April 21-25, 2011
Disclaimer: Let me just being by saying that over the course of these next four days you may find some things that could be discouraging to a trip and you might even think to yourself, how did she go on!? But just remember Ireland IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!
Day 1: Our trip began with Mad Dog picking us up and bringing us to the airport. He was wonderful as it only took us 30 minutes to get there rather than us using the tube/train and it taking 2 hours. We figured this was a good sign. Little did we know….I was planning on becoming a Terrorist and my first mission was taking down the plane I paid to be on so that I couldn’t go on the trip that I paid to go on….dun, dun, duuuuuun!!!! How you might ask? Could this be done??? Well for all you terrorist planners out there, come here a minute- the secret is to bring Contact solution in a 100 ml bottle as a carry on! It’s that simple! Or that stupid! Considering I had brought the exact same thing a week before when I went to Spain, however this time it was not allowed. It apparently leaked onto all my other liquids and then they decided my mascara and concealer (from another bag) needed to be put in with those liquids (therefore getting the contact solution on those as well). He tested my liquids then told me they tested positive. I asked what that meant and he said that basically there was a liquid in there that could hurt a plane. I said that was news to me and he said that my contact solution had 2% hydrogen peroxide in it that apparently could hurt a plane. So I had to wait while they tested, cleaned, and re-tested my liquids. Meanwhile I am freaking out because it is getting close to the time my gate closes. These two men dressed in uniforms with huge machine guns come to talk to me. Luckily, they were really nice and said I should have plenty of time to get to my gate as most gates didn’t close at the time they said they did. I sent Rachel to the gate anyways in hopes that she could stall the plane if need be. Then two women came up to me telling me I needed to be searched as this was procedure. So I packed up my things and was going to go get searched when they finished with my liquids. They gave me back only 3 items- a free bottle of lotion I had, my body wash, and my mascara. They kept the rest- my contact solution, concelear (now remember I didn’t put it in that bag to begin with, they did so it should never have gotten contaminated), shampoo, conditioner, and eye drops. They told me I had two options. I could either throw away the items (what I said at the beginning that they wouldn’t let me do) or I could go back through security and check the 5 little bottles of liquid for 35 pounds and come back through security. I said fuck it get rid of them (even though I am allergic to every other kind of contact solution and cannot find the one I need anywhere but one store in England) because I didn’t want to miss my plane. They threw them away and then said I still needed to be searched. It was absolutely ridiculous. If I was a terrorist then I wouldn’t have wanted my shit thrown away and obviously I no longer had my shit so why the hell do I need to be searched on top of all of it. They quickly searched me and I signed a form and then ran to my gate. I had to weave in and out of people, saying excuse me the whole time. I even got yelled at by a woman saying Do you mind? When I accidently brushed past her while saying excuse me. I kept running and found my gate. I could see Rachel and my gate and then all of a sudden this woman steps in front of me and tells me I need to weigh my bag. I was like are you serious? So I weigh it (btw it was only 5 kg and it could up to 10 kg) and get in line with Rachel to board the plane. I was so upset, frustrated, and frazzled. But thank god I made the plane! We arrived in Dublin and finally found the bus that took us over an hour away closer to our hostel. On the bus we met a girl who was from California who was an au pair in France and was staying in Dublin for the weekend. We ended up getting off the bus with her and helping her find her hostel as it looked on the map like our hostel was on the next street away from hers. We got off the bus and saw some of the sights of Dublin like the cathedrals, the monumental buildings and the erection in the intersection (a.k.a the stiletto in the ghetto) haha or as it is supposed to be known- The spire- built for millennium. We found Lauren’s hostel and then attempted to find ours, however the map lied and we weren’t right next to hers we were down around the corner and over a few streets, but we did eventually find it. We got there and everyone was really nice, we checked into our 20 bed room. It actually was cool because the beds were sectioned off into small rooms of four beds. We dropped off our stuff then headed into town so I could go buy all the stuff that was stolen off me at the airport. We went to the pharmacy and I tried finding contact solution that wouldn’t give me an allergic reaction and then to Café Dame for pizza for dinner. We also got snacks including popcorn and reeses pieces! We walked around a bit in town then went back to the hostel to read/get ready for bed and eat our snacks. We also used the free wifi and attempted to sleep (after I bumped my head on the frame of the bed!). It was nearly impossible to sleep however because the lit up exit sign was right above us and people kept coming in and out of the hostel so we barely got any sleep.
Day 2: This morning we woke up, got ready and ate the complementary breakfast from our hostel. Then we got in line to check in for our tour. There were two girls running the tours, one on each bus and I was praying not to get the annoying girl and thank god we didn’t! We got Lynn instead who was really nice and not annoying. We got on our Irish tour bus with our bus driver Ian. We first played a game where we had to get up and say our name, where we were from, our super power if we had one, our favourite colour, and our celebrity shag. Then we headed for our first stop- Abby-Leix. This town was famous because it provided the carpet for the Titanic and it is pretty ironic that it has the work leix (pronounced leaks) in the name. We stopped here for a pit stop and took some pictures of some nice looking buildings. Then continued our journey to The Rock Of Cashel. This castle (that unfortunately had scaffolding on it) was famous because St. Patrick taught here and he also baptized a King in the Castle. We climbed the rocks and looked around a bit. We heard some stories about St. Patrick- he wasn’t actually a St. because to become a Saint you had to perform a miracle and his miracle was getting rid of all the snakes in Ireland by drowning them…however some believe there were never any snakes to begin with. He also used the shamrock to explain the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, therefore making it famous. After the Rock of Cashel we headed to Blarney Castle. The best part about Blarney Castle was waking up Cherry Walk to get to it J Blarney Castle got its name because Queen Elizabeth I imposed a law that said every person in Ireland had to give up their land, convert to Protestantism, and for a small fee could get their land back. She did this to many people and would burn down whole towns to get what she wanted. She wrote a letter to Cormack McCarthy, King of Munster requesting he did the same. He did not want to so he wrote back that he was fine thank you, but he was not going to convert, however he did love the Queen and for her to visit any time she wanted. The Queen thought he was being silly and wrote back again requesting he do this, and again McCarthy wrote back that he really was fine and wasn’t going to convert but he loved her anyways. The Queen got very frustrated and exclaimed, “This is all Blarney, what he says he doesn’t mean;” thereby creating the new word. Blarney Castle became famous for its stone of eloquence. This stone came to be when a prince fell in love with a fairy. He was deeply in love with her and her with him. One day they were walking in the garden when an enemy of the King shot the prince with an arrow straight through the heart. As he fell to the ground the fairy got a stone to place under his head and called for the King. The King came immediately and said his goodbyes to his son he loved so much. The fairy then told the King that she could kiss the prince on his last breath and take him with her to the fairy world, however he would never be allowed to return to the human world again. Loving his son so much, the King agreed and as the prince took his dying last breath the fairy kissed him and they went away to the fairy world never to be seen again. The king was so upset over the death of his son that he took the stone he had been laying on and brought it with him to the Castle and built it into the Castle. Nowadays it is said that if you kiss the stone of eloquence you will grow eloquent. However, kissing the stone is no easy task. It is so difficult in fact that there are people to help you do it. You must lay on your back and bend over backwards, put your hands across from you holding onto the metal bars and dip yourself into the whole while very high up (it’s at the tallest point in the castle) with only two metal bars to stop you from falling to your death…oh and the man holding onto you for dear life. Needless to say…I was petrified! I almost didn’t do it because I was so scared, but I manage to get over my fear and I kissed the stone of eloquence. So now I speak eloquently. I hope this reflects in my writing as well J After exploring the Castle and seeing interesting things like floating fireplaces because entire floors had been knocked out we made our way to the poison garden. The best part about the garden was the sign saying you were not allowed to touch, smell, or eat any of the plants in it. I’m really glad they posted this sign because I’m known for going around to Castle gardens touching, smelling, and eating all their plants! The other great part about this garden was that some plants had cages over them because they were sooo dangerous! We read some of the signs but didn’t stay too long as we didn’t want to die from being in the garden lol. The pictures of it are better anyways. Especially the invisible plant! After the garden we walked around a bit exploring and came across some waterfalls and a sweet rock that was mysteriously placed there and sometimes still rocks back and forth and no one knows why. We also found the wishing steps. These steps are important because the witch uses firewood at night to burn for her fire and to repay us for letting her use the wood she will grand us a wish. However to be granted a wish you have to walk backwards up the steps and forwards back down while thinking of your wish….with your eyes closed! Rachel, Courtney (the girl we met on the bus from California) and I all made our wishes and climbed the stairs. Hopefully they will come true! After the stairs we found the witches cave where she used the wood to burn her fires and Rachel thought it would be a good idea to give her some wood to help out with her wish so she did. Then we found the stone that looked like the Witches face so I kissed it for good luck. We finally headed back to the bus to begin our journey to Killarney. Killarney is where we stayed for the night. We checked into our hostel- Neptunes then went to subway for dinner. After, we walked to the National Park taking gorgeous scenery pictures along the way. We walked all the way to Ross’s Castle up on the hill and made it all the way without it raining and quickly enough to make it back in time to get ready. We headed back, seeing a major race along the way, and got ready at our hostel to go out for the night. We met in the lobby with the rest of our group to go on our ‘walking’ tour of Killarney. Really we weren’t going on a walking tour but we had to make it look that way because on Good Friday in Ireland pubs are not allowed to be open and serve alcohol and people are not allowed to be in pubs and drink alcohol. However, on this tour in Killarney they always go to this pub and listen to Pa speak while drinking. Pa convinced the pub to sneak us into it so we could continue the tradition. We quickly snuck into the pub and bought some drinks and went upstairs to listen to Pa. The pub – O’Connors was really cool because it had dollar bills all over the place from people visiting with their hometowns written on them and names and it also had patches all over from different places. The coolest part was seeing some from New York and even better from Syracuse New York! We listened to the storytelling by Pa who was absolutely hilarious and absolutely ridiculous. Not only did he tell funny jokes (see next blog- quotes from Ireland) but he also drank like crazy! He drank 7 pints of Guinness and 4 shots of whiskey in less than 4 hours and that was only the alcohol in front of us, he went and drank downstairs in-between acts! He was absolutely pissed by the end of the night and it took forever to actually get out of the pub because Pa kept telling us to be quiet so we didn’t get caught by the police or garda but then he’d talk really loud and then he wouldn’t let us out of the pub because he didn’t think it was midnight yet and thought we were going to get caught but after 10 minutes of convincing we finally got him to open the door. We headed over to McSorely’s night club since it was after 12 people were out drinking now that it wasn’t Good Friday anymore. We were told that Irish people freak out when there is a day they cannot drink so of course the club was hoppin’ at 12. The drinks were 3 for 10 euros so we each got a drink and just hung out by the bar. And as we hoped three guys came over to talk to us. Now we had been told by Lynn that to determine which guy would be a good guy to chat it up with we were told to ask which kind of tractor they drove. If they said a Lamborghini tractor that was the best and they would definitely buy you a drink. If they said a John Deere tractor they would probably buy you a drink and if they said anything less than that they would buy you the first drink but then expect to be repaid with a drink later. So of course I asked one of the three guys which kind of tractor he drove but unfortunately he said a Fergus tractor. I didn’t know what that was but he ended up buying us a drink and the other guy bought us a drink as well. Therefore we got two rounds of drinks out of it. We chatted with them a while but when the pub closed we left and were going to go straight to our hostel but we had to wait for Courtney who was still chatting it up with one of the guys, however when the police or garda arrived we left. The one guy was a little upset we didn’t go home with him but we were happy we got free drinks out of it! J
Day 3: This morning we woke up with a bit of a hangover, but luckily we started off our journey on the bus. We took a sleigheading drive around the Atlantic Ocean. Stopping along the way to take pictures of the beautiful mountains and beautiful water shots we could get. It was absolutely gorgeous and I fell in love with Ireland today. We drove around the Cliff’s which were crazy tight. We could barely fit the bus and another car on the road and we also went around the elbow which is basically a 90 degree turn with a drop directly next to it. We were told if we were scared of heights not to look out the window, almost everyone got up to go look and we got yelled at not to tip the bus over the edge! We went down to a beach and were told the legend that if you dip your feet in the ocean it will take a part of your soul with it and keep it safe. Then you must return to Ireland within the next 20 years to reclaim that part of your soul. So of course we dipped our feet in. It was feckin’ freezing! Within 30 secs. your feet were numb! But it was gorgeous with amazing waves and beautiful sand. We wrote our names in the sand and climbed some rocks. I didn’t want to leave! But we continued our drive. Then we got to see the Finn MacCool Island. We were told the tale of a giant named Finn MacCool who helped fight to keep Ireland safe. In doing so he sent his three beautiful daughters to help out a king fighting the battle. When the daughters emerged out of the sea the King thought they were sent by the enemy and began shooting arrows at them, but the daughter’s beauty was so great the arrows fell short. The King soon realized they had been sent by the giant. The daughters helped the reluctant King and ended up winning the battle; because of this the pagan’s partied for hundreds of years celebrating their victory. The losing king was thought to have left Ireland sulking but really he stayed around spying on the three daughters and the giant. One day the daughters realized they had been gone a long time and that maybe they should head back to their father who was sure to be mad at them. At the same time the giant realized his daughters had been gone a long time and was going to venture out to find out what was going on. As the three daughter sand the giant walked into the ocean the sun began to set and the three daughters and the giant decided to lay down in the water to watch it set first. As they did this the losing King cast a spell on them making it impossible for them ever to get up. They are bound to laying the sea forever. We saw the giant’s island that looks like a giant laying down in the sea and the three daughters islands that look the same. We also got to see the honey bee houses.... coincidently not for bees but for people to live in, the coolest part about it was that they didn't use and mortar, instead the rocks are placed together like a puzzle and they have withstood for thousands of years! Then we climbed a mountain to get a good view and nice pictures (this would be where my profile picture came from) and we also got to see a fairy house or a burial ground- no one knows which exactly- but either way you do not touch it. The fairies are considered sacred and if you mess with them, they will mess with you right back. They even go so far to uphold this that if there is a stand-alone tree in the middle of a field that doesn’t look like it belongs there it is a considered a fairy house and is never touched. After our sleighheading drive we made our way to a quaint little town called Dingle. On the way we each had to come up with one question each and then take a quiz and the person who got the most right got a prize. The reason for this was because we kept telling Lynn she was wrong (like when she said basking sharks were the biggest shark- we were looking for them on our sleighheading drive but didn’t see any) and she called us smart arses lol. My questions comes from dirty minds and is what is a four letter word that ends in unt and is something you call a woman….get your mind out of the gutter it is AUNT! But Rachel and I didn’t win, although we found out some really cool facts like the fact that Australia’s two national animals are their national animals because they can’t walk backwards- Kangaroo and Emu. The winning person of the quiz received a toy tractor! But back to Dingle. Dingle was my favourite town and I absolutely adored it and want to move there! One of the famous things in Dingle is a dolphin. This was so cute: a fisherman was out to sea one day and he met this dolphin who helped him catch fish by scaring the fish into the net, the next day the dolphin was back again, and this happened for many days. The fisherman grew to love this dolphin and named him Fungie. He decided to bring Fungie a mate and got a female dolphin in but Fungie wanted nothing to do with her. So the fisherman thought maybe Fungie swings the other way and brought a male dolphin in for Fungie, but Fungie wanted nothing to do with that dolphin either. The fisherman realized the dolphin liked the company of people over dolphins, and today you can go on a boat to see Fungie. Fungie is there so much that they say if you don't see him you get your money back! We didn’t go out to see Fungie but we did get a picture with his statue! We also got a picture of the store called the Craic house. This is funny because Craic in Irish means fun but obviously it doesn’t sound that way lol. Then we headed to Murphey’s ice cream store. This ice cream store is run by two guys from America who used to have high class business jobs but were not happy. So they decided to move to Dingle and open up their own ice cream store. This store is famous because of the flavours it sells including baileys, sea salt, brown bread, and even Guinness. Rachel and I ordered the baileys and raspberry sorbet ice cream which was really good. But we also tried the cookies and sea salt. After ice cream we ate lunch at a little restaurant called Chowder. Rachel got seafood chowder which was good and I got fish and chips as the fish was supposed to be amazing here and it was! After lunch we had to leave Dingle which was really sad because it is the best town ever and want to live there! This town was also cool because it keeps its Irish heritage by having every sign also in Irish and most people speak Irish here, however when they first started changing the signs they only had Irish on it and people were getting lost trying to find it so the town asked to have English put back on their signs, the government said no so the towns people went and made their own signs for dingle and put them on the Irish signs! However we had to leave and drive to Ennis where we were staying the night. We arrived in Ennis and went to our hostel the Rowan Tree hostel. This hostel was voted best hostel in 2009 and continued to live up to its high standard. The rooms were very nice including the bathrooms and we had an amazing view onto the river. The only bad part about that was the ducks quacking ALL NIGHT LONG! I could have killed them. We also were sleeping on prison mattresses which was actually really nice because they were really comfortable. We relaxed a bit when we got to the hostel then Rachel and I went into town to explore and eat dinner. We ate at Hillbilly’s Chicken and ate some American Southern chicken. It was kind of like KFC and it was pretty good. We then went back to our hostel to get ready to go to Cruises pub for the night as they had some Trad (traditional Irish music) music playing. When we got there a band was setting up while another smaller band was playing traditional music. We chatted a while with the other people on our tour and I ended up ordering a Guinness. I drank my first full glass (I couldn’t handle a pint) or beer and it was Guinness! It was actually pretty good and I think I’d drink it again. Then the other band started up which were playing some really good music and I really liked them but Rachel and I were pretty tired so we ended up going back to our hostel and trying to sleep with all the ducks quacking.
Day 4: HAPPY EASTER! We got up this morning and began our trek to the Cliffs of Moher and O’Brien Tower. This is where Harry Potter was filmed and where the Princess Bride was filmed and they were absolutely gorgeous even with the crappy weather we had at the time. We also went into the experience that tells you about the cliffs and shows you pictures. We got back on the bus and we drove through Lisdoonvarna where a famous song was written and we even got to sing along to the song. Then we took an ocean drive into Burun National Park and we even stopped to look at the beautiful rocks (the landscape changed dramatically) which were called Mother Earth’s stretch marks because all the rocks had cracks in it because these rocks were once buried under the water and the tectonic plates pushed them out. We continued on and saw the new species in Ireland called the greeps. This is combination of a giraffe and a sheep. We could barely see them because they were far away but they kind of look like llamas. We also got to see the hookers that hang out at the pier even on Easter Sunday….the boats called hookers….where did your mind go? Probably to where all of our minds went as we were told we could get a hooker for 20 euros an hour and we all thought that was pretty cheap and we all were looking for girls standing out in slutty clothes and only found green bottomed boats lol. We got to see the largest thatched roof on a house which was a pub and a whole lot of bikers with police escorts. The only trouble we ran into was another bus in the other lane (now remember you can barely fit a car next to a bus on these roads so imagine a bus next to a bus) the other bus only had one car behind it and behind that was a place to pull over. We had like 7 cars behind us with a mile before we found a place to pull over. However, we had to be the ones to move because the other bus was being dumb. So one of the guys on our tour got out and helped us direct traffic so the bus could pass. We finally made it to our stop for lunch which was in the town of Galway. We walked around a bit and then found a Chinese restaurant to eat at. We even had the restaurant to ourselves and we got to eat garlic chicken with butter and fried rice for only 5 euros. It was really good. Then we did some shopping. I bought an Irish wedding ring that has a heart with two hands holding it and a crown about it and then mine has the trinity around it. It is really pretty. The heart is pointing out because I am single. We also took pictures of the Church where Christopher Columbus once was. After lunch we got back on the bus and travelled a while stopping in Enfield for a potty break. Then we continued on to Dublin. We got a surprise on the bus Lynn, our tour guide, had bought us chocolate bunnies for Easter. She said, “I don’t believe in much, but I do believe in chocolate.” She also informed us that this was her first ever tour. We got back into Dublin and Rachel and I bought a shirt from the Shamrockers tour that says Ireland 2011 on the back and great craic at the bottom. After getting our shirts we said our goodbyes and went to get pizza at Café Dame again. This time though it wasn’t the greatest adventure as I had to re-organize my bag to make it airport safe (basically throwing out my contact solution I had just bought) and I ended up cutting my finger on my razor. OUCH! We headed to Costa coffee where I cleaned up my finger and got coffee then we ran to the bus to go back to the airport. We got on our plane and headed back to the UK. Once there we found a simpler route home than last time, considering it was almost midnight. We got a bus to Stratford then a bus to Romford then a bus home. We finally got home and I skyped my mommy for a bit before bed.
Until next time,
