Belfast, Dublin and Christmas 2016

Hey everyone sorry for my absence I failed to actually mention on here that I was spending my Christmas over in Northern Ireland with Joel's side of the family as he hasn't been home for Christmas in a while and I thought I would go with him as I haven't been over since 2014 which has flown by.

This for me was quite a big thing as this was the first time I have not spent time with my family over the Christmas break so I was a little worried about it at first but it turned out fine and I was made to feel super at home and was lovely to meet and spend a lot more time with his family and to meet some of his friends.

We arrived on the evening of Tuesday 20th and we stayed a whole week before returning on the Tuesday 27th on a flight around the same time. On our first day there we headed in to Belfast to do some Christmas shopping for Joel's family as we decided it would be easier to pick up some bits out there rather than bring it all over from Bristol.

Before we returned back home we ended up visiting the Christmas Markets which were amazing compared to the one back here. There was so much more variety of stalls and food plus the whole vibe was lot better which made it feel more like Christmas as I hadn't really been feeling in the festive spirt.

On the Friday before Christmas Eve we booked to go to Dublin for the day and I have to say at that moment in time we couldn't have picked a worse day to go as it was absolutely tipping it down and at one point we did get drenched right through but we didn't let that ruin our day because after lunch it was like a completely different day and the sun was shinning so we dyed out pretty quickly haha.

Dublin is so beautiful the cobbled streets, shops and pubs just all look so beautiful I have never seen so many shops in one area before and where ever you turned there was a little side street that looked beautiful full of shops and cafes. Some shops were your standard high street stores but then there were over quirky shops we hadn't seem before.

We took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse in the morning when we arrived and it was so worth the 20 euros it cost us to get in. At first Joel thought I had taken him to the wrong place because of where the location was and because I am bad at reading maps apparently.

The factory actually took a lot longer than we though to walk around as it is on lots of different levels starting at the bottom making your way up to the very top where there is an glass dome with 360 degree views of Dublin which would have been beautiful if it wasn't packed and raining outside.

There is loads of different sections of the museum from the making of it, history, tasting and advertising of the brand as well which was one of my favourite bits. At the end you could claim your free pint but with Joel not drinking and me not being a massive lover we decided to skip.

I would recommend taking a visit here even if you don't drink the stuff because its Dublin and very interesting to learn about the whole process.

By the time we had actually done the tour and had lunch in Eddie Rockets which was an amazing american dinner we only had two hours of our day left which was a shame because there was so much more to do and see so we headed around the shops popping in the Disney Store obviously before heading back to get our train. I think next time I shall come back in the Summer and stay for a few days.

On Christmas eve we went and visited on of Joel's best friends David and his girlfriend for lunch at this place called The Sassy Elephant which do all manner of foods, cakes, drinks and ice creams which all looked amazing. The sandwiches that me and Joel had were so yummy to the fact that we actually went back again after with his parents before we left to come home.

Now for Christmas woo by this time I was feeling in the festive spirt and was great to spend time with Joel's mum, dad, sister and her family on Christmas day. It was nice because I really felt like I fitted in and got on well with them all especially Joel's niece Tilly oh how cute she is and she really took a liking to us which was great. On boxing Day Joel's brother and his family came over for the afternoon so was nice to spend some more time with them as well and get to meet the children who were very sweet.

In the evening we ended up over Joel's best friends house for board games and chills as we still hadn't had a chance to meet up with them with it being such a busy week. I have met Jayne before but not his other friends so was nice to put faces to the names and have a great laugh making fools out of ourselves.

Until next time Northern Ireland which we are hoping will be sometime in March for a few days. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas? I am still lucky to have a few more days off so these will be enjoyed chilling out.