Ireland, Oh Ireland

Okay, so many of you have been requesting a full account of my last week in Ireland so buckle up and get ready for probably too much information and pictures and videos!  This is gonna jam packed of Irish loveliness! :)  But actually, I just tried to upload some stuff and the internet is going bonkers so I'll have to put them on when I get back to Provo on Sunday.  If you can't wait until then, I put them all on facebook, so look and enjoy!  So, here it goes....

The flight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...it was a good 7 hours and "farty-five" (said with an Irish accent...yeah, EVERY time someone said that, I started to giggle" minutes, in the middle of the night.  I didn't sleep at all, but I think all of my adrenaline helped my legs to not hurt which was awesome.  After they gave us breakfast, I was looking out the window at the beautiful green sights that could be seen and I think the guy in front of me could feel me being tickled with glee cuz he turned around and started talking to me...from the moment he opened his mouth (his name was Paul by the way), it was pure bliss...yes, my friends, he was from Ireland, returning home from a trip to South America.  It was glorious.  We talked the rest of the flight and then we split once we started getting off the plane.  He randomly found us in the craziness that is the Customs station that was there and we talked some more and he waited with me until my mom and I got our luggage and oh man...did I ever enjoy it!  He was so dang cute too.  He kept touching my arm in that cute flirtatious way, you know?  AHHHH loved it...it was from that moment on that I decided that I need to find a good, mormon, Irish boy to marry.  All I would have to do is listen to him talk and a bad day would be turned into a glorious one! hahaha.  Anyway, we shuttled to our hotel and got to walk around for an hour or so before our actual tour started.  Everything in Ireland is cute and old-timey which was awesome.  There weren't a lot of high rises and tall buildings either.  I think the tallest was about 5 stories high, that I saw...and then the Cathedrals and Castles but those are a given :)  The people weren't incredibly tall either...everything was 'my sized' and it was great!  I've never felt so peaceful in my life!  For every meal, we had at least one thing of potatoes...it was awesome.  Their food was more bland that I'm used to, for the most part, but still really good.  A lot of it was blended together too...for example, their apple pie, instead of having chunks of apple inside, it was this apple mush stuff...still tasted great, but different texture.  Any of their soups were all creamed together too...no chunks...just blend!  Still great and yummy! :)

Dublin

Later that day, we went on a bus tour around Dublin and they showed us all the different sights to see.  I wish we could have stayed there an extra day so we could explore Dublin a little, but with all the things we did while we were there, I understand why they couldn't let us have free time there!  We made our way to the Dublin Castle which was really cool.  It wasn't the original because that one burned down a while ago.  So they had to rebuild and modify it because they used to use it for housing important visitors after the kings and queens decided to move to a different place.  They said that they created a "summer home" for them to live because they started getting annoyed with hearing the prisoner's moan and complain while they were trying to sleep. hahaha nice, huh?  Anyway, afterwards, we went to dinner at the Three Rock Pub and they had little entertainment groups come to perform for us while we ate and made merry.  You know the drill.  :)  Here's some videos that we took from that night...

     

Blarney

When we got to Blarney, we went up to the Blarney Castle grounds and walked around for a bit and then climbed the 110 steep steps to the top and I didn't trip once :)  We got to the top where I kissed the Blarney Stone and did all that jazz...so now, I have the gift of eloquence.  Beat that suckers. :)  It was fun though because you had to lay on your back and kiss it upside down.  Good times :)  After me n the stone kissed it up real nice, we went to the Blarney Woollen Mills shopping center where we got all of our souvenirs n such.  My mom and I had traditional Irish Stew, complete with potatoes and water :)  We drove out to Killarney and we went shopping and looked around the town for the rest of the night.

Killarney

At the beginning of the day, we went on a Jaunting Car Ride.  This is where we met Mark, our other tour guide (by the way...most of the guys that I met there, had Bible names...it was great.  And there were LOTS of Johns there).  Anyway, he took us on the ride around the National Park which was BEAUTIFUL.  I can't believe that it's winter there.  I can't wait to go back during the spring/summer time when everything is green.  I can't even imagine how pretty it is there.  I hope its what heaven is like :)  There was this island that in the middle of the park that they call "honeymoon island."  Mark told us a little joke..."What type of salad do they serve on Honeymoon Island?  Just lettuce alone and no dressing" hahahaha...yeah, I thought that was funny.  Mark was absolutely hilarious and not bad looking either ;)  As a matter of fact, most of the Irish people there that I met were extremely funny which makes them that much more awesome. :)  We ended the car ride at St. Mary's Cathedral and then started our trek through the Ring of Kerry.

Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is a 110 mile long stretch of pure landscaping.  It was so beautiful!  There were so many cool sites to see and fun times to be had!  Our bus broke down though, so we had to stop at this po-dunk of a place for lunch while we waited for a new bus to arrive.  After we finished the Ring, we drove out to the Gardens at Muckross House which was really pretty.  They had a waterfall, rock, river and regular gardens.  There was so much to see so I'm kinda bummed that we didn't get to stay longer.  There were a bunch of families there that went to play ball games and walk their dogs n such...how cool would that be, ya know?  Anyway, it was great.  

Cliffs of Moher & Bunratty

The next day we took a ferry out across the atlantic ocean to get to Shannon and then drove out to the Cliffs of Moher to see that.  They were so pretty, per the usual.  It was so windy and cold, but definitely worth the climb to the top.  After that, we drove out to Bunratty and did a little more shopping and we went to a medieval dinner that night in the castle.  It was fun to walk around the castle grounds and see all the old stuff.  When we got there, they took us into this one room where we had a welcome drink and they sang a couple of songs and then we walked down the steps into the Great Hall where we had a four reserve (course) meal and they had a little show for us there too.  It was great!  

I'm seriously so bummed to be gone...I freakin loved it there.  One day I'd like to go back and see more things that I didn't get to see this time.  The flight home was actually really good...it was during the day so I wasn't really that tired and I got to pick which movies I watched so I saw two that I'd kinda wanted to see but didn't want to pay to see them (The traveling hood of the sister pants 2 and High School Musical 3)  That made it go by pretty fast.  The flight from JFK to Dallas tho was HORRIBLE.  I was so tired and my legs hurt so bad that they kept spazzing every 5 or 10 minutes and I couldn't sleep because they hurt so bad.  I tried reading to take my mind off of it, but I was so exhausted that I couldn't keep my eyes open...lame, but I made it through!  Anyway, get ready for pictures and videos once I get back to Provo...or maybe once the internet stops sucking here!  Love y'all bad!  Cheers! XOXO