Dingle...

...has more stars than you have ever had the opportunity to see ever in your life.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Cate and I were up pretty early on Wednesday morning so that we could leave our apartment by 7:45am to make it to the bus station for a 8:40 bus. I forgot my camera in my haste to be ready - but Cate brought hers so no worries, there are plenty of pictures. My AWESOME professor offered accomodation at his house and to pick us up from the busstop in Dingle so we were on our way. We got to the bus station and grabbed the bus to Tralee, where we would then get on another bus to Dingle. However, lucky for us, on the way to Tralee, as the bus tried to get through the Kerry airport roundabout thing, something happened that could only happen in Ireland. The bus, hit a donkey cart. No lie. I was watching as he pulled the bus around it thinking, "I'm not really sure if he's going to be able to make it." About 5 seconds later I heard the crunching sound of metal on metal and groaned. The bus driver turned off the bus and got out to assess the damage. While he was assessing the damage, other people on the bus went out with him to look at it and talk about it and smoke a cigarette. Even the donkeys came over to assess the damage through the wire fence between them and the rest of Ireland. In fact, the donkeys meandered their way to look at the bus before the Garda even got there. We waited for like 20 minutes to a half hour, just enough time for us to miss our connecting bus to Dingle from Tralee. Once we finally got going the bus driver told us all that the bus to Dingle was actually going to wait for us. Whew! That made me really happy! I felt bad having to have my professor pick us up even later.
It was about 12:45 when we arrived at the Dingle busstop. My professor Proinsias, or Frank, rolled up in his silver Nissan and long silver hair and took us on a tour of the Dingle Peninsula. It was absolutely gorgeous, the whole place was breathtakingly beautiful with bright blue oceans and blue skies and green hills. I loved it so much. We stopped for lunch at a great little place whose name had something to do with pottery but the actual restaurant and little store had, well, nothing to do with pottery. But they did have a great little chicken pot pie, which the three of us really enjoyed. My professor insisted on paying for our lunch, and would continue to be that way for the remainder of the trip. Kind, but frustrating, you're killing me Smalls! After that Cate got to talking about how she is a potter. Frank brought up that the Louis Mulcahy pottery place was right nearby - which basically made Cate's day, she knew exactly who he was and loved his work. So after lunch we headed there and Cate bought a bunch of one of a kind pottery from him that was made with a test glaze - meaning it will never be made like that ever again. Really, really cool. After that we were chatting with the girls who worked there and she offered to bring us down to the small studio outside where you can try your hand at throwing a pot. It was really cool - and I got to throw (which basically means that I made pottery on a pottery wheel). It's a cute little bowl type thing that it really kind of good for nothing but I still want to keep it because I made it, and I made it in Ireland at the Louis Mulcahy place. Goodness all around. From there we ran errands and he took us around more of Dingle. Then we headed back to his house where his roommate was waiting and making dinner for their friend Christine who was having a birthday. We all hung out and chatted and then sat down to a delicious meal. Before we ate though, Frank took Cate and I to the beach which was about 100 steps from his house. It was really nice out and the beach was beautiful. Later that night we got a ride into town and hung out at a place called Dick Mack's famous for being a a shoe store by day and a bar by night - though now it is primarily a bar. A lot of famous people have been there and there are stars outside on the sidewalk with famous names on them. From there we headed to a pub with live music and Irish set dancing. It was really cool to see it in it's natural setting where 3 people were playing their music and a group of people were just dancing along. The bartenders were really nice too and when Cate mentioned that she really wanted a Bulmer's shirt the girl said that she would let Frank know the next time the Bulmer's people came by and she would grab some T-shirts for us. Everyone had been so nice it was such a great experience. From there we headed to another place called that wine bar where Cate and I opted for pizza and tea in place of our half-pints of Guinness. When we were there the girl from Louis Mulcahy's came in with another girl that worked there. The other girl's name was Geiza (spelling may be wrong). She was German and was working in Ireland and working on her english. She was so sweet and kept telling us about how Kate, the girl from Louis Mulcahy's, was helping her to learn english. When the pizza came - the four of us were splitting it - she couldn't stop talking about how hungry she was. It was so funny. They actually said that we should stay the weekend but I had to write a paper and pass it in by Friday at 3pm. The invite made us really happy though. Frank called a cab to drive us back to his house. While we drove along my face was plastered to the window because it was either my eyesight - or the sky looked totally different. When we finally got to his house and got out of the cab I looked straight up into the sky, to make sure I wasn't going crazy. I wasn't. Up above me was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It literally took my breath away. I could see countless stars, more than I even knew there were and more than I could ever have imagined there being in the sky. Frank said that you can even see satellites and shooting stars and recommended that we grab some chairs and blankets and sit outside and watch the stars for awhile. We sat out there for about an hour just watching the shooting stars and trying to pick out the satellites in the sky above us. It was truly unbelievable and is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. Everything we did seemed so simple that day, we drove around, had lunch, looked out the window, went to some bars, and looked up into the stars at night. I don't know if it was the beauty that took place within all this simplicity, the ease of life in Dingle, or the way people treated us, the fresh air, the atmosphere. I am not sure what it was, but it was breathtaking and made me wish that I could share it with everyone that I knew. If I could, I really truly would.
Cate and I shared a double bed, and woke up in the morning and had some tea and figured out what bus we needed to take to get home with time to do our paper and other homework. Ugh. Then we told Frank that we wanted to take him out to lunch. He drove us to a place in Annascaul called the SOuth Pole Inn which was once run by Tom Crean, the survivor of 3 famous expeditions to Antarctica in the early 1900's. It was really cool - and had a great fish and chips. From there we headed up the street a bit to another pottery place - which was really nice. While we were in there Frank went across the street to tchat with Hannah Hanafin who worked at a bar. We got into the bar and I almost wanted to applaud her. She's in her eighties and still pouring pints and chatting up customers in her bar in Annascaul. It was pretty cool to see. After we left there Frank took us a special way around Dingle to an area with really pretty sights. It was absolutely gorgeous. The sheep that fill the hills are so lucky - they get to see that everyday!! We took some pictures and looked down between the hills at villages that have been deserted since the famine. After that we drove back into town and gave Frank a good-bye hug, and thanked him as much as we could, but there are no words to adequately express how truly thankful we were that he did all that for us and gave us a personal tour of the area. He was absolutely fantastic. We walked around and checked out some jewellery stores until our bus to Tralee was there to take us back. It was a great trip, and I am so, so glad that we went. We got home around 8, and luckily there was a bus stop right near our apartments so we didn't have to walk all the way from the bus station in town - which I was not looking forward to because I was exhausted. I got home, sat down on my bed and was invited to the movies for 9:30. It was 8:40 and I live about 45 minutes away. You can imagine. I booked it, and went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall for the second time, it's so funny though I didn't mind at all. After that we walked around town and hung out and chatted until my exhaustion began to take over and I yawned every 2 minutes. I wish I had been more awake but I wasn't and so around 2 or 2:30 he said goodbye and I crawled into my bed - exhausted. Long day - but definitely a great day. Whoot!

I know, I know...

...I haven't updated in awhile. I could tell you that I'm stressed and the like but I'm not really sure what it is. I guess I just haven't been up to it.
Today Carolan, Cate, Lizzy, her friend Becca and I went to Youghal (pronounced Yawl). It's a pretty cute beach town and we were able to walk the beach and look for seaglass and shells. But before we found the beach we walked around through the shops and found a really cool old church. We couldn't go inside but we walked the grounds and walked through a really old cemetery that was right beside it, it was basically a part of the church. The girls were chatting and I decided to follow a path through it that led up the hill to a stone wall that had stairs going up to a tower. It was a really beautiful view of Youghal and the surrounding area. It was really peaceful too. Behind me was a suburbia type area - very quiet - and in front of me was the ground of the church and cemetery and trees. Beyond that was the small town of Youghal with it's beach side buildings and then the actual beaches and the ocean. You could even see a lot of other parts of Ireland since Youghal is kind of inset on the island so it's surrounded by a lot of other parts of Ireland. It was really nice. I loved it. Eventually the girls found their way to me and checked it out too. From there we wandered farther from the port area in an effort to find a beach that we could walk along. There was also a really cool area that you needed to take stairs to get to, since a lot of Ireland's coast is cliffs it was the only way to get to this part of the beach. While the others looked through the rocks for seaglass I went meandering and scampering over all the rocks. The waves were crashing all around me and the smell of salt water made me think of summers in Seabrook. After a while we found another stretch of beach and walked it for a long time. Once we were toward the end of the stretch there is a large hill so I climbed up there and gave Mom a call. It was a good conversation and we've come to a decision. Life is too short to not take chances - chances with travelling, with people, with your heart. It's just always worth the risk. If I hadn't decided on a whim to come to Ireland I never would have experience any of this, and no not every minute has been great or memorable, but every moment has made the next possible and I feel like I'm learning so much from this. Enough of being comtemplative. I don't really know where I'm going with it. I'm just tired and rambling on and on. Ignore what you want to.
After we were finished meandering around Youghal we headed to the bus stop. There was a Centra(like a CVS) nearby so we went in and got snacks. Snacks is a word that I use lightly since what really happened was Cate bought a pie and we all had forks and we stood at the bus stop and ate the apple pie.
So here's what I will fill you in on soon enough:
Florence (the rest)
Venice
Athens
Santorini.
Dingle