An Irish Blessing

The final frontier. No, not space...Ireland. 

:)

Our first stop, Giant's Causeway!

Basalt deposits in crazy awesome hexagonal shapes... Another UNESCO world heritage site on the list!

From Wikipedia:

"According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill was challenged to a fight by the giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story... Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns... on a Scottish isle, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this."

From the Causeway, we went back to Dublin, where we tried (and failed) to find a place to stay. Hello Dublin Airport at 2 am... Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do!

Then it was on to Galway!

And the Cliffs of Moher!

Aka the Cliffs of Insanity!

Also the cave from Harry Potter 6!

Harmon eating a delicious snack, the Kinder Egg. Illegal in the US... 

After Galway it was a train and bus to get to Dingle, the small town on the Dingle Peninsula.

We spent our nights at the luxurious Hideout Hostel!

This was the perfect way to end our time in Ireland! This quaint little place was homey, clean, and comfortable. 

The little town of Dingle gave Harmon and I wonderful memories... One of which was the live pub music every night!

But our top Irish memory was biking around the Dingle Peninsula! 25 kilometers with the sea on the left and sheep, stone walls, and farmland to the right. 

Beehive huts... 2000 BC habitations. 

After a nice ride we rewarded ourselves with Carmelized Brown Bread and Butterscotch ice cream!!

They also had sea salt flavored ice cream! Surprisingly delicious!

Then began the artery clogged portion of the night!

Chili cheese fries

Deep fried mars bars

Deep fried Brie 

Away from our beloved Dingle and on to Blarney!

Irishmen

Blarney Castle

Poison Garden at Blarney Castle

Mandrakes

Wolfsbane

Of course a stop at Blarney Castle wouldn't be complete without kissing the Blarney Stone!

"Kiss like you've never kissed before!"

Harmon kissing for good fortune...

From Blarney it was back to Dublin, where we would spend our final Irish night.

We stayed once more at the Dublin Airport, in a place we were growing quite fond of...

We were awakened a wee but early, thanks to a fire alarm and subsequent evacuation... But before we knew it we were on the plane to the US of A!

This trip was truly incredible; an experience that cannot be described in these blog posts. But thank you for enjoying these portions of our journey with us!

And now for a good ol' Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, May the rains fall soft upon your fields, And, until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Cheers!

London. 

After spending a very cozy night on a bench at the Girona airport, Harmon and I woke up early to set off for London.

We love Ryanair's prices, but their early flight hours make us sleep lightly...

Sunrise over England!

Now after arriving in London, we decided to simply wander on our first day, exploring up and down the Thames river.

We enjoyed a walk through some sort of festival of love, finding my new favorite frozen yogurt chain...

Explored Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Millennium Bridge (for you HP fans--no Death Eaters in sight) with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.

Tower Bridge at night!

Tower of London at night

*SPOILER*

Now be warned. Harry Potter fans will love the following post, while other Muggles may be bored or uninterested... Harmon and I were able to snag last minute tickets (a true miracle, as the tickets are sold out until September, and our lack of planning skills left us sadly ticketless until a wondrous cancellation) to the WB Studio Tour: the Making of Harry Potter! But there are about 1.5 million pictures of us on the tour. You have been warned.

Now. For the Making of Harry Potter. 

Our sweet ride to the set. Basically the night bus...

Tickets!!!!!!! 

No words can express the anticipation felt at this moment. This is no Harry Potter World in Orlando. This is the real deal. The actual sets, props, costumes, and actors! Ok Daniel Radcliffe wasn't present...

We even bought a digital guide for this tour (something we would normally never do), and it gave us a lot of inside information on the making of the films.

It all started at the cupboard under the stairs...

The Great Hall. The ceiling really is bewitched by the way...

Doors to the Great Hall

Leaving the Great Hall, we travelled into the props and costumes area, also housing some smaller sets.

Mirror of Erised

Looking into its depths, we saw our deepest desires. We saw ourselves holding each other, for their is no greater happiness than being together ;)

The Fat Lady

Griffyndor Common Room

Obviously my own house common room... Harmon wouldn't normally be let in, seeing as he is a Hufflepuff. Did you know there is a portrait of young Professor McGonagall inside?

Entrance to Dumbledore's office. Lemon drop!

Dumbledore's office! They talked about the specific 3-tiered design and how they thought it fit the headmaster well, and fit a 3-tiered tower on the Hogwarts model.

Storage of memories in Dumbledore's office

Pensieve 

Also, I didn't get a picture of the paintings in his office of previous headmasters, but they were all painted after the actual actors.

Tri-wizard cup and golden egg from the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament

The real Philosopher's Stone

The snitch!

The Goblet of Fire!

Potions class

Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets

The Burrow, complete with moving scrub brush, knife, and knitting needles.

Ministry of Magic

The next area was, I believe, my favorite in the tour. It was the collection of printed and other paper works from the movies. The designers created so many books, fliers, and other items that were true to the book and incredibly detailed, although rarely if ever seen.

In this collection, they had the assorted works of Gilderoy Lockhart, Quidditch Through the Ages, Flying with the Cannons, Tales of Beetle the Bard, and others. They also had many school books, including Hogwarts, A History, A History of Magic, the Standard Book of Spells, Unfogging the Future, Advanced Runes, Advanced Potion Making, and others. They had all sorts of advertisements for Weasley's Wizard Weazes. Newspapers, everything you could imagine!

Then we stepped out into the Backlot...

Enjoyed some butterbeer. Sadly, it didn't come in pints. ;)

The Night Bus!

Number 4

The trusty motorcycle and sidecar with the Hogwarts bridge in the background.

One of the 27 Ford Anglias used in the Chamber of Secrets

We then entered the Creatures Room, with the animatronics and other special effects items.

Fox!

Aunt Marge

Our favorite house elf, Dobby!

The Hungarian Horntail

Aragog. "Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?!" The reality of this huge spider made Rupert Grint's reaction very real.

The basilisk. They said that this special effect helped Harry's acting... As a young actor it was hard to visualize a monster that would later be created digitally. This version helped him imagine the monster he had to fight.

Buckbeak

Diagon Alley! From the sixth book anyways... The alley was redesigned nearly every time it was shown.

Ollivander's

Model of Hogwarts

Now our tour was over, and we entered the shop....

Elder wand meets Voldemort's wand

And although many things inside were too expensive for our budget, we did walk away with a few spoils.

Chocolate frogs!

With Rowena Ravenclaw inside!

That frog didn't stand a chance...

Following the tour, we just had to go to the next Harry Potter sight 

Complete with our house scarves!

The rest of our London trip was wonderful as well, but not quite as magical... I am currently waiting on my Hogwarts acceptance letter. I definitely feel like witch material.

We enjoyed some traditional British food

Fish and chips picnic

And some not-so-traditional...

Onion rings and an Oreo peanut butter milkshake. Couldn't resist!

And we saw some key sights

221 B Baker Street, home of the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes!

Bucking ham Palace, where the Queen is having crumpets

So close to touching that beaver hat!

Honest Abe chilling next to Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben! And a telephone booth! Those telephone booths are on almost every Main Street block in London.

And we couldn't help but get tickets to the London theater! We decided to try out a new play... ONCE

The love story of an Irish boy and a Czech girl who fall for each other through music. Quite good actually, with real Irish and Czech music! All of the music was created by the actors o stage-very unique and fun! It made us excited for Ireland! Only problem was that our ears were slightly numbed by the profanity... It prepared us for the Irish ;)

And with an early Ryanair flight to catch to Dublin, we once more camped out in an airport for the night!

Doesn't it look comfortable?

Traveling Wisdom:

Check the Harry Potter studio tour website as well as outside tours (like Golden Tours) when trying to buy last minute tickets. You might get lucky!

It is impossible to stay under budget in London, especially when you love Harry Potter!

Sometimes a super cheap, grimey hostel is enough for a few nights rest in the heart of London.

Once again, sleeping in the airport is not bad...especially when you have small pads, blankets, and pillows.