Back to reality after a wonderful weekend in Ireland! I got up at 3:30am Friday to shower and catch a cab to the airport. The flight to Ireland was short and uneventful, and we in Du

blin by like 8am. We immediately dropped all of our stuff off at the hostel and began sightseeing. Dublin was COLD! Very Cold! Friday morning was windy and cold, but luckily it warmed up a little bit in the late afternoon.

We got breakfast in Temple Bar (the area, not the actual bar). We went to St. Stephens Green, which was beautiful! We went shopping down Grafton Street, and then went to Trinity College. We decided to pay for the entire tour, which was a great idea! Our tour guide was awesome, and very cute! We saw the Book of Kells, which was amazing, and crazy to think that it dates back to 800 AD. We also saw the Long Room in the old library, which was just breathtaking. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures. The Long room is 215 feet long and houses 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. The barrel-vaulted ceiling and woodwork were breathtaking. This library also has the oldest surving harp in Ireland, which is the countries symbol. We learned a lot of history and interesting facts about Trinity College and Dublin on the tour.

Then we went to Christ Church, which is Dublin’s oldest stone building. Most of the church has been renovated and rebuilt since the original church in 1038, but the basement is the original crypt.

After we finished touring Christ Church, we went to check in at our hostel and get cleaned up. Then we went to the Guiness Storehouse, which is celebrating their 250^th year. We did the full tour, which includes a complimentary pint of Guinness at the end! The tour was cool. I was kind of expecting a guide, but it was self-guided. Oh well. The best was the view from the bar on the 8^th floor (one of the tallest buildings in Dublin). So we got to see a view of the entire city, which was nice. None of us could choke down the entire pint. It was better than getting it in the states, but definitely not my beer of choice! I thought it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask if they had Bud Light instead…

After Guinness we went to The Brazen Head, Irelands oldest bar, for dinner. I got traditional Irish Stew, served with a side of potatoes. The stew had potatoes in it already, but whatever! Everything came with potatoes in Ireland I guess. We were then going to go meet one of Emily’s friends at The International bar for a Comedy hour. When we were waiting, someone came up to us and asked if we wanted to participate in the pub crawl that was about the start. Ten Euros for a free shot at 5 different pubs. Why not? So we got to tour Dublin the real way…through the pubs! I was shocked at how many pubs Dublin has. I knew the Irish were known for drinking… but there are more pubs and places to go out in such a small area, it was crazy! We met a lot of fun travelers and locals on our pub crawl, but we were so tired from being up since 3am, we called it an early night around 1am.

The next morning we had to get up at 5am to catch a train to Galway, which is on the west coast of Ireland. Coincidentally we picked the best weekend to be in Galway, “Races Weekend.” Ireland’s equivalent to the Kentucky Derby. We had no idea… We dropped our stuff off at the hostel, walked through the University Campus, went to the Galway Cathedral, got lunch near the main square, and did some shopping down the cute little streets. Galway was awesome. Such a small town, but really fun and cute…but cold! Even colder than Dublin. At least we had nice, sunny weather!

Then we headed out on a 2pm train to The Cliffs of Moher. The bus ride to the Cliffs was quite possibly the worst experience of my life. Besides the beautiful scenery, which included green EVERYTHING and random sheep and cows everywhere… the ride was rough. Imagine twisty, windy roads only big enough for 1 small European car. Then imagine 2 large coach buses trying to pass each other on these roads. Oh and the speed limit on these roads was 100, which is like 60 mph. So the buses would be flying down these country roads, come around a bend and see another car or bus and have to slam on the breaks. Not fun. I was pretty car sick by the end of the 2.5-hour bus ride. I had to do everything I could to make sure my lunch didn’t end up on the random person next to me. Oh, and the bus hit and killed a dog. That was sad. Surprisingly, we made it to the top to see the Cliffs of Moher. As miserable as I was on the bus, it was well worth the view. It was the most amazing, beautiful, breathtaking scene! We stayed and just walked up and down the edge of the cliff for a few hours. The wind was CRAZY, and luckily it didn’t blow us off the side. Sadly, we had to get back on the bus and go back. The bus ride home was 10 times worse than on the way there. I didn’t think that was possible.

We got back to Galway and wanted to find somewhere to eat and listen to live music. That was nearly impossible because Galway was CRAZY crowded! You couldn’t even walk on the streets. I guess everyone was back from the Races, and just partying and drinking in the streets. Everyone was super dressed up! Fancy dresses and heels. I think they considered it to be really warm, but I was glad I had on jeans, a long sleeve shirt, my north face, and a scarf. It was not skimpy dress weather! Regardless it was a lot of fun. The Irish know how to have a good time! It was nearly impossible to get a drink or navigate through the streets because of the crowds, but I guess we picked a good weekend. I don’t think Galway only gets that crowded once a year. While in the streets we ran into some random Irish guys who just happened to be going back to Dublin on the same train as us. The asked us if we were going back for the games? We didn’t realize that it was the best weekend to be in Dublin. They had the GAA Gaelic football games, which is a huge deal. One of them had 4 extra tickets to the games, so we planned to meet up the following day with them.

We got back to our hostel just in enough time to sleep for a few hours and then shower and catch a train back to Dublin. Dublin was pretty crazy for the games on Sunday! They had a bank holiday on Monday so everyone was partying through the extended weekend. We got lunch at this really yummy place in Temple Bar called From Mexico to Rome. Great mix of Italian and Mexican food- the perfect place for me! After lunch we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral (1192), went shopping, and then toured Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle was awesome! So beautiful, huge and detailed! The tour took us to an excavation underneath the current site of the castle. We could see one of the original towers, the original moat, and bridge for the castle, which dated back to 1204!

By the time we got done sight seeing, we were unable to meet the boys for the Football games. It would have been fun, but oh well. Maybe next time… We get to go to a football game in England in a couple weeks anyways.

After the castle we went to (the actual) Temple Bar and embarrassingly ordered a Bud Light. It was the first place we saw that even offered a Bud Light, and we were so thirty, so we HAD to order it. Sadly, it tasted nothing like an American Bud Light. So we looked on the back to find out that it was “brewed at the Guiness Storehouse at St. James Gate, under an exclusive contract with AB.” So much for a taste of home! We then went to Elephant and Castle to grab our last meal in Ireland L

We got on our 10:00 flight back to London, got in at 11:15, took an hour bus to Central London, and then a cab to our flat. What a trip! Ireland was fabulous! So much fun. It was much crazier and lively than I was expecting. Coincidentally, once again, we picked a good weekend to be there! Our trip was a total of 57 hours and 18+ hours was spent on a bus, in a taxi, on a plane, or on a train. From Thursday night through Saturday night I only managed to sleep a total of 11 hours. Crazy, I know, but it is MUCH cheeper to take the first or last plane and train of the day! Needless to say, I was completely exhausted when I got home on Sunday night!

I cannot believe I have already been here 3 weeks! This week, I am just catching up, finally going to the apple store, doing homework (including and paper and presentation this week), and then an all-day trip to Bath on Friday. Oh, and since I don’t have class on Tuesdays or Thursdays anymore, Sara and I went to the Victoria and Albert museum Tuesday as well as the British Beer Festival. That was so fun. Lots of good beer to try, and I had my first Perry, which is like a cider, but made from pears. It was really yummy. Almost too good!

Tomorrow we are going to the Tower of London! Jen and a bunch more of our friends get in on Friday afternoon, so we are spending the weekend in London with them. Talk to you soon!