Ireland: Dublin, Galway and Cork

Hello friends!

         Two weeks ago Tymothy and I headed to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day and to see my Pi Phi friend Nickie! Tuesday the 13th I left on a bus that was headed for London and the ride was roughly 6 hours long. After taking the bus, I took a high speed train to Birmingham where Tym was waiting. By this time it was close to midnight so we had a really late dinner and headed to bed!
         The next morning started at 5:30 AM when we had to be at our bus stop by 6:00 to catch a ride to the train station and then the airport. After a mile and a half, we finally made it to the bus stop and from there it was a short ride to the train station. We only had to wait a bit before the train came for the airport and we were checking in and headed to our terminal in no time! Unfortunately, I read the signs wrong and we ended up waiting the the Ryanair terminal instead of the AerLingus terminal where we should have been, but we figured it out and had just minutes to spare to run across the entire airport, or so it felt, until we got to the right terminal and everyone was just starting to board, woofta!
         The plane ride was short and we landed at 9:30 AM. From here we took a bus to the city center and walked to our hostel. Since it was our first time using a hostel, we were a little apprehensive about what to expect but when we opened the doors it was pretty much a really nice hotel for teenagers. Lots of neat furniture, places to hangout and fun graffiti paintings on the walls. We couldn't check in until 2:00 so we checked our bags into the baggage room and headed out to explore Dublin!
         The main things on our list were the Jameson Whiskey Factory and the Guiness Brewery. Turns out that the Jameson Whiskey Factory was right behind out hostel so we headed there first. The tour was short and to the point but it was interesting to see the process from when it was first created until now. At the end of the tour the tour guide asked for volunteers to taste test several whiskies and magically Tym applied for the job. He and eight other people were given a shot of scotch, Jameson and Jack Daniels and at the end had to say which one was their favorite. Everyone picked Jameson and the taste testers got diplomas that they passed the test. From here, Mr. Slightly Intoxicated and I headed to the Guiness Distillery. This tour was 7 stories tall and had lots and lots of information. It was interesting but said and had a lot of the same processes as the Jameson tour. We were able to try some Guiness and to put it politely, I was not a fan. Two of my least favorite tastes in one, alcohol and coffee. We had to choke down the little sample they gave us and then finished the rest of the tour. The final stage of the tour is in the Gravity Room. This is the 7th and highest floor and is completely glass. From here we could see all of Dublin and every the mountains in the distance; it was a beautiful view.

Outside the Guiness factory

        After these two tours we were hungry and headed out to find some food! We ended up at the city center where we found a pizza place and decided to go in. The side that came with our pizza, French fries :) Strange combination but I wasn't complaining! We ate and wandered around Dublin for a while. We walked through the Temple Bar district to find our bus station for our 7:00 am tour the next morning and decided to head back to our hostel for bed! It was a long day of traveling and the next morning was going to be an early one! Overall, Dublin is a nice city but it is rather small and surprisingly dirty. To get to either of the tours, we had to go through back alleys and on dirty sidewalks. But that was how everyone was getting to the tours, because that was the only way there! We thought it would be a lot bigger and a cleaner but at the same time, it had a smaller and more friendly atmosphere than some places we've been.
         The next morning we headed out early to catch our bus tour up to the Ciffs of Moher. It was a three hour bus ride from Dublin to Galway and we slept most of the way. Once in Galway, our tour for the day started. Throughout the tour, we were able to see several abandoned castles, the Burren which is a rocky landscape, "fairy circles", cows and sheep, and lots of the Irish landscape. Surprisingly, Ireland looks a lot like Iowa. It is very green and has lots of farmland and livestock. We tried to get a picture of the soil, which was so rocky I don't even know how people could plant in it, but the bus was moving too quickly. The people on our tour must have been straight out of the city because the bus driver would stop on the side of the smallest roads I've ever seen and everyone in the bus would literally fall over each other to take pictures of the calves and lambs in the field. Yes they were cute but it was much funnier to watch the people go crazy over livestock than it was to watch the livestock. The girl sitting in front of us shouted, look at the horse!! Tym and I looked and about wet our pants we were laughing so hard because it was a bull, with horns. Someone tell me, have you ever seen a horse with two horns before? After all of this we stopped for lunch at a local pub. While we were eating, the Gaelic Storm sound track was playing and I thought it was pretty neat since they come to Akron every year to perform! After lunch we headed up to the Cliffs of Moher and they were well worth the wait! Although it had been raining all day and was rather foggy, you could still see the cliffs decently well and we had a good time! Tym had trouble walking up the muddy cliffs in his "boat shoes" but we both got pictures with our flags, even though these little old ladies were yelling at us to get away from the edge and we weren't that close, and they turned out great! It was one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. Looking out over the cliffs, the next landmass is America and even though you of course couldn't see it, it was neat to think that home was in that direction! Since we had an earlier bus down to Cork than the rest of the people on our bus, we had to take a taxi, through the bus company, back to Galway. We were so exhausted and slept most of the two hour ride back. Every time I woke up our taxi driver was singing to slow Irish songs on a CD and he was so sweet but it was rather funny! We got to our bus in time, picked our seats and settled in for another 4 hour bus ride down to Cork.

Abandon castle by the sea. 

Ireland landscape

Happy Hooker boat?

Paintings from "fairies". 

Watch the truck approach....

Watch the truck try to pass....

Me=Not breathing. The truck was literally touching our bus! The roads in Ireland as soooo small!

It had my name on it!! Nothing ever has my name on it!

Cliffs of Moher!

         My friend Nickie studies at the University in Cork and she was kind enough to let us stay with her for three nights! It was so good to see her again and he boyfriend, Tyler, who we are also good friends with was visiting over his spring break and it was good to see him too!! Once we got in thursday night, everyone was ready to go out. Tym and I were exhausted but we went along anyway. Nickie gave us a tour of the area we were in as we walked along and found different pubs that we could dance in. We did not stay out long but we had fun dancing and catching up on the past several months!
         The next morning Tym and I were able to sleep in a bit and then head out to Blarney, Ireland. To get to Blarney we took the bus from Cork and it was only like a 20 minute ride. Unfortunately it rained all morning and the whole time we were at Blarney but I was still glad we went! Blarney is an old castle and fortress and is famous for the Blarney kissing stone. It is said to give you good luck, no surprise we area in Ireland, but it is supposed to give you an edge over all components and aspects of life. We toured around the grounds and head towards the castle. The Blarney castle is half in ruins, half still decently built. So we climbed the wet, slippery back stairs until we got to the top to kiss the stone. Tym is afraid of heights and the railings around the fortress weren't that great but he still climbed up there! Of course, I was told I had to kiss the stone first so I sat down and leaned my head and shoulders over an open 5 stories to the ground, and kissed the rectangular black stone. Came up and it was Tym's turn. Same thing, sit, lean, arc down toward the stone and come up with all the blood rushing to your face. Got our picture taken and headed to continue wandering around the castle grounds. Because it was raining, the grounds were pretty quiet so we spend another hour walking and taking pictures before heading back to the bus to return to Cork.
          Back in Cork, Nickie and Tyler made us dinner and we sat and talked about things back at home before heading out for the night. We didn't stay out very long on Friday night because we knew St. Patrick's Day was going to be a long one.

Leaning down to kiss the stone!

Tym kissing the Blarney stone!

Blarney Castle

    Saturday morning we headed to the St. Paddy's Day parade in the City Center. So many people were completely drunk and it was barely even 1:00 in the afternoon! Everyone s dressed all in green and decked out, where ever you looked it was like a mass of green with red hair or beards, most of them being fake. The parade was interesting because the weren't really floats, mostly people just walking or yelling or sometimes dancing. It was definitely different than a parade in the States but it was neat to see! After the parade we went to a nearby pub to watch the rugby game. Rugby is life in Ireland, just like football is life in America. In this pub, there was probably as many little kids as there were adults. It's just a commonality for kids to go into bars with their parents. Since they can't drink, they can go in but it was just weird to see so many ,intel kids everywhere! They were all dancing to the live band and all the adults were watching the rugby game. This is pretty much what we did all day. We pub hopped to watch different rugby games, danced to different live bands and met lots of Nickie's friends! By nighttime, there were so many people out that there was no room to move in any of the pubs so we decided to head home and pack up for our early ride back to Dublin in the morning.

Nickie, Tyler, Tym and I!

Tyler, Nickie, Marcus, Malvero (2 of Nickie's roomates), Tym and I. 

At the parade. 

People walking in the parade, which was the majority of the parade.

Giant whistle?

Nickie trying to see the parade from Tyler's shoulders!

Sunday morning our bus left at 7:00 and we walked past all of the morning cleaning crews cleaning up the mess from the night before. Some streets were so filled with garbage it was hard to walk sometimes! I felt bad for the clean up crew, that didn't look like a fun job. We got on our bus just fine and rode the four hours to Dublin to catch our plane back to Bimingham. Our flight went just fine and we made it back to Tym's in time to repack my bag, make dinner and sprint to the bus station for me to catch my bus home.
           Irish people love talking about fairies and leprechauns. The difference between Irish people and British people, Irish people have freckles and either black hair or red hair. Three is pronounced "tree" and "tank ye" means thank you. Nickie says that all of the Irish students on campus go home every weekend. No matter what, they all go home for the weekend, every weekend. Before I leave ye, our bus driver told us to always keep a little dirt underneath our finger nails so that the fairies can't capture us and take us to the underworld. Fairies are very cleanly people you see, so always keep a little dirt under yer nails so they don't take ye.

Soon to come are updates from the first half of our spring break trip! Woot!