MEMORY MONDAY: Europe, May 2008

This year I got the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Europe with one of my bestest friends and the significant other on my airline benefits, Jen! I work for JetBlue Airways and we started a partnership with Aer Lingus. They offered us deals to fly to Ireland for $50 RT. Jen and I jumped at that chance! We would be DUMB not to! So off we went to Ireland! We found a deal to fly to London for $100 as well and figured we would be dumb not to do that too... so we did both!

I don't know how many of you have flown JetBlue but one of our selling factors is how roomie our seats are, we didn't have quite that experience on this flight. By the time that we landed in Shannon, IRELAND our feet were SWOLLEN huge, it hurt to even walk. But for the miserableness of that flt, it was worth it for the price for sure!

We stayed a couple days in Shannon and traveled to Galway and to The Cliffs of Mohr (The cliffs of insanity on Princess Bride) the scenery is BREATH TAKING! We rented a car for this segment and I will tell you what the roads there are so SCARY! They are narrow.. barely enough room for one car and semi's pass you going seriously 80 MPH. Jen was definately scared of me.... so funny! But, might I add, how many of you have driven a car where the wheel is on the right side and shifter on the left? It is hard to re-train your mind, instantly and also with the narrow roads to add to it! I think I did amazing, considering the circumstances!
Jen, would beg to differ :)
These are shots of what the country side in Shannon/Gallway area look like. There are stone hedges lining the road and green, green, green! Oh I am in love with this part of Ireland!



Now, on to London oh what an adventure!! We started out of first day with a train switching nightmare! We were getting off the train to connect to the next train and I was getting my luggage and it started spilling over. Jen had gotten off the train and all of the sudden, the doors shut and I was shipping off and Jen was staying. Literally one of the saddest, scariest moments of my life.


Luckily I had been to NYC and London is just like it, so I knew that I just needed to get on the next train on the opposite side of the tracks to get back to Jen. I was onry when I get back to her... but I did laugh about it later. By the time we arrived to our hostel we had both had it!Nothing could keep us from laughing our head off however, when we got to our door and saw that our room is called the "madhouse".If this doesn't say it all, it sure should hahha it was a pretty hysterical experience. Atleast we got to enjoy the pretty scenery on our 2 mile walk back and forth each day!

The first night Jen treated me to Hairspray the musical on London Broadway. What a fun production!It is so fun to be in a foreign place and see the world out of a totally different prospective. I will have to say that I LOVED everything about Europe minus the food. The food is bland and non-yummy! And on top of that, EXPENSIVE! hahaha You know me and my like for good food!

I think there is a tear in my eye of gladness!

So I definately welcomed the day that we spotted the Hard Rock... REAL FOOD!! You can only eat so much McDonalds. I will have to admit however, that when you don't have much choices for good tasting food, a quarter pounder at McDonalds sounds like Chicken Cordon Bleu!

We toured London on a double decker bus for two days! I loved it! Even though there was little bits of rain we trooped it out and enjoyed ourselves! This is our friend Kevin, everyday Kevin let us in at our train stop since we didn't buy the right train pass. (he saved us a FORTUNE!) He loved Jen, I could tell he had a thing for her.This is definatley one of the AWESOME experiences of my lifetime thus far! We got to attend evensong at Westminster Abby! I have NEVER heard something more beautiful and angelic in my ENTIRE life. The accustics in that building and the gorgeous sites around you, BREATH TAKING! Definately the highlight for me. Look at us sporting the EUROPE look.. Jen got me totally in style.. Thanks H&M These are pictures of St. Patrick Cathedral in Dublin. This is my friend Mindy from JetBlue. She met us when we arrived back in Ireland. We stayed in Dublin at the awesomest Marriott hotel!Classic Views of Ireland. We also took the double decker bus tour here. No more rental cars in Europe for us!

Dublin was a fun, touristy city. I still like Shannon/Gallway area better! All in all, it was a lovely, lifetime dream fulfilled, pleasant, adventurous and best time with my sweet Jen! These are days never to be forgotten!

And.. on the flight home it was awesome! We got the middle section of the plane all to ourselves, lots of leg room and the food rocked! Couldn't have ended better!


Jen, thank you for all the sacrifices you made for this trip! It was absolutely phenomonal!