Galway

I ended up going to Galway a day earlier than I was going to. The Israeli guys from my hostel said I could ride with them to the cliffs of moher and then from there go on to Galway. It was an interesting ride. We talked about Israel and they said the weirdest thing they have seen is a lack of bomb shelters. Apparently they are all over the place where they live and when you hear the siren go off you have about thirty seconds to get into one. The creepiest thing they told me is that when they were kids riding the bus to school, a lot of them were being blown up. They would see when a sketchy person got on the bus and try to count how many people away they were from the person just to see if they thought they could make it if the bus blew up. Terrifying.

The cliffs of moher were gorgeous! There's a wall so that you aren't too close to the edge but we jumped it and went to the edge. The boys were laying on their stomachs leaning over but I definitely could not do that! There's also part of the walkway that they have blocked off because they are working on it but we jumped that too and walked pretty far up the cliffs. To be fair, lots of other people were doing it too and no one came to say anything.

We got to Galway and found a hostel. It was one of the girls in the room birthday so we all went out for that. It was a blast until the end of the night! There was a guy in his forties that was doing a tour and some of the propel on his tour were staying at our hostel so he was there and he came out with us as well as a strange English guy that was staying in our room. The older guy turned into an absolute creep after a few drinks and all the girls had to keep saving each other from him. We all got back to the hostel before the weird guy in our room and when he did come back he was super angry about something. He kept muttering under his breath and talking about hitler and nazis and basically just freaking out. The Australian guy in the room just kept on trying to mess with him and they had a little verbal disagreement. We kept telling him to shut up but he wouldn't. The guy goes into the bathroom and when meh comes out we are all quiet and he says "good you're all learning". He started telling us how he has seen into the future and then the Australian guy and girl heard him say something about killing people. thank God he decided to leave the hostel for a while. We ran and told the night guy because we were so freaked out. One girl started crying. Yeah he was creepy but he wasn't very big and I'm pretty sure all of us would have been fine. Anyways, the guy kicked him out and we were just waiting all night for him to appear at the window or some how get back in. It was a weird night.

The next day we all met up in the lobby and went to breakfast since two of the girls were not in our room. I think we spent the whole morning talking about the creepy guy. I spent most of the day trying to get ahold of the girls I met in Galway because I was going to stay with them Friday and sat. It was about 9 and I still hadn't heard from them so I haut told them we would try again the next day because I was sick of waiting. I was really annoyed actually. Luckily the hostel had one bed left so I grabbed it. A couple of us made dinner and we made some AMAZING fajitas. Dinner was so good and a girl that was scrim France made this chocolate marshmallow graham cracker cake thing. It was fantastic. We all went out again that night and had a ton of fun!!

On Saturday, I finally heard from the girls I was going to stay with. Before I went to their apartment the girls from the hostel and I went out sightseeing. There was a guy handing out free balloons so that absolutely made my whole day! We went down by the river to the Spanish arch. There was a little boy and girl playing guitar and singing. They were so cute! We had an emotional let go of our balloons so we could go into a museum that had a bunch of Galway history. We went back to the hostel because everyone was exhausted and I got my stuff and left for the apartment. 30 minutes of walking later, I finally found it. It was so good to see them again! We went out and got dinner and then went to a bar or two but we went home early.

On Sunday, the hurling final was on so we went to the bar to watch it. Seriously their sports are so awesome. They had played the final two weeks earlier but it ended in a tie so they had to replay it. Kilkenny destroyed Galway so everyone was pretty bummed. Everyone had homework and stuff to do that night so one of the girls and I watched the avengers and just had a lazy night. One of their roommates is a blind girl. I think she's really brave to go to a foreign country and she goes off exploring on her own. She's pretty cool and she told me all about how she does things everyday. It was really interesting. I think that's the first time I've ever been around someone who's blind.

I left on Monday morning and caught a bus up to Belfast because I still wanted to see the giants causeway and had nothing else going on. The ride up to Belfast was gorgeous! We passed a big fair type thing with hundreds and hundreds of horses!

Killarney

I got to Killarney on the 27th and got to my hostel. Guess who was there!? The two Israeli guys from my hostel in cork! So crazy. There is a huge national park there and so I went walking through it until I got to the lake and Ross castle. It cost money to go in so i didn't go but it was nice. The lake is gorgeous. Pretty water with big I wouldn't say mountains but hills I guess in the background. There were guys driving horse carriage things through the park and they kept asking if I wanted a ride. They were all real nice and told me of a good bar to go to that night. My feet were killing me after that walk do I went back to the hostel and read a book. I've got the kindle app on my iPad and amazon has all these classic books for free so I've been catching up on those.

I went out for a beer but the first place wasn't much fun so I drank the beer and left. The second one was tons of fun! There were some guys at the other end of the bar that I ended up talking to. Ones from Colorado and the other two were from new Zealand. They all lived together for like ten years ago and were having a little reunion in Ireland. We went to the bar that those guys from earlier had told me about. There was a band and they were so good! I ended up dancing with this like 70 yr old man for a while until a guy from Canada saved me! It was such a fun night.

I woke up this morning and went to go find some breakfast. I ran into the israeli guys and they asked if I wanted to go with them to the cliffs of moher and then to Galway with them. So currently I am in a car listening to Garth brooks and hank Williams with two guys from Israel. Life is strange.

Cork

Cork was nice. I was pretty lazy the whole time because it was so cold and rainy. There were two Israeli guys in my room and a guy from Australia who has been traveling for 11months!!! How freaking cool is that.

They have a really cool English market. They have all kinds of meats and cheese and fish and stuff. I took a bus out to the blarney castle so I could kiss the Blarney Stone. You have to climb up these ridiculously steep steps to get there and then you sit down and lean backwards to kiss it. I met some people from Texas while I was there! In the back of the castle they have a poison garden. Why the heck would you ever have that??? There are signs that say don't touch smell or eat the plants. Pretty sure that wouldn't be allowed in America.

I didn't go out or do anything too exciting except for lay in bed because it was sooooo cold and rainy and read a couple of books. It was a nice little lazy two days.

Kilkenny

I took a train and then a ferry over to Dublin where I stayed for the night. I ended up going on a pub crawl with some girls from my room. They are studying in Galway for the semester. How freaking cool!! We had a lot of fun and they told me when I come to Galway I can stay with them!

On Saturday we went to the kilmainham jail and did the tour there. It looks just like the place in shutter island! So creepy! They were going to go to the castle and the cathedral but I ended up leaving and getting a bus to Kilkenny. It's such a small town but do cute! There wasn't much to do besides the castle and some churches. Saturday night I went out for a little bit but it was really cold. I went to a bar called Paris texas and there was like no one in there! It was nice though because they had a Texas flag and other texasy things inside. I almost wanted to cry!

On Sunday there was a big Irish football game on so I went and saw the castle and church before the game started. Irish football has got to be the most amazing sport I've ever seen. It's like football and soccer all mixed into one. They don't wear pads and they generally just beat the mess out of each other. Apparently new York has a team now so I will definitely be watching when I get back home! I was sitting at my own table for a few hours just drinking beer. They just got blue moon over here!! This group of Irish guys came into the bar and one kept looking at me and finally came over and started talking to me. Holy cow it was so hard to understand them! It's like they were speaking a different language. We went to another bar and it was a great Sunday fun day!

On monday I caught a bus to cork. I love seeing all of the countryside!! Everything is so green and gorgeous here. It's a lot like Scotland but not as cold.

London

I took a bus from Inverness at 7pm to London and got there at 7 am. It was a lonngggg uncomfortable night. I got to London and my hostel was not far from the station so I went to try and check in but it was too early but he let me go take a shower so that was wonderful! I was at buckingham palace by 8am before all the tourists were out! I was expecting some grand beautiful place. It was nice but not what I thought it would be. I walked forever before ending up by the county hall which holds the aquarium and film museum. I ended up doing one of those hop on hop off buses because I was sick of walking. Seriously my feet are killing me. I went and did a tour of the tower of London. They have the yeoman warders do the tours and the guy was hilarious. Did you know that every year on their birthday beefeater gin sends them a bottle? I don't like gin but still that's awesome.

The bus tour that I did also offered a free Harry potter location tour! Of course I was all over that!! We saw the entrance to diagon alley, the ministry of magic, and a few other places from the movies. We even went to the candy shop that inspired the one in the books.

Also I'm freezing. I ruined my jeans in Paris and I don't know what it's like to be warm anymore since I got to Norway! It's always soooo cold! I tried to find some jeans here I went to like five different stores but I cant figure out the sizes. Ladies, you know how awful it is to find jeans. It's even worse when you don't understand the sizes. Ugh.

On my last day there I just walked around for five or six hours. I tried to go to the planetarium but it had moved way outside the city. So I ended up going to the aquarium instead which was pretty cool. When you walk in you walk over a glass floor and you can see sharks swimming under you. They had big turtles and scary looking sharks. After the aquarium I tried to go into the film museum to see the tardis from dr who. The museum was closed because there was a conference being held there. It just was not my day to see things. I did however find a seven story toy store that was absolutely amazing. They had so many awesome toys! They had a life sized statue thing made out of Legos or Kate and William and Harry from the day of the wedding.

I tried to see one of the girls I met in Croatia but she never got back to me until the last night I was there so I was sad I didn't get to see either of them.

Loch ness monster!

I took a bus up to Inverness to go loch ness monster hunting!! It was a really cute little city with not a whole lot to do. I went to a pub for dinner and needed up meeting some people that were from London but were up here working for a week. We ended up doing a little pub crawl of our own. I of course ended up ninja-ing off and made it back to my hostel. I guess I still need a leash when I go out drinking. My friends at ecu would turn around and I would just be gone.

The next day I took a boat cruise on the loch and saw urquhart castle and tried to find Nessie. All I found were ducks. I love the pubs here! They have such good food and there's always a band that's playing Scottish music. I had a fun night listening to music but went home early since I needed to do laundry.

I wanted another chance at finding Nessie so I booked another tour that took me to the castle and to the loch ness monster museum. I had so much fun running around the castle and exploring it. There isn't a whole lot of it left mostly just crumbling walls. You can still go up in the tower which gives you an awesome view of the loch. I wish I could dive in there!! Something about there's too much peat in the water so it makes the visibility terrible.

After running all over the castle we took a bus to the loch ness monster museum. You walk through these different rooms and they show you about how st columbo came there to convert people and said that he drove away a sea beast. That's the first recorded account of Nessie. You get to see different peoples accounts of seeing Nessie and the scientific things they have tried to do to find her. I'm sure there is nothing in there but still it's fun to believe in. It's like Santa. I got our bus driver to tell us some of the stories he grew up hearing.

They said that Nessie was a shape shifter and her favorite was a beautiful horse. People that didn't know would try to go up and pet her but she would grab them and drag them to the bottom of the loch and eat them. He also said that strangely there is a horse breeding place that has been known for their beautiful horses . . . So I'm sure there's no way that the owners of that place would have started that story to keep people from trying to capture pretty horses beside the loch!