Imma Galway Girl

Holy Crap!!!

That should set the stage for how my trip to Ireland was. Wednesday was full of a mixture of emotions considering I had my very first British Studies exam that day. We had to study and worry about that before we could even think about Ireland. As soon as my hand stopped from writing for almost 110 minutes straight, I ran upstairs, showered, and packed as fast as possible. As soon as I was finished, I went downstairs for dinner and to hang out with Jessica one last time, since she wasn't coming with us. By 6:50 we were on our way (by coach) to Ireland! It got dark really fast, so I was hoping to be able to sleep a little but my attempts were futile. Thank goodness they had movies for us to watch. The first one we watched was a british film called St. Trinians, which was rather interesting. The second one we watched was Seven, which I had seen before with Brad Pitt. Looking outside the window, all I could see was a black sky lit up with little specks of light that the stars created.

By about 1 am, we had finally made it to our ferry in Wales. We boarded but weren't allowed to leave the dock until 2:45 am. The Harlaxton students (about 40 of us) spread out amongst the lounges and laid down on the couches to sleep. I was really excited because the inside reminded me of the cruises I've grown to miss. I wanted to watch the sunrise since we weren't getting to Ireland until about 7, but I slept right through it. I guess it's good that I slept though, because that was the only chance I had to sleep til Thursday night. Once we made it to Ireland, we stopped at a little restaurant for breakfast, and took some pictures outside where we could see the ocean. After everyone brushed their teeth and freshened up in the bathroom, we headed back to our coach towards Blarney Castle. Once we got there, everyone jumped off the coach and went to go kiss the famous Blarney Stone.





Before we walked over to the tower with the stone, we tried to go into a cave, but within a matter of seconds, our shoes were getting stuck in the mud so we decided to turn back. We took a few pictures around the castle but then went and got in line to kiss what everyone comes there to do! In order to actually get to the stone, we had to go up a very narrow, spiral staircase. It was quite an adventure. As soon as we made it to the top, it started misting and the wind was blowing insanely hard which made it rather cold. We could have turned around but me, Meghan, Sara, Chelsea K, and Adrienne were determined to kiss that stone! I had no idea that I was going to have to lean upside down to do it, but it was fun. When we reached the spot, I had to get on my back, lean backwards and grab onto these bars, lean forward, and kiss the stone. Don't worry! Even though I was leaning backwards off the top of a high tower, there was a man holding onto me to make sure I didn't fall off!













We walked around a little bit after we kissed the stone. We did find a really cool tree that I tried to jump up on and sit, but had the worst time in the world! It was sooo funny. Unfortunately my friends took pictures of my insanely humorous attempt to get on this tree branch so I'll never live it down. A little while later, we were on our way to Killarney, where we would be staying for Thursday and Friday night. The town was kinda small, from what I could gather, it was about the size of Grantham. We shopped around a little bit, found some souveniers,etc. Then we went and ate dinner at a place called Tatler Jacks. It wasn't too bad. A little pricey, but unfortunately everything there seemed really expensive. Then again, we switched from using the pound to the euro, so it was a little different. But after dinner we stopped by this little ice cream shop and tried a lot of different flavor ice cream, I got a double scoop: one scoop was bailey's cream, and other was mint. It was so tasty!










Shortly after, we went back to the hotel, showered, changed, etc and decided to check out the night life! And let me tell you, Killarney's nightlife on a thursday night, is absolutely..dead. We tried to go to a few different places but nothing was really working for us. Scott's was the best place, and there was a live band which was pretty good. Our main priority was to listen to some live irish music, but everyone was just playing american! Gahhh!! So, we kinda pub hopped and ended back at Scotts. Some of the girls went and asked the singer to do an encore but he said he had to go to Scruffy's to play, so we followed him lol. There, we met a creeper who kissed Meghan's hand. So, we tried to leave ASAP from that place! once we left there, we thought it was a good time to go to bed since we had to wake up early the next day to go around the Ring of Kerry.

The next morning, everyone loaded onto the coach and set off and a day long trip around the Ring of Kerry, which is basically a big circle that takes you through the country side that shows you mountains, hills, sheep, Dingle Bay, and the Atlantic ocean. Our first stop was to a little place called the Red Fox Inn, where it is necessary to get an Irish Coffee (whiskey, coffee, and cream) because it supposedly is the best there. Of course, everyone wanted to try it, so me and Meghan paid 5 euros for this coffee. I was a little nervous because 1, i didn't like coffee and 2, it had whiskey in it and it was only 10 in the morning. However, my first tiny sip was a little sip of heaven. It was amazing. By far one of the most satisfying hot drinks ever created!! Me and Meg took some pictures with our amazing new drink and even decided to be rebellious. So guess what we did...we ran to the bathroom, washed it out, and stashed it!! We were bringing our little big of Ireland home with us. Ahh, how rebellious I have become! That and being a klepto. On top of stealing and drinking whiskey, we got to see the worlds smallest horse! it was the cutest thing ever!






our next stop was on the side of the road, where we could see a body of water. Before we got there though, everyone was feeling awfully energetic (no doubt the whiskey was to blame) so we sang songs, in a true irish fashion. Songs from the backstreet boys, britney spears, etc all came up of course. I was surprised even the boys knew them. Hm... When we reached our stop we all hopped off. If i'm not mistaken, it was the Dingle Bay. It was really cool because you could see the mountains in the distance, barely, since there were still clouds out.



Driving a little bit further and we hit the Atlantic Ocean. It was so pretty!! The sun was out, and there was a huge contrast between the blue ocean and the green grass. Everyone immediately ran down to the beach and out on the rocks, taking pictures and enjoying the coast. The smell of the salty air brought back memories of cruises, beaches, and sun tans. Ahh, the glory years :).







Continuing our journey, we went to some kind of over look. A few of the guys ran up a big hill so they saw everything you could possibly see. but no one wanted to run up that monstrous thing so we just laughed at them instead lol. We did take pictures and run around in the green grass. The sun was still shining and there was a slight breeze which made it a little chilly, but that was okay. We could see a few little boats in a little bay down below and some islands a little while off. The view was truly remarkable. A second or two down that road was where we had lunch, an expensive lunch that is. I had a cheese sandwich, roll, and sprite for a little over 7 euros which i found a little ridiculous. Oh well, gotta live by the culture right? We sat next to a window, so we had a really great view while we ate.






After lunch, we headed to the ocean, again! we stopped on the side of the road and everyone ran down to the beach because it was beautiful. The water reminded me of cruises, which tons of different shades of blue. It didn't look the ocean, more of the Caribbean! Meg and I climbed down the rocks to go to the beach, kicked off our shoes and put our feet in the atlantic ocean! it was ice cold too, but well worth it. I wish we could have stayed a little longer because the sun was shining bright and it was reflecting in the water. People were climbing on the rocks which went out into the water, taking pictures with their hands raised high as if they'd conquered some new world. The feeling was definitely unanimous: we didn't want to leave. But, we had a schedule to stick to, so we drug our feet back up the hill to our coach and continued our adventure.




Sneem was our next stop. It was this quaint little town with a few touristy shops. Every building was a different color and there are two theories behind it. The first one is it helps intoxicated people to remember which house is theirs. The other theory is that it helps lost ships at sea find their way. Knowing Ireland, I'm going to guess it's for the drunk people...haha!

Ladies View was our next stop. We stood on the top of a hill and saw a lot of land, hills, green, etc. This was the spot where Queen Victoria and her ladies and waiting stopped to look at the scenary. So, we stopped too! A coach of elderly people where there too, and it was so cute, as they were standing there, looking out over the land. Me and Meghan decided we were going to do that in 50 or 60 years!






Then, we went to a waterfall, and by this point it was gettin pretty cloudy and misting a little bit, but thankfully it was our last stop! Jamin and Scott both were trying to climb the rocks, trying to avoid the water but unfortunately they both slipped and fell in! Scott got a little more wet that Jamin, but Jamin kind of hit his head and got a little knot. It was sooo funny, but we were both anxious for a few seconds, making sure they were okay. Fortunately, we were only about 10 minutes away from our hotel because we were all very tired by this point!








Once we got back, we went to a few shops but our main priority was to find food for dinner. While in Ireland, where is the first place that comes to mind to eat? CHINESE! duh. So, we found a chinese restaurant, but it was a little expensive and everyone was starting to get a little short with each other, so I stepped up and was the woman of the hour, finding a solution! I decided to get carry out (which was cheaper than sitting in the restaurant). We would get 3 different dishes with a little extra fried rice and share it. Instead of paying over 10 euros each, we only ended up paying about 6! Then we went to a convenient store, bought some drinks and headed back to the hotel to sit and eat. That dinner conversation was literally the funnest conversation I had had in the longest time! Since we are ladies, we only talk about lady-like topics, right? haha...wrong! We talked about farting, getting sick, and quite a few other things I won't go into right now..haha, but I wanted to cry I was laughing so hard. Then, we ran to the ice cream place we went to the night before and had some new delicious ice cream they had just put out that day. I had two scoops of Margarita sorbet, which actually had a little bit of alcohol in it, but none that was noticeable. It was fantastic! After ice cream, it was dark and time to get to business, it was nightlife time! Sara decided she wanted to sleep because she wasn't feeling so well, so the rest of us decided to get dressed up and go out.

The first pub we went to (i cant remember the name) was a lot of fun. We hadn't been in there very long before a very attractive guy came over and sat down next to me asking if we were waiting on some boys. we all laughed and said no. But he stayed and talked to us for a while. My guess was he was 24 or 25 yrs old. All i knew was he had already graduated college and was a district manager in Texas, but was originally from Minnesota. He had been in Ireland for a little while with a big group of people. Their friend was a travel agent and always took a group of people to certain places for like 10 days and they spend like a day or two in each city. His name was Marty, and he called over his other friends. The only persons name I caught was Tim's because he sat down and actually talked to us. they were both really funny and we enjoyed talking to them. At about 12:30, they decided to go to the Grand, and they said we should go with them. We told them we might catch up with them later. Marty gave me his email address so we could send each other pictures that we had taken of each other (not just me and him, of all of us! lol) AND (although we were dying to follow them, at least i was, we didn't want them to know we were immature little girls that needed to follow the men around...lol). so we waited about half an hour until we left and went down there.











The Grand was 5 euros to get in, which wasn't bad. The front of the building was a pub and the back part was like a dance club. We walked through the pub straight for the dance club. It was weird, because while most clubs have all girls dancing while the guys are standing there watching, it was the complete opposite! We wanted to stand out, obviously, so we got in a little group and started dancing but as soon as we did, a bar fight broke out right behind us. I got shoved out of the way and Chelsea K got knocked to her butt and slid across the floor. Thankfully security was everywhere so they jumped at it and broke up the fight. We decided to leave the dance area and go to the pub where there was a live band. We passed Marty on the way, but didn't say anything because we wanted a drink.

Everyone got a Bulmers, and I got attacked from a creeper! This guy came up from behind me and wrapped his arms around me. He said, "Have you been waiting for me?" I broke away from him and told him no, where he continued to tell me that I was in his dreams. Meghan thankfully pulled me away and we left where he followed us but we told him our boyfriends were in the next room and he better leave us around. Then we found a little table to sit in the corner. Marty walked by and we flagged him down so he came over and talked to us. He mainly talked to me and Meghan while Chelsea and Adrienne were talking. He got up and went over to the counter and asked us if there were any guys in there we thought were cute. Fortunately, the guys he was standing right next to were pretty attractive and we pointed them out. Sure enough, Marty turned around and went over to them and started asking if they liked americans. I about peed my pants! I couldn't believe he did that!!! He came back over and brought them with us where we all introduced ourselves to Micky and Danny.

Micky is 22, not in school, and Danny just turned 18 and goes to a Catholic school in London. Chelsea started off talking to Micky while Adrienne tlaked to Danny. Me and Meghan were still talking to Marty and finally asked how old he was. Low and behold, he was 38 years old which really caught me off guard. As soon as I found that out, he became more of our protector than someone to swoon over. Although he never lost his cute appeal, I became much more comfortable around him. Me and Meghan were pointing out girls for him to go talk to, and he'd go over there chat for a little while and then come back and tell us what he thought about her. It was actually really funny. He stayed with us though, to ward off the creepers, even though all his friends had left already.





Shortly after, Marty had left and me and Meghan started talking to Micky whereas Chelsea and Adrienne were talking to Danny. Micky was drunk but extremely entertaining and hilarious! I found out they were West Ham fans and we all decided we needed to go see them play (since they are currently doing better than Manchester United). We all exchanged emails as well. So...I got 3 emails in one night. Not too shabby, eh? haha!




The club was closing and it was a little bfore 3 so we all decided to go. We exchanged goodbyes, went back to our hotel (the Failte Hotel) and got in bed by about 3:15. We left early the next morning for Dublin. We didn't get there until 2 pm though and it was rainy all day long which made the experience a lot less enjoyable. We did see St. Patrick's Cathedral, but we didn't go in because it was closed. That was the only historical thing we really saw. A lot of people went to the Guinness factory and the Jameson factory to see how they make everything, etc. We didn't want to. So we walked around, looked at some shops, bought a few souveniers, and then went back to the room. I was exhausted and didn't feel like doing much. We had chinese for a second time and it was fantastic! Then we decided to go about the town and try to find a nice pub to relax in. The Temple Bar was supposed to be really cool but every pub we tried to go in, they wanted nice dress and they wnated you to be 21 which was really disappointing. Hello! We're not in the states anymore! sheesh.







It was pouring and i wanted to go back, so we walked back to the hotel and chilled in the room. Daniel came up with a 5th of Smirnoff Vodka and Fanta. I didn't drink any of it, and went to sleep instead. Meghan had one glass, Chelsea had one as well. Daniel drank quite a bit of it and ended up paying for it on Sunday morning.



By the time sunday came around I was ready to get home. We left the hotel at 6:45 in the morning and didn't get back to school until about 5:30 pm. We watched Casino Royale and Love Actually on the way back. We also stopped in Wales at the town with the longest name in the UK. This is the name: LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
try pronouncing that!!








During this trip, I talked to people I normally didn't and bonded with Meghan more. I also fell in love with Ireland and everything about it, and love the song Galway Girl which plays in P.S. I Love you! Ahhh, I want to go back!!

My slideshow is on my actual blog site, so go check it out and see a lot more pictures! LOVE YOU!