discovering joy.: Ireland Part One

We traveled across the pond to say top 'o the morning to all the wee people! Of all the countries in the world, Ireland has always been on the top of my list. Maybe it's because I'm Irish, but I just love the heritage, the music, and the atmosphere of Ireland. Since we don't get a spring break, we get two long weekends while we are here. Our first long weekend was last week and I signed up to go on the school trip to Ireland for 5 days. We took a 12 hour long journey that consisted of driving a coach bus overnight to Wales, then taking a ferry to Ireland and driving another 4 hours to Blarney and then Killarney. It was a lonnnggg trip but thank God for ipods. Seriously I don't know what we ever did without ipods. Well actually I'm old enough to remember that we used to carry around cassette tapes and cds which took up so much space! Now, I have my cute pink ipod nano with all my tunes and an engraved inscription to remind me "you are LOVED" when I get homesick! (shout out to Craig for the amazing bday present!) The first stop was the Blarney Castle and we got to kiss the Blarney Stone, which they told us after that the locals pee on. Fantastic. Then we headed to Killarney and enjoyed the night life of Ireland. It wasn't at all what I expected. We paid wayyyy too much for drinks, and instead of quant Irish music a band played Muse, Journey, Bon Jovi, and wayyyy too many 80's songs. I was mad. All I wanted was to hear them play Galway Girl. Is that really asking too much?!

The following day we took a beautiful tour of the Ring of Kerry, which was my favorite part to the whole weekend! It was amazing and it was everything that I imagined when I picture Ireland. Lost sheep roaming the roads, waterfalls, green pastures, friendly Irish folk, beaches, and yummy homemade bread! I felt like I was in the Shire the whole time minus the hobbits. The next day we journeyed to Dublin and experienced the city life of Ireland. I have to admit I like the country better, but Dublin is very cool. We went to the Guinness factory and I tried Guinness for the first time! It was actually not bad, and we drank it in this overview of the city which was breathtaking. We also went to Trinity College which is very famous. When you walk in the city it's bustling with people and loud, but as soon as we stepped onto the college grounds, it was peaceful and quiet. It had a very prestigious feel to it. Unfortunately we did not have as much time in Dublin as I would have liked and we had to leave early the next day to make it back to school. Sunday was another 12 hour journey and I was exhausted when we got to Harlaxton. Nicola, Brigette, Leah and I all planned a trip to Shannon and Galway for the next weekend so we're looking forward to getting back to Ireland!

Again, some highlight pictures from the trip! There were so many!

Dancing the night away. Notice the pimp daddy in the background. hilarious