THE MOTHERLAND! Ireland!

It's been a while since I last updated but aside from two major trips, not too much has been going on.  I'm still hating the school aspect of school, but everything else is great!

Ireland!  I'm just going to begin by saying that it is hands-down the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  I felt like it wasn't real the entire time I was there.

Anyway,  after I bombed my British Studies exam on Wednesday, we took off on the coach to Wales where we caught a ferry over to the Emerald Isle.  The bus ride / ferry ride sucked because it was overnight, so sleep = none.  However, when we got to Ireland in the morning we stopped for a "full Irish breakfast" which was delicious.  Then it was back on the coach heading for Blarney Castle.  Yes, I kissed the Blarney Stone and I have a certificate to prove it!  The castle was my favorite so far I think -- you could explore all these random dungeons and passageways and see graffiti from the 19th century and stuff.  Pretty amazing stuff.  It's also really cool to go into gift shops and see your name all over everything!

We got back on the bus and headed over to Killarney, in County Kerry.  Such a cute little town!  I had some amazing Irish lasagna (sounds weird, but it wasn't Italian lasagna . . . ) which was freaking fantastic, and I tried Murphy's beer which was very good, tastes a lot like Guinness.  That night we were exhausted so after dinner we just went back to the room and watched Heathers on my computer and went to bed.

The next day -- holy shite.  The Ring of Kerry.  If anyone goes to Ireland ever, I mean it, do the Ring of Kerry tour.  It is gorgeous.  We began with a stop at the Red Fox Inn and Bog Village, and the Red Fox Inn has world famous Irish coffee, so I had coffee and Jameson's whiskey at 10am and it was beautiful!  The scenery was breathtaking.  Then it was off for more sightseeing on the bus, and we stopped at this gorgeous view of the Atlantic Ocean.  We ate Irish blackberries growing by the side of the road.  So quaint! haha.  Back on the bus, more awesome scenery, and we stopped in a little town for lunch.  This pub had 10 Irish men at the bar at 11:15am, and we watched them drink 4 Guinnesses each - and that's just what we SAW them drink.  It was just like O'Hara's :( .  I had another Irish coffee and this one was much stronger.  2 whiskys before noon -- I think I'm an O'Hara.

After that we stopped at Waterville, a tiny seaside town on Balinskelligs Bay, which again, was BEAUTIFUL.  I'm trying to find more adjectives, I apologize p

rofusely.  I took off my shoes and ran into the sea, but it was really cold so I basically ran right back out.  But now I can say I had my toes in Ballinskelligs Bay.  I stole some rocks from there too.

Then we went up a mountain to another amazing view, where we met an Irish man who played the accordion and his little dog that played Frisbee with us.  Some people climbed up the rest of the mountain and we definitely enjoyed watching them try to book it down to make the bus. 

Our next stop was Sneem, a tiny town in which all the houses are painted a different color.  This way, when an Irishman is stumbling home from the pub piss drunk, he can find his house easily because it's the only one of that color.  I bought some great gifts for my aunties here :)

And after Sneem is the stop which basically made my entire trip.  We stopped at Ladies' View in Killarney National Forest, and I have a hard time believing that I took this picture with my camera.  It looks like a post card.

 The picture at the top of this post is from Ladies' View too.  Not gonna lie, I teared up a little bit looking at this.  After Ladies' View we stopped at a beautiful waterfall, then headed back to Killarney.  All in all the Ring of Kerry was SPECTACULAR.

That night in Killarney, we went out to a really good dinner, then even though I was starting to not feel well we went to a pub where WE FOUND O'HARA'S BEER!  I stole the bottles to bring home with me.  We got hit on by two Irish guys, it was weird.  

In the morning I woke up with a pretty bad sore throat but I trucked through and we made our way to the bus to head to Dublin.  The thing about Ireland is that even a 6-hour bus ride is awesome because of the landscape.  We stopped for lunch somewhere and I bought cold medicine and cough drops to get me through.  When we got to Dublin Alex and I booked it for the Guinness Factory since it closes at 5pm and it was already 3:30.  Needless to say we spent way too much time in the shop and barely any on the actual tour, but it's okay.  Then we did a little bit more shopping, went back to the hotel, watched a movie then went to a beer hall where they literally had over 300 kinds of beer.  Then it was back to the hotel and to bed.  I'm kind of sad we didn't get more time in Dublin, but I'm more sad that I was sick and couldn't get drunk in Ireland.  But we had to be on the bus at 6:30am on Sunday so I wasn't too upset!

The ferry ride back to Wales was much better because it wasn't the middle of the night.  I got coffee and shopped in the little shop and slept and read my stupid History book.  In Wales we stopped at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which is the city with the longest name in Europe.  I'm not lying.  All we did was eat lunch there though.  So basically, Ireland was a success, although I really wish I would not have been sick!  I'm bringing my parents there one day for sure :)