First of all we had to make our way to Manchester. When we booked our flights to head out to Dublin we were still planning to live in Manchester again. Of course no plan goes to plan so we had a bit of a journey before the fun could begin. We decided to make a little trip out of it and we left Brighton 2 days before we had to fly to Dublin, so that we could spent a bit of time travelling around and checking out some castles and such so that we could make some use out of the English Heritage passes that we all bought a few weeks ago. We made our way to Oswestry, a little town near the Wales border, and stayed there for the first night. We checked out Witley Court and Gardens, a spectacular ruin of a 19th century mansion. We also took in Stokesay Castle a 13th century Manor house still very much intact. The next day on the way to Manchester we went to see the remains of an old Roman City and the ruins of an Abbey at Haughmond. The Abbey was closed for the season, but seeing that it was such a stunning place we simply climbed through the fence to check it out. Candice didn’t stay in very long though before the guilt got the better of her and she stepped back through. Spent the night in Manchester checking out a few of our favorite watering holes and a few new ones, then went out to the curry mile for dinner at an Indian Restaurant that we went to with Mum and Dad Stait when they where her for 07 Xmas.
The next day we took off from Manchester for Ireland. The line up at customs in Dublin was huge, lots of thirsty people lining up for their share of partying. We made our way into town to check into our apartment but we were told that our room wouldn’t be ready until 4pm. So with about 5 hours to spare we thought we’d better find out how Guinness is made before we made our major contribution to the Guinness family. After enjoying the tour and our pints at the end of it all (this is a clever technique) we found ourselves in the souvenir store, where of course we contributed a little more of our money in exchange for a few items. Afterward we made our way back to check into our rather cozy apartment. That night we went out to the pub for some Irish music and liquid treats. We met a group of Irish girls after Jamie got roused on by them for yawning before the music had even begun. One of the girls had had quite a bit to drink and chatted away to Candice for some time before we thought that we better save some of our well being and money ( a pint was costing us about Aus $ 11) for the real thing tomorrow.
Candice’s Birthday and St Patrick’s Day:
The streets started to get packed quite early in preparation for the parade, so after some chocolate muffin and chocolate filled pastry for breakfast (birthday girl breakfast not our staple diet) we donned our Irish party gear and we walked up and down the crowds a bit looking for a spot where we could check out the parade. Luckily we managed to snag a nice little spot right up against the barriers. The parade started to come our way after about 2 hours of waiting. The theme of the parade this year was the sky is the limit and was filled with lots of imaginative displays as well as the customary brass bands. It took about 2 hours for the full parade to pass us by. There was one couple that kept trying to squeeze into our space (quite to Candice’s annoyance) but after a telling off by Jamie they kept their distance.
After the parade we made our way back to apartment so that Candice could have a little rest before really partying it up that afternoon. Jamie and Brett had other ideas however and went out for a drink before returning to collect Candice. The streets of Dublin were absolutely packed with revelers. There were some streets that were near impossible to walk through. We were lucky enough to get a seat at the bar in the first pub we went to, some people left while we were drinking our first pint. The place was overflowing with people though, as was every pub that we went into. We didn’t want to be spending all our time at one pub though so after a few pints we moved on the next pub and the next pub and then the next pub, I think you get the idea. A good night was had by all; we met a few Irish people, drank our fair share of the town and thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Candice’s Birthday.
Of course the next day wasn’t so exciting. Candice got out of bed at 3:30pm, Brett and Jamie had a little stroll around town and we generally just felt a little sorry for ourselves. Also Jamie’s knees were feeling a little sore from where he skinned them tripping over the stairs that suddenly appeared out the front of our apartment. The next day we got up and headed back to the airport made our way back to Manchester and then drove back down to Brighton that afternoon.
