it was june 30/july 1 2008

after months of preparation and anticipation michele and i were finally on our way to europe for the next six weeks of our summer. we both were ready to travel again and excited for an adventure together. we were to meet jess in ireland and travel with her for a while and then travel as two from paris onward.  

so here are my photos and my stories of the best trip, with the best person, in the best places.

it was july 2 2008

michele and i got off the plane in dublin after not sleeping the entire plane ride from boston. we were so confused and tired at this point, but incredibly excited when we saw jess waiting for us as we arrived and carrying a sign that welcomed us to ireland. it was so nice to see her and exciting, she'd spent the whole night taking a bus ride across the country to get to dublin. so from the airport we checked out the hostel, great location down a small side street. then we went back to the airport to get a bus up to northern ireland. OH boy was that insane...we spent alllll day on and off buses to get to giant's causeway at the northern tip of the country. the day was cold and rainy and we all slept each leg of the trip on whatever bus we were on. i was happy to see the irish countryside which is so pastural and rustic with farms for miles. there are cute stone walls and sheep and lots of cows that just sit in the fields looking over the cliffs. norther ireland is just cold feeling, weather wise and in general. we finally made it to giant's causeway having traveled about four hours to get there and then it would be another several hours back to dublin which resulted in us having one heck of an adventure and leaving us dead to the world by the end...

it was july 2 2008

we explored dublin by foot going to all the main attractions of the city. we went to trinity college, which reminded us a lot of harvard, just a very old college campus. we went from there to st. stephen's green, a beautiful city park where there was live music playing which was nice for us to just sit and eat lunch and enjoy being outside. 

our day after this ended up being insane, michele and i realized we had missed our flight to london because we booked it a day earlier than we wanted. we had to rush to an internet cafe, buy new tickets, get ourselves to the airport and fast. there was no way we were going to stay in dublin another day, we were ready for london!

it was july 3 2008

we arrived late last night into london and as soon as michele and i got out of the tube station and up to the streets we were so excited to be there. 

we did a complete tour of london today starting at westminster abbey which was amazing and perfectly timed because the bells chimed while we were there. from there we went to st.james's palace along the river thames and big ben. we went from that area of the city over to buckingham palace which is just as one imagines it; ornate, impressive, elegant and beautiful. st.james park in front of the palace was a great place to stroll and relax. we then ventured up to picaddily circus, but were quickly overwhelmed by the crowds so we headed back to the victoria section of the city where we were staying. we also went down to hyde park which is huge and was lovely, it smelled so good, it was beautiful, everyone was out just enjoying a little sunshine and the green grass and blooming flowers, it was a nice chance for us to relax from all the walking and from taking in everything that we saw. there's is lots more of london to see...

more london...

it was july 4 2008

we were in london for the fourth of july, an odd combination. 

we spent our day touring around different parts of london. our first stop was the tate modern museum which is free and a really nice museum dedicated to modern art where we spent most of our morning. i really enjoyed some gerhard richter and there was a great jackson pollock.

we continued on to the tower bridge, the famous bridge of the children's song london bridges falling down...falling down. it is actually a really beautiful bridge and we got to walk a little ways across it and then turned around because we had stumbled upon an amazing fruit, vegetable, and other treats market that we had to get back to. so we went back to it for a delicious lunch outside. 

our afternoon took us to nottinghill, the now infamous section of london made famous from a little movie named after it featuring the hugh grant and the julia roberts. there was a nice outdoor market along the streets with antiques and shops with knic-knaks. it was pleasant afternoon.

later that evening as we knew it would be our last in london, we went back to the thames at night to see everything lit up. the parliament was spectacular at night, all lit up and reflecting into the river. it was a great way to kind of wrap up our time in london, a city we were surprised to love so much.

it was july 5 2008

it was our last day in london and we went back to buckingham palace to see the changing of the guards. the crowd was several people deep making it feel like every tourist or person staying in london was there. we saw some of the guards marching into the palace grounds, but we could not really see any part of the changing. we did not stay long and got out even quicker than we expected because it started to rain.