Ireland!

This'll be a long one, folks... grab some coffee, a bowl of popcorn...

Ireland was so much fun!!!! I hung out with 4 Aussies and 2 Americans for the weekend. It was a Friday-Sunday trip, and we saw so much of Western Ireland. The first day we went to a whiskey distillery (and got free samples :) ) We visited Clanmacnoise, the ruins of a monestery where the River Shannon meets a gravel glacial road. It was really neat! Then we went to the Burren, which is a place in Ireland where the entire ground is covered with limestone...it almost looks like a lunar landscape. While we were there, we saw a burial tomb from about 6000 BC which is still standing. We also got to walk around a fairy ring and make a wish :) We drove through the mountains of Ireland... they aren't very high, but they are mountains nonetheless. The last sight of the day was the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs drop right into the Atlantic Ocean. It was actually sunny that day (I know, it surprised me too!!), so I have some amazing pictures of the sun over the Atlantic and the Cliffs. It was so beautiful! That night, we stayed in Doolin (the home of traditional Irish music), this tiny little town with 3 pubs and 2 hostels...literally. There was nothing else to this town!! But it was really great because we got to listen to some traditional Irish music. These 3 guys just sat at a table in the corner of the pub and played. I loved listening to them.

The next day we did a lot of driving. Our luck had changed and it was cloudy and rainy and cold, so that was all right. We crossed the River Shannon on a ferry and went to the town of Dingle. Dingle is a small penninsula town where they have a dolphin in the harbor that they've adopted as their own. We didn't get to see the dolphin, but we got to look around town a bit. Then we went on a drive around the penninsula. We drove on these tiny roads; they weren't even 2 lanes, this drive is meant for 1 lane of traffic. And of course, there were the tourists who decided to come around the drive the other way....so they meet a bus on this tiny road....it would not have been fun, I don't think. But the drive was really amazing. We got to see more cliffs, a beach, surfers (don't ask me what they were doing out there, it was too cold!) and more ruins. We stayed that night in Killarney. We ended up going out to a couple of pubs and a disco, which was awesome. I had a glass (not a pint, I couldn't handle a pint) of Guiness :) We got back late that night...

The next day we didn't do a whole lot because we had to get back to Dublin. But we did stop at Blarney Castle, and I kissed the Blarney Stone. That was an accomplishment for me, being you have to hang upside down out of a 4-story castle in order to do it! We also went to the Rock of Cashel, another monastic ruin. From here you had an amazing view of the countryside. Then we got back to Dublin early, and I got to the airport at about 6pm. My flight didn't leave until 10pm, so I had a long wait...

So that's my Ireland trip!! It was amazing and beautiful...totally worth it. The other fun event of the week was last night... we threw a surprise party for Jenna! It was her birthday and she had no clue what we were planning. Laura, Genna and Ashley said that they were going to take her to a movie. Instead of a movie, they took her to "Stomp!". So she was freaking out about that. While she was gone, Katie, Jenny and I decorated her room with 4 rolls of TP (I'll have pics later....it was crazy!!) and bought a cake and set up for a surprise party. So when they came home, Jenna had a surprise party waiting for her! She didn't suspect any of it. It was so cool, just a lot of fun with the bunch of us.

That's it for my adventures this week... I'll be going to Barcelona early Friday morning, so there's another long post coming up next week!!

Love to all!