Ireland!

I LOVE Ireland. Love it. It is just as beautiful as I always imagined it would be and the people are wonderful! Just like Paris, it was a whirlwind of a trip, but I am definitely not done with Ireland. I can't wait to go back!

Our plane left on Thursday night. We took Ryanair, which, prior to moving to London we thought was a great thing. Just as easy as Southwest but with much cooler destinations. It is not. After we booked our flight, we were inundated with horror stories about the Ryanair staff, and all the times people weren't allowed on the plane, etc. So we were nervous, but we made it! And we still don't know how. It's a long story, and I won't go into detail here, but we ended up in the same circumstances that people before us had been in, and they didn't make their flight. But somehow or another they allowed us through. Granted one girl yelled us and her coworker for helping us, but oh well. She shouldn't go through life so angry.

So anyway, we flew into Shannon, which is kind of southwest Ireland. That night we stayed in the most perfect B&B. The house and room and dining room were all so cute and full of antiques. The family that runs it is fantastic and really pretty good cooks! We loved it, but we forgot to take a lot of pictures of it. I wish I had so you could see how perfect all of it was. It was a great way to kick off our trip!

The next day was the driving day. On the wrong side of the road. In a tiny little car. I didn't even try. Adam did great though! No wrecks! But we did lose a hubcap... we're pretty sure that it was messed up before we got the car though. At least that's what we told the rental agency! We started by driving to the Cliffs of Moher. These are the cliffs that were the "cliffs of insanity" in The Princess Bride, so naturally this was the thing I was most excited about seeing in Ireland. I spent a while trying to figure out just which part of the cliffs were used in the film, and I also decided I found the place where Inigo waited on Wesley for their sword fight. (I recognize that the fight was filmed somewhere different altogether because that setup in the movie looks very fake, but that's okay. I was having fun.) After the cliffs we drove through all the way through the midlands into Dublin, about a 4 hour drive. It was so wonderful! Everything is just so green, and instead of fences they have those stone walls all over. So beautiful. We made some stops along the way, including Clonmacnoise, which is basically the remains of a really really old monastery. It was neat to see the old buildings and high crosses, but it was extremely cold and windy, so I feel like we probably didn't appreciate that like we should have.

We stayed 2 nights in Dublin, and spent Saturday with some people that Adam works with who were also there to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We started with the Guiness factory, which is actually a really well done tour. And I will admit, Guiness is not so bad in Ireland. It's not my fave or anything, but I did have a few pints while I was there and enjoyed them thoroughly... So after the beer tasting, we made the natural progression to tour St. Patricks cathedral and Christ Church. We also saw Dublin Castle, which was surprisingly enjoyable because they still had a lot of the medieval furniture set up, and overall it was just preserved well. I always like to see all the old furniture and learn why things were designed the way they were. Saturday night was just fighting the Patty's Day crowds at all the pubs. There were a ton of American college students because it's spring break, and flights are really cheap right now, so that kind of took away from some of the Irish pub feeling. And the non-American group I was with liked to give me a hard time every time they heard a drunk American saying stupid things loudly. But I didn't let that get to me. I'm still proud of my country thank you very much.

Sunday morning we took the train to Belfast in Northern Ireland to do the tour that we were kind of anxious about. Basically, they have a taxi service which employs only knowledgeable, "unbiased" cab drivers to take you around the catholic and protestant neighborhoods. Our driver was just okay, that was the only downside. The tour was fascinating, but we were definitely able to identify our driver's true feelings on the whole thing. But oh well. We saw all the murals, and I think it was even more interesting to go at this time because everything just felt so tense. Maybe it always does, but the driver said the atmosphere was much more tense, and that the neighborhoods, which appeared dead to us, usually had a lot more people walking around. However I didn't like it when he told us that taxi drivers were to be on high alert, since in the past a lot more of them got shot just because they were easy targets. He assured us not to worry, "they're just aiming for the driver." But we made it out!

After our few short hours in Belfast, we headed back to the airport and went home! It was such a wonderful trip. I really can't wait to go back. Especially if it's warmer weather!

Here in London all is well. The weather has been about 60 degrees and sunny the past three days! That changes everything. More people are out and about and in good moods, it's wonderful! However the weatherman said "but don't put away your winter woolies just yet..." Haha, I love listening to the weather here, they say the weirdest things. So I guess the warm weather isn't here for good just yet, but I plan on soaking it up as much as I can for now! (by sitting in a Whole Foods playing on the internet?? oh well)

I did get really homesick this morning, though. On their version of The Today Show, their chef is doing a tour of America, tasting all kinds of American cuisine. Today he was in Texas. Now, I've been okay as far as cravings for food from home go. I've really not been at that "if-I-don't-get-chips-and-salsa-right-this-minute-I-will..." point at all. This morning, though, I watched him eat enchiladas from Mi Tierra in San Antonio, and real true BBQ in Houston (which he kept calling "who-ston"). Man oh man, what I wouldn't give for some Desperado's enchiladas and Skipper Cox brisket... And then just seeing pictures of Texas and hearing Texans talk... it really did make me homesick. But that's okay. I will make it. And I have cable now, yay! Which means internet is about a week away, yay yay! So then I'll be to talk to everyone from home and life will be great!

This weekend I think we may take a day trip to somewhere around here, like maybe Bath or something. We'll just have to see how the weather is! We have a lot of pictures from Ireland that I haven't put on my computer yet. As soon as I do I will share some! Hope all is well at home, and that y'all are experiencing some beautiful spring weather also!