Blarney Stone, Galway, and first night in London

March 20, 2012

It’s been a few days since I last wrote, so I am going to try my best to get everything in. Sunday morning we explored as much as we could of the fancy hotel in Dublin (which truthfully wasn’t much) and had breakfast at a café where I had fruit and a muffin. Our bus to Cork was at 4:30pm, so we wandered around Dublin for most of the day, checking out the last of the St. Patty’s day celebrations which consisted of a fair by the river and a festival/carnival in Merrion Square where we saw the beginning of a duo act put on by two brothers, Seamus and Sean. They were not only raunchy and ridiculous, but also gymnasts and did cool tricks with ladders and one arm lifts into the air. 

Maiya and Gabby climing up the winding staircase to the Blarney Stone

Blarney Castle

We left Dublin at 4:30pm by bus and reached Cork around 7pm, where we checked into the Kinley House Hostel. It was the first real hostel I’ve been to (dorm like sleeping situations, breakfast, etc). Then we headed into downtown Cork for some Mexican food! It was great Mexican food, but way more expensive than I would have liked (20 euros is more than I want to spend on food that I can get for 5 dollars in the US). After dinner we walked around downtown Cork and stopped by pubs to catch some live music and to see night life in Cork. We ended up staying at Oliver Plunkett’s bar where Celtic Fusion was performing. Maiya decided she wanted to try a beer, so we went up to the bar and bought a half pint of Guinness to share. That’s some heavy beer, I’ll tell you. Not my favorite. 

Blarney Castle Grounds

Anyways, we "enjoyed" a beer and some music and wondered how the heck Irish girls don’t get cold wearing mini-skirts and outfits that show too much skin as well as high heels that I can’t walk in around Cork when I’m freezing and I’m in jeans and my winter coat. It blows my mind. We made it back to the hostel around midnight, where I double checked accommodations in Galway with my friend Kelsey from Willamette. Had peanut butter and jelly toast for breakfast the next morning and made it to the bus station at 9:15 am for a ride to Blarney to see Blarney Castle and to kiss the Blarney stone. The grounds to Blarney castle are gorgeous.. and HUGE. It takes a good hour to walk around the entire area, which we were not able to do. 

Me and the Guiness. Haha.

Gabby and I at the Blarney Stone

Swans in Galway

So we saw the front area of the grounds, got to climb up the castle, kiss the blarney stone (yes, I am now so good at flattery it blows everyone away, haha) and walk around the Druin stones behind the castle (witch stone, witch’s kitchen, Doubler stone, wishing steps). We took pictures and had a magnificent time during our Blarney visit J Rode back to Cork at 11am and got lunch at the festival taking place in downtown Cork. 

Kissing the Blarney Stone!!!

Then at 12:35pm we boarded a bus to Galway! A four hour bus ride, so fun. We ended up switching buses in Limerick because the driver told us that it was a non-stop bus and if we wanted to get to Galway as soon as possible, it was the way to go. We almost left Maiya’s backpack on the other bus and I almost didn’t know where my ticket was. But both were found and remembered and we arrived in Galway around 5pm.  Kelsey met us in Eyre Square and took us to her apartment where she lives with Kathleen and one other girl. All the other Willamette kids and University of Portland kids in their “international” group live in the same apartment complex a five minute walk from Shop Street and downtown Galway, which is nice and convenient. It is also a ten minute walk from the warf (which we went to this morning after breakfast at Griffin’s). The Cathedral is also a five minute walk in the opposite direction, and it is gorgeous. I lit a candle for people I was thinking about (grandparents, family, friends back home). 

Galway: Picture from the warf

After introducing Maiya and Gabby to Kelsey, we left her to finish her paper and walked around until 7pm, when we met back up with Kelsey and Kathleen and went to get food with Tom, another Willamette kid on the program. It was a lovely evening- Kelsey, Tom and I don’t hang out that much at school so I was iffy about how things would go down when we arrived, but we all got along great and had a really good time J Kelsey took us to a pub afterwards to hang out. I got an Irish coffee (which is pretty good, a little strong at the end though) and she got a Kopperbaum, which is basically juice (4% alcohol). Ian, her friend and a student from UofP met up with us there and we talked and hung out until 11pm. Then back at the apartment we watched True Blood episodes with everyone at the pub plus Kelsey’s friends Katie and Joanna. This morning we woke up and had breakfast at Griffin’s bakery (mini Irish breakfast anyone?) and went to the Cathedral and warf. I saw swans in real life for the first time. Left Galway around 3:30pm to get to Dublin for our flight to London! Made it through to the flight fine, missed our bus to Victoria station and so had to wait another half hour for the next one. Arrived at Victoria station around 11:30pm tonight (after riding through neighborhood upon neighborhood of houses and apartments that look EXACTLY the same)… the architecture here is absolutely beautiful. I’m really looking forward to exploring tomorrow! Lisa, a British black woman took us to the right station, where during this trip I met Job McNeil, a friendly (but drunk) ukulele player with a British accent. Nice guy, but not my type. He wrote his name on my hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek when we parted- sweet guy… and quite amusing that five minutes after arriving in downtown London the drunks were already coming after me (laughing really hard at how ridiculous that is). We took a taxi to Maiya’s aunt Soukina’s house where I am now writing this entry. Gabby and I are sleeping upstairs and Maiya is downstairs. Her aunt is super nice and has a good sense of humor. I believe that is healthy for a woman her age (she’s in her 80s I’m assuming). She made us tea and offered us food (like any true Arab) and we had a nice conversation until 1am. Now it is bed time and I am tired, so sleep time for me. I hope that I am able to connect to wi-fi here so I can skype Meranda later. I’d love to be able to talk to everyone back home… Going to check the connection before I head to bed tonight. Tomorrow is exploration of London day- can’t wait.

 (ps.  Upper Crust: Best sandwich place EVER. Freshly made bagettes that they heat up for you when asked. I hear they are on the East Coast… going to check to make sure they are on the West Coast too, because man! Those sandwiches are delicious, if simple. And not a bad price either).