Luck of the Irish

Last weekend I went to Ireland with Mary and Grace! It was a pretty cool trip, we were in Ireland for 2 full days, plus one evening.  Our flights were pretty uneventful, we had no connections, so that was even better.  Unfortunately, we had to take a bus to the airport in Santander, and since we paid for the cheapest bus, it took like 3.5 hours each way.  That kinda sucked, but we left a lot of wiggle room (since I can't function without wiggle room), so we made our flights fine.  We even got stamped in Dublin and Santander!  So my passport now has the US (from when we came back from Italy), Madrid, Santander (twice), and Ireland!

Anyways, we got into the airport around 6 or 7pm, I can't remember which because we had to change our clocks back an hour.  We took a bus to the hostel, and found it relatively easily from the bus stop.  After dropping off our stuff and picking up a ton of pamphlets, we went out to eat dinner.  We ended up eating at this pub that was more like a restaurant than a pub - I had a bacon burger (so good) and stout!  We went to bed early, since we were exhausted and had a 3-hour walking tour in the morning.

Burger and Guinness :)

The walking tour started at a restaurant a little bit away from our hostel, and it was a bunch of hostel-stayers, mostly girls our age, on the tour.  It was free, which was awesome, and our tour guide was awesome.  He was, apparently, trying to be an actor, so he was very animated and spent a good amount of time acting our some historical scenarios on the tour.  Apparently the word "kreick" (?), pronounced like "crack" means to have a good time, which he had to explain to us.  "The Americans always think I mean the drug. But it's just that we like to drink and have a good time.  Not like drugs.  Not, 'drugs! drugs all over my face!!!'"  Trust me, it was funny, especially with the Irish accent.  Anyways, the tour was about 3 hours, though we stopped in a pub for drinks (Mary, Grace, and I didn't have anything - it was 11am!!) for about a half hour.

Dublin "Castle"

All that's left of the old castle

Temple University, founded in the 1500's

After the tour, the three of us went souvenir shopping.  I spent so much money in Ireland on gifts.  I even bought myself one of those Irish rings with the heart in the hands, called Claddagh, and I really liked it.  I got pretty attached to it, in the two days I had it.  Like the ass I am, I left it in the hostel and didn't realize until we were on the shuttle to the airport.  I didn't go back for it, even though we had time...it wasn't worth missing my plane.  The thing is though, I never buy myself nice things and I really wanted something to remember my semester by.  And there's nothing that's special to Spain that I really want... It's weird.  I only had it for two days, but I notice it missing from my finger...  I'm just really disappointed in myself.  I wanted something nice to remember this semester and my experiences, and now I have nothing for myself from Ireland or Spain.  :(

Fish 'n' Chips!

Temple Bar: The neighborhood with all the Irish Music and Pubs :)

The Spire of Dublin

Crossing a bridge designed by the people who designed the Titanic...

That night we had some difficulties deciding where to eat, since we wanted to go somewhere with live music and the first place we went was having technical difficulties with their sound.  We ended up going somewhere were one guy was playing guitar and singing popular songs, like The Beatles and other classics, but that's not what we wanted - we wanted traditional Irish folk music.

Half-pint? I seriously hope so!

Again, we went to bed early so that we could get up early - really early - for our next day: a day trip to Kilkenny and Glendalough, two small towns/villages a couple of hours outside of Dublin.  We also went to some caves close to Kilkenny.  It was a pretty cool trip.  Glendalough is where there are some ruins and one of the only natural forests in Ireland.  They also have "mountains" (hills, compared to Asturias).  And we drove past a mountain called Sugarloaf, like the apartments near Amherst!  Anyways, I'll just show pictures instead of talking about it.

Pictures through the bus had a weird coloring, but the bright yellow flower is what they make canola oil from. It's called Rape Seed. True story.

:)

Entrance to the cave!

One of the only good pics I got in the cave - my flash is broken :(

Kilkenny Castle 

Another view of Kilkenny Castle

More sheep than I've ever seen in my whole life live in Ireland.

Heading to the Wicklow mountains where Glendalough is...

Sugarloaf!

Wicklow Gap

Glendalough

We got back that evening around 6:30pm, so we went to dinner.  And this time we found fiddles!  It was really good.  Reminded me of contra dancing and bluegrass.  It was so relaxing to listen to during dinner.  I was in a very happy place - and I didn't even have Guinness that night!  I was so tired, if I had drank Guinness I would have been asleep at the table.  Anyways, we went back to the hostel after dinner, ordered a shuttle for our early flight, went to bed, got up, packed (I left my ring like dumbass), got in the shuttle van (only mildly sketchy), and went to the airport.  I looked for more rings in the airport, but they were more expensive, and I'd already spent money and it had been a waste...  It's just so sad.  It wouldn't be the same to buy one in the states, and I don't know what else I even would want for myself.  Sigh.  Now I'm just going to settle on something.  (Yes, I'm well aware I'm taking this too seriously, but I really really liked that piece of jewelry).

The Old Storehouse Pub :) Good food, good music, good times.

Our flight was uneventful as far as I can remember.  We had a bunch of time in Santander before our bus back to Oviedo, so we had lunch and sat around outside.  Only kiiiinda counts as having been there...  The bus home was also about 3.5 hours, but I tried to sleep, since the last stop was Gijón, so if I missed it, it'd be a €2.20, 20 minute bus ride to Oviedo.  This week I've been pretty busy with work (I know, surprised as I am?).  Classes are wrapping up in the next two weeks and I had an application due back at UMass on Wednesday.  I can't believe I'm almost done here.  Honestly, I had thought that in May I would be spending every other afternoon at the beach, but the weather has been horribly dreary and no where near warm enough.  Pretty depressing.  I have 2 more weeks of class, 2.5 more weeks in Oviedo, and 4 more weeks in Spain.  I just don't know what I'm going to do when I get home.  Don't get me wrong, I really want to be home, but the US is sooooo different from Europe, it's going to be hard to readjust.  Anyways, I guess we'll see!

*Besos*