We left bright and early Tuesday morning, 3 am, and drove on our beloved bus to the airport. Remember that every so classy airline I flew on to Italy, RyanAir? Yeah, we were on that one again this time. And since we all know that I have the best luck when it comes to travelling, something of course went wrong. :)
I checked in, did everything I was supposed to, walked through the metal detector. No problem. Until I got to the other side... only to see the security guard on the end holding my bag in the air, shouting "who's bag is this!?" I shyly raised my hand, and she led me over to a different table. She then asked if she had permission to search my bag. So I said yes... by 'search' she really meant "can I take every single thing out of your backpack and test it for bombs?" So yeah! I stood there as she took every single thing out of my bag. Underwear and all. Just held it all up and examined in front of the world... joy! She then took this little wand thing and stuck it in every pocket of my backpack, and on everything she had taken out of my bag, ordered me to repack my bag quickly, and then stormed off as she took out the little reader from her tester, and put it into this huge machine that I am guessing tested it for any evidence of explosives or something... I guess I look like a real threat, they just had to check to be safe! :) haha No, what actually happened was this: So we have to carry absolutely everything in one bag, right? This means that I had to cram my purse into my backpack too. So when we got there, I shoved it in, forgetting that I had a small bottle of hand sanitizer in there that I hadn't put into my little liquids bag. And they just happened to see it on the scanner... so lucky me, I was the winner of the public humiliation prize once again! :) hahaha
Well, since there was such a large group of us going, and we waited until the last minute to buy tickets, we had to take two separate flights. So when my group finally landed in Dublin, we had to wait for the other half to arrive for two hours in the airport... so not ideal. I hate airports! Mostly because we just spend our time sitting on the hard floors, with nothing to do. But once they got there, we got to step into the real world of Ireland! :) It was so fantastic! I love it! The city is huge, and it was so much fun! The very first thing we did in Ireland, was go on a tour of the largest beer factory.. that's Guinness!
It was actually really cool... it probably would have been cooler if we actually drank beer. haha Mostly just because they give you a free pint at the end! We however, were good children, and asked for orange fanta instead... the bar tender seriously laughed at us, asked if we were serious, and after we assured him we were not kidding, gave them to us. It was hilarious!
That night for dinner, after wandering around Dublin for a few hours, we all met up at the Brazen Head Pub... this is the oldest and longest running pub in all of Ireland! It was way cool.
We sat in the candle light, and were served a full three course meal. And it was fantastically delicious! We had tons of fun. Then we just kind of wandered a little bit more, and then returned to our hotel and played cards... we've done a lot of that with all of this travelling! It's tons of fun! I am getting good, so you guys better watch out! ;) haha
The next day we had absolutely nothing planned, and were just set free to explore Dublin! So that is exactly what we did. We (when I say we, I mean me and my two buddies Ramzi and Kaylee... we're practically inseparable, kinda like the three musketeers, but better! We do seriously everything together.) So yeah, we started off our morning by taking a stroll through the largest city park in all of Europe - Phoenix Park. It was huge! It is over 1,750 acres! Crazy huh? So we frolicked through the flowers, had a picnic, and then we made a stop at the National Irish Museum and took a peek at the Celtic Crosses. They were awesome!
Our next adventures found us in the courtyard of St. Patrick's Cathedral...
Then we wandering the markets. We also had tons of fun shopping in preparation of our great holiday celebrations to come.
We then, get this, went Irish dancing in the streets! They had a stage, and they were teaching the crowds legit Irish steps! It was so much fun! The music is seriously so great, and we had a blast! :) I am now an expert river dancer... I may be willing to give free lessons when I return. haha
Thursday was, of course, ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! And we were in the heart of Dublin, Ireland. Does it get any better than that? I submit that it does not! :) We went crazy... we wore green, lots of it, and had the best day ever!
We started off by checking out the boat races down the river, then we went and watched the huge national parade. Let me just say this... it was absolutely Bizarre! I have never seen anything so weird in my entire life. Not a single thing in that parade made any sense... but it was funny to watch still. And the Irish loved it! There were literally thousands of people crowded on the streets, and it was insane! It was so much fun!
We then went and checked out the holiday carnival, and then just wandered around until we had to leave. This is when I was encountered in the hotel elevator by an old drunk Irish man... I happened to be wearing boxers, and he apparently loved the fact that I was in my underwear. haha it was funny. Luckily I was only on there for one floor! haha So we left Dublin, and then drove through the GORGEOUS Irish countryside... until we arrived in Kilkenny!
Basically, we had nothing really planned for our night here, or the next morning. The only reason we left Dublin, was because BYU was rather upset when they found out that we had scheduled our Ireland trip over St. Patrick's Day... so they told the director we had to at least be out of Dublin for that night. That way I guess we would be more safe... but even in the smaller city, there were more drunk people than I ever thought imaginable! And I was only out until like 9! But we could hear all sorts of excitement from the windows all night long... J
The best part of it was the beautiful rose gardens. They were huge, and super pretty! Everything here is so green and beautiful. Flowers everywhere! I love it! Spring time here in Europe is absolutely amazing… I’ve never seen anything like it before! It’s gorgeous!
Our last Irish adventure took place at Cashel. These are just some old ruins on top of a hill in the countryside of Ireland. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we had so much fun! We just took tons of ridiculously crazy pictures. We're good at that game… J Then we decided to not take the pathway down, and instead, climbed our way down the cliffs of insanity!!! haha ok, so they weren't that bad. But it was still an adventure! What can I say? We’re living on the edge! That's what exploring Europe is all about right? haha
Basically, Ireland rocks my socks. Literally. I loved it! And being there over St. Patrick's Day... priceless. Way too much fun! Point for Ireland! :)
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