"It takes 3 houses to be considered a village"

Well hello... long time no talk!

Don't know how long this update will be but I am not going to put in any photos from Ireland since I took over 300! So please just visit my facebook and checkout ALL of the photos there, and leave some comments.

Let me start from the beginning:
TUESDAY
After class, I headed back to my flat where I finished up packing until I had to get the train to the airport for my flight to Dublin, Ireland. I did all the traveling by myself and I was a nervous wreck, afraid I would get lost but obviously I didn't. So I got to the train station at around 6:00p and headed to Gatwick. The train is about 45 minutes from the airport and my flight was at 10:45p, so I knew I would have enough time. I thought my backpacking backpack would be allowed on but I was wrong! Ryanair (budget airline) has a very strict carryon policy and their requirements are extremely tiny so I ended up having to pay £35 for my bag! [I learned my lesson and will either a) buy a smaller bag or b) pre-check my bag] Ryanair is a budget airline so they don't serve any drinks or snacks complimentary but you could purchase them along with duty free items and scratch off style lottery cards. You also aren't assigned a seat so you just find an open seat. The plane was fully booked and there was a lot of other American students studying abroad heading to Ireland for St. Patrick's day. My flight was only an hour and I got into Dublin around 11:45p where I was planning to meet with Katie [friend from UCF who is studying in Angers, France] in baggage claim. We found each other very easily and she was with 2 other girls, Megan & Blair, from UCF in the France program as well. After meeting up we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel which was right in the heart of Dublin so it was the perfect location. After checking in we were exhausted and knew we had a busy day the next day so we just went right to sleep.

WEDNESDAY
ST. PATRICK'S DAY! Wow! What a crazyintense day. It started off with a search for breakfast, and after wandering the streets we finally decided since nothing else was open we would just grab McDonald's, I know the perfect way to start St. Patrick's Day haha. It was only 9a and the parade wasn't scheduled till 11a but people were already lining the streets (our cab driver the previous night told us that this was the 2nd biggest parade next to the Macy's Day Parade in NY). After breakfast we headed to Carroll's which is a big gift store and we all picked up a few souvenirs. We also stopped at a vendor and picked up our matching little green hats and some face crayons to draw shamrocks on our faces and get into the festive spirit. So, even though the parade was supposed to start at 11a it didn't make it to our section until about noon. After the parade we grabbed food from a street vendor and then went on the search for a pub to start our Dublin St. Patrick's Day pub crawl. We started drinking around 4 and stopped somewhere past midnight... One of the pubs we visited even had irish dancers performing. Another pub we visited I convinced an Irish guy to buy me a Guinness and then this American bought us a round of Guinness. Guinness is actually pretty good, and this whole time I thought I only enjoyed it as an Irish car bomb.

THURSDAY
We were going to leave Dublin and spend the day in Howthe but since we ended up loving Dublin we decided to spend our day there and head to the Guinness factory. The factory was pretty cool and we even got a sample of Guinness and a free pint! Everything in the town had Guinness on it and at some points you could even smell it, it was very cool. After the factory we roamed more of Dublin a little more before getting on the bus and heading to our next destination Galway. What we thought was a 2 hour bus ride was actually almost 4 hours. As soon as we got to Galway we checked into our hostel and then went searching for dinner, it was about 11p already so we just grabbed Quizno's.

FRIDAY
We went on an all day tour, which are 1/2 priced in the offseason, of Connemara and it was so pretty we got to see a lot of Ireland's mountain and countryside. We stopped at a few photo stops but the big stop of the day was at Kylemore Abbey & Gardens. The gardens were dead bc it's winter which was kind of upsetting but the rest of the grounds where the castle was was gorgeous! Currently it's an Abbey and a school (which is closing after this year) but originally it was built by Mitchell Henry for his wife Margaret and their 9 children. It took 4 years to construct from 1867-1871. Where is my man that will just build me a gorgeous castle?! Sadly though only 3 years after the castle was built Margaret passed away at the age of 47. In her honor he added the Neo-Gothic church. Margaret & Mitchell are also buried in the Mausoleum on property and we got to visit their grave. After the tour was over we headed into the city of Galway for dinner. I had some Irish Stew and Galway is known for their mussels which they farm so I had some fresh mussels which were absolutely scrumptious! After dinner we went to a couple of pubs for some drinks and to relax and then headed back to the hostel.

SATURDAY
We were planning on doing the 1/2 day Cliffs of Moher tour but we soon found out that it is not run in the off season. So we ended up doing the full day Cliffs of Moher & Burren guided walking tour. This was my favorite tour out of the two because of the hike and beautiful coast and cliffs. The start of the tour we went to visit a farm where a cow had just had a C-Section 10 minutes prior to our arrival. We thought we were going on a "leisure walk" but instead we ended up hiking a mountain which was owned by the same family that owned the farm. The hike was actually not as bad as it seemed, some of the rocks were wobbly but Hey, I'm still alive. After the hike we made a quick stop at the Poulnabrone Dolmen, an ancient Megalithic burial tomb dating back to 2500 BC. It is actually a lot smaller than it looks in my Facebook photos. Finally we headed to the Cliffs of Moher which were extremely gorgeous! The water was the prettiest blue and on one side of the cliffs there was a barrier but on the other side one hadn't been built yet and one of the highest points at the cliffs is 700ft! After the cliffs we continued our tour up the coast and made one more stop at another cliffs that weren't as high as the Moher cliffs but still pretty high and we got a lot of great photos in. As soon as we headed back into Galway we stopped for a quick bite and a little shopping and then had to grab a bus to Shannon where we would be staying at a B&B for the night.

SUNDAY
The B&B was absolutely adorable and the hot breakfast of eggs, potato, bacon and sausage was definitely the best part. Sadly, we did not have a lot of time in Shannon because we all had early afternoon flights.

So, that was my trip to Ireland with a better idea through the photos on facebook. I spent last night recuperating and watching March Madness basketball and watched my bracket go down the toilet. The best game by far was Michigan State v. Maryland especially the last few seconds OMG Intense! And Michigan St. is still on my bracket so I was very happy they won but only 2 of my final 4 teams are left: WV and Syracuse. Tonight I am going to see my friend Jen in her play "You can't put that in a show" and then have to work on this paper for Consumer Behaviour that is due Friday but after that my mom and sister-in-law will be here for a week and then it is off to Paris and who knows where else for the rest of the break! I hope it doesn't go by quickly because it means my adventure will be 1/2 way through :( I really don't know how I am ever going to leave...oh well I don't want to think about it right now and I have to go, otherwise I am going to miss her show!

oxo