We Have Irish Adventures

I think that this is a good time to note that I haven't watched any TV in the soon to be 2 months that I have been away from home. In the face of hearing about how funny the new episodes of the Office are, I think that this shows that I have a really stong character.

Ok, now we can move on.

I did nothing all last week (like I literally did not leave the center except for like two times when I made the trek to buy more sprite. with assistance). But then I miraculously got better in time to go to Ireland! Yay!

So then we went to Ireland.

I guess I'll give you some more details, because it was amazing.

So our adventure started at the Notting Hill tube station, where we rode to the Victoria station and caught the Gatwick express to the Gatwick airport. There we sat on the floor until we could check in, and then we sat in chairs while our plane got delayed because of the crazy Ireland wind.

But don't worry, because we totally got there. Our first order of business we finding our hostel, the Abraham House, which was a lot easier to do this time because we had the foresight to bring a map with us. Maps really do help, by the way. After that we hopped on the bus to go see Jekyll and Hyde the musical, which we bought tickets to online before. Of course, we totally took the bus like twice as far as we were supposed to so we got off at some random place and had to walk towards where we imagined the theater to be, because we had driven off the map. It really didn't take that long though; mostly it was just funny. Jekyll and Hyde was incredible, despite the fact that we were pretty much sitting in the pit (where the instruments are, in case you didn't know). We did get the added benefit of making friends with the base player and the percussion section, though. They were nice. And the actual play was fabulous, and the music was amazing. All of the people had perfect voices. The play was also a little scary before we walked back through Dublin to the hostel (we decided not to attempt the busses again). Walking turned out to be a great idea because we were able to see a good amount of the city, which I loved. It turns out that unlike all the little cities in England, Dublin actually has a night life too so it was fun. Also, we discovered that the map was definitely not made to scale, so while it looked like the theater was 20 miles away, it was only like 20 minutes.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we boarded and got off of the plane we got to actually walk on the tarmac. Awesome.

And just to let you know there were 8 of us in the group, and we were travelling on our own. And we did a fabulous job of planning everything, if I might say so myself.

So after a night of really cold sleep (the window wouldn't close! I slept with my coat over my face! I'm sure you should pity me) we woke up early (even when we're on our own we wake up early. lame.) and walked to the bus stop where we were picked up for the Wild Wicklow Tour! Ok, I am definitely someone who is very skeptical of all things touristy, so my first impression of the trip was that it was probably just a way to suck money out of tourists and that it would be lame. But I was very wrong, because it was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. Our coach driver was a fantastic Irish guy who looked like he prbably hadn't been out of college too long, and he was really funny. On the way out of Dublin he told us all about the history of the city and drove us past some of the sites, like U2's recording studio and whatnot and told us a bunch of funny local stories and nicknames for places. In addition to being entertaining it was great because I learned a lot more about Irish history, so it really made me appreaciate the whole trip a lot more. Like did you know that in the 1980's Ireland was considered a third country? Ireland definitely has a really rough history, and you can tell that they have come a long way. Anyways, back to the tour. So our first stop on the tour was the coast, where we got to get out and walk around and it was gorgeous. As usual we took pictures. So, crazy detail, there were tons of old people swimming in the freezing cold Irish Sea. I touched it, but had absolutely no desire to immerse myself in it despite the fact that it was really pretty. Other highlights of the day trip (the bus tour was from 9 to 5) include stopping at the top of the hill/mountain to look at Guiness lake where we did not have whiskey (everyone else did. I think 90% of the past times in Ireland involve whiskey), stopping in a little town where we ate lunch on rocks next to the water, going to the bog, exploring the ruins of a monestary and such. Once again we were so lucky because the weather was great. It wasn't warm or anything, but it was sunny and there was no rain involved. Apparently this is quite the feat because it rains 275 days a year in Wicklow on average.

That night we explored Dublin and just walked around and stuff. We wanted to go somewhere and get an authentic Irish meal, but we totally ended up going to 50's style American diner. At first I thought that was kind of lame sicne we were in Ireland, but once we walked in I immediately changed my mind. We've been gone for almost two months now, and I LOVE Europe but a taste of home felt a lot better than I realized it would. Especially after being sick this past week and realizing that all of my comfort foods weren't here. For example, there is no chicken noodle soup in England anywhere. Or jello. And KFC doesn't have mashed potatoes, which I think is a crime. So my first actual meal after being sick ended up being a cheeseburger and oreo milkshake while listening to 50's music. It was perfect. Then we walked around more before going back to the hostel.

The next day was all Dublin. We all got up early and hit the streets, where the weather had spontaneously decided to be ridiculous. As in it was pouring and the wind was trying to blow us off the sidewalk. Nevertheless we decided to walk around and see all the sights in London. It was fantastic. We ran around on the streets to all of the random old sights, where we would quickly drop the umbrellas and smile. Ashley was a group photographer and managed to take group shots of all of us, with her in it, on all occasions. We have us and the old Dublin walls, us and St. Patrick's, us and Chrsit Church... It was really funny. Ashley and Dassily decided to pull out their umbrellas because it was pouring, but me and Talyn were too lazy, despite the fact that we were carrying our umbrellas in our backpacks the entire time. It was a really good call on our part though, because even though we were soaked we had the opportunity to laugh at Ashley and Dassily wrestle with their umbrellas, which were flipping inside out every two seconds. I'm pretty sure umbrellas go to Dublin to die. It was much better to embrace the wet, because you were going to get wet anyways. So we wandered around and then met up with Linsday and Megan, who had gone and paid to see the Book of Kells and then we walked to Kilmainham Gaol (jail spelled the European way). Walking there was an adventure, because once again the map was not to scale. The fact that it was so far away really shouldn't have been that big of a surprise, because it's not like people want jails right in the middle of your city. Anyways when we finally made it there, soaking wet, and it was really cool. The whole tour was really interesting. The jail was built in the late 1700's and was in operation until the 1920's and is intertwined with a lot of Irish history because it was used during a lot of their wars for ?Independence and stuff. There were a lot of political prisoners there, and exectutions and stuff. And it just looked really looked and sounded creepy. But that was really cool. Then we went to the Irish museum of archeology, where we got to see the Bog Bodies, which are crazy. Apparently back when the Vikings came or something they would bury bodies three feet deep in the bog (we learned this on the bus tour) because they believed it would keep their enemies souls from being able to go to heaven, but what it actually did was preserve the bodies perfectly until they were found recently. They still have skin and everything. So we looked at them. It was really weird because you could even see facial expressions. So we did that and then we just hit up a couple of souvenir stores before heading back to the bus to get to the airport. At the airport our plane was once again delayed, this time for an hour and a half. I can't really blame them though because the wind was insane.

So I think that's everything that happened, but it probably isn't. But I'm tired so that's all your getting.

Just to let you know, today was nice. Since I didn't leave the center at all this week I needed to go to three galleries today for humanities, so I went to all of these places and then walked aimlessly around London just because I could. I loved being in Ireland, but it is always so nice to be back in London. And the center bed always seems a thousand times better after being in the hostels.

Um, that's the end. Cheers.

Wait, I have a question. When exactly am I supposed to write papers when we have something going on every single day this week? Any volunteers to do it for me?

Phase One: the Tube. Notice how we're still nice and clean.

Waiting to check in at Gatwick

The Beauteous Irish Coast

Us on the CoastA Sample of the Irish RoadsMountains and Smiling PeopleLunch. It was a delicious Apple.

We're just so cool.

We're all about the ruined cities.Prettyness.

The creepy hallways.

We're hardened criminals. Ok, maybe I'm very soft.

Outside the Jail

So the McFlurry's are better in Ireland than England, but not quite as good as in the states.

Enjoying life at the Dublin airport and attempting to be studious.