Mon voyage vers la belle France: Return to the Homeland: Elle and Morgan go to Ireland and England

Salut!
It has been a long time since I last blogged and I have a ton of great stuff to cover! My trip started with a train to paris, a jump over the easy jet terminal and then a quick flight up to London. Once in London I met up with Elle to grab some dinner and head over to our hostel. Friday morning we headed out to see London Bridge, the Tower of London and grab some fish and chips (it being Good Friday and all). All of London was covered in memorabilia for the Royal wedding (thank goodness we got out before that) and we were navigating some large groups of tourists. It was a surprisingly nice day in London with no rain to speak of and once the fog burned off in the morning it was quite warm and sunny. It being good Friday most things were closed but we still managed to find a great pub to get a nice draft, and some fish and chips. Most of the day was taken up with wandering around near London Bridge and for me enjoying the novelty of a foreign but still english speaking country. I must say it was quite a mind bender for signs and such to be in English after 3 months of nothing but French.
Before long it was time for us to head to Dublin and as we had to get a train out to Gatwick airport we left in early afternoon. It was well worth it to avoid the huge crowds at Heathrow but still pretty crazy as there was a bomb dog that was directed to check everyones bag simply while waiting in the internet cafe while we waited to go through security. Late Friday evening we got into Dublin and took a bus into the city. While the directions on the hostel website seemed straight forward it was surprisingly difficult to find and though we asked several people it took us wandering around for quite a long time till we got lucky and hit the street we needed. In the morning I enjoyed my first real breakfast in a very long time (as according to the french all you really need in the morning is some coffee and a bit of bread) Some egg, bacon, sausage, white pudding, toast, beans and a fried tomato filled us up for the afternoon. Definitely a place we would return, Lovingspoon in case any of you are in Dublin in the future. Then off to Grafton street for a little shopping and some people watching. There were some great bands playing along the way so we stopped to listen to a few of those. After a few false starts we were headed to the Guinness Storehouse/factory for a tour and a pint of Guinness with what we were told were some of the best views of Dublin. The storehouse is set up so that you cycle upwards on your tour inside of the worlds largest guinness pint glass until you reach the top and get your free pint. Along the way there is lots of memorabilia, a room filled with barley hops, yeast and water (the 4 ingredients in guinness) and lots of people attempting to pour their own pints. I preferred to have a professional do it and was rewarded with the perfect pint with a nice four leaf clover in my foam. The 360 gravity bar was as good as was touted and indeed our best views of the mountains and sea surrounding Dublin were from the top of the storehouse. We grabbed a quick dinner at a fun diner and then met up with another kid from my program and some of his friends who live in Dublin. It was sunny and warm which is unheard of in Dublin so everyone was outside hanging out with friends, sitting at pubs and window shopping on Grafton Street. It all actually reminded me quite a bit of Church Street in Burlington. On Sunday morning Elle and I walked over to Christ Church Cathedral for Easter Sunday mass. The newly ordained arch bishop was there and the choir sang part of Handel's Messiah. Mass was very nice and the cathedral is beautiful inside. After mass we celebrated Easter with an amazing dessert at the Queen of Tarts, we split slices of blackberry apple pie and chocolate almond cake. Awesome! Then we went for a nice stroll in St. Stephen's Green which was packed with all sorts of people as it was again a sunny day in Dublin. On Monday we headed to Howth on the Dart which is just a quick half hour train ride but put us right on the ocean. The town is really cute and there were some great markets. After buying a giant carton of olives Elle and I hung out near the water and munched on olives. It was a quick walk over to the lighthouse and we hung out in the harbor for awhile. Lunch was another set of fish and chips, some chowder and my personal favorite, mussels. After lunch and a walk around the village we headed back into dublin to see a movie and grab some ice cream. After picking up some reading material we avoided some of our first irish rain spending the night hanging out in the hostel and reading. On Tuesday we woke up grabbed breakfast and headed over to visit St. Patrick's cathedral. Inside is really beautiful and outside in the garden is the supposed site of St. Patrick's well. After a little shopping we headed to Elephant and Castle a great place for lunch in the Temple Bar district and had some of the best sandwiches ever. After a quick goodbye tour of Grafton Street and the weird giant spire in the middle of town we went to get some pizza and stopped for a crazy new flavor of ben and jerrys. Then early to bed for our 4am wake up. Getting out of bed in the morning was a little rough but we managed and some german girls also staying in the hostel had early flights and offered to drive us in as they had a rental car. Flight out at 7am and off to Paris we went! Look soon for part two Paris in April!