Dublin Zoo and Temple Bar

After a nice relaxed evening we woke up to a lovely day with thankfully no rain. After the most delicious breakfast at the hotel we headed on a short walk to Dublin Zoo, I felt like a little kid as we got closer to the zoo, I was so excited after not being to a zoo in years and having a love for animals my perfect day was about to begin. 

I do not agree with zoo's where the animals look cooped up, but Dublin zoo is anything but, it is the biggest zoo in Europe and all with in the beautiful grounds of Phoenix Park. 
It was great to see huge enclosures and the animals being looked after very well.It was great to see that some of the animals were even in the same enclosures, such as giraffes, zebras, rhinos and ostriches'.

You can spend hours looking at one enclosure, walking past the rhino's just as we were about to carry on to the next enclosure the rhino's started to fight, it was so interesting noticing the ways they communicate. 

The cutest animals there in my opinion were the penguins and the red pandas. Walking past the Red Panda's you couldn't even notice that the panda was there i just thought it was an empty enclosure, it was so open you wouldn't of imagined that there was an animal even there, it was asleep at first and we caught a glimpse when it was waking up and yawning, the moment it was stretching was a ridiculous amount of cuteness! I wanted to take the ball of fluff home with me.                                                
We headed back to the hotel after the best day at the zoo! To relax before our romantic evening celebrating our 1 year anniversary, we were heading to a beautiful Italian restaurant  which was in Temple Bar. We both got dolled up for the evening, we decided to walk along the river side to get to Temple Bar. Temple Bar is one of my favourite places I have been, after staying there for my 18th Birthday with my best friend a few years back it was lovely to go back, the atmosphere alone is just worth going for, the buskers playing out in the streets, seeing so many people piling into a pub to listen to the live musicians. We had the most perfect evening. Couldn't believe it was our last night in Dublin, we didn't want it to end. 

Arrived in Dublin.

After a very quick flight from Manchester to Dublin, which only took us 30 minutes we had arrived, it wasn't the best weather but it wasn't raining so couldn't complain. After grabbing a bit to eat we headed to our hotel. Of course the day i had chosen to fly is the day of a big hurling match so we were greeted with traffic and road shut off that would of got us to our hotel so much quicker, so begrudgingly parting with €45 we were finally at our beautiful hotel. We were staying

at the Ashling Hotel, which was a stunning hotel, with amazing food. We were staying in a Deluxe King size Room, which was just perfect, we even had our own little balcony over looking the Guinness Factory, which we later visited. We were just around the corner from Phoenix Park which is the biggest park in Europe and has it's own zoo which of course we visited. 

We dropped our bags off and decided we would walk around a bit before we could properly check in, no more than a two minute walk we spotted a museum, at first I was not very enthusiastic about going, but when we were there and finding out there was a whole section on the war history made it a whole lot better, both me and John (my boyfriend) find history on war fascinated so it was a perfect unexpected visit. 
Part of the museum is actually in a old army barracks called Collins Barracks.

It was just my luck that I had left my camera  back at the hotel not expecting to be in such an interesting place. 

After are little trip out we headed back to the hotel to go and jump on our ridiculously big bed and have a little rest, before heading down to the hotel restaurant where we had the most delicious meal, both having steak which was the best steak i had ever eaten with a lovely crème brûlée. 

Unfinished Work

So a few life problems got in the way and distracted me of my blog, but I have now finished my first year of university and am currently working throughout the summer at a children's nursery. I am feeling I need to get back into my blogging because i enjoyed sharing my experiences on this little online world and i find writing such a good way to de-stress and be creative. You are probably thinking what has this got to do with travelling, well I have a little adventure coming up, it's not as far away or as long as my Thailand trip, but I am exploring Dublin with my boyfriend next weekend. So there will be more posts to follow. So excited to go back to Ireland, having some family over there we went when I was little with my family, and then I revisited with my best friend for our 18th birthdays which is nearly three years ago. My boyfriend has never been so it is going to be lovely to show him a City I completely love. 

Last Day at the Orphanage.

After another day building the toilet cubical walls, which I was one of the best brick layers, we had finished our task, ready for the next group to continue the work. 

We were spending our last night with the children that night, so we were taking them gifts and things they need for the orphanage, the thing the leaders asked for were door mats, so they now have plenty, and we all bought the children little presents, the majority of us still had our water guns from Songkran so we were going to leave these with the children, that alone they were ecstatic about, and when we presented our gifts to the main carer, who then handed them out the faces on all the children were lit up, the moment that stuck in my head was when one of the older girls got given some hair clips, straight away she started counting them to see if there were enough clips to go around all the girls, this was so hear warming and made you realise that those days of the hard work just building the walls, were completely worth it, and that I would do it over and over again just to know that those children will be getting a better place to live.

As a leaving gift from the children and the orphanage, they put on a little show for us, they all sang songs, then in groups too, it was amazing, a moment I thankfully got to catch on camera, one of the songs was about hero's and they were thanking us for being theirs, with us helping them build the new orphanage, it was an emotional few minutes. When we headed back on the truck they all jumped on with us, they would stand and let us sit down on the seats even though we told them to sit down as well but they were so polite, and kind! It was an emotional goodbye with lots of hugs, they are truly beautiful children inside and out, and I would love to one day go back and visit the Orphanage, and see the part I played in making their new building happen. 

My Time at the Orphanage.

This boy had the most beautiful smile, big heart for someone so young. Always got a hug from him. 

The youngest child at the orphanage, 9 months old baby, adorable faces.

Every great photographer carries a whistle.

Visible scars but no visible sadness, happiest little fella there was.

Took a few takes, but he did it, and was so proud.

Just before they did a little show for us on the final night we spent time with them. Precious every single one of them.

First time we met the little baba.

Shouldn't of had favorites, but I couldn't not with this one, he was the cutest, sweetest, most loving little boy I have ever come across, with the cutest smile and heart warming laugh, I got the best cuddles from this little chap. I could of brought him home with me if I would of been allowed. Beautiful.

If you click on the photos they can be enlarged, these are just a few of the beautiful children we met.

Volunteering at A Thai Orphage

We had an early start, we had some walls to build. So the Orphanage that we were helping out at were moving to a bigger site, which we were going to help build, the organisation that I went with do this every month with each group, the group before us had put toilets in and our job was to make the cubicle walls. It was hard work, in the heat with hardly any shade to cool down in but it was well worth it. Knowing that the beautiful children would have better facilities to grow up in and more room so the Orphanage can help more children was heart warming, some of the children came to the site which was the best kind of motivation we could possibly of had. After the first day of grafting, we headed back to where we were staying and freshened up before we set of to the Orphanage to spend the evening with children.

We arrived and immediately they would run up and grab you hand wanting you to play, the boys were more playful than the girls, and with the majority of the boys being younger they just wanted to run around and play football which was the most fun! Most of the Orphans are here because of the Burmese war, one little boy was saved from a fire where his parents sadly didn't survive, he has a number of scars from his past, for now they are physically but i'm sure when he gets older they will be emotional scars too, that why them being in the Orphanage surrounded by love and warmth of the people in charge and the other children his life is made that much better, they are a family, and one that I was lucky to spend time, I will never forget any of the children.

We were out playing with them until it was pitch black, we had tea, then played inside for a bit longer too, the fascination with phones and cameras is just delightful, they are items we do take for granted but they bring such joy to these children because it is something out of the ordinary for them. 

The little boy that was in the fire, he had my camera and took LOTS of photos, its incredible just how quickly they learn how to do things, I would wipe the lens then a few minutes later he would be copying me, I taught him once how to zoom in and he got it straight away, i got some beautiful photos from him, which I will treasure. 

My next post is going to be a selection of photos from the volunteering.   

More Buses and A Thai Orphanage

It was now time to set off in the overnight bus again, this time with no toilet which was a bit of a pain! This journey was no better than the first time in the overnight bus, except I actually slept for about an hour, we had more stops this time, and had to get off the bus whilst it filled up with petrol, it must have been a sight for any locals, about 3 am there’s 23 British people sat on a curb all looking half dead having just been woken up waiting for the driver to fill up the bus we weren't too impressed! Luckily there was a 7 11, so we could get some snacks but at that time in the morning you don’t feel like much at all. 

Finally we arrived after god knows how many hours in the middle of nowhere; it was like a scene out of a

Where we stayed, just need a tumble weed
and we are in a Western Film.

western film, the one road with a few shops and nothing else. We got shown where we were staying but the rooms weren't ready yet so there was a circular room with mattresses’ put out for us were we could nap until our rooms were ready, this nap was much appreciated , we were all so tired! We got into our rooms, and this time we were sharing with four people, our room turned into the gathering room for little group. It was great, we even had a toilet that had a proper flush, we were the only ones who had this! We set off to find some food, we found a little place couldn't really call it a restaurant, it was very quaint, not much about it, but the food turned out to be lovely and VERY cheap, Thailand is very cheap any way but for a portion of chicken and garlic with rice and two sprites it cost 60 Thai Baht which is about £1.24, which in England you pay that for one bottle of sprite. The communication wasn't the best as we were in a very rural area, they did not understand English very well, but they were the sweetest people and you really could not fault the food, especially for that much.

After heading back to the guest houses, we got picked up and headed to the Orphanage, now this was the part of the trip that had really sold it to me, I love kids and want to work with children so this was perfect for me, straight away they would run over to you, they couldn't speak English but you didn't need to speak the same language when you saw their smiles, that was a welcome that words would not be able to convey. We played with them, swung them round gave them piggy backs and just had the loveliest time with them, I was so glad this wasn't the only time we’d have with them, because you instantly knew it was going to be so hard to say goodbye to them. We had our tea at the orphanage then spent more time with the children afterwards too, they love phones and cameras, they would play angry birds and take as many photos of themselves as they could! They were so precious! It was time to go back to where we were staying and get some sleep before we would up early to start building.