A Beautiful Day in Bray

Steph and I decided to let ourselves sleep in this morning. I slept for a good 10 hours, it was wonderful and much needed. All of the overwhelmingness of this whole trip has made me quite tired.

I started walking to Steph's at around 1, which is about a 20 minute walk. Someone stopped me to ask for directions to somewhere, I think once she heard my accent she quickly realized she had asked the wrong girl. I couldn't even understand what she was saying, so that was a flop for her. We then walked together to the Dart, which is about another 15 minutes. So much walking all the time! It was supposed to rain today, but instead it was the most beautiful day so far. Here are some pictures of the Dart we take, plus a few of the view from the Dart station.

We made our way to Bray which is a small town with lots of different shops. We browsed and commented on how things are so much more expensive here! Thankfully we found a store called Dunnes Stores that sells some crazily cheap stuff. We each bought hoodies for 7 Euro (about $10), because we are both tired of wearing the same jackets each and every day (that darn 50 pound luggage limit really got us good)! Diane keeps telling me I should buy some cheap slippers, but the only ones I could find said something about being a "wonderful mum." Steve said he's sure I will be someday, but not quite yet:) So I settled from some cheap high socks to keep myself warm for now.

This was obviously our favorite store of the day, a school supply store!

A church? Nope! It's a McDonalds. I wish McDonalds were this intriguing in America!

Don't let them fool you! A double cheeseburger is 2 Euro here (about $3). For those of you who aren't aware, the double cheeseburger is on the dollar menu in America's McDonalds!

Wouldn't you like to stay in a Best Western that look like this and had cool cars like this?

After we browsed the shops we walked down to the sea side. The view was breathtaking, my pictures barely show half of the beauty. You should all come see for yourselves:)

The rocks on the beach are even pretty!

There is a cross on the top of that hill, if you look close you can see. Steph and I want to go up there sometime.

Our legs were rather tired by this time, so we took the Dart home. On the walk back, some young teens stopped us and asked me a question. One kid said "Could you shop for us?" I of course was quite confused and had no idea what he was asking. We finally came to realize that they were asking us to buy alcohol for them because they were younger than 18 (the drinking age here is 18). No thanks buddy, I'd rather not go to jail in Ireland on my 6th day here. I will admit though that I was at first a bit flattered that someone ACTUALLY guessed that I really was 21 or older since many people mistake me for 16, but then I remembered that you only have to be 18 and I wasn't quite as excited. A few minutes later we were asked for directions again. It's nice to know that Steph and I aren't the only ones who get lost around here.

I stopped at Steph's for a few minutes just to relax my legs before I headed home. As I was leaving to walk back John stopped me and said he was going to the Middleton's to watch the Ireland vs. Scotland rugby game so he'd give me a "lift" (it is inappropriate to say "give me a ride" here). Once we got to the Middleton's we realized that Steve had actually gone to their house to watch it (there was apparently a bit of miscommunication there). So John and I rode back to the Lambert's to watch the game.

Rugby is so interesting! Steve and John were explaining all the different rules to us. The clock actually starts at zero and goes up to 40 minutes, instead of starting high and running down to zero like we do. Rugby is intense! There are bloody, sweaty men running, jumping, sliding, and flying all over each other. It does not look pleasant. When they do their "scrum" (the part where all the 250lb. men ram their shoulders into one another) they often lose their shorts. At one point in time Steve said, "It looks like a full moon tonight!" Unfortunately Ireland lost. The best part is that there are barely any commercials! I kept finding myself wanting to ask questions, but I would decide to wait for the commercials first so as not to bother them. When the commercials never came I was surprised. John mentioned that when they visit the states they do get quite frustrated with how many commercials we have. They found it ridiculous that many people watch the Superbowl just for the advertisements! Now we are watching England vs. France. Sadly it appears as if England will lose. We are rooting for England because that's where Steve is originally.

Now Steve and I are watching some Casino Royale. Not sure what the plan for tomorrow is, but hopefully Hayley will be free so we can hang out a bit!