...while we were in Scotland.
I'm ashamed.
Once we got past those uber American things we were good.
We arrived in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday at around 10:30. It was pretty chilly but the sun was shining and I had made it through security without losing my Aveeno face lotion. Doesn't sound important - but let me tell you. It is.
We headed toward McLay Guesthouse where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. By the way, We is myself, Carolan, Paul and Patrick. When we walked in the room we saw a double bed and two twin beds, Paul immediately declared, "You two are sleeping there." Meaning that Carolan and I were going to be sharing the double bed. Apparently the boys didn't want to cuddle with each other, shocking really. Obviously Carolan and I had no problem with that. We put our stuff down and took a nap before heading out and exploring the city a little bit. We found the Buchanan Galleries which was a huge shopping center. I am proud to say that I did not buy one single article of clothing or pair of shoes or jewelry for myself. It took a lot of will power but the fact that I'm tres pauvre (very poor) made the decisions a lot easier. After a little exploring and attempting to find a good Scotland souvenir shop (which we couldn't find anywhere in Glasgow) we realized that we were starving. We walked around a bit until to our surprise there appeared in front of us, beside the KFC, a Pizza Hut. We walked in and the smell was so good that it didn't matter that our stomachs were growling, we were totally willing to wait the 20 minutes for a table. I got soup. It was delicious. Everyone else got pizza. Surprised? No I didn't think so.
Unfortunately, we were exhausted so going out that night did not occur. We ended up going to bed after going to the movies. We saw Cloverfield which I am not even going to describe because it is indescribable and was so, so good. It was actually pretty cool to go because there was a film festival going on so there was a lot actually happening around us. It's neat to see how different placs do movies too. Their system of rating is very different than ours and they show commercials instead of previews. (Although there are some previews thrown in). Even though it was Saturday, all the travelling and walking around had made us really tied and so we decided to go to bed so we could make a fairly early start the next morning.
The good part about staying in a Guesthouse is that breakfast is included and so we were able to enjoy a traditional Scottish breakfast. This means, 1 egg, baked beans, toast with butter and/or jam, some sort of pancake/crepe type thing. It wasn't gourment, but it was pretty good. I didn't complain. However, breakfast is served between 7am and 9am which wasn't totally ok with our sleep schedules. Once we finished we went back up to our room....and took naps.
Eventually we did venture into Glasgow that Sunday and lucky for us our travels led us through a beautiful park and towards the Kelvingrove Museum of Modern Art which was one of the most phenomenal museums that I have ever been lucky enough to experience. At one point I was in a room that included art by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt and so many more. It was so unbelievable and overwhelming. For a moment I had to just stop where I was and take in exactly what was going on. I was in the same room as all those pieces of art, in a museum, in Scotland. Amazing.
We spent almost 5 hours there. Clearly we are museum people. I could have spent more time there, but everything closes at 5 so we had to exit at that point when they politely kick you out by yelling throughout the museum that it was closing in 10 minutes. No intercom system, just people walking around yelling that. It was a unique experience. We ate at a little cafe in the museum. I got a fantastic soup and the best mashed potatos that I have ever had in a restaurant in my entire life. They were so good. At the end, we all had carrot cake which was also extremely delicious. By the way, you tip in Scotland. Yes you do. "Service is not included" will be right on your bill. Just letting you know - no tipping in Ireland, but definitely in Scotland.
We later faield at an attempt to go out that night. Perhaps threes a charm and Monday would be the day. Who knows, but we headed to Edinburgh on Monday. We couldn't have gotten luckier. We walked into the train station, bought our tickets with 10 minutes before the train departed for the 50 minute ride to Edinburgh from Glasgow.
Once we made it to Edinburgh we decided to be uber touristy and ride around on one of those double-decker red hop-on-hop-off tourist guide buses. It was a great decision. We saw everything that you could have seen in the city with the ability to hop off and check things out in one area and then hop back on and continue the tour from exactly where you left off. We stopped at Edinburgh Castle which was a gorgeous area. It was also wonderful that the area was surrounded by fantastic little Scottish shops. We met the most fantastic shop owner - his name was Steve. He taught us what the flags of SCotland stand for. The blue and white flag is the National flag and is for the people of Scotland while the yellow and red flag with the crest on it is the royal flag of Scotland and is for the royal family. He actually quizzed us on it and made us guess what the red and gold/yellow flag stood for. He was quite pleased when I said "royalty", I think he was a bit surprised that I was right! I know I was! We also checked out the Elephant House which is the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter book on napkins. It was pretty cool. We also found this great little restaurant inside a really old church. I ordered soup. (Are you sensing a trend?) Eventually we found our way back to the train station and headed to Glasgow. It was our last night. When we got back I went straight to bed because I was so tired. But in the end I woke up, readied myself and went out with Paul and Patrick - Carolan decided to stay in.
Luckily Paul fears no man or woman and was happy to say to random people "Where is a good bar around here." We ended up going to Driftwood, which has a special on Mondays - 99pence for all house liquor drinks. Southern Comfort and lime? Yes. The Bartenders there were so nice, but eventually it closed up and we started to walk toward some clubs that people recommended. Lucky for us again, Paul saw a Subway and felt it entirely necessary to enter and then struck up a conversation with some locals who pointed us to the Campus Club bar. We walked in and immediately noticed what was going on. Karaoke. Good karaoke. Not like those make her shutup karaoke, like those, damn that girl can sing karaoke. It was fantastic. Good music, karaoke, and dancing. Didn't hurt that there was a mini stage and you could dance there (once karaoke was over). At the club we all went our separate ways, it wasn't packed by any means so I could always see where they were and since I was on the stage - they could always see where I was which was convenient. It was nice to mingle and meet different people on our own. I met a very nice boy who had far better dance skills that I ever will have. I got a free scarf out of the deal. Mainly because he had forgotten that he had given it to me and I felt no need to remind him. It's quite soft. Yay for free stuff. He didn't quite understand why I intended on going back to my guesthouse, and not somewhere else with him at the end of the night. So I just gave him the peace sign and walked away leaving him in confusion. It was a pretty nice feeling.
The next morning we got all our stuff together and tidied the room up a bit and organized our packs to head back to Cork. I love all the cities that I'm visiting, but it is so good to go back to Cork at the end of the day. I absolutely love Cork.
We walked down to the train station and eventually, after some wonderful mishaps that ended up with us in a taxi with a wonderfully chatty driver who was great to talk to, we made it to the Glasgow Prestwick Airport (different than the Glasgow International Airport - in case you were wondering). At the security check point - they took my Aveeno face lotion. It was a tough loss for me and I had a strong urge to jump over the table and fish it out of the large red barrel that he so casually and meanly tossed it into with a care for anything that I had to say including the fact that they had let me into the country with it. I still want to punch his lights out.
Now we are back in Cork and luckily I had homework tonight. Why am I lucky? Well I'm not - you are. Because when I have homework I will do everything possible to avoid actually doing my homework, which is why you have now read a fairly detailed entry on my trip to Scotland. I hope you enjoyed it. I am now going to go to bed with only 100 words written for my 1500 word history paper. =]
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Ow...
...muscles hurt that I didn't even know could hurt.
But surfing was awesome. The surf was really rough but Carolan and I had a great time. I'm not sure if it was our 5mm thick wetsuits, or the fact that we normally swim in the frigid waters of Northeast America, but the water felt quite nice. In fact, I dove under a few times. Gave me some lovely bloodshot eyes but it was totally worth it.
Our "ensemble" consisted of a 5mm thick wetsuit, wetsuit boots, a wetsuit hood and another thin shirt over that. I didn't do well with the hood. It was very claustrophobic feeling and I hate not being able to hear everything around me, the waves breaking and crashing on the shore, the birds, I needed to take it off. They were really surprised that I wasn't cold when I took it off. I reminded them after that we were from New England, and that water was a lot warmer than New England water. Judging by how easily I could dive under water and not get a brainfreeze, I'd say it was even warmer than New England water in the summer.
We got there a little late for the first lesson, and really early for the second one so they let us jump into the first lesson. Since it ended and we hadn't had the full time they let us hold onto the boards and wetsuits and continue attempting to surf for awhile. It was nothing like surfing in Seabrook, I can tell you that much. In fact I mostly knee-boarded. The undertoe was intense and one of the instructors said the waters just weren't very good that day. It's all right though we tried our best and got up a few times.
It was mainly nice to be able to sit in the water, at one point I just sat on the surfboard and watched the waves. It was so peaceful and so relaxing. It was just what we needed. My spirit feels rejuvenated.
My body on the other hand, not so much. Random muscles hurt that I didn't even realize I was using. At least it was a good workout though. It's two days later and they still hurt. Probably didn't help that I decided to go to the gym yesterday but I didn't want to fall out of my schedule. Oh well.
I woke up early this morning with shakes and flipping from being wicked hot to wicked cold, nevermind the fact that my head hurt so bad I could barely lift myself from my bed. But I had to because you can't take medicine on an empty stomach. So I had some toast and some water and took my medicine and now I'm sitting in my bed writing to you with my body temperature still on the fritz. Right now I'm sweating. But it's apparently cold in our apartment according to my roommate, probably because I opened all the windows because I'm sweating!
Well that's about as much as my eyes can handle. So I'm going to go drink some ice water and pray that my temp will change. Ugh.
But surfing was awesome. The surf was really rough but Carolan and I had a great time. I'm not sure if it was our 5mm thick wetsuits, or the fact that we normally swim in the frigid waters of Northeast America, but the water felt quite nice. In fact, I dove under a few times. Gave me some lovely bloodshot eyes but it was totally worth it.
Our "ensemble" consisted of a 5mm thick wetsuit, wetsuit boots, a wetsuit hood and another thin shirt over that. I didn't do well with the hood. It was very claustrophobic feeling and I hate not being able to hear everything around me, the waves breaking and crashing on the shore, the birds, I needed to take it off. They were really surprised that I wasn't cold when I took it off. I reminded them after that we were from New England, and that water was a lot warmer than New England water. Judging by how easily I could dive under water and not get a brainfreeze, I'd say it was even warmer than New England water in the summer.
We got there a little late for the first lesson, and really early for the second one so they let us jump into the first lesson. Since it ended and we hadn't had the full time they let us hold onto the boards and wetsuits and continue attempting to surf for awhile. It was nothing like surfing in Seabrook, I can tell you that much. In fact I mostly knee-boarded. The undertoe was intense and one of the instructors said the waters just weren't very good that day. It's all right though we tried our best and got up a few times.
It was mainly nice to be able to sit in the water, at one point I just sat on the surfboard and watched the waves. It was so peaceful and so relaxing. It was just what we needed. My spirit feels rejuvenated.
My body on the other hand, not so much. Random muscles hurt that I didn't even realize I was using. At least it was a good workout though. It's two days later and they still hurt. Probably didn't help that I decided to go to the gym yesterday but I didn't want to fall out of my schedule. Oh well.
I woke up early this morning with shakes and flipping from being wicked hot to wicked cold, nevermind the fact that my head hurt so bad I could barely lift myself from my bed. But I had to because you can't take medicine on an empty stomach. So I had some toast and some water and took my medicine and now I'm sitting in my bed writing to you with my body temperature still on the fritz. Right now I'm sweating. But it's apparently cold in our apartment according to my roommate, probably because I opened all the windows because I'm sweating!
Well that's about as much as my eyes can handle. So I'm going to go drink some ice water and pray that my temp will change. Ugh.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Surrrrrfing IRE.....
...(Beach Boys song anyone?) It's 7am. It's probably the earliest I've been awake the entire time that I have been in Eire. But hopefully it will be worth it. My roommate Carolan and I are going surfing in Garretstown in Kinsale, which is about 40 Minutes from where we live. I'm super excited, but super tired. I'll let you know how it goes. Our other roommate Sam is actually going to a surf competition today for the UCC Surf Club. That should be cool too.
All right I've got to run and get ready and catch the bus. Talk to you later.
All right I've got to run and get ready and catch the bus. Talk to you later.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
I'm kind of dumb...
...didn't eat enough before going to the gym today. Not smart.
In any case I'm exhausted. I'm attempting to work on getting my Dublin pictures online but it's not going super well. However I do have my album done from my archaeology field trip which was super interesting. The link is to the right. Definitely check it out, I did my best to describe all the pictures and if you press the "slideshow" button at the top right of the album page you will be able to look at the pictures better. It's a good way to view them. I'm slowly getting the hang of this photobucket album thing. I'm working on it anyways.
I need to sleep. I'm going surfing this weekend! I'll tell you more tomorrow - I promise.
Love you all, goodnight.
In any case I'm exhausted. I'm attempting to work on getting my Dublin pictures online but it's not going super well. However I do have my album done from my archaeology field trip which was super interesting. The link is to the right. Definitely check it out, I did my best to describe all the pictures and if you press the "slideshow" button at the top right of the album page you will be able to look at the pictures better. It's a good way to view them. I'm slowly getting the hang of this photobucket album thing. I'm working on it anyways.
I need to sleep. I'm going surfing this weekend! I'll tell you more tomorrow - I promise.
Love you all, goodnight.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Rocky Road....
...to Dublin. It's a great Dropkick Murphys song. Download it.
Dropkick Murphys is the reason we actually headed for Dublin on Thursday this week. The concert was Thursday night at Tripod in Dublin. We left Cork around 12 and arrived in Dublin at about 5. On the bus we met a boy from Canada and when we arrived at the Bus Station we started chatting and exchanged numbers. It turned out that his name is David, he is 18 years old and got a work visa, packed his backpack and headed for Ireland. He spent the day looking for potential roommates and some job possibilities and he's going to spend the year working in Ireland and travelling. Amazing. We walked to our respective hostels and checked in and then headed to a convenience store for "dinner". "Dinner" consisted of bread and butter, a red bull (sugar free!) and potato wedges. There may have been candy thrown into the mix as well. Don't judge us. While we feasted I gave David a call, he met with us and we proceeded to the concert. It took us a while to get there but after asking several people directions we finally found our way to the queue (pronounced like the letter "q" - means that we got in line =] ) The bouncer gave our friend Paul a bit of a hard time, but in good humor. We picked up our tickets and walked into the venue which was filled with Dropkick fans from around the world. We met people from Germany to North Carolina. It was so cool. The concert was pretty intense with a good deal of moshing, and crowd surfing. However, lucky for me it was quickly realized that I wasn't a "girlfriend." Meaning - I wasn't just there beacuse my boyfriend was there and I tagged along. The surprised looks on people's faces when I knew all the words the songs, were priceless. I got a lot of high-fives and fist-pounds simply out of shock that I knew the music. It was great. It was extremely helpful when they began throwing the crowd around, men will help to hold a woman up or keep her secure from any crazies that are pushing her around. It was fantastic. Didn't hurt that I was able to stay dead center and about 2-3 people back from the stage. I was so happy. At one point my favorite song came on, and I was legit jumping up and down in the middle of these crazies moshing and I felt someone rub my head playfully (which was probably great since I was sweating and nasty and had SO much beer poured on me by then) and I turned to see that it was my friend Paul (also one of his fave songs) who had SOMEHOW found me in the crowd. It was nice to know I could still be found my my crew. About a quarter in I realized that there were arms protecting me from everything around me. I had no idea who they belonged to but they created a fantastic protective bubble for me and helped me to stay upright even when nobody else could stand on their own two feet.
Eventually, the concert ended and we headed out the door. I waited around with a friend who got a copy of the set list and had it signed, and I got a picture with one of the lead singers. It's not a good picture at all. But that's ok. While I waited to leave I looked around for my "saviour" that had protected me the whole night but I couldn't find him anywhere which bummed me out I really wanted to thank him. Luckily on our way out the door I looked over to see him chilling along a fence, I pointed at him, I had never gotten a good look at him so I wasn't totally sure if it was him. But he said, "Hey" and clearly knew who I was. I gave him a hug and thanked him for saving my life and invited him to hang out with us for the rest of the night. It turned out that he was from North Carolina and was studying in Germany for the semester and came to Dublin alone just to see the Dropkick Murphys Concert. We hung out for awhile and chatted, I actually met some people from Chelmsford which was pretty amazing. Then we exchanged numbers and went our separate ways with plans to hang out the next day too.
The next day we went to the Guinness factory! It was so much fun! It's a really cool place and you get the feeling that Guinness is a religion to these people. It was awesome. PLUS While we were watching them talk about how they brew a Guinness they called on me to start a Brew of Guinness and then they took down my information so I now have a brew of Guinness named after me! Brew #2310 - Brittany Dalphond. I don't know about you but I thought that it was pretty cool. After the tour we headed to get our free pint of Guinness, which was clearly the best pint of Guinness I will ever have in my life. Then Paul and I headed down to the other bar to try the other Guinness stouts. We tried Guinness Foreign Extra Stout which is only available in the Caribbean and parts of Africa and has 7.5% alcohol. It was amazing. The best beer I have ever, ever had. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Dublin, Africa or the Caribbean. =]
After we finished with the Guinness factory we headed back to town and decided to grab lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Dublin. It just seems right that you go to a Hard Rock Cafe if there is one there. I don't know why, but it's one of those places that it's nice to say oh well I was in this Hard Rock in this city and that city, etc. So we got over priced food and drinks, personally I went with chicken caesar salad because I'd been craving it. It was PHENOMENAL.
We then walked back to the bus station and got in line for our bus back to Cork. Chris stayed and waited with us and chatted until it was time for us to board the bus. Thankfully it was a direct bus, so there were no stops and we made it back to Cork in 4 hours. On the bus we met an amazing person named Mike who has spent the last 5 years travelling and living in various parts of the world but grew up in Cork. He gave us tons of information of the best places to go all around Europe and told us the tips and tricks of finding the inexpensive areas in all the places that we plan on seeing. He even gave us help with our computers. I don't know how we got onto the topic of computers but I'm certainly thankful for the help. We ended up chatting almost the entire bus ride. It was great, he was such a nice guy.
Once we arrived in Cork we walked back to our apartment and went right to bed, we were exhausted and we had a field trip for our Archaeology class the next day.
We were exhausted Saturday morning, which is why it took us extra time to get to the bus. We ended up being the last people on the bus, but that was only because the people that showed up after us had to take the professor's car because there wasn't enough room in the bus for everyone. It was, interesting. In any case the field trip was really cool. We saw a lot of really amazing places and it was so cool to stand in the middle of something that has been around for centuries. We stopped for lunch at a cute little town and Carolan Pat and I found a nice little restaurant where we grabbed some authentic Irish food. It made Carolan's day. She talked about what she ate and how good it was for the whole day. By the time we got back I was exhausted, and we all just went to bed. Carolan and Sam went hiking the next day, but I knew I wouldn't have been able to stay up all night to see the Superbowl if I had gone hiking and when I talked to them today it was clear that there was NO way I'd have been able to stay awake for the game.
Sunday was wonderful. I had the apartment to myself and I went to gym and then spent the day cleaning and doing laundry and just hanging out around the apartment. It was nice to have a day of nothing. Around 8:30 we headed to Skybar which is the only bar we could find that was playing the whole game. My (Irish) friend Colin told me about it. It was awesome. It was filled with Giants fans and a few Pats fans, but it was nice to have that rivalry in the crowd and feel the tension and the excitement. CLEARLY the feelings of the Irish fans were very different from our, and it was obvious that it meant a lot more to the Americans that were there. But it was still nice. They did a raffle and lucky me I won a poster of the winning team. Riiight, that could have been awesome. While filling out my information a man who was over there commented on my T-shirt (which I had gotten at the concert on Thursday) "Dropkick Murphys," I replied, "Yeah I went to the concert in Dublin on Thursday. It was phenomenal." We then chatted about them for awhile and it turns out her actually grew up in Worcester (as if his Patriots hat and T-shirt and Levi jeans weren't already a big signal that he was from the states)and he knows the band pretty well because he grew up with some of them. Apparently they hang out when they are in Germany, he now lives there, and they grab a drink after their concert and he hangs out backstage with them. My response to this? "Can we be friends?" Yes I seriously said that. His response, laugh, "Yeah." We continued chatting about the Pats, Dropkick, etc and he gave me his card. In case you were wondering, I sent him an email today. After a few bouts of hope, some nail biting, a little nauseau and plenty of yelling and jumping, the game ended. Needless to say I was quite sad, depressed, dejected, somber, melancholy, etc at the end of the Patriots game. We were going to continue the night, half of us celebrating half of us being sorrowful, but since it was 4am here, we decided it would be wise to go to bed. And so ended a fantastic weekend, on a sorrowful night. My heart is sad. =[ I wish I could have watched it with you Daddy, and you should have been at the Guinness factory. It was cool, I wish I could share these experiences with you. I love you.
Going to go study for a quiz tomorrow. Should be hearing from a nearby surf school tomorrow too so that I can start surfing, it's prime time for surfing in Ireland.
I'm trying to put pictures up. I'll update the page as soon as they are up. My internet connection here is funky. Sorry! I <3 you all!
Dropkick Murphys is the reason we actually headed for Dublin on Thursday this week. The concert was Thursday night at Tripod in Dublin. We left Cork around 12 and arrived in Dublin at about 5. On the bus we met a boy from Canada and when we arrived at the Bus Station we started chatting and exchanged numbers. It turned out that his name is David, he is 18 years old and got a work visa, packed his backpack and headed for Ireland. He spent the day looking for potential roommates and some job possibilities and he's going to spend the year working in Ireland and travelling. Amazing. We walked to our respective hostels and checked in and then headed to a convenience store for "dinner". "Dinner" consisted of bread and butter, a red bull (sugar free!) and potato wedges. There may have been candy thrown into the mix as well. Don't judge us. While we feasted I gave David a call, he met with us and we proceeded to the concert. It took us a while to get there but after asking several people directions we finally found our way to the queue (pronounced like the letter "q" - means that we got in line =] ) The bouncer gave our friend Paul a bit of a hard time, but in good humor. We picked up our tickets and walked into the venue which was filled with Dropkick fans from around the world. We met people from Germany to North Carolina. It was so cool. The concert was pretty intense with a good deal of moshing, and crowd surfing. However, lucky for me it was quickly realized that I wasn't a "girlfriend." Meaning - I wasn't just there beacuse my boyfriend was there and I tagged along. The surprised looks on people's faces when I knew all the words the songs, were priceless. I got a lot of high-fives and fist-pounds simply out of shock that I knew the music. It was great. It was extremely helpful when they began throwing the crowd around, men will help to hold a woman up or keep her secure from any crazies that are pushing her around. It was fantastic. Didn't hurt that I was able to stay dead center and about 2-3 people back from the stage. I was so happy. At one point my favorite song came on, and I was legit jumping up and down in the middle of these crazies moshing and I felt someone rub my head playfully (which was probably great since I was sweating and nasty and had SO much beer poured on me by then) and I turned to see that it was my friend Paul (also one of his fave songs) who had SOMEHOW found me in the crowd. It was nice to know I could still be found my my crew. About a quarter in I realized that there were arms protecting me from everything around me. I had no idea who they belonged to but they created a fantastic protective bubble for me and helped me to stay upright even when nobody else could stand on their own two feet.
Eventually, the concert ended and we headed out the door. I waited around with a friend who got a copy of the set list and had it signed, and I got a picture with one of the lead singers. It's not a good picture at all. But that's ok. While I waited to leave I looked around for my "saviour" that had protected me the whole night but I couldn't find him anywhere which bummed me out I really wanted to thank him. Luckily on our way out the door I looked over to see him chilling along a fence, I pointed at him, I had never gotten a good look at him so I wasn't totally sure if it was him. But he said, "Hey" and clearly knew who I was. I gave him a hug and thanked him for saving my life and invited him to hang out with us for the rest of the night. It turned out that he was from North Carolina and was studying in Germany for the semester and came to Dublin alone just to see the Dropkick Murphys Concert. We hung out for awhile and chatted, I actually met some people from Chelmsford which was pretty amazing. Then we exchanged numbers and went our separate ways with plans to hang out the next day too.
The next day we went to the Guinness factory! It was so much fun! It's a really cool place and you get the feeling that Guinness is a religion to these people. It was awesome. PLUS While we were watching them talk about how they brew a Guinness they called on me to start a Brew of Guinness and then they took down my information so I now have a brew of Guinness named after me! Brew #2310 - Brittany Dalphond. I don't know about you but I thought that it was pretty cool. After the tour we headed to get our free pint of Guinness, which was clearly the best pint of Guinness I will ever have in my life. Then Paul and I headed down to the other bar to try the other Guinness stouts. We tried Guinness Foreign Extra Stout which is only available in the Caribbean and parts of Africa and has 7.5% alcohol. It was amazing. The best beer I have ever, ever had. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Dublin, Africa or the Caribbean. =]
After we finished with the Guinness factory we headed back to town and decided to grab lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Dublin. It just seems right that you go to a Hard Rock Cafe if there is one there. I don't know why, but it's one of those places that it's nice to say oh well I was in this Hard Rock in this city and that city, etc. So we got over priced food and drinks, personally I went with chicken caesar salad because I'd been craving it. It was PHENOMENAL.
We then walked back to the bus station and got in line for our bus back to Cork. Chris stayed and waited with us and chatted until it was time for us to board the bus. Thankfully it was a direct bus, so there were no stops and we made it back to Cork in 4 hours. On the bus we met an amazing person named Mike who has spent the last 5 years travelling and living in various parts of the world but grew up in Cork. He gave us tons of information of the best places to go all around Europe and told us the tips and tricks of finding the inexpensive areas in all the places that we plan on seeing. He even gave us help with our computers. I don't know how we got onto the topic of computers but I'm certainly thankful for the help. We ended up chatting almost the entire bus ride. It was great, he was such a nice guy.
Once we arrived in Cork we walked back to our apartment and went right to bed, we were exhausted and we had a field trip for our Archaeology class the next day.
We were exhausted Saturday morning, which is why it took us extra time to get to the bus. We ended up being the last people on the bus, but that was only because the people that showed up after us had to take the professor's car because there wasn't enough room in the bus for everyone. It was, interesting. In any case the field trip was really cool. We saw a lot of really amazing places and it was so cool to stand in the middle of something that has been around for centuries. We stopped for lunch at a cute little town and Carolan Pat and I found a nice little restaurant where we grabbed some authentic Irish food. It made Carolan's day. She talked about what she ate and how good it was for the whole day. By the time we got back I was exhausted, and we all just went to bed. Carolan and Sam went hiking the next day, but I knew I wouldn't have been able to stay up all night to see the Superbowl if I had gone hiking and when I talked to them today it was clear that there was NO way I'd have been able to stay awake for the game.
Sunday was wonderful. I had the apartment to myself and I went to gym and then spent the day cleaning and doing laundry and just hanging out around the apartment. It was nice to have a day of nothing. Around 8:30 we headed to Skybar which is the only bar we could find that was playing the whole game. My (Irish) friend Colin told me about it. It was awesome. It was filled with Giants fans and a few Pats fans, but it was nice to have that rivalry in the crowd and feel the tension and the excitement. CLEARLY the feelings of the Irish fans were very different from our, and it was obvious that it meant a lot more to the Americans that were there. But it was still nice. They did a raffle and lucky me I won a poster of the winning team. Riiight, that could have been awesome. While filling out my information a man who was over there commented on my T-shirt (which I had gotten at the concert on Thursday) "Dropkick Murphys," I replied, "Yeah I went to the concert in Dublin on Thursday. It was phenomenal." We then chatted about them for awhile and it turns out her actually grew up in Worcester (as if his Patriots hat and T-shirt and Levi jeans weren't already a big signal that he was from the states)and he knows the band pretty well because he grew up with some of them. Apparently they hang out when they are in Germany, he now lives there, and they grab a drink after their concert and he hangs out backstage with them. My response to this? "Can we be friends?" Yes I seriously said that. His response, laugh, "Yeah." We continued chatting about the Pats, Dropkick, etc and he gave me his card. In case you were wondering, I sent him an email today. After a few bouts of hope, some nail biting, a little nauseau and plenty of yelling and jumping, the game ended. Needless to say I was quite sad, depressed, dejected, somber, melancholy, etc at the end of the Patriots game. We were going to continue the night, half of us celebrating half of us being sorrowful, but since it was 4am here, we decided it would be wise to go to bed. And so ended a fantastic weekend, on a sorrowful night. My heart is sad. =[ I wish I could have watched it with you Daddy, and you should have been at the Guinness factory. It was cool, I wish I could share these experiences with you. I love you.
Going to go study for a quiz tomorrow. Should be hearing from a nearby surf school tomorrow too so that I can start surfing, it's prime time for surfing in Ireland.
I'm trying to put pictures up. I'll update the page as soon as they are up. My internet connection here is funky. Sorry! I <3 you all!
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Dublin - Dropkick Murphys Concert & Guinness Factory
Archaeology Field Trip - West Cork
