Ireland!

*they say mother earth is breathing with each wave that laps the shore
her soul rises in the evening just to open twilight's door
her eyes are the stars in heaven watching o'er us all tonight
but her heart, it is in ireland, deep beneath the emerald isle*

Well, in the beginning of this week, my mom and I's blissful weekend in Bath came to an end, and she had to go home, so I was a little blue. But it was a pretty good week- I did a presentation in my LMU class, and felt like it went well.

But the best thing about this week- I went to Ireland! It was so amazing! Me, Chelsey, Katie, Hilary, and Whitney flew out Thursday night and arrived in Dublin around 8:00. We went to an Irish pub, tried some Guiness (they're like obsessed with it there because Dublin is where it's made), and checked into our hostel. This was my first true hostel experience and let me just say...yuck. It was a 20-person dorm room, and I had this creaky bed with bed bugs. It was very odd-I slept with all my stuff around me, holding onto everything.

The next morning our Shamrocker tour began- basically, these two girls who are Irish take us on a tour bus around everywhere. Very cool- and not a bad way to travel at all! Our tour group was about 40 people, ranging from age 19-30-ish. It was really cool to talk to everyone- they were from Germany, Canada, Italy, New York, etc etc.

One of our tour guide, Ivonne, was really nice. She even went out to dinner with me and my friends. She was about Kate's age (my sister, Kate) and has just been traveling around for like the past 5 years. With no wish of settling down. It's strange- I totally don't have that nomad spirit in me, but it was interesting to talk to someone who did.

Our other tour guide, the head guide, Karen, was very annoying. She like was happy happy all the time, but it kinda seemed fake, because one on one, she was very unfriendly. And she would scream into the microphone to wake us up when we were sleeping, and then laugh. It was so bizarre. She'd like get mad at us for sleeping, and want us to sing songs and play games. We were like, lady. Give it a rest. Oh well...can't have everything, I suppose.

Some of the cool stuff we saw:

*Blarney Castle- Gorgeous castle, with a beautiful forest all around it. Got to kiss the Blarney stone- supposedly gives you the gift of eloquent speech. We'll see, I guess! It was scary doing it though, you basically hang up upside down 300 ft in the air and lean backwards. Yikes. It was funny though- this little old granny did it, so I figured how bad could it be? Went up the Wishing steps too...it's funny, Irish people are very, very superstitious. Like some of them actually believe in fairies and all that.

*The Rock of Cashel- Ancient old fortress. Very cool- looked very Lord of the Rings.

*The Cliffs of Moher- probably the most stunning views I've seen in my life. The Atlantic Ocean crashing up on these huge rocks- wow. Plus, we went at sunset. It was amazing.

*Irish Beaches- This was crazy- we went to this warm, sunny, sandy beach in Ireland- I never really thought about them having those- but it was so cool! We all just played around in the water, and it was such a nice respite from foggy, rainy London town.

*Irish disco- This was funny- it was actually much nicer than some American clubs. There's no smoking allowed, and it was this big group of us from the tour all dancing together, so it was really fun! Chels can bust a move- her mom's a dance teacher, so she's danced like her whole life, and she just went crazy- it was hilarious.

*Clomacnoise- The ruins of this ancient monastery. It was really cool- Celtic crosses everywhere, amazing views of the countryside.

*The Most Westerly Point of Ireland- This was cool- it was commemorated with this big statue of Christ on the cross. In the Old World, it was the most westerly point of the world.

Also, I didn't know that there's an Irish language? Like some people actually speak Gaelic. I knew it existed, but I didn't know people still spoke it. It was pretty cool. All the road signs had the other language on it as well. Our nice little taxi driver on the way to Dublin airport told me that they have to take the Irish language in schools, and a lot of jobs require that you speak it.

Overall, it was a great trip. The Irish people on a whole, are just very unusual. Far more different than American to British. It was great place to visit, but it would be hard to adjust living there. Probably the most beautiful countryside and beaches I've ever seen. I'm so glad it all worked out, and that we're all home safe and sound, but now I am pretty tired. Our flight and ride home got done around one o'clock last night. Ugh. Darn late flights being cheaper!

So glad I got to go back to my roots. Here's to Ireland!
Cheers!
Love you all
Everlee