw the "Book of Kells" and my personal favorite, the Trinity College Long Library which  had tons of old books and was the library used in the Harry Potter movies.  I returned back to the Hostel, and went out for dinner/drinks with Jojo and Laura to watch the Euro Cup semi-final game.  After a long night out, we decided to just stay up all night since I had to wake up at 6am for my flight. Well regardless, we stumbled all around town and got back in time however I could not find the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport.  After walking around for 45min, in fear of not catching my flight, I decided to haggle with the taxi driver for 22 euro to get me to the airport however I was too late.  I paid the 100 euro to catch the next flight and got into London safe and sound (although very tired, exhausted, and pretty hungover).  To add insult to injury, after a misscommunication with my friend Tom in Paris, I waited about 2.5hours on a bus stop waiting for him and trying to communicate where I was.  I ended up borrowing a random person's cellphone a few times every 30-40min to try and explain where I was and was relieved to hear a friendly "Jay." 
• Day one (London): Spent the day at a city called Henley just outside of London for the biggest crew race in the world.  It was all upper class, rich, English men and myself, my buddy Tom, and his roommates and friends.  I had to quickly buy a pair of red pants for 10pounds to look a little more "posh" and just take a look at the picture. I'll keep the pants for the remaining part of my trip but the shoes were 3 pounds and extremely cheap.  Amazing day though, just drank, chatted, and watched the racers go by every 20min or so in the nice blue sky and sunshine.  A truly unique experience.  After Henley, I meet up with some UC friends at a bar not far from my buddy's place.  Pictures attached above.
• Day two (London): Tom went to work so I just walked to Harrods, the Victora and Albert Museum, Natural History, Roayl Albert Hall, and Kennington palace/gardens.

UC Friends in London

Lots to catch up on, and don't really have time to edit this page so I hope you guys enjoyed!  Probably will try to update this once I get to Paris towards the end of the week.