Yesterday was one of the longest in my life! But in a good way (not in a bad 'Extra work' sitting around for 12 hours way, listening to a student moan about how long the day is... you know, like monday! - oh yes, look out for me in Waterloo Road ;) )... me and my mum got up at 4am and headed to Liverpool to get a plane to Dublin!

A couple of years ago (see pic - oh how thin!) me and my mum went over there to retrace my grandad's past and all that... it was a great day - but that's pretty much ALL we did... so last week we decided it would be cool to just go there for a day and 'experience' Dublin.

We arrived at about 8am and got the bus into the City. The city was just waking up really, which was nice to see. Looked like it was going to be a nice day too. So we wandered around for a couple of hours, got a bagel each, and then headed to the coach trip we had booked to the southern coast of Dublin... well a bit... it was a great trip! The Tour Guide was hilarious. Everyone seemed to remind mum of Grandad - and I can see it too. There were loads of Scottish and American people on the bus too... which we found strange - not so much the americans, but there were Scottish people everywhere we turned yesterday! There must be a deal on. We saw Dun Laogharie, which was where my Great Grandfather lived. It seemed really nice, but I can't imagine it was that nice back in the late 1800's.

The drive took us further down where we saw some lovely views and ended for a break in some Gardens or other... can't remember the name of them, Powershot or something... anyway, they were lovely. We had some food (soup and weird looking cheese) and headed out into the gardens for a wander.

It was really peaceful and pleasant. I enjoyed taking lots of pictures, as I do. It was actually getting rather warm at that point... aparantly (according to our guide) we are very lucky cos from the middle of June Dublin had had 60 continuous days of rain! Deary me.

Once we got back from this lovely trip (and a few minutes of snatched shut eye on the coach) we decided to go shopping. Actually, I tell a lie, we did a bit of that before we got on the coach ;)

And then headed over to the Liffy River to get a boat to take us on a ride up and down the River...

Mum doesnt' like water at all so I was pleased she plucked up the courage to get on. She was fine too, it was a lovely slow jaunt up and down and we found out some interesting facts about the place.

It's possible that Grandad was brought up just round the corner to where Oscar Wilde lived. That's quite cool.

We then wearily toddled off the boat and headed towards the cinema - once we got to the cinema we realised we were IN DUBLIN! Why are we going to watch a film! We can do that ANY DAY!

So we headed over to Temple Bar and sat ourselves down in a pub to listen to some music and have a drink (diet coke and OJ)... we heard 3 songs! After every song the lead singer seemed to get up and go outside for a fag!

That was a nice sit down anyway, we then slowly made our way back to the coach to take us back to the airport. Our flight wasn't for another three hours but we were seriously knakkered by this point. So we went back and had some food at the airport and headed to the gate - at this point we were really pleased we'd set off so early - as it took us nearly quarter of an hour to WALK to the gate!

Mum had a sleep then we got on the plane back - rather funny moment when we'd both fallen asleep and didn't realise we were landing, until we did and both woke up with a jump!

Anyhoo -I am still in the middle of moving right now... I have no internet at the flat so I'm poppin on and off at home...back to work now... x