Come On, Ireland!

Here is the rest of my trip to Ireland:
On Sunday, we slept in a bit, then had an Irish breakfast at Tony's Bistro. Taylor was really excited to have Irish breakfast. It consisted of an egg sunny-side up, toast, sausage links, bacon (more like ham though), and a hash brown. The boys also got mushrooms and baked beans with theirs...what a strange thing to eat for breakfast but it's what the Irish do! Afterwards, we went to the bus station and took a ten minute bus ride to Blarney and went to the Blarney Stone. It was sunny and pretty warm that day-like 50 degrees or so which was great. We first went to the poisonous gardens and then to the castle. There were lots of steps to get to the top and it was a pretty skinny staircase because when it was built people were a lot smaller. It probably didn't help that we had our backpacks on but we all made it to the top and kissed the stone! It tasted like Lysol because they spray it with disinfectant. They have two bars that you hold on to and then a guy leans you back until you get to the stone. It was fun! Next, we took a walk around the park area and saw lots of waterfalls and eventually ended up at a lake. We skipped rocks and then headed back to get on the bus. We had to wait a bit for the bus so we went to a pub and gots some food. Casey and I shared nachos...we've been missing them so much since there is nothing like chips and salsa here. When we got back to Cork, we went to one of Cory's friends' apartments to hang out for a couple hours until our bus left for Dublin. We arrived in Dublin at 10:30pm and went right to our hostel. It was a pretty cool hostel and we just hung out in our room talking until about 1am and then went to sleep.

On Monday, we got up and had breakfast at the hostel and then started our sightseeing for the day. We saw the Molly Malone statue, walked through Trinity College, and went inside St. Patrick's Cathedral. Then, we went to Christchurch Cathedral to try to go to Mass since we weren't able to on the weekend. The church's website said there was Holy Eucharist at 12:45pm but apparently that meant a priest and deacon saying Mass to themselves in the back of the cathedral and we were supposed to sit outside and listen. So, we gave up and said our own prayer together at the church and then continued on with our day. We went to a pub for lunch and then to the Guinness Storehouse. We took the tour and learned all about how Guinness Beer is made. We all learned how to properly pour a pint and got a certificate. The storehouse was shaped like a pint glass and there was a bar at the top where you could look out and see the whole city of Dublin. After our tour and complimentary glass of Guinness (which I didn't drink because I don't like it), we went to the area near Graftan Street to do some shopping. We went to H & M and a couple other clothing stores but didn't find anything to buy that would fit in our backpacks. We went back to the hostel for a bit and then went out to find some food. We ended up at The Temple Bar, which is Dublin's most famous pub/bar I think. It was the coolest bar I have ever been to! We ate sandwiches there and listened to live music by Irish people. It was so cool to hear them sing with their accents!!! There was also a guy playing bagpipes. Just like the Ireland we imagined! After a couple hours there, we went back to the hostel and went to bed.

On Tuesday, we woke up at 5am to get to the airport on time. Our flight left at 7:20am from Dublin and got to Madrid at about 10:50 Madrid time (there was an hour time change again). We went on the metro to the bus station and bought our tickets for the next bus but had 2 hours to wait until it left, so we walked around and found a restaurant to eat lunch at and eventually got on the bus. That was the longest bus ride of my life! I was so anxious to get "home" and stop traveling for a while. When I got back, I Skyped people and did homework and went to bed.

It's been classes as usual for the last 2 days. We are getting more and more planned for our Spring Break trip which is good. For the weekend, we are planning to climb the mountain, visit Trujillo (a small town about 1 hour away by bus), and go to my host sister's basketball game. It should be a relaxing time and hopefully we'll all get caught up on homework. I also have lots of Skype dates for this weekend with friends and family so that will keep me busy! Oh and by the way, we all miss Ireland already! It was so much fun and such good food and good times....I want to go back sooooo bad!!!! Last weekend is probably my favorite weekend so far!