3/20/08

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Hello to all,

So we got to Paris a few hours ago and are at our hostel right now (it's a little after 1 am). Unfortunately something happened with our bookings, so Jess is down the hall in another room, but for right now there is nothing we can do. The hostel we are in is brand new, and its awesome compared to all of the others we have been in. It is very clean and the beds are bunks built into the wall. I feel like I am on a boat.

Anyway, about Ireland. It was pretty crummy weather, mostly cold and a little rainy, but it was great. All of the people there were very nice and the the places we went (Dublin, Killarney) were great.

Dublin was busy, but not busy like Rome. Despite all that was going on, especially with St. Paddy's Day, I still felt like I could breath and move about. We stayed over night in Dublin on Thursday in a hostel right in the Temple Bar area. Because we had such a late lunch after our flight we skipped dinner and headed out to check out the Temple Bar area. It was loud and packed with people because of all of the pubs and activities going on there. Even so we were determined to find the Porter House; the Porter House is a pub known for its strawberry beer. We found it and sampled its best. On Friday we toured the Guiness factory, which was pretty cool, and (in the pouring rain) made our way to the train station in the afternoon.

We took a really nice train for 2 hours out of Dublin to a town called Mallow, from there we hopped on a small, ancient commuter to Killarney. On the commuter train we met a guy named Miles who was extremely friendly and offered to show us around the town. We let him take us to our hostel, (which was pretty busy and felt just like we were at summer camp), but decided not to go out with him and play pool... he was a little too old and a little too friendly. Despite our best efforts of loosing him though, we ran into him on our way to church Sunday morning... AWKWARD!

Though the town of Killarney is small, we found plenty of stuff to do. We walked a few hours in the Gap of Dunloe. It's basically a road that winds and curls in between the mountains. The scenery was incredible and we had a pretty good time. On Monday we rented bikes, and biked through the national park. Again the scenery was great. We stopped and had a coffee at an big, old country house (resembling a castle) in the woods, and then we made our way towards the waterfall. 14 miles later we were back in town getting lunch at a bagel shop just in time to see the St. Paddy's Day parade. It was just like the South Side parade but on a much smaller scale... Irish dancers, bagpipes, and legion groups. It was all very charming and a lot of fun.

Tuesday afternoon we were back in Dublin; we made our way to our hostel, which was not as central as the first one was. Even so, the hostel was nice (Abraham House) and we dropped our stuff off there. We did some shopping and got a few more landmarks checked off the list. For dinner we went to the oldest pub in Ireland, called the Borzen Head (or something like that... I will have to double check on that).

That brings me to today. We got up and hit the town once again. We headed for Grafton street which is where all the shopping and such is going on. I found a cool messenger bag, which I have been looking everywhere for, so that was exciting. Then around 2 or so we got some lunch and headed back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and make our way to the airport.

So far, France is not so bad, but day light and actual interaction with the some people may or may not change that. I just hope they don't hate me!!!

So long for now; miss you all.

Bridge

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