Irish Adventure Part 1: P.S. I Love Dublin!

I am here!!!! I'm alive!!! I know that I have been MIA for the past couple weeks but my life has been JAM-PACKED! I'll start off this blog with the first half of my Spring Break in Ireland....DUBLIN!!! I was so blessed to be a part of this trip with some wonderful girls!

Day 1: We woke up really early to get on a bus from Granada to Malaga! We had a flight from Malaga to Dublin at noon so we needed to take an early bus. It was a long morning and when we finally got to Dublin we had to take one more bus to our hostel! The hostel we stayed at was AWESOME! We stayed at the Globetrotters Hostel in Dublin which is an amazing place to stay if you are traveling to Dublin. The staff was TOP-NOTCH and very helpful! If you want to check it out their site is right here. The first night we went to a delicious restaurant called Bobo's that had delicious burgers and then we went on a small night-tour of the city of Dublin. One of the girls on our trip had a friend in Dublin who is studying abroad who gave us a tour of the city which was awesome because she knew all about the town which is BEAUTIFUL! The next day we started our day off early and it was SNOWING!! It was awesome! I hadn't seen snow since my freshman year at college so I was pumped. I think the expression on my face says it all!

I was so COLD. It was great! The hat I'm wearing was a gift that a really fun and sweet German guy gave to me there in the hostel. He and his friend were two other guests in our hostel room and them and the rest of my group had so much fun together! But I will talk about our new friends in my post about Galway! For now, check out some pictures of beautiful Dublin!

SNOW!!!!

We had so much fun walking around the city and shopping and seeing all the cool sights in town!! One of the coolest things about our day though was the Guinness Storehouse!  Now if you know me, you know that I am not a drinker. While there are many reasons why I choose not to drink, one of the main reasons is the taste is not my favorite. I'd rather have a cold, crisp Diet Coke any day of the week! But the fact that this company was started in Dublin was so interesting and vital to the history of Dublin. You may not believe me, but the museum was actually my favorite part of my time in Dublin. Take a look at some of the pictures from the storehouse!

If you look closely you will see a face in the "U"..not sure why!

Me with my good friends Samy and Victoria!

A giant pit of barley!

There was an exhibit on how barrels are made! Super interesting!

A quick sample of Guinness!

Some of the old machinery!

The Obama's tasting their Guinness'!

The museum was HUGE and walked you through how beer is brewed! My father brews his own beer so the smell was something that I was used to (but don't enjoy), but it was interesting to see the many steps that go into one little pint of beer! I know I made my dad proud there at the brewery! :) I actually also learned how to pour "The Perfect Pint"! Don't believe me?! I got a certificate that proves it!!!

Me pouring my first pint!

My dutiful teacher (from Michigan) in the back!

After two minutes, I topped it off!

My certificate!!!!!!!!!

My first sip of my "perfect pint"

Yeahhhh...not my cup of tea...

This one was for my Daddy! :)

So that was a fun adventure in Dublin!!! Even if you aren't a big drinker like myself, if you find yourself in Dublin, I highly recommend seeing the Guinness Storehouse! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I bought A TON of souvenirs in Ireland because when will I ever be in Dublin again?!!?! Also, while touristy things were a tad pricy, clothes were so cheap! I confess....I was weak and went shopping but it was money well spent in my opinion! Later that night us girls went out on the town to check out the night-life! We saw a really cool bar where the movie P.S. I Love You with Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank! We went inside to check it out but left after taking pictures!

Here's the scene from the bar in the movie P.S. I Love You!! It is such a good movie if you ever get the chance to see it!!!!!

After that we went to a few other spots and then turned in for the night because we had to pack and then wake up early for the second half of our Irish adventure!!! I'll post that one soon! Stay tuned!!!
God Bless!
Mackenzy

Algeciras, Bolonia, Tarifa

My host family is literally THE BEST. I have been so blessed to be completely welcomed into this family; both Lizzy and I absolutely ADORE them. Let me give you a little run-down on my family here. In Granada, Lizzy and I live with our host mom Amparo (or Mama Dos which is mama two) and her daughter from a previous marriage, Ana, who is 19 years old! They are wonderful, through and through. My host mom Amparo is married to an adorable man named Pedro who lives in Algeciras, Spain, about 3 hours away. Amparo and Pedro try to see each other as many weekends as they can but since Spain is in a "job crisis", neither of them could give up their jobs to move since they have great ones. Pedro has two sons, Alonso (19) and Alvaro (18). These boys are so sweet and kind and such fun brothers to have!! The picture above is one weekend when both Alvaro and Alonso spent the weekend here with Pedro. We all snuggled in the morning and it was awesome! I have always wanted little brothers and Ana is such a great new sister to have as well! So my family is basically awesome!

So one weekend, rather than the guys coming to Granada for the weekend, we all went to Algeciras! It was such a  blast!!! We started the weekend off visiting Amparo's sister, Tana, and going on a walk around town there and going out to eat with the family. It was fun getting to know more people in the family and having fun around the town! Algeciras is a really cute little town right on the Mediterranean ocean; it has a big harbor and you can see Gibraltar right from the sidewalk near the water! It was really cool!

The next day Pedro took Amparo, Alonso, Lizzy, and I to Tarifa, a beach town, and Bolonia, an old Roman ruins site! It was SO WINDY...like so windy that now I now how Dorothy from Oz felt like in the tornado! Check out some of the pictures from that adventure!

This is the port in Tarifa...notice that land mass in the distance? That's Africa!! I've never been able to see a different continent before!!!!!

Look at the tree..that's how windy it was!

A small Roman theater

My brother, Alonso, and Lizzy!

The salt basins where the Romans would soak food in salt for eating!

After we visited the ruins, we went to Tia Tana (our aunt) and Tio Mauri's (our uncle) house on the beach! Its a small house that is right on the beach in Tarifa..it was still SUPER DUPER windy so we only got to walk on the beach for a little bit because the sand on the beach felt like bullets hitting our face. What is so cool about Tarifa is its on the Atlantic ocean...not the Mediterranean! Where these two towns are located are in the province of Cadiz, but they are on the point...so one one side is the Med and the other is the Atlantic!

I colored Algeciras with a red dot and Tarifa with the lime green so you can see the point they are located on!

But definitely the highlight of hanging out at the beach house was the food....PAELLA. Paella is very typical of Spain and it is SO AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. Our Tia Tana was hard at work when we got to the beach house, cooking up a massive amount of the goods...take a look at it!

Tia Tana and my host mom Amparo is in the pink!

Lizzy after paella!

Yah...we basically INHALED it...SO GOOD

After we ate, we all had a small siesta! We needed one to let all that paella soak in our systems! We hung out around the beach house and cleaned up and headed back to Pedro's house afterwards. Once back at Pedro's we played games with our brothers, watched a movie, and just vegged out. It was a rainy, windy day so we couldn't do much outside. Plus, we were all exhausted from the crazy wind in Tarifa...it wore us out!

The next morning (Sunday), Pedro took Amparo, Alvaro, Lizzy and me to a local walking path right on the water's edge! It was still kinda an ucky-ducky day but we made the most of it! Plus we just had fun hanging out with our "padres" (parents) and our "hermanito" (little brother)!

Me, Lizzy, and Alvaro!

Aren't we precious!?

Flying siblings!!!

The three of us with our "padre" Pedro!!!

These flowers reminded me of Indian Paintbrushes from back home in TX!

I had so much fun that weekend...but finally we had to head back home to Granada! It was so much fun seeing meeting new family and hanging out with Pedro and the boys! Plus Amparo was so happy to see her hubby..look how precious they are together!!

I am so blessed to be a part of this family and that they want Lizzy and I to be so much a part of their lives and meet all of the rest of the family!! They are truly wonderful and I wouldn't want to be with anyone else! So I'll leave you with this quote that I found the other day that I thought fit our family perfectly..."The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you." - Kendall Hailey
Talk to y'all soon!!!
Mackenzy