Dia duit Éirinn!

So I was going to attempt to do some of the homework that's due tomorrow but my pen has exploded so I guess that's the universes way of telling me to start  writing this. I have a ten page paper due on Thursday that I haven't even begun to really think about yet, so this will probably actually be the only chance I even get to update you on this most wonderful of tales. Luckily the iPod is pretty much self aware at this point, because I didn't bring my laptop but can type everything up on this. Nifty, I know right? You want to know what else is nifty? My iPod somehow knew to set the clock back an hour when I got to Ireland, despite being connected to the internet or anything. Still trying to figure that one out. But anyway, on to Ireland.

It was effing amazing.

I spent the entire day on Thursday actually getting to Cork, so I'm really glad I decided to take the day off from school to get that extra day. My initial flight was late coming in so i missed the bus I was supposed to take to Cork, but i was able to use the ticket on the next bus out so no worries there. The bus itself was pretty nifty. It had free wifi on board. Some hostels that I've seen/been to don't even offer that, and fuck if I've ever seen a bus with wifi let alone FREE wifi. This was the first sign of the majesty of Ireland, and certainly not the last. Cork itself is the second largest cities in Ireland to Dublin, but by like a lot. Dublin's got about 1.5 million to Corks 500 thousand. It's a beautiful city, with a river wrapping around the center of town. Our hostel was about a five to ten min walk to the center of town, which was great for the price we paid. Speaking of the hostel, we got lucky the first night as there were no other people in the room of 10, just my friend and I. The beds were actually quite comfortable, as well as the blanket, which we didn't have to pay for as some hostels tend to get you for. Oh, and there was free Internet and light breakfast in the morning. In other words, this place was gold for what we actually paid for it.

Later Thursday night I met up with my friend who's studying in Cork and we walked around a bit while waiting for another friend of mine to show up in Cork. After he got there, we stopped in a bar for a little, and then headed home, because I was on 3.5 hours of sleep from the night before due to the fact I had so much work due on Thursday that I had to get done and the next morning we had to get up around 7.

Cork at night.

View from hostel window.

Friday morning was an early one, but I was surprisingly awake for it. We got picked up for a day tour at our hostel around 815 or so and we were off to the Cliffs of Moher, as well as a few other places. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but seriously this day trip was absolutely amazing. It was raining at first in the morning when we woke up, but it cleared up as the day went on and was absolutely perfect by the time we got to the Cliffs. I really can't put into words how awesome it was, and well not even the pictures can fully capture it, so you'll just have to make your way there yourself someday. I'll map out what our tour was like with some pictures and explanations below.

St. Jame's Castle in Limerick on the River Shanon

Cliffs of Moher

Castle on the Cliffs

Another shot of the Cliffs of Moher

My continuation of the series that I like to call, "Drinking Things on top of Things"

It just so happened they were selling Mead in the gift shop, so what better thing to drink than a little bit of Irish Mead while standing on top of the Cliffs of Moher?

Finally found some apple cider. Thank you Ireland.

Double rainbow that decided to pop up right after lunch in the town of Doolin.

The lunar landscape of the Burren. It's the only place on Earth where Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean flowers grow side by side.

On the coast at the lunar landscape of the Burren, where the two rainbows were still extremely prominent.

Another shot at the lunar landscape of Burren.

 One of the most famous stone age burial sites in Ireland, the Poulnabrone Dolmen.

A shot of some of the surroundings at the Poulnabrone Dolmen.

Bunratty Castle

When we got back that night, we discovered we weren't exactly as lucky to have the entire room to ourselves again. But what was prob the worst part - they were French, everyone's favorite type of people. Actually, these people weren't that bad, actually pretty nice, as we we're not expecting too much seeing both of our experiences with the French haven't resulted in much friendliness. But anyway, that night we walked around a bit, and actually walked out into the residential areas which was pretty cool. That night we passed the time enjoying the glorious Irish stout while in the oldest and longest running pub in all of Ireland. It's older than our country. Boom, how's that America?

The next day we slept in till about 930 when we both sort of randomly woke up. I was kind of expecting to be passed out for a bit longer. We walked around Cork for what seemed like a while looking for gift shops and whatnot, but when we realize it was only a little after one and we had been around everything twice and had stopped in an old Irish church, we decided to think of something else to do. So, taking out the map I had of the surrounding area, I noticed that Blarney was actually not too far outside of Cork. And there's a bus that runs there. So boom, impromptu trip to Blarney to see the castle and the stone. Nothing like a random decision to casually knock off something that apparently the discovery channel has on its list of 99 things to do before you die - kissing the Blarney stone. The castle itself was really cool as well, and had a lot of other places to check out on the grounds, including an old witch's cave and stuff, which was kind of neat cause we got to that stuff as the sun started going down, so we got to be in the woods, a little after dusk, checking out the witch's stone, witch's den, druid's cave, and a couple other very folklore-ish things.

On top of the castle of Blarney with my dearest sister.

Blarney Castle

We finished up the night back in Cork relaxing a bit in a cozy little pub.

On a few side notes, the Irish are incredibly friendly people. I don't know if it just seemed like that because people can tend to be a little colder in Spain, mainly just because of their culture, but almost everyone there in Ireland was incredibly warm and friendly. Also, they're pretty laid back, and you sort of need to make sure you're not in a rush to get anywhere because of the slight transition you go through from normal time to Irish time. 

In other news, I had a bunch of work due last Thursday, including a ten page paper. I'm so lucky as to have yet another ten pager due this Thursday for my art history class, woohoo.

My host mom still continues to say some of the most hysterical things imaginable coming from a woman in her mid-60s. I keep saying that we need to start writing them down so maybe I'll eventually start doing that and I can just list a bunch of the things that have come out of her mouth.

It was nice to casually be able to walk through the airport to my gate seeing how we were a couple hours early and it was pretty quick to get through everything. I won't be able to say the same after we land as I have to move very quickly to make the train back to Salamanca that I have a ticket for. Not exactly sure if it's exchangeable. I don't see why it shouldn't be but frankly I don't want to be stuck waiting in the train station an extra couple of hours.

Well apparently my luck ran out when I left Ireland. I did not make it to my scheduled train and the lady at the desk told me I could not still use my ticket, although I don't think she fully understood what I was trying to tell her or she thought I didn't know what I was talking about. So right now I'm deciding if I just want to get on the train and pretend I thought I bought a ticket for that train or just ask the conductor if I can get on with my perfectly good ticket that hasn't been used yet. When I was in Ireland the ticket I had for the return back to the airport in Dublin was an open ticket. This again shows the superior thinking of the country.

Well that was a bust. Conductor tells me to go back up to ticket sales and I try one more time to exchange but no dice. So once again I'm out an extra 20 euro. What's even better is that the train was actually full and so now I'm stuck here for yet another hour. I would really prefer to be back in Ireland right now. So what am I going to do now? Drink the apple cider I brought back with me from Ireland, listen to music, look at the pictures from the trip, and find my happy place. I actually would not care that I was stuck here if it were not for the mound of homework I have and the extra money I just spent. I guess that's what happens when you're country's economic status is slowly plummeting - you try to nickel and dime someone at any chance that prevents itself.  But you win some, you lose some right? It's fine, I just can't spend any money now over the next few weeks in order to make sure I have enough money for Italy, which again, rationally speaking I should really have nothing to complain about. And on the positive side, I am not once again stuck overnight in Madrid in an overpriced hostel, as I will in fact make it home tonight.

All in all, my friend and I had gotten extremely lucky on this trip, as it seemed that pretty much everything worked in our favor, and every time we turned around we found ourselves facing more or less the best possible situation. Ireland rewards it's own I suppose. It also just kind of goes to show that the best way to travel is just not to have a set plan really. While the trip to the Cliffs were scheduled in advance, this was to make sure we got the most we could out of the two days. But the trip to Blarney, which was completely by chance and on a whim, ended up being almost if not just as awesome as the trip we took the previous day. This sort of reminds me about something I read about and Irishman's philosophy, which I find pretty appropriate:

In life, there are only two things to worry about... Either you are well or you are sick. 

If you are well, there is nothing to worry about, but if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about...

Either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, there is nothing to worry about,

But if you die, there are only two things to worry about... 

Either you will go to heaven or hell. If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.

And if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends... You won’t have time to worry!