IRELAND - I finally made it here! I have never been so happy to have a passport stamp in my life!! Okay, well maybe when I went to Europe for the first time with Patrick Paul and John I was more excited but this is a very close second.
I know that I promised everyone this blog as soon as possible but between getting back and studying for exams and stuff I haven't had time until now! At least I journaled while I was there so I at least have good notes to look back on and I don't have to try and do this from memory!
Best Chance at getting this down in some sort of order will be to just start from friday and work our way through Ireland as I did it!
Friday: Airport - Dublin - Cork
For once we have a flight that doesn't leave at 7AM! I actually didn't have to get on the Metro to get to the Airport until 8 - what a luxury! It still took me an hour to get there but it wasn't a bad ride and we made it there with plenty of time - flight didn't board until 10:30 anyway! I was a little nervous about taking the Metro for that distance - not necessarily because I was alone, but because I had to keep an eye on my backpack the entire time because I had my boarding pass, money, and passport all in there...and as Nena says "everyone is out to rob you!" (well in Spanish of course!).
Speaking of Nena, I was so excited that she packed me a sandwich, banana, apple, and pack of Crack Cookies for while I was travelling! In case you are wondering, Crack Cookies are Tracy, Colleen, and My name for the cookies that Nena buys that we are 100% fully addicted to!! The best way to describe them is that they are basically a cookie made of Nutella smashed between 2 graham crackers....it is heaven let me tell you! Anyway, Crack Cookies - because you can't just eat one (I will bring a pack (or 12) home and you all will see what I am raving about!)! Anywho...back to the Trip....
So we got to the airport by 9 and I'm pretty sure we were fully done with getting our passports checked at the Ryan air counter and through the security and the passport check (another Barajas stamp!) in a matter of about 20 minutes. This is the shortest it has ever taken to get through security and I hope I will have more flights that only take this long! Anyway, we get through all that by 9:30! I even had to be "frisked" although I am still not sure what set the think off - i had nothing in my pockets, no jewlery, and no belt on! Oh well I was clean! Then we come to find out that our flight has been delayed until 11 so we were really able to just sit back and grab an orange juice and eat my banana before we got in line to board our flight! We also browsed through the duty free perfume shop - I am sure we were the best smelling passengers on that flight after we samples the perfumes in there!
While we were waiting in the boarding line I dropped down to my crouch down because my feet were getting tired of standing... This was a bad idea on account that the lady behind me had on a coat with a huge belt buckle...Guess who got whacked in the head with that? Funny thing was is she immedietly noticed she hit me so she hurried up and turned in the other direction and Lauren about got sideswiped by her bag! Talk about needed to watch where you are going with all your stuff!
Funny stuff about flying with RyanAir - they try to sell you anything and everything on that flight. Seriously if you are in need of Lottery tickets, or smokeless cigarettes let me know! I was able to sleep for a little bit on the 2.5 hour flight. I was only awakened toward the end because there was a baby on the flight who was not a happy camper! I think maybe she was having trouble with the air pressure. I can imagine it is so much worse when you don't know how to pop your ears - at least I can do that!
Landed at Dublin Airport without any problems! The weather was in the upper 30s or 6 degrees Celcius. It was cold, but the sun was shining - we were told Ireland is always cloudy or rainy so what excited!
We had to stop through Immigration on the way out - before the official stamped our passports he asked us if we were just on Holiday in Ireland and I said "Si!" Oops! Welcome to Ireland - they speak English! I don't have to be the Girl Who Doesn't Speak Spanish!!!
Our bus to Cork took us through Dublin - I saw a bunch of shops selling Rugby shirts - made me want to buy one while I am here - Rugby is really popular here and I think it would be a cool sport to watch! Spain is known more for soccer anyway so if I am going to watch a sport in Ireland may as well be Rugby!
The Bus to Cork - There was a guy named John on our bus who was also on our flight from Madrid. He goes to school in Minnesota and is currently studying abroad in Segovia! He was visiting this weekend to suprise his girlfriend who was also studying abroad in Cork! How sweet!
The countryside is so incredibly beautiful here in Ireland - so green ...and it is February! Now I know why Ireland is called the Emerald Isle! Oh so Cutest thing - we saw baby sheep with their mamas in the pastures we passed by on the road! Did you know that right now in Ireland it is actually costing the sheep farmers more money to gather the wool off of the animals then what they will get for selling it because the prices have plumeted so much in the past year since the market fell - Isn't that interesting? Anyway, I also saw a guy out with his sheepdog!! They still use sheep dogs for their intended purpose!!! How Irish is this?? Actually, I do have something more Irish - we stopped in Killkenny for a 15 minute break - Lauren, Kelly, and I decided to take a quick walk down a few blocks and back - so we did! As we were turning around to go back to the bus, I see a tractor coming down the street heading our way! I immediately got way more excited then necessary, whipped out my camera and took a picture of the guy! Best part of it was that the old man driving the tractor was wearing one of those Irish (well Golfer looking hats) and was smoking a pipe - while waving at me and driving a tractor through town...I love Ireland! I don't care how expensive Dean claims Ireland to be (which is he right to a certain extent) I am coming back here someday! Ireland just has this small town charm everywhere I would look that just appealed to me so much!All the small towns nestled between fields of green makes this place appear so magical and well just about perfect in my mind!
As we were taking our seats on the bus once again, I noticed that the guy sitting in the seat across from Kelly and I was eating what appeared to be chocolate covered raisins - my one true weekness! Anyway, as I was mentioning this to Kelly the guy with the raisins overheard and so I asked him if he had chocolate covered raisins (at this point I was embarrassed enough to be caught gushing over them anyway!) and then he offered me some! He towld me that the last bus ride he took he was offered chocolate and so he figured he was just passing on the good deed! Seriously that no taking anything from strangers rule does not apply to chocolate! I gave him one of my precious sabor chocolate cookies in exchange!
When we finally arrived in Cork, Kelly's friend from Loyola was at the bus stop waiting for us! Her name is Rachel and may I just say that she is really incredible. Before we arrived, Rachel went and printed us off a map of Cork and labeled where the Hostel was as well as the bus stop and some other important things! She also took the time to track down our hostel so she knew exactly how to get there!!! How incredible is she? Then after she took us to our hostel and we checked in and dropped off our stuff Rachel led us downtown and helped us pick out a place to grab some supper! We ended up eating at this cute little restaurant/bar called the Newport Cafe! I ate vegetarian Lasagna because it was lent and I do have to say it was a pretty mean lasagna! They also had Michael Buble playing in the background which totally set the mood for an amazing supper anyway! Another great thing about Ireland is that when you ask for a pitcher of water, they don't give you a dirty look and they actually come out with a pitcher of tap water instead of bringing out bottle water you have to pay for (like in Madrid).
After Supper we met back up with Rachel and Cathryn (another Loyola girl) and their Irish friend Tim to go to the Castle Inn bar and The Brog (gaelic translated to the shoe in english - this is the same place that Dean and stephen recommended for us to go to! Small world!). The Castle Inn was a very authentic Irish Bar - with lots of people crammed together watching a rugby game! The crowd was a bit older than us but that actually wasn't a bad thing! There was lots of Rugby memorbilia on the walls as well as a poster about horse Racing (that reminded me of you MOM!). We made our way to the far end of the pub where there was a small fireplace with a fire going in it! While we were hanging out by the fire, a guy who looked to be about 30, turned away from his friends (who were a few feet away from us) and started talking to us because he could tell we were Americans. Now before you get worried - he was excited that we were from the US because he used to live in Dallas,Texas for a while! Come to find out that he is a biomedical scientist and that all of his friends were scientists in some degree as well! Man, we know how to attract the smart ones! He also made a point to mention that he was Catholic - pretty good marks in my book! I was so excited to just have a guy come and talk to us and not try to hit on us like the creepy spanairds try to do (seriously - they have no shame and most seem to have a complex about knowing that they are attractive which of course is totally unattractive!) instead, I think he just seriously wanted to have a nice conversation with us! After we were done at this bar, we headed over to the Brog which was were the younger crowd of people more around our age were. It was definitely a little more crazy in there just with people dancing in one end of the bar and the music was definitely meant to be for a much younger crowd! The music was heavy rock and was being played super loud! There is only so much shouting you can do to carry on a conversation in a place like that! Anyway, it was still a great time and I don't regret the loss of hearing I probably have as a result of going there!
Saturday! - Blarney Castle and more of Cork!
...dang the problem with waiting over a week to update this blog since the things have happened is that I am fading fast typing wise - I still have homework to do! I may have to take a break and officially post this tomorrow!
Saturday morning we woke upa nd ate down in the hostel kitchen. I had my normal breakfast of Cornflakes and toast with jelly and butter! The toast got a little on the burnt side but it was nothing the blackberry jelly couln't take care of! After Breakfast, we headed off to catch the Bus from the Bus stop at Merchant's Quay (pronounced Key) to Blarney Castle. Once we got off the bus at Blarney, 2 girls who were also on the bus asked us if we were going to the castle as well and asked if they wouldn't mind if they walked with us - which of course we didn't mind! Olivia and Suzie were from Ohio but were studying in Dublin and took the weekend to go visit Cork and of course go to Blarney Castle (something we learned that only the Foreigners go to see). Once you get to the Castle grounds, you actually have a five minute walk to reach the castle itself. We walked followed this river to the castle through a grassy field and some trees! SO pretty! Once we got to the castle grounds, we diverted to the right of the path so as not to bother the couple having a romantic morning stroll to the castle. Instead we walked towards Badger's Cave and of course had to explore it! Well in case you are wondering, it was a pretty typical cave - damp and cold. Also there were no badgers :( We spent a few minutes there and then headed back towards the castle.
Blarney Castle itself is a really cool castle to walk through! I was suprised to see that the fcastle was more like ruins then an actual upkept castle. I think this was mostly because the ceiling was missing in many places and the original wood floors for the second and third floors were no longer there. We know there was more then one floor to these tall rooms because we could see the stone footing jutting out from the wall where the floor boards would have once been layed. One funny labeling of these rooms was the "Little Girl's Room / Priest's Room". It's just that something seemed a little politically incorrect about that - Irish attempt at humor perhaps? When reading this sign at first I was a little puzzled until it dawned on me that the bottom room was for the young girls and that the upper room (no floorboards there to divide the room) was where the priest would have slept! After many winding staircases (you think we were at St. Dominic's or at least climbing to the top of a lighthouse) we finally reached the top and were able to kiss the Famous Blarney Stone! When people say you must bend over backwards to kiss the stone, they are not kidding with you - you literally do lay on your back and the man lowers you down as you hold on to the 2 handrails and you tilt your head back and kiss the stone! They have you leaned over in such an awkward position you can't help but laugh over the sillyness of the entire thing!
To finish off our time at Blarney, we took a woodland walk where they believe the ancient druid people would have once dwelled for a time. I didn't realize how much folklore plays into the Irish tradition until I got to Ireland! I mean I know they have leprechans but fairies and witches too? Later in one of our other tours they explained why Ireland has so many stories. The gaelic language was never written down until the English came over so all of Ireland's history is told in the forms of tales. Things they perhaps didn't fully understand or just wanted to remember were told in tales that included these "make-believe creatures". The walking path took us under a waterfall which had a staircase carved into the rock behind it. These stairs were dubbed the witches stairs and that if you made a wish and walked up the stairs and then back down the stairs backwards, your wish would come true! I had to try this - and so I did.. It was a very creepy experience because as you are walking up the stairs it gets darker and darker and you feel as if the cave is coming in around you even though you know you have plenty of room! I can't tell you what my wish was, but I will let you know if and when it comes true! Along the rest of the path, we saw a witch's kitchen, a witch rock (rock shaped like a witch's head) and the fairy lands!
By the time we ended the walk and said goodbye to Suzie and Olivia, it was getting past lunchtime once we got into Cork and we were starving! We got a little lost trying to find the English Market, but ended up eventually back at the City Center and grabbed lunch at the first place we laid eyes on - which happened to be a bagel shop. After lunch we met up with Cathryn and Rachel and went and toured an Anglican Cathedral. After that, we went back to the hostel to freshen up for supper and for another night out with the girls! We met up with Rachel's new friend Dearmond (that is not the right way to spell his name - I am still not for certain what it is - I just know that it is authentically Irish and that it starts with a D) and some of his friends at a bar called "the wash". D's friends were really quite a funny group of guys! I am going to try and remember all of their names even though I know I don't have one of them right because it was another Irish name that started with a D and was hard to remember. There was Annan (which believe it or not is not the first Annan I have met - Thanks to Jason, I already have a friend named Annan!), then Donovaghn (or something similar) who was really quite, then there were two brothers: John and Dan. John is currently working in Australia for the next four years. Australia - I am envious! He has already graduated college and has a degree in Human Resources. His younger brother Dan was still in school and also plays Rugby - oh and they live on a farm! These guys were an absolute blast to hang out with and it is so unfortunate that I probably will never see or hear from them again. Anyway, after spending a good deal of time conversing and chilling at the Wash, we made our way back down to the Brog where we spent the rest of our evening until it was time for us to say goodbye and make our way back to the hostel so we could get a few hours of sleep before our 7:30 bus ride to Galway in the morning! Thank goodness the Irish say goodnight at 2 and don't keep late late hours like the Spanish do!
Sunday - Galway
Another jammed pack day today again! Got up really early to catch the first bus out of Cork going to Galway so that we could be in Galway before noon. The bus ride was pretty uninteresting - I slept through the majority of it. We did have a twenty minute break in Limerick where we got off the bus and went and got breakfast. I had a Chai Tea and a double chocolate chip muffin. Best part of that breakfast was when I bit into the center of the muffin I realized that there was fudge in the middle! That is what heaven tastes like - or at least it is pretty darn close!
When we finally got into Galway it was pretty chilly but overall not to bad for a day in Ireland. We dropped our stuff off at the Hostel and then made our way down to the pedestrian streets that are jammed pack with shops and places to eat. We made our way through the streets and did a bit of shopping. I bought one of those ear flap hats to bring back for someone, but after being in the cold for about 10 minutes I decided that the best place for that hat was on my head and not in the bag so I tore off the tags and never looked back.
We walked all the way down to Galway Bay and even walked around a good portion of the bay. It was colder out by the ocean so we were really suprised to see people walking around with light jackets on...they must have not been tourists - or were from Alaska. BRR! The bay was a really pretty walk because we were able to see and hear the ocean and we saw swans by the water!
By the time we walked back from the Bay, we were pretty chilled to the bone and so we sought out warmth and food quickly. We went to a bar and ordered seafood chowder and fish and chips. That was one of the best meals of the whole trip. We had a TV near our table and we ended up watching a soccer match while we waited for our food and ended up staying to watch the end of the match (someone won!) After lunch, we walked around the city for a little while more and then headed back to the hostel to freshen up which gave us time to relax for a while and write in our journals and figure out which tour we were going to us to go see the Cliffs of Moher the next day. For supper we kept it simple and just ate some cereal and then headed out to go catch some Irish music being played down at one of the pubs we passed early during our walk. The bar was super packed and had a good mix of both tourists and locals. The 2 musicians were really good and were fun to watch. One guy sang and played his guitar while the other played the accordian. As the night went on, a lot more people were singing along and even attempting an irish jig or two...no easy feat because the bar was so crowded!
By the time the music had ended and we headed back to our beds, I think we all were in agreeance when I say that it was a pretty amazing day. We weren't sure how tomorrow was going to top today but yet again, I think it did - for many different reasons though.
Monday - Burren and Cliffs of Moher tour, and Bus to Dublin
Another early morning - luckily our tour didn´t leave until 10 am today though! Our bus tour of the surrounding area of Galway can best be described as going "Where no tour bus has gone before!". We had a fantastic bus driver (more importantly tour guide) named paul who was very enthusiastic about giving us the best tour in Ireland - and I would say that he succeeded! There were six of us total on the tour that day (smallest he has had in a long long time) so we were able to take a smaller bus which to Paul meant he could take us down the really tiny country roads! In addition to our group of four, we also had a girl from Germany and a lady from France. Anyway, the smaller group and smaller bus also meant that we got to see some of the castles and things up close whereas on a "normal" tour you would only be able to drive by them. We got to get out and touch them! We also got to get out and walk on some cliffs that were not as big as the Cliffs of Moher, but more fun because there were no other tourists around. We spent some time going through the Burren which is a place that has attracted both artists and religous people searching for a place of solitude. Indeed, it still maintains some of that charm today. It was very foggy in the morning which gave the landscape and parts of the mountains that we could see, a very eerie appearance - I thought it made them look magical!
Part of our tour involved a walking tour in the burren of our other tour guide John´s family farm. Here we hopped off the bus slipped into a second coat and rainboots that John provided us with, and then we set out to explore his farm. Our first stop was at the barn where we got to pet a calf that was born 4 days ago! Boy was she a cutie! Momma was not so cute. After the calves, we crossed the fields and started our ascent up the mountain side. The broschure claimed that this was a gentle walking tour - but in ten pounds worth of extra layers, we were huffing and puffing during some of it! The mountain was also made of limestone rock which meant that climbing up it was like climbing the rocks they have around Carlyle Lake. They tended to not always stay stable and would wobble if you stepped on them the wrong way. John explained to us a little bit about the limestone and how it is vital to the landscape and is the key to why Ireland in green even in the wintertime. Ireland is a Carsonic landscape because of the limestone formations. Limestone is very soft which means water can more easily seep through and erode it to create water channels underneath the ground. Water can moderate temperature fairly well as can the rock so both of these help the ground maintain heat during the winter months and prevent the soil from freezing. This of course is a good thing for plant life! In fact, 70% of Irelands different types of vegetation can be found in the Burren.
After the walk concluded, we went back inside to deposit our boots and coats and had a chance to sit down and John served us a slice of his Mom´s apple tart that she had made fresh that morning! This was a fantastic treat especially since it was served with real cream!!! It was not quite as good as Gma Lucille´s apple pie but it made for a good substitute!
Aside from this walking tour, Paul also drove us to some cliffs along the seaside which as I mentioned before, were not the cliffs of Moher but really neat just the same!
For lunch, we stopped at a pub named Fitz´s where we ate seafood chowder and soda bread - yummy! After lunch, we made our way over to the Cliffs of Moher. This was a really neat place - one of the 7 natural wonders of the Modern World! - but we couldn´t see out to the Aran Islands like you normally would have been able to see on a non-cloudy day but we could at least see the cliffs when we looked from side to side which was better then nothing. I wasn´t really too upset about not being able to see the Aran Islands mainly because I don´t know enough about the Islands to know if I missed anything or not! One other cool thing worth mentioning about the Cliffs of Moher is that the visitor´s center looks like a hobbit hole! We didn´t have too much time to spend walking through the visitor´s center because we got distracted by the gift shop and ended up spending quite a lot of time in there. I bought a rugby sipo cap and a postcard!
On the way back to Galway we stopped at a really old Church where the oldest Celtic cross is at....neat.... and then further down the road we walked around and snapped photos at a monestary. I unfortunately don´t have this part of the trip on film because my camera died....I probably took too many videos which I know drains the battery a lot and yet I do it anyway!
Took the evening bus out of Galway when we got back and made our way to Dublin. At the Dublin bus station, we hailed a taxi and headed on to our final hostel of the Ireland trip.
..... Ok so I am going to go ahead and post this blog entry and I will finish up the adventures of exploring Dublin later on tonight...this will at least get you started on catching up in my life.... you will be more caught up in my life then I am right now!
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