[*this word is essential because it shows that I WILL return for another round(s) of Ireland someday...]
If I could sum up my experience in Ireland in 3 words, it would be: "cannot be done". To use only 3 words?? It cannot be done. In fact, I don't know if 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 words could fully describe the beauty, culture, kindness, and laughter I experienced in Ireland, the land of (most of) my ancestors. But, for the sake of looking back at this post years from now, and for the sake of giving you a glimpse of this magical place, I shall attempt to "sum it up":
With 6 midterms completed in 4 days, I was ready for my 5-day Winter Break travels through Ireland. I packed up my ONE (1) backpack with a couple outfits to cycle through for the trip (which was an accomplishment in itself since I'm a chronic over-packer), and on Friday morning
+Mary Distler and I grabbed the metro to head to the airport. We didn't even have to wait for Ireland for the fun to start! Upon arriving at the airport, we hurried over to the Aer Lingus check-in desk. The Spaniard working the desk checked my passport and quickly asked me something. I didn't catch it, so I said "
Mande?", which is the polite way to say "What?" or "Pardon?" Well, apparently it's only used in Mexican-Spanish, because when I said it, the man stared at me for a second and then burst out in laughter. "'
Mande'?! Jajajaja! Ay Americana...." He even turned to his fellow employee at the neighboring desk and told him about it so that they could both get a good chuckle out of it. I was slightly embarrassed and a bit taken aback that they would laugh so hard at an innocent
Americana trying to speak the language, but whatever. I hope I made your day interesting, Spanish-travel-agent-man....
DAY 1: (County Clare) Friday
In the middle of the flight, as we were getting closer and closer to Ireland, I felt a strong tug on my heart. It's kind of hard to explain: it felt as if there was a string attached to my heart, and now that I was finally close enough to the country, many of my ancestors from long ago were able to reach up and begin to pull me closer to the land. Of course I was excited to count down to this trip. But there was a yearning deep inside that became a concrete, present feeling only as I was 35,000+ feet above the English Channel.
As soon as we landed in Dublin,
+Hannah Kilroy ,
+Mary Distler , and
+Caroline Frame and I caught a bus toward Limerick to get to County Clare, the area in which some of Hannah's family lived. Being the Irish brogue-deprived tourists that we were, we were so excited to hear
anyone say
anything, so I struck up a conversation with the 2 Irish lads sitting next to us on the bus. (I never learned what their names were, but I suspect they were Sean and Patrick.)
In Spain, it's normal to greet new people with a small hug and a kiss on each cheek, so I tried asking the gents what a normal greeting is when you meet new people in Ireland.
"Oh goodness, that's interesting... I mean, there's a lot of ways.. A simple 'hello' or 'how are ya?' can be used..." Sean clearly didn't understand what I meant, so I clarified. "No, I'm sorry, I meant as in a handshake? A hug? We're American students studying abroad in Madrid, Spain right now, and in Spain they do a kiss on each cheek, so we were wondering what it's like here."
"Ohh, well a hug or something would work. I mean, if I were to meet the mayor or something, I'd probably give him a good handshake... I guess it just depends," Sean answered.
"Yeah, I don't think I'd get far in a club without being slapped if I tried the kiss-on-the-cheek deal," chimed in Patrick. Good to know, bro....
We continued with some small talk on and off throughout the ride, talking about traveling; the weather, and how it could be "sunshine here and pissin' rain a couple kilometers away"; the low-employment present in the country, and so on. As Sean and Patrick got up to get off at their stop, they wished us a fun trip and told us that our stop was the next one, and we thanked them for their help and conversation.
We realized that the ride to our stop was taking longer than Sean and Patrick had said it would, so Hannah walked to the front of the bus to ask the driver if it was coming up. "Ahh, yes, we've passed that one," he told her. Apparently you have to get up or tell the driver to stop at certain stops. "But I could just drop ya off at this stop," he offered. So we got off at a random bus stop and waited for Hannah's aunt, who, luckily, was following behind us and knew we had missed our stop.
Her Aunt Siobhan arrived shortly after with our friend
+Maria Bednar, who is studying abroad in Galway and also spent the weekend with us. A man walking by ended up being Eoin (pronouned like "Owen"), a friend of Siobhan's, so she introduced us to him. He greeted us cheerily and passed out his business cards to us: he started an online company that basically shows you a virtual tour of touristy places beforehand so you know what you're getting. We saw him a couple other times that weekend, and he was just as jolly and happy to see us as the first time.
Anyways, Siobhan was BEYOND gracious and kind to us throughout the whole weekend; she very willing volunteered opened up her house to us 5 girls for our Friday-Sunday stay. She made us breakfast each morning and drove us everywhere in her car; she was incredibly selfless and made sure that we had an easy and fun trip. I am always so grateful to have the opportunity to get to know such gracious and generous people in my life. People like Siobhan (and many of the hospitable Irish folk we met) act as a wonderful role model of how I want to spend and share my time and resources for others. And speaking of sharing my time with others....
After taking a short hike nearby and eating a chicken & curry dinner (I know, not exactly Irish, but nonetheless DELICIOUS!), the 5 of us, Siobhan, and 2 of her children, Ciara (12) and Sean (10), all hopped into their car and headed over to a traditional Irish "mourning luncheon"... at 9pm*. I don't know how else to describe it besides that; however, it seemed anything but a time of mourning. As people began to pour in, we were greeted by many a friendly face, smile, and/or conversation by the locals. Our only jobs were to pour coffee or tea for those who wanted it, but it was one of the most fun yet simplest activities I enjoyed over there! A kind, lil' ol' lady approached me and said "I don't recognize your face, my dear. Are you local?" When I smiled and said no, she replied "Oh, who are you?" Anytime I introduced myself and said I was from Chicago the reply was "Ah, 'The Windy City'!" One man was convinced I was from the suburb Elmhurst (it must have been the only one he'd head about) and kept repeating it.
(*A well-known boy in their town had recently passed away. Traditionally there is the initial funeral, mourning a month after the death and then mourning a year after the death)
The man who was mostly in-charge of the volunteers was quite the jokester: he yelled at me for not "selling" enough FREE tea at my end of the table, he complained that I wasn't working hard enough, etc. Clean-up was hectic (as the festivity was still full and occurring) but still fun, and afterwards we were allowed to eat and drink whatever was left. It came to my mind that some Irish tea (black tea, milk, sugar) with a touch of Bailey's Irish cream would taste nicely, so I tried it and was not disappointed :)
A little while after, Caroline and I followed some of the little kids upstairs to a small "gym" room. Hannah's cousins Sean and Ciara and their friends performed various silly skits for us, and one of Ciara's friends did some fantastic Irish dancing! Sean's 9-year-old friend named John was hilarious: he's one of those kids that says the most random things and nonchalantly makes things up on the spot. When asked to write his name on the frost on the window, he wrote "Liam" and then "Lady Gaga".... We asked what games they liked to play for fun and he shouted "Cross-hatch!" When asked what it was, he said "I don't know." (Turns out it doesn't exist. At all. Except as a design pattern for sketching.) Caroline and I told him our names were "Brenda" and "Penelope", which turned into "Penelope Pop Corn", and he pretended to write a story about us.
It was an incredibly fun time that I'm sure none of us were expecting!
We left later on, and after Siobhan dropped Sean and Ciara off at their house, she took us out to a quiet pub in town, where we mostly just took the time to relax from our busy day of travels and serving tea.
DAY 2: (County Clare) Saturday
On Saturday morning, we woke up to a hearty, traditional Irish breakfast: ham, bacon, sausage links, black and white pudding, with bread, cereal, tea/coffee "on the side". After breakfast we headed to Bunratty Castle, which has been destroyed and rebuilt throughout the early 1300's. It was originally built by a Norman man, taken over and destroyed by the Irish, rebuilt for the King of England, destroyed again by the Irish, rebuilt and then taken over for good by the Irish in the 1350's. Sean came with us, and as we meandered through the gift shop to get into the old castle grounds, he decided he needed a new tin whistle and bought one. (He spent most of the remaining car rides practicing, which was quite entertaining for us but not so much for his mother.) We entered the grounds and began to walk towards the castle. Part of the exhibit was a small "neighborhood" of old-fashion fishermen homes, which were extremely small.
How on earth did the Irish fit such large families in these tiny homes?! I kept thinking. Nonetheless, they were very cozy and precious to tour through.
There was even a cute little blue house made especially to match my blue coat and blue purse!
When we started to walk through the actual castle, we met a guide who told us all about the castle, and how it was built and destroyed and rebuilt; taken over by vikings, kings, noblemen, etc.; had tapestries that were "older than our country!" (a description used for many things on this trip); had 4 towers, each with clockwise-winding stairs (so that the right-handed defenders running down the stairs could more easily fight with their sword than the right-handed attackers); and so on. This history was very interesting to learn about at the time; however, I do not have the type of brain that remembers the history of things very well, and thus, that is all I remember. Thankfully I took many pictures to make up for it!
 |
| Bunratty Castle |
 |
| Sean hanging out on one of the cannons. |
The castle was filled with dining rooms, a huge banquet hall, servant rooms, the king's chambers, the earl's kitchen, a dungeon & such.
We spent the next 45 minutes or so exploring throughout the castle. We also took some of the tiny winding stairs up to the top of the towers where we could see far out into the green land of Ireland.
Showing my Irish pride with the flag right here!
<<
 |
| We took a sneaky selfie with Sean when he wasn't looking! |
After goofing around in the castle some more, we walked through the rest of the "grounds" and saw some more houses, a woman making homemade Irish soda bread, and a small "folk town" that included things like an old book shop, a barber´s, a photography business, and some boutiques. We passed through this on our way to look at the town´s old small church. Along the way, we also passed by some goats in a fenced-in field. Sean was so excited to see the goats, so he tried to call one over. He fed some berries to a very friendly and affectionate goat (that he later named "Barry" for his love of berries), and we all took turns petting him and feeling his smooth and (surprisingly warm!) horns. We bid adieu to Barry and continued onto the church.
 |
| Sean feeding berries to "Barry" |
 |
| Me & the lil' ol' church! |
 |
| BARRY!! |
Next stop was the mighty Cliffs of Moher (pronounced like "Moore", don´t say "Mo-hair" because you 1) sound very ignorant, and 2) make me very upset). The car ride was filled with sudden, jerky stick-shift movements through the winding hills (which almost made me sick), and it was also filled with the wonderful tin whistle tunes and anecdotes of Sean. Upon arriving at the Cliffs, nature and beauty engulfed us. Although it was misty and raining on & off, the beauty of it all still struck me to the core: how is it that people can live without seeing things like this?! It is true that "a picture speaks a thousand words", but I don´t think that´s enough words. I don´t think words or a picture will ever be enough to describe natural beauties things such as this; you need to come out and experience it for yourself. I don´t expect these pictures to be able to reveal nearly half the majestic and mighty character of the Cliffs, and I don´t expect my words to be able to fully describe my implicit joy during this experience; however, I still want to share with you some of the memories and beauty of it all!
 |
| Buenas amigas :) |
 |
That one time when I almost fell off
the Cliffs of Moher.... |
We spent about an hour and a half or so here and then headed out for a late lunch/early dinner. Despite the displeasure I usually experience in eating fish/seafood, I made myself order a plate of "Fish ´n Chips". I couldn't be in Ireland for 5 days and NOT eat their classic "Fish ´n Chips"! The 8-inch fried cod and heap of fries came out, and my hunger took over. Surprisingly, it didn´t taste very fishy at all, and I finished the whole plate! WOO! Erin:1, Fish:0. After dinner, we sat back and relaxed a little bit. Caroline and I ordered some Bailey´s (of course), while Mary, Hannah, and Maria ordered some Bullmer´s (apple wine) and hot port (a nicely heated, sweet red wine). Sean was feeling a little left-out, so he came with us to the bar to help us order our drinks. He also decided he wanted some dessert, so his mother told him to walk around and see if he saw anything he liked. As he would walk by a table, he would try to slyly look at other people´s food and turn away quickly when they noticed him staring. It was quite a funny show.
Soon afterwards, a small band of musicians began to "practice". Apparently a lot of the local bands use opportunities like this to practice with each other, although it sounded like an actual performance to outsiders like us! They were a hodgepodge of accordion players, banjo players, drum, guitar, flute, and clarinet players: it was incredible! When a song finished, everyone took a little break to re-tune or sip their pint, and then they resumed by just playing a couple chords and jumping into another song. We stayed for a couple songs and then headed home to drop Sean off before we headed back out for a play put on by 4 locals in a traveling acting group.
[[Before I get to that experience, I MUST explain the car ride that occurred. To most people, it will seem insignificant or won´t seem funny, but it is something that I must write down so as not to forget it!:
Sean began this rant on how he doesn't like watching movies with his sister Ciara because all she watches is musicals, and love stories, and so on. His least favorite was "Mamma Mia".
"The worst is when they're getting married and walking down the isle, it's so BORING. It'd be a lot better if someone started singing "No Diggity" as they walked down the isle..." At that we all burst out laughing, it was so random and sounded so funny coming out of his 10-year-old brogue. this, of course, only fed Sean's confidence and imagination. We then moved onto the song "Our Last Summer" from Mamma Mia, where there's a line that says "A family man, a football fan/ And your name is Harry". Sean had different thoughts: "That scene would be so much better with BARRY in it! We could say.... 'A football-playing goat/ And your name is Barryyy...'! Oh man, I can just picture Barry in a jersey, runnin' down the field!..." I absolutely LOST IT.
How the heck did he come up with this stuff??! He built upon that story even more, always relating Barry to the song lyrics. Barry went from being a football player to a dancing flower, to a banker ("I can just picture Barry as a banker, wearing a nice suit, pushing money forward with his little hoof..."), to a business man. He asked where we were staying in Dublin, so we told him the name of the hostel and he said "Oh, I know that, Barry owns it. He owns all of the hostels there. I'll talk to him, get ya a discount..." It was a solid 30 minutes of side-splitting laughs and crazy, non-sensible made-up stories about this goat named "Barry" that we had passed by earlier that day. What a car ride....]]
The play that we saw was called "UNforgiven", here's the synopsis listed in the program:
"A real circus of a play, Unforgiven is a laugh a minute exposition of Irish rural life where nothing is ever as it seems to be. P.J. awaits the death of his father so that he can inherit the farm and marry his neighbor Mary andlive happily ever after. His brother Seamie (AKA One Word) holds a watching brief while Mary is blissfully unaware of P.J's plans for her. When the father ultimately dies another brother arrives home from America and a colony of cats land among the pigeons in this hilarious play."
It took place in a large old barn, with massive space heaters on the walls, and the audience consisted of close to 150 locals (& us) sitting in padded folding chairs. The first actor appeared on the stage to start his monologue, and I swear he was speaking a different language. Honestly, it probably took me 4 or 5 minutes to catch on to his thick, rural Irish brogue and finally understand what he was saying. Overall though, the play was great & very funny! The "American" brother did a phenomenal job with his accent and mannerisms, and the entire play was full of both Irish and American stereotypes that were pretty accurate and very funny. Some of the American stereotypes were the brother responding "Yea" to a lot of things; saying "No way José!" as if it were a very commonly used expression; talking about the bigness and greatness of the U.S.
After the play ended, Siobhan took us to a pub down the road. We got many looks and stares as we walked in because the locals all knew each other, so obviously we were "outsiders". We stood at a table in the back and ordered some drinks. A group of 3 very drunk Irish guys (probably in their mid-20's) kept coming over to talk to us, and it was one of the funniest experiences we had in a bar. First, there was a dude singing and playing guitar, so it was already very loud and hard to hear people talk. Second of all, the Irish brogue is a lot thicker in the more rural areas of the country (a.k.a. not Dublin). Third of all, they were quite drunk, and thus slurred their words a lot while they were talking. So it made for a fun exchange of words. One of the guys, John, was holding two drinks, one in each hand, with a shot glass in each drink. I asked him why he had two drinks at once, to which he replied "Oh, I'm just tryin' to slow down." Typical Irishman :) I laughed pretty hard at that one. It soon became a little odd and uncomfortable with them, so we decided to leave, and Siobhan took us to another pub, the one where all the play actors and other locals were hanging out. It turned out to be a much better decision because it wasn't as crowded and we got to meet some of the actors!! We complimented the "American" brother on his superb accent, and we had a great talk with "Mary" (real name Ruth) about Irishmen. Turns out Ruth is the wife of Eion, the man we met the day before! She was so happy and impressed that we were studying abroad and that we got an opportunity to see the real, true, country-side part of Ireland. We all had some good laughs together, and she gave us some good life advice. We finished our drinks, said goodbye, and headed home for the night.
DAY 3: (County Clare/Galway/Dublin) Sunday
 |
| Some slight flooding in the picnic areas.... |
We attended morning mass (which took all of about 30 minutes) with Siobhan and her family at their parish and then headed toward Galway. She was kind enough to drive Caroline, Mary, and I there on their way to County Mayo to meet some family. We stopped briefly to take a quick stroll through Coole Park. It was mostly filled with walking paths, small fields, picnic tables, and gazebos to hang out in; however, a lot of the tables were flooded from all the rain (typical Ireland). This park also contains the "Autograph Tree", which contains the autographs of many of the leaders from the Irish Literary Revival, including George Bernard Shaw & Sean O'Casey.
It's hard to see it in the picture, but the autographs and such are actually engraved into the wood of the tree trunk.
We hopped back in the car and made the final stretch to Galway. I sat in the back seat with Ciara and Sean, and after we passed the inevitable stage of "brother-sister-fighting", we were all talking and laughing and making jokes. We were on the topic of birthday dinners, and I asked Sean what he likes for his birthday dinner and he said "Oh! I like this and that and this... I also really like steak! It's really.... venemous?... No wait, not that..... Tender! That's what I meant!" (Again, tears coming from my eyes.)
We had to say goodbye to Siobhan, Sean, and Ciara as they continued on their way up to County Mayo with Hannah and Maria. It was an interesting goodbye, consisting of the two little ones taking a million random pictures & selfies of us trying to say goodbye to them!
Once they left, we walked around a bit until we found a nice looking homey restaurant/pub for lunch. After filling ourselves with yummy burgers and Irish tea (I know, a strange combination, but nonetheless delicious!), we set out to explore Galway. We had no specific plan and site to visit, so we walked through Shop Street, Galway´s biggest, main street filled with shops (*duh*)!
 |
| Mary and I standing on the bridge in Galway. |
Mary, Caroline, and I meandered throughout the shops for a while and eventually found ourselves by some coasts of Galway. If I had to pick one moment of complete peace and happiness on this trip, it was while we walked along the ocean in Galway, with the sun shining bright in the blue sky and the strong breeze flowing through the air. The coast and the air and the ocean and the people, the overall atmosphere: it was so fresh and pure and clean. I didn´t want to leave. We would walk a couple hundred feet and say to ourselves "Okay, we´ll turn around at that next huge rock.".... and we would walk right past it. "Okay, at THAT huge rock, we´ll turn around." Nope. "We´ll walk to the bridge and then head back to town." We crossed the bridge. We paused in the middle of it to try to take in the moment: the wind, the sunshine, the ocean spray, the fact that we were IN IRELAND!....It was all such a beautiful gift from God, so seemingly simple yet so powerful. We decided that if we didn't head back now, we might never leave (which was a constant joke between the 3 of us, asking the others "So, when is YOUR flight back to Madrid? I´m staying here..."), so we walked back into town and grabbed a leisurely drink at The King´s Head.
We took a bus from Galway to Dublin (about a 3-hour ride), and arrived at our hostel around 10pm. Upon entering our room, we discovered that 3 of the 8 beds were already occupied, but no one was in the room. By our last night, our room consisted of 4 American girls (us), a French woman, an Asian guy, a middle-eastern-looking guy (who was perpetually asleep or MIA), and an Irish man. Interesting enough, our strangest encounter occurred with the Irish man, but I´ll come back to that.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little "fish-n-chips" place that was just about to close and hopped into the pub next to it called The Old Storehouse Bar & Restaurant. We could hear the live music from outside: "We are Young" by Fun., "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, and other popular American songs. Naturally it was our first choice! And it was a VERY good choice at that.
The singer, Jake, was extremely talented at both singing and playing the guitar, and he just whipped out well-known American music, one song after another. The coolest thing was that the pub was FILLED with people from all over the world: Italy, Great Britain, Brazil, Germany, and they all knew & sang along to every song he played! It was such an incredible experience to be in a different country with international strangers singing songs that I hear on the radio every day!
We stayed here until Jake finished his act around 1am. By the time he got to his last 2 songs he played, "Country Roads" by John Denver and "Hey Jude" by the Beatles, everyone was on their feet, singing (or shouting) along, filling the bar and the streets with the melody of voices from around the world. Those songs will now and forever remind me of my adventures in Ireland :)
DAY 4: (Dublin) Monday
Monday morning consisted of some more "self-guided tours" around the city of Dublin, hopping in and out of souvenir shops, and walking through some of St. Stephen´s Green. We found a very small corner "Mexican" place called "Little Ass Burrito Bar" (their logo was a small donkey - so clever) and grabbed a bite to eat. You´re probably asking
Why did you eat Mexican food when you were in Ireland?! Answer: because I´m a poor college student on a budget, that's why! (We treated ourselves to traditional Irish food for dinners but looked for the closest/cheapest options for lunch.) Later in the afternoon we caught a bus to take us to the Guinness Storehouse. We weren't sure if we were at the correct stop, and we must have clearly looked unsure because a kind old Irish man saw us and said "Where are ya trying to go?... Ah, the Guinness Storehouse! Why yes, it´s along this way. Take this bus. Where are ya from?...Ah, the Windy City!..." We got on the bus with the charming old man and waited for the correct stop. He must have known that we would have no idea when the stop was coming up because he pressed the "Stop" button for us in order to let the bus driver know to stop. We thanked the old man again for his kindness as we got off. As the bus was leaving, we turned back to wave goodbye to him and found him watching us, frantically waving his arm to the left to guide us in toward the Storehouse. What a great guy!
The Guinness Storehouse tour was a self-guided walk through the 5 floors & stages of the factory & brewing process. It was actually very interesting! The first floor consisted of different areas showing the 4 main, key ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. The rest of the floors were filled with many different things: one had "exhibits" of talking pictures of previous workers and various other people behind the scenes of the Guinness company. Another had a bunch of old-fashioned machinery and t.v. screens explaining the part of the process that a certain machine was used for. Another part consisted of thousands of old beer barrels and videos showing all the work that went into just making the barrels! It was amazing!
Eventually we got to the 5th floor, where we learned how to properly taste Guinness (or any beer):
1) Take a deep breath and hold it.
2) Take a big sip of Guinness.
3) Allow it to sit in your mouth for a moment.
4) Swallow it & breathe out through your nose.
And all of that actually worked! I'm not much of a fan of Guinness in the first place (sadly), but I'll admit that I tasted much more flavor while doing this process.
After that lesson, we moved onto the next step: learning how to properly pour Guinness draft. A bubbly blonde Irish woman brought us over to a small bar and taught Hannah, Mary, Caroline, me, and a random couple how to pour the draft. Then we got to actually pour ourselves a big hearty pint of Guinness! (Unfortunately I do not have pictures of this because they are stored in my lost phone, but I DO have a certificate saying I did it!)
We brought our drinks up to the 7th floor of the building, where we saw a 360-view of the entire city of Dublin: Trinity College, Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the ocean and other well-known places. I regrettably admit that I did not (could not) finish my pint; I tried my hardest and finished about half of it, but I'm just not a beer person. Oh well :/
We finished up our beers and mingling and headed back to the hostel. The woman working the front desk gave us suggestions for dinner that night, so we decided to hit up O'Neill's Bar & Restaurant because she described it as "a little pricey, but you get a HUGE portion with a bunch of different sides". Hannah, Caroline, and I all ended up getting a turkey & ham Shepherd's pie. My sides included: mashed potatoes, baked potatoes (can you tell I'm Irish?), stuffing, steamed carrots, and parsnip. For a reference as to how big this was: we were all starving, Hannah and Caroline split theirs, and they were well satisfied. (I think I was slightly hungrier than they were because I finished my plate single-handedly - whoops.) As we were finishing up dinner, the live music for that night began to set up for their act. We waited around a bit and I'm so glad we did: these 2 guys played traditional, beautiful Irish music, with 1 guitar and 1 banjo. It was really quite beautiful. Some of the songs sounded very "folksy", as in you could get up and do a "do si do" and not look out of place. Others were slower, and could be equated to a slow, smooth country song. We stayed for about 4 or 5 songs and then decided to check out some other bars' music.
We probably ended up visiting 3 or 4 other bars, ranging from a 10 minute stay to a 30 minute stay. One bar had two musicians and a man & woman river dancing! AND the waitress there was handing out free burgers! (We couldn't really eat/finish them after our huge meal at O'Neill's, but free food is still pretty cool nonetheless!) One of the bars had just too many people in it, so we didn't stay long. Another one that we stumbled upon was FULL of other SLU students (it was a very popular weekend to go to Ireland), and the music gig for the night was Jake, the guy from The Old Storehouse the night before! We grabbed some seats at the bar and a couple drinks and listened to Jake perform some new songs and some old ones. A 60 or 70-year-old Irish gentleman took a particular liking to Caroline at the bar and started talking to her. Well, more like "scolding" her for various things: "Why are you on your phone so much?", "Why are you studying to be a nurse - don't you want to be a doctor?!" Hannah, Mary, and I couldn't help but giggle as we watched all this happen and tried to figure out a rescue plan. The man took a break to turn to his other side and talk to some other gentlemen, so we grabbed Caroline and headed to the other side of the bar. The man turned around just as we began to pass by him and called out after Caroline "Bye! Have a great night!" It was strange, but so funny at the same time, especially since: 1) Caroline wants to work in geriatrics, and 2) she
had been looking for a nice Irish man to sweep her off her feet so that she wouldn't have to leave ;)...
Jake finished his set with "Hey Jude" again and we decided to head back to our hostel. The famous Temple Bar was literally right next to our hostel, and we would be remiss to not visit a Dublin landmark, so we quickly popped in there to hear the last couple of songs being played by another fantastic traditional Irish band. There were many.... "silly" Americans in this bar as well, and the band took a particular liking to them, so they honored their request and played "Galway Girl". The floor was packed, but a lot of fun dancing still commenced. At the end of that band's set, we returned to our hostel and finally called it a night... or so we thought...
As I said before, our room contained 8 beds, or 4 bunk beds. One bunk was filled with the sleeping middle-eastern guy and the asian guy; the bottom bunk of mine was occupied by the french woman; and the Irish man below Hannah was apparently still out and about. Mary and Caroline shared a bunk in the corner of the room and thus didn't disturb anyone. We all got ready for bed as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the strangers in our room.
At about 4am, I half-woke up to what felt like someone moving my bunk. I heard the Irish man talking out loud to himself, but I was too tired to turn over and see what was happening. Then I heard another voice "No, this is NOT your bed. Your bed is by the DOOR!" Apparently this guy was sleep walking and trying to climb into Caroline's top bunk! "Nooo, YOUR bed is by the door." She said again. He then stumbled and fell into Mary's bed, accidentally hitting her, to which she turned over to face the other way so as not to have to deal with this fool. My half-awake self was not conscious enough to realize that Caroline was the one saying all this, or to realize what exactly was happening in our room at 4am. Eventually he felt his way along the wall back to his bunk, laid down, and apparently began to poke Hannah through the mattress.
I got the full details from Caroline in the morning when she whispered them to me as we got ready. We tried to control our laughter and confusion as the rest of our roommates remained asleep. The Asian kid woke up to take a shower in the bathroom and proceeded to hum/sing to himself as he did so. (Mind you people are still asleep in the room at this time). Clearly irritated, the middle-eastern guy gave out an audible "HAH!" and turned over, as if to say "Wow, are you kidding me?!" That whole morning was just very.... interesting. We packed up all our stuff and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.
On the way there, I passed the french woman, who I had briefly talked to the day before. She smiled at me, but then looked worried "Are you leaving?" "Yes, we have to go back to Spain. We were only in Dublin for 2 nights," I explained. "Oh, that is so sad," she said, and she legitimately looked sad/concerned. I think she might have thought we were leaving because of the incident in the middle of the night. Honestly, that memory is so much more funny than it is upsetting/annoying. We said goodbye and wished each other safe & fun travels and parted ways.
Our flight wasn't until around 4pm, so we spend the morning walking through Trinity College and touring the building dedicated to the Book of Kells: "The Book of Kells contains lavishly decorated copy, in Latin, of the four gospels. It was written over 1000 years ago, probably produced early in the 9th century by the monks of Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland". It was a very interesting tour that had different signs, rooms, and sections explaining the meaning behind the Book of Kells, its physical construction (a lot of hard book-binding work), its artistic drawings, the symbols and animals used in it, and other such things. The last room contained the actual Book of Kells which was opened to a random page and displayed on a table under a glass display. It was incredible to actually see all the detail and work present on the pages! At the same time, it was slightly disappointing to go through the whole tour, learning all about it, and then only get to see 2 pages under a sheet of glass. After the Book of Kells room we walked up to the Trinity College Old Library, which was a huge, long hallway of about 200,000 books.
"Trinity College Library Dublin is one of the world's greatest research libraries, holding the largest collection of manuscripts and printed books in Ireland. Since 1801, it has had the right to claim a free copy of all British and Irish publications under the relevant copyright acts and has a stock of nearly three million volumes housed in a total of eight buildings...The earliest surviving building was built between 1712 and 1732 and is nearly 65 meters in length."
The roof was originally flat but latter raised and rounded in order to store more books. The library also had 14 sculpted busts, a harp from the 15th century, a copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, some hand-written sheet music for different songs and psalms, and other various tidbits of information. After that we walked half a mile or so to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We approached the church and noticed a bunch of cameras and some people dressed up in costumes; some movie was being filmed right outside the church! I thought about asking to be an extra, but it didn't look like they were in need of any.
The inside of the church was full of many different historic elements pertaining to the church and former clergy of Dublin. It was nice to walk around inside, but to be quite honest, we were all so beat from the non-stop excitement and activities of the past 4 days that I don't remember much of the specifics of the church. Sooo, here are some pictures! :)
 |
| "But Christ is all and in all" |
We finished our stay with lunch at a cheap yet delicious Italian restaurant and then headed to catch a bus to the airport. We were tired and travel-worn, but full of memories, laughs, music, and an unforgettable experience of a lifetime. If this blog seemed boring or unrelatable : I suggest you book a plane ticket to Ireland as soon as possible. If this blog was enjoyable and peaked your interest: I suggest you book a plane ticket to Ireland as soon as possible!
All in all, I could not have asked for a better experience in the land of my ancestors with these great people!
 |
| Just being goofballs (a.k.a. ourselves).... |
After a quick rest, we bused it back to the island and took the opportunity to just enjoy walking and try to soak in everything that surrounded us: colorful apartments sprouting out of the canals, countless bridges, ivy-covered walls, stone walkways, herds of tourists... It was a gorgeous afternoon and a perfect night. Giacomo had told us "I'd recommend just getting lost. Don't bother buying a map - even WITH a map you'll get lost!", so with that advice we merely wandered around the city. Eventually our tummies were rumbling, so we decided to sit down at Ristorante Pizzeria Dolfín. The inside of the restaurant had a very nice, fancy atmosphere, but wasn't very expensive! (This is one of the many things that I loved about Italy: everywhere you ate it looked like you were made of money, but the food was totally affordable!! The Italians are smart; they know how to do the Dining Experience right!) It was here that I had the absolute, very BEST lasagna of. my. life. (Sorry Nana!)
It had about 6 or 7 layers of fresh lasagna noodles (not as wavy as the ones we're used to in the States), a delicious tomato sauce, and a perfect mixture of sauce, cheese, and meat in between each noodle layer. I bit into it once and had to bite into it immediately after to determine if what I was tasting was truly as fantastic as it seemed! And it was! "Guys, this is seriously THE BEST lasagna I've ever had in my life. I'm going to have to break the news to my grandma when I get home. I mean, her's is good!, but this ... this is.... oh man, so great...." is what I told Mary and Caroline. So that will be a tough conversation to have when I get back...but worth it! :)
We each had a glass of the House Red wine as well, which was a nice pairing to our meaty, red-sauce pastas and pizzas. We also spotted an attractive Italian guy across the restaurant who looked sad, eating alone, as if he had been stood up or something. We jokingly talked about walking up to him and inviting him to join us, but we never made it happen. Next time, though, for sure....
The day was filled with a lot more walking (WOO! Free workout!) as we just meandered our way through the island. We happened upon the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church and went inside. It was a very interesting church: same style for the most part of other old, smaller-scale basilicas, but it looked as if there was a mix of politics/art and religion inside. Some of the sculptures on the walls and some of the paintings near the entrance seemed to depict something other than religion. I snapped about 5 pics before a worker approached me and said "Lady, no photo please." I hadn't even gotten to the best part of the church yet! Luckily, Mary never saw the signs and was never approached by a worker, so she was able to take better pictures. Ignorance is Bliss *sometimes*. Nevertheless, the rest of the church was filled with incredible paintings, altars, chapels, and statues, it was really incredible. (If my memory doesn't deceive me,) My favorite chapel & painting had to be the one that was all the way to the left of the main altar: It had a huge painting in which a group of apostles were gathered near the pillars of a building, discussing things and being enlightened by the Holy Spirit and whatnot, and the view could see that Mary and Jesus were in a room above them, by themselves, where Mary's Coronation took place in the most humble and beautiful way. It was so beautiful and precious, I felt as if I could actually feel a part of the love that exists between The Queen of Heaven and the Son of God. Amazing. Incredible. Words-don't-suffice.
