ireland!

what a great trip! im not sure where to begin, so i guess i'll just tell the story...

thursday night...
justine and i left norwich around 5pm and caught a coach to stansted airport, which took about 2 hours. the flight was so short! about 45 minutes long and we touched down in dublin around 11. we made our way to the hostel, only to find that there was a random person sleeping in one of our beds. the people at the front desk were not quite coherent at that time of night, and it took them 45 minutes to find us another room! we were just about to go to the hotel down the road, but the maindesk guy wouldn't refund us, so they found us an alternative room. bed by 2ish, up at 7!

friday...
the tour we went on was called "shamrocker tours" for young-ish people. there were some other students studying in england (americans staying in london), a bunch of aussies, some south african women, a canadian couple... all english speaking countries represented! we hopped on the coach and off we went!
our guide, a full irishman, was super knowledgeable! he talked and talked and talked and talked (which got quite irritating when trying to nap...). but it was great to be able to hear about so much of irelands history, the mythology attached to it, its culture, etc etc.
our first stop on friday was to Locke's Whiskey distillery, where we learned all about the distillation process of whiskey. what makes irish whiskey far superior to that of american bourbon and scotish? its distilled 3 times! (because i know you all wanted to know that :-) ) had a whiskey sampling after, and i can wholeheartedly say that i DO NOT like whiskey, its terrible!
after that we hopped back on to our little coach and headed for a monestary, Cloimanouis (or something like that...) it had some really cool stone buildings, lots of graves...
final stop of the day was the Cliffs of Moher. breathtaking!! it was really rainy, windy and wet but it was beautiful to see! pictures to be shared later....
we spent friday night in a town called Doolin, on the west coast of Ireland. the town was literally one street long! the hostel was great, clean, friendly, very homey. in the evening we all went out to McGann's pub to grab some irish stew for dinner (many a pint of Guiness) and to hear some traditional irish folk music. we stayed for about 5 or 6 songs, but they were all so slow so we decided to head back down the road to the hostel.

Saturday.. lots of driving! We made our way along the western coast for one of the most beautiful scenic rides around the world, or so Kevin told us. at one point we ventured down to the water. at another stop we hiked to the most western part of Europe! if we were to continue westward we would run in to Newfoundland... when i heard that it finally registered just how far north we were! ahh! ... heard lots of stories about the sleeping giant and the 3 maidens, all of which are island formations you can see from the coast.
we spent saturday night in Killarney, supposedly one of the most popular tourist destinations of Ireland, also where the male to female ratio is 3-1. but was more like 10-1! lots of farmers! (kevin, the guide had loads of laughs poking fun at the Killarney farmer stereotypes... haha)
we had a great dinner at a pub, then continued on with our evening at a night stop called the the grand hotel. it was a fun night, but still very rural, very country (even more so than Norwich!)

Sunday... was the best sightseeing day by far!
our first stop was at Blarney - what beautiful grounds! and the castle is amazing! I kissed the stone, which was very creepy to do dangling upside down, being held by an old irishman. We'll see if i got the "gift of the gab" ...
our next stop was at some caves, which were so cool! huge cathedral-sized spaces, lots of amazing geological formations.. we weren't supposed to take pictures, but being the little rebel that i am i snuck a few anyways

all in all, it was a lot of driving through the countryside, but i guess thats the best thing that ireland has to offer! I wish that we had another day or so just to explore dublin, but i really enjoed what we were able to see and do! the tour company was great and it was pretty well priced, i'd say.

had a lovely long commute back to norwich late last night...
coach to airport in Dublin: 30 minutes
waiting at airport: 90 minutes
flight: 45
train from stansted to cambridge, to stowmarket, to norwich: 3 hours!
taxi to uea: 15 minutes

it really makes you miss the convenience of a car and the closeness of things in LA!

so, thats my weekend...