After nearly a week in this part of the world, you'd think we'd know which way to look for cars, but that wasn't the case. Well, Mark and Keira seemed to get a hang of it, but I continued to struggle. Turns out having drivers on the "other side of the road" confused my brain more than I care to admit. Good thing the crosswalks and pedestrian signals were plentiful and motorists were very conscientious of yielding to pedestrians. It was quite nice. One of the small amusements we experienced were the pedestrian crossings in Dublin. The sound is like something out of a video game. I found a You Tube video that demonstrates this. Pay attention when the light turns green to allow for crossing: Dublin Crossing Signal.
Our third day in Dublin was a partial day as we were scheduled on a flight to Heathrow that evening. We checked our bag with the front desk and walked to the hop-on-hop-off bus stop only to learn that our bus pass was good for only one day. We had already used it the day before. We could've upgrade for 4 Euro, but had already thrown away our receipt so were unable to do that. Deflated and frustrated, we hailed a taxi and made our way to Phoenix Park and the Dublin Zoo. Fun facts: Phoenix Park is twice the size of Central Park. Its name has nothing to do with a "phoenix rising from the ashes" or anything like that. The name came from a mispronunciation of its original Irish name which I can't remember. It was beautiful green space and also happens to house the Dublin Zoo. We used our Dublin Pass and breezed through the entrance.
The Dublin Zoo is beautiful. It might be smaller than the MN Zoo where we frequently visit as members, but the Dublin Zoo is beautifully laid out with animals we aren't able to see at home. Keira said it was one of her favorite spots.
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| Keira's pet zebra |
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| One of the beautiful paths in the zoo |
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| This peacock scared the daylights out of me when it came out of nowhere! |
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| Dublin Zoo is trying to help preserve Gorillas (we did see live ones too) |
After the zoo, we cabbed it back to the hotel to grab our bags and were on our way to Heathrow. First we explored the Dublin airport and Keira found candy heaven. She may have gotten a few treats for our short flight.
We arrived to Heathrow airport around 6:30. We would be staying in the Richmond area right outside of London. One of our friends hooked us up with her friend who owns a flat. Thanks to his perfect directions, we were able to navigate our way out of the airport, onto the tube using our Oyster cards and then onto a bus where we were dropped off a block away from the flat. Easy peasy. But, it was a long day and we were ready for dinner and bed.
Luckily, there was a Pizza Hut just down the street. We placed an order, walked to a nearby market to pick up some beverages and snacks, doubled back to Pizza Hut, picked up our food and headed back to the flat. We enjoyed our dinner (though it turned out our eyes were bigger than our stomachs as we had lots of leftovers) while watching Guardians of the Galaxy on Netflix. After dinner, it was time to turn in. It was close to 10:00pm by then.
To our dismay, as we were getting ready for bed, we realized there were spiders on the ceiling. Keira and I were sharing a room because Keira was too scared to sleep by herself in a strange place. There were none in Mark's room, just ours. They were tiny little spiders, but there were many of them. Gah! Mark climbed on the bed and went to work nabbing them in napkins and toilet paper while Keira and I watched to make sure none fell on our bed. It was unnerving, but not the end of the world. We thought it might be from opening the windows as there were no screens (common in Europe I hear), but there weren't any in Mark's room, so not sure what was going on there. Luckily, we were too tired to worry about it too much. I sent an email to the owner inquiring about the spiders and feel asleep rather quickly.
I heard from the owner in the morning. Turns out the spiders were a new issue they hadn't experienced nor heard about from others. He asked their flat neighbors and it sounds like it happens from time to time, but not often and we were told they're not poisonous or anything, just a nuisance. Just our luck. There were a few more the second night (only at night would they be there) and none the remaining nights, so we (Mark) didn't have to do anything more than catch them those first couple of nights. I was pretty proud of myself for being brave and staying put because insects FREAK ME OUT!
The flat itself was located in a great spot for traveling to and from London and was in a wonderful neighborhood. We enjoyed exploring all the shops and restaurants in the area in addition to exploring the big city of London. It was nice coming back each night to what felt like "home" and it worked out well for us. The owners were awesome and stocked us with basic staples like bread, eggs, milk, butter, etc. so we enjoyed breakfasts in the flat before heading out. It saved us some time and money.
London was our last stop and boy did we see and do a lot while we were there!
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