An deireadh

So I’ve been putting this post off for a long time, possibly in the hope that I won’t have to really accept the fact that I’ve left Ireland behind and won’t get to go back for years. But my Ireland adventure has finally come to a close. After 5 amazing, insane, interesting, eye-opening months in Cork and traveling Europe I’m not sure I’m quite ready to get back to ‘life as usual.’ I mean, I had so much freedom over in Ireland and met so many amazing people, and now it’s all over. I truly don’t know how time went by so quickly—in the beginning all I wanted to do was get back to Bowdoin and NY and all my friends at home, but now I miss Cork and my friends there so fecking much. It sucks mostly because not only did I leave friends in Ireland, but my American friends are scattered around the country and who knows when I’ll see them again? But I’m trying to focus on the positives—namely how unbelievably fantastic my semester abroad was.

I definitely started off extremely homesick, wanting to just get it over with because I was not used to living on my own, so far away from everything and everyone I knew. At the same time, I knew I would get over it so I just gritted my teeth and trucked along through. It helped having Rafa there as a piece of home and someone I could talk to. To my everlasting shame, I didn’t befriend my roommates as early as I should have, because they were brilliant. Seriously, Jenna, Alyssa, Sarah, and Jessie were hilarious and fun and great to be around. Our love of Tasty Kebab knew no boundaries!

Joining rugby was one of the best decisions I made while abroad, not just because I got a huge amount of experience, but also I did make friends. Part of the reason I love Bowdoin rugby is because of the girls on the team, so I was definitely worried that I wouldn’t enjoy playing at UCC if I didn’t get along with the girls as well, or if I just didn’t become friendly with them. But no worries—they were welcoming and wonderful and I had a blast. By the end I realized how much I’d miss them, and I hope that if any of them ever make it to NY, they’ll look me up :P

I think my biggest regret about going abroad was missing the last semester of the 2011 seniors. I think I’m closest to that group of any other class at Bowdoin, currently or in the past, and it sucked not getting to see them graduate. I know I have no real right to be, but I’m jealous of the stories I heard and the pictures I saw because I missed my last opportunities to spend time with them. And who knows when I’ll get to see them again? But I did get to say my goodbyes and hopefully the ruggers will be at a reunion in the future :)

I even fell in love with Cork. Call me crazy, but I think of it as a 2^nd home, at least for now. I cheered for every Munster and Cork sports game, and booed Leinster rugby any chance I got haha. I haven’t been that invested in sports since I realized I loved Boston! I even gained some of the anti-British sentiment, which probably wasn’t the best thing haha, but hey they were kinda jerks. The whole culture and atmosphere fascinated me, mostly how everything was so modern yet old at the same time; you could see the history in the buildings, roads, shops. Even traveling around Ireland, I would compare everything to Cork and come to the realization that, nah, Cork is so much better (similarly, now that I’m home I compare everything to Ireland haha). EuroTrip was a great, but not the best, part of my abroad trip. Sure, it was nice to see other countries, and the Stornoway concert was brilliant beyond belief, but at the end I was so glad to be home in Ireland. I loved seeing the Irish language on all the signs, and actually being able to read some of it! Tesco and the English Market made my life complete, and I still can’t really enjoy the butter and milk in the US (though the ice cream is miles better).

Getting to see the fam again was wonderful—I never realized how much I would miss them, because at Bowdoin they’d only been a phone call away, plus they came to visit at least once a semester. I loved taking Mom around Ireland to show her my favorite places, partially because we drove so I had a whole new perspective (aka not from a coach bus). And I saw so many new places as well—Ring of Kerry, Waterford, Newgrange. But once we were sitting on the plane all I could think of was seeing the rest of the family and showing them all the random things I accumulated over the months and finally getting to talk to them in person. I missed Coconut, my dog, most of all because while I could chat with the parents over Skype, Coco wasn’t all that talkative, and plus I couldn’t cuddle with her. Long distances are hard.

In a word, going abroad was grand. I grew up (I can shop/cook for myself, no problem), met new folks, learned cool things (Newgrange is the most amazing structure ever and Irish is a crazy-hard language), and realized that I could definitely see myself living in Cork. Crazy, but true. If I ever have a chance to go back, I would in a heartbeat. But, for now, this is the end of my travels and the return to normal life. So, signing off for the last time, thanks so much for reading this blog (or parts of it!) and I hope I’ve convince you all to go visit Ireland :D

Slán agus beannacht leat ♣

A mother-daughter adventure!

         I finally got to eat again! I met up with Mom in London after a week of scrimping and saving, finishing up the food I had, which turned out to be frozen chicken, oatmeal, and tea. Quite a fun few days, lying in bed attempting to ignore my need to eat haha. I also watched a looooooooooooot of TV and movies while procrastinating lol. I mean, my tests weren’t super hard, and they were over by the 13^th, so it wasn’t a huge deal, unlike at Bowdoin. THANK GOD. I couldn’t have handled this way of doing finals if the tests were as hard as at Bowdoin. Having a month off to ‘study’ realllllllllllly killed me, cause basically I forgot everything and had to relearn it. (On the other hand, it was the best month off everrrrrrrrr.)

         London was AMAZING, as I totally remembered. And this time we got the London Pass to go into all of the exhibits and buildings omg it was so fabulous. Mom really wanted a certificate for climbing up the 311 steps of the Monument, so we trudged our way to the top. The view was pretty good, but we were dying and gross afterwards haha.

         BEST PART BY FAR was ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ with Catherine Tate and David Tennant (Donna and The Doctor). It was seriously brilliant beyond all reason. The play was set in the 80s, which was a little strange, but it actually worked really really well! And after I GOT THEIR AUTOGRAPHS. AND TALKED TO THEM OMG. Like I had a whole conversation with them, which basically means I can die happy now. Right before that we were in this random map shop in Covent Gardens and the lady, who was very odd and talkative, kept telling us about all the people who visited her shop and send her thing. Interesting history of the shop as well, BUT the best part was when she said that Catherine Tate comes into the shop all the time and she’s actually friends with her like! I gave her my info and she said that she’d ask Catherine to send me something. If that happens I might actually faint from happiness. And ‘Pygmalion’ was pretty awesome as well…Rupert Everett (from My Best Friend’s Wedding) was epic.

         Next came the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, and a medieval reenactment dinner at Dunguire Castle. Surprisingly, the last was quite fun! We even met people form Pleasantville…super odd that they were there too, and sat next to us. I really love Irish music and poetry, actually—I think that’s why I liked ‘Pygmalion’ so much haha.

         I didn't realize there were mountains in Ireland, but the entire coast is basically mountains, especially the Ring of Kerry. Beautiful, but quite hilly. Mom gets major props for getting us around on those tiny tiny roads alive lol. We did get to see the Rock of Cashel, which is absolutely brilliant, as well as King John’s Castle, which wasn’t quite so grand. I wish we’d had a little more time in Cork, cause we had to rush a bit, but we covered the best parts. Packing was miserable cause I had to clean my room and the apartment as well, something that was slightly difficult after nobody wanting to do anything during exam period…it was a bit of a mess haha. But I did get to show her around UCC and the English Market, two of my favorite parts of Cork. I'm gonna miss the beauty of UCC, actually, cause the campus blew me away.

         Newgrange was by far the coolest part of Ireland, without a doubt. I mean, it’s stood for 5000 years and the 15m corbelled roof on the inside is still standing, no cement, no reinforcements. Absolutely magnificent. I’m kinda obsessed with it now, and totally entered the lottery to see it during sunrise on the winter solstice (100 people get to each year, 25,000 apply). I don’t wanna be long winded (again) so look it up :)

         Driving-wise, Mom did quite well actually. I tried briefly and did manage to shift gears, but the roads were too windey and I didn’t want to stall every time I pulled over to let another car pass, so Mom did like all of the driving. I am so used to the left side of the road, though. Coooooooooooooooolness.

Slán go fóill!

The hurling guys outside really need to stop practicing against my building.

         Why hello there good people! Writing about EuroTrip is exhausting, so I thought I’d do a random update about my current life in Cork, as unexciting as it is. Basically I’m here to take finals, of which I have 4: May 4, 5, 11, and 13. Nbd though, because I’m done with the first 2 and those were my hardest. I think I actually did quite well, which is grand since they’re 70% of my grade like. It’s so weird realizing that I’m almost done with junior year AND being in Ireland…I totally remember just getting here in January, and also the packing leading up to my arrival here. It seems crazy that I’m going to be a senior and have to find a job or something, because I am so not ready for that. But mostly I’m sad I’ll be leaving Ireland—this place really grew on me, despite my initial homesickness.

         I’ve been hanging out with my roommates a lot more now, since we’re all just in the apartment studying/watching TV on our computers haha. It’s been really fun! I have to admit, when I left for EuroTrip I was so ready to get out of Cork, but by the end all I wanted was to be home. After experiencing the crazy lifestyle of some of the other European cities, I really appreciate the fact that I can walk into town and also be in bed by 2, instead of going out at that point. Seriously, that was rough. Now that I have no money, I’ve pretty much just been hanging around, especially since Ireland welcomed me home with a crapload of rain. Oh, how I missed it haha.

         I meet Mom on the 18^th in London, which will be awesome because a) I’ve missed her (I know, surprise surprise! :P) and b) I won’t have to pay for things haha. We got the London Pass, so I’ll get to actually go into a bunch of things instead of just admiring their outsides. I’m soooooooo glad we missed the Royal Wedding, though, because I hear it was insane. Part of me would’ve loved to be there for it, but I was happy watching clips on TV.

         Gossip time: the Queen AND President Obama are coming to Ireland in May!! Sadly I’ll miss the Queen (she’s here exactly when I’m in London, and she leaves the day I get back), but theoretically if Obama makes it to Galway Mom and I will be there. He’s rumored to be coming down to UCC to dedicate a statue to Frederick Douglas, but it’s not official and may not happen. Idk. But if he does I’m so changing our plans and dragging Mom down—I mean, it’s only a 3 hour drive at most haha. The Pope was originally gonna come this year, but now he’s coming next April. Dammit I wanted a famous person trifecta. Though maybe being at the Vatican counts…?

Slán go fóill!

'I'm running with beauty as company, the lights are a-low where I run with you...'

         In a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, we were greeted in Poland by sheeting rain. A little sad after our beautiful, warm days in Italy and Spain. But we found our hostel with no problems. Except we forgot it was Easter—aka NOTHING WAS OPEN. Fo serious, nothing. And we failed at preparation: we didn’t bring any food with us. So we walked a good 30 min in the pouring rain to McDonalds (cause we’re classy like that) and ended up with some delish cheeseburgers and a kebab (it was disgusting, actually) from next door. Nbd.

         Kraków was awesome because the Polish currency, zloty, is rather cheap compared to the Euro. Like, 3.50 zloty to a euro. WOOHOO. Shopping was awesome, let me tell you. We didn’t really go anywhere the first day because of the rain and Easter, but we did have an exciting (SARCASM) surprise in store for us. The train ride to Berlin, which was originally said to be 4 or 5 hours, turned out to be 10, or, in the case of the overnight train that stopped everywhere, 14. So we canceled a night at our hostel in favor of traveling overnight with no beds on a public train, then switching to a German one at 5am. More on this later.

         This unfortunate mistake meant we lost most of a day in Kraków, so we had to cut out some of our desired activities. The only thing I actually wanted to do in Poland was see Auschwitz, but unfortunately it would have been a 6+ hour thing, and we wouldn’t have seen anything else in Kraków, so we didn’t go. But the city itself is amazing—so much interesting stuff happened here. We walked to the Jewish Quarter, a place that was decimated during WWII but has grown back to near its original size. The main square of the city itself had this amazing Easter market with traditional Polish things all on sale for very little cost. We each had like over 100 zloty after paying for the hostel and such, and it wouldn’t have been worth it to exchange the currency again, so we all went on shopping sprees. I got SO MUCH awesome stuff there, and I really wish we’d had more time because it was a beautiful place.

         The Wawel castle, where the Polish royalty was based since the 1300s like, was absolutely magnificent, and included a massive cathedral that has been in use for hundreds of years. There was a stone dedicated to Chopin, the famous composer from Poland, which made me happy because I love his music. If you ever have an hour or so, Wikipedia the Polish royal line, because it’s actually quite interesting and filled with craziness. I mean, people were marrying, killing, tricking, betraying, and beatifying like mad. Good times.

         There was a bunch of stuff dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II, who was Polish, because he was to be named a saint by the current pope in the beginning of May. Everyone was super excited, and there were pictures of him all over the main square. Did you know that he is one of the only non-Italian popes? Excitement.

         Polish desserts are awesome, lemme just say. In my haste to buy and spend my zloty, I bought several delicious foods, none of which I can name. But seriously, Poland is grand and I def wanna go back.

Apparently the hostel we stayed at in Poland was once a Gestapo headquarters and prison for Polish officers. The receptionist was telling us that many of these rooms were cells and many were interrogated and tortured here. There was a museum next door that gave tours of some of the cells as they were, but it was closed sadly. I mean, since Auschwitz is only an hour away obviously the Germans had a huge influence in Krakow, but I didn’t realize that even the apartment buildings were occupied by them. They even stationed themselves at Wawel Castle for a while, which was the seat of the Polish royal family for years. I wish we could have made it to Auschwitz, if we’d had another day, because I’ve heard so many stories about it from the people at the hostel.

And the end you’ve all been waiting for…our somewhat hilarious mostly horrifying journey on the overnight train! When I’m old and rich, I will never take a train without beds again. Or one without private compartments... At first there weren’t many people on board, so we eventually stretched out and were about to go to sleep when these two Polish guys opened our door and were like, can we come in. Well, I mean, what were we gonna say?! It’s a public compartment like and we couldn’t take up 8 spaces with 3 bodies (though I wanted to…). They clearly were interested in talking to us, and all we wanted to do was sleep, but these morons wouldn’t give up. Actually, only one spoke English, and he just wanted to practice by talking to us. Usually it would’ve been fine (we loved hearing English after so long in foreign countries) but at this point we were miserable. So we finally tell them we’re going to sleep, I put on my sunglasses and hood, and curl into the corner, as Ronnie and Rafa do the same. But this fool doesn’t go! He kept trying to make conversation with us, and we were like, NO WE’RE ASLEEP, but as kind as possible. Finally he leaves, though only to get his bag so he can move into our compartment, fml. Luckily, a bunch of other people with no interest in talking come into our compartment and ask if it’s free—we, of course, immediately say yes. So the guy from before comes back and everyone is asleep, but he taps me and is like, c’mon let’s go. Ignoring the fact I was asleep, I was not moving, mostly because I was cradling my valuables like they were my children (the chess set was the most awkward to hold haha). So he leaves again, and I passed out until we switched trains, so I have no idea if he came back. Sigh, people are strange. Essentially that was up there with the worst nights of my life, mostly because the train was creepy and the ride was far too long. On the other hand, it got us to Berlin, which was magnificent!

Slán go fóill!

'A bottle of red, a bottle of white...it all depends on your appetite...'

         After Rome and Paris, we were totally wiped. Like so completely exhausted that even Brit didn’t care about sightseeing in Florence, and that’s like a huge deal haha. But we basically checked into our really nice yet expensive hostel with a pool, restaurant, and no kitchen and vegged out for a while. We had our own room for the 4 of us and it was huge so we kinda just hung out and ate and watched Italian TV…when the satellite was actually connecting. Eventually we wandered around the city, which was nice because Florence was especially beautiful. Obviously we saw Ponte Vecchio and the awesome cathedrals (like the Duomo) and such. Sadly, since it was Holy Week, all the churches were closed except for prayer. But it was absolutely gorgeous out…god I love Italy! Rafa’s friend, who’s abroad in Florence for the semester, told us some places to go and see. Nothing too exciting to report, but of course I got more gelato. I freaking love gelato. Also, I really love the Medicis, one of the most powerful families in Italy for a long time, so it was fun being in their home base. I was that obnoxious history person who told everyone lots of useless facts. Awwwww yeah.

         We didn’t really plan our train to Milan very well, so we ended up with rather expensive standing room only tickets…at 8am…for a 4 hour ride. Fml. Luckily people got off at the earlier stops so we were finally able to stretch out and pass out for a while. Not exactly the best train ride I’d ever had.

         Milan itself was really kinda cool, though again we didn’t do much. Essentially it was just a resting place before our flight to Kraków. I had the directions this time, and TOTALLY almost got us to the hostel without getting lost. We couldn’t really judge well what 300 yards was, but we turned one freaking street too early and that got us lost for 15 extra minutes. I was so on the right track though. Def.

         Turns out there’s a Duomo in like every Italian city, and they’re always wonderfully elaborate. Again, closed because of Holy Week, but the outside was rather nice. We got our final gelato and sat by a fountain by a castle. Is it bad that I think I was gonna miss the availability of cheap gelato more than Italy itself? Maybe. But I’m telling you gelato is amazing, so I think it’s okay.

         ANYWAY, while we’re sitting there, this random black man comes up and brings a whole bunch of those cheap friendship bracelets the street peoples are always selling. Well, we do our customary, no thank you, and try to ignore him, but he kinda throws these bracelets into our lap. We tried to give them back but he’s like, no it’s a gift, regalo. And then he takes them and ties them on our wrists! We’re kinda sitting there like, okay, wtf is happening right now. But we made it rather clear that we wouldn’t pay, so we didn’t do anything. On the other hand, as soon as he started tying them I knew he was gonna ask for money once we couldn’t give them back. Sure enough, he started asking us for a small donation ‘for Africa.’ He was like, money for Africa, waka waka. Oh Shakira, how you’ve spread through the world, cause I don’t think waka waka was ever associated with Africa before the song… Anyway, we ended up with free bracelets, and sadly the guy got no donations for ‘Africa.’

         The flight to Kraków was rather hilarious, solely because Rafa and Ronnie were wearing like all their clothes and looked huge. It was funniest when they tried to sit in the airplane seats and all the clothes kinda bunched up around their top halves. They were like, oh noes everyone is gonna think we’re the fat Americans! Oh the lolz.

Slán go fóill!

"City of a million moonlit places, city of a million warm embraces..."

         What I love most about Italy is the gelato, fo sho. I mean, you literally can’t go wrong with gelato…it’s always freaking delicious. I have never met a gelato cone I did not like (assuming I picked the flavors lol). And while Gelato Fiasco in Brunswick is fan-freaking-tastic, it really can’t quite compete with real Italian gelato.

         All we wanted when we got off the train was to shower and rest, cause sleeping on a moving train is rather difficult. Sadly we couldn’t check in for a looooooong time so we sadly and slowly wandered around looking for gelato. In our true lazy fashion, our first gelato was at the train station, but it was really good AND cheap. Finally, we got to check in. The lady was leading us to our room, and we kinda expected to be up one floor or something, but she led us outside! And then around the corner…and down the block…we were worried a bit that we were living in a completely different building lol. Ended up being a random apartment in the same building, but on the other side as the desk…slightly inconvenient as there was no WiFi in our room.

         Brittany gave us a super awesome walking tour of the city (she’d been there already) including the Coliseum and the Pantheon. It’s so cool seeing everything cause it’s mostly really well preserved even though it’s unbelievably old. Also I love the movie ‘Gladiator’ and I was totally imagining all the scenes as I walked around—I can’t help it I’m too geeky! And Brit also showed us the two best gelato places in Rome…we obvs got cones at both haha. The first one was freaking huge (love it) and the second was all-natural, so no cones. Both were good but I def prefer the first one because I got more gelato lol. The second shop was right next to the Trevi Fountain, sadly a huge tourist spot. Ronnie seemed to be quite the attraction, as several of those creepy guys who sell crap toys kept coming up to her to chat her up lol. One greeted her with ‘Diamond, Diamond,’ which was freaking hilarious. Well, we enjoyed it lots…I’m not sure if Ronnie did as much haha.

         Brit is a slave driver when it comes to sightseeing, so she lead us on an all-day walk around the next day. But, of course, first we headed to the Vatican! Many know about my secret dream to become Pope solely to be allowed to see what’s in the Vatican Library and the Pope’s Vault. Seriously, I just like knowing secrets. Well, since it was Holy Week we got into St. Peter’s Basilica for free woooo. Again, I’m not much for churches but the elaborate decorations were really quite stunning. There were carvings of a bunch of Popes in little niches, and lots of beautiful frescoes everywhere. The creepiest part about the Basilica was the dead Popes embalmed in wax to preserve them. They were in glass coffins so EVERYONE could enjoy their presence…EEK. I’m not that scared of dead bodies or anything, but some of these guys had been dead a long time and were looking a little…green and wrinkled…gross.

         When one is at the Vatican, one MUST visit the Sistine Chapel. It’s like a prereq before leaving that country. Well the thing is, first you have to go through the Vatican Museum, or at least we did because certain Classics majors wanted to :P There are signs in each loooooooooooooooong corridor telling you how many more exhibits until the Chapel. Well, those damn signs lied to us, because sometimes there were two stops left, then all of the sudden there were six. Annoying, but finally we made it to the grand finale! Sadly, no pictures were allowed, but I’m such a rebel and sneakily took them anyway haha. Like I’d miss the chance to photograph the Sistine Chapel.

         So what I’ve realized after all this time traveling is that we plan mealtimes poorly. We always assume we can find food, and then by the time we think of it we’re already freaking starving, and none of us are very pleasant at that point. Yeah, we really needed to start planning ahead. The rest of the day was just kinda walking around and trying to use our pass for lots of things. We went out for a nice dinner that night…had to have delish pasta before leaving Rome!!

         To end our tour we pretended to be Robert Langdon while running through the Castel Sant’Angelo haha, just like in Angels and Demons! We totally found the secret hiding place, btw, though sadly not the passage to the Vatican :(  We were def hoping the Pope would show when we were in the city since it was Holy Week, but sadly no such luck. I almost wish we’d stayed for Easter, except apparently everythinggggggg is closed, no surprise. I suppose if I were Catholic it might have been worth it, but I think I’m glad we got out when we did.

         Hilarious story—so one of the receptionists at our hotel, named Ali, started chatting with us while we were down in the lobby using the Internet. It was kinda weird at first cause we couldn’t understand him, but then things got interesting…oh boy did they get interesting. He brought out wine for us (opened it in front of us, nbd) and basically told us that they have so much wine in the basement they won’t care at all. So here we are, chatting with this rather friendly, slightly off-beat guy, drinking wine, in Rome. Suddenly, we’re talking about his family (he has a daughter with this Dutch lady, but she was ‘an animal’ who didn’t have human emotions, so he kicked her out), when he’s like ‘I sell children.’ Wait, what?! We all kinda have the same look of WHAT THE EFFFFF on our faces, and honestly have no idea how to answer that. He goes on to explain that he runs an adoption agency, but it’s still a bit sketch, especially when he tells us about his three daughters that he’s ‘bought.’ So we’re weirded out, but at the same time totally intrigued, and since there were 4 of us we just sat and listend, enthralled and horrified. But then he starts telling us about how he snuck into Pakistan, I think, got caught by the army, escaped by stabbing a guy, got shot in the back, but made it over the border. So at this point we’re kinda thinking he’s making this all up to see our reactions, which I must admit were rather priceless (mostly to the selling babies part). I cannot even describe everything that happened here…I’ll wait til I come home haha but this is a pretty good teaser, though things def got stranger (if possible). So yeah, after 3 bottles of wine and many many crazy things, we went to bed, ready to head to the Vatican (this was the 2^nd night we were there). Basically, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I cannot believe happened, and that I hope never happens again. Also, he wants to be FB friends so we can support his campaign to eliminate war. He be craaaaaaaazy. Oh people, how you amuse me.

Slán go fóill!

Picturextravaganza

All pictures are officially up and captioned!! Good luck getting through all of them haha...I follow in my father's footsteps and take a crapload of pictures.

"When you think you can't you'll find you can can! Everyone can can can! You can can can too!"

         So Paris was a whirlwind of insanity. Our hostel was kinda far outside the city itself by train in a place called Chelles, then the place itself was supposed to be a 5 min walk from the station. Yeah, total bull. We did get lost, but even so it was over 10, at least. We kept trying to ask for directions and geez we failed pretty hard…wish I knew more French!! But we knew it was next to a McDonald’s, so we just kept asking where that was with hand gestures. FINALLY like almost an hour later we made it, after exploring most of the town haha. And this was the first place where we had no internet at all, so we had to use the McDonald’s next door…we basically looked like fatasses cause we were there all the time. That night Rafa and I went to see Stornoway in the Bastille area of Paris, and HOLY S*&T BLEW ME AWAY. I love all their songs, but it was just soooooo much better in person. First time I’ve ever truly enjoyed an entire concert, to be honest. Their lead singer has an incredible voice, and he sang a song just him and his guitar (which he’s also amazing at) that wasn’t on the cd which made me swoon. LOVE IT. I def wished they would just keep playing…I didn’t care if they’d repeat songs. There were these really annoying British girls singing, which is okay if you’re at a loud concert, but these guys did a lot of unplugged numbers and I did not pay to listen to their ugly out of tune faces screech. Ugh. But even that didn’t ruin it…I’m an even more devoted fan now. And, HINT HINT, you should go listen to them too on YouTube. RIGHT NOW. GO.

Brit came the day after we got there but kinda late, so we decided it wasn’t worth it economically to go into the city. We did explore a bit and find a grocery store AND this amazing little bar right next to our place. We kinda just dropped in and no one spoke any English so we relied on Brit’s semi-workable skills haha. But we did get wine, and then he brought us this delicious lemon sangria which was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had. And, of course, we asked if he had any food so he brought out some sort of pastry thing (flan, maybe?) which we devoured. All in all, we got a glass of wine each, a pitcher of sangria, flan, beans stuffed with something awesome, and olives for 30 euro total. Dude, it was almost like a meal.

         The next day we were so ready to go…which was good cause there was lots of walking involved. First we headed to Versailles, along with 431849130 other people. I left my Nalgene at the train station, thus beginning a long series of me losing things and basically ending with me being at my wit’s end, but that's another story. I did find it when we got back, though. But since we were students we got in free…always a good thing. I’d been there before yeeeeeeeeeears ago with the fam, but I def kinda forgot how elaborately gaudily decorative it is. I mean, there’s gold freaking everywhere! I’ve decided my house one day will have certain things in common with Versailles, like tapestries and perhaps a throne, but I don’t think I could sleep with all that crap everywhere. I mean, one little light and the entire room glooooooooows!

         Brit and I opted to pay the 6 euro to walk around the gardens especially because there was some sort of musical fountain show going on all day and we were intrigued. Rafa and Ronnie headed into the city to wander for a while. But omg the gardens were magnificent…that’s another thing I would love to copy from Versailles. It was even better because the fountains came on as we were there, and classical music was playing the whole time. I underestimated how large they were, though, because it took us a good 1.5 hours to get from one end to another, though that did include some picture time. And we wanted to see Marie Antoinette’s estate as well but a) our tickets weren’t good for it and b) we would never have left that place if we’d gone lol. Brit and I were at Versailles for over 6 hours, mostly in the gardens, but it was so worth it. There are all these subdivisions of gardens with different themes, and also marble statues EVERYWHERE. There were a bunch of people with picnics, which made me wish we’d thought ahead haha.

         We met the others at the Eiffel Tower, where Brit and Rafa climbed to the first floor. I opted out cause oh god my feet hurt so badly. On the other hand, I had the best hot dog of my life…cause I was so effing hungry. I seriously have to eat pretty regularly otherwise I get grumpy and tired…college has ruined me. In high school I could go all day without eating. Now I need to eat like clockwork. Oy. But we wandered a little more, and I tried to solve my money crisis. Oh, I haven’t talked about that yet? Yeah, so I went to withdraw money and it told me Chase wouldn’t let me. Not cool…I had NOTHING left in my wallet and the help line numbers apparently ‘didn’t exist.’ So I did what every adult-like person would do—call their mother. OBVS. I did get it sorted out, but luckily Brit had cash moneyz to lend to me otherwise I’d have been stuck in Chelles. Walked a little more, sat, walked, and sat again. Then went home. Apparently I worked my legs too hard cause oy shin splints came and I had the urge to hack my legs off at the knees. Nbd, cause Rafa had her pain go bye bye pills and god I felt great! (Calm down, guys, it was just really strong Ibuprofen.)

         Our last day there I really wanted to do the walking tour that we missed the day before, but Brit wanted to do the Louvre as well. I was gonna join her but we had to put our luggage in lockers at the station and get our tickets for the overnight train and by the time we got to the Louvre I would have seen like the entrance and had to leave. Good thing I’d already been there lol. Did you know that if you looked at every piece in there (over 30,000) for 30 sec each, it would take you a week straight without sleep or rest to see everything? Yeah, my new goal is to see the whole Louvre…over like the course of a month. Can’t handle that much museum haha.

         We did the Sandeman’s New Paris tour (like the free Madrid one) and of course it was wonderful (and free!). The oldest bridge still standing in Paris was built by one of the Louis’ and apparently he and his friends got wasted in celebration, and he had their drunken faces carved and placed along the bridge, where they still are. Our guide compared it to putting up Facebook pictures lol. I think the French royalty were the funniest in many respects, though also the craziest. Seriously, a bridge full of drunken faces…epic win. Our guide suggested we go to Montmarte, where the Moulin Rouge is, so with little time remaining we headed there to meet Brit, who finally finished at the Louvre. It was kinda cool, though it was also a little weird cause there were sex shops everywhere, and I def thought we’d wandered into the red light district haha.

Getting to our train was an absolute nightmare, btw. We left too late from Montmarte, and we still had to get our bags, and Rafa and Ronnie needed to get their tickets too. I lost my unlimited metro pass, and then the luggage locker ticket which meant a 20 euro fine AND Brit and I had to fill out paperwork and wait til they checked it was our stuff. Rafa and Ronnie went ahead to pick up tickets, but, as we’ll see, that didn’t go well for them. From the lockers I freaking sprinted down the block to Gare Bercy that we were leaving from in 10 minutes while Brit decided to take the subway. Not a bad plan…except she went the wrong way. The man at the counter wouldn’t give Rafa her ticket with her credit card and she didn’t have her confirmation number written down. 5 minutes til departure. I’d gotten mine with my card earlier so I berated someone to get Rafa the ticket, then I went to find our platform. 3 minutes, and still no Brit. I’m frantically asking in broken French where my train is, and they keep slicing their hands across their throats, like, it’s not here, or at least that's what I got. 1 minute. Well, I finally found someone who spoke English, and they told me that the train was delayed. OH THANK GODDDDD. Just then Rafa and Ronnie run up, and we all breathe again, and also realized just how fast our hearts are beating. About 3 minutes later Brit comes in, like, oh I’m ready! Yeah, if that train had been on time Ronnie and I would’ve had an interesting time alone in Rome…

AND THE SHENANIGANS were just beginning! I was in ‘1^st class’ aka 4 people in 6 bunks instead of full up…so worth the extra 10 euro. But somehow in the hustle and bustle my passport, which was on my bed, disappeared. Yeah, I did not react well. I think this trip has broken me because my new reaction to stress is to cry…that is so not my style. So basically I’m freaking out in a cabin with this adorable family with a little 4 year old French boy who climbs like an monkey. After FOURTY FIVE minutes of tearing apart everything I can get my hands on, we find it under the bottom bunk. I don’t think I can convey the panic I had, though. I mean, I was prepared to get thrown off the train at a random stop (we were in motion already) or arrested or something and I was so not okay with that. Funny story though: the conductor came in to get the passports right after I realized mine was gone, and when he asked I kinda spun around, tears running down my face, and kinda hysterically yelled/asked for more time. Yeah, he took one look and was like, I’ll be at the end of the hall…’ Haha scaring people FTW.

Next morning I wake up and everyone is gone. Nbd, they got off in Florence. That was a cute kid, though…we made faces at each other for like 20 minutes before bed, and Brit was talking to him a bit. He wished me good night in the MOST ADORABLE voice ever, and in French obvs.

Rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for me losing (surprise surprise) my two new rings which was really upsetting. Just got those in the Aran Islands, and one was my claddagh ring. So, in total, I lost my water bottle (got it back), my money (Chase let me have it eventually), my subway ticket (gone), luggage locker ticket and thus 20 euro, MY FREAKING PASSPORT, and my beautiful rings. Paris was not quite as good a time as I’d hoped…sadly I don’t think I want to go back for a loooooong time even though most of it was really fun. Just too much stress I can’t handle that again. But I was looking forward to seeing/stalking the Jersey Shore so I tried to forget about my near death experiences from stress-induced heart attacks. I never want life to be that exciting again lol.

Slán go fóill!

Not just the capital of Vermont

         First, let me say that the tram in Montpellier is prbs the coolest public transport I’ve ever taken. It’s above ground, but it’s also painted in insane colors with flowers and stuff all over the side. On the bus we met this random Russian guy who was asking us questions and telling us about his trip through France. At first it was a little sketch, but he was actually really nice. He was pretty funny, making fun of the bus driver for legit taking a 30+ minute break when he told us to be back in 10 haha. Yay for meeting random peoples!

         Our hotel was quite a surprise, actually, though actually it was quite nice. What we expected was a villa, with a pool and bar on the side. Well, the pool was closed, and we couldn’t for the life of us find the bar lol. But we had free Wi-Fi and a bathroom and a nice view of the warehouses haha so all was well. But we did run into a problem—three of us and a two-person bed cause we didn’t want to pay for an extra room haha. Our solution was to have Ronnie curl up at the foot of the bed and Rafa and I would lie in it ‘normally,’ aka with our legs tucked so as to not kick Ronnie in the face. Yeah, that failed miserably. I slept on the ground, which was actually quite comfy, not gonna lie, especially with a blanket under me. Apparently I am meant to sleep on the ground…I could totes be a hobo now!

         There’s not much to do in Montpellier, since it was a little cold for the beach and we were rather far outside the city. Yay relaxation day! We didn’t get into the city until like 5pm with our little picnic, aka breakfast/lunch/dinner. At that point I was ready to sit in the road and eat…SO HUNGRY. But the first park we went to was really really sketchy…we soon realized that Montpellier is a little hood, surprise! I didn’t notice cause I was starving, but apparently everyone was looking at us as we walked in. We did find a nice bigger park right after so nbd, but oh god I devoured our bread and cheese and pate om nom. We also had the brilliant idea to share a 5L jug of wine between the three of us. Yeeeeeeeeah that ended hilariously. Essentially we got rather drunk in the middle of this random park with these French peoples staring at us laughing a bit. It was great craic though…Ronnie ran around afraid of the dogs and birds and we started speaking only in Spanish so the French wouldn’t we were American ahaha. And on the tram home Ronnie made friends with a little kid, playing Peek-a-Boo and saying ‘Bonjour’ like the entire way home. Rafa is such a menace with her feet, stepping on all our flip-flops and breaking Ronnie’s haha. We all fell asleep when we got home like immediately for a bunch of hours, and watched houuuuuuuurs of Modern Family when we finally woke up. Still drunk, we fell asleep—it was much easier for Rafa to fall asleep on the floor that way :P  Our exciting Montpellier experience ended a little too soon, but I was stoked for Paris and to see Brittany!! :D

Slán go fóill!

'Bienvenidos esto es mi sueñoooooooooooooo..."

         Before we start, I just want to let you all know one thing: we are the Cheetah Girls. Now that we have that cleared up, we can talk about BARCELONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. First of all, we met up with Ronnie!!! AHHHHHH that was probably what we were both looking forward to the most here fo sho. I mean, I need more than just Rafa in my pictures haha. We got there so much earlier than her on Saturday that we decided to wander a bit after resting. We ended meeting up with Primo, who’s studying here this semester, in Plaza Catalunya and he took us down La Rambla to the statue of Cristobál Colón pointing to the Americas. I kinda got flashbacks as we walked, esp down La Rambla, and I think I even remembered where I lived for the first week when I was here! It was funny cause I would randomly remember and kinda go back in time. Overland 2006, ftw! Everything is kinda as I remember it, though I def didn’t know where I was going a lot of the time. But metro stops and random places, I just recognized.

         So we had always heard about the famous Barcelona nightlife, which starts at 1am and doesn’t stop until 7 or later. Luckily we were there on Saturday so the metro ran all night, and Rafa and I just had to go out. Originally Ronnie was gonna come too, but she had a horribly long day traveling and decided to sleep instead. Good choice—I always vote sleep over movement. BUT anyway we were drinking in the common room and this group of French guys invited us over to drink with them, and we talked a bit (they didn’t speak that much English haha). One of them started playing the guitar, which was AWESOME. Guitar=amazing. Later we ended up running into Primo and company in the metro on our way to meet them at the club, which was great cause we didn’t really know where we were going (and neither did they, actually). One of the girls, Belky, asked these Spanish people if we could follow them to the club lol, so we were so set. It was a super fun night! We did stay out til 5, 7 is just a little too much for me. But we danced a bunch, got in for free (my new fav word) cause we knew a promoter (named Michael Jordan, I KID YOU NOT), and random stuff happened. There was a runway show, a DMX biker show, and we met an Olympic tae kwon do dude. Seriously, weirdest slash best club ever. Going to bed was awesome, though, but getting everything in the dark and without waking the entire freaking dorm up was challenging.

         Well, obvs we slept in a bit, aka til 11 which was far too little sleep for my poor tired body. But we had sightseeing to do! We hit like everything, from the Gothic quarter to La Sagrada Familia. I saw where me and the fam stayed way back when, across from the Barcelona Cathedral, and we got amaaaaaaaaazing fruit from this tiny store on a random street while we were lost haha. La Sagrada Familia was SOOOOOOOOOOOO COOL. They finished the entire inside with the giant ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows. Compared to when I was there before it looks so much better; there’s barely any scaffolding and now they actually organized the system of the elevator to the top of the tower. I’m not much for religion, but this is a seriously inspiring church. Like I wish I could just sit in there for hours, that’s how amazing it is. I wish I captured the essence in the pictures, but sadly I don’t think I did it justice…you’ll just have to go see it yourself! Going up the tower was brilliant—we saw the entire city and also a lot of the carvings and building up close. Again, see pictures, but basically we were on the bridge connecting the two towers over the Nativity Façade so we saw the Tree of Life up close…so cool.

         Tired and ready for a break, we went home to drink sangria and watch TV (Modern Family ftw!). Quite relaxing, until Primo texted us telling us we had to be at this club in like an hour if we wanted to get in free. Well, free is everything we want, so we classily grabbed our water bottles for drinks-on-the-go (it’s legal in Spain). Turns out this damn club was like a 25 minute walk from the subway so we missed it anyway…I swear the building (it was on the top floor of a hotel) got further away as we walked. Well after getting there and failing to get in, we turned around and walked like another 40 minutes to Opium, by which point I was tired, my feet hurt, and my desire to dance was severely depressed. And to add to that, we HAD to stay there until 5, since that’s when the metro opened again. FML. Probably one of the worst nights out of my life, including some pretty terrible nights. Ronnie fell asleep on the couch in the club for like 30 minutes, woke up, and fell right back asleep. I napped a bit, and so did most of us. That is NOT a good time.

         Tuesday was our trip to Park Güell, where the Cheetah Girls spent time so we obvs had to go. I forgot how steep a hill it was but we went to the lookout of Las Tres Cruces, the highest part of the part and they anticipated our laziness and put in escalators lol. The view of the city was breathtaking—we could see all the way out to the ocean, to the Sagrada Familia and the hotel we tried to party at as well ahaha. It was sunny and warm and beautiful too so the view was made even better. The park itself is filled with lots of mosaics and columns that look like trees and shady areas (thank god I would’ve burned SO HARD otherwise). We gave into our desire to buy shiny things and got some 1 euro jewelry from the randos there. I vividly remember being there with Overland back in the day, even where we took our group pictures. Speaking of pictures, we did loooooooots of jumping pictures. Rafa was super good at it but Ronnie failed constantly haha. It was just the same face over and over but omg so hilarious I loved it. Like fo serious every time she managed to make it in the air at the right time it was like an insane person :P In anticipation of seeing Brit, we all got friendship bracelets in different colors. To complete the roommate pentagon, we also got Lena one for whenever she escapes from the cold reaches of Russia.

         Leaving Barcelona was saaaaad but also I was kinda ready cause I cannot freaking handle the life and heat here in a hostel. I think it’d be different if I lived here for a long time, but I’m also really glad I went to Ireland. Having to pay to get into clubs is unthinkable; I miss being able to go get a pint (or a few) at a pub and go out without spending like 15 euro to get in. Eff that ish.

Slán go fóill!

'Bakit ka pa nakita, bakit pa nakilala'

         So food poisoning sucks hugely, especially when in a foreign country trying to see the sights. We think we got it from some strawberries that we took on the bus and then carried in the heat to our hostel in Zaragoza. I got hit the worst cause I def ate the most, but Rafa did feel the effects as well. I tried walking around in the morning but boy was I sick, so I went back while Rafa went to explore the old city. We originally thought it was the incredibly large amount of peanut butter that we ate for dinner, but pssht I’ve eaten that much before so the strawberries make more sense. Good thing I like bread, cause that’s what I’ve been eating haha.

         Getting to the hostel was an adventure in itself—we had vague directions, but there were multiple exits from the bus stations so originally we were going the wrong way. Thankfully we turned ourselves around, but not before walking like 15 min in the wrong direction. And it took us another hour to get to the hostel cause we took an extra left which technically did get us there, just in a more roundabout way. I don’t think my back has every hurt that much…it’ll be a miracle if I don’t get scoliosis! We might get an extra carry-on bag (since Rafa has to check her bags now) so we don’t all die.

         Zaragoza is so nice, though! The area that we’re in is not touristy at all, so we stand out a bit, but it’s nice to get cheap food and such (not that we ate much…). There are a crapton of parks around here, most with lots of shade which is great in this insane heat. It gets hottest right around 5-6pm, strange but true. On Friday we explored a little more now that we both were feeling better. Again, late rising, but dude that’s obvs the best part of not having a huge amount to do. We went to the Aljaferia, this huuuuuuuge Moorish palace that was converted into a palace for the Fernando II of Aragon, one of the Reyes Católicos, married to Isabella of Castilla. It has a huge open courtyard with lots of plants and this awesome waterfall-river-thing flowing down the middle. We hung out there for a while, checking out all the rooms. At one point it was a military fort that no one cared about, so it fell into disrepair and was gross and things got destroyed. They’re in the midst of a restoration that started in the 20s, recarving the stone and such to match the original decoration. Even though it’s white stone in reality it used to be painted in bright colors and gold all over. They had a reconstruction of a part in the museum attached and it looked SO COOL. It’s such a shame everyone ignored it for so long cause it could have been almost as awesome as La Alhambra.

         One thing Spain has a lot of are churches/cathedrals. Like, A LOT A LOT. We went to the most famous, La Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Pilar, in the Old Town, after a freaking amazing lunch in the Aljaferia park. I finally satisfied my sorbet craving, when Rafa and I polished off a liter on our own ahahaha. Sadly Ireland does not have sorbet!! AHHHHHHHHHHH. BUT ANYWAY we walked around and it was amazing—the carving was so detailed and the very center had this stone carved canopy thing that stretched all the way to the top. There was supposed to be a tower that we could climb up but it was closed until May bah. We kinda tried to walk around more but got tired and sat in various plazas and drank water and talked. Outside Nuestra Señora there was this awesome drinking water fountain so obvs we had a water fight. Best decision ever, in my opinion. Rafa had a good observation—for a country with droughts all the time, they have a huge number of fountains! Like everywhere you go there’s some sort of water spewing from the ground haha.

         At some point we decided it was too hot and went to get dinner from the supermercado, aka more bread and cheese. Over the 3 days we seriously spent like 10 euro on food, a wonderful thing since that means we can spend more in other, more expensive cities ahhhhhhhh. Our new thing is watching Project Runway, so we saw like 5 episodes on my comp. We also watched a bunch of Spanish TV, including Spanish versions of US shows. Fun fact: ‘Without a Trace’ is ‘Sin Rostro’ in Spanish, which means Without a Face AHAHAHA. Lolz. ‘Charmed’ is ‘Embrujadas,’ which is just super fun to say.

         So overall, Zaragoza was a win, despite the illness and heat, because there were cool things and we got to rest before Barcelona. Good times, dude. Especially cause we said ‘Eff this’ and took a taxi to the bus station on Saturday morning haha.

Slán go fóill!

P.S. I kinda cheated on this title, but it does make sense if you Google it, I promise :)

´Pronto estaré de aquí muy muy lejos...´

        Lemme just say, I love Spain! It is super super warm here and sunny constantly. Awesomeeeeeee. But back to the beginning…

        We spent the night in the Galway bus station watching Project Runway and Doctor Horrible on my comp which already had them on it. We’ve decided these are our staples for when there’s a lot of time to kill and no internetz. Finally got on the bus at 1:15am and immediately passed out, only waking up when we got to the Dublin Airport at 4. I was sooooo tired I really just wished the bus ride would have been longer haha. I slept in the airport too even though it was horrifically uncomfortable…obviously comfort is not an issue on 3 hours of sleep. Slept on the plane, obvs. We took the metro to our stop with all our craploads of stuff, but it was a lot easier and faster than we thought it would be. Our hostel was so nice too! Las Musas was really close to Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, so after dropping our stuff off we went to finally get food. I think Rafa and I both were delirious with exhaustion, but we couldn’t sleep until 2 when they finished cleaning our room ahhhhhhhhh. Before our nap we were all like ‘Oh we’ll sleep for 2 hours and get up and go sightsee and explore!’ Yeah, bullshit. Our alarms went off and we just kept on sleeping, finally getting up at like 5. Nbd. We went to the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum, to see Guernica. I’d been to Madrid before but really didn’t remember much, so I was definitely seeing everything for the first time like Rafa haha. I had dinner with Paige Wolff that night, who’s studying in Madrid, and she took us to this cute little restaurant near her apartment. It was so fun! I finally had avocado omg delish I was so happy…I missed it cause ah it’s so expensive in Ireland. It was such a high school reunion, especially cause I found out that Kyle Hartman is in Madrid too, Elana Hartman was staying at my hostel when I got back, and I’ll probably meet up with Johanna Katz in Barcelona/Florence. Oh Greeley how you stalk me haha.

        So in Spain you eat dinner at like 10 or later—we saw people out eating at like 11:30 when we were going home. Rafa and I were gonna do the pub crawl that our hostel did but we just didn’t have time for everything. It was okay though cause we really needed sleep haha. But everything is cheap there! Like a full lunch for 2 euro…epic win :D Instead we drank wine and watched ‘Drag Race’ so all in all a great night.

        Next morning at breakfast they had Cola Cao! Aka my favorite drink (powder) ever. I def need to bring some of it back with me aw yeah. We did Sandeman’s Free Walking Tour of Madrid which was 3.5 hours long, free, and AMAZING. Our guide, Matthew, was incredible and knew like everything about the city. Despite the fact I thought my legs were going to collapse by the end, it was a fantastic tour and I loved every minute of it. We saw the entire city too! We went to one of the places he had shown us for chocolate con churros after…there is literally nothing better than dipping fried dough in chocolate. Sandeman’s ran a tapas tour as well for 14 euro so obvs we joined and had a blast. We met a bunch of girls from the States studying in England, a guy who’s an au pair in Frankfurt post-college, a high school grad who’s taking a gap year around Europe, and a bunch of random others who were really nice! The au pair was telling me that it’s a great job—he gets his food, housing, and language lessons paid for because he didn’t speak a word of German when he got there. Also Matthew was pretty cool…he’s from Scotland but went to University in New Zealand, before coming to Spain to give tours and check it out. Epic winnnnn. I tried a bunch of new tapas like Galician octopus, but held off on the pig’s ear. EW GROSS.

        We were gonna do a couple more things, like go to the Prado and see the Egyptian temple, but Rafa got in touch with her cousin Morayma who lives in Madrid so we went to see her instead. We vaguely knew where we were going, but were also kinda guessing lol. But we did get there (after asking several people for directions haha) and she was so nice!! She made us dinner and we were there for like 3 hours, until the metro was about to close. She has a 6 year old son, Nico, who is soooooooooooooo adorable. I, being me, did not chat much, but Rafa and Morayma talked about everything…it was hilarious to listen to. Then her neighbor came in and I got totally lost. I can understand almost everything people say, but seriously this woman talked so fast I just smiled and nodded. I thought I was just becoming dumb, but Rafa said she had some trouble too so I felt better.

        Thought we would get up early and go to the Prado Wednesday morning, but that failed lol. We slept in a bit and checked out, before walking to Plaza Mayor again to get some lunch. Got to the bus station, where the signs said our bus wasn’t to leave until 3pm, while our tickets said 2pm. Rafa the Magnificent asked around and we found the bus, but not before I spilled strawberry juice all over myself. BLAH FAIL. Oh well, at least it blended a bit with my skirt…

Slán go fóill!

'Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue..."

         Well from now on I'm titling all posts with a song lyric about the city I'm in. YEAH CREATIVITY. You *should* try to guess without cheating by looking at the itinerary, btw.

         EuroTrip has begun! Rafa and I are just about to leave Galway departing for Madrid, and it was an awesome way to start the month. We were supposed to leave early-ish for Galway on Friday by bus, like 9am, but per our usual routine did not get on the bus until 1pm haha. Nbd, cause we probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway since the bus ride kinda killed us. We had to change buses in Limerick, but it def took us almost 2 hours to get there…except Limerick is totally only an hour away. Fml. I slept most of the way, since I’ve started pulling a Rafa and staying up really late the night before I travel so I immediately pass out. We got to our hostel and crashed for a while before going out exploring. We were talking to a random Australian dude (who, side note, is on an Australian style football team here in Galway with lots of other Australians) and mentioned that we were going to a pub to see the Connacht vs Edinburgh rugby match (for the Magner’s League) that night. He told us it would be so much better in person, and told us that we could get tickets AT the stadium, which was a 15 min walk from our hostel. EPIC WIN TO THE MAX. So we went, I was a child and got free things (flag and keychain ftw), Rafa got her long-desired burger, and Connacht won! It was a really good game, 27-23 at the end, and even though it rained and was super cold towards the end we had a great time. The sad thing about Munster is that it’s so big that we can’t get tickets except far in advance. The Connacht tix were 15 euro at the gate, which made me happy beyond belief. And we were right up on the fence right behind the players’ bench talking to them, something that doesn’t usually happen at pro games. I thought the men’s team at UCC was huge—these guys were absolute monsters. There was one 2^nd row who was def 6’7” AND got lifted in the lineout…he was like the height of a small building. There were a lot of primary school ruggers there too, marching around cheering loudly. One little kid was sitting on the wall next to Rafa with his Pringles and Coke, but knocked the Pringles on the ground. Well that didn’t stop him, cause he went and collected them all in the can. He did start eating them too, but kinda chew-spit one out back on the ground, left, came back and continued eating the rest. Lolz.

         Saturday was not, sadly, a rugby day, but it was a day trip to the Aran Islands, for us it was Inismor. We got a student deal for 2 days—Aran Islands and Connemara. The island was awesome and it was a gorgeous day perfect for sightseeing. Rafa and I decided to be frugal and brave and walk to all the places instead of taking a tour bus or renting a bike, and we actually made it like 2 miles UPHILL to the highest point on the island (which was actually off the beaten path and up another freaking hill). There are only about 800 people on the island at any given time, so there is a lot of open land. There are 3 primary schools, 3 churches, and 6 pubs haha. There is an Irish college on the island where mainlanders can come for a summer to learn the language, which is still spoken on the island. The crazy thing about the farmers on Inismor is that the ground is pure limestone—no dirt at all. They basically took seaweed and sand and layered it a couple inches thick to create workable soil, and even then it’s rather sparse. There are cows and horses but no huge herds. No mainlander is allowed to build on the island, only buy a pre-built house, and to build at all you have to prove that you live and work there and will live in the house for at least 10 years, so it’s a pretty small community. Anyway, at the lighthouse we met a tour bus with a family in it, and the driver offered us a ride for a discount, and we def took him up on it. Good thing too, cause we wouldn’t have made it to Dún Aeongus otherwise. It’s a 3000 year old fort on the edge of a 100m cliff, with 2 huuuuuuuge stone walls that originally contained 6700 tonnes of stone and a field of stone pillars called cheveaux de frise. They’re all upright and close together so getting through them is still hard today even though many have worn or been taken away. We went right to the edge, which I got out of my system so when Mom comes to visit I won’t have to look over :P  We saw many many cool things, like the smallest church in the world, but at 5 we were happy to be going home. Slept again, despite the annoying Italian girls behind us who talked THE ENTIRE TIME. Wtf, fools. We ended up watching Project Runway (Season 2) on my comp for a couple hours cause I didn’t have internet (had to pay…ew)…I think we’ll be doing that a lot lol. Did try going out, failed at finding a pub, and ended up at Supermacs to get milkshakes. Random thing: we both checked our accounts and found extra money in them, so we printed out the stub and took it out! So I may, possibly, be 60 euro richer haha. Awesomeeeeee.

         Sunday we got up early to get Rafa a shower cap so she could stop using a plastic bag lol, then headed to our favorite place ever, Spar. Seriously, best supermarket in the world, aka Europe…sadly Cork does not have one :(  Connemara was fun…we went all the way out to Kylemore Abbey, filled with Benedictine nuns. We actually passed Killary and I saw the adventure center we were at haha. Took lots of pictures. A beautiful scenic trip, but not as jam-packed as the Aran Islands. We did stop a couple times by mountains and streams and waterfalls and sheep, though.

         Sadly we had to leave our hostel :(  It was sooooooo nice especially since it was 11 euro a night! We had a good kitchen, tea, and decent bunkbeds, even though we were on the top lol. I will miss you, Salmon Weir Hostel, and recommend you highly on hostelbookers.com haha. Right now we’re sitting in the bus station waiting for our 1:15am bus to Dublin…oh the life of a hobo college student. Next time I’ll update on how our late night bus ride with little sleep went awwwwww yeah.

Slán go fóill!