Travel Diaries: My favorite trip so far

This past week I embarked on my favorite trip so far. I never thought I would be able to travel with someone so special to me, and boy does it make the travels that much more special. It was one of those things where you wish you can do it but just think that you're in college and there'll be time later so you keep putting it off but all of a sudden one day we just started planning it for real and I could not be more happy with it all. I think the greatest part about it was that everything seemed to be going wrong but somehow it just all worked out and ended up being incredibly fun and memorable. This is the first trip I've been on since starting this blog so I'm excited to be able to recount every detail right after it happened rather than months or weeks after. Brace yourselves, this is a long post.

The week started off last Wednesday the last day of February. We were meant to meet in Dublin to have a great two days there, then off to London for the weekend, back to Bristol to show him around my home away from home, and back off to Ireland to explore a bit of the countryside before he had to head back home. However, if you didn't know, the U.K. and Ireland hardly ever get snow so when they do everything stops. No flights, no trains, no food or water in grocery stores, no salt on roads or sidewalks, no snowplows, and no shovels. If you think some southern states don't know how to deal with snow, just come here during a freak 1 inch snow storm and prepare to be blown away. So this "blizzard" luckily began on Wednesday! No problem, we thought, planes can manage this kind of thing places like Iceland or Canada or even New York deal with more than this and life still goes on. But we're in the U.K. and Ireland, thus everything came grinding to a halt. After a crazy day of my flight being canceled and no flights to Dublin for days and his flight being re-routed and him being left in a city he didn't know, by the end of the day we were reunited (after a few more last minute plane journeys, train journeys, train cancellations, and bus trips).

All cozied up in Bristol after the chaos of the previous day we reworked our entire week long itinerary, that we had painstakingly planned to the minute prior to the great blizzard of 2018, we had a new plan in the works that we both really loved. We decided to venture out into the snow and see all of snowy Bristol in a day and then head to London by bus early the next morning. The last leg of our trip would be flying from London to Dublin on Monday evening and spending a day in Dublin and a day exploring the coast and countryside of Ireland before we parted ways for the next two months.

After seeing all there is to see of Bristol and having a relaxed first day catching up on all we've missed from the past two months we packed up to head to London for 4 days. We were meant to be staying with my flatmate's family and a few of my flatmates, but because of that 1 inch of snow their coach was canceled so we ended up staying with his family without him. They live in a great part of London that I'd never explored before, Muswell Hill. It was so charming and convenient it was the best place to stay, we were so grateful for their hospitality. We did all the main sights of London around Westminster the first day: Big Ben (which is heavily under construction and covered in scaffolding), Parliament, Downing St, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square. After that exhausting first day in snowy London we slept in and went to a football (soccer) game at Wembley the following day! It was something my friend had always wanted to do and was such an incredibly English experience. And for my enjoyment we went to Platform 9 3/4 afterwards and had amazing Thai food near King's Cross station.

The next day was perfect weather, a complete turn around from the snow just two days prior. We walked from Hampstead (a beautiful and quaint little village) to Camden to have lunch at Camden markets. I know everyone always tells you to go to Camden Markets, but seriously, go. It was the best food and cheapest meal we had in London and so many fun vintage shops to keep you entertained for hours. After lunch we took the tube to explore Notting Hill (mostly because I love the movie). Then we wandered through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park all the way to the Royal Academy on Piccadilly Circus. We loved the exhibition they had on but it does cost money, we were lucky enough to have borrowed someones membership card so we got in for free. After a quick pop into Fortnum and Mason (basically the Breakfast at Tiffany's of England) we took the tube back up to Muswell Hill for our last night.

The last day in London was busy and definitely made us feel like we'd succeeded at seeing a lot of London. We took the Tube to Vauxhall, a side not many people who don't work there venture down to. It was an incredible walk along the Thames from there to Covent Gardens for lunch. We took in all the sights at a leisurely pace and then met up with a friend for lunch near Covent Gardens. After lunch we walked further down the Thames all the way to the Tower Bridge and across to get to The Shard. We bought tickets for this because we wanted a view of London from above that wasn't the eye and it did not disappoint. We had actually booked the tickets for the Friday but there was no view because of the snow so they were really accommodating and let us re-book our tickets. After The Shard we were exhausted and hopped on the train to Gatwick Airport for our flight to Dublin.

The following day was a crazy busy walking tour of everything there is to see in Dublin! We were supposed to have more time in Dublin so everything felt a bit rushed but we were both glad that we had just the day it felt like the right amount of time for us. We started off with our booked self-guided tour of the Book of Kells at Trinity College. A really unique experience and must do if you're ever in Dublin. Then we embarked on a wander around to St. Stephan's Green, the National Gallery, the Molly Malone statue, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, and St. Patricks Cathedral. Pretty much all of the major sights before we even got to lunch! We ate lunch at the Brazen Head pub, the oldest in Dublin, and got served Guinness in a water glass and water in a Guinness glass and had the most expensive Fish and Chips ever! But it was worth it for the experience of it. After lunch we popped into the Jameson Distillery which was next to our hostel to take a few pics and then took a long walk through Phoenix Park. After the walk we couldn't think of anything else to do since all the museums were closing so we wandered around to find food and then headed back to the hostel to watch some football!

The last day was our absolute favorite day. I have a thing with buying day trips from Viator because I've loved every one so far and this one was no different. We had an early morning to get on the bus to the Cliffs of Moher but our bus driver made it so enjoyable telling us about the history of Ireland on the way. He even stopped at a few places that weren't on the itinerary (like a chocolate factory and a traditional Irish country pub)! We had plenty of time to explore the Cliffs of Moher, a bit of exploring in Galway, a stop on the Wild Atlantic Way, and heard lots of Irish music and history. It was a day to remember and definitely our favorite part about Ireland, I would highly recommend it to anyone planning a trip!

I had hands down the best time ever with my best friend exploring places I'd been before and showing him my favorite parts, and places neither of us had been before. Definitely something that will stick with us for life and that got us excited for more adventures to come! While not without it's difficulties, it's hard to look at anything but the positives after such a memorable week.

A "very" snowy Bristol

Picturesque snowy Bristol

Snowy London

London in snow

Buckingham Palace in snow

Wembley Stadium, London

King's Cross Station, London

London

London

London

London

Notting Hill, London

Views from The Shard

Fortnum and Mason, London

Book of Kells, Trinity College, Dublin

Famous Molly Malone Statue, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Dublin

Camden Market, London

Galway, Ireland

Grafton St, Dublin

Dublin

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Phoenix Park, Dublin

Phoenix Park, Dublin

Dublin

The oldest pub in Dublin

The Brazen Head, Dublin

The Brazen Head, Dublin

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland 

Pub in Doolin, Ireland

Irish pub food

Irish tea room in Galway

Galway