And On the Sixth Day, God Created Man(chester) - And Basically All of the UK and Ireland (Week 9)

It's spring break! I have 10 days to see and do pretty much whatever I want - so I decided to spend all of it in the UK and Ireland. I started off in Manchester and, since I spent the night at the airport, the first thing that I did when I got to the AirBnB was take a nap. I was in Manchester for three nights but took a day trip to Liverpool, which was pretty cool. I think that Sean and Ryan would have liked it because of all of the Beatles history. After Manchester, I was in Edinburgh, which was such a cool and beautiful city. Since I was in Scotland, I had to try haggis. I played it kind of safe by getting in a soup, but it was actually one of the best meals I've had the whole trip. I was in Edinburgh for two days and then spent a day in Glasgow. Glasgow had a lot to see, but it was a bit hard to get around the city because their subways aren't very developed. But it was more than Edinburgh had, which was something to appreciate. It was a really nice way to round out my trip in Scotland and the people were super nice.

From Glasgow, I flew to Dublin and checked in to my pretty awesome hostel. The ammenities were great and the receptionists were always helpful. They offered city tours, but I wasn't able to do any of them because of my day trips. The first full day I was in Dublin, I actually spent on a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The trip itself was a lot of fun because I ended up sitting in the guide's seat at the front of the tour bus with the driver. He was a funny guy and, again, very nice. I've always loved costlines with cliffs, but the ones at Moher were definitely the most beautiful ones I'd ever seen. Only the coastline of Esperance in Australia would come close, at least from my own experiences so far. The second day I was in Dublin I spent on a tour to Belfast and Giant's Causeway. The weather wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, so we couldn't go to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which I was really wanting to do. That was disappointing, but the tour guide and driver took us to a castle instead, which was interesting to see.

My last day in Dublin I did actually spend in Dublin, since it was St. Patrick's Day. I had met up with Madyson, Ryan, Kevin and Joshua the night before for some drinks and to catch up and we all planned to meet up again to watch the parade together. Unsurprisingly, the crowds prevented that from happening, and I ended up on the opposite side of the street from everyone else - we were able to see each other though, which was funny. The parade itself was exciting to see, although shorter than I expected. Anyway, all of us met up after the parade ended and hung out for a while before the others had to go back to their hotel to get their bags. I got some lunch and a half dozen donuts from stores near my hostel and then headed to the airport myself. The five of us met up again at the airport and made our way back to Bonn together. Overall, spring break was one of the best weeks of my life and it ended on a really high note since I was able to spend time with the others.