so i'm here safe and sound. the trip was relatively painless, excluding missing my flight in london and getting lost in the Heathrow airport. luckily there was another flight to dublin right behind it that got me here with no problem at all.

i arrived in dublin, caught a bus to city centre, and met morten (if you don't know, he's the danish boy i'm staying with here) at the bus stop. seems easy, doesn't it?

well, the things i've learned so far are:

1. british "cents" are called "pence"

2. you can only bring one piece of carry-on onto a plane. but if you wear the big shoes in your bag, then stuff your purse into your carry-on bag, it's considered one piece

3. Heathrow airport is bigger than vancouver

4. there are lots of redheads in Ireland

and now that i've been up for about 40 hours, it's time for me to sleep. until tomorrow!

written by  girlbits on September 11, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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this morning i woke up to the smell of breakfast (about 8am) and found that everyone was sitting at the table waiting for me. preben (morten's boyfriend) had cooked an amazing breakfast for everyone and luckily they had coffee as well.

after breakfast, morten and preben had to go to work, so peter and mette (morten's brother and cousin) decided to take me out to see the city. we went to the mall first (apparently one of the biggest malls in europe) just to look around and get some groceries for dinner. it felt like a bit of a tease because we didn't have much time... i'll go back tomorrow. i saw a huge H&M... jana, i'll buy you something.

anyway, then we got home and went to meet morten for birthday lunch at an indian restaurant by his work. so good. after lunch, we thought we would go downtown and see dublin.

we took a cab to city centre and walked to find a specific bar that peter liked, called "The Temple Bar".

we stayed there far too long talking to people from pretty much every country in the world and drinking lots of guinness. then when we realized we were late for birthday dinner, we caught a cab home.

we had an amazing dinner at home, then went back to the temple bar. so that's where i've been for about the last 5 hours, drinking beer, singing irish songs, and talking to people from all over the world. one guy actually asked me to marry him so i could stay in Ireland... i thought about it, but regretfully declined... as i thought it was a little soon.

anyway, what i've seen of dublin is beautiful so far. everyone is so amazing and polite, even the cab drivers are so excited that i'm here visiting Ireland. peter and mette are leaving back to Denmark tomorrow, unfortunately, so i'll be alone from here on in. luckily i think i can find my way around now that i've been around with them. and they offered me a place to stay and a guide when i go to Denmark next week.

i think i'm going to be happy here.

love you all, miss everyone, slainte.

written by  girlbits on September 12, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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yesterday was a bit of a write-off after my night of 100 pints on tuesday. i went for a bit of a walk, but turned back pretty quickly when i realized i just wanted to lie down. my first irish hangover! yay!

so we all went to bed early last night and i got up first thing this morning, very determined. i left the house around 9:30 (or what they call half-nine) and caught the tram about 10 minutes away from the apartment. it stops right at st. stephens green (pictured here) which is a giant park and lake right in the middle of the city. so beautiful. i walked around the park for a bit, then headed over to the christ church cathedral.

the church was unlike anything i had ever seen. so big and beautiful. i went in for 4 euros and got to look around the cathedral.

i had some trouble finding it, only because i'm stubborn and won't take a map out on the street. for some reason i think that i don't look like a tourist if i don't have a map? right. i quickly learned that most of the other people were tourists as well, and i would rather look like a tourist than get lost. so i just folded my map up into a nice little square so i could look at it inconspicuously.

then as i was reading my "guide to the church", i realized there were tombs downstairs (jana, i immediately thought "funny, i'm going to the tombs by myself").

anyway, no time to lose! so then i kept walking, heading for the guinness brewery and stopping by some other cathedrals along the way. i got a little lost looking for one street in particular, but the locals seem to notice the moment when i realize i'm lost and offer help. they're so friendly.

i found the brewery. it was a little expensive to get in, and you really don't get to see any actual beer manufacturing (which, i guess, is understandable) but it was still a great tour. you walk around to all the exhibitions, learn about the making of guinness and a bunch of interesting details, then at the end you go up to the top floor which is a bar with a panoramic view of the city.

i'll mention as well that part of the tour is a stop right before the beer is going to be packed up and shipped, and you get to try it right as it's been finished. i think the guy fancied me a bit because he kept giving me samples (pretty much shots of guinness) and telling me to stay and get a fresher one. cute.

so then everyone goes to the top, sits with a pint of the freshest guinness you can get (i thought of you, david) and looks out on the city.

so, i finally dragged myself out of the bar (this was the first time i had sat down in about 5 hours) and set out to find the dublin castle. this proved to be my most difficult adventure yet. first i could not find "castle street" and ended up in some weird area that wasn't quite what i was looking for. finally someone realized i was lost (once again) and helped me find the street. i got to the end of castle street and saw no castle.

so i walked around a bit, couldn't find it, and decided to "get in the map", as joey would say. i was sitting on some steps then finally asked a local where the street was.

local: are you lost?

me: well, i'm not sure. where is dame street?

local: it's right there.

me: oh. where is dublin castle?

local: you're sitting on the steps.

apparently it had been a long day. so, i blushed and thanked her, then went to see the castle. that picture does the castle no justice at all. that's just one tiny part, it's actually a huge rectangular-shaped building with a courtyard in the middle, and that is just the clock tower.

i'm not big on guided tours, but it was actually quite interesting as they take you underground to see the ruins of the viking castle and moat. then you get to see the state rooms that are now used for government meetings, parties, and the presidential inauguration.

after the castle, i was so tired and my feet hurt so i walked back to st stephens green to catch the tram back home.

a lovely dinner, some wine, and a movie, and now i'm dead tired.

it's been a great day! i feel like i got pretty much all the touristy stuff out of the way early and i think i know my way around town pretty well now. strangely enough, i still haven't seen the river liffey (i've probably been steps away from it) but i'll see that tomorrow.

thanks everyone for reading this and commenting. i do love the comments. i hope i can keep it interesting! obviously i've been spoiled with internet in my room, i know i probably won't be able to keep this up... and i imagine my days will get less exciting. but thanks for all your support and making me feel at home away from home.

slainte!

written by  girlbits on September 14, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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i had a meeting at the USIT office (the people i got my visa through) at 11am this morning. they said "it's beside the river liffey, just past grafton street" so i thought that was easy enough, as i have been to grafton street many times already.

i got my map out before i left, figured that i could make it there from the tram in about 10 minutes, and set out on my journey at about half ten. i walked down grafton street, past trinity college, down westmoreland, and ended up on o'connell. sure, most of you have no idea where these are, but they are main streets in dublin (and the bridge i was looking for was o'connell bridge, so i thought maybe it would be around o'connell street).

i found myself walking for about half an hour (now very late for my meeting) and saw no signs of a bridge or a river. i asked someone in a store and they said "yeah, it's about half an hour back that way"... pointing to where i had come from.

i gave up on the meeting, and decided that this whole "bridge" and "river" idea was just some cruel joke that irish people play on foreigners, because honestly... how do you walk over a river and not notice?

well, i did.

i walked back heading for the tram, now a little frustrated, and finally...

at the end of grafton street, just past trinity college and westmoreland. i swear, this was NOT there the first time i walked by. but i guess i did, in fact, walk over the bridge, right past the river, and just kept walking. so weird.

in my defense, you can either walk on the sidewalks or right down the middle of the street... i chose the latter... which means that you can't see the river from the street. in my mind, i would have noticed a giant bridge and river.

i won't miss the river next time.

i also wanted to post some pictures of the apartment, and of morten and preben, because my gracious hosts seem to have been left out of this lovely travel journal.

hopefully the rest of this day goes a bit better than this morning.

written by  girlbits on September 15, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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so yesterday was pretty laid back. we stayed home waiting for the cable guy (who never came), had some chinese take out, the drank wine on the patio until the wee hours of the morning.

morten woke me up early this morning to go to glendalough (the city of two lakes) which was, honestly, unlike anything i've ever seen. we drove about an hour through the mountains to get there... and it's really just a tiny road through the most amazing mountains (what we call big hills) in the world.

anyway, morten and i drove through the mountains and kept having to stop to look at the beautiful scenery.

so we continued on, not really knowing where we were going, and eventually ended up at glendalough. it is actually a 9th century monastery and ruins of a cathedral and cemetary from way back when. we spent so much time there just looking at graves and then walked up to the lake, where st. patrick apparently "found god".

on our way back from the lake we just walked through cemetary some more and couldn't stop just admiring the graves from so long ago, trying to feel the engravings on the stones because we couldn't read them.

so we eventually headed back home, then realized that we were really close to powerscourt, which is a beautiful estate and garden just outside of dublin.

we went there, but really didn't feel like it was worth 9 euro, so just walked through the building and looked at the garden through the windows. we got an ice cream cone, and headed home.

once we got home, we were both so tired that we just lied on the couch and fell asleep. after all the wine the previous night, and the amount of walking we had done today, we were both just beat. so we lied around a bit, i took a quick nap, then it was time for dinner.

we were planning on going to this cute little sushi place, called aya, in downtown dublin for dinner. when we got there it was too busy and they could only seat us for less than an hour. so we decided to go to another place that we had passed along the way. we went there, and were all amazed with the service, drinks, food, and overall atmosphere.

it's a brand new thai restaurant that just opened last night, but was truly amazing. we probably spent about two hours in there and the owner gave us a free bottle of champagne for being such fabulous guests. how nice.

so! after two bottles of wine and our bottle of champagne, we were ready to party. i had wanted to go to the "brazen head" before i even got here, and they promised me we would go tonight. we did end up finding it (with the help of a taxi) and had the best time. it was pretty much jam packed, but people just stuff themselves in the pubs to enjoy a beer and the amazing music they have playing every night.

we had one or two (maybe three) pints of bulmers, talked to a few irish locals (one who may have fallen in love with me a bit... may have been somewhat mutual), then found a taxi home.

sure, we were all a bit drunk on our way home, but it was the most fun taxi ride i have ever had. we took about a hundred pictures of ourselves to get the best one, and i'll post the one that i think is the worst of both of us because i think it's so funny.

anyway, the brazen head was amazing. we will definitely be back for more irish adventures.

i have decided tonight that i will be staying in dublin. i love this city more than words can describe and i just haven't had enough time to truly appreciate what this city has to offer. i'll be looking for jobs and apartments next week before i head to denmark and will hopefully have something to come home to when i get back.

so, honestly, i can't even describe the experience i have had so far. i really just love this city, the people, and the adventures i have encountered.

i can't wait until tomorrow.

written by  girlbits on September 16, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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yesterday we all just slept in, then moved the party to the couch where we watched movies, napped, and drank lots of water. so much for driving out to howth, but we can save that for another day.

then today i had to wake up early to go to that meeting that i missed on wednesday. i found the place easily today and made it to my meeting on time. after the 2 hour "welcome to dublin" meeting with about an hour an 55 minutes of information i already knew, i ventured out to get myself a "Mobile".

so now i have a cell phone at least. now i somewhat feel like a local... without the accent.

anyway, i went shopping for a bit afterwards, but had to stop at home when the rain was coming down in buckets from all directions. then, 5 minutes later, when it was sunny again, i went to the mall.

the weather is so random here! i love it!

we had dinner, then i suggested we walk across the street to the pub (that they have never been to! just seems wrong.) for a pint of bulmers or two. we were responsible and actually only had 2 pints, then came home.

at least it's not raining anymore, but it is so windy we could hardly walk against it. still beautiful though.

anyway, it's another quiet night here in dublin. i've been searching for apartments and jobs, as i'd like to have somewhere to live when i get back from Denmark next week. i'll keep you posted.

here's the lovely view from our patio here in dundrum, dublin. it's a little funny because at the end of the street you'll notice a brick wall (it's dark, i know) that is actually the entrance to the mental hospital next door. i question that this building is actually part of it, but morten and preben always deny it.

goodnight everyone!

the last couple days have really been dedicated to finding a home, getting registered with immigration, and... well, that's it.

yesterday i had to stay home in the morning to wait for the cable guys (remember the ones we waited for all day last week and they never showed up?) who didn't show up AGAIN! i guess i'm not too far from home, now am i. things seem to work the same around here. anyway, once i realized they weren't coming, i headed downtown to go to the immigration office.

speaking of things being like home, the immigration office here reminded me so much of any government office at home... well, the 3 hour wait did, anyway.

so i got my ticket at the front desk, then he told me to go wait with everyone else around the corner. let me remind you, i was expecting this to be a walk-in, stamp, walk-out type deal. i walked around the corner and there were SO many people in there. i looked up at the counter, which said 217... i looked down at my number, 329.

this should take a while.

i sat there for about 10 minutes and only saw the counter go up one number. that's when i decided to go for lunch.

i came back to number 290... ugh... there are only so many things to amuse yourself with in that situation.

so finally they called my number, i walked up to a very angry looking irish man and gave him all my documents. about 10 minutes later he said "look at the camera", i looked around a bit and before i could say "where is the camera?" i heard "click".

that's going to be a good one.

so then after paying my 100 euro and getting what could only possibly be a picture of my feet (i'm actually not looking at the camera in the picture), he told me to go back and wait for my card to be printed. i asked how long it might take, and he said "probably about 10 minutes"... sure...

half an hour later, they called my name, and i have a brand new stamp in my passport and irish registration card! yay! i'm here for the long haul.

i left the office feeling a bit tired and sore, but also very excited for what's to come this year. can i call myself an alien yet? legal alien?

so i walked down grafton street, heading back to the tram as i was already late for dinner, and came across this amazing busking group that morten had already told me about.

after standing there watching in amazement for a few minutes, i got home just as they were putting dinner on the table. good timing. after dinner, morten's masseuse came over to give us both massages. i've never gotten a massage before, let alone a "deep tissue" massage. i got off the table afterwards and kinda felt like i had no bones... she said that was normal.

today i feel like i was hit by a bus. apparently that's normal too.

so, i spent this morning cleaning up the house and preparing for preben's sister's arrival this evening. after dinner tonight i have a flat to go look at, so hopefully i'll have a place to live by tomorrow!

cross your fingers!

written by  girlbits on September 20, 2006 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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so i'm in london! how exciting!

my trip here was a bit exhausting. i left my cozy apartment in dublin at 8am to catch the tram into town. got to town around 8:30 where i walked to the "aircoach" (shuttle to the airport). now, let me first tell you that when i left the house it was sunny, so i was wearing a long skirt and flipflops. about 5 minutes away from the house it started POURING.

thank god i brought my umbrella.

anyway, the aircoach took about half an hour to get to the airport, and i was pretty satisfied that, other than the rain, things were going smoothly.

i was standing in line waiting to check in for about 20 minutes when i realized i was standing in the wrong line... a minor setback... i guess this is why they tell you to get there early.

i checked in (in the right line), found my gate, and waited. the flight was fine, only about one hour from dublin to london, then at the end the flight attendant went over the intercom and said "oh boy! it sure is pouring in london! have a great afternoon... if that's possible...".

how nice.

i was really regretting the skirt and flipflops at that point.

i got off the plane, things were pretty painless in the airport, then had to look for the bus. i asked someone who said "sure! just go downstairs and you'll see them!".

i didn't see them.

eventually, after walking back and forth through rain and puddles, i found the bus station and bought my ticket (10 POUNDS!). i was wondering why a ticket from the airport into town was 10 pounds (about 22 dollars?), but it turns out that stansted airport is actually like a 2 hour drive from town.

apparently i didn't research that part.

2 hours into town isn't so bad. but my flight tomorrow morning is at 7:30am. so, if i do my calculations properly, i have to be at the airport around 5:30 or 6, which means i have to leave my hostel around 3:30 or 4?

my roommates are going to love me!

oh well. not much i can do about it now.

well, i got off the bus (thankfully i woke up in time) and stood on the street just thinking "so... now what?". i had written directions on an old receipt that told me how to get from the station to the hostel. what i didn't factor in was that the bus stopped on the opposite side of the street from the actual "station" so i was reading my directions backwards. you can imagine the confusion.

but, i eventually found the bank mentioned in my directions and all was well.

so i haven't seen much of london. i got to my hostel absolutely soaked and exhausted, and wasn't really feeling the whole tourist thing today.

did i mention that the minute i stepped in the door of the hostel it stopped raining? yeah. now it's sunny.

anyway, there's a pub in the hostel so i'll probably have a beer and go to bed. i have quite the early start tomorrow!

i'll add photos to this entry later, and i'm sure i'll have some good stories about my trip to Denmark as well. so keep in touch!

pip pip! cheerio!

written by  girlbits on September 22, 2006 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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i know most of you are wondering what has happened to me and why i haven't been updating you. i've been really busy, and not able to upload my pictures, which is mostly why i haven't updated.

i safely made it to Denmark, where i am now, so no worries there. i will get a good, long, picture-filled entry up as soon as i can, but this danish mac is a little difficult to use and i can't figure out whether i want to "tekststørrelse" or "genindlæs" (i have no idea what those words mean, i just found them on the computer).

anyway, i promise a great update soon on all of my interesting Denmark adventures over the last 5 days. i hope everyone is well at home, and i miss you all.

written by  girlbits on September 26, 2006 from Arhus, Denmark
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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okay, okay... settle down everyone. finally i have some time, a computer, and loads of pictures and stories for you. this could take a while.

well, i managed to wake up at 3am in london to go to the airport. my hostel was nice, but i forget that if you're sharing a room with 7 other women, you're probably not going to get a lot of sleep. but, either way, i woke up at 3am and (very quietly) left to take the bus. i felt a bit worried and a bit like an idiot walking down finchley road at 3:30 in the morning with my suitcase, but it turned out fine.

i arrived in århus with no problems. i met henrik (just in case you don't know, henrik is my grandfather's wife's niece's son... very close relation) at the bus station and he walked me back to his place. even though i was really tired, he decided we were going out to see some things.

so first we walked down to this open market they have down the street to buy some vegetables and things. then we went back, had lunch, and walked over to "dem gamle by" which is a collection of 18th century houses from all over denmark that they moved into this one "town".

the town was really neat, and we got to go in all the houses and walk around them. then henrik found some stilts and walked around for a bit.

he says he got the hang of it... but i beg to differ.

anyway, we walked home and they started preparing dinner. they also invited ash, henrik's ethiopian friend who lives in denmark (we are quite the international bunch) to dinner who ended up coming out with us afterwards.

after dinner, we went out for a beer to a local pub, then tina (henrik's girlfriend) went home and the three of us carried on to another bar (did i mention i woke up at 3am?). the bar, "waxies", had a live band called "on the radio" which was a cover band. they ended up being pretty good, and henrik and i did some great dancing.

we finally stumbled home around 4:30am and went to bed.

the next day, we both slept quite a bit, as you can imagine. but we did end up going out still, as we had plenty to see. i think that day we went to the art gallery and then took a walk down to the harbour.

we got to bed relatively early that night, i believe, and planned another big day when we woke up.

henrik had to go to the university to do some work, so i took it upon myself to go out and do some shopping in the city. i found a couple good stores and bought a few things, then met up with henrik to go for lunch, and then to the train station as we were going out to see his parents.

we met up with tina, then all caught a train to "horsens" where we were picked up by henrik's dad. we had a lovely dinner at their place, and talked a lot about my family history and my grandparents, which was really nice to do, as i don't get that side of the story very often.

we borrowed their car and drove home that night.

which brings me to tuesday, when henrik and i drove over to the west coast of denmark (about a 2 hour drive) to go to "holthstrom" (okay, i think i spelled that wrong) where his aunt lives.

there was some beautiful scenery on that side, and henrik brought me to see the old german army bunkers that are now lying in the sand on the beach.

obviously the bunkers have moved a bit because they are on sand, so some of them are upside down and sideways and half underwater. but you can walk around and climb in them and everything, which was really interesting. it was pouring rain, but i couldn't resist walking around and going in all these old bunkers.

we climbed in one that was on its side and came up through this window and decided to take a picture. henrik says there was a fly on his nose... i'm not sure.

anyway, we drove back and went out for dinner to a restaurant down the street, then went home.

so, yesterday i caught a train to copenhagen to come out and see michael and helle, and visit with peter (morten's brother, from the first night in dublin) last night. i got here around 6, we came here and had dinner, then i went downtown to meet peter at a karaoke bar. the last train was at midnight so i knew i had to go home early, but when i looked at my clock it was 2am... oops... so i finally caught a cab around 5 and made it home safely.

and here i am! still in copenhagen... i'm going back to århus tonight to fly back to dublin tomorrow morning.

thanks for your patience everyone!

written by  girlbits on September 28, 2006 from Copenhagen, Denmark
from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.
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