Well... this is almost it. The second to last blogpost .. do your best to hold your tears back. I know I am. I'm going to try to treat you guys to one of my best blog posts ever. Sitting here in my room, I don't have much else better to do for the next few weeks of my winter break. I'm not trying to call my shot here, but just giving you guys a heads-up that this is the best I got. That's all.
We got to Dublin late the first night, around 11. Quickly hopping on a bus, which was relatively easy to find seeing that everyone spoke English for the first time in a long time, we made it into the city. Most people would have thought the most difficult part of their journey was over, but not us: no, we had to pick between Burger King and McDonalds, stationed right across the street from each other. No wonder Ireland's economy has been doing so bad, when people can't bring themselves to choose between greatness and more greatness. Geez.
After, we found our hostel pretty easily and headed out early the next morning. It worked out really well, actually: one of my roommates, who I was traveling with (Chris Kerner), had 2 of his brothers come out to Dublin and meet up with us. Patrick, the older brother, had decided to rent a car, and was nice enough to allow us myself and Halley, a good friend of mine who was traveling with, to hop in as well. That day, we drove across the country to Galway, eventually ending up in Doolin, where our hostel was.
The next morning, we jumped in the car and made it down to the Cliffs of Moher, which my casual blog reader will probably either know by "the CLIFFS of INSANITY" or the cliffs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If you don't know who Andre the Giant is or what a Horcrux is, well, you know the cliffs by their proper name then. Which is probably for the best, for the average muggle. Does anybody want a peanut, by the way?
In any case, they're pretty magnificent. We stood there, breathing in some great-tasting air and taking in the drop-dead gorgeous sight for about an hour or so. I don't know if I've ever felt so alive. Also, I think part of appreciating something like the Cliffs of Moher has to be done internally. Sure, you can stand there next to someone and remark "Hey man, those cliffs are pretty big, huh" but to me a natural landmark like the Cliffs has something to say too: "Listen man, you're pretty small." Just food for thought, you know.
For the remainder of the day, we took a beeline down to Cork, by way of Blarney Castle. The drive down was magnificent. I know I probably sound a bit like a little fairy thus far ... "Oh the landscape is just so pretty, words would not be able to do justice to it!" whole attitude, but it's true. Ireland and Greece were the two countries with the grandest landscapes that I saw, but in two different senses.
You could tell the Blarney Castle was a major tourist attraction even from a cursory glance of it. The turnstiles, the spiked metal gate surrounding the grounds, and the perfectly manicured landscape gave it away all too readily. I was hoping for more of an abandoned castle, the sort of thing that when you happen upon, it becomes yours. Not in a physical sense, obviously. What I'm getting at, is that it's not commercialized in any sense at all. Instead, what we got what a worn path to a bad-tasting rock we had to smooch so we could tell people about it. But hey, we did it. It's just one of those things.
Cork, where we spent our 2nd night in Ireland, was a pretty boring city, as much as I hate to say it. Ireland is pubs, pubs, and ... more pubs. The only other thing that Cork offered us was an amazingly easy place to get lost, as well as some disgruntled fellow hostel-stayers who were ticked off I never returned their adapter. But that's a story in itself.
The next day we decided to check out Cork before our bus out of town (i.e. this is where the Kerner brothers got a little sick of us and left). If it's midday, you're in Cork, and you don't feel like going into a pub, you're out of luck. We walked into that town at a slow, leisurely pace, and about an hour later, we speed-walked out of it.
Catching our bus around 1, we returned to Dublin around 4. More beautiful sights, a quick hamburger stop, and viola, we were there. Our first stop in Dublin, seeing as we hadn't seen much of it that first night, was the Guinness Factory. It was pretty cool. The beers there seemed to taste more deliciously creamy than anywhere else. Guinness was my favorite beer in the world, by the way. Some of those Belgium ones are pretty good too ... I don't consider myself a beer expert by any means, even after my semester studying abroad, but I think it's ok to name a few favorites.
Next, while Chris and Halley went back to the hostel, I headed over to some of my family friend's place, Keiran and Siobhan. They put me up for the night, and were very nice. Their kids, Richy, Thomas, and Daniel, I think, were alot of fun. We hung out at a local pub near our hostel for a couple hours, and called it an early night.
The following morning, before our flight later on that afternoon, we met up at the St. Patrick Cathedral. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Europe without phones is an experience in itself. Agreeing with a fellow college student beforehand to meet up across an entire city, that neither party has ever explored with no method of communication in between, can be a little bit sticky to say the least. I was probably waiting outside in the snow for about an hour ... but I can't say I haven't done the same, or worse, to my friends during the semester at some point.
We checked out the Cathedral and roamed the city for a couple hours. Dublin is a modern city, yet retains much of its traditional Irish roots. I really liked it. I bought a Guinness shirt my mom was sure to disapprove of, and had my last Guinness.
I definitely mean to come back someday. A couple of the places I went to spoke to me, but not many more so than Ireland. Hanging out in a pub, listening to some Irish folk song, I felt right at home. And even if I didn't know that I was Irish, I think I would still feel the same way.
James
P.S. Thanks for staying tuned ... I know, I know, that was a long time to ask someone stay tuned. But you did.
P.P.S. Pictures here.
