Spring Break!

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I spent a day of my spring in London and the rest in Ireland! Since Mom was here during the beginning of spring break, I had to catch up with friends who were already in Ireland at the time. My flight went through London to get to Ireland so I decided to spend a day there just to see what it's like! I got to my hostel just fine and then walked around the neighborhood a bit. I saw some typical English things, like the double decker bus and cute English apartments. I had a hard time crossing the streets since they drive on the opposite side of the road. I could never really tell which way they were coming from it seemed! They did have "look right" signs on the street before you crossed to remind you though. The next day I left the hostel and walked around London. I made the mistake of taking my backpack with me, I didn't want to have to make a trip back to the hostel before I got on my flight later that day so I didn't think it would be a big deal to carry it. My back was aching pretty fast. First, I got off the underground at the Buckingham Palace. A walked around there for a bit and then through a park and to the Westminster Abbey. That was really pretty! Then I walked to the Westminster Cathedral and back to Big Ben and the parliment building. I took quite a few pictures along the way, it was really pretty and a really nice day too! I saw the London Eye, a big ferris wheel type thing that goes really slow and gives tourists a great view of the city. I walked past Shakespeare's Globe Theater and crossed the Tower Bridge and saw London Tower. I didnt go in these places because they were a bit pricey and a couldn't handle standing with my backpack too much longer! I took quite a few breaks and eventually found a Starbucks to just relax in for awhile. London is a nice city, I did like Paris quite a bit more though. Maybe I just didn't visit the right spots, I think Oxford Street is supposed to be really cool. I'm sure I would have had more fun if I had company too though! Plus the backpack wasn't the best decision i've ever made. So, by the time i made it to the London Tower it was about time to head to the airport. I made it to the airport without a problem, i think I got really lucky because I bought the train ticket to the airport three minutes before that train left!
My plane flew into Galway, Ireland. It wasn't a bad flight but it was pretty late! I made it to the hostel fine though and the girls I was meeting up with had gone out for the night and they left me a note on where to find them but I wasn't up for walking around Galway. Instead I saw them when they came in at 3 in the morning! The next day we had some breakfast, it was very American, some girls had pancakes and I had a bagel. We had rented a car for the week to give us more freedom on where we wanted to go so we drove out to the coast to Kylemore Abbey and Connemara National Park. Driving wasn't too bad, they drive on the left hand side of the road in Ireland as well but we didn't have too many problems with that! Tess, the driver only started driving on the wrong side of the road once or twice but we reminded her pretty fast! It was a really pretty drive, we saw a bunch of sheep and lambs, some were even right in the road! I love the Irish countryside too, it reminds me a bit of Decorah really because there are farmlands but there are also some bluffs and bigger hills. It's really pretty. Kylemore Abbey is an Abbey of course but also a boarding school for girls. A man built it for his wife but she died after enjoying it for only three years so that was sad! It's a beautiful place and has a huge garden as well. The flowers weren't in full bloom yet but you could tell it would be really nice when they were! Connemara National Park was really pretty too, we didn't spend a ton of time there but it would be a nice place to hike or run. I think there might have been a race sometime too, if I would have known maybe I would have done it! We made it back to Galway later that day and cooked ourselves dinner at the hostel. I really liked Galway, it's a really charming Irish town with lots of character. Later we went to a pub where I had some Guiness. It was ok, i could drink it but didn't enjoy it! We were in Ireland so I had to try it!
The next day we left our hostel and began our road trip to Cork. We paralled the Atlantic a little along the way and that was beautiful. We also stopped at the Cliffs of Moher, which is Ireland's equivelant to our Grand Canyon I guess. Those were really neat but it was pretty foggy that day so we didn't get the best view. It was ok though. Later we stopped and had lunch at a nice town, there I got to try some brown bread which is apparently pretty popular. That was really good! Then we continued our journey and stopped in Blarney before reaching Cork. The famous Blarney castle is there and we kissed the Blarney stone! I guess if you kiss the stone you should have the gift of eloquence. They had a nice garden there as well. We finally reached Cork where we checked into our hostel and went out for some dinner.
The next day we explored Cork a bit, there wasn't as much touristy type stuff to do there. It did have good shopping though! All we really did that day was walk around town. It was nice to have a more relaxing day though and stay out of the car!
Friday we wanted to do some touristy things in the area. My friend Kate and I wanted to go to a wildlife park that had a bunch of endangered species, but the other girls wanted to go to another place where the Titanic set sail from. When we got to the car, we had a flat tire though! We tried putting the spare on ourselves but thought the key was too small for the bolts. We spent a good part of the morning waiting for a rescue guy to come help us, and when he did we found out the bolts were actually coverings! We were pretty mad that we didn't figure that one out. So we were finally on our way to the wildlife park, the other girls were going to drop us off there and pick us up on the way back from their thing. The Wildlife Park was amazing! I'm going to have to make a different blog all about that because it was probably the highlight of my trip!
On Saturday we left for Dublin. It wasn't too bad of a trip but by then everyone was pretty sick of being squashed in the car. We finally got there and found parking and found our hostel. There was a little drama because three girls were planning on staying in a bed and breakfast and me and another girl were staying in a hostel. The bed and breakfast ended up being pretty far out of town so they weren't sure if they were going to stay there. We got it resolved eventually though and it worked out fine. So we ate some dinner and my friend Emily and I went on a literary pub crawl. That was cool! I learned a little about some Irish authors. I had to say goodbye to the girls that night because they were leaving early the next morning. Since I hadn't really seen Dublin, I had booked my flight for Monday morning so I could spend a day exploring.
The next day I did quite a bit of walking again! This time I left my bag at the hostel so it was a lot more pleasant! I saw some cool churches, including St. Patrick's Cathedral but it was being renovated so it wasn't so pretty at the time. Later I went to the Guiness Storehouse where the museum is located. That was pretty interesting and I had another pint of Guiness there. It wasn't much better the second time either though. Then I walked to the National History museum. I didn't get to spend much time in there though because it closed. It was ok though because I was pretty tired and ended up going back to the hostel to relax. I had to get up at four in the morning to catch my 6am flight anyway!
I decided I really love Ireland! It was pretty much my favorite place I've been to yet! Especially Galway and the surrounding countryside. I think it's because the culture is pretty similar to America. We didn't realize how different France was from America until we went to Ireland!

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Photos

The five of us
We were in the dungeon!