So a couple of days before we are supposed to take our train to Barca, we got our student identity cards for the Universidad de Valencia. (SOOO BA) anyways, then we look at our tickets and notice that they gave us the 2 tickets for the 21st instead of the 31st… so went to the train station. The jerk working there tells us that it’s our fault. It’s past the expiration date… (ya, because we are leaving tomorrow- not the 21st obviously) and then we had to buy 2 new train tickets. Then since our friend Angela had bought them with her joven card instead of an ISAC card, he made us pay the difference for this, including our ticket that was already correct. And we were not happy campers.
Then they day comes to leave. We arrive at the train station early, because we want this trip to go as smoothly as possible. We’re sitting there waiting when all of a sudden our train says “Cancelada por Huelga”… hmm. Is our train cancelled? What does Huelga mean? Then the whole screen goes crazy and all the departures say it… they can’t all be cancelled? Then a lady from Edinbourgh, Scotland comes up to us and tells us that ‘huelga’ means strike. So… this really sucks!
We look at our train tickets once more, and then realize that the guy made 2 of our tickets for Barcelona Sants, and one for Barcelona Franco… Well people are getting pissed everywhere. No trains are leaving. People are stranded. Camera crews are rolling in and start filming everything going down. We are not going to get to Barca, and if we do, someone isn’t on the right train. There are huge long lines for everything since people want their money back now, or information about what’s going down. It’s just not a good situation. After a bit though, our train to Barca is no longer cancelled.
So we get in line for Customer Service, they had a lot of people working, and the line was moving faster. We needed to know what would happen if we were going to 2 different train stations. We finally got to the front of the line, and the guy seemed happy to give someone some good news. He said it’d be no problem and we’d all just get off at Barcelona Sants. Whew!
We anxiously waited a little longer. Hoping our train wouldn’t be cancelled again. Then we boarded. Then the train started moving. We were good.
5 hours later, we arrive in Barca. (After pretending we were in Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express : )
Then the fun began… = /
We had to get to our airport Barcelona Rues (thank you Ryanair) which was 2 hours outside of Barca.
So we ask this guy in a green suit jacket how to get to Rues… he tells us to go to Plaza Espanya. Which at least we know Barca, so it was a 15 min walk. We get there, ask the police. They tell us it’s a stop a couple over. We ask the bus driver, she says it’s the next bus over. We go into a 5 star hotel… they look some stuff up online, confirm with each other, give us a metro map and tell us to go the Central Bus Station. Good thing I know how to work the metro… so we get to the Central Bus Station. (Let’s see, we had arrived at 10pm, and it was now around 1ish.) There was one window open. The guy tells us we need to go to Girona. But isn’t that a different airport? No, they’re the same- the window opens at 3am and bus leaves at 3:30. (Our flight is out of Rues at 6:10am… if it’s an hour and a half ride, we’re cutting it close, especially since we don’t think Girona and Rues are actually the same.)
We ask a janitor. He says they are the same… We still don’t believe it.
Then a younger security guy comes up the stairs, slightly out of breath, sees us ladies, decides to come over and chat. He’s like “My job… up and down, up and down, all night…” We reply, “We have a question for you…” He’s like, “The first one’s free, the second- 10,000 Euro.” (Dear lord)
We ask him if Girona and Rues are the same… then he laughs at us and says “No!” We then show him our plane tickets, he takes them and disappears for 5 min…
He comes back and then says that we can do one of two things… 1. Buy a new plane ticket. 2. Go to Barcelona Sants, and there should be buses there going to Rues… but the metro is closed and since it’s a ways away, we’ll have to take taxis but since it’s now 1 something in the morning, it’s going to be expensive.
So we tell him our whole ordeal so far… including a “JODER!” (bad word in Spanish) He lost it! Haha. And then some girls come up to him and ask him if he speaks English… (we have only been speaking in Spanish to all these people mind you) He gives them the hand, and tells them to hold on.
Then he continues talking to us only to tell us that he’d go along, but he’d still be working at 6 in the morning… (We then dubbed him ‘Best Friend’)
The metro was closed like he said. (I thought Barca was the city that never sleeps…) Then we took a cab to Barcelona Sants. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be, and we rode past the Gaudí house again.
We get to the train station, and they are closing down. (It’s almost 2 now) So we run in, ask another security guy--- (they seem to know what’s actually up.) He tells us that yes, go to the left and then around the corner a ways there are buses that take you to Rues. (We dubbed him ‘Smart guy that knows things’)
And he was right. We went in to this little room, and the lady said that the bus for Rues would be there at 3:45am.
We go outside to sit around a bit--- there was a waiting room, but it was all full. Ya… there were like 5 security guys walking paces around the place. There were fights going on left and right. Creepers everywhere. (It’s Barca.)
Then the waiting room opened up, so we sat in there. Then two guys that looked like they were up to no good came in and sat behind us…
Then a security guy (whom we dubbed “Papa Barca”) comes in, asks them where they are going, what they’re doing here… they had no answers and then Papa Barca kicked them out. He then returned and asked us which bus we were catching… we told him Rues. He’s like you’ve got awhile then… guard your belongings well. (Keep it secret, keep it safe.)
Then 10 min later he comes and says “sorry to do this to you, but I’ve got to kick you guys out… we’re closing down- I’m really sorry.”
Soooo we are now homeless on the streets of Barca. And we have only 2 hours before our bus comes….
Jenielle suggests we go into a bar to stay warm. So we coffee and sit and put on our layers. It is closing in a few minutes.
There is a couple in the corner, and they sound Irish. I tell Jenielle that she should strike up a conversation with them when we officially get kicked out. They were layering up too.
We get kicked out, and then Jenielle asks them if they’re from Ireland. They say yes, they’re from Cork, and that they were imagining a Romantic trip in Barca, and instead were spending the night on the streets… we then told them that’s Barca for you. And then that we were studying in Valencia, which was way better, that Barca is really touristy and the people aren’t very nice. We told them the good things to see in Barca during the day, and then they told us about Ireland. : ) It was making us really excited!
So we chatted for an hour and a half with them on a street corner, and finally it was time to catch our bus. We bid them farewell and started walking…
So there are these metal things on the sidewalks to cover man-holes, and it was 3:30 in the morning. (I had almost been up for 24 hours straight now) and the metal things can be a little unstable sometimes, but nbd. Well as I walked across this one, I thought it was going to shift a little, but be fine…
Next thing I knew I was walking through the ground. Face planting it. My hand hurt like a mother. I didn’t even want to look at my shin. I didn’t know if my shoe was on my foot or in the ground. My foot was tangled in wires. It was a breaking point. We had made it this far… and this happens.
Emily and Jenielle help me out, and they half carry me across the street to the bus. Papa Barca is there, and with a smile tells us that we can get on our bus now…
We get on, and go to the cool kids seat in the back so we can sit and dump our backpacks next to us.
Then Dr. Jenielle gives me some pain killers or something. Tells me to eat something- all I had were sour straws, an orange, and trail mix- I went with the trail mix. And then I dozed in and out of sleep for the next hour and a half until we arrive at Rues.
(So the whole walking through the ground thing is actually hilarious now, and there is an indent in my shin from falling- prolly chipped off some bone- and I have a beautiful bruise, but at the time it was horrible. I just laugh about it now… makes a good story even better.)
At Rues we booked it through security. I ate my orange for ‘breakfast’, and then we went through customs? These guys looked and looked at our passports. Stamped it. And then we boarded the plane.
Note: Ryanair is so cheap because they have advertisements every 5 min. food. Beverages. Smokeless cigarettes. Perfume. Over and over again. It’s obnoxious.
But we all zonked out, and woke up over Ireland! : )
When we got to the airport, we went through customs. Got a green stamp! : )
Then we took the bus into town. When we got there, we walked around the streets a bit and then decided to start our trek to Killarney.
The bus ride was pretty long, and I slept for most of it. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was gazing out the window at the green splendor before my eyes. We had an hour break in Limerack where Emily and I each bought a liter of REAL MILK and downed it in less than 10 min in a park filled with daffodils. (I really want to try the gallon challenge now upon arrival in the US- haha.)
Then we got back on the bus, and rode on to Killarney. We got to Killarney around 5ish I think, and after making an emergency run to McDonald’s for the bathroom, we set out to find our hostel. (We were really smart though, and Google-Maped everything, so it wasn’t too difficult to actually find it.)
We were staying at a place called ‘Paddy’s Palace’ in a 14 person room… Jenielle and Emily booked this, and not going to lie, I was a little nervous for this p(a)lace.
We get there, and the guy at the desk seems pretty cool- an Aussie. We were in room number one.
So we go into our room and low and behold there are quite a few people in there. I claim my bed and not even a minute later, a girl from across the room comes over and says, “Oh my God! Do I know you? You look really familiar…” (I was confused.) “Do you go to Luther College!? This is going to sound really weird but freshman year did you have really long hair and then go with Madeline Allen to chop it all off, and then she put the pictures up on Facebook? It’s really weird, but I remember you had really pretty hair, and I remember that and recognize you… “
And that I how I met a fellow Luther student in Killarney, Ireland at Paddy’s Palace. Her name, Sonja Arneson-Ecklund! : )
Then after that went down, all of us girls in the room decided we were going to go for a walk in the Killarney National Park before it got really dark. So we did, and played the whole get to know you game. It was fun. Besides Sonja, I also met Britney who goes to Concordia Moorhead- (the two of them are actually doing the Luther Malta program this semester--- Oh wait! That’s the first place I’m going once my program is done in Valencia, and now I have new friends to hang out with!!!) and we also met this girl Haley, who is a very nice sweet girl who doesn’t go to a real school with majors or GPAs and is spending the year learning to play the Irish flute and speak Gaelic which oh wait, only 3.2 of the Irish population can even speak. Ya….
Nonetheless, we had fun wandering around the wilderness.
I was happy to be in nature again. VERY HAPPY.
Killarney reminded me a lot of home. Small town. Nature. I could walk down the middle of the streets until a car came (granted it was coming from a different direction- which was confusing at first but…) It was cute. It was quaint. I loved it.
Then it was dark out, so we found our way out of the park, and then went to a store and bought food for dinner. Emily and I split a pasta thing for 2E, and then I split a thing of white cheddar cheese with Sonja. And once again, Emily and I bought REAL MILK! : )
We all went back to the hostel, and then told our Aussie friend that we all wanted to do the Ring of Kerry tour together the next day. So he booked it for us. Then we cooked dinner and watched a Paddy Wagon get tipsy watching Monster House. It was fun.
Then we went to our room- there were more people there now, but it was all good. We all somehow went to bed at relatively the same time… and had no problems with the bathroom. It was nice.
Day 2: Ring of Kerry Tour
So we woke up earlyish and got ready. Went and ate our free breakfast. Toast with real butter. Jam. Mardrine. Nutella. Corn Flakes, and you guessed it… REAL MILK! : )
(The wonderfulness of Paddy’s Palace was just growing. I didn’t mention above, but we only paid 11 Euro to stay there for 2 nights. Buy one night, get the second night free…5.50 Euro a night… and we ate/stole that much in food….)
Sonja brought her bag down to breakfast, so by the end we had about a loaf of bread in there… it was our lunch.
Then after we all ate about 2 bowls of cereal and 4 pieces of toast, with 3 glasses of REAL MILK : ) for Emily and I, we headed downtown for our tour.
The first stop on our tour was a place called the Red Fox Inn. Famous for their Irish coffees. Jenielle, Britney and I each had one. They were delicious…
Then we stopped a little ways up the road to take some pics.
Drove on through the beautiful countryside with the tour guide adding some information every now and then. When he didn’t feel like talking, he would play Irish music. My favorite song he played? “My Heart is in Ireland!”
Then we were by the ocean… I ask a guy that is sitting across from us to take our picture. (He’s in our hostel too.)
Then we stopped in a town called Waterville (I believe) for lunch. It’s on the ocean, and since we had our stolen bread and cheese we decide to eat lunch by the ocean instead of going into the restaurant.
We start to make our sandwiches… and then it’s sprinkling. I put on my sweatshirt. Then we walk towards the ocean some more. All of a sudden it is POURING rain. We are getting doused in water--- and my sandwich is pretty sad looking. So we sprinted back to the restaurant. Jenielle decides to go inside (Britney and Haley had gone in to eat) and Sonja, Emily and I sat in the porchish area.
I ate my soggy sandwich. : (
Then I decided to go and use the facilities… there was a fire inside, so I planned on saying hey to the girls afterwards.
When I came back from the bathroom, there were two guys sitting with them too (it was a cool kids booth) and one of them saw me, moved over, and told me to come in and sit down. (This is our photographer from earlier)
They ask me where I was… I explained the ocean. My soggy sandwich. And why I was shivering so much. Then they introduce themselves. The one guy was Rueben, he was from the Canary Islands. The other was Rob, he’s Irish.
They all had ordered food, and then Rob asks me if I’m going to get anything. I said no, I ate my sandwich and I was just there to dry off a bit. He then asks if we’re on a budget. Yes, yes we were.
So Rob then proceedes to make me eat his fries. And his fish. And more fish. (It was really good too!)
Then everyone was done and the guys wanted to see the ocean. So Jenielle, Britney and I went with them. We started to walk to the ocean, and then decided we wanted to visit Charlie Chaplan (when he was kicked out of the US apparently he spent the rest of his days in this village). It started pouring again though.
So we ran in the rain. Down the middle of the road. Rob took some pics of us and Charlie with his fancy camera. (He said he’ll send them to us.)
Then it stopped raining. The sun came out. We walked to the ocean. And then we were just chilling there. At one point we saw a lady from our tour running back towards the restaurant direction. We take a couple more pics. Oh wait, what time are we supposed to get back on the bus? Ya… we ended up running back to the bus. Apparently everyone watched us run the stretch there and the all waited for us…. Whoops.
Then we drove on. Stopped to see a fairy circle. Creepy. (For those of you who don’t know your Irish folklore, fairies are bad- like banshees. Mess with fairy circles, don’t be surprised if you die soon after…)
We saw some other spectacular views, and then stopped in the village of Sneem. I bought my claddaugh ring there. We once again were missing some people and waiting for them… who were they? Rueben and Rob. They went and got ice cream. Emily and I gave them the slow clap as they came on the bus- haha.
Then our last stop of the day was a beautiful view called “Lady’s View”. I took some pics, and then was taking my mental picture (It was raining, so everyone else had gone onto the bus)when a voice out of nowhere goes “What do you reckon?” What? I was confused… and I did not know what he was talking about… As it turns out, he was asking about the view, which I thought was gorgeous (hence the mental picture). But that was my first lesson in Irish vocabulary.
Then I spent the rest of the bus ride laughing, because over lunch Rob and Rueben told us their theory about how our tour guide was actually German due to the way he said his “r”s. So they were critiquing it across from us. Sooo funny. Haha.
Then we got back to Killarney. It was after 5pm and we left at 10, so it was pretty dec.
We asked the guys what they were doing, and they were going back to the hostel, and then prolly going to have tea. We were going food shopping.
Another reason Ireland is wonderful—they had my Rhubarb yogurt. When I got back to the hostel, I had to explain my odd obsession with Rhubarb yogurt to the guys… while Rueben was awkwardly showing Rob some stretches on the floor. (Rob is spending his break biking around Ireland- hence the stretches)
Us girls lost it then though.
Then Rueben left. Rob was reading a book. Emily, Jenielle and I decide to play Erase Una Vez since we didn’t get to play it in the airport as planned. Haley played with us as well- in English, so we kept translating things back and forth. Sonja just watched us from her bunk bed.
(She was really nervous for her race that her and Britney were running in a couple of hours. Ya… they ran a race. On Good Friday. In Ireland. For the Special Olympics. Very very cool!)
Then we went down and made dinner. There were some Aussies in the kitchen making fun of our accent, so Janielle being Janielle tells one of them that he looks like a Jonas Brother… it was so funny. I was literally on the floor laughing. He did look like Nick though, and then he asked if it was a compliment or an insult. Then Jenielle explains that all the girls in the US are in love with the Jonas Brothers…. Well the girls that are under the age of 15. So Emily adds in “So… if you’re a pedophile.” Then all of his Aussie friends lost it too then, and started calling him a JoBro. It was great… especially since we then learn that they are the new group in our room for the night. Haha.
Janielle then tried speaking Spanish with Rueben across the room… haha. It didn’t work so well…. but Rueben invited us to a concert later.
Then we went up to our room after dinner. Rob invited us to a concert later.
He was going to make dinner, and would be back.
Then he came back and said they didn’t know about the concert, but there was a rugby match on. Rueben stayed in the hostel, there were a bunch of people watching a Willie Nelson concert on TV for some reason. But Rob took Emily, Janielle, Haley and I out to find this rugby match on TV.
The problem was that being Good Friday none of the pubs were open. We went to like 7 different places, and then Rob was kind of down and out. But he did teach us some more Irish slang… “how’s the form?”
Then he suggested ice cream. (This was his second time getting ice cream… haha). Jenielle and Rob had Guinness flavored ice cream. Emily had vanilla I think. I had Bailey’s. and Haley drank her milk and Bailey’s in her Nalgine bottle. It was some good times though. Then we went back to the hostel, and we asked Britney and Sonja how their race went. Then after the Aussies left to do who knows what, we all went to bed.
Day 3: Blarney Stone!
So we woke up, got ready. Went down, ate breakfast. Chilled and chatted.
Then we convinced Sonja and Britney to forgo their plans Dublin and come with us to Cork, which they did!!! : )
We said goodbye to our friends, and then headed on our way.
Paddy's Palace!!
The bus to Cork was pretty short, and the five of us sat in the cool kids seat. Hecks yes! (We pretty much rocked it this trip)
When we got to Cork we found out how to get to the stone, but the bus wouldn’t be coming for awhile, so we went to this place called O’Conails that had the most amazing hot chocolate that I think I will ever drink in my entire life (unless I return there). It was SO good. Rob suggested it to us.
Then we went and got on the bus to take us to Blarney. On the bus we talked to some cute old Irish ladies. They told us where to go once we stopped. And then one of them decided to just walk with us and show us the way anyways. So cute! Gotta love the Irish! (So much nicer with their directions than the Spanish = /)
We got to the Blarney castle. And there was an Easter egg hunt going on. How cool would it be as a child to go Easter egg hunting in the Blarney castle grounds!? I can only dream now…
Well we got to the castle, and there is a sign for the dungeon. Seems cool. Let’s go inside!
Well after a certain point you had to climb on your hands and knees though the mud to get to the actual dungeon. We all had our backpacks on too…. =/. Emily and I backed out just fine. Sonja came out with mud all over her leg! It was bad news bears.
Then after Jenielle and Britney escaped (slightly covered in mud) we decided to find the stone.
We meandered through the castle, and then we got to the top, to the stone.
Since the guy that holds your feet wasn’t back from his break yet, we had to wait. (He kind of has an important job.) What was only 5 min seemed like forever as we were waiting, looking down at the stone, and how we would kiss it without plummeting to our death.
You have to hang upsidedown backwards to kiss it, while the man named Dennis holds your feet. It was terrifying. But we all did it. So I should now have the gift of the gab.
Then we wandered around the castle some more. Met a couple from the US of A. Chatted with them for awhile. Then we went outside and sat on a bench to eat our stolen bread and cheese lunch. Good times.
After that, we talked to the couple some more, bumped into them again. Then we wandered around the grounds.
Did the wishing steps. Walked down and up slippery stairs with my eyes closed concentrating on a wish… it should come true in a year’s time.
Saw a fairy circle. Played on a tire swing. Walked through fields of daffodils.
Through a woods. Past a lake. Past the Blarney house. And then it started storming, so we found our way out of the grounds, back to the bus, and headed back to Cork.
We found our hostel. Went and got food. Then we made dinner. Sonja and Britney took theirs to go. They still had to get to their hostel in Dublin for the night, so they were catching a train. We hugged it out, and bid a sad farewell to our dear friends.
Then we ate our dinner, and the lady that owned the hostel, Tracy, started chatting with us. She told us she was making a cake. Janielle asked her if we could have some. She said it was for her brother. She leaves. 5 min later she comes back with three chocolate baskets for each of us.
Were there other people eating and making dinner? Yes.
Did she offer them any? No.
Did she really like us? Yes.
Then we went to our room. Took nice hot showers. Waited for Brian and Jill to arrive.
We get a text from Brian saying he’s on his way. We asked him if Jill was with him. He said no and he’d explain when he got there.
We tried waiting up for him, but we failed and fell asleep. Awhile later Emily gets a phone call from Brian saying he’s at the front door… Emily didn’t have pants on (thought she packed her leggings but accidentally packed her tights instead. HAHA) So I had to go get him. Slid down the bunk bed. Got another beautiful bruise on my leg.
So we all had our first sleepover with Brian Doudna. It was some good times. He told us about Morocco a bit, his adventure getting here, that since Jill booked her flight to Dublin from the wrong airport in London, she missed her flight and would be flying into Cork the next day.
Then it was lights out.
Day 4: Easter Sunday!
So I for some reason woke up really early again. Got ready. Put on my dress for church. Crawled back in bed, listened to my iPod.
Then everyone else woke up, got ready.
Our hostel didn’t have free breakfast, so we made some peanut butter toast.
Then just as we were going to leave for church Jill showed up, so we all went to church then.
We went to St.Patrick’s. It was bright. Cheery. Had lots of flowers. And a priest with a sweet Irish accent of course. (That was the only thing that kept reminding me that I was in Ireland and not at home.) Mass was absolutely lovely.
After mass we were all given Cadbury Eggs! : )
And then we met a famous man, Rorie O’Brian, who escaped from a concentration camp. We had our picture taken with him. Such a cute old Irish man. Walking around with a big grin on his face and a cane in his hand. Just like you’d picture a little old Irish man to look like.
Then we went back to the hostel, picked up our stuff, and then decided to head to Galway.
It was a long bus ride. Brian sat with me. Told me more about Morocco. Showed me his pics. Then we fell asleep. I woke up in Galway.
It was later when we got to Galway, so we found somewhere to buy food on Easter Sunday. We got these pasta things again, and then we found our hostel.
It was pretty cool. Fancy. It’s ranked like 7th in Europe or something like that. Pretty much like a hotel- key cards. It had a huge kitchen with 3 stoves, a ton of counter space, 4 fridges. Free coffee and tea 24/7. A TV room with leather couches. 5 computers with wifi. It was a nice place. And we had a 5 person room. It was some good times.
So we settled in. Emily and I made dinner. We ate in the TV room. Watched the movie ‘Teen Wolf’. Love those 80s movies. You know, M.J. Fox wins the basketball championship without turning into a wolf… pretty epic.
Brian, Jill and Jenielle went out for a drink. Emily and I watched the rest of the movie. Did the dishes. Went back to our room. Went to bed.
Day 5: Exploring Galway
We slept in a bit since we had all been traveling a bit by this point. We went and made breakfast, and then set out to explore Galway.
We walked around the streets and then did some shopping. I bought a present for Brenna (I can’t say what it is, but I’m excited to give it to her!) and I bought myself a 15E sweatshirt. It’s a girls 14 too? Idk, maybe I’m shrinking away here…
Then the group was split up and Emily and I decided to go back to the hostel and make lunch. We ate our PB and J with some cereal we found in the ‘take food’ pile. Chatted about life.
Then we set out to explore more, ran into the other three on the streets, we all went together to buy food for dinner.
Then Emily and I played on a street with a wind tunnel for about 20 min. We’d just see how far back we could lean with the wind without falling over. Then we’d try to walk into the wind. It was some good times.
Then we wandered along the river. We went into the cathedral to dry off a bit. It was GORGEOUS inside. I loved it.
Then we decided to see the ocean. So we walked there… but it was pouring out. When we got to the tip of the bay, I was trying to keep my camera dry/still take pictures. The ocean water was being dumped on us… and then the zoom on my camera broke. Sad day. : (
Since it was now cold out, we were soaked, and my camera zoom was officially broken we decided to go back to our hostel where we put on clean dry clothes, drank some hot tea, and took some Airbourne.
We sat downstairs with Brain. Chatted. Then after awhile Jill and Jenielle showed up, so Emily and I made dinner- grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. It was a perfect evening for it too.
We ate in the TV room again. This time we watched the Jersey Shore. Made some more Aussie friends. Haha.
Then Emily and I spent an hour and a half in the bathroom drying our shoes/sweatshirts/jackets with the had dryer so we could wear them in the morning. When we went back to the room craziness was going down.
Brian was talking in a Batman accent, and we played 20 questions until we all fell asleep.
Day 6: Cliffs of Moher
We got up early. Ate breakfast. Emily and I ran to a store to buy more PB and bread for lunch.
Then we met up for the tour, hopped on the bus, and the adventure began.
This tour was interesting. I think our tour guide really liked his head set, or the sound of his voice or something, because he talked the WHOLE time. And it usually wasn’t about what we were seeing out the window either. It was more about his childhood and random things like that.
So the first stop we could either pay to climb a mountain or pay to go in a cave… we had already paid to have this tour… we didn’t want to pay more, and many people were with us too.
So he took us to an Abbey instead. It was really pretty. A little wet though…. There was a lot of flooding that we came across.
Then we drove on… he told us more randomness. And then we stopped at mini cliffs where we could go right to the edge and look down. It kind of freaked me out a bit…. It was windy, and I felt like I could blow off the edge or something.
Then we stopped in the village before the Cliffs of Moher to eat. Emily and I ate our PB and bread on a street corner…
Then we got back on the bus and finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher.
It was probably the most beautiful landscape that God has created that I have seen in my entire life. I wandered around by myself for a bit, so I could take my ‘mental picture’ and remember everything. The sun. The ocean. The waves. The sound of the waves as they crashed against the cliffs… it was so beautiful. Beyond gorgeous. One of my favorite moments in Europe hands down.
So we walked to one end, and then turned to see the other side of the big big cliff.
There’s a stone fence that you can climb over, onto private property, and then go past the ‘do not go beyond this point’ sign until you’re on the other side of the big cliff. This was the best view of everything too, because there were no barriers keeping you from going to the edge to see it.
The path was dirt. Well… mud. From the rain.
I fell once. Grabbed onto the fence so I wouldn’t slide off the cliffs. (Luckily it wasn’t the section with barbed wire!)
Then Brian Doudna comes along. He falls 3 times… he really doesn’t care. (I’m freaking out… it is 700 feet to plummeting to your death.) He starts taking a video… and doesn’t watch where he’s going. He is on the edge. Falls. Is LESS THAN one foot from falling off of the Cliff of Moher. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Dear lord.
So we carefully made our way back after that. (walked past the memorial for all of those who have lost their lives at the cliffs- I imagine many people fall by accident, and then many people commit suicide there too…. There were many suicide hotline signs there… = /)
We got back on the bus, and then Emily and I really couldn’t take much more of our tour guide, so we listened to my iPod until we got back to Galway.
When we got back we went and bought food for dinner. We made it. Ate. After we did the dishes, we all went out for a drink together at a bar called Kennedy’s- apparently JFK stopped there once. I had Bulmer’s. The rest had Guinness.
Then we went back to the hostel. Played 20 questions and went to bed.
Day 7: Welcome to Dublin
So we got up early. Ate. Checked out. Then took the bus to Dublin. Brian sat with me again… I listened to my iPod/slept/journaled.
When we got to Dublin we immediately set out to find our hostel. We had directions, but they really weren’t the greatest. We walked back and forth down the street for awhile until we finally found it off of a side street.
We checked in. This place had free coffee/tea/hot chocolate 24/7 plus free breakfast! We ate PB+J for lunch… then walked around.
We wandered to St.Patrick’s Cathedral, and then Trinity College. Then we did some shopping and whatnot…
Then we went back to the hostel. I took the coldest shower of my life. It was horrible. Then we had a family dinner.
We decided to go out to eat for our last night together in Ireland. So we went to this restaurant called the Dandelion- we got fish and chips. (Nom nom nom. )
It was a nice way to spend our last night though…
Day 8: Guinness!
So we woke up super early. Got ready. Enjoyed the free breakfast. Then we went to the Guinness Storehouse. Saw St. James’s Gate. 250 years! We learned about the beer that is older than our country… and once the tour was over we got to drink our pint at the top in the 360 degree view Gravity bar. It was good times.
Then we went back to the hostel, picked up our things, took the bus to the airport and then flew back to Valencia.
It was such an amazing trip though. I loved it so much. I love Ireland. My heart is in Ireland.
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