The Motherland

I have internet whoooo! No facebook or skype, but at least I can blog for you! I wrote this post on the plane to India:

There are certain things in life that seem too good to be true—the USA making it to semifinals in the world cup, getting my India visa in time, my trip to Ireland. The entire week I spent there, I was just in awe of everything, how a place I had been wanting to go ever since I can remember lived up to my expectations quite beautifully. I mean, how often does something you’ve looked forward to for so long not let you down at least a little? It really didn’t at all though, which made everything seem a little like a dream!

Kate and I flew from London to Dublin to start off our incredible journey. We wandered around a bit the first afternoon and evening, and since we stayed right next to the Temple Bar area, there was no shortage of pubs and restaurants and opportunities for people watching. The next day we got up and took a walking tour in the morning. We wanted to make sure we fit as much in as possible, since a week in Ireland sounds like plenty of time to see a bit of the country, but we could easily have spent that long in each city without running out of things to do. On the tour, we saw the Dublin Castle, Jonathan Swift’s place, the Temple Bar again, some main streets, the river Liffey again, we learned a lot of history from our incredibly knowledgeable (especially for his age—18!) tour guide and ended up at St. Stephen’s Green Park, which was absolutely gorgeous!

That afternoon, we went to the Guinness Storehouse, a must on my list ever since I first tried Guinness on draught instead of from a can and discovered I really quite liked it! I think I managed to bring Kate to the dark (hehe) side as well. We went through a self-guided tour and then up to the Gravity Bar, where they gave us pints with a shamrock shape in the foam on top and we had a 360 degree view of the city. Not bad! That evening we went back to the Temple Bar (the bar of that name within the area) and listened to some live music and I discovered a new love—Murphy’s stout! Yummmm. I’m pretty sure that new obsession contributed to the fact that my jeans are a bit tighter than they were before I left Paris…good thing I’m starting yoga soon!

Our last morning in Dublin, we headed to the Chester Beatty library (so cool! And free! And has really super old religious manuscripts!) and back to Trinity College (forgot to mention that we saw that on the tour) to see the Book of Kells and the even cooler library that they use for all of the library scenes in Harry Potter. This seems to have been a bit of a HP-themed trip, since Kate and I paid a visit to Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station my first night in London town. This library is so beautiful though. I could have just sat in that room for hours and been happy. Hello, my name is Kristin and I am a huge nerd.

We trained it to Galway that afternoon. We spent the evening going through brochures and websites and figuring out what we wanted to do with our time there. The next morning, we got up and joined a bus tour with a hike through the burren (huge limestone area) and a local farm, complete with Irish coffee and apple pie. After the hike, we visited a few more sites, most notably the gorgeous Cliffs of Moher. We saw the Aran Islands from a distance but didn’t have enough time to make it over there. Next trip! That night, we went to a restaurant our tour guide told us about that had live music, and much to our surprise, several people changed their shoes and started dancing! It was fantastic.

The next day we explored Galway a bit and attempted to find a pub to watch the U.S. play in the world cup, but unfortunately England’s game was the only one showing. So we watched some of that, and then I took a train and Kate took a bus to Cork, getting in at about the same time, but each choosing the cheaper option for us!

In Cork, the main thing we did was head to Blarney to see the castle and kiss the stone. I can cross that off the list of things to do before I die! It was fun to be upside down that high up in the air…knowing, of course, that someone was hanging on to me and if I did happen to fall, I couldn’t go more than a foot or two because there are bars underneath. We walked around the rock close at the castle, which was beautiful, and had a lot of explanations of myths surrounding the place. I love that kind of thing!

The next day we went shopping and explored Cork city a bit, soaking up our last moments of Ireland before stepping onto yet another plane, taking us back to London.

In London, I was kind of lame. I started taking my malaria pills and they made me feel a little queasy at first, so I hung out in Jenny’s apartment a lot while she and Kate were at a concert all day. I did walk along the river and snap some photos, but mostly took it easy and rested up before my long journey to India.

And thus ends chapter one of this blog. Next come my India adventures!