A Week in Ireland

Pia and I arrived in Rome this morning and I currently miss Ireland with all of my being. To say that the people of Ireland are friendly is an understatement. Pia and I met so many wonderful people during our time in Dublin, Bantry, and Cork. When we got to the airport this morning (at 4am), we heard the song, "Galway Girl", which has been our favorite song while in Ireland... and we seriously considered staying in Ireland for another week. The Temple Bar area in Dublin reminded me of Welch Ave in Ames (only a little bit bigger)... which is why I think I loved it so much. Get ready for some good stories...

The Swan Whisperer

When we first arrived in Dublin at 9am, we couldn't check in until five hours later, so we decided to go to a park and rest, since we had been running on about 3 hours of sleep since waking up in Glasgow. We went to St. Stephen's Green, where we ate breakfast, then walked around and found a deserted spot next to the lake to sit and possibly take a nap. After about five minutes, a bunch of birds - ravens, ducks, seagulls, pigeons, and a family of swans started gathering around us, which also attracted a bunch of people. After about 30 minutes of this entertainment, a man comes walking over and sits down right next to the father swan and starts talking to it. Then he starts feeding the him, the mother, and the babies. Pia and I have named this man, "The Swan Whisperer". He visits this family of swans every single day and just chills with the father swan as if they're best friends. I've never seen anything like it. Especially given the fact that swans aren't the friendliest of animals.

The next day, Pia and I went on a free walking tour, where we learned so much about Irish history! We learned a lot about their relationship with the UK, which we thought was interesting. At the end of our tour, we stopped in St. Stephen's Green, where we saw the Swan Whisperer again! We made sure to wave to him as we passed by.

After the tour, Pia and I decided to visit the National Museum, where they have a Bog Exhibit, which we learned about on the walking tour. When we go to the information desk, we told the man that we wanted to see the Bog preservatives. He said, "That's how you like your men, eh?"

Dublin Castle on our walking tour

The streets of Dublin... Temple Bar

Bog Exhibit at National Museum

That night, Pia and I decided to see what the nightlife was like in Dublin. We are so glad we did! That was the night we fell in love with Irish folk music, how to dance to it, and the night we made legends of ourselves without even realizing it. (I'll get to this later.)

The next day, we visited the Chester Beatty Library, which contains some of the oldest manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts from the Islamic, East Asian, and Western collections. It had St. Paul's letters, and gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John dating back to 150 AD. It was definitely worth the visit!

That night, Pia and I went out with some of my teacher friends from the school I did my student teaching at in Caceres this past spring. They had been in Dublin for two weeks, taking an English course at Trinity College. Our time in Dublin overlapped about 2 days, so it worked out perfectly! We all went for drinks on Grafton Street, then we spent the rest of the night at Temple Bar. It was so great seeing my Spanish friends and speaking in Spanglish all night!

Teachers from student teaching!

A Splanglish night out!

We ended up going to Fitzsimmons, one of the same bars that Pia and I went to the night before. A guy came up to us and told us he remembered us from last night and asked if we were going to perform again. We were really confused by the word, "perform", but the night before, Pia and I were the only ones dancing to the band at that bar, and within 20 minutes there were about 20 more people dancing with us! I guess you could say we are trend setters in Ireland :) This happened on our last night in Dublin as well. We were walking by a lonely street performer, who was not that good, but we started dancing anyway, and at one point, there were about 30 people dancing in the street with us... Spaniards, Brazilians, Canadians, Germans, people from all over. It was definitely a highlight of our time in Dublin!

Last weekend, Pia and I took a break from the city life and took two buses to Bantry, Ireland, to meet up with my friend Amy, who I know from ISU! She studied abroad here a couple years ago and met a cute Irish boy, got married, and now lives here with him in the countryside of Ireland! We spent two nights with Amy and Rob at their beautiful home in the countryside. It was so nice to relax, sleep in a real bed, use a shower that has water pressure, and spend time away from all the tourists. Rob and Amy were so gracious! They cooked us some wonderful home-cooked meals and we had a movie night (where Pia watched the movie "Taken" for the first time... bad idea). On Sunday, they invited about 20 of their friends over and we had a barbeque and played Pictionary, which was so much fun! Pia and I were talking with one of their friends, Bobby, who offered to take us for a drive to see the best view of Bantry Bay. It was wonderful! Thank you Amy and Rob for a wonderful weekend!!!

Rob and Amy's home in the countryside!

Driving into town... on the 'wrong' side of the road!

Amy, Pia, and I overlooking Bantry

On our way back to Dublin, Pia and I stopped in Cork and Blarney. We enjoyed both places, but we felt Cork was more industrial and there wasn't much to do there other than shop... which we can't do much of these days given our budget... but it was fun to see the city of Cork, as well as visit the Blarney Castle and of course, kiss the Blarney Stone.

Kissing the Blarney Stone

On our last day in Dublin, Pia and I visited the Guinness Storehouse with our new friend, Rachel, from Colorado! We spent about three hours touring the brewery, and enjoyed a free pint of Guinness from the Gravity Bar.

with Rachel at the Guinness Storehouse

Enjoying our Guinness pints at the top of the brewery in Gravity Bar

Our time in Ireland was incredible. Pia and I both know that we will return one day to Dublin, and to see more of Ireland. We met so many wonderful people there... a shout out to Con, Carlos, Rachel, and our favorite hostel worker (never figured out his name... but he called us his two beauties, so we like him).

Pia and I woke up at 3am this morning, and headed for the airport to catch our flight (OUR LAST RYANAIR FLIGHT OF THIS TRIP THANK GOODNESS) to Rome. We will be spending the entire day in Rome tomorrow, mostly eating pizza and gelato, then Pia and I will spend the weekend in San Valentino visiting her family! On Monday, we head to Cinque Terre.

Sending my love to everyone back home! I promise postcards are on their way!

Shea