IRELAND!- 3 weeks late.

stina dancing on her 21st

Ireland Blog- April 11, 2009.

So this blog is only about 3 or 4 weeks late. We went to Ireland March 19-22 for Stina and Grayson’s birthdays! Stina’s was the day after St. Pattys, but she celebrated on St. Patty’s since she was turning 21. Grayson also turned 21, but not until the 21 of March. It sort of sucks that their 21^st were in a place where it didn’t even matter, but it will be nice for them to go back to the states and be able to drink legally, unlike, well, me.

Travel to Ireland was without a doubt the closest we have ever come to missing a trip, and since we have come SUPER close, I will fill you in. We decided to allow 45 minutes to an hour to get to the bus station, by taxi, that is only about 5 to 10 minutes away. Whhhhelp, it was rush hour and since there is apparently construction all down the main road of Granada, this ride ended up taking SLIGHTLY longer. As Molly, Leah, and I were sitting in the taxi, we see Grayson waiting at the bus stop for the bus to take her to the bus station, so we scream her name (since traffic is at a standstill) and she bee-bops her way into the back of the taxi as if it was planned. Had we not driven past her, she wouldn’t have made it to her own birthday celebration in Ireland. Where was Stina you may ask? She is very concerned with time, as we all should be, and was there about an hour and a half early, freaking out about us missing the bus to the airport. As we were in the cab we asked our driver if we had time to get there and he said “for a 7pm bus? Maybe, if you fly”…our bus left at 6:30…

hostel in shannon. bunkbeds!

So, in a panic, we called up Stina and asked her to buy our tickets. We amazingly got to the bus in time and were on our way to Malaga to catch our plane that we were planning on being about an hour and a half early for, when all of a sudden, our BUS HITS A CAR. I didn’t even know this was possible. What kind of bus runs into a car? We were literally 30 meters away from the Bus Station and could see if from the windows of the bus. This is when we noticed about 10 prostitutes prancing up and down the major road of Granada. They were wearing underwear and bras in most cases with huge high-heeled boots on. I didn’t think I would ever see a prostitute live and in color, but I did, and there were tons, and it was ridiculous. They literally just camped on the corners either alone or in groups of 2. We even saw one go into the bushes and hide her belongings to go back and get later, after he prostitution hours were up, I presume. After about an hour on the road watching prostitutes and waiting for the wreck situation to end, we were on the road. Once we got to the Bus Station in Malaga, we had to sprint to get taxis to take to the Malaga Airport, and we have 15 minutes before the gates closed.

Side note: Ryanair is the company that lets you book the cheapest flights. For example, our flight to Ireland was 0 Euro and it only cost money because of the tax, so odd. Anyways, these cheap flights come at a HUGE price, and that price is customer service. They are the rudest, most inhumane airline on the planet. Every time you fly, if you are not a member of the European Union, you have to pay anywhere from 10 to 20 euro (15-25 dollars). They also keep the lights on the entire flight and try to sell things like lottery tickets, perfume, magazines, etc. It is ridiculous.

awesome room inside the castle

So we run into the Malaga Airport to find that the gates have closed and we are 3 minutes late. We run to the Ryanair help desk where the man working says we are out of luck, we will not be able to go to Ireland. We start to freak out. Luckily we all had carry-on baggage and talked our way into getting on our flight. The man repeatedly told us how lucky we were. We then sprinted through security and into line for our plane, where we then waited 20 minutes to board. So there was no need to hurry or for them to consider not letting us on, but that is the way RyanAir works. RyanAir is my worst enemy.

bunratty castle
pretending to be the king and queen of the castle..

We flew from Malaga, Spain to Shannon, Ireland. We stayed in a hostel in Shannon where we had about a 12 person room to ourselves! In the morning we woke up and went to Bunratty Castle in Shannon. It was a castle that they think William Penn might have lived in and is from around the 15^th century. It was really cool. We went into all the different rooms and to the top that looked out over all the countryside of Shannon. After our castle adventure, we toured all the surrounding areas of the castle that were maintained to look like they did back in the day. We saw the biggest breed of dogs in the world and took many pictures pretending to be the people of the olden days (pumping water from the well, riding the tractors, plowing fields, etc.). We saw a bunch of mini animals too, probably a highlight.

cottage next to the castle
HUGE dog
working the well
mini horse!

After the Castle we took a bus from Shannon to Limerick (about 45 minutes) where we would then take a bus to Dublin. In Dublin we were split into two rooms of a hostel, each with 15 people. Molly, Leah, and I were all in the all girls room, which included a WOMAN..not a girl..of about age 55. This made for a super awkward night, seeing as she tried to go to bed at 10 when we were showering. She even asked us to turn off the blowdryer. I am not sure what kind of 55 year old plans on staying in a 15 person room and going to bed at 10…she was clearly very out of the loop of..life. Grayson and Stina were in the mixed room with boys and girls. We met a really nice Australian named James who was about 25 and a really awkward French guy, Pascal, who just made life in general very awkward. Molly befriended him, no surprises there.

james the australian and then pascal, the french man who made life weird.
lead singer of band. trying to get a mullet/rat tail
pic.

We went to a really cool bar district called Temple Bar District in Dublin and there was a live band! Grayson turned 21 at midnight and we got the band’s singer (who had the most awesome mullet I have ever had the privilege of viewing (think ratial)) to announce it to the whole bar and then have everyone sing her happy birthday! It was really cool and she didn’t even know it was coming. AND as if that wasn’t cool enough, in his next song he sang “I want to, celebrate you grayson, I want to praise you like I should..”. We also found a burger king crown on the sidewalk, so she wore that all night to signify her birthday. We went home at bar close and went to bed for our next day’s adventures.

us 5!
view from cliffs

We went to go see some of the cliffs that overlooked the ocean and a port, in this case. It was a cloudy day but it was still really beautiful. We even saw rescuer workers in training on our walk to the end of the cliff and we decided that if we were going to fall into the ocean, this would be the ideal time, while 30 of them were standing there ready and able. At one point we all stopped and laid down on a cliff that was sort of slanted downward and real comfortable because we were so tired from walking/hiking so much. The grass was SO green and soft to lie on. I think Ireland has the greenest grass in the world.

rescue workers on cliffs
outside the guinness factory

After the cliffs, we went to the GUINNESS store house which was a museum located inside the old factory for Guinness beer. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because it was really interesting to see the whole process of beer and learn about what separates Guinness from other beers. It was a 7 story museum and halfway through there was a tasting room. While most people took one half small glass and moved on, we decied to ask if there was a limit, and when answered “no”, we decided we wanted to stay in the tasting room longer and learn all about the proper way to drink the Guinness. There was an informational video in the room so we watched that a few times to perfect our drinking.

molly, grayson, and leah learning how to swirl and sniff the beer.
YUM

At the very top of the storehouse there was a gravity bar with a 360 view of the city. In this bar everyone was given a free pint (with purchase of museum ticket) of Guinness. It was delicious and really pretty to be able to look out and see all of Dublin. Since it was Grayson’s birthday, they gave her a second beer and wrote “21” into the foam, since the foam of the Guinness is so thick, and it stays the entire time.

We went out to eat for Grayson’s birthday and tried to go to a few bars but Molly’s awkward friend Pascal wouldn’t leave us alone and since he was just about the most socially awkard human being I have ever been around, most of us ended up just going back to the hostel since we had celebrated a lot for Grayson’s bday the night before.

trinity college

The next morning we went to see Trinity College, one of the oldest universities in the world, and it was really pretty and huge. Since we were tired and had some time to kill, we decided to go lay in the park right near it. After a while, Grayson, Molly, and I decided to start doing gymnastics as well. We had handstand and headstand competitions, and eventually we even filmed a video to highlight our skills. (I posted it at the bottom of this blog post!). As a preface, let me tell you that Grayson was a cheerleader her whole life and Molly did gymnastic for about 10 years..and yet, somehow, my one semester of high school tumbling class has proved to better prepare me for real world uses of tumbling..because they can’t even do a DIVE ROLL….check out the video to see for yourself.

we like to imitate statues. this is one of our best ever
about to miss our flight home

In the afternoon we had to head home and of course our travel is never without an adventure. Molly, Grayson, and I got separated from Leah and Stina (the more responsible ones of the group) and went to a bookstore in the Dublin airport. Molly soon realized her carryon baggage was missing and she had left it at the security monitors for about 10 minutes. Luckily a lady saw the baggage and waited with it until she returned. We then all lost track of time in the bookstore and as we were walking to our gate, it said “last call” and we were the 2^nd to last people to board. CLOSE CALL. Even after almost missing it, I got my own row all to myself on the plane (I was the only person who had this luxury), so it was awesome, and I got to sleep!

I loved Dublin, and just Ireland in general. I never thought I would get to go there, so I’m really happy I did!

I will write about my spring break in the next couple of days and post that blog (it will be reeeeaaaallly long) as soon as I can.

I will try to stay more up to date on my blogging!

A FEW THINGS I HAVE BECOME ANNOYED WITH IN SPAIN. (everything is SO great, but there are just some things that America wins in..)

1. Pace of walking. They honestly walk at a snail’s pace and take up the entire sidewalk. How do they take up the entire sidewalk? By LINKING ARMS with everyone they are with. I honestly have to walk down the street so that I don’t trample someone. It is insane. And they have no idea they are walking slow, and they look at you as if you are the crazy one for keeping a normal pace, and not stopping to window shop at EVERY SINGLE STORE.
2. Baby Strollers. In spain, the women get PAID to have children and maternity leave is much longer. This means there are about 20 strollers per block in Spain and the women/men pushing them don’t seem to realize the amount of space they take up. I get hit by one, in the heels, about once a day. This gets old fast, really, really fast. Also, the people with the strollers only add to the slowness of walking in the streets.
3. Not having a car! I cannot wait to drive once I get home, Cameron, you better be taking care of it (not wrecking it is all I ask!).
4. Speed of internet. We definitely take for granted how fast internet is in the states. I will go days without having it here and when I do, it takes FOREVER to upload pictures or do anything that requires a high-speed connection.

I think that is about it for my complaining. It is sort of hard to complain about anything, really, when you are living in Spain, but I figured it would be refreshing to see that not EVERYTHING about Spain/Europe is better or as good as home.

I only have 5 ½ more weeks here, and I think it is going to go really fast. I can’t wait to come home, but I also don’t want to leave. It is a really weird feeling and I’m sure it will only get harder as the end nears. Luckily my family (except Cameron) is coming to visit at the end o my program, and I cannot WAIT to see them.

I’ll write more soon!

the wonderful video of our gymnastics