The summation of my trip to Ireland is: Awesomeness.
The people are super friendly, the country is beautiful and the group was fun.
The journey started with a bus ride from Oxford to London's Stansted Airport, followed by a flight to Cork, Ireland. We got in kind of late, so after finding our hostel we stayed in and watched karaoke. I was going to join in the singing, with three others girls, definitely would not subject others to my singing alone, but we were too late in signing up.
Our first full day in Ireland started with a trip to Cobh. It was the last port of the Titanic. I guess they don't like to dwell on that because, even though there were grand statues for different events, Titanic had a very unimpressive plaque:
The city was beautiful though and we saw a gorgeous cathedral at the top of a hill.
After Cobh, we went to Blarney to see the castle and, yes, kiss the stone. I thought that the germ thing might freak me out but that was completely forgotten when I realized I would have to do a back-bend at the top of the castle over a gapping hole.... But I did kiss it. The stone is supposed to give the "gift of gab," which is good since I had a group presentation yesterday and another one tomorrow. I know I've been using this adjective a lot but... Ireland is BEAUTIFUL. It is really green and the architecture fits in just perfectly. It's a complete contrast to the the brownness of New Mexico.
Saturday, we walked around Cork. Four of us went up a bell tower where we were able to get a great view of the city and play some music with the bells.
When we came down to the rest of the group, we found them talking to some kids who asked for a rap-battle. Apparently, they were a legit rap group, if only in their minds. It was a cool experience but a little strange to hear a 12-year-old boy rap about chain saws. When the battle was over, and they had definitely won, we parted ways, with "goodbye" from our side and the parting question of "do you have a cigarette?" from the other. Since the famous Butter museum was closed (Cork is known for their butter), we went shopping after this. The store we went into was very similar to a store here in Oxford (it was a different name but run by the same company), so I ended up only getting a Cork hat.
Sunday morning we started our trek back to Oxford at 5:40 AM. 8 hours, one plane delay, three bus rides and one sprint through the airport later, we made it back to the wonderful world of excessive amounts of homework.
Oh... and for the sake of my parents and anyone else who was worried by all my comments about expiring food and what not- I did go to the farmer's market and grocery store today. Don't worry, I will not starve to death.
For those without Facebook- here's the link to my Ireland album- Facebook album
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