Dublin for a Day and The Journey's End

Well, we have been home for almost a week and I am almost over jet lag, so that's good!

But before I get to deep into the groove of normal life I need to write down our last day of adventuring.
We arrived in Dublin around 8am and caught the first bus to the city center. We only had one thing on our "to do" list, which was Trinity College. In hind sight I regret not having a set plan for more things, but more on that later.
We took the tour of the old part of campus, which was led by one of the students. Our guide was great, giving us lots of fun and interesting history about the school. The campus is really lovely, I could happily loiter around there all day.

Our tour ended at the line for the Book of Kells exhibit, which was quite convenient. The exhibit was really neat, it lead you through the history and techniques that went into the book. In the final room you are able to view two pages each from two of the four books. I really can't imagine the care and man hours that went into this amazing book, which is really a piece of ancient art. (this is not my picture because pictures aren't allowed, but just so you get what I am talking about...)

After the Book of Kells exhibit you enter the old library- or in other words, my favorite room on the planet.

It is the largest one room library, with more than 200,000 books in one long hall.

The books are organized not by subject or author, but by size, which I am sure makes finding the book you want super duper easy, haha.

This room is just awesome, floor to ceiling books, some dating back to the 1400's, and it smells like old books- what could be better than that?!

The library also houses one of the oldest Brian Boru's Harps in Ireland.

I wanted to set up a tent in the middle and live in the library, but apparently they frown on that. Oh well, at least I have pictures!

After the library we went out and were able to catch a game of cricket going on. We still don't understand it, but it was fun to watch :)

As we left the college we headed out and started wondering the city. This is where I regret not having more of a plan- after 3 weeks of traveling and knowing we were going home the next day, we had mentally checked out a little bit. Not to say we didn't have a great time, we did! But I think we could have gotten more out of our time if we had planned more- or maybe I just like having a plan, lol.
Dublin was fun and vibrant and different than the other cities we had been to.

Proof that I drive the best car ever, they even have them in Ireland!

 We ate dinner at a great little pub called the Celt. What fun! It was incredibly loud, jam packed with people from ages 20 to 80+ , and bursting at the seams with activity. We loved it. (PS I stole this pic off the internet too...)

After eating we caught a bus back to our hotel and called it a night, it wasn't that late but we were SO dead tiered. Traveling is hard work, ha ha.
The next morning we walked to the airport, I got stopped at US pre-clearance ( not sure why, guess I look suspicious) and we got on our plane for the States. We payed to much money for food in San Fansisco and after arriving in Salt Lake, we drove home to Idaho slightly delirious. We worked it out that we were awake something like 29 hours that day.

And that was it! It felt strange to be home in a way, seeing how everything here was just the same as we had left it, yet it felt like we had changed so much. My amazing parents had driven up with our kids the same day we flew home, so they were already there when we got in. I was SO happy to see them again! I loved everything about our trip, but I don't think I ever want to be away from my kids that long again.

I am so glad we took this trip, this adventure. It was something I had dreamed of doing since I was a young teen, and actually going was incredible. Right before we left I had this fear that I had built it up to much in my head, that when we got there I wouldn't be as in love with it as I had imagined, that it wouldn't be as great as I thought- but my worries were in vain, It was better than I could have ever hoped for.
So here are my parting words of advise (because I am so wise now, ha ha)-
Go places- it doesn't have to be far, just go somewhere new, see something you want to see, enjoy this great planet we live on.
Try things- there are a lot of things I thought I didn't like or that would stress me out, and that I ended up really enjoying. You never know till you try.
Meet People- The places and things we saw were incredible, but it was the people along the way that made our trip vibrant and memorable. The more you learn about other people, the more you learn about yourself (wow, that was deep right?)
Don't loose it when things go South- Not everything went perfect on this trip. We got lost, we got hungry, we got confused and stressed. But who cares? Those things were hard at the time, but we made it through just fine and dandy, and we all know that when things go wrong, it makes a great story later :)
Soak it up- We did a few things wrong on this trip, but I feel like we got one thing really right; we gave ourselves time. Frankly, there is no way to see it all. You can't. we could have spent 3 weeks in London alone and not seen half of it. So find the things that are really important to you and then give yourself plenty of time to enjoy them. There is no point in running from place to place with a selfie stick if you don't remember those places when you get home.
Spend your money on experiences, not stuff- We only brought one small carry-on sized bag each- I could write a whole post on how much I recommend this, but I won't. That being said, small bags don't leave much room for souvenirs, bummer? Not really. We each got a small item or two to take home, but for the most part our souvenirs are our memories.

And we have  A Lot of great memories.

Well my friends, that is the end! That was our big adventure. It was everything I hoped it would be and  SO SO much more.

  Now, I hope to see blogs from all of you in the future so I can read about all the places you go! Go have an adventure, it'll be grand!