The Dubliners (Remix feat. Sarah and Family)

Hey Everybody,

I know it's been a while but well, it's finials time and that's my only excuse. This is the first of my backtracking posts and it's all about my little family adventure to Dublin. My Dad came for a 10 day Irish adventure and my brother Rob joined us for his last five days in Dublin. Side-note: this all happened April 3rd-7th.

My dad traveled ahead of me after a weekend in Galway because I had a final (and I obviously couldn't skip it to see more Irish countryside) so on the 3rd I departed for the Dublin International Airport to pick up Rob. This I did almost successfully seeing as I was at the arrivals gate looking right at it but didn't see him walk out but don't worry, he saw me and we headed into the city to find our hostel - Dad was staying in a hotel in another part of the city. We located the hostel after only walking in a circle twice - a major feat - and checked in only to learn that there were about a million kids staying in the hostel on school trips and the like so we'd have to switch rooms after the first night. We weren't really bothered by this (yet.) so we dropped our stuff and headed out.

Rob, having visited for St. Patrick's Day, was well aware of the appeal of Irish pubs so it was super convenient that there was one right next to our hostel. Naturally, we decided to head in for a pint before meeting up with Dad - he's a very bad influence. I think Malley's must've been the oldest pub I've been in since getting to Ireland. Everything looked and felt ancient - except for us and the bartender - but it was a good kind of ancient, the kind with woodwork the likes of which I had never seen before  and it was beautiful. So we had our first pints of the trip, watched a little horseracing and then headed out to find Dad's hotel. This proved to be more than an adventure than it should have been. We spent two hours walking in circles trying to find our way to the LUAS which is like a cable car system in the city - except we didn't know it was a cable car we were looking for, the lady at the hostel said we should look for the "train station" right around the corner. So naturally we were looking at the tracks that were overhead and trying to follow them to a station.

We found our way into the back entrance of a train station and walked straight onto the platform - a security risk if I ever saw one! Realizing the error of our ways we walked through into the main part of the station - no one asked us why we were on the platform and the security guard just smiled in typical Irish fashion as we walked past him out of the 'tickets only' area. We then were trying to figure out if this was where we got tickets from or not we stood in line to talk to a teller. The guy behind the glass looked really confused when we showed him a map and were like "We're trying to get here" *pointing to area of the city*. He told us that we wanted the LUAS which had a station a short downwards escalator ride away from where we were. We finally got onto the LUAS and after only one confused hop off (which was totally my bad) we got to the hotel feet hurting and tired.  We ended up having a relaxed dinner and pints at the hotel with Dad and planned for what we wanted to see over the course of the next few days. Deciding to get a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket in the morning we parted for the night.

Taking the LUAS back was a much easier process considering there was a station right at the end of the street our hostel was on. Before heading to bed Rob and I stopped in another pub - a Galway Bay Brewery one to be exact, I was a little 'home'sick. After our pints we headed back to our hostel to catch some Zzs which sorta worked until like 3am when our roommates (we were in a 10 bed room) came in drunk and rowdy. We eventually got back to sleep looking forward to the free breakfast in the morning. However, when we woke we were greeted with the free breakfast of cornflakes and toast - yummy. We checked out of our current room (like I said we had to switch cause of the kids of which there were A LOT) and headed out to Dad's hotel - which was a lot easier this time around.

Once we picked up Dad and got two-day passes for the hop-on-hop-off bus we headed out to get on the next bus (which conveniently had stops across the street from the hotel). We got onto the second floor of the double-decker bus and sat back to enjoy the beautiful learning experience.

Our Sweet Ride

As we were riding we decided the first place we wanted to go to was the Guinness Factory so that's where we hopped off. The story behind the factory is that Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the brewery (yeah you read that right, nine thousand years). The inside of the place is shaped like a gigantic Guinness glass - sounds weird but it's super cool. While I wasn't expecting the tour to take as long as it did I learned a lot about Guinness - how it's made, how it came to all parts of the world, how to taste it, and more importantly how to pour it (you are reading the post of a Guinness Academy graduate).

We had lunch at a café at the factory - named Arthur's Café after the creator of the black stuff we love today. Dad ordered a Guinness but Rob and I were too full of our academy pints to head down that road so I ordered a Carlsberg and Rob ordered a Black Velvet. Rob was unaware that this was a champagne-Guinness cocktail and upon his disappointed look I offered up a trade - the Black Velvet was really good! We were very impressed with the bartender's clover in the head of Dad's Guinness which we were quick to snap pictures of before bringing it back to the table. We had some great food and shopped a little downstairs before heading back to Dad's hotel.

Super cool huh?

After a little R&R at the hotel we headed out for some dinner. The first place was super busy so we went across the street to a smaller pub. Rob got a stew which could've fed an entire third world country (I exaggerate but really the bowl was bigger than his face), Dad got a pie, and I got a sandwich. After good food and pints for each we took Dad back to his hotel and Rob and I made our way back to the hostel. After checking into our new room and freshening up we headed out for a few drinks at a bar close to our hostel and had some great bonding time.

We were woken up again in the middle of the night by a different group of drunken people but this as slightly made up for by the appearance of some kind of granola and hardboiled eggs at breakfast the next morning. Having it be typical Ireland it was drizzling as Rob and I made our way to the LUAS to pick up Dad. It was definitely not a second level of the bus kind of morning. Things cleared up a little by the time we got to Trinity College which is good because we had about an hour of standing in line in out future. The line was for the Book of Kells exhibit which was all about this magnificent illuminated version of the Gospels. Google it, you won't be sorry. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there though so I have nothing to show you in regards to the amazing things I saw but I now know a lot about paper back then and how books were bound.

After getting through and seeing the Book of Kells we got to go into the great library. This was like stepping into heaven for me and I can't think of proper words to describe it so I'll just show it to you. Future husband take notes:

 

 

After spending time marveling at the library we headed down and out of the college. We ended up having lunch at what was probably the coolest pub I've been in since I got to Ireland which is no surprise because it's famous, that's right people we had lunch and lunch pints at the Temple Bar.

 

After walking around the Temple Bar area a bit more we headed back to Dad's hotel to chill out. My mind fails me when it come to remembering what we did for dinner that night, all I know is that we had it and then went back to our hostel. We knew that the hostel offered this on all nights but that night Rob and I decided to take them up on their pub crawl. Every bar we went to we were greeted with free shots and different discounted drinks and there was even one in which we could play beer pong. We met two sisters that night and the pong quickly turned into an older siblings vs. younger siblings game and I have to say - the younger siblings lost. Twice. And it wasn't even close. But what did I expect going up against Rob King of Pong? The last place we were taken to was a club and I'm not a club person in general but it was not my favorite spot. Rob looked very uncomfortable bobbing back and forth to the loud techno that was playing, I wasn't much better off so we left in search of a previous bar we were at. We never found it. I got us lost. Rob got us back on track and to the hostel. Big brother for the win!

This is our statue friend

I am happy to announce that we were not woken up that night and breakfast remained the same as the previous morning which gave Rob another chance to mock how bad I am at peeling hardboiled eggs. It was a warm morning as we headed to pick up Dad and scandalously use the hop-on-hop-off bus even though our tickets were expired. Our first stop was Dublin castle and once we got there it started to rain. Good thing we went inside for the tour, there are worse things than taking shelter in a castle after all. Inside the castle was beautiful and we learned a lot about Irish history along the way. This is probably going to sound weird but this place has the most amazing ceilings I've ever seen. Don't mock me but I'm totally a ceiling fan. Did that make you laugh or am I the only one who thinks I'm funny? Just me? Okay let me just show you some pictures.

After we finished up at the castle Dad wanted to rest a bit and Rob and I wanted to see some churches so Dad went to a pub and we went off. By now, in true Irish fashion, it was sunny and - dare I say it - hot out which made the walk to both Christ's Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral enjoyable. Because it was Sunday and masses were going on we didn't really get a chance to poke around inside but we did really enjoy sitting in the gardens of Christ's Church and getting ice cream in St. Patrick's Park. Fun fact - St. Patrick's Cathedral is not surrounded by grass, it is surrounded by shamrocks!

Christ's Church Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Ice cream cones in the park!

See? No grass here!

After we had our super-fast melting messy ice cream we made our way back to the pub Dad was at and had some lunch/early dinner. We then headed back to Dad's hotel where we hung out for the remainder of the night and enjoyed the pints of our last night in Dublin. Rob and I went back to our hostel and slept almost completely through the night.

The next morning we had our last meager breakfast, checked out of our hostel and went to meet Dad at his hotel. We all then took a cab back to the airport. Dad was the first one to go into the departing gates, his flight was first and I had to wait for the next bus. Rob and I got parting pints and played a couple card drinking games - it's never too early in the day for us. Then it was time for me to get back on a GoBus to Galway so we hugged and said see you later - seriously though I'll be staying with him in Scotland after the semester is over.

It was a great ending to a great trip and I will hold onto the fond memories forever.

Until next time,
Sarah



"Two Beers" Is Not Enough

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since I've written anything but to be fair I haven't been up to much.  I mean who among you wants to read about me sitting in classes and going to the gym? - Oh yeah, I joined a gym since I last wrote and it's great when I'm not too sick to go.  Anyways, I digress.  I  write to you all with tales of a great adventure I had - five wonderful days in sunny Barcelona, Spain.  Originally this was just going to be a trip to see my childhood friend Taylor but then I convinced Marie that it was worth the money and we went in search of some Vitamin D.  Our flight from Dublin was at 6:30am on the 6th which meant we needed to leave on the last bus out of Galway which is at 2am.  We stayed up all day and night packing and being too excited to nap like we should have but that wore off as soon as the bus started moving and we both dozed off.  Arrival and check-in at the airport were a breeze as was the flight which we also slept through.

When we touched down and I looked out the plane window and saw glorious sunshine and blue skies I knew it would be worth every cent.   When we got through customs - which was a joke - and got our bags we hailed a cab and were off to the hostel but don't worry, we made sure to "stop and smell the roses" aka stare in awe at all the palm trees by the airport first.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect when it came to a hostel but boy was I lucky to have such an amazing first experience.  We were staying in a 9 bed co-ed room which ended up being awesome because we met people from all over and got to hear their stories and live vicariously through their adventures.  However when we got there at 10:30 and couldn't get into our room until 2pm we decided to ditch our luggage in the storage room and do some exploring.  And by exploring I mean getting hopelessly lost in a big Spanish-speaking city, have no fear - I made it out alive.  Let me pause here for a little life lesson: never ever travel to a country that speaks another language with only the phrase "two beers please" in your pocket it just isn't good.  Thank goodness I had Marie (who took Spanish in high school) to teach me other key tidbits like how to ask for and understand directions and such.  Either way we ended up at the cost admiring more palm trees and the warmth - yes I said warmth - of the sun on our faces.

Eventually we found our way to food and back to the hostel for naps and showers which get this stayed warm the entire time!!  It was a glorious victory over the showers we are used to at our Irish flat.  That night our hostel was doing a 3 euro pasta dinner preceded by drinking games and followed by a bar crawl night out and let me tell you, it was one of the most fun nights of my life.  I spare you all the details but there is something so incredibly fun about going out with a whole bunch of fast friends and enjoying the experience of a new city.

On Day 2 we slept in a little cause, well.. we needed it.  When we got up and got ready we met up with my old friend Taylor for some grub and headed off to Park Guell.  I don't know how many of you have heard of Antoni Gaudi but he is a major architect who contributed on a major level to the city of Barcelona and his work is beyond words.  Gaudi lived in Park Guell and among our enjoyment of the never ending paths and amazing views we got to go inside the house in which he lived for the last few years of his life.  Gaudi also designed furniture so one of the first things we were shown were several of his pieces.  When I say that he did furniture I don't mean the cookie-cutter stuff we are used to today, I mean he designed pieces based on the person/people that would be using them.  If you liked to sit with your arm over the back of a bench, Gaudi would put a nook in the back of the bench directly spaced for your arm to make you more comfortable - how cool is that??  Anyways, throughout his house we learned about his many influences (mostly water), his passions (mainly religion), and the locations of all of his work throughout the city.  Once we were finished at the house we did some more wandering - I really can't even begin to tell you how huge this place was - and it was all so beautiful.  The section of the park that houses Gaudi's sculptures you have to pay to get into, or at least we thought we did until a guy who worked for the park told us that it was free after 6pm which was only an hour away - we literally had spent all day in this park - so we went to get some food and then we went back to the park.  I think this part of the park would've been more enjoyable for me if it hadn't gotten so freakin cold, when the sun goes down in Barcelona the temperature seriously drops like ten degrees.  Luckily, there were guys in the park selling scarves so I bought one to keep warm and didn't even try to haggle.

View of the city from the park

After we left the park and said "see ya later" to Taylor we headed back to the hostel for a well needed nap.  That night we had an excursion (via the hostel) to the Magic Fountain show and then to get tapas.  Don't get me wrong, the fountain was really cool all lit up and showy with music playing but most of us after two minutes were really wishing we had gotten a few drinks into ourselves before enduring the 20 minute show.  That being said, the tapas afterwords was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Tapas is something that America should really adopt, it's basically a bar filled with different kinds of hors d'oevures from which you get to make you plate and then you are charged per tapas.  The one Eddie - our fantastic guide from the hostel - took us to was 1 euro per tapas so naturally in was insanely packed but eventually we all got our food and sat around a few tables outside laughing and telling stories and jokes.  That night the hostel went out but we stayed in feeling very tired from all of our adventuring.

The Magic Fountain

Day 3 began with what was probably my favorite thing we went to in the whole city - Basilica de la Sangrada Familia.  The construction on this amazing church began in 1882 and is still going on today.  It was designed by Gaudi and goes on per his explicit instructions now even though he is no longer alive.  There were two completed facades at the Sangrada Familia, the nativity facade and the passion facade and the striking difference between the two is striking.

The Nativity Facade

The Passion Facade

Gaudi's design here is just.. awe inspiring, the grandeur of the nativity at the front of the church and the bare bone reality of the passion at the back.. it took many many minutes to process it all.  The inside of the church was like standing in a rainbow because of all the natural light that filtered in through the stained glass windows.  And (as designed) the pillars throughout the church reached up high like trees and the spread out into branches that light shone down through.  I must admit that I was surprised by the crucifix over the alter, I was imagining something huge like the outside of the building but the crucifix inside was not at all like the one of the passion facade but it was beautiful.  The organ pipes were as thick as my forearm and taller than I could crane my neck to see.  Basically, this place is a gem for religious art nerds like me and must-do for anyone in the city.

After leaving the basilica we went to the city's Arc de Trimof which I guess is similar to Paris' L'arc de triomphe.  It was surrounded by very cool street performers and on our way to the Picasso museum.

We couldn't take any pictures in the Picasso museum but trust me, it was very very impressive.  Next we headed to Parc de la Ciutadella which felt like walking into the coolest hipster hangout ever.  We were surrounded by jugglers and soccer players and people doing tricks on slack lines and lets not forget the many people just lounging around enjoying the sun and listening to music.  In the park there was a gigantic fountain, I mean it was truly remarkable with golden statues at the top and beautiful sculptures all throughout.  Also in the park was a gigantic elephant I don't know why and I really didn't ask.  Something I've learned while being abroad is to not second strange new things, but to embrace them. 

When we got back to the hostel we took a nap and then celebrate the birthday of one of our new friends via the hostel's 3 euro sangria night.  Instead of giving you all a play-by-play of the night, let me add another life lesson to this story: homemade sangria is to be taken seriously.. very seriously.

Day 4 (because of how day 3 ended) was a very relaxed day in Barcelona.  We had every intention of taking a cable car from the beach, over the harbor, and up to a mountain.  However, the universe had other plans for us.  While enroute to the cable cars we heard loud music and saw lots of people flocking towards one street.  It took a little convincing but I got Marie to agree to check it out and boy were we glad we did.  Basically, we stumbled upon a carnival parade and a shop stalls going all down the street.  It was a sea of color and costumes and music and I loved every second of it.  The market booths were equally as cool and we saw all sorts of foods and crafts - which of course we had to try and get bits of.

When the parade was finished we made our way to the cable car take off point just to find out that it was an hour wait until the next car would leave so we decided to ditch it and go enjoy the beach instead - and oh was that glorious.  There is nothing more enjoyable then heading to a beach in a sunny warm place after being cooped up in rainy dreary Ireland.  When we got there we realized we didn't have anything to lay on to avoid sand landing in every nook of our clothing, not to mention our hair.  Luckily there was a guy - several guys really - walking around selling blankets to lay on so we bought the first cool ones we found and settled in for some really great relaxation.  In Barcelona almost everywhere you turn there are guys selling beer, many times if you say no they change their advertisement to "sexy beer" whatever that means, I usually passed up these offers but on the beach I decided to say screw it and I got myself two very sexy cold beers and laid back to enjoy the sun.  After some time I flipped onto my stomach - its much easier to drink beer that way - and before I knew it there was a Spanish woman offering to massage my legs for 5 euro.  After spending days walking around the city nothing sounded better to me than a good foot rub so I agreed and got the best foot/leg massage of my life so good was it that when she offered to do my back and neck for another five I agreed without a second thought.  However, as soon as I agreed the woman started to take off my shirt - remember when I said I didn't have any beach stuff?? That included a bathing suit.  Luckily (I guess) she only pulled it up to my neck but again, before I knew it she also had my bra undone - thank goodness I was laying on my stomach!  I didn't have time to be mad or feel insecure because the massage felt so freakin good and soon my only concern was that she righted my clothes before I had to pay her - which she did.  And that my friends was the best 10 euro I spent in Barcelona.

That evening I met up with Taylor and her mom and sister-in-law and hit up La Rambla which is a huge outdoor market that sold all sorts of goodies.  That night our hostel took us to an Irish pub where I salsa danced and listened to really bad karaoke, yeah no explanation needed on that one.

Day 5 Marie and I got some breakfast and headed out to la Casa Batllo which is a home (more like mansion) that was designed by Gaudi.  It is said to be inspired by water as well as a dragon so there are no straight lines in the majority of the building.  All the walls and ceilings are waved and all the staircases were curved - it was amazing.  I don't know what else I can say about Casa Batllo so I'll just show you pictures instead.

After we were done at Casa Batllo, Marie wasn't feeling well so she went back to the hostel and I headed back to Park Guell.  I had an amazing couple hours sitting on a wall looking out over Barcelona and listening to street musicians before heading back to the hostel for a roomie dinner date with Marie.  After a delicious dinner with strawberry daiquiris Marie headed to bed and I went out with a few friends from the hostel for a drink and some good conversation - I mean come on, it was Monday.  The night proved interesting as we helped a very intoxicated girl from the bar to her hostel, shared a sandwich with a homeless man, and scaled a giant cat statue but it was all in good company and was a great way to end my trip in Barcelona.

Getting up there was a lot harder than it looks!!

The next morning Marie and I woke up bright and early to check out and catch a shuttle from our hostel to the airport.  There was never more anxious feelings than as Marie and I had our carry-ons weighed at check-in - luckily we were both under the 10kg limit and got to check our bags for free.  We got through security with no problems and were soon on our way back to Ireland.  After a flight which we both again slept through we went through customs in Ireland - another joke - and hopped on a bus back to Galway.  We were very happy to get home to a beautiful sunshiney day in Galway and pass out in our crappy two-bed bedroom safely home with many new memories and friends.

Sorry this was so long but it was a long trip with lots to talk about.  I'll write another post about what has been going on in Galway since our return from Spain soon - and this time I mean it when I say it will be shorter!

Until next time,

Sarah

Tales of Angry (Ginger) Women

Hey Everyone!

First let me say that I have no weird beef with gingers, most of my mom's side of the family has red hair and they are all fantastic (hi Mom!) but the Irish love to talk about angry read-headed women, all of which I will get into later.  I'm not really going to talk too much about class in this post cause well, if I did you would be so bored that you would stop reading these posts.  What I am going to talk about are the two weekend bus trips Marie, Lauren, and I took this weekend.   It was a long weekend that I am only now recovering sleep-wise from but it was worth every motion-sick second.

Day One began at 9:30am when I begrudgingly got my sleepy (maybe slightly hurting from the night before) butt out of bed to throw on some new clothes and head to the bus station.  This seems like an easy task, the bus station was very close to our apartment, but we didn't know where the station was so we wondered a little before landing ourselves in the right place. We were on the bus and on our way by 10.  Between the wind causing the bus to have an unsafe sway to it (we were driving on a cliff next to the ocean for goodness sake!) and the curvy road (there are no thruways) motion-sickness like no other overwhelmed me throughout the journey but for short amounts of time I was distracted by our bus driver Dave.

Dave added all sorts of useless random tidbits to the reservoirs of my knowledge.  Most of these, as the title of this post would suggest, had to do with angry read-headed women.  I learned about one woman (ginger of course) who was so ruthless that she 1) would not allow her almost-dead husband into the house because he didn't win the battle he came home from - he later died in their stable or something that night 2) Used to kick her servants off the Cliffs of Moher if they really made her angry (you'll see a picture of those in a bit so you know just you crazy that is) and 3) The servants that made her angry, but not Cliff-kicking angry, she would hang by their hair from spires of the castle she lived in - yikes!!  We also heard about a ginger lady who killed off her husband whenever she found someone with more wealth that she wanted... enough said about that loony.  There were several stories about other ginger women but those two were the ones that stuck with me the most from Dave.  A conclusion that we drew from Dave's warning to all the men ("Stay away from Irish read-head women!") was that his wife, that we heard some complaints about, must be a ginger. 

Stop one, the Aillwee Cave, was definitely unique.  This Irish farmer due stumbled upon it in the 1940's after chasing his dog who was chasing a rabbit into it.  Thinking it was no big deal he didn't mention it to anyone until some cave-survey people from England showed up in a pub and he told them of his find - in 1975!  It has since been turned into a really cool tour of a really deep, really big cave.  One of the kick-butt discoveries made in the cave were 2,000 year old bones of and Irish Brown Bear (the likes of which haven't been seen in 1,000 years) and its little hibernation hole.  We went down some stairs, across several rickety bridges, and past a waterfall before pausing for a brief moment of 100% darkness.  I will say that in those 30 seconds in which our guide turned off all the lights and had everyone on the tour put away all phones and cameras many things ran through my mind.  It kinda went like this: Holy @*!# I can't see my hand and it's right in front of my face!! ... Okay, I think I can handle this... Oh my goodness what if the lights break and don't come back on - I'm too young to die!!!  And then the lights came back on and I was saved.  As crazy and scary as that was, I recommend everyone try it at least once - unless you're scared of the dark, then stay far far away.  I had a flashback to our campus tour when the tour guide at the cave announced that she would not be accompanying us back to the exit and gave us very vague “go left, then right, the straight” directions but eventually we found our  way out.

Lesson Learned: I'm too tall to be a cavewoman!!

After buying some souvenirs and taking pictures of the landscape we were back on the bus and on our way to Poulnabrone.  I’m still not sure what exactly Poulnabrone is, just that is was excavated and they found bones enough for hundreds of bodies there but they were all scattered so the theory is that people were buried somewhere else so they could decompose until they were moved to be by this rock thing.  It must be of some importance because it has its own security guard - I feel really bad for this guy cause he has to stand all day watching the rock thing rain or shine, hail or gale force winds he's there.  However random, Pulnabrone was in a really beautiful part of the Burren which is a large mountainous part of the Irish landscape which is covered entirely in limestone thanks to farmers hundreds of years ago who would over farmed the land and left.  I was taking some photos of the rocky landscape and the Irish blue skies turned dark grey and the heavens opened up and poured rain and a bit of hail down onto me.  I rushed back to the bus thankful that the wind was at my back and not at my face and got safely to dryness right as the rain stopped and the sun came out revealing a beautiful rainbow.

Me and Poulnabrone.. I like that boulder, that's a nice boulder 

Super windy Burren, right before the heavens opened up on me

After being told by our bus driver that the Cliffs of Moher staff closed up and left due to the 75 mph winds and that we might not be able to go I was mad and relieved at the same time.  Mad cause I spent 13 euro to see something that I wouldn't see and relieved cause it would mean less motion-sickness for me.  Dave's comment of "According to my boss, your safety is more important... Sorry." had me laughing and really wanting some lunch.  Awe hit me in the force as we pulled up the the pub we were supposed to be eating at and saw four other tour buses there.  Instead of going somewhere else Dave let us out and told us to be back in forty minutes. It took those entire forty minutes just to get my soup which was in a to go mug for coffee and I had to steal a spoon so I could eat the most amazing seafood chowder in the world on the swaying rickety bus.

We were driving to I couldn't even tell you where when Dave announced to us that he was going to take us to the Cliffs of Moher despite the extreme winds.  What happened to our safety being more important than the euro we spent Dave??  I have never been in winds that strong and hopefully I never will be again.  If there was no barrier wall I'm 100% positive that I would have fallen to my death, we were being blown forwards and backwards and side to side.  I am still mourning my scarf that was blown off and over the barrier, it will be missed until I replace it.  Not many of my pictures came out because the sun was in the wrong direction but those that I did get were amazing.  The only sad parts about that experience was that 1) We couldn't make it up to the castle and 2)We couldn't make it up over the tallest cliffs.  Conclusion: we have to go back when the wind isn't gusting faster than the speed limit on the I-90 in New York.

The Cliffs of Insanity... I mean of Moher
(bonus points if you get the reference)

The castle I'll have to go back to one day

Our next stop was at the Mini-Cliffs in Blackhead.  I'm not sure if they are actually called that or if that's just what Dave called them but they are half the size of the Cliffs of Moher and were very beautiful.  The wind was not as bad here so we could get very close to the edge and got beautiful shots of the sunset over the Atlantic ocean.

Our last stop was at  Dunguaire Castle which wasn't entierly impressive and all the pictures were too dark to really come out but it was a nice way to end the day.

Day Two the bus left at 11:30am which meant we got to sleep in for which we were all grateful.  We weren't quite sure what exactly we would be stopping at all we knew was that we were going to Connemara.  Although I would've been happy to never see that bus again after Day One I climbed back on it hoping that sickness would not overwhelm my day as it had previously.  Although the bus still swayed like grass in the wind the roads were fairly straight on our journey so the sickness was minimal and manageable. Looking out the window as we drove we saw vast rolling hills dotted with puffy white sheep (and even a couple black ones!).  The first several stops in Connemara were in the Twelve Bens Mountains which were quite amazing.  They jutted so high into the clouds that they were almost obscured by the clouds although I got a few pictures where the tops were visible although in a haze. 

The jewel of the day was going to Kylemore Abbey.  Rounding the corner and first laying eyes on the abbey and the chapel on it's grounds was quite literally breathtaking.  After stopping in the cafe to have the most amazing lunch on the planet we browsed the gift shop because it was too early for the next tour.  We ended up getting really sidetracked in there and missing the tour so we had to explore for ourselves, which ended up not being such a bad thing after all.  The inside was beyond beautiful and all I could think was "People actually lived here??"  The Abbey was first a private castle and was sold to Benedictine nuns in the 1900s who ran a boarding school from 1920-2010.

I totally want to live here!

After we explored inside the Abbey as much as we were allowed (several things were not open to the public) we went to the Gothic Church (no lie that's what it's called).  It was about a 10 minute walk from the main Abbey through the woods next to a gigantic lake.  We got the the church and were in awe of how beautiful it was.  Upon going inside I lit a candle and said a prayer before taking a lot of pictures highlighting its glory. 

However the real adventure happened on our walk back when after taking a couple photos by the lake the skies opened up again and hail began to pelt us.  Now as if that wasn't painful enough everything comes down sideways in Ireland so we were being pelted with hail that felt like rocks in the face. So with our scarves over our faces, barely being about to see, we made our way along the path praying to God that he would make the hail stop.  We tired bargaining everything from our grades to alcohol to our first born children.  The laugh was on us though because God ceased the hail and gave us rain instead.  Again with the sideways nature of precipitation, we got back to the bus soaked and laughing and a bit closer as a family.

Just a tad wet

I'm pretty sure I was asleep before the bus even left the grounds of the Abbey and I slept all the way to the wishing tree.  It is a tree in Connemara which you tie a piece of fabric to and make a wish before you leave.  Sadly I didn't have spare fabric to tie to the tree but I said a wish before getting back on the bus anyways - not that I could tell you all what is is or it won't come true!  Also, wherever this tree was located was absolutely beautiful (I don't know where it is cause I was asleep when we were told all about it).

When we got home I swiftly collapsed into bed and drifted off to a very deep restful and beautiful sleep.  I will leave you with that and a promise to have a much shorter posts in the future!

Until next time,
Sarah