Dublin Day 4

Day 4 we created our own day trip and went to Blarney Castle. It was a bit expensive but hands down one of my favorite days here. Definitely worth the money. It was a 4.5 hour bus ride to Cork and then another 15-20 min bus to the castle. Plus we had to take a taxi in the morning to get to the bus and then another bus home from the other bus station. We left at 6:55 am and got home that night around 11pm. Long day.

Well as previously mentioned, I love Blarney Castle. Not much has been done to redo it so it's natural?? I guess you can call it that. They have a couple signs labeling the rooms but for the most part you really feel like you have stepped back in time.
To the left of this picture is a set of stairs underground that lead you down a tunnel. We went down there a ways and then decided to take a group picture in one of the small "rooms." Angie pointed out that there was a huge spider on the ceiling (sp?) and Jami started laughing and crying at the same time. Absolutely in hysterics. We were a bit worried about getting her out but in the end she just kind of ran through a whole bunch of people to the exit. What we have learned: do not tell Jami that there is a spider 6 inches from her face when she's in a dark enclosed space. Well we found from other pictures that there were lots of spiders down there. Creepy.

The beautiful scenery surrounding Blarney Castle.

Stairs. I will not miss staircases like this. They are freaky and narrow and I am afraid that I will fall down them and die or just even get stuck.

I kissed the Blarney Stone! Basically what you have to do is lay down on your back at the very top of the castle and then do a backbend to kiss the stone. This lovely gentlemen makes sure that you don't fall onto the bars that are the only thing between you and a 100 foot drop.

See all the wee little people down there? I'm glad I'm not scared of heights. So now supposedly I should have 7 years of good luck and eloquence.

Top of Blarney Castle

Blarney Stone location from ground.

After visiting the castle we went to the gardens around the castle. Definitely worth the time. So gorgeous.

So um..... there's just gonna be lots of pictures now. Deal.

A waterfall... obviously.
Angie was kind of entranced with the moss on the rocks. A 5 hour trip to the castle can make you kind of loopy.... :)

These were the wishing stairs by the waterfall. There are a lot of designated wishing spots here. I don't mind though. My wish just better come true but I think it will. In fact, I had it basically confirmed right after I wished it. My good luck from kissing the Blarney Stone seems like it's working.

This is a cave that I'm sticking my face out of. I can't remember what it's called. Something that starts with a D.

Blarney Castle

Walked down that Lonesome Road........ not by myself.

After the castle we went to a cafe and had some dinner. It was yummy. Then we got back on a bus and went home. On the way home we saw an almost complete rainbow. I think that Irish luck is working.

Um I got bored that night and decided to draw on myself with makeup. Turns out that my makeup doesn't come off very easily although that doesn't seem to be the case when it's on my face. It took a lot of scrubbing to get this beauty off.

Dublin Day 3

This is gonna be another fast post because the laptop battery I am using is almost dead but Day 3 we took a hop on hop off tour bus around Dublin. They were having cycle week or something and there were tons of people in weird outfits riding bikes

We stopped by Dublin Castle. Didn't bother to go in but the outside was kinda cool.

This is St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was awesome looking. Again, we didn't go inside because it costs monies.

Well Jami, Jenn and Angie wanted to go to the Guinness Factory and learn about beer so I ditched and guess where I went?? The beach? Big surprise, right? It was freezing cold though so I didnt stay long.

There was a castle down the street from our dorms called Roebuck Castle. This is it. It's used for classrooms. I guess not all castles look like the ones from story books. Lame.

Dublin Day 2

Our first full day in Dublin well.... let's just say that I was a little bit out of it when I first woke up.
But I got much more awake and with it once we went to the beach. It was actually just a bay I think but still... it was water and I was way happy. It was actually sunny and the water was decently warm which was nice.

After the beach we wandered around downtown Dublin. This is the canal/river through the middle of town. The big center of Dublin is O'Connell street/bridge which I think is what is in the background.

After spending some time downtown we went to Phoenix Park. We figured it was practically a must because of it's name. It was a nice park. Very green and big as usual.

There was a family of swans there. Daddy in the water and Momma with 4 babies. Way cool to watch.

Dublin Day 1

Okay I finally got the pictures to upload . Yay! Well Dublin was my favorite city here in Europe. London is amazing for places to visit and see and Edinburgh has the cool fairytale scenery but Dublin is a happy city. The people there are really nice and open and friendly. Lots of people in London kept to themselves as many Americans here do but in Dublin if we were talking about where we were going on the bus and needed directions the people on the buses would tell us where to go and get off. They're like that here in Edinburgh too but a bit more in Dublin. Love that place.

Well we got to Dublin in the morning. We left London at 4:15 am which was early but compared to our flight to Edinburgh it was great. This is a view of Ireland right before we landed.

One of the first signs we saw in Dublin was to inform drivers to stay on the left side of the road. I find a problem with this. First, if you're driving and read this sign, won't you already be on the left hand side of the road? And second.... why would anyone be driving who didn't know that you're supposed to drive on the left side of the road. Duh?
This was my lunch when we got to our flats at UCD. (University College of Dublin). They made them at the market on campus and it was absolutely delicious especially after not eating since early that morning. I'm getting hungry just looking at it.

Look Tabitha-- you can live in Dublin. They have wheat germ for you. :)Our flats consisted of 4 seperate bedrooms with doors, 2 bathrooms, and a big room with 2 couches, a coffee table, a dining table, and a huge kitchen center complete with a stove, microwave, toaster, fridge, and freezer. Heck yes we were living good. I loved that place.

Jami, Jenn, Angie, and I shared a flat and I got bedroom #1. I put my "Mind the Gap" sticker on the door and I am extremely sad to say that I forgot it when we left. I really wanted it. Dang.

This is my room. Well, part of it. There was also a closet/shelves set.

Here is the kitchen area. The couches are to the left and you can see a corner of the couch in the picture. There were lots of big windows in the flat which I really liked. I was tempted to pull out my binoculars though and spy on other people in their flats buy I refrained. This is the view from my bedroom window. It's not much but I loved sitting in the windowsill looking out the window. It was perfect because the window was cold but the heater was right below me and I could put my feet on it and warm them up. Well, that is when the heater was on.

Dublin

Sorry I have not posted in a long time. I finally have internet access for the next half hour or so in which I was planning on blogging but I cannot get pictures to upload. Go figure. I miss my laptop.

London Day 22 -- Final Day! (in London)

This morning we went to the earlier class so we could have extra time to do stuff on our last day. We are being picked up by a coach at 4:15am tomorrow so this is going to be quick and then I'm going home and finishing packing and sleeping. Oh I love sleep.

Anyways after class we went to the Tate Museum which is basically all modern art. I DO NOT like modern art. It's not art. It's just ..... ew. When we first went in the museum they had this hands on thing but I had flip flops on so I couldnt do the cool think like walk the tight rope.

But I did walk back and forth in the pipe thingy. It was..... okay.
I did appreciate this one picture. It's by Picasso and it's called The Kiss. It made me kinda want to throw up. I think I like it for that reason.
On the Tube I saw another good example of London style. Tight pants, weird socks, and trashy boots. I could wear my turquoise jeans and moccasin boots here and be accepted. I'm not sure that is a good thing though

After Tate we had a tour at the Tower of London. It was pretty cool...

They drained the moat a long time ago because people back in the forever hundred years ago ages used to dump their garbage in it. Liz told us they dumped dead babies in there too. I'm not sure whether to believe her or not.

They lock up some of the ravens. The belief is that if ravens leave the Tower of London, it will fall so now they clip their wings so they have to stay. BTW- I don't like ravens anymore. LIz said they will bite your fingers off. I do belive that.

The white part is the Queen's house. Built for Henry VIII's 2nd wife Anne Boleyn (6 fingers woman). However, the only time she got to live there was when she was locked up before she was hung for treason.

This is the White Tower. There are actually 22 towers at the "Tower" of London. William the Conqueror built it and shipped the stones from Normandy and somewhere else after he took over England to show that he was powerful and show how far his kingdom extended.

This is our 4 some with Liz. I will miss that woman. (In case you are not catching on she was our tour guide)

The tower in the back is the Bloody Tower named that because that's where the 2 princes were supposedly murdered. No one knows for sure if they were murdered though. They theory is that either Henry VII did or Richard the III. They found bones of 2 boys that they think are the princes but the Queen does not want research done on them to see if it's actually them.

The Bloody Tower is also supposed to have the torture stuff I think but it had none which I thought was reeeeeeally lame. There were 3 torture devices in the tower next door though so I was a little bit happy about that.

This item forced people to stay in a crouched position. ouch.

This is the rack where they would stretch you.

Here is the cobblestone street in Tower of London. It's probably the original stone. I'm pretty sure most of it here does date back several centuries.

This is one of the Beefeaters. They are the guards and are all ex army or Air Force

Tower Bridge. Very pretty. I liked it quite a bit

This is the crowd when we got off the tube around 6:15 pm. There is a Tube strike going on starting 7 tonight and lasting for 48 hours. No trains= oh my huge problem. The Tube is to cars in Mesa as cars are to the buses. Almost everyone rides the Tube. I'm glad we're leaving and can avoid it. BTW- this crowd is not even bad. It was much worse in other places. I just didnt get other pictures

We went out for dinner and I decided it was okay since it was the last night. The place we went to is an Italian resturant called Dino's and it's next to Earl's Court Tube station right down the street from our flat. It was soooo good. I also got a mango-pear smoothie which was.... interesting. It wasnt really much of a smoothie but just juice.

Love you all and I will report back once I get settled in Ireland. They don't have our housing ready yet and it's supposed to be raining when we get there. We also have class tomorrow afternoon which will be in Facinelli's flat (if it's ready.) If not, we get to have class outside in the rain. Probably not but tomorrow should be interesting with all dead tired people and nowhere to crash.

Oh and Facinelli (one of my teachers) said that one of the 2 buses into Dublin that we can take goes right by the beach. I think I'm gonna bundle up and spent a few afternoons by the seashore although I doubt it will be anything like San Diego beaches. Maybe like Washington beaches more? Think Twilight? haha :)