sunrise in london

I watched the sun rise in London this morning. Yes folks. And not in the "got up early to do so" way. I had, in fact, not yet felt the warmth of my lovely hotel bed as the sun peaked its face over the horizon. I can not party like Londoners. It is too hard.

BUT backing up... Yesterday was spent walking around Temple Bar(the historic/ hopping district of Dublin.) As we walked along to Liffey (the river that runs through the heart of Dublin) I distinctly smelled beef jerky. This was not because there was beef jerky anywhere in the general vicinity. Oh no. My deductive reasoning skills concluded after a few moments that the smell was coming from the river. The smell was comforting, in a homey-makes-you-want-to-gag kind of way.

We got horrifically lost on the way back to the car... it was a race against time and the Dublin police force as our car was likely to be towed or booted if we did not make it back before the clock struck 3. Very dramatic.

But as I said, horrifically lost. We asked directions... a few times. The first time a lovely man on a bicycle told us to go to the 'op o' da s'reet n 'urn lef'. Got that? Yah, neither did we. Luckily,I finally figured out what he said. Unluckily, it was about a mile after where we were supposed to turn. Luckily, we had a map. Unluckily, my sister confused St. Patrick's for Christ Cathedral and we started walking towards the wrong giant stone structure. To be fair though, who would have thought that the biggest cathedral in town would be St. Patrick's (The Patron Saint of Ireland) when you were in the capital city... oh wait.

Anyway we finally made it back to Parliament Street where we had parked in the nick of time.

Note to Self: Look up the Prime Minister of Ireland so not to embarrass yourself even more by talking about "their queen". Stupid, stupid Jule.

Googling.... googling... googling.

And...

OK. There is a President and a Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland. Oh... and the President is a lady. HUZZAH! Now I will no longer embarrass myself whilst in Ireland. Thanks Google!!!

So finally, after all that excitement, got on the plane to London, checked into the hotel, then was manhandled into going out to a club with my sister.

Fun Fact: Men from London do not understand what " No" means, in a way that puts American men to shame. Also, if you say "No, Thank you." you might as well of said "Yes!"

So through out the night I was subsequently Russian, married and got really good at sneaking away. I don't think I can count how many times I said "Sorry, do not speak English" and quickly walked away and how many times that did not stop these men from their incessant need to tell me ALL about themselves.

Finally, the club closed, I enjoyed Chips & Cheese (YUM!) and next thing I knew...

I got up 4 short hours later and we spent the day touring Hampton Court. I got separated from the family and spent most of that time alone. Watched a joust with some horrible acting, contemplated demanding they let me play Anne Boleyn since the woman they had got knew NOTHING about her, and watched some reasonably decent sword fighting. After walking through the castle twice I just sat down and people watched until, by a stroke of luck, my family walked right by me. Lost them again while wandering through the rose garden, wondered how people survived before cell phones and realized that the last 4 day (of me being totally cell phone less) have been incredible drama free and relaxing... coincidence?

I am tired. I wish I was more clever today. I apologize.