English Countryside, Blackpool, and Dublin

Today was quite the funny day. We started out the day by driving through the beautiful English countryside. It is so pretty and green. We got stuck on a detour which is no surprise at all with our track record and we ended up on this road that was literally so small it looked like it was meant for a bicycle. So after a momentary freak out that we were on a road not meant for motor vehicles we made our way through the rural countryside. We stopped and took some pretty breathtaking pictures and then came across some cows that literally looked out of a movie. This is saying a lot because normally I hate cows and am convinced that they are going to attack me because they always look at me funny! Haha! But these ones were so perfect, its hard to explain but they were plump and shiny and perfectly black and white. And because we were in the middle of nowhere we pulled off the side of the road right by them and took a picture with them! From there we went to a town called Lancaster which didn’t have much that exciting except for a pretty big castle. We drove over to the castle and noticed some funny fencing but didn’t know why it was there. I then read in my book about the castle and found out it is a working prison, what a good place to have a prison, those castle walls were so high and so thick! While we were driving and listening to the British radio which is super funny because the broadcasters are HILARIOUS, we heard the song Mmmbop by Hanson, I seriously haven’t heard that song since like 6th grade!!! Their radio stations are so random, one minute they are playing Kanye or Katy Perry, the next minute they are playing some weird ass house music by a British artist, and then next minute they are playing something like Wam or the Beatles! It makes for fun listening while we are frolicking around! Once we got to Blackpool where we were flying out we had 4 hours to kill. Our hopes were shattered regarding the hopes that Blackpool would be fun to venture around in when we saw rollercoasters, hot dog stands, and cotton candy, it’s a gosh darn carnival city and I was pretty sure at any minute I would see a clown or someone dressed up as Mickey Mouse. Disheartened we decided to go to the airport and see if there were any earlier flights, no such luck, so what do you do when you have 4 hours to kill and a lameo city, drink beer of course! We sat at the hotel restaurant next to the airport and had a bowl of soup and a pint of Stella! Well if anyone knows my mom you know that she gets drunk after just looking at beer so god knows she was wasted after a pint. So I had a drunk mother, 4 hours to kill, no internet, all our luggage with us, and a crazy random city. Once we went to the airport (still super early but hoping a change of scenery might make time go by quicker) we went to check in and check our bags, what a shit show let me tell you! We were so excited when we purchased the tickets because it was only like 60 dollars each way, well that was until we found out that we had to pay extra for every kilo our bags were over the limit. Well you know my mom and I and there is no way we packed within the limits, but we didn’t realize how much we were over!!! It was a darn joke and im not even gonna tell you how much we had to pay! So then we went to pay for the overage and they tried and tried to run my moms card only to tell us that it wont take it because its an American card, what the heck isn’t this Britain and shouldn’t they be able to take cards from other countries!!! So then we get that taken care of and find out we now have to pay to LEAVE the airport, as in fly away! There was some stupid “airport development” fee that was 10 pounds each which equates to about 18 dollars each!!!! What a joke. So we head to security figuring were gonna have to pay to freaking walk through the metal detectors and of course moms bag gets flagged and they want to go through it. Knowing mom has a dingy brain sometimes ( as she says “its menopause I swear”) Im thinking oh great what the heck did she leave in there!!!!! So after we go through the metal detector this evil grandma lady literally dissects my moms bag, and this is no small carry on, it’s a damn mary poppins bag that could probably hold a small child! After wondering what this crazy lady was looking for she pulls out these TINY TINY scissors that aren’t even pointy at the end, I mean literally they were smaller than my pinky finger. At that point mom got cranky and told the lady “those are allowed I know it, I go through Heathrow on a weekly basis and I know those are fine”. While evil grandma lady goes to ask her superior im sitting there thinking oh great mom went all cruella deville on that lady and now were gonna get our butts kicked out of this god forsaken airport!!! Well thank goodness that didn’t happen and mom was right, her scissors were legal, so we grabbed all her stuff and stuffed it back in to the mary poppins bag and made our way to the gate exhausted from the experience and laughing at what a joke this airport has been. And then we got on the plane….well its already a small plane so of course were like a bull in a china shop with our ginormous carry on luggage but we make it in to our seats without hitting too many people. As I sit in to my seat, I literally recline halfway back. Now I didn’t press the recline, it just did it on its own and would not stay straight up, so I was basically in the poor mans lap behind me! After apologizing for my stupid seat I realize that where the tray tables are supposed to be, there is just the outside of them but no tray, wow what kind of airline is this!!! PLEASE LET US GET OFF THE GROUND AND TO IRELAND SAFELY!! Well we made it safely so that’s good and we were happy to get off that plane and get in to the city. Once we got in to Dublin we checked in to our hotel and made our way down to walk around the city. It’s a great city and the people are just great! Their accents are hilarious and they are such friendly folks! After dinner we went to the pub at our hotel. We had some delicious Irish beer called Kilkenny and listened to some great live Irish music! The band was wonderfu and the lead singer was hilarious. We met some nice people and had a great evening. When we got to our room it was sooo hot!! Hoping it would cool down and getting a fan we attempted to go to sleep. Well I was frighteningly awakened at around 3am to my mother calling reception saying “this room is like 90 degrees, I have never stayed in a hotel room this hot in my whole life!!” REALLY MOM, what are you planning on doing at 3am!!!! Hahaha! So that was our day, tomorrow we are off to tour the city and go to the Guiness Storehouse! WAHOO!!!