Hey guys, what is going on?
My name is Lily Manvel and you're listening to Escort Confessions.
And thank you so much for tuning in today.
I recently got back from Ireland and oh boy, I was really impressed.
So Ireland is one of the top 10 friendliest countries and I got to experience it first
hand.
People were so freaking nice.
I know, I know, I say it like everywhere I go, but they were especially nice.
Like for example, I was on the wrong side of the road because I was tired.
You know, I was coming home after like eight hours of driving and there was a lady coming
my way and I almost swerved and she's like, Hey, are you okay?
Like it's going to be fine.
Just take a deep breath.
And she was really nice.
She was a grandma and you know, but anyways, not that grandmas are not nice, but you know,
like motherly, she was very motherly.
And everywhere I went, people were, hi, how are you?
How can I help?
Cheers, have a great day.
You know, would not.
It was not fake.
Like in America, like, hi, how are you?
What can I get for you?
Like, not like that.
It was genuine.
It was very genuine and nice.
And Ireland, all of you know, Ireland is green, but when I went there, it was super green.
Like there was no bear tree inside.
The houses were cute and it was not like a, there was no showing off.
It's like my house is bigger than yours.
My farm is bigger than yours.
No, it was just, everybody lives there instead of survives.
And yes, it does cost a little bit more to live there, but it's totally worth it.
Like you know, I'm Ukrainian and they offer for Ukrainian refugees free education and
free board, free meals.
And I'm just like, oh my God, I need to like line my resume or something.
I need to get rid of like my US citizenship or what not paperwork and just go there.
Like free education, like free university education.
I think free university education should be everywhere.
If you ask me, because I mean, that's free in high school throughout, you know, like
elementary throughout the high school, it's free.
Why can't it be free at the universities?
So I mean, teachers are getting paid.
So why not?
But anyways, like first day, my mom and I, cause I came with my mom to see my Ukrainian
family and yeah, like our relatives greeted us.
We basically like they picked us up from airport and we stayed in this little cabin.
It was in the middle of nowhere.
It was on organic farm, kind of in the middle of nowhere.
And you know, it was small, but it was cozy.
Like why do we need to stay at the five star resort when we can just stay there?
And it was like 300 a week.
I'm not even joking, like three, well, it was like 350 euros a week, which is not bad
at all.
Not bad at all.
Yeah.
And you know, the, because I was, I was driving for like three days just around Ireland and
United Kingdom or Northern Ireland.
And yeah, like there was, there were no boring roads or anything.
And you know, driving in America can get quite boring because it's like, it's just highway.
So yeah, I'm just saying like roads in Ireland are, they're smaller, but it's gorgeous.
Like Ireland is so gorgeous.
I cannot, I cannot tell you, I cannot tell you enough how gorgeous it was.
So I went to see abandoned castles and I felt like Nathan Drake from Uncharted because he
likes to explore all that stuff.
I didn't find any treasures sadly, but yeah, abandoned castles are freaking awesome.
You can just go to them.
There was no graffiti or anything.
And like people actually preserve history there.
So that was great.
Went to Dublin, explored Dublin.
I tried to go into Temple Bar, which is like the most famous bar in Dublin.
It was, I came too late because people were already there, but I went to another Temple
Bar, which kind of looked like the Temple Bar and I got myself a small beer and it was
the best beer I probably ever had.
So yeah.
And it was kind of funny because in the previous episode I talked about alcoholism and why
you shouldn't drink and here I am trying local beers, but it's okay because it's local
and it was totally worth it.
Yeah, totally worth it.
In Dublin I visited a few churches, even though I do not go to church.
I'm not really religious.
I'm more a spiritual person, but Catholic churches are gorgeous and I love history and
I love churches.
I love, I love the architecture of the churches.
And let's see, went to National Gallery of Ireland, walked around, got lost for a little
bit, but then, you know, GPS helped out, of course.
Then after that I stayed at Airbnb and this African family fed me like rice and chicken
and it was so delicious.
And you know, so it's like, I feel like at home there's this, like they, I don't even
know what to explain.
It was really cute Airbnb.
And then day after I went to Belfast and I stayed at the Airbnb of a casting director
who worked on Game of Thrones, which a lot of you might know.
And like he talked about like funny moments from the show, you know, that, you know, behind
the scenes.
And his stories and his adventures and his earlier days as an extra.
And I used to be an extra too.
So like a background actor is what they're called right now.
Yeah.
And we shared some stories and yeah, then I visited more castles.
I visited a few of Game of Thrones locations day after.
And then I spent money and interesting thing happened.
So Belfast is in United Kingdom, tankly, because Northern Ireland is part of United Kingdom.
So when I use my card, it would not work because I did not authorize my debit card to work
in United Kingdom, only in Ireland.
So basically I had a few cash.
My phone was dying and my charger for, you know, like one of those portable charges were
dying, was dying too.
So basically I had to stop at the gas station, see how much cash I have, try to use ATM for
more cash.
It would not work.
So basically I'm like, okay, do I need to buy a new phone?
What's going on?
Because I do not have enough money right now.
My credit cards would not work.
They don't take American Express for some reason in United Kingdom, which is kind of
bullshit because it worked when I used subway in London.
But anyway, so that was like a kind of a hassle.
But I did get back to the cabin safe while my mom and my aunt and uncle were exploring
other parts.
And I went to see cliffs of more, more beaches, beaches.
I went to see more beaches with the water, the ones that contain water.
Gosh, I don't know.
I'm a little tired, but yeah, it was just, I went to see a lot of places and the week
seemed to be long, but at the same time super short because I was always traveling.
I was always busy and I know people contacted me or tried to contact me.
But then again, like I cannot see who texts me because it's a different SIM card and I
have a different number.
So whenever I go out of the country, I only see emails.
I do not see people texting me from United States.
So yeah, people were pretty disappointed that they did not get booked.
But then again, that's why I post tours on my website and on Trust, just an FYI, just
an FYI.
So yeah, but no, overall the trip was amazing.
I highly recommend going there, especially now it's a good weather.
It's not hot.
It's actually like in 60s and 70s.
And the flight is not that bad.
You know, I'm kind of getting used to these eight hour flights because I try to occupy
myself.
Now speaking of flights, I grabbed two of Paddington books and I forgot one of them
in the seat of the plane.
I'm so sad, but it's okay.
I've got 10 other books about Paddington the bear.
So it's okay.
It's fine.
It's totally fine.
But yeah, so yeah, I highly recommend going to Ireland, especially if you got family
there and just explore abandoned castles, go to Belfast, go to Dublin, go to like this
little coastal towns because they're freaking gorgeous.
Oh, speaking of farms and cows, I saw cows laying on the beach by one of the Game of
Thrones locations.
It was kind of funny.
I never saw cows on the beach.
Maybe they're having a beach day.
I don't know.
Oh, I explored some caves too, talked with some people.
It's kind of hard to understand Irish people because they sound British, but they sound
Irish too and Irish people have this accent and but also they know Gaelic language.
So that's where the accent comes from, from Gaelic language.
But yeah, so much more to say and tell.
But yeah, so definitely check out Ireland any chance you get.
So yeah, so thank you so much for tuning in today, listening to my adventures.
Maybe you've learned some things, hopefully.
But yeah, this was Ask a Confessions.
I am Lily Monroe and I will talk to you guys next time.