The REAL Ireland Update.

Pictures (<--LINK) to accompany reading. I suggest opening two windows and flipping through the pictures as you read about them... Like a picture book. Fun.

Ireland was fantastic... I don't really know where to begin... I guess I'll begin with Friday.

Friday:
Get up at... 4am, I think? Not 100% sure. Our plan was scheduled to leave at 6.25, so we wanted to make it there in plenty of time. As soon as we get there, we are informed that our plane is delayed due to technical problems................................. until an estimated time of 9.45... Cool. Off to a good start. So, after sitting in the airport for 5 hours, it's finally time to board. The flight takes less than an hour. We're all in semi high spirits, considering we just had to wait for 5 hours, but really not too pumped about the way our trip is starting out... Until we ask the first local a question. The people in London are very friendly, the locals in France.......................... not so much), but we've heard the Irish like the Americans more than the French (like that's hard) so we prepare for the same friendliness we receive in England. We were not prepared for HOW nice they were though! And not just nice... funny. They smile at us, give us correct instructions on where to go/what to do, etc.... Nice.
So, we get on the correct bus, the bus driver tells us he will call out our stop for us, and with his (and the friendly lady next to me) help, we get off at our stop and find our hostel. After we check in, we ask the (very attractive) Irish desk worker where we should go to eat. He suggests (and gives us directions to) The Stag's Head... We go. I order the Chicken Hot Pot (Sooooooooooooo delicious.) and a Smithwick's... It's Ireland.
After our filling meal, we take our bags back to the hostel as we weren't allowed to go up into our room the first time since it wasn't clean... We then meet our hostel mate... We don't ever get his real name, but we refer to him as Enrique the rest of the trip. He's from Barcelona and is spending who knows how long (he doesn't even know) in Ireland, learning English.

We then go exploring around Dublin... Going to Trinity College, a couple Cathedrals, Grafton St., Temple Bar area, and St. Stephen Green's Park. It's all lovely. You can see pictures in the link I posted at top. That night, we go to another pub for dinner. I'm still full from the Chicken Hot Pot, so I get a little sandwich). Then, we meet up with the other girls in the program for a night at THE Temple Bar. It was fun, but we were all worn out from our journey, so we got to bed pretty early.

Saturday:
Train to Cork to see Blarney. It. Was. Gorgeous. The whole castle grounds are uber pretty. The line to kiss the Blarney Stone was ridiculously long, but we wanted to wait and kiss it... I thought for luck, but was soon informed that it was for eloquence (I still made a wish and swear I've been more lucky ever since I kissed it... Wanted to make sure I covered all the possibilities... Just in case) We hopped in line in the middle of a group from a Princess Cruise (I noticed their stickers with the logo) I then started chatting with the two older ladies behind me. Find out they are, in fact, on a cruise around the British Isles and from Ohio! We keep talking to them... and I later realized it's because they reminded me of you, Mom. It was probably the closest I've come to being homesick since I've been here... and it wasn't that I was homesick, really... They just reminded me of Mom and one of her sisters - the specific one changed, but point is, I could see Louise and any one of my aunts going on this journey with her, and you guys talking to the college girls in front of you in line the whole time.. Good little reminder of home :)

Anyway, I digress... We finally make it in to the castle and begin our ascent up to the Blarney Stone.... It's a very trechorous climb and I honestly don't know how the people on either side of me made it up. I swore I was going to pass out in the middle of one of the tiny, steep, sprial staircases. Finally after a million stairs, there is a light at the end of the turret.

Next thing I know, I'm in front of the stone, being grabbed, shoved down, and told to grab the gaurdrails and kiss the stone.... Uhhhh, okay. I REALLY don't know how the 80 year olds in front of me lived through it... I almost didn't (but I am 28 according to Wii Fit). As I stand up, however, I immediately feel ten times more eloquent, gracefull, lucky, prettier, etc than before... All of this is proven to be true later in the journey.

We take the train back to Dublin then, and go to a pub suggested by our cab driver, the Hairy Lemon. Again, we are quite knackered so we hit the hay semi early (but only after a delicious kebab)

Sunday:
Took the train to Galway. We didn't make it in time to take a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher so we grabbed lunch at a little pub. I had THE best fish and chips of my life... literally. I think it's probably due to the fact that it was caught 20 minutes before it was fried... I'm guessing.... But I'm guessing that guess is correct.
ANYWAY. After that, we took our own walking tour around Galway... Then it started raining.. but we ventured on. Galway is... quaint. Very pretty... a good break from the 'cities' I suppose, but I've found I'm a city girl.
I took quite a... 'trip' while there. I don't think I can really give it justice through text, but in short, I tried to take on an inanimate object (works very well... reference that time I tried to fight the movie theatre chair and ended with a huge bruise on my head, or that time I managed to hit myself with my golf ball, I could continue) ended with me on the wet ground, my umbrella ten feet in front of me, my shoe caught on a banner stand (tangled may be a better word for it), and a group of 10 thirteen year olds and my two friends laughing for about 10 minutes... Use your imagination. - Clearly, the Blarney Stone really blessed me with grace.
After I bandaged myself (and my ego) from that fall, we went back to the hostel to freshen up before our night out.
Any local we asked for advice on what to do RAVED about the local music scene. So, we went to a famous pub (The King's Head) for dinner and a pint. Little did we know, it was the night of the Brasil/USA football (soccer for all you American's) game. Since the pub was completely silent except for the cheering for everyone's respective teams, we had no choice but to watch the game... which, I am proud to report, I thoroughly enjoyed... Even though we lost. Anyway... After the game, a cover band came out and played some songs... It reminded me of my little brother's band and again made me miss home a bit. A good end to a good trip though.

Monday:
Ventured back to Dublin. We had a couple hours before our plane left, so we decided to do the tour of the Guinness factory. It was pretty cool, not much to say about it though... Just check out the pics :)
For dinner we went to The Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub. I had Irish Stew... Delish.

Our plane home was on time and I made it back just before midnight.

Today was a really good day at work, but I'm getting sick of typing and I'm sure you're all sick of reading. So I'll leave you with another friendly reminder to look at the pictures (they're pretty... I promise) and if you ever get a chance to visit Ireland... GO!

Cheers!