Last Stop: Dublin!

From San Sebastian, we took a train to Biarritz, France which only took about 1/2 hour. We waited around that airport for a long time, eating our last pain au chocolate before boarding. Once, we arrived in Dublin, we got on a bus, heading to Vinnie's house who allowed us to surf his couch. It felt so weird to be in an English speaking country again after 4 months. I kept having the instinct to speak bad Spanish to everyone and said Si instead of yes more than a few times that afternoon. Once we met Vinnie, we knew we were going to have a great time in Dublin.

Vinnie is a little older, maybe in his 50's was our guess. He had such a great sense of humor and was such a typical Irish fellow that we instantly felt at ease.

We ordered in take-out and he picked up some beers and we spent the evening in, staying up until 4 in the morning, laughing with Vinnie and telling him our tales about Fantasy Fest and key West and he told us a lot about Dublin since he lived in the same neighborhood since he was a kid. The next day, Vinnie had to pull himself out of bed to get to work and we slept in, did some laundry and walked around Dublin, taking in the major sites like Dublin castle and the Temple Bar area.

Walking around Temple Bar

The colorful Dublin Castle.



We checked out the Irish film institute and had an Irish pint at a little pub.

That evening, Vinnie had said he would take us on a little excursion to Howth, a fishing village right outside of Dublin.





It was a beautiful drive and we all went out to dinner to a very fancy seafood restaurant. Vinnie was so kind to us that he offered to pay for our incredibly expensive meal and we had such a gorgeous dinner with a nice bottle of wine. We laughed throughout dinner and Vinnie told us more about himself. He runs the main internet company used in Dublin and he also owns a beer distribution company that distributes beer to all of the main music festivals throughout Europe. He is such a great guy that we felt like we had known him forever. Celebrating our last night of traveling with a fancy dinner and good company will be something we always remember. After dinner, we went out for a small pint since we were all stuffed and then came home and went to bed. Vinnie drove us to the airport the next day and we very sorry to have to say good-bye to Uncle Vinnie, but he did promise us to visit for Fantasy Fest sometime in the future.

We flew on August 23rd to London and enjoyed our last weekend there. We went to Borough Market, Edinboro castle, out for Vietnamese and did some last minute shopping and tying loose ends together. We then went to Northampton to get our stuff from Gena and Merlin and visit with them. Gena came back into London the next day with us and helped us bring our stuff on the bus. We had thai food and some beers before saying good-bye to Merlin and Gena and crying hysterically.

We were very overwhelmed and entirely unprepared to be heading back to the US the next day. After 4 months of traveling and 6 months of being official Londoners, we couldn't believe the adventure was ending. I kept thinking back to when this was all just a silly idea or plan that we never thought we could pull off and at the end of the year, we did everything we had come to Europe for and so much more. Flying out from Heathrow the next afternoon was so sad, but regardless of our anxiety about leaving the UK, we were excited to see our family on the other side of the ocean in NYC.