End of England start of Ireland

So we had the wrong end date in our head... Thought we were leaving london on Friday but really we were supposed to leave Thursday. I thought of this Tuesday night after we had already planned out things to do for two more days. Oh well I'll just have to go back and finish being a tourist next time. Wednesday we went to see the changing of the guards which was hilarious. Tons of guys in red with giant furry hats marching around and playing marching band music. Wednesday musical selection including songs from phantom of the opera. Two of the guards in the fanciest outfits carried flags around, marched up to the each section of the gates where all the tourists were, lunged forward in a pose then pivoted and walked away. So funny.

After that we went to get our train/ferry railsail passes to Dublin. We went to kings cross to make the reservation and sent some time searching for Harry potter. The train workers stationed at platforms 9-11 have to spend all day laughing at Harry potter fans. There was construction happening all over the train station so we couldn't find Harry. Saw a few different groups of people walk all the way down to the end of the platform, look sad, and turn around. I went up to the train worker and was about to ask something when he said "platform 9 3/4?" haha duh. He directed us outside the station where the platform had been set up under some scaffolding and next to a fake brick wall put up during the construction. There were a lot if people milling about waiting to get into hogwarts. I couldnt get in, but I have to assume that there was just a house elf concerned for my safety blocking my way. If only I packed my flying car. Next time.

Speaking of next time, pretty much every day I add something else to my next time list. There are things from each city we have went that are on my mental "next time" list as well as new countries. Next time is going to be amazing!

After Harry potter we went to Coventry gardens, a plaza area where a lot of street performers go do weird things. Saw a guy pull his whole body through a mini tennis racket, woof. And a guy who juggled things. He spent too much time leading up to his final trick, knife juggling, that we had to keave to go pack so we didn't see it.

Went back to the hostel to pack up our lives and get ready for the pub crawl.

The pub crawl went through Camden, Camden is full of very interesting people. I think I would have fit in more if I shaved off a random patch of my hair, dyed the rest green, and pierced four things on my face. Next time.

The pub crawl was pretty fun, we went with two girls from norway that we met in the hostel. They managed to piss off some angry Australians by pretending to be from Ohio. We went to a cool bar/photo gallery/live music venue that used to be horse stables. The stables were each turned into different rooms with couches and tables and things. Cool. The bars closed around 2 or 3 though which was strange after going out in Spain until 6 am. We went back to the hostel bar and hung out there for a little bit before going to bed. Had to wake up at a reasonable hour Thursday.

We went and got our nails done before the train on Thursday. We found a cheap beauty training salon and I got a manicure and Amy got a pedicure. Hers turned out really well. Mine... Well the girl painting them was really nice! I think the nail polish was super old, or she put it on too thick because they have all those annoying bubbles in them now. Oh well, couldn't be any worse than how they looked before hand. And it was nice to just sit and relax for a little bit.

Took two trains to holyhead and got a ferry to Dublin. The ferry was crazy! I don't know what I was expecting, but this was super nice. Tables and chairs, bars, restaurants, movie screening area. The showed tangled. Score! I felt pretty sick at the beginning while we were just sittign on the water waiting to move, but it was okay ish later on. Should have brought some dramamine.

Got to Dublin, and realized that we didn't write down out hostel. Again. We are dumb. Tried to find free wifi somewhere to look it up, couldn't get McDonald wifi to work. There was an internet cafe across the street that was closing but the guy let us in to look up our hostel. Probably felt bad for us, we looked like dying pack mules. Eventually found the hostel with help from a few different nice Irish people. The hostel seems cool so far. Took a shower last night and the base filled up with so much water I thought it was going to overflow. I had to take a break and wait for it to go down before washing my hair. Might not be showering for the next four days.... Woke up on time for the free breakfast today, score! Amy is sleeping, but everyone else in our 8 person room was getting ready for the day, so i figured I would join them.

There is a free walking tour at noon today that we are going to try to find.

Also our friend Ben is going to join us in Ireland next week! So pumped!

Bye