Whelp, I made it to Dublin! I do have to say it was quite an adventure which did not start as blissfully as I would have liked, but I'm here! In my flight from O'hare to Heathrow, I had the joy of sharing my row with a 4 year old, her mom and her 4 WEEK OLD sister - they were on the way to a family vacation in Maldives; someone please explain to me what part of a person thinks they should take a 4 week old child halfway around the world?? Needless to say I did not sleep a wink so I am running on fumes now.
Once I finally arrived in London, I managed to leave my sweatshirt on the plane (go figure!), which was not conducive to the 60's fog that was happening outside but I trooped through it, mainly to get out of the airport for a portion of the 10 hour layover. Bought myself a one day pass on the tube and headed out to Westminster. It's pretty cool to get off at that stop because right as you step out of the tube station you see parliament and the London Eye( which after the Chicago Farris wheel I had NO urge to ride!).
Right across the street from parliament is Big Ben, which I did not realize was , well, SO BIG! I had no clue the ammount of stucture that is attached to it, I thought it was jsut a big clock.
As you walk about a block further you get to Westminster Abby, which is gan absoutly gorgeous church, I couldnt even immagine attempting to walk down an isle without biffing it in this place - it is HUGE!
Now, here is where it gets interesting... It is Sunday in London, actually let me be more specific: it's Sunday morning at about 930 as I'm walking around Westminster. Allof the buildings including Parlament, Big Ben and Westminster Abby are closed so it's only pictures from the outside, which after my long flight I'm ok with. Then I see a group of people heading into a pretty building, which I thought was the Westminster Abby museum, so I figured hey why not, right? Well it turns out they were heading to Sunday service, at that point I had a tough choice, as the deacon ( I think thats what he was, a man in a red cloak???) is staring me down saying not a time for pictures we are here for worship, I felt like I would be outcast even further if I walked a way so I went for it. In retrospect it was rather cool, and I guess if your first church service has to be anywhere Westminster is a pretty cool place. It only lasted an hour, and I no longer have to go to the gym with all the standing, sitting, sinning, and kneeling I did in that hour. The Westminster youth boys choir rocked, and the sermon was actually interesting. They said no cameras but I felt I needed proof I was there so I did sneak one bad picture!
After church, before heading back to the airport I spoiled myself with the most amazing pancake ever! A street cart was making all different pancakes so I told him to make me his favorite, I ended up with a really think large pancake smothered in Nutella with banana slices, SO GOOD. I got a huge kick out of how "tourist" (aka, stupid american) friendly the streets were - apparently a few Yanks have gotten taken out by cars...
Easy 40 min flight to Dublin, now I am currently at a hotel by the airport trying to keep my eyes open. Tomorrow is Abu Dhabi (worlds richest city) then FINALLY Cape Town!!!! Time to mow down on the Beef & Guniess Casserole – strips of beef, slow cooked in Guniess with veggies and herbs and champ potatoes!) and one really strong Heineken!
