Travel Journal - Day 6

    The day I had to leave London. All night it was raining. I'd like to think it was because London was sad to let me go. Finally, real London weather, not hot and humid disaster of the last couple days.
    I had to check-out from my Airbnb by 10 am. I still didn't know if it was possible for me to go to the London Bridge. I didn't wake up early, I would not be able to go there and come back. I thought I would get ready first, pack all my stuff and then I would decide what to do. I absolutely didn't want to miss my plane because I was lost somewhere on my way to the London Bridge. So after I got ready I thought: "It's London, who knows when I'll get a chance to get here again. London Bridge is kind of #mustdo." I googled how to get from the London Bridge to the London City Airport. Made screenshots of it. After that, I googled how to get from where I was to the London Bridge and started walking. Thanks G, you don't need the internet for GPS to work. On my way to London, I actually thought that I would not have any problems with knowing where to go there, I would kind of just feel home. And that's exactly how I felt. I was walking bypassing kindergarten and very cute market and it all felt like home. I got to the London Bridge with no problem. I have to say London Bridge was much more prosaic than I thought it would be, but it has 3 times more space for people to walk than the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. And the view to the Tower of London from there is breathtaking. Everything I thought it would be. Now I had to get to the airport. I saw a very much English man, putting his bag down and just staring towards the Tower of London. Maybe he was on his way to work or maybe he was taking a break from work, maybe he was sad or maybe he was just deeply in his thoughts. It looked exactly like the episode they would show in movies. By the way, when I'm New York I often feel like I am in the movie. In London, I felt more like I'm in the fairy tale. I watched the English men enjoying the view for a couple more minutes before I headed towards him to ask for direction to the subway station. He explained to me how to get to the subway and we wished each other a good day. I got to the airport using the subway in less than half an hour. I knew it was a good day, everything was going smoothly, except I forgot to download the boarding pass and could not connect to wifi. But I had no problem finding the desk and person to print it for me. Security check went smoothly too since I was prepared after last time and had all the liquids in zip locks already. I had plenty of time. I found the nice cafe, bought myself breakfast and coffee, and finally figured out the how to find the valid UK zip code so I can connect to the internet, I used the Airbnb one. I was working on the yesterday post and didn't even notice how 2,5 hours flew by. The gate number showed up right half an hour before the flight. Boarding went smoothly and we took off right when we supposed to. Snacks and drinks were served for free on the plane. If I could compare 2 days like pictures "find 10 differences", it would be very easy to find them. Bravo, British Airlines! You are the best. If you ever have a choice between slightly cheaper Ryanair and a little more expensive British Airline, believe me, choose British one, you will save yourself your nerves and money actually too.
     The rest of the day was decided to use for rest: finishing the post, talking to family, boyfriend, and friends, sleeping. I woke up hungry, went to have the dinner in the hotel bar, which serves actually a really good food. Bogdan was at drinks with coworkers. I came back to finish the post, I was editing it when I noticed something moved. Mouse? No, can't be. In half an hour, she decided to dance around a little bit more. I was freaking out. Texted Bogdan, he said to call reception. I was actually questioning my sanity when this shameless mouse decided to move under my bed. That was it, I called reception, no one picked up. I went downstairs. The receptionist seemed even more scared than I was. She called for 2 guys and we came back upstairs, they checked everything, the mouse was hiding now. She offered to move to a different room. We also got that day for free and a lot of apologizing on top of it.
     So note to myself, never think: "hmm, that was actually a good day and nothing bad happened." 100% guarantee, something bad is going to happen a second later.
     Summarizing my London trip, I would never think I can travel anywhere with one backpack and wear same jeans for 3 days. I left London wanting to come back again soon. So I won't say I can cross this city off the list now because there is so much more I want to see and explore there. It is still my #1. And I hope I will get a chance to come back soon.

Travel Journal - Day 5

    Fitbit is showing 31346 steps, and 11 active hours (always was aiming for 11 hours, but never got more than 8). Feet are burning. It's day 5 and a golden mean of my trip. And I can't collect my thoughts together to write this post. The reason why is the fact that I'm trying to think about everything that happened today and also at the same time how to get a chance to see more before I leave tomorrow.  The number of pictures I took today is enormous, not as high as the amount of step though.
    Where do I start though? Oh well, my airbnb apartment is conveniently located almost in the center of the London, which makes it really easy for me to get to Piccadilly Circle around where I'm actually spending most of my trip. Not sure if I mentioned it yesterday, but if you don't know the trick, subway here is really expensive, like 3 times more expensive than in New York. The trick is some oyster card, that you can buy for 5 pounds and put money on it, and in that case, it will cost you pound something, but if you don't know the trick it will cost you 4,9 best case scenario, depending on the zone. I had no idea about it, and even less idea I had about all the zones. But walking makes you really healthy and saves you money, but also makes you very tired at the end of the day. Make a note about the oyster card. For me, it was not that relevant since I've been told about it today and I'm leaving tomorrow, but this card can save you a lot of money. Also even though yesterday seemed like it happened a long time ago with all the experiences I had today and places that I visited today, I noticed one thing here. You have to pay for everything here. Even for the program at the Broadway show. Really? Maybe I'm too spoiled by New York.

    Anyway, I had 2 tours planned and a meeting with the co-worker from a UK office. I planned everything out. I withdrew the money yesterday for the tip for the free tour, I bought croissant yesterday to have it in the morning for breakfast. The only thing I was missing was coffee. Apparently, it is unusually hot in London this summer. I even thought that I brought the hot weather with me from New York. So it was logical enough that I wanted a cold drink. Imagine my face when the person at Pret A Manger told me: "We don't serve cold drinks" I mean I understand that most of the time it's really cold in London and even subway doesn't have AC, but for iced coffee you literally just need to add ice, it's easier than to build AC in. Forgot to mention missing AC in the subway part in the yesterday post. Anyway, I was not about to have a hot coffee on top of being already hot. I then joined the free tour that was also known as Roal. I can't say I was a big fan of the tour guide, I thought he was kind of rude at times and his jokes were corny, but he did show us all the main historical places and told us some interesting stories. We saw the house where Charles lives. Learned that by the type of the flag which is on, we can recognize if he is home or not. The regular UK flag was on, which meant that Charles was away. When we moved to Buckingham palace we saw a different flag, which meant the Queen was at home. Did you know that there are 775 rooms in the palace? Who on the earth needs that many? We learned the story about how it was built and how was bought from Duke. Also the story about how some crazy homeless guy decided that it was not fair that regular people could not go inside and see around and how he climbed the wall and basically had a conversation with the Queen, and became very famous shortly after that. We saw Big Ben and Trafalgar Square with Nelson on it. The actual name of the tower that we call Big Ben is Queen Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben is the bell inside, but for the convenience and coolness, we just call it Big Ben. Traffic lights at Trafalgar Square are looking pretty unusual after the Gay Pride Festival. "Officials said the seven different same-sex symbols were designed to show Transport for London’s “support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans diversity” in the capital." We saw London Eye and St. James Park with all unusual animals and heard an interesting story about it. Obviously saw Westminster Abbey and the private club that Churchill was a member of. Also saw Churchill's bunker, which was never supposed to be a bunker. We ended up at the place where used to be Scotland Yard (that's right, Sherlock's reference), that's where we had our lunch break and I was trying to figure out what the hell happened with my phone and why I'm not able to use the internet or even call anymore. Yep, not a day without some kind of "event" in my life. So you understand, not having the internet here for me meant that I should have headed home before I got lost. And I have a huge experience in getting lost everywhere. No matter how hard I tried I was not able to fix the phone, renewing the balance and switching sims and other tricks didn't help. But I decided I won't let it ruin my day. I texted my coworker to agree on the location where we were going to meet in advance while I'm still on wifi. Google it, took a screenshot. Googled how to get back to the circle where my next tour was supposed to start and headed out there desperately hoping I'll catch wifi somewhere on my way or my phone will magically fix itself. Magic didn't happen. But I was able to get to the next tour. I would hate myself if I missed it. It was a Harry Potter tour.
     I remember how I got my first Harry Potter book. I didn't know what was all the big fuss about this book, I was just very excited to get it. I didn't read much then and it was a huge deal for my mom if some book got me interested. I actually think that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone" was the first book ever I read like in 2 days. I was reading nonstop. Everywhere I go, every free minute I had, no matter what other stuff I had to do and instead of sleep too. The story of a little boy, who was moved from the very dark world to very magical one. By the time I got my first book, JK Rowling released the 4th one already. I read 4 of them in like a week. So I'm sure you can understand why I couldn't miss the Harry Potter tour. Getting older I started to realize that all the magic aside those books are actually about our life, our history. That Lord Voldemort is clearly Adolf Hitler and the time of terror was the time of the WW 2. All the true blood theory was exactly the same that Hitler had. People in charge who were oblivious to the tyranny coming to the power, were same people who oblivious when Hitler became a leader. Those books were not just kids books. They were so much more. They had real life problems, division into classes of people who are rich and who are poor, people who are more talented and who are just average. I never shared that understanding of those books with anyone. Imagine my surprise when our guide started our tour from exactly the same idea. I enjoyed this tour so much more than the morning one. How important it is when the person truly believes and enjoys what he is doing. He told us different interesting facts like for example: when one of the movies were about to come out, Daniel Radcliff was the main star of the Broadway show and he couldn't attend the premiere which actually was meant to happen at the Trafalgar Square with a red carpet and all the fans invited to it. In order not to let down his fans, he bought all the tickets for that Broadway show for 2 weeks in advance just so he could attend the premiere. Guide showed us streets that Rowling had in mind when she was writing about Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. The very exciting fact was the Ministry of Magic, Rowling wrote about, is actually Ministry of Defense in the Center of London. It was a very interesting tour and I made a note to myself that now when I've seen Harry Potter part of London, I have to reread all the books and rewatch all the movies to compare them to real life places.

     My feet hurt, but it's London and I had limited amount of time, so I went to meet my coworker. Without the internet and phone, it's so not easy to meet someone near the very popular place. But Thank G, there are Starbuckses with free wifi in it. Interesting fact: right next to St. Paul's Cathedral people are casually drinking and smoking and enjoying themselves and each other. Anyway, we met and even though I was tired and Marina was after long work day I asked her if she likes Harry Potter and if she minded to taking me to Kings Cross. I would never forgive myself being in London and not taking pictures of Platform 9 3/4. Marina was not into whole Harry Potter thing, but she was happy to take me there. There was a loooong line. But hey! I got pictures and letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. Now I'm officially a witch. Hahahaha... And then we walked home, that's where over 31K steps came from. The picture with the Red Phone Booth - checked. We also saw The London Bridge from far a way. Marina mentioned it would be on my way to the airport anyway so if I want I can stop by before leaving tomorrow.
    It was a very good day full of new experiences, meeting new people, visiting new places. I'm going to bed happy :)

Travel Journal - Day 4

     I have so much to say, but I'm so exhausted. It's been a loooooong day... But going to power through, since it's important to keep journal up to date and emotions fresh, and believe me I had a lot of emotions today.
     I kind of had some ideas how I'm going to start this post even yesterday. I didn't sleep that well cause I could not stop thinking about this trip and how both excited and scared I am. Well, below I'm going to tell all the versions of how I wanted to start this post.
     It was supposed to be the happiest and the most exciting day of my life. Ever since my English teacher gave us a topic to learn by heart that "...London is the capital of Great Britain..."
I knew that I really want to visit it one day. People usually say: "See Paris and die". Like Paris is so amazing and beautiful that it worth dying for. Paris obviously is on my list, but more like #2. London was always #1.
     If London was a guy, I would say that he and I are in long term relationship. But not a mutual one, unfortunately. Every single time I try to get to him something happens. First, my passport was in too many embassies and it was not ready in time, then the price of tickets was like phone numbers, later I was not able to go because could not leave work, and then my passport was not ready in time again. It is like an ongoing joke, every time I try there is 99% chance it won't work.
    So when Bogdan thew the idea about flying to London from Dublin, I was like "Yes" and then "Maybe". I didn't buy tickets in advance, I didn't book airbnb in advance, I couldn't believe it's actually going to happen, so didn't want to plan and get upset, for which obviously I had to pay a much more expensive price for everything. Before my trip to Ireland I got sick, my mom goes: "You are getting closer to London, here is the result. Maybe it's a sign and you shouldn't go." We both laughed but still when I got to Dublin the first thing we did we booked tickets and airbnb. The same day I booked 3 tours and a Broadway show, I was all ready for the trip. One of the tours was supposed to start in like 3 hours after I land in London.
     Remember I said there were multiple ways I wanted to start today's post. You've already read the positive one about how it was supposed to be the most exciting day ever and how I dreamed about it ever since I was a little girl. Here is another beginning.
     Today is the reason why I'm so scared and why I hate traveling alone. Have you seen the movie with Lindsey Lokhan where she kisses the guy and becomes really and really unlucky, in everything!!! I don't know who I kissed, can't remember anything like that (also very hard for me to skip f words in half of the sentences), but today was what's called "one of these days". Starting with a stupid mobile app. I got up early since I couldn't sleep anyway, got ready. As I mentioned before Uber is not very popular here, so the night before I downloaded the app that called "cab:app". It had a pre-booking option, I scheduled it for 8.15 so that even with traffic I can get to the airport in time for my 11.05 flight. Beep, beep, beep. Those a placeholder for all the cursing that happens in my head when I think about those15 min that spent outside in the wind waiting, just to receive the message "Driver did not confirm your trip" right at 8.15 am. So I did call uber, didn't have much choice. But they didn't have a regular option, just a black car. Just going to omit the price, trying to forget it. But it was almost twice more than I would pay for the regular car. Getting in the car I was trying to calm myself down, that it doesn't mean that it's going to be a bad day. Everything is going to work out from now on. I'm going to London what else can go wrong? hmmm, everything? First Traffic, really bad traffic. Then really unorganized Dublin airport, or at least that part of it, where there is no way you can print your boarding pass, you have to really search for a NICE person to help you. Nice is capitalized for the reason, not many of them are actually nice. Then at the security check, the guy made me take all my cosmetic and hygienic stuff out, cause it's liquid, a phrase "but it's a really tiny amount of liquid" did not convince him. He sent it through the scan again. I was still trying to repeat like a mantra "it's going to be okay, I'm going to have my first brunch in London". Wasn't very smart of me not to eat before the flight, but I was nervous, and in moments like that I become nauseous and can't really make myself eat anything. I got to the gate I was kind of early, so I thought it's a perfect opportunity to catch up with a sleep. My sleep turned into the bad dream with flight changing from being on time to "delayed for an hour". Then they changed the gate. Did I forget to mention, that in this airport gates are like really-really far from each other? Anyway, after everyone moved to the new gate and they lined us up in priority and not a priority, they told us we are delayed even more. So we spent some more time just standing in line. You would think after getting on the plane everything would finally go smoothly. Yeah, right. We spent an hour more just sitting on the plane. Because we were delayed for so long, we missed our queue to leave and now had to wait for the next one. We took off at the time we were supposed to land in London. Flight attendant smiling told us: "Don't worry it's a short flight, we will be in London very soon. " She probably regretted saying it 2 hours later when we were circling around London Gatwick airport not being able to land, cause guess what? We missed the queue here too. Around like 10 times they told us we were landing, but we were still above the clouds and only getting higher, making like 20th circle around London. What else do you think can go wrong? After not being able to land in this airport, they simply decided to send us to the different one. Remember the tour I mentioned I was supposed to have some time in advance before it, well it was supposed to start at 3.30. At 3 we landed, and for 20 more minutes, they didn't let us out of the plane.  Carma? London and I are not meant to be? Remembered mom big time at that momement. I wasn't even unluckiest one on that plane. Yes, I kind of wasted the whole day, because of the stupid plane, and missed the tour. But at least I wasn't missing my connecting flight. Something that happened to me in Costa Rico was happening to the lovely woman, but in my case, it was the end of the vacation, for her, it was the beginning. She was not only missing the connecting plane but also missing the cruise from Palma De Majorca. Not a cheap cruise. And at least half of the people were also missing their planes, which were now in the different airport since we were not supposed to land where we landed. When the flight attendant said: "Thank you for your patience and we hope to see you soon on one of our flights", the crowd became very loud and very angry. Not surprising!
      I had no idea how to get from that airport to my airbnb home, but shuttle bus till subway sounded good. It did, till they asked for 2 pounds for it. WTF  Thought it should be free. Obviously I didn't have pounds yet, I asked about euro, she said she has no change. Can you imagine how pissed I was already at that time? Did I mention that it was already 3.30 and last time I ate was 5.30 yesterday? I took a cab, and if you ask me about the price I'll pretend I don't remember. I was so emotionally exhausted and I couldn't risk getting lost in the subway and missing Broadway show in addition to everything. 1.5 hours later we got to the correct address. And surprisingly I was able to open all the locks easily. The caring host left banana, orange, and 2 apples. Thanks, G, she did. Banana and orange were the only things I had for the whole day till like 10.30 when I came back from the show.
     No more horrible things happened, I easily found the subway and easily got to the ticket box and picked up the ticket. Subways here are mad expensive I have to say, and even though they ran very often they are also not very clean as in New York. I won't go into much details about London itself today since I didn't get to chance to see much of it today. And also I'm very tired. Just kind of pushed myself to write this post. Self-discipline. The only thing I will say: I did see Book of Mormon today. I'm glad I didn't pay a New York price for it, cause it was by far not my favorite one, it would be sad to waste too much money on it. But actors were great and now I can cross it off the list.
    Summarizing, it might be my last solo trip. I don't know if I'm ready to go through this hell by myself every time. I hope tomorrow will be a better day. And I hope London will meet my high expectation and our relationship will become mutual...

Travel Journal - Day 3

Day 3 - still keeping up with writing posts about every day in this trip, which is a really good thing, maybe I'll be able to write more even when I come back from the trip.
After 12 hours of beauty sleep, I figured I can sleep forever and maybe a cup of coffee will help me to continue my adventures.
We were not exactly sure if brunch is a thing here. Why? Well to put it nicely we got really used to living in New York, which is also known as a capital of the world, which is 100 steps ahead of the rest of the world in everything. In yesterday posts I forgot to mention a couple more discoveries in comparison to the New York obviously. The wheel in the car is on the right side and cars are obviously driving on the right side of the road. The plan for the phone is much much and much cheaper than in New York. Bad news is there is no 4G internet here, in general internet here is very and very slow. Almost everything is closed on the weekend or opened till like 6 (what a joke), well actually, during the week closing time is not much different. So going back to brunch, the reason why we were not sure if brunch is the thing here, was that Dublin obviously a few steps behind of New York. But luckily for us brunch does exist here. We ate in the very nice and cozy place called HerbStreet. It had a view on the river and tables outside with a cute blanket along with every chair, which could be used if it's too windy outside. The person who came up with that idea is genius in my personal opinion. The food was delicious. Such a great beginning of the day.
Today we decided to go with 2 things that Dublin and Ireland in general is famous for. Yep, beer and whiskey, Old Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse. People, who know me well, are probably laughing reading that sentence, since I'm not a drinker at all, especially whiskey and beer. Well, skipping ahead, I can honestly say I really enjoyed both tours. (not because of drinking obviously)
As part of the experience and also kind as nostalgic thing, we decided to take a tram to Jameson Distillery. I have to say that rates for the tram here are almost the same as for the transport in New York. Another discovery - signs for everything: cafe, stores, museums, not just street names. So it's kind of impossible to miss distillery, since like 20 signs are leading you towards it.
Not a discovery, but a note to every traveler, if you still have a student id, take it everywhere you go, discount with student id are very popular. I think I saved like 10 euros on tickets by just having my student id which me, also they only checked it in one place out of 3 places we went to today, but to be safe just take it with you.
There are different options for tours, we went with the one that allows us to both get some history and some tasting. The guide was amazing, very knowledgable and funny. He told us about John Jameson and about his moto:"Sine metu" Which translates from latin as "without fear". How because of the revolution and the location of the distillery, it was used as one of the base buildings and workers were not able to work for 2 weeks. But John Jameson paid his employees for every day during those 2 weeks. He told us about how it was not always easy to keep the business profitable, how at some point Jameson had to merge with other whiskey company. Everything that the guide was saying was also accompanied with really cool video. Interesting fact is that employees actually got 2 free drinks at the beginning and the end of every work day. He told us many other interesting facts, but before we moved to the different room he said that now employees interpret the moto a little bit differently: "Fear a little bit less, live a little bit more" Which I though I could actually use as my moto.
Next room told us everything about ingredients and the process of making Jameson, and what makes it so different from the rest of the whiskey in the world. The secret is it goes through distillery 3 times, unlike other whiskeys that go through distillery only twice. It makes Jameson much more smoother than the rest.
Well and the last room was of course tasting. We got to compare Jameson to scotch and to American whiskey (Jack Daniels). Even for me, not a drinker at all, Jameson tasted much smoother than 2 others. And yes, I tried all 3 of them but just a sip and with a glass of water after each. The funny joke the guide made:"This is probably the first times you guys tried Jack Daniels without coke." (most of the crowd were Americans)
The price of the ticket also included one free drink. Bogdan got Jameson with Ginger ale and lemon, I got... Correct! Just Ginger ale :)
Very excited we moved to another alcohol tour location - Guinness Storehouse. Here they actually asked me to show my student ID before giving me tickets.
The fact that they had audio tour we discovered only when we were leaving, but it was still a very interesting experience with talking pictures (analogy with Harry Potter for me for some reason), they were telling the story of the Arthur Guinness and his family and business of course. One of the floors had details of the process of beer making. Turns out that Guinness is made under specific temperature of 232 degrees. Degree more or degree less, it's not the same flavor. And obviously there is a couple floors where you get to exchange your tickets to the couple of glasses of beer of different colors and flavors and eat a pretzel along with it. Yes, hahaha, I just ate a pretzel. There is also the gallery floor and funny floor with moving characters of each Guinness commercial. And the last and the most beautiful one is the floor with obviously a bar and 360 degree view on the Dublin.
While eating pretzel we decided that the next destination is going to be less exciting than previous 2 drinking ones, but more cultural one - St. Patrick's Cathedral. I know, very unexpected.
I have to say I was not surprised that entrance there also costs money. I don't know if that's appropriate but a fact. I don't have much to say about it. The history of it and how it was changing from Catholic Cathedral to Protestant and now it's both, you can read online. But it is very beautiful with all the mosaic. And we did light candles, because it turns out we both believe that it doesn't matter if it's the right church or not, if it's a synagogue or not, the only thing matters if you believe in God or not.
After religious experience we went to have food experience at really amazing and very cheap tapas place called "Las Tapas de Lola". It was very good and very cheap.
And that's all for today. I'm packing my backpack cause tomorrow morning I have a flight to London. I can't believe it's actually happening!!! Talk to you tomorrow, all day is planned and I'll have a lot to tell about.

Travel Journal - Day 2

So day 2 started on the same flight where day one ended, in the same seat in very uncomfortable position and with a strong desire for that flight to be over. Don't judge me, I don't like long flights with the limited amount of space.
I have to admit that my Discovery #1 happened before I even got to leave the airport, and maybe i'm even a little embarrassed to admit the fact, that I'm uneducated enough not to know that Ireland actually has 2 national languages: Irish and English. Well obviously everyone speaks mostly English, but all the signs are in Irish.
Discovery #2 happened right after I got into the cab (taxi as it's called here). Uber here is not a thing. A very nice lady driver explained to me, that as much as Uber tried they were not able to fight against regular taxis, in fact, unlike NYC, in Dublin to become an Uber driver you actually have to have a taxi license which is really not easy to get.
Discovery #3 -  financial district here is also constantly under construction and there is also a nice river right next to it.
It would be not completely true to say I'll be on this trip by myself all the time, and it would be completely unfair because, to be honest, this trip would not happen if it was not for my best friend Bogdan. It just so happens he had to go for a business trip to Dublin for this week. And it was very nice of him to invite me to come along. Obviously most of the time he'll be at work and I'll be by myself, but on the weekend I get to enjoy his company and discover Ireland and it's history and traditions together.
So I'm happy to say (very, very, very happy) that I'm finally actually going to London. (thanks, Bogdan) Everyone, who knows me pretty well, knows that it's been my dream for the longest time. So as soon as I got to the hotel we booked mine 2,5 day trip to London. But there will be more about London when I get there.
Back to Discoveries. Discovery #4 is free tours. It's an actual thing here (and in London). Guides do the tours with a certain topic and route. Obviously, no one in their right mind is not going to work for free, but there is no fixed rate, you leave as much tip as you think your tour worth. Free tours are very popular here. So we joined one of those tours as well. At the certain time, we were under the statue that is also called "needle" (it shaped that way) looking for the guy with the yellow umbrella (that would be the guide). I have to say for the free tours they are very organized, there were 3 guys, 2 English speaking and one guy for the Spanish speaking people. There were so many people that English speaking group had to be divided into 2, 18 people each. Our guide's name was James. I have to tell you that I did not have that much information coming from one person in such an interesting way ever since I graduated high school. He told us about revolutions and wars, and about how people fought for what they believed, and what they got inspired by, about the fact that even in those times there was always place for the true love story. He told us about South and North parts of Dublin and the fact that they are so different, that people from them don't get along that well. He told us about the fact that U 2 is a national treasure, which would explain why all the hotels are booked on the week of their concert. He told us about the visit of the Queen of England, and how for some reason Irish people decided to spend 4 millions dollars to build the "needle", which was a total waste of money. He told us jokes and anecdotes, and many-many other things that if I were to write them all down I would need to write the book. I brought a good weather with me, so it was very sunny and warm to walk around. Discovery #5 - there are so many crazy people here too. New York you are not alone.
Tired but satisfied we came back to the hotel, where we had a very nice dinner at the bar.
So I can safely say that today was a good day. And I'm excited and yes still scared, but can't wait to see what this trip is going to bring. One step at the time...

Travel Journal - Day 1

 I recently discovered that I'm actually terrified of traveling alone. First I thought that maybe it's the whole hassle of packing and going through security and planning the trip, and great unknown of what this trip is going to bring me that makes me nervous. But nope, I'm terrified of the whole idea traveling by myself and not being able to rely on anyone if something happens. Most of the people get excited, I get both excited and scared.  Maybe it's previous bad experience, who knows. You would say it's ridiculous, can't agree more. But that's exactly the reason I keep pushing myself to do it, keep trying to leave my very comfort New York home zone. Again ridiculous right? I feel completely comfortable with the whole megapolis thing.

So this fear makes me sometimes consider the idea of just staying inside and watch TV instead of going and discovering the whole big world. As a weapon against this idea I decided that this time I am going to keep a travel journal, which will make me obligated to write anything about my day every day and obviously post pictures with it (lots of friends asked for it). The necessary condition of the travel journal would be not to have a day when I stayed inside and watched TV. Shopping counts as activity though, since it's one of the ways to discover a new city. This exercise will also let me train my writing skills. may creativity stay with me and let's hope I have more than one sentence in mind to write every day. So let's the journey begin!!!

Не имей сто друзей, а имей сто рублей..

        Все мы давно привыкли, что версия этой поговорки звучит совсем наоборот: «Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей»
        Поговорка якобы намекает нам друзья гораздо более важнее в любой ситуации, чем деньги. Правда? Возможно это было так в 20-ом веке. Век высоких технологий сильно поменял такие понятия как дружба и любовь. Уж не знаю виной тому то,что теперь проще написать или в лучшем случае позвонить, а не встретиться вживую, то ли что нас отделяют друг от друга экраны телефонов или мониторов, но я бы в данном случае выбрала 100 рублей. Дружба нынче не та. В нашем веке дружба – это добавление в фейсбук, фолоу на инстаграмме и твитере, обязательные лайки и комментарии к фотографиям. В таких условиях человек, который сегодня в данную минуту улыбается тебе и рассказывает о том, какие вы замечательные друзья, через минуту обливает тебя грязью за твоей спиной. А ты как ни в чем не бывало ходишь довольный обтекая и с топором в спине. Все больше людей, который считают других людей инструментами, которыми можно попользоваться и отложить, ступенька, которая нужна,чтобы пройти дальше – переступить. Люди теперь делятся на 2 типа: тех которыми пользуются и те которые пользуются. Честно говоря я отношусь к первой категории и это больно и неприятно, но если бы у меня был выбор между этими 2мя категориями, то я бы ничего не изменила. Пользоваться другими людьми – подло и низко, какая бы за этим причина или цель не стояла, и этому нет никакого оправдания. 8 часов в день, 5 дней в неделю мой менеджер повторял как попугай: « Никому не доверяй! Никому» Возможно он прав!

        Пишу это все и как по знамению на фоне реклама:
«Друг тот, кто прошел проверку расстоянием и временем, друг тот, кто придет на помощь в любой момент, друг тот, кому можно доверить самое дорогое, друг тот, кто никогда не подведет. Время меняет все, но оно не изменит настоящую дружбу.»
        Я бы не сказала лучше. Все остальное мишура. Все остальные учителя, с тяжелыми и болезненными жизненными уроками... Ну что ж, спасибо вам за очередной урок, будем надеяться в следующий раз я буду умнее...